Gabe

My day started off a little rough.  I know. I'm supposed to be telling you something good and I will. In fact, that is the origin of my blog title.  We are all prone to a little drama-queen every now and then and as rare as it occurs, even on the "worst day ever" as reported by my kids, I will ask them to "...tell me something good..." tell me one good thing... because there is always something and usually there are many somethings, but we all have these days and we forget. Things don't go as planned, we have lists of things to do, schedules to keep, so many things that need to be accomplished and we easily lose sight of even one good thing.
Well today I was having one of those days and I decided to stop for a coffee instead of taking the time to make one and I met Gabe.  The baby-faced barista likely not much older then my own son with his handmade, graffiti-like name tag (adorable!) and it was the simplest thing really.  He was just taking my coffee order and preparing it for me, but his smile was so bright, his conversation so genuine.  No.  I know what you're thinking.  Not like he was gunning for barista of the month, not like he was reciting the Starbucks script from his employee handbook, not like a scene from the Graduate (Google it kids; it's a classic), but like the most pleasant, polite kid who was happy and it came through loud and clear and it completely changed my day.  I drove away and felt instantly elevated.  The sun was shining, my coffee was warm, the music was playing and I felt thankful for a hundred good things.

...Today I am thankful for:

family in all its many forms: the ones we are born into, the family’s we create when we leave our own, the families that find us; the people who have claimed us, love us, nurture us and protect us.

for my friends and my spouse, for my children

for my siblings that were my first friends

for many teachers (school and other) who engaged and inspired me to read and study and learn more about the world and others, and about myself; who challenged me to work harder, who saw things in me I was unable to see in myself, who elevated me in such a way that in turn I am able to elevate others

for books to read and art to appreciate and music to fill our souls

for good food to eat and prepare and meals to share with friends and family-- to smell and taste, experiment with and appreciate in all it’s colour and complexity

for access to information and world news and science and technology in all it’s amazing and continual advancements

for warm beds and homes and clothes

for health and wellness

for things that grow and seasons that change

for all those who are tolerant and kind, for those who are open to change and differences, for those who can disagree with others and still be kind and respectful to everyone

for those that make me laugh and those that have so much energy there is enough for me too

for all those in our community who work long and irregular hours to serve us, protect us and maintain our city and our streets doing jobs and providing services every day we often take for granted

for diverse, engaged communities with plentiful resources and generous members

for hardships and heartbreak that remind me how vulnerable and strong we can be

for parents who brought me up to be generous of my time and my abilities and to be grateful for the many good things I have

For all the Gabes out there who make our coffee, bag our groceries, hold the door, make us feel happy just by being happy themselves; Thank-you.

Quail Eggs

My sister is an urban homesteader of sorts and she gave us these pretty, speckled quail eggs to try.

A little research and I have discovered that despite their smaller size, quail eggs contain more protein, more calcium and more phosphorous then chicken eggs and significant amounts of vitamins A and B2.

Quail eggs also contain ovomucoid protein, the main ingredient in many allergy medications and reportedly provide moderate allergy relief for some allergy sufferers as well as strengthened immunity with regular consumption.

Another super cool fact I learned is that the quail's body temperature is higher then that of a chicken's and therefore, there is no risk of salmonella in these eggs.
The eggs also contain Lysozyme, an enzyme (found in tears, saliva and human milk) that kills bacteria. They are considered a delicacy in many parts of the world and sometimes eaten raw. 

It took a little extra time to crack all the eggs (about 4-5 quail eggs equal one chicken egg), but we scrambled them up with a splash of milk and some salt and pepper and the eggs were fluffy and delicious and apparently a nutrient dense powerhouse!  Thank-you farmer Sue!

Chili to the Rescue

It was a busy weekend of sports and yard work, home work, and the like after a full week of much the same.  A big batch of chili easily served from the stove-top seemed like a reasonable attempt against thwarting another meal of potato chips with a side of Halloween candy this weekend! That was Friday night's dinner for myself...not a proud moment.
Chili is hearty and healthy and can easily be prepared in a large amount to feed a crowd or freeze for a future meal and the leftovers can be re-purposed in a number of creative ways:
* Mix left over chili with some rice and shredded cheese. Cut sweet peppers in half, remove seeds and ribs and fill with chili/rice mixture.  Place peppers in casserole dish, sprinkle with a bit more cheese if you like and bake covered in foil at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until peppers are soft but not mushy and filling is warm. Remove foil and broil for a couple minutes for nicely browned, cheesy tops.
* Top a simple garden salad with leftover chili.  Sprinkle with crushed nacho chips and serve with shredded cheese, sliced avocado, fresh tomatoes, sour cream and salsa for a quick taco salad OR open a individual size bag of corn chips, crush slightly and top with warm chili, cheese and shredded lettuce for a "walking taco".
*Leftover chili makes great "chili poutine".  Top homemade roasted potato wedges with chili and cheese and broil until cheese is nicely browned.  Top with shredded lettuce, green onions, diced fresh tomatoes and hot peppers.
* Top baked sweet potatoes or roasted spaghetti squash halves with chili, cheese and fixings for a yummy remake that will not taste like leftovers.
* Top a hot dog, fill a flour tortilla, bring the extras to someone you love!

This is a super simple, stand-by recipe.  Feel free to tweek or adjust to your tastes with various additions: cumin, dark cocoa powder, coffee or dark ale, bbq sauce, hot chili peppers, Tabasco, mushrooms, leftover steak--skys the limit!

1 lb of lean ground beef (or substitute Veggie Ground Round or some chopped sweet potatoes for a vegetarian option)
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 19 oz cans of Almyer petite cut tomatoes (any diced tomatoes will due of course, but I love these!)
1 green or sweet pepper chopped
1 19 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 19 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14 oz can Busch's Original baked brown beans (do not drain)
2 Tablespoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
Spoonful of brown sugar (optional) to cut the acidity of the tomatoes
1 beef bouillon cube

In a large pot, saute your chopped onion and garlic until starting to soften.
Add lean ground beef or Veggie Ground Round and continue cooking until browned.
Add the rest of your ingredients and stir to combine.
Simmer on stove-top until meat is fully cooked and flavors are well combined.  Tastes better the longer it sits--so perfect for leftovers and a night you need a meal ready to go for varying mealtimes. Leave bowls and spoons close by and hide the Halloween candy (um...in my case... from myself!)

We finished the meal with these super fun, mini, filled eyeball donuts!






For further prevention against junk food dinner, check out these eight meals in 30 minutes at Family Bites.

For fun, check out these 26 things you likely didn't know about chili peppers.  Apparently a good call on the chili powder for our anniversary dinner :D

Gibson Fab 5 Top Cold and Flu Comfort Measures

As cold and flu season approaches, arm yourself with the Gibson Fab 5 Cold and Flu Comfort Measures!  I'm not going to tell you anything you don't likely already know, but life gets pretty busy and sometimes we need a reminder to take good care of ourselves! These are our family's tried and true comfort measures.

1. Get ample rest.  Busy schedules, deadlines, commitments and holidays often leave us feeling depleted and more susceptible to illness.  Try to "under schedule" yourself every once and awhile and catch up on some much needed rest before you need a reason to!

2. Drink lots of fluids.  Our favourites:
Warm ginger tea with honey.  Honey and ginger are both anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial (read all about ginger's superpowers here). Simply grate about a tablespoon of fresh ginger root and steep in a mug of hot water for about 10-15 minutes until well infused. Strain out the ginger and add a generous spoonful of raw honey.  The warm liquid is soothing on your throat and the ginger is wonderful for clearing the sinuses. And,
chicken soup.  You can find our family favourite in a previous post here.

3. Gargle with salt water.  Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt to a mug of warm water and gargle to ease the discomfort of a sore throat and flush away nasty bacteria! Not just an old-wives tale!  At first sign of a cough or cold, we gargle 3-4 times a day. Read on for some scientific cred!

4. Honey-ginger Elixir.
Hands down better than any commercial cough syrup on the market!  All natural and chock-full of antiviral, immune boosting properties!
Grate about two tablespoons of ginger root and squeeze out the juice using a small mesh strainer.  Whisk in an equal amount of raw honey and mix until well combined.  Take a big spoonful at bed time to quiet a stubborn night time cough.  Take liberally throughout the day to soothe a sore throat and reap all the heath-promoting benefits the honey and ginger provide. I make this up in small batches (double if we all are under the weather!) and leave sitting out on the counter.  I'm not sure how long it lasts in larger amounts as we use it up before the day is through.

5. Vapor Rub.
I know, I get it.  Make-your-own vapor rub seems lofty, but if you have ever had aspirations to achieve Martha-like status, this is it!  A truly simple recipe to follow.  Three ingredients: coconut oil, beeswax and essential oils.  That's it.  It's natural and smells fantastic and it works (again in my opinion) better than anything store-bought!
You can find the original recipe here.  In my search for a vapor rub recipe, many others used a higher concentration of oils than the Wellness Mama version; for example this recipe here.  I have doubled the amount of essential oils with no ill effects for our family, but always check with your health practitioner before using any essential oils, especially on babies, or children, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
This recipe is not suitable for very young children or babies.
Quite simply:
Spoon a 1/2 cup of coconut oil and 2 level tablespoons of beeswax pastilles in a mason jar or other heat tolerant glass container.  Place your jar in a pot of water (the water level should be about half to three quarters of the way up the side of the jar).  Be careful not to splash any water into your jar. Bring the water to a gentle simmer and stir your ingredients just until melted.  Remove from the heat.
Add 40 drops of eucalyptus essential oil, 40 drops of peppermint essential oil, 20 drops of rosemary essential oil and 20 drops of clove essential oil.  Stir to combine and pour into clean, preferably dark glass jars, but any clean glass jar will do.
Apply as needed to chest and neck for relief of cough and congestion.

Siopao Asado with Nenette!

Today was my tutorial with Nenette to learn how to make Siopao Asado, steamed pork buns from scratch. Honestly, if you have never tried one of these, they are well worth the effort.  The recipe is not difficult, but it does take time to prepare your filling, allow your yeast dough to rise, and roll and fill your buns.  A delicious labour of love!

2 1/2 cups of warm water

2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar

1 pkg active dry yeast

Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes or until frothy (if the mixture does not froth, your yeast may be old and you should start over with some fresh yeast)

In a large bowl mix:

5 cups of all purpose flour

1 1/4 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar and

cut in 6 tablespoons of vegetable shortening; set ingredients aside.

Once the yeast mixture is frothy, add to the dry ingredients; stir to combine.

Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough back into your mixing bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot to rise for about one hour.

While your dough is rising, prepare your filling. 

In some shortening or oil, saute 1 medium onion, diced and 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped with 2 lbs of shredded cooked pork (or chicken).

Add about half a cup of water (more if the mixture becomes dry, 4 tablespoon each soy sauce and sugar, 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce and 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce.

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a 1/4 cup of water and add to the pan stirring until heated through and thickened.  Taste and add more of whatever you feel it is missing.  Allow filling to cool before filling your buns.

Once the dough is about double in size, remove the plastic wrap, tip the dough out of the bowl and knead again to form a long roll; cut in pieces according to how big or small you want your bao to be-- ours were about the size of a largeish mandarin orange.

Roll the dough into a flat circle and top with a couple tablespoons of your filling and half a hard boiled egg (optional but delicious!).  Pull the dough up around the filing and pinch to close.  Turn dough onto the pinched end and place on a circle of parchment paper.  Cover with a damp tea towel until ready to steam.

Steam for 15 to 20 minutes and place on wire rack to cool slightly.

Eat warm from the steamer before everyone gets home and they all disappear!  Thank-you Nenette!

"Soup is Good Food"

This Sausage Lentil Soup came together really quickly and nicely balanced out the candy-cake-loot bag intake of some of us tonight! Like many recipes I have posted, the amounts are pretty flexible; add more or less of your ingredients according to your preferences.

2- 3 spicy Italian sausages (or whatever variety you like)
a nice big onion diced
2 big carrots and 2-3 celery stalks, cleaned and diced (I add in all the leafy celery tops too)
4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
6- 8 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
19 oz tin of lentils, drained
Handful of spinach
spoonful of pesto (optional but flavorful)

Squeeze the sausage out of its casing and crumble in your soup pot.  Saute with your diced onion and some olive oil until browned.  Add your carrot, celery and garlic and continue to saute  for a few minutes until beginning to soften.  Add your broth and lentils and simmer until the sausage is cooked and the vegetables are tender or cooked to your liking.  I threw in a spoonful of pesto and a handful of spinach stirring until wilted. Serve with a big loaf of crusty bread or some cheesy garlic toast or a grilled cheese.  Or, pretty filling on it's own...especially when sharing space with the candy-cake-loot bag deliciousness of earlier in the day  :D

Special Delivery

I have a very dear neighbour, Nenette who might be an angel. Ever generous of her time and of her talents, pulled in so many directions, but still somehow frequently finds the time to show up on our doorstep to share something from her garden or some deliciousness she has made from scratch in her kitchen with our family.  

Yesterday, she brought some homemade bao...still warm from the steamer and it tasted like home.  

Her special delivery was timely.  This time of year always leaves me homesick for Mark's parents.  My mother-in-law, Angie used to make these buns. I had never tasted bao until I met her. She made them effortlessly; never scolding for eating them as fast as she could steam them despite the time and care it took to prepare each one.

I had just watched this really touching video about the Mother Exchange Program, an initiative that connects children studying away from home with a mother in their city who prepares home-cooked meals for them when their own mothers cannot ...and then there she was... on my doorstep with a gift of food that connected us to a piece of our past that most days feels irretrievable.  

From first foods to favourite meals to recipes passed down through the generations, there is something deeply satisfying in preparing and sharing food with the people we love.  Food brings us together, it enriches our celebrations, it unites our cultures, it heals, it provides us with comfort and sustenance, it is an expression of our love and gratitude, it is a sensory pleasure and a creative outlet, it unites us with people we have met and places we have been, it connects us to our past.

I was really touched by this video.  I love my family.  I love to cook.  I love to cook for my family.  The concept of our children living elsewhere to study is foreign yet not far away for Mark and I.  The joy a mother finds in nourishing her family and the comfort and connection that this expression provides for her child is beautifully portrayed in the Mother Exchange video clip. If you want to watch something good, do check out the above video link perhaps with a box of tissue.

The Goodness abounds!  Nenette is coming to my house on Monday to once again share her time and talents with me by teaching me how to prepare the bao in my own kitchen.  I am super excited!  Look for a future post of her bao tutorial!  Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for your very delicious food delivery Nennette and for offering to help me learn how to make them too.