Apples to apples

I suffered one of life's disappointments this past week.  One of those that makes you question your confidence and competence.  So what did I do?  Turned to the pots, pans, and a stick of butter for solace (after assuring my mother that I find no comfort at the bottom of a bottle...)

The harvest season is most definitely upon us.  The weather let up by giving us some nice temperatures this weekend, but there's no turning the leaves back to green.  Speaking of, my coworker's apple tree seems to have produced a bumper crop of tiny, tart little apples that she brought to work to share.

So cute and little!!  Maybe 5 cm in diameter, at best.

I had tempted poor Hubs with the idea of an apple pancake yesterday, but wound up feeling too tired and out of sorts to pull it off (instead, we grabbed stuff from 7-Eleven on our walk back from my dentist appointment, and he had his first Winnipeg Slurpee!  A milestone!!)  I felt it would be cruel to not deliver the promised pancake today.  I decided to get a little fancier than usual, though.  Typically I just chop up apples and mix the pieces into typical pancake batter.  Today, I decided to recreate a tasty treat I tried at the famous Pancake House chain... the German apple pancake.

Apples cooking in caramelized spiced sugar and butter.

One big pancake for two, comin' up!  It's an 11" pan, to give you a frame of reference.

Close up goodness- crispy-but-fluffy batter, soft apples, and lots of sugar, spice and all things nice.  I know, I'm terrible.

It's basically a pancake started by cooking apples in butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg on the stovetop (how can you go wrong?!), adding a rather eggy, runny batter, and baking in a hot oven.  A bit more prep time than what my usual apple pancakes require, but SO worth it in the end.  Allrecipes.com has become one of my new best friends for inspiration, and they didn't let me down here!  Plus, it gave me an excuse to test-drive my new ovenproof skillet.  And I didn't burn my hands once!  Hurray!

Yes, I use President's Choice 15% real maple syrup table syrup.  Sorry for all you out there who think Canadians drink maple syrup by the litre... but I find the commercial varieties, while delicious, to be too runny (and too expensive) for my liking.  This is the best of both worlds for me.  Don't judge.

The next order of business was to use up some apples that have languished in my crisper for too long to be eaten out of hand.  They were Royal Galas, which my chem teacher once referred to as, "The dessert apple".  How could I interfere with that destiny??  Plus, I had yet to use my fluted tart pan for an actual tart (I've used it for something else, but I'll post that another time).

My other new friend in the online recipe world is joyofbaking.com.  Now, I don't consider myself a beginner when it comes to baking, but there's something reassuring about seeing a recipe with an accompanying how-to video.  Sort of makes the whole process seem idiot-proof.  That was the case for this cream cheese apple tart with a shortbread crust base.  I wanted something to accompany the pumpkin pie ice cream I whipped up at Hubs' behest (recipe pending!)  How often does that happen?  Requesting an ice cream, then making the dessert to match it?

Please excuse my messy stovetop.  It's clean now, I promise!

Overall, I'd say both of these were a success.  I thought Hubs might enjoy the cheesecake-like filling for the tart; turns out I was right.  It was a great dessert to finish of a meal with our dear friend Deb while watching Netflix and drinking more wine than is probably recommended on a "work night".  Oops.

Planning to extend the harvest baking theme to a pumpkin-fest for next weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving, yay!),
-Honeybee

Farewell to summer

 Though we had a bit of a reprieve today, the weather in Winnipeg has definitely taken a turn towards fall.  Last week, I really wanted something summer-worthy.  Something to remind me of simple dinners at home when it was too hot to really cook.  Or dinners out at the campground using produce bought at the little vegetable stands along the highway.  Can you tell I'm a bit homesick?

Sorry, I got a bit photo-happy with these...

I managed to convince Hubs to come out to the St. Norbert Farmers' Market with me last weekend.  It was a little bit crowded for his liking, but he at least experienced enough to agree with my assessment regarding the perogies.  We ended picking up some beets, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and fudge.  I really liked the selection of beautiful low-acid yellow tomatoes, and decided to use them in this simple-but-scrumptious salad my mom makes frequently.  It's not even a salad so much as an assembly- sliced tomatoes at the peak of the season, topped with crumbled feta, a drizzle of olive oil, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  A little fresh cracked pepper rounds it out.  You could add chopped fresh basil, too, but I didn't have any.  Ah well, c'est la vie.

Mum would usually serve this alongside a delicious zucchini fritatta (which I did earlier in the week for a quick supper, thanks to the squash-growing skills of my coworker Terri).  Today, though it went along with a fish-fry supper:

Boiled sweet corn on the cob, blackened red snapper (recipe here), hashbrowns, and pan-fried beet greens with garlic.

Now about those hashbrowns.  My grandmother used to make this "potato pancake" of sorts by adding grated potato to butter in a frying pan.  I don't think there was ever a hard-and-fast recipe.  I do mine by grating potato, then squeezing as much excess water out as I can by hand.  This time, I shredded half an onion in for good measure (it needed to be used up).  I season it with salt and pepper and press it into a small frying pan with a good amount of butter (more goes on top, too, to melt in).  Flip once it's browned and crispy on one side.  It's sort of like the hashbrowns at Waffle House.  Grandma liked to serve it with breaded pan-fried Lake Erie yellow perch; my mom does the same.  Mmm.

As much as I love having Hubs here, sometimes you just need to feel close to your other loved ones.  Can I be blamed for doing it through food?  As it turned out, my mom made a very similar dinner the same night that we had this.  Great minds, I tell ya.

Wishing she could get truly amazing (read: Ontario) tomatoes all year round,
-Honeybee

"Tour de Winnipeg"

Just a couple of weeks before The Big Day, I had a lovely visit from my dear friend Andrea and her hubs, Colin.  They were on their own blog-worthy journey: a cross-country move from B.C. back to Ontario, visiting friends along the way.  I was lucky enough to be one of them!  So, I acted as a "Winnipeg Ambassador" and took the lovely couple to the Forks after a delicious meal.

On the pedestrian bridge at the Forks.

Since Andrea and Colin were here for just one night only, I wanted to showcase as much of the culinary diversity of the city as I could.  So, I devised the following menu:

 

And here's how I pulled it off!

Getting ingredients ready for the pickerel almondine...

Look at those gorgeous filets, thanks to the Gimli Fish Market.  I could link to the recipe, but it was pretty simple: I put the filet on top of a "bed" of sliced red onions and lemon wheels.  Top with paprika, thyme, salt, pepper, green onion, basil, slivered almonds, and dot with butter.  Wrap and bake.

The appetizer: kubasa, pickels, bison burgers, and Bothwell cheese.  Mmm.  I put a hoisin sauce glaze on the burgers as a nod towards Chinatown down on King street.  Colin seemed to really like it!!

Finished fish!  Loosely based on this recipe.  For all you Americans, yes, pickerel = walleye.

Asparagus with goma (sesame) dressing.  I fell in love with this after Deb introduced me to maguro goma-ae, a tuna and avocado salad at her favourite sushi place, Naru.  I found a recipe for it here, and used it to symbolize all the Japanese restaurants in the city (even if they're mostly owned and operated by lovely Koreans...)

Red velvet cupcakes.  What more can I say.  You're all familiar with my recipe, but I made them mini this time.  Portion control!!

Cinnamon buns from Stellas.  Calm down... yes, I know they're not from Tall Grass Prairie.  But honestly, I was at Stella'a already buying some focaccia to represent Little Italy on Corydon, so I just picked them up there.  They were QUITE delish.

Overall, I must say, I was rather pleased with the whole event.  Andrea and Colin are so sweet that they sent me some Irish breakfast tea as a thank you for hosting them (Andrea is an incredibly thoughtful person and also likes to send gifts by mail frequently.  I most recently got this awesome Ravenclaw laptop case from her!!  Isn't she fantastic??)

I always love when people come to visit and see this life I've built for myself out here in the Prairies.  It reminds me that, even though my friends might USUALLY be far away, they're still willing to take the time and see what I'm up to.  It was so much fun having this fantastic couple over... and set the stage for me to develop a "five-point Winnipeg tour" for my parents when they visited!  There was lots of good food involved there, too, including a trip to Fude in the Village... but I digress.

Wondering what the best way might be to tackle the quintessential Manitoba beet,
-Honeybee

Waffle Weekiversary

Yes, "weekiversary" is not really a word.  But I'm well-known for abusing the suffix -iversary.

After an absolutely whirlwind 7 day period (which began with gettin' hitched and contained a two-day inter-province road trip avec UHaul), I figured Hubs and I deserved something a little special for breakfast.  Among the many things we'd moved from Windsor, I found the Belgian waffle maker that my mother graciously "loaned" me... and that I haven't given back.

Her loss, clearly.

I have great memories of these waffles.  They'd make an appearance for birthday breakfasts,  the morning after a girls' night, or on lazy Saturday mornings.  I credit our Aunt Sue with introducing them to us many years ago during a family visit.  We all loved them (and it was relatively simple for us kids to "help" by pouring in the required amount of batter).

So, I took it down from the top of the cupboards and got crackin'.  Initially, our family just used prepared boxed pancake batter... but I always found those waffles to be a bit too heavy and cake-like (plus, I haven't bought pancake mix since I learned how simple it is to make batter fresh).  I graduated to using a recipe from my mom's "Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery", a truly behemoth ~20-volume hardcover set from the 1970s.  While tastes in haute cuisine and food photography have certainly changed since that day (thank goodness!), it still contains a wealth of good basic recipes.  Alas, I have no such thing here... Internet to the rescue!!

You know I'm thinking of Mom when I break out the math symbols...

I found this batter recipe at Allrecipes.com; it showed promise (and saved me the step of whipping egg whites separately, which can be a pain).  The waffles were, I kid you not, PERFECT.  Crisp on the outside, but soft and fluffy and moist on the inside with a perfect golden brown colour.  You can't beat these puppies.

It was all I could do to take pics before devouring.

So, we ate them in a very standard fashion.  I mixed up some Dream Whip (yup, I'm that lazy... but honestly, I love the flavour of the stuff!), made a quick mixed berry syrup from some frozen fruit, and poured the syrup over.  Mmmm.  A lovely sit-down breakfast for us newlyweds!

Hubs' creation... with an extra quarter of waffle for good measure.

 The only problem: this recipe made 6 waffles.  We are only two people... and we weren't QUITE that hungry.  The solution?  Dinner waffles!

This isn't your Aunt Sue's waffle, that's for sure (though she has excellent taste and would more than likely approve!)

Savoury waffles aren't a new thing.  I remember seeing (probably in that same encycolpedia), a recipe for waffles & chicken à la king.  The Southern combo of waffles and fried chicken with syrup and gravy also works here.  I had been perusing Nemmie's back entries again, and came across her huevos rancheros post... and the inspiration hit.

Fried eggs...

Plus black beans with bacon, onions and spices...

Get that waffle in there...

Top with some shredded cheese and broil until melted...

...aaaaand top to your heart's content.  Mine has avocado, diced tomatoes, black beans, green onions, more shredded cheese, cilantro, and sour cream.

Hubs doctored his with a liberal dash of habañero hot sauce.  Very appropriate.

Deliciously messy.

I'm stuffed!!

These were absolutely FANTASTIC.  I couldn't even eat my whole dinner waffle; I took the rest to work the next day for lunch (and got some puzzled looks from my coworkers... So worth it).  I've since made "real" huevos rancheros (with tortillas instead of waffles) and those were also delicious.  I think they'll become a new staple!

 

Different carb for the base, but same basic idea.  Yummy!!

Wondering if she can convince enough people that waffles are the traditional one-week wedding gift,
-Honeybee

Wedding bells and Honeybees...

I am probably the worst blogger on the face of the planet.  However, I feel I do have a fairly legitimate excuse...

That's right!!  Hubs is officially my husband now!!!  A few more pics, courtesy of the lovely Crystal of Canadian Captures Photography (can't resist giving her a plug...)

 And since this is, of course, a food blog, time to display the cake!  Top tier: red velvet and cream cheese filling (in the freezer for our 1 year anniversary).  Middle tier: lemon cake with lemon filling (which I regrettably didn't get to taste!!).  Bottom tier: chocolate chip cake with chocolate filling.  Mmmm!!!

It's hard to imagine that we managed to move Hubs from Windsor to Winnipeg just two days after the wedding so that I could be back to work on the Wednesday following.  I feel like we're only just settling down now! 

The nice thing about wedded bliss: Hubs actually does about 40-50% of the cooking.  His skills are getting better every day!  He basically just stir-fries things, but you can definitely go far with that technique.  It's absolutely fantastic for those days when I get home from work and feel like doing NOTHING.  In the old days, I would have just eaten hummus with a spoon for dinner... but now, I have a culinary partner in crime!  Granted, he leaves "fancier", more involved things to me... like the dishes I've made since moving home that are waiting to be posted here!  So stay tuned, ladies and gents.  Now that our weekends are our own, I'm sure I'll be grabbing the laptop and posting more often!

About to go make a Sunday dinner worthy of Grandma's table,
-Honeybee

Snicks-inspired workplace bribery

The wedding season in the Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg Genetics & Metabolism Program is swiftly approaching.  Hubs and I are leading the pack in the first of four weddings in the department, with Jess & Kyle following a week later.  What does any of this have to do with food?  Well, Hubs and I will be looking after the always-energetic Snickers during her parents' absence.  Aside from the familiar chocolate bar association, when I hear her nickname, "Snicks", I think of Snickerdoodles.

I have some extremely fond memories of these simple-but-delicious cookies.  They were part of Aunt Mary Jane's staple cookie jar lineup.  I never understood why they were called snickerdoodles... after all, they don't have Snickers bars in them (Wikipedia offers a history lesson here).  Regardless, they've always had a special place in my heart, even if they ARE chocolate-free!

As with most cookies I've made, I used these as some form of bribery at work.  Cathy is our incredible prenatal secretary, who books my appointments, transcribes my letters, and generally makes sure that I have everything I need for my appointments (y'know, so it looks like I know what I'm doing when I see patients!)  I asked her to do me a quick favour via email, to which she replied (much like my father), "No problemo.  $20."  I asked if I could pay her in cookies instead... apparently, that's the preferred currency in the office for favours.  So, while thinking of a canine member of the department, I decided to Google my way to a new snickerdoodle recipe. 

Up close and personal with the sweet cinnamon coating that elevates these from a plain sugar cookie to something special.

 What makes this recipe different?  After all, I do have one kicking around on a creased, stained, aged index card.  Anyone who's seen a recipe for these might have noticed: they often call for cream of tartar.  This is basically a powdered form of acid (potassium bitartrate), meant to react with baking soda to provide leavening.  These days, it's already included in baking powder.  Admittedly, adding your acid and base separately allows you to adjust the ratios of each component... but I honestly can't be bothered to buy a tiny $5 tin of the stuff.  So, I selected this recipe based on its use of baking soda (which costs significantly less for significantly more.  I can be frugal!)  Also: instructional video!  Hooray!  These really are fail-proof.  Much thanks to the Joy of Baking website!

I ALMOST forgot to take pictures of the finished product before bringing them to work.

I have to admit, I had one tiny snafu with these... I didn't hear the timer go for the first batch, which made them a little more "caramelized" than the rest of the cookies (NOT burnt.  Just... crunchy).  Luckily, Dr. Mhanni seemed to really enjoy them... so much so that he suggested I routinely ignore the oven timer and make a whole batch of overly browned biscuits.  Of course, he'll eat just about anything, so I think I'll stick to the intended chewy-on-the-inside texture.

Well this isn't snickerdoodle dough... looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Ice cream sandwiches AGAIN?  Maybe not...

My tradition of using cookies as peacekeeping devices at work continued with what proved to be a relatively unapplicable meeting.  I don't see children in clinic, so I had no use for an hour tutorial on how to order pediatric imaging studies.  Regardless, the meeting was marked as "mandatory", so like a good employee (who exceeded expectations on her first performance review, yay!), I attended.  Our old mantra, though, reared its head.  If I had to sit through a presentation, I was going to keep it fun with some cookies.

...but seriously, this looks more like ice cream than cookie dough.  What gives?

I had found some mint chocolate chips in Walmart purely by chance, and bought them to play around with.  Craving my favourite type of ice cream, I decided to take my standard Anna Olsen chocolate chip cookie recipe, and doctor it up with a few drops of green food colouring, a small splash of peppermint extract, and my random find.  The result?  Delicious!  Everyone seemed to enjoy them (so much so that I didn't get a shot of the finished product).  The only slightly negative comment was the dough colour... more than one person wondered if the cookies had gone moldy.  Nope.  I have slightly higher kitchen standards than that!!

Hunting for new recipes to use to her advantage in the workplace (suggestions welcome!)
-Honeybee

My Manitoba bucket list, and some Shmoo Torte

...let me guess.  You've never heard of shmoo torte.  Trust me, neither had I before moving here!

I've been reflecting back on my past year in Manitoba, and have sort of played around with making a "Winnipeg Bucket List".  It's not ALL food-related, but it's a list of things I haven't yet done here that I would want to experience before leaving.  It would go something like this:

1. Skate on the Red River
2. Try bannock and/or pemmican
3. Eat at Fusion Grill, a "prairie fusion" fine dining restaurant
4. Have a meal at the fanciest steakhouse, 525 Wellington
5. Enjoy a delicious prix fixé menu at Inferno, a French restaurant in St. Boniface
6. Ride the water taxi... if they ever open the dock behind my building!
7. Have brunch at The Black Sheep
8. Giggle at the retro theme while enjoying fries at Ray & Jerry's steakhouse on Portage
9. Take a drive out to Lockport and go to that little roadside restaurant that Shannon keeps telling me about
10. Trek out to Gimli and get some delicious fish

I've talked about some prairie-related deliciousness before.  These would be things that I've never heard of, but are super-popular here.  If I had a loonie for every time I heard, "It must be a Manitoba thing..."  I'd long ago checked red velvet cake, honey dill dipping sauce, and puffed wheat squares off of my bucket list.  I ticked off shmoo torte only recently, though.

In Osborne Village (just a few blocks east of my apartment), there is a FANTASTIC restaurant called Baked Expectations.  I've mentioned it before.  It's easily one of my favourite little places to go.  I'd heard some of my Manitoba born-and-bred coworkers talk about shmoo torte in the past, so I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about.

From what I've been able to gather, shmoo torte is made of pecan angel food cake, layered and frosted with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and more pecans.  I'd had it on very good authority that Baked's offering was one of the best in the city.  A little Googling (and an article from The Globe and Mail) tells me that "schmoo" can mean "gooey" in Yiddish... no surprise then that this is apparently a Bar Mitzvah staple among Winnipeg's large and wonderful Jewish community.

(As a side note, my search for the origins of this cake brought me to the blog "Winnipeg o' my Heart", written by a fellow foodie with a similar Manitoba transplant past.  There's one I'll be adding to my Blogger reading list!)

So after all that, you might ask, "What did the shmoo do for you??" (terrible pun, I know.  It's Father's day... I think I'm channeling my dad's sense of humour even more today).  To be perfectly honest: I don't think shmoo and I will become the best of friends.  I mean, if you put a slice in front of me, I'd eat it... but that goes for just about anything.  I'm not the hugest fan of the texture of angel food cake, and pecans certainly aren't my favourite nut.  Add to that the relatively plain whipped cream layers, and I was just kind of 'meh' about the whole thing.  Now, the caramel shmoo sauce WAS delicious... but anything dipped in that would be good.  Overall, I don't think I'll be crawling back for more.  Which, I must admit, is a good thing... I don't need any more difficulty selecting a dessert from Baked's extensive menu!

Looking forward to checking off more Manitoba to-dos,
-Honeybee