more strawberries

Strawberry season is done for now. Sniff. I had some stragglers left the other day, which had been cast aside in favour of new raspberries and cherries. Still, I couldn't abandon the strawberries so I made this cake. I made a previous version using yogurt instead of milk as for some reason I was out of milk. That version was delicious but I'd slightly overbaked it. The second one is still being eaten by my man. Mmmmmpf he says through the crumbs.

Strawberry Summer Cake (adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

6 tbsp butter
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7/8 c plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch springform pan.
Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes.  Let cool in pan on a rack.

strawberry pancakes for canada day

July 1st is a holiday in these parts - to celebrate Canada Day. On a whim, I made a batch of pancakes from our family recipe, something we used to have about once a month as children and something my father was in charge of cooking. The recipe comes from a book - The Canadian Cookbook - and the family copy of the book has many calculations along side the recipe, multiplications or divisions of the original recipe to adjust the number of servings. When my brother took over the pancake duties from our Dad, he would add "surprises" - usually raisins to the batter. Now, he and his family regularly have pancakes and my English nephews love maple syrup. When we visit we pack our suitcases full of bottles of Canadian maple syrup for their pancakes. It's always eagerly anticipated and usually means pancakes soon after our arrival. My brother does say that English flour does not produce fluffy pancakes. Apparently for fluffy pancakes, Canadian flour is required.

Pancakes (from The Canadian Cookbook)

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
2 beaten eggs
3 tbsp melted butter
1-1 1/4 cups of milk

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Beat egg, add milk and butter. Combine to make a batter. Cook the pancakes.

I added sliced strawberries to the batter, once the pancakes were in the pan, cooking - as I had a flat of strawberries sitting on the counter. The inspiration came from here. And then it struck me that I had made strawberry pancakes for Canada Day. They are delicious served with warm maple syrup.

more felt fun

A friend gave birth to a little girl about a month ago so I made a little felt sheep and yesterday, sat out in the sunshine to make a dress to complete the sheep (along with a tooth fairy pocket).

I found some pieces and made a patchwork kind of dress as I didn't have a full piece big enough to make the dress but I thought this was cuter than a single colour.

A few weeks ago, I got a blackberry for work and I noticed that the screen was getting a bit bashed around so thought about getting a case for it. Then I thought, why not make one from felt? So I did and I like it. And if I leave it behind, everyone will know it's mine.

market inspired Sunday supper

Last Sunday, I pulled chicken out of the freezer for dinner. I was going to make Luisa's mustard chicken but I usually do it with chicken thighs and I'd pulled out a pack of chicken breasts. And in my prize basket, I found a small jar of Mexican spice rub and a jar of mango salsa so I thought I would make chicken tacos. I cut the chicken into strips, seasoned with salt, pepper and the spice rub. Then I marinated it for 45 minutes in plain yogurt and lime zest. To finish, I sauted it until cooked.

The tacos were made by adding grated sharp cheddar, chicken, mango salsa, spicy arugula (from the market) and a bit of sour cream to small flour tortillas. These were yummy served with roasted new nugget potatoes and braised radishes.

I bought a couple of bunches of radishes at the market, half remembering this recipe. It was so easy to make and deliciously different. This one is a keeper.

For dessert, I served strawberry mini pavlovas with local strawberries.

little savory cakes

I’ve been trying to incorporate different grains into our eating lately and quinoa is one of them. The first recipe I tried with it turned out dry and not so tempting so I was a bit leary of trying more quinoa. But I kept  reading lovely recipes on line. When I came across this blog post from Tara, with the mouthwatering pictures, I decided to give this recipe a go.

It worked, we liked it and it went into the file to make again. And following advice from Dana, I cooked extra quinoa the first time I made them, so last night, I just pulled a bag out of the freezer so one step was already done.

Quinoa cakes (from Tara at sevenspoons, from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day)

2 1/2 c cooked quinoa, at room temperature (I used red quinoa)

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt

1/3 c finely chopped fresh chives

1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped

1/3 c g freshly grated Gruyère cheese

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 c whole grain bread crumbs, plus more if needed

1 tbsp olive oil

Combine the quinoa, eggs, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the chives, onion, cheese, and garlic. Add the bread crumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes sot that the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. At this point, you should have a mixture you can easily form into patties. I’ve used a cookie batter scoop and my quarter cup measuring cup to form patties and both worked and form about 12 patties.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat, add 6 patties, if they'll fit with some room between each, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms are deeply browned. Carefully flip the patties with a spatula and cook the second sides for 7 minutes, or until golden.

We had the patties over pea puree (inspired by this recipe) last night served alongside roasted asparagus and lemony hollandaise.

Leftover patties can be reheated and enjoyed as a lunch or snack.

they liked this one

Another month and another cooking competition at the market. The month's was best sweet loaf. Now one of my quirks is that because this is a market competition I try and use recipes that feature things from the market. I looked through lots of loaf recipes, and almost every other one was for some kind of lemon loaf. I figured there would be at least one lemon loaf competitor (I was right) and wanted something different. Initially I thought I would do one of our favorite loaves but pumpkin didn't really seem summery enough for July. In the end, inspiration came from my garden and the multitude of zucchini growing. So the other day I harvested the biggest three zucchini

and made this zucchini bread. The recipe is very similar to the pumpkin loaf. I made two loaves, one for the market and one for us. The one for us featured a big handful of chocolate chips stirred through it and is a big hit with the boy and the man.

Zucchini Bread (from Smitten Kitchen)

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

~ 1/2 c chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease two loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips. Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

PS - I won. Pictured below is my prize basket which included local strawberries, mixed greens, peas, baby turnips, a jar of hot mango salsa, a jar of spice rub, a brown bag filled with cookies, a bottle of ginger beer and a neck pillow.

feet painting

 When we got home from running our errands today, I was looking forward to spending some time outside in the garden, hoping to read a bit. The boy announced he wanted to do some painting and appeared with his giant roll of art paper and started looking for his paints. We found paints and a brush and the paint water cup and as it was beautiful, warm and sunny outside, I suggested he paint outside. He wasn't sure about that idea but we set up outside. Then a bug walked across the paper and some dirt flew on the paper and he really wasn't too sure about the whole idea. He wanted to do a green skeltine (skeleton) but changed his mind. He ended up doing a feet painting. He painted the picture

 and then ran across it and around the patio and back across the painting and so on and so on.

He did two big paintings before this got old. Before he was allowed back in the house, we had to wash his feet off

- which naturally involved the hose and the sprinkler head and the boy getting absolutely soaked. Then it was off to build heavy haulers out of Lego with Daddy. And I got to clean the paint off the patio (thank goodness for washable paint).