Food – Page 6 – ketchupface.com

There’s no other way to say it… “The highlight of my day was a blueberry scone”.

A scone of all things. I’ve never really liked scones much. How could this be? Those large, dry, day-old tasting pastry rocks are usually choked down as a last minute space-filling device.

Today, I was heading to Granville Island for lunch with Caden. On the way, we stopped at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (I can’t seem to pass by a bakery without stopping; damn carbohydrate addiction). I love this place. The food is great; as are the pastries. Everything is made by the student on site so the selection varies. These people know what they’re doing. Heck, I even had my wedding cake made here.

Once inside, I quickly bought a croissant, a blueberry scone for Caden and a blueberry white chocolate bran muffin for me. Caden nibbled at the croissant and scone and was done. I, on the other hand, ate the rest of the croissant and devoured the remaining scone. It was so good. When I say good. I mean GOOD, as in really, really amazing.

The scone was “short”, crisp and sweet on the outside, while “melt in your mouth” soft and flaky on the inside. So good in fact that I went back to the cafe on my way home and asked the girl working there if I could take a picture of my beloved scones (just a little something to remember them by). It seriously took all my willpower not to buy another one…today. Who knows what will happen tomorrow. Today, I learned the power of the almighty pastry.

p.s. You may be wondering what happened to the bran muffin I bought. Well, I threw it into the freezer once I got home. After the other baked goods I ate today, even the white chocolate couldn’t entice me to eat the bran. I’ve decided to save it for a rainy day

Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts
1505 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6H 3Y4 Canada

Tel: 604 734-4488

Over the last few months, my passion for the chocolate banana smoothie (Vivanno) has landed me on the doorstep of Starbucks more than I’d like to admit. Starbucks and Mommies go hand-in-hand like diapers and wipes (we should seriously get VIP discounts). Did you know there are 6 Starbucks are within walking distance of my home.

It started with an extra straw and evolved rapidly in to 2 straws, 2 stir sticks, a lid, a cup sleeve….I was insatiable. These items represented peace and quiet to me. For some reason, my toddler was fascinated with these items. The silence would sometimes last for a full 10 minutes at a time…sheer bliss.

This “love affair” started at the “chewing” stage (already peeled straws), next he entered the “straw peeling” stage, then came the “drumming” stage where we branched out from straws to include stir sticks. The next stage happened completely by accident when I forget Caden’s water bottle. This was the most exciting stage for me. The “drinking water from a straw” stage (his first time was at a Starbucks). There was only one drawback to this stage, it was the last time I was able to enjoy my smoothies alone with no mooching, from that day on it was “share-zees” all the way. Lately, we’ve been “threading” straws and stir sticks through coffee cup lids. What’s next? Who knows. It’s likely he’ll be enjoying his very own half-sweet hot chocolate or steamed vanilla milk….awwwww.

Thanks Starbucks. Thanks for the memories and for keeping me sane by occupying my son for 10 minutes while I went to my happy place.

What’s not to love about these mini tubes of coloured icing? There are 2 types (primary or pastel) and they come in packages containing 4 shades. Best of all, the icing drys hard so you can stack the cookies.

I’ll admit, I still prefer homemade icing for sugar cookies (actually my grandmother’s icing to give credit where credit is due) but once midnight rolls around and i’m still not finished icing (on the eve of a special event), I COULD KISS the person that invented Scribblers.

I wouldn’t recommend using these icing tubes for big jobs; they’re just too small. It would be costly and the icing dries too quickly. For small details (like eyes, hair, a bow, polka dots etc…), they are fantastic.

I used Scribblers twice recently, once to outline our Easter sugar cookies. This was the first time the little ones ate cookies so we didn’t want to use much icing (and we went scant on the sugar in the cookies themselves). That little bit of icing definitely made the cookies look more festive.

I also used the Scribblers to draw faces on the frog cookies we served at my son’s 1st birthday party. It worked brilliantly and saved me a lot of time (something that I have little of these days).

p.s. On the subject of credit where credit is due…thanks Mom for baking these cookies and thanks Dad for helping me ice the frog cookies…it takes a village, people.

p.p.s The frogs with the psycho eyes were done by Dad, he thinks he’s so funny…sigh.

All hail the power of the almighty pastry

Move over Mattel; Starbucks offers hours of enjoyment

Scribblers are great for nit picky details and tired Mom’s