Lonely Kitchen

I'm Still Here

2009-03-02T22:57:00.002-04:00

I'm just distracted. Our first child arrived three weeks ago. Between the move, baby prep and baby arrival, food has become a lower priority. And yet, after making sure the baby is fed, food is our first thought.

We're lucky that our baby is a good sleeper and already has a rough schedule- which allows us to get some sleep too. But he also likes to be with us as much as he can be, which limits hands and our ability to create wonderful meals. There are things we're doing now, that I never would have contemplated previous to Baby's arrival: we bought Carnation hot chocolate mix instead of making it from scratch; we have individual frozen meat pies in the freezer; I'm composting vegetable pieces instead of making stock. And making cookies or bread, let alone homemade pasta seems like a crazy idea. Food has become a basic for keeping up on other things, and I'm pretty excited just to get my dishes done each day. I know I'll be back to normal in a bit, but right now, I'm even amazed I'm typing this post.

A New Kitchen

2008-12-29T12:59:00.002-04:00

My kitchen no longer looks out on Duke Street: it looks out on a garage and Champlain Street (Champlain is also the statue in my profile picture). We bought a house in early December and I've spent most of that time moving and unpacking. We still have a lot to do, but the place definitely feels more lived in now.

After setting up the bed, the kitchen was the first priority to unpack, and it has become the centre of the house, again.We've already made a few good meals here, including Christmas dinner, but we're still learning about this kitchen: how the oven works (perhaps the temperature is a bit lower than our last), the spaces in the fridge, the best spot to keep the knives and dish towels. There are some elements which won't be decided on until we know our kitchen better: the curtains (I've always wanted red curtains with yellow ducks- but what shape should they be?), where will the rack of pans hang, and should there be a rug at the kitchen sink?

This feels like building a relationship with someone I know is going to be a best friend, so I'm savouring every step.

Rhoda's Christmas Craft Fair

2008-12-03T18:07:00.002-04:00

I went to Rhoda’s Christmas Craft Fair on the weekend. And all I bought was food. Rhoda’s is one of the major seasonal craft events in the Maritimes. Some people go year after year, like a Christmas tradition, but this was my first time ever. It’s awfully warm in Saint John- going up to 12C some days, I’m wearing shoes and a fall coat outside. Some people run around in t-shirts in the afternoon. The unlikely weather, combined with a variety of distractions made me want to ‘get into’ the Christmas spirit and I thought it would be fun to go to this event that I’d always heard of but never ventured near.

My brother usually goes. He loves the weekend flea markets also put on by Rhoda, but I think he loves the energy and the casual shopping side of it. I went with him and his wife and they were a great introduction to how to enjoy Rhoda’s. Their approach is all about food.

My brother went with the intention of buying dip mixes. His strategy was to start at one end and cover each aisle. We went up and down, observing, tasting, comparing. Then we worked our way back to make our purchases at the stalls deemed to offer the best products. I bought maple brown sugar dinner rolls from the Ginger Bread Christmas Bakery from Penobsquis: “Made from Family Recipes.” An older woman with curly white hair served us, and the rolls were SO good. I ate four of them at dinner.

There were three dip mix vendors. One who mixed her dips with vanilla yogurt, which I do not recommend- the sweetness is just not complimentary to Cajun, garlic or herbs. The company he selected was Hac’n Sac from Enfield, NB. The vendors were charming and helpful, and their dips are delicious. I became hooked on their apricot and jalapeno jam which they served over cream cheese with crackers- so good! The owner also suggests using it as a glaze over chicken, pork and scallops.

We also discovered the Cake Box from Riverview, NB. They had lovely cakes on display, and stacks of cupcakes in wonderful flavours and matching decors of tall swirly frosting: mud pie, drama queen, coconut, chocolate fudge, bananarama. Their buttercream frosting was amazing, and the cake crumb was perfect and moist. My brother loved his red velvet cupcake so much that he went back to buy a box of nine to take home.

We also bought fresh pots of cat grass for our cats!

I’m not sure I came away feeling Christmasy, but I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to roast pork with apricot jalapeno jam- if I don’t eat it first with crackers and cream cheese. And really, Christmas is all about the food anyway.

Relative Nutrition

2008-10-13T19:06:00.003-03:00

I'm a little jealous of our American cousins. Not for their more dramatic election, their rich cinema scene or better shopping. I'm jealous of their Overall Nutritional Health Index being implemented in US grocery stores this month. I like lists, and this one combines food and health and aims and probably unfair hierarchy- except that hierarchy is the business of lists.

The ONHI assesses food based on the nutritional health value you receive for eating it, and stratifies each food according to this value. It's fascinating to read through and the relative value of foods you eat, disdain, think you shouldn't eat but discover are better for you than you thought. It's not surprising to see broccoli confirmed as a food champion with 100 points- everyone's been saying forever to eat your broccoli. It's surprising to see that orange juice at 39 is outranked by sodium free club soda ranks at 56 (I didn't think there was anything in club soda), and that cheese puffs are a 4, outranking milk chocolate (3) and apple pie (2).

It's like food gossip. Even better, it's designed and endorsed by scientists and dieticians so it's OK to snub some foods in favour of others now. Although I don't think I'm going to take up club soda at breakfast. But I might choose unbuttered, sunsalted popcorn (69) over prunes (45).

The ONHI was designed to assist consumers in selecting appropriate food choices. It's supposed to be a guide to the "relative nutriousness" of food. It's obviously true we need help, because we're increasingly unhealthy and making poor food choices, in North America at least. More interesting is that the ONHI is actually being posted in grocery stores, next to thousands of brands of food products, backed by an industry keen to sell its products to us. I find it hard to believe that Tropicana will accept their product being listed as a 39, it's completely against all of their marketing. Yet there it will be- generally, since the ONHI doesn't specifically mention Tropicana, just orange juice.

No doubt industry and producers will find ways of marketing around the ONHI, it will be discredited through its methods, and people will grow bored with it. Or maybe it will never really be noticed on the store shelves and never attract too much negative or positive attention. Maybe the politics and the economy will bury it and it will gradually leak into daily grocery shopping. I hope so. I want to be reminded that instant chocolate pudding is a 20, and thus not such a bad snacking choice, all things considered.

The Picnic King

2008-08-26T21:14:00.003-03:00

We recently toured the murals of Sussex, a small town about forty minutes outside of Saint John. Normally known as "Dairytown" for its well known award winning dairy by the same name, and its rich farms, Sussex is now also promoting itself as the Mural Capital of Atlantic Canada.

Artists came from all over North America to paint murals on blank walls all over town. Some of them are sponsored by local companies or organizations, but they are all themed to link to the Sussex region in some way: personalities, famous buildings or events, or uniquely Sussex businesses. There is a Sussex Ginger Ale mural, with colourful sodas splashing out and period bottle caps splashing out of the soda; there is a collection of royals who have visited Sussex in the past, all in one mural; there is a tribute to the nurse and doctor who opened the first hospital; there is a tribute to three Sussex men who played in the NHL (of course).

This mural is a tribute to the Picnic King, painted by Joel Haynes from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It intrigued us right away, the title is so fabulous- but the story's even better. James Daniel O'Connell grew up poor in the mid nineteenth century. As a twelve year old, he put half of his earnings into a piggy bank and spend the rest on a picnic for more the neighbourhood kids, called the Gumdrop Picnic. As an adult, he made a fortune in the US and Cuba and funded free annual picnics for children throughout North and Central America and Cuba. He became known as the Picnic King. When he died in 1943, he left trusts dedicated to the continuation of the picnics. And there is still a Gumdrop picnic held in Sussex every July.

Walking guides to the murals can be purchased at the Sussex tourist information in the old train station, for $2.00. The proceeds go towards the maintenance of the murals. The grandmother of the attendant we bought our guide from remembered the Picnic King from her own childhood and used to talk about him. She said he was known to give away gumdrops, but in this mural, it's actually money he's throwing. In the rest of the mural, extending on either side there are panels depicting a railroad and a factory, the source of the Picnic King's wealth. It's such a friendly, warm, luxurious way to give back to a community. Irrelevant, yet right at the heart of philanthopy. I love this story.

Black Pepper Chicken

2008-07-22T19:55:00.003-03:00

My brother recently gifted me with a used cookbook find: Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India by Lachu Moorjani. So far, we love it.

It’s organized to offer you a complete meal, appetizers, bread, meat or fish selection and even dessert according to different regional cuisines. That structure is kind of irritating when looking for a specific recipe, but it would be fun to go through and make each feast. I’m not sure when I would have time, and enough guests to eat it all to do that, but someday I will. For now, we’re jumping around trying things out according to available ingredients or own food lust.

The first one we tried was Kozi Milagu Chettinad, which I’m having difficulty remembering. The translation is Chicken in Black Pepper Sauce. We’re calling it Black Pepper Chicken. It’s from Tamilnadu where peppercorns are grown. It’s delicious, but I think we might reduce the ground pepper to about 1 Tbsp (for a halved recipe). Here is the full recipe as it appears in Ajanta, but it serves 4-6 with large servings. We are halving the recipes for the two of us, and have ample servings with enough for lunch the next day.

Black Pepper Chicken
3 Tbsp oil
1 ½ inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
8-10 cloves garlic, chopped
3 medium onions, quartered and and sliced les than 1/16 inch thick
2 pounds chicken, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1 ½ tsp ground turmeric
3 tsp ground coriander
2 ½ Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 ½ C plain yogourt
8-10 curry leaves
2 tsp Garam Masala
3 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan. When hot, add ginger and garlic. Fry for about 10-15 seconds.

2. Add onions and sauté until slightly browned, about 10-12 minutes.

3. Raise the heat to high and add the chicken and stir fry until browned and excess moisture has evaporated.

4. Reduce heat to medium, add all spices and salt, except the Garam Masala. Stir for about 3-4 minutes and then add tomatoes and yogourt. Bring the mixture to a boil.

5. Reduce heat, cover and simmer slowly for about 15-20 minutes or until chicken is tender.

6. Add curry leaves, Garam Masala and lemon juice during the last 5 minutes of cooking.

7. Serve over rice.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2008-07-17T20:31:00.002-03:00

My first chocolate chip muffin was from the Muffin Man in the Scholten's strip mall in Quispamsis, long gone. I was in middle school, and the idea that a muffin could have chocolate in it was amazing to me. My mother would take us there after church on Sundays, and we could pick whatever muffin we wanted, whether it would normally pass her 'healthy' rules or not.

I have struggled since then, to find an appropriate chocolate chip muffin recipe. It shouldn't be cakey (because than it's just a cupcake), but really, it shouldn't be too healthy either. I do have a banana chcolate chip muffin recipe from the Shredded Wheat box which is delicious. It's good for office breakfasts because it's almost impossible to ruin, but sometimes, it's just too healthy.

On a whim, I threw chocolate chips insteda of berries into the buttermilk muffin recipe. And it was delicious. The muffin batter is rich enough to complement the chocolate, but still muffin like.

Rhubarb Punch

2008-07-06T13:07:00.003-03:00

At a recent work related luncheon, hosted in someone’s beautiful home, on one of the first warm days, I tried rhubarb punch. The staff carried it out in beautiful glass pitchers, and poured it into large cut glass goblets while chatting about how to make it. It was the perfect accompaniment for salad and smoked salmon. It was unique and evoked a picnic charm to lighten up the event, which started out a little stiff. I made some yesterday for Canada Day.

The luncheon rhubarb punch was more of a light pink than mine is, because they used regular ginger ale (in the green bottle), whereas I used Sussex Golden ginger ale. I left it in pitchers covered in the fridge with Saran wrap and have found the fizz wears off agreeably. All measurements are approximate.

Rhubarb Punch
6 C chopped rhubarb
1/3 C sugar
4 Tbsp orange juice
2 L ginger ale

1. Stir the rhubarb with sugar and juice in a medium pot.

2. Bring to a boil and turn down to a busy simmer. Allow to cook for approximately 40 minutes, or until the rhubarb is quite soft and broken down. Allow to cool.

3. Puree the rhubarb in a blender until there are no chunks left. There should be about 1.5-2 C of puree.

4. Mix the ginger ale and rhubarb concentrate in a large bowl or pot. Allow to sit for an hour or more.

5. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. You may have to spend some time pressing the punch out of the pooled concentrate in the sieve.

6. Chill and serve.

Chocolate Cinnamon Meringues

2008-07-01T21:17:00.003-03:00

I’ve started making ice cream for this season: strawberry and honey to start off with, for the fresh local strawberries which hit the markets this week, and the honey ice cream to go with the strawberry shortcake. Next, I think I was thinking of trying a Spanish style cinnamon ice cream, such as is used to make the mantecado. Served in a glass of iced coffee, it’s the perfect patio drink.

With all of this ice cream, comes an excess of egg whites. I don’t want to get behind this year, and waste my whites, or build a wall of Tupperware in my freezer, filled with frozen whites. So I made meringues yesterday. I generally find them a bit boring, so, with mantecado on my mind, I added dark chocolate and cinnamon. Now I’m thinking a chocolate cinnamon ice cream would be really just the thing.

Chocolate Cinnamon Meringues
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/3 C sugar
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz grated dark chocolate

1. Allow eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 325 F.

3. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

4. In a small bowl, sift cinnamon and sugar together.

5. In large bowl, beat the egg whites with the vanilla on medium speed, until soft peaks form (the tips curl over prettily).

6. Gradually add the cinnamon sugar mixture, a spoon at a time, while continuing to beat the egg whites. Beat at high speed until the cinnamon sugar is mixed in thoroughly and the peaks harden (i.e. they stand up straight).

7. Gently fold in the grated chocolate.

8. Drop by rounded spoonfuls about 1.5-2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until set and dry. They should be cracked. Allow to cool on the pan for about three minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Pad Thai

2008-05-25T19:12:00.002-03:00

I love Pad Thai. And I've only been eating it for about a year. Ive tried it in years past but could never see what the fuss was about. I finally tried it at The Thai Hut on King Street in Saint John, a lunch counter positioned in the back of the quirky Quality Convenience. I still love their Pad Thai, but it's nothing like the other versions I've had at home, or other restuarants. Theirs has a creamy yellow sauce which I am always puzzling over. Rumour has it there is ketchup in it, but I can't quite figure out what else might be part of the unique flavour.

I liked it so much that I've been working on my own Pad Thai for the past year and am finally at a spot that makes both me and Tony happy. It's in the style of the other Pad Thais I've tasted, but of course, mine is tastier. This one takes the Joy of Cooking recipe as a foundation with a few amendments.

One of the points of contention has been tamarind- I like the addition of tamarind juice, but Tony prefers it without. This version has three protein options: egg, shrimp, and chicken andtofu, but obviously these can be mixed and matched or omitted as desired, but I do feel the eggs are an important component. There is cilantro in this version, as someone in my house is allergic to it, but feel free to add your own at the end with the last batch of ingredients.

The quality of rice noodles also make an impact. Some rice sticks just fall apart in the wok, others take the whole afternoon soaking to soften up. My uncle recently let me in on a time saver tip: rice sticks can be boiled when you're short on time! Brilliant.

Pad Thai
250 gr rice sticks
6 Tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
3 eggs
16 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 chicken breast cut into pieces; or 1 C firm tofu, cubed
2 bunches of scallions, green and white parts cut into inch long pieces
16 pea pods
3 Thai chili peppers of any colour, chopped, including seeds
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 C bean sprouts
2/3 C peanuts, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 C fish sauce
1/4 C lemon juice
3 Tbsp sugar

1. Soak the rice sticks according to package directions.
2. Combine the fish sauce, lemon juice and sugar in a measuring cup. Set aside.
3. Heat three tablespoons of the oil in a wok at a very high heat, to just when it's about to smoke. Quickly cook the shrimp, swirling them quickly until fat and plump. Remove to a side dish. Repeat with the chicken, also removing them. Then scramble the eggs in the remaining oil, working quickly, and remove to a side dish.
4. Heat the remaining oil in the wok to a high heat. Add, all together, the scallions, chilies, and garlic, stir frying for about two minutes or when the garlic begins to brown.
5. Rinse the noodles and add them to the wok with the scallion mixture. Mix well.
6. Add the fish sauce mixture and toss to coat.
7. Add the shrimp, eggs and chicken. Mix well.
8. Add the bean sprouts, peanuts, black pepper, red pepper flakes. Toss well, making sure everything is hot, and well mixed. Serve immediately.

Multi Ethnic Soda

2008-05-20T20:46:00.002-03:00

I found this watermelon soda in a corner store in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Beyond the retro quality, I didn't notice the unique design at first. I just wondered what it might taste like. And it tastes like watermelon. Not too sweet, surprisingly tasty.

Imagine if this packaging went on sale here? Really, I suppose it's the equivalent of promotional photos that happen to include models from multiple ethnic backgrounds, but the illustrations seem more identifiably like a choice. The watermelon boy looks like he's enjoying himself. The watermelon girl just looks like she's eating it because her mum told her she had to. Or maybe she's politely chewing with her mouth closed.

Conch

2008-05-08T16:49:00.003-03:00

I've just spent a lovely week in Grand Cayman. I was there for my sister's wedding, but of course I did a little eating. We stayed in condos and did a lot of our own cooking: Jamaican jerk chicken, hamburgers, Persian rice, salad, kebabs, grilled fish, guacamole. I should clarify, other people did a lot of cooking, namely the mothers of the bride and groom. I participated in the eating.

I did take two opportunities to try conch, the fish that inhabits this lovely shell. Walking the beach in the morning it's easy to find these fellows washed within metres of the shore. When I picked this one up to look at him, I could see his googly eyes looking back at me. It's a difficult to connect him with the two conch dishes I tried.

These conch fritters are from Breezes in downtown Georgetown. Although our entrees are not worth mentioning, the atmosphere is great with lanterns, calypso playing and a beautiful view of the harbour. Instead of lunch, I would recommend it as a nightspot for drinks. Our conch fritters we ordered as appetizers, however, were excellent. The dipping sauce was tangy and slightly spicy. The fritter itself was also spicy, but in a different direction- they worked well together. The fritter itself was light brown, with dots of red, and other browns. I have no idea what else was in there besides the conch, but it was all tasty.
My sister's dinner and dance reception was held at The Wharf restaurant. We had the choice of conch soup or salad for the first course. The conch soup was delicious- it tasted like very good seafood chowder. It's hard to see in this picture, but the ingredients were chopped quite small, but there was a lot of them, and it made for a great consistency. It was also flavourful, and I will order it again if I ever have a chance.

Yet, I have to say, I still unsure what conch itself tastes like. There were various of white and red flecked morsels which could have been conch, and I fished them out to try them by themselves, but they just tasted like... white fish. So maybe conch is the sort of versatile fish that relies on the chef and the seasonings of the dish. Either way, it was tasty.

Lobster Sandwich

2008-04-26T21:27:00.003-03:00

Even though I live on the Eats Coast, and lobsters are fished out of water I can see, I don't eat a lot of lobster. A few times a year though, I have a lobster sandwich craving.

My mother always ate lobster sandwiches, and gradually, I was willing to try it and loved it. Now I order them at various family restaurants, diners and shacks along the highway, comparing each of them. One of my local favourites is served by Billy's Seafood, two blocks away. They serve it with shredded lettuce on white gourmet hotdog buns with Ceaser salad or fries. A little further down the road is Ossie's, only open in the summer. It's in the middle of nowhere and people come from all over to order their fried food and eat it in their cars and trucks. Their hotdog bun lobster sandwich come in those little white cardboard holders.

My all time favourite was in a family restaurant in Lunenburg. I had been travelling for work and had a Sunday to myself. I drove the forty minutes to amble around the historic town for the afternoon. Most shops were closed (the Tim Horton's was the busiest part of town), but it was a beautiful crisp fall day, the museum was open and I was happy to be free. One of the open restaurants was almost empty, had a motherly waitress and a classic family menu. I ordered the lobster sandwich and was given the option of white or whole wheat bread. The sandwich came with whole wheat house made sandwich bread, layered with lettuce, with a baked potato, on a large dinner plate.

This was the way lobster sandwiches had been eaten for ages in this area- just another humble sandwich filling. There are many stories in this area of people who were too poor to take anything other than a lobster sandwich to school for lunch. And now it feels like the most natural way to me.

Eggs

2008-04-13T20:40:00.003-03:00

I found this photo belatedly cleaning out the cache of photos on the camera. They are the easter eggs I gave Tony. At Easter, about three weeks ago, I couldn't actually feel positive that spring was approaching- after all, it did snow again. And it's snowing in Northern New Brunswick, but all we've had here in Saint John are a few sun showers. This weekend has been the type of starter rain that makes the bird chirp happily and inspires confidence that soon, and overnight, the leaves will bud and soon unfurl during the next rainy night.

Still Snowing

2008-03-02T12:52:00.004-04:00

It's only a flurry now, but it's a bit windy. Keen Duke Street residents are digging out and there's a few people walking around. The church parking lot on the corner was almost empty this morning. As you can see, the street is not good, and the CBC news reports open with RCMP and weather reports from every Maritime province. I am now familiar with each highway stretch with poor visibility. But I'm not going anywhere today. My winter hibernation pleasure has been successfully re-invigorated with macaroni and cheese, custard, snowy music and literature, and an afternoon of positioning my chair in front of the windows to watch the snow blow horizontally.

If you need some inspiration, try some of this great winter music:
Julie Doiron's Snow Fall in November
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow
Joel Plaskett and the Emergency's Snowed In
Arcade Fire's Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) or Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
Leonard Cohen's Avalanche

More Snow

2008-03-01T13:38:00.004-04:00

This is the view outside one of my bedroom windows. By itself, it's pretty. I've always admired the way snow sticks to the bricks. My bedroom looks out into a courtyard surrounded by three brick walls, so there's lots of potential for snow to fluff and stick to the textures, and dance around in the eddies created by the enclosed space. I have often watched this and felt it was beautiful.

But we are receiving, on average, a storm every week. Sometimes we get through a week with only minor precipitation, but then get hit with two or three storms in one week. I'm usually excited by a winter snowstorm- the drama, preparations, the camaraderie of digging out and the school kids' excitement of a snow day are enjoyable. But when it happens over and over again, when it's ice storms or freezing rain on top of the snow, when your city runs out of salt and sand and can't get anymore, when the drain systems are covered in ice and become backed up and there is flooding everywhere- well, then, I find I am growing fatigued. For the first time this winter, I finally dreaded that I would look outside and see snow. And when I did, I felt dismayed.

I know many people regularly feel that way about snow and winter, but it's a new thing for me. It makes me feel old. I never wanted to be the sort of person who would feel so much negativity for something I always enjoyed so much. So, for today, I'm going to pull out fun childhood photos of playing in the snow, I'm going to play great snow music, make a stew or a casserole or some other great winter food, and go out and trudge around in the snow until I feel excited again.

Perhaps Citrus is for Cats

2008-02-23T20:15:00.008-04:00

We have no idea what Eddie was doing in the fruit bowl. Underneath the clementines were pecans, but neither of them should hold much appeal for a cat. Both pecans and clementines had been there for a week before he took notice (or so we think). When we walked into the kitchen he would sit down and pretend he wasn't interested. When he thought we were busy elsewhere, he would start burrowing again, sniffing noisily, moving the fruit with his nose.

I am always surprised that the cats continue to be so excited about their tablespoon of canned wet food in the morning, and their dry food for the rest of the day, accessible at any time. They eat with so much gumption (crumbs falling out their mouths...), and never seem to grow tired of the same flavour, day after day, year after year. Unusual occasions of food investigation like the one above shore up my suspicion that they are bored, but are generally making the best of things.

Snowy Queen Square

2008-01-23T18:59:00.001-04:00

This is the freshly ploughed Queen Square, a block from where I live and the neighbourhood hangout for dogs and their people. Once, I even saw a cat on a leash. The cat spotted another (independent) cat across the street, and dragged its owner down the hill to go after it. All in all, a lot of doggy style behaviour.

Macaroni and Cheese

2008-01-21T18:13:00.001-04:00

I'm still here, I've just been a little distracted. I had relatives visiting for three weeks over the holidays, work has been a little crazy, and I've started a new academic program that requires self-discipline. Unfortunately food experimentation is probably not going to get me extra marks.

It's very cold today in Saint John. With the wind chill, it's -33C. That really is winter weather and I shouldn't complain. Actually, I'm not complaining. I love cold weather food, and I love an excuse to eat it. I don't fish, work on a farm, or do other hard labour for which this food was developed. I feel that cold weather is my only excuse left to rationalizing eating like this. Another good reason to stay in Canada, as far as I'm concerned.

I've been trying out macaroni and cheese recipes for a few years now. I wouldn't eat it at all for most of childhood. General hunger overtook me in my university residence days. Long before the age of kitchen suites were de rigeur, we used hot pots and kettles to make instant oatmeal, hot chocolate and Kraft Dinner. Eventually I gave in and tried KD- and loved it. I became an accomplished thief of creamers from the meal hall to add that extra creaminess water just couldn't accomplish by itself. I bought, sold, and traded in the KD black market that existed through Bennett Hall. It seems like the guys down the hall were always the ones left vulnerable without edibles, late at night.

Now, my life is fortunate enough that I have refrigeration every day, in which I can keep butter, milk and real cheese. Such luxury!

I would say that I'm still searching for the very best macaroni and cheese recipe, but I can see now that a good kitchen will have several variations for different purposes. This one, adapted from Amanda Hesser, who adapted it from her grandmother, Helen Getz, has entered our regular rotation. We change something each time to see how it works, or to accommodate our own pantry stocks.

In the version pictured above, it felt like a lunch macaroni cheese. We substituted regular cut macaroni with medium egg noodles which made the dish feel lighter than with regular noodles. I also used homemade herbed croutons for the bread crumbs on top. For the cheese, I used half white cheddar, and half Monterey Jack, but the cheese is one of the best parts to experiment with. Here's the basic recipe.

Macaroni Cheese
Adapted from Amanda Hesser

2 Tbsp butter, plus more for buttering the dish
2 Tbsp flour
2 C milk
1 1/2 C grated cheese, plus more for sprinkling
3 1/2 C macaroni, cooked
1 can of herbed plum tomatoes (juice reserved)
3/4 C coarse breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 350C.
2. Butter an 8x8 baking pan.
3. In a saucepan, heat the 2 Tbsp butter until foamy. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk until golden. Slowly add the milk, continuing to whisk.
4. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and let thicken.
5. Stir in cheese and remove from heat.
6. Fold in macaroni.
7. Add tomatoes, squeezing them with your hand to break them up.
8. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired.
9. Pour into prepared pan.
10. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly over the top. Sprinkle a little more cheese over the top (about 1/3 C), if desired, to create a latticed affect.
11. Bake unitl browned on top, and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

Snowy Duke Street

2007-12-28T21:52:00.001-04:00

I've been a little distracted lately with work, a stream of house guests and the general hurrah the holidays bring. There a few great recipes I've discovered and will be sharing with you soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this scene I get to see about once a week now. We have had six (I think- I'm losing count) significant snowfalls so far this season. Which is unusual as we have had five above average warm winters in a row. It will all be washed away gain tomorrow with rain, but I'm confident more snow will come.

Shrimp with Tomatoes

2007-11-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

This recipe is from a friend who cooks excellent Indian food. Her home is older, and she proudly displays her collection of Indian spices in small glass jars in what used to be the ironing cabinet set into the wall of her kitchen. Her stories of what she made for dinner would make me envious.

This Tamatari Jhinga, or Shrimp with Tomatoes, is flavourful, not spicy hot like so many think ‘Indian’ is going to be. The fresh ginger is a real boost, as are items like the roasted mustard seeds and fresh lemon juice. It’s so fast to make, and most of the ingredients are likely to be in the kitchen already. We eat it with Basmati rice. Leftovers heat well, and I'm kind of playing with the idea of using this recipe as a base for developing it into a soup.

Tamatari Jhinga
1 lb shrimp, shelled
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 C chopped tomatoes

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1. In a medium bowl, combine the lemon juice, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, black pepper and ¼ tsp salt. Mix well. Add shrimp, and toss to coat. Cover and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the mustards seeds and cover, allowing the seeds will pop for a few seconds.

3. Add the onion, ginger and garlic. Saute until the onion is golden.

4. Drain the marinade into the skillet (but not the shrimp).

5. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes.

6. Add remaining salt and brown sugar, and stir.

7. Add the shrimp and cook until transparent, about 5 minutes and serve.

Parsley and Spinach Chicken Stew

2007-11-17T15:03:00.001-04:00

This is a recipe I’ve had for a while- it looks like it was printed with a dot matrix printer. I’ve been working on variations of it for a while, trying to improve it, but when I found it again recently, with all of my notations, I was finally going to put it in recycling. Neither Tony nor I could actually recall any specific opinion of it, and my notes indicated it was only ‘satisfactory.’ But, I thought I would give it one more chance.

With a few more additional edits this time around, we both quite enjoyed it. For the next time, we decided we’ll add turnips. And make dumplings, or grand-peres to go with it. Here is what I did for the last version, which has saved it from the recycling bin.

Parsley and Spinach Chicken Stew
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped (about 1 C)
8-10 ounces of baby spinach, rinsed
2 medium onions, chopped
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
6 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp ground turmeric
2 Tbsp tomato sauce (or paste)
6.5 C vegetable or chicken stock
1 tsp cornstarch

1. Toss the garlic, parsley and spinach together.
2. In a skillet, heat 2-4 Tbsp olive oil. Saute the garlic, spinach and parsley until wilted, in batches if necessary. Set aside.
3. Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large stockpot. Add the onion and sauté until translucent and the juices are released.
4. Add the chicken and sauté until cooked through.
5. Add the stock, salt, turmeric, tomato sauce, and parsley spinach mixture. Bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes.
6. Add the potatoes and turn the heat down to a simmer. Allow to cook for 1 hour.
7. Mix a few tablespoons of broth with 1 tsp cornstarch and stir into a paste. Add to the stew. Cook for one more hour.
8. Serve hot with biscuits or fresh bread.

Last Call for Honey Crisp

2007-11-10T20:59:00.000-04:00

These are my all-time favourite apples. Even if you don't rank and re-rank apples every time you try a new variety, chances are, you'll still like this one. Most people I give a Honey Crisp to, love it. The people who don't, are Tony, and one other person both of whom prefer tart apples. In both cases Granny Smith apples are their favourite. Granny Smith used to rank as top apple for me too, and it's still in the top five... but the Honey Crisp is just so good.

The Honey Crisp is from the Annapolis Valley. The average Honey Crisp is large, and the perfect shape for the palm of your hand. It's crispy, and yellow fleshed. The flavour is like a light honey- sweet but not sugary or cloying. It's not as sweet as the Pink Lady, which I sometimes find overpowering. There is a good ratio of juice to apple, moist but not enough juice to run down your arm.

Anyway, the last of the Honey Crisps can still be sought out if you're quick about it. I bought extra this weekend because I know it's the last of them. Some local vendors started selling out two weeks ago, so I was lucky I was able to get a last cache at the market. If you have a chance, pick some up. Even if you're not an apple eater, I bet you could sell them to the desperate, or use them for bribes.

Fall on Duke Street

2007-11-03T20:48:00.000-03:00

Earlier this afternoon, the Uptown felt deserted as well all hunkered down for the arrival of whatever is left of Hurricane Noel. For the first time, I have heeded storm preparation warnings and managed to dig out camp lights and fill a jug of water in case we should lose power. Normally, we can comfortably ignore storm warnings. Living right by the water means the storm is never that bad, and we are usually protected from the worst of tropical storms by Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, the same insurance does not apply in this scenario. Already tonight, some local communities are without power.

It's been ten years since I've been living in Saint John, and lost power. The great ice storm of 1997, now a local legend, cut power for a day. Other parts of the city lost power for much longer, and surrounding communities lots it for weeks. We had friends staying with us for parts of it, where clean towels and hot showers were the standing luxuries.

This chair arrived on the sidewalk earlier this week. I keep expecting to see a crow or an old man perched in it. By this afternoon, though it looked quite lonely, as even the birds disappeared and the sky became darker and darker.

Gargoyle

2007-10-28T10:15:00.001-03:00

Door decor to usher you in to a house of worship! It certainly adds dramatic style. This is from the Calvary Temple on Sydney Street, around the corner from my house in Saint John.

Plump Raisins to Dress up Butter Chicken

2007-10-24T19:53:00.000-03:00

One of my many culinary regrets is that I have not yet found a good butter chicken recipe. While that means I get to experiment, it also means I am frequently disappointed. In the meantime, I have found this packaged butter chicken curry recipe in Sobeys, which has been carrying it for about a year. In the 'Ethnic Foods' section. Hahhah. When I was, this was the only place to find soy sauce. Now Sobeys has a 'Chinese' section. I wonder when we'll have an 'Indian' section. Hahah. Luckily, we also have Asian groceries.

By itself, I still feed this curry mix needs a bit more than the butter, water and chicken it asks for. I have been adding almonds or cashews (cashews being my preference) and raisins. The raisin and blanched almond idea came from a failed butter chicken recipe, but I really liked this aspect of it.

The raisins are sauteed in butter for about 3 minutes. They grow plump, succulent and soft. I want to stick my finger in and pop them, or test for softness. Of course I don't, I just watch and be amazed. Then I add the nuts for about another minute, and remove them all from the pan to sautee the chicken. Following the directions on the package, the curry from the package is added, and water, and the whole thing is simmered for about 20 mins. I add the nuts and raisins for the last minute or two.

Beautiful Beautiful Fall is Here

2007-10-21T11:14:00.001-03:00

It seemed to come in overnight on Friday with a rainstorm. Now we have lovely leaves to shuffle through, pick out favourites and inspire photos.

Red Pears

2007-10-20T14:28:00.000-03:00

I love these red pears. In part because they're only here fleetingly. I have to be quick to spot them, buy them and eat them. I find they have about three or four days of average firmness, and then suddenly, without any signs, they are soft, with a deep sweet smell and about to go bad. And I eat them all in a day and say I'm only ever going to buy one at a time in the future. But the basket of smooth red curves is too hard to resist and I buy the basket again, if I can.

Yeasted Apricot Cake

2007-09-20T21:15:00.000-03:00

I made this for an office baby shower coffee break recently. It was potluck, for 10am. These things never attract 100% food contribution, but I don’t think anyone cares. There are always people who like the excuse to bake, some who will always pick up from their favourite baker/grocer and others who will always forget or overlook it. Organizers never expect everyone will bring something, thankfully, or there would be too much food.

At my work place at least, there’s also an interesting superficial attempt to be healthy, at least in the planning process. Some people bring ginger cookies as a healthier option over the doughnuts, for example. This is one of my favourite ‘breakfast’ cakes because it’s sweet and dessert like, but makes a nice pretence of still appearing appropriate enough to maintain self-respect.

The cool thing about this recipe is the way it’s cut and folded. It’s just a basic yeasted sweet dough recipe, from Martha Stewart’s Christmas Cookbook. In her recipe, she uses a poppy seed filling, but I usually substitute cinnamon roll filling (butter, brown sugar, cinnamon), chocolate, or for this trial, an apricot filling. It looks incredible and fancy and complicated, but it’s so easy. Here’s my edited version.
Apricot Filling
3 C fresh apricots, halved and pitted (about 9-10)
Juice of 1 lemon
2/3 C sugar
½ C water

Put everything into a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 mins or until thick and glossy. Leftovers are good on toast!

Sweet Dough
1 1/2 C warm milk
½ C butter, melted
1 Tbsp salt
½ C sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp yeast
6-10 C all purpose flour (depending on moisture)
½ C brown sugar

1. Combine milk, water, 2 Tbsp melted butter, and eggs. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and allow to become foamy, about 15 mins.
2. Gradually add flour. Mix well until combined into a sticky dough.
3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until it becomes a ball. Place in a large buttered bowl and allow to rise about 1.5 hrs.
4. Butter two nine-inch tube pans, or muffin pans.
5. Punch down the dough and turn onto a floured surface. Roll out to a rectangle about 14 x 17 inches, and 1.5 cm thick.
6. Brush a third of the remaining butter over the middle third of the rectangle. Spread with about ¼ C apricot filling. Do not overfill, or you’ll have apricot squeezing out the ends. Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle. Fold the top third over the middle. It should be like folding a business letter to fit into a #10 envelope. You should now have a rectangle of three layers of dough.
7. Rotate 90 degrees and roll out again. Repeat until you have filled and folded a total of three times. Let rest 15 minutes.
8. With a sharp knife, cut a 1 inch slice from one short end of the dough. Pick up the slice, twist it and place in the bottom of the pan. Repeat, filling each pan.
9. Alternately, place a single twist into a muffin pan to create mini buns.
10. Cover and allow to rise about 45 min or until increased in bulk.
11. Bake at 375F until golden brown, 20-30 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes and flip onto a serving dish. You do not want to let it cool completely or the sticky apricots could make it difficult to remove.
I sprinkled brown sugar in the bottom of my pan, hoping to create a sweet stickiness.

I left in the oven about 5 minutes too long and was horrified when I turned it out. It doesn't look very nice, but it tasted good. It didn't taste burnt, but gave it a thin candied crust. I don't think I'll aim for that very often, but seem people love that sort of thing.

Comeau's

2007-09-15T19:54:00.000-03:00

Fish and chips anyone? It’s the sort of thing I’ve always avoided, but I grew up in Saint John, NB so I suppose I was bound to gain respect for it eventually. I was opposed to the greasiness, the lack of nutrients, the monotonous colour palette and most of all, the lack of any flavour worth eating.

And then all of a sudden, unhappy with the meal in front of me at a local pub, I noticed my friend Tiff was enjoying her fish and chips. She started talking about her husband’s great appreciation for fish and chips and her decision that he might like the Alehouse’s version. It began to look like something I might try. After all, I figured, there must be something to it. My brother who specializes in greasy food took me under his tutelage and I started sampling fish and chips.

Fish and chips advocates are incredibly picky. The big challenge is to cook the fish and maintain separate flavours for the fish and the coating. Mushy is a fail. The coating must be dry, not greasy, flavourful. The fish must taste fresh and not just like the grease. The fries, fried potatoes, etc. must also be tasty, whether coated, thick, thin, shaved, etc. If you’re going upscale, you can also critique your salad.

Between Saint John and the St. Stephen-Calais border there are multiple seafood joints. Everyone has a favourite and is incredibly loyal. These are not fancy restaurants with linen and uniformed staff. They’re homey places with plastic table coverings, or wooden lunch counters where you eat in your car or at the picnic table watching the traffic go by. I think Tourism new Brunswick could actually promote the Fish and Chips tour, and this stretch would be the hub.

Here’s my recent scallops and chips meal from Comeau’s in Pennfield, NB. It’s famous among locals and visitors and has come out as my favourite (although I am still partial to the lobster sandwich from Ossie’s). Comeau’s also does the straight up fish, and the shrimp. The remarkable thing about Comeau’s fish and chips is that it isn’t greasy like other fish and chips. I’ve tested this with napkins. They also offer other homey dishes too (including Kraft Dinner and the classic Whistle Dog), and it’s always packed. Their milkshakes are excellent too.

Blackberries

2007-09-08T16:57:00.000-03:00

It's blackberry season, and they're delicious this year! It's the berry that seems to receive the least attention (I suppose currents receive less than blackberries, but that's the thing- most people don't even consider them in the local berry pageant). They're around for only a short period of time, so they're easy to miss. Also, they don't seem to be popularly cultivated so you have to be willing to pick your own, or pay an exhorbitant amount to buy them picked.

I purchased these at $2.99 per pint in the City Market this morning. I also picked blackberries last weekend at Rockwood Park for free. The blackberry bushes are right off the main paths of the park and are showing off a lot of sweet fruit. I ate all of mine before I considered taking a picture. They were delicious.

I told Tony I was simply going to gobble these up fresh, but on further consideration, I'm thinking of making them into muffins. He'll have a better chance of getting some.

Sneaky Cake

2007-09-05T20:04:00.000-03:00

This one is being posted by request, as it is required shortly for a birthday. It’s from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte and quickly went into regular rotation after its introductory baking. My eldest brother was staying with me at the time and re-named this cake from Hesser’s “Chocolate Dump-It Cake” to “Sneaky Cake” on the basis that you think you don’t want any cake, but then you have a piece to be polite, and then you want all of it. I think that issue comes up with lots of different foods, not just this cake. I don’t really feel Hesser’s title does the cake justice, neither do I feel that you really do get to just dump everything in- there are a few basic cake techniques involved.

There are three things about this cake that make it so nice: it’s easy, it’s moist, and the topping or ‘frosting’ is just melted chocolate chips and sour cream. It tastes incredible, and should probably be marketed by the dairy companies. It’s the topping that actually snuck up on my unsuspecting brother. You can also get away with relatively standard quality chocolate with this cake, it still comes out amazing.

Here is Hesser’s recipe. The only adjustment I’ve made is to reduce the amount of topping to 1 C each of sour cream and chocolate chips. I find it is quite enough for my tube pan cake, but you might want to make more.

Cake
2 C sugar
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
½ C butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1 C water
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C sour cream, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan.
3. Put the sugar, unsweetened chocolate, butter and water into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until everything is melted and blended. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, 15-20 minutes.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. In a small bowl, stir milk and vinegar together.
6. Whisk eggs and milk mixture into the chocolate mixture.
7. Whisk in the dry ingredients in several additions.
8. When smooth, add the vanilla and whisk.
9. Pour the batter into the prepare pan. Bake about 30 minutes or until the cake bounces back when touched.
10. Allow the cake to cool for about 10 minutes and turn out onto a rack. Let cool completely.
11. Melt the chocolate chips. Let cool to room temperature. Hesser warns that the sour cream and melted chocolate chips must be at the same temperature, otherwise the topping will come out lumpy and grainy. Test it by stirring a little together, if it mixes smoothly, it’s ready. Combine the rest of the chocolate and sour cream together.
12. When the cake is cool, frost with the chocolate topping.

Potato Rosemary Pizza

2007-09-04T20:45:00.000-03:00

I have finally made a good potato rosemary pizza. In the past, I have found it to be bitter (rosemary), blah (potatoes), messy to eat (the potatoes flopping around). Tony has always liked it, but I have had to edit to get it to a place I like. Here are my solutions. In brackets is the approximate amount I used for a large pizza.

-I used my favourite tomato sauce made with canned tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and olive oil simmered over a low heat until saucy (about half a cup).
-I added dobs of pesto sauce on top of the tomato sauce (about 2 Tbsp all together).
-I really minced, not chopped, the rosemary (about 2 Tbsp).
-I used chopped (small) Vidalia onion, which is nice and sweet (half a medium onion).
-Tonight, I used new white potatoes (4-5 small), but the traditional one to use for potato rosemary pizza is red potatoes. The reds look better, but I find the whites are just as good. And the potatoes really should be small, not much bigger than an apricot. This was one of my problems in the past- the ratio of potato to pizza space was too big.

One of the other things I’ve discovered really counts is the cooking of the potatoes. You must slice them thin, but not so thin that you have to use a mandolin. They should be about 4 mm thick, or about as thick as the end of a fork tine. You should be able to do it with a paring knife. In a frying pan, cook the potatoes in olive oil (about 3 Tbsp) over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. They must be golden, not just cooked through. This will give them extra texture and flavour (hence my blah results in the past). Then add the onion and the rosemary and continue to cook for about three minutes until everything smells wonderful.

Allow it to cool. In the meantime, prepare your pizza dough, spread with tomatoe sauce and pesto sauce. Then arrange the potato mixture evenly on top. Sprinkle with just enough grated mozzarella (about half a cup) to hold everything together.

Cook for about 7 minutes at 500F.

Overheard: The Fog Comes

2007-08-31T19:22:00.000-03:00

Just a few minutes ago, I heard this from a young guy in clothes that were too big for him as he walked with his friend a few paces behind me:

I know some say the fog is depressing.
I know some people think its depressing to be in Saint John
but I love being near the water.
You know when you're near the harbour
and its cloudy all day
and the fog comes.

He said it in a typical, not saying much of anything voice, but it sounded loving. I looked quickly over my shoulder as I turned up my steps. They were both wearing ball caps, their t-shirts were baggy in an unstylish way. The speaker was looking at the ground. But his friend, who hadn't spoken, saw me look. I know, because I saw him reflected in the glass door of the building, looking back at me.

This picture was taken outside my window on the evening of July14/07.

Daniel's Flats

2007-08-28T18:42:00.000-03:00

These are more pictures from our recent excursion to the Hopewell Rocks. Something a lot of people don't realize (myself included, until recently), is that the Hopewell Rocks park actually includes a variety of hikes, other uniqely named rock formations besides the ones known as the Flowerpots (which are the ones I posted), bird migration routes, a sea kayaking company, an interpretation gallery, etc. You can actually spend quite a lot of time time there and not see the Flowerpots, if you want to.

These photos were taken at a lookout. When the tide is out in August, the mud flats are covered by thousands of birds, gobbling tiny crsutaceans, building up strength before they fly South. From the lookout, we could just barely a crowd of the birds on the remaining shore as the tide came in. As the water moved in, quickly, the birds would take off. No doubt they were back in about nine hours as the flats and the shrimp became available.

Saturn Peaches

2007-08-25T11:07:00.000-03:00

The Saturn, or Donut, peaches have been out for about two weeks, and I've been happily eating lots of them. I enjoy the Ontario peaches, also out right now, but the Saturns are a little different. The flesh is white and the flavour is creamy sweet. They're also flat, which makes them very easy to eat, especially in public. You can eat around the edges, taking a bite straight to the pit. That makes it easy to suck up the juice as you bite, and you don't have to worry about juice going in all directions, including down your arm, as it does with regular peaches. So I've been taking these to work, and I can eat them at my desk without making a mess of everything.

Hopewell Rocks

2007-08-24T20:42:00.000-03:00

We made a day trip to the Hopewell Rocks on Wednesday. I went there as a child, and of course, I’ve seen them uncountable times as part of New Brunswick’s tourism campaigns. The drive itself was an adventure, along the coastal back roads. An original roller coaster experience, the roads curved along with the terrain with magnificent views of mud flats, salt marshes, cattle, fields dotted with Swiss hay rolls, and cute houses. It wasn’t littered with tourism stops, it really is rural New Brunswick. As we got closer, there were fewer and fewer New Brunswick license plates, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was surreal.We got there as the tide was coming in, walking the fifteen minute trail down to the staging area against a flow of tourists coming back. We went down to the beach of the Hopewell Rocks, also known as the Flowerpots, along with other latecomers. My urban friend Shayo from NYC wondered about the sign warning of mudflats- but they were already covered by the incoming tide.

We walked along and took cool shots of the rocks, seaweed, and took posed photos of other visiting tourists from around the world, including a honeymooning couple from Austria. They were surprised to hear I was from New Brunswick! It did seem like the rest of the world had suddenly turned up on the beach.

Although we had already explained the unique tidal features to Shayo, she really didn’t get it until we were standing beside the huge rock monoliths and said it again. Then she exclaimed loudly and incredulously. And I must admit, (despite growing up here and taking our high tides somewhat for granted) that standing there, I could kind of see why the idea of these huge rocks being reduced to islands might seem absurd.

Blueberry Crisp with Buttermilk Ice Cream

2007-08-17T14:04:00.000-03:00

It’s blueberry season, and I’m taking my own advice and eating heartily. When blueberries seemed to suddenly become recognized for their incredible nutritious properties and thus very popular, I was selfishly worried that world demand would increase, prices would go up and I wouldn’t have as many blueberries as I wanted. Luckily, blueberries are an important crop for New Brunswick farmers, I can still afford to buy them (I picked up a quart for $3.99 this morning at Pete’s Frootique), and in general, I still get to eat as many blueberries as I want.

One of the ways I do this is to pick my own. My sister and I always had a blueberry picking outing every August when she was still in town, and I’ve kept on going on my own since she’s left. Rockwood Park, in the centre of the city has blueberries and rock cranberries growing wildly and abundantly throughout the park lands. Anyone can visit the park for free, for swimming, hiking, picnicking, etc. And I go for the berries.

With three hours of picking, I was able to gain about 4 litres of blueberries- enough for this crisp, snacking, and for bowls of berries with milk, sprinkled with sugar (and old childhood bedtime snack).

The first layer of crisp I put on the berries was overtaken by the berries, so I took it out of the oven and added some more crisp. It didn’t feel like too much crisp, in the end (is there such a thing as too much crisp?), so I guess it just cooked right into the berries. As a result, I’m recommending a 1.5:1 of berries to crisp. I cooked this one at more like 3:1, but it actually turned out great. Instead of cream, I served it with buttermilk ice cream, which was heavenly rich (but I reminded myself that the buttermilk is fat free, of course).
Blueberry Crisp
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Use as many as is required to cover the bottom of your baking dish at about 2 inches deep.
3. Make sure the stems, leaves and bugs are removed from your berries. Rinse them in water, and allow them to mostly dry.
4. Lightly coat the berries in flour, and put into your baking dish.
5. Mix even amounts of sugar, flour, and butter (approximately ½ C each of flour and sugar, and 6 Tbsp of butter) in a mixing bowl until crumbly, like pie pastry. Add more of any of the three ingredients to gain the appropriate texture. Add to the top of the blueberries.
6. Bake covered for about 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 15-20 minutes or until the crisp is lightly golden.

I found the buttermilk ice cream recipe online at Epicurious. I made it according to the recipe, and it was fabulous.

Macaroni Soup

2007-08-08T18:55:00.000-03:00

It’s rainy again, which is kind of pleasant. I enjoy rain as long as we get some non-rainy days too. And we’ve had a good mix this summer. But I do feel that rainy weather calls for different types of food than hot sunny or humid weather. I need a bit more warmth and comfort in whatever I’m eating. I like to take advantage of eating for the mood.

We made a pot roast with new onions, carrots and potatoes a few days ago (on a rainy day). It did us two days and then I turned the leftover bone, beef and broth into a macaroni soup, which did us another two days.

It wasn’t until I was a fully fledged adult, living on my own that I began to appreciate macaroni soup. I hated it when I lived at home. My mother and my brother loved it, and would both get quite excited when it was made. I disliked every ingredient in it, and the finished product. I would sit in front of my bowl, fishing out individual macaroni noodles and then try to make excuses to get out eating the rest of it. Sometimes I would sit there for hours. Luckily for me, macaroni soup was usually a lunch meal, and therefore optional.

Now I’m impressed by its economy, its tomato-i-ness, the mix of treasures floating around in the lovely red broth. I think it’s a pretty soup, excellent with grilled cheese sandwiches.

The biggest challenge to making this soup is the danger of the macaroni taking over. I have experienced macaroni soup emergencies where extra tomatoes, broth, and even water, in dire emergencies, have been added to counteract the swelling macaroni noodles. They look harmless at first, and you think, “I’ll just add another handful…” and then suddenly your macaroni ratio is way out of control.

I believe the beef is actually optional, but other macaroni soup purists would disagree with me. Sometimes, I’ll just braise stewing beef and use that for macaroni soup.

Macaroni Soup
About ½ - 1C leftover pot roast (optional)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil or butter (optional)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
About 1 C beef or vegetable broth
1 large can of whole tomatoes (796ml) with their juice or about 8 large late summer juicy tomatoes plus another 1-2 C broth.
Pinch of oregano
2 stems of celery, including leaves, sliced thinly
3 handfuls of dried macaroni (about 1 ½ C)
Fresh ground pepper

1. In your soup pot, saute the onions and garlic until softened and exuding juices. If you’re using the leftover pot roast soup pot, you may not need anything extra to sauté them in. If you’re starting fresh, you’ll need a bit of oil or butter to get started with.
2. Add the beef, if using, and sauté briefly.
3. Add the tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes a bit to break them up.
4. Add the additional broth, and more if required for the right consistency.
5. Add the celery and oregano.
6. If you have happened to add a bit too much liquid, cook the soup down a bit to a nice consistency (not watery, not quite like stew- it should be something perfect in between).
7. If you think you do not have enough liquid, add some more broth.
8. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
9. Add the macaroni and stir. I recommend letting it cook before adding additional macaroni. 10. Add only a little bit more at a time, if you feel you need a higher noodle ratio.
11. Your soup is ready when your macaroni noodles are cooked.

Five Star Strawberry Ice Cream

2007-08-04T20:20:00.000-03:00

This must be my favourite ice cream. The primary qualification for that title is that we just finished it, and I’m thinking about it a lot. It was soooo good. And now the strawberry season is already passed again, and I’ll be thinking of it for another 11 months.

I should pull myself together and heartily eat local raspberries and blueberries. I’m planning some raspberry picking this weekend. And I noticed the local high bush blueberries used as landscaping on campus are ripe and tasty. I’ve been snacking as I wander around between buildings.

This recipe is from Cooking.com and is the primary reason I still tarry through their website on occasion. When I first received my Cuisinart ice cream maker (a gift from my wonderful sibs), I had only the instruction manual’s recipes. Which turned out to be not so helpful, for me at least. My first ice cream success was a Company’s Coming recipe which used processed pudding mix powder. For a long time, that was the only one I made. This strawberry ice cream recipe was my first ‘from scratch’ ice cream success which may inspire extra loyalty in my heart, but I honestly believe it deserves all accolades anyway. I suppose the berries themselves deserve some of the credit too.

Strawberry Ice Cream
1 C whipping cream
½ C half and half
2/3 C sugar
5 large egg yolks
½ C corn syrup
3 C fresh strawberries, hulled

1. Combine cream and half and half in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer.
2. Whisk yolks, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium bowl.
3. Gradually stir warm cream mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking all the time.
4. Return mixture to the saucepan.
5. Stir over medium low heat until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes.
6. Transfer custard to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until chilled.
7. Puree strawberries. Gradually blend into the custard.
8. Strain the custard through a fine meshed sieve.
9. Process in an ice cream maker according to your models’instructions.

Russian Tea Cakes

2007-07-14T21:37:00.000-03:00

The cookies I’ve been using for my profile picture were made at Christmas with crab apple jam, compliments of my friend Kara, whose mum made the jam. The jam was tasty, but even better it captured the light wonderfully and took on jewel tones.

I made Russian Tea Cookies again, with butter that needed to be used up and jam from the condiments population I’m trying to decrease. In this picture is a fig compote I picked up at Fox Hill Cheese House in Port Williams, NS last fall which is quite nice with the buttery flavour. Substituting almond extract for the vanilla and using marmalade is also quite tasty.

These are basically a shortbread cookie, but the texture is just a bit more cakey than a Scotch shortbread. I have no idea where the recipe came from. It’s just been floating around until it went into regular rotation from its Christmas run. There’s a probably hundreds of variations on this cookie, but I wonder how many are actually from Russian households? I just did a quick google on them, and apparently Russian Tea Cakes and other members of the shortbread cookie family originated in medieval Arab culture.

Russian Tea Cakes
1 C butter
½ C confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ C jelly (jelly seems to hold form better, the jam looks like a dried up puddle leaving a residue behind on the banks of the cookie).

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Add the extract and mix well.
3. Add the flour and salt and mix into a moist dough.
4. Form into one inch balls.
5. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and indent the cookie with the back of a spoon. If you find your spoon has flattened the cookie nicely, but has no support for jelly, try using a ¼ teaspoon measure, or your thumb.
6. Fill with about ¼ - ½ tsp jelly.
7. Bake for 15 mins at 325F.

Traditionally, I think you’re supposed to sprinkle them with confectioner’s sugar in advance of serving. I think they look pretty enough without so I usually eat as is.

Pineapple Coconut Cake

2007-07-10T20:36:00.000-03:00

I love this cake. It’s simple, delicious, and uses stuff I usually have hanging around. I feel like it is perfectly plausible eat it this cake for dessert or breakfast, because it’s coconut and pineapple- perfectly healthy. The colour scheme reminds me of daisies, and it gets eaten up rather quickly.

I’ve tried it with other fruits, with mixed berries or peaches going over best. I’ve even done it with rhubarb, and frankly- it was tasty, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the best framework to show off rhubarb. Toasted almonds are a nice substitute for the coconut too. I haven’t done it in muffin or mini cake pans, but I think it would make a wonderful single serving dessert, served with fresh fruit and drizzled glaze. We generally don’t use the glaze, but now consulting the recipe, I see it’s actually called “Sticky Pineapple Cake” but we’ve been calling it Pineapple Coconut Cake. Hm, it just doesn’t feel sticky if you omit the glaze.

This is from Michelle Cranston’s Fresh which was a gift from Tony’s brother and sister-in-law (thanks Tim and Nerida!). The pictures are beautiful, and the recipes are focused on eating fresh, in season food, put together with a minimum of fuss. It’s an Aussie book- which means their seasons and fresh food do not quite coincide with ours, so it feels slightly exotic without being actually foreign.

Sticky Pineapple Cake
1 ½ C sugar
2 C coconut, lightly toasted
1 C coconut milk
1 ½ C diced fresh pineapple
4 eggs
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

Glaze
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 C icing
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (orange or lemon is also good)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line an 10 inch spring form pan with parchment paper (I usually scoff at parchment paper, but I sincerely recommend it for this cake batter in a spring form pan).
3. Put the sugar, coconut, coconut milk, pineapple and eggs into a bowl and stir until combined.
4. Combine flour and baking powder, and fold into the wet mixture.
Pour into the prepare pan.
5. Bake for 1 hour, or until lightly golden and the middle is cooked through.
6. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until thoroughly combined. Add the lime juice slowly, mixing at the same time to retain smoothness. Pour over the warm cake.

Smoothie!

2007-07-04T19:29:00.000-03:00

I forgot about smoothies. I suddenly remembered them this weekend, while putting away fruits and vegetables. At one time, I used to drink them all the time for breakfast. If I was short on time, I simply dumped it into a travel mug and went on my way. People thought it was coffee in there, so I never came off as too healthy.

This was my Saturday lunch smoothie: half a banana, half a cup of fresh local strawberries, a quarter cup of orange juice, half a cup of milk, and a teaspoon of honey. I took out local high bush blueberries for it also, but I ate them all before I actually got around to adding them.

Isn't it pretty?

A Note on Fat Free Buttermilk

2007-06-27T19:19:00.000-03:00

We have been buying fat free buttermilk lately, only because it's easier to obtain- it's the version carried by the merchants we usually shop at. And it's hard to rationalize against saving on the fat if the results are the same. But we don't think the results are the same. We have tried it in pancakes and buttermilk muffins and are having to adjust the recipes.

I always thought the fat was one of the primary characteristics in buttermilk. The carton says it is buttermilk made with skim milk and bacterial culture. I haven't looked at a carton of full fat buttermilk lately- I don't think it was called full fat, it's just 'buttermilk.'

The fat free is definitely thicker. The pancake batter turned out dry and heavy. The flavour wasn't the same, and they were a little rubbery. Some of those details could be related to mixing, because we're definitely mixing more because there's less 'liquid'. I'm adding about 1/4C - 1/2C more buttermilk to the muffin batter. Without it, it's more like a big ball of dough than muffin batter. In this picture you can see the difference between the apricot buttermilk muffins and the blueberry buttermilk muffins. The apricot muffins are a little rubbery. They'll be hard to get through.

I'll probably continue to buy the fat free since it's plentiful around here, but I'll be using a lot more of it to keep the recipes edible. Has anyone else noticed a difference?

Oven Baked French Fries

2007-06-23T19:44:00.000-03:00

I've been on a mission to reduce the condiment population in my fridge. I don't really need to have seven different kinds of soya sauce. We have six different open jars of jam or jelly- an neither of us actually eat toast and jam. There are four kinds of mustard open right now. Four different containers fo maple syrup. Two jars of capers. Plus there are all the things we only have one of: mayonnaise, oyster sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, olive and pimento spread, cashew butter, balsamic vinegar, red curry, pesto sauce, butter, Becel, Worcester sauce, etc. I suspect that the percentage of real food could be under 50. That doesn't seem right.

I went after the pile of ketchup packets (it seems so wasteful to throw them out) the other night. I do like French fries, but I'm afraid of deep frying, and anyway, the media keeps telling me I shouldn't like French fries. So I bake them in the oven and feel like a gourmet food saint. And then enjoy a good ketchup binge which undoes the good food karma.

These are good for a snack, but they also go nicely with a meal as the potato selection. They look very pretty next to a salad.

Oven Baked French Fries

Potatoes

Olive oil

Herbs, optional

Salt and pepper

1. I leave the skins on, if they're good. Slice them thickly, about 1-2 cm thick.

2. Rinse them in cold water to reduce the starch, then pat dry with a linen or paper towel.

3. Toss the potatoes fingers in a mixing bowl with a small amount of olive oil (about 1 Tbsp per 1 C of potatoes) until lightly coated. Include dry herbs if desired (i.e. oregano, rosemary).

4. Spread the fingers on a metal baking sheet. Bake at about about 375F for approximately 50 min or to the right golden colour. Turn once, halfway through as they begin to turn golden on the baking sheet side.

5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, or as desired.

Honey & Spice Ice Cream

2007-06-15T20:52:00.000-03:00

This ice cream tastes like Christmas. I love my honey ice cream and was curious about this variation. I am enjoying it, but with every bite I imagine evergreen wreaths decorated with red bows and cinnamon sticks, oranges hung with cloves and gingerbread men. This would be excellent with gingerbread cake, or even a tart apple pie. I am going to have to eat the rest of it with ‘summer’ food in order to brand it in my head for warm weather.

I thought it would show small brown specks from the spices, but there was hardly any. It looks suspiciously white, which adds to the surprise of the strong flavour. It is sweet, and both the cloves and cinnamon are each discernible.

Honey & Spice Ice Cream
2 C milk
20 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 whole egg
3 egg yolks
¼ C sugar
¼ honey
1 ¾ C heavy cream

1. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan with the cloves and cinnamon sticks. Heat to simmering. Remove from heat and allow to infuse for at least an hour, or overnight.
2. Beat the egg, egg yolks and sugar and beat until frothy and thick.
3. Heat the spiced milk to the scalding point.
4. Beating the eggs all the time, pour the hot milk into the eggs.
5. Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring all the time. When the custard coats the spoon, remove from the heat. Stir in the honey. Allow to cool.
6. When cool, strain the custard through a very fine sieve, removing the spices.
7. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until thoroughly chilled.
8. Stir in the whipping cream. Churn in an ice cream maker.

Strawberry Shortcake

2007-06-06T20:02:00.000-03:00

It’s finally warming up. There was a final last snow hurrah which in the interior of the province which missed us (we had drizzle), and the air is beginning to feel warm. I’ve never been interested in sun tanning, but this year, I can kind of understand it.

To celebrate our newfound spring, I splurged and purchased flown in strawberries to use up the leftover biscuits as strawberry shortcake. Somehow, it just feels like the perfect dessert to express exuberance. It’s probably because the local strawberry season is so short, we all eat as many as we can get, and strawberry shortcake is the most elegant, pretty and perfectly satisfying strawberry dessert there is. And everyone has their own way of serving it. I have witnessed arguments over the best strawberry shortcake version.

Up to now, I have been serving it with homemade strawberry sauce, whipped cream, decorative fresh berries, and cream biscuits. The cream biscuits were a recipe from my sister which she found in a Pillsbury cookbook. It’s simply Bisquick mix, and enough heavy cream to make a dough. Roll them out, cut into circles, and bake at 350F until puffed and golden. They really are excellent biscuits.

Now, I think I’ll serve my strawberry shortcake with the buttermilk biscuits. They are the perfect texture, and the soft flavour is great with the sweet berries. They don’t absorb the juice too quickly either.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2007-06-03T21:12:00.000-03:00

I find I don’t always quite have enough regular recipes to successfully get through a carton of buttermilk before the expiry date. I’ve been working on that, experimenting with various recipes crossing some off, and adding to my overall buttermilk repertoire. Tony makes incredible buttermilk pancakes, and the berry and buttermilk muffin recipe from my sister is definitely a keeper. This recipe is also worth saving: easy, delicious and pretty. I have not been a successful biscuit maker in the past, but this recipe puts that shameful history behind me. I served them with homemade chicken soup on what I hope is the last cold rainy day of Spring.

Buttermilk Biscuits
1 ½ C all purpose flour
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
rounded ¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ C cold butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
¾ C buttermilk
1 Tbsp milk or cream for brushing biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda together into a large bowl.
3. Using your fingers, blend butter into dry ingredients until it resembles coarse oatmeal.
4. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork just until a dough forms.
5. Turn onto a floured surface and knead six times.
6. Roll to a ¾ cm thickness in the shape of a rectangle. Trim if desired.
7. Cut into six equal blocks. For each square of dough, fold one corner over to meet opposite corner like a turnover. Do not crease or press down.
8. Transfer biscuit to an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Brush each biscuit with milk or cream.
10. Bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.
11. Cool on a wire rack.

Banana Bread

2007-05-09T21:27:00.000-03:00

My father recently departed, visiting from the Caribbean. He doesn’t make it North very often anymore. In advance of his visit, we stocked up on the foods he likes: hard pears, red delicious apples, cantaloupe, sardines, hot chili peppers, Asian noodles, etc. And the thing he wanted to eat most that he couldn’t get at home in the Dominican? Fish balls, vacuum packed in plastic, purchased at local Chinese markets. He was very excited, and kept saying “Remember how much I like them? Remember how often I used to eat them?” Of course I didn’t. Frankly, I was a little surprised at their existence, never having noticed them myself in the same Chinese markets. He seemed disappointed that I lacked his enthusiasm and kept declining his offer to share (more for him, I reasoned…).

One of the other foods he likes and doesn’t get in the Dominican, is banana bread. Ovens are rare in the Caribbean (and who would want one in that heat?), and really, baking was never my father’s thing. The food he was really hoping for when he visited was apple pie and banana bread- the two things I completely forgot about.

My brother managed to round up nine over ripe bananas hanging around his apartment, and I made banana bread for all. I couldn’t imagine how we would get through three loaves- but we did. And my brother’s roommate didn’t even get any (he contributed many of the bananas). My dad took most of a loaf with him.

This is my mother’s recipe. I used to think banana bread was a dead easy recipe that everyone could and did make. Perhaps because of its popularity, many people do try to make banana bread, but it seems I hear of many unsolved issues related to banana bread baking. The one I hear most frequently is bread that doesn’t rise. My mother’s recipe uses both baking soda and baking powder, which is unusual among those who object to the lack of height in their own banana breads. So here is my mother’s, tall, moist, and good for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dessert.

Banana Bread
½ C vegetable oil
1 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 bananas, mashed
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
½ tsp vanilla
½ C chopped walnuts or chocolate chips, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Beat vegetable oil and suagr together.
3. Add eggs and bananas, and mix well.
4. Sift together dry ingredients.
5. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla.
6. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour.

Cauliflower with Onion and Tomato

2007-04-22T12:32:00.000-03:00

This is delicious, and going into regular rotation. When eating it, or even looking at it, you don’t think ‘onion and tomato’, it just looks like cauliflower. The onion and tomato get cooked into the sauce and flavour. The yellowness is from the turmeric, but even then, Tony and the guests couldn’t quite figure out what was in it, they just knew it was good.

The recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey’s An Invitation to Indian Cooking. This is an Arrowbooks trade paperback edition. Even though there aren’t any pretty food pictures (just a few decorative line drawings), I sit up and take notice when a cookbook is in paperback. Paperback for the culinary world is like a gold stamp- you know it’s been well tested and well sold to make it to paperback.

I served this with basmati rice, and two other dishes (a chicken in tomato sauce, and a dal), but I think it would be good all by itself, or by itself with rice.

Cauliflower with Onion and Tomato
1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of ginger, 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 Tbsp water
1 large head of cauliflower
8 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 medium tomato, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fresh green coriander (I actually left this out, and it was still good!)
1 fresh hot green chili, washed and finely sliced
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice (I just squeezed in a whole lemon)

1. Blend the onion, garlic, ginger and 4 Tbsp water into a paste.
2. Break the cauliflower into florets. Wash and drain.
3. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed 10-12 inch pot, over medium heat.
4. Pour in paste and add the turmeric. Fry, stirring, 5 minutes.
5. Add the chopped tomato, green coriander, and green chili, and fry 5 minutes. If necessary, add 1 tsp of warm water at a time to prevent sticking.
6. Add the cauliflower, coriander, cumin, garam masala, salt and lemon juice. Stir for 1 minute. 7. Add 4 Tbsp warm water, stir, cover and lower the heat. Allow to cook 35 minutes, stirring gently every 10 minutes or so.
8. The cauliflower is done when the florets are tender, with just a faint trace of crispness.

Raspberry Custard Tart

2007-04-18T13:52:00.001-03:00

This is tonight's dessert. While the rest of the meal will be largely experimental, I've made this tart many times before, and it's always a hit. My brother and a friend are coming to dinner, and this is one of his favourite desserts. It's from the Joy of Cooking, and is listed as Open Faced Peach Pie, but I noticed a while ago that the custard works wonderfully with raspberries. To be fair, it really is good with peaches (fresh or canned) and mangoes, but I love the raspberries best. As it's still (a very cold) April here, I used frozen raspberries I keep on hand.

I'm saying 'custard' but the filling that goes with raspberries isn't like an egg and milk custard baked in the oven. It's creamy, and rich, almost like a pudding, but with more of a truffle texture, with a vanilla flavour.

This one takes just a bit more time than the plum tart I posted earlier, but is quick and simple. And you can use almost any fruit on hand, so it's easy for unplanned desserts. You could use any dessert crust for this, but I use my regular pie pastry recipe. Here is the filling recipe.

Raspberry Custard Tart

Pie pastry for one 9 inch tart pan (or pie pan)

1 egg

3/4 C sugar

6 Tbsp melted butter

1/3 C all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1 C raspberries, or enough fruit to cover the bottom of the pan

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Line the tart pan with the pie pastry. Trim the edges.

3. Arrange the fruit evenly in the lined pan.

4. Whisk together all remaining ingredients.

5. Strategically 'pour' or drop the batter over the berries evenly. It will seem like there's not enough. Just make sure it's even, and it will fill itself in.

6. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Than turn the heat down to 350F and cook for 55 minutes more, until the top is brown, bubbly and crusty.

7. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature with raspberry sauce and/or whipped cream.

Uncle George's Bread

2007-04-16T20:34:00.000-03:00

I’m on holidays this week, and I hardly know what to do with myself. I took this week on a whim, because it would be the last time in a few months that I would be able to take any time. I am a big supporter of the no plan vacation time, but I don’t adjust very well. I was giddy yesterday just anticipating it. I’m terrified that my precious week will come and go and I’ll have little to show for it. Or that I won’t be relaxed. Or that I didn’t use it to get things done that I’m always wishing I could get done. In short, I’m uptight and am afraid of relaxing. There should be a support group for this sort of thing.

So today, my first official holiday day (Saturday and Sunday don’t count), I washed floors, cleaned cupboards, did my taxes and made bao and Uncle George’s Bread.

Uncle George is my father’s brother and occasional visitor. He works in the Antarctic now, and I haven’t seen him since I was a kid. He was a great horse, tickler, and storyteller. His magnum opus was Mother Pea Soup, which was supposed to put us to sleep one night, but got us laughing so bad we were up for hours more. This story is still a family classic. Essentially, Mother Pea Soup makes a delicious pea soup, and the animals come out of the forest to try some. But it makes them fart, enunciated, in a high pitched voice, “poop, poop, poop” which sent us into gales of laughter. I don’t think there was ever a conclusion to this story, we couldn’t get that far due to the laughter.

Uncle George also made this bread. He liked to put chunks of sausage into it also, but my mother left that out usually. I have also tried it with sun dried tomatoes- very good, especially if you’re using it with a spicy dip. Our favourite is just with the garlic and oregano, and if I don’t have garlic powder in the house, I’ll make it just with the oregano. George’s Bread is delicious any time, but especially good as toast.

Uncle George’s Bread
3 C all purpose flour
2 ¼ tsp years
1 Tbsp oregano
1tsp garlic powder
1 ¼ C warm water
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1. Combine 2 C flour and all of the dry ingredients together.
2. Add liquid ingredients and mix. Add 1 C flour (and more, if required) and mix into a dough.
3. Knead a few times on a lightly floured counter.
4. Turn into a greased loaf pan.
5. Allow to rise, until double in bulk.
6. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Plum Tart

2007-04-14T15:33:00.000-03:00

This was my offering at the in-laws last weekend for Easter dinner. The original recipe is from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte (I have also posted her excellent Almond Cake) and uses peaches. I’m not sure I would have thought to try this recipe in the first place- my unfortunate attitude would have been: Fruit tart? Too easy. My friend Rachelle tried it and enthused so much about it that I hard to try it too.

It is very easy, and quick. I can pull it together after work, along with a real meal, in time to be eaten at a reasonable dinner hour. It’s flexible enough to substitute with seasonal fruit. I’ve used fresh peaches, and canned peaches (so good), and fresh mangoes. Hesser also recommends pears, apricots and apples. The crust is amazing, and probably the best part: the almond flavouring sets off most fruits, and it has the texture of lots of butter, but it uses olive oil instead. This is easy to eat without feeling too guilty.

Here’s what I did for the plum tart in the picture:

Plum Tart
Preheat oven to 425F.

Tart Casing
1 ½ C all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ C olive oil
2 Tbsp milk
½ tsp almond extract

1. Sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
2. Whisk together the oil, milk and extract.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry in a circular motion, and mix with fork or fingers until just moistened. (Hesser does all of this right in an 8 inch square pan she uses for the tart).
4. Move the dough to a 9 inch tart pan. Use your fingers to firmly pat out the dough to cover the bottom of the pan and the sides. Trim the edges.

Filling
5 plums: 2 black sweet plums with red flesh, and 3 sweet plums with a yellow flesh; washed and sliced, leaving the skins on.
1/3 C sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp butter

5. Arrange the plum slices in the tart, arranging them so that they overlap slightly and cover the whole tart.
6. Using your fingers, pinch together the sugar, flour and butter, until crumbly. Sprinkle over the plums.
7. Bake for 30min, until the crust is browned.
8. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature, with whipped cream or drizzled cream.

Lemon Curd Bars

2007-04-08T13:40:00.000-03:00

It’s not feeling very spring like here in the Maritimes. Snow moved in on Thursday night, and it’s been cold, snowy, and lightly icy since. This isn’t usually an area for outdoor egg hunts anyway, but this Easter is a little reminder that we Maritimers can still be smug about our ‘wild weather’ (wink, wink).

So I was looking for a little edible sunshine last night and made lemon bars for the first time. I hear they are quite common in this area- they are talked about a lot, but I rarely get to eat them. I think it’s because they’re consumed at home before they can get offered around.

This is the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, the “Cockaigne” version, meaning it’s the personal family recipe of the Rimbauer-Becker family who edits the Joy of Cooking. An advantage of this recipe is that the curd cooks in the oven, instead of having to stir it on top of the stove and then layer it on, as I have seen in other squares.I was minorly appalled to see it called for 3 cups of sugar, but I just reminded myself there is a whole cup of lemon juice involved. And it does make a lot of squares. And they’re tasty.

In the picture, it looks like there might be confectioner’s sugar on top. It’s actually just a lot of little bubbles that cooked into the top. It looks very pretty, and means I didn’t feel compelled to sprinkle even more sugar on top.

Lemon Curd Bars
Base
1 1/2 C flour
¼ C confectioner’s sugar
12 Tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 325F
Line a 13x9 inch pan with parchment paper (not necessary, but it makes the whole thing easier, and helps to prevent leakage).
Sift together the flour and confectioner’s sugar.
With two knives, pastry blender, or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour, until crumbly.
Press the dough into the pan evenly.
Bake for 20 min or until very lightly golden brown.

Filling
6 large eggs
3 C sugar
Grated zest of one lemon
1 C plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
1/C flour

Reduce temperature to 300F.
Whip the eggs with a whisk.
Whisk in the sugar.
Whisk in the zest and lemon juice.
Lightly sift the flour on top of the mixture, whisking it into the egg mixture to prevent lumps.
Pour it on to the baked crust.
Bake for 35 min. or until set.

Roll up the Rim!

2007-03-13T21:27:00.000-03:00

We're into our second week of Roll up the Rim! I've already won two coffees. They were both on larges, at the campus Tim's.

Snippets of conversation like that are cropping up everywhere. Last night, I heard about someone their mum knows who won a car. It was in Ontario. We both grimaced. Everyone knows it's weighted for Ontario. Someone else I know has never won anything. All anyone can do is shake their head and buy another.

Chinese Dumplings

2007-03-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

I finally attempted dumplings. I love these little guys, and I know plenty of people who make them, but this is my first time. I felt like such a fop for my poor effort at Chinese New Year that I finally made the jump.

I used a filling recipe from Mai Leung’s Dim Sum and Other Chinese Street Food. This was a gift from my brother who gets to prowl NYC’s Chinatown and used book shops. His cookbook gifts are always period or cultural prizes, and this one’s no exception. Published in 1979, it’s a wonderful collection of food from the street carts, dim sum and noodle houses. It’s so old she uses ‘old’ pinyin, or English spelling for many of the words. For example, Beijing is Peking, and jaozi (dumplings) are chiaotse. I had to think about it for a moment to realize that ‘Chinese celery cabbage’ is Napa or bok choy. Everything I’ve tried out of this book has been easy and delicious. Pick up a copy if you can find it.

In my corner of the world, we are woefully short of all dim sum, noodle houses and street food (too cold and foggy) so I’m left to make friends with people who can make it, or learn to do it myself. Although, for people in the area, take note that Sampan’s on the West Side becomes a dim sum restaurant on weekends! It’s a little pricey- but it’s good, and it’s there!

Mai Leung of course makes everything from scratch, but I bought my wrappers. Everyone I know who makes dumplings says the wrappers are so cheap and of good quality, it’s not worth it to make your own. For less than two dollars I acquired over 200 thin wrappers at Linja’s in the City Market. Ming’s also has a great variety.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to form them properly, but it’s just as they look: add filling, fold in half, and then pleat them and squeeze together with your fingers. It’s easier then making ravioli!

Here is the Mai Leung filling recipe I used:

Chiaotse Basic Filling I
1 pound ground pork
1 head bok choy (or napa); separate leaves and steam for about 10 min. or until tender. Mince.
1/3 C chopped scallions
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp black soya sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine

1. Mix it all up (hands work best).
2. Fill each wrapper with about a tablespoon of filling. Fold it in half, and pleat one side against the other side, working from the outside to the middle. Pinch closed.
3. Oil a steamer tray and place over steaming water. Place the dumplings inside, cover and steam for about 12 mins.
4. Serve hot, with a dip.

Ginger Soy Vinegar Dip
Mix: slices of fresh ginger, ¼ C Chinese red vinegar, and 2 Tbsp black soya sauce.

Favourite Buttermilk Muffins

2007-02-23T21:49:00.000-04:00

Before my sister left for school four years ago, we took a sunny afternoon to rummage through her recipe collection. She was leaving the continent and had to choose carefully what she brought with her, and what she could put in storage. Her cookbooks would go into storage- except for the ones I lobbied to borrow and the select two or three she brought with her. That left binders and piles of recipes clipped from magazines, shiny store printed recipe cards, handwritten recipes on notepaper, and recipes bubble or laser printed on copy paper or loose leaf. The idea was to discard unwanted, unused, impractical recipes, and keep the ones that she loved, used and still wanted to try. There was also a pile marked for me. I was staying put, and had plenty of space for more great recipes.

That’s when I inherited my sister’s computer print-out on Hilroy paper of the Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Muffin recipe. This is one of my sister’s favourite bakeries. She didn’t need the recipe anymore, she had the hardcover cookbook (going into storage).

Tony doesn’t like blueberries, so I have discovered other wonderful combinations. Cranberries or raspberries are the custom, but I recently discovered that apple butter swirls are quite good too. This recipe is quite sensitive to over mixing, so I didn’t really swirl the apple butter- I just alternated spoons of batter with smaller spoons of appled butter. As the muffin rose, it became a nice swirl.

I make them in extra large muffin tins, so that one works as a light lunch or a big breakfast. Here’s the original Magnolia Bakery recipe on loose leaf:

Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Muffins
3 C flour
¾ C sugar
1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ C buttermilk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter softened (I usually just melt it)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ C blueberries, lightly coated with flour
1 Tbsp sugar for sprinkling (I don’t bother)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Grease 12 cup muffin pan.
3. Mix together dry ingredients, making a well in the centre.
4. Combine liquid ingredients.
5. Pour the liquid ingredients into the well, folding just to combine. Fold in berries, zest, nuts, etc.
6. Fill the muffin cups. If using, sprinkle with remaining sugar.
7. Bake for 20-22 min. (I do 26 min.) until lightly golden.

Shanghai Noodles

2007-02-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

I’ve been a little busy lately with work and winter cold blahs, but I am still eating. Not a lot, but I’m still eating.

I remembered a little last minute yesterday that it was the Lunar New Year, the Golden Year of the Pig. I have not figured out yet what extra blessings the golden part means, or how the Year of the Pig affects me, a cow, or Tony who is a rat (he always snickers about that but is proud of it because the rat won the race- by sitting on the cow’s nose).Growing up, my mother always prepared a feast for Chinese New Year, but remembering to prepare a Chinese at all for the new year is only something I’ve started recently. Even if I didn’t have Chinese ancestors (who, I think, I’m supposed to honour at the new year…oops), it’s still a pretty cool celebration.

Ideally, we should eat a whole bunch of special foods for the Lunar New Year and set off fireworks for a month. But we settle for a few things we can manage. We managed Shanghai Noodles for dinner last night. I found it in the Joy of Cooking, but I made a few changes to reduce the oil, and also because I screwed up the fried fingers of Chinese eggplant that was supposed to lie on top. Oh well, it was still pretty tasty. Here’s what I did.

Shanghai Noodles
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water; stem snipped off and the caps sliced
1 baby bok choy, bottom trimmed, all the leaves should be independent
12 snow peas (I recommend more)
¼ C sliced bamboo shoots
3 scallions, cut into 2 inch pieces
¼ C roasted chicken stock
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp dark soya sauce
1 ½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
½ C bean sprouts
7 oz. durum semolina spaghetti noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1. Cook the spaghetti according to al dente (yes the Chinese also prefer toothsome pasta, or sonng)
2. Drain and toss with the sesame oil.
3. Combine the chicken stock, oyster and soya sauces, sugar and salt together.
4. Swirl the 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a heated wok. Add the bok choy, snow peas and scallions. 5. Toss to coat with the oil.
6. Pour the chicken stock mixture into the wok. Stir, and cover with a lid to allow the vegetables to steam a little bit, until wilted.
7. Add the noodles and toss to mix everything together.
8. Add the bean sprouts. Toss and stir fry to make sure everything is warmed up and well distributed.

Squash Ravioli with Spinach and Walnuts

2007-01-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

Little bundles with surprises inside, or pocket food, are a great idea. The whole concept reinforces the idea of mystery and is a lovely metaphor for that silly little cliché adults are always telling children: don’t judge a book by its cover.

My mother used to make filled cookies. They were cut into circles with a few small slits in the top to make them look like flowers. Brown around the edges, with just a little colour peeking through, they were alluring. I liked looking at them, and biting into them. The best boring part was the edge, when you just got cookie. The best part was the second bite when you got some filling and discovered what was inside.

I still get excited with a box of chocolates for the same reason. And ravioli too.

Normally, I just make ricotta ravioli. It’s Tony’s favourite and it goes with everything. I’ve been experimenting with squash ravioli this fall and have decided I rather like that filling too.
With this weekend’s trial, I used Dutch Acorn squash. I had never had them before in any way, but essentially they are sweet and mild. Usually, I use buttercup squash, which is a little sweeter. My favourite squash combo so far includes a bit of brown sugar, garlic, ricotta and oregano. I’ve also variously tried butter, olive oil, cottage cheese, Italian seasoning and ginger.

My friend Dan is happy to eat squash ravioli with just melted butter, which is a traditional Italian dressing. He’s a skinny toothpick with an Italian partner, and a very traditional Italian mother-in-law, so it’s OK. I don’t really feel like I can get away that too baldly, at least not with Tony. In my head is echoing “A pound of butter is equal to a pound of fat” in a sing song voice.

I did use melted butter this time (Tony suggests olive oil next time), and tossed it with spinach and walnuts. The spinach was acceptable, but the walnuts were fabulous!

Squash Ravioli
2 small acorn squash or 1 medium buttercup squash
5 large cloves of garlic, roasted and pureed
½ C ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp brown sugar, or to taste
1 tsp dried oregano
Pinch of salt

I used my usual pasta dough recipe, except that I subsitituted one third of the all purpose flour with one third pastry flour. That was a handy tip from my friend Dan, who rightfully claims that pastry flour makes the dough softer.

1. Puncture the squash and roast it in the oven at 350F for about an hour (more or less, depending on the size). When a knife slides in and out easily, it's done.
2. Roast the garlic for about 45mins until soft. Mash.
3. Slice open the squash and allow to cool enough to work with it. Scoop out the flesh. Mash.
4. Add all other ingredients to the squash, and mix.
5. Prepare pasta and form into strips of dough with a pasta press. Form into raviolis (or tortellini, etc.).
6. Drop the ravioli into boiling salted water and cook for about 3 min.
7. Toss lightly with melted butter (or olive oil), baby spinach and walnuts.

Penne with Chicken, Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

2007-01-19T22:45:00.000-04:00

Today’s weather has been the appropriate backdrop for a Friday ending a weak handshake week: snain that melted our snow into mush. And then it all froze into icy slush around dinner time, and is now being dusted with fine flurries. It is slippery and treacherous and very persuasive for staying in.

It’s the end of the week, and there isn’t a lot of food in the house. So I cobbled this together with leftover ingredients from other dishes and snacks this week. That’s the nice thing about pasta- it can go with almost anything.

I actually started with an idea of making a Silver Spoon Chicken and Mushroom dish I was fond of last winter. I never actually made it according to the recipe (fresh mushrooms for dried, water for white wine, etc.), but, you know, I followed the idea. Which is basically to sauté them, and make a white wine and tomato sauce. I actually had a bit of leftover white wine, extra mushrooms from yet another mis-weighing episode at the market, plus some goat cheese and extra basil from the Basil Chicken Tony made earlier in the week. I’m quite enjoying the goat cheese- it’s so creamy and flavourful. For a soft cheese, it seems to have a long fridge life. It melts nicely on warm pasta and gives the sauce a rich pungent flavour, and makes the sauce thick. It doesn’t feel as decadent as a cream sauce.

And I like eating something made from goats. I like goats. They have nice ears and are interested in everything.

So this turned out pretty good, and I feel like an awesome home maker for turning out something reasonably nutritious and tasty that used up stray food. This is about what I did.

Chicken & Mushrooms in a Tomato and White Wine Sauce
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 chicken breast, cut into bite-size chunks
3 C fresh mushrooms, quartered (or bite size)
About ¼ C tomato sauce or mashed chunky tomatoes
5 Tbsp dry white wine
4 Tbsp water
Fresh ground pepper (about 1 tsp)
Leaves from 1 bunch of basil
About 3 Tbsp goat cheese, crumbled

1. In a sauté pan, sauté the chicken in the olive oil. Remove.
2. Add the mushrooms and sauté until their juices start toflow.
3. Add the chicken back to the pan.
4. Add the white wine, and 1 Tbsp of tomatoes/sauce and cook until slightly reduced
5. Add the rest of the tomato sauce and water, and ground pepper to taste.
6. Cook until the sauce is slightly thickened. If it becomes too thick, add a tablespoon of water.
7. Prepare penne or other pasta.
8. Add basil leaves at the end, and allow them to wilt.
9. Toss the chicken and mushroom mixture and goat cheese with the pasta until the cheese melts and the pasta is coated in sauce. And enjoy.

Cranberry Pie

2007-01-13T19:03:00.000-04:00

Isn’t this pretty? It’s the colour – cranberry. The flavour isn’t bad either. This is another selection from the Taste of Acadie collection- straightforward, good, basic and hearty.

I’ve used cranberries in pies (mixed with other berries, mixed with apples), in crisps, cookies, squares, cakes and muffins, but for some reason it had never occurred to me to make them the centerpiece primary flavour. I would have thought they would be too tart, but like most fruit pies, there is enough sugar in this one to overcome any tartness.

The recipe did not call for a pie size, so I used my standard 12 inch pie plate. I recommend using a 9 inch pie plate. Better yet, this filling would be excellent in tarts or mini-tarts. I served it with whipped cream, but you could easily put a lattice or ‘crisp’ top on it, or decorate with fresh fruit or custard or creme fraiche. It was easy to eat: not too sweet or tart.

Tarte aux pommes de pre
(Cranberry Pie)
2 C cranberries
¼ C water
¾ C plus 2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 pie crust, uncooked

1. Bake the pie crust at 400F for 10min. Allow to cool.
2. Meanwhile, put the cranberries in a large pot with the water and sugar. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool.
3. Add the beaten egg, butter and vanilla and mix well.
4. Fill the pie crust with the cranberries. Cover with a lattice crust, if desired.
5. Return the pie to a 350F oven for another 35-40min.
6. Serve warm or chilled.

Chicken Fricot

2007-01-09T21:24:00.000-04:00

Tony gave me A Taste of Acadie for Christmas. The Acadians inhabited the Maritimes until their expulsion in 1755. It took them a good twenty years to begin trickling back from the American South where they were variously dumped. I have mentioned Acadians before, on this blog: Chez Christophe, on St. Mary’s Bay which I ate at in the fall is ‘Acadian’ and delicious. I always feel that if you have to ‘name’ it, ‘it’ is probably vulnerable. And in Nova Scotia, Acadian culture is definitely vulnerable as the actively speaking Francophone and Acadian cultures continue to dwindle. In New Brunswick, the situation is better. But the population is so small throughout the Maritimes, that sometimes it seems that everything is in danger of being overwhelmed.

This cookbook seems to be as much an act of culture identification as a commercial enterprise or an act of spreading good food. It was a joint project by academics, backed by universities, and was put together through interviews with older members of existing Acadian regions. However, the recipes really are dishes that people eat- people I know eat these things, so it naturally feels homey.

For the most part, I can say that I have not been eating these dishes. And I’m not trying some of them: Seal Fat Cookies, Eel Fricot, Salt Pork Omelette or Roast Porcupine are fascinating but not appealing, not to mention hard to source ingredients for.

The other day, we tried our first fricot. Essentially, a fricot is just a stew, but is one of the best known ‘Acadian’ dishes- and it gets its own chapter. There are four established techniques in which to create a fricot depending on the region. Basically, it depends on how you cook the meet or fish portion: pieces sautéed, pieces simmered in the liquid, cooking the meat whole, or cooking the vegetables separately from the meat and broth. Any of them can be used, but I went along with the first style as it was most familiar to me. I wish I had used stock instead of water- it took day three before it started to become flavourful, but maybe it would have been tastier early on if I had actually used a whole chicken. I'm a little squeamish. My instinct is to add carrots, tunips, etc. like a stewI'm familiar with. Interestingly, the Acadians didn't even have carrots, parsnips or much diversity in their vegetable selection until the 19th century. So, at least two centuries of Acadians would have eaten it this way. This is a classic hearty meal.

Here is the recipe from the book, with my adjustments in brackets. The second recipe are the dumplings, or pates.

Fricot a la Poule (Chicken Fricot)
1 chicken ( I used 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts)
2 Tbsp butter
1 large chopped onion
1 Tbsp flour
12 C water
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp summer savoury
5 C diced potatoes

1. Cut the chicken into large pieces.
2. Brown in butter, making sure all sides are golden brown
3. Remove chicken and saute the onion in the butter.
4. Add flour and saute the onion for another 1-2 min.
5. Add water, chicken, salt, pepper and summer savoury.
6. Simmer until chicken is tender (about 30 min).
7. Add potatoes and cook for another 17 min.

Pates, Poutines, Poutines Blanches, ou Grands-Peres
In a bowl, mix 1 C of flour with 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 Tbsp baking powder. Gradually add 1/2 C of cold water. Drop the mixture into the fricot a spoonful at a time. Cover and simmer for 7 min. DO NOT uncover until the 7 minutes have elapsed.

Happy Warm New Year

2007-01-04T23:29:00.000-04:00

Here's another perspective on dropping the apple: an orchard in Port Williams, NS. Mostly, all you can see are leaves, but trust me, there were a few drop apples too.

Unfortunately, this orchard probably looks the same even now, a month later, in early January. The weather is so ridiculously warm, its hard to take it seriously. It was 7C today in Saint John, and someone I know was mowing their lawn.

From a food perspective, it means there really isn't much inspiration to get into cold weather food: stews, soups, chili, warm breads, roasts. If global warming continues, our cold food season will be severely shortened!

Kipferl

2006-12-23T19:19:00.000-04:00

Well, the Christmas baking splurge is in full swing now. Part of the fun of Christmas is that it's a set deadline. Sure, sure, there's visiting and gift giving afterwards, and still plenty of time to bring out your test goodies between the 26th and New Year's- but Christmas Eve is the goal. Although I've still got a lot to do, I think I'm going to be OK with plenty of cookies for everyone. Here's one of my favourites.

I've been making kipferl for... a long time now. It's just another variation of a butter cookie, also known as almond crescents. My mother used to make them when I was very small and I copied the recipe form one of her much used notebooks. I started making them because I needed numerous inexpensive Christmas gifts. Gradually, over time, I became knowm for them and people would specifically ask for kipferl for Christmas. A few years ago, I stopped making them in large quantities. I was bored and wanted to make other cookies. But they are good, and I am lured back. Their shape is haunting, their taste is simple and rich, and they're easy. My sister dips hers in chocolate, and some people serve them plain. I think confectioner's sugar is the prettiest, reminiscent of snow (which we don't have), soft and white.

Kipferl
1/2 C butter
1/2 C ground almonds
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch

1. Cream butter, sugar and almonds
2. Add flour and cornstarch. Mix well.
3. Shape into approximately 1 inch long crescent shapes. I form a log, squash it, and turn the edges.
4. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350F for 10 min.
5. Allow to cool. Dip in chocolate, roll in cornstarch or eat plain.

Sweet Heart Squares

2006-12-22T18:59:00.000-04:00

These are one of my favourites, passed on by my mother. I don't remember them as a kid, but she put them in the handwritten recipe collection she gave me when I left home. I'm generally intimidated by squares, but I tried this one because it looked so easy. And it is so good. And easily manipulated to accommodate your supplies on hand. The recipe was originally in an 8x8 pan, but I have increased the quantities to suit an entire can of condensed milk. Enjoy.

Sweet Heart Squares
In a 9x9 pan:
1. Melt 1/3 C butter (in your warming oven)
Spread the following in layers:
2. 1 1/2 C graham crumbs - evenly so it soaks up the melted butter
3. 1 1/4 C shredded coconut or rice krispies
4. 1 1/2 C chocolate chips
5. 1/3 C walnuts or almonds
6. 1 can condensed milk (300mL)
7. Bake in a 350F oven for 25min or until the edges are golden brown.

These will be sticky, so sometimes its worth it to line the pan with parchment paper.

Shortbread

2006-12-12T21:24:00.000-04:00

I have an ongoing debate with Tony and my friend Rachelle about the nature of shortbread. Tony and Rachelle feel very strongly that it is an elite cookie: it requires a high ratio of fats (butter), and sugar and flour- the more refined, the better quality the shortbread (this theory works better if applied to the 18th century). Also, in their experiences growing up, shortbread was a special cookie served only at Christmas, and usually for guests. It wasn’t the cookie they got after school with a glass of milk.

I have always felt that shortbread was a cookie of the people: it’s been around forever (or so it seems), it requires few ingredients that are available to almost everyone at any time, and there are variations across cultures demonstrating its versatility, timeless and appeal. Furthermore, everyone seems to have a shortbread recipe of their own and/or a family recipe- it’s a cookie that many people experience. The expense of the fats doesn’t really cut it with me- cookies are luxuries anyway. And their own childhood experiences were probably just good parenting, considering the high fat content of shortbread.

Whatever the place in the social hierarchy of the shortbread cookie, there’s soon to be plenty of them for us to nibble on. Or at least there will be in my elite house.

I made these for the office cookie event. My office relies on good relationships in order to accomplish our mandate. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury or ordering or requiring anyone to do what we want them to do, so we bribe them with cookies every Christmas. On a Sunday, we all bake. On the Monday, we make up baskets and carry them off to the people who were nicest to us and easiest to work with over the previous year.

I dressed mine up with semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped maraschino cherries or dried apricots. They’re easy, add colour to a cookie selection, freeze well, and always disappear quickly.

Shortbread
1 C butter, softened (I use salted)
½ C icing sugar
1 ½ C all purpose flour
½ C cornstarch
1 C or more chopped nuts, candied or dried fruit, chocolate, etc. (optional)

1. Cream butter and icing sugar (I use a mixer).
2. Sift together flour and cornstarch. Beat into butter.
3. With your hands or a spoon, knead into a dough.
4. Add chocolate, fruit or nuts with your hands or a spoon.
5. Shape dough into balls about the size of a large walnut (about 3cm in diameter). Or roll out and cutin shapes.
6. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 300F for 20 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.

Spice Organization

2006-12-10T18:41:00.000-04:00

We used to keep our spices in a drawer, but they became too heavy and messy and we've been throwing them in a big basket in the corner of the kitchen. It's been about a year, and I have browsed many organizational options. Most of them seem to be made of heavy wood, take up shelf space or are just too expensive if they also happen to be functional and attractive.

President's Choice has come to the rescue, as they often do with household needs. For $19.99, anyone with access to a Superstore or a Market (or a Loblaws) can buy an enormous magnet holding 6 magnetic canisters. They have sprinkle holes, and a pour hole and of course you can take the cover off. They come with small printed (in English and French) static cling labels that you can see across the clear cover. They're a little small, but it's easy to add your own labels, as I did. You can buy as many as your collection requires, and of course, you can put anything you want in them. I imagine lego pieces and stray hardware fitting nicely in here. You can buy the cannisters separately also. The set comes with a selection of six spices to get you started (which are remarkably quite fresh). I am definitely a happy consumer.

Dutch Canadian Shoppe

2006-12-09T18:24:00.000-04:00

I visited the famous Dutch Canadian Shoppe while in New Minas, NS. I'm not sure if it's really famous, but it feels famous to me and many of my colleagues. A co-worker is Dutch, as is her husband's family. They cross the bay frequently to visit his family in the Annapolis Valley, and always stop by the Dutch Canadian Shoppe. Sharon says it is the only Dutch shop anywhere around the Maritimes, and that all Dutch families make visits. I have heard so much about this place that I had to take the opportunity and snoop around.

In many ways, it looks like what you would expect- ceramic giftware, model cars, candy, garden accoutrements, and packaged goods. But when you look closer, you realize that those wooden clogs are meant to be worn (they're sized- Sharon says they're excellent for gardening), the white tiles with blue painted scenes are for your kitchen, and the percentage of licorice in comparison to other candy seems awfully high.

In the back is a deli, freezers and coolers holding a lot of different cheeses, knackwurst and other suasages and meats. I'm not a big mystery meat person, but I wished I could have bought some of these things just to try them out. There were also lots of mustards (I bought sweet Bavarian), special candies and chocolate for Christmas and packaged baked goods. I tried a Mozart ball which is a round chocolate wrapped in a foil stamped with Mozart's smirky face on it. Inside is chocolate truffle surrounded by hazelnut truffle and pistachio truffle- delicious and very expensive. The Dutch lady told me they are a German Christmas tradition. I also picked up some "Roca" which is also popular- it seems to be a rectangle of toffee and nuts dipped in chocolate. We haven't opened them yet. They also had a big display of chocolate letters (Santa leaves you your initial), chocolate twigs, chocolate shells, and almost anything else you could imagine eating in a chocolate form. There were also lots of crackers, cereals, soup mixes, cakes and cookies.

The centrepiece of the store is a self-help island of candy, dominated by licorice. Dutch licorice seems always to be black, smelly and salty. Educated by Sharon, I'm wary of the stuff. Apparently, people love it or hate it. I haven't got past the smell yet, but it would be a fun taste experiment (to give to someone else).

Stop by if you're in the area. You can find the Dutch Canadian Shoppe at 28-9121 Commercial St. and you can call them at 902-682-8298.

At Home, but not in the Kitchen

2006-12-07T22:18:00.000-04:00

Highway 1, NB, due West. Look carefully- there's an Inukshuk on the edge. I love that you'll find Inukshuks everywhere, plus Batman symbols, declarations of love, and at this time of year, even fully decorated Christmas trees.

I'm at the office, unpacking, or at the desk at home working. Oh well, I have big plans for this weekend. I am eating, just cooking...

Today, I ate lunch at the Crusader Cafe at Kennebecasis Valley High School, one of our local high schools. The counsellors invited me and my colleague to eat with them in the student run restaurant in advance of doing an information session for grade 12 prospects.

We've eaten there before, and I am impressed with it and the students. The soup today was Golden Tomato Soup and it really was delicious: reddish orangev with corn, cleery, onion, peas. It was rough, flavourful, chunky and thick- perfect for a winter soup. The dessert was a frozen sponge cake layered with cream, ice cream and chocolate. It was very good, though rich. And the students were very nice. Our server had beautiful long shagy blonde hair (a guy). I love trendy young guys' hair these days- way better than the helmet head hair from my high school days. It was probably an unfortunate influence of their GI Joe childhoods.

The menu wasn't exactly as promoted (i.e. lasagne instead of chicken fajitas), but making a good meal out of what you have is one of those important lessons every good cook has to learn.

A lot of schools and culinary colleges have teaching restaurants their students practice in and I definitely recommend checking them out. I like supporting educational initiatives, but the food is usually quite good, for an excellent price. And who doesn't want to support and encourage budding foodies?

Giant Blueberry

2006-11-28T23:24:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love giant food? The blueberry is one of my favourites. He looks like he's one of the Mr. or Miss characters from the children's book series (remember: Miss Naughty, Mr. Tickle, Mr. Shy, etc.).

The Blueberry lives at the Oxford Irving in NS. I often stop there to collect gas or coffee before embarking on the Cobequid Pass. Apart from being a good stopping place, Oxford is also known as the blueberry capital. So it's appropriate th Giant Blueberry lives here. But he used to live in front of a hotel in Sussex. When we were kids, we could see him as we drove by on the highway, and he was always one of the highlights. It was a great disappointment when he moved away.

Still on the Road: Nashwaak, NB

2006-11-23T21:03:00.000-04:00

My kitchen really is lonely lately. Tony seems to be eating bagels and soup- not a lot of food exploration going on there. It sounds more like a subsistence program. I won't be back in my kitchen for good until December- but I get to visit tomorrow!

View of Englishtown

2006-11-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

Here's the view of Englishtown from St. Anne's look-off on Kelly Mountain, about 20 minutes north of Baddeck, NS. I took this ferry yesterday on my to Neil's Harbour, at the top of the Cabot Trail. For five dollars, it saves you about 30km and deposits you on a winding sandbar. We saw a bald eagle hanging out on the rocks, looking around. Locals say there's a family in the area.

PC Frozen Dinners

2006-11-18T19:39:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is the sad state of my culinary habits lately. I've been in Sydney, Cape Breton this week, staying at the Cambridge Suites Hotel. One of the nice features of this place is that the suites have sitting rooms, office desk, sink, microwave and bar fridge. This means, that if I don't want to eat at a restuarant, I don't have to. If I want to buy an 8 pack of individual yogourt servings bc I have refrigeration. I can buy more than one smoothie or juice drink at a time. I can warm up my muffin if I want. I can loll on my couch and watch TV while I eat, if I want to. When you've been eating out of restaurants for two months, this is a luxury.

Well, the luxury ends tomorrow when I check out and drive to New Glasgow. So I celebrated with frozen butter chicken. It's basically impossible to get Indian, Thai, Vietnamese or real Chinese food outside of the urban centres. And since most of the Maritimes are distinctly not urban, I'm eating enough chicken dishes, chowder and spinach salads to do me for months.

I've discovered that President's Choice has great frozen entrees, and I can enjoy butter chicken, chicken korma, biryani and chana masala! They're not bad, actually, nothing like what I thought a frozen dinner would be. Even the basmati rice is good. I definitely recommend, if you can't buy or make your own, or if you just want a break.

Scalloped Potatoes

2006-11-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

I was actually home for two full days and three (!!!) nights. In that short time, I managed to sleep a lot and make Tony a nice dinner.

The first time he invited me to his place (actually his parents’ place), he made me one of his favourite meals: ham, scalloped potatoes and carrots. Somehow, it’s the perfect combination. We don’t make it a lot (I can only manage the honey hams drenched in lots of maple syrup. Luckily, I have lots of maple syrup). So when I do make it, it always feels special.

Scalloped potatoes are easy, I’m not sure why I don’t make them more often. We both love the cheesy crust on top, so I make them in a shallow casserole dish to maximize crust potential. This is how I usually make them:

2-3 large russets or Yukon gold potatoes sliced into 0.5cm slices
1 large onion, sliced
1/4C grated parmesan cheese
Butter
Milk
Fresh ground black pepper

1. Grease the casserole dish with butter.
2. Layer the potato slices to cover the bottom.
3. Place some onions over the potatoes, and in the crevices.
4. Dot with butter.
5. Repeat until everything is used up.
6. Sprinkle the parmesan and black pepper over the top.
7. Pour milk into a crevice until you can see it peeking at you.
8. Cook at 375F for 30min covered. Cook for another 30min uncovered to allow it to brown.

Sometimes I add bread crumbs to the top. And once I even added garlic in with the onions. A little bit of cream in the milk makes it extra rich. I think the number of personalized recipes and opportunities to make it your own adds to the specialness of the dish.

Signs taken for Wonders: Moose

2006-11-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

There are a surprising number of variations on the moose sign. I guess we need them, there are a lot of moose in NB. This one is taken in the Irving Blue Canoe parking lot in Lincoln. The highway between Lincoln and Saint John has flashing light moose signs every 10 km. The moose on the sign is double the size of the little person car. And yet, the ones that are the most alarming are between Miramichi and Bathurst, with enormous life size moose signs on yellow.

So far, I've only seen one moose, on Highway 116 in NB. Almost no one drives this highway, in part because of the moose and deer caused fatalities, but also because there really aren't any house, only fishing and hunting cabins. I saw her on a logging trail, and thought she was a llama at first. Unfortunately there are no known wild llamas in NB. It's not a goal to see a moose or deer, you'd rather not. But you would like to see them in time to do something about it. I've been lucky so far- 7 deer, 1 moose and 2 foxes, and we've all survived.

The title is compliments of Franco Moretti's book on literary theory, part of my background as an English major. I've always liked it, and it pops into my head at times like this.

NB is Trees and Coasts

2006-11-06T22:33:00.000-04:00

The lighthouse at Inch Annee in Dalhousie, NB. The lighthouse looks out to the Baie de Chaleur, and was originally staffed with the first Arseneaus on this continent. Two more generations of Arseneaus looked after the lighthouse.

I'm wandering New Brunswick this week. Today, I've been in Atholville, Campbellton, Dalhousie and Bathurst. Driving up here last night was a reminder of the province's reality: trees. We have only about 750 thou people in this province, sparsely spread out. Trees take up 90% of the province. Our rich natural resources have been, and still are the backbone of the economy here, and driving around the province, I can't help but feel that we'll never run out of trees. Driving Route 11 North was a lonely affair, driving through a forest to get to the next town. A deer ran in front of me, wagging her tail somewhere between Miramichi and the next town. It's nice to be reminded that the trees aren't 'nowhere' - they're somewhere, filled with deer, grouse, moose, porcupines, bears and probably more creatures than there are people in this province.

Tis the Season

2006-11-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin patch near Mount Stewart, PEI.

I meant to post this one for Hallowe'en, but as Tony predicted, my week in Saint John meant I was hardly at home, distracted and not thinking about home at all. So I forgot I had this fab pumpkin photo waiting for the best pumpkin day of the year. Oh well, I find that the pumpkin season has been stretching out, and since today is Guy Fawkes Day, they're still season trendy.

It seems that a few years ago, pumpkins only showed up as jack-o-lanterns, and pie. Now they're popular as cheesecake, tarts, stuffing, roasted and tossed with salad, soup, salad dressing, and even a Blizzard. When you make it as a Blizzard, you know you've hit the big time.

Dressed Up Chocolate Chip Cookies

2006-10-29T20:30:00.000-04:00

I’m home for a week, and I have a long list of foods I want to make. Mostly, I just want to taste my favourite homey flavours, but also there are some things that I just want to try out to see what happens.

First on my list was something to put on a plate that has to be returned to a colleague.
It came with Valentine cookies from his wife- so that was February! The plate sat around the office for months before anyone thought about it. By that time, it was late summer and it seemed either that he wasn’t at work when I brought it (and so it wouldn’t be fresh), or it hasn’t turned out acceptable enough to give as a gift. Food gifts are easily the best, but there’s always my mother’s haunting voice in the background that you cannot return an empty plate. I agree with her of course, but I’ve noticed it might be a fading social ethic. Well, I’d rather offend on timeliness rather than give back an empty plate.

These are based on the Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie, I just added a few riffs of my own. I’ve been wanting to chop up fancy chocolate bars to put into homey cookies to see if it was too much, or just better. This was a good combo. For these, I added coconut (half toasted, half straight), a chopped bar of Lindt orange dark chocolate with almonds, cocoa and extra semi-sweet chocolate chips. I think I would up the coconut quotient if I were making them again. I like coconut and felt it might have been overshadowed by the chocolate, but others feel that’s the right priority. Here’s what I did.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Extras
2 ¼ C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 tsp cocoa
1 C butter
¾ C sugar
¾ C packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ¼ C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bar Lindt Excellence Orange, chopped (it has almonds in it)
½ C sweetened, flaked coconut

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa in a bowl.
2. In a larger bowl, cream the butter with the sugars.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, mixing well as you go.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips, chopped chocolate and coconut until well mixed.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 325F for 10 min.

Lovely Prince Edward Island

2006-10-28T14:21:00.000-03:00

A farm near York, PEI

I’ve been in Prince Edward Island, or ‘the Island’ this week. It's famous for its red soil (but I’ve seen red dirt elsewhere), potatoes, Anne of Green Gables and as the home of Confederation. It takes about 3 hours to drive from one end of the island to the other, and yet it qualifies as a whole province (a fact that never fails to incite the West- but hey, the Maritimes were here first!).

The thing that makes PEI, though, are the rolling green hills. The whole island is a maze of green fields, swiss hay rolls, mournful cows, red earth dotted with white seagulls, pumpkin fields, inlets and red barns. The ‘highways’ are two laners sewing it all together. Every town is small (even the so called cities, Summerside and Charlottetown), and makes it easy to imagine Lucy Maude Montgomery’s landscapes. What I find interesting is the difference in the air- you can feel and smell it immediately: warm, slightly salty. Even ‘inland’ is still on the coast, and as such, you’ll see seagulls camping out in the fields with the cows.

Until about 15 years ago (?) you could only get to PEI by ferry. In fact the ferry service was enshrined in the Constitution. Then they built the Confederation Bridge connecting PEI to New Brunswick, the longest bridge in the world until a few years ago. Tourists still come to look at it. There is still a ferry connection to NS and NL. And there are still people who have never been off the island. The island is their whole world. When the bridge was built, that number declined sharply, but there is still a culture of “stay on the island” or “get off the island."

And unique island goodies? I picked up Seaman’s soda, which is only available on the island. I also bought some currant preserves made by the Prince Edward Island Preserves Company, Vesey’s seeds (herbs) and some potatoes, of course!

Nova Scotia Goodies

2006-10-25T22:03:00.000-03:00

When possible, I like to buy local. With that said, I do take ‘local’ to mean Maritime. The closer to home, the better is my rule. So, there’s local and then there’s local. In some cases, “Canadian” will do. Last week in Nova Scotia ended in the Annapolis Valley, across the bay from Saint John, and a virtual cornucopia of food. It’s a collection of small towns laced together with fields and farms, and more farmers’ markets then grocery stores. I picked up a lot of goodies.

The Annapolis Valley is famous for its apples, and I could hardly restrain myself from buying a dozen different kinds of apples. Luckily, I’ll have plenty more opportunities this fall, so I’m just going to stretch out the fun. On this trip, I bought my favourite honey crisps- almost as sweet as a pink lady but more flavourful. The cox orange apple is a new one to me. Apparently it’s a cross between an apple and an orange- how cool is that? The flavour is OK, but it is quite pretty, and small to fit completely in my hand. The third variety I purchased is the kestrel, a new variety described as ‘melt in your mouth’. I haven’t tried it yet, but it smells good, and is the reddest apple red. This might be the apple Eve ate.

Chez Christophe

2006-10-19T00:08:00.000-03:00

St. Mary's Bay, seen from St. Bernard, a few minutes in advance of Chez Christophe.

When in Digby, I make sure I get to eat at Chez Christophe, thirty minutes away in Grosses-Coques.

A lot of notable restaurant food is elaborate, complex, and easy to discuss because of the elements that are unfamiliar to us in our own cooking. Food that is excellent, but not necessarily unusual is rare in my restaurant experience. Chez Christophe is one of those experiences. Regularly listed in Where to Eat in Canada, it’s menu is short but highlights the regional specialties of the Acadian Peninsula: chicken fricot, rappie pie, haddock, chowder, scallops, fresh vegetables, etc. The food is ‘plain’ – cooked just right in only the basics essential to the dish: butter, garlic, cream, etc. It’s in a white house, and what would normally be the rooms, are filled with tables and mismatched chairs with little baskets of sugar and dollar store mugs. Local art of all kinds hang on the wall. In the front room is a wood stove and a copy of Eaton’s magazine from the 30s. Little stacks of paper, etc. are stacked on the windowsill. It looks like your second aunt’s kitchen.

My favourite dish is the scallops: the biggest Digby scallops out of St. Mary’s Bay (the size of toonies), with fresh peas and carrots, mashed potatoes, and decorative lettuce and tomato that is so fresh you do actually eat it. I had it for lunch.

And then I went back for dinner and had their famous seafood lasagne. This is so good it’s been featured in Gourmet magazine and people make little moan noises when they eat it. So I had to try it. It was good: a creamy alfredo sauce made with a cheese I couldn’t place (asiago?). Small shrimps, pieces of lobster and baby scallops (size of nickels). Smooth, creamy, flavourful, but not so rich that it made me feel ill. It was served with a lovely fresh tossed salad in light vinaigrette – olive oil dressing.

They also have an army of pies (with meringue mountains) and excellent cheesecake- creamy, light, rich, and 3.00 for double the portion you would normally get at other restaurants. For 20.00, I had an incredible meal, with a good friend, in an atmosphere made for relaxed home-style meals. It's easy to see why Chez Christophe is so well loved.

Scrub Foliage

2006-10-18T01:13:00.000-03:00

Near Port Mouton, NS. I find what grows near the ground to be just as interesting in colour, texture and pattern as the taller trees are. There was something small running around in the bushes as I approached to take the picture. It seemed a little big to be a squirrel. Maybe a fox, or a grouse?

Port Jolie, NS

2006-10-18T01:10:00.000-03:00

A common view from along the highway, on the South Shore.

Lane's Privateer Inn, Liverpool, NS

2006-10-17T07:02:00.000-03:00

I stayed in Liverpool for two nights, at Lane’s Privateer Inn. Liverpool is an old pirate town, and was later pulled into respectability by an influx of loyalists and plenty of good British redcoats to keep everyone in good order and make money the capitalist way. In honour of their heritage, the town celebrates Pirate Days, and paints their hydrants to look like soldiers. Pretty cute.

I ate dinner Monday night in their dining room and it was delicious. For one thing, the section of the dining room I ate in is also their bookstore, so it had great ambience. I started with a salad of romaine lettuce, pecans (so fresh), mandarins and a delicious mango ginger dressing. This was a great salad and made me re-evaluate my stinginess with nuts. Instead of rolls, they served a rich luscious biscuit. It would have been perfect with chowder, but I didn’t mind eating it. My main was cheese tortellini with a creamy lobster pesto sauce. It was good, but the salad was the star. Friends also recommend the haddock cakes and chow chow. If in Liverpool, definitely stop by.

Afternoon in Shelburne, NS

2006-10-17T06:50:00.000-03:00

I was in Shelburne, NS on Monday afternoon. Shelburne was a fishing and shipbuilding out port for over 200 years- like most of the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Up and down the coast, you’ll find a great history of pirates, loyalists, sea captains and fishing. And the coastline is gorgeous (and increasingly bought up by others). Shelburne is one of those picture perfect towns with an absurd number of cute/beautiful/lovely homes. Unfortunately, many of those homes are for sale. Tourism is the primary economy now, and it’s not quite enough.

I walked up and down the streets admiring the homes, and feeling a little depressed at how quiet the streets are. Sure, it’s the off-season and a Monday afternoon, but it was too quiet. In my job, I visit the same towns year after year, and I can’t deny that the South Shore is struggling. If you live in rural Atlantic Canada, you’re watching your youth and your economy evaporate. Like many communities, Shelburne is trying to find ways to overcome this with new community and enterprise development initiatives. Moral boosters were posted in most shops: “How to Build a Community” posters.
I did manage to drop a few dollars at the Shelburne Museum where I viewed the oldest fire pump in Canada (1700 something). It looked like a giant wooden truck with a canopy. Also on exhibit were the mission rules of the Shelburne Friendly Fire-Club from 1784: what to do as a firefighter, all written in olde English. There were other paraphernalia in the town’s life: quilts, bird decoys, pictures of visiting royalty, pictures of old sports teams posing with bear rugs and sober faces, etc. Cynically, I could point out that I can see these things in almost every small town across Canada- but in a higher percentage in the Maritimes. But these towns weren’t always museums.
I bought these squares at the Beandog Café (second photo) by the water. They sell coffee and gifts. The brownie was OK, but the SKOR bar was excellent. My favourite restaurant in Shelburne is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so all I can do is show you the picture, and recommend you stop by Charlotte Lane (first photo) if you ever have the chance. Their panna cotta continues to live in my memory as a best ever experience.

Tony's Birthday Dinner

2006-10-16T18:33:00.000-03:00

Tony's birthday as Sunday, but we celebrated on Saturday as I abandoned him again to travel through Nova Scoatia's small towns.

In my family, the birthday boy or girl always gets the birthday dinner of their choice- eating in or out, whatever they want. Interestingly, the favourite dinners are usually less expensive than you might think. In this case, Tony asked for cheese ravioli, an old favourite of his that I hadn't made in ages. The plastic twist handle of the vise that holds the pasta press to the counter had broken, so I just hadn't made any pasta for ages. And yet, it's not such a big deal to use my fingers instead.

My pasta recipe is pretty basic- sturdy enough to hold fillings, and easy to work with. I use a simple ratio system per one serving: 1 C all purpose flour, 1 pinch of salt, 1 egg, and 1 Tbsp of olive oil. I increase it as necessary.

Make a well in the flour, spinkle the salt, add the oil and egg. Mix the egg with your fingers or fork, gradually adding in the flour. Knead into a smooth elastic dough. Fold and press your pasta into sheets.

My cheese filling is just smooth ricotta mixed with a healthy does of ground nutmeg to freckle it nicely.

I don't actually make ravioli- I make agnoletti: half moons of filled pasta. That way, I just lay out my spoons of filling on the top half of one sheet, and fold the bottom half up. I use a biscuit cutter to cut them out. These are perfect bite sizes.

For a quick marinara sauce, I use canned tomatoes, mashed with a fork. Add herbs of your choice and stew on a low heat. This freezes well too.

I usually make my ravioli-agnoletti in batches and freeze them for future use. I lay them out on a floured baking sheet and freeze them. Then I transfer them to a freezer bag for longer term storage. They cook in minutes from frozen, as opposed to seconds fresh.

And there you have Tony's favourite meal.

Blue and Yellow

2006-10-16T18:28:00.000-03:00

Fall foliage from Friday afternoon, near Fenwick, NS, btwn Amherst and Springhill.

Amherst Smells

2006-10-12T22:36:00.000-03:00

So, one interesting fact about Amherst, NS: there are horses here. And when it's been rainy and humid and the air doesn't move, it smells like manure.

Taj Mahal Flavours of India

2006-10-11T22:13:00.000-03:00

This is my favourite Indian restaurant. I love this place. Sometimes, it's the primary reason to drive to Moncton. A little habit inspired by my friend Rachelle. She heard about this place, and we decided to go to Moncton for the sole purpose of eating here. And it's worth it.

A simple meal: butter chicken, jasmine rice and naan. But so good.

Sometimes, I miss flavours just because I know I won't be able to get them for a while. For example, i's really hard to get good rice in most parts of the Maritimes, so I start thinking about it and miss it before I really need to.

If you're in Moncton, stop by at 882 Main Street.

Mel's Tea Room

2006-10-11T08:09:00.000-03:00

I was in Sackville, NB yesterday and had lunch at Mels' Tea Room. Despite it's name, it's actually a diner of the classic variety: booths (with hard seats), bathroom tiles on the booth walls, and a menu of hamburgers, fries, milkshakes and sandwiches. The costs for such items are in the $2.00-$4.00 range, and they use real plates. You have to order each item you want- no combos here.

When I was a student in Sackville, Mel's was a local hangout. You could go in, and read the magazines for sale, without paying (I never did that, I felt too guilty). When I went in for lunch yesterday (admittedly, a little early for a university student), there were only older people eating, and playing the slot machines. There were two young guys on cash, that seemed a little flustered, but I think it was just their style. I love that flustered can be a recognizable style.

This picture is more of a pick-up truck, then Mel's. Yet, when I was a student here, pick-up trucks were a big part of the atmosphere. The region is surrounded by farms, and is especially known for the hay produced by the salt marshes dammed up by the Acadians. The salty hay is good for racing horses, and is exported to the US. Unfortunately, those salty marsh fields also produce deadly snow fields in the winter, and the pick-up trucks are replaced by snowmobiles.

Maple Crisps

2006-10-01T15:15:00.000-03:00

As you know, I have a lot of maple syrup to get through. I also have a compulsion to hoard up food in the fall- it just seems right to squirrel up. And travelling a lot is a nice excuse to make food for the freezer, under the excuse of making everything easy for Tony. Even though Tony is a very good cook himself, and has never demonstrated any danger of malnutrition through laziness. Oh well, it's easier to fuss over someone who doesn't need fussing.

These are based on a maple shortbread recipe, but they’re nothing like what I think deserves the name of shortbread. But they’re good, a little like a sugar cookie. They’re crisp, perfect with tea, not too sweet and they’re easy to eat by the handful. They would also be good as a sandwich cookie, perhaps with chocolate or Nutella, or a strawberry ice cream. Hmmm.

I used the grade B maple syrup I picked up in Vermont. I can’t imagine using a grade A syrup, the grade B is flavourful but not too sweet mixed in as it is. I think grade A could get lost.

Maple Crisps
1 C butter, shortened
1 C sugar
½ C grade B maple syrup
1 large egg yolk
½ tsp salt
3 C all purpose flour

1. Cream butter and suagr until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in maple syrup and eg yolk until well combined
3. Fold in flour and salt.
4. Knead into a dough.
5. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick, and cut into desired shapes.
6. Bake on a buttered baking sheet or on parchment paper for 12 min at 350F.

Travelling Potato

2006-09-30T16:13:00.000-03:00

My kitchen really is lonely lately. I’ve been travelling with my job, and will continue to do so through to December. The nice thing is (usually), this is a great travelling time of year. The hills are already changing to beautiful red, yellows and oranges, the air is crisp and the sunlight is a little more mellow, less harsh.

Eating on the road can be difficult. I travel to a lot of small towns, so I end up at a lot of hotel/inn restaurants, mom and pop joints or the ubiquitous Pizza Delight- which I do love. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to experience an incredible food experience, but a lot of the time, I’m wishing for my own cupboards. The hardest thing is simply not being able to go to the kitchen and grab an apple, a glass of something, or a stack of crackers. On the road, changing hotels every day, everything has to be purchased and considered for the size, expiry, storage requirements, etc.

My most recent set of adventures were in Western New Brunswick: Grand Falls, Perth-Andover, Plaster Rock, Woodstock, Hartland, Nackawic, and Fredericton. If you’re a Maritimer, you’re probably familiar with the names at least, and may have driven through the area on your way to Quebec. It’s not very populated, and is mostly known for its longest covered bridge in the world (Hartland), its beauty (rivers and valleys) and its potatoes. There is a potato museum, an oversized potato man statue waving at you, and the local schoolkids even start classes early so they can have two weeks off later in the year to help with the potato crop.

The postcard above is of the potato harvest. It was the biggest seller in my hotels, and I bought all the remaining copies they had. I couldn’t pass up such a unique postcard topic. The harvest is already in, and the fields are empty as you’re driving by. But there are still a few tractors and other colourful pieces of equipment hanging out in front of barns.

Snow Covered Gingersnaps (before the snow)

2006-09-07T21:11:00.000-03:00

These are an old family favourite I’ve been making since I was a kid- and I’m the only one in my family who makes them. It’s an old Christmas Cookbook Treasury of my mother’s, a Christmas gift from her mother. It had a very confusing structure: five cookbooks in one, and they all had their own table of contents and pagination. It would have been printed in the early 80s, before digital software made editing and printing so much easier.

The Cookbook Treasury lived up to its name and was one of our (re. kids’) favourite cookbooks because it had lots of full colour photos of fluffy frosted cakes, candies spilling out of tiered dishes and elaborate holiday dishware. The favourite picture was a whole page of springerle, frosted gingerbread and sugar cookies ‘spilling’ out of a basket beside a frosted Christmas tree: this was the equivalent of cookie heaven. It was also this book that inspired my mother to create gingerbread boxes for each of us, and fill them with an assortment of cookies.

Keeping with the Christmas theme, these cookies are called “Snow Covered Gingersnaps” because they’re rolled in confectioner’s sugar before cooking. In the oven, they spread out and the sugar cracks, and they kind of look like snow (the almost gone Spring variety). Very pretty, but it’s kind of messy to eat so I sometimes bake them plain.

Snow Covered Gingersnaps
¾ C vegetable shortening
1 C sugar
¼ C molasses
1 egg
2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 scant tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
confectioner’s sugar

1. Cream shortening; add sugar gradually, creaming well after each addition.
2. Add molasses; mix well.
3. Add egg; beat.
4. Add flour salt and spices; stir into dough.
5. Roll into balls the size of a walnut.
6. Roll the balls in confectioner’s sugar.
7. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, until spread and cracked.

These keep well in an airtight container, or frozen. You can also freeze the balls of raw dough and cook fom frozen.

Maple Syrup Taste Test

2006-09-06T21:29:00.000-03:00

Quebec produces 70% of the world’s maple syrup. At home, I would be hard pressed to find any Quebec maple syrup, it’s all New Brunswick maple syrup, of course. According to a colleague, Vermont maple syrup is best or so she had heard. And I was sceptical- how different could it be?

So we conducted a taste test. While in Vermont, I purchased a bottle of Grade A medium amber produced by Lucien O. Laroche from Franklin, Vt. I also bought a jar of Hudak’s Grade A Dark Amber and Grade B. At home, I already had a bottle of Canada No. 1 Medium maple syrup made by L. Briggs and Family from Stilesville, NB and a can of Medium from Elgin, NB.

In order to be more fair, I really should have had some from Quebec, Maine, Ontario and other and types, including other producers in New Brunswick. But five containers of maple syrup will take us a while to get through, as it is.

The Hudaks maple syrups definitely had more character- sweeter, more raw, darker. They were prettier, but they were immediately cut from my list. And there was an obvious difference between the Grade A and Grade B- the B was sweeter. My brother Josh preferred the Hudak’s Grade A Dark Amber to all the others- he really liked the flavour.

The other three were similar- the nature of being a ‘medium’ I guess. In the end, I preferred the Briggs family maple syrup from Stilesville. I think the flavour was a little lighter, mellower, fruitier- but I’m suspicious of my own ability to differentiate. I know I prefer medium maple syrup, whether it’s from New Brunswick or Vermont. And I’ll pay a little more attention next time I’m buying maple syrup.

Epps Nectarines

2006-09-04T23:30:00.000-03:00

I found these in the Market on Thursday. They were gone by Friday. And I've been happily eating them since. They're smaller than the average nectarine, and seem more like a plum. Their flesh is like a plum, some of them are small enough to pop whole in your mouth (you can eat around the pit, like a cherry), and they're hairless, mellow, sweet and gem coloured. The Ontario fruit basket handles said "Epps Nectarines", which could be the variety, or the farm. I don't know, but I recommend picking some up if you come across them.

Hudak's

2006-09-02T15:44:00.000-03:00

Hudak’s is an organic market about 10 minutes from my Gramie’s on Route 7, just outside of St. Alban’s, Vermont. I managed to visit every day, attracted initially by their corn on the cob, which is picked fresh daily on the surrounding fields. This was the sweetest most flavourful corn I’ve ever had. Corn is best eaten as soon as possible from the time it is picked, as the sugars will convert to starches as time passes. I don’t usually even have the opportunity to buy or eat fresh picked corn, so this was a culinary novelty for me. I wish I could have taken some home with me.

Hudak’s also has piles of basketball-sized cantaloupes, peppers, tomatoes, honey, maple syrup, local cheese, beans and garden plants for sale. Everything is Hudak’s grown, from local farms, or from other organic producers. In three days I also managed to buy local cheese, Amish peaches, Hudak's cantaloupe, and Hudak's maple syrup. I really really wanted to buy the pick polka dotted French haricots, and bundles of fresh garlic, but managed to restrain myself. In case you're not as easily sold as I am, they have a sample table which offered melon, salsa, bean salads, and cheese dips- you could have had lunch just from the sample table. There is a resident cat, dog, and wandering chicken. There are turkeys in a pretty cool fenced area. There is even a cider mill on site and a baby blue 30’s era Porsche for sale. This place gets bonus points for style, on top of their great food.

Gramie's Pancakes

2006-08-30T21:19:00.000-03:00

We’re back from a pleasant visit to Vermont. It was surprisingly relaxing. On the way down, I was irked by the lazy winding roads, slow drivers and relaxing landscape- I wanted a four lane highway where I could pick up speed. By the time we were coming home, I was calmly reflecting how pretty it all was, and how smart Vermonters were not to implement hideous interstates all over their pretty countryside.

My Gramie coddled us and tried to feed us constantly. This has always been one of my grandmother’s gifts: food and what she calls country cooking. We happily ate and ate: chicken pot pie, plum jam, eggs and bacon, fresh sweet corn on the cob, fresh peppered carrots, braised beef, potato salad, bran muffins, pancakes, cheese, baked beans, turkey, fresh tomatoes from her garden, shrimp, ham, etc. When I was a kid, I would hardly have eaten anything on that list, but it all seemed so delicious now. She loves food, loves to feed people, and gather family around her. She knows what good food is, and what it’s capable of.

Here’s the recipe for her New England Griddlecakes that we ate with Vermont maple syrup. It’s from the Encyclopedic Cookbook, a falling apart version of which I inherited from my mother. Once my Grampa saw how much my Gramie liked hers, he bought a copy (in Georgia) for all of his daughters. I’ve been flipping through this book all of my life. The recipe actually calls for sour milk, but Gramie loves buttermilk and substituted it with flavourful, fluffy results.

New England Griddlecakes
1 ½ C flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
1 ½ C buttermilk
3 Tbsp melted shortening

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Beat egg, buttermilk, and melted shortening together.
3. Add liquid mixture gradually to dry ingredients, stirring constantly to keep it smooth.
4. Drop onto a hot greased griddle.
5. Cook slowly until the top is riddled with bubbles. Turn over and brown the other side.
6. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.
Makes 2 dozen small cakes.

Great Canadian Favourites

2006-08-24T16:36:00.000-03:00

Great Canadian foods: back bacon, poutine, partridge berries, salmon, lobster, frappie pie… and Big 8 Ginger Ale? We’re going to the US for the weekend, to visit my Gramie and meet up with my Brooklyn brother and his girlfriend. They, and my New Jersey sister have a list of food from home they desire. And none of them are the quintessentially Canadian foods promoted to tourists and gourmets around the world.

Here’s the request list: Animal Crackers, Big 8 Ginger Ale, Aero candy bars, Zero candy bars, and fish and chips from Comeau’s on the way to the border. At other times, friends and family in the US have requested Ganong’s Chicken Bones, Vachon cakes, Tim’s coffee, experimental candy bar flavours, ketchup potato chips, roast chicken potato chips, Pal O’Mine bars, Puppy Paws, Clodhoppers, Girl Guide cookies, President’s Choice coffee, etc. A few friends further abroad have craved Kraft Dinner, King Cole tea and a kind of Graves pickle only made in the fall, in the Maritimes. I don’t have any friends who stock up on smoked salmon when they’re home.

All of these things seem commonplace to me. And surprising that these so-so food products are unique to home. My sister insists she cannot find ‘real’ Animal Crackers. My brother claims that NYC only has top shelf Ginger Ale, none of which is any good. His girlfriend says Aero bars are hard to find and incredibly overpriced in NYC. A friend packs a whole suitcase of coffee and flakies to bring back. And we can’t mail food (unless it’s home cooked) to the US, so everyone brings back large quantities of their favourites against the time they’ll be able to get some more.

These foods were part of their daily lives here, and are somehow unique to our regional tastes. I find that quite comforting. I love that even mass produced, processed food can be unique.

Hardbite Chips

2006-08-23T20:14:00.000-03:00

I’m not a chip person, but I love trying out new food products. Wandering around Shoppers Drug Mart, I discovered a new potato chip out of B.C. They’re pretty good. I bought Salt & Vinegar and Wild Onion & Yogourt. It was actually the ‘wild onion’ that caught my eye, and the ‘yogourt’ that kept it there. These are small bags, 50g- so they’re a reasonable eating size. At $1.19 each, they’re a little pricey in the potato chip world, but if I want to eat chips, I’d rather pay a little more for something tasty and interesting. The best part of the Hardbite chips is the bite- quite firm. The WO&Y wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be, but my brother thought they were great. And some hardcore vinegar fanatics might want more vinegar on their S&V, but I thought it was a good balance. They'd be good with tuna sandwiches.

Tintamarre

2006-08-16T18:48:00.000-03:00

I saw a tintamarre yesterday! A tintamarre is a traditional noisy parade from the Acadian culture. Saint John’s tintamarre was updated for contemporary habits, and was composed of a parade of decorated, noisy cars travelling through town to le Centre-Samuel-de-Champlain, our French community centre. Yesterday was Acadian Day, celebrating the survival of more 400 years of French culture in the Maritimes. You might also be familiar with the Acadians as “Cajuns” of Louisiana, or as “Evangeline” from Wordsworth’s poem of the same name.

The Acadian flag works well for magnets, trousers, houses, barns and mailboxes, among other things. My personal favourite is the wooden garbage carrel at the end of the driveway, painted brightly with the Acadian flag- only true pride could carry that off. Travel through any of the regional Acadian areas, and you’ll see the Acadian flag decorating almost anything. And it always looks good. Tony’s family is anglicized Acadian, but it’s still back there and pops up every once in a while with their names, fiddling and step dancing, and traditions like meat pies for Christmas Eve. It saddens me that this little magnet and an old t-shirt from a family reunion is basically all that remains of Acadian culture in our household, but it seeps through in other ways because contemporary Acadie is part of every New Brunswicker’s life, even if it’s only because every day, we get to pick which language we want to use. And it’s perfectly OK if we want to mix it up.