Another day with Rhubarb & Strawberry

I’ve been trying to decide what to do with the rhubarb we picked up last week. I was missing one of the essentials for the savory rhubarb dish (mustard seed!), so it was back to the sweet stuff (for now). I decided to try making strawberry rhubarb muffins this time around since I had already made the crumble last week and was looking for something a little different.

DSCF5026


There are a few recipes online for strawberry rhubarb muffins, and I grabbed one from the Robin Hood Flour website and then modified the heck out of it.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup earth balance, melted
1/4 cup apple sauce in lieu of 1 egg (which added a nice lightly sweet tart flavour, and increased the moisture level of the finished product)
1 cup non-dairy buttermilk (recipe below – it’s easy!)
1 cup rhubarb, chopped
1 cup strawberries, chopped

Non-dairy Buttermilk 
1 tbsp lemon juice (or white/apple cider vinegar)
almost 1 cup almond milk.

Add 1 tbsp lemon juice into a 1 cup glass measuring cup, fill to the 1 cup line with whatever milk you like (Just not rice milk, it’s too thin. I used almond and it turned out great) and let it sit for about ten minutes. You should end up with a clumpy sour milk mixture.

Cinnamon Sugar Topping
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
  • Lightly grease your muffin cups
  • Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl. 
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients for the batter.
  • Add the dry ingredients, to the large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly just until moistened. (not too much or else your muffins will be like bricks).
  • Spoon into muffin cups until about 3/4 full, crumble cinnamon sugar on top and put the pan in the oven.
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are firm.



Rhubarb Strawberry muffins


I made bigger muffins, so the baking process was slightly different. I kept the muffins in for around 45 minutes, so if you make 6 big muffins instead of 12, don’t be surprised if it takes a while for the muffins to finish baking.
These make an excellent breakfast or pre-breakfast snack, some alterations I was thinking about but didn’t end up doing: Adding a little bit of fresh chopped ginger to the mix or replacing half the sugar with maple syrup and adjusting the milk balance. Maybe next time.

Nerd Break – Learning Python

I have programming experience, but in all my years of university, barely anything was said about python in classes. At some point I decided that for personal (and potentially professional reasons), I should get with the program(ming) and learn languages other than javascript and variations of C. Luckily, the internet is full of resources and some of them are even good ones.

A good starting point is the Python website itself. They have guides for non-programmers, beginners, and people slightly familiar with coding. There are books and websites available that also focus on python from a bioinformatics perspective, which makes it a extra interesting.

The best find so far? Google’s Programming YouTube videos. Google had someone to teach python classes to their staff, the classes were recorded and put on the web for free.

Day 1 Part 1

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Greens Veggie Restaurant

This sunny weekend in Toronto we headed over to Kensington Market to go look at produce, okay no, we went to go to Hot Beans in hopes that they would have Boston Cream donuts. No luck on the Boston creams, but they had coconut lime, which still satisfied our quest for donuts, but still made me hope for a Boston cream filled Monday.

DONUT
I’ve walked by Greens Vegetarian Restaurant (638 Dundast St W, Toronto, ON) dozens of times, but I’ve never stopped in, or looked at the menu before this weekend. And as usual, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally did. There was only one person in the restaurant when we walked in, enjoying a giant bowl of soup, but on the bright side, an empty restaurant (ideally) means fast service.

Looking over the menu, it isn’t exactly descriptive… or rather, it doesn’t seem descriptive until you actually get your dish and realize it was exactly as describe: simple (at least with the dishes we tried.) I should mention that this is not an exclusively vegan restaurant and some dishes have egg in them, but you can tell your server and they’ll take care of you. Another nice thing about Greens is that you can get 10% off with a TVA discount card.

It’s been nearly a year since my last bowl of memorably delicious hot and sour soup (from Padmanadi in Edmonton) so I was happy to see it on Green’s menu, and even more pleased when we got a giant bowl for $2.99 (this is their small). And even more pleased when it was actually good. I know the next time I’m at Green’s I’ll be ordering another bowl of this soup.

Hot and Sour Soup... $2.99!!!!
My friend ordered a mushroom asparagus dish, and commented that the asparagus was perfect (tender crisp). It came with a side of much needed hot sauce and while the dish was tasty I’ll try something else next time.

Mushrooms and Asparagus!
I ordered the fried tofu with pepper salt and it was exactly that: deep fried tofu with pepper salt, nothing else. Not that I’m complaining, it was delicious, though that could be said for anything deep fried. I could have used something to dip the tofu wedges in (however, I’m sure I could have asked for plum sauce and solved my own issue.)

Deep Fried Tofu with Pepper Salt from Green's Vegetarian in Toronto
I’m glad we walked in there, I’m glad there was free hot green tea, and I’m glad there was ample hot sauce available. It’s nice to have a vegetarian chinese food alternative to King’s Cafe (which I didn’t enjoy much) in the Kensington Market area (though there is also Buddha’s on 666 Dundas St W). Service was quick and friendly and the air conditioning was strong; I see myself going here again sometime during this summer.