Grey Cup Sunday Snack

My mom always made Nuts & Bolts on Grey Cup Sunday. Although my dad may have watched the game, we were not a family of football fans. She got the recipe from a friend and I suspect she simply adopted the tradition of making Nuts and Bolts the last weekend of November along with it. Making Nuts & Bolts usually coincided with the first of the Christmas baking and, for me, signalled that the holidays were coming soon!

I’m carrying on the tradition, even though I don’t care for football. The recipe is nothing fancy or refined, but the result is fun. Everyone loves snacking on Nuts & Bolts! Over the next month, the mix will make a handy bring-a-long when David and I visit friends and become part of homemade edible gifts.

Recipe: Nuts & Bolts

This recipe is my adaptation of the original. Even so, I still vary the quantities. I think the important thing is to find the right balance between the cereals, pretzels and nuts – I measure by eye. I indicate the amounts I actually used following each ingredient.  This recipe makes enough snack mix to fill a 10L container. It is easiest to bake in 2-3 large roasting pans.

1 small package Cheerios ( I used about 2/3 of it)
1 small package Shreddies (I used about 2/3 of it)
1 bag (400 g)  pretzel sticks (I didn’t use all of them, there was a good handful left in the bag)
3 lbs. mixed nuts (I made my own mix of almonds, pecans, peanuts and hazelnuts. I may have put more than 3 pounds… I didn’t measure at all!)
2 tbsp marjoram
1 tbsp summer savory
2 tsp smoked salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp cayenne
½ c. butter, cut up into small pieces

Ready to bake: homemade Nuts & Bolts snack mix.

Preheat oven to 250°F.

Mix together seasonings in a small bowl. Combine Cheerios, Shreddies, pretzel sticks and nuts in the roasting pans. Make sure the mix is evenly distributed among the pans. Dot with butter. Sprinkle with seasoning.

Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours – I find that after 1 hour in my oven, the nuts are just lightly roasted – mixing every 10 minutes. The seasoning falls to the bottom of the pan, so frequent mixing ensures it is evenly distributed.  Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.

J’adore Edgar

I feel an inexplicable connection to Edgar, a new neighbourhood café near Parc Moussette in Hull.

Maybe it’s because I have my own dream of opening a little hospitality-related place, something like a bed & breakfast. Since I discovered in late September that Marysol of she eats bears was opening a café, I watched with admiration and anticipation as she made one of her dreams come true. It takes courage to do that. And smarts. And perseverance. I wish her success. Based on the buzz around the café’s opening, the growing chorus of glowing reviews, the packed tables, and sold-out menu items, I have no doubt she will be successful!

Maybe it’s also because I’d like to create a connection to Marysol herself. I barely know her, but she seems like the kind of person I’d like to get to know better – Someone down-to-earth who shares a passion for good food. Luckily now I can go to Edgar, and if it’s not super busy, chat a little. She already gave me a baking tip the other day!

In any case, the strongest connection is the tangible one. It’s going into a chic little café,  feeling the positive energy, and being greeted with a warm smile. Of course, there’s the delicious food – homemade with love.

Some tools of the trade. Where good food is made.

Small stylish interior with a selection of homebaked sweets including the infamous brioche in the background. My order disappeared too quickly to be photographed!

I’ve tried several of Marysol’s creations, all fresh, flavourful and prepared with flair: cheddar and apple panini with caramelized onions (sweet and savoury harmony), Vietnamese sandwich (crisp and delicately spicy), breakfast wrap with egg, goat cheese, bacon, mushrooms and greens (fresh yet hearty), date and bacon brioche with orange glaze (sweet originality made better with bacon), Edgar bar (curiously nutty and delicious), and the apple-pecan muffin (wholesome caramel-y goodness). The coffee is good too! Edgar serves my ideal cappuccino: a “small” cup with perfect proportions of coffee, milk, and foam.

Fresh flowers, just one of the pleasant little details at Edgar.

Why I ♥ Edgar

• Soups, sandwiches and sweets are made from scratch, with love and local ingredients (sometimes from her own backyard).
• Creative flavour combinations. There’s some serious tastiness coming out of the tiny kitchen.
• Menu changes every day based on what’s fresh, the season and the inspiration du jour. I love handwritten menu on chalkboards!
• Everything is served with a smile.
• The cash receipt reads “miam miam miam.” Oh, how true!
• Fresh frozen soups and meals to go.
• Simple, stylish and cozy interior.
• Marysol’s blog makes my mouth water – tasty recipes and beautiful pictures – and you can see how Edgar took shape.
• Edgar is just off the Voyageurs bike path in Gatineau, a short ride from Wellington West and Westboro!

Things to be aware of:

• Go early (especially if you’re looking to try the infamous brioche)! On busy days, Edgar will sell out.
• Be prepared to take your order to go. It’s not unusual to find all 11 seats taken.

Post-Halloween Pumpkin Muffins

I never knew my husband was such a fan of Halloween. Maybe it’s because we spent several years living abroad where there was no Halloween. Since we moved to Ottawa though, the collection of Halloween decorations has grown slowly and David gets quite excited about handing out treats to the neighbourhood kids. He’s also the official pumpkin carver.

One of David's pumpkin creations!

This year he carved four pumpkins, one big one and three small ones. The small pumpkins were actually pie pumpkins and we still had two whole ones left. I steamed them, then pureed and froze the flesh, save for a 1/2 cup which I used to make these pleasantly warming and delicately flavourful muffins. Perfect for this time of year!

Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin-Date Muffins

Adapted from a recipe in A Taste of Canada: A Culinary Journey.

Wet:
1 egg
½ cup milk
1/3 cup yoghurt
¼ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup pureed pumpkin

Dry:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ cup ground flax seed*
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cardamom
2/3 cup chopped dates (12 dates) + 2 dates sliced lengthwise into 5 pieces each (for “pretty”  topping)
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line/grease 10 muffin cups.

In a bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients in a second bowl. The chopped dates will tend to stick together. With your fingers separate them once they are in the flour mixture; coating each piece with the flour mixture will prevent them from sticking together.  Pour wet ingredients into dry, and blend until flour mixture is just moistened.

Fill muffin cups. Decorate with a piece of date. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

*If you leave out the ground flax seed, then reduce the yoghurt to a ¼ cup.

I Heart Fall Muffins

Although the exuberance of fall with its bright colours and crunchy leaves has already passed, the colourful fall harvest is still readily available. I like this time of year. The flavours become somewhat “heavier,” more concentrated, yet they’re still fresh and crisp. Apples and cranberries are among the iconic fall produce.

Apple crates at Dupont Circle market in Washington D.C..

Sea of red… cranberries!

Apples and cranberries are also a classic seasonal combination. Here they are in a muffin, which combines fresh and dried cranberries, and also incorporates healthy hemp hearts.

Recipe: I ♥ Fall Muffins (aka Apple-Cranberry Muffins)

Hemp hearts have a delicate nutty flavour and are a good source of Omega 3 and 6 essential fats. Health food stores are most likely to stock hemp hearts; a popular brand is Manitoba Harvest.

Wet:
1 egg
¼ cup milk
½ cup yoghurt
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups apple, coarsely grated (2 medium apples)

Dry:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ cup hemp hearts
½ cup dried cranberries
¾ cup fresh cranberries
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line/grease 10-12 muffin cups.

In a bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients in a second bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and blend until flour mixture is just moistened.

Fill muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

U-pick apples in Rougemont, Québec.

Bird’s eye view of cranberry bogs in Richmond, B.C..

Fall colours in my neighbourhood.

Leeks: Kitchen Delight Despite Gardening Failure

Love this photograph by Charles Jones.

I know I’m doing something wrong. For two years now I’ve tried – operative word – to grow leeks. Both times, they’ve started off looking good, yet ended up rotting in the ground by mid-July.

Too much water, unsuitable soil, planted too deep or not deep enough? Some quick research suggests I should plant them deeper and build up the earth around the leeks as they grow. I’ll have to try again next year. Hopefully I’ll get lucky the third time around.

I won’t let my leek gardening failure prevent me from buying leeks and cooking with them though. Recently eaten at my table:

Leek, sweet potato and barley soup.

Papet vaudois, a typical hearty Swiss dish.

Papet vaudois is leek, potato and saucisson vaudois, a special sausage originally made in the French-speaking canton Vaud. The leek and potato are really just a vehicle for the sausage! I’ve found a high-quality and authentic version at Au Saucisson Vaudois, an artisanal charcuterie in Saint-Brigide, Quebec.

Leek and goat cheese quiche.

Recipe: Leek and Goat Cheese Quiche

This is one of my favourites! The recipe is adapted from “Mosimann’s Vegetarishe Küche,” a vegetarian cookbook by Swiss chef Anton Mosimann. Makes one 9-inch quiche (with some pastry dough left over).

1 recipe pastry dough
1 leek, halved lengthwise, sliced (white and green parts) into 1/2″ pieces and washed
1-2 tbsp olive oil
125 g ripened goat cheese (I used Le cendrillon, the not ash-covered one)
2 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp chopped thyme
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Prepare pastry dough. (Since pastry dough recipes usually call for a ½ cup of butter, so I keep pre-measured pieces in the freezer. I make the dough without a food processor and grate the frozen butter into the flour, a trick I picked up from one of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s HomeBaking cookbook). Roll out dough, line a 9-inch pan (I use one with a removable bottom) and blind bake the crust. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Saute prepared leek in olive oil for 10 minutes or until just tender. Let cool.

Combine eggs, cream, sour cream and seasonings. Crumble goat cheese into the egg mixture.

Distribute the leek over the bottom of the pre-baked crust. Pour egg and goat cheese mixture over the leek.

Bake 30-40 minutes until filling is firm and golden. Allow filling to settle before serving. Serve warm.