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.

2-Minute Blueberry Sorbet

Wandering around the market, it's easy to find great deals on frozen or bulk foods. For example, this week we found a stand that sold giant 5 lb boxes of frozen blueberries... for 20$. How could we say no to enough blueberries to keep us going until they're ready to picked fresh again next season for such a good price? Naturally, we were all over that. When I got back to the apartment, I was in need of some refreshing from the uphill walk home in the humidity, so I decided to make some sorbet to cool myself down.

What you need:

2 cups of frozen blueberries

1/2 cup honey

Here's how I did it:

Basically, just throw everything in the blender and blend. It takes all of 30 seconds and it's SO tasty and refreshing. You can also add in other frozen fruit, berries or even vegetables, and with a little yogurt or whole milk you have yourself a smoothie. Om nom nom.

Pink Brie Scramble

A few weeks ago at the market, Stu and I came across a man who sold not only whole chickens and turkeys, but also chicken and turkey eggs. He showed us the oversized freckled eggs (being sold at the same price as the chicken eggs) so we had to buy some to see what they were like. Apart from being fairly hard to crack and huge, they were very like chicken eggs, but with a faint turkey taste. This discovery of turkey eggs got us on such an egg kick that we ended up having eggs every day, making elaborate breakfast dishes revolving around eggs. I am a huge fan of omelettes, but sometimes they are hard to flip if they have lots of ingredients in them, so a lot of the time I just end up making a scrambled egg with lots of tasty ingredients to make things more interesting. This week, we had a lot of fresh beet greens left over by Friday, as well as some nice local brie, so I decided to throw them into the mix. To my delight, this resulted in a gooey, creamy, pink omelette with lots of flavour and definitely an interesting look

What you need:

4 eggs (turkey or chicken, but you could even use ostrich eggs if that floats your boat)

A large handful of beet greens

As much brie as you want (can there ever be too much brie?)

Olive oil

Sprig of rosemary

How I did it:

Start by washing and trimming the roots off the beet greens. Chop them into bite-length pieces. Heat a little oil on medium in a pan, and throw the greens in, stirring frequently. When the leaves are wilted and they start giving off a pink juice, add the brie in, in small chunks. Melt the brie in with the leaves and watch it all turn pink. Put your eggs in and cook as dry as you like, stirring often until it's all cooked. You should have a lovely pink scramble, that you can top with chopped rosemary. Om nom nom.

Herbs!

Oh my gosh, I cannot get enough of herbs. Recently, Stu and I planted some herb seeds in pots (as we have a tiny apartment and no garden) and we're really excited to start seeing some shoots! We bought sweet basil, tarragon and rosemary plants, as well as curly parsley and chives. We decided to get them so that we could have a choice of the freshest herbs freshly picked from our own balcony when we're cooking. There have been a few problems copping up though, and we're trying to work through them. For example, our plants were attracting little fruit flies so we decided to put them outside, where they started wilting from the cold. Any advice on indoor herb gardening/ outdoor herb upkeep?

Multipurpose Applesauce!

Hello! I just want to say that applesauce is one of my favourite foods in the whole world. There are many reasons I love it so much, but my top reason is because of its versatility. It's great as a condiment, as a substitute for butter (for all the vegans and lactose-intolerant people out there) and just as a snack on its own. Luckily, living in Halifax provides me with plenty of opportunities and lots of choice in terms of local apple supply, so I make applesauce all the time and use it in everything I bake. Here's my recipe, so you can also get your applesauce fix.

Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: about 20 min.

What you need:
5 pounds of apples (Cortland have yielded the best results so far. Try for an apple that doesn't brown quickly)
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Cinnamon to taste

How to make it:
Peel, core and roughly chop all the apples. I recommend doing this with a friend because it's pretty tedious on your own. Put enough water in a large pot so that all the apple pieces boil. Pour the apple chunks into the water and bring to a boil. Try to resist munching on the apples. Sprinkle your pinch of salt and the sugar over the chunks. Cover your pot partially and let it boil until the apples are soft enough to mush with a potato masher. Check frequently, stir every once in a while. Once the apple chunks are nice and soft, pour your cinnamon in the pot and start mushing. If you're short on time, you can use a food processor, but the manual mushing has always been my favourite part. Let it cool a little and enjoy! Om nom nom.