Bananaversary the first!

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Team Banana wedding summed up

Team Banana wedding summed up

Baron and I recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary. (Monday, April, 23rd).  Though we’ve actually been together for 11 years now, the first wedding anniversary seems to hold a bit of importance to me.

It’s a great achievement to have survived the first year. No one died, or was mortally wounded, or even suffered a major or minor injury!  Emotionally, we still are still pleased with each other so that is a plus, as well.

Seriously, though It’s great to celebrate our lives together. I can very easily shy away from and push away romance, but I love him, and am very happy to celebrate our marriage.

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the wedding. I look back fondly on that night, as it was clearly the best party I’ve ever thrown and attended.  The planning process was a whirlwind of fun, stress, and anxiety.  I never thought I wanted to get married, much less have a big, fancy wedding. A lot of things changed between the end of 2009, when my thoughts started to change about marriage, to April 23, 2011 when we got married and celebrated with160 friends & family.

In 2009, after introducing me to a family friend at a funeral as “wife”, we were greeted with usual “oh congrats, how long?”. Baron muttered and stuttered how we weren’t actually married, just common law.  I was a little shocked he used the term wife, but he explained “girlfriend didn’t cut it”. We had just purchased a home together, and honestly there’s little greater commitment than that.  We realized that maybe it’s ok to get married, and there’s a reason why a large segment of the population are fighting to get this right – it does still have some meaning to it.  It was at that point that I decided I was ok with the idea of maybe, perhaps, being engaged… but not getting married any time soon. We would have a really long engagement, of course. Let’s not rush anything, we’d only been together 8.75 years at that point.  It was the following February that he proposed. We originally thought of a lengthy 2 year engagement, putting us at a nice mid-winter 2012 wedding. Parents have a way of changing everything, and thus it was pushed up  to 2011.  I’m pleased with how everything turned out.

Fast forward to the big date in 2012 and Baron had so kindly started off my day by making me french toast for breakfast – my favourite breakfast food. He sent me roses at work, and then we went out for dinner at Bymark.  We ate SO much delicious food there.  We tried to do something afterwards but were too full, so we lazed around and watched T.V. It’s how us ‘ol married folk do ;)

According to wikipedia, the first anniversary gift in U.S. custom is paper. We both accidentally delivered on this, as I got him tickets to a TFC game, and he got me tickets to a concert.  It’s technically paper.

The TFC game was fun to be at, even though the team, like all teams in Toronto, sucked!

 

TFC in the sun

TFC in the sun

At least it was a nice day.

Our anniversary was nice. I often ponder how lucky I am to have met this weirdo. His weirdness is so similar to mine. He is a man who loves me for my intelligence.  We are a great unit, and I look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with him.

 

 

Alton Brown’s Plain ‘Ol Brownies with Valrhona cocoa

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I am unabashedly in love with chocolate, unapologetic about my feelings and thoughts toward it and unheeding in my consumption. Perhaps I fit the cliche of a woman for this reason, but I care not. I love the stuff. Over the past few years my taste buds grew and changed and no longer could I palate the taste of standard milk chocolate. Bubbly aero bars which were once irresitable became a turn-off. Until I saw that they had a dark chocolate version. It’s still not that great, but dark chocolate is. As my tastes literally change, my sweet tooth subsides to reveal a love of the slightly bitter.

A few years ago my parents did a tour of Europe. My mom asked me what I wanted from there and I couldn’t think of anything. Morever, what could they bring that wouldn’t over burden the suitcases they would be taking through 16 different cities in a mere three weeks? I soon realized the answer was chocolate. I asked them to bring back chocolate from every country they visited.

And the spoils came: Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, England, Austria and France. They were different types, sizes and price ranges but they had one thing in common: they were all vastly superior to North American ‘chocolate’.

My god, the europeans know their chocolate. For the record, German chocolate remains my favourite. The home of the black forest cake has got to know a thing or two. France may have tied that with something my mom picked up randomly:

Valhrona Squares

Valhrona Squares

I recognized the name from friends who bake. It was also mentioned in the book Confetti Cakes as the best quality cocoa money could buy.  The chocolate was delicious. It was dark and slightly bitter, but still had some sweetness. I only ate a square at a time because I found it so perfectly rich. I enjoyed the packaging as well – it just looks so French and sophisticated!

I recently ran out of my standard cocoa powder and decided to use this opportunity to buy the good stuff: Valrhona cocoa. I found it at the St. Lawrence market.

Valrhona Cocoa

Valrhona Cocoa

I paid $15.99 for that box. Yikes!

I decided to make a dense and rich brownie with my new, expensive cocoa. I don’t have a go-to recipe so I browsed through my collection and randomly picked Alton Brown’s from this book: I’m Just Here For More Food X Mixing + Heat = Baking. Despite having this book for over a year, I’ve made nothing from it. I do refer to it from time to time just to understand the science of baking better.

The Valrhona cocoa smelled amazing as soon as I opened the packet. I have a weak sense of smell but the aroma still struck me. I can’t describe it really well, but it was heady, and smelled rich and more chocolatey than other cocoas.

The brownies turned out pretty danged great

Brownie that I wish you could smell

Brownie that I wish you could smell

They definitely have the taste of a “dark chocolate” brownie, if such a thing  exists.

I submit to you that ‘dark chocolate’ is just regular chocolate; regular chocolate with the most cocoa. The less cocoa and the more milk you add, the lighter the chocolate gets. Bittersweet, semi-sweet, and milk are all mixes of different proportions of milk and cocoa; and then there is the aberration known as white chocolate, which is not chocolate as it contains no cocoa. Also, it is gross.

As if baking wasn’t expensive enough, I now think I always want to bake with Valrhona. It’s definitely worth it.  Another fun thing about this baking project was using my new Cuisinart food processor. Alton Brown recommends sifting dry ingredients together by pulsing in a food processor as opposed to using a sifter or just hand mixing.

Processor and Mixer aka Cuisie & Kitchie?

Processor and Mixer aka Cuisie & Kitchie?

I wonder if that contributed to the excellence of these brownies. Either way, I’m pleased with the result and had fun creating them too!

 

I’m jealous of athletes

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I’m jealous of athletes…or even people who enjoy physical activity. Mostly because this idea is foreign to me. I can sum up my life easily and accurately by the following stats.

Growing up I was:

  1. asthmatic (still am)
  2. picked last for every sport (still am)
  3. always preferring to stay inside and read at any given opportunity.

Sure, I ran around with friends from time to time, but that was the extent of my physical activity.  My parents decided to put me in swimming lessons, but because of my scaredy-cat nature I eventually quit (and developed an even deeper fear of water/drowning).  Outside of that I was never in any sort of sport, or dance. And I never wanted to be. It didn’t interest me in the least.  Looking back I feel like this is kind of odd. Most people I know were in at least one  sports league, even if it was through school. Not me. I grew up easily avoiding physical activity of any meaningful kind. I walked everywhere (an hour a day at least), but that was it.

Once I got into college, and after that ‘freshman fifteen’ kicked in, I tried out a few things like using the school gym, workout dvd’s, even a few classes, but nothing piqued my interest. It wasn’t until the summer of 2010 when I got  sick of being so inactive and weak that I randomly signed up for a 2 month women’s ‘boot camp’.  This was pivotal for me. I never thought I could be strong. I went from not being able to do 1 “girly” push up to being able to do 20 “man-style” pushups in 8 weeks. Unfortunately, the nature of boot camps, combined with their steep price, made it something I couldn’t sustain.  I did come back to it off and on when I felt I needed that physical boost.

This fall I finally decided to get over my fear of water. In hindsight it seems to have been a silly fear…but it was very real. I took an adult swimming course at a local community centre and again my mind was blown with the things that my body was able to do! Namely: not sinking.

For me, being asthmatic made me think I couldn’t be physically active. I learned that was wrong. I just needed to be a little careful. And in fact being physically active would help keep my asthma under control – a wonderful, if obvious, discovery.

Now back to the title of this post. So even though I’ve discovered physical activities I enjoy – canoeing, hiking, swimming… I still feel jealous of those who are active with a purpose. For example, my husband plays soccer and he’s always training to be better. So when he goes to the gym, he goes with a purpose…to train. I don’t feel like I have that. Sure, being healthy and all is a great reason…but let’s face it: I’m lazy.

I’m lazy and I hate sports. There isn’t really any sport I want to be a part of – but I want to want that. Maybe there’s more fear holding me back. I mentioned that I liked canoeing so I thought of joining a rowing team – but the thought of being on a team is genuinely scary. I was the ‘weak little asthmatic one’. While in boot camp, I was improving myself at my own pace… but if I were to join a team… other people would be depending on me. I don’t like that! So that leaves me with single person activities such as rock-climbing and running, which I can pursue at my own pace. I am slowly dabbling in these things, but being physical on purpose is just not a habit I’ve developed yet.

While it’s embarrassing and slightly depressing to admit all of this…I’m slowly becoming more active, and finding physical activities that I enjoy doing. The chance that I’ll become some super athletic person is slim but I guess the point is that I am trying. I’m trying to do more…to get out there and let go of my fears. It’s not easy and I don’t know if I will ever get over all of them…but I’m making an effort. For that I am proud of myself.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time cake! (For my brother-in-law Matt!)

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I wanted to make a cake for my brother-in-law’s birthday and am not sure how exactly this was decided but it was: peanut butter jelly time! (with a baseball bat!)

PeanutButterJellyWithABaseBallBat!!

PeanutButterJellyWithABaseBallBat!!

It was a chocolate cake, with a strawberry jam filling and peanut butter frosting. I covered it in white fondant for the smooth finish on which the fondant banana, complete with maracas sat upon.  I made the banana, his extremities, eyes, and mouth with fondant colours I had made last month for the Adventure Time Cupcakes.  It was pretty lucky that I had all of the colours, and that purple worked for the arms and legs instead of the black.

BIP - banana in progress

BIP - banana in progress

The next step was baking the cake, and filling it with the strawberry jam & putting a ‘crumb coat’ of peanut butter frosting on it:

 

Crumb coated cake

Crumb coated cake

 

I’m also not very good at crumb coats, or finishing a cake in frosting. I find that I always get crumbs in anything, and then there’s the ripping of the cake as the frosting goes over it. It also drives me crazy when it’s not completely even – which it never is. I tried my best, and this was ok considering it was being covered.  After that sat over night, I put on the fondant. It was my first time covering a cake in fondant, but with some tips and resources, it turned out well!

Fondant Covered Cake

Fondant Covered Cake

 

I just wasn’t sure how to finish off the ‘back’. I believe like every Christmas tree, every cake has a ‘back’. The ugly side that no one ever needs to look at. I’ll figure out the fondant smoothing/sealing technique for next time.  Also, since my cake board was larger than the actual cake, cutting the fondant around the bottom was tricky. I covered up the unsightly cutting job with a slightly-less-unsightly fondant ‘ribbon’. It was kind of uneven but it did the trick, it looked better than the previous cut job!

Ugly back of cake. Don't look!

Ugly back of cake. Don't look!

 

The last step was just putting the actual banana decor on the cake. I used fudge frosting to do the outlines of his mouth and eyes and it looked way better once I added that. I also used that fudge frosting to write the letters – which also turned out better than anticipated. I am not good at cake writing, my hands shake quite a bit. I also just free-balled that alignment and was super pleased that I eyeballed it well enough!