Jo Fallak

September!

Jo Fallak — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:51:35 +0000

Apparently I went on a longer vacation than I was originally planning. (click to enlarge)

We had a small fire in the sand on the beach.
We hiked the rocky, mossy coast of Newfoundland’s Change Islands.
We saw a moose, slept in our rental car, and ate homemade bread.
There was a beautiful wedding.
There was an afternoon inside of a tent inside of a deluge inside of a thunderstorm.
We relaxed in the park downtown in 40 degree heat.
I made plum jam, pickled turnips, and took care of my dad’s broken foot.
I read many books.
We went canoeing, kayaking, paddle boating. We travelled by plane, train, ferry, bus, and limo (!).
We saw fireworks, cracked glowsticks, and lit candles. We cooked many things over open flames.
We ate farm-fresh corn and tomatoes.

Yesterday was my first day of Orientation at Michener, and my first class is on Tuesday. My textbooks are heavy and unfortunately they were very expensive.
I’m going to be making an attempt to continue blogging about food, science, and politics in the upcoming months. Most likely we’ll be looking at more inexpensive recipes, however. :)

All photos here are courtesy of Alex.

I’m not dead yet!!

Jo Fallak — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 02:06:52 +0000

Hi guys, just back from Newfoundland and off very shortly to go camping at Sandbanks. Sorry for the quiet on my end, but I’ll be back at it shortly.

xoxo

Cinnamon buns!!

Jo Fallak — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:02:14 +0000

My folks are coming down to Toronto this weekend to spend Canada Day with my brother and me. They are arriving this afternoon, so I thought it would be nice to have something sweet to give them after their long drive!

No recipe transcription required: I used Vegan Yum Yum’s recipe to the letter. As you can see, they turned out really well. Oh man oh man.

One possible note for improvement: I found that using a 9″ x 12″ pan was a bit small (not that I have anything larger). Some of the butter and sugar that lined the pan ended up bubbling out and smoked on the oven’s element. I’d either use a bigger pan, or put a sheet of aluminum foil underneath the pan to catch the drips. No biggie.

I wish I could bottle the smell in my apartment right now. Nothing nicer than fresh cinnamon buns. Hooray!

Blueberry pancakes

Jo Fallak — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:03:10 +0000

Such a nice way to start my morning!
Err… afternoon. Adapted and perfected from this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups soy milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup fresh blueberries

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix soy milk, vegetable oil and blueberries together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated.

In a hot non-stick pan over medium-high heat, drop batter to form 3-4″ diameter pancakes. You may find that you need to oil the pan slightly, depending on your cookware.
Flip the pancakes when you spy bubbles appearing on the surface of the batter. They should be done on the second side after a minute or two (you can peek at the bottom with your spatula, but don’t go flipping them again willy-nilly! tsk).

Top with the yummiest, purest maple syrup you can get your little paws on, and chow down. Yields approximately 10 thick pancakes.

Spicy squash pancakes

Jo Fallak — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:56:43 +0000

Spicy squash pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup grated butternut squash
1 cup grated sweet potato
1/2 onion, grated
1 garlic clove, minced
1 egg replacer (use 1 tbsp ground flax seed with 3 tbsp water, or boxed variety)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vegan marg

Peel and cut small squash and sweet potato into quarters. Blanch potato and squash for a few minutes in boiling water. Remove vegetables from water and allow to cool. Grate squash, sweet potato and onion and set aside in a colander to drain for 10-15 minutes. Mince the garlic clove and stir in. Add the egg replacer.

Mix lemon zest with thyme, cumin, cayenne, and salt. Add spice mix to grated vegetables, and stir in flour and baking powder.

Form batter into flattened balls and pan fry on high heat until they are crispy (using margarine as required to prevent sticking). Make sure your frying pan is quite hot.

Eat them right away!
We dipped these hot little fritters in a cooling vegan yogurt sauce, and had some delicious wild rice alongside. Super yummm.