One last Picnic

 Pssssssssssssst!  Hey, you!  Let's go on a picnic .. a secret supper picnic while the sun still sets after 6pm and the wind is warm and not frosty cold.  Let's pick a park, pack some food, strap on our bike helmets and go. After all, it is the unofficial end of summer, and who wants to spend labour day moping about that?  Certainly not me!  So let's do it!

We can have this warm coucous salad to use up all our summer veggies, or maybe this perfect summer pasta salad with fresh dill? Oh, we definitely have to have potato salad -- so why not try this one, with tons of fresh herbs, a lemony vinaigrette and French twist?

If you want to get more elaborate, we could make this spicy oven fried chicken to have with all of our salads, or maybe something a little more fancy and delicate, likes these vegan cucumber and avocado tea sandwiches.

And what should we have to drink? While I'm partial to coffee all day any day, maybe it's better if we stick to something that won't keep us up all night .. after all, it's back to work tomorrow. How about this blackberry limeade. It would be perfect -- I just a saw blackberries at the market! And dessert? That's too hard! There are just too many picnic perfect desserts. But let's go with something simple, like a cookie .. My lavender on the balcony is thriving, so let's bring these lemon lavender cookies and maybe this chocolate cake, since chocolate is always necessary.

Yay, let's do it!  Let's have a last-day-of-summer picnic ...

Who am I kidding? This is so not happening. I still have 6 seating plans to figure out, a batch of granola to bake, and lunch to figure out for the next 4 days. But we can dream can't we?  If you're like me, and dream of being the care-free picnic type, but are pulled in by the too-many-things to do before work begins again, then let's talk for real.  For real, I'll settle for a piece of this impossibly healthy blueberry banana bread and a cup of jasmine tea. For real, I'll be perfectly happy enjoying it while I make up my seating plans, stir granola and get psyched up for tomorrow. For real, I'll be more than happy to enjoy a slice of this guiltless treat on the streetcar ride home tomorrow. And for real, yes for real, I'm super excited about the new school year, especially if it starts off with bananas, blueberries, oats and feeling awesome.

Vegan Banana Blueberry Bread
adapted from A Cozy Kitchen and Love and Lemons
makes one loaf

2 medium super ripe bananas, mashed
1 tablespoon of canola oil
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of almond milk + a squeeze of lemon juice (or 1/2 teaspoon of cider vinegar)
a splash of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 pint of fresh blueberries

1. In large bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, oil, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Add the oats and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

2. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda and mix until just combine. Carefully fold in the blueberries.

3. Pour the batter in a greased loaf tin and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the top gets nice and brown, and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

4. Cool well before slicing .. if you don't, you'll get a slice that's goopy -- delicious, but goopy.

Tea Time Blueberry Cake

Hello there. Are you enjoying the summer? Specifically, are you enjoying the summer fruit? I hope so. This first month of my summer has been uncharacteristically busy -- an out-of-the norm for me. Usually when school ends, I spend a good week and a half doing nothing and mulling about, reminiscing and baking scones or making a treat for a road trip. Not this year. Boo hoo.

But I did make cake. A wonderful, hearty, spelt and blueberry tea cake, sweetened with dark maple syrup and made with the season's first Ontario blueberries. I obsess over berries each summer, and in the fall, I always regret not eating more. Berries are so fleeting and will always be. And even though I know the best way to eat these local delights is to just enjoy them straight up, I can never resist baking up batches of goodies studded with ripe, local fruit. This cake is no different. It's a very simple, no fuss cake, adapted from one of Heidi's recipes at 101 Cookbooks. Her version uses huckleberries and includes a little crumble topping. Seeing as I've never seen a huckleberry here in Ontario before, I decided that blueberries would have to do, and although I love crumble topping, I skipped it for a more wholesome, breakfast friendly-version of this cake. Heidi also included some fresh rosemary and thyme in her cake and I loved the idea of herbs adding that little something extra to a dessert. I followed her lead with the thyme, as each summer they grow like mad on the balcony and I feel bad if I don't use them up, but instead of the rosemary, I added some fresh lavender leaves which perfumed the cake ever-so-slightly -- perfect with the floral, fruity berries.

While making this cake, I thought about one summer when my sister drove my best friend and I to a farm just north of the city, and we spent the afternoon in the sun, picking blueberries and raspberries. When I sampled the blueberries I bought for this cake, the whole day came flooding back to my mind -- the hot, dusty drive out of town, the sun on the back of my neck as we stooped over the pick our berry treasures, the way I giggled when a farm boy with an accent handed me my blended lemonade and grilled corn on the cob, the rustic, touristic feel inside the gift shop where you could buy jams, pies, and other assorted goodies, and the way my best friend giggled at me when I bought honey-roasted soybeans of all things at the shop and snacked on them all the way home in the car. Gosh, that was a good 7 or 8 years ago, but I remember it so clearly.

I'm not sure if there will be road trips, berry picking or dusty car rides into farm land this year. But there will be cake, there's already been lots of coffee, and there will always be giggles and good times.

Happy Summer. I hope you're having a good one .. and I hope it lasts forever ...

Maple Blueberry Tea Cake
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1/4 cup of spelt flakes
1/3 cup of skim milk yogurt
zest and juice of one lemon
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of dark maple syrup (grade B amber)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of canola oil
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
5-6 fresh lavender leaves, finely chopped
1 cup of spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of fresh blueberries, washed

1. In a large bowl, combine the spelt flakes, lemon juice and zest and yogurt. Stir well and let it sit for 10 minutes before adding the egg, maple syrup, vanilla and canola oil. Mix well.

2. Add the thyme and lavender and sift in the flour, baking soda and powder. Mix until just combined. Add the blueberries and give it one final mix.

3. Pour your batter into a baking pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until the cake tester inserted comes out clean and the top of the cake is springy when you touch it.

4. Serve with tea, coffee or big dollop of yogurt and more fresh berries for breakfast!

Blueberry Crisp for Grandma

I love making treats for my Grandma.  She's usually not a sweet dessert kind of person, but she enjoys treats and today was the perfect day to make something in her honour.  Every year on mother's day, my Mom is usually away on vacation, so we celebrate mother's day and father's day together when she gets back.  But on mother's day, we also take the time to chill out with our Grandma -- a very special person indeed.  She raised us when we were little and our Dad was working the night shift and our Mom had to go back to work. She picked us up from school, made us breakfast and lunch, and played silly games with us during our summer vacation.

My Grandma has been feeling sick lately, so she didn't feel like going to a restaurant for mother's day brunch.  We brought brunch to her this year, and this fresh blueberry crisp was the perfect way to end it. Truth be told, I really wanted to bake something with rhubarb, but our local markets didn't have any, so I settled for nice pints of sweet, floral blueberries.  I wanted to maintain the freshness of the fruit -- I've tried too many crisps and crumbles where the fruit is jammy and super sweet, not something my Grandma would appreciate.  So I kept everything simple -- no cornstarch or thickeners, just fresh fruit, lemon juice and zest and a sprinkling of sweetness.  The crisp topping baked up in nice lovely crumble chunks with an added nuttiness from the use of spelt flour.  It was a lemony, fresh, just sweet enough crisp, perfect to end mother's day brunch.  It we had a bit of fresh thyme, I'd throw some in for sure, and it were Ontario peach season, I'd definitely consider a peach and blueberry crisp.  But it's perfect as it is, and Grandma loved it, which was the most important part.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lemony Blueberry Crisp
serves 4-6

1 pint of fresh blueberries, washed
juice and zest of 1 lemon, divided
1 tablespoon of natural cane sugar
1/2 cup of spelt flour
3/4 cup of rolled oats
3 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of canola oil

1.  In a baking dish, combine the blueberries, sugar and half the lemon juice and zest.  Toss lightly.  Set aside.

2.  In a bowl, stir together the flour, oats and the other half of the lemon zest.  Add the lemon juice, oil and honey and mix well.

3.  Crumble the oat mixture over the fruit and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the fruit just starts to bubble and the topping gets nice and golden.

4.  The dessert begs for ice cream or whipped cream, but if you eat it on it's own, you could definitely call it breakfast!

It can't be over yet!

There are still mountains and juicy peaches and baskets overflowing with blueberries spilling over everything in the market. We had a humidex advisory warning yesterday. Summer can't be over yet ... can it? I know, I just baked autumnal cookies and put on a sweater when I got up one morning, but I can change my mind, can't I?



Yup, I just did. Even though I'm fully going back to work on Tuesday, I'm going to hang on to summer for as long as I can, even if it's just for the fruit. Two weeks ago, I went to a local farmer's market and bought my third yellow watermelon of the season. I swore it would be my last watermelon of the summer. I was walking through Kensington market on Friday, and what did I see on sale? Watermelons. Yup, it's cut up in my fridge as we speak. And yesterday when we biked past another little market with baskets upon baskets of BC blueberries on sale, how could I resist?


It was humid, and sticky and smoggy yesterday, and so we stayed inside for much of the day. We made blueberry preserves with some of our findings, and froze a little bag to surprise ourselves in the dead of winter when summer berries are but a fading memory. And we also sacrificed a few, just a few, to make this beautiful peach and blueberry breakfast bake. It's lemony and summery and very light. If you're looking for a traditional crisp or crumble, you may be disappointed. There are no buttery clumps of crumble goodness -- I save that for the apple crumble later when fall really rolls around. But this, no. This is the perfect breakfast treat. The fruit is heated just until it softens up and starts oozing those lovely summery fruit juices. There's no flour or corn starch like in traditional pies or crumbles; those fruit juices and set free. Everything is kissed with lemon, and topped with a wholesome crispy topping sweetened with pure maple syrup. With a big spoon of yogurt and nice strong coffee, this is the perfect way to celebrate summer .. summer that's NOT over just yet.

Peach and Blueberry Breakfast Bake
serves 4

1 cup of blueberries, rinsed
2 peaches, pitted and chopped
2 teaspoons of sugar
zest and juice and half a lemon
1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 cup of ground almonds
3 tablespoons of maple syrup


1. Toss the fruit in sugar, zest and half the lemon juice. Pour into a pie pan or baking dish.

2. Mix together the ground almonds and oats. Add the rest of the lemon juice and maple syrup. With a fork, gentle mix until everything gets sticky and moistened.

3. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until the top of brown and crispy and the fruit juices have just started the bubble. Enjoy warm with summer's arm around your shoulder.

Letting Summer Go ...

I know, I know. I've lamented about the loss of summer more than once. But .. but .. it's just that I'm so relaxed in the summer, and there seems to be so much more time to just be. Like every other summer, this once seemed to fly by. It was like all of July, I spent anticipating our trip to Moncton, and then once we got back, all I could do was think about school starting and counting the days till the end of freedom. Well, my friends, September has finally arrived and summer, for me at least, has come to an end.

But I'm not crying, because this summer has been one of the best and most exciting. I have one last summer story post for you coming up next week, but for now, I'll keep it short and sweet and present to you ... some beer bread. But this is not just ANY beer bread -- it's fruity, summery, memory-inducing beer bread, made first with Pump House Blueberry Ale that my best friend brought over one weekend as a funny surprise. Her and my partner drank quite a few of these when we were in Moncton. Over there, it was the specialty, brewed in downtown Moncton. It even had a little restaurant attached to the brewery called The Pump House.

A little research brought me to this wonderful blog, Farmgirl Fare, where I saw her recipe for whole wheat beer bread. I used the blueberry ale and added in a handful of fresh Ontario blueberries for good measure. It smelled wonderful in the oven, and even better when it came out. The blueberries had exploded and turned jammy and beautiful and I could definitely taste that slightly bitter tang from the beer. The texture was hearty and dense, as expected from a beer bread, but a little bit too moist and sticky. The next time I tried it, I used KLB Raspberry Wheat Beer and, you guessed it, fresh local raspberries provided by my sister's CSA. This time, I baked it a little longer and the texture was definitely better.

Don't be scared of bread. Go ahead and bake some. Use a fancy beer and throw in some fruit. Hey .. you could even try chocolate beer bread and use chocolate stout .. oh my ...

Fruity Beer Bread
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of honey
7 ounces of fruity beer (that's about 3/4 of the bottle)
a handful of berries to match the beer, washed and patted dry

1. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the honey on top of the dry ingredients.

2. Open a bottle of fruity beer. Take a biiiig gulp. Pour the rest of the bottle into the other ingredients and stir gently until everything comes together in a sticky, thick batter. Add the berries and mix them in.

4. Pour in a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, and the top has browned every so slightly. Best served warm with a cup of coffee.

We made JAM!!!!!

Ok, so there are some things that I will readily try in the kitchen -- basically anything vegetarian, anything soup/stew-like and most baked things. There are certain things that I almost always stay away from: complicated, multi-step, multi-layered desserts (although for a special loved one's birthday cake, I'd go all the way!), puffed pastry and canning/preserving. I thought by starting this blog, I would get motivated to conquer some of my kitchen fears. And I have! I've made rolled-out cookies which I'd never attempted before out of pure laziness, pizza dough involving yeast, which frightens me to bits (post coming soon!) and most recently ... JAM!! Yup, we made JAM!

When blueberry season came about and my loving partner shared fond memories of his grandmother making fruit preserves, I just had to give it a try. So, I sucked up my fears and we went shopping. 2 pints of blueberries and 4 cute little mason jars later and I was in front of the computer looking up recipes. And boy are there a lot! I wasn't so concerned about the ingredients; I was more worried about the method. All that talk of sterilizing the jars and different methods to make that little suction button on the lid pop so you'd know it was properly preserved, almost made me change my mind. But, I pressed onward! After a few searches, I came up with a recipe and method that I felt comfortable with.


The first thing we did: reduce the sugar. Geez! In one recipe, it called for 2 cups of sugar for 1.5 pints of berries. Ok, ok. Jam is supposed to be sweet, but this would be jam OUR way: fruity, lemony and just sweet enough to take away the puckering reflex. Yum! Next, we kind of combined the freezer method with the normal preserving method due to the fact that I am soooo paro of getting botched. We sterilized by putting the jars and lids in the oven on low heat, but when it came to activating the vacuum seal, I cringed at the thought of immersing them in boiling water .. BUT! I discovered this crazy-wonderful blog "My Sister's Kitchen," where they made pectin-free jam, AND they sealed the jars using a simple method: they turned the jars upside-down, let them sit, turned them right-side up again and left them alone. Fifteen minutes later and poof! Sealed. Did it work? Like a charm! Am I still paro! Yup! So I stuck our preserves in the freezer. Oh well. Maybe when we return from our week in Moncton (!!!) we'll make peach preserves, or sour cherry preserves and I'll have the guts to leave them unfrozen.

So ... if you were EVER scared of making preserves, don't fret! Just do it! It's easy! See you next Wednesday!

Tart Blueberry Preserves - makes 4 little jars
with help from Ina Garten and My Sister's Kitchen

2 pints of blueberries
zest and juice of one lemon
1/3 cup of sugar
4 x 125ml mason jars

** This makes a very lemony, tart preserve. Add sugar to your liking. Also, it doesn't set up like a jam or jelly, but it definitely thickens well and is totally spreadable

1. Wash and pick through your blueberries carefully. Put them in a large pot with the lemon juice, zest and sugar.

2. Simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the berries breakdown and the liquids have thicken to coat the back of a spoon.

3. While your berries are simmering, prepare your jars. Place the jars and lids (seal side up) on a sheet pan, making sure they don't touch each other, and place in a 175 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

4. When the berries are done, spoon them into the hot jars, making sure that you don't fill the jars all the way up (especially if you're putting them in the freezer .. fill them about 2/3 of the way). Using tongs, carefully place the lids over the jars and twist on the outer part of the cap. Immediately turn them upside down and let them sit for about 10 minutes. Turn them back over and let them sit for an additional 5 minutes, or until all the vacuum seals have activated (the top of the lids are all popped down).

5. YAY!! You just made JAM!! Woo hoo!!

Blueberries + Lime = A 94th Celebration

Birthdays are a very particular thing in my family. There's a certain series of events that take place -- that ALWAYS take place without variation. First, the whole family goes out to dinner at a Chinese (HAS to be Chinese) restaurant, and then everyone goes home for presents, singing (YES .. STILL), pictures and cake.

Yes ... the cake. When we were little we used to pick out a cake at a bakery in Chinatown, and then pretend that we loved it because our dear parents had bought it for us. But let's face it. If you've ever had Chinatown cake, you'll know it's not something to write home about. Yes, it's very pretty. Sure, it's relatively inexpensive, and of course, they can write your grandma's name in Chinese upon request. But other than that, what is it really? Dry, flavourless sponge, canned fruits, and an very strange frosting that's oily, not sweet and leaves a funny coating in your mouth. To this day, I wonder what goes into that frosting..

For years and years we ate the cake and told ourselves that it was delicious. Then, one day, my sister and I decided that we had had enough. No more Chinatown cake. I was going to take it upon myself to MAKE everyone's birthday cake. I think the first one I made was for my partner in crime, my sister. It was a chocolately, moussey mess, but it sure tasted a whole lot better than Chinatown cake. And I'm proud to say that even as I've grown up, I still continue to take requests and bake everyone's birthday cake.

Yesterday my dear, sweet grandma turned 94, yes ninety-four, quatre-vingt-quatorze. 29 years ago, she left everything in her home country and flew thousands of miles to come and take care of my sister and I while our parents returned to work. She toilet-trained us, made us breakfast every morning, played the "groom" in our wedding games when my sister and I couldn't decide who would be the boy, and gave us unfaltering love in the way that only grandmas can do. I'm not sure if my grandma knows how much I love her and appreciate her (my Cantonese has gone downhill ever since my first day in kindergarten), but I hope she does, and I hope that she had a nice birthday yesterday. It was no different: dinner with everyone at a Chinese restaurant, home for presents, pictures .... and cake.

This year, it was a blueberry bottom cake scented with lime. I first saw a version of this cake at Everybody Likes Sandwiches and made it for my parents. I added lemon juice and zest instead of the vanilla and use blackberries as the original recipe calls for. This year, when I spotted 2 pints of blueberries (sadly non-local of course) in my parent's fridge and 10 limes that my Dad got on sale, I thought I'd switch up the original cake with these 2 new ingredients. It worked nicely, the lime giving the blueberries that little boost to make it taste totally tropical and not typical in the wacky month of March. The berries turned lovely and jammy and the cake was light and citrusy. And it pleased the crowd -- most importantly, it pleased my grandma. Happy Birthday, Poh-Poh!

Lime Scented Blueberry Cake

2 pints of blueberries
1/2 + 2 tablespoons of sugar
zest and juice of one lime
1/2 cup of margarine
1 large egg (or 2 tiny peewee eggs like I used)
1 cup of all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup of skim milk
1/4 cup of plain yogurt

1. Wash the blueberries and spread them out over a non-stick or buttered cake pan (6-8inches). Sprinke 2 tablespoons of sugar over it and add half the lime zest and juice. Toss around until everything is mixed and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the milk, yogurt, and rest of the lime juice and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the margarine, sugar and the rest of the lime zest until smooth. Beat in the egg(s) until light and fluffy. Add the baking soda and salt and mix well.

4. Alternately add the sifted flour and the milk mixture to the egg mixture . Mix until blended -- careful not to overmix.

5. Pour the batter over the blueberries and spread it out evenly.

6. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, and the top is golden brown and the blueberries have just started to spill over the top of the cake.

7. Serve warm (although it's still delicious at room temperature).