» The sisters

Today marks a new day here at The Albrecht. Today, we are launching two exciting new features on our site. I’ll give you a hint, one is a current favourite website of ours and the other is a favourite app. If you guessed Pinterest and Instagram you are right! The Albrecht now features a Pin it button and links to our Instagram feeds!

I have been involved in an on and off sort of relationship with Pinterest for about the last year or so. Right now we are very much on. So I am delighted that we can facilitate easier pinning! Look for it.
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Both Ginger and I fell in love with Instagram over the summer and have been avid IG’ers ever since. I adore being able to search for country, cities, or a even specific location that I love and be able to see them again through another photographers lens. You can find links to our feeds in the top menu. Love, love, love it! Enough said really, here are a few  favourite images from our feeds.

Happy pining! Happy Instagraming! Happy Friday!

It’s one of those things I can count on…when the holidays are over, the seed catalogues will come. And while I might have to wait for months before really even thinking about taking spade to garden, I can dream my way through the dahlia catalogue along with the stack of other seed catalogues that have been filing up my mailbox. A weekend or two will inevitably be spent trying to decide on what four tomato varieties will make the cut in the garden. Or what mixture of greens will kick off my spring salads. In short, it gives me a little hope that eventually, spring will come.

Last year was my first with a proper garden in a few years. My parents arrived on the scene with ideas aplenty and in no time had full plans sketched out for the garden. And this was no ordinary garden plot – they built me raised beds with rails for sitting, gravel walks for easy maintenance and a little fence to keep out wayward toddlers and anxious dogs! I know, this whole area was a very kind and thoughtful gesture and I am still touched by the generous gift this garden has been to me. By the time the summer was over and the tomatoes and dahlias were towering over the pathway, it felt jungle-like. A friend donated a chair and table, which I painted yellow, and hauled it into the garden. This was almost on the level of garden spa! (Tina, you may also note that the yellow spray paint idea is hardly something new – I was doing it months ago!)

I should be honest and tell you that things got a little out of control in the garden. I am not sure if it was the year or what, but my tomatoes fell over at least three times last summer. The plants were too vigorous to stay with their stakes. It became my weekend project to keep adding new stakes, pruning viciously to try and control the growth. The dahlias were so top-heavy with flowers that they drooped across the pathways, sprinkling spent petals at an alarming rate. I must come up with a new plan for proactive staking this year! But I embraced it all – tucked out of sight from most everyone, my little jungle was a quiet refuge all summer.

And now, through the silent winter, those beds have sat under the briefest cover of snow. I mulched them with leftover leaves and grass, just hoping to replenish the soil enough for a repeat performance this summer. I’ve already been out there once to see how the composting process is going and take a quick look at my volunteer fava beans, an added bonus from my composting antics. I am going to be so excited if those actually produce anything this year!

As I quietly surveyed the garden last week, I wondered just where I should plant the lettuce this spring? Where should the dahlias grow? Can I add any new flowers to my collection this year? Where will my first row of radishes grow? Tina suggested I draw a little planting map – it might help with my planning. Maybe I’ll share it here…
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My one new discovery last year was purslane. It’s not really a well-known green, but it is going to be. If you’re looking for the latest food trend, you heard it here first. To many, this is actually a weed, but the seeds I found were for an upright variety that made for easy picking. The leaves had a bit of a citrus flavor to them and lasted much further into the summer than any of the other lettuce varieties and was a welcome addition to salads. I think it was sometime toward the end of July when I finally decided it had run its course and pulled it out.

I’m always looking for new things to add to the garden mix. This year the idea came to me that perhaps I could add a Meyer lemon to the garden. Obviously, I am not going to be able to plant it anywhere. But in a pot, it could be quite a nice addition. In my mind, I’m thinking towering lemon tree. But this is likely going to be more of a small shrub – alas! And so long as I didn’t feel inspired to buy a whole grove of citrus, maybe I could winter one plant in the house. Maybe I’d have room for two…and who wouldn’t love a citrus tree in the living room? Just the thought of a future lemon or two would truly be a treat. Of course, this could be along the lines of my attempts with the fig tree. For all of my efforts hauling the massive barrel in and out, my fig harvest over the years has been scarce, at best. But still I try, just hoping that this might be the year. And who knows, I might have a real knack with citrus!

I’d best be off now…I really have to decide on those tomatoes!

Spaghetti with Chorizo and Almonds is one of my go-to recipes. It is fast, easy and delicious. And for about 4 years now I have been obediently following the directions. Suddenly, out of the blue last week it stuck me, “Why have I not adapted this recipe!”.  It is the perfect recipe for adapting. So last Thursday I did.

Spaghetti with Farmers Sausage, Cannellini Beans & Spinach
Adapted from Gourmet’s Spaghetti with Chorizo and Almonds

yield: makes 4 servings | active time: 30 minutes | total time: 35 minutes

2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 or 3 garlic cloves, diced
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1 medium onion, finely chopped
12 ounces fideos (dried coiled vermicelli noodles) or angel-hair pasta broken into 2-inch lengths
1 bunch of baby spinach, trimmed
1 (14- to 19-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Parmesan for topping

Directions: Bring broth, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then reduce heat and keep at a bare simmer.

Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then sauté garlic until pale golden, about 30 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add farmers sausage and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towels with garlic. Add butter to pot and sauté onion until golden, about 5 minutes, then add pasta and sauté, breaking up fideos with a wooden spoon, until golden, about 4 minutes. Add broth mixture and cook, covered, for about 4 minutes. Quickly add spinach to the pasta mixture and continue cooking until all liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Stir in cannellini beans, farmers sausage, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve pasta with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

It’s almost the weekend. I look forward to those two days with so much anticipation. It’s a great time to relax and for me, to cook! As the week draws to a close, I am often planning what I am going to cook and compiling grocery lists. But one of the best parts of the weekend is breakfast. Or more specifically, brunch! We usually manage to get a little more sleep on the weekends and once everyone is up, head to the kitchen for coffee. That gives me a little lead time to start on something tasty to eat.

Last weekend, I cooked some eggs and tomato sauce. Call it what you will, this dish seems to find roots in a few different culinary traditions. Probably because it is so delicious! The tomato and egg combination holds up to a multitude of variations, so I’m sure to have something to throw together.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Baking dish – I prefer to use a skillet that can stand the oven. It makes the dish a true one-dish wonder!
• Additions – sauté veggies such as onions, peppers, greens or mushrooms. Add in chickpeas, olives or sausage.
• Tomatoes – a basic tomato sauce will work. My favorite is a large jar of whole tomatoes from my garden, but a tin of diced or whole tomatoes will work equally well. Add them to your pan once your veggies and other additions are cooked. Let this mixture simmer a bit so it’s not too juicy.
• Spices – Add what you will, just tailor it to the flavors you are building. Add a little harissa for a kick, fresh basil or pimentón. But don’t stop there, anything goes with this dish.
• Eggs – add as many as you are going to eat. I try to create little hollows all around my tomato sauce before slipping in the eggs one at a time.
• Baking – finally, pop that pan in the oven. 350 is usually a good starting temperature. Since your pan and sauce are hot, all you have to do is get the eggs to your desired level of doneness. Check frequently, but I can usually count on about 15 minutes for minutes for mine.

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Happy weekend, everyone!

When you are the youngest child in the family your early years are spent trying to keep up with your older sibling. In order to not get left behind, you have to learn to walk, talk and basically do everything faster. As a child, it always seemed to me that Ginger was operating in some sort of better parallel universe. The games she played looked like more fun, her Barbie’s outfits seemed nicer, everything she did was somehow better. I felt compelled to copy her. If her Barbies were lounging poolside, so were mine. If she fashioned some sort of Barbie motor home out of mandarin orange box, my motor home was not far behind. Ginger hated it and wasn’t shy about telling me that she hated it. I did it anyway.

My need to not be left behind actually drove me to such extremes that not only did I mimic her all the time, I also wanted to be around her all the time too. Probably because I was sure that if I wasn’t around she would do something fantastic and I would miss it. On one particular evening Ginger was playing with her Barbies and I was feeling sick. Unlike a normal child who would have gone to bed, I insisted on watching ginger play. I curled up with a blanket and my best doll Annie and watched as the Barbies splashed in the pool and rushed around the room doing this and that. I will not regale you with all the details but, let’s just say that Ginger insisted that my doll and I be removed from her room, and I shouldn’t be allowed to return. Now I approach life with a healthy dose of caution when it comes to “copying”.

So it is with a little apprehension that I unveil my two DIY necklaces. I find myself feeling like a 7 year old kid who has been caught copying her big sisters! But as they say, imitation is the best form of flattery, no?

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A Pair and A Spare’s fantastic tutorial on how to make your own Sass and Bide inspired neon necklace and the Mara Hoffman style tribal necklace from I Spy DIY were just the inspiration I needed to start a few DIY projects of my own. Do check them out as they really are geniuses.

In the heart of winter, I just want to hunker down inside and get cozy. Sometimes that might be a warm cup of tea in the afternoon or a toasty pair of wool sock and slippers as I pad around the house. Whatever the case may be, I must be talking about this idea a fair bit as my son has taken up the cry. I know it is just a two-year-old’s stalling technique as he hollers from his bedroom that he needs another blanket to be cozy, but it’s just too cute not to oblige.

This week we had snow. I’ve been waiting for a bit of the white stuff for some time now. And that big winter storm that covered the Pacific Northwest a few days ago promised to deliver. What followed was a wee bit more messy – snow, freezing rain, ice and then slush. And in the end, it seemed a little bit more treacherous than your typical snow day should be. But I made the most of it with a little quality driveway snow shoveling and some baking to keep us all cozy and fed on a winter afternoon.

Sometimes a winter snack calls for something with a little most substance. Something that stands up to a quick dip into my hot chocolate. These biscotti fit the bill for me. There is even a little crunch of cornmeal that makes me feel all the more healthy for adding it in. And depending what I’m in the mood for, I can make them as healthy as I like. Almonds and cranberries make a nice festive cookie. As would pistachios and cranberries. Chopped dark chocolate plays to their cookie sensibilities. And dark chocolate and orange peel sounds enticing.

I like the dry, crunchy texture of this biscotti. Even the dry shower of crumbs that they always leave behind. And not that they ever end up sitting around for long, but they taste just as good on day one as they do several days later. So a little tin of these biscotti is always welcome around the espresso machine in these parts. Sometimes they will even stand in for a little breakfast tie-over while brunch is in the works. But whatever the occasion, these biscotti always seem to bring the right level of coziness to any snack.

Almond Biscotti

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Lenox Almond Biscotti in Baking

I’ve made this recipe dozens of times with many variations. It may not be authentic, but someone at my house loves chocolate! Dark chocolate chunks and almonds are a pretty addictive combination. The sky is the limit, but I’d try to keep my additions to about 1 cup in total. And since all that chocolate sweetens up the dough, I often reduce the sugar a little as well.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

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1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup chocolate, chips or chopped your choice

Heat your oven to 350 F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the cornmeal and whisk to combine.

Working with a stand mixure, or hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar for about three minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and continue to beat for another two minutes, scrapping the bowl as needed, until the mixture is light, smooth and creamy. Beat in the almond extract. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine. You’ll have a very soft dough. Scrape the bowl and beaters to clean and gently stir in the almonds and chocolate.

Scrape half of the dough onto one side of the prepared baking sheet. Using your fingers and perhaps a rubber spatula, work the dough into a log about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Sometimes a little water on your finger tips works well too. The log does not have to be perfect. Form a second log on the other side of the pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the logs are lightly golden and still soft to the touch. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool the logs on the baking sheet for 30 minutes. If you turn off the oven, bring it back to 350 as you prepare the next step.

Using a wide spatula, transfer the logs to a cutting board and trim the ends of the logs. They make a perfect snack at this point! Cut the logs into 3/4-inch-thick slices and return to the baking sheet and the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden and firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Enjoy!

Sunday photo walks are a bit of a tradition around my parts. They aren’t fancy, and don’t lead to some mythical destination. They are just a chance to get out of the house and see the world around me. Meet my back alley!

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OK, so it’s winter and a little bleak. It looks grey outside and sadly, it looks like this might be the case for another month or so. And just about this time every year, I manage to find blood oranges at the grocery store! That little reminder that there is a season for everything just might be enough to get me mildly excited about the months between Christmas and spring!

To be honest, of all of the citrus available, we don’t have a whole lot of variety in our neck of the woods. I know there are many more varieties out there, depending on where you look. But I’m not going to be picky. I’ll scoop of a bag of whatever I find. And happily, the blood oranges are pretty easy to track down.

It seems that every season, I find a few recipes to try that call for this rosy fruit. Oddly enough, several of them are from Canal House, whose recipes I often adore! Aside from kicking up a salad or a cocktail, the blood oranges make pretty amazing orange juice. Just add a couple to your juicer for some brightly colored juice sure to brighten up your morning.

So you can imagine how happy I was to find a recipe for blood orange marmalade this weekend, just when I was looking for a project. First, I should tell you a few things about me and jam. It’s only fair…

On a whim a few years back, I took it upon myself to make a wide selection of jams and jellies. I started with the strawberries in June, didn’t miss the gooseberries, all the way through apricots, peaches and pears and stopped somewhere around the Concord grapes. And that is not an exhaustive list, I assure you. I know I went a little too wild with my preserving binge. Even my good efforts to share jam with friends and family didn’t run me out of any flavors. My sister even received a flavor pack of every jam made that season. What a good idea, right?!?

Since then, I’ve tried to hold myself back. Strawberry is a favorite flavor for my husband, so most years I’ll make a few jars of that. Then I’ll have my work cut out for me trying to remind him to make toast throughout the year! I’ve also dabbled into a few jellies, but to be honest, when we’re talking about specific temperatures to get things setting just so, it scares me a little. It shouldn’t, I know. But for that reason, I will tell you that the jelly we’re talking about today provided me with a few challenges.

I am sure everything that went wrong stemmed from a misstep on my part! But I made a couple of substitutions to make up for the fact that things did not go as planned. Basically, I did not get enough liquid out of my apples. So I made up for that by adding water for the remaining liquid and a little pectin. I am sure things will go much more smoothly for you!

As suggested on the site where I originally found the recipe, this project is best tackled on a weekend. You could do it over the course of two week nights if you were well prepared and motivated, but since that never seems to be the case for me, I’ll spell out the recipe for two days! Plus, it was a nice way to spend a grey afternoon, especially with this cheery reward at the end. Also, since this recipe will make use of both fruit and peel, consider buying organic fruit where ever possible.

Happy jam making to you!

Blood Orange Marmalade

Recipe found on Leites Culinaria

Originally from Christine Ferber’s Mes Confitures

1 3/4 pounds Granny Smith apples

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2 3/4 pounds blood oranges, or 17 ounces blood orange juice

5 2/3 cups sugar

2 navel oranges

Juice of 1 small lemon

Day One:

Wash apples well, cut into quarters, removing stem and core, but do not peel.

Place the apples in a large, wide pot and cover with 3 1/4 cups of water. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer gently for 30 minutes. The apples should be soft.

Collect the juice by straining the apple mixture into a large bowl, light pressing the apples to get any remaining juice. Discard the solids.

Filter the juice a second time by pouring it through a cheesecloth. Collect the juice in a glass jar and refrigerate the juice overnight.

Day Two:

Measure 2 1/8 cups of apple juice, leaving the sediment that formed in the container. Discard any juice and sediment that remains.

Squeeze the blood oranges, saving any seeds, until you have 2 1/8 cup of juice. Save the seeds in a cheesecloth bag.

Scrub the navel oranges and slice into thin rounds. (Based on my experience, unless you want full rounds in your finished marmalade, you might consider cutting them down to halves or quarters, depending on your preference.)

Place the sliced oranges in a large, wide pot. Add 1 cup of sugar and the remaining 7/8 cup of water and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to medium and gently simmer until the slices are translucent.

Add the reserved apple juice, blood orange juice, the remaining 4 2/3 cups of sugar, the lemon juice and the reserved blood orange seeds in the cheesecloth. Bring to a boil, stirring gently. Skim any foam from the surface. Continue cooking on high heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes. Skim again if needed. Remove the cheese cloth with the seeds. Return to a boil, then remove from heat.

Immediately ladle the jam into hot, sterilized jars and seal. This recipe filled about six pint jars for me.

Sunday morning coffee is one of my only rituals. It has morphed over time, but it is still one of the best things about waking up on Sunday morning. I still love a good coffee out at my favourite cafe but honestly, not much bets Sunday morning coffee in bed.

Coffee has been a part of my life for sometime. When I was in high school my first official job was working at a coffee shop. Then while I was in arts school I worked at a local coffee roaster. And at some point along the way, I may or may not have even been considered one of the top two baristas in the city. But, I can’t confirm that. Needless to say coffee and I go way back.

I have always been a firm believer that coffee is best enjoyed in a cafe with good company. Cafe’s have better equipment, fresher coffee and they do the dishes for you! I’m not the rush in, get my fix and rush out kind of girl. There is ritual and tradition around coffee that I totally buy into. Coffee isn’t what I need to wake me up and get going, it is in fact very much the opposite. Having a coffee affords you time to relax, reflect, catch up with friends and enjoy yourself.

This is how things shake down on sunday morning. I always make lattes, they are the most forgiving drink to make when you aren’t fancy enough to have your own plumbed in espresso machine. I do the best I can with what I have to work with.

Coffee Rules to Live By

• Always use fresh beans. I like to support the local coffee roasters.
• Use small cups. I will never ever ever make a coffee larger than 8 oz. I don’t care if that is what you want, it isn’t going to happen on my watch.
• Use proper glass wear. You will not be drinking coffee out of some old mug at my house. Espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes are always served in the appropriate cup. They just taste better that way. Be honest, was the best espresso you have ever had served in a paper cup? I rest my case.
• And finally, no sugar. Unless I’m making a fancy drink, like a lavender latte. But again, only if it is the way the drink is intended to be enjoyed.

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My preparation method is fairly strict, precession and timing are key. Once you start making your drink there is no messing around, just get it done. No one wants to drink espresso that has been sitting around for 5 minutes while you watched the new Wes Anderson Trailer. (by the way you really really should do AFTER you have made your coffee and are happily back in bed.)

Pre-prep

Before you start making drinks you need to prepare your station. The espresso machine should be clean and hot, the milk pitch and thermometer ready, clean cups set out and finally you should have decided what type of drink you are going to make. Oh, it is also good to have a clean towel handy, just in case there is a disaster.

Get cracking

First off, the portafilter should be very very hot and your milk should be cold.

• Fill up the grinder’s hooper with enough beans to make your coffee. Left overs will not produce much crema if you leave them exposed to air, so try not to over fill the hooper.
• Fill the milk pitcher with enough milk for one drink. Steaming milk for two drinks is not allowed in my house.
• Run a little hot water through the portafilter to make sure that it is clean and hot. Dry the portafilter with the clean towel, fill with freshly ground coffee. I grind right into my portafilter. Pack, level and tamp. Then get that baby back into the grouphead and start pouring your espresso. And no you can’t take a break yet, speed is of the essence at this point!
• Now for the milk. Milk should be silky smooth, like a satin sheet, not frothy and foamy with big air bubbles. You are looking for micro bubbles here. Inject steam into the milk until it reaches 140 degrees, if you go any hotter you will start to burn the sugars in the milk and thus loose the milks natural sweetness.
• Once the milk is hot give it a couple of swirls to work out any bubbles and pour!

(my pouring skill have gotten a little weak over the years!)

Now for the good part, grab your coffee, your ipad and head back to bed. If you have been smart, you will have made your coffee in a double walled glass cup and you have just shy of a hour’s worth of hot coffee in your hand. So make the most of it.

For me, January and February can be a little dull. Christmas is over, as are visits with friends and family. It’s actually one of the best times to make plans with those near and dear to you. And if there’s a project or special recipe you’ve been sitting on, this is the time to pull it out.

Before Christmas, I started to stockpile things. The idea began to form after conversations with my friend Mindy who says she saves all of her January magazines to look through after Christmas. It’s amazing how many of those publications managed to show up before the holiday break, but I stashed them away without a single glance for a future grey day. Along with my magazines, I saved a new cookbook, a pair of cozy socks and a special tin of tea. I also planted a small selection of bulbs, both paper whites and an amaryllis. As it turns out, January is not nearly as grey as I thought it might be.

So, with no further ado, here are some of the things I’m looking forward to in the remaining grey days of winter:

• Cooking my way through this, this and that, amazing cookbooks all.
• Planning my garden – the dahlia and seed catalogues are arriving fast and furious! I am also toying with the idea of ordering a Meyer lemon tree. I probably should just make plans for a greenhouse while I am at it.
• Developing my film from Paris. I have 12 rolls of medium format film, just waiting to be developed!
• A little more food focus for my creative energy. We’re working on a new food project this winter and I’m looking forward to sharing how it all comes together.
• There is no better time to curl up with a good book and I can’t wait to dig into the pile of good reads accumulating by my bed. I just have to get through my current book. I’m looking forward to reading this and this, just to name a few.
• Persimmons and citrus – for everything there is a season, right? I have a few last hoarded persimmons, but I’m making way for some great citrus and related cooking tangents!
• On new year’s eve, I shredded 14 pounds of cabbage and now I have four jars of beautiful cabbage fermenting in my pantry. And if the sauerkraut is not something to look forward to, then I don’t know what to tell you!

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Happy January, friends.