Have you ever had the experience where a million people will come and ask you if you’ve seen a movie that you haven’t seen and then they will proceed to tell you why you should see it?

Everyone around you is talking about the movie, raving about the movie, asking you why in the world you still haven’t seen the movie so much so that you decide not to see the movie because even though you haven’t seen it, you already know you’ll hate it.

Simply by virtue of the fact that everybody else loves it.

Ever had that happen?

That’s what happend to me and the movie While You Were Sleeping.

And also, shortcakes with strawberries.

The entire world saw and loved While You Were Sleeping in 1995. Except for me.

The entire world has had shortcakes with strawberries (or at least it seems that way). Except for me.

This morning my mother and I went strawberry picking and I swear it was the last straw.

As we walked to the car with our pails of strawberries I think I heard about 4,000 comments about strawberries and shortcakes.

Enough is enough. Even I know when to throw in the towel.

I came home, cleaned strawberries for hours, made jam and then I did it.

I made shortcakes with strawberries. To be perfectly accurate, I made biscuits with strawberries and cream.

Okay. I get it. I finally get it.

Strawberries + shortcakes + cream = deliciousness.

Happy now?!

By the way, somewhere between 1998-2000 I finally saw While You Were Sleeping and loved it.

Happy now?!

Ciao!

Strawberries with Cream and Biscuits

Note: I’m going to do a separate post about the biscuits that I used for my version of this classic. If you don’t have a great shortcake recipe, try this one or this one.

1 cup sliced strawberries mixed with a bit of sugar and lemon juice
1 cup whipped cream
4 biscuits

Split the biscuits in half and put them on a plate.
Pile one half of the biscuit high with cream
Spoon on some strawberries and top with the other biscuit half and serve.
Enjoy!

Television, in the general sense, is disappointing to me.

As a child, it seemed that there was an endless lineup of programs to entertain me. Of course I wasn’t allowed to watch most of them.

But as an adult, with all the freedom in the world to watch whatever I want, I expect quality when I hunker down on the couch and turn on the telly.

Sadly, there is less and less of that. If it weren’t for my beloved hockey games from October to June (really … time to end the Stanley Cup playoffs a tad sooner) and the occasional CBC program that is not-to-be-missed (Hello there, Miss Marple!), I doubt I’d watch any television at all.

Even the Food Network is disappointing these days.

This must explain why I have grappled on to True Blood the way a lost ship yearns for the lighthouse.

Forgive the melodrama. It’s Bill’s fault. Or maybe Eric’s … hmmm …

I’m not afraid to admit it. I like the bloodsuckers and all the raunchy, raucous and hilarious background noise they bring with them in this program.

After baking a batch of red velvet cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, I suddenly thought of the show and was inspired to add a bloody accoutrement.

Fresh strawberry sauce.

This isn’t about the cupcakes or the frosting, really.

This is about the glorious red sauce that had me thinking of Sunday nights and HBO.

True Blood. True telly love.

Ciao!

Cream Puff’s Favourite Strawberry Sauce
My own creation.

1 cup fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and cut into quarters or halves (depending on how big they are)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar (I don’t like sweet strawberry sauce, but you can always add more sugar if you like)
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a large skillet or shallow pot.

Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low.

Let simmer until the strawberries are cooked through and begin to fall apart when pressed with a spoon or fork (about 10 minutes). A lot of the liquid will evaporate but the sauce will still be fairly liquid (don’t let it get too dry or you’ll end up with a gummy strawberry paste - add more water if necessary).

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Use immediately or refrigerate and use cold. The sauce should keep for several days in the refrigerator.

Note: Feel free to flavour the sauce with vanilla sugar or something stronger … wink wink … nudge nudge.

I’m back with one of my favourite Magazine Mondays post in a long time.

This recipe hasn’t been bookmarked for very long. I was sitting on the subway a few weeks ago, on the ride home, trying not to nod off. I pulled out the April 2009 issue of Bon Appétit and on page 23, saw a recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Tarts with Crème Fraîche Sorbet. I immediately knew I had to try the recipe for two reasons: 1) I still had a package of frozen strawberries and rhubarb from last summer in the freezer and 2) I was recently looking through David Lebovitz’s Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments
and had my eye on a recipe for Crème Fraîche Ice Cream. That same night I was happily rolling out tart crusts and making the custard base for the ice cream.

I have a thing for strawberry and rhubarb. I’m always looking for the perfect strawberry-rhubarb tart recipe and I think I may have found it. These were delicious and the tangy ice cream was the perfect complement.

A bit of bad news though … I can’t seem to find the recipe for the tarts on-line! It’s on p. 23 of the magazine but it’s not on-line yet. And even worse … I don’t know what I did with the magazine!!! I’ll keep looking for the recipe on-line and link to it if it shows up.

While this wasn’t by any means one of the oldest magazine recipes lingering in my pile, I’m sure glad I tried it! Fingers crossed that I can find that recipe.

Here are all the people that joined me in making a dent in their magazine piles:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Ricotta Cookies.

Tamy of 3sidesofcrazy made Glazed Green Beans.

Emiglia of Tomato Kumato made Spring Peas, Two Ways.

Mandi of Red Dirty Mummy made Currant and Hazelnut Baked Apples.

Elizabeth of The Waspy Redhead came in with two posts this week: Lemon Ginger Mini Cheesecakes and a Spinach and Leek Rolled Omelet.

Simone of Junglefrog Cooking made Ricotta and White Bean Salad.

Saliha of Hayat Binbircesni made Crackle Cookies!

Debbie of Taste of Sweetness made some incredible Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom and Sage Ragu.

Janie of Panini Girl made an Italian Chicken Salad.

Georgia of Oh Kitchen, What Won’t You Do? made a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich.

Joy from The Cooking of Joy made Coconut Lime Cakelets.

Nurit of 1 family. friendly. food. made Peas and Tarragon Soup. Gorgeous!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

There are many reasons to grow your own food. Some people do it as a hobby, some people do it for a living and some people do it because they believe it is the best way to ensure that the food they’re eating is the freshest and healthiest food available.

But I also happen to believe that growing your own food is deeply comforting.

I don’t think the scale on which you’re growing or gardening really matters. I think what matters is that when you put something into the soil and nurture it, in your own way your putting a little bit of love back into the world. And giving love is just as good as getting it.

If you’re getting a bit worried that the Cream Puff has gone all spiritual on you, don’t. These ruminations come about as a result of a two-month perusal of Jim Denevan’s excellent cookbook Outstanding in the Field: A Farm to Table Cookbook.

When I do a cookbook review, I like to take my time getting to know the book. I like to read it (or as much of it as I can). I pay attention to things like the binding and the quality of the paper (does the book lay flat when it’s open or do the pages flip over?). I like to read the directions to recipes and see if I can get it in the first read-through. In a nutshell, I like to get to know the book.

Based on my getting to know this book, I would say that we’ve become very close friends. Prior to receiving this cookbook, I’d never heard of Denevan. After a bit of research I found out that he’s a chef, but with a twist. Instead of operating a restaurant, Denevan brings the restaurant to the people by organizing huge outdoor meals that feature the freshest and most beautiful food available. He started an organization called Outstanding in the Field through which these incredible outdoor experiences are organized. Imagine a travelling restaurant showing up in your neighbourhood, setting up an enormous table and then inviting everyone in the neighbourhood to sit down together and enjoy the best of the local produce. What a way to honour all the incredible growers and food producers out there that are working their behinds off to keep the tradition of wholesome, good food alive!

As for the book, it’s just beautiful. Lots of colour photos and recipes that flow from one to the other seamlessly. The emphasis is not on complicated or fussy dishes but rather on simple, appealing cooking that relies entirely on fresh (and hopefully local) foods. There is also a strong sense of kinmanship with those among us who are food artisans. You know who I mean … those people that work like crazy to produce unbelievable cheese that no one knows about because too many of us are busy eating processed, fake cheese. Or that grower that’s singlehandedly brought all sorts of heirloom vegetable varieties back to the forefront.

I guess the point is that this food is beautiful and delicious and easy to grow and cook with.

And oh-so-comforting.

Ciao!

Note: The first two photographs feature a Fresh Strawberry Bavarian, which is made by combining strawberry puree, sugar and lemon with unflavoured gelatin dissolved in water. Some whipped cream is added and the bavarian is chilled overnight. The second photograph features a Corn Chowder with Marjoram, which is made by separate corn kernels from the cob. The cobs are then cooked in water for about an hour to create a vegetable stock. The kernels are sauteed with onion and carrot and diced potato. The stock is then added in and the mixture is cooked for a good 20 to 30 minutes. Puree half the mixture in the blender and then return to the remainder of the soup. What you end up with is a nice and chunky corn chowder. Don’t forget the marjoram!

Mirror mirror upon the wall,

Who is the fairest of all?

Hmmm … good question. This is the question that all Daring Bakers attempted to answer this month as we tackled our latest challenge: Strawberry Mirror Cake. Our host for the month is the prolific, brilliant and talented Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Not only is Peabody one of my very favourite blog bakers, she’s also a kindred hockey spirit. Being a good Canadian girl, I know I can turn to her whenever I need comfort.

I’m a Leafs fan. Trust me. I need lots of comfort.

Anyway, back to the Strawberry Mirror Cake. Prior to this challenge, I’d never heard of a mirror cake. Some lightweight searching on Google didn’t reveal very much so I decided to just go ahead and jump in and not worry too much about the details.

The one good thing about waiting until the very last minute to complete these challenges is that I get to read about the experiences of other Daring Bakers on our private blog. In particular, Lisa and Helene provided some excellent guidance.

The mirror cake started with a very basic sponge cake made of eggs, flour, vanilla extract, cream of tartar and sugar. The cake was baked in a jelly roll pan. Once done, I cut out two 8-1/4 inch disks of cake and wet them with a simple syrup flavoured with Kirsch. Based on the end result, I suspect I did not wet the cakes enough as they were a bit dry.

Once the cake disks were ready, I began preparing the strawberry Bavarian cream that would be the “filling and frosting” of the cake so-to-speak. The Bavarian cream consisted of unflavoured gelatin, strawberry puree, egg yolks, sugar, milk, lemon juice, red food colouring and heavy cream. It took me awhile to make the cream because I first had to puree strawberries and strain them. Then, I found that it took quite a while for the strawberry base of the cream to thicken. I began to panic a bit so started to add more ice cubes to the bowl of ice water that the cream was sitting in. This backfired on me as all of a sudden, the strawberry cream thickened too much. I proceeded with the recipe and whipped some heavy cream, which I then folded into the strawberry base. But my sense from the recipe, and also from other bloggers, is that the Bavarian cream should have been a bit more “pourable”, whereas mine was like a frosting.

No worries, though. It still tasted good. I placed one cake disk in the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan and covered it with half of the Bavarian cream, making sure to fill in all the gaps in the pan. I topped with a second cake disk and spread the remaining cream over and around the cake disk. I then popped my creation into the refrigerator to sit overnight and set.

The next morning, I had some errands to run so I actually asked my mom to help me out by preparing the strawberry juice for the mirror part of the cake. What are moms for, after all?!

Essentially the strawberry juice involved cooking a heck of a lot of strawberries with water and sugar and then straining the end result. What you end up with is a lovely red juice that smells strongly of … what else … strawberries!

Making the mirror is actually quite easy as you combine the strawberry juice with unflavoured gelatin and place the mixture in a bowl of ice water to cool. Once it attains the thickness of syrup, you pour the mixture over the top of your set cake.

I actually found the mirror-making to be my favourite part of this cake. It was pretty cool to pour it over and then put it back in the refrigerator to set up. And it did look like a mirror!

After a few hours, it was time for the moment of truth and the unmolding of the cake. I followed the instructions very carefully and wrapped a hot towel around the pan for a few minutes. I also used a small knife with a hot blade (I kept running it under hot water) to carefully separate the mirror edge from the edges of the springform pan. When I felt confident, I released the springform and removed the ring. Surprisingly, it was quite easy.

I lifted the cake off the springform bottom (the recipe instructs you to wrap a cardboard round the same size as the pan bottom in foil and then put that on top of the pan bottom to make cake removal easier) and placed it on a cake plate. I didn’t want to overdue the decoration of the cake so I added a border of strawberries and mint and placed a flower in the middle.

So far, the cake looked pretty good.

But now came the taste test. Using a knife with a hot blade (kept running it under hot water), I cut a nice wedge from the cake. Once I cut into it and removed the edge, I must admit that appearance-wise it looked impressive.

So how did it taste?

Meh. It was okay. My cake layers looked pretty, but they were a bit on the dry side. I don’t think I wet them enough with the syrup. The Bavarian cream looked pretty as well, but to be honest, with all the strawberries we had to use, I thought there would have been a stronger berry flavour. I also don’t think it was sweet enough.

For me, the best part of the cake was the mirror. It looked pretty and eating it was certainly a different experience. It had a cool, gel-like texture and it was fun to see your reflection in the top of the cake!

Overall, the cake was enjoyed by all who tried it but not enthusiastically so. In many ways, I found this cake to be like Martha’s crepe cake, an awful lot of work and expense for a so-so result.

Still, though, it was nice to try something different. Thanks so much to Peabody for challenging us this month! Stay tuned to see what untravelled territories the Daring Bakers venture to next month …

Ciao!

For the recipe, you can see it listed on Peabody’s site.

To see what the other Daring Bakers did with this challenge, please visit our official blogroll!

Technorati tags: daring bakers, strawberries, mirror cake

The glory of strawberry season is profound, yet so fleeting!

Just as quickly as the lovely red berries make an appearance, they’re gone, leaving behind a deep longing that will last for another year.

Several years ago, I began cultivating a strawberry plant in our backyard garden. Happily, that one plant has now multiplied into at least ten plants that provide us with some luscious berries indeed.

Ontario strawberries are truly delicious and I feel lucky to live in a region that produces so many beautiful strawberries. No matter how many I eat, I always feel like I haven’t eaten enough. And once they’re gone, I inevitably find myself staring disappointedly at those monster strawberries in plastic containers that you find at the grocery store. They may be huge, but they don’t have any of the flavour of a freshly picked strawberry.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to buy a container of the very last of the strawberries from the farmer’s market that I attend every Wednesday during the summer. I knew immediately that I would be making the Strawberry Sunburst Tart from Lori Longbotham’s Luscious Berry Desserts.

The picture of this dessert was one of the reasons why I bought the book!

Imagine, if you will, a giant shortbread cookie shapped like a starburst. On top of this cookie imagine spreading a luscious cream made of raspberry curd and whipped cream. And then imagine dotting the cream with some perfect strawberries.

If you can imagine all of this than you can imagine that you have before you one of the
very best summer desserts I have ever made! I didn’t adapt the recipe at all so I’m not going to share it here. However, I’ve provided some ideas on how you can recreate the dessert if you don’t own the book.

To you I say, enjoy the tart!

To the strawberries I say, until next year!

Ciao!

Strawberry Sunburst Tart

For the crust, you can use the recipe for your favourite shortbread or try the recipe for the shortbread base located here. It’s similar to the recipe in Luscious Berry Desserts.

For the cream base, you can mix a few cups of whipped heavy cream with raspberry curd, or you can puree some fresh strawberries, strain them and mix the puree in with the whipped cream. Spread your cream over the shortbread base (once it’s baked and cooled).

Decorate the cream with 10 to 15 perfect strawberries that have been hulled. Use any leftover cream to pipe a pretty design in between the strawberries.

It’s best to serve this tart immediately.

Technorati tags: strawberries, tarts

When I was a very little girl, I had a fascination with the airport. My parents would take me to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and park on the top level so that I could watch the planes take off. Maybe it’s because our house is so close to the airport, but I always loved looking up into the sky and watching the planes fly by.

Now that I’m older, airports still have a strange pull. I love the idea of departing; going somewhere else. Somewhere new. And yet it’s always a bit sad and not just when you return from a vacation. There’s an inherenet loneliness to airports. So many people, so many faces that you’ll rush by in a second and never see again.

It’s bittersweet.

On Tuesday, I brought my mother to the airport for her flight to Italy and as soon as I set foot in the terminal, that feeling of wanting to be somewhere else washed over me.

As we stood in the slowly moving line, amongst so many people getting ready to visit Italy, I kept hearing snippets of conversations. People talked about how long they’d been in Canada and who they were going back to visit. People talked about what part of Italy they were from and where they were born. They talked about how long it had been since their last visit and how long they would stay.

And for most of them, I could tell that there was a sense of eagerness not just for travel, but to return to what is their spiritual home, if not their real home.

For my mother, it’s a return to my father. My mother’s family is all in Canada yet my father’s family is all in Italy. So she goes there to stay with her sisters-in-law and her brothers-in-law. She goes there to soak in the place where my father was born. She goes to our little itty bitty house there that has been slowly and painstakingly repaired.

When my mother had finally checked in, I walked her to the Gate and saw her off. Her last words to me were, “Take care of my little tomato plants.”

In the middle of an airport, it all comes back to what really counts … tomato plants and a trip to somewhere else.

Safe passage to travellers everywhere.

Ciao!

Rose Meringues
Adapted from Tea Party by Tracy Stern.

Note: I’ve never made pavlova before so I consider this to be the first step on my way to that most noble of desserts. Basically you’re looking at a 1/4 of sugar per egg white. It sounds like a lot but surprisingly the meringues do not end up overly sweet. If you don’t have rosewater, use another flavouring like vanilla extract. You can bake the meringues several days ahead and store them in an airtight container. It’s best to make the strawberry cream the same day that you serve these. Don’t assemble these until just before serving.

I made these because they reminded me of being in a plane looking at the clouds.

For the meringues:

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. rosewater (optional)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and the rosewater together gradually adding the sugar until you have a very stiff mixture. The egg whites should hold stiff peaks when you pull the whisk out.

With a tablespoon, drop the mixture onto the baking sheets in large mounds (about 2 inches in size). Be careful not to crowd the mounds together. (You can also use a piping bag to do this).

Bake for an hour, or until the meringues have dried and are not sticky to the touch. They will be slightly golden on top and around the edges. Be careful not to burn them.

Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.

For the strawberry cream:

1 cup heavy cream
1 pint strawberries or other berries
1 tbsp. icing sugar
1 tsp. rosewater

In a blender, combine one third of the strawberries with the icing sugar and rosewater. Blend until smooth.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the whipping cream until very thick and stiff.

Fold the strawberry mixture into the whipped cream.

To assemble:

Once the meringues have cooled, spoon a generous dollop of the strawberry cream onto each meringue. Top with the remaining sliced strawberries and serve.

Technorati tags: meringues, rosewater, strawberries