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Sunday 28 August 2011

Yes, you read the title right. I made wasp nests :-)

Wasp Nests

Dom from Belleau Kitchen challenged us to go back to basics for this month's Random Recipes Challenge, and pick a book out of our cookbook collections. Lest I cheat, I got my daughter to do the picking and she picked out this book here. Dr Oetkar's 'German Baking Today - The Original'. My friend Maz had got it for me from Germany, and I remember absolutely drooling through the recipes, but then, as is usual, the book got shelved, never to be used. Dom's hit on a winner here, as I have managed to cook more for this event from my long neglected cookbooks, than I have for a while.

I flipped open the book, and it landed on a page with two recipes. Amarettini and Wasp Nests. I figured at this point, since Aditi had picked out the book, it would only be fair to make a recipe that she could eat (the Amarettini, as the name suggests, has Amaretto in it) So Wasp Nests it was, or to make them sound more palatable, little meringue biscuits with chopped almonds and grated chocolate, that look very much like the nests of those despised insects! Eerily so!

Names aside, these little bites were stunningly good. Crisp meringue with their chewy insides, crunchy almonds, and every so often, a slight hint of bitterness from the dark chocolate to cut through the sweetness. I can easily see these being a real hit at a tea party.

I am posting the recipe, as I slashed it by a third and added a few bits and bobs to the original. The original recipe made sixty nests, and I didn't think it was prudent to have that much sugar floating around in the vicinity of a three year old :-) And good thing too, as they all disappeared within moments of cooling down. Another lesson for next time, spirit some away into a tin before letting little bees get a hold of them!

Thursday 25 August 2011

Cherry Drizzle
Perfect cherry drizzle on homemade vanilla ice cream

Cherry Picking
My baby girl easily ate more cherries than she picked!

I spend a lot of time checking out my neighbour Mr M's cherry tree, from the moment is starts budding in the spring to the point where its bursting with cherries. Yes, I am a greedy, avaricious woman, especially when it comes to cherries. My dear neighbour, bless him, told me early on in this season, that I could come by and pick the cherries off his tree. Little did he know that, as soon as he called to let me know that the cherries were ready for picking, I would be there a couple minutes later with five buckets and a couple of little girls to help me pick those ruby red beauties. Poor Mr M! Well, he did say to pick as much as we wanted [pout].

Evans Cherries have got to be the prettiest cherries I've seen. Their beautiful red colour is just gorgeous, and the purest red you can imagine. The riper the cherries get, the more intense the colour becomes. I defy you to look at that absolutely perfect cherry in the picture below and not go 'awwwww'! Well, I did anyway. And the taste is a revelation. The cherries are sour to start with, but the addition of sugar just makes them pop into a myriad of flavours, that are truly divine. And for that matter, these cherries were not even that sour, judging by how many my little girls ate when picking them!

Sunday 21 August 2011

Courgette Pickles3

I am back! First off, sorry for my longer than expected absence. I had the opportunity of staying at the in-laws' for an extra week and jumped at it. I mean, a long lie in, fresh squeezed orange juice and perfectly brewed coffee, homemade marmalade on beautifully toasted bread doesn't come my way often... and a full week of this was too good to pass up! Yes, my in-laws rock!

I had a blast in Terrace with my friend and family and wanted to take the opportunity to relax and recharge completely. But now its back to the real world again, and its catching up quickly. Aditi starts Junior Kindergarten early September, and its left me scratching my head as to where the time has gone. It feels like only yesterday I was toting around a 7 lb baby, and now I can barely pick her up without throwing my back out :-) So for the first time, I am back-to-school shopping, and I can tell you, this is one chore I will happily cross off my list of favourite things to do. Who knew there were so many people in Edmonton? And that they are all in South Common shopping? And they all have the kids in tow? Online shopping, here I come!

Wednesday 3 August 2011