It's interesting to note what inspires people and how inspiration and motivation can often be interpreted as one and the same thing.  Maybe they are the same thing.  In reality at least.  I think that adversity and/or the negative experiences we go through tend to inspire and motivate me more than the positive ones.  Sad but true.  I would venture to say that this is the case for more of us than we would care to admit.
The western world has been motivated to assemble in unity against terrorism and for freedom from censorship.  I had the odd experience of all of this outcry not quite sitting right with me.  Not being sure exactly why I felt odd about it, I started to let myself dwell on the situation and the issues that have arisen around the Paris incident.  Rolling it around, here is where my thoughts have gone up to now:
 - Is freedom from censorship the same thing as freedom of speech?
 - We talk about how powerful words are all of the time.  Our words affect people and can illicit a strong response - sometimes we can determine that outcome and sometimes we can't.  When does what we say become translated as hate?
 - We censor ourselves all of the time - every single day.  Journalists, artists, writers, researchers... you name it.  That censorship is based on the acceptable social norms currently in existence.  There are certain people groups and religious groups that I would never even consider writing negatively about.  However, that might not have been the case 75 short years ago.
 - No one should have to die for the things that those in the Charlie Hebdo offices died for.  Full stop.

I started to articulate what I was thinking to D.  I thought that maybe I was crazy to even be thinking this way.  Turns out that D, while not asking exactly the same questions, was definitely rolling things around as well.  He forwarded this article to me from The Intercept.  As I was reading it, I found myself feeling so thankful that I wasn't alone in feeling odd about this whole thing, I wasn't crazy either and that someone out there had managed to articulate their thoughts in a much more logical and concise way than I could have.  I'm not done stewing about this for sure but there are other things that are just as concerning... what about these guys?  Shall we march?


Look, cookies certainly are not at the top of the news food chain.  World crisis will not be widely affected by the baking of two more dozen cookies.  Still I make cookies.  Maybe I bake cookies for the same reason others watch reality tv or awards shows - for the record, I can't even force myself to sit through either one.  We do it to feel normal.  We do it because it helps us lose ourselves in something else.
Full disclosure:  I found that the cookies I made were a little too clementine overwhelmed.  The maple will be subtle no matter what (sometimes I wonder why I use maple syrup at all when I'm baking) but mine just turned into clementine cookies with a couple of weird bacon sprinkles on the top.  I have adjusted the amount of zest accordingly... feel free to add vanilla as well to round it out more.


Clementine, bacon and maple (?!) sugar cookies adapted from here
makes about 2 dozen

2 cups icing sugar
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 lg egg
1 tsp grated clementine or orange zest (no more than that!)
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
dash of nutmeg
2 tbsp maple syrup

1 egg white
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp maple syrup
3 strips bacon - cooked until very crisp, drained and broken into small pieces

Combine the flour, salt and nutmeg together and set aside.
In a large bowl combine the icing sugar and butter.  Beat together until creamy.
Add the egg and clementine zest and continue to beat until light and fluffy.
Continue to beat on low and slowly add the flour mixture.  Beat only until combined.
Divide the dough into two portions.  Roll each portion into 3 inch round logs.  Cover each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 12 hours.
Preheat oven to 370°F
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicon liner.
Slice each log into 1/4 inch discs.  Place the discs on the lined cookie sheet leaving some room between each for spreading while baking.
Bake for about 7 - 8 minutes.
Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Icing:
Beat together the egg white, icing sugar and maple syrup until creamy.
Pour about a tsp of icing on top of each cookie and immediately sprinkle with a little of the bacon (might want to press the bacon down just a little to wedge it into the icing)
Leave cookies for a while to let the icing get solid.

Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm not making burger paties with lentils or quinoa.  I feel that if I really were a healthy person or a caring person or a concerned person that I would be making quinoa burgers.  Maybe with black beans.... and kale.  That sounds right, doesn't it.  Quinoa burgers with black beans and kale.  Definitely has a ring to it.  Secretly, I feel weird about calling it a burger though.
The guilt never wins over the desire for pork.  Local and well-reared pork but still, it's pork.  I tell myself that the only way everyone will eat something with so much vegetable matter in it is with the power of pork.  This did not work last week when I made asian kale with mushrooms and bacon... it's still sitting in the fridge.  Truthfully, sometimes they just don't eat stuff.  Sometimes nothing is more appealing than pizza or chocolate.
I was afraid to admit it until I read this blog post.  She was so honest about how she felt when time after time, the family did not eat the cake.  They turned to everything but the cake.  Here's my story.  A couple of weeks ago, one of my voice students came in carrying a big bag of Chips Ahoy 100 calorie packages of death.  There were about 50 little packages of terrible in the big bag.  I hustled her downstairs to the studio before the kids could see it.  She told me she went to the outlet store and thought it would be nice to bring them for the kids.  It was very thoughtful of her.  I wish that it could have been peanuts or a dozen eggs or maybe even kale.  Chips Ahoy.
Of course, the kids saw the bag and were down stairs claiming their prize before the end of the lesson.  The said huge 'thank you's' and I think that Kid #2 thought that she might be Santa.  No word of a lie, this applesauce bread was cooling on the cooling rack.  It had just come out of the oven.  It looked beautiful.  It smelled beautiful.  I even glazed it because we all know that icing translates into 'gobbled up'.  Maple glaze - you can't beat that.  Except apparently you can beat that.  Apparently, 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's beats maple glaze and homemade applesauce bread.  I don't think that chocolate chips or hand dipping each slice into chocolate ganache would beat Chips Ahoy.  So I thought that the applesauce bread/cake was being eaten.  Being carried to school for snacks.  Thickly sliced for a lovely after school treat.  Eaten as a before bed snack.  I realized on Friday morning that the bread was still nearly whole on the counter top.  One slice taken, re-wrapped and left.  I checked the bag of 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's... there were 5 packages left.

Maybe there wasn't enough glaze?

The moral of this story:
Icing is no guarantee of consumption.
Take your baking to work where people are busy, depressed and desperate.  They will eat anything and be happier for it... unless they have 100 calorie Chips Ahoy mini's.


Red Fife Applesauce Bread with Maple Glaze adapted from EatLiveRun
makes 1 lg loaf cake

1 1/4 cup whole wheat or red fife flour
1 cup unbleached, all purpose
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Butter and flour a med/large loaf pan.  Set aside.
Combine the whole wheat and all purpose flour together.  Mix.
Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to the flour.  Mix well and set aside.
In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until mixed and fluffy (you can whisk or use a mixer)  Add the egg and vanilla and continue to whisk or mix until fluffy and well combined.  Add in the applesauce and fold until combined.
Add the flour mixture and mix until everything is well combined and flour is entirely incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cool on a wrack.

I really really really want corn and tomatoes in my life... raw, roasted, grilled, sprinkled with some salt, some feta cheese added.  Whatever.  I really want it.  I've been craving corn and tomato soup with black beans.  It sounds wonderful, right.  I just can't bring myself to make soup in the summer.  It feels wrong.  I don't know, maybe I'm ok with wrong.  What I've distracted myself by doing instead is eating this ice cream.  I am currently on my third scoop - taken secretly, straight from the freezer when my kids aren't looking.  It's so not wrong.  Maple and Peach.  Maple because I had it and thought that it might be cool and I saw the combo somewhere else and it looked like it worked.  Peach because it's peach season - dude!  Where have you been.


The obligatory food box shot... I hope somebody cares because I feel kinda dumb posting this.  I thought briefly about taking shots of my fridge and freezer to show you all... why?  Why would anybody care about the organization of my freezer?  Why did the thought even occur to me?  It's a slippery slope.  Next thing you know, I'm taking shots of my sock drawer so that you can all see how well organized I am and how many colours are in there.  Slippery Slope.
I realize that summer vacation is about more than sitting in a park reading or seeing how much you can accomplish without leaving the couch.  Problem is that I'm enjoying those things so much that it's hard for me to find room to care about anything else.  If I could sit and read in the park with a drink - say a beer or glass of champagne - it's probable that I would never leave.  Unfortunately, one can't do such a thing in Ontario because we're all conservative like that apparently.  In this particular instance though it's a good thing.
I finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire.  I have the third and final book on my kindle.  I just can't decide if I want to go for it.  I waited a year in between reading the first two and, unlike The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, I feel like I don't need to wrap this all up and find out what happens.   Speaking of kindle - my little niece has written two books and published them on amazon for kindle.  They are both adorable... the books and my niece.
I cooked 'nuff' food yesterday.  Roasted Chicken with carrots and gravy.  Green Beans, Shitake Mushrooms and Sorrel with Soy Sauce glaze.  Roasted eggplant, fennel and zucchini Pasta sauce (recipe to come for this one).  I wanted to make crackers but then wondered what I would do with the crackers.  If I make crackers then I feel compelled to go out and get cheese to go with them.  If I go out then I should get some grapes too because those go nicely with crackers and cheese.  Once I'm out I should pick up some potatoes because we need... Ok, that's it - no crackers.  Still, felt good to fill up the empty fridge for the week.  Except that the whole time I really wanted Corn and Tomato, Black Bean Soup.


I thought you might be wondering if this ice cream is as good as it looks.  Yep.  It is.  I've eaten three more spoonfuls since starting this post... my kids still don't know.


Peach Maple Ice Cream adapted from Pies and Plots
makes about 1 litre

Custard:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup 10% cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
Peaches:
4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

For the Peaches:
Place the peach slices in a bowl.  Add sugar and vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Over medium/low heat simmer the peaches in their juice until there is almost no juice left.  Peaches will be soft and mushy.  Set aside to cool.
Custard:
Combine the heavy cream, 10% cream and milk together.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan combine the cream mixture and the sugar.  Heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Once the mixture has just about come to a simmer, turn the heat down to low.
Stir small amounts of the cream mixture into the egg yolks, stirring to combine.  Once about a third of the mixture has been stirred into the yolks then add the yolk mixture back into the cream mixture.  Turn the heat up just a little and heat until you feel the mixture thicken and use the wooden spoon test.
Remove the mixture from the heat and pour through a sieve into a bowl.
Add the maple syrup and vanilla.  Stir and then cover with plastic wrap (placing the wrap right on the custard so that it doesn't form a crust) cool to room temperature and then place in fridge for about 4 hrs or overnight.
Remove the custard to a ice cream maker and make according to manufacturers directions.
At the end of the churning cycle add about 1 cup of the cooled peach mixture and run for another 5 minutes.
Remove the ice cream to a freezable container and freeze until hard.
Soften briefly before serving.

It's high time that something sweet and indulgent showed it's face here.  You deserve it.  You've endures so much from me over the past weeks.  Rants about Italy - blah blah blah we're all so happy that you went to Italy.  Lists about surviving with 180 boys for weeks on end - Boo, poor You having teaching at an all boys school.  Going on about the weather and when will it finally be spring anyway.  Blubbering about my home life and giving recipe upon recipe of things that have nothing to do with treating yourself.  Whining about how busy things have been and chiming on about how excited I am about getting some rhubarb this year.
Last weekend we had an extra day off.  D completed a fantastic DIY project with our neighbour in the backyard.  They fixed the fence.  It was in a state.  Falling over, you know how it goes.


All finished, it looks great and now my raspberries are not getting crushed by a falling fence.  However, my rhubarb took a hit.  A bad hit.  A deadly hit.  It's over.  No rhubarb this year.


My heart broke a little on one side - chipped right off.  I've ordered some for my food box and I'm not going to say any more about it.
I decided to let it go and drown some cherries in vodka because somehow I knew that would help me feel better.  So that totally happened.  Cherries left the freezer.  They got drowned in vodka and maple syrup and they were very very happy about it.  Drunk with happiness.  Then those gorgeous, drunk, bad boys got roasted.  Slowly and lovingly roasted.  The cherries were then chopped in their beautiful juice and thrown into the best vanilla ice cream I've ever made.


Ice cream is something I really need to indulge in more.  Homemade ice cream is possibly one of the very best things going.  The simplicity of making something with so few ingredients - cream, milk, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla - is more than comforting, it's sheer beauty.  I needed beauty in my life this week.  There is so much going on.  So much sadness and sickness and hurt and busy that needs balancing out.  I got told earlier in the week that I'm mean.  Maybe it was one of my kids or somebody at work, I can't even remember.  It was probably a joke but it got me thinking.  I am mean sometimes.  It's weird - when I like you I hurl insults at you.  I'm joking of course when I do it - it's all in good fun, right?  Sarcastic and funny.  I thought about how my sarcasm was kinda like those boys in Gr 1 who liked me.  How did I know they liked me?  They bit me... or maybe just punched me in the arm or something.  Their hurting me was actually them 'liking' me except how am I supposed to know that because I'm at school in the nurses office getting a plaster and hoping that I don't have to get sent in for a tetanus shot.  Yup - that's me sometimes only I use my words (isn't that what we're supposed to do) instead of my hands (or teeth as the case may be).  Blech.  Sometimes introspection sucks.  What am I going to do about it now that I know?  For now I'm going to eat ice cream because the fat will help me feel better about myself - I'm not even kidding about that.


I'm going to go and get together a list of some kind of crap that you could probably not care less about for my next post.


Drunken Cherry and Vanilla Ice Cream adapted from epicurious.com
makes about 750ml or serves 6 - 8

1 2/3 cup cherries (I used frozen from last year's harvest) halved
3 tbsp rum/vodka or vanilla
3 tbsp maple syrup

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla seeds scooped out of 2 pods
4 egg yolks, placed together in a bowl

Combine the cherries, alcohol and maple syrup together.  Stir and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 300°F
Pour the cherries and liquid onto a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes.
Cool the cherries completely and then chop then in their juice.

Combine the cream, milk and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan.  Heat over med/low heat until just barely beginning to simmer.  Turn the heat down to low immediately.  Add the vanilla seeds.  Stir well.
Pour some of the heated cream/milk into the egg yolks, stirring constantly.
Pour the egg yolk mixture slowly back into the cream mixture until it's all added.  Stir constantly (the mixture shouldn't come to a simmer again).  You should feel the mixture thickening somewhat.  You can test that the custard is ready by checking the back of a wooden spoon - dip it into the custard, run your finger across the back of the spoon and if the cream doesn't run back together and fill in the gap then it's ready.
Run the mixture through a sieve and into a bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap, placing the plastic wrap right on the custard (that way no crust forms on the top of the custard).  Cool completely and then refrigerate for at least 4 hrs.
Place the custard into an ice cream maker and run according to the specifications.
At the end of the run, as the ice cream is nearly set, add in the chopped cherries.  Run for another 5 minutes.
Scoop into a freezable container to firm up.

It's amazing how quickly we can forget things that we knew very well.
When it's summer I forget what it feels like to be cold.  When it's winter I forget what it feels like to be warm.
I can forget where I've put my keys or glasses in a matter of seconds.
I can forget what my favourite blogs are over the course of one week - less time if it's been a busy week.
I often forget to bring strategic articles of clothing to work with me (I ride my bike most of the time and prefer to change my clothes rather than get my good work clothes dirty and/or wrecked) and have had to resort to keep these strategic pieces in my bag at all times.  That's how many times I've forgotten.
There have been times when I've forgotten to eat.

Collectively, we forget almost everything.
We forget public policy.
We forget leaders both good and bad.
We forget history (a dangerous, dangerous way to exist) both the good and the bad - unless it's documented clearly for us in movie form of course.


Recently, I realised that I'd forgotten about something very important.
My waffle maker.
I know that you were expecting me to come out with something a little more... weighty, serious.  I might counter that two extremely happy, contented kids who think that their Mom is THE BEST can be a pretty weighty and serious matter.  However, I will concede that it's a little trivial and self centred.  However, if there is ever a time when you can allow yourself a little bit of the trivial and self centred, it's the weekend.  Am I right?
I've been experimenting with grain flours over the past couple of months and have discovered that my organic food box will deliver locally grown and milled flour as well as it being available from 'Fresh from the Farm'.  I've been taking full advantage of both offerings.  These waffles turned out beautifully.  No one suspected that they were 'whole wheat' either by taste or texture.


Multigrain Waffles adapted from King Arthur Flour
makes between 10 and 12 med sized round waffles

1/2 cup whole wheat

I've inadvertently joined a book club at work.  I didn't know I was joining which is a long story in and of itself.  But, regardless, I've joined.
Of course the book that we're reading is... well, I'm sure that you can guess.  I just started the book yesterday.  My first conversation about the book was all about how much I'm gonna be blown away by chapter 7.  I can't say that I was waiting with bated breath or anything but I was curious.  So, for those of you who've read 'the book' (I really don't want to give the book any more press than it's already gotten - not that my blog will make a huge crap load of difference) you might understand how I was surprised to discover that the whole thing was basically a contract.  Sure it was a contract of the kind that we don't usually make a contract over... or do we.
I'd like to take this opportunity to declare that a contract regarding the terms of sex first of all isn't terribly erotic and secondly, isn't really a new concept.  In fact, I think that most of us create our own contracts when it comes to a serious relationship.  And we've been doing this for a really long time.  Marriage is our present day default contract.  It is legally binding and there are some pretty serious repercussions if we break the contract.  But sexual contracts have been around for a long long long time.  Pre-Judaism and Pre-Islam (and yes, I do realize that chronologically they are both VERY far apart) relationship contracts were quite deliberate and often quite different.  Our present day marriage contract is mostly straight-forward and inflexible (unless of course a pre-nuptual agreement is involved) but then 'marriage' contracts could take on just about any form.  For example, money could be left out of the contract completely, a couple could contract to be exclusive for a short period of time, a couple could agree that after a pre-set period of time that the contract would be renegotiated.  In other words, the terms were much more open ended than they are now.
When I read the contract in 'the book' I certainly didn't have a problem with the fact that a contract was being put on the table or the fact that there were some 'out of the ordinary' preferences being negotiated.  What bothered me was that the woman was not really being treated as an equal partner.  The contract was all about the preferences and limits required by the male in the relationship.  If we're getting into contracts and law and stuff then shouldn't the woman have taken the opportunity to say 'Thanks for this.  I'm going to go now and look it over and maybe talk to one of my lawyer friends (or not) and come back to you with a counter offer'.  The contract in 'the book' shouldn't necessarily have been taken as the end of the contract road but rather the beginning.  Relationships are all about negotiation - on a regular basis, always and forever, romantic or otherwise - and they should be about equality (especially when it comes to sexual relationships).  So a contract has to be flexible in order to be fair and equal.  Sure there will be some 'Never-do's' or 'Tap-outs' but otherwise it is negotiated and later possibly renegotiated and then again after that.
Now when it comes to 'the book', I'm only on chapter 8 so I definitely need to keep both an open mind and my fingers crossed that things get a little better for our heroine beyond some hugely satisfying 'coming of age' journal entries.
I'll keep you updated.


In the meantime, I'm trying to keep food in my kitchen and it seems to be mysteriously disappearing at an alarming rate.  I'm not sure where it's all going and in the middle of the week I found myself in the unfortunate position of having to get creative with these somewhat incongruous ingredients. The happy news is that after some deliberation... a little negotiational (not even sure if that's a word) coaxing maybe... this wonderful mess was the result.


Potato, Kale and Kitchen Sink Hash adapted generously from 'Simply in Season'
serves 4

6 - 7 small/med potatoes quartered or 'sixed'
1 onion or 3 spring onions, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
5 cups kale, coarsely chopped
1 lb sausage, cooked and coarsely chopped
1 boullion cube
1 tbsp grainy mustard
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper sauce or 1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Place potatoes in a pot and fill with water just until the potatoes are barely covered.  Bring to a boil and boil for about 7 - 8 minutes.  Drain but reserve about 1/4 of potato water.
Combine the reserved potato water, bouillon cube, mustard, maple syrup and Worcestershire sauce together.  Whisk until completely mixed and incorporated into a sauce.  Set aside.
Heat a large pot or wok over medium heat.  Add a couple of tbsp of your choice of oil.  Throw in the onion and garlic.  Cook together for about 2 - 3 minutes or until the onion is just starting to show signs of becoming soft.  Add in the kale and continue to cook for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly so the kale doesn't get stuck or burn - turn down the heat a little if necessary.  The kale should just be starting to wilt.  Add in the cooked potato and chopped sausage.  Mix well.
Turn the heat down a little more and toss in the bouillon/mustard mixture.  Stir everything until it's all coated with the sauce.  Cook for another 5 minutes or so over low heat.
Serve.

Where do I begin?  This is a bit of a 'catch-you-up' post.
You ever have that feeling that you remember doing something and just can't remember whether that was yesterday or a week ago (or maybe even a month ago).  Yeah.  That's how I've been living for the last... I'm not sure.
What goes through my head:
'I need to call my parents - when did I last call? - I can't remember, maybe Mother's day - Damn, that was weeks ago - Crap'
'I have to return that phone call - when was that phone call - I'd better check my phone - Jeez, it was 3 weeks ago - heavy sigh'
'I know that my friend is having her going away party soon - she sent me an evite - I'd better check - ok Doof it was yesterday'

I'm not sure how exactly I've managed to get so accomplished at it but it now seems that scattered and frazzled is the new 'normal' for me.  Is this finally 'Soccer Mom' syndrome setting in.  Is it just what happens to women of a particular age.  Should I be asking my Dr why I need to ask my phone to remind me to bring my keys with me each morning.  I would love to hear your suggestions... and please don't be one of those people who sends me this message about how I need to take a month off and go to a spa or something completely beyond the realm of remotely possible.  I guess I want to know if this kind of thing happens to anyone else.  Time gets lost, timelines are fuzzy and remembered details are random events.

In the middle of the kind of week where I dragged my whole family to the wrong soccer field for Kid #2's game - argued about it for a minute, checked my email thanks to my phone, apologized to family, got back in car and drove straight to correct field - I've been living on some things both simple and fantastic.


I made quiche.  Not just any quiche but quiche with a potato crust.


Potato Crust adapted from 'The Moosewood Cookbook'
makes 1 quiche crust

3 cups shredded potato (I used about 6 med/sm potatoes)
1 egg
pinch of salt and pepper
1 tbsp melted butter

Grease or butter a regular sized pie pan.
Preheat oven to about 400 degrees F.
Combine the shredded potato, egg, salt, pepper and melted butter together.  Stir well.  Pour into the greased pie pan.  Using your fingers, spread the potato mixture out evenly over the whole pan and up the sides.
Bake for about 30 minutes.  Brush with a little oil or butter again and bake for another 10 minutes or so.  Remove from oven a cool slightly before adding quiche ingredients.  Done.


...You won't hear me talk much about salad but this dressing has kept my spring greens happy for the last week.  I saw it in one of my BBC magazines and thought I would try it.  Fan-Friggin-tastic.


Grainy Mustard and Maple Syrup dressing adapted from BBC GoodFood magazine

1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp grainy mustard

Combine everything in a bowl and whisk until it's completely combined.  Pour over some greens and freshly sliced radishes (perfect!) and go...

Oh my.
We decided to end our March Break with a bang.  We had planned a trip up north of the city last weekend but kid #1 was sick so we postponed it to the very last day of the break.  Honestly, it was the best thing we could have done.  The weather was perfect (if it were June) and it was inspiring to see my friends again.


I've talked about these friends before.  I feel lucky to have people like this in my life.  People that just 'get it' and 'get me'.  When I'm with my friend C I feel like I can let all my crazy cook/gardener/conspiracy theorist/ apocalypse prophet out - right out there.  In public.  In conversation and all.  We talked about her garden  - which makes me nuts coming from the city and realising the ridiculous amount of work that goes into her garden.  It's hard to take in.  We talked about the fruit trees and the nut trees that they're planting.  We talked about the chickens and turkeys that they're going to start keeping.  We talked about how their solar panels are actually putting energy back into the grid and making them money.  We talked about the dogs and about how I can get a side of beef from their closest neighbours any time.  C gave me a bunch of seeds.

Moss in Bloom

We also talked about maple syrup mostly because we took the kids to a sugar bush which felt totally weird because it was no less than 23 degrees outside.  We couldn't quite take a walk through the bush because it was pretty wet and muddy.  We did, however,  take a horse wagon ride (in which the horses had to trudge through a lot of mud - awesome for kid #2) and ate some pancakes and beans after that.

The story wouldn't be complete without a picture of the horses from our perspective.

After heading back to our friends place we took a long walk in the gorgeous sun and let the dogs (read: kids) get tired out.  Of course I couldn't show up empty handed so I made some bread.  Bread is a funny thing because I find that sweet bread can quite quickly become too sweet.  I was skeptical about the need for glop because of my previous experience with sweet breads.  I had also sprinkled the top of the bread with some candied nuts just before baking.  So with that in mind I kept the glop on the side.  After taste testing I can tell you honestly that the glop made this bread sing.  Absolutely sing.  In lovely dulcet tones.  We all agreed.

The Bread before the Glop.

The Bread after the Glop.  I must add that this picture was taken by Kid #2... he's 5.

Apple Loaf with Glop adapted from Pass the Sushi

1 1/2 cups shredded apple (peeled first)
1/2 cup brown sugar (lightly packed)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 lg eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup candied walnuts or pecans coarsely chopped

Glaze:

3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream
3 - 4 tbsp maple syrup (not table syrup)

Grease and flour a regular loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger and cardamom together in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl mix together the apples, brown sugar, buttermilk, oil and eggs together.  Mix thoroughly.  Add in the flour mixture.  Mix until thoroughly combined.  Pour into the loaf pan and bake for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Glaze:
Sift the icing sugar (I skipped this though) into a bowl.  Add the cream and 3 tbsp of the maple syrup.  Mix and add a little more maple syrup if needed to get the consistency you like.  Gloop onto the top of the loaf only once the loaf is completely cooled.

The kids weren't the only ones tired out.

I'm not trying to be a total smart ass but this soup looks like barf in a bowl.
And just in time for Hallowe'en.
It doesn't taste like barf though. . . fortunately.
I tasted really good in fact.
Here's my take on Hallowe'en BTW.   'Cause I'm sure that you're all very curious, you're just afraid to ask.

I DON'T CARE.

It's awful.  I'm a poop.  If it makes any difference to you, I almost care as little about christmas.  Whateve.  It is what it is for me.  No more.  No less.
It's not about warding off bad spirits anymore.  Which I think is kinda cool BTW.
It's all about kids dressing up and getting candy (not bad at all).  It's all about teenage girls looking way older and sluttier than I'm comfortable with.  It's all about adults going to parties.  It's about fun and parties.
So, as I've mentioned before, I'm not baking spooky witch hats or goblin eyeballs.  I'm not cooking up a pot of boiled brains for dinner.
Just soup.
Plain old barfy looking soup.


It's good soup.  It's cheap too because parsnips are cheap people.  And seasonal.  And good for you.  Pour a little maple syrup in there and you've got fall comfort food covered.
Now I've got to sit down and figure out how I'm going to survive the hours between school tomorrow and when we leave the house to take Kid #1 and #2 out to collect all this candy that sits beside the refrigerator for the next 11 months (yup - just put the last of it in the bin on the weekend).  I've got a couple of survival ideas but I'm not sure if I would still be in good enough shape to walk up and down the street.
I plan on having a nice big gloopy bowl of this stuff before I go either way.


Maple Parsnip Soup adapted from 'Simply in Season'
serves about 6

5 tbsp butter
1 1/2 lbs (or about 5 med/lg) parsnips chopped
1 lg onion, diced
1 clove garlic
5 cups veg or chicken broth (I used a combination)
3 dashes of nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 - 1/3 cup maple syrup
1 lg tbsp dijon mustard
salt to taste

Heat a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.
Add in the butter and turn the heat down just a bit.  Add in the parsnip and the onion.  Let those cook together in the butter for about 7 minutes.  Stirring regularly so they don't get stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Add in the garlic and cook for another 4 minutes.
Add in the broth.
Simmer over low heat for another 10 - 15 minutes.
Once the parsnips are very soft puree the soup using either a hand blender or placing the soup in a regular blender.
Once the soup is back in the pot and on the heat, add in the nutmeg, milk, maple syrup and dijon mustard.  Mix well.
Check the taste and and salt to taste.
Serve with yummy focaccia bread (see my last post) or warm rolls and be thankful that you are inside.

I don't entertain very much.
It's a funny thing.  I write a food blog.  I enjoy cooking... a lot.  I love baking... a lot.  But I don't love entertaining.  Luisa said something about it here in this post.  She was able to articulate something that I have felt for a long time.  When I put a lot of effort into something, in the case of entertaining it is food, I don't want to indulge in it myself after the fact.  I can put a lot of time into putting together the main course, making the dessert and then when we all get down to the meal I would really be just as happy eating a salad and a pita (whole wheat of course).
I don't know why... even after Luisa's most articulate post I can't put finger on why exactly I have this reaction.  Maybe it's the strain, the doing and doing, the working to impress the guests with food and drink that cause them to leave your home feeling refreshed and filled.  Either way, I usually just eat because I feel like I have to and it tastes like chew and swallow fare to me.


Well, you all will be happy to know that I've found the answer... make sure that you are eating so late that you (and of course your guests as well) are totally starving.  I now know this from experience.
Last night I had a little reunion of sorts with two friends from McGill.  The festivities started around 6:30 or so.  We were waiting for D to arrive home from a gig to begin to eat (Just for the record, we were serving Sweet and Sour meatballs, Mashed Potato and Celeriac, cauliflower and broccoli stir fried in sesame and tamari).  D thought that the very short gig would end around 7pm.
When 7:45 arrived and D still hadn't arrived home I texted him to see when he would be arriving.  Needless to say we finally all got to tuck into some food around 8:30 or so.  Let me tell you, I was hungry!  Not hungry enough to go nuts 'cause this is a dinner party that I've cooked for but at least I ate a plate and didn't feel ambivalent about it.  As for everyone else, let's just say that there were no leftovers.


Now onto the cake.  Maple syrup being the order of the day here after our sugar bush experience I settled on this layer cake from the Magnolia Cookbook.  The cake is light but substantial and the maple flavour is present in just the right kind of way.  I went with a cream cheese icing with just a hint of maple to that the whole thing wouldn't be too over powering.
I know what you all are wondering.... YES, I did eat the cake!


Maple Layer Cake (adapted from 'The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook')
makes 1 layer cake!

3 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 lg eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
3/4 (ish) cup hot water

Prepare two round cake tins by greasing and flouring them (you could use parchment or something if you wanted to as well).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together the flour and the ginger and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until light and fluffy (I love those two words) after each addition.  Add in the maple syrup and mix well.
Add the flour alternately with the hot water (make it about thirds or so - beginning and ending with the flour).  Mix until there are no lumps.
Divide the batter between the two prepared baking tins.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cakes are spongy on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tins.  Finish cooling the cakes on cooling racks.


Maple Cream Cheese Icing

1 pkg. cream cheese
3 - 3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp maple syrup

Cream together the cream cheese and the butter in a bowl.  Sift in the icing sugar in 1 cup increments.  Blend in the icing sugar after each addition.  As the icing begins to thicken add in the maple syrup and blend together.  Add as much icing sugar as you need to thicken the icing to the desired consistency.
Add a little less than half the icing to the top of the first layer of the cake.  Place the other cake layer on top and add the rest of the icing.

What can I say?
What can anyone say?  There has been so much said already.  There are so many images.  Images that you never want to have in your head let alone have to live through.  My heart is broken for Japan and for the millions of people who are there right now in shock and mourning and the millions more who are suffering the grief all over our planet.  I will be honest with you, it's very hard right now not to feel powerless.  There really is nothing that I can do at the moment but pray.  I will give my money towards some kind of help but I'm waiting for the dust to settle and to see what kind of organisations move in before I start giving (that sounds bad but really I want to make sure that I'm giving money responsibly... that's all) and in the meantime I send love, in thought and emotion.  Because right now I just do not know what else to do.
My thankfulness for my life here doesn't make it any easier to hear about what's going halfway around the world.  However, I do have a family and a life here that needs to be lived as well.  Times like these should make us even more determined to do all that we can with the time that we are given.  Whether or not you believe in an afterlife is beside the fact.  Every moment of every day gives us an opportunity.  We can live in it, with all the joy, pain, love, disappointment, anticipation, frustration, contentment and so on.  Or we can choose to shut it out and live for some future time - I'll feel better, I'm too tired, it's too late, it's not that important anyway... you know the phrases - that may or may not ever come.
If my world ended today I know that I would find a lot of comfort in knowing that I did as much as I could to make the most of every day, the big things and the little, the close friends and the far, and that I lived my life in a way that truly reflected how I felt about the world around me.
Yeah, I know... Corny... whatever... there it is.
P.S.  I made crepes.  I made them a week late.  I know that shrove Tuesday was last week but last week I was working and this week I'm on March Break.  So we had crepes and sauteed pears and chocolate sauce.  I prefer these without the chocolate and with Maple Syrup instead.  I would also gladly have these crepes with something savoury and yummy in the middle.  Hmmmm...


Crepes with Pears, Apples and Chocolate Sauce
serves 4

1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
300 ml milk
1 egg + 1 yolk
dash of vanilla
2 tbsp melted butter

Fruit:
2 small apples, cored and cut into thick slices
2 pears, cored and cut into thick slices
2 tbsp brown sugar
butter for frying

Heat a large caste iron frying pan until it's quite hot and then turn down the heat to just below medium.
Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix and add in the milk, egg, egg yolk, vanilla and melted butter.  Mix just until incorporated.
Add some oil to the pan.
Add about a 1/2 cup of the crepe mixture at a time.  Quickly move the pan around so that the liquid can spread out a bit more.  Cook for just a couple of minutes on each side.  The crepe should be golden brown on each side.  Remove to a warm plate.


In the same hot frying pan (if you wish to use another by all means do).  Add a little butter to the pan and then throw in the fruit.  Do make sure that the pan is quite hot - you don't want to cook the fruit for long otherwise it will turn into applesauce (not a bad thing but rather quite a different thing altogether).  Add in the brown sugar and toss carefully.  Let them cook fast, 2 or 3 minutes should do it and then place them in a bowl.


In a small bowl combine about a half cup of cream, 1 heaping tbsp unsalted butter and about 50 gr. dark chocolate.  Fit the bowl over a pot of lightly simmering water (don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl).  Heat the chocolate mixture until the chocolate is melted.


To serve:
Place a crepe on your plate.
Place the fruit in the crepe and fold the crepe in half.
Drizzle chocolate sauce (or maple syrup) over the crepe.  If you want to get really extravagant here add an little whipped cream.
Say 'Thank You for life, love and all things fat'