There aren't a lot of people out there who don't enjoy a sweet treat once in a while. However much you may love your brightly-coloured sugar rings, we can all agree that sweets are best kept in moderation. There is a huge array of products out there designed as "healthy substitutes" for sugar. Are they really as healthy as they claim to be. Business Insider Science has made a great informational video about sugar myths we need to stop believing.

What do you taste when you eat cilantro? Do you taste a lime-like freshness that adds a bit of zing to your salsa, or do you taste grandma's potpourri, gag, and wonder why the heck anyone would violate innocent food in such a soapy manner? Why do I taste deliciousness while my husband tastes attempted mouth murder? Well it turns out that our genetics plays a factor in the way we taste this controversial herb. 10 - 14% of people taste soap when they eat cilantro. Check out Hank Green's explanation on his YouTube channel, Sci Show:

Hey there! Summer is officially upon us (although the weather here tells me otherwise), and that means backyard barbecues, late night bonfires, juicy summer berries, and frosty, cool drinks.

With such a wide variety of food out there to choose from, how can we get the biggest bang for our buck? How can we find balance between quality and freshness? One solution is to buy seasonal products.

Buying seasonal ingredients means buying products that are harvested at specific times of the year, allowing a consumer access to fresher ingredients that are riper and often have better nutritional value. Buying seasonal products can mean savings, too! A product that is in season is more readily available, and therefore, less expensive.

I've created a handy guide to seasonal products including produce, fish and meats to help you, the lovely reader, to easily find ingredients that are in season right now! You can go directly to the summer guide here.

Happy cooking!
-Lea aka Quite Chefy

I work a LOT of night shifts, and Sunday night was no exception. The exception was that there were two guests and I got to clock out at 10 rather than 11. Instead of going home to bed like a normal human being (since I had a super early dentist appointment the next morning), I decided to play on the interwebs! I decided to do a little fancy pancy work and make a logo for the site that I'm actually super proud of! At least some of that previous art education is paying off. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Sometimes, I can be a bit of a nerdy overachiever, and that went for my first semester of culinary school. What can I say? I like to plan things out and be thorough.

Part of the exam was to cook and present two pre-determined dishes in about an hour and a half. The dessert we had to make was "Appelsin Fromage", or "Orange Fromage". Fromage is a mousse made with gelatine and whipped cream. The other dish was a mushroom velouté, which I'll post in the future.

I practiced this dish SO many times, that I was sending desserts to the university where my husband works and having them judge it. We could never have eaten it all, and we were just so sick of eating orange mousse at home. I had dreams about oranges and mushrooms, and getting a low grade. I was so stressed!! I made some changes to the recipe and made it my own, and in the end, I ROCKED that mousse!! I recieved a grade of 12, which is the equivalent to an A+, and the highest grade available!

The mousse is super light and rich with a refreshing orange jelly on the top for a bit of tanginess and balance. Serve with candied nuts and some caramel shards on the side with a big dollop of whipped cream for a lovely summer treat that doesn't feel too heavy.

You can find the recipe here.

I LOVE Pinterest. I'm not ashamed...at least not that much.

It's just so easy to find great ideas and inspiration, not to mention recipes for all the fantastic-looking food. We've all been there. Looking at the Food & Drink section for just a couple minutes, when suddenly your stomach growls so ferociously that neighbours run for cover and small frightened children start to cry.

I pin so much food on Pinterest, that it'd take me a second lifetime to try it all out, and not all recipes found there are necessarily good. Some are even disasterous! I've decided to share some of the recipes I've tried out for myself, and share my experience with you! Welcome to Quite Chefy Pintertest!

When I saw this layered mousse cake on Pinterest, I just knew I had to try it, and since I was working at culinary school at the time, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

The recipe is well laid out and easy to follow with a convenient print option. The serving size seems like a lot, but trust me, this is a big, heavy cake with a lot of rich ingredients. Just as a warning: it's also a bit pricey to make with all the chocolate and cream involved. This cake is about decadence, and it's meant to make you feel so good yet so bad at the exact same time....and then you eat two pieces.

Here is a slice (just before the inhaling happened). And in case you're thinking "that chocolate mousse looks a bit dense" you would be right. I had some really new students working with me who asked to help, and I let them make that layer of my cake. They followed the directions wrong and made a ganache-type layer instead of a mousse. It may have been dense, but still tasted great! Oh well, even if I was a little sad, we learn from our mistakes.

Verdict:

Success!! Delicious, butt-fattening success. Despite my own errors, this is one super sexy cake.

Final thoughts: The cake IS super sweet, so some form of tartness is required. My supervisor didn't want to pay for fresh raspberries, so I improvised and made a tart raspberry gel layer from frozen berries on the top instead of ganache.

I also recommend you let this cake sit in the fridge for a day or so to let the flavours blend together. The first day, the vanilla/white chocolate layer, for me, was a bit overpowering.

As stated previously, this cake can be a bit pricey with all the chocolate and cream. Since the cake has so much chocolate, you should probably use a slightly better quality chocolate for the best flavour results.

If you want to try this recipe for yourself, it can be found on Elizabeth LaBau's blog, Sugar Hero

Danes are serious about their traditions.

In late 2009, I emigrated from East Coast Canada to Northern Denmark to live with my Danish husband. That meant uprooting my whole life, and adapting to a new language, environment, and food culture.

In Denmark, the birthdays follow a usual template: rolls, hot chocolate with whipped cream, and layer cake with lots of cream and jam. Dinner, if offered, is "Suppe, steg og is", or "Soup, roast, and ice cream". With so many family members on my husband's side, it can get rather repetitive. Since our birthdays are only two weeks apart, my husband and I always celebrate together, and we decided to fight against tradition and follow a theme every year to spice things up a bit. The decorations, food, and even my husband's clothing all go by the theme. We have a ton of fun, even if it's loads of work.

We've done Mexican, American and Italian, but last year's theme was Alice in Wonderland. The dish pictured above is our main course. It's actually based on a Danish classic: Forloren hare (Mock Hare). It's basically a meatloaf wrapped in bacon with gravy and potatoes.

I know, I know, Alice in Wonderland has "The Mock Turtle", but we figured that hares were still in the scheme of things. Close enough!

What is it?

The meatball is ground pork flavoured with salt, pepper, carrots, parsley, red current jelly and onion wrapped in parma ham and baked in the oven. I laid out overlaying strips of ham on saran wrap on a cutting board, and placed a ball of meat in the middle. I lifted the corners of the plastic to wrap the ball in ham, and twisted it tight. I then placed it in the fridge to firm up until ready to cook.

Under the meatball is a bed of garlic mash. Simply toss some crushed garlic into your hot potatoes before mashing as usual.

There are also pieces of charred yellow onion. Take onions and cut them in half. Grill flat side down until black. Separate the layers, peeling the thin membrane away between the layers (it's not so nice to eat).

The sauce is made from pork stock and the drippings from the cooked meatballs. It's flavoured slightly with red currant jelly, and there are tiny dots of jelly on the plate.

Finally, the carrot has been pickled overnight in a brine made of white wine vinegar, orange juice, sugar, salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves.

It was sprinkled with chopped parsley.

This was a dish, where a lot of the components could be prepared ahead of time and cooked when ready.

Mmmmm I really need to make this one again sometime soon.

Hey there! Welcome to my blog!

Well, this is my first ever blog post, and I hope to make more in the future, with great content. Buuut, I have to get the hang of this blogging thing, first, though.

The purpose of this blog will be to share my adventures as I survive culinary school and an apprenticeship while juggling my home life. Let's just say that the husband has had to cook for himself since I work in a kitchen all day/evening, and come home reeking of kitchen with tender tootsies.

My plan is to share my journey with you, and to post some favourite recipes, test pinterest recipes, and even share favourite products. If you love food like we do in my home, then stay and be nerdy with me.

And if you've stuck around this long, WELCOME ABOARD! I hope you get some use out of this experience as I grow and learn together with you.

Lots of love -Lea