Beet Green, Beet, Leek and Walnut Salad

Ingredients
- 1 bunch beet greens (or fresh kale)
- 4 medium beets
- 1 leek
- spring mix lettuce, bite size

- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- salt and pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Beets - peel, cut into bite sized pieces, microwave in bowl covered with saran wrap for 15 minutes
2. Leek - chop, wash, blanche for 30 seconds
3. Beet greens - discard stems, chop and wilt in saute pan (if using fresh kale can use raw)
4. Dressing - combine ingredients and let sit for at least 10 minutes
5. Dress beets and greens separately. Combine.

New Favourite Pizza Dough

Ingredients
- 4 cups white flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp traditional yeast
- 1 tsp salt
-  1/4 + 1 1/4 cups warm water (100F)
- 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions
1. Bloom yeast in 1/4 cup water and sugar, let stand for 10 minutes until bubbles appear
2. Combine flour and salt in a stand mixer. Add yeast, water and oil while mixer is running until dough forms ball.
3. Remove dough and knead into a ball
4. Grease bowl with oil and let dough rise for 1 hour in warm spot (i.e. oven with bowl of hot water)
5. Punch down dough and divide into 4 balls

Almost But Not Quite Ranch (and good for you) Dressing

- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 2 1/2 tbsp tahini
- lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
- 1 minced clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp dill
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp cumin

Ingredients
1. mix all ingredients together.

Six-layer Black Forest Cake

Six-layer Black Forest Cake

(They were very small layers)

Matcha Raspberry Mousse Cake

Kristal's birthday cake this year:

 Two layers of raspberry sponge, a layer of matcha mousse, and a layer of white-chocolate and raspberry swirled mousse.

Hogwarts-inspired Gingerbread Castle 2013

This year we made a Hogwarts-inspired gingerbread castle (inspired by the book, not the movies, since trying to bake as many cylindrical pieces of gingerbread as would be required to copy the movie Hogwarts was intimidating).

The recipe for the gingerbread was a Dorie Greenspan recipe, taken from NPR (here); it made a lot of dough, enough to make the entire castle (minus towers) with a single batch. We used melted sugar instead of royal icing to connect the pieces, however. Those amber spheres on the pointed roof are leftover melted sugar, rolled by hand into a ball. The towers are Rice Krispie treat, painted with chocolate. The stained glass windows (the colours are hard to see in the picture) are melted jolly ranchers. The Christmas lights strung along the towers and the front parapet are leftover jolly ranchers, melted and then rolled into shape. The other windows are Werthers Chewy Caramels, but that wasn't a great idea since they loose their shape after a couple of days. The clock was a cinnamon sugar cookie, covered with fondant and painted with edible paint. Hedwig was also made of fondant, and painted with edible paint.

Fish paste stuffed lotus root

Ingredients

Lotus root

Fish paste

Chinese salted ham 

Cilantro

White pepper

Salt

1. Mince chinese salted ham, chop cilantro and mix into fish paste with white pepper to taste.

2. Slice lotus root very thin (butterfly if possible), and sandwich fish paste mix between two slices.

3. Dust with corn starch.

4. Shallow fry or pan fry.

5. Salt as then come out of the pan.

Enjoy !