Spring is here!

I feel it in my bones...  Spring is here.  Today was the first day I felt 'warm'.  I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief :)

Gore Bay Minor Hockey Walk-A-Thon

Gore Bay Minor Hockey

Walk-A-Thon

 

 Gore Bay Minor Hockey players…

Help us raise money and Celebrate Earth Day!

Spring clean your town!

Sunday May 26^th 2013

11am-2pm

Meeting point – Gore Bay Town Office.

Garbage bags provided start collecting pledges today!

All proceeds to The Gore Bay Minor Hockey Association.

For more information call Maria McLaughlin 282-8410 or Leeann Bell 282-0007

Sunday afternoon bread project...

I love cooking projects with the kids... This particular Sunday afternoon I decided to attempt bread. I really think it is a science, as to me it is impossibly hard to master. I have tried a number of times and failed... miserably. I was watching the cooking channel and the 'Barefoot Contessa' whipped up this 'Honey White Bread' like it was nothing! It looked so easy!!

Here are my little helpers (who are quite experienced 'making bread' as they have done it before with Uncle Perry - the bread master) .....


It was a very east bread recipe.. not that much fussing as making bread goes... I love the smell of bread cooking in the oven... fresh and warm with butter I could eat a whole loaf!


And the best way to eat bread? According to the boys with breakfast... so breakfast for supper it was!! Here is the recipe below.. try it out!


Honey White Bread - Barefoot Contessa

½ cup warm water (110 degrees)
2 packages dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1½ cups warm whole milk (110 degrees)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1½ tablespoons honey
2 extra-large egg yolks
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Place the water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. If the bowl is cold, be sure the water temperature doesn’t drop below 110 degrees. Add the yeast and sugar; stir and allow them to dissolve for 5 minutes.

Add the milk, butter, and honey. Mix on medium speed until blended. Add the egg yolks, 3 cups of the flour, and the salt. Mix on low speed for about 5 minutes. With the mixer still on low speed, add 2 more cups of flour. Raise the speed to medium and slowly add just enough of the remaining flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl. Add the flour slowly; you can always add more but you can’t take it out. Knead on medium speed for about 8 minutes, adding flour as necessary.

Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for a minute, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Grease a bowl with butter, put the dough in the bowl, then turn it over so the top is lightly buttered. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow it to rise for one hour, until doubled in volume.

Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with butter. Divide the dough in half, roll each half into a loaf shape and place each in a prepared pan. Cover again with the damp towel, and allow to rise again for an hour, until doubled in volume.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the dough is ready, brush the tops with the egg white and bake the breads for 40 to 45 minutes, until they sound hollow when tapped. Turn them out of the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Rhubarb Adventures...

What to do with all the Rhubarb from my Gypsy Family Farm shares... Well Rhubarb pie would be the obvious answer except I have childhood nightmares of being forced to eat horrid Rhubarb pie in Primary school in the days of school dinners. I also am not a 'pie' fan... I hate pastry.. It is heavy and the last thing I want after a good meal! So I went searching online and found a recipe for a 'Ruffled Phyllo Tart with Spring Fruit'. (cooking.com is always a good place to search when you are stuck for ideas!) This seemed really appealing to me, I love the other fruit in it, it is phyllo pastry so not so heavy AND it looks so pretty! The finished pie reminds me of an Elizabethan collar...
So this is how much I disliked Rhubarb... I hated the smell of it cooking... I hated the smell of it cutting it up... and mixed in with the other fruit it just reminded me of snot. Eweee gross right??

I changed the recipe a bit from cooking.com... I used honey and ground almonds instead of breadcrumbs for between the layers.. I thought it may have more of a baklava taste to it.... I also cut the rhubarb into slightly bigger pieces... thus losing the snot texture :)


Before it is ready to go into the oven! Pretty right? It's super easy to make and quite impressive to present to dinner guests...


SO the final verdict?? The apricot was too sour with the sour Rhubarb... We didn't find the fruit combination a good one and my hubby not a big apricot fan... I attempted the tart a second time as I had plenty of Rhubarb to do so and this time omitted the Apricot but added blackberries and strawberries....


This was a much better combination and made the tart sweeter but without losing the tartness of the Rhubarb and without adding a ton of extra sugar to it....

Here is the recipe for my 'Rhubarb & Berry Tart':

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey plus extra for between the layers of phyllo
1lb fresh Rhubarb trimmed and cut into pieces no smaller than 1 inch
1/4 cup cornstarch mixed with cold water
1 cup strawberries
1 cup blackberries
Oil & butter melted together to brush on phyllo
Phyllo pastry thawed (Presidents Choice make it.. it comes in a box and you can find it in the grocery store, freezer where the pie crusts are)
Ground almonds Icing sugar for dusting

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Using a 9 inch pie dish place a piece of phyllo centered in dish... Lightly brush with butter & oil mixture, drizzle with honey and sprinkle some of 1/2 teaspoon the ground almonds on... Repeat with 5 more sheets of phyllo, laying each at a 45° angle to the previous one and sprinkling each with ground almonds & drizzling with honey. Scrape the filling into the crust. Brush one of the remaining phyllo sheets with oil-butter mixture. Place another sheet on top at a 45° angle. Repeat with 2 more sheets. Place the stack on the filling. Fold the overhanging phyllo up around the tart, creating a ruffled border. Dab any remaining oil-butter mixture on top. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of sugar. Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake until nicely browned and bubbling slightly, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature (about 1 1/2 hours). Dust with icing sugar.


So I have to say that I have acquired a taste for the Rhubarb that I disliked so much...!

Lovage & Potato Soup

WHAT IS WITH THIS WEATHER?? Today was windy, cold & wet all day. I was planning to BBQ some pork, have it with a salad, but all day I just wanted soup to warm up! There is nothing better on a chilly day than home made soup to warm you up. I especially needed it tonight after swimming lessons with the kids.. man it was cold in that pool!!!

In my last blog post I was raving about all the great produce I got from Gypsy Family Farm. One of which was Lovage which I had no idea what to do with. Well I did some googling and read all about Lovage and found tons of recipes but the most common one to come up was 'Potato and Lovage Soup'. The perfect day for it... I picked this one because it has leeks in it... I LOVE leeks! I found it on a fabulous blog that I happened to come across called 'You are what you eat'. I have been reading back in the archives of this blog and found some really interesting posts, some of us really don't pay any attention to what we are putting in our bodies, I am guilty at times too... I encourage you to check it out!

When I was reading about Lovage I noticed that it is compared a lot to celery. It was my husband's first reaction to the soup as he hates celery... but as he ate more of it he said he liked it more. (I had to laugh as this was the same reaction of the writer's spouse on the 'you are what you eat' blog) I couldn't disagree more that it tasted like celery! To me celery is bland and has no taste without half a salt shaker on it. Lovage to me had a great flavour and almost tasted a little peppery. When I put it in the soup pot the smell was so fragrant and it made me think of a lamb and spinach curry I made a few weeks back. It would make a wonderful addition to a curry sauce.

Caleb waiting patiently for his soup to warm up after swimming!!

We had soup with cheese bread.. Kids favourite! I made a double batch to plenty for lunch the next couple of days!! Mason (my 4yr old in July) asked me what the green stuff was. So I replied 'Lovage'... He said 'what is that?'... I replied 'something I put in your soup to make you love Mummy more!'...... He wasn't terribly impressed by that answer (I got a look). And he wouldn't eat his soup!


OK I will stop talking about 'Lovage' now :)

First Farm Shares!!

This year we signed up for farm shares with a local farm Gypsy Family Farm. You basically pay for the season and every week you get a bin full of exciting, fresh produce! Every Friday I would go down to the Farmers Market in Gore Bay, so if I don't get down there because I am working then I won't miss out on all the good stuff!! Our first week we got Maple Syrup (Yum! - my kids already are asking for pancakes), Chives, Asparagus, Rhubarb, Rhubarb Jelly and Lovage.


Now the Rhubarb Jelly Caleb will love on toast in the morning. Rhubarb I always say I hate but I am not sure if I do... I have a childhood nightmare of being in school in England where you have cooked school dinners... I remember having to eat this sour, stringy, HORRIBLE, Rhubarb pie... I remember it to this day... I don't think I have had it since then so this will be a kitchen challenge for me.. and this is what I love about this... Take for instance Lovage. This had to be explained to me as by the look on my puzzled face it was clear I had no idea what it was!

It looks like large parsley leaves. The leaves can be used in salads, soups, sauces and stews as a natural thickener. I googled 'Lovage' in recipes and was amazed by what I found... Lovage soup, butter, vinaigrette, with Lobster, Shrimp, Gammon steaks.... So I will have to post what I end up doing with my Lovage... another culinary adventure!

You are what you eat?

So here we go again... It's almost April and I have not lived up to my yearly new years resolution of losing weight... AGAIN. Since doing meatless Mondays I have discovered new foods like Quinoa and Bulgar. I love to cook so have always cooked from scratch I just don't have an 'I'm full' meter.. there is no cut off point... I just keep eating... I thought if I ate healthier then I would get skinnier!!

My husband Sean is allergic to yeast. He has had allergy tests over the years but has only really started to notice (or paid attention as to) how it affects his body as of late. You'll laugh but one of the things he noticed was that when he drank Steam whistle Beer he had more allergy symptoms (stuffy nose, itchy eyes etc..) than when he drank other beers. It turns out that Steam Whistle is an all natural beer... other beers are not so natural killing off the yeast content. So we decided to try a yeast free diet and see how it affects him, if he feels less tired, less bloated etc...

So I get on the internet and try and find recipes that are yeast free... There are hardly any!! So I check out Amazon, Chapters etc... and the newest book I can find is published in 2000. There are so many other diet specific books out there but not that many for yeast apparently? then I stumbled across this website http://www.theyeastdiet.com/index.php and her facebook page. I ordered the book and got my questions answered by the author in less than an hour. So I am anxiously awaiting my cook books! I'll let you know how it goes....

In the meantime reading through her website I am shocked by the things you can't eat & drink... Beer, Wine, Spirits.. of course. Bread... mayo, pickles, coffee, any kind of sugar, dairy... What can we eat???!!! - Vegetables, beans, meat, eggs and grains.... My husband is going to hate me. So we may have to try a variation on this diet and try to cut yeast... I don't think he can live without mayo....

I also decided that I need to get 'You are what you eat' and the cook book.... It makes sense.. right? Something has got to make me skinny again.... Skinny & healthy is the goal so this seems like it is the book for me!

Don't forget about Earth Hour tonight!!!

What are your plans for Earth Hour tonight??

My favorite things for Christmas.....

Lets see... Uggs, Cozy Pj's......

But I got Two really cool things for Christmas that have to share with you....

1.)

Cake Pops Book by Bakerella

I am dying to try some of these out! I have been a follower of her website for some time and often go there for recipes... but this is so cool! And you don't have to be a fancy cake maker to do them. Most of her recipes use a store bought cake mix and store bought tubs of icing. Watch this space.... Cake pops coming soon!!!

2.)

The Shoes of Salvation by Edward Monkton

The best book ever for your friend who is a shoe shopaholic. I can't even put it into words how great this book is... a lady who buys some shoes because the talk to her and make her realize that her life is not complete without them... I am sure I am not the only person who has had this happen to them.. right..??? So funny, cute, well written, illustrated.. is going next to the bible on my book shelf.

Last line of the book.... "...That sometimes, only GLORIOUS SHOES can SAVE you."

Need I say anymore???

Oh forgot to tell you....

Remember that cake competition that I put the Thanksgiving cake in that Sean and I made??

Well....

We won!!!!!

I came home a few days later and there was a box on my doorstep from Simon & Schuster with some books in it.... As I love being in the kitchen and 'creating' masterpieces it was brilliant... like Christmas had come early!!! Here is the list of books they sent...

An autographed copy of 'Cake Boss'
Bon Appetit Desserts
Foodista - Best of food blogs
The World Kitchen - Williams Sonoma
Cooking Essentials - Williams Sonoma
Cooking from the Farmers Market - Williams Sonoma
Tools & Techniques - Williams Sonoma

I made some Indian Korma and substituted the chicken for Turkey with an excellent recipe from The World Kitchen.... My only disappointment was that I thought Aarti (Aarti Paarti) would have been in the Foodista cook book. As soon as I got it I combed the pages looking for one of her recipes and much to my dismay there wasn't one!

I haven't quite made my way through all of them yet, I love reading cook books.... but, if you like making cakes, desserts, squares etc... Bon Appetit Desserts is an excellent book to have in your cooking library. I did get a lot of my Christmas baking recipes from it. I have been trying to collect all the Williams-Sonoma collection cook books so I was really happy that there were a few Willams-Sonoma books in there too!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope a wonderful Christmas was had by all! Ours was pretty low key (but I am still exhausted!)... Santa, presents, dinner with the family, building ginger bread houses, waiting for the man in red...


The Christmas tree after Santa & Grandma & Grandad visited....


A special gift from Caleb that he made at school... some Christmas and tree decorations! He was so excited to give it to us! My favorite day is boxing day. The kids woke up today, we all just hung out and they played with their new toys almost all day. The kids make my Christmas... (that and the fireplace channel on the TV!) they were super excited for the man in red and to get their little hands on the parcels under the tree. I love cooking Christmas dinner for our family. The only thing I hate about Christmas is being so far away from all my family. I wish that I could share the excitement with my sisters, my grandparents and my friends that are so close to me that they will always be family.....
Caleb & Dad enjoying a Christmas nap... had to share. I love my boys :)

Thanksgiving Cake Project

My husband and I made our first cake together!!! We wanted to do something nice for our family thanksgiving dinner and his Mum's 70th birthday. Sean really wanted us to do something together and was adamant he wanted to help out!!! So I made a red velvet cake and got to practice my basket weave again!!! (sigh) I baked orange coloured mini bundt cakes to use for the pumpkins then we went about decorating. Sean is so good and modeling the fondant and all the little details. I was actually pretty impressed that he got the hang of working with the fondant right away where as it took me a few tries to get the hang of it.

All of the cake is edible... all the veggies (which the kids tried to eat with their dinner instead of the real ones), the basket, the fruit..... It turned out pretty good! There is always the stress when I make these cakes that it will be a complete disaster... and I am turning up with a grocery store slab cake instead!! A friend posted on my facebook wall about a cake decorating contest so I decided to enter our cake! You can vote for it here.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Join Loco Beanz and support Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

If you click on the link below and add yourself as a friend to the Loco Beanz facebook page. Once they hit 500 friends then they will donate $100.00! Right now they are at 434 friends....

http://www.facebook.com/index.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001107406869

Also starting Friday at Loco Beanz buy a breast cancer cookie for $2.50 or a breast cancer travel mug for $7.50 and $2.00 from every sale will be used to buy blankets from My O'l Blues for the cancer patients at the Manitoulin Health Centre. The blankets are so soft and warm!

For more information call Loco Beanz @ (705) 282-0007 or (705) 368 2261.

A very productive day

So I had a super productive day today... I made two cakes.... Toopy & Binoo.


Went for a really long walk with a friend EVEN though I was feeling super lazy and just wanted to go back to bed....

Cut the grass... I was hoping I was done with that for this year.... I started pruning my apple tree... My neighbors probably think I am crazy! Especially when I was hanging from the tree 6ft up with my husband's cordless saw in my hand and the ladder tipped over... I hope no one was watching!! I also picked apples so I think next week will be an apple/pumpkin pie making week!

Made ham & scalloped potatoes for supper and I am about to put the kids in the tub and get them in bed before I tidy the kitchen.

Then..... I am going to crash!

Cake Post....

I spent yesterday making cakes...

This one was for Lainey's 2nd birthday!! Time flies I can't believe she is two already!!!!

For another birthday party...

I just have to make Caleb's now... talking of time flying he is 5 on Tuesday!!! And he wants a Batman cake... surprise surprise...... :)

Meatless Monday - But on a Tuesday....

Krissy wasn't kidding when she said these were good! Yummy! I made zucchini fritters (except mine had zucchini and summer squash (from Gypsy Family Farms) that I had to use up in my fridge.) They have feta, fresh mint, dill, lemon zest, garlic... I made my mixture then went to get the kids and when I came back the house smelt amazing! Like garlic, lemon and fresh herbs!

I was a little worried about them falling apart when I fried them after the falafel incident but they turned out pretty good! I wish I had some time to make homemade coleslaw to go with my tomato salad and fritters but out of time so packaged it is :(

I am definitely getting more adventurous in my vegetarian cooking. I bought some quinoa at the health food store yesterday.. oh and some tofu! I had never heard of quinoa let alone ate it before I started eating at Island Chill. So I am ready to take on a few different recipies and try some more of it. I kind of scares me though because it is like cooking rice and I am HORRIBLE at cooking rice. It always turns out like rice pudding... pudding quinoa won't be so good for my salad!

Meatless Mondays I am back!!

Totally inspired today but my yummy lunch at Island Chill (maple ginger tofu wrap & quinoa salad - yes I am getting more adventurous in my choice off the menu!), my girlfriend had a spicy Thai tofu stir fry that looked so good.... so stir fry for supper it is! I decided to stay on the veggie track for Meatless Monday!

It really shouldn't be hard to do with all the veggies I have from Gypsy Family Farms in my fridge. I made a stir fry with the giant summer squash as the 'meat' of the dish... my kids think they look like spaceships so they are always excited to eat them. Threw in some other veggie and over the top of noodles... again a kid favorite, kids LOVE noodles! Of course I got the usual grunting from my poor dirty husband who has been on a roof all day 'is this a meatless Monday thing? humph... would be good with some meat'... I don't think he is going to be turning vegetarian any time soon!

Now for something creative for next week......

Summertime cooking...

I love cooking in the summer!!! Pitchers of Farquhars lemonade with fresh fruit and ice, BBQ's and of course all the fresh produce!! I love going to the farmers market and coming back with armfuls of fresh locally grown produce. The stuff you buy in the supermarket doesn't even compare! I have been getting excited every meal over which veggie we are going to try today (so has Caleb)... Paired with my Jamie Oliver cook book... watch out!! This meal was super easy it was from my JO cook book... I changed a few things.

I used white-fish fresh from the Purvis fish truck on Fridays in Gore Bay, multi coloured beans (green, yellow, purple, speckled) from gypsy farms, the pesto was from the grocery store (next time I will make my own but the PC one is pretty good) and I added baby Parmesan... my kids love cheese they will eat almost anything if you put cheese on it! All fresh local produce and so very yummy and super easy to make!!!

If I could bake cakes all day I would be happy...

I love making cakes.... So when C asked me to make a cake for a stag and doe that she was organizing I agreed to do it for her... she figured it would be the perfect gift for the bride and groom and I figured it would be a great opportunity to get to do a cake with fondant. I figured it wouldn't be that hard... I mean I have made a ton of cakes... and I watch 'Ace of Cakes' and 'Cake Boss' all the time... They just roll out the fondant and just smooth it on. Easy! This is what I was going to attempt...
Ok I was wrong. It was not easy at all.... The baking was easy.. but the fondant was stressful!! Getting the right texture. Kneading it enough but not too much..... And the cracking!! Oh the cracking!!!! How they get it on smooth with no cracking or tearing...?? More practice needed!!!! Luckily I had my friend (and expert cake maker) Hilary on speed dial for help and coaching over the phone in emergencies and Lisabeth on standby in case I ran out of fondant!!! I love the decorating.. making all the little flowers, dusting them with pearl dust... the piping although I do wish that I had an easier time with the icing I made. I would have liked to have used a smaller tip but due to time constraints and my icing already bagged it came out a little less delicate than I would have liked. I also decided to do 2 tiers to make it look a little less weddingy. I couldn't believe how heavy it was! It took two of us to carry it to the car! All in all I was pretty proud of my effort... it looked pretty impressive and I managed to cover up the bad spots with flowers and piping... now I am dying to perfect and want to make a 'real' wedding cake that looks perfect!!!!


My stress was some what heightened as I had 3 cakes to make for Saturday.... the stag & doe, Ironman and a Cinderella cake for Mason & Alexandra's 3rd birthday party!