cucumber, an urban fairy tale

I made up a story for the kids last week, on our walk home from a birthday party.
Like all kids, they love made up stories about themselves, their friends, their environment and things they know. Here's a slightly different version of CUCUMBER: An Urban Fairy Tale.




Once upon a time, actually, just last month
there lived a five and three quarter year old boy named Sebastian who only ate cucumbers.

For breakfast he'd make cucumber, milk and water smoothies,
while his little sister preferred berries and bananas in hers.

For his afternoon snack, he'd politely ask his mom for cucumber coins,
while his little sister preferred fresh baked muffins and mangoes.

One Friday afternoon he received an invite to his friend's 6th birthday party.
The party was on August 7, from 10:30am to 1pm. Although he didn't like to eat cake, Sebastian could not wait to see Sunil's cake.

The party plans included playing at the wading pool, lunch, then playing at the park.
When it came time for lunch, there were no cucumbers in sight, only baby carrots, watermelon and sandwiches.

Sebastian had never eaten a sandwich before, but after playing in the hot summer sun with his friends, he was very hungry. So without a fuss, he picked up a sandwich just like all the other kids had. He closed his eyes, took a small bite of the crust, chewed quickly and swallowed. He heard a small voice coming from his belly that said 'that was great, can I please have some more'. So he took a bigger bite, chewed less quickly, swallowed, and then a huge, enormous, gigantic, uncontrollable smile spread across his face. He had no idea what the sandwich was made of, all he knew was that he
wanted more of the delicious new taste.

He politely asked Sunil's father is he could have another, and the answer was 'Absolutely! We've got a cooler full of lettuce sandwiches, eat as many as you like'!

And you know what, Sebastian did just that. He ate a total of 6 lettuce sandwiches, one for every year of his life.

Later that afternoon, his mother asked him to pick a cucumber from their yard, but instead of a cucumber he came back with a red pepper. THE END.

smoothie recipe: fushia!

The kids have been making breakfast smoothies all summer long. I love to watch their excitement as they tear apart bananas, dump frozen and fresh handfulls of fruit into the glass blender jar, take turns pouring milk, juice, maple syrup and their liquid vitamin into the mix. They also get a huge kick out of the varying shades of red that their delicious drink turns into.

Smoothies are fantastic because there is so much room to experiment!

This morning they both agreed that the smoothie was 'fushia'; not only is a fushia coloured smoothie gorgeous to look at, it's yummy to boot. Here's the recipe:


3 bananas
drizzle of black cherry concentrate (approx 1 tsp)
handful of frozen berries (approx 1-2 cups)
drizzle of maple syrup (approx 1 tsp)
drizzle of kids liquid vitamin (approx 2 tsp)
splash of vanilla almond milk
1 cup water
1 cup of yogurt

dump everything into the blender jar
we blend on low (because our blender is noisy) - we tend to like to let the blender whir 'round and 'round for about 3 minutes
pour into large clear glasses and enjoy!

grilled veggie fajitas

pictured above: grilled halloumi & asparagus & green/yellow zucchini drizzled w/garlic tahini marinade


It's been very hot here in Toronto, too hot to turn on any inside elements. Our meals are either huge bowls of salad, or BBQ something or other, or my favourite: leftovers stuffed into a tortilla.

If you invest about 30 mins washing, slicing, marinading some veggies, about 15 mins grilling (or more time depending on how many veggies you have), then you'll have a weeks worth of delicious, nutritious meals.

GRILLED VEGGIE & HALLOUMI FAJITAS

3 yellow zucchini
3 green zucchini
2 bunches of asparagus
2 pkg halloumi

prepping veggies:

wash zucchini, chop off ends, and then slice lengthwise in 1/4 inch slices (you should get about 5 slices)

wash asparagus, do not chop or cut, simply hold it by the spear and the base and arch in half, asparagus will snap where it needs to on its own

rinse halloumi, slice up lengthwise in into about 5 slices, depending on size of your block

marinade: (try to prepare first thing in the morning so that marinade flavours marry)

12 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
couple splashes of tamari
3 cloves of garlic crushed
dash of cayenne pepper
couple of pinches of brown sugar
sea salt (not much since tamari is already salty, and halloumi is saltyish)
cracked black pepper to taste


when you are hungry:

fire up bbq for about 20 minutes

place all veggies in a large glass or metal lasagna dish; pour marinade over veggies, using tongs make sure everything gets some marinade on it, let sit for 20 minutes (while bbq heats up)

after 20 minutes, dump veggie & halloumi salad into a grill pan (make sure to place it ontop of a spill proof pan w/edges so that marinade doesn't spill everywhere)

place on bbq, cook veggies on medium heat, unlike meat, veggies need more TLC so every couple of minutes toss mixture around w/tongs otherwise they will burn and halloumi will melt through the slots on your pan

once asparagus is as tender as you like, remove from heat

lastly, stuff veggie & halloumi mixture into a tortilla, add a couple slices of avocado and enjoy

next day you will have one of the best lunches of your life

TGIP Thank gawd it's Pie Day!

Photo credits: Susana Molinolo, please don't steal my images, if you want to 'borrow' I'm happy to share, email me and then we can be friends: susana@gahan.ws




FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:

my first slice of The Pie Shack's blueberry pie (Tim said that he thought it was a good breakfast choice); interior decor is dreamy, gorgeous, and most importantly mostly made by hand with driftfood etc. from The Beach(es) - plus they play awesome tunes, not too loud; every home in the Beach(es) should be lit by one of these beauties - ask Tim or Daniel for the local artist's card; Tim McConey; Daniel Jemes - like I said on twitter, these guys will receive an Order of Canada for their customer service. You walk into to The Pie Shack and it feels like you've arrived at a fantastic party. Seriously, Tim and Daniel will introduce themselves to you and you to everyone there - so if you are antisocial or have 'trouble' talking with strangers or are looking for a place to be an ipod/cell phone/laptop zombie then go somewhere else.


The Pie Shack
'Keep your fork dude, there's pie'!
Tim McConvey - Daniel James
2305 Queen St. E. - East Queen East across from Glen Stewart Ravine
647-351-1411
URL
Follow them on Twitter - you don't want to miss the pie party...

Steamy Survivor Meal

Deliciously-fast-all organic-recipe available upon comment love. xo

Feet for the stockings

This morning I handed my son a box of Gummi Feet - for the gingerbread house decorating party at this preschool. He howled with laughter. The thought of edible feet was just amazing! The entire 1 km walk to school he pondered which of his friends would think it was funnier. He was *SO* amused he didn't ask to eat one!

So if there's a 3 yr old in your life who you want to see giggle with delight on Christmas Day, stuff her/his stocking with these feet.


PS they're organic, dye free, gelatin free, and vegan -- and delicous too!!.

PSST! Santa, if you're reading this, my personal favourite of the Let's Do...Organic line are the Jelly Gummi Bears.