Author Archives: saltandserenity

French Fries

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Just over 21 years ago, I moved to Ottawa from Toronto. At that time I was the proud mom of a sweet little boy, aged 15 months, and was hugely pregnant with my second child.  I missed my family and friends in Toronto and was very unhappy to be living here.  One rainy day I took my son outside to get the mail from our superbox.  Right by the mailbox was a huge and very deep rain puddle.  My little one decided to take a bath in that puddle.  He laid down and started rolling around in the muddy puddle.  My arms were full of mail and I couldn’t pick him up.  I was just about to panic when I heard a voice calling out, “Would you like some help?”  Without waiting for my answer, a very stylishly dressed woman scooped him up out of the puddle and carried him to my front door.  A lasting friendship was born that day.

Her name was Brigitte, and she was my across the road neighbour.  She was Belgian and had the odd custom, when greeting you, of kissing first the right cheek, then the left and then the right cheek again – 3 kisses! The Belgian people are very affectionate.  She introduced me to french fries with mayonnaise as well as all the other stay-at-home moms on our street.  Once a week we would get together at someone’s house, with our kids, for coffee and a play date.  Eventually, that turned into lunch, with wine for the moms and Kraft dinner and apple juice for the kids.  Within 6 months we dumped the kids with their dads for a fall girl’s weekend at the cottage.  This fall marked our  20th annual get together.

I have learned many things from this group of women, most importantly, that it’s ok to be a less than perfect mother.  They have been a wonderful source of support and inspiration for me over the years.  And while we don’t see each other weekly any longer, when we do get together, it’s almost as if no time has passed.  For our girl’s weekends, meals are assigned and everyone takes a turn in the kitchen.  We eat and drink way too much and by the end of the weekend our heads hurt from laughing so much. Everyone feels safe to vent and complain and spill her sorrows, as we know that what happens on the girl’s weekend stays on a girl’s weekend.

Many things have changed over the years. We tend to drink less now, go to bed earlier, and no one worries about buying new P.J’s for the weekend. What hasn’t changed is how much we all love to eat and laugh.

Two weeks ago we gathered at my cottage for our weekend. There were 9 of us, all still living within 2 blocks of each other in the neighbourhood where we raised our families. As we all assembled for Friday night dinner, we couldn’t help but remark how we are not getting any older, just better. Of course, it helped that I had dimmed the lights and no one was wearing her reading glasses. My friends are quite generous and treat me to such lovely hostess gifts. This year I decided to buy presents for all of them.

The girls were thrilled by their new coffee mugs. I love these mugs from Anthropologie. I have to admit, my gift giving was not entirely altruistic. I have my own Anthro mug, to which I wake up every morning looking forward to drinking latte out of. It has the perfect weight and feel in my hand. Sometimes when we have guests at the cottage, and they wake up earlier than me, they will think nothing of taking my favourite mug (with the letter C on it) from the mug drawer to have their coffee in. There is a drawer full of perfectly wonderful other mugs to choose from, why do they have to take mine? I know I sound like a petty crank, but I have a morning ritual that I look forward to and if my mug is missing, I feel off-balance for the entire day. So, I decided to give everyone their own mug and felt very secure in the knowledge that my own mug would still be sitting in the drawer waiting for me tomorrow morning!

My mug has a small chip in the base. My husband and daughter were in the Anthropologie store in Scotland this summer and they called me to see if I wanted them to buy me a replacement. I declined, saying that I liked my chipped mug. It was slightly flawed but perfectly functional, just like me!

Friday night dinner, brought to us bu Brigitte, Jana and Jana was a delicious tomato soup , salad and lasagna. The dessert was a show stopper! Three mini jars of deliciousness. Panna cotta topped with raspberry sauce, chocolate mousse and lemon mousse. My girlfriend found these little jars and white platters at the dollar store! It was such an adorable presentation and a perfect idea for a make ahead dessert that will wow your guests.

Saturday morning dawned cold and dreary and my mug was waiting for me! So was an incredible decadent breakfast lovingly prepared by Paula. Scones, croissants, sticky buns, bagels,  three kinds of yogurt, granola and fruit.

Some of the girls went shopping on saturday afternoon at Kilbournes. This is a country store in the town of Newboro, Ontario, about a 20 minute drive from my cottage. When you first walk in you see Tilley hats, fudge, wooden ducks and all the usual country store suspects. This place has over 26,000 square feet and is filled with gourmet foods, local cheeses, kitchen ware, toys, clothing, furniture, kitchen appliances, top end ovens and stoves and shoes! And what a shoe department they have. In  this tiny little town, in the middle of nowhere they have well over 10,000 pairs of shoes, sandals and boots ranging from Clarks, Frye, Fit Flops, Anne Klein and Stuart Weitzman! I will warn you however, the longer you stay in the store, the better the merchandise starts to look!

The rest of us stayed back at the cottage and made a fire, read and napped.

We all gathered together for cocktails and cheese biscuits before dinner. Our friend Christine introduced us to a ginger liqueur called Domaine de Canton. A splash of this over a piece of candied ginger and topped off with some Prosecco makes for a lively aperitivo hour!

Saturday night dinner was grilled rib steaks and french fries. I own a deep fryer which I keep at the cottage and use about twice a year. Frying in an open pot, scares me, and so for $139.00 I have peace of mind that I will not burn the house down. If you have never made your own fries, you must do it at least once in your life. You will not be sorry. It has become a girls weekend tradition that we all look forward to. My friend Paula bought me a french fry cutter which was mounted and holds a place of honour on the laundry room wall. It took us about a year to figure out that this was not a tabletop appliance! Here is a video demonstrating its use! This machine, while quite amusing, is not necessary to have if you decide to make your own fries.

Once the potatoes are cut, they are soaked in cold water for about an hour. This rinses the starch off them. Dry the potatoes very well in some kitchen towels.
Then, heat the oil in the fryer to 325° F. Cook fries, in batches for about 7-8 minutes until they are soft and limp but not golden.Transfer from fry basket to paper towel lined baking sheet and set aside.
Crank up the heat on the fryer up the fryer to 375° F for the second frying. In small batches, cook the fries for a second time. Two fryings are the classic way to make french fries. The first fry cooks the fries through on the inside and the second fry, crisps them up on the outside. You can do the first fry up to 2 days ahead and store the cooked potatoes in the fridge until ready to cook for the final fry. We made two kinds of fries. regular, using Russett potatoes, and then sweet potato fries.
You must salt them as soon as they come out of the fryer.
The smell of freshly fried potatoes brought everyone into the kitchen. That crisp, salty crackle between your teeth as you take your first bite, almost burning your tongue on that hot salty goodness is irresistible. To accompany the fries we made a dipping sauce of chipotle mayo. The smoky heat was fantastic with the fries. Kale salad and grilled rib steaks, cooked to medium rare finished off our meal. Although we all proclaimed we were too full for dessert, we polished off most of a chocolate caramel tart, baked by our friend Christine.
Sunday morning brunch is always a quiet subdued meal. Aware that our time together is coming to an end, I always feel a little melancholy. We clean up from brunch, pack our coolers and divide up the empty wine bottles so no one at home realizes how much wine we have actually drunk in less than 48 hours. Hugs and kisses and promises to email pictures and recipes, along with plans for the next get together fill our chatter.

Click here to print recipe for Classic French Fries.

Incredibly Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies

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If we are to be completely honest with ourselves, we all have one! I’m referring to celebrity crushes here. You know what I’m talking about; someone in the public eye that you would actually have no chance with, but can’t help but like/be attracted to/daydream about. Celebrity crushes are a harmless way to perk up an otherwise drab day.

So here’s what I’m thinking. If somehow my darling husband meets his maker and dies an early death, and George Clooney were not available, I would likely hook up with Nick Malgieri. WHO???

Nick is an acclaimed pastry chef, teacher and author, with over 10 cookbooks to his name. I first began crushing on him in 2000 when I discovered his book, “Cookies Unlimited.” Here was a man who spoke my language and completely understood me. I think there is no better way to end a meal than a cookie. Nick shares my philosophy and offered me over 400 cookies to choose from. He really sealed the deal when I made his oatmeal lace cookies. Two gossamer thin oatmeal cookies sandwiched together with chocolate ganache.

Before Nick, there was Rance Mulliniks. And unless you are a major league baseball fan from the last century, you may once again say, “WHO??” Check him out in Wikipedia.”Rance played third base for the Toronto Blue Jays during their heyday period. He batted over .300 three times (1984, 1987 and 1989) and demonstrated great patience at the plate, regularly posting on-base percentages near .400. In 1984 he was named to Sports Illustrated’s Dream Team as a utility infielder.”

My husband is not threatened by either Nick or Rance. If you were to Google them you would instantly see why. Neither is genetically blessed with movie star looks, but physical pulchritude is besides the point here. Nick and I would spend our sunset years eating cookies and he would not care one bit how fat I became. Rance and I would watch reruns of the 1992 and 1993 World Series games over and over again. I never grow tired of hearing Jerry Howarth and Tom Cheek announcing, “Now batting for the Blue Jays, Number 5, Raaaance Mulliniks.”

As I was thinking about writing this column, it occurred to me that I had never asked my husband who his celebrity crush was. I suppose I should be flattered that it took him a full 8 hours to come up with an answer, and a further 7 hours to recall her name. (It was actress Mila Kunis, in case you are curious.) Upon further reflection, I wondered if his inability to instantly come up with a celebrity name meant he just lacked imagination. Not so, it’s just that he is very firmly rooted in practicality. So practical in fact, that he has decided that should I go first, he will take up with one of my good friends, since she already knows her way around the cottage kitchen! You have to admire his pragmatic nature.

Celebrity crushes are really quite innocuous, unless of course you start to take it too far and begin imagining that your crush would adore you if he met you, or start wondering if there is enough closet space for all your clothes at his place, once he tells his wife he’s leaving her for you. You know you have moved into danger territory if you start visualizing how your dishes will look in his kitchen and wondering if he would find you too forward if you insisted he paint his kitchen Benjamin Moore 360 (San Fernando Sunshine) as the current paint colour he has offends your strong sense of aesthetic. If this happens, you need to seek help, or a restraining order may be in your future.

My sister has fallen into the stalker territory with her crush on P.E.I Food Network Chef Michael Smith. It all seemed harmless enough at the beginning but once she found out he was separating from wife Rachel, visions of co-parenting their son Gabe, filled her head. Gabe is an amazing little guy, who eats everything his chef dad makes for him! Her hopes were quickly dashed when she discovered he was having a second child with a new love, Chastity Fizzard. Folks, I am not making this stuff up!

My sister has recovered, but Chef Michael’s star has somewhat tarnished in her eyes. That being said, she is correct in bragging about his Triple Chocolate Brownies. I have tried many different brownie recipes in my years of baking, but these come close to perfection. Deeply chocolate, chewy, fudgy and very rich and decadent. They could be just the thing to help you get over your celebrity crush.

Melt butter and 8 ounces of the very best quality bittersweet chocolate you can find. Do not use chocolate chips here. Chocolate chips contain an emulsifier in them to help them hold their shape during baking. Buy good quality chocolate (at least 60-70% cocoa content). I like Callebaut 70 %. Lindt bars  (70%) will also work quite well. I melt the butter and chocolate in a large stainless steel bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder so that there are no lumps.

Eggs, brown sugar and vanilla are added. The chocolate in these brownies is ramped up  even further by the addition of chocolate chips. You can use regular chocolate chips for this part of the recipe, but you will have even more stellar results if you just chop up some of the good stuff! (70% bittersweet chocolate)

Batter is mixed and poured into a parchment lined 9 x 13 Pyrex pan. You can grease and flour the pan, but parchment makes cleanup so easy and it makes cutting the brownies into squares a snap.

My sister likes to cut them into perfect Isosceles triangles. My fine motor skills are not quite as finely honed, but any shape will be devoured. They are quite moist and fudgy and the addition of chocolate chips to the batter makes for a nice surprise.

Click here to print recipe for Michael Smith’s Triple Chocolate Brownies.

Chipotle Lime Chicken

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In the three and a half years that I have been blogging, it just occurred to me that I have never blogged about what I eat for dinner at least once a week. Not that I’m holding back my secret recipe from you, or anything like that. I just make this on auto-pilot and I sort of forgot to tell you about it. But I have been remiss and I need to tell you about it now!  This chicken is moist and tender, because I always make it with boneless chicken thighs (never boneless skinless chicken breasts!) Thighs are very forgiving and are almost impossible to overcook. They have a slightly higher fat content than breasts so they don’t dry out as quickly.

This Chipotle Lime Chicken is my go-to recipe for a speedy delicious dinner. I actually get a craving for it. I end up with leftovers which are even more delicious cold the next day, chopped up into a salad with a hard-boiled egg for a protein packed lunch. I discovered this recipe in 2006 in Gourmet magazine (a moment of silence please!! I still miss it!) The marriage of flavours in this chicken recipe are perfect. Lime juice contributes a sour note, honey provides sweetness, Chipotle Tabasco adds a smoky heat, and olive oil brings all the flavours together to create a symphony of flavour in your mouth.

The chicken only needs to marinate for about 15 minutes, in a zip loc bag in the fridge. It  can be grilled outside on the BBQ, or inside in a grill pan. You can even bake it in the oven. Last night I had it with parsnip and carrot oven-baked “fries” and a bean salad with a mustard vinaigrette.

Click here to print the recipe for Chipotle Lime Grilled Chicken.

Snap Crackle Pop Biscotti

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One of the things I love best about blogging is connecting with other like-minded food obsessed folks. These are my people, they speak my language. Not only do they share my passions, but they share their ideas and always give credit and a huge shout-out of love and support to those that inspired them. It’s a wonderful freaking mutual admiration society. Food bloggers are generous of spirit. They are excited by what they discover and rather than hoard this new knowledge, they want to share it.

The inspiration for this blog came from Jayne Maynard’s blog, What’s for Dinner. She blogged about these crispy crunch chocolate chip cookies she had created. Jayne was inspired by a chocolate chip cookie with Rice Krispies in it that a bakery in her hometown made. She could not seem to get the cookies quite as crispy as they did. it was bugging her. Then she had her eureka moment when she remembered Christina Tosi, the genius behind Momofuko Milk Bar, and her brilliant creation of “The Crunch”.

Basically, Christina takes different cereals (Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes or Captain Crunch or Fruity Pebbles), mixes them with milk powder, a bit of sugar, melted butter and salt and bakes it at a low temperature which yields a perfect balance of sweet, salt and caramelized crunch in every bite. The melted butter acts as the glue to hold it all together and the milk powder coats everything and adds a bit of extra sweetness. She uses “The Crunch” as an addition to pie crusts, cookies, cakes and every other imaginable sweet out there.

Jayne mixed up a batch of “Crispy Crunch” (Rice Krispies baked with milk powder, melted butter, sugar and salt) added it to some chocolate chip cookie dough and arrived at the cookies she was dreaming about.

I was curious to see what would happen if I added the crunch to something already crunchy, like Biscotti. Would Crunch + Extra Crunch be amazing?

I started by mixing up a batch of Rice Krispie Crunch.

Golden brown and gorgeously caramelized once out of the oven, this is some pretty addictive stuff.

Butter and sugar get creamed together. Add eggs and vanilla.

Flour, baking powder and salt round out the dry ingredients. I added some toasted slivered almonds along with the Rice Krispie Crunch, because, really, you can never have enough crunch! This is a wet and sticky dough. You will need some extra flour for your hands and counter as you shape logs. I formed 4 logs, each about 9 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches high. Place 2 logs on each parchment lined baking sheet.

After 25 minutes in a 300° F oven, they will look like this:

Turn down the oven to 275° F and let biscotti loaves cool for about 30 minutes. Slice on the diagonal about 1/2 inch wide, using a serrated knife. Place cut side up back onto parchment lined baking sheet. Dust with cinnamon and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.

While traditional biscotti typically contain very little fat, this recipe uses a full cup of butter. They are firm and crisp like biscotti should be, but not at all dense and heavy. Because of the extra butter, they have a wonderful light and airy texture.

Click here to print recipe for Snap Crackle and Pop Biscotti.

Chicken and Artichoke Pot Pie

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I could wax poetic here and spin a lyrical little tale about how the nip in the air and the gorgeous scarlet and golden maple leaves have inspired me to make some homey dish that smacks of nostalgia. But, if I’m to be completely honest, the reason I baked these chicken artichoke pot pies was because I was cleaning up the basement storage room and I found this box of freaking adorable barnyard cooky cutters. (Why did they misspell cookie?).

I seem to recall buying them when the kids were little and had grandiose plans for baking sugar cookies with them and letting them decorate them with coloured royal icing suck icing from the piping bags, but sadly we never did it. It is possible they were used with play-doh at some point!

That little metal chicken was calling out to me and I instantly knew that I wanted to make chicken pot pies. As a child of the 70’s I was practically weaned on Swanson Chicken Pot Pies and TV Dinners. Carol Brady  was my second mother and I so badly wished that Alice was our housekeeper. Not that my mom was a bad cook, but she had 6 kids and was very busy cleaning all the time, so frozen meals were a big part of my childhood. Our favourite dessert was Sara Lee Banana Cake. One of my sisters always snuck into the freezer and picked the icing off the top of the cake. We never did discover who it was.

This chicken pot pie is inspired by a Chicken and Artichoke Casserole that I used to make all the time at one of my very first full-time kitchen jobs. I was working at Dinah’s Cupboard. It was run by a woman named Dinah Koo. The little shop, in the Yorkville neighbourhood was Toronto’s first Gourmet take-out food shop. Dinah was an amazing woman to work for. She demanded perfection and precision in everything we made. She taught me a great deal about discipline in the kitchen. Food quality always came first but following close on its heels was presentation. She knew how to make food look beautiful. It was also at Dinah’s Kitchen that I learned to love salt. Before any of the dishes left our kitchen to be sold in the food shop, Dinah or her brother Barry would taste them. Without fail, almost every time I got the response “more salt”!

I cringe when I hear people boast “Oh, I don’t use any salt when cooking.”, as if that’s a good thing. And then I hope I never get invited to eat at their house! Salt is an integral ingredient in cooking as well as baking. It fills out the flavour of foods. If it is absent, food just tastes flat. British restaurant critic Jay Raynor said it best, “Salt is the difference between eating in Technicolor and eating in black and white.” If loving salt is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. Sorry, I’ll get off my salt soap box now and stop lecturing you on the evils of cooking without salt.

I decided to make mini pot pies, because they are so adorable and because I knew we would have leftovers and I could stash them in the freezer and bake them another day.

I started with poaching chicken breasts. Buy chicken breasts on the bone and then cut the meat off the bone before you add them to the pot. That way, you can remove the breast meat after 20 minutes, when it is perfectly cooked and continue cooking the vegetables and bones to extract the maximum amount of flavour, so that you will have a really great stock.

Once the chicken is poached and you have your stock, make the pastry. I decided to add some poppy seeds to the dough, for a bit of crunch. This recipe for the dough comes from chatelaine.com. It is a bit unusual in that instead of cutting the cold butter or shortening into the flour and then adding liquid, they melt the butter with the water and then mix it into the dry ingredients. You can make the dough with all butter, half butter and half shortening or all shortening, the choice is yours. Just don’t forget to add the salt.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the chicken and artichoke filling. I like the addition of leeks, rather than onions as a flavour base. Leeks need to be cleaned very well in cold water. Slice lengthwise and then into 1/2 inch pieces. Place in a bowl of cold water and use your hands to swish the leeks around. Scoop out leeks that have floated to the top of the bowl.

Flour is added to the sautéed vegetables and then chicken stock and white wine are added.

Once the mixture simmers for a few minutes, I added the artichokes, diced chicken meat, frozen peas and some parsley. I also added the zest of one lemon and a few teaspoons of Siracha sauce for some zip.

The filling gets spooned into little casserole dishes.

Top with dough and bake.

Click here to print recipe for Chicken and Artichoke Pot Pie.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

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When my oldest son left to go to University 5 years ago, I felt a deep sense of grief. I got so weepy every time I passed his empty bedroom that I had to shut the door. That sense of loss passed within a few weeks and we all got back to normal. Two years later, my middle child went off to Israel for a Gap year after high school. That sense of loss returned and I felt empty again. Her bedroom door also had to be closed, but this time the cause was mostly mess and not grief!  When my third child, the baby (now 19) moved out this past May, I followed him and moved in with him. No, I’m not making this up. I actually did sleep there for the first week. But that’s a story for another time!

Eventually I returned home. I must admit I enjoyed the sounds of silence in the house. However, it was short-lived. A week later, my middle one returned home from college for the summer.

But it is now September and all the chicks have flown the coop! I must admit that rather than feeling that deep sense of loss, I am filled with pride and joy in watching my kids make this transition successfully. That being said, when they all come home to visit, and the whole family is together under one roof, I just get that feeling that everything is good and right with the world. My friend Sharon says, that she sleeps better when all her little chicks are tucked in at home. I know just what she means.

For me, one of the biggest transitions has been learning to cook for just 2 people again. My husband will often come home and look at the big bowls and platters on the table and ask me who else is coming for dinner. One of my favourite strategies is to cook a roast chicken and eat half of it one night and then use the leftover in an entirely new way the next day. I will admit that even food writers get lazy and occasionally buy a Rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 

With half a roast chicken as leftovers you are well on your way to creating any number of delicious dinners. I found a fantastic recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup in the Ottawa Citizen Food section (September 13). The recipe, posted by Laura Robin, was created by Foodland Ontario. . As with most soups, you start with some diced onions. In the spirit of September and back to school, here is a little onion dicing lesson.

Peppers, red bell and jalapeno, add sweetness and heat.

If field fresh tomatoes are available, use them, if not, go for canned italian plum tomatoes. There is a bit of prep work involved in using fresh tomatoes. They need to be blanched, peeled and diced. Remove the cores and cut a little “X” in the other end. Gently place them in boiling water for a minute and the skins will slip off easily.

Cumin, oregano and chipotle chili powder combine to give this soup its distinctive flavour. Once all the ingredients are chopped, the soup comes together in less than 30 minutes.  

Corn and diced cooked chicken get added during the last 5 minutes of cooking. A squeeze of lime juice gives the soup a fresh acidic vibe.

Finish off with some freshly chopped cilantro and a few tortilla chips for crunch! A perfect dinner all in one bowl.

Click here to print recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Beehive Honey Cake

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Tomorrow night marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Honey is traditionally served at the Rosh Hashanah table to symbolize our hope for a sweet year ahead.  What you may not know, is that honey is rapidly at risk of becoming a scarce commodity.

What I’m about to share with you may sound a bit far-fetched, like a plot from an episode of CSI-The Animal Kingdom Edition, if there were such a version.

Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Apparently, thriving colonies disappear overnight without leaving a trace, the bodies of the buzzing little victims are never found. Seemingly healthy communities fly off never to return. The queen bee and mother of the hive is abandoned to starve and die.

Bees don’t just make honey; they are critical in the pollination of our fruits and vegetables When you stop to consider that honeybees pollinate about one out of every three bites of food we eat, this is a serious matter. This missing bee phenomenon is known as “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD).   What is causing CCD is up for debate.

Some put forth the theory that whenever bees are stressed, a parasite, called nosema, attacks the bees digestive system. Anytime bees are stressed, their immune system takes a hit.  What could honeybees possibly be stressed about, you may ask?  In what’s called “migratory beekeeping”, beehives are often transported long distances to pollinate farms.  Imagine how you’d feel, doing a great job on one farm and then being packed up in a truck, to travel thousands of miles only to have to set up shop in a new location all over again.  That would stress anyone.

According to Richard Schiffman of  blogs.reuters.com

Three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products.

Research published last month in the prestigious journal Science shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

What can we do to help? Here are a few ideas from the “District Domestic” website that you can implement in your garden, to help the plight of the honeybees.

  • Replace some of your lawn with flower beds.
  • Keep your garden as organic as possible! Avoid using pesticides and herbicides.
  • Plant native species, which bees love – for example: mint, daisies, strawberries, raspberries, lavender, salvia, asters, sunflowers and verbena.
  • Choose plants that flower at different stages in the growing season to provide a constant supply of food for the bees.

While honey cake is traditionally served at Rosh Hashanah, I have to admit that I’m not the biggest honey cake fan. My main complaint about honey cakes is that they are very sticky and cloyingly sweet.

To me, honey cake is the Jewish equivalent of fruitcake.  Everyone makes it but no one really wants to eat it.  However, here is a honey cake recipe that I have come upon that has changed my mind.   Honey-Glazed Beehive Cake is light and delicate, as a result of egg whites which are whipped to fluffy peaks and then folded into the batter.

The honey glaze which sandwiches the two halves of the hive together is created by combining brown sugar, honey and butter. The brown sugar and butter work their magic to tame the cloying sweetness of honey. I could not stop myself from licking the bowl.

This recipe comes from the June 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living. I have adapted it slightly and omitted the marzipan honey bees that Martha decorated her cake with. If you have the patience and fine motor skills to make the little marzipan bees, go for it! The hive cake pan is made by Nordicware and I got mine on Amazon.

Egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks and folded into the cake batter to help create a lighter honey cake.

The cake halves must be trimmed in order to sandwich them together to make the hive. The trimmings make a great afternoon snack with tea!

Martha recommends using the honey glaze when it is warm, to glue the halves together. I found that the two sides kept sliding, so I chilled the glaze for about an hour so the butter had a chance to set up a bit. Once firmer, the two halves stuck easily.

The remaining honey glaze can be rewarmed and poured over the cake if you like a “wet-look” sticky cake.

A final sugar glaze is made by mixing icing sugar and water together and poured over the cake.

Click here to print recipe for Beehive Honey Cake.

L’Shana Tova. Wishing you all a sweet, joyous and healthy New Year.

Peach Praline Coffee Cake

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When peach season rolls around, there is almost nothing better than biting into the perfect peach. It gives just slightly to pressure when prodded gently with your finger. It has a full sweet lingering aroma, that you will notice as soon as you approach the bin of peaches at the market. That first bite, when your teeth break the skin, gives way to a juicy interior, sweet but with a bit of tang, and the juice drips freely down your chin. The fuzz on the peach just slightly irritates your lower lip. (Or maybe that’s just me. My husband says that I am easily irritated!)

I almost never buy the early peaches. They are the “cling” variety and the flesh does not separate easily from the pit. I wait patiently each year, until late August/early September for the “freestone variety” to arrive at the markets. The flesh just falls off the pit. Of course, I buy way too many peaches and there is no way I can eat them all, so I end up with a small bowl of somewhat bruised peaches that need to be used fast.

When I saw this cake on Serious Eats, I knew I had to make it. The indubitable star of this cake is praline topping. Measuring a whopping 3 inches tall, it makes up over half the total height of this cake. You will wonder, as you pile the praline topping over the cake batter, if there is a mistake in the recipe. No error here! This is as it is intended. Everyone knows that the topping is the best part of most coffee cakes. The actual cake, while certainly playing a supporting role, is no shrinking violet either. Moist, dense and slightly tangy, from the peaches and buttermilk in the batter, this cake is the perfect counterpoint to the crunchy sweet praline topping.

The peaches need to be peeled for this cake and while it is a bit of a process, it is important as bits of peach peel in the cake would not be great. Using a sharp knife, make an “X” in the bottom of each peach. Place in a pot of boiling water. When you see the skin start to peel away from the flesh, after about 1-2 minutes, they are ready to be removed. Let cool a bit, then peel and cut in half to remove it.

I gave the praline topping a bit of a makeover, by adding some whole wheat flour and quick cooking oats. Not that I delude myself by thinking that these additions make this a “healthy” cake, but I love the nuttiness that whole wheat flour adds and I love the texture that oatmeal contributes. I also reduced the amount of butter in the original topping recipe, as when I made this the first time, there was a melted pool of butter sitting on top of the cake. The original recipe called for 10 ounces of butter. I cut it back to 6 ounces and still ended up with a very buttery praline topping.

The cake batter comes together quickly. Buttermilk is the choice of liquid for this coffee cake as it really complements the tangy peaches.

You must be patient and give the cake a few hours to cool before removing from the pan. A big slice with a cold glass of milk disappears in almost no time at all. Magic how that happens!

Click here to print the recipe for Peach Praline Coffee Cake.

The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts and Charred Corn Slaw

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A few weeks ago we hosted our Triennial (my new word for the day – that’s once every three years) family reunion at our cottage, We started doing this in 2000. This summer we totalled 38 various aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and several other various hangers oners. I wrote about the genesis of these reunions a few years ago, here. My youngest sister (I have 4 sisters and one lucky brother!) likes to plan activities for these reunions. She is a kindergarten teacher. My other sisters, brother, and I tolerate it to humour her, plus, she is so bossy, we all end up doing what she says anyways, just to keep the peace.

On the second morning of the reunion we all played “The Amazing Race-Wedding Edition“, in honour of our brother’s upcoming nuptials in two weeks. Under the guise of helping the betrothed couple prepare for the wedding we were  divided into teams and went off on a car rally-treasure hunt to the lovely town of Perth, Ontario.

We did a similar type of activity at the last reunion, in 2009, and my oldest son asked me if participation in this year’s hunt was optional. I patiently explained to him that no, participation was not optional and that the reason for this was so that when his parents, and/or aunts and uncles are dead and he and all his cousins are sitting around at the Shiva house, they will have shared memories to reminisce and laugh about. Making memories for your kids is one of the most important tasks for a parent.

The “Race” was fast and furious. Several members of our family are quite competitive and play hard to win. In fact, I would suggest that if you ever visit Perth, and stop in at the delicious Sunflower Bake Shop (where we had to visit to obtain a list of cupcake flavours that they make and then recommend the one that should be served at the wedding), you might not want to mention our family’s name. Apparently we are now blacklisted from that establishment. But don’t let that stop you. Their lemon pound cake is killer!

On our journey we were instructed to stop in at Jersey Joe’s Pizza and Sub. Our task was to create a perfect pizza for the happy couple to eat at 2:00 am after their wedding. We were to get a price for the pie and take a picture with Jersey Joe. Bonus points were promised if we brought a box back to the cottage. Jersey Joe was a real sweetheart and he makes a mean pizza pie!

The last task of the race ended proved to be the most controversial. We wound up at the Perth Dairy Queen where we had to create a custom Blizzard that the happy couple would taste and judge.

Most of the teams assumed that the custom blizzard had to contain ingredients that were available at the DQ. However, one team, who declared themselves to be “outside the box thinkers” interpreted this task much more loosely. Knowing my brother’s penchant for bacon, Butterfingers candy bars and Hostess Twinkies, they procured these items before arriving at the DQ and mixed them into their custom blizzard.

Fortunately for all the other teams, the “outside the box thinker’s” blizzard was the sixth of seven blizzards that the happy (but by now, quite nauseous) couple had to taste. My brother turned a pale shade of green as his sweetheart shoved a mouthful of blizzard coated bacon bits into his mouth. One sister was heard to quip, “Cheaters never prosper.”

That afternoon, more than a few family members signed up for naptime!

Not all the weekend’s activities were compulsory. On Friday morning we held a swim marathon. Attendance at this event was totally optional and there were only 6 of us who participated in the 2 kilometer swim to an island in the middle of our lake.  My youngest sister, brother and I first did the swim about 6 years ago and it has become a time-honoured tradition ever since. We discovered that the owner of the cottage on the island we swim to is a heart surgeon. That always gives us comfort as we gasp our way across the lake.My brother-in-law Brandon had a big bowl of Double Coconut Granola for breakfast and claimed it was the perfect fuel to jet him across the lake. My cousin Lewis tried some when we got back and now is a member of our Breakfast Club!

The Jell-O eating contest drew a huge crowd, as we cheered on my brother, the undefeated champion. He took gold in 2003 (Watermelon), 2006 (Chocolate Pudding) and 2009 (Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce). In our food races, we prize speed over quantity. Whoever finishes their plate first wins. We organize it in heats of 3 and then the winners of each heat go against each other until a final winner emerges.

In the finals it was the uncontested champ (my brother) against his beloved (my future sister-in-law). She slurped faster than he did and is now our family’s new hero. Secretly, just between you and me, I think he threw the race to let her win, because that’s just the kind of sweet guy my brother is!

Shockingly, there was close to perfect attendance for Friday night’s blind Prosecco tasting. We kept score on the chalkboard covered fridge and Villa Sandi eked out a close one against second place Mionetto and third place Blu Giovello. Santa Margherita Valdobbiadene got one lonely vote (Mine!)

For our Friday night dinner, we set up tables on the lawn and covered them with white cloths, and candles. It looked so beautiful, we could have held the wedding right then and there!

As the sun was setting a feeling of peace and dare I say, serenity, came over me. As I looked around at this incredible gathering the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts“came to mind. So true when applied to family! I hope that my children and their cousins will continue this wonderful tradition we have started.

Last week, as I was making this slaw for the fourth time in less than 3 weeks, it occurred to me that this phrase, (The whole is greater than the sum of its parts) is equally applicable to coleslaw! Somehow when combined, lowly cabbage, pedestrian carrots, celery and green onion and ordinary farm stand corn come together in a kind of wondrous culinary synergy to create a really kick ass slaw.

Rather than grilling the corn, which I find makes the kernels tough and a bit leathery to chew, I prefer to gently saute them in a pan. As they brown and begin to snap, crackle and pop out of the pan, they become even sweeter due to caramelization.

For the dressing I wanted to blend a perfect balance of sweet (honey), salty (kosher salt), hot (chipotle in adobo) and sour (lime juice). I smoothed the whole thing out with a dollop of light mayo. For the final touch I coarsely chopped a huge handful of cilantro, but if you are a member of the cilantro haters club, feel free to leave it out!

Click here to print the recipe for Charred Corn Slaw.

Ambivalent Birthday Cupcakes

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You always remember your first. No, I’m not talking about THAT first. This is a not that kind of blog!

I have the good fortune of being blessed with 14 nephews and 9 nieces. I have a special place in my heart for each and every one of them, but there is something quite special about becoming an aunt for the first time. My oldest nephew was an adorable, sweet-natured baby and has turned into a wonderful, responsible, very funny young man with a strong sense of family. His 29th birthday coincided with a visit to our cottage last week. I wanted to make a family dinner for him. I know he has been following the Paleo diet for some time now, and birthday cake is not really on the approved Paleo list. However, a birthday without cake is just too sad for me to contemplate, so last week I sent him the following e-mail:

Would you eat cake on your birthday? If so, what would your preference be? Chocolate, Berry Shortcake, Carrot, or anything else.

I got the following response:

Well, I would have some cake if there was one in front of me, but I’d rather not.  I know I’d enjoy it in the moment, but I’d probably regret the sugar and gluten the next day.  But if I had to choose?  Chocolate or Berry Shortcake sounds great.

As far as what I eat…pretty much meat and veg these days – still on the Paleo diet.  I basically stay away from gluten/grains, dairy, and most processed food.  That being said, however, given your penchant for baking (I don’t remember the last time I was at your cottage and didn’t see something delicious cooling down on those huge racks you’ve got) I’d imagine I’ll be doing a bit of cheating those few days.
Anything I can bring?
WHAT???? Talk about an ambivalent response! How was I to interpret that?
This party was beginning to look like no fun at all. I fired off a quick e-mail:
Do you still drink alcohol?
He responded:
Yes, just wine and tequilla. 
Whew, he hadn’t completely lost his mind.
Now I had to decide if I would be the Evil Aunt and tempt him with something anti-Paleo, or should I be considerate and respectful of his diet and make him a Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake with Coconut Honey Frosting?
I decided that to go with a full-on, loaded with gluten, dairy and sugar cake would be cruel, but it really seemed to me that he was asking me to help him cheat. So. I decided to make cupcakes, because they’re small and not really a true cake. Sort of an ambivalent cake for his ambivalent response.
For the base of the cupcakes, I knew chocolate was the right road to follow. I have tried many different chocolate cake recipes over the years, and have come to the conclusion that butter is not always better when it comes to the moistest cake. Vegetable oil really does make a better cake. Our family’s go-to chocolate cake comes from Noreen Gilletz’s “Pleasures of Your Food Processor.”  Rich, moist and very deeply chocolate, but not too sweet, it makes a perfect cake or cupcakes every time.

I am thrilled with the Cocoa Barry brand of cocoa powderI just bought. (Cocoa Barry is the French division of Callebaut)

I wanted to try a different buttercream this time. A few years ago I had dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Ottawa called Beckta. Before the meal they brought bread and some type of butter spread to the table. I was smitten from the first bite! I begged the waiter for the recipe for this spread. He told me that they melt butter until it turns a medium nutty brown colour. Then they chill it ao that it becomes a solid again and whip it with a little regular butter. This was my first foray into the land of browned butter (the French call it beurre noisette) and I must say that it has haunted my dreams ever since.
Given my success with browned butter berry tarts, I suspected that browned butter in a buttercream would be fantastic. Something magical happens when you brown butter. It enhances the flavour of just about anything you add it to, and the aroma will drive you wild. Making brown butter is quite simple. Use a saucepan with a light coloured bottom, so that you will be able to judge when the butter is browned to perfection. A dark bottom pan can lead to burned butter and trust me, that aroma and taste will not leave you craving more!

As the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Swirl the pan to ensure even melting. The color will progress from pale yellow to golden-tan to, finally, a burnt sienna (remember that crayola crayon colour?). Once you smell that nutty aroma, take the pan off the heat and transfer the browned butter into a heat-proof bowl to cool.

The milk solids will cook faster and you’ll see them settle on the bottom of the pan. You can strain the brown butter through cheesecloth to leave those milk solid particles behind, or you can incorporate them into the buttercream. I really like the almost burnt taste of them as well as seeing the specks of browned butter in the icing, so I did not strain mine.

The brown butter is chilled for about an hour until it becomes solid again. The ideal temperature of the brown butter for making the buttercream is room temperature. If it becomes too hard in the fridge, leave it on the counter to soften a bit. Beat the brown butter with icing sugar, a pinch of salt and a little vanilla extract.

Fit a disposable piping bag with a large star tip and frost the cupcakes.

The cupcakes were a huge hit. My nephew inhaled two of them and asked for two more to be wrapped up to go. I have a feeling he may have had a bit of a gluten-sugar hangover the next morning, but I think he will agree that they were worth it.

Click here to print the recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Browned Butter Icing.

P.S. Just read about browned butter on field fresh tomatoes. Check it out!