My absolute FAVOURITE thing in the whole world is giving other people presents. One of the few things I am really good at is figuring out what to give other people. And so, it’s no surprise that Christmas is my favourite holiday.

I NEVER do my Christmas shopping early. I am a very impatient person and having to wait to see the look on people’s faces when they open your presents is just excruciating. So, I generally do my shopping the weekend before or a few days before Christmas. As of tonight, I will be COMPLETELY finished my Christmas shopping (I thought I finished on the weekend but it looks like there is one more thing to get), and so begins the long, long 3 day wait till Christmas morning.

Believe it or not, I actually feel very uncomfortable when people give me presents, and that is why I have instituted a “no presents” rule at every birthday party. I’ve asked Allan and others not to worry about buying my presents this year to save money, and I’ve personally toned down my shopping this year as well to lighten the load on the credit cards.

Nevertheless, in the world of blogging… we get to make fun, fanciful wish lists… and so I present to you my fantasy Christmas list to Santa!

Dear Santa… I would love:

…  a Glidecam HD-2000, to shoot floaty HD footage with my Nikon D90 and not have to worry about camera shake… oh the world of possibilities it would open up…

… hockey and Canadian-themed Lululemon shirts …

… Panasonic SD cold-resistant memory cards since I’m constantly full when shooting my videos and photos …

… a Le Creuset cast iron frying pan to add to our collection ….

… a Cuisinart commercial ice cream and sorbet maker …

… a little Valentino if you have any in your sleigh …

… a fun gun for those big days in Cox Bay …

… tickets to the ice hockey game of the century … (Photo Credit: cbc.ca)

… and of course, a wonderful Christmas with my amazing family.

What would your Wish List look like this year?

Yesterday was the Survivor finale… Allan and I had been looking forward to this for a long time. In celebration, I thought it would be a good idea to make a nice dinner to eat while watching the show. (Don’t even get me started on how the Survivor finale turned out. I’m still upset this morning.)

I had been planning to make bread pudding since I tried it for the first time in Kicking Horse. And I thought I’d try to modify my normal risotto recipe but with some new ingredients… since it had been a while since I made risotto (one of my very favourite foods). I will say this in advance: I made a critical error with my selection of saffron. If you try this recipe at home, please read the note about saffron carefully.

A couple people asked for the recipes on Facebook and Twitter, so I’ve made sure to include them inline this time. Apologies for not putting up the recipes on the five-course meal yet. This weekend turned out a little crazier than expected! I’ll try my best to get them up soon.

I am very, very picky about my risotto and spices so I’ve ordered some special risotto and saffron that will arrive this week. I am very much looking forward to posting about it, so I am going to have a more detailed “beginner’s guide” on how to make perfect risotto then. The instructions below are brief.

TOMATO BASIL SAFFRON RISOTTO RECIPE (makes enough for 4 servings… perfect for two people with some leftovers)

1 3/4 cups Carnaroli risotto rice (good quality)
One full box of cherry tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed with a knife or ground
2 large shallots
4 cups chicken stock
4 Tablespoons of salted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon good quality saffron. Unfortunately I accidentally bought American saffron, which is not actually saffron. Don’t make the mistake I did… read the label carefully and make sure you are buying REAL saffron stigmas from Spain or Italy. Unfortunately the cheap saffron does not have very strong taste or colour.
1/5 cup of dry Italian white wine (we like Masi)
4-5 large Basil leaves, chopped
Grated parmesan (approx 2-4 Tablespoons depending on your preference)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse off the tomatoes and flash boil them in a pot for 30 seconds to loosen the skins. Then skin, seed and slice the tomatoes in half. Mix the fennel in with the tomatoes in a bowl.

2. Heat the chicken stock on the stove until it is hot to the touch but not boiling. Meanwhile, dice the shallots.

3. Melt the olive oil and 2 Tablespoons of the butter in a large saucepan. Add the shallots and cook 3-4 minutes.

4. Add the risotto rice to the pan and sauté about 2-3 minutes. Add the saffron, stir, and then add the wine and cook till absorbed.

5. Keep adding the stock in small amounts until completely absorbed. Use up the rest of the broth and then add the tomatoes.

6. When all the stock is gone and the risotto is creamy, add the parmesan, rest of the butter and the basil just before serving.

STICKY TOFFEE CHOCOLATE BRIOCHE BREAD PUDDING RECIPE

The trick, is to start out with a really nice caramel sauce since it forms a lot of the base for the flavour of the bread pudding, plus you use it to drizzle all over at the end as well. Start out by making the caramel sauce as it will thicken while you are making the bread pudding later.

Vanilla-Bourbon Caramel Sauce:
2 cups sugar (granulated)
1/2 cup purified water
2 cups whipping cream
3/4 stick of butter (unsalted)
1 whole vanilla bean (we like the Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of high quality Bourbon (we like Woodford Reserve)

1. Heat sugar and water in a pot on high heat.

2. Split the vanilla bean in half (long way) and gently scrape out the beans into the sugar water. I also like to add the rest of the bean halves into the water as well for flavour. Bring the mixture to a boil and make sure to keep whisking to keep it from sticking to the sides.

3. You’ll see the mixture start to brown and turn a dark caramel colour…remove from heat when it is dark, but be careful not to burn the mixture. Quickly whisk in the whipping cream, butter and the salt and make sure you get all the lumps out with the whisk.

4. Put the pot back on the burner and cook for 10 more minutes or so on low to medium heat until the mixture gets creamy. Turn off the burner and whisk in the bourbon. Let the mixture sit while you make the bread pudding and whisk every once in a while. The mixture should get nice and thick! Enjoy the delicious smell of the vanilla bourbon caramel

Sticky English Toffee Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding Recipe:
1 loaf of regular brioche or brioche with raisins
1 1/2 cups of English toffee broken into chunks (Skor Bars work well in a pinch, but real English toffee is better)
About 12 oz of good bittersweet dark chocolate (70% or so)… Valhrona is nice but other good quality chocolate is great too
2 1/2 cups of whipping cream
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar (granulated)
6 egg yolks
2 eggs
1/2 cup of the caramel sauce above

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut the brioche into cubes, making sure to remove the crust. Set aside with the toffee pieces mixed in.

3. Chop the bittersweet chocolate a bit and then put into a large bowl. Set aside.

4. Bring 1 1/4 cups of whipping cream to a boil and pour over the bowl of bittersweet chocolate to form your chocolate ganache. Whisk until the chocolate sauce is nice and creamy and smooth. Set aside.

5. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks together. Set aside.

6. Combine milk, sugar and the rest of the cream in a saucepan and bring it just to a boil. Carefully whisky into the egg mixture until smooth… make sure to constantly whisk while you are adding them together otherwise the eggs will cook.

7. Use a fine strainer and strain the egg mixture into the chocolate sauce, whisking constantly. When it is completely blended, pour over the brioche and the toffee pieces. Add the caramel sauce and mix very gently, careful to not squash the bread pieces. Set aside for an hour… the mixture will soak into the bread!

8. Butter a baking pan and place into the fridge. After 1 hour, pour the mixture into the pan and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until done.

9. Cut into pieces and serve with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzle the caramel sauce generously!

I really love cooking from scratch… everything tastes so much better when you make everything yourself. Allan’s mom and her husband were coming over from Vancouver Island to meet my parents… and Allan and I decided to create a fancy five-course meal to serve them. As if it wasn’t pressure enough just to have the two parents meet!

I think the best way to tackle this post with the sheer number of photos is to put all the prep photos first and leave the five “finished” photos for the end I will post the recipes later tonight in the Comments section. So, here we go!

The key to cooking a multi-course meal, in my opinion, is all about the prep work. Making sure you double-check your ingredients, making sure you prep anything the night before that can be prepped… and having as much pre-portioned and pre-chopped up the day of the meal before you start cooking. You don’t really want anything sitting there getting cold… you want to serve it fresh right off the stove onto the plate as you go. I decided to prepare the chocolate creme brulée the night before.

The first step was making the chocolate decoration… and tempering chocolate with a candy thermometer. This is the temperature chart I followed… it’s a bit tricky but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly easy. You have to raise the chocolate to a high temperature, cool it with an ice bath, and heat again to a medium temperature… then your chocolate is tempered and easy to work with!

My pantry was definitely overstuffed with supplies.

The creme brulée was cooked and then cooled overnight. The next morning I woke up and simmered the apricots for several hours (for the puree) and Allan and I candied the walnuts for the first course.

The next step was to start preparing the soup… peeling, cutting, and weighing the butternut squash. Then sautéeing them in shallots and butter, cooking with chicken stock, and then adding spices. The soup also had to be blended, strained, blended again, and then served. Served with freshly grated nutmeg!

While this was happening, we started making the chicken mousse in the food processor (note.. having an electronic scale is a life saver!). I cooked up several pounds of Pacific Wild Dungeness crab fresh from Granville Island here in Vancouver in white wine, butter and other spices… which was then added with a little bit of chicken mousse, parmesan, and chives to make the crab filling for the ravioli.

Allan made the fresh pasta while I cut the rounds for the ravioli and added the stuffing, and sealed the edges.

Meanwhile… getting the clam chowder ready by prepping the veggies, potatoes and leeks… and cooking the clams in white wine and fish stock.

I really loved the clams we got from Granville Island… very similar to littleneck clams but sweeter. Then I made a roux for the clam chowder and waited while it thickened up and cooked the veggies. (Note… make sure to add the clams just before serving, you don’t want them to get tough).

Next was making the prosciutto-wrapped halibut.

We wrapped the very thinly sliced prosciutto around the halibut and sealed it in with a sage leaf for aroma and flavour. The halibut needed to be seared before being baked in the oven.

The last thing to worry about was the dessert of course.. in the interest of time I bought a few little sweets to go with the creme brulée. I got some marshmallows from Vancouver-based Butter Baked Goods… and rolled the vanilla marshmallows in candy cane pieces and the coffee marshmallows in a chocolate-sugar mix. I used little Christmas plates and also attached chocolate-covered marshmallows onto stainless steel skewers. The last step before serving was to torch the chocolate creme brulée.

We set up my dad’s old work table in the middle of our living room and stole my mom’s linens to make a Christmas spread. It was a little hokey but hey, we made do As for the parents meeting the parents… well we think it went rather well! This is a photo of Allan’s mom and husband Terry sitting at the table talking to my folks. Both sets of parents seemed to get along well and both had good things to say after. We kept them busy with the food

And last but not least… the photos of the finished meal!

ALLIE AND ALLAN’S FIVE-COURSE CHRISTMAS MEAL FOR OUR PARENTS

Course One: Seared Qualicum Bay Scallops with Apricot Puree and Candied Walnuts

Course Two: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup topped with Pumpkin Seeds, Chives, Parmesan, Freshly Grated Nutmeg, and Pumpkin Seed Oil

Course Three: Dungeness Crab-Stuffed Ravioli topped with a Maple-Candied Dungeness Crab Leg, in a Mushroom-Parmesan Sauce… served with Seared Beef Tenderloin in a Balsamic Vinegar-Shallot Marinade

Course Four: Prosciutto-Wrapped Halibut with Clam Chowder

Course Five: Chocolate Creme Brulée topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Chocolate Decoration, with Raspberries in a Mango Coulis served with assorted sweets (Coffee and Vanilla Marshmallows, Chocolate-Covered Marshmallow, Peppermint Bark)

Phew!

This is the third and final photo post… you may want to check out Part One and Part Two of my blog post series on Kicking Horse, Golden BC, and the surrounding areas. The fabulous HD movie of the trip is of course still coming!

We really felt like we were part of a mountain community in Golden. The town is completely nestled in the hills, and they have spectacular views just about every day. Allan and I were pretty much seething with jealousy the entire time we were there. Talk about a sight to wake up to!

We spent our last day there exploring around and found several of these frozen over waterfalls…

We also explored under the river and the bridge until our fingers pretty much froze off…

… and noticed that there were just mountain goats and other wildlife wandering around in broad daylight…

… or they would just hang out in people’s yards at night. We saw this deer family hop over people’s fences, hang out on their lawns for a while, and do a little tour of the neighbourhood. It was awesome.

Our last night we stayed at Copper Horse Lodge, which right in Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, just a 2 minute walk from the gondola. Pretty sweet location! They also have a fine dining restaurant called “Corks” which we ate at a couple times. They have a Twitter account as well.

The Lodge has only 10 rooms, so it really is a boutique hotel. I managed to chat with the owner for a few minutes while I was there and he mentioned that they don’t want to expand at all because they care a lot about giving personal attention to guests. Again, I felt an extreme sense of wanting to open my own B&B or hotel in a mountain resort. Argh. Why am I working in video games again?

Nothing like relaxing in a hot tub after a day of snowboarding.

Again, I was really impressed with our choice of accommodations here in Golden! We really lucked out… everywhere we stayed was awesome, and the people were so friendly. It kind of reminded me of Whistler 10 years ago.

Anyway, our room was HUGE! King bed, couch area, flat screen TV, and lots of places to throw our gear everywhere. The place literally looked like a train wreck after we were done spreading out all our snowboard gear to dry. The big bathroom was a bonus too… mmmmmm jetted tub.

We hiked around the area to shoot some little snowboarding videos. I can’t wait to edit it all together.

After snowboarding we headed to the Local Hero Pub. It’s obvious to me that Golden is awesome. Where else do you have JENGA in the middle of a BAR? Haha!

We met up with our newfound friends, Mike (our guide from Canadian Powder Adventures) and Steve (from Tourism Golden… he helped us find places to rent our backcountry gear). Many tequila and whiskey shots were had…

Then it was off to Corks Restaurant (part of Copper Horse Lodge) for our last dinner in town. They had some really nice drinks and appies… we ordered several cocktails, had a mango shrimp appetizer, shared a carrot ginger coconut soup, and some different types of flatbread. Oh, and I snuck a little photo of the chocolate torte we had for dessert in here.

Yes, we eat a lot. Well, Allan does. We also had to have pizza since pizza is a must after snowboarding. I noticed a LOT of locals were coming into the restaurant and getting pizza and beer as well.

The mains were really the best part though. Allan ordered the lamb which had an orange glaze and a spicy mint sauce… such a nice combination.

I had the tilapia with the seafood and tomato saffron risotto. I LOVE risotto and this one was especially good… saffron is my weakness. The chef, Kalon is from Australia and you can definitely tell where some of his influences are from!

Why are my posts always about food? *sigh* I guess we just like to eat. Well, in the morning we woke up and had amazing eggs benedict served at Corks Restaurant by the couple who manages the place. Such nice people! Relocated from Vancouver… hmmmm… argh!

So alas, we had to say goodbye to beautiful powdery Golden, BC… till next time! We will most definitely be back.

It sure is starting to look like Christmas here in Vancouver with a beautiful dusting of snow on the ground already. Like many of you, Christmas is my favourite holiday and it’s no secret that I love winter (although Fall is still my favourite season).

I’m so incredibly backed up on blog posts that I thought I’d give you a little mini preview of what is coming down the pipes on my blog this holiday season, complete with some seasonal photos!

VANCITYALLIE.COM HOLIDAY SEASON 2009 BLOG POST PREVIEW:

Many cooking and baking related blog posts (Christmas cookies hello!), especially as we get closer and closer to Christmas… including *gasp* a fateful attempt at making homemade croissants…

Winter wonderland photos of Vancouver and around our beautiful province…

A gear and gift guide for snowboarding just in time for last minute Christmas shopping… plus lots of snowboarding posts including our upcoming Sun Peaks and Mount Washington trips.

Family, friends, parties for Christmas and New Year’s related posts…

How Allan and I attempted making a 5-course fine dining meal for both our sets of parents when they met for the very first time…

And of course, our last blog post to highlight our time in Kicking Horse and Golden… plus the HD video of the trip!

Hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for Christmas and the holiday season! I know I am!