Life of a Spelt Baker

What being a parent means to me.

2012-01-23T21:30:00.000-08:00

I had my first child when I was 18 years old, 3 months and 1 day before my 19th birthday. I had no doubt at the time that it was a lifetime commitment and was not one that I took on without realizing the all encompassing role that I would have for the rest of my life. I have now been a mother for well over half my life. I am also now a grandmother.

First and foremost, as a Mother, I am protector, caregiver, confidante, provider, guardian, teacher, prophet, leader, friend, guide, champion, motivator, messenger, nurturer, safety-net, the stability in my children's lives, a constant.

I am going to breakdown each one of those words to describe what it means to me.

Protector - If my child is in a place where he or she could be harmed physically, spiritually or emotionally, it is my job to intervene. An example is (physically) that when a child does not have his papers submitted for his green card, it was my job to tell him to get his ass in gear and get it done. Spiritually - when someone is directing angry energy towards my child, I intervene both with talking and protective energy to keep her safe. Emotionally - when my son was being teased for being gay in elementary school, I intervened and made it stop.

Caregiver - to make sure that they are taken care of - fed, clothed, housed. meeting their basic needs.

Confidante - being there to hear them when they have something that they are having a hard time with. Listening to them and sharing what wisdom I have to help them through the struggle they are having.

Provider - to be able to provide a safe refuge for them to come home to. Have good food, a safe home and all of the schooling that I can possibly afford to give them, everything they need. This includes extra curricular activities like dance, music lessons, film programs, art, sports etc.

Guardian - It is my job to protect them where they need it. When one of my children asked me why I was still making decisions for him when he was 15, I told him it was because it was still my responsibility to override a decision he made if I deemed it to be unsafe for him. That role remains intact until the child turns 19.

Teacher - to provide them with enough knowledge and skills to be able to be all of this to themselves and to their own children. This is ongoing and is a responsibility that I believe I have until the day I die. As they get older, they are also able to teach me. This goes from one way to reciprocal with their growth and age.

Prophet - when children are young, in my mind a parent is their to help them believe that they can be and do anything. Very few parents are able to help children realize their dreams and children have dreams that change. It is my job to show them the brightness of their lives to come. This is, in my mind, especially important as a parent can squash a child's dreams more effectively than anyone else. This is not only done by telling kids that they cannot do something, but also by putting to much pressure on a child or by not listening to what the child wants. As parents, we are the almighty and as children grow they question the almighty to learn their own power.

Leader - It is my job to lead them in the right direction with intuition, discernment and knowledge as my guide.

Friend - This one is important. Not every child has a parent as a best friend, however, it is important to be a friend to them and teach them what it is to be a friend. My mother taught me this and I hope that I have successfully taught my children. Exploring and defining what friendship means to them can only happen if they have had a friend and their first friend will be there parent(s).

Guide - Like the light in the dark. When a child is feeling at their worst, the parent guides them through whatever issue they are going through, giving them tools to manage. This is also linked to Teacher and we use that role to teach them how to be their own guide.

Champion - to believe in them, to egg them on to be the best they can be, to constantly tell them how good they are at whatever they do and to guide them to be even better.

Motivator - to kick their asses when they think they can't go on. To help them get tools to get past each struggle they have. Teach them that success is a good thing and that they not only deserve it, but should always strive towards it. Teach them that they are the only ones to hold themselves back and a parent's job is to not allow them to do that.

Messenger - To be able to give them the messages they need to hear in spiritual matters, guiding them to find and nurture their own spirituality. Allowing the messages to come to them and showing them where they might find them when they cannot find them on their own. Allowing them the time and space to shun spirituality and continue giving them the message that they are whole and complete the way they are.

Nurturer - This is more ethereal than anything else and may be hard for me to describe. To water them as necessary, feed them when they are hungry and to let them have quiet time when they need it, allowing them the chance to grow, just like flowers in a garden. To nurture is not to hover over and watch their every move, but to allow them the space and time to grow giving them all the tools they need to do that and allowing them to do it on their own as and when they should, while always being in the background watching to see if a storm is coming and taking what you need to protect them at that moment.

Safety-net - being there to catch them when they fall.

The stability in my children's lives/a constant - These two are essentially the same thing and it has to do with unconditional love. Unconditional love is not about unconditional acceptance. I will not accept boundaries being crossed, but I can still love the person. It means that no matter what they will always be close family. Part of that inner circle that you expect to spend the rest of your life with in one way or another. When their world is falling apart and they feel that they have nowhere to turn and nothing to stand on you are there, loving them. You have made a commitment to continue to parent them which encompasses all of the above until the day you (or they) die.

That is what being a parent means to me.

Pay it forward!

2012-01-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

There is this thing on facebook about paying it forward. In the year 2011, I posted it on my facebook page and only one person responded. She did not get something handmade. We still haven't managed to get together for coffee.

I have decided to make a slight modification to my pay it forward program.

As many of you may have figured out from my previous writing, I love to knit Christmas stockings. They are a tradition in my family and it brings me great pleasure to be able to knit a personalized stocking for someone. What I have realized is that there are a few crucial parts for me. I do not feel right knitting a stocking with no name. There must be a name knitted into it. I want each stocking to be a different design and to reflect something about the person who will get it.

I know it is early, still being January, however, I have always started my Christmas preparations in January, except for the food. For that info, you will have to wait until later in the year.

So here is my "pay it forward" proposal. If there is someone special in your life whom you think would love a handknit stocking, please let me know. I will knit a stocking for them to have for next Christmas, in colours meant for them, with their name and a design that would be right for them. I would be happy to talk about it. In exchange, if there is something that you have or do that would be good for me, please offer what you can. It takes me about 2 weeks to knit a stocking when I am taking my time. It is probably more than 12 hours of work. Each stocking I have knit has been unique in many different ways. My favourite yarn store is Baad Anna's on Hastings Street. They have fabulous yarns for stockings. I have all the needles I need and all I need now is someone to knit the stocking for.

First Snow Spa Day!

2012-01-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with a wicked headache. For those of you who don't know, I have had migraines through much of my life and have controlled them through the foods that I eat and don't eat. That is one of the reasons why I stopped eating wheat.

So in my dazed state of mind, Christine told me that it was all white outside and I didn't quite understand. After a couple of tylenol and a nice dark cup of coffee, I was able to see the snow on the ground. It looked pretty and I was starting to feel better but knew I needed to take care of myself today.

The headache started yesterday and hung on tight. I also got a phone call from my daughter in law who was on her way up to Canada with my son and granddaughter to visit. Bad news, they had some stuff stolen from their car including my son's green card. A green card not only allows him to work in the U.S. but also allows him to re-enter when he comes to Canada to visit. It was Friday morning and there were many things they needed to do, starting with contacting bank and credit cards to shut down all cards that were there and also the police to file a report. Then on to the Green Card. They have electronic tracking devices in them now, however, there is also a shield and it needs to be taken out of it's little case to have the device work. It takes three months to replace and even though there is the possibility that they could get a government letter stating that he has one and that he is allowed to re-enter the U.S., this Monday is Martin Luther King Day and the government offices are closed until Tuesday, which means coming up Tuesday or Wednesday and they are supposed to leave Friday morning. My headache had a little bit of heartache to go with it. I love spending time with my granddaughter, son and daughter in law. The last time I saw them was March 2011.

Definitely a good day to take care of myself. Christine told me to take a bath and I have this lovely "seaweed bath" from Calixica Spa located on Granville Island. So after making a couple of loaves of French bread, smudging and cleaning the house including our guest room. Chatting on the phone with my son and family, it was time to run a nice hot bath, I used the facial mask that I also got from Calixica, , and grabbed a big glass of water and got into the steaming hot seaweed bath in our new spa bathroom. I love to go to the Spa, I enjoy having a manicure/pedicure with my daughter Boedicea. For someone who has worked in the food industry, this became a luxury as it is for many others, a luxury of being able to just be still for a moment.

For me today, the first snow day of 2012 has helped me to feel renewed energy, cleansing of my heart, body and soul. Now at the end of the day, I am sitting on the couch relaxing in front of the fire, candles lit throughout the house waiting for my pizza to be ready and spend the rest of the night with the love of my life Christine.

Full Moon Dinner!

2012-01-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

I love food!! There is nothing quite like a delicious dinner after a day of hard work and a long bus ride across town.

That's right, a bus ride! With no Spelt mobile I am now taking the bus home from my parents after having their car on the weekend. In a lot of ways my life has become very scheduled since January 1st. All my time is set out on the schedule and it is almost like when we had the bakery and every day was accounted for.

Maybe it's a little odd to feel that I am scheduled only 9 days into the New Year, but that is how I feel and I kinda like it. I like having a schedule and knowing what my routine is and at the same time I like to shake things up and have some excitement.

One of the things that we have done is to write a weekly menu plan. Now that is ORGANIZED!!!! And completely delicious!!! Tonight, after a day taking care of administration work for my parents, an appointment with a client, some shopping and a bus ride across town, I came home to find the love of my life making a beautiful chicken fried rice with the rice I made this morning and the leftover from the roast chicken that we had last night. But that was NOT dinner, that's for tomorrow's lunch.

Dinner was one of my favourite meals and when I first went wheat free I missed it terribly. Tonight's dinner was a beautiful club house sandwich made with three pieces of my home made white Spelt bread. I like mine to have two pieces of toast buttered with tomato slices and nitrate free bacon and fresh cracked pepper. Then the middle slice is covered in mayonnaise for the next part of the sandwich with either turkey or chicken and lettuce and the third slice tops it all off. The hard part is trying to eat it.

It was well worth the difficulties of holding it together and I feel like I had the best dinner ever!

I have always found that a routine allows me to be in the present and being present and aware of what I am doing makes the food that I am lucky enough to have that much more enjoyable. So, the next time you sit down to a Club House Sandwich I hope that it brings you as much pleasure as it did for me today, the full moon of January 2012.

Enjoy!!!

All the Decorations are down!

2012-01-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over, The New Year has begun and I am feeling pretty good about the holidays this year. I feel like I accomplished all the things that I wanted to do and have an even better plan for next year.

This year, on the top of my list was knitting 3 Christmas stockings. I have been knitting since I was 8 years old and I love knitting stockings. My children and I all have stockings that my mother knitted and Christine has a stocking that I knitted for her the first year we were together. She keeps asking me for the other one. She was not aware when she met me that I loved Christmas and that she would not only have a big Family Christmas, but also a Christmas stocking. We met in February and didn't talk about Christmas when we first met. When we did get closer to Christmas and I asked her what colour stocking she wanted and what design, she said red, brown and green stripes. This was the stocking I made her.

Last year I made one for my granddaughter Lilja for her first Christmas. I remember madly knitting every evening after baking over a hundred loaves of bread, rolling out pastry for fifty pies and making hundreds of cookies amongst other things just to get it into the mail in time for her to get it for Christmas morning.

The first one I made this year was for Calvin, his was Celtic Spiral work knitted in red and white with green trim, I started and finished it in early December. I always use the same pattern that my Mom bought from Mary Maxim some time in the eighties, but I change the needle size, the yarn and the design every single time. The one thing I always do is the same number of stitches and I use the graph for the letters for the names. I love that pattern.

The second one I made this year was for my daughter-in-law Britta. I had my son Erik's stocking and Lilja already had hers and now it was time for Britta to have one made by me. I chose natural fibres, bamboo, silk and Merino wool in blue and white with an edging of handmade lace that I bought in Barkerville in the early 90's. She loves natural fibres and is quite talented with fabric arts as well. This stocking had to be knitted by December 15th in order to have my daughter Boedicea take it to the States with her and give it to Britta. I started it December 8th or 9th and finished sewing it together and adding the lace the evening of December 14th. Just enough time to take a photo and give it to my Boedicea to pack on December 15th.

The final stocking that I knitted was for my daughter-in-law to be, Mandy. I always want to do something special for each person that I knit a stocking for. I want it to represent them and have something on it meaningful to them. I have to say it is a lot easier to do that with adults than children. When my son Kristoffer and Mandy got engaged in early December, we saw the ring and I found it very interesting. a green stone on a silver ring with a tree. I then went and looked at her facebook page and kept seeing pictures of trees. After a big long search for a tree pattern that would fit in 28 to 34 stitches, I found the tree of Gondor pattern and I knit Mandy's stocking in yarn that my mum had in her stash and some from my own, in a nice soft green with a brown tree and the name, heel and toe all in a nice deep red. I finsihed her stocking on December 22nd and delivered it to my son on December 23rd while out doing the last of our food shopping and some gift shopping for my parents.

That was it: December 23rd, all stockings done, all food bought, all decorations up and all gifts ready to go. I felt so good to have been able to get everything done so that I could just spend the 24th with the woman I love, cooking fabulous food for a small group of friends and family. Then Christmas dinner at my moms' the next day and it was an incredible Christmas. I was surrounded by people I love and we all had good food.

Now the decorations are down, the food is all gone and the stockings are put away for another year. Part of me is a bit sad and wondering who will I kit a stocking for next year? Maybe Christine will finally get that second one she has been asking for.

The Spelt Mobile

2012-01-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my adult life I am carless. The Spelt Mobile has finally given up and been taken away. I have been driving a Chevy Astrovan since 1994 and the green Spelt Mobile was the second. The first one was blue. I was always amused at the fact that the first van was blue and that was when the colours of the bakery were green and white. The second van was green and then we changed the logo to blue, white and black.

I bought the original chevy astrovan in 1994, when I was expecting my third child and needed a larger vehicle with more seats. I remember driving it for the first time and I had always driven small cars before that. It seemed like all the other cars were so tiny when I was up in the BIG VAN. I quickly got used to it and whenever I drove a small car, I felt like I was way too close to the ground.

That first van came in very handy when I opened the bakery in 1998, being perfect for carrying trays of bread. I was thrilled to have such a versatile vehicle. Gas prices were well under $1.00/litre back then. I remember gas prices being as low as 49.9¢ per litre and everyone was freaking out when it went up to 79.9¢ per litre. I don't remember what year that was though.

After ten years of driving the first Chevy Astro van, it was time to move on. I started my search for the next Spelt Mobile and had a few criteria that must be met. I needed to be able to transport my children wherever we wanted to go. I also needed to be able to put two bread trays next to each other in the back of the van for doing deliveries.

On my search, I headed straight to Richmond Auto Mall and started looking at all the mini-vans available. I would go to a car dealer and say, "Can you please open the back of this van?" and I would take my two bread trays and try and put them in. It quickly became obvious that the trays would not fit in any of the vehicles that I wanted. I would have to get another Chevy Astrovan to meet my needs. And so the second Spelt Mobile was bought. A one year old Chevy Astrovan.

I have so many stories of the Spelt Mobile:

Driving the Coquihalla in white out snow. I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of the van and my daughter was in the seat next to me chanting, "Oh Goddesses and powers that be, please take this snow away from me." It took me 8 hours to drive from Kamloops to Hope. Then we hit a rainstorm through Abbotsford. That was a long day.

In 2008 when Christine and I went to France, a friend borrowed the Spelt Mobile and we told her before we left to not worry about people waving at her or honking their horn, etc. They were just Spelties. When we got home, some of our customers asked us who had been driving the Spelt Mobile. We laughed that people noticed and took it so seriously.

I have never had a hard time finding my car in the parking lot. The Spelt Mobile is big and has the bright How's that Spelt logo on it, I could even find it in the Metrotown Parking lot. That has to be the hardest parking lot to find a car in.

Many people have driven the spelt mobile over the years. Many road trips have been taken. Over the last several months, the Spelt Mobile has been unhappy. It is not driven as much as it was when I first got it. We stopped doing deliveries in 2008 and then when we shut down the Bakery in 2010, we barely drove it at all. After fixing it a couple of times over the last two months, it became clear that the repairs needed to keep it going were not worth the ongoing cost of running a vehicle like the Spelt Mobile. We took it to the garage (Irving Tire on Clark and 2nd) on December 22nd and they gave us a loaner car to use during the holidays. They said that they probably wouldn't be able to fix the car until the 27th due to the holidays and days off. We thought it was the fuel pump.

After Christmas on December 27th, I got the call that the damage to the Spelt Mobile was more extensive than we could have imagined. The cost of the repairs was quite high and there was no guarantee that it would fix the problem or how long until another problem would arise. After getting the information from the garage, Christine and I talked about our options and we decided to was time to let the Spelt Mobile go.

I have been bringing the Spelt Mobile to these guys for many years and have always been happy with the service from them, however, this time they went above and beyond. When I told Tom that we were not going to keep the van and we would find someone to pick it up and take it away, I requested to use the loaner to empty our personal contents from the van and take them home. Then we would come back with their loaner car. Tom told me that we could keep the car until the next morning if we needed to run some errands or get stuff done.

I told Tom and Richard from Irving Tire that I really appreciated them and everything that they had done for us and when I do have another vehicle, I will be back. Whenever I had taken the van to them, they were always clear about what needed to be done and how much it would cost. On a tight budget, this was very helpful. I had been to other garages in the past, but I was always treated well by them.

When we went into the garage to get our personal effects from the Spelt Mobile, we dropped off a bag of shortbread cookies and said Thank you. Tom said that he was glad that we made the decision we did, that he thought it wasn't worth fixing anymore. I told him that I had always felt like he was looking after my interests when it came to taking care of my car. He told me that he just wanted to treat me as if I was his sister. I smiled.

I am sad about losing the Spelt Mobile, one of the last vestiges of The Spelt Bakery and at the same time, it was time to move on. The Spelt Mobile may be gone and you will never see me driving it down the streets of Vancouver again, but the memories will always be there and as I have always done, a little bit of Spelt baking is just the right thing for me to give as a Thank you.

Thank you Tom and Richard at Irving Tire for caring for the Spelt Mobile and caring about your customers as family. Thank you Spelties for being part of our "family" . Thank you Spelt Mobile for all the good times and memories. My life would not have been the same without you.

Planning, plotting and life

2011-08-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Plans; the lists of things we think may happen in our future if we just follow the right path. We know where we are headed when we have plans. My favourite quote about plans... Life is what happens when we are busy making plans.

Plot; the story line, the concept of where everything will lead. Something I read on FB this morning amused me, "my life has a superb cast but i can't figure out the plot......."

Life is whatever you make it.

Enjoy!

What's new?

2011-07-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

It has been a while and a life changing year. After an incredibly busy season during the winter holidays, we realized it was time to make a major change, and we closed the bakery, opening up so many other possibilities.

Life has changed immeasurably since and I am spending my days continuing to do the things I love. I am writing more recipes and spending more time with my family.

I am enjoying this stage of my life, now a grandmother and assistant to my parents. This is exactly where I want to be in my life and I feel very lucky to be able to be here.

My Uncle, my mom's youngest brother died yesterday and his daughter has 2 small children. I feel blessed that my children have grown up knowing their grandparents and even my granddaughter has met my parents. Four generations knowing each other and loving each other.

I am able to spend time with my parents now that the bakery is closed and I am able to spend time with my granddaughter too even if mostly through skype.

It was a great twelve years baking for so many people and I forged many friendships through the bakery. I am grateful for it and glad to move onto the next part of my life.

Life is good!

Who likes workshops?

2010-12-14T00:56:00.000-08:00

I love workshops and so here are my latest workshops:

Join me and learn how to make delicious foods in The Spelt Bakery.

Café at The Spelt Bakery!!

2010-12-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

I have always loved the idea of a café and now it's here!!! Check out our menu and new hours! Drop in and have a coffee from our Espresso machine made with organic fairtrade coffee from Café Etico.

Christine makes absolutely amazing food and you will love the signature sauce. We are now open Thursday to Sunday from 10 to 4. Join us for a bite to eat and watch for more things on the menu!!! Life is good!

2010-11-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

A cold winter's night in Vancouver and a day off. Relaxing on the couch in front of the fireplace and yet again there is snow stuck to our patio table. Christmas is coming and the preparations are underway. I am knitting up a storm, planning the food and figuring out where to put the tree.

Vancouver is not usually this cold and the house was not made for these temperatures. So, curled up on the couch we are working on our new café menu. I actually love the cold crisp air and being next to the warm fire. However it's cold enough out there that all I want to do is roast and bake.

I still think turning the oven on is the best way to keep warm on a cold winter day. Not surprising that I became a Baker.

Christmas baking

2010-11-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I use to do Christmas baking with my mom and even as an adult, we would often get together and do a bunch of baking and have it all ready for the holiday season. This year, we are inviting our customers to do Christmas baking with me. I am so looking forward to it. Attached is the poster for our Christmas baking workshop.

French bread

2010-11-10T22:46:00.000-08:00

As someone who reacts to wheat and being the spelt baker, every time I travel I take my flour and ingredients with me to make spelt bread.

In 2008, Christine and I went to France. I took our organic spelt flour from the bakery as well as a few other key ingredients to make bread while we were away. As much as I love eating all sorts of other foods. 2 weeks without bread is just too long for me and so usually when I travel I bake bread. Maybe it's just loving baking as much as I do, I can't quite imagine spending two weeks without making a loaf or 600.

When we were in the North of France staying with Christine's family, I baked a large loaf of bread in the convection oven at her parents place in the photo above. I made a sponge one day with yeast and then made the bread in a similar way to Janet's Country Bread that we sell at the Spelt Bakery. And yes, that bread is named after me.

I was so amazed by the flavour and texture of the bread. It was different than what I usually have in Vancouver, but it was exactly the same ingredients EXCEPT for the water. Finally I figured it out. The reason that bread is different in France compared to North America is the water. It was the only difference.

Having made bread for as many years as I have, I can tell by texture what a dough should be like to make a good loaf of bread. At the most recent workshop on bread and buns, I was able to show people the texture that the dough should be and everyone was amazed at the height of their bread. I also showed them how to correct a dough if it is too stiff or too soft.

I made a beautiful dough in France, soft and pliable. I baked it the way I would here in Vancouver and I ended up with a loaf of bread with a nice hard chewy crust and a porous crumb on the inside. The picture above was the loaf that I ended up with.

That was a fantastic trip of a lifetime, family, adventure and a great loaf of bread.
That is what I call living the high life.

Halloween

2010-10-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween! From when I was a kid to now. Throughout the years with my kids, making costumes, decorating the front yard. Getting and giving out candy. I love Halloween.

First Workshop.

2010-10-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I love baking! I also love to talk about what I am passionate about and I love to teach. I have always felt incredibly lucky to have the quality and kind of customers that the bakery seems to attract. Sunday afternoon was a prime example of that.

There were six participants for the pizza, foccacia and pita workshop. The energy of the six women who spent Sunday afternoon with me was delightful. I am often amazed at how I have gotten to know so many of the customers over the last twelve years. One of our customers has told us that we are like family and that is exactly how I felt on Sunday afternoon, like I had family over to spend the afternoon baking with me and they all wanted to learn the same thing.

Really we did orchestrate the whole event and at the same time, having it turn out to be such an enjoyable experience as the teacher made my day. Christine and I had gone out the night before to our first halloween party of the season and then got up about five hours after going to bed to bake and teach the workshop.

As Christine said the workshop was a great way to end a fantastic week. I am a lucky woman indeed to be able to do what I love and be able to teach people what I can do.

Next weekend is the pasta workshop and I LOVE RAVIOLI!!!!

My favourite stuffing!

2010-10-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

One year I was making the stuffing for a big family Turkey Dinner and amongst the many special diets was my vegetarian son and my mother who asked me to make the stuffing with just some poultry seasoning. I asked her if she meant that powdered stuff that comes in a glass jar?

It was the first year that Christine and I were together. A Chef and A Baker and we were doing the Turkey dinner. There was going to be no poultry seasoning in my stuffing, however, I knew what my mom meant. Don't put fancy things in, no sausage and nothing that might cause reactions for her or her wife, my other mother. So, I decided to go with a nice clean and simple stuffing made with fresh and good quality ingredients... so here is the recipe:

1 onion
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 or 2 loaves of spelt french bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 package of fresh sage, chopped, approximately 1 ounce or 28 grams
1/2 package of fresh thyme, pulled of the branch and crushed between your fingers. Save the other half of the package for decoration.
1 963 ml container of organic vegetable broth.
1/2 cup white wine.

Sautee the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until slightly golden on the edges. Add bread crumbs, prepared sage and thyme and stir, slowly pour in half of the vegetable broth stirring constantly and then the wine, the second half of the vegetable broth until bread has all become moist. If the stuffing is too wet, add more bread cubes. Place finished stuffing inside Turkey or chicken and roast.

For vegetarian stuffing, grease an oven safe pan and place stuffing in pan. drizzle approximately 1/4 cup of olive oil over the top of the stuffing and bake in the oven at 350F for approximately 1 hour. Serve in pan with sprigs of fresh thyme on top.

This is now my favourite stuffing and is incredible with cranberry sauce.

Happy eating!

Spelt Tortillas

2010-10-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Spelt Tortillas

4 cups organic white Spelt flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/4 cup water.

mix together all ingredients and knead by hand for about ten minutes. Weigh out into 60 gram balls and with a rolling pin, roll to a ten inch round.

Bake at 450 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes until tortilla is baked through. Use immediately for making burritos, Quesadiilas, whatever you want.

You can also cook them on a large cast iron skillet on the stove top. Frying on both sides, a couple minutes each side.

Please tell me your suggestions of what you would make with them.

I Love SPELT!

Pasta, pasta, PASTA!!!

2010-09-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

I have a passion for pasta. Maybe it comes fromt the fact that I stopped eating pasta when I was young because of my wheat intolerance. Maybe it is because in Vancouver we have so many different types of pasta and GOOD Pasta. There are the Chinese noodles, the Italian noodles. Greek pasta dishes, Thai pasta salads, Japanese Udon, and then there are the stuffed pastas; ravioli, pyrogies, egg rolls.

Today I saw these machines that will make the pasta and now I am thinking about all the fun I could have making pasta and lucky for all the customers we have at the bakery, I KNOW I will make way too much for just us. So there are four different attachments, one for lasagna, one for rigatoni, one for spaghetti and one for fettucine. We can do spinach pasta, beet pasta, add herbs and spices. All sorts.

There is also a machine for ravioli and you can make different sizes. However, since the first machine will make lasagna, I can use it to roll the sheets out and then hand make the stuffed pasta. Now to decide what to stuff it with!!!

I love pasta!

I love to teach!

2010-09-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am so excited about the new workshops that we are going to have at the Bakery. I have actually been showing people how to bake with Spelt for years and now I will be doing it when that is all I have to do. Check it out!!

Grief!

2010-09-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

A subject that often arises for all of us, Spelties or not. Loss comes in so many different ways. Whether it is a member of our family, a close friend, a beloved pet, a business, a job, a child, a parent, a sibling, a partner, a loss of yourself, or your dreams. Even when it is not directly one of those for us, sometimes it is for someone we care about. Grief comes in many different ways and each person will react differently.

My grandmother died almost a year ago. She was the last of her generation in my immediate family. I became a grandmother four months later. Sometimes loss can also come in feeling like you are losing a sense of yourself. Regardless of why you are grieving, there are some basics about grief.

There are different degrees to how you will feel the grief depending on many different things. You need to grieve your way and you will need support from those around you. How each person feels support is different. I remember when my first daughter was stillborn and I was looking after a few children ages 7 to 9. One nine year old girl asked me why I talked about my stillborn daughter. I thought and answered quite quickly. My explanation to her was that when someone close to you dies, the grief is too big for you to deal with alone. So by talking about the person you share some of your grief. It is kind of like grief is a big ball and each time you talk about your loss you pass a little piece of that ball on to someone else. They are able to take that little piece and move on, helping you with your grief. I also told her that it was why grief often takes at least a year.

The other part of it is that in that year, you will find yourself doing things that you did the year before your loss and how you perceive those things is quite different. It either brings back memories or makes you think about how it would be had you not lost what was so precious to you.

There are many people in my life who have been touched by grief this past year and I am sure there are many more. My thoughts are often with them. Grief has also touched my life in the past year and for me, it brings to the forefront to be grateful for those in my life still.

Grief is not something you get over, it is something you can get through and I will go through it again and again because I care and I feel grateful that I am able to.

Dinner parties!

2010-09-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I love Dinner Parties. When we plan a dinner party, we discuss the menu, usually in the car on the way to the bakery and try and figure out what we will have for our dinner. We each have our specialities, I cook Indian style curries, English food, most of the baked products and almost all the desserts. Christine does Thai style curries, barbeque and pasta dishes. We both love to look at our latest issue of Bon Appetit and see what other ideas we can come up with. In fact I have issues of Bon Appetit from the 80's and all of at least the last ten years.

So, with the menu plan written down and in hand the next step is which dishes to use. What are we going to have with it. We like fusion, but there has to be some compatibility in flavours and in the tast of the people attending. It is definitely easier to feed one or two people than a crowd. Having someone over who has allergies actually makes me feel more excited than someone who can eat anything. I think one of the reasons why I ended up starting the Spelt Bakery was because I so enjoyed the challenge of feeding someone who thought that they were too much trouble with their big list of things they could not eat. While it is a challenge it is one I thrive on.

Christine and I have an e-mail list to send to people who invite us over. I have to say that the first time Christine invited me for dinner, she got my list and accommodated it beautifully. I was so impressed and then I got her list and understood that with her culinary expertise, a list like mine was not that big a deal. In fact she was more like me in that she was able to see a list of "Foods Not For Me!" and create a menu to fit. I have to say that as a baker, marrying a chef is so perfect!

September!!!

2010-09-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how busy it feels at the beginning of September? The craziness of getting in the last good long weekend camping trip, the rush to buy all the school supplies and back to school clothes. It starts to get cooler and all of a sudden the mad dash to get all the food we need, the clothes and the rest of what we need to make it through a cold winter. Sometimes I think that we just have some typical actions that come from when we used to need to store food through the winter and stay in our caves/cabins/homes for several months each year.

I have always behaved this way and each September I start to make food. It's a good thing that I own a bakery, because without it, I would not know enough people for all the food that I make. This year we are working on frozen pizzas and it actually took about 6 hours to do all the prep work. Tomorrow we make the pizzas and then we can see how many we get. It's quite exciting really. I have always loved insta-food, however I hate to sacrifice quality and taste for convenience. I am addicted to these new pizzas and I am so thrilled to be able to just take them from the freezer and put them straight in the oven. I am now after enough summer heat, looking forward to the cool fall air and the start of sitting in front of the fire with a nice thick stew and a hot toddy.

Even though we don't often get alot of snow here in Vancouver, The seasons are still distinctive and fun in their own ways. So take a deep breath and enjoy the transition between summer and fall, the labour day holiday weekend that starts off another beautiful season.

Late Summer Evenings!

2010-08-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

15 years ago when I was a young mother of two, I bought a house in East Vancouver. I remember calling up my family realtor, Sandy Riley and telling her that I wanted to buy a house in between Nanaimo and Clark, and Hastings and Broadway. She told me that she would call me in about six months. She did, we looked at three houses in a week and I put an offer on the first house we looked at. Three offers were put on the house and we got it!!!

15 years later, I still absolutely love this house and this is a photo of Christine and I on the back porch with the beautiful sky behind us. We love to spend time in the late summer with friends and family on the back porch and it is so nice to watch the sunset and enjoy the light summer breeze. Nowadays we have that cool breeze with the smell of autumn in the air. Time to organize and move forward. Kind of like the movie chocolat, go where the wind blows you. For me that is more of a metaphor than getting up and leaving town. I'm staying in this house and still going where the wind takes me. I am creative when I feel this way and the things I like to create most is foods. Watch for the latest ideas here, on facebook and at the bakery.

Life is good when you're growing and moving forward.

Spelt Ravioli!

2010-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

We made Spelt Ravioli and IT WORKED!!! I have made pasta out of spelt flour several times before but have always had trouble making the stuffed pasta. So after reading a few different sets of instructions on how to make stuffed pasta I figured out how to do it and do it well. I even taught my thirteen year old daughter how to make her own.

We had ours stuffed with a combination of ricotta, spinach, gorgonzola and fresh basil from our garden. Christine made this beautiful sauce with onions, carrots and garlic sauteed in olive oil and then tomatoes. It was a beautiful chunky delicious sauce full of flavour.

My daughter, Boedicea, made her own filling with spelt bread crumbs, an egg, shredded cheddar cheese and bacon. She even stuffed her own ravioli and she thought they would fall apart when they were cooked. They didn't! She ended up with a pot full of amazingly delicious, big, beautiful ravioli.

It wa so much fun making the raviloi that now I want to do a workshop on it.

A Baker in the Making!

2010-08-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

When I was a teenager, I hiked the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island twice. The first time was with my highschool and the second time was with a neighbourhood house (like a community centre)in Vancouver.

On my second hike, a friend of mine was having her birthday and I decided before I left to make a cake mix and an icing mix where all I had to do was add water to be able to make her a cake for her Birthday. I had researched how to bake without an oven and what tools you could use to create an oven with an open fire. There was the aluminum foil method, but if it was windy at all, it could cause problems. Then there was the pot inside pot method, but if you put it directly on the fire, you needed something to stop the bottom from burning. I don't remember now what else I read, but I do remember what I did.

We got to Tsusiat Falls and that was the evening of my friends birthday. We set up camp, had a big fire on the beach and started making dinner. There were good sized rocks all around and ones that had been put on the edge of a fire pit that seemed to live at Tsusiat Falls. I took the mix I had made at home, added water and placed the cake batter in a small greased pot from my camping cookware. I had this fantastic set of cookware that all fit inside each other. I took the largest of the pots and lined it with rocks, being careful to choose rocks that had already been at the fire pit as I did not want any of them to explode. I put my cake pot on top of the rocks in the larger pot and then put the lid on the large pot. This was placed over the fire. I don't remember how long it took to bake, but it kind of steamed/baked like a traditional english steamed pudding. I took it out when it was fully baked and added water to my icing, covered the cake, put a candle on top and presented it to my friend. Everyone wanted to know where I "found" this cake and I told them I made it. Even then baking and feeding people was a passion for me. Everyone was amazed and I have to say after 4 days of hiking it was delicious.

Girls Rock Camp Vancouver!!!

2010-08-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

My daughter attended Girls Rock Camp this summer and she LOVED it! This is an absolutely amazing week long camp where the girls form a band and write a song and then perform it in front of an audience.

I have often thought that I was incredibly lucky to have the kind of programs available to me when I was young that helped me learn skills that I would never have learned in a conventional school or even at home. I was also lucky to have gone through an alternative school program and to have gone on many trips learning how to canoe, rock climb and bake without an oven.

When I was in Carnarvon Elementary School in Vancouver, I learned how to plan a menu, budget the money and shop for all the groceries I needed for a 5 day camping trip. I still use those skills to this day.

In highschool, I learned how to carry my food, shelter and clothing for a week and what types of foods were going to be the lightest with the most nutrients to keep me going on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Too bad I didn't have any Breakfast Cookies back then.

Through different neighbourhood houses and organizations I learned many things that I have since used in my life and am grateful for all the volunteers and paid workers that helped me learn about my environment, the food I eat and the people around me.
I have often said that I should have known that I would end up being a Baker when I baked a cake on the West Coast Trail when I was 15 years old.

For more information on Girls Rock Camp Vancouver check out their website: http://girlsrockcampvancouver.ca/grcv/

Picnics in the heat!

2010-08-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

When it gets too hot it is very hard to cook or eat and I just want to find a nice shady spot on the water. So that is the time for picnics at places like Cates Park, Deep Cove or Jericho Beach.

At this time of year, because of the incredible fruits available, we went and picked up okanagan cherries nectarines, plums and peaches. We went to Ugo and Joe's for this beautiful creamy macedonian feta, a bulgarian sheep feta and some camembert. Then to Coiffi's for a couple of semi-hard goat and sheep cheeses to round out our platters for a picnic at the beach. We grabbed a small pack of tomatoes, sparkling grapefruit juice, a watermelon, avocado and some hummous, can of artichokes and an artichoke dip. With our homemade fruit and nut crisps, a loaf of sprouted spelt bread, chips, a box of almond thins and of course our sinful spelt double chocolate chip cookies, we headed to Cates Park. We drove over in just about fifteen to twenty minutes and then chose a spot on the grass by the beach and put our blanket down.

There is nothing quite like sitting on a blanket just off the water and digging into a bunch of fresh food. After a long hot day, I don't want to cook. So I want fast food. Good fast food - nice spelt bread, cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables. If you wash everything when you buy it, it's ready to go when you are tired and hot.

Now we have the equipment packed in the van ready to go. So if you see the Spelt Mobile crossing the second narrows, we are heading to Cates Park and if the canoe is on top, we are headed for Deep Cove.

There are ways to enjoy the heat.

Friday the 13th

2010-08-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of may favourite days. Wonderful things happen for me on Friday the 13th.

On Friday, April 13th, 2007, Christine gave me 13 red roses from The Flower Box (www.theflowerbox.ca) and asked me to be her partner for the first time. This is an example of their floral arrangements.

On Friday, November 13th, 2009, My daughter Boedicea turned thirteen.

Today at the Bakery everything went very smoothly, we finished our prep for our Saturday sales and got to leave the Bakery early.

Now we are at home trying these new nitrate/nitrite free hot dogs that we found at Whole Foods with our big beautiful hot dog buns. I wish I had a Spelt beer from Firefly Fine Wine and Ales (www.fireflyfinewinesandales.com) but not today. Probably better as it needs to be shared with a friend and we will be at the bakery working tomorrow

Enjoy your weekend.

Spelt Pastry!

2010-08-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Finally a recipe on the Spelt Baker's Blog! I am sure that you are all expecting me to post a recipe once in a while and here is the first one. Why Pastry? because someone wrote on The Spelt Bakery Facebook Page that they wanted savoury pies and we do not have the proper license to make and sell them. So here is the recipe so that you can make it at home and fill it with whatever you want.

Spelt Pastry from Basic Spelt Cookbook by Janet Féirín

1 lb. (454 grams) of Shortening (I use Earth Balance Shortening that I buy at Donald's Market in Vancouver)
4 cups of white spelt flour (I use Organic Meadow, but have also used la Milanaise and Saugeen flours, make sure it's white!)
1 tablespoon of organic cane sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon of vinegar (if you can't have vinegar, replace it with lemon juice)
water

Blend flour sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Use a knife, fork or pastry cutter to cut up the shortening into the flour mixture.
When the flour mixture looks like crumbs, make a well in the middle.
Beat the egg in a measuring cup with a 1 cup mark.
Add the vinegar or lemon juice and enough warm water to equal 1 cup of liquid.
Pour into well in flour mixture.
With your hands, squeeze liquid into mixture until a nice firm dough has formed. Be careful not to knead as this will make the pastry heavy.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Use for quiche, savoury pies, sausage rolls, etc.

I used to make a smoked salmon asparagus quiche with coconut milk for those who could not have cow's milk. There are also several options for vegetarian pot pies and meat pies.

I would love to hear your ideas for savoury pies! My favourite is chicken pot pie and I have always said that the reason mine is so good is because I start with a chicken.

Will I make you hungry?

2010-08-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Be prepared to salivate at various times reading this blog. It has been said about me that my love of food is only surpassed by my desire to feed people.

Not that type of grandmotherly, "You don't eat enough... HAVE MORE!" feeding people. More like a " wanna try this new dish I made? I... " and then follows the description of all the different ingredients that I used and how I put them all together and what I serve it with and then you are hungry.

Yes, I will probably make you hungry and if I don't you should go see a doctor, naturopath, psychiatrist, therapist or homeopath. There could be something wrong with you.

Food should be enjoyed. We all need to eat, why not make it fun, exciting and precious. The picture above is when we went to Feast of Fields last year and those are little pieces of fudgy chocolate cake (recipe is in my cookbook, Basic Spelt) with soft goat cheese icing and raspberry coulis on top. Delicious and adorable. We also made a pesto and served it with goat cheese and fresh tomato on my Country bread which is available by special order from the bakery.

So salivate away, make yourself a good dinner and remember goat's brie is lower in fat than cow's brie.

Photo of our booth.

2010-08-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

2010-08-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

What a fabulous Pride Day we had. Christine and I were up at 5:30 to get everything ready and loaded in the van to be able to get down to Sunset Beach at 7:45am. It is amazing how quick it is to drive downtown on a Sunday morning before the world has woken up.

We got everything set up and we were dressed in our costumes and ready to go by 11am. People came by all day and I almost lost my voice.

We were planning on going out for dinner after taking down everything and going back home to clean up and get ready to go out, but we were way too tired. It was so much fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. Check out the faeries.

Pride Recovery

2010-08-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

How long does it take a Spelt Baker to recover from Pride Weekend? We will have to see when the next post is....

Vancouver Pride

2010-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Pride!!!

Today is the day that thousands will head downtown for the Vancouver Pride Parade. Last year, my daughter, Boedicea led the way for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival float and our friend Melanie is beside her dressed all in white with a black belt in this photo. They won an award for their float and Christine and I watched the parade with my parents (Christine Waymark and Robin Rennie of Dragonstone Counselling in Vancouver, BC) because we all wanted to see Boedicea head the Queer Film Festival float.

In 2007, all five of us, three generations participated in the parade. This year you will find us on sunset beach selling spelt goodies right by the stage.

I hope that you have a fabulous day and that no matter who you are, who you love, how you love... that you are proud to be.

Our beautiful backyard

2010-07-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

This year we planted a garden in our backyard.

It's kind of funny that last year in the same section, we planted grass. Before that there was just a big pile of dirt in that section of our yard. We made three levels of beautiful lawn going down to the edge of the garage for our wedding on June 21st, 2009. Christine and I have now been married for just over a year and on our first anniversary, Horizon Distributors launched our Breakfast Cookie as a new product. It was a very exciting day for us and we celebrated by going to Vij's for dinner.

Anyway back to the garden. Our tenants, Jeff and Flo have helped enormously. We already had raspberries, black currants and saskatoon berries along the side of the fence and a cherry tree out front. Now we also have lettuce, carrots, beets (my favourite are golden beets), potatoes, leeks (for my goat cheese, leek and onion tart) tomatoes of all different size, radishes, endives, peppers, squash, eggplants, herbs and an artichoke for Christine. There is only one artichoke and maybe next year there will be more. I was so excited to find the seeds that I had to try it out and it is actually growing but apparently it is alot like asparagus. It takes a long time to get food out of it.

For quick eating gardens, I think lettuce is pretty good. I planted a seed mix and the red and green romaine that is coming out of it is gorgeous. We have been eating caesar salads with our own homemade dressing and it is amazing. We bought a chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano and are slicing it and putting thin slices of cheese in the salad with a traditional dressing with anchovies, egg, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil. If you do not eat cows milk cheeses, there are some beautiful sheep milk cheeses that are similar, like Pecorino Romano which is what we usually get for pasta dishes.

I hope you like the picture of our beautiful Garden.

Come celebrate your pride with us!

2010-07-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

We will be at Sunset beach on the Sunday, August 1st for the Vancouver Pride Parade!!

Christine and I spent the day working on our outfits, so come by our booth to get yourself a breakfast cookie and to see what we came up with to wear to celebrate the Vancouver Pride Festival.

450 degrees

2010-07-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

Making puff dough out of Spelt flour is one of those things that I have done many times in the past and at the previous location of the bakery (The Spelt Bakery) we used it for making cherry pinwheels and fruit filled pastries. Then I met Christine and she made this fabulous savoury strudel with my puff dough.

However, the last time we tried to make cherry pinwheels, they failed miserably. We baked them in our convection oven at the bakery at 375 degrees and the puff dough did not puff. So on Saturday night I decided to try puff dough again.

I took some little squares of puff dough that I had in the freezer at the bakery and brought them home. I folded the edges over to make a little edge and then brushed all the edges with egg wash.

Meanwhile I sautée two large leeks and a red onion in a bit of olive oil in one of my favourite cast iron frying pans. I added a touch of a rosemary/raspberry sea salt and cooked the leeks and onion until soft with a little bit of a brown edge.

With a fork, I divided the leek onion mixture between my seven little puff squares and crumbled a soft goat cheese on top. I then put some fresh ground black pepper on top and baked all of them at 450 degrees in the oven and THEY PUFFED!!!

The recipe for spelt puff dough is in my cookbook, Basic Spelt, available from the bakery.

I was so excited that I kept smiling and laughing little happy laughs. For those of you who have not met me, I like to smile and laugh like a five month old watching the dogs. (That's a reference to my granddaughter, Lilja) I like to get excited by the small things in life, like a good meal and the success of my puff dough.

Quite frankly, there are enough of all those small things to make life quite enjoyable.

I hope you like the picture of my puffy little goat cheese, leek and onion tarts. They were delicious with our tapas dinner of skewered prawns, tomatoes and red onions on the bbq and chicken wings with Christine's honey mustard sauce.

Success at 450!!

My First Post

2010-07-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog and you may or may not find it interesting. I will write about whatever I want and alot of times it will probably be about food.

I love family, food and adventure. I love to feed people and I love to write, talk, discuss and hear about food.

Please feel free to take my ideas about food and recreate them at home. Eating well is so much fun.