Oatmeal Molasses Bread

Yes, yet again another Earth to Table recipe, Oatmeal Molasses bread! This bread is easily the best I have ever made, as it was so tasty and moist. It involved putting rolled oats in boiling water to soften, and then adding your flavourings to it. Then you mix your dry ingredients together with yeast, and you promptly add that to the wet mixture. All in all it was an easy dough to come together and when set aside in the bowl to double in size, it did (something that I've found difficult in other bread recipes, mostly because they usually don't have a proofing action as this recipe does by using the hot water, which of course cooled to an appropriate temperature so as not to kill the yeast).

My Mom had made strawberry jam which is so good with this bread for breakfast. I've made this bread twice. The first time I followed the recipe to a T. The second time I decided to double it so that I could have four loaves instead of two. This is a definite keeper recipe for me.

Earth to Table Pizza

As promised, here is a post about the pizza my friends and I made for our pizza party some weeks ago. We chose to use a recipe for pizza dough from the "Earth to Table" book which was a combination of kneading and resting the dough. We tripled the dough recipe and it rose beautifully in the time called for. Tripling the recipe allowed us to make 12 individual pizzas, which was good because we had leftovers for the next day too.

For toppings, we followed the "Earth to Table" book's recipe for Squash, Pancetta, and Sage pizza. I know it's not very seasonal, but we had sage in our garden that we were wanting to use. It was a delicious recipe, but it could've used a sauce to moisten the dough, because the grated parmesan burned when they hit the oven. We created a second topping combination as well, with store-bought pizza sauce, mozzarella, basil, and sauteed red peppers and mushrooms, which was also very delicious. Part of the charm of the "Earth to Table" pizzas we all agreed was by far the pizza dough because they were crispy on the outside and very soft, fluffy and bread-like on the inside. We would definitely make this recipe again.

Baking with Blueberries

I ended up buying a really cheap container of blueberries and didn't quite know what to do with them. Luckily I have a terrific cookbook called "Earth to Table" which features recipes arranged by season. The authors are executive chef, Jeff Crump, and pastry chef, Bettina Schormann, from the Ancaster Mill restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario. My family and I ate there a few months ago when we attended a Symphony at the Hamilton Place. It was a terrific experience! I ate Lake Erie Pickerel with fingerling potatoes, beans, and a white onion puree.

In their book I found a recipe for upside-down blueberry cake and it tasted so good. Initially I thought it would be a disaster, because when it came time for layering the batter overtop of the blueberries, I found I had too much batter, but used it all anyway, and it overflowed in the oven. I let it continue baking anyway. When it was done, it released from the pan perfectly and all I had to do was trim the sides to clean it up a bit.



I had two cups of blueberries left so I searched out another blueberry cake recipe, this time a blueberry coffee cake, from the Joy of Baking website. It was an exceptionally easy cake to make, because the batter did not require sifting, and you could just sprinkle the blueberries and streusel on top. We ate it for dessert at a pizza party we had with some friends, featuring homemade pizza. I'll write about that later.

Jennifer

Apple Pie: A Precursor to Autumn

With the crisp and cold weather coming on, I have had the usual autumn craving of homemade apple pie. Having never made an apple pie before, my sister and I found a wonderful Apple Galette recipe which we adapted to a pie format. Here is the link to Laura Calder's Apple Galette recipe on the food network website:

http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8365

We simply doubled the pastry in this recipe so we could use half for the bottom crust and the other half for the top crust which we did in a lattice format. Other than that we used the same amount of apple's, although perhaps I will increase these the next time. Serving the pie warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is the perfect autumn treat.

Rainy Day Tapioca Pudding With Garden-Fresh Mint

I don't know about you, but in my book, rainy days are good days for comfort foods. Megan and I prepared a delicious Tapioca Pudding for dessert this evening. We've never made it before, but after a good spat in the kitchen between sisters and some frustration, my Mom declared it to be the best Tapioca pudding she has ever tasted! Not bad for a first time recipe.

We chose to put the pudding in individual ramekins to chill in the fridge. To serve, we garnished them with a spoon of whipped cream, cinnamon, and a sprig of mint.

Here is the link to the recipe on allrecipes.com which we followed:

allrecipes.com/Recipe/Classic-Tapioca-Pudding/Detail.aspx

Instead of using quick-cooking tapioca pearls as listed in the recipe, we used regular tapioca pearls which we pre-cooked. We also doubled the recipe, but found that using six cups of milk would be too much, so we used only four cups of the doubled amount.

A Summery Afternoon Tea

My sister and I being twenty-year-old Tea Granny's decided to take up the English tradition of afternoon tea on one of our somewhat boring summer days off. We made these fantastic little cupcakes which are so pink and girly, but have a summery touch with a fresh raspberry or blueberry on top. They tasted divine!

The recipe comes from Christine Cushing Live on the Food Network. Here's the link to the recipe on the Food Network website:

http//www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=4546

Hillside Festival 2009

I went to the Hillside Festival in Guelph with my mom, sister, and grandmother on July 24th and all I can say is that it was fantastic!! My sister and I are both avid fans of Loreena Mckennitt and were extremely interested in seeing her perform, but we saw a few others as well.

Xavier Rudd is an Australian born multi-instrumentalist who is described in the Hillside info-book as showcasing the "mysticism of the didgeridoo", an Aboriginal intrument of Australia. I feel incredibly privileged to have seen such an accomplished instrumentalist as himself perform. When he played, people were dancing up by the stage and were especially excited when Xavier Rudd's bassist went into a bass solo.

We also watched Kae Sun, a musician who can be described a blend of hip-hop, folk, and reggae. Being of Ghanaian descent this should not come as a surprise. His music was rhythmically complex, soulful, and slightly reminiscent of Bob Marley.

Loreena Mckennitt to my understanding was the only musician at Hillside offered a full-set of approximately 90 minutes. She didn't play until 9:30 pm so sitting out in the night made her performance even more magical. She opened with her song "the Stolen Child" which was fitting because Loreena looked like a fairy herself sitting at her harp, strawberry blonde hair around her. I was extremely happy when she played "Marco Polo", because she had neglected to play it when I had previously seen her at Massey Hall in Toronto.

Here is a video of Xavier Rudd to finish this post off!!