not everyone's favorite

The market is back! Our local market is back and the boy and I have been visiting with our favorite vendors weekly. This past weekend, the sun shone and more people came out to support the people growing gorgeous things for us to grow and eat. And for this month's cooking competition I submit our new favorite cake - a rhubarb coffee cake. It came in a distant second of the two entries. But those who liked it, really liked it. And we really like it.

It comes from Bonnie Stern via the National Post. I've made it several times since the recipe appeared in the Weekend Post section in the Saturday Post.

Rhubarb Coffe Cake (adapted from Bonnie Sterns' recipe from here)
2½ c flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1⁄4 tsp kosher salt

 ¾ c butter

1 c packed brown sugar

2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c sour cream
2 c diced fresh rhubarb

Filling and topping:
¾ c packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter, melted

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, with a mixer, beat the butter with the sugar until blended and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. Stir in about 1⁄3 of the flour mixture, add ½ of the sour cream, another third of the flour, the remaining sour cream and then the remaining flour. Stir only until combined. Fold in the rhubarb.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon and melted butter until mixed. Spread half of the cake batter into the bottom of a 9 or 10 inch greased springform pan. Sprinkle about half of the topping/filling mixture evenly over the batter. Spread the remaining batter over the top and sprinkle all the remaining topping mixture evenly over the top.

Bake in a preheated 350 deg F oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the centre.

lazy days

Cooler weather at last. And some rain which was much needed.

T is growing again - out of his shoes last week so it is a good thing I had already bought a bigger pair and they were stashed in the cupboard waiting...In the summer it is harder to see the growing as he is in shorts most of the time. That's usually how I notice, when his pants suddenly get a lot shorter! He also tends to get rounder around the tummy just before a growth spurt and then goes all lean again afterwards.

He's been fascinated by toilet paper lately - making paper snakes so I'm having to reroll paper in all the bathrooms!

We have to go to the library every week to get more truck books - we recently found the fire truck section so this weeks books have been heavy on the firetrucks with a couple of books on road building machines.

The garden is also growing. We're getting tomatoes, basil, thyme, beans and zuccini at the moment. The slugs have eaten all the lettuce so I replanted in a different container and I might try radishes again in a different location and container as they did not do well in the shady patch of garden.

I made moonblush tomatoes again - here's what they look like after 18 hours in the oven.

Friday night supper was cheater mexican lasagna - onions, peppers, mushrooms, corn all sauted, then a jar of tomato sauce added, some grated cheddar cheese and then I added in quick succession, 1/2 package of non-ground round (Yves Veggie) and some torn up tortilla (plain and tomato which is what I had in the fridge).

Saturday I made another buttermilk lemon cake (smittenkitchen.com) but this time with blackberries, blueberries and raspberries as all three needed to be eaten. It was delish!

I also made tomato and spinach tart (variation on the zuccini tomato tart from digginfood.com).

Saturday night we had vegetarian moussaka - a recipe I adapted from one in Country Living UK. This time I made it in a 9x13 lasagna pan in 3 layers and it was wonderful. Layer thinly sliced and cooked potato, 1/3 jar tomato sauce, 1 roasted eggplant (thinly sliced) and then 1/4 of cheese sauce (3 tbsp olive oil, 100 g butter - once melted add 120 g flour and cook for 2 mins. Add 800 ml milk, mix well and cook for 5 mins. Cool and add 2 eggs, 100 g each of parmesan and feta cheese). Repeat the layers twice more - spread the last of the cheese sauce evenly over the top of the dish. Bake at 350 deg for 50 minutes or until the top is nicely browned. Let cool slightly before serving.

Sunday morning we went to the farmer's market in the rain. T had a great time splashing in the puddles with his Cars boots and looking very cute in his Thomas raincoat. There were lots of people shopping at the market as per usual which I was glad to see despite the rain. We are loving the second season strawberries now. Yum.

After lunch, T and I and Auntie K went to the Family Day at the local automall. T got to sit in a real fire truck (he got all goofy shy around the firemen and women unfortunately so missed a chance to wear the headset). He went on the kiddie ferris wheel and down the bouncy slide and then played on the bouncy pirate ship. After the rides, etc closed and the fire truck drove off, we had ice cream and then came home.

Sunday night I made a casserole layering uncooked potato slices, lengthwise sliced zuccini, parmesan cheese with 1 tsp flour, pepper and thyme, potato, zuccini, cut up cooked turkey, corn taken off a couple of cobs (uncooked) and then topped with a layer of potatoes, sprinkled parmesan cheese and 1 tsp flour, pepper and thyme and then spread a thin layer of sour cream over the top and more parmesan cheese. It was pretty good but time consuming. I baked for about 45 mins at 350 deg.

ah weekend

Saturday morning 6:15AM (I checked) was woken by an enthusiastic T "Mummy, Mummy - wake up"! Shortly followed (as I didn't move apart from checking my watch) by little fingers prying my eyelids open (yes, they really do do this!) Thankfully after a few stops and starts, he settled down with some breakfast to watch "his" TV. Note "his" TV is Knowledge Networks Kid's programs - not "your" TV which is anything else that happens to be on. The only good TV is "his" TV unless there are fire trucks or backhoes. Anyway - I got to sneak back to bed and sleep for a bit longer (thanks Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder).

Another sunny hot day. Made Red Current Fool with lovely red currants I picked up at the fruit stand on the way home Friday. Red currants remind my of my mum, who loved currants. We even grew them for a while - one black currant bush and one red currant bush.

Red Currant Fool
1 c red currants
1 tbsp sugar

Heat gently until the sugar dissolves and the fruit can be slightly mashed.

1 c heavy cream, whipped (T helped me with this - he discovered the joys of the electric mixer- yikes!)

Fold the fruit into the cream, leaving marbley bits of fruit in the cream. Serves 4 or in D's case 2-3. This can be made with any other fruit - I love it made with blackberries. With sweeter fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc just reduce the amount of sugar.)

The garden is looking good.

T asks every day if the potatoes are red yet. He means the tomatoes. So far he's only picked three green ones. A couple are almost ready. Two zuccini are growing well.

T helped me water the plants which, since I bought a new spray nozzle for the hose means, at some point, T will strip off to his naked boy self and run around the yard shrieking while I spray him. Great fun!

Had lots of basil so harvested some leaves - see here

and made pesto.

6 c basil leaves
~ 3/4 c toasted pine nuts
~ 1/2 c parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
a couple of grinds of pepper

Mix together in a processor until blended. Add olive oil in a stream until the desired consistency is reached. I got 4 1/2 small pots of pesto.

After lunch, we went shopping at the Italian grocery store so we stocked up on goodies like roasted red peppers, dried mushrooms, giant jars of olives and assorted pasta. Then we took T to feed the ducks. The duck pond was full of algae and not many ducks although there were a couple of mummy ducks with babies. Then T took us down to the beach to collect shells and throw rocks.

Sunday- early start - T bounced in at 5:30AM. Was already tired after noisy party at house down the street kept us awake - that ended with a skunk we think. We smelled the skunk spray and suddenly everything went quiet! Market day - we bought raspberries, veggies, lemon-raspberry loaf and a chocolate cookie for T. After some playing at the diggers in Ambleside park and the fire hydrant sprinklers, T and I came home and made cake. Blueberry Boy Bait from smittenkitchen.com. T helped with the mixer again (I've learned to unplug it every time I have to get another ingredient to add). He also helped with the topping so the sugar/cinamon was a tad lumpy on the top. No matter - it was/is delicious. It makes a huge cake so you can share! A quick tour of the garden yielded our first pea!

Auntie K came over and played trucks, etc with T. Dinner was chicken in mushroom sauce with couscous and market ratatouille.

market day

Awakened early by an excited boy. "Is it time to go to the park?" Sunday was play date day with D. The rain cleared and it was sunny but not too hot - perfect for two boys to race monster trucks down the slide and in the woodchips in between climbing, sliding and running.

After play time we went to the market. T helped me find a parking spot in the shade and we set off for the market. Local strawberries didn't look that good (last day already!) but the raspberries and cherries were good - T ate a lot to test them while waiting to pay. I also bought new potatoes, bread, zuccini chocolate loaf and hazelnut spread. On the way home we passed our favorite fruit and veg stand and I bought strawberries (yum!) and peas. T had fun shelling and eating the peas without realizing he was eating green vegetables!

Supper was vegetarian moussaka adapted from a recipe from Country Living UK:
sliced potatoes, cooked
2 sliced eggplants, roasted
1 jar tomato sauce
cheese sauce (50 g butter and 3 tbsp olive oil, melted together until sizzling. Add 120 g white flour and mix, cook for 30 seconds, add 800 ml milk, stir and cook for 3 minutes. Cool for 5 mins and add 100g each of feta and parmesan cheese and 2 eggs. Mix together. Season with salt, pepper, chili and ginger to add some zing)

In a greased 9x13 dish - layer half the potato slices, spread 1/2 the tomato sauce, half the eggplant then spread 1/3 of the cheese sauce. Continue with the potato, tomato sauce, eggplant and top with the remaining cheese sauce. Bake at 350 deg F for 50 minutes.

Dessert was strawberries.