Rainbow Trout with Leek & Mushroom Sauce

Lovely fresh trout! We picked it up at The 100-Mile Market, along with an unexpected bunch of leeks. (The only other time I've been able to get leeks in the spring is out of my own garden.) I had already bought some mushrooms earlier in the week, so it seemed inevitable that they should all meet in a sauce.

I love the combination of lake fish and wild rice - they were made to go together. I also like the combination of barley and wild rice, which is a good thing; barley is an awful lot less expensive than wild rice, and will stretch it out a little further very nicely. Use 1/3 cup barley to 2/3 cup wild rice, three cups of water and a pinch of salt. The barley expands more, so you will end up with a half and half blend.

The cheese seemed like a good idea, but I think next time I would leave it off. It seemed a bit strong for all the other flavours which were really quite delicate. But it certainly wasn't bad.

2 servings
50 minutes - 15 minutes prep time


1 medium leek
16 medium button mushrooms (300 grams, 10 ounces)
2 medium shallots
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fresh minced thyme or savory
1 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
1 cup milk or light cream

2 fillets boneless rainbow trout (450 grams, 1 pound)
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Trim and chop the leek, fairly finely. Clean the mushrooms and slice them. Peel and mince the shallots /

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the leeks and cook them over medium heat, stirring regularly, until softened. Don't let them brown if you can help it. When they are half-done, add the shallots and mushrooms. Continue cooking until all are soft, about 10 minutes. Season with the salt, pepper and minced herb. Whisk the arrowroot or cornstarch into the milk or cream, and add it to the skillet. Let cook for a minute or two longer, until thickened.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Put the vegetables and sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish and spread them out evenly. Sprinkle half the cheese over them, if you are using it. Lay the fish fillets on top, and sprinkle the remaining cheese over them.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the fish is firm and cooked, and the sauce is hot and bubbling. Serve with wild rice.





Last year at this time I made Herb Roasted Potatoes.

Applesauce Spice Cake

This is a lovely cake, moist and flavourful. It keeps quite well - if you can manage it.

The cocoa is not actually distinguishable as such; it is really just one of the spices here. I used my home-canned applesauce, which was rather thick. I also needed to soak my raisins (and I was quite short on them) so I added the soaking water with them. The batter should be a fairly standard medium-thick cake batter, which I then had. Finally, I didn't have any pastry flour, only Red Fife flour. I used 1 1/2 cups of that, and 1/4 cup each of rice flour and arrowroot flour. I was very happy with the results.

I've also decided to take a leaf out of my Canadian Farm Cook Book and stop calling for nutmeg by teaspoons or fractions thereof. If you are grating nutmeg, you just grate it into the bowl, so I will call for it by the fraction of the nutmeg, using a medium-sized nutmeg as standard. You are grating your nutmeg yourself as needed, aren't you? If you are not, you should be. The difference is enormous. HUGE. One of those micro-plane graters is perfect. And unlike pre-grated nutmeg, whole nutmegs won't go rancid sitting in your cupboard. Same goes for allspice. I don't think it goes rancid in the same way, but once it is ground it loses flavour very quickly.

16 servings
50 minutes - 15 minutes prep time


2 cups soft (pastry) whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs
2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9" x 13" baking pan, or 2 8" round pans.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cocoa, cinnamon, grated nutmeg and the allspice, which should be lightly toasted first in a dry skillet, then finely ground once it is cool.

Whisk together the oil, eggs and applesauce. Mix them into the dry ingredients. Mix in the raisins.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan or pans, and spread it out smoothly and evenly. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until done.

Once cooled, it can be frosted with a simple vanilla buttercream or left plain. Or whipped cream is always nice. Ice cream would surely work too; rum and raisin, maybe. Okay, now I'm thinking rum and raisin frosting...





Last year at this time I made Vegetable Hash.

Carrot & Celeriac Slaw

Was I complaining about the price of celeriac? Well I was, and not without reason. On the other hand they can be pretty large. Mine has supplied 3 salads so far and looks good for another 2. Can't complain about that.

Actually, I think this salad could have used a bit more celeriac or a bit less carrot than what I had. I've adjusted the recipe to reflect that. If you can't get Korean red pepper, use cayenne, but use it with caution - it is considerably hotter.

4 servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time


Make the Dressing:
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Korean red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk or shake together.

Make the Salad:
1 medium-small carrot, peeled and grated
2 cups finely grated peeled celeriac
1 small shallot, peeled and minced
1/2 cup broccoli sprouts, or minced parsley
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Peel and grate the carrot. Peel and grate the celeriac; you should have rather more celeriac than carrot, although twice as much is probably more than you want. Peel and mince the shallot.

Mix the carrot, celeriac, shallot, and broccoli sprouts or minced parsley. Toss with the dressing, and set aside to marinate for 30 to 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the sunflower seeds in a dry skillet until lightly browned. Turn them out at once to cool, and add them to the salad just before it is served.






Last year at this time I made Maple Flan (or Creme Caramel).

Aunt Alethea's Cheese Soufflé

This was one of the first recipes I collected, when I was in my early teens, from my Great Aunt who was always happy to talk cooking with me. I swooned at the richness and elegance and apparent complexity of it when she served it to us. It was not, however, too challenging for a beginning cook and I have made it somewhat irregularly ever since, according to how willing I am at any given time to overlook the fact that it's very, very rich.

I follow Aunt Alethea's lead, and serve it with a nice simple green salad, and good rolls or bread for a relatively light meal. You could also serve it as an appetizer; in which case it would likely stretch to 6 or 8 servings.

It really is an excellent dish for company, in spite of the fact that it must be served at once. You can get around this by making the sauce in advance, but not adding the beaten egg whites until you actually see your company coming up the walk. Keep both components aside in a cool place (but not the refrigerator, and not for much more than half an hour.) Answer the door, and excuse yourself long enough to pop it in the oven. It doesn't take long to bake, and by the time greetings have been exchanged and a drink poured, it will pretty much be ready. Magic!

4 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2/3 cup milk
3 extra-large eggs
1 cup grated extra-old Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Butter a 1 litre (quart) casserole, or 4 smaller casseroles. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Grate the cheeses and set them aside. Separate the eggs; put the yolks in a small dish and the whites in a medium mixing bowl to be beaten.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour, salt, pepper and mustard, and cook for several minutes until thick and pasty. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring until the mixture is smooth between each addition. When it is all absorbed and the sauce is thick, remove it from the stove. Let it cool for about 5 minutes, then mix in the cheeses. When the are melted, mix in the egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold them gently into the cheese mixture, and put it into the prepared casserole or casseroles. Place them on a baking tray, and bake them for 30 minutes (20 to 25 minutes for smaller dishes) until puffed and browned.

Serve immediately, if not sooner!





Last year at this time I made Pea Soup with Smoked Turkey or Ham.

Cucumber & Carrot Salad

I rarely buy cucumbers as they give me nasty indigestion. However, you can get greenhouse cucumbers throughout the winter, so I got some for Mr Ferdzy, who enjoyed this simple salad.

2 to 4 servings
1 hour 20 minutes - 20 minutes prep time


Make the Dressing:
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce

Mix in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves, and set aside.

Make the Salad:
2 small (mid-eastern type) greenhouse cucumbers
1 medium carrot
1/2 small shallot
2 or 3 leaves of hydroponic lettuce

Wash the cucumbers and trim the ends. Cut in fine julienne. Peel the carrot, and cut in fine julienne. Peel and mince the shallot.

Mix these, and toss them with the dressing. Let marinate for at least 20 minutes to an hour. Serve on the lettuce leaves.





Last year at this time I made Winter Waldorf Salad and An Old-Fashioned Canadian Egg Curry. Huh. Must nearly be Easter, I suppose.

Spanish Rice

Maybe it comes from all the re-reading of old cookbooks I've been doing lately (I've recently been re-united with my books after nearly 10 years apart) but it occurred to me that I hadn't made Spanish Rice in a long time.

This was a recipe which I believe developed in the eastern seaboard of the United States, in the 19th century. My guess is that cooks there developed it after hearing about Spanish rice dishes, in particular paella, eaten by sailors during their travels. They re-interpreted these dishes usng typically available ingredients; Carolina rice, tomatoes and beef. At any rate, it became a popular and well-known dish throughout North America, eaten well into the 1970's, before it was swept away by the flood of more authentic European and Asian rice dishes that became available.

Oddly enough, I was served versions of this a couple of times this winter by friends, both of whom referred to it as "goulash" which surprised me; I have a very different idea of what constitutes goulash. However, by any name it's a tasty and filling winter dish.

4 servings
1 hour - 1 hour work time


1 large onion
2 or 3 stalks of celery
1 medium carrot
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
450 grams (1 pound) ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano

1 1/2 cups arborio, or Spanish rice (or whatever rice you like, really)
4 cups crushed or diced tomatoes
2 cups chopped cooked cabbage

Peel and slice the onion. Slice the celery. Peel and grate the carrot. Peel and mince the celery.

Heat the oil in a very large skillet. Sauté the onion, celery and carrot until slightly softened. Add the beef, broken into small lumps. Season with the salt and oregano.

When the beef is mostly browned, add the rice. Sauté for several minutes more, until the rice begins to brown in spots. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Reduce the heat, and cook the rice for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring regularly, until the rice is tender. You will likely need to add water throughout the cooking process to keep the dish sufficiently moist. It should be quite thick, but not dry.

When the rice is tender, add the chopped cooked cabbage and heat through.





Last year at this time I made English Muffins and Black Radish & Mushroom Salad.

The Canadian Farm Cook Book: The Good Stuff

My Canadian Farm Cookbook, dated 1911, has 401 pages of recipes for food. (There is a small chapter of miscellaneous items after that.) On page 198, the section on canning fruits and jellies begins, and from there to the end of the book there are mighty few recipes that do not call for sugar or other sweeteners. From Canned Fruits and Jellies, it passes on to Pies and Pastry, Puddings and Desserts, Cakes (by far the longest chapter in the book) and Candy. This was clearly what it was all about.

Of course, then as now, people tended to use their body of knowledge about cooking to put together whatever they had on hand as the main part of their diets on a daily basis, without reference to a recipe. Desserts and sweets are made less often and require more precision to execute, and so recipes were and are more likely to be written down for them. However, this was also a new era of cheap refined sugar; cheap enough that even the poorest could afford it. Previously, white sugar had been available mainly in loaf form (cones of varying sizes actually) and it was not only expensive but also a labourious process to grate or pulverize it for use for baking. Not only did sugar become cheaper and easier to use towards the end of the 19th century, but so did chocolate, cocoa, vanilla, gelatine and many other such ingredients. At the turn of the century, cook books exploded with sweet dishes, many of them very sweet. I generally make it a rule to reduce the amount of sugar called for in these recipes by at least one-third and often half. Actually, I don't think it was until the 1970's that the idea occurred to people that it was possible to improve a dessert by putting less sugar in it.

Anyway, recipes:

"CARROT PIE. - Cook yellow carrots until soft, then sift and make as pumpkin pie with milk, sugar and eggs; season with ginger, cloves and cinnamon or allspice. This can hardly be distinguished from real pumpkin pie. - Mrs. C. M. Harvey, Box 144, Knowlton, Que."

No doubt handy when pumpkins had a limited shelf-life and canned pumpkin wasn't regularly available. I shall have to try it sometime; I don't see why it wouldn't be good. Although I admit I'm always a sucker for chocolate.

"CHOCOLATE PIE. - 1/2 teacup Cowan's Perfection Chocolate (grated), 1 1/2 teacups hot water, 1/2 teacup sugar, butter the size of an egg, 1 tablespoon vanilla, the beaten yolk of 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, mix well and cook on top of stove until thick; stir constantly, pour into the shell, let cool, beat the whites and spread on top, brown in oven. - Miss Jennie Bulding, Arthur, Ont."

And at this time of year I should be using up my stash of maple syrup (so I can replace it with new!) so how about

"MAPLE SYRUP PIE. - Put crust on tin, then beat together 1 1/4 cups maple syrup and 3 eggs, put in pie and bake in a moderate oven. - Mabel Begg, Payne's Mills, Ont.
2. - 1 cup maple syrup, 1 cup water, 2 eggs (whites for frosting) 2 small tablespoons flour, butter size of a walnut. Bake the crust and cook custard in double boiler. - Mrs. Milton Fennell, Kars, Ont."

It's interesting to see that the printer lumped these two recipes together, in spite of their being quite different from each other. Also, measurements are in some ways reasonably precise but definitely not standardized.

I should get on and post some puddings and cakes, but I can't resist this pie, even though I haven't even touched on any apple pies, of which there were numerous examples.

"SPRING MINCE PIE. - 1 1/2 cups chopped raisins, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup warm water, 1/2 cup vinegar, 2 well-beaten eggs, 5 crackers pounded fine, stir all together, and season with spices as other mince pies; bake with rich crust. For the top crust roll, then cut in narrow strips and twist and lay across. This will make 2 pies. - Mrs. A. Scott, Acton's Corners, Ont."

Oh, but wait! There are no fewer than 6 versions of butter tarts, and they do indeed all hail from Ontario. This one looks interesting, if remarkably abbreviated.

"3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter melted, 1 cup currants, and 1 egg. - Mrs. W. W. Beelby, Thornton, Ont."

Okay, some puddings:

"APPLE BIRD'S NEST PUDDING. - Apples, sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 pint milk, 1 egg. Pare and core apples, fill cavity with sugar, pour over batter made with 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 pint milk, 1 egg, and sugar to taste. Bake 1 hour. - Mrs. A. Christie, 88 Birge Street, Hamilton, Ont."

"BATTER PUDDING. - 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 egg, 3/4 cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar and 1 teaspoon soda; put any kind of fruit in bottom of dish and pour over it this batter and steam 1 1/2 hours. Add sugar on fruit as desired. Serve with cream or any sauce, as you please. - Mrs. T. H. Higgins, Maccan, N.S."

"BLACK PEPPER PUDDING - 1/2 pound suet, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, a little salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper; mix stiff with cold water and tie in a floured cloth and boil 2 hours. To be eaten with all kinds of hot meat dinners. - Mrs John Archer, Newbury, Ont."

Okay, no sugar in that one! Is it in the right place? It might be; it is a pudding, after all. No sugar in this one either;

"CHEESE PUDDING. - Cut in inch squares stale bread and butter evenly, put 1 layer in pudding dish, then add a little salt and pepper and 1/3 cup grated cheese; repeat this, but for the top layer use 2/3 cup grated cheese. Beat 1 egg, add 1 pint sweet milk, pour over bread and bake 1/2 hour. Serve hot in place of potatoes. This is delicious and is a good way to use up stale bread and dry cheese. - Mrs. Menno S. Weber*, R.R. No. 1, Waterloo, Ont."

This one is kind of ominous sounding:

"CHILDREN PUDDING - 1 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons syrup, 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup currants, 1 teacup buttermilk, 1 small teaspoon soda, 4 cups flour; boil in a cloth for 2 hours, serve with sauce. - Mrs. Robt. Johnston, Carlyon P.O., Ont."

What kind of sauce? That's the question.

"RICE WITH DATES. - Wash 1/2 cup rice, cook in large quantity of salted water until nearly tender, drain thoroughly and put into double boiler with 1/2 cup pitted dates; cook until tender. Serve with cream. This is a very wholesome and palatable dish for dessert. - Mrs. Annie Rodd, Charlottetown, P.E.I."

You know; I can't help but feel desserts are like jokes. If you have to tell someone they're good, they're just not.

Okay, cakes at last, or at least some frostings.

"CHOCOLATE ICING. - 2 cups brown sugar, butter size of egg, 1/2 cup sweet milk, 1/2 cake chocolate. Let it boil until it begins to harden. - Mrs. Erwin Snyder, Box 135, Baden, Ont."

"MAPLE CREAM ICING. - 3 cups sugar, 6 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon butter; boil, stir until cold. - Mrs. M. C. Armstong, Mount Albert, Ont."

Mrs Armstrong didn't feel the need to point out that that there would be maple sugar which is, after all, cheap and easy to find. Right? Right? Pick yourself up off the floor. Bananas, on the other hand, are presumably a bit pricey:

"BANANA CAKE. - 1 cup sugar, whites of 3 eggs, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sweet milk, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup flour. Cream butter and sugar, separate eggs, beat yolk, add to butter; sift flour, baking powder and corn starch, add to butter, mix and add milk; add whites of eggs well beaten. Just before serving put a layer of sliced bananas between layers. - Mrs. Ezra Snyder, Blair, Ont."

I can't help but think she's left out a step or two there. But I guess if you don't know what you are doing, you shouldn't be making cake.

"BELFASTS. - 1 egg, 1 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup seeded raisins or 1 cup currants, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 1/2 cups Graham flour. Bake in gem rings. - Annie M. Whalen, Kilsyth P.O., Ont."

They sound rather like a rich raisiny muffin. Note that "1/2 nutmeg" is not a typo. The next one has "try" written next to it, but alas no report on the results:

"BIRTHDAY CAKE. - 1 cup sugar, 1 cup sweet cream, 2 cups flour, whites of 3 eggs, 2 teaspoons paking powder, small teaspoon salt, a little nutmeg. Beat sugar and cream together first, add flour and baking powder next, the salt and nutmeg, last the whites of the eggs well beaten and mix quickly and bake in 3 layers. For the Filling. - 1 cup sweet milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 2/3 cup cocoanut; boil all together; when boiling, stir in 2 teaspoons cornstarch wet with cold milk. - Mrs. T. C. Sabin, Box 197, Newmarket, Ont."

Here's one that sounds a little odd, but interesting. A spice cake of the old school;

"BLACK PEPPER CAKE. - 1 cup currants, 1 cup blackstrap, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2/3 cup sour milk (sweet will do), 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, a little over 2 cups flour. Bake in layers. - Mrs. J. E. McKenney, Bishop's Mills, Ont."

This one too, although I'm pretty sure that as usual some steps have been omitted. (Like baking it maybe. You think?)

"BOILED CAKE. - 1 cup sugar, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup lard. Boil it and then cool, add 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, salt, 1 teaspoon soda. - Mrs. Blake Sharp, Hay Bay, Lennox and Addington Cos., Ont."

For the next one, do you suppose they mean "George Brown"? They actually had 2 "Brown George" cakes listed. I can't decide but I think it most likely. And 1/2 teaspoon spice! Such extravagance!

"BROWN GEORGE CAKE. - 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cup mixed butter and lard, 1/2 teaspoon spice, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup sour milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in a few drops of water. - Elizabeth Sibbald, Leith P.O., Ont."

As for this one; small and plain but no doubt a good, cheap hit to the cake spot.

"GOOD CHEAP CAKE. - 2/3 cup white sugar, 1 small tablespoon butter and 1 egg beaten together, 2/3 cup milk or cream, 1/2 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoon salt; sift with flour enough to make cake stiff. Use any flavoring you wish or not at all. - Mrs. R. G. McLeod, Lansdowne Station, Pictou Co., N.S."

But most people, if they are going to have cake, are prepared to spring for some chocolate, eggs and butter and make it an even better one;

"CHOCOLATE CAKE. - 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 3 eggs, 3/4 cup milk, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoon soda, 1 ounce unsweetened Cowan's Perfection Chocolate**. Cream the butter and sugar and add the well beaten eggs, then the milk; sift the flour, cream of tartar and soda together twice and mix thoroughly with the above; warm the chocolate over teakettle and stir in the butter. Bake about 35 minutes in moderate oven. - Mrs. J. F. Nelles, Decewsville P. O., Ont.

Also contributed by Mrs D. Brown, Hagerman, Ont.; Mrs. Nelson Wagg, Claremont, Ont.; Mrs H. McPhee, Eady P. O. Ont.; Mrs L. H. Lipsit, Staffordville, Ont.; Mrs W. Anderson, Edgeley, Ont; Mrs. S. Steinmann, Brunner P.O., Ont."

I don't know that they all provided that exact cake necessarily; it might have been one of the three chocolate cake recipes that proceeded it, or perhaps some other chocolate cake that didn't make the cut. Chocolate cake was perhaps not as ubiquitous then as it is now, but it was plainly an extremely popular flavour nevertheless.

And you know what? I've only started in the "C's" but I'm running out of steam. You get the picture; there are a lot more cakes to come. And cookies and candy too. Haven't even looked at them. (If there's anything you would like to ask about other - or previously discussed - sections of this book, please do!)

One final story about the importance of desserts. My father has told me about going to stay with his aunt and uncle in Pictou County (home of the above Good Cheap Cake you may note) during the summer and eating, for an entire month or longer, boiled potatoes, boiled green beans and boiled salmon for every single supper. They were in season. That's the sort of thing that gave seasonal cooking a bad name. And Auntie wasn't much interested in cooking. But she made a mean blueberry pie, and if Dad would pick 'em, she would bake 'em. Needless to say, Dad was out there picking every chance he could get. He still doesn't care much for either salmon or green beans, strangely enough.

I suspect there were a lot of women out there cooking like my great-aunt. They did it not because they were all that interested, but because, by virtue of their sex, it was their job - one of their many, time-consuming jobs. Consequently, there was an awful lot of indifferent if not downright bad cooking out there. Throw in the fact that spices were few and far between, prepared foods pretty much unknown, and the general repertoire of foods much more limited than today and it's not surprising that people turned to desserts for satisfaction in eating. After all, if you can't make things like sugar, butter, eggs, cream, fruit and chocolate taste good, you really are a truly dreadful cook and there is no hope for you.




*What are the odds that there's a Mrs. Menno S. Martin living on R.R. No. 1, Waterloo, right this minute? Maybe no S. What are the odds that there's more than one?

**The contributors to this book call for Cowan's Perfection Chocolate with such consistency that I have to suspect that words are being put into their mouths by a commercial sponsor... hm, who could it be?

Away

If anyone cares to know, we have headed off for the wilds of Toronto for a day or two. Back Monday or shortly thereafter.

Chocolate-Chip Peanut-Butter Cookies

My sweetie - who I think I will start referring to as Mr. Ferdzy; lets not belabour the point - made these for a pot luck. He made them rather bigger than I do, and so got less than 60. They also needed to bake for closer to 15 minutes. Also, I tend to flatten mine ever so slightly, although I don't think it makes a huge difference in the baking time. A minute or two, maybe. You'll likely need to fill the tray twice either way, although they don't spread much.

Also, have I ever mentioned that when I call for "peanut butter" I mean the stuff that consists of ground up peanuts and salt? If you are using locally grown and ground peanut butter I'm pretty sure that's about the only kind you are going to find. Which is good, because that's what you want anyway. The stuff that's full of extraneous fats, sugars and stablilizers is just nasty. Avoid it.

60 cookies
45 minutes - 20 minutes prep time


1/3 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sucanat or dark brown sugar
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups soft whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (or raisins or dried cranberries)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly butter a baking tray, or line it with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and the peanut butter. Work in the sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Mix the baking powder into the flour. Work the flour and chocolate chips into the mixture, until it forms a smooth dough.

Scoop out with a 1" disher or tablespoon and drop onto the prepared tray. Press lightly to flatten; they should be about half an inch thick. Bake for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. Let cool and remove from the tray. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Celeriac, Apple & Broccoli Sprout Salad

Here's a very simple little salad, better as a side salad than as a full meal, but it hits that spring I-want-a-salad spot very nicely.

4 servings
20 minutes prep time


Make the Salad Dressing:
2 tablespoons hazelnut, walnut or other nut oil
3 tablespoons raspberry or other fruit vinegar
1 teaspoon apple butter
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Whisk them together and set them aside.

Make the Salad:
2 cups broccoli sprouts
2 cups grated peeled celeriac
2 medium apples, washed, cored and chopped

Rinse the sprouts and let them drain. They often have rather tough, grey matted roots; these can be sliced off and discarded, and the sprouts are then easier to separate.

Peel and grate the celeriac. Wash, core and chop the apples. Mix the celeriac and sprouts into th apples, and toss with the dressing.






Last year at this time I made Stewed Lamb & Mushrooms, and Strawberry-Mango Frappé.

Red Winged Blackbirds-

By the way, I want to note that Saturday was late winter, and Sunday tipped into early spring! In my opinion, anyway. The difference? The red-winged blackbirds arrived. Hurrah! I saw a couple of robins too, and even the crows are all stirred up and running around looking for nesting materials.

What Does It Say...

about our society, when you can't tell windshield wiper fluid from a comestible?