French Apple Cake

Several of our friends have July birthdays, as do I. We were invited to brunch (outdoors, of course) in early July and I offered to bake the birthday cake. This particular friend is not a traditional cake lover, no super-sweet icing or frosting for this guy, so I decided to find a nice European cake recipe with fruit, because they are always a hit!

This French Apple cake is made with rum and butter and is so delectable and moist, even though it has only 1 apple! I will definitely make this cake again for the non-cake lovers!

Super moist cake with little bits of apple and the lovely flavour of buttered rum.

For the original recipe, please click here. Note that I converted the recipe to metric measures and modified it a bit.

Makes 1 23 cm (9-inch) cake

Ingredients:

• 114 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 130 g granulated sugar
• 5 mL vanilla extract
• 45 mL dark rum
• 15 mL milk
• 2 large eggs
• Zest of one lemon
• 140 g AP flour
• 3 g baking powder
• 3 g salt
• 150 g baking apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1 cm cubes
• Sanding sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare a 23 cm (9 inch) round pan by lining the bottom with parchment and buttering the sides.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, rum and milk and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.
4. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the butter batter and mix until combined.
5. Fold in the apples.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and dust with the sanding sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake on a wire rack. When cool, run a thin knife along the sides to loosen and turn onto a plate. Flip right side up (sugar-side up).
8. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature sprinkled with powdered sugar with whipped cream or Crême Fraiche.

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Apple Sweetened Strawberry Preserves

This is an apple sweetened preserve with strong strawberry flavour and a hint of cinnamon. It’s delicious on toast, cheese or even a garnish on dessert. However, if you are a sweet tooth, this may not be for you.

Late last year, JT and I decided to hunker down and lose the weight we put on in 2016, start date January 3, 2017. I don’t know about you, but it keeps getting more and more difficult to shed those pesky pounds. So over the last few weeks, we have been dry and on a very strict regiment. I’ve joined a doctor supervised program that I’ve had much success with in the past and I am happy to report, I am doing rather well. At this rate, I should reach my goal by March! I also bought a fit bit zip, so as corny as it sounds, I am getting in my 10,000 steps, a day! We got a bit lazy after our trip to Europe last fall, so it feels great to get back on track.

The diet we subscribe to has you eating real food (in moderated proportions) so it will be easy to keep up the practice even after we reach our goals. Having said that, there are a few things that I miss because the preferred brands contain aspartame or some other chemical sugar that I decided many years ago to avoid like the plague. So, in this simple post, I present to you an apple-sweetened strawberry preserve recipe. I must warn the super sweet tooths out there that this recipe is definitely not for you. It does, however, have excellent strawberry flavour and the apple just curbs the tartness of the berries without any processed sugars! I suspect I could have added honey or some other natural sugar, but the diet really limits ALL sugars (except chemical) so my hands were tied. These preserves should be frozen as opposed to canned because it does not contain processed sugars as a preservative. At first, I made a single batch of one jar, but JT loved it so much, the jar did not last long. So when I saw strawberries (from Mexico) on sale for $1.88/454 g (1 pound) I jumped! Surprisingly, they have excellent flavour and aroma and the berries really shine through in this preserve.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes about 500 mL (about 2 cups)

Ingredients:

• ~1.8 kg  (~4 lbs) strawberries
• 1 cup water
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 apple, chopped finely, peeled, cored (reserved)

Directions:

1. Roughly chop strawberries, add them to a heavy bottom saucepan along with the cinnamon sticks, apple and the water. Wrap the apple peel and core tightly in cheesecloth and add to the mix (the peel and core will add natural pectins which will help thicken it).
2. Boil until the berries and apple have broken down, most of the water has evaporated and it has thickened. With a fork, mash any berry chunks or apple that have not broken down. Remove the cheesecloth bag, drain and discard.
3. Bottle in sterilized jars and refrigerate for immediate use or freeze for future use. The refrigerator preserves are good for about one month, but it probably won’t last. The freezer jams will be good for about 6 months if they are sealed tightly.

 

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Apple Streusel Muffins

Things are heating up in Toronto! And I’m not talking about temperature, although temperatures are pretty hot too! On Friday we began hosting the Pan Am Games (and ParaPan Am) which is a really big deal. At last count, Canadians are holding the most medals (yay, Go Canada Go!) with 24 in total with 10 GOLD! The U.S. is in close second with 19 total and 7 Gold! The last five years have been leading up to the next 2 months, with revitalization and new construction. We built new stadiums, tracks, pools and revitalized a number of venues across the city, including repaving all of the roads in High Park!

The opening ceremonies were held in the Pan Am Ceremonies Venue on Friday (formerly the Rogers Centre) with internationally renowned Cirque de Soleil delivering a once in a life-time show with their usual fanfare, culminating with Donovan Bailey base jumping from the summit of the CN tower! And, if that wasn’t enough, the CN Tower had the most amazing fireworks!

The Pan Am games have only been on since Friday and we’ve already had some shenanigans in our fair city. We had a guy use mannequins to access the HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle lanes where you have to have 3+ in the car) during the games. The Brazilian Men’s Cycling team thought they’d use the Don Valley Parkway (a major north/south highway in Toronto) as their practice venue on Sunday morning! No one was hurt and they were escorted to safer ground as cyclists are not permitted on our highways. Then, totally unrelated, a dead racoon was memorialized on a quiet downtown Toronto residential  street as Animal Services failed to pick up the little guy for over 12 hours! Yes, we’ve had some entertainment indeed!

And if all of that isn’t excitement enough, we have some very special friends coming on Friday and I’m cooking up a storm in anticipation! Then the following week I will have an extra special surprise, but you’ll have to wait and see who that is.

This little recipe was born out of the need to use up a couple of apples, I wanted a healthier muffin without the normal oil component so I created this moist, tasty and generously-sized muffin.

A moist and tasty muffin

Evenly portioned into 12 muffin cups

A Kitcheninspirations Original Recipe. Makes 12 good-sized muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup peeled and shredded apple
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1 cup bran buds
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg

Ingredients for Streusel Topping:

• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C). Butter and flour 12 muffin cups. Set aside.
2. Layer the milk, bran buds, apple and dates making sure bran buds are covered in the wet ingredients, set aside for 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
3. Prepare the streusel topping by combining all ingredients and rubbing in butter until crumbly. Set aside.
4. Add beaten eggs to the bran bud mixture and stir well. Fold the flour mixture into the bran bud mixture until just combined.
5. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups evenly. Top with streusel topping and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes clean.

Hot out of the oven on a day that was 27° C (81° F)

It’s delicious with a little butter.

Calorie count is per one muffin

Several months ago, I was asked to style a commercial for the Steven and Chris show. Chef Daniel Mezzolo is the famous executive chef from Gusto 101  (please recall the lovely Kale Salad I reinvented). We worked after the show taped so I had a 3pm call time and it didn’t end until well after 11pm that night. It was a long day but it was a blast, I hope you enjoy this short clip.

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Almás Sütemény (Apple Cake)

We had a grand 2-week visit with my Hungarian relatives, enjoying the many things that Toronto has to offer. During the annual street party, our dear neighbour (one of whom we do the Progressive dinners with) asked us all over to their place for a BBQ. I made dessert. I chose to remake the Martha Stewart Apple Cake that I previously posted here. It was so well received that My cousin asked for the recipe, so I will post this recipe in Hungarian for my kin in Budapest (English will follow).

Egy nagyon jó két hétes nyaralás volt a magyar rokonokal. Meglátogatunk mindent ami van Torontoba. Az este amikor az utca ünneplés volt, a kedves szomszéd (akikval közül csináljuk Progresszív vacsorákat) meg hivtak minket egy grillezésre. Én csináltam a desszertet. Úgy döntöttem, hogy meg csinálmon a Martha Stewart almás süteményét, amit korábban irtam rola itt. Annyira szereték, hogy az unokatestvérem kérte a receptet, így én hozzászólom a receptet magyarul (English recipe to follow).

A tasty combo of cake and apples with a good dose of cinnamon. Egy finom torta almával és egy jó adag fahéjjel.

Almás Sütemény

Az eredeti recept it van.

Egy reczept csinál egy 23 cm kerék tepsit ami 8 – 10 cm magas, vagy két 20 cm kerék tepsit de csak 5 cm magas.

Hozzávalók:

• szukor meghinteni a tepsit 
• 195 g liszt
• 12 g sütőpor
• 5 g  só
• 7 g fahéj puder, plusz egy kicsi a tepsinek és a pite tetejére
• 85 g vaj, olvaszva
• 170 g barna cukor, plusz egy kicsi a pite tetejére
• 125 mL tej
• 2 tojás, szobahőmérség
• 2 nagy alma, hámozott és vékonyra szeletelve
• 30 g vaj, plusz egy kicsi a tepsinek és a pite tetejére kis csipetkékb

Utasítás:

1. A sütőt előmelegítjük 200 °C-ra.
2. Ki vajazuk a tepsit egy kis vajal és meghintjük cukorral.
3. A liszthez hozzáadjuk a sütőport, a sót, és a fahéj pudert és alaposan keverjük össze.
4. Egy másik tálban jól megkeverük egy habverővel az olvasztott vajat, a barna cukrot, a tejet, és a tojást.
5. Lassan a vaj keveréket a liszt keveréketel hozá adjuk és osze keverjük.
6. Öntsük a tésztát az előkészített tepsibe és az almát egyenként rendezzük körbe szorokan amíg elfogy (ugy mint a kép).
7. A pite tetejét meghintjük egy kis barna cukral és fahéjjal es kis csipetke vajjal.
8. Sütjük amíg a teteje arany szinu és a gyümölcs meg van fóve, körülbelül 40-50 perc, vagy amíg a sütemény teszter (tiszta fogpiszkáló) a tészta közepének jön ki tisztan.

Perfect for dessert or afternoon tea. Egy tökéletes desszert, vagy délutáni cávéval.

Apple Cake

Original recipe may be found here.

Makes one 9″ deep spring-form pan cake or two 8″ slightly shallower round cakes.

Ingredients:

• sugar for dusting pan
• 195 g flour
• 12 g baking powder
• 5 g  salt
• 7 g cinnamon
• 85 g butter, unsalted and melted, plus a bit more for the pan and cake top
• 170 g dark brown sugar, packed
• 125 mL milk (I used skim)
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 2 mm sliced wedges

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a 9″ springform pan and line the bottom with parchment. Sprinkle with sugar and shake the pan to coat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, milk and eggs.
4. Slowly fold the butter mixture into the flour mixture, just stirring until blended.
5. Spoon the batter mixture into the prepared springform pan, smooth the top evenly.
6. Arrange the apple slices in a circle closely together in the cake batter. Then press each piece of fruit gently down into the batter.
7. Sprinkle over with the 2 tbsp brown sugar and cinnamon. Top the brown sugar by dotting the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter over.
8. Bake until top is golden and the fruit has softened, about 35-50 minutes in a convection oven (fan oven for my European friends), or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Our last lunch together on the back patio.

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Rice Cooker Sticky Toffee Apple Cake

You must be thinking, “why on earth would I want to bake a cake in a rice cooker?” There are a few reasons I can easily think of:

• Maybe your oven is in use and you need dessert.
• Perhaps it’s 40°C inside and you don’t want any more heat in the house.
• Because you can.

I am usually not one who purchases a one trick pony but I received my rice cooker as a gift from my SIL one Christmas many years ago and to be honest it really does make the best rice ever (The Best, Jerry, The Best). But I really do hate the thought of an appliance that only does one thing, taking up space in my already over-crowded kitchen. I’ve seen these rice-cooker cake recipes in the blog-o-sphere for quite some time and have been intrigued by them to the point of almost making one, but never got around to it. But recently I saw something that renewed my interest and during one of our city weekends, I got down to experimenting.

I chose a traditional Génoise batter and apples (because I had an apple in the fridge!). My first experiment was a double portion of the batter, using 4 eggs. Needless to say, it overflowed so I reduced the ingredients by half. Also, for my first experiment I carefully laid thinly sliced apples in a floral pattern in the base of the rice cooker, but the cooking process disrupted the beautiful design so I altered my process. The cake is sponge-like, light and airy. It’s got a very nice texture that would work beautifully with a Crème Anglais or a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Also, I kept the brown sugar caramel volumes the same as the larger overflowing recipe because even though the cake is delicious, it would be even more delicious with some of the melted butter and brown sugar drizzled throughout it.

So next time it’s 1000 degrees and you don’t want the oven on, this 15 minute cake cooked in the rice cooker is for you.

The brown sugar caramelized into a delicious toffee.

An Original KitchenInspirations Recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs, separated
• 60 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 60 g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 royal gala apple, cubed
• 112 g brown sugar
• 40 g butter, melted
• 1 tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

1. Combine the melted butter and heavy cream with the brown sugar, pour about half into rice cooker and spread out evenly in the bottom of the pan.
2. Arrange half of the cubed apples in the brown sugar pushing down to spread the brown sugar out. 
3. Sift the dry ingredients together, set aside.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
5. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and creamy and falls in a thick ribbon.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.
7. Sift about 1/3 of the flour into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder alternately with the egg whites, being careful not to deflate the batter.
8. Once all of the egg whites and flour have been folded in, carefully pour about half the batter into your prepared rice cooker bowl and spread out evenly over the apples and brown sugar. Top with remaining apples and then drizzle the remaining brown sugar mixture over the apples. Finish by spreading the remaining cake batter on the previous layer. Close the lid.
9. Bake for 7-8 minutes on the cook setting (mine defaulted to “keep warm” after 8 minutes). Continue on “keep warm” for about 5 minutes and then press the “cook setting” again. Mine reverted back to “keep warm” after 4 minutes. Continue on “keep warm” until your cake tester comes out clean.
10. Carefully remove the rice cooker bowl and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Turn onto a decorative plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes:

• I have this simple 3-cup rice cooker

May I offer you a slice?

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Apple Chutney

There is nothing like the push of having extended stay visitors to open your eyes to see all the deficiencies in your home. Case in point, several years ago I filled a few cracks on one of my kitchen walls and then I painted over the patches but since the rest of the wall was about 4 years old, the paint dried a slightly different colour and the wall looked patchy in certain lights. It was on my to do list f o r e v e r! So a couple of weeks ago, after I filled in a few new cracks, bought a new can of paint (when did paint become SO expensive?) I finally repainted the entire wall. A fresh coat of paint really freshens up a room. Of course, once I started filling in cracks all over the house and painting, there was no stopping me…it turned into a two-day project. But then it’s another thing off the list.

Recently we had James, a long-time college friend of JTs over for an Indian dinner and I made my new favourite Jamie Oliver Chicken Tikka Masala recipe along with Palek Paneer, the best Naan ever and a few condiments, pickled carrot and this delightful Apple Chutney. I am certain that James, who is a renovator, was too polite to say anything about my patchy walls but I kept the lighting low anyway!

What are some of the nagging to do’s on your home maintenance list?

Sweet, tangy with a little bit of heat.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Granny Smith apple (about 165 g)
• 165 onion, coarsely chopped
• 80 g dates, coarsely chopped
• 10 g fresh ginger, grated
• 3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 70 mL water
• 1 tbsp Sweet Apricot Chili Sauce
• 1/4 cup Coconut Sugar

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a heavy bottom sauce pan and cook on medium heat until onions have caramelized and the sauce is thick but still have texture.
2. Cool. Serve at room temperature.
3. Store in the refrigerator for 1 week or freeze.

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Traditional Deep Dish Apple Pie

Greetings fellow bloggers and readers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for following my blog, it has been an enormous enjoyment. As you may recall, my life has taken a bit of a turn and I’ve been working hard to get into the food styling arena but it’s a long process so I’ve been considering other opportunities along the way. You may not know but I have been sewing for many years and have even sewed a girlfriends wedding dress once! I have opened an Etsy store called Cozy Casuals and hope that you will be able to drop by and take a look. I’m sewing hand made, comfortable tunics for women and I will be expanding my line to include girl’s tunics as well as bathing suit cover ups! I will continue to to follow my dream of becoming a food stylist, but I’ll be sewing in my down times!

Fruit pies have always been JT’s family’s favourite so, I usually make a fruit pie for them. When we had this group over in January for our Re-Do Christmas dinner I had made a lovely apple pie and JTs 90-year old father loved it so much he asked for seconds, so I decided to make the same pie again. The original recipe is from my trusty Five Roses Cookbook.

A delicious, flaky crust.

Makes 1 double crust, deep dish pie.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups AP Flour 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1/4 baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, very cold
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, very cold
• 8-9 tbsp ice cold water
• 8 apples, washed, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/3 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice (omit if you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves (omit if you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Add the flour, salt and baking powder to a large food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse a few seconds to mix well.
2. Cut the butter and shortening into small cubes and add to the flour mixture, pulse until you achieve a coarse texture. Add the ice cold water little by little until the pastry forms a ball.
3. If your home is warm you may wish to refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes, if not then divide it into two portions and roll out the top and bottom of the pie.  If desired, cut shapes out of the top crust with a decorative cookie cutter, I used flowers for spring!
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.
5. In a large bowl add the apple cubes and toss with the lemon juice.
6. In another bowl, add the brown sugar, flour and spices and mix well (I do this in my mini food processor). Sprinkle over the apples and toss to coat evenly.
7. Add the apples to the bottom of the pie crust and spread out. Top with the top pastry and trim off excess edges. Use these trimmings to make your decorative edging on the pie, or not.
8. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until apples are skewer soft. You may need to cover the crust edges with foil if it’s getting too brown as it bakes.
9. Serve warm.

Notes:

• Cut a small triangle of parchment paper that you will slide under the bottom crust (between the pan and the crust), making sure a little is sticking out at the edge. This parchment will be your first piece of pie. When you cut your first piece of pie, make sure you cut where you put the parchment triangle is and use the parchment triangle to help lift the first piece out. Works like a charm!
• Always bake your pie on a parchment lined cookie sheet so when it bubbles over, it won’t make a mess of your oven or your cookie sheet.
• You may need to cover the pie edges with foil to prevent burning.
• You can add raisins or currants to make this even more festive.
• This pastry is very rich so I have intentionally omitted putting little pats of butter under the top crust, but be my guest and add it if you prefer.
• We love to serve this pie with some extra old Balderson Cheddar Cheese.

 

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A new Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche with WW points

Spring has been slowly emerging, taking its dear sweet time, but today, it’s finally going to be 17°C (62.6°F). Even on Tuesday, the sun was shining and it was actually warm enough to sit outside in the sun with a cup of hot coffee. We’re cautiously hopeful for spring, although there is still some ice in our backyard believe it or not. Stubborn ice that just won’t give up. One of our radio stations has a repeating ad that goes something like this: “April, you have just one job: melt the GD ice so spring can finally show up.” Seriously, just one job! Can it be THAT hard? Yes, we are frustrated! But at least it’s starting…

I’m beginning to think about summer foods, lighter fare and this is a quick and delicious recipe I came up with for lunch about a month ago; I think it may have even been snowing at the time (a month ago). The bright, fresh flavours contrasted against the peppery arugula will make a sensational meal on a super hot, humid day (soon, please be soon). Definitely making this lovely dish for the cottage, it’ll be perfect for eating on the dock, wearing shorts and a light T!

A delightful combination of shrimps and scallops cooked in lime juice

Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche

Makes 1 small serving (to make a meal of it, increase the weight of shrimp and scallop to 100 g in total).

Ingredients:

• 30 g shrimp*, cubed rather small
• 20 g scallop*, cubed rather small (similar size to shrimp)
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1/4 tsp non-calorie sweetener of your choice
• 1 tbsp cilantro, minced
• 1 green onion, minced
• 1 stalk celery, cubed
• 5 cm (2 inches) English cucumber, cubed
• 1/4 apple (or Jicama)
• 5 cm (2 inches) English cucumber, cubed
• 100 g Arugula

Directions:

1. Combine the lime juice and the non-calorie sweetener of your choice and mix well.
2. Make sure you cube your seafood into equal sized cubes so that they ‘cook’ at the same rate. Combine the cubed shrimp, scallop, cilantro and green onion with lime dressing and toss well. Set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to one hour.
3. When the seafood has become opaque, add the celery, cucumber and apple and toss well. Serve over arugula or lettuce of choice

The apple adds the sweetness that the jicama would have.

*’cooking’ seafood in citrus does not kill off any parasites, so you should be very careful with the choice of seafood — it should be fresh, or boil in water until done and prepare the salad just prior to serving.

Based on 1 small serving

Based on 1 small serving.

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Apple Rhubarb Galette with Lavender Sugar and Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Hope all the Canadians reading this post are having a Happy Thanksgiving this weekend! The second Monday of October has been designated as Canadian Thanksgiving, not sure why, but we’ll take a holiday in October any day of the week!

We used to spend Thanksgiving at the cottage, often inviting my dear Mom and her hubby Geo, but since her passing in 2005, we’ve been invited to my brother’s cottage in the Muskoka. It’s quite a different life-style than ours to have a cottage in Muskoka. For example, you needn’t do much grocery shopping in the city because you can get everything and anything you need for the weekend in one of the well stocked grocery stores; in comparison, last time I forgot Parmesan Cheese and I was even going to settle for the powdered prepackaged cheese but our little shop didn’t even have that, so we had to drive an hour to find it! You might wonder why it’s so different in the Land of the Thousand Lakes (our cottage area) and Muskoka. Well, let me tell you. It’s because Hollywood has descended on Muskoka and while we have 1,000-2,000 square foot cottages (93-186 square metres) (ours is about 600 square feet), Muskoka boasts 10,000 and 20,000 square foot cottages (930-1860 square metres) with helipads and landing strips!  There is name dropping in Muskoka whereas we just talk about the dear we may have seen on the back road driving in. Goldie Hawn has a sprawling cottage on the same lake as my brother. We’ve never really been close to it, but apparently people think it’s ok to moor their boat and hop out to look around. She has security. My SIL spotted her in their local grocery store, where you could order Sushi grade tuna for the weekend (I’m lucky to get mac and cheese at ours). Steve Martin visits Martin Short who also has a nice place down the road on my brother’s lake. I heard that Steve Martin is very kind and hands out business cards that prove you’ve met him: “this  certifies that you have had a personal encounter with me and that you found me warm, polite, intelligent and funny” and of course he signs it. Martin Short’s wife once ran after my brother while he jogged down the road in front of their place to warn him that there have been bears seen that very morning! So you see, while we hob nob with the dear, chipmunks, bunnies and beavers, the folks in the Muskoka’s hob nob with the rich and famous.

My brother’s family is down to earth and their cottage is much more modest than those around them. They are generous to a fault and we always eat well and drink copious amounts of wine when we visit. We’ve had balmy 24°C days and on the very same weekend, we’ve had snow flurries! But it’s always a relaxing weekend to connect with family and take long quiet walks around the lake.

Snow flurries a few years ago. View from the dining room and kitchen.

Although I didn’t make this galette for the Thanksgiving weekend, it dawned on me that it would be the perfect sweet for afternoon tea or dessert after a big turkey dinner. I used the lavender sugar that my dear friend Barb (Profiteroles and Ponytails) brought up when they visited us at the cottage this summer. It just made this dessert that much fancier! Thanks Barb.

The Lavender Sugar was a gift from my friend Barb from Profiteroles and Ponytails

Apple Rhubarb Galette with Lavender Sugar

Serves 6-8

The Galette Pastry Recipe comes from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Galette pastry
• 1/2 c Rhubarb
• 3 Apples, chopped into equal-sized pieces
• 2 tbsp all purpose unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 tbsp egg white for brushing pastry
• 1 tbsp Lavender Sugar for garnish

Directions:

1. Combine the apples and rhubarb and dust with the spices, sugar and flour, coating evenly
2. Roll out the galette pastry to about 10cm or 3 inches larger than required. Fill centre with the fruit and turn up the sides to form the galette.
3. Brush pastry with egg white and bake for 25 minutes or until edges are golden brown and fruit is soft.
4. Remove from the oven and dust with 1 tbsp Lavender Sugar.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The Rhubarb was the perfect foil for this sweet dessert

The rhubarb came from our dear friend’s Monica and Rae’s garden in Toronto. I still have some in the freezer, it will be a welcome taste of summer in mid-winter!

Can you see the little Lavender Flowers?

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Tuna Waldorf Salad

Thank you for your wonderful birthday wishes, I am so blessed to belong to such a giving community. XOXO to you all!

The same weekend of my birthday, we were invited to another benchmark birthday party at one of our wonderful neighbours; it was a special “Studio 54” theme! What fun is that? And everyone came dressed like the 70’s — it was glam and it was fun. Thank you Iona (and Tom), and I hope you had an amazing birthday.

JT looking cool and hip; his pants usually don’t match my dress, though

Those are curtain grommets decorating my dress!

Can you believe July is almost over? What ever happened to the summer? We’re still in high humidity and high temperatures so our meals tend to reflect lighter fare and foods that don’t need to be cooked or baked to limit the additional heat. This tuna Waldorf is a lovely adaption of the original Waldorf Salad made by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d’hôtel of the Astoria (the predecessor of the Waldorf Astoria) in New York City sometime between 1893 and 1896*. The original recipe is basically apples, walnuts and celery dressed in mayonnaise, but you know me, I try to healthy up the dish so I’ve made some alterations. I also like to serve it on a bed of greens but you can serve it on toasts or a wrap. We enjoyed this fast and easy dish at the cottage during our renos in early July.

Serves 2 as a main coarse or 4 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

• 1 tin albacore chunk tuna in water or stock (to make this vegetarian, you can omit this or used firm cubed tofu in its place)
• 1 cup diced celery (dice all items similar size)
• 1 green onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup walnuts (you could give them a toast, if you’d like)
• 1 diced apple
• squirt of lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp chopped lemon thyme
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt (I used fat free)
• 1 tbsp mayo (I used full strength)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (I added more lemon juice to imitate the tart flavour of the mayo, so I didn’t need to add more mayo)

Directions:

1. Drain the tuna and set aside.
2. Add the apple to a small bowl and squirt a bit of lemon juice on it to prevent it from oxidizing.
3. Add the celery, green onion, walnuts and apple to a bowl and combine well.
4. Combine the Greek yogurt, mayo and 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir well. Add it to the vegetable fruit mix and coat evenly.
5. Add the chunk tuna and stir until equally distributed.
6. Serve on a bed of greens or toast.

I have no idea why I shot the celery and nothing else, but since I had it, here it is!

It was nice enough to sit outside even though it was a very overcast weekend.

I know many of the lovely readers of this blog have cottages or summer homes, so I thought I would pass along a little something I invented to help keep the mice off the cutlery in the drawers. Even though the mice don’t tend to enter the cottage during the warmer months, I cannot be 100% sure they are not having a hay-day dancing or whatever all over my cutlery, so I tend to wash them before use (as well as after use). I created this little invention to keep the buggers away from the cutlery, and I specifically chose plexy-glass so it would infuriate them as much as they infuriate me! So there, bugger mice, dance away because you can’t get there from here!

The plexy-glass is cut to fit the parimetre and is glued with a bonding agent to the drawer without interfering with the roller mechanics. It is hinged about 1/3 the way out so that you can easily lift the other two thirds and balance it on the counter for easy access the cutlery.

*from Wikipedia

I’m taking a little time off over the next few days so if I am absent from your blog, I do apologize, but I need a bit of a break. See you soon.

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Appelkaka, A Swedish Apple Cake

Last week I needed a dessert for my pie loving in-law family and I was lucky enough to find Charles‘ beautiful Appelkaka, a Swedish apple cake. I knew JTs family would like it because they are pie people and apple is one of their fav’s. We’re all trying to cut down our carbs, so when I saw this cake is made without the traditional pastry, I decided to make it. Of course, things don’t always go as planned, so when I started out to make the cake, I gathered all my ingredients. Apples: check. Sugar substitute: check (I had one diabetic and one hypo-glycemic in the house). Bread crumbs: wait…does that package say Parmesan Bread Crumbs? Oh my. Change of plans. Nix the bread crumbs and get out the food processor and pulse 120 g of Oats a few times, I wanted some texture, so it wasn’t pulsed to a smooth powder, but almost. And there we had it. When I changed up the bread crumbs to oats, I thought I’d change up the method as bit as well. I hope you don’t mind Charles, it turned out quite successful and the plates were licked clean. Thanks again for a lovely Swedish dessert.

A quick taste of spring, and then it snowed.

I think they may have retreated back into the ground.

A delicious combination of apples, almonds, oats and cinnamon

Serves 8-10, depending on the slice size

Ingredients:

• 6 or 7 large Apples
• 4-6 tsp Stevia (I had organic stevia powder at home, so I just used that. I think it was this brand – no weird aftertaste)
• 120 g Oats, pulsed a few times in a food processor (not quite 100% powdery but close)
• 50 g almond meal or roughly chopped almonds
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• Splash of lemon juice
• Sliced almonds for garnish
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp stevia
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Pre heat the oven to 395°F. Line a 10″ spring form pan with a little parchment (my pan didn’t have tall enough sides, so I had to make my sides out of parchment).
2. Peel and coarsely grate the apples and splash a bit of lemon juice into it so it stops them from discolouring.
3. Mix the pulsed oats, cinnamon, almonds and butter until it resembles a coarse meal.
4. Take about 1/3 of the oat mix and press firmly into the bottom of the spring form pan. Add about 1/2 of the grated apples on top and sprinkle with another third of the oats. Finish with the remainder of the apples and press firmly down. Sprinkle the final third of the oat mix on top, just like a crumble.
5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the apples are soft.
6. Garnish with sliced almonds and serve with Greek yogurt, flavoured with a tsp of stevia, lemon zest and a small splash of pure vanilla.

A very tasty appelkaka

Laura, Brady and Brian

Our Easter Lunch, complete with the wonderful Beef Tenderloin.

Dan, Joan, Dad and JT

Beef Tenderloin with a port sauce.

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Apple Cider Tea Biscuits

Happy birthday to my brother!
and Happy April Fool’s Day to the rest of you!
This is a joke I played on my friend Kim a couple of years ago. A hundred parking tickets.

We had our nephew Brian and his GF over for dinner some time ago, and I cooked a roast pork tenderloin dish that I hadn’t made in a very long time (sadly, I didn’t take any photos and now I know better than to post a recipe without photos ;-), so I’ll have to make it again in the near future). The pork was dressed in a flavourful Apple Cider and Dijon Mustard gravy for which I had to buy fresh Apple Cider. In my area, fresh Apple Cider is sold in 500 mL or larger and because I only needed a couple of cups of the stuff, I bought the 500 mL. So now I had about 4 cups left over. Now we could have drank it, because it was fresh and delicious, but I prefer to eat my fruit rather than drink it so I was left with the dilemma of what to do with all the cider.

I searched high and low and came across some lovely options but not practical; we don’t eat that much cake so a coffee cake was out of the question, we don’t usually eat that many quick breads, so that was out of the question, and the muffin recipes I found had too much oil in them and therefore quite unhealthy. What to do?

It was in my trusty Jean Paré’s, Company’s Coming, Muffins & More cookbook I found the solution: Tea Biscuits! Now I modified the recipe to include the Apple Cider which I reduced by less than 1/4 of its original volume and these scones did not disappoint; they were soft, buttery and had a very distinct apple cider flavour. This would be a lovely scone to serve during Autumn while you watch the leaves gently fall from the trees with a warm fire burning in the hearth a cup of tea and a couple of scones. Soon enough!

A little tangy from the concentrated flavour of the cider.

Makes about 10 good size tea biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into small bits
• 1/4 cup sultana raisins
• 4 cups apple cider
• 2-3 tbsp milk or yogurt for brushing the tops.

Directions:

1. Reduce the apple cider to about 1 cup of concentrated liquid by slowly boiling it off (takes about 40-50 minutes).
2. Pre-heat the oven to 450°F (232°C).
3. In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cream of tartar and spices until well mixed.
4. Slowly drop in the cold butter while pulsing and blend until is it a coarse mix.
5. Transfer this mix into another bowl, add the raisins and mix well to coat the raisins with the floury mixture.
6. Add the cider all at once to the flour, and mix well with a wooden spoon mix until it is a soft ball of dough. (Note this is a slightly softer ball of dough than a tea biscuit usually is).
7. Transfer to a floured board and knead a couple of times (not enough to melt the butter with the heat of your hands).
8. Roll out the dough to about 2 cm (~3/4″) thick and cut with a triangular cookie cutter. Repeat until the dough is completely used.
9. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and brush tops with the yogurt or milk (for a beautiful shine) and bake 10-12 minutes until golden. You’ll need to watch the bottoms because the natural colour of these biscuits are more golden and you will only be able to tell how far along they are by looking at the bottoms.
10. Cool slightly on a wire rack and serve with unsalted butter and preserves.
11. Enjoy.

Please take one, or even two.
Would you care for tea or coffee with that?

Melt in you mouth scones, served warm with unsalted butter.

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Apple Cinnamon Clafoutis – Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! I can’t believe it’s the middle of February! And on top of it, it’s Valentine’s Day — do you have something wonderful planned for your partner? Or do you wait for the weekend?

We had our good friends Rae and Mon over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and I made this new rendition of the clafoutis we made in Lyon; I dare say I like this one a touch more, or at least it hit my taste buds perfectly. The warming spices of the cinnamon go well with the apple and the pudding. I will surely make this again.

Apple Cinnamon Clafoutis

Makes 6 Claffoutis about 10cm or 4 inches in diametre

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 80 g granulated sugar
• 40 g all purposes unbleached white flour
• 100 mL Carnation Evaporated Milk (or cream)
• 150 mL milk (I used skim)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp lemon jest
• 2 ripe sugar crisp apples

Cinnamon Slurry:

• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175° C (350° F).
2. Butter the pans and dust with sugar until sides and bottom are totally coated.
3. Combine the melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar into a slurry. Pour into a squeeze container like this. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix the sugar and flour well. Make a well in the centre and slowly pour the cream with the vanilla and lemon zest combined into the flour and then add the milk. Add the lightly beaten whole eggs and yolk and mix delicately until all of the flour and sugar are combined.
5. Peel and cut up the apples into smallish cubes (1 cm or 0.5 inch), divide evenly in the 6 pans. Pour the pudding mix in about 1/2 way into each cavity and squeeze a pattern of the brown sugar cinnamon slurry on top; add the remaining pudding mix and squeeze a bit more of the slurry onto each one.
6. Bake for about 45-60 minutes or until firmly set. Cool in pans and remove carefully.
   Set aside.

Pipe the Slurry over each pudding (I actually snuck a layer in between)

This time I made the microwave caramel sauce, if you want more, follow Tracey’s recipe.

Salted Caramel Sauce:

Makes just enough sauce to scantly decorate the clafoutis (there is enough sugar in the clafoutis without the sauce, it’s just lovely to decorate)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 tbsp water
• splash of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup hot heavy cream
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, water and lemon juice together in a 2-cup microwave-safe measuring cup.
2. Microwave until the caramel is just barely starting to take on some color, 4-6 minutes (depending on your microwave).
3. Remove from the microwave and allow to sit. Don’t be tempted to keep reheating the caramel in the microwave until it is darker, it will become darker on its own.
4. Combine the warm cream/milk with the salt.
5. Slowly add the warm cream/milk and stir until well combined (be careful, it’s very hot still). Add the butter and stir until melted. Cool completely.

Assembly:

1. Warm the clafoutis in the oven for about 10 minutes.
2. On a large rimmed plate, pour the caramel sauce into the centre and spread out evenly.
3. Carefully place one clafoutis into the centre of the sauce and serve warm.

There is a similar ratio of apples to pudding in this romantic dessert. The caramel was meant for the dessert, not your partner’s…

The slurry caramelizes within the clafoutis in the pan and the incredible flavour of cinnamon and brown sugar are woven throughout the pudding. Oh my.

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