Saw this as I was dozing off last night.

Campbell’s Creations Soups had a tagline that said:

“Made with real vegetables, like celery, carrots and broccoli like you’d find in a homemade soup!”

All I could think was: So what the heck were we buying/eating from your brand before, Campbells!?!? Fake soup? Chemicals that taste like soup? Fake vegetables?

Bah.

Update: Thanks to Kathy on Facebook, I found out the authors are Saxton Freymann, Joost Elffers if you want to buy their whimsical books!

These are just too cool not to post.

Sent to me by BF

Eat your own art!

Goldfish bok choy.. And to think I actually hate that vegetable.

This one is my favourite out of all the pictures.

Penguins!

Brilliant.

Such personality!

I’d be the kiwi.

Then I’d run over to the orange (BF) and eat his ice cream cone.

Makes me think of a grandchild with their Poppy.

So inventive!

I will never look at peas the same way again.

Namely, the traditional Galette de Roi and some Crème Brûlée.

Galette de Roi or The King’s Cake

Purchased at Au Pain Doré for a whopping $23!

(We got the super sized one)

Still, it was delicious.

If you have never had a Galette de Roi, they are usually only available at the start of the year.

Here it is ready to go into the oven to be warmed and toasted.

And YUM!

The little bird there is the equivalent of a hidden bean inside the cake.

Whoever gets the bean, is declared King.

BF got it this year. I was Queen of Cakes last year.

Crème Brûlée or Burnt Cream

Done in the oven, because we don’t have the torch.

BF the Chef was disappointed by its lack of burnt-ness, how warm it was, and the texture.

….but I greedily ate as much as my spoon could crack and scoop up.

I found it delicious!

And the New Year begins beautifully for my belly

Merry Christmas Eve

I updated Wordpress and it screwed all my scheduling.

I think I may have found the best recipe I’ve done yet, to get juicy, tender chicken.

This is the marinade I cobbled together based on what I thought would taste good:

• 4 Chicken Thighs
• 4 Bay Leaves
• Honey (heaping full tablespoon)
• Salt (half a tablespoon)
• Soy sauce (a splash)
• White Vinegar (a capful?)
• Pepper (4 or 5 grinds of the mill)
• Olive Oil (A good splash)

The Mixture

I mixed up everything first, tasting to make sure it wasn’t too salty or sweet, and adjusting as I went along.

Salt doesn’t melt into honey, so just keep that in mind when you first taste a lot of honey, but then it turns salty.

Why the honey? I like using honey, because it’s a humectant and it keeps the moisture in.

Why the bay leaves? I don’t know. I like their light flavour with chicken.

I let it marinate for 3 hours.

I kept the skin side up on the chicken, so it doesn’t get mushy, but kind of crisps up a bit.

And the sauce came up halfway to the chicken so that the meat sort of boils and cooks in the sauce.

But don’t cover the chicken completely with the sauce, so it stays crisped/dry.

Just let it stay glazed.

And when the hot oven was done with my pitas, I just popped in the casserole dish without the cover.

45 minutes at 350F/180C (or until cooked)

For the last 12 minutes, I turned off the oven and let it cool down, while it cooked.

Then I removed it completely and let it rest for 5 minutes to seal in the juices.

Why? Because if you cut into it right away, the juices run out and disappear, and I blubbered the last time I did that.

The finished product:

The Verdict:

I will DEFINITELY be making this again.

It turned out perfectly.

It wasn’t too greasy either, contrary to what you might think.

The flavour was awesome, slightly sweet, sticky, a bit salty, a bit sour.

And I would not recommend eating these with pitas.

I suggest rice or pasta.

The flavour is lost in all that bread.