Some Things Scream Fall

Some things scream fall: back to school sales (even though they start in July), the change in the leaves, the arrival of fresh brussel sprouts in the markets, and Thanksgiving. Here in Calgary we also try to do as many things outside before it gets cold and miserable. Our family took a trip to the Lacombe Corn Maze last weekend. You can’t get much more ‘fall’ that that.

We loaded up the dogs and the Monster and met with a friend in Lacombe. Lunch in town and then off to the Maize. This is a great maze. We only finished about a third of it and it took us 45 minutes. The Monster wasn’t going to be happy in the backpack for more than that. Off to the petting farm and games. She started walking a week ago, so she was busy chasing the goats and other kids all around. We saw pig races, played on the slides, fed the goats, and rode a tractor train around the corn field.

To be honest, we thought it would be one of those things that sounds fun but ends up being rather lame. But we had a blast. I strongly recommend a visit to your local maize.

Our only disappointment: there was no corn to buy. Wouldn’t you think that corn would be available at a corn maze? I wanted to make this. Instead I went to the market on Sunday to get groceries. It was a bit of a blustery day, so soup was in order.

I made this soup with what I had on hand from the market and the garden. It hit the spot, with a few blue cheese croissants. It is really easy, just some chopping to start. To puree I use a hand blender right in the soup pot. You could boil all the veggies, but the flavour won’t be nearly as rich. And this weekend I used water to thin the veggies. Our nanny is a vegetarian and I wanted her to be able to have some for lunch.

Roasted Fall Soup

3 crisp, tart apples (such as Gala) – cored and cut into quarters
1 large sweet potatoe – peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 large butternut squash – peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 onion – peeled and cut into quarters
1 large or 3 small cloves of garlic – peeled
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp fresh thyme/1 tbsp dry
Water, vegetable, or chicken stock
Garnish – fresh thyme leaves and cream

1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. Put all veggies onto a large, rimmed baking pan. Toss with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast veggies in oven for 45 minutes.
4. Puree veggies and thyme in a soup pot with hand blender or in a standing blender. Add water or stock to thin as desired.
5. Serve hot, with a little bit of cream poured in each bowl.

Enjoy!

End of Summer Goodness

The end of summer always meant two things in my house when growing up. One, a trip to Saskatchewan to visit grandparents, the farm, and pick up more food than we could possibly need. And two, canning and freezing to deal with all that food.

My parents are both Ukrainian. That means food is central to our lives, as is the garden where it is grown. Now, as city kids and parents ourselves we still garden, but it isn’t on the same scale. My dad’s parents had a one acre garden. It was lovingly handwatered daily with pails filled from the slough at the front of the property. My garden is in containers so the dogs don’t dig it up.

Poppies lined the edges of my grandparents’ garden, and yes, my Baba dried the poppy seeds every year. The sloughs were on the front of the property, split by a long driveway. At the end of the driveway was the yard, with the house on the West side, and the original summer house right at the back. These were tiny houses, built by hand in the 50s and 60s. Originally they had no running water, no heat other than the wood stove, and no electricity. Over time my dad added a furnace, plumbing, and electricity to the main house. It made it a lot more enjoyable to visit, as kids.

On the West side of the yard the house essentially stood in the middle of the garden. All the vegetables were to the South, strawberries to the West, and raspberries and the clothesline to the North. On the East side of the driveway was another strawberry patch, a small grove of trees, and the corn patch. Finally, at the back of the property was another, larger grove of trees that had a bench and some old wood swings. It was a great place of imagination for us.

Baba and Dido grew the aforementioned strawberries, corn, raspberries, and poppies. They also grew onions, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, dill, tomatoes, beets, peas, beans, cucumbers, garlic, and more cabbage than 5 families could possible ever eat – even if you make cabbage rolls almost weekly.

The end of summer trip always meant harvesting the garden, setting things up to dry in the attic or the cellar, and loading up coolers and boxes with food. Like all good Babas mine thought we were in perpetual danger of starving to death. As such we were sent home with a couple of coolers full of frozen strawberries, raspberries, peas, beans, and wild mushrooms. This was in addition to the jars and jars of pickles, beets, sauerkraut, head cheese, cherries, and juice. I can’t forget the bags of cucumbers, onions, and potatoes. Finally, there was the cabbage. Oh so much cabbage. An unbelievable amount of cabbage. The heads were always enormous and we never left with less than a dozen, more if my parents had made arrangements with friends to give it away.

The entire trip took place over a weekend and required two vehicles. Our big boat of a car carried the family and some stuff. And my dad would bring his truck so he could take all the food home. As we got older not all of the family made the trip. We also got smarter and only took one vehicle so there was less to bring home. “Sorry Baba, there just isn’t room,” we would slyly tell her to avoid all the cabbage.

Once we got home everything had to be dealt with. That meant canning and freezing. This was added to the canning my mom wanted to do of the Okanagan fruit. We always had dozens of jars of peaches and pears to provide summer treats all winter. And don’t forget the jam – strawberry, raspberry, chokecherry, and crabapple.

Now that all of us kids are older, and Baba and Dido’s garden is no more, we rely heavily on the farmer’s markets. My parents still can a lot but they’ve strayed from their Ukrainian roots. Aside from pickles the most requested item is my Dad’s salsa.

I’ll admit, I still defer to their efforts most of the time. And now, with my Monster underfoot it is a bit harder to find enough time to get the job done. That being said, I was looking at the shelves in the basement and decided I needed to take advantage of the last of the peaches this summer. I will be enjoying summer goodness again this winter.

Homemade Canned Peaches

I like to clean my kitchen counters before I start. That way if I put something down without thinking about it I don’t have to worry about re-cleaning it. Anal, I know. Then I gather all my supplies and wash everything with hot-as-I-can-stand-it, soapy water.


Supplies:
Jars (size is a personal choice)
Rings and new lids, or rings with glass lids and rubber sealers.
Canner and tongs for placing and removing jars
Sharp knife
Wide mouth funnel
Dry and wet measuring cup
Large bowl, small bowl
Sharp paring knife
Large, heavy pot
Clean dishtowel
Clean rag (I found a baby washcloth to work best)

Ingredients:
Just rip or slightly under-ripe peaches
Sugar
Water

Clean jars in hot soapy water, then let them sit in just boiled water for 5-10 minutes. Drain and dry the outsides with a clean cloth. Do the same things with the rings.

Peel and cut peaches. Reserving pits. (some people blanch them but I prefer to slice and peel as I go – I would rather have knife marks then the mushy edges of blanched peaches)

Put the lids in a bowl of just boiled water. Let sit until ready to use.

Fill jars with sliced peaches, almost all the way to the top. Make sure to include a pit or two in each one.

Using a ratio of 4 cups water to 1 cup sugar make a simple syrup. Boil water in large, heavy pot with sugar until sugar is dissolved. How much you need will depend on how many jars you are using. Plan on at least 2 cups of syrup for every 1 litre jar full with peaches.

Fill the jars full of peaches with syrup, leaving an inch from the top empty.

Using tongs, place the lids on jars and seal with rings.

Place in canner with hot, almost boiling water. Bring to a boil. Process in a canner for 12-15 minutes, starting the timing once the water has come to a boil.

Remove and let rest on a thick cloth. You might hear popping over the next 24 hours as the jars seal. Refrigerate and use ones that don’t seal right away.

If you want an offical recipe, try Bernardin for peaches and many other canning recipes.

Happy Tuesday.

Cookie Monster

When I was pregnant the thing I craved the most and almost exclusively (hot dogs aside) was cookies, cookies, cookies. Seriously, there was no way to satisfy the need for gooey chocolate melting from just out of the oven peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, the crisp of oatmeal coconut cookies, or even the darkening milk that comes with dipping your Oreo. Is there any better smell than baking cookies? I love my daughter, but even she doesn't smell as good as that!

Bed rest put a kibosh on my cookie fetish. I wasn't allowed up long enough to bake and the diet nazi, a.k.a. my hubby, refused to buy me the cookies I wanted when he did the grocery shopping. He always told me I could thank him later when my ass didn't get too big. If it wasn't for the mom and mom-in-law coming down to help every week or two I would have been completely cookie deprived.

Now that my ass is back to its pre-pregnancy size, thanks to cookie and juice deprivation, I feel it is necessary to welcome fall with baking and some overdue cookie indulgence. Mom's group is also a good excuse to bake. This week I relied on my old standard, the very first cookie I learned how to bake: Chocolate Chip Slab Cookies. Yup, one giant, crumbly, buttery, and rich cookie. It is also the easiest cookie you will ever make. No wonder my mom trusted the kitchen to me when I was only 8 or 9.

I cannot lay claim to this recipe, for it comes from "The Best of Bridge" series of cookbooks. I have made it for over 20 years now - for sleepovers when I was a kid, for chick flick nights in my youth, for break-ups and sad songs in my twenties, and for just about any other reason. Try it once and you will be making it every time you just feel like some cookies. You can even halve the recipe, just bake it in a small, square pan instead.

Chocolate Chip Slab Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease a 9 by 13 pyrex or simple cake pan.

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
chocolate chips, M&Ms, skor bits, etc.

1. Cream together butter and suger.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Beat in flour, 1 cup at a time. Mixture will be slightly crumbly.
4. Stir in chocolate chips or other treat.
5. Pour all the batter into the greased pan and pat flat with your fingers. Personally, I also sample a little bit of the cookie dough at this point.
6. Bake in oven for 18-25 minutes until lightly browned.
7. Let cool 10 minutes then slice into bars.

The cooking time will vary depending on the pan you use and your oven. Please, please let them cool before you dig in. I can't tell you how many time my impatience resulted in a burnt tongue from molten chocolate.

Happy Baking!