Crepes Times Two

A story of love and food.

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I’m decorating everything with fresh herbs lately. Putting fresh sage on these rice cakes with melted cheese put it up many notches.

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I found these mini turnips at the farmer’s market and they are SO GOOD. I didn’t want to waste any of them, so I fried up the greens in some sesame oil and I really liked that too!! They went so well with this coho salmon, brown rice, and corn.

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When you’re hungry, and buying two packs of beer at the liquor store, and you see premixed caesars in a can while you’re waiting in line.

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I grew up in a household where most things were seasoned with cumin. My Egyptian step dad would crack 5 or 6 eggs into a frying pan with butter, load it with cumin, salt and pepper, and then simply put the pan on the table when the eggs were tone and tear off a piece of pita bread for me and my friend Christen and we would dig in.

I can’t eat sunny side up eggs anymore, but I still love an over medium egg seasoned with cumin, and I made these super quick when Dan and I were tight for time on a day we were shooting for Roundhouse Radio. I put his two fried eggs on toast with cheese, cucumber, red peppers, hummus, and a pickle. Mine was in a wrap. That’s how we roll.

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These were all so fresh and delicious. Since it’s been so hot Dan and I have wanted to eat cool food, and not turn on the oven or even the stove some days. I make a big batch of pasta salad and we eat it for a couple days.

The top one was the first I made from a bunch of leftovers and random finds in the freezer and cupboard. I always use rice or kamut pasta. We only had spaghetti noodles so I tossed those with some oil, vinegar, lemon, and herbs de Provence. Chopped and quickly cooked zucchini and red pepper, added some edemame into the pasta water. Cucumber. Pumpkin seeds. Fresh basil and parsley and voila!

Same idea with the other ones. Green pepper, grape tomatoes, black beans for the middle salad. And Peaches, kidney beans, peas, shredded carrot, sliced cucumber, and chopped pickled jalapeno peppers in the last.

For any meal like this, I just keep adding spices (fresh and/or dried), and oil and vinegar until I like the taste. They are almost always better the next day, too!

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Another recent little adventure we went on was to Bellingham, WA in the United States of America. While we were there we visited two breweries, Boundary Bay and Aslan. I really, really loved Aslan Brewing. So much that I even bought a hoodie from them - not something I’m very likely to do. The beer was all organic, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and it tasted awesome. Each was different, all were very drinkable. The food was also great. We stumbled in at happy hour, so had a mac and cheese, as well as some tacos for a very good price. I loved the decor, and the staff were very nice. It had communal tables and a great patio in the front.

We also hit up Boundary Bay Brewing, and the beers there were okay. I enjoyed their outside seating area and they even had a picnic tabled with a crib board built right in!

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Fish and rice fish and rice. I have been so satisfied lately with eating fish and rice.

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“This is the cutest breakfast ever!” I said. Then I took a picture.

Boiled eggs with toast, roasted potatoes, and friend tomatoes.

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And then we drank a coffee in the Snug Cove Cafe and headed on our way.

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I just don’t think you can ever go wrong with pasta. It’s definitely my comfort food. We ate this and drank red wine while catching up on Breaking Bad. Life is good.

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We were really lucky to be able to house sit for my friend who lives on Bowen Island. We packed a lunch of wraps and snacks and hiked Mount Gardener. What a view from the top of there! Bowen is so close, but feels so far away. It’s wonderful.

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I heard it was National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, so based on that rumor alone, we decided we would participate. 

After a relaxing weekend on Bowen Island, we finished it with a crunchy, tasty salad, and a warm grilled cheese on a rainy evening.

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Vancouver has a Chinese New Year parade every year, which I have been to a couple times, including when I was in elementary school and my cheerleading squad participated - don't ask, I have no idea.

I was thinking that this would be such a wonderful activity to do for a family photography session, but I didn't have any bookings that day. I still really wanted to go down to take some shots, so Dan and I went. He was a tad hungover, but a good sport.

We didn't have a chance to eat beforehand, so after a couple hours we badly needed food and coffee and went for breakfast burritos at JJ Bean Woodwards.

More photos of the parade here. 

Photos © Jackie Dives

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Sunday dinner. A wholesome,  nutritious, and super tasty meal to end the week. Put some wild rice on with a few pieces of lemongrass in it, and chopped carrots through a whole episode of Bill Maher. We used this recipe from The First Mess, one of my favourite food blogs. Dan made the dressing while I chopped and chopped. We put in basil instead of cilantro, because we use cilantro a lot in our cooking and wanted something a bit different. And a really nice piece of steel-head trout. These flavours mixed so well. I can't wait to eat this again. 

Photos © Jackie Dives

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Dan and I climbed Mount Strachan this Saturday. It was my birthday wish. We packed sandwiches - cheese, sprouts, cucumber, avocado. Hummus for Dan, mustard for me - and set off around 10am. The Vancouver Trails website said 5.5 hours for this hike, and I've always found that that website overestimates by quite a bit, but this hike, in winter, took us 6 hours (including a stop for lunch). It was awesome and intense in parts, and on the descent there is a plane wreckage.

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We hung out at the Hawkers Market in Mount Pleasant on Saturday evening. We rolled in around 8:30pm and it was still bumpin' and happen' in there. They do a two part thing, with some food trucks outside, and other food-related stalls inside, including regular beer, ginger beer, and sweet and savoury food treats. We did a round, tasting all of the samples, but ultimately decided on Disco Cheetah Korean tacos. Shit yeah. 

I'd just like to go back to the ginger beer thing for a minute here. This ginger beer is off the charts good. Stephen, owner and maker of Dickie's Ginger, had sold out of the cucumber cardamom version by the time we arrived (a little more than a little disappointed) but we had a glass of his original recipe, and a glass of the smokey chipotle - both superb. If you've got a hankering for ginger beer, you can find Dickie's at many of the Vancouver Farmers Markets around town.

So, like I said, after tasting all there was to taste by way of samples - including stir fried grasshoppers - we had to make a decision about dinner, and a 1lb Korean burrito sounded just right. I really enjoyed this.

I liked having all of these different Asian flavours - sweet, salty, spicy - wrapped up in a nice little package. I really do love sweet bean curd, and don't find I get to eat it very often, so that was a nice treat. But also I found it all just blended so well. Loved the sauce, the pickled purple cabbage, fresh greens, and the kimchi combo. Dan said he "enjoyed it, but that he didn't like the ricey part. Beefy and kimchi parts were really tasty, though."

Photos © Jackie Dives

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We spent Family Day making peanut butter and jam sandwiches, driving to Squamish, and checking out the Britannia Mine Museum. My peanut butter on bread strategy includes two key factors - thickness of bread to determine thickness of peanut butter spread, and peanut butter must reach the edges of the bread. 

More photos of our Family Day on my website. 

Photos © Jackie Dives