As we drove down Henderson Hwy. recently, we read a sign that went “Mennonite Girls Can Cook-262 sold”.  A cryptic message, but I understood it perfectly.  “Mennonite Girls Can Cook” is the title of a blog that I enjoy very much and the “girls” have now produced a cookbook by the same title.  Sales have started off modestly… 262 to be exact.

My favourite Mennonite recipe is Platz.  When I say the name out loud, I giggle because it sounds like something that has been deposited in a field by a range animal.  In fact, it is the German name for Coffee Cake.  I like the German take on coffee cake because it is not filled with carbs and sugar.  The cake is flat and the emphasis is on seasonal fruit and berries.  I made one recently and the Daughter #2’s Frenchman (who is half German) was very impressed.

Here’s the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x13″ pan.

In the food processor, combine 1 c flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 t baking powder, 1/4 c butter untill crumbly.  Or the cut the butter into the above ingredients with a plenty blender.  Add 1/2 c milk, 1 egg, 1 t vanilla.  Spread into the prepared pan.  Top with finely diced fresh or frozen fruit of your choice.  The “girls” prefere rhubarb or halved Italian plams.  On this day I combined rubarb, frozen strawberries, blueberries and a over ripe banana.

Combine the following for the crumb topping: 1 1/2 c of flour, 1/2 c melted butter and 1 1/2 c sugar (white or brown for a different taste).  Sprinkle over the fruit.  Bake in the top 1/3 of your oven until golden brown (about 30 minutes).  If you have overloaded the fruit (as I have a tendency to do), you may want to put a second baking sheet near the bottom of the oven to catch the drips.

A couple of weeks ago, Mom#2 picked a bucket of fresh local strawberries for me.  I froze them individually on cookie sheets before I bagged them.  Instead of turning into one frozen hunk, they come out individually frozen and are so easy to use.

 I may have posted this recipe before-who cares, it is so good that it deserves an encore. 

Kath’s quote: “You can tell when you have crossed the frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.”-Edward VII

I tried to go back and reference the first time I heard the term “wife-saver”.  It was from my much-loved “Best of Bridge” cookbook series.  And I say tried because these cook books have been used so thoroughly over the years, that the front cover of this one (which would have included the date of publishing) is long gone.  Suffice it to say, that it was when my kids were babies and my oldest just turned 26. 

So we can safely establish that roles have changed.  But in this particular case the adage is an accurate one.  Sister #2 holds down one of those all-consuming jobs that makes weekends at the cottage particularly precious.  A time when she can sleep in, walk with the dogs, read, nap and rejuvenate for the weekdays ahead.  And so it is, that on weekends (especially long weekends), when she is assigned to the preparation of breakfasts for a gang, she dips into her “wife-saving” repertoire.

Don’t know what this was called, but it was satisfying and delicious.  Some of our gang took left over squares that they could eat on the run without reheating.

8 hash brown patties

2 cups of shaved ham (or chunks of leftover baked ham)

1 c milk

1/2 t dry mustard

4 c grated cheddar

7 eggs

1/2 t salt

Assemble a double layer of hash brown patties in appropriately sized pan.  Place ham on top.  Mix all other ingredients together and pour over top.  Cover and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees.  Uncover and bake 15 minutes more.

Prepare for a sweet fix with this dish.  Don’t know the official name for it either but describe it as a “Pecan Carmel French Toast”.

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c butter

2 T corn syrup

1 c pecans, loosely chopped

12 slices of multi-grain bread

6 eggs

1 1/2 c milk

1 t vanilla

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

Caramel sauce

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c butter

1 T corn syrup

To make this decadent dish even more so-we browned up split pork sausages to serve alongside

Combine sugar, butter, syrup.  Cook on med heat until sugar dissolves and it thickens.  Pour 1/2 sauce into 9 x 13 baking dish.  Place 6 slices of bread on top and then pecans.  Repeat.  Mix eggs, milk, spices.  Pour over bread.  Cover and refidgerate,  Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Make caramel sauce and pour over at table or when serving. 

Kath’s quote: “Often has the affectionate wife caused her husband a sleepless night and severe distress, which, had an enemy inflicted, she would scarcely have forgiven — because she has prepared for him food which did not agree with his constitution or habits.”-Sarah Josepha Hale, ‘The Good Housekeeper’

Shirley was one of the students in my blog writing class this spring.  She has written this beautiful piece.  Looks like one of those cases where the student could teach the teacher a thing or two…..

“Anyone who loves strawberries knows the sweet, juicy flavour of fresh-picked strawberries is second to none.  Not only are these delights of nature beautiful to look at with their crisp red appeal, they absolutely tantalize the taste buds.  Maybe part of the intense flavour explosion stems from picking them ourselves.

Just a few minutes outside Winnipeg and throughout Manitoba, there are various U-Pick Strawberry farms.  Many are operated as family businesses providing reliable quality and service.  I remember going strawberry picking with my Mom and Dad when I was a little girl.  It was so much fun to hear my Dad tell stories of how I would focus on the task at hand and pick strawberries right along with my parents.

I was taught how to respect the tender plants and pick cleanly, not eat while picking, and simply select the beautiful red berries.  Okay, don’t tell:  my Dad would let me try a berry or two near the end, and oh, the sweetest taste filled my mouth!  I still remember how wonderful those delightful excursions to the strawberry fields were.  Somehow it never seemed like work.

Today I still find the whole process from picking to eating the strawberries, in whatever form they end up, to be enjoyable.  Food is love.  Strawberries are love.

I froze these on cookie sheets before bagging them so that they do not go mushy.

After hulling and washing these delectable jewels bursting with flavour and nutritional goodness, they can be eaten fresh out of hand, added to cereal, and made into various delicious desserts such as strawberry trifle or strawberry shortcake.  They can also be frozen for use out of season when we yearn for the sweet taste of summer berries.

What memories do the smell of strawberries bring to you?”

Grandma Jean’s Strawberry Pie-Just picked, made and delivered to the cottage

Kath’s quote:   “The strawberry: “Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.”-Dr William Butler

Thank you Shirley!

“Auntie’s chocolate cake (was) a moist, sour-milk, two-layer concoction spread thickly with Jennie’s soft, white frosting and covered in grated coconut.  As a child I loved to watch the vinegar -Heinz’s white, not my grandfather’s red-start to sour the warm milk.  If I stared long enough I could see the milk begin to thicken and coagulate from the chemical reaction of the vinegar.  When the cake was pulled from the oven, leaving moist, dark crumbs on the toothpick tester, I loved the sight of it sitting on a cake plate in the center of any of the tables from my childhood, whether it was my birthday’s or someone else’s.”

“A single bite of that cake still conjures up the days when all the characters of my childhood used to sit around Jennie’s kitchen table on Whitney Avenue celebrating the joy of birth, when I was little, when my parents were young, when my grandparents were still only in their sixties.  It keeps those Sunday dinners alive in my memory,”from Paula Buttuini’s “Keeping the Feast”

Well here it is the weekend of Daughter #1’s birthday and what has she requested for her birthday dessert?  A recipe for the chocolate zucchini cake from her childhood-one that I haven’t made in years.  But not surprisingly, I find it in one of my many “Best of Bridge” recipe books and as I scan the ingredients to ensure that I will have everything I see that it calls for sour milk…

Daughters #1 and 2

I’ve run out of time and space this morning but I will post the beloved recipe soon and also dig up one for the requested chocolate cream cheese icing.  Have a wonderful Canada Day weekend.  Find a food treat to celebrate this great country that we live in and the memories of the day will live on.

Kath’s quote:  “We have never been a melting pot. The fact is we are more like a tossed salad. We are green, some of us are oily, and there’s a little vinegar injected when you get up to Ottawa.”-Arnold Edinborough

Universities across Canada have a special exchange program to accommodate English students who wish to become more fluent in French and French students who wish to do the same in English.  Daughter #1 spent a summer of at Universite Laval in Quebec City a couple of years ago.  Sister #3 has hosted two of these students in her home-Emilie last year and this summer Gabrielle.  We celebrated Gabrielle’s last weekend of the program with a pitch in supper last Saturday night at the cottage.  “Pitch in” meaning that everyone took on a dish or a course:

Sister #3 and I shared the appetizer course:  Mushrooms Neptune and Mussels whith bread to sop up the mussel juice.

D broiled the strip loins and shrimp kebabs

and Sister #2 made an artichoke & zucchini salad, a brown & wild rice pilaf,

sauteed mushrooms & feta and local asparagus. 

The guest of honour made the dessert course-a special treat of sugar pie!

Quebecois recipes must be handed down by verbal tradition because Gabby had never written this one out.  I noticed the same thing when I’ve asked the “Frenchman’s” Mom for a favourite recipe and when his sister-Vanessa stayed with us this Christmas.  She had made us crepes and when I requested that recipe she told me that you started with one egg per person and that you added milk, flour and sugar according to look and feel. 

But without further adieu…Tarte Au Sucre

Combine 3/4 c brown sugar with 1/2 c milk, 1 beaten egg, 3 heaping T flour & 2 t spoons melted butter.  Pour into a prepared pie shell and bake at 375 degrees until set.  Topped with ice cream or whipped cream as we choose to. 

Happy Belated Saint John Baptiste Day.  I love that Canada is such a mosaic and people and cultures and food traditions!

Kath’s quote: “Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.”-Mark Kurlansky