Austrian Pumpkin Seed Oil

This morning we have been having an Austrian sort of morning. Georg played Andre Heller's latest 3-disc compendium and I made scrambled eggs with curly endive and pumpkin seed oil.

Pumpkin seed oil is a precious export in the Styrian region of Austria. They grow their own type of oil-pumpkins there, gently roast the seeds, and bottle the oil. When I was in Austria I ate it on pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto, as well as the Styrian beetlebean salad (see previous post).

Pumpkin seed oil is also supposed to be really good for you. It contains the nutrients vitamin A, E, Zinc, and Omega fatty acids. It regulates blood pressure and cholesterol, and also serves as some sort of anti-inflammatory, as it is known to help men with benign prostate enlargement.

I recently bought my own bottle and have been trying it on different things. Last week I put it on some boiled broccoli raab (rapini) and the nuttiness really complemented the bitter green. We ate the greens with maple barbecue marinated salmon and it was heavenly. In the future I'd like to make the classic Styrian pumpkin seed oil dressing (a mixture of pumpkin seed oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt) as a dip for beef kabobs. I've even heard the oil is really good on vanilla ice cream.

Georg's Cross Country Ski Race

Last weekend Georg participated in the Canadian Birkebeiner ski race held outside of Edmonton. There were many race lengths one could complete; Georg did the 31 km race. He trained very diligently for a really long time and I am very proud of him.
The morning of the race it was very cold. It started in the Ukrainian Cultural Village, which provided an interesting background to the start of the race.


I ran about trying to stay warm and taking pictures. Georg finished in only 2 hours and 50 minutes, which was much faster than we expected. In fact, I barely got to see him cross the finish line.
After the race he was pretty beat up but I fed him some cheese and then he was ok. When everything was over we were so tired we went to bed and took a long nap, even though it was Valentine's Day and we should have been at some candle-lit restaurant drinking champagne and being generally romantic.

Blood Orange Puff Pastry Tart

When cooked, this tart failed to taste like anything more than the sum of its parts. It was pretty though, which is why I suspect people make it when it's clear from the recipe it's just going to taste like oranges and pastry. Here's the recipe.

Aerogarden Update

All of my Aerogarden Herbs have sprouted...

And are growing nicely! The thyme is the slowest to grow, and the basil and chives are the fastest.

Cheesymite Scrolls

I have always been pretty fascinated by Vegemite spread, the Australian condiment that is in nine out of ten pantries there. I've never seen or tried it, but you hear about it a lot. I always hear about it every year during the Australian Open tennis tournament, during which Australia Day always falls. On Australia day there is always some televised feature about Australian culture and Vegemite is always mentioned.

In the United States, it's pretty hard to find Vegemite. It is manufactured by Kraft, an American food company, but is not widely distributed there. Here in Canada there are quite a lot of Australians so it's sold in some places. Today I spotted it in the grocery store and decided to experiment with it. I decided to go with Cheesymite Scrolls, a sort of cinnamon bun with cheese and Vegemite instead of cinnamon and icing. I've heard Vegemite is an acquired taste, so I figured mixing it with two familiar ingredients, cheddar cheese and bread, would be less risk.

I spread the Vegemite, which looks like dark chocolate peanut butter, onto some crescent roll dough, which I deliberately did not rip into triangles. Then Georg sprinkled on some grated cheddar cheese, and then I rolled them up and cut them into buns for the oven. They produced a nice beefy/cheesy smell while in the oven, and I was excited to taste them when they were done.

The verdict? Vegemite is truly an acquired taste...it has these beefy, salty, bitter flavors that are a bit weird at first and especially in large quantities (I put way too much Vegemite into my cheesymite scrolls; I would recommend just a very thin smear). But I think it's something I could learn to like.

Exploding Chocolate Cake

I made some chocolate cake the other weekend, and I just now found this random picture on my camera. I had some left over batter so I decided to put it in a mini-springform pan to make a little cake, and I filled it way more than I should have and it practically exploded in the oven! I love how it looks like an evil little monster living in its oven-lair.