Baked on Monday - Sage-Pepper Butter Crisps

Happy Monday! Thanksgiving (in Canada) is just one week away, so I thought these sagey crisps would be perfect to take to dinner. I found this recipe in Edible Vancouver - a free magazine full of local goodness. I copied the recipe down, and here it is!

Sage-Pepper Butter Crisps - makes about 15-18, depending on how much dough you eat while making them ;)

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup ground blanched almonds
1 tablespoon butter (to cook sage)
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
sea salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325f. In a shallow baking tin, toast almonds for 10 minutes, just to bring out the flavour. Once toasted, grind the almonds in a food processor.

In a small bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter until creamy. In another bowl, mix together flour, salt and ground almonds. Gradually add this mixture to the butter, mixing on a low setting until it starts to form a ball.

Melt the additional tablespoon of butter in a skillet until it starts to bubble. Add the sage a cook for a few minutes, or until leaves start to turn brown and crispy. Drain on a paper towel. When cool, chop into small pieces.

Add pepper and sage to dough and mix together with your hands. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass in a bit of flour and flatten dough balls into discs, about 2 inches across. Sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until sides start to turn gold in colour. Place crisps on a wire rack to cool. Best served warm. Enjoy.

Back on Wednesday!

I'd like a new kitchen, please.

I really would, and I'm sure my husband would too, he just doesn't obsess like I do (it's kind of maddening, actually). The topic of kitchens has been on my mind since chatting about kitchens and  renos, with a friend of mine (Jan, a.k.a. Poppytalk!) yesterday.

As a home and garden photographer, I see many different types of kitchens, and there is always at least one or two things in these kitchens that I'd like to transport to mine (ours). Sometimes I'm just completely impressed by the fact that the homeowners renovated their kitchen all on their own. How? How do you do that? Please tell me.

Thought I'd share three very different kitchens with you. Take a look at the before and after of this kitchen. Completely transformed by the homeowners, Adele and Iain. This was originally shot for House and Home magazine.

The Before. Wow.

Well done, Adele and Iain!

Some happy details.

The new home office and weekend cocktail bar. They now have heaps of storage.

The kitchen below was built by Viewpoint Construction, not sure who designed it though. It features an induction oven, lots of storage, state of the art everything, really. 

The kitchen, below, was shot for Chatelaine magazine, earlier this year.

I love the little inset, and stools. Lots of fabulous natural light in this room. Love that.

As for our kitchen (snippet of it in top pic), it really needs to lighten up (too dark), get a fantastic backsplash (I'm thinking wallpaper covered by glass), a bit more storage and some green chalkboard paint...somewhere.  I've got to get on this. It's a 10 years old now. Anyone else out there in need of a new kitchen? 

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend. Back on Monday with something for Thanksgiving. 

IdsWest Media Lounge - sneak peek

Hi Everyone! Thought I'd share a sneak peek of the media lounge for the IDSwest show with you. The show takes place October 14th to 17th, here in Vancouver. There's a great variety of guest speakers including Sarah Richardson and Karim Rashid.

The fabulous team of Peter Wilds and Joanna Howard, designers at The Cross, created both the media lounge for the show as well as The Cross' own booth. Both are a big departure from what they did last year. Huge. I'm not a real girly girl, so this year's media lounge suits me just fine.

Patchwork seems to be the theme for The Cross' booth at the IDSwest show this year.

The Cross is now carrying the line of Timorous Beasties wallpaper, and are the only shop in Vancouver that does. Pretty cool. These are all snippets of what will be on view in the media lounge.

From what Peter and Joanna have told me, there will be lots of custom designed furniture for the media lounge. The colours will be purples, greens, gold, and black. Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

If you're in the Vancouver area, definitely give the IDSwest show a look around. It's getting better every year.

Bye for now!

Baked on Monday - Jam Buns

Hope your Monday is moving along well! I'm off to a very late start, so I'll just jump right to the recipe for these little bites of happiness.

Jam Buns - makes about 15-18

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
5 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 oz melted unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup jam - I'm using raspberry today.
2 tablespoons heavy cream/half and half
icing sugar to dust tops

Place 2 teaspoons of the sugar, yeast and lukewarm milk in a bowl and mix to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until bubbles form, in a warm spot.
In a mixing bowl, place the flour, remaining sugar, melted butter, one of the egg yolks, then add the yeast mixture. Mix together until a smooth dough forms. Knead for 5 minutes or until nice and smooth, and elastic. If the dough gets a bit sticky while kneading, add a little flour.

My niece, being put to work. 

Divide dough into about 15-18 pieces and roll into balls. Press balls flat, into 5 inch circles, then spoon one teaspoon of jam into the centre. Fold over the dough and pinch to seal. Place pinched side down on a greased baking sheet. Cover with a towel and let stand for about an hour, or until dough doubles in size.

Whisk together the second yolk with the heavy cream, then brush onto tops of buns. Place in a 350F/180C oven for about 18-20 minutes or until dark golden in colour.  Dust with icing sugar and enjoy warm or cold.

I will be bagging up some of these to take on a photo shoot tomorrow. All I've eaten today are jam buns. Must share. 

Back soon!

Purple Haze

I've been loving purple lately. Be it flowers, throws, or Japanese paper tape.  A bit of a purple haze.
Is there a certain colour that you're drawn too? Does it change daily, or weekly?

Linen ribbon, Japanese paper tape, pantone mug, and a Designer's Guild throw.

Calla lilies, fading hydrangeas against concrete blocks (love those), and dahlias.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. See you Monday for some more baking!

A Little Lamp Lift

I did a little guest post on Poppytalk (one of the best blogs out there), yesterday, and thought I'd give it a mention here. This was one easy, but extremely satisfying, project! Head over to Poppytalk for the "how-to".

If you try this out, let me know. Would love to see what you did! Back again soon.

For the Love of Paper and Text

I wanted to share one of my favourite stores with you all, The Regional Assembly of Text.  It's located here in Vancouver, but you can shop online as well.

Rebecca Dolen and Brandy Fedoruk are the owners of this happy little shop and they make a very creative duo. You will find a fabulous selection of screen printed wrapping paper, T-shirts, greeting cards, wooden storage boxes and you can even create your own buttons (see above). If you're in the area, you have to check it out.

I love the old lockers and typewriters (not for sale).

You can type out your own letter on a variety of papers, tags and envelopes. 

These quilted letter squares are perfect for a baby shower or a kid's room. Wooden boxes (bottom right), in two sizes, are great for storing jewelry, a small sewing kit, or pencils.

A great idea - the "one button a month" club. Love it.

A wall of wrapping paper, ribbons and typewriters.

The back room, where they create some of their fabulous designs.

I've loaded this little box up with candles and along with the vintage tumblers/candle holders,  and box of wax matches, it'll make a sweet house warming gift.

 I heart the Regional Assembly of Text.