Almond, Oat and Flax Thumbprint Cookies

I live in Nova Scotia, a place where practically summery hot days can occur just after a snowstorm.  Spring is more of a concept here than a reality, a very short season bridging winter and summer.  This spring has been s-l-o-w to get going, with really not a lot of dependable lovely sunshine.  Anyway, I'm not complaining, in two weeks the Union Street kitchen will be 40 degrees and sweltering.  
You can well imagine my excitement when my friend Stephanie told me on Saturday that fresh local strawberries had been spotted!   One of the Union Street girls just had a beautiful baby boy and I wanted to bring her strawberry something, but it was not to be: my favourite roadside stand just had a big "sold out" sign on it.  Oh well.  I made up these really good thumbprint cookies instead.  They are nutty with ground almonds and oats and whole wheat flour (sub in light spelt if you like).  I filled the pits of them with blueberry jam that I made last summer and some cinnamon-y apple butter that my good friend Melissa gave me.  You know when you're baking/cooking/creating something and it turns out exactly as good as you'd hoped?  Maybe better, even?  Then you keep looking/admiring/eating it, thinking, wow, that's really good. I can't believe that I made that.  So here you go, and welcome to the world, sweet little Joseph.

Almond, Oat and Flax Thumbprint Cookies
1 C. Roasted Almonds
1 C. Oatmeal
1 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 C. Flax Meal (or grind flax seeds in a coffee grinder)
2 t. Baking Powder
1/4 t. Salt

1/4 C. Butter
1/4 C. Canola Oil
1/2 C. Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 t. Vanilla
Jam, Jelly, Apple Butter (it's fun and pretty to make different kinds)


Preheat oven to 350° and butter a large baking sheet or two.  In a food processor, grind the almonds until very finely chopped.  Tip into a bowl, then grind the oatmeal until it is a fine powder.  Add the oat flour to the bowl along with the whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl, cream the butter, canola oil and brown sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth, then add the flour mixture.  Stir (or mix with your hands) until combined.  Roll mixture into 1" balls and place about 3" apart on the cookie sheet.  Using your thumb, make a well in the middle of the cookie and fill it with jam.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until puffed and firm.  Cool and enjoy.  These are great in your lunchbox (or so the kids told me!)

Daisy, how'd you get in there?

Apples

Just one of 6 Suprima Farm Apple varieties I tasted yesterday!

When I was eighteen, I announced to my parents that I was going to travel to British Columbia, to pick apples in the Okanagan Valley. This made no sense considering that I had grown up in one of the major apple producing areas in the world and had never once picked a bin. I didn't even know how to strap on the basket, which made it embarassing after telling our first farmer that we were experienced pickers. Apple picking is hard work, but it's fairly lucrative. It's gorgeous and cool in an orchard first thing in the morning, and you get to eat apples.

My favourites have always been the Cortland and Gravenstein, two older varieties that are best when freshly twisted off the tree. They are sweet and crispy with the sour bite that I love in an apple. The Valley grows a huge variety of apples, and hot new additions to the lineup just keep coming. This year our local growers harvested the first commercial crop of SweeTango. After the amazing success of the tasty and expensive HoneyCrisp, I imagine consumers will flock to the store for this newest trend in apples.

Be careful when shopping for apples in the Valley. Shockingly, despite all the wealth of locally grown fruit, apples imported from Chile, the USA and New Zealand are given ample shelf space in most grocery stores. Buy your apples at a market stand and your chances of landing local fruit improve dramatically. Apples are a great value when purchased in 10 or 20 pound bags, but if you can't stuff them in your fridge, you'll have to eat them quickly!

Better yet, visit a U-Pick. Boates even has organic apples in neat old varieties that you can pick yourself. Another favourite of mine is Dempsey Corner Orchards, where you can enjoy the beautiful view of the Valley as you pick from a tree halfway up the North Mountain. Noggins Corner has great apples and a wicked Corn Maze (try going after school rather then on the weekend, it's crazy-busy!). Although Richard Hennigar of Suprima Farms (the JuicePop Man) doesn't have a U-Pick, his was one of many farms in Nova Scotia that were open to the public September 19th during Open Farm Day.  This is a great way to get a behind the scenes look at farms that are not normally open to the public. 

At the restaurant, we'll be baking several varieties of apples into pies, crisps, and cakes. The best for baking include Northern Spy, Jonagold, Gravenstein, and Rhode Island Greening, esteemed by the Joy of Cooking as “perhaps the best of all for cooking” and available from Boates Orchards.

Bavarian Apple Torte serves 10-12

This recipe was one of our inheritances from the Apple Town Cafe, the Cafe we purchased that morphed into Union Street Cafe.  Is it really Bavarian?  I don't know.  But it is certainly delicious!

Shortbread Crust

1 1/4 C. Flour

1/3 C. Sugar

1/4 t. Salt

1/2 C. Butter

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse in food processor until crumbs form and press into a 10-inch springform pan.  Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden.

For the filling:

1 lb. Cream Cheese

2 Eggs

3/4 C. Sugar

1 t. Vanilla

3 lovely Apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced 

2 T. Sugar

1 t. Cinnamon

Blend cream cheese, eggs, 3/4 C. sugar and vanilla until smooth in a food processor and pour over baked crust in pan.  Toss apples with 2 T. sugar and cinnamon and arrange over the filling in a pinwheel pattern.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, until just set in the center.  Let cool, then refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Annette's Apple and Cheddar Focaccia serves 4

This open faced sandwich can be made on any decent, sturdy bread.

¼ C. Mango or any other Chutney

¼ C. Mayonnaise

1 T. Dijon Mustard

4 pieces Focaccia

½ lb. Shaved Ham

½ small Red Onion, sliced

2 Sweet and Crispy Apples, sliced (Red Delicious need not apply)

1 C. Grated Cheddar Cheese

Preheat the broiler and move the oven rack to its highest position. Mix the chutney, mayo and mustard. Lightly toast the focaccia and spread with the chutney mayo. Layer with the ham, onion, apples and lastly the cheddar. Place on a baking sheet and slide under the broiler. Watch like a hawk while the cheese melts, then bubbles, and finally browns.

Applesauce Cake serves 12-16
 This is a simple and nearly fat free cake that is delicious and homey. Try topping it with the leftover applesauce, lightly sweetened if you like, and vanilla yogurt or ice cream.

To make the applesauce, peel 3 pounds of apples and remove cores. Combine with ¼ cup water in a saucepan and cook, covered, over medium-low heat for thirty minutes, until falling apart. Let cool, then mash or process until smooth.

2 C. Applesauce

3/4-1 C. Sugar

2 C. Flour (can be whole wheat)

2 Eggs, lightly beaten

2 t. Cinnamon

2 t. Baking Soda

1 t. Salt

½ C. Raisins, optional

½ C. Toasted Walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9x13 pan. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk unitl just combined. Pour into the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, until springy to the touch.

Autumn Soups

To everything there is a season. A time for beet greens, a time for peas. A time for strawberries, a time for peaches. And a time for squash, potatoes, apples, brussels sprouts, turnips and pumpkins. That time seemed to come early this year, right on the heels of the most glorious summer I can remember. Was it the time off I took thanks to my ever-so-competent gals in the kitchen, Alexis and Annette? Was it the fact that nearly every weekend, the weather was perfect? The new garden and the chicks in the laundry room that grew up to be the chickens running around the backyard? Living the summer in food and sharing it with you? Writing this has given me the opportunity to really reflect on the abundance and variety grown in our magnificent Valley (and Mountains!)

Sure, I haven't touched on all the things we can do with broccoli, and I missed peppers and eggplant completely. That's ok, because we're going to be together for a long time, right?

Nothing says autumn to me like soup. Summer can be hell in a restaurant kitchen, but when the temperature drops fifteen degrees and there's an avalanche of squash and apples at your delivery door, there's nothing like cozying up to the beastly stove and cooking up some love-in-a-bowl.

That's my boy, harvesting Sunflower seeds!

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry Spices

2 T. Butter

2 Onions, diced

6 cloves Garlic, peeled and chopped coarsely
2 t. Mild Curry Powder
1 t. Garam Masala (or substitute cinnamon)
1 Butternut Squash (about 2-3 lbs), peeled and cut in 2" chunks 
1 T. Salt
2 T. Maple Syrup (or more, to taste) 
2 C. Milk, Cream or plain Soymilk
Cashews, Yogurt and Chopped Cilantro for serving (optional)

Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook for about ten minutes, stirring often, until fully softened and beginning to caramelize.  Add the garlic and cook another minute, then add the curry powder and garam masala.  Stir and cook for about thirty seconds to release the delicious toasty flavours of the curry spices, then add the squash and enough water to just cover.  Add the salt and crank the heat to high.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to medium high and simmer about twenty minutes, until the squash has fully softened and is falling apart.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or let it cool a little before blending it (in small batches, with a towel covering the lid and being super-duper careful) in a blender.  Add the maple syrup and milk and whisk to combine.  Taste for salt and add some pepper if you like.  Serve steaming in bowls with the optional garnishes if you like.  Extra yum credit: add a small dollop of mango chutney-we sell a good handmade one at the Berwick Farmer's Market!

Apple Cheddar Porter Soup

2 T. Butter

1 Onion, diced

3 Apples, cut into chunks (no need to peel) Boates is a good source in the Valley

1/4 C. Flour

2 t. Salt

6 C. Chicken or Vegetable Stock

12 oz Porter or your favourite ale (Propeller Brewery is my all-time favourite)

1 C. Grated Cheddar

1/2 C. Cream or Milk

1/2 t. Pepper

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute for about five minutes, until starting to soften.  Add the apples and stir and cook for another five minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour and salt and cook for a minute, then whisk in the stock and porter. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil.  Simmer until the apples have softened and are falling apart.  Remove the pot from the heat and blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender (regular blender=yikes, unless you let the soup cool first).  Place the pot back over low heat and add the cream and the cheese.  Whisk until the cheese has melted, then add the pepper and taste, adding a little more salt if necessary.

Blackberry Apple Pie

After I write this, I'm going to pick some blackberries. In the spring, I planted raspberries and while I was at it, I gave the blackberries that surround the house some compost and a little extra water. They seem to have responded to my gesture, and are ripening by the handful. Hopefully you have some wild blackberries growing nearby, or you can head down any back road and likely find some in no time. They are beautiful plants, especially right now, when berries of all colours from green to red to black occupy the same branch. If you can't find them wild, they are available right now at many farm markets, and just a small amount of them will add a lot of flavour to your seasonal baking.

I can't get through this season without thinking about how I met the father of my kids. I was on Saltspring Island at the time, where the wild blackberries grow so profusely that you could live off them, like a bear. Bakeries in the town of Ganges buy berries from anyone who will bother to pick them. I was living in a tent at the time, and some friends of mine and I decided to pick some blackberries and take it one step further-bake Blackberry Apple pies and sell them by the piece, with ice cream, at the Farmer's Market. We picked gallons of berries near a construction site. Adrian and Dennis hadn't made pastry before, so they let me take the lead, buying flour and shortening and apples at the Thrifty's supermarket downtown. The three of us settled into a long afternoon and evening of peeling apples, measuring sugar and berries, and rolling pastry, using my friend Jill's kitchen.

The next morning, we set off to make our fortune. We had brought spoons, plates, and ice cream in a cooler along with our 15 or so pies. We had planned to cut each into 8 pieces, and sell it for $3. Sales were slow in the morning, but Adrian was a charming salesman and roved the market, directing people to us. A tall, dark and handsome man who I had seen many times, but to whom I hadn't been introduced, came and bought a piece. He was a friend of Adrian's and they settled into a conversation. Soon, he was heading to the nearest Cafe and came back with coffee for all of us. Another piece of pie later, and he and I were well on the way to everything that has happened since; a wedding, two beautiful and magical children, a home, a garden, and a restaurant. The marriage itself didn't work, but everything else has flourished, a sure sign that it was meant to be.

In the end, after expenses, we made exactly the same amount we would have had we just sold the berries to Embe Bakery. But I think we had fun doing it, and we got to eat a lot of Blackberry Apple Pie.

Blackberries are as mysterious and seductive as their colour suggests. Really a dark, dark purple, blackberries possess a strange and fragrant quality. Eaten out of hand, they taste like berries. But cooked and made into pies or crumbles, they are perfume-y, sometimes almost soapy. This was most apparent to me while eating a handmade blackberry ice cream at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. “It tastes like soap” I said, believing it must have been their failure to rinse their equipment properly. “That's the blackberries,” they explained, “they have a strange and surprising flavour”. It's like eating a piece of Thrills Gum: once someone assures you that it really is supposed to taste like that, you can revel in the exotic-ness of it.
I love this pie. Combining the blackberries with apples is like adding water to whiskey: diluting the flavours a little allows you to really taste them.

Blackberry Apple Pie

Use a deep pie plate for this recipe, it is a big pie!

10 C. Apple Slices
1 Pint Blackberries
1 C. Sugar
½ C. Flour
Juice of Half a Lemon
2 T. Butter, cut in little bits (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Combine everything but the butter in a large bowl.  Make the pastry:

Food Processor Pastry  (adapted from Canadian Living)


3 C. Flour
1 t. Salt
½ C. Butter
½ C. Lard
1 Egg
2 t. Lemon Juice
Ice Water

Combine the flour, salt, butter and lard in a food processor. Pulse about 25 times, until the mixture is crumbly. In a measuring cup, beat the egg and vinegar, then add enough water to measure 2/3 cup. With the machine running, pour the egg mixture in. Let the machine run for another 5-10 seconds, until mixture starts to clump, and then turn the contents out onto a lightly floured counter. Press the dough together, gathering up any straggly bits, and divide into two balls. You can chill the pastry for a half hour, making it easier to work with, or you can proceed straight to rolling out one ball into a circle 3 inches wider all around then your pie plate. Keep the surface underneath floured so it doesn't stick.

When it's the size you want, gently fold the pastry in quarters and place it in a quadrant of the pie plate. Unfold and ease the pastry into the pan, letting the extra pastry hang evenly over the edges. Tumble the filling into the pie crust (it will be very tall) and dot with the optional butter. Roll out the second ball, fold in quarters, and unfold over the pie. Fold the top and bottom crusts together all along the edge, trimming of there is too much pastry. Make sure you have a good seal so that the filling won't leak out (it will anyway, but do your best). Then you can make a decorative edge or not. Poke some holes in the top with a fork and brush the pie with beaten egg or cream and sprinkle all over with sugar (turbinado is pretty, I use Just Us! Of course).

Put the pie in the oven and slide a baking sheet onto the rack underneath. Bake the pie at 325° for about 2 hours, until the juices are bubbling thickly (most likely onto the baking sheet, that's why it's there) and the pastry is deep brown. Let it cool for at least a couple hours before devouring with ice cream.

You Can't Trust a Skinny Chef

I own a restaurant. So that makes me a professional food lover, which gives me the right, no, the obligation, to eat whatever I want. I'm always testing, tasting, and re-tasting, thinking I've skipped meals when really I've already eaten plenty while working my way through an eight to twelve hour shift surrounded by food. Great food. Our Cafe serves mainly healthy fare, but that doesn't mean calorie free. Three years after the birth of my second child, I didn't like what I saw in the mirror. No justification could fix the fact that I thought about being overweight way too much. My low came when I found myself at a dear friend's birthday party, stealing her camera and deleting all the photos of myself I didn't find flattering.
Eating is a funny thing to be addicted to. Other substances must be shunned forever, but we have to eat to live. Food was a big part of my life growing up. Nearly every activity had accompanying side dishes, and I looked forward so much to dinner that I would cry if it was something I didn't like (hello fish). I loved cooking from a young age, and would make treats (and enormous kitchen messes) for my family. I ate for comfort, and I ate out of great love for the flavours I was discovering. I ate for a living, getting my first cooking job in a Saltspring Island kitchen at age 18. So there was a real love and passion for food (positive) coupled with a tendency to overeat, especially when I was stressed out (negative). And I hated the idea of dieting, and how annoying people on diets could be to committed overeaters, especially when their diet worked.
Because I'm a big ol' food nerd who reads cookbooks in bed, I have a favourite cookbook author. As a cooking obsessed vegetarian teenager, my mom had given me “Still Life with Menu” by Mollie Katzen. I had already read cover to cover my neighbour's copy of the Moosewood Cookbook, also by Mollie, and loved her writing style, her recipes and food guidance. So I was stunned one day while searching online to discover that she had Co-Authored a Diet Book! I thought, “if this woman who has shaped how I cook and feel about food has something to teach me about losing weight, then I want to learn!” I bought it.
I realized I knew lots about food, but so little about how to really eat for health and well-being. The book, titled Eat, Drink and Weigh Less was co-written with Walter Willett, head of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard. It cleared up a lot of my confusion about calories and metabolism, as well as providing a blueprint for long term health. Among Mollie's contributions to the book were many wonderfully simple and tasty recipes. It worked. I lost forty pounds over six months.
Of course, the authors insisted I exercise, and I did. I went to fitness classes a few days a week at our Town Hall (I've never been self motivated, so paying in advance for those classes really got me there). I met inspirational instructor Maggie Travis and joined my amazing cousin Melyssa Hutchinson's fitness Boot Camp. I was just ready, so ready, to shed the old tired me and get moving! So now I'm strong and lean, too. And so grateful for having made the change.
My friend and co-worker, Annette, reminds me constantly to try to be happy with what I have. Like she says, a negative body image can't truly be overcome simply by changing the body. She attends classes, too, and we have a great time trying to outdo each other. It really helps to have that kind of support.

Part of this journey has been rediscovering breakfast. Here are two of my favourite ways to get things cranking in the morning:

Maple Almond Bowl (serves two people who are resolved to make this day a great one)
If you are eating solo, wrap up the second bowl for tomorrow....or the next day.
½ C. 12 Grain Cereal
1 ¼ C. Water
pinch of salt
2 T. toasted and chopped Almonds
2 Medjool Dates or 6 regular dates, diced (I wet the knife so they don't stick)
1 small Apple, diced (I like Boates, VanMeekeren Farms, and Suprima Apples)
2 t. Ground Flax Seed
2 T. Maple Syrup

Combine the cereal, water and salt in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until nicely thickened. Pour into two bowls. Sprinkle each with the almonds, dates, apple, and flax seed and drizzle with the maple syrup.

Spanakopita Eggs for two (multiplies easily, but use a larger pan)

2 t. Olive Oil
½ small Onion, diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
pinch each Salt and Oregano
two big handfuls or more Spinach, chopped
4 good Eggs
2 T. Feta, crumbled (I love Holmestead)

Heat the oil in small pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic, along with the salt and oregano. Cook 2-3 minutes, until the onion has softened. Add the spinach, then toss and stir until it wilts. Transfer to a plate, and return the pan to the stove. Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour them into the hot pan. Now stir gently for a few minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan (I use a silicon spatula). When the eggs are mostly set but still wet, shut off the heat and fold in the spinach mixture and the feta. Allow to sit on the heat another minute if you like them cooked more.
Divide between two plates and serve, with toasted pita bread or on its own.