Hullo, all! Here’s a pretty little recipe for cherry tart squares, and as the title says, there is a wee secret to the sweet, creamy crust. Gluten free, true – that’s no secret though, as all my posts are. May, the secret is, the crust is made from mashed potatoes! An enticing blend of coconut flour, coconut milk and potatoes, with some tapioca starch to bind it and nice honey (or plain white confectioners’ sugar if you prefer) makes for a delicious taste complement to the tart and sweet cherry mixture. First thing- boil the living heck out of some … Continue reading Cherry Square (with a delicious secret)
An excellent article from the Globe and Mail. We have to remember that, while we are all tucked away like hares in our holes, the world changes outside- if we don’t take action to be supportive of our businesses, restaurants and shops while we are sheltering in place, they may disappear forever by the time we emerge. Continue reading How to Help Your Neighborhood Business in Troubles Times
Hullo, all! It’s been a busy, event-filled year since I blogged, much has changed, but one thing has remained- I’ve kept a record of my best recipes! These will be uploaded in forthcoming days, weeks (nae months, I will try … Continue reading So Many Recipes…
I’ve been away in the north or business, and the freezing weather se to have followed me back. My bad. Now that I’m home, it is time to finish off the last of summer, my dandelion wine! This was a smaller batch, and it has turned an utterly gorgeous Baltic amber color, and tastes delicious! Note my #lifehack of using a bag clip to hold the pressure in my siphon until I’m back with a new bottle! Works excellently! Continue reading Last of Summer, Preserved
There’s a brilliant little restaurant along Highway 97 in British Columbia, in a little town called 70 mile- so named, as it was 70 miles up the Gold Rush trail. The fact you’re travelling along frontier history is an added benefit to taking this route through rugged, majestic and isolated country… And this restaurant, The Sugar Shack, is a must-stop place along the journey up the spine of British Columbia. You can read my Google maps review here, but I’ll leave you with one yummy picture of their homemade, home-smoked sandwich! Continue reading Mmmm, Montreal Smoked Meat
I thoroughly recommend anyone who is good with a solder iron (and aware that they should wear a fume mask or use a hood with it!) to check out KitHub. Not only can you pick up one of Safecasts’ Geiger Counter kits, you can get kits to inspire the little ones (or the whimsical adults in your life) to create and invent basic tools. (I thought the mask whose light illuminates from the charge on the wearer’s face was particularly inspiring for kids). These projects are an amazing way to introduce technology-based science to children, and to tech-phobic adults. The … Continue reading The Wonder of DIY Environmental Monitoring Devices
That’s how many average Scotsmen it takes to beat a quartet of massively huge strong men in tug of war. Shared with me by a mate of Irish extraction, I thought I’d share it with you! It’s pretty impressive- (but I do hope that the strong blokes had a goodly rest between takes, otherwise there is an element of wearing them down, which we Scots are admittedly good at doing!) Continue reading The Answer is, Seven
Thoughts on Language Acquisition and Traditional Methods In the winter of 1545, a little girl had just lost her mother. Her father had married a new wife, and this little girl was in dire danger, for her father was a king, who might decide to cast the girl out- or worse. In a desperate attempt to prove her love- and her usefulness- to her father, she translated a work on religion, penned by her new mother, Catherine Parr. This little girl had been raised with William Grindal’s grammar translation teachings of language. The girl performed three flawless, hand-written translations of … Continue reading A Girl, and a Boy, and a Camel
I’ve noticed this July that there are many days belonging to food. Apple turnover day, Pina Colada day, and Canada Day itself is also Ginger Snap day.
These little cookies are one of my favorite sweet treats, but, they’re not the subject of this blog (although perhaps a gluten free version will be coming up here soon)!
The focus on food for July (making July itself Ice Cream month, a great choice for the northern Hemisphere) made me pop to the shops to find some ice cream… which led to the discovery of a particularly Canadian flavor, Nanaimo Bar Ice Cream.
A variety of thoughts and emotions were raised by this discovery:
damn! lactose intolerant (is it worth it? To see how they pulled such a marvelous flavor off?
damndamn! Nuts! This second point is a very hot topic amongst Canadians. The decision to include nuts in the crust of a nanaimo bar would spur on clan wars in my home country. There would be battles, holy stones, songs sung… thankfully, people here are more composed, but one’s declaration of ‘to nut or not to nut’ results in either a round of applause, or a stony-faced look as the betrayal to the Nanaimo Bar breed changes your companion’s view of you forever…
How much wheat is in the crust, anyway? And heck- I can make a crust with gluten-free flour!
So, ever the random one, me, is my own private Nanaimo Bar recipe, not connected to all the great food days in July in any way, shape or form!
Oh, wait- I forgot. These little gems are an uniquely Canadian tradition, and as such, require a trifling explanation.
The Nanaimo Bar is named after the town on one of the extreme west islands of British Columbia, Nanaimo, BC. A gem of a little town, looking out onto the inside passage up to Alaska, sheltered from the full brunt of the Pacific’s storms. While Edith Adams is credited with the original recipe, it was first called the London Fog Bar, which, if you know a little about London in the early 1950s when the bar was created, puts a whole new, poignant spin on the dark, dark chocolate coating and the yellow middle layer, thick as, well, a London Fog….
The great smoke of 1952, in full color This dreadful consequence of coal and combustion engine use is said now to have killed over 12,000- far above the original estimate of only one third of this total.
Nevertheless, a different sort of historical digression bears mentioning here. The delicious filling is essentially a thick custard- today using pre-made custard powder, a relic from the Industrial Revolution and the pharmacists’ foray into food products (if you’re scratching your head at this, I suggest you watch BBC’s Victorian Pharmacy, wherein the effervescent Ruth Goodman makes her own custard powder for sale, all in period style).
Actual custard comes, in English cooking, from the progression of the Norman Blancmange through to custard sauces used for a delicious little dish known as a hedgehog- sponge cake swimming in this lovely, sun-yellow sauce. (The Scotsman in me bids me mention that, of course, we were making custards in our wee leather satchels boiling by the fire, sweetened with beech and laurel leaves and honey, with nice berries and currants we found thrown in, back when Doggerland was still above the waters of the North Sea, but, let’s give the Normans this… if only due to the comedic significance of the word, blancmange, and the historic Wimbeldon match Angus Podgorny v. Blancmange).
Yes, custards were originally flavored with noyau (which is beech leaf infusion/leaves themselves) or laurel. This is a flavor analogous to almond, and in later times was replaced by sweet almond. This is another indicator to the connection between Nanaimo Bars and their English roots- another source of polite culinary fisticuffs is the decision to add sweet almond flavor, or no!
Ah-ha! We have our proof! Nanaimo Bars are therefore like my cousins, MacGregors, freckled with prominent noses and strong chins, but taller and broader and bearing a different accent… but you see the lineage, nevertheless.
So, at any rate, here is my own recipe for these utterly decadent little morsels: (as usual, the more organic the better, particularly cocoa, coconut milk and oils!)
This dreadful consequence of coal and combustion engine use is said now to have killed over 12,000- far above the original estimate of only one third of this total. 
Firth of Clyde 