Sleepy Time City Park Tea

City Park Tea

It is July and all of the Linden trees are dense with little yellow fragrant flowers. Apparently in some parts of the world, possibly long long time ago, these little flowers were coveted. My grandma told my mom, who told me, that back in Germany people would get contracts for Linden trees on municipal land. The contract would grant the individual sole rights to the flowers in the summer. But that is now third hand knowledge, so do what you want with it. I read on the very reliable internet, which would never mislead you, that linden flowers made you sleepy. But before we get into that,  lets dive into the very complicated harvesting play-by-play. 

Harvesting Linden Flowers:

Linden Tree in Bloom

In this beautiful picture that is totally ruined by the garbage can, is a Linden tree. This tree is on the Queen's University campus, where I spend my days asking myself why I chose to go to grad school. Well, on my way by this tree I snagged a branch full of flowers. 

I didn't even charge for the free pruning. I picked off the leaves and left on the flowers. The flowers are attached to what looks like lime colored leaves. Up close they look a little like half of a Maple key.  I also picked a bunch of flowers in City Park, hence the name of my new tea. In about 24 hours the flowers where completely dry.

The Making of the Tea:

Dried Linden flowers

Once the flowers were dried, I snapped them off and plopped them in a mason jar to make tea.

Dried flowers for mediocre tasting tea

Well, the tea was not awesome. So I dropped in a little black tea too. This improved the experience dramatically. The flowers blossom in the hot water and look gorgeous in the glass jar. If you are making this at home, note that mugs may be exchanges for jars. The tea did in fact make me sleepy. I need to try it a few more times, but at this point I would recommend it for before bed to help make you drowsy. 

Hot water and dried Linden flowers

Intertidal Chowder

Intertidal Chowder

In Early June I went to British Columbia to visit Elo. This is where we concocted the intertidal chowder. The recipes is quite simple. Collect debris that smells sort of icky in the intertidal zone when the tide is out. Put in pot and hope for the best.

Ingredients:
(serves 3 for dinner and lunch the next day on the ferry)

• More than two hands full of clams
• Some mussels (one hand full)
• A few oysters
• 2 red rock crabs (but dungeness would have been better...)
• 1 cup cream
• 2/3 cup reserved dead clam juice
• 1/2 pack bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, finely chopped
• One pack of scallops you bought from the store because these are not easy to "forage"
• Some yummy new potatoes (1cm cubes)

clams, mussels and oysters

1.  Fry up the bacon. Once it starts to crisp up throw in the diced up celery and onions. Sweat them for a while then throw in the cubed potato.
2. Meanwhile murder all of the animals. (boil the crabs to death and the rest dies on the BBQ). Make sure to reserve the clam juice. 
3. Remove the meat from the shells and throw it all in a pot and add the cream and clam juice. Maybe add a dash of green at the end for some color. We used fresh picked chives and garnished with some dried sea lettuce. 

bacon, onion, celery and potato

 One reason we BBQed the clams was so that we could reserve the liquid (we put this through a coffee filter first) and rinse the clams. We did not care for sand in our chowder.

BC beer and intertidal chowder

Candied Orange Peel

Candied Orange Peel

Ingredients:

• 5 naval oranges
• 3 cups sugar + some for rolling
• 1 cup water + more for boiling

Directions:

 1. Cut the top and bottom off of the orange. Then score from ass to mouth (haha) but don't cut into the flesh of the orange. Make about 4-6 scores, then peel off the skin.

Cut the peels into 1/4 inch (or so) width slices.

2. Place the peels in a pot (2 quarts?) and fill with cold water. Bring to a boil, then drain. Do this 2 more times (a total of 3 times). Apparently this will influence the tenderness and the bitterness (???). 

3. In a pot bring the 3cups sugar and 1cup of water to a simmer (about 230F). Simmer for a few minutes (I was busy Fing up meringues to keep track of the total time). Then add the peels and continue to simmer for an hour or until peels are translucent. don't stir the pot. If necessary, swirl the pot to ensure the top pieces are syrup coated.

4. WTF!... Peels are peels... I can't see through them! .. uh.. I guess this is translucent.  Drain the peels and blot off extra sugar syrup.

5.  Roll in sugar then place on a wire rack for soooo many hours (4+). I think I will let them sit over night before dipping in chocolate.

They look like french fries. ...sort of.

Janet's Banana Bread

Janet's Banana Bread

I make this nanner bread all the time. My friend Janet, who knows her way around the kitchen, gave me this recipe.  I don't want to brag but, it is pretty freaking good. Moist, easy to make and tasty.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 4 ripe bananas (preferable not frozen)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup butter melted

Directions:

1. Mash bananas in a bowl. Add sugar, vanilla, egg and butter.
2. Mix in dry ingredients.
3. Add nuts or chocolate chips to the batter if you are a terrible person who does not appreciate the purity of nanner bread. 
4. Dump into prepared pan and sprinkle with a tiny bit of sugar (yum yum sugar crust).
5. Bake at 350F for 1 hour (until toothpick comes out clean.

Make the batter and prepare the loaf pan (grease and flour).

prepared pan (buttered then floured)

sprinkle sprinkle

Ohhh that looks good! Let it cool a little before cutting into (30min ish?)

awww yeeessss

banana bread

Jammin' - Gooseberry Jelly

gooseberry jelly

This is a fantastic fruit year. It has been so wet in Ontario and I think that is just what the berries needed. I picked a ton of wild blackberries, gooseberries (wild and not) and currants.

This is the first time I have ever picked enough gooseberries to make jam. I was hoping it would turn out a cool lime green color but, gooseberries are magic and when cooked turn a beautiful pink. The wild gooseberries look pretty wicked and prick your fingers when you pick them. It is worth it though. 

wild gooseberry vs domesticated

Gooseberry Jelly:

• gooseberries
• water
• sugar

Step 1: Rinse off the gooseberries and throw them in a pot. I stemmed and chopped mine. It took an eternity and I think it was unnecessary and I will never do it again.  

Step 2: Add a little bit of water to the pot with gooseberries and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10min then freak out about how brown and gross it look. Afterwards strain the baby barf looking fruit through 3-4 layers of cheese cloth.

Step 3: Add equal parts sugar to your pink liquid and boil for 20min. Pour into prepared mason jars and process.

gooseberry jelly

Itty Bitty Meringue Cookies

little vanilla meringue cookies

Last week I made amazing lemon curd. I used the Martha Stewart recipe which calls for 4 egg yolks. So what do I do with egg whites? Do I make a low fat egg white omelet? No, that sounds disgusting. I will make meringues.

Meringues are OK. I would not say they are the bees knees, but they are fun and a nice change from fatty traditional cookies.

I used the Joy of cooking recipe. You can find any recipe on line but it is nice having a food bible in the kitchen that you can trust.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla

Combine the egg whites, tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar and then the vanilla. Beat until the mixture is shiny and stiff peaks form. But do not over beat it! Put the mixture in a pipping bag and pipe nickle sized blobs onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 45 min at 250F. Then turn off the oven and leave them in there for another 30min.

I like to use old milk bags as pipping bags.

milk bag = pastry bag

I baked mine for 40min and I think that was overkill for such small meringues. These are so small I bet they do not need much more than 30min with the oven on.

Vancouver - Post 2 - Free Find of the Day

I am trying to grow the most epic balcony garden the world has ever seen, and eat well from it.  I have a glorious south facing balcony.  It's big and sunny and I am convinced that with some well placed cold frames I can grow food year round in this temperate climate.  Of course, buying soil and pots and seeds is apparently pretty expensive.  Lucky for me, they are putting in some kind of installation down the road called Viva Vancouver.  I am not sure what it is, but it seems to involve some kind of fancy seating and some landscaping.  

Free pots!

                             

And lo! What is that??  Free pots, ripe for the taking??  And then... what is that??

Free soil!

A heaping mound of free soil!!  Yes!! The corner of Fraser and 44th - free soil for all! And pots!  Run now!  Perhaps Viva Vancouver can help you build an epic, free balcony garden, too.

My plunder.  Two buckets of soil and 12 ugly yet serviceable pots.

My garden, as she stands.  With 12 more pots and a heap of free soil, though, I'll expanding this in no time.

Almond Lace Cookies

Almond Lace Cookies


For the most part these cookies are simple to make and have a big wow factor. The only problem is, you might burn your fingers.  But it is worth it. 


You will need:

• 1/2c sugar
• 1/2 c butter
• 2tbs milk
• 2/3 cup blanched chopped almonds
• 2 tbsp flour

(I think you can add more almonds if you want. But do not add more butter or you might just make yummy greasy mush)

Step 1. Mix together the butter and sugar in a heavy bottomed pot and melt over low heat.

Step 2: Take the pot off the heat and add in the rest of the ingredients. Then drop by teaspoon (or whatever) onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (also a silicon mat would do). The texture will change a little as the mixture cools. Don't worry about it.

Step 3: Bake for a few min (5ish) at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  I take them out when they are light brown on the outside and golden brown inside.

Step 4: Roll them up. You will have to wait a few seconds for them to not be molten. As soon as you can grab an edge without it falling apart, start rolling.

I usually only do three at a time. You only have about 60 seconds before they get too brittle to roll.

Step 5: Put the rolled cookies on a wire rack to cool. If they cool down steeping in their own buttery goodness then they will be soft, not flak. So put them on a rack so that the excess butter can run off.

Finally, after the rolls cool down you can dip one end in melted chocolate.

Homemade Marshmallows

I cant even remember where I got this recipe from. But it is exactly the same as the one at Joy of Baking:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/HomemadeMarshmallows.html

I made Marshmallows before and they seemed a lot harder. I think I used less gelatin and therefore had to get the sugar syrup the exact right consistency (soft ball).  Not this recipe, simply heat then mix then pour. that is about as hard as it is.

Ingredients:

• 3 packages gelatin
• 1c water
• 2c sugar
• 1c corn syrup (get the clear kind)
• pinch salt
• 2tsp vanilla (also try to get the clear kind.. yah its crappier then the real kind but... its clear)
• 1c-ish icing sugar (for dusting the finished product).

Try to get clear vanilla and corn starch, otherwise your marshmallows will look beige and dirty. Although, if you get real vanilla, they might taste better.


Step 1: dissolve the gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water and wait a while. I never time this step, by the time the sugar is dissolved and boiling (step next) it is usually long enough. 

gelatin and water

Step2: in a pot heat the sugar, remaining water, syrup and salt. when it comes to a boil (maybe let it boil for 1 full min), dump it into the gelatin and beat with an electric mixer for 10-15 min aka an eternity. Near the end of the beating add the vanilla.  The Joy recipe says something different, but I find when you use 3 packets of gelatin (aka a lot) the temperature of sugar does not matter so much. For a "mathematician" I am super sloppy when it comes to measuring. Its freaking marshmallow, not the supportive structure for a house.

sugar gelatin mixture

After 10 minutes of mixing, you have liquid marshmallow.

Step3: Pour the mixture into a lined and greased (so important!!!!!!) 8"x8" dish. Dust the top with icing sugar and wait a few hours. Leave the bubbles.. they are fun. This solution is so sticky you could do car repairs with it. If you do not grease the parchment paper it will stick to it.  

Step 4: Cut apart the mallows. I like to use scissors. and dust all of the pieces with icing sugar.

cutting apart homemade marshmallows

homemade marshmallows

home made marshmallows