It seems that one of Jane’s favourite things to serve is homemade pasta, and since Sarah and I are such keeners in the kitchen, we’re always enlisted as extra labor (we are paid in delicious wine and appetizers). We often help assemble ravioli after Jane has prepared the dough and filling—she’ll tell us tales of the adorable little restaurant they first had the ravioli at on their last trip to Italy as well roll and fill.

Anyhow, one of the best things about homemade pasta is that it’s far easier than most people think. That means it’s a great thing to make if you want to impress somebody without actually investing too much effort. It’s also a great thing to get your guests to help with, as everyone tends to congregate in the kitchen for dinner parties anyways!

The dough after kneading, but before resting.

Feeding the dough through the rollers for the first time.

The dough is unbelievably simple. Three ingredients—flour, eggs, and a pinch of salt. I’d recommend grabbing a bag of Tipo 00 flour (Italian pasta flour) at your local moderately fancy grocery store, but all purpose will do the trick. Then you mix, knead, and wait.

Feeding the pasta through the rollers after folding the rounded ends down to square the piece off.

After waiting comes the rolling. I highly recommend investing in a pasta maker for this part! You can do it with a rolling pin, but if that’s your plan I hope you’re not hungry when you start making the pasta or you may start eating it raw

The fettuccine rollers.

Fettuccine!

Homemade Pasta

312g (11oz) Tipo 00 flour (or all purpose)
A pinch of salt
3 large eggs

Stir the flour and salt together in a large bowl, and then create a well in the middle of the flour.

Crack the eggs into the well in the center of the flour. Using your fingers, swirl the eggs together, and then start swirling in the flour. Once you’ve incorporated enough flour to have a soft dough, tip everything out onto the counter and start kneading. The dough will be quite sticky, but resist the urge to add more flour—there should be enough there. As you knead, the dough will smooth out.

Once the dough is smooth and you can poke it and it’ll bounce back, wrap it in cling film and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Now it’s time to roll it out! Cut it into eighths, and re-wrap all but one. Dust your pasta maker with flour, and open the rollers to the widest setting. Flatten the dough out until it’s about 1cm thick and start feeding it through the rollers, tightening the rollers as needed. I recommend folding the ends down as they tend to come out quite rounded; folding them over helps square everything out.

Once you’ve run the pasta through the tightest roller setting, it’s ready to use! Here you can see I slid on the fettuccine/spaghetti attachment and made fettuccine, but the possibilities are endless!

Fast forward ten or so years, and I’m in university, in charge of keeping myself fed. Late one night, as I’m drifting off to sleep, I remember this soup, and my culinary wheels start churning away. It should be noted that I was on a massive make-everything-Thai-fusion kick at this time (I made a Thai inspired risotto, among other things), so I decided to take my resurrected peanut butter soup in a distinctly Thai direction.

Now, it’s been a few years since I first invented (sure, I’ll claim that) Thai peanut butter soup, so when I came home from work, hungry after my 25km of biking that day, and remembered its existence by chance, it sounded like a brilliant idea. I’ve tweaked my 18-year-old self’s original as I’ve learned a few things, but the idea is basically the same. The result is a rich, creamy soup, loaded with noodles, bamboo, and a few veggies (it’s also veg*n if you watch the ingredients in the chili paste!).

Thai Peanut Butter Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 tsp ground lemongrass
1 tsp ground galangal
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground garlic

1 can coconut milk
½ cup natural peanut butter
1–2 tbsp brown or palm sugar
5 kaffir lime leaves
Vegetable stock, as needed
Soy sauce, to season

1 can bamboo shoots, drained and rinsed
1 cup cubed sweet potato
1 cup cubed tofu
1 can baby corn, drained, rinsed, and chopped
½ package flat rice noodles, soaked and drained

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large wok. Add the curry paste, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, and garlic. Blend everything into the oil and cook until hot and fragrant, about three minutes.

Add the coconut milk and peanut butter, and heat through, stirring, to blend everything together. Add the sugar, kaffir lime leaves and veggie stock (enough to thin it so the base is more stock than sauce) and simmer for 10 minutes. Season to taste with soy sauce before proceeding.

Add the bamboo, sweet potato, tofu, baby corn, and rice noodles. Simmer until warmed through.

Serve with a squeeze of lime juice and fresh Thai basil. Enjoy!

Homemade lipstick!

I’ve been thinking about trying DIY lipstick for a while, and I’ve learned from my various forays into tinted lip balms. I thought about trying a variety of different colourants, but in the end, I tried my Australian Red Reef Clay first. The colour is just so deep and wonderful that I just had to.

I began with a fairly straight-up lip balm recipe. I included shea butter and avocado oil for their uber-moisturizing qualities. I also added magnesium strearate—just the tiniest bit to help with slip, as I’ve found adding large amounts of powdered pigments to lip balm can make it “skid” rather than slip across the lips.

And for the colouring—the deep, red clay. I mixed it all together with a few drops of peppermint essential oil until I had a thick, oily red mess, and poured it into lip balm tubes. After it set up, I gave it a test drive.

BAM. WOW. Now that is lipstick! Dark, red, moisturizing, and pepperminty. Awesome! I love this shade with buffing of my airbrushing powder, filled in eyebrows, some eye bright, a bit of eyeshadow, and a good coat of mascara for a glamorous, 1940′s/50′s inspired look.

Oooh, look, I found my inner Zooey Deschanel!

DIY Red Rose Lipstick

4g beeswax
7g shea butter
4g cocoa butter
10g avocado oil
1g magnesium stearate

2 tsp Australian red reef clay
5–10 drops peppermint essential oil

Melt the beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, and magnesium stearate together. Thoroughly stir in the clay and essential oil, and then pour into 4 lip balm tubes.

Enjoy! I find this lipstick is best applied with a brush as the colour is so dark, so a tin would also be a great place to store it.

Anyhow, I don’t live in Toronto anymore, I wanted that wrap. I knew I wouldn’t be able to re-create it perfectly, so I took all my fondest memories of the wrap and melded them with all my other favourite things to create an amazing version of one of my favourite restaurant meals.

My memories of the wrap included big, roasted chunks of sweet potatoes, roasted red peppers, chipotle sauce, fresh spinach, and surprises of gooey brie. Yum. I also remember not ever being able to finish one without making myself really sick (worth it!).

I supplemented my memories with some delicious re-fried beans, avocado slices, sundried tomatoes, and homemade tortillas. I also swapped the chipotle sauce for chipotle mayo.

The resulting wrap is loaded with delicious veggies, fibre, and flavour. Super awesome for lunches and dinners, especially with a massive scoop of sour cream on the side.

Roasted Veggie & Brie Burritos

1 small sweet potato, halved lengthwise and sliced into 1cm thick half moons
1 tsp seasoned salt
Olive oil, for roasting

4 (10″) flour tortillas, homemade or otherwise

¼ cup chipotle mayo

1 batch homemade re-fried beans

1 red pepper, roasted and sliced
5 sundried tomatoes, sliced
½ avocado, sliced
2 cups fresh baby greens

1/3 cup brie, sliced

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Toss the sweet potatoes in olive oil and seasoned salt. Roast for half an hour until golden brown, flipping the slices after 15 minutes.

Spread each tortilla with a tablespoon of chipotle mayo, and a scoop of re-fried beans. Top with a few slices of roasted red pepper, sweet potato, avocado, and sundried tomato. Finish it off with a few nuggets of brie and a handful of baby greens.

Wrap up and serve with a scoop of sour cream!

Now, these tablets are loaded with all kinds of good things. The cucumber peel extract acts as the astringent, as well as having anti-inflammatory properties and being loaded with vitamins and minerals. Green tea has lots of anti-oxidants, and vitamin C, bee pollen, and honey are just all-around great for the skin. Baking soda gives these tablets a bit of a fizz when they get wet, thanks to the acidity of the vitamin C.

I have a confession to make—these failed to stay tablets the first time. After I took the time to carefully form about a hundred little tablets, they quickly puffed into little piles of dust, like a dried out sand castle.

So, I thought about the differences between something like a bath bomb, which sticks together when you spritz it with water, and my toner, err, powder, which definitely did not. The difference is that bath bombs are made mostly from water soluble ingredients, like Epsom salts and citric acid. So, when they get a bit damp, they start to dissolve into one another, and as they dry, they fuse together, like a sugar cube. The majority of the ingredients in this toner powder weren’t water soluble, so the tablets went the way of a sandcastle on a hot day.

Time for a fix! Loading the toner with sugar didn’t seem like a good idea unless I wanted to be chased by bees all day long, so salt it was. Salt is naturally antibacterial, boosts circulation, and helps soften the skin, so it seemed like a good addition. I halved the recipe with salt, and blitzed it all together in my coffee grinder to ensure the mixture was evenly textured.

A funny thing happened when I added the water—instead of getting a slightly damp powder, I got a dough, like play dough. Huh. Cool. With that texture you’ve got two different options for forming your tablets—you can pinch off sections and roll them into little balls, or you call roll them out into long worms, and use a knife to trim off little snippets. Your choice!

Toner Tablets

1 tbsp cucumber extract
1 tsp bee pollen
¼ tsp vitamin C
½ tsp honey powder
1 tsp green tea extract
2 tbsp table salt

5 drops lavender essential oil
3 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops liquid bee propolis

Water, as needed

Blitz all the dry ingredients together into a fine powder. Add the essential oils and propolis, and blend.

Then, slowly add water, drop by drop, blending as you go, until you have a dough. Chances are there will be too much for the coffee grinder to handle, so you’ll have to scoop everything out and knead in the rest of the water until you have a play dough texture. Be careful with the water, it’s easy to add too much and end up with a sticky, gooey mess.

You can shape the tablets one of two ways; pinch off small pieces and roll them into little balls, or roll out little worms and trim off little bits.

Lay everything out on sheets of wax paper and let the tablets dry.

To use, place a tablet in the bottom of a cup or small jar with a bit of water (maybe 10–15mL, 2–3tsp). Let dissolve, swirling to encourage things along. Swab across your face with a re-useable cotton pad or washcloth when it’s all dissolved.

You may find one tablet makes too much toner (or that your toner is too concentrated), in which case you can just pick out the tablet after enough has dissolved, let the tablet dry out again, and use the rest of it later. Or, if you know you’ll be staying in one place for a while, you could just make a bit more and have it pre-made for the next few days.

The core of this balm is lots of moisture from shea butter and olive oil. Moisture keeps the skin supple so it doesn’t crack and re-open. There’s also added vitamin E to help your skin re-generate.

Next up, some herbal boosters. I used oils infused with calendula, comfrey, and plantain. Each of these herbs is known to boost healing, soothe unhappy skin, and relieve pain.

Lastly, some essential oils. Lavender and chamomile, for soothing; tea tree for an antibacterial boost; helichrysum to for healing; and cedarwood for circulation stimulation. The resulting scent blend is wonderfully soft, sweet, and soothing.

Palm Balm for Rock Climbers

20g beeswax
20g shea butter
8g calendula infused oil
8g comfrey root infused oil
8g plantain infused oil
1g vitamin E oil

5 drops roman chamomile essential oil
2 drops helichrysum essential oil
6 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops cedarwood essential oil
4 drops tea tree essential oil

Melt the beeswax, shea butter, and herb-infused oils together in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in the essential oils. Pour into shallow tins and use on small scratches and wounds.

Plantain infused olive oil.

There are two ways to make herb infused oils, so I thought I’d run through both of them, and why I like each method.

For each method you’ll need the same things: a 500mL mason jar, a relatively large amount of a fairly inexpensive, shelf-stable liquid oil (olive, grapeseed, and safflower are all great choices), and the herb in question, dried (about 1/3–½ cup). You want to be sure to use the dried version so you don’t introduce any water into the oil, which will shorten the shelf life of the oil dramatically.

Calendula infused olive oil—this has been steeping for nearly two years and it’s awesome in balms and salves.

Method #1 is wonderfully easy: Put the herbs in the jar. Top off with oil & seal. Leave on a sunny windowsill for three weeks or so (shaking on occasion) before moving to a dark, cool cupboard. The initial dose of warmth and sunshine will speed the infusion, but after that you’ll want to move it so you don’t speed rancidity. You can use the oil after the first three weeks.

Method #2 is a bit more involved. Start with the first two steps of #1, but instead of sealing the jar, empty the contents into a small saucepan. Heat on very low heat, stirring, for half and hour. Let cool and then pour into the jar. Seal and store in a cool, dry cupboard. You can use the oil immediately. If your stove tends to run hot or you are absent-minded, it’s a good idea to do this in a double boiler as you don’t want to accidentally fry all your dried herbs.

The benefits of each method are pretty apparent: #1 is nice and passive, so you don’t really have to do much of anything. Great if you won’t need the oil for a few weeks. #2 is fast, just in case you don’t have the extra time to leave it for three weeks.

Usage for both types of oils is the same; simply spoon out the amount you need and run it through a sieve to remove any bits of herb, and then proceed with the recipe.

I’ve used both methods and I like them both. I always keep infused oils of calendula, comfrey, and plantain on hand for use in balms, salves, and body butters, and I’m sure that collection will continue to grow!

One of the best parts about this dish is how easy it is to have everything on hand! The pasta (or flour & eggs) can easily hang about. Sundried tomatoes and artichokes are usually purchased canned or jarred, and garlic and olive oil are pantry staples.

Halloumi lasts for ages in the fridge if the package is sealed, and there’s a good chance you have broccoli on hand (or some other vegetable you can toss in).

This is also incredibly easy to pull together and the leftovers are wonderful. With just a bit of chopping and a wee bit of simmering, you’re done!

Tobyn would like a taste.

Fettuccine with Chévre, Sundried Tomatoes, and Halloumi

1 package of halloumi, sliced crosswise into 1.5cm wide slices
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 garlic cloves, sliced
¼ cup nice extra virgin olive oil

Fettuccine for 2 people, homemade or store bought

1 (300mL) jar sundried tomatoes in oil
1 (300mL) jar marinated artichokes
1 cup broccoli florets

1/3 cup crumbled chévre

Place the halloumi slices on the bottom of a glass dish pour the lemon juice, rosemary, garlic powder, black pepper, and 1/3 cup of the oil from the sundried tomatoes over top and marinate, turning, for at least 20 minutes. You can also do this ahead of time and let the halloumi marinate in the fridge for up to a week.

Heat the garlic cloves in the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat until you hear a bit of bubbling (there should be no sizzling! If so, you’ve gone too far and you’ll have to start over). Remove the oil from the heat and let cool/infuse while you do everything else.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. While you’re waiting for it to boil, cut up about half of the sundried tomatoes and artichokes.

Once the water has boiled, add the pasta. If it’s freshly homemade pasta, add the broccoli right away as fresh pasta doesn’t take more than 3 minutes to cook. If it’s store bought, add the broccoli after 5 minutes, or at whatever point necessary to let the broccoli cook for 3 minutes.

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium high heat. Fry the halloumi until it’s golden on both sides.

Drain and rinse the pasta & broccoli. Toss with the chopped tomatoes, artichokes, chévre and garlic infused olive oil (garlic slices included). Serve with halloumi and lots of black pepper. Yum!

Spa Night
Encourage your mom to relax my giving her an at-home spa night basket loaded with a dry face mask mix, a great sugar scrub, some bath salts, and a few tea lights to complete the mood.

Beauty Basket
If your mum loves make-up, why not create some custom make-up with her? You can make some eyeshadow, blush, mineral make-up, and some great argan oil facial serum.

Luxury Bath Kit
If you mum loves baths (and especially if you live in a cold climate), give her a great bath kit. Load it up with bath bombs, homemade soap and shampoo, bath salts, and fizzy bath scrubs.

Soft Skin Collection
Pamper your mom’s skin with a great collection of body butter, lotion, exfoliating scrubs, and lip balm.

Pamper Those Lips
It’s a gift for your dad, too Soften up your mum’s lips with homemade lip scrubs, lip balms, and lip glosses!

I cannot say enough good things about it. Meredith discovered it one summer and filled me in the following September when our fourth year classes started. She gifted me the remnants of a bottle of Josie Maran argan oil, and I fell in love with it immediately. It absorbs quickly, and just a few drops softens and soothes my skin. It’s one of the rarest oils in the world, and has been used in Morocco for hair and skin for centuries. Because the trees only grow in a small part of the world, they are protected by UNESCO, and the production is still carried out by local women who earn a living thanks to growing demand for this awesome oil.

Everything but the price was perfect—15ml of Josie Maran argan oil is about $30 at Sephora. Ouch. My love of it drove me to the internet (this was well before I had discovered New Directions Aromatics and was still in school, just dipping my toes into the world of DIY skin products). I found a seller on eBay who shipped my 100mL for $30, which was a significant improvement (and very exciting for nerdy me). Soon after I dived head-first into DIY and discovered NDA’s $12/100mL, and I’ve been hooked (and well supplied) ever since.

Now, you can read about the benefits of argan oil online until the words “vitamin E” and “fatty acids” and permanently imprinted on your eyeballs. There’s nothing I can say about the composition of argan oil that hasn’t already been said. So, I’ll offer some anecdotal evidence instead.

After a few months of using argan oil, I got a bunch of new oils. So, I made myself a facial serum with all my fancy new oils, figuring it would be an upgrade. I used the new oil mixture for a few months, and then I happened to use some argan oil instead one night before going to bed. I woke up in the morning to find a few stubborn blemishes had healed up substantially overnight, and my skin felt much better. I switched back to argan oil immediately and never looked back.

I gave my mom some argan oil shortly after I started using it, and she refuses to run out. I’ve got girlfriends and ex-boyfriends hooked on it, and it’s all I’ll recommend for anybody’s face. I won’t travel anywhere overnight without it.

Lately I’ve taken to spiking mine with a few essential oils—helichrysum, South African chamomile, and lavender. All are good for healing and calming the skin, and as a plus, the combination smells fantastic.

My Favourite Argan Oil Serum

15mL argan oil
1 drop helichrysum essential oil
4 drops lavender essential oil
4 drops South African chamomile essential oil

Mix all in a 15mL dark amber glass bottle with an eyedropper. You’ll need four or five drops for your face, once or twice a day.