Blueberry Raspberry Crumble

This is probably one of my favourite desserts because it's fast, portable delicious and everyone loves it. I doubled some of the ingredients and added others to make this recipe feed crumble to more people (or feed some people more crumble).

Blueberry Raspberry Crumble

(adapted from an ina Garten recipe)

Fruit

6-8C raspberries and blueberries

3t lemon zest

3T lemon juice

2/3 C sugar

1/3 C flour

Crumble

2 C flour

2/3C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 t kosher salt

1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 C oats

1/2lb butter

1. Preheat oven to 350. Set out a deep 9x13 baking pan.

2. Mix fruit, zest, juice, sugar and flour in baking dish.

3. For the topping: combine flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, oats and butter in an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low speed until butter is the size of small peas.

4. Pour over fruit distributing evenly.

5. Bake 40 mins or until top is golden and fruit is bubbly.

6. Serve warm with ice cream.

Quote of the Night.

In an effort to console me Jim said this regarding our, very bizarre, dinner....

"You have been cooking for me for 7+ years now and nothing has been comparable to {how bad} this dinner is...so on the bright side, you're effort to success ratio is really quite good!"

The Everyday Bagel

Our family has always eaten a lot of bagels and it wasn't even something I thought about making until Jim bought me the book Artisan Breads Everyday by Peter Reinhart. I love his technique for bread making. For some reason they just work! Multi-grain and whole wheat breads are my favourite but I always had terrible results with them being hard or yeasty or flat. Not so with Peter's recipes. I have made 4 beautifully delicious loaves so far. I highly recommend the book.

For the last month I have not bought bread at all because I have found his method so easy and the results so perfect.

Peter says in his book that bagels are one of the easiest breads to make so I felt confident and went for it. He was right. Though there are a few steps to the process, each step is easy and quite fun.

This batch yielded 8 whole-wheat honey bagels so I topped one half with a little fleur de sel and the other with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.

My bagel loving family was eager to come share the hot morsels straight away so we had a little impromptu brunch.

All that remains is a lonely quarter bagel, a few crumbs and a smear of cream cheese.

I will be making bagels again very soon.

**Recently found someone (The Wednesday Chef) who typed out the whole method...for anyone out there who is interested in giving these bagels a try. They are fantastic. Im making them today.

Company

Sometimes I get the pleasure of dining with The Queen.

Hot Wing Wraps and A Cookie...(or two)

My friend Shannon visited today and, as we tried to decide what to feed our families this week, I rediscovered a delicious and fast summer meal. I found an old issue of 'Cuisine Tonight' at Value Village a few years back, the sandwich edition and have made quite a few things from it. I love the freshness and simplicity of the recipes. Hot Wing Wraps are a one of our favourite summer dinners.

Hot Wing Wraps

1/4C hot wing sauce (we use Franks)

1/4C honey

1/4C lime juice.

1lb bnls, sknls chicken thighs cut into 1.5inch chunks

1/2 t cajun seasoning blend (we use Montreal chicken spice)

These toppings are merely a suggestion...

1/2 Cucumber sliced thinly

1/2 Green/or Red Pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 C celery, sliced thinly

1/2C carrot, grated

1 tomato chopped

bib or boston lettuce

Blue Cheese dressing (if you like it...we do.)

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a fry pan over med-high heat and add chicken. Sprinkle with seasoning and cook until it begins to brown. Add the hot sauce, honey and lime juice. Stir until sauce thickens and reduces. I cooked mine for about 10-15mins. Most of the liquid is evaporated and the chicken is glazed with a thick red goo...and it's delish.

Place chicken in a wrap with bib or boston lettuce, veg, grated cheddar, dressing and whatever else sounds good.

My Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies

(River Cottage Family Cookbook)

Makes 12 large cookies.

3 1/2 oz (1/2 C...or there abouts) Good Dark chocolate

1/2 C melted Unsalted butter

1/2C (scant) Granulated Sugar

1/3C Brown sugar

1 egg

2 t Vanilla

1C All purpose flour

1/2 t baking powder

a pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

Preheat oven to 375.

Chop chocolate and line baking sheets with parchment.

Pour melted butter over sugars and beat with a wooden spoon.

Break egg in and add vanilla. Beat until well blended.

Sift in flour, baking powder and salt.

Stir them in and add chocolate.

It is pretty sloppy looking.

Drop heaping tablespoon-fulls onto baking sheets leaving lots of room between them. They really spread.

Cook for around 8 minutes...no longer than 10!

Eat!

Calzones: The new house specialty.

Recently, I made calzones for some dear little people (and the dear little peoples dear daddies). As I watched them devour the lovely golden pillows stuffed with cheese and green veg I decided to make them more often.

I took this pic from TheArdentSparrow I hope she doesn't mind...:)

Jim and I always used to get calzones for lunch while I was pregnant with Clara. I used to make them too. For some reason I stopped making them for a while but am back in full swing and loving them again. I have been searching for the perfect calzone dough and this is currently the winner.

It is from the original Moosewood cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I usually put in the classic pizza toppings like mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, turkey sausage, mozz and sauce. Mollie has a few delicious sounding suggestions such as spinach-cheese and asparagus-mushroom that I am planning on trying soon. Here's my new favourite dough; stretchy and soft.

Calzones

1C wrist-temp water

1 1/2 tsp active yeast

1T honey

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2- 3 C Flour

olive oil

**the starred parts are for using a kitchenaid mixer

1. Place the water in a med size bowl. **(I used my kitchenaid mixer) Sprinkle in the yeast, and stir in the honey until everything is dissolved.

2. Add salt and flour and whisk until it's too thick to whisk. Then stir with a floured hand. Knead in bowl for 5 mins. **(I added salt and flour to the kitchenaid and kneaded it with the dough hook for about 3 mins.

3. Drizzle a little olive oil over the dough and roll it around in the bowl to coat.

4. Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or doubled in size.

5. Cut dough into 6 pieces and roll them out on a floured surface until around 1/4inch thick and slightly oblong.

6. Fill one side of the dough with toppings. Run a little water around the edge with filling on it with your finger, stretch the empty side over the top and press edges closed with a fork and prick the top a couple of times.

7. Brush with an egg wash of 1 egg beaten with 1Tbsp of water.

8. Bake at 450* for 15-20 mins.

**Filling is lethally hot...be careful!

A very springy chicken dish

This is an easy chicken recipe that looks beautiful and everyone in our house loves. I found it in my good old "Not Your Mother's" cookbook. The ingredients are things that most people have hanging around in the pantry and it took around 15 minutes to prepare. (Plus baking time) I served it with Ina's Buttermilk Potatoes, Peas and a Green Salad with Avocado-Citrus dressing.

Lemon Chicken with Mint

4 chicken breasts cut in half (length-wise)
Zest and Juice of 1 lemon

1/3C flour

1/1/2 t salt

1/2 paprika

2 T Olive oil or a little more...

2T Brown sugar

1 Sliced lemon

1C broth (chicken or veg)

a few sprigs mint

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Butter a baking dish large enough for the chicken to be in a single layer.

2. Drizzle chicken with lemon juice. Place flour, salt and paprika in a ziplock bag and add the chicken pieces shaking to coat.

3. In a skillet over med-high heat, heat the oil. Add chicken pieces and sear until golden brown on both sides, about 10 mins total.

4. Place browned chicken in the baking dish and sprinkle the top with zest and sugar.

5. Place lemon slices and mint over chicken, tip broth in and around the chicken and bake for 30 mins or until juices run clear.

(Discard mint sprigs before serving)