Last Saturday we went berry picking at Driediger Farms in Langley. We picked strawberries, which were really close to being at the end of their season, and raspberries, which are just at the beginning of their season. We also grabbed four pounds of blueberries; already picked… we must have come home with almost 15 pounds of berries for about $21. It was quite hot, I might have given myself heat stroke and a strangely shaped burn on my back, but the berries were delicious!
We made the trip extra worthwhile by stopping by A Bread Affair and picking up my favourite bread (The 100-Mile = organic, blueberries, hazelnuts – YUMMY). I never rave about anyone else’s baking so that is saying something!
I immediately made this with the strawberries:
Which when cooked and half-eaten looks like this:
I am currently cooking down the remaining blueberries and raspberries to make another bar. Will post pictures and the full recipe later on today.
Chocolate was the request for this birthday, so I obliged with a fudge chocolate cake, chocolate cream cheese icing, chocolate flowers (from Chocolate Arts) and a little bit of fresh local strawberry compote.
Here are the two cake halves, the strawberry filling and the chocolate cream cheese icing, which, I must admit, I (heavily) sampled.
All the cake (above) needs now is birthday candles and a little bit of vanilla ice cream…
YUM! There are still 2 pieces left in the refrigerator… let’s see how long that lasts!
This is the sixth episode of my web series SiftingRealities. At the end of episode 4, Belinda seems to think she’s got this whole “sifting” thing under control, but does she?
Oh, those are shortbread cookies she is making and eating in the final scene… I’ll post the recipe later on today.
These cookies are featured in SiftingRealities Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE (more info in post below). They are super easy. No mixmaster needed. Just mix everything in the pot that you use to melt the butter.
Melt the butter, remove pan from heat, and mix all the ingredients straight into the pot by hand – easy!
Batter. Mixed? Check!
Fresh from the oven (note the parchment paper covered cookie sheet). These are soft, chewy cookies – YUM!
In our fifth episode of SiftingRealities, Belinda attempts to exert some sort of control over the craziness she thinks her brain is projecting… if the pills won’t work perhaps she can find away to stop the other realities from bleeding into her own…
“I’m not as judgemental as you always make me seem.” Ah, Marie (played by Valerie McNicol), you rock though you alone are enough to keep Belinda tiptoeing the edge of sanity!
As seen in SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN (see post below for more info) Belinda, not knowing what to do with Annie once she has rescued her from the back yard, defaults to her comfort zone: baking, specifically, she bakes gingerbread cookies. Here is the recipe I (therefore she) uses:
The dough (ready to be plastic wrapped and chilled) and a traditionally shaped (not the one I used for the episode) gingerbread man cookie cutter:
Naked gingerbread people cooling and getting ready for decoration:
Decorated cookies (still from Sifting Realities, Ep. 3):
**Note: it took an entire bottle of red food colouring (and a couple of drops of blue) to make the icing “blood” THAT red. The yellow noose (middle top) is made out of string licorice. The cookies on the right are decorated with the more “traditional” look I usually use.
These cookies are “soft” gingerbread and super tasty… the crew eyed them all day while we were shooting and eagerly gobbled them up after we’d wrapped. There was some disbelief that they were whole wheat, which I take as a compliment to the cookies. Eliza, who plays Annie, preferred the licorice “guts”, of course.
These are the cookies featured in SiftingRealities: Episode Two: GUN IN MY TOILET (more info can be found in the previous post). In the episode, Rich thinks Belinda is presenting the cookies as a peace offering of sorts, but ends up just stealing her plate of comfort food. The macaroons in the episode are sans ground almonds.
Above: egg whites (4 in this case as I am doubling the recipe), medium unsweetened coconut, ground almonds, sugar and pure vanilla.
Whip eggs and vanilla until soft peaks form, which look something like above.
Still beating eggs, slowly add the sugar and then continue to beat until (fairly) stiff, glossy peaks form (as shown above). Some times this magic just doesn’t happen, make the cookies anyway, they won’t be pretty, but they’ll still be tasty!
Fold in the coconut and ground almonds, until just mixed.
Drop rounds tablespoons approx. 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake.
In lieu of the 2nd Baking with the Director episode (which we decided to not shoot so we could launch episode 2 of SiftingRealities) here is the recipe for the cookies that are featured in episode one: MAN IN MY BED (more details in previous post). Of ALL the cookies I bake these are my absolute favourite. This is my go to recipe, for every occasion (except maybe Christmas):
Belinda wakes to find a man (DAVE), who really shouldn’t be in her bed. Issue: Dave really believes he belongs in Belinda’s (or is that Linda’s?) bed. Cookies: CHOCOLATE CHIP PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
At the beginning of March, we treated ourselves to a trip to the Wick Inn in Tofino for Michael’s birthday and, there, Sunday morning, I indulged in a fresh baked croissant with house made strawberry jam. SO GOOD! Now, I can’t actually digest white flour, so this was a huge, but tasty, risk for me and, though it sat in my stomach like a heavy blob of play dough afterwards, I very much enjoyed the eating of it!
So, of course, I decide I should attempt to make some whole wheat croissants of my own. To that end, yesterday, late afternoon, and not at all daunted with what looks to add up to about 5 hours of work, I set the yeast to proof, sift three cups of whole wheat pastry flour, and pull the butter out of the fridge… hmm, there seems to only be about ¾ of a cup of butter in the fridge… no matter I always have backup in the freezer… except I don’t this time.
I fuss around for a bit, and call Michael to complain about my lack of butter. He offers to pick up as much butter as I would like, but I don’t want to wait the hour or so it will take for him to finish work and get home. (Yes, he IS lovely and supportive while I am crazy impatient and almost always impossible to help). Then, done complaining, I try to figure out what I can actually make, seeing as I don’t want to waste the yeast which has now proofed so nicely. I settle on butter horns, but only have enough butter for half a recipe, so I halve the recipe… except I use the full amount of yeast and declare it an experiment, knowing full well I am NEVER happy when I experiment bake.
In the spirit of this (doomed?) experimentation, I decide I actually want a Danish of sorts, so, while the pastry is rising, I start hunting down possible fillings… I settle on a vanilla cream filling… the kind you would use if you were making a boston cream pie.
Here is the result… the pastry is actually lovely, a feat I have never obtained, to my personal liking, with whole wheat pastry flour (I guess doubling the yeast is the trick!!).
Vanilla cream (whole wheat) butter horns with powdered sugar icing
Seems sometimes an experiment does actually have tasty results!
I am currently cooking down the remaining blueberries and raspberries to make another bar. Will post pictures and the full recipe later on today.
