Creativity in Taste...

I am sitting in a home that is not my own, having finally convinced my niece and nephew to settle down and go to sleep. Today, I wrestled with DVDs and TVs that were not familiar to me, European washing machines to help with laundry and ovens to try to bake cookies with nephew. Everything feels slightly different and yet the same.

What defines the familiar in sensations, sights and tastes that make us say “HOME”? Is it the smell of a favourite recipe baking that takes us back to our childhood, the feel of a certain pillow, blanket or toy, the sight of certain stars to anchor us in space?


Tonight is both a celebration and a shout-out to one person’s creativity as I sip a glass of my favourite wine in the world... one that can only be purchased in Provence near where my brother and sister-in-law have a house and from where they were able to buy bottles to keep here in Geneva.


“à mon père” (accents probably disappeared) means “To My Father” in French. This full-bodied red wine is produced in the Cotes du Ventoux region of France by a son who took over his father’s vineyards and began experimenting with artisanal wines. This one is actually made from a type of grape that was going extinct and was dedicated to his father and the generations that made wine before him. It is an earthy, rich wine that takes me back to sun drenched valleys, sitting by a pool looking down into a French valley and spending time with family. To true craftsmanship and Creativity, I lift my glass. Tears flowed as I sipped this, thinking of my own father, missing my husband who also thinks this is one of the tastiest wines on our planet (and he usually sticks to beer) and celebrating how one person’s creativity in one area can create something to savour.


SCEA Château Blanc, propriétaire récoltant* 84220 Roussillon, France * Tel 04 90 05 64 56


Cheers!

INHALE Today’s post is dedicated to those who pour their Creativity into tastes that we enjoy. In a world where the emphasis is on fast and cheap or convenient, we need to speak up and reclaim the idea that tastes can nourish our souls as well as our bodies. Think of the favourite dishes from your childhood that make you feel loved, the smells and tastes that recreate a holiday you enjoyed or food that is so beautifully crafted that it becomes an experience on more than one level. Creativity can leap out to us in so many ways if we just watch for it or go looking.

EXHALE Think about a food or taste that evokes a Creative response in you. How could you bring a little bit of that into your life this week? When so much of society seems to place an emphasis on QUANTITY rather than Quality, it is important to remember that feeding our eyes and souls is as important as filling our bellies, especially when so many people in our world go hungry every day.

Overboard Cookie Decorating...

We just can’t help it.  Our family loves decorating cookies together.  It’s just another way of drawing using different colours of edible products  and blank cookies instead of crayons and paper. 

Since cookies keep for a while when stored in airtight containers, I usually bake ahead and then we get out everything for a massive icing session while the Christmas playlist blares away on my iPod.

This year, we iced in two batches, one for the teachers a few days before I left for Dad’s funeral and then the last of the cookies on the same day we made our Gingerbread house as a family.

Royal icing powder from places like the Bulk Barn is great to use because it hardens so quickly. It also holds up well if you are packing a variety of  cookies into a single tin or container.  We usually make up two batches of white icing and then put food colouring into a variety of plastic bags to tint the white from there.  Never use cheaper sandwich bags for this because the zip seal tops have a tendency to explode when you least expect them to.  Snipping off a tiny corner of each bag allows for a fairly even flow of icing.

We also try to stick to similar shapes of cookies every year; gingerbread, sugar cookies and shortbread.

I tend to keep mine looking fairly consistent since I ice big batches on cookie sheets all at once...

The girls are fond of picking out a selection of cookies to ice individually for their teachers...

and Nick likes to make the really odd ones that we give to our closest friends.

Once everything is done, the pictures are taken, the cookies batched up and the best ones chosen for Santa’s plate, there’s really nothing left to do except the dishes... and plan for next year’s cookie extravaganza.

INHALE:  It’s funny how many of our celebrations revolve around food.  I used to feel guilty as a Weight Watchers leader about giving food as gifts.  Now I understand that sometimes it’s not about quantity, but rather about quality and presentation.  A small selection of hand decorated cookies makes a wonderful, caring gift even if it does contain calories.  The girls get such a kick out of making them as well as presenting them to their teachers on the last day of school before the holidays. Handmade isn’t always cheaper or easier, but it can be a lot of fun!

EXHALE:  Holiday baking is all done now.  This post was originally going to appear before Christmas, but there are still ways to dream for next year.  Where do you keep your favourite holiday recipes?  If you have children, there are recipes that they will want to have later when they set out on their own to duplicate childhood memories in their own homes someday.  Take a page in your book and write, sketch or doodle some of your earliest childhood memories about holiday baking.  Try to capture the smells, the sights and above all.... try not to drool too much on the page!

Creativity amid more Chaos...

The thing about knowing I am living this journey is that it sustains me even when life gets so chaotic that I cannot post.  I meant to post about our Hallowe’en creativity on Friday night or Saturday, but the weekend ended up being far different that we expected when Bethany began to run a high fever on Saturday afternoon along with her cough.  We’ve kept her in isolation at home and treated her with medicine to reduce the fever which seems to be working for now as we keep a close eye on her.  GIven all the fear about the H1N1 pandemic, we are being cautious and vigilant, hoping that it is some other germ in our house.

Thursday night, Bethany had  a Hallowe’en dance at her school.  She dressed up as a rock star and spent two hours dancing or talking with her friends.

Friday was a fun but tiring day.  I was teaching at Harrison Trimble for the 4th day that week and everyone was encouraged to dress in costume.  Erin went as a fairy GOTHmother and I dressed up as  a zombie, thinning out the make-up I used for She-Hulk and using the same wig, I ripped up one of Nick’s oldest shirts and made a very scary impression on a lot of the high school kids.  Imagine coming around a corner in a hurry and running into 6’5” of zombie teacher!  For an extrovert who loves playing up on my inches, I was having a blast!

After school, we went to pick up Bethany at her school and watch the last minutes of her volleyball tryouts.  She’d had a sock hop in the afternoon and then the tryouts, so she was feeling a bit tired as we headed home to change both girls into their costumes for working up at Magnetic Hill’s fundraiser that evening.  Boo at the School meant that the entire gym of Nick’s school had been transformed into a spook walk as a fundraiser for the Grade 8 class trip at the end of the year.  There was a bake sale, a BBQ, some other sales and the spook walk.  Erin was dressed up as an old fashioned school teacher in pioneer dress teaching a class of zombie children to repeat words like disembowel.  Bethany dressed up in her Dorothy costume and played hopscotch in the “graveyard”. Nick was the Frankenstein principal asking people for their hall passes and I helped a witch greet people at the door and break them into groups. For the first 2 hours, everyone was fairly enthusiastic, but in the 3rd hour, it got a little harder to stay “fresh” at their roles.  Bethany seemed especially tired, but I chalked it up to her busy day.  I drove the girls home as soon as things were over then came back up to help Nick and the parents take everything down in the gym.  She seemed fine when she posed for this picture after stealing Dad’s headgear...

By 10:30 the next morning, we were back at the school for a volleyball match between Erin’s 15U team and the 16U team in the Roofers club she belongs to.  It was great volleyball and each team won 2 matches, but Bethany seemed really tired and whiny.  We got her some soup for lunch and pot stickers at our favourite restaurant Happy Wok and then headed home.  She fell asleep for 2 hours and when she woke up, she was flushed and burning up with a fever of almost 102! Needless to say, my thoughts of writing everything up as the blog post went out the window...

The fever comes and goes, so she will be home with me tomorrow.  No doubt my creativity will be put towards keeping a sick daughter entertained in her room.

INHALE:  In our busy, modern day world, we sometimes feel as if we are expected to keep going no matter what.  If we are sick, we take a pill or something.  If this flu season is teaching us ANYTHING, it is reminding us of the need to listen to our bodies when they get sick or tired and grant them time to heal, time to get better and time to keep our germs to ourselves.

EXHALE:  One of the ways you can enjoy a bit of tasty Creativity even when you aren’t sick is to find a warm drink that you enjoy.  There are many wonderful herbal tea blends out there to sample, cider to warm with cranberries and cinnamon or a splash of orange juice.  My stepfather, John, has been playing with ways to make his own really chocolaty cocoa drink that has less artificial ingredients than some of the powders out there.  Sniff a few herbal tea boxes in the grocery aisles or delight in the artwork and creativity of the many Celestial Seasonings blends.  Their box artwork and creative copy are almost as lovely as the teas themselves.  Tazo ’s chai flavour has been another favourite of mine for a few years, especially with a splash of skim milk.  Miso soup is another wonderful warm drink.  Some cultures swear by a crushed garlic clove in hot water to fend of germs and there is always the traditional chicken noodle soup.  Whatever you choose as your warm drink, wrap your hands around a great mug and sit quietly for a few minutes to sip some stillness along with your beverage.  The world will still be waiting when your mug is done.

Creative Thankfulness...

I love to bake.  Every year for Thanksgiving, I make both apple and pumpkin pies from scratch.  This year, Erin asked if she could help.  There’s something special about hands-on creativity.  I remember learning from my grandmother and this time I became the teacher. She helped take pictures as I got the dough ready.

As pretty as pumpkin pie is in colour, poured into a pie shell it looks rather plain.

A few years ago, I saw a photo spread of a Thanksgiving meal where the baker had cut maple leaves out of pie crust to place in the centre of the pie.  Of course, since Aikman means “Men of Oak”, I’ve done oak leaves and acorns on our family pie ever since.  Cutting out the shapes from pie crust is rather fun...

and the results are so magical once the pie is cooked.

Bethany helped peel all of the apples for her favourite pie.

With our pies cooling on the counter, we switched to fixing the supper meal for last night in celebration of my Dad and Barb arriving for Canadian Thanksgiving.  We made a party sushi mound known as chirashizushi.  Using shrimp, avocado, tamago,  cucumber, lobster and salmon that Nick’s mother brought back from visiting his brother in Prince Rupert, it was a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds!

Erin even got creative with the napkins...  (Hmmm! Maybe Creativity is contagious after all!)

Tonight, after a wonderful day of memories and great food, I am THANKFUL for Creativity!

INHALE:  There is something powerful about creating BEAUTY with your food before we consume it.  That’s one area where the North American culture falls sadly short of many others in the world who understand that they eyes can be nourished along with the stomach!     We need to celebrate the art and creativity that can flourish on our plates if we take just a few moments to add that extra touch.

EXHALE:  Experiment with how you lay your food on the plate.  Let your kids make their own pizza faces on english muffins, try putting as many colours of the rainbow as possible in your salad bowl, fold your napkins and add a sticker to them.  Creativity can be experienced in large and small ways.  I no longer begrudge the extra time, I savour the way it seems to recharge something deep inside me when people let out an appreciative sigh as they stare at the plate.  No one can do this every night, but the next time you have company or share a special family meal, add a little creativity in your presentation and see what happens...

Taking The Time...

Another Saturday morning of sneaking out with my husband to do groceries while the kids relax at home.  Up until 2 years ago, groceries meant bribing the kids with dinner out after a busy day to shop as a family or one of us sneaking off by themselves to do groceries while the other did childcare.  A dozen years of buying food that way and suddenly, we are back to being able to have conversations as we find items on our list and come home to happy children... well... almost.  Erin is sick today with a horrid head cold, so Bethany left her alone and went bug-hunting in Animal Crossing City Folk while we were out.

Since the sky was grey and the wind was blustery, Nick decided to go up to work for the afternoon and I took over the kitchen.  I had muffins to bake for Sunday School tomorrow and a new recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution to try. Local new potatoes had been on sale at the supermarket today and Nick found some leeks as well, so I decided to try the Potato and Leek soup from the book.

The leeks were lovely!  Thank goodness Jamie explained about washing them under running water lengthwise though... there does tend to be a lot of silt and dirt that gets into those tight layers.  Getting it out before chopping was essential.

Carrots and celery also got chopped on my boards and added to the saucepan while the broth came to a boil in the bigger pot.

By this point, I had taken over most of the counter and had Josh Groban playing in the background interspersed with the odd John Tesh instrumental from my drawing playlist.  The afternoon sun was streaming in through my kitchen windows and I totally gave myself over to the act of being Creative with food.

New recipes are scary.  There is the urge to stick with the tried and true that we know to be safe.  I felt WAY more pressure after last Saturday’s disaster, the last half of which went in the garbage bag tonight.  After 2 days of leftovers, even I gave up on it!

Yet as I held the potatoes in my hand to peel them, I became aware of how the gritty brown peel gave way to the slippery white flesh as I peeled them.  How the smell of the garlic, leeks and other veggies simmering in the olive oil in the pan was beginning to waft its way through the house.  How, instead of feeling rushed the way I do on weeknights when there are meetings or activities to race off to, I was able to enjoy the act of preparing a meal.

So here’s the thing.  I think I am a closet “foodie”.  With this huge bag of carrots on the counter, I had a sudden urge to replicate the delicious carrotes rapées that we’d enjoyed this summer in France.  What did people ever do before they could look things up on the Internet?  Not only did I find a fabulous guide to follow, I fell in love with a whole new blog to follow!  David Lebovitz writes about France and food in a way that not only makes me smile, it takes me back to the very streets  I wandered this summer and the foods that my taste buds still dream of.  The beautiful pictures on the web site and in his blog were inspirational! (Look up some of the posts that deal with Chocolate!)

So, the soup simmered, I shredded carrots without losing any bits of finger or nail like I usually do, the rolls got warmed in the oven (no, I cheated and bought those at the bakery 3 blocks away) and by supper time, I had mastered not one but TWO delicious recipes.  A meal that was not only vegetarian, it qualified for the 100 mile diet if you discounted the olive oil that came back from France with me (at least it shared my plane).

Erin crawled out of her room to join us at the table and make appreciative croaking noises before being re-banished to her room.  Bethany declared the soup to now be on her top 10 favourite foods list as she went back for a 3rd bowl.  I was feeling Creative and pretty proud of myself right up until Nick looked at the girls with a grin and said  “Well, this certainly proves that our kitchen is a great place to take a leek!”

Hmmmm... I guess I have to let him live.  After 20 years, it would be just too hard to break in a new husband.

INHALE:  Trying new recipes can be terrifying.  We tend to be SO hard on ourselves about wanting everything to be perfect that we forget... new recipes have to be tried and tested before they ever make it into cookbooks.  Someone, somewhere had to be brave enough to try a food combination for the first time.  Everyone is going to have different tastes and sensibilities anyway... how else could you explain haggis?  Stop worrying about perfection in your Creativity.  Try instead to find the TIME to be Creative when cooking so that you don’t have to rush things.

EXHALE:  Think back to a food that you remember from a favourite trip, a childhood meal or some other special time in your life.  Memories can be linked to sound, smell, taste and texture, so being more Creative involves nurturing all your senses.  Give yourself half an hour to wander the Internet, browse through your existing cookbooks or even check out the cooking section at your local bookstore.  Pick out a recipe that excites you, that makes you feel like exploring your Creativity more... then plan where and when you can give yourself the time to try it. It just may become a new family favourite!