Weekend Observations

Did you have a nice weekend? What did you get up to? I worked for most of mine, but it was still lovely and too short ;)

A few bits of my weekend...

The best bit is that is was for no special reason, and paid for with their own money. Love that. 

Butter is a beautiful, and delicious, bakery here in Vancouver. Their amazing marshmallows are sold all over North America and now Japan! Rosie Daykin is the multi-talented owner of Butter Baked Goods, and writer of this book, published by Random House. My first house shoot ever was with her for House and Home. I've since gone on to shoot her stunning garden for Vogue Living Australia, and Rosie herself for the cover of Canadian Home and Country. I can't wait to work with her on this huge project (99 recipes) and learn more about the book publishing world. 

That's it for today! Have a great day.

Back soon,

Janis

Baked

How's your week, so far? Hope it's going by smoothly.

I fell completely off the non-wheat wagon with this one. It makes me happy, to be honest. ;) I've packaged them up because I do plan on sharing, and why not package them up?  

Raspberry Oat Bars - makes one 9x13 inch pan

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup pecans
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and chopped
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups of raspberry jam
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Line pan with parchment paper and set aside.
Place the flour, oats, pecans, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add chopped butter and and egg. Mix until combined. Don't over mix. Press about half the mixture into the pan. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a light golden colour. Allow to cool on wire rack.

In a small bowl, mix together the jam, lemon zest and cinnamon. Fold in the raspberries. Spread over top of  bottom layer/crust. Sprinkle the remainder of the flour and oat mixture over top. Bake for about 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Voila!

Enjoy your day! Back soon.
Janis

A Varied Week

Hi Everyone! How's your week been? Hope it's been a stress-free one. I can't believe it's Thursday....and I'm leaving for Disneyland with my husband, sister, and our nephew Jake. He's so excited (and the adults are too, we just don't admit it ;) )

Thought I'd share some images of my week with you. I've had a real variety of shoots over the last few days. Here's a snippet of them.

I shot some pretty products for Principessa Beauty...

a fun story for Anthology magazine....

and a bunch of different locations for a travel story for Sunset magazine....

Also, if you feel like being creeped out, check out a Halloween post I did for Poppytalk. Spooky dolls, anyone? While you're at Poppytalk, you should take a look at all the submissions for her Autumn Colours Week. So many pretty pics from so many camera happy people!

That's it until next Tuesday. What are your plans for the weekend? Where ever you are, and whatever you do, have fun!

Take care,
janis

Hello Sunshiny Friday

A sunshiny Autumn day picture to start the weekend. Thanks for stopping by this week!

Have a fun weekend!

Back soon,
Janis

PS
For those of you that requested the recipe for the rosemary spiced nuts, (from last Sunday) here it is:

1 lb of unsalted mixed nuts, toasted (I used cashews, almonds and pecans)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375f. Spread out the nuts on a baking sheet and toast until they are a light golden colour, about 10 minutes. Watch that you don't burn them (easy to do ;))
In a large saucepan, mix together the rosemary, cayenne, brown sugar, salt, pepper and melted butter, and cook and stir over medium heat for a minute. Add the nuts and continue to stir and cook for another couple of minutes to coat the nuts. Serve warm(ish) and enjoy! they are addictive.

Sunday Observations

I have to admit, I was very happy to wake up to side-ways rain, as I had heaps of editing to do from the past week. It's amazing how fast things can snowball. Ouch.

Other than editing hundreds of images, this is what I observed today......

I sewed up a set of coasters, with vintage fabric, and baked some house shaped cookies, to add to a house warming gift. I love the abstract floral pattern.

That was my Sunday. What did you get up to? Hope you had a lovely day!

Back soon.

Janis

Baked

Did you have a nice weekend? Hope so!

I baked a batch of these Chocolate Caramel Cookies over the weekend. They're not the prettiest cookie out there, but they taste pretty great. I've been baking slightly healthier treats lately, but sometimes you just need heaps of chocolate. I did make them with whole wheat and spelt flour though ;)

Chocolate Caramel Cookies - makes about 24

4 oz dark chocolate, chopped (about a 100 g bar)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour*
1 cup whole spelt flour*
* you can use 2 cups all purpose flour in place of the whole wheat and spelt. I was trying to feel less guilty. Yeah, right.)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large Caramilk bars, chilled

Melt the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl, over a pot of almost boiling water, stirring occasionally. Let cool. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla, then melted chocolate.

In another bowl, whisk flours, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into butter mixture until combined. Cover dough, and refrigerate until firm enough to shape, about 30 minutes.

Break each caramilk bar into separate squares/pieces. Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls, then flatten and place one square of chocolate in the centre. Wrap and seal dough around chocolate and place, seam down, on parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake in centre of oven, at 375f, for 10 minutes, or until edges are firm and centres are still soft. Let cool on pan for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!!

Now, about that give away for "About A Village", by Eamonn McCabe.

The winner is....
#20 - Marianne at Style For Living! Congratulations!

Sunday Observations

Hope you've all had a nice weekend! It's been another wet weekend here in Vancouver. I think summer will start soon. Just around the corner. ;)

What did you get up to? Hope it was fun!

Back soon.

janis

Baked

Hello Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine's kind of a blur, as it involved a lot of post production.

I baked something a little on the healthier side this weekend. It's a chewy snack bar, perfect for hiking, camping or a sporty day. I like them way more than any store bought bar.

Snack Bar - makes one 9"x9" square

3 cups puffed cereal (I used puffed Kamut)
1/4 cup pitted dates, chopped
1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup mashed ripe banana (1 small)

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Spray a 9"x9" square baking tin/pan with a little non-stick vegetable oil spray. In a large bowl, mix together cereal, dates, cherries, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and ground flaxseeds. In a small saucepan, whisk together the peanut butter, maple syrup and banana over medium heat. Keep whisking until it starts to bubble (watch that it doesn't burn, and do keep whisking). Pour this mixture over cereal mixture and stir with a greased wooden spoon, to combine ingredients. Transfer mixture to greased baking tin and press down hard to compact. It's easier to do this using parchment paper, by the way, otherwise you'll end up eating half of it off your hands. ;)

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges turn a golden brown. After it's cooled a little press down again, to avoid crumbling when cutting. Cool completely and cut into squares, or whatever shape you like. Enjoy!

I feel so healthy now ;) Let me know if you try these out, as I'm curious if you'll prefer them over store bought!

Have a great day! Back soon.
Janis

Hey, it's Friday!

I hope you all had a great week! I ended up shooting everyday, so I haven't done a lot of blogging, but I have received a lot of really sweet emails from some lovely bloggers. It never fails to amaze me how nice and supportive the blog world can be. I so appreciate your feedback and comments, and for taking the time to check in. So to say thanks.....

I think you know by now that one of my hobbies is baking, as well as shooting the baking process. I'll
be adding a set of 16 recipe cards, selected from my "Baked" posts, in a cloth bag, to my shop next week. As a kind of happy-friday-thank-you, I'm offering one up as a give away. All you need to do is leave a comment, to be added to the draw. That's it. Nothing else. I will send it anywhere in the world. I'll make a random draw on June 8th.

Also, I did a very simple, and inexpensive, d.i.y. over at one of my favourite blogs, Poppytalk. If you have some time, pop over! Here's a sneak peek:

I hope you all have nice weekends where ever you are! Back soon.
janis

Sunday Observations

Hello everyone! Here are a few things I've taken notice of today....

I hope I haven't jinxed this series now. Gulp. Go Canucks! Click here, for the pretzel recipe. Bags were just printed on my home printer. Easy.

I also checked out Marisa Seguin's Print Shop on Etsy. This girl is good. I love her city posters.

Click here, to check out her beautiful shop. 

Those are a few of the things I observed today. Oh, and Blogger still hasn't restored my missing comments. ;) What did you get up to? Let me know!

Back soon!

janis

Baked

Happy Monday. It's been an interesting last few days, hasn't it? Hope you all had a good, and very royal, weekend.

I tried making brioche for the first time. I'm pretty pleased with the taste and texture, but the shapes are a bit off. I think I put too much dough into each tin, so they're pretty massive for the tin size. Oh well, I'll know for next time!
By the way, these do take a lot of time to make, but most of that time the dough is just sitting in the fridge. Definitely worth the effort!

Brioche - makes about 12 plus a few mini loaves.
(the size of the brioche tin I used measures 3" across the top and 1.5" bottom. mini loaf tin measures 4.5"x2.5"x1.25")

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of hot water (about 125f)
6 eggs
1 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces

For glaze:
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon water

In bowl of a heavy mixer with paddle attachment, mix yeast, sugar, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Add the hot water and beat at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in 2 cups more of the remaining flour. Add butter, a few pieces at a time, beating until completely incorporated. Gradually add remaining flour to make a very sticky, soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 3 hours.  Gently deflate dough then cover and refrigerate over night.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use a little flour to keep hands floured, but no more than a 1/4 cup extra, and gently knead dough into a ball. Break up dough into 4 pieces then roll into 12 inch logs. Cut 3 logs into equal pieces and place into brioche tins. Cut an X on top of each. With the remaining dough, cut into small pieces and roll into smaller balls and press gently into each X. I had extra dough, so I made a few mini loaves as well (not shown).

Stir egg yolks with the teaspoon of water, and brush over tops of brioche. Cover lightly and let rise in a warm spot for about 45 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.

Bake in centre of 400f/200c oven for about 18-20 minutes, or until golden. Let cool a little in tins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely....if you want to wait that long.

By the way, apparently these are perfect for freezing. Just wrap each one separately, then place in an airtight container. Should last for up to 60 days.

Have a great day everyone! Back soon.
janis

Baked

How's your week so far? I'm doing fun things like my tax and H.S.T. returns. Heaps of fun! Of course, one shouldn't leave one's tax return for the last minute. I've also joined Poppytalk Handmade, and I'm really excited about that. I'm working on a new series of images and note cards to add to my "table" soon.

I made lamingtons over the weekend. They're an Australian tradition and delicious. I drizzle chocolate over each piece of cake, rather than dipping it in chocolate, as I'm not too keen on a whole coating. Everyone seems to have a different spin on these!

Lamingtons - makes one cake cut into 15 pieces.

125g softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup berry/caster sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded coconut (to sprinkle over chocolate coated cake)

Chocolate Icing:
10g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
100g dark chocolate broken in pieces
60ml milk

Preheat oven to 320f/160c. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined. Fold in the milk. Pour batter into lightly greased  7"x11"x2" pan, lined (on bottom) with parchment paper. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Allow to cool completely, then cut into 15-18 pieces.

To make the icing, put the icing sugar, chocolate, butter and milk in a heat proof bowl and place over a simmering pot of water. Stir constantly until melted and combined. Drizzle chocolate over each piece of cake (keep chocolate over pan of hot water, but turn off heat, so it doesn't harden), then sprinkle coconut over top. Stand iced cake on a wire rack until completely set.

Have a great day! Back soon.
janis