Recently, I had the opportunity to work alongside a lovely woman by the name of Linda Whitworth who is on a multi-city tour promoting the health benefits of cooking with barley.  The grain which is commonly (and lovingly, in our house) associated with beer making has been recognized with the health claim that barley fibre can positively contribute to your wellness by reducing your cholesterol level.   I look at this as a bonus because cooking with barley, simply tastes good!

There are many ingredients that I might not ever cook with, were it not for my work as a food stylist.  Barley is a good case in point. I keep barley in our pantry for a single family recipe Hamburger Soup.  But now that I know the difference between pearl and pot barley (the former is “polished” longer than the latter), and have had the pleasure of baking with barley flour, barley and barley flour will always have a place on my shelf.

First up were Yoghurt Barley Fruit Scones.  I made mine with raisins but I would love to try them with blueberries next time.  I tucked one away for D to try with his supper.  He asked me to please, please make these all the time.

I had to make another substitution as I could not find rhubarb around at this time of year so I made the Rhubarb Pecan Muffins with tart cranberries instead.  The topping on these muffins was amazing (and another cholesterol reducer too with the inclusion of quick oats).  I plan to mix up a bag of this crumble topping to keep on hand in the freezer to put onto a variety of muffins.  I am making banana muffins this afternoon.  I often call my muffins “cupcakes” and serve them for dessert.

The recipe that Linda made on set was this gorgeous Black Bean and Barley Salad.  It was so simple, so healthy and so delicious-win, win, win!

But my favourite of the day was the Barley Jambalaya.  It was so good, that I literally can’t stop thinking about it and just talked myself into making it for mandatory Sunday supper this weekend.

The recipe links here are from the newly launched website that Linda was in town to promote: http://gobarley.com/.  Be sure to bookmark it as it is chock full of amazing recipes.

Kath’s quote:

Keep open house, let fidlers play.
A fig for cold, sing care away;
And may they who thereat repine,
On brown bread and on small beer dine.”
from the 1766 ‘Virginia Almanack’

Love-that is all.

Every once in a while I get a real hankering for wild blueberries which I am happy to say can now be purchased at one of the grocery stores that I frequent.  But even better, is the surprise of finding a container full of them in the bottom of your freezer.  I can’t even say if I picked these myself last summer but no one else in my immediately family is a picker so it must have been me.  Sometimes it is quite lovely to have a memory like a sieve…..

We were hosting our young families group on Friday night, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to whip up a berry crisp.  The recipe that I found (modified and posted below) suggests that you make extra batches of topping to freeze and you can have another batch bubbling in the oven in a snap. 

Love-that is all.

When our kids were little, we used to read them a story called “A Difficult Day” by Eugenie Fernandes about a little girl who endures a bad day at school, has a little temper tantrum and hides from her Mom.  The Mom makes a batch of Melinda’s favourite cookies, finds her daughter and they eat them together under Melinda’s bed.  Daughter #2 recently had a frustrating day at university and plunked herself in a wicker chair in the kitchen to tell me her woes.  I happened to be making a batch of Peanut Butter Crunchies (that she had just mentioned missing the taste of).  We both remembered the story book and she exclaimed how some things had never really changed.  Except that I try very hard not to have sugary treats in the house like Peanut Butter Crunchies.

This is how I tried to adjust the recipe:

• where it calls for peanut butter-I used a 100% natural crunchy variety where the ingredients are just peanuts and salt with no sugar or fat.
• I cut back the brown sugar by 25% but there is both sugar and corn syrup.
• I did not add any additional salt as the original recipes calls for.
• I used bran flakes instead of corn flakes.
• I used a brown rice variety of Kellogg’s rice crispies instead of the regular ones.
• I sprayed the pan with a bit of canola oil.

Daughter #2 declared that they tasted EXACTLY as she remembered them and they contributed to the turning around of her day.  Are they healthy?  Well, all I know is that I feel better about serving them to my little girl (even if she is almost 22 years old).

Kath’s quote: “I’ll love you forever.  I’ll like for always.  As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”.  –Robert Munsch

Love-that is all.

We have enjoyed many celebrations and meals over the past four days and I managed to take a break from recording every detail of everything that we ate and drank (for your sake and mine).  The abundance in our lives was apparent by the bounties under the tree.

We are so blessed to host so many family members for dinner that I could not fit everyone into a single picture and even then, I neglected to get Daughter #2 and my 86 year old Mom to squeeze in.  They sat to the far left and right (and D was still in the pantry opening wine).

Of all the baking and roasted meats and gravies, I think the crowning glory was Sister #3’s traditional Christmas dessert that she made especially for The Frenchman (but we all got to enjoy).  If you get “sugared out’ over the holidays, this is a lovely alternative as it is rich and meaty with nuts and butter but not overly sweet.

This single blossom appeared on a south facing window sill this week.

Love-that is all.

While recently working with CJ Katz on the promotional tour of her gorgeous cookbook “Taste: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table”, I made strudel for my very first time.  The phyllo dough that can be purchased from the freezer section of your favourite grocer, is very close to the “stretch dough” used in authentic strudel AND so much easier than attempting this art form from scratch.

Also reminiscent of Viennese Apple Strudel is the inclusion of bread crumbs.  These help absorb some of the extra juices, released from the cooking fruit.  This version includes both cranberries and apples which creates a gorgeous Christmas themed dessert.  And you can make it ahead and freeze it if you wish. 

I did so and then reheated it and served it with ice cream.  Doing so also offsets that tangyness of the cranberries (and in my case the apples, which I had left soaking in lemon juice for too long).

A really helpful tip included in this recipe is to make diagonal cuts (to allow the steam from the fruit to escapes while baking) to represent a portion size.  This way the strudel will be far easier to serve without decimating the flaky crust.

We are often too full for pie and Christmas pudding after dinner but this dessert is light enough to tuck into later in the evening.

Kath’s quote: “Oh!  All that steam!  The pudding had just been taken out of the cauldron.  Oh!  That smell!  The same as the one which prevailed on washing day!  It is that of the cloth which wraps the pudding.  Now, one would imagine oneself in a restaurant and in a confectioner’s at the same time, with a laundry nest door.  Thirty seconds later, Mrs.  Cratchit entered, her face crimson, but smiling proudly, with the pudding resembling a cannon ball, all speckled, very firm, sprinkled with brandy in flames, and decorated with a sprig of holly stuck in the centre.  Oh!  The marvelous pudding!”-Charles Dickens

Love-that is all.