filled and unfilled exercise books and sketch books and seemingly endless glue sticks, crayons, colouring pencils, sharpeners and folders. Going the other way were our thank you gifts which were based on lemon and raspberry curd
I made recently so I baked up batches of raspberry curd muffins which I boxed up and presented along with some ceramic things I painted a couple of weeks ago.
The boy has had a good year thanks to the many helpers he has, not the least of which have been his amazing EA and his lovely Grade 3 teacher, who also taught him in Grade 1. See, we are blessed. Now it is full on summer and we start next week with kayak camp and yesterday we met with the access team at the rec center and his camp buddies to guide him through his camp experience. Again, so blessed.
So for now we look forward to a bit of sleep, some lazy beach days with some picnics, camp and lots of fun with friends and by the end of summer we hope to have lots of lovely memories to go along with the boy's summer blond hair and his long(er) brown legs.
The last few weeks have been busy, with end of year parties and BBQs, along with the usual birthday parties and activities. Soccer, field hockey, swimming and Cubs all wound up but there will be more soccer games on street cul-de-sacs and deserted tennis courts and park fields as the boys are still as mad about soccer as ever. This week we took in a FIFA Women's World Cup match, Japan v Netherlands.
Great fun with noisy fans and lots of missed goal opportunities and a chance to see the women play at the highest level. Our boy has been plotting the best path for Canada to do really well in the tournament.
Raspberry Curd muffins (adapted from River Cafe)
225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
A good pinch of sea salt
100g sugar
1 medium egg
125g plain yogurt
125ml milk
75g butter, melted and slightly cooled
150g raspberry curd (or 6 tsp)
Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Measure flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl and whisk to blend. In a glass measuring cup or jar, add the egg, yogurt, milk and butter together and mix. Pour into the dry ingredients and gently mix until you see no flour. Do not overmix.
Scoop batter into greased muffin tins, lined with paper cups, until each cup is about half full. Add 1/2 tsp of curd to each cup and top with enough batter to fill the cups up about 3/4 full.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown. Serve warm, if possible.
Lemon Curd (adapted from Fine Cooking)
3 oz. (6 Tbs.) butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and yolks until well blended and then add in the lemon juice and mix until combined. Don't worry if it looks curdled (mine didn't, it just looked very foamy.) Pour the mixture into a saucepan over medium heat, and cook until the mixture combines and thickens to coat the back of spoon. Take off the heat and add in the lemon zest. Cover with plastic wrap over the top of the curd and refrigerate or place in small jars for gifts. Will keep refrigerated for a few days or frozen for a few months.
Raspberry Curd (adapted from Tea and Cookies)
9 oz raspberries
3/4 c sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp butter
3 eggs
In a medium saucepan, add the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice. Heat on medium until the raspberries break down. Pour the mixture through a sieve, to remove all the seeds but capturing all the juice.
In a bowl, cream the butter with a mixer and then beat in the eggs until blended and creamy and then add the fruit mixture and blend. Pour into the saucepan, and heat over medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Take off the heat. Cover with plastic wrap over the top of the curd and refrigerate or place in small jars for gifts. Will keep refrigerated for a few days or frozen for a few months.
