Holiday DIY project

The holidays are always an ideal time to start working on a few DIY projects. It's usually a great way to save some money but, for me, it's more importantly the perfect excuse to put some time aside to get creative. This is a very, very simple DIY project that will help bring on the holiday spirit. It's just about painting a few pine cones with a soft tone of gold and stacking them in a glass jar. I added a slate label secured with rustic rope. This decor item is ideal to brighten a kitchen counter (that's where mine is right now!) but also looks beautiful atop a mantel, a shelf or on a side table in a guest's room.

Pea and Pancetta Soup

Oddly enough, the term 'comfort food' is not something I ever grew up hearing in France. I think it's because so much of the food really is, inherently, comfort food that it would make for quite a redundant label. From creamy potato puree, to seared duck breast, pot au feu (beef stew), salade de chevre chaud (frisee lettuce topped with melted goat cheese on crusty bread) to even just a cheese platter with a good baguette and cornichons (small French pickles) - there are very little foods in France that don't make you feel good inside. Our conception of food in France is something I have rarely seen elsewhere, if I have to be perfectly honest. The knowledge of food of even those who don't like to cook always strikes me a little when I make my way back home.

Win a Kitchen Aid Mixer with our Holiday Cookie Swap

As readers of this site know, I 've been working for Style at Home for the past few months. The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for our food and home decor content, and I will be sharing some of my holiday articles with you in the next few weeks . For now, I wanted to let you in on a giveaway I thought all you bakers might be interested in!

We are putting together our first ever holiday Cookie Swap! We will be sharing delicious cookie recipes and photos from our readers. Starting on December 1st, all submissions will be published on our website. The best part? A lucky winner will receive a beautiful Kitchen Aid Stand mixer. You can take a look at all the rules and regulations here. The contest is open to all Canadian residents, excluding Quebec,

What are you favourite treats to make for a holiday cookie swap?

Tarte Tatin and a Cookbook Giveaway

First things first ... tarte tatin! Have you ever had a slice of this delicious, upside down, caramel and apple tart? If not, I suggest you run through this post and give it a try as soon as you have a moment in the kitchen! This dessert is a real staple of my Parisian upbringing. Growing up, we had this tart for many different occasions, usually enjoying it warm with a melting scoop (or two!) of vanilla ice cream. This is really one of the staples of French cuisine and one of my favourites. It's a simple concept (apples, flaky dough, caramel) and the end result is not only gorgeous but incredibly delicious as well.


Invented by the Tatin sisters in France, this tart came about when the sisters were flooded with clients at their restaurant and came up with a clever way to recover their damaged traditional 'tarte aux pommes' (apple tart). The solution was to bake the tart up-side down, with the crust on top of the filling, and to flip the tart over once it was nicely caramelized by the butter and caramel used in the filling. This photograph doesn't really do the tart justice - but to tell you the truth, I made the tart in the evening and by the time it was out of the oven it was begging to be sliced... right then and there. An instagramed picture will have to do the trick for this post then!

Owl Cupcakes

 

This post will be a short one. I've been sick with a fall flu for the past couple days and have spent more time in bed than I care for. I miss my kitchen and the real desire for food! I still got myself to make these over the weekend, and it helped take my mind off of things for a little while. These cute little owls caught my eye on a couple different blogs and given the owl craze I recently blogged about and Halloween merely days away, it only seemed fair that I give these a try. The only tricky part to this recipe is separating the Oreo cookies to make the owl's eyes. My method included a flat knife and placing the Oreos for a couple seconds in the microwave. If you have any tips on how to perfectly separate the two halves - I'm a taker! Please leave a comment with your best tip!

Owl Cupcakes
- Use your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe and dark chocolate frosting.
- Separate oreos for the eyes
- Use smarties for the nose
- Junior mints for the pupil (dabbed with a tiny bit of frosting to make sure they stay put)

Roasted Heirloom Baby Carrots

There's often a misconception that making a healthy meal takes time and is not achievable on any given day of the week. This post is meant as an easy recipe to counter that approach! A couple weeks ago, I was asked what my tips were to eat healthy while saving time and money. My answer was to buy seasonally whenever you can. Seasonal produce is generally more flavourful, affordable and needs little to be turned into a delicious meal. These carrots are the perfect example. I purchased them at the Evergreen Brick Works farmers' market here in Toronto and they made the most perfect lunch. I simply roasted them with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs and served them alongside a sunny side-up egg and some crusty bread. With a glass of local fall apple cider, it's pretty close to the perfect lunch in my book! These baby carrots are so small and sweet that they barely need to be peeled and are so pretty on a plate with their different shades of oranges, yellows and purple. They're nothing better than a plate that screams autumn to make me happy to put on some boots, a warm scarf and make the best of falling leaves and crisp air.

This dish can be made with many other vegetables: try roasting some baby potatoes the same way or turnips and sweet potato. For quick meals, I like to use baby vegetables, but you can also chop your veggies in bite-size pieces. If you're making this for dinner, add some roasted salmon on top, or a nicely seared piece of chicken breast - or for a lighter meal, try it as I did, with a couple eggs, sunny side-up.

In other recent news, a couple articles I had been working on were published in the Food and Beverage section of National Post this week. I interviewed a few bloggers for the piece - Deeba from Passionate about Baking, Matt from WrightFood and Kevin from Closet Cooking as part of an article on kitchen tools, as well as MacKenzie from Grilled Cheese Social, about her love and passion for the world of toasted bread and melted cheese. You can take a look at the articles here!

 

No-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Sandwiches

As I've mentioned here before, Halloween wasn't celebrated in France when I was growing up. I remember learning about trick or treat and dressing up while watching Friends and other TV shows, and from my American friends at school. The only time I celebrated it was in elementary school. We had a British nanny for a little while in Paris who took care of me and my brother while my parents were hard at work during the day. She sewed a matching pumpkin outfits for her and myself, complete with little tiny pumpkin hats. It was ridiculously cute.