When I first saw this event I decided to ask my “American” friends what they thought of when I said the word Canada. Hockey, beer and maple syrup…oh and Canadian Bacon(it’s called back bacon people!!!) All good things but I found it humorous that those were pretty much the same four answers I got over and over again. I did get a Bryan Adams the singer and “cold” thrown in now and then for good measure.
If I hadn’t felt so crummy as of late I would have made something involving back bacon and beer for the savory event that Jasmine is holding…I might just do that for me anyhow.
Since I was only going with the one event, Mmmm Canada(the sweet edition), hosted by none other the Domestic Goddess herself, I settled on good ol’ maple syrup(Canada does after all make more than 80% of the world’s supply). Most people in the states think maple syrup is Mrs. Butterworth or Log Cabin…ugh(so does, surprise…my husband). Oh the horror. FYI- none of those actually contain any maple syrup. Lucky for me more and more places are carrying actual maple syrup and people got to stop sending it to me since I could get it here.
Maple syrup comes in different grades, but I am a grade B girl myself. I like the flavor better for baking and cooking. And speaking of baking, I made a maple syrup pie. It is a combination of my friend’s(from Quebec) recipe and a recipe I found in Sweets, which was interesting since it is a southern cookbook. You can use just about any type of nut, but you really do have to love maple syrup to eat this pie. I used the cream cheese pie crust that I used for my salmon quiche since I had some left over but you could use whatever pie crust you like.
Hope everyone who celebrates it has a great Canada Day!(it’s July 1st if you didn’t know)

Maple Syrup Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
2 ¼ cups maple syrup(the real stuff)
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat to 375F.
In a large bowl, whisk together maple syrup, heavy whipping cream, and flour until blended.
Add eggs one at a time, making sure the it’s blended well.
Fold in the pecans.
Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust.
Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 30-35 minutes or until the filling is set.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before serving. I serve mine with maple whipped cream as well as more maple syrup poured over each slice. But I love me some maple sryup.

Adapted from Sweets:  A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories by Patty Pinner and my friend C’s grandmother.

Cream Cheese Pie Crust(from Northwest Noshings)

2 cups all-purpose flour
8 ounce cream cheese, softened but still cool
2 sticks(8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool

In a mixer, combine all ingredients and mix on medium-low until it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Sadly I can not remember the last time I participated in Sugar High Fridays. It seems I barely participate in anything anymore as it is(DMBLGIT). It just slips my mind(what’s left of it these days ). But when my lesser evil twin Helen(Tartelette) announced that she was hosting, I of course had to participate…how could I not?
Helen picked a citrus theme, which is so versatile and so Summer. Good choice Helen. I really thought of doing something elaborate but I was sitting around looking through my blog and realized that I haven’t made any cookies in a really long time. Ironically these cookies ended up being pretty elaborate for a cookie.
Coconut Lemon-Lime Tassies were a little more work than I was wanting. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t like making pie, and this was pretty much like making pie….just really small ones. The cream cheese pastry is easy but you have to wait around for 4 hours for it to chill. I’m not good at smashing them into the mini muffins as I have long nails and when I would press down on them, those suckers would just stick to my nail. Many, many bad words were used. Then you have the filling and then a glaze. These are a good cookie but I probably wont make them again until my mom comes out as she is a pecan tassie lover and I think she would really enjoy these.
So there you have it, my leap back into SHF. I’m hoping to be better about keeping on top of SHF, along with a few other events I used to participate in.

Coconut Lemon-Lime Tassie

1 recipe Cream Cheese Pastry(recipe follow), formed into 2 4×6-inch rectangles

Filling:
3 TBSP all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
4 large egg yolks
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 TBSP fresh lime juice
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
2 tsp freshly grated lime zest
1 cup chopped sweetened, flaked coconut, divided

1 recipe Vanilla Glaze(recipe to follow)

Divide each rectangle of pastry into 24 1-inch squares. Roll each into a ball and place into mini-muffin tins. Mold the dough into each hole, pressing it up the sides. Chill while preparing the filling.
Position the shelves in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Heat the oven to 350F.
Strain together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl of and electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg yolks on medium speed until lightened in color. Add the sugar in a steady stream, beating until thickened. On low speed blend in the juice and the zests. Remove the bowl from the machine and fold in the dry ingredients and ½ cup of the coconut.
Sprinkle the remaining coconut into the pastry-lined muffing cups. Empty the filling into a measuring cup with a spout and pour the mixture into the tins, filling them no more than two-thirds full.
Bake for 30 to 32 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown around the edges. Toward the end of baking time, rotate the pans top to bottom and front to back. Let stand 5 minutes. Using the tip of a paring knife, run the blade carefully around the edges of the muffin cups to loosen the Tassies. When cups are cooled enough to handle, remove them form the pa and set on a cooling rack. While they are slightly warm, apply a small amount of the Vanilla Glaze to the top of each Tassie, spreading it with the bottom of a teaspoon.
Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, layered between strips of wax paper for up to 5 days.

Cream Cheese Pastry

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled, divided
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix together the butter and cream cheese until smooth and thoroughly blended.
Mix in 1 cup of the flour and salt, working until almost incorporated. Cut in another ½ cup flour with the spoon, again working it until the flour is almost incorporated. Complete the process by kneading in another ½ cup flour. Do not overwork.(Note: The remaining flour is used for rolling).
With lightly floured hands, shape dough into a mound., then divide in half and form two 5-inch disks. Dust disks lightly with the flour and warp with plastic. Chill for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.

Vanilla Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 TBSP hot milk
1 TBSP corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Place the powdered sugar in a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir with a small whisk or spoon until very smooth. The glaze should pour from a spoon in a steady stream. Use additional liquid sparingly. A little bit goes a long way.

Source: Adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

When we would go back to visit my maternal grandparents it meant a few things. One, my diabetic grandmother would slip us money to go buy her doughnuts and we could “keep the change”(my cousin Chad and I were always to young and foolish not to know that you don’t go and buy a diabetic doughnuts). It meant picking raspberries while trying not to be stung by bees(Summer only). It meant breathing in the fumes of Vlassic pickles the couple nights I would stay at my cousins(the factory has since moved and sadly I miss that smell). It meant getting to swim in the mayor’s swimming pool(Summer only). And it meant the torture that was Sunday drives with my grandfather.
Oh how that man loved to get in a car and drive absolutely nowhere…for hours. Hours and hours. My uncle has this same trait but he is smart enough to sucker you in to a 5 hour trip to Duluth, Minnesota  by saying we were going for the “best pie you ever tasted” and I am stupid enough to be lured by it. But my grandfather you had no choice. He said get in the car. We got in the car. For hours. Did I mention the hours part? Nothing can be more fun for a 10 year old then sitting in the back seat of a Oldsmobile listening to big band music and not being allowed to bring anything to do. It “took away from the scenery”. Ugh. Those car rides would draw out my morbid imagination. For with nothing to do and not really being involved in the adult conversation about second cousins and what not that I knew nothing about, my mind would wander. It would wander into all the different ways we could crash the car. Now keep in mind it was not totally morbid, as I never did kill anyone in my day dreaming. If the car was engulfed in a fiery inferno, I made sure in my mind to get everyone out of the car. Sometimes it was just a simple crash into a tree. Other times we would go over an embankment by swerving to miss a cow in the road and would launch off a big ravine in the Duke’s of Hazard style.
Though I hated those car rides so, they were really only the memories I had of my grandfather. He was a very quiet man. One who showed little emotion. He was the kind of man who would hug you but they whole time he was doing the side hug you knew he was thinking, “she’s touching me”. My grandfather ran the pharmacy in the town where my mother grew up(my aunt still works in that pharmacy). The town didn’t even have a stop sign(when they eventually got the one yellow blinking light in the middle of town, that was big news). My mother’s high school graduating class had 8 people(mine had 532). He usually spoke about 2 words to me when they would come out to visit or we would go there. Those two words were “uh-huh”. I would ramble on and on about something, and no matter what, I got the uh-huh. Despite all of that, I always knew he loved me.
When I was still in high school, my grandfather, a man who smoked most of his life and then switched to chew, developed pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic is not a kind cancer. Now before you say what cancer is?..none. However, some are more kind in the fact that they give you time to fight it.  Pancreatic cancer tends to be quite aggressive and your prognosis is usually poor. This was the case of my grandfather. For just months after hearing his diagnosis, my grandfather was laid to rest.
What a horrible story you say. Yes and no. For of course, death is never a good thing, it did make me realize how very little I knew about him. Only years after he passed through stories told by my mom and uncle do I really know anything about him. Spend time with people now. Get to know people now. If you have a recipe that you always wanted to learn from your mother or grandmother go and have her teach it to you now. Appreciate the time you have with others even if it is just sitting in a car for hours at a time starring at miles and miles of farmland.

When I saw that Chris of Mele Cotte’s grandmother passed away from the same form of cancer my grandfather did, I knew I wanted to contribute something to the Cooking to Combat Cancer event. This Black Forest Chocolate Bundt Cake comes from Canadian Living and was chosen because my grandfather did love chocolate and I always used to see him eat cherries(I just remember the bowls of pits). I encourage you to participate in both this event as well as Barb’s A Taste of Yellow…there is still time to do both!

Black Forest Chocolate Bundt Cake

Serves 16
1 cup butter, softened
1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup  cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp  baking powder
3/4 tsp  baking soda
1/2 tsp  salt
1-1/4 cups  sour cream
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries
1 tbsp powdered sugar

Preparation:
Grease and flour 10-cup Bundt pan; set aside. I used 6 mini Bundts.
In large bowl, beat butter with brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Into separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and sift again. Stir into butter mixture alternately with sour cream, making 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of sour cream. Stir in chocolate chips and cherries. Scrape into prepared pan.
Bake in center of 325°F  oven until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour(about 30 minutes if you are making mini). Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. With knife, loosen rim of cake. Place rack on pan. Wearing oven mitts, grasp pan and rack; turn over. Lift off pan. Let cool completely. (Make-ahead: Wrap in plastic wrap and store for up to 2 days or freeze in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.) Dust with powdered sugar.

Canadian Living Magazine: December 2004

The glaze is just some melted cherry jam that my mom made with a little sifted powdered sugar. I didn’t actually pay attention to the amount…sorry.

One of the greatest things I learned about my husband is that camping to him was in a 4 star hotel. Score.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like the outdoors, heck, I was Forestry major my freshman year of college. But sleeping on the rocky ground vs. a mattress is really a no brainer. Tying my food up so that a bear does not come into camp vs. brunch with a mimosa..again no brainer. Washing yourself in a river where an elk was peeing earlier vs. a hot shower. No brainer. And speaking of peeing, this is pretty much the main reason I do not camp. Call it the only time when I have penis envy. I was not made to go to the bathroom outside. And no, an outhouse the smells ungodly with a spider in the corner just waiting to pounce on me is not a suitable option.
Now, I know that many people camp and love it. I know many of those people have RV’s. I would rather just spend the money on the nice hotel and drive out to see the pretty scenery during the day.
I do miss one thing about camping though and that is S’mores. The treat that I learned to love in Girl Scouts. Lucky for me, my Girl Scout troops rarely camped. Believed to come from the Girl Scout handbook in 1927 as “Some Mores” the concoction asked for “16 graham crackers, 8 bars plain chocolate (any of the good plain brands broken in two), and 16 marshmallows”. By 1940 it had involved into “4 squares plain chocolate (thin), 2 graham crackers, and one marshmallow. This recipe may be varied by using slices of apple (cut cross-wise) in place of the graham crackers; by using pineapple slices or peanut butter in place of chocolate.”
I am personally a purist. I just want the gooey marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker…and for some reason, the cheaper the better.
So when Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats chose marshmallows as this weeks Tuesday’s with Dorie treat, I figured I would just cut out the middle man and put the S’more into the marshmallow. I have made marshmallows quite a few times. I love to make them at Christmas time to go into hot chocolate.
I have been fortunate enough that the weather has been chilly and so I made hot chocolate to enjoy with my marshmallows. If you  have never had homemade kind they really are worth it….especially in hot chocolate.
My husband and I are going camping this weekend in Portland. Granted we are camping from a four star hotel…but I’m sure will be roughing it!

Marshmallows

Makes about 1 pound marshmallows

About 1 cup potato starch (found in the kosher foods section of supermarkets) or cornstarch

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

2 1/4-ounce packets unflavored gelatin

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup cold water

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar

GETTING READY: Line a rimmed baking sheet — choose one with a rim that is 1 inch high — with parchment paper and dust the paper generously with potato starch or cornstarch. Have a candy thermometer at hand.

Put 1/3 cup of the water, 1 1/4 cups of the sugar and the corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar is dissolved, continue to cook the syrup — without stirring — until it reaches 265 degrees F on the candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.

While the syrup is cooking, work on the gelatin and egg whites. In a microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining cold water (a scant 7 tablespoons) and let it sit for about 5 minutes, until it is spongy, then heat the gelatin in a microwave oven for 20 to 30 seconds to liquefy it. (Alternatively, you can dissolve the gelatin in a saucepan over low heat.)

Working in the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in another large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until firm but still glossy — don’t overbeat them and have them go dull.

As soon as the syrup reaches 265 degrees F, remove the pan from the heat and, with the mixer on medium speed, add the syrup, pouring it between the spinning beater(s) and the sides of the bowl. Add the gelatin and continue to beat for another 3 minutes, so that the syrup and the gelatin are fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla.

Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the meringue mixture onto the baking sheet, laying it down close to a short end of the sheet. Then spread it into the corners and continue to spread it out, taking care to keep the height of the batter at 1 inch; you won’t fill the pan. Lift the excess parchment paper up to meet the edge of the batter, then rest something against the paper so that it stays in place (I use custard cups).

Dust the top of the marshmallows with potato starch or cornstarch and let the marshmallows set in a cool, dry place. They’ll need about 3 hours, but they can rest for 12 hours or more.

Once they are cool and set, cut the marshmallows with a pair of scissors or a long thin knife. Whatever you use, you’ll have to rinse and dry it frequently. Have a big bowl with the remaining potato starch or cornstarch at hand and cut the marshmallows as you’d like — into squares, rectangles or even strips (as they’re cut in France). As each piece is cut, drop it into the bowl. When you’ve got 4 or 5 marshmallows in the bowl, reach in with your fingers and turn the marshmallows to coat them with starch, then, one by one, toss the marshmallows from one hand to the other to shake off the excess starch; transfer them to a serving bowl. Cut and coat the rest of the batch.

SERVING: Put the marshmallows out and let everyone nibble as they wish. Sometimes I fill a tall glass vase with the marshmallows and put it in the center of the table — it never fails to make friends smile. You can also top hot chocolate or cold sundaes with the marshmallows.

STORING: Keep the marshmallows in a cool, dry place; don’t cover them closely. Stored in this way, they will keep for about 1 week — they might develop a little crust on the outside or they might get a little firmer on the inside, but they’ll still be very good.

Smores Marshmallows:

After you add in the vanilla, fold in 1/3 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs. Carefully fold in 3 ounces of melted milk chocolate. Becareful not to incorporate the chocolate into the marshamallow, you are going for more of a ribbon effect.