Have you watched any of the “Focker” movies?  When the in-laws of an engaged couple, come together for the sake of their children, it is the pretense for hilarity to ensue.

Perhaps we are not as eccentric as the families in the movies, because our experience has been one of quiet chats and the opportunity to gaze into the inner workings of a loving family.  This past weekend I traveled with Reb and Seb to his hometown of Peterborough, ON.  We arrived early enough on Thursday for a light lunch and the Frenchman’s Mom began a weekend of loving us with food.

If any dish embodies a Mom’s love of her family, it is risotto-a dish that I will be frank and tell you that I have never had the patience to make for my own family.  The Frenchman’s Mom on the other hand, is more than willing to spend a half hour or more, committed to the constant stirring and ladling that is required to perfect this dish.

Every family members gets into the “act” of getting dinner on the big antique dining table.  More chairs are always welcome.

The pea and basil risotto was accompanied by savoury chicken breasts and asparagus spears.

After dinner we were going to take a stroll and then find an ice cream place until the Frenchman’s Mom volunteered to make the ice cream herself.  It utilized fresh strawberries and then she made her own chocolate sauce to ladle over top for an extra helping of love.

A full moon watched over us.

The next morning she was at it again with homemade waffles, bacon and scrambled eggs.

Later that evening, the family was hosting an engagement party for the happy couple.  Their spacious kitchen meant that when it was time to get dinner on the table, there was lots of room to maneuver.

Mother of the groom and yours truly.  In-laws that love to cook together.  This marriage will definitely not fail.

The Frenchman’s Mom made the Quinoa salad

and I assembled this spinach, strawberry, almond and feta salad.

She stuffed this pork roast with delicious results.

My favourite was the chicken roasted in a tajine (I can’t wait to get one).  This clay casserole has a chimney-like cover which produces a chicken which is moist and tender.  They supposedly do a great job with lamb too.

Love-on a plate.

Speaking of love-dessert was an amazingly refreshing and light lemon filled cake.  As pieces were being distributed to all the guests, we shared marriage and relationship tips with the bride and groom to be.

Kath’s quote: “Cooking is an art and patience a virtue… Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing – love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist – not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch Master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love.”-Keith Floyd

Love-that s all.

When we arrive at the beach house on a Friday evening, haven accomplished the grocery shopping, packing and helping D load the car, the last thing that I want to do is think about is making supper.  This is when we sometimes grab a U bake pizza or shop at the deli on the way out of town.  But last weekend J1 and J2 made a Crockpot supper of pulled pork and since I have an extra pot at home, I decided to bring it out to leave here permanently.  I assembled the ingredients at about 8 in the morning, plugged it in and got on with my day of work. 

Here’s a beach tip: I plugged in the pot outside and had it sitting on a wooden step (in the shade).  This way, even this small appliance didn’t heat up the house.  The only downside was that I was afraid that the amazing aroma would attract the bears that have been roaming around recently.

I served this with a leftover potato salad and made up a simple green salad when the roadside corn that I was hoping for did not materialize.  Easy, peasy and hardly any dishes!

The key to crockpot chicken is adding moisture to the cooking process without the chicken “stewing” in the liquid.   This can be accomplished with preparing a ledge out for hard veggies for the chicken to sit upon.  If none are available, roll up balls of aluminum foil to raise the chicken from the bottom of the pot.

In addition to rubbing the seasonings directly into the flesh of the bird, surround it with fresh herb leaves.

One last tip: if you have one of the crockpot styles where you can lift the ceramic liner away from the element that heats up, do so and place the chicken in the ceramic pot right under the broiler and allow the skin to crisp up.  Friday night Beach House dinner is done.

Kath’s quote: “One of the faults which a cook should most seriously guard against, is bad temper….It is in the power of the cook to do much for the comfort and prosperity of the family….Never let the family have reason to say — ‘The cook is always cross!’”-Sarah Josepha Hale, ‘The Good Housekeeper’ (1839)

Love-that is all.

I have decided to create a Beach House category of recipes.  When we are up at our little place on weekends or in the summer, our meals and recipes focus on aspects different from the city:

1. When it is hot we either try to cook in the morning or use the barbeque or crock pot.  Our oven isn’t brand new (almost everything is a hand-me-down out here) and throws off a lot of heat. 
2. There is access to just caught fish, freshly picked blueberries and produce from farmers in the vicinity. There is a Farmer’s Market set up on the highway every Friday in the summer so we stop on our way out and then utilize whatever we have picked up. 
3. We often cook for large groups as my extended family has three other cottages on the road. 
4. We typically skip breakfast or simply grab a banana, granola bar or yoghurt in the morning with our many cups of coffee and then have a brunch or lunch item at noon when the guys get home from playing tennis at Grand Beach. 
5. Although there are a couple of well-stocked stores for groceries and supplies, they are all a twenty minute car ride away and once we get here, we try to drive as little as possible.  As a result many of my recipes use what we already have in the fridge or larder.  For example, in this one, I use 10% cream instead of milk because it was what I had on hand.
6. We try to cook with as few dishes as possible because although the water is plentiful (the water table is so high that we pump it up through an apparatus called a sand point), disposing of water is not as easy.  Lake Winnipeg is in some trouble and we do our part by having our house water drain into a tank which then has to be pumped out and trucked away.  I do recycle water as much as possible by using a “friendly” detergent and then letting my plants drink up the dishwater.

I let it sit for 2 ½ hours because that is the length of time I have between D and J1’s departure for tennis and their subsequent arrival back home.  Many mornings I take the wee One for a walk on the beach in her “Chariot” stroller but this morning, I am getting caught up on some writing in the solarium.

Kath’s quote: “O, blackberry tart, with berries as big as your thumb, purple and black, and thick with juice, and a crust to endear them that will go to cream in your mouth, and both passing down with such a taste that will make you close your eyes and wish you might live forever in the wideness of that rich moment.”-Richard Llewellyn

Love-that is all.

The beginning of another glorious day on Isla.  I sit with my coffee and watch the day come alive and take picture after picture thinking “This will be the last one, the sky can’t possibly get more beautiful than this”.  And then it does and I take another.

For the previous couple of days, I had watched this family assemble on the shore from their rented house a few doors to the south.  On this day, I went over and told them how beautiful they look in the sunlight and took this and a number of other photos for them.

We don’t always walk into Colonias, sometimes we head to Centro but I still can’t leave my camera behind and just walk.  I MUST capture Isla so that I can relive that slow pace and the long shadows of the newly risen sun.

I love this house and the artistry demonstrated in the painting of it.  I wish the lovely woman watering her plant had windows to see her beautiful island though.

We finally arrive at our destination-Café Cito.  We miss Ziggy but still come for the pineapple/coconut/banana jam.

and Mexican eggs

and fried eggs with hash browns and their pretty good coffee.

We set off again, deliberating over the idea of renting bikes for the day.  After waiting for places to open and then checking the condition and price of the rentals, we decide to pass.  I am not really sure why we were so easily dissuaded and then I find out later that a friend of ours who had rented a bicycle was cut off by a scooter and received fairly serious injuries when his bike crashed.  I guess our guardian angel was watching over us.

So we make our way back home but not without a stop at our favourite spot for real fruit popsicles-this one mango.

We spend the rest of the day luxuriating in our own little paradise.  We keep the great kitchen in our apartment at Luna d’Miel stocked with juices, fruit, snacks, beer, wine and enough key ingredients to make a sandwich to eat by the sea.

The blues of the Caribe were particularly vibrant that day.

When I am not lying in the hammock writing or reading one of the zillion books the I devour on Isla, I have a lovely pastime.

I am a beachcomber, collecting heart shaped shells, coral & stones, beach glass-my favourite colour is the very pale sea-foam green and I am ecstatic when I find a turquoise piece.  I also search for the inside spiral of conch shells.  I bleach them and then glue a pin on them to give as gifts to my girlfriends.  The strip of the beach in front of Luna d’Miel is perfect for collecting and I go out bright and early each morning and stand in the surf and let the treasures just wash up and find me.

When it was time for dinner we waited for Sister #3’s cab to pick us up on their way to Monchi’s.  Since every vehicle going north to south and vice versa on the island can only take one of two roads, there was a 50/50 chance that we would be successful.  With Facebook added to ensure that she request the east airport strip with her cab driver, the odds went up to 100%.

The Wee One, J2 and Veektooria were also at Monchi’s, together with Doona’s entourage that we had traveled and dined with on other occasions.  When you add in Bro #3 and his wife, I think there were thirteen of us that evening.

I can never decide whether or not I like Ziggy’s (he has since moved to Barlito’s, by the way) Coconut or Garlic Shrimp.  Lucky for me, Sister #3 was on the fence too, so we each ordered one and then swapped to ensure that we each had a combo.  Most everyone had shrimp of one description or another but orders of grilled chicken and enchiladas were also equally enjoyed.

We stopped to appreciate the beautiful trees growing across from the restaurant before we walked back home.  We often end the day, the way we start it, sitting in our chairs at the water’s edge, sipping a glass of something and gazing at the sky.

Kath’s quote: “Second star to the right…and straight on ’til morning“. -James Kirk

Love-that is all.

This weekend we recruited a crew of family members to help us assemble a solarium for the deck of our beach house. Although days are lovely and mild, the mosquitoes and sudden thunderstorms can severely cramp your style on the Canadian prairies without an option of this kind. By noon of the work day, what had been accomplished had to be disassembled and reassembled and by dinner time the last of the roof panels were just starting to slide into their place. A whopper of a thunderstorm was rolling in off the lake and the gang managed to get the last one in place and some chairs pulled in before a deluge began.

Meanwhile, I was taking stock of the ingredients that I had available to create some little sweet and savoury tastes to thank everyone for their efforts. I composed six pairings and these were the favourites:

Savoury Apricot – an onion flatbread with a slice of parmesan salami folded into a compact triangle, a dollop of Smucker’s Apricot jam, roasted red pepper and a sprig of basil.

Surprising Blueberry – a Raincoast Crisp Seed Cracker, a smudge of sour cream, a smear of Smucker’s Blueberry Jam, segments of lemon slices and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Mexican Peach – a mini taco “scoop”, a creamy slice of avocado, a spoonful of Smucker’s Peach Jam, a wedge of roasted purple onion and a nip of cilantro.

Nutty Apricot – a mini biscotti round, a glorious smear of Smucker’s Apricot Jam, a wedge of smoked gouda, a roasted pecan and a twig of rosemary.

To say that the delectable offerings were well received would be a gross understatement.  Every single morsel was devoured instantly but not without glowing exclamations. Everyone had their favourites for different reasons, some preferring basil over cilantro, others loved the crunchy varieties and another pleased with the dairy-free options. All were impressed with the complexity of the tastes and how satisfying each little bite was in spite of its size. 

We often entertain at our beach house and I am delighted that in the future, I can tap into my selections of Smucker’s fresh jams, add a fresh herb, a cracker, a bit of protein and voila, I can be back out into the solarium to sip my bevvie and rejoin the conversation. Life is good.

Kath’s quote: “And the Quangle Wangle said to himself on the Crumpetty Tree,–‘Jam; and Jelly; and bread; Are the best of food for me!”-Edward Lear

Love-that is all.

Smucker’s Pairings are a simple, easy way to create delicious food combinations with jam and other ingredients, designed to help you discover how flavours mingle together for mouth-watering results. Each pairing has 5 ingredients or less, and s ready in less than 15 minutes. Because with a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.  For specific information on our jam flavours and varieties, please visit www.smuckers.ca. 

Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Smucker’s foods of Canada via Mode Media Canada.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Smucker’s Foods of Canada.