2011 Top Posts

After Facebook, the WordPress statistics page is the second most addictive webpage I check on a near constant and almost hourly basis. It’s been a source of many disappointments and excitement this year, and after some thought, I’ve decided to just stop letting it dictate how I feel about the posts I make. There was a period when I was obsessively refreshing to see how many views I got and would find myself  feeling dejected when the posts I liked the most didn’t receive as many hits as I thought they would – but I’m okay with that now…kinda.

It’s always surprising and quite a lot of fun to not only see which posts are popular, but the search engine terms people use that bring them to my blog. Someone out there really wants to know where they can buy Somersby Cider…I feel like it’s my duty to now find out. If you know the answer, let us know!

So, rounding up the last post of 2011 for us here at Babyhedgehogs (BHH), here is the Top Five most popular posts of all time:

1. Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread
   A super easy and sweet snack to go with your tea or coffee. They’re especially delicious if made with sliced apples nestled between each puffy layer of dough. The apples turn crisp from the caramelized sugar dripping down…droool. As always, when baking with cinnamon always use more than what the recipe calls for – it’s a helpful advice I received from a baker friend that’s made a huge difference…in my life.
2. Earl Grey Chocolate Tea Cakes with Earl Grey Icing
   A friend and I were dying to bake with earl grey for ages and we finally found time one Sunday afternoon to try out a recipe she found on food network. The chocolate tea cakes only called for earl grey in the icing, but we decided to infuse the cake with earl grey as well. While we could taste the delicious flavour of the bergamot and lemon in the icing, it was too delicate for the heavy chocolate batter of the cake.
3. W Burger Bar: Bison Meat vs. Beef
   Bison meat – dry, but flavourful! I’m not too sure why this particular post is third on the stats list, but I guess Toronto really loves burgers.  We’ve been there many times, but it’s always been after work when I didn’t have my DSLR on me. I have plenty of iphone pictures of me eating their fries though.
4. Mini Dutch Babies
   They were too cute to eat, but definitely filling. These German pancakes are easy to whip up at any moments notice – provided you have eggs, milk and flour – and they’re fun to watch rise and puff out of their pans. They’re plain enough that you can throw whatever you want in and on them.
5. Easy Pork Belly Crackling
   This one is quite obvious and we can see why it’s up there. For one, it’s pork, and second, it’s pork crackling. Our love of porchetta drove Leo to make pork belly roasts himself back in September, and he’s been making it at least once a month ever since (three times this December alone). While you need to prep the pork one day ahead, it doesn’t take more than one or two hours to roast it depending on the size.

can’t believe that this week is already (almost) over!

Saying a quick hello to lament how fast this week is going. Soon I’ll be back to the office being bored to death and counting down to my next vacation.

Happy Friday & Good Eatings for the Holidays!

My holiday break of pure indulgence and voracious eating and drinking has already begun. This week alone, some friends and I met for lunch at Khao San Road (which was unfortunately not as good as the dinner we had before) and then coffee at Ezra’s Pound for a very satisfying ‘breakfast’. Next week, I have two potlucks and two get-togethers planned as well as a reservation at Acadia Restaurant. My pants are already feeling tighter thinking about all this food. Oof.

All the pictures below were taken with my Canon AE-1 with Kodak Gold 200 film exposed from 1/30 to 1/15 secs and under at f2.8. A year ago I had no idea what any of this meant and three months ago I wouldn’t have thought of even shooting anything at a shutter speed slower than 1/125! Yay for learning curves! With that said, I have ambitious plans to start renting a darkroom and developing my own film next year. Luckily, Leo already has experience (he also taught me how to load film properly too!) and promises to help me figure it all out. :)

Happy Holidays!

canon ae-1 | kodak gold 200 (expired in 2008) / iPhone

Parisian/Stone Ground Hot Chocolate

During the past few weeks, I’ve had cafe mochas, hot chocolate of the sweet and watery kind from 711, Cadbury chocolate bars purchased at the TTC snack stands while waiting for my bus, chewy turtles my family received as a holiday gift, and fancy pants artisan chocolate purchased at Roncesvalles’ Chocolateria. So, imagine my delight when I trudged to work on Saturday morning to find the most sinful gift sitting on my desk waiting for me: a bar of stone ground roasted cacao beans turned chocolate from ChocoSol Traders. I had thoughts of eating it all, but one attempted bite made me realize that perhaps it’d be better off used in baking. When given the gift of pure cacao, what else is there to do than turn to the Mayans and make a deliciously aromatic and bitter chocolate drink!

Leo has his campari, I’ll have my cocoa.

I went to David Lebovitz for a chocolate recipe and ended up combining two for my own. After making the hot chocolate, David recommends waiting a few hours before serving so as to to let the flavours build up, but I didn’t and it still tasted pretty good. Mine was quite thick and grainy — if you don’t like that texture, he also recommends putting the mixture in a blender until smooth. I simply added more milk as I drank (I definitely need more calcium, doctor recommended).

Parisian/Stone Ground Hot Chocolate
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s Parisian Hot Chocolate and Mexican Hot Chocolate recipes
Serves 4-5 demitasse cups (about half the size of a coffee cup)

2 1/4 cups milk
2 1/2 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and a pinch of salt
100 g of stone ground chocolate or bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao solids) finely chopped
1 or 2 tablespoon of brown sugar

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk with the cocoa powder and salt, whisking constantly until it comes to a full boil.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate, whisking until it’s completely melted. For a thick hot chocolate, continue to cook at a very low boil for about 3 minutes, whisking frequently. It will reduce quite fast, so keep an eye on it until it reaches the consistency you want.

If you find the hot chocolate to be too bitter, add in some brown sugar to sweeten it up.

Also…milk has a tendency to boil over if you’re not constantly paying attention. Oops.

Sunday updates

It’s such a silly thing to care about, but I really love it when coffee shops use those beautiful brown cups I kept seeing in New York. So far, Dark Horse Espresso Bar is the only one that I’ve noticed who uses them. The colour combo of the brown with the coffee and the foam just makes it look so much more scrumptious…

In other news…

We updated the Eaten section! This time it’s all alphabetical and stuff, woo! (Thank you, Leo!)

I got myself a new twitter account, follow me at @patriciaeats, where I’ll be posting stuff like the no-knead bread I made on Friday and other things.

Leo is finally on tumblr and made the best cat comic ever.

And…We are going to New York City again! I’m already planning my eating list, though this time I’ll try harder to go check out some galleries.