Frankenloaf!

Ever since I was a little girl, zucchini bread was by far my favourite way to eat my vegetables. Now that I'm on my own, it's still frequently being baked, but with new additions to the recipe each time. Most recently, there were so many new additions and alterations to the recipe that I could only call it Frankenloaf. Luckily, this monster of a zucchini loaf turned out to be much more lovable than Dr. Frankenstein's own creation. It was so lovable, in fact, that I thought I would share it with all of you. Enjoy!

What I used:

3 cups Speerville all-purpose unbleached flour
2 cups Noggin's Corner Farm zucchini (grated)
2 cups Millen's Farm frozen blueberries
1 cup multipurpose applesauce (see Sunday June 5th post)
3 eggs
1/2 cup Linda's Corner maple sugar
1/2 cup Cosman and Whidden Pure Nova Scotia honey
3 tablespoons Linda's Corner maple syrup
2 tablespoons homemade vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch salt

How I made it:
Preheat oven to 325 F and grease a bread pan. In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients, including the maple sugar. In a separate bowl, stir together eggs, applesauce, honey, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mix into the dry mix, stirring slowly. Stir in the zucchini and blueberries, and try not to om nom all the dough. At this point, the mixture should still be fairly liquid, so that the loaf stays moist after baking. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until your toothpick test comes clean. Let cool for 10 minutes after baking, then remove from pan and serve warm, with applesauce, jam or butter on top. Om nom nom.

The Acadian, Eh?

I have two confessions. The first is that I am French Canadian, and that, consequently, I love cheese and anything maple in a bad way. In fact, I am even known to combine the two in beautiful and sometimes alarmingly delicious combinations that make my mouth water even just thinking about them. Cheddar and maple crepes? Nom. Maple and cheese danishes? Been there. Maple grilled cheese? Yeah. That just happened. Here's how to make a kick-ass French Canadian grilled cheese.

What I used: 

Five-Grain Honey Bread from Mary's Bread Basket

Damafro Brie

One Noggins Corner Farm Macintosh apple

Linda's Corner maple syrup

Butter

How I did it:

Heat up a pan to medium and peel, core and slice your apple. Slather two slices of bread with butter. Apply one layer cheese, one layer apple, and one more layer cheese just to be safe on the unbuttered side of one of the bread slices. Put the other slice on top, buttered side facing out. Throw it in the pan and cook until bottom side is crispy and brown. Flip and repeat. Drizzle some maple syrup on top right before serving and eat that sucker up, eh? Om nom nom.

Berry Lemonade!

It's finally summer in Halifax! The rain is gone, for the most part, the tourists are getting off the giant cruise ships and the mist is burnt off by mid-morning! I'm currently writing from my sun-drenched balcony, listening to OK GO and enjoying the sunshine, sipping on some fancy lemonade. Going to the market this weekend was a great treat, because of the great weather and the fresh berries in season! All this great weather and sunshine calls for a lemonade recipe to help keep yourself cool so I'll share with the you the recipe for the one I'm drinking at this very minute!

What I used:

Trinity Gold homemade lemonade concentrate

Millens Farm frozen blueberries

Noggins Corner Farm strawberries

How I did it:

Filled a pitcher with with one part Trinity Gold and four parts cold water. Thought about replacing the water with iced tea, for a tasty Arnold Palmer, then got too impatient to make iced tea. Poured the mixed lemonade into tall glasses, replacing ice cubes with frozen blueberries (an awesome trick I borrowed from my mom) and garnished with slit strawberries. Drank it in the sun with Stu and a sense of well-being and happiness. Om nom nom.