Les p'tits biscuits à l'érable

 Les trésors qu'on retrouve parfois dans les armoires... Il y a quelques jours, nous avons trouvé un paquet de petits biscuits à l'érable que l'on avait oublié, un souvenir de notre dernier séjour au Québec. On est passé au travers dans le temps de le dire.

A box for afternoon tea

 Because I performed very well at work recently, I won a freebie from my employers. I had the choice of many things, I chose this box from SweetiePost. I barely hesitated. It has everything for the whole family: tea biscuits of all sorts, chocolate, even a flapjack. Oh, and tea of course. And a 15% discount on a future purchase, which I may or may not use. But all the same, I'm set for my next afternoon tea.

Jammie Dodgers Cake

Some of readers may know Jammie Dodgers, a biscuit that is a British staple. The Brits love Jammie Dodgers, it's almost a cake made into a biscuit, what with its jam and cream sandwiched between two biscuits. They are unsuprisingly quite addictive. We seldom buy them, I don't want to be more of a sugar junkie that I already am. That said, we found out in one of our local cafés, among their selection of desserts a Jammie Dodger cake. Wolfie chose it as his dessert and I thought I would try it to. We had to try it. It is as good or as bad as you would expect it to be. I think it is even better as a cake.

Question existentielle (356)

On y va avec une nouvelle question gastronomique:

-Comment ça se fait que des biscuits trempés dans du lait, c'est bon autant que ça?

De la pâte à biscuits en dessert (pour PS)

Bon, je ne veux pas faire que des billets de food porn, mais j'ai pensé que ma guerre de photos de food porn avec Prof Solitaire méritait une nouvelle salve. Et j'y suis allé fort avec celle-ci: c'est de la pâte à biscuits au chocolat encore chaude et pas complètement cuite avec de la crème glacée dessus. Le dessert que ma femme a mangé dans je ne sais plus quel pub/restaurant à York (moi, le dessert que j'ai pris, je le réserve pour un autre billet). L'endroit manquait de cachet, c'était un gastropub bruyant, mais la bouffe et les desserts étaient irréprochables. Dans tous les cas, c'est dur à battre comme décadence gastronomique. Une pure orgie de sucre dans une assiette.

Des viennoiseries pour déjeuner

Cette photo a été prise dans un pub un dimanche, elle a peu assez peu à voir avec le sujet de mon billet, mais bref, je cherchais une photo pour aller avec et puis elle est assez jolie. Ma famme a pris ça après un repas au pub en guise dessert: un café (mocha ou cappucino) et avec le biscuit qui est plus une brioche qui va avec. Ca ressemble assez à ce que je mange pour déjeuner chaque matin quand je suis au travail: une viennoiserie (brioche, biscuit, croissant ou gâteau). Sauf que je ne bois pas de café. Je ne suis pas vraiment du genre à manger du sucré pour déjeuner, sauf parfois des croissants quand j'ai le goût d'en manger, mais depuis que je travaille là où je travaille je ne fais plus dans le déjeuner fort en protéïnes quand ce n'est pas la fin de semaine. Ce n'est pas exactement santé, surtout que je le mange en travaillant, mais j'ai besoin de l'endorphine pour passer au travers de ma journée et puis le sucre de la viennoiserie ça me donne un boost d'énergie quand j'en ai le plus besoin. Je me fais des petits déjeuners continentaux donc, sauf pour le café, parce qu'il n'est bon qu'en Italie. Morale de l'histoire: y'en a pas.

The beaver's diet again

Remember the beaver's diet I mentioned in January? Twice, actually. It struck me today: I have it again, I mean I crave sugar more than usual during daytime, so much so that I need to control myself. It happened inconspicuously: first it was someone's birthday and he had brought donuts, biscuits and other sweets. I had brought my own breakfast, but of course I had to eat some of course, I mean to be polite. Then today a new colleague, from Germany, came with chocolate cookies and other biscuits and some more desserts, I think I saw some rocky roads. She sent an email, saying it is a tradition in Germany for newcomers in a working place to offer food to everyone. That is one hell of a way to be accepted and appreciated by your peers! The chocolate cookies were delicious. I had them for breakfast with plenty of tea. Everything high in sugar tastes better with tea.

I always have sugaree breakfasts on a working day, but now I am in pure beaver's diet mode. I wonder why, I mean why I crave sugar that much. I think it might be the need to stay awake and alert. Or maybe it is getting colder outside. In any case, I crave it. I think I can keep my waistline under control, if I cut on crisps and I walk a lot, which I do. But I need to remain vigilante. Because a beaver's diet is a very tempting one, but I do not have a beaver's metabolism.

Galettes aux bananes

Ceci est un court billet de fin de soirée. Catégorie: les trésors que l'on trouve sur Dropbox. En fouillant donc dans ladite Dropbox, j'ai trouvé la recette des galettes aux bananes sur lesquelles j'avais blogué en anglais ici. Ce qui est une découverte heureuse. Je ne sais pas si je vais vaincre ma paresse habituelle pour m'essayer à en faire, mais je c'est rassurant d'avoir la recette. Je vais peut-être me commettre à la faire un de ces quatre.

Craving banana cookies

I discovered, at total random, that among many recipes my dad shared with us via Dropbox (where I now get more and more of my pictures for this blog), there was also a number of pictures of things he baked over the years. I mean a massive load of pictures. Many of me or my brothers as children too. So soon I think this blog will be covered with many more pictures of my past. And pictures of food (although I will try to avoid turning this blog into a food blog).

So anyway, tonight my attention went onto this picture. They are banana cookies, or "galettes aux bananes" as we call them. Recipe from the mother of my oldest childhood friend. it tastes more like banana bread than cookies, really, like all "galettes" in Quebec they are reall small cakes. They are delicious. Looking at the picture, I could feel the taste in my mouth. I cannot remember when I last had them. I usually crave molasse cookies, or those with raisins we had, or the one with the maple syrup icing. I haven't seen pictures of these ones yet. But some banana cookies would be great comfort food tonight.

Fighting the Scrooge spirit

I will not be home for Christmas, there will be no snow (it will even be hot), I barely have holiday to speak of, so I am tempted, for maybe the first time of my life, to feel like Scrooge at Christmas. The one before the three ghosts show up. I guess job wise I am a bit more like Bob Cratchit, but I still feel bitter like Scrooge these days, and this bitterness can easily overcome me and make me grumpy. I am not liking this Christmas season as much as others. So I try to fight the foul mood. I listen to Christmas music, try to sing some a bit too, I made cranberry sauce,I eat clementines,  I try to do those simple things. I didn't risking making a yule log, but I bought one from a local bakery. Not to force the season on me, but to keep it alive.

Simple things make me happy. I had my sandwich treat today instead of tomorrow... because tomorrow I might go home early. So instead of a Friday treat, it was a Thursday treat. I played safe this time (unlike last week): a smoked salmon baguette. And I had an unexpected treat for dessert: a colleague, half Italian, had made biscotti. I cannot remember the exact Italian name, but it had nuts (hazelnuts) and some spices, I think ginger and a hint of cinnamon. It tasted like Christmas I thought, albeit I don't know much about Italian Christmases. Maybe the spice, very much like the one I taste in mulled wine and Christmas pudding, made me think that. In any case, it got me in a better mood.

Late snack

Well, my readers might be happy to know that I survived the shopping trip today. I am almost sane again. That said, it left me tired and wanting to stay away from that falling/fallen civilisation that is the shopping center (I do have the feeling of venturing into Sodom and Gomorrah every time). But buying new jeans made me notice something: I am quite skinny. So to treat myself after this tiring Saturday and to be sure I will not melt into oblivion, I am having milk and biscuits. I think I deserve a Saturday night treat, after such a long afternoon.

Question existentielle (81)

J'ai une fringale, alors je m'apprête à manger des biscuits avec du lait. J'espère que ça ne me rendra pas insomniaque. Cela dit, je me pose maintenant une question existentielle:

-Quelle est la meilleure collation quand on a une fringale un samedi soir?

A crisp autumn day

A short post tonight. I might sound like a broken record. Not might, actually, I do sound like a broken record. But today was a perfect autumn day. It was sunny, it was just chilly enough, it was windy enough. And the light! Oh the light was simply beautiful. Autumn light always is, in morning or evening. It is a soothing light. Going to work, I was longing for staying outside, just walking around. I am in the mood for tea and biscuits, or hearty food after a long walk in the crisp autumn air. I hope we have this weather over the weekend.

Seasonal food

I don't know exactly why, but these days I discover myself quite hungry for home-made cookies. I settle for the oatmeal and blueberry cookies and the muesli cookies of Marks & Spencer, they are healthy and surprisingly delicious. They are my desserts these days. My craving for cookies started in Vancouver, where I had for breakfast a pumpkin seed and cranberry cookie almost every morning. I think they just fit the current season. It is still a bit warm, but the wind blows a lot and the evenings can be quite cool. But more importantly it has started looking like autumn, so my stomach follows my mood. I crave tea and cookies, apple crumbles, hearty meals and thick soups. I also bought yesterday lots of fruits. It's harvest time after all.

Un peu de nostalgie culinaire

Comme je n'ai plus de beurre d'arachide, je dois calmer mon mal du pays autrement. J'ai donc acheté hier deux boîtes de biscuits Ritz (deux pour un chez Sainsbury's). C'est d'un quétaine absolu, mais les biscuits Ritz ont une valeur nostalgique: avant d'avoir des goûts plus évolués (et dispendieux), on faisait des Ritz (Ritzs?) nos canapés: Ritz avec Cheez Whiz et cornichon, ou Ritz avec Cheez Whiz et olive. Maintenant je préfère la mousse de saumon (je suis devenu un peu plus snob malgré moi), mais il m'arrive d'avoir envie de ces horreurs culinaires qui goûtaient le jaune orange salé: les canapés mentionnés plus haut, les croque-monsieurs made in Québec (du pain carré blanc grillé, avec Velveeta fondu et morceau de bacon, non mais on ne peut pas battre ça), omelette au Velveeta, macaroni au "fromage" Velveeta, craquelins avec sardine et mayonnaise ou ketchup. Notez que Kraft a fait un tort immense à la culture fromagère, mais qu'on ne peut rien leur reprocher en ce qui concerne le beurre d'arachide.