I’m off to the land of maple syrup and poutine and smoked meat sandwiches and proper bagels.  I’m very excited to be meeting up with Aimee from Under the High Chair to get an early morning foodie tour of Montreal.  Yeah!  Let the foodie minds of Montreal and Edmonton unite!

OK, I took a vow about two years ago to not make any recipes with cream of mushroom soup.  I broke my vow on Saturday night.

Say, you are having a barbecue and a bunch of people over and you want some carbs, but not garlic bread or baby potatoes, but something more substantial.  So what do you do?

You dig up a very trusty recipe from many years ago from the ladies at Best of Bridge.  Then you cook it in your Le Creuset pot to make it look all French and sophisticated.  And here’s what you get:

it ain't pretty, but it sure tastes good

Schwarties Hash Browns
-direct from Best of Bridge

1 kg frozen hash browns
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tins cream of mushroom soup
2 cups cheddar
1/2 white onion, grated
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan cheese to top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a casserole dish.  Thaw hash browns slightly and throw in dish.  Add the rest of ingredients (except Parmesan) and mix.  Top with Parmesan cheese.

Cook in oven x 60 minutes.  Take lid off the last 15 minutes to brown top.

I love the easy summer desserts.

For this trio, I made a boxed angel food cake.  Yes, boxed.  Then Ella made this ice cream again, but without the cocoa or added Skor or mini chocolate chips.  That turned into Vanilla Ice Cream.  And I made a berry sauce that went like so:

Berry Sauce

2 cups frozen or fresh berries (I used a combination of fresh strawberries, because they still taste like wood to me, and a handful of frozen berries)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup red jam
2 Tablespoons Amaretto

Boil the berries, sugar and syrup together for ten minutes.  Stir in red jam and Amaretto.  Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

From my favourite food writing instructor, Jennifer Cockrall-King, comes this gem of a workshop:

The Okanagan Food and Wine Writing Workshop: September 17 to 20, 2009
Penticton and Wine Country, BC.
This is my own baby. I’ve wanted to pull together a professional development workshop for food and wine writers in the Okanagan for some time and finally the elements have come together. Space is limited to 15 registrants. It’s open to writers of all levels. I’ve got a wonderful group of Canada’s best food and wine writers, editors and cookbook editors who will be presenting various workshops in the mornings. We’ll spend the afternoons and evenings wine touring, meeting key food and wine people in the valley and eating at some of the Okanagan’s best restaurants and wineries. All for $400 (no GST) per registrant. Travel and accommodations not included.

Jennifer has a gorgeous new website up, called Okanagan Food and Wine Writers Workshop that lists all the details.  It sounds like great fun, non?

picking cherries out the window of the vehicle. a fine mike tradition.

Hello folks – soon it will be our long awaited holiday.  We’ve wisely booked accommodations that have kitchens so we aren’t eating A&W hamburgers night after night.

Any and all suggestions for food stores, bakeries/restaurants and activities in Summerland/Penticton and Tofino are greatly appreciated!

Burp.

Made by Ella.  Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Ella’s version was very tall, very rich and very decadent.  Especially when paired with Mocha Toffee Ice Cream.

Mocha Toffee Ice Cream

1 cup homogenized milk
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons instant espresso
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup Skor bits
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix together milk, sugar, espresso powder and cocoa in a mixer for 2 minutes at low speed.  Stir in cream and vanilla.

Pour into chilled bowl of your ice cream maker.  Mix for 25-30 minutes, and add the Skor bits and chocolate chips in the last five minutes.  The ice cream will be soft…if you want it firm, put in freezer for 2 hours.

Ella’s Canada Day cake from two years ago, by way of the Barefoot Contessa.

On tap for tonight?  Ella is now almost 13 instead of almost 11, and she’s going big:  Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake from Smitten Kitchen.   She has already made the cakes, and they are waiting in the freezer for her to fill and frost them.  I can hardly wait.

Holy excessive eggs, Batman.  Six of them!  But this square is totally worth it.  It is face scrunchingly tart, but with the mild undertone of a sweet butter crust.  So go buy yourself a bagful of lemons and a carton of eggs and treat yourself.  That Barefoot Contessa knows what she’s talking about – these bars are going into regular rotation.

Lemon Bars
-from the Barefoot Contessa

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar in a mixer.  Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill for 15 minutes.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.

For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into squares and sprinkle icing sugar on top.

I make a summer list every year to check off activities with the kids.

One of the items this year is:  Go to a nearby beach.  Beaches near Edmonton are rather rare.  We like Ma-Me-o Beach, not just because of the funky name, but because they have a wide sandy beach with shallow water.  AND an ice cream shack that serves Foothill Creamery ice cream in waffle cones.

Despite the blustery wind, we had a great time.  You, too, can drive an hour for this experience.

i only look serious because i have sand in my eyes

Gosh, this was so darn healthy that I feel like going to Dairy Queen and having a Peanut Buster Parfait or something.  Ha, I’m adult – maybe I will.  Who is going to stop me?

I borrowed Take it and like it’s Pasta with Smoked Salmon, except I left out the smoked part.  I had some salmon from Billingsgate, and asparagus from today’s Strathcona Farmer’s Market (where I almost got in a fist fight with a woman snarkily insulting our wagon that we bring to pull our six year old.  It reminded me why I like open air markets best.  And I like people who are intolerant of children less), which I overcooked.  How does one overcook asparagus?  Inattention, people, inattention.

The pasta sauce recipe was great – thanks Brooke and Court.  I left out the smoked salmon, but added a handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley instead.  The pasta was from the aforementioned market, too, from Pasta Delight.   It was a good solid meal.  But I think it would be perfect topped off with a visit to an ice cream vendor.  Where’s the Dickie Dee man when you need him?