Category: Desserts

Quest for the Best Banana Bread – Ontario Style

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Like the Falls, our quest keeps on going.

It’s back! Our quest for the best banana bread. This is our sixth installment and we still have a few more recipes to go.  Tonight’s Canadian version was sent to us by A_Boleyn and adapted from Edna Staebler’s Food That Really Schmecks. Edna Staebler is a Canadian author, known for a series of cookbooks which are based on Mennonite home cooking from the Waterloo region of Ontario. It only seemed fitting to include this recipe while we’re on our Ontario cooking adventure.

The recipe began in a familiar way. We creamed the shortening, eggs and sugar in a bowl.

My little sous chef was on hand as usual for the banana bread. She’ll be able to make this stuff in her sleep soon! Continue reading →

In Case You Weren’t Sold on the Blueberry Sauce

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I had planned to save my favorite Maine recipe for last. You know that old save the best for last thing, but this dish is just too good to hold back, and more importantly it goes perfectly with the blueberry sauce.  I’m calling it a handmade shortbread, which I again adapted from the cabin’s cookbook Lobster Rolls & Blueberry Pie by Rebecca Charles and Deborah DiClementi.

This recipe comes from the author’s grandmother, so I didn’t change-up the ingredients too much. I mean who am I to mess with a grandma’s recipe. In my experience, they know their stuff. Really the biggest change I made was in the preparation. The book uses a mixer to create the shortbread, but given the ingredients’ similarity to a pie crust and my love for making them…I decided to make this one by hand.

I started by cutting up two sticks of unsalted butter and sifting together the dry ingredients. The key here is to use room temperature butter for the shortbread.  Continue reading →

Shhh! We’re Looking for Moose. (And Eating Blueberries.)

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Shhh! No one make a sound!

Can something so good be so easy? Yes. So easy in fact, that every night we were in Maine, after the kids went to sleep — usually after a short drive to “look for moose” or “watch the sunset” since that was the only way we could get Miss A to fall asleep — I made dessert. As parents, when you’re on family vacations, you do what you need to in order to get your kids to sleep and enjoy a few hours of alone time; even if that means driving for an hour at dusk because otherwise you’ll be awake with a three-year old until midnight. After that night, we took no chances.

Prior to our visit to the Pine Tree State I could take or leave blueberries. I typically only eat them in yogurt parfait. The kids on the other hand, love blueberries. They’d eat them straight-up at every meal if they could. So since blueberries grow wild all over Down East Maine and the kids love them, I figured I’d feature them in a few desserts. The first one I tried was again inspired by the book, Lobster Rolls & Blueberry Pie by Rebecca Charles and Deborah Di Clementi – Blueberry Sauce. Continue reading →

A Little Therapy for Mom

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While it always feels good to return home after a vacation, it also takes a few days to get back into the swing of things. We’ve got laundry to catch up on, groceries to shop for, friends and family to catch up with, sleep schedules to readjust, cats to clean up after (apparently they were having quite the party without us) and loads of work and bills to catch up on. Fortunately we have some good memories to get us through – that and pie crust.

Pie crusts, for me, are therapy. I’m not sure what it is about rolling out a fresh crust, but it’s something I’ve enjoyed since we were first married. My first crust was a butter and shortening crust, but once I started making my Grandma’s blackberry cobbler, I began working with the double shortening crust. Pie crusts challenge me every time, give a true sense of accomplishment and most importantly, make for amazing desserts. They are also something that I like to tackle alone. Just me and the pie crust.

I start by sifting together the flour, salt and sugar and slicing in chunks of vegetable shortening.

Continue reading →

Quest for the Best Banana Bread – Tropical Twist

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A few weeks ago, when we were cooking our “tropical” recipes from Florida and Bermuda, we decided to try a tropical twist version of banana bread. This version is very different from any of those we tried before and when I saw it on Katerina’s blog, Diethood, I knew we had to add it to our quest.

Miss A, my banana bread assistant chef, was at the ready with her pastry blender to sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

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Miss A’s Dream Come True

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It’s time for the birthday girl’s dessert and you’ll never guess what we found. Remember that Miss A requested (well, okay rather demanded) cookies for her birthday? Well when I pressed her on what kind of cookies she wanted she said, “balsamic cookies.” Mr. N thought she was out of her mind and was horrified at the thought, but Miss A kept insisting on balsamic cookies. So I did a search, and do you know what I found? Not just balsamic cookies, but Chocolate Balsamic Cookies! I thought Miss A was going to fall off her chair she was so excited – chocolate and balsamic and a cookie!

She most definitely was on hand to help (and sample) this recipe! First we sifted together the flour, salt and baking soda.

Continue reading →