So, what do you do with 9 quarts of strawberries?

You make strawberry rhubarb jam!

Here's the recipe:
About 10-12 large stalks of rhubarb (2½ cups when cooked)
Ripe strawberries (1 cup when crushed)
5½ cups of sugar
Juice of ½ lemon (optional)

OR....

...You make cake.

Two layers of white cake with strawberry-rhubarb jam in the middle, cream cheese icing and topped with sliced strawberries. I still have lots of strawberries left, which might mean more experimenting with jam. Fun!
And definitely some strawberry shortcake (made with biscuits, of course) is in order very soon.

Long overdue

Where did March go? My goodness, this year is going fast! I can't believe it's been well over a month since I posted. Sorry folks, I'll try to do better in April.

In a nutshell, here's what I've been up to...

At the beginning of March, a bunch of us celebrated a friend's birthday by going on a hike at Polly's Cove. It's a beautiful spot, with fantastic views of the Atlantic, of Peggy's Cove, and of the rugged, rocky coastline. It also happened to be a perfect day! It was the first sunny and warm (10 C) day all winter, and even the cool ocean breezes were warmed by the sun. We hiked for about 2.5 hours, but made many stops along the way to sit or lay on the rocks, listening to the crashing waves and soaking up a little Vitamin D. Be forewarned: This is going to be one of my favourite spots to take visitors from now on!

You should be able to click on these images to see larger images.

Then, during March Break, I had a visitor! A teacher friend from Toronto came to visit, and guess what we did? Yup. We hiked Polly's Cove (See!...I warned you!). We also ate lobster, shopped at 4 Frenchy's (Sackville, Dartmouth, Coldbrook and Berwick), and drove to the Look Off at Blomidon.

This picture was created using Canon PhotoStitch. I'm thoroughly impressed!
Um. I mean I took this photo painstakingly without the aid of any software at all.
Yeah, that's it.

Also during March Break, my "Little" and I got together. Actually, we get together every week, but this particular week we had a couple special things planned - dinner at Boston Pizza + a movie on one evening, and then a decadent breakfast of homemade crepes with all the fixings including fruit, chocolate sauce and whipped cream on Saturday morning!
We also (finally!) mailed Flat Stanley to his first destination - Winnipeg! From there he'll be going on vacation with a friend of mine to Morocco! Hopefully he stays safe. I'm considering starting a blog to follow his adventures...but should probably clear this with my Little's mom first.

March is also birthday month in my family. Aunt S., a couple cousins, my step-father (G.), and my nephew all have birthdays in March. I didn't get to all of them, but I was there for the two-for-one birthday celebration for G. and the nephew! Usually I ask permission before I post photos, but I'm on a tight schedule today and don't have time. Will have to ask post-posting. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the birthday boys!

Also, this month I tried a couple new recipes. Remember my obsession with kale? Well! I tried another recipe, Oven-Roasted Kale, and it was even better than the first! Even my 8 y/o Little would agree. So basically what I've determined is that garlic + a little oil + kale (cooked in almost any form) = delicious! I wish I had pictures, but the kale doesn't last long enough for photos!

And the second recipe is my new favourite. I was able to replicate one of my favourite Thai dishes - Thai Eggplant Basil. I found the Thai Basil at Tian Phat Asian Grocery as well as the Japanese eggplant (though these can be bought at any grocery store most times of the year), and the rest of the ingredients I already had. Here is the recipe I used Thai Fried Eggplant with Basil. It's super easy, though one thing I discovered....it's best to have all the ingredients ready before starting. I ended up over-cooking it a bit in the end because I was busy chopping peppers. Oh! And I made a substitution - rather than the serrano chilis, I used a tbsp of Thai chili sauce instead, and the heat was just perfect (for me, anyway!).

Okay that's all from me, I have to go get on with my day. Will be more faithful posting in April, I promise!

Let them eat pie!

Yes, yes! I know. I still haven't taken in my laptop. I'm procrastinating.

But I have important things to share...like pie.

At the risk of copying those who have blogged before me about pie, let me just say that my intention wasn't to be a copycat. Sometime before Christmas I bought premade frozen pie shells with the idea of making a filling for them and serve them to dinner guests. So, when I learned that I was hosting dinner for my folks and my grandparents, I decided this would be the way to go.

I decided on a banana cream filling because I had lots of ripe bananas and all the ingredients, and because it didn't require a top crust. It wasn't until I took the pie crust from the box and tried to slip it into my glass plate did I realise that the 9" crust wasn't fitting my 9" plate - how disappointing!! Right then and there I decided I'd make my own crust, filling and meringue from scratch.

I started with the pastry, but learned very quickly into the process, that I had no idea what I was doing! This is, basically, the first time I've attempted pie pastry without supervision and it failed miserably. My lifeline when it comes to baking is usually to call my mother or my grandmother, but since the pie was supposed to be a surprise (sort of) for both of them, I decided to call Charlotte instead. And really, in a baking crisis, Charlotte is the one you want to talk to! She tried to troubleshoot, and when that didn't work, she deemed the crust a loss (and the pastry recipe a dud!) and suggested the alternative - a graham cracker crust.

Perfect! A graham cracker crust it is. The filling was easy though a bit labour intensive. Apparently there are a gazillion ways to make a banana cream filling. I chose the recipe from my Purity Flour Cookbook - an old-fashioned stove-top method that involves scalding milk and stirring lots until the vanilla cream mixture thickens. I actually enjoyed the process.And the rest of the pie went smoothly! I was surprised at how easy the meringue was. I thought for sure it wouldn't work, but it did! And the result was a very pleasant surprise for me, and for my dinner guests.

...And two pieces left !

Good friends & Good Food - Part 2

Another weekend full of good friends and good food. How lucky can one girl get!!?!
This time it was my turn to be hospitable. I have to admit, I was quite looking forward to this. I enjoy cooking, but find I don't go to much trouble just for myself. It's definitely more fun to cook for friends or family.

I had been giving my menu for tonight a great deal of thought and decided on a Morrocan/Italian blend. Not for any particular reason except that they were dishes I wanted to make.

The main course was Morrocan chicken and rice, served with garlic bread, steamed green beans, and a cucumber, tomato and parsley salad. And for dessert ...Authentic Italian Tiramisu! (as authentic as you can get in NS anyway!) I've been wanting to make Tiramisu again since my first botched attempt awhile ago, but hadn't gotten around to it. Well, today I did.
So here's what I learned about making Tiramisu.

1. The cookie ladyfingers work just as well as the cakey ladyfingers (which you can't find in Halifax - I know, I tried!).
   
2. The marscapone gets very lumpy when you add the eggs, etc. to it, but a little persistence and steady beating with an electric mixer pays off.
3. Though the marscapone mix seems really eggy, once it's refridgerated and set for a few hours, it's not at all eggy!
   
4. 500 mL of marscapone can make A LOT of Tiramisu. Look for a smaller container next time. I have another Tiramisu to make with all the left overs, and NOBODY needs 2! Tiramisus! 250 mL would work just as well, unless you're aiming to make dessert for a crowd.
   

After dinner, we settled into a game - Settlers of Catan. If you've never played this game, let me tell you, it's a lot of fun. It's a little like risk, but without the time commitment. A normal game, when you're not learning how to play, takes roughly an hour. A game involves some strategy, some luck, and a whole lot of trading. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys strategy games, and to those who don't typically enjoy strategy games!

Productivity Report

So I've taken the plunge. I've started my first non-scarf knitting project. So far, so good. I've got the collar done and started the raglan shaping. I even modified the pattern ever so slightly - rather than knitting a garter stitch for the collar, I did a moss stitch, which I think looks nicer, and feels softer.

And today, while I was looking for fabric for another crafty project (that my mom is going to tackle for me), I found these cute stitch-on labels.

Since the sweater is for my nephew, yet to be born, and since I'm going to be his only Aunt (albeit a step-Aunt), I couldn't resist.

Hopefully it'll be done before the little guy's birth in April.

And because I was feeling REALLY productive today, I baked 3 dozen muffins. I hadn't quite realised how many muffins I was actually making until well after I started. The reason for my baking frenzy was to use up some applesauce I made last week.

I really like applesauce, but I could tell when I was peeling the apples that this batch wouldn't be as good as other batches I've made earlier in the Fall/Winter. This batch was made from cheap apples, that were old and soft and bruised, and not as tart as I like. As a result, the applesauce wasn't very flavourful and was too disappointing to eat on its own. So what do you do with applesauce you don't want to eat? You bake with it! Tonight I tried two different applesauce muffin recipes from the internet: this Nova Scotian healthy muffin recipe and this less healthy Pumpkin Applesauce muffin recipe , courtesy of Oprah.com. I'll wait till tomorrow to decide which I like better. For the time being I'm all muffin'ed out!

Christmas baking!

Cranberry-Orange scones - delicious! But they won't last until Christmas so they can't really count as Christmas baking.


Chocolate-Mint sugar cookies - not so delicious. These look better than they taste. I'm actually disappointed with them, they're too cakey and not very flavourful. And for the amount of effort that goes into them, not really worth it.