These all have clips and black/white feathers. Two are rosettes and the other two are jewels. Meaghan managed the glue gun – she is incredibly gifted! I also found out she started a store (Me Again Creations) on Facebook. It’s a great play on her name and she sells up-cycled creations for the young at heart. Her favourite things to make are Sock Monsters and dresses (with the matching doll’s outfit). This is the site, http://www.facebook.com/MeAgainCreations

Our Spring passport program “Get Fresh in the Valley” entitles you to sample new vintage aromatic wines, paired with fresh spring flavours, from some of the areas premium chefs at 24 premium wineries, as well as a collecting your very own recipe book to make you the star in your own backyard for the summer season. Awaken your spring taste buds as you enjoy your time meandering up and down the Niagara Escarpment, and take some time to discover some of the great restaurants and shops that dot the wine route. – Twenty Valley Tourism

Every winery offered a food pairing with their wine of choice. Most offered riesling or chardonnay but Sue-Anne Staff had a great Bacco Noir with beef. It was an incredibly fun day, the highlight being ox-tail stew (and of course spending the day with the one I love). I’m waiting for them to send me the rest of the recipe cards via mail. We didn’t make it to 8 in one day of the 25!

I plan to make this without the rib of celery because I wasn’t buying a whole celery for just one piece. Carrots you can buy them individually at the store:

1. Cook 1 onion, halved with cut sides down, undisturbed, in 1 tablespoon butter in a 2-quart heavy nonreactive saucepan over moderate heat until browned well, about 4 minutes.
2. Add 3 large shallots (diced), 1 carrot and a rib of celery (finely chopped), 2 smashed garlic cloves, and 2 tablespoons butter and reduce heat to moderately low. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until chopped vegetables are softened; about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add a bouquet garni (2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1 sprig fresh thyme, 1 bay leaf and 4 black peppercorns).
4. Add 1 Tbs tomato paste and 2 cups red wine and boil, uncovered, over moderately high heat until liquid is reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve set into another 2-quart heavy saucepan, pressing on and then discarding solids (or you can remove the bouquet garni and emulsify the vegetables for a rustic sauce).

Adapted from Eipcurious »

Fill a medium pot fitted with a steamer insert with 2-3″ of water and bring it to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add potatoes to insert, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Steam until potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes. Add sliced carrots; cover, and steam until vegetables are tender when pierced with a knife, about 8 minutes. Asparagus takes 5 minutes if you are layering them.

We also bought an asparagus steamer – brilliant invention! They have a cage insert and are tall enough to support asparagus (and you can make small batches of jam in them … just saying).

I have a special edition of Fine Cooking on the topic of Roasting, and we are planning to make a roast for the upcoming weekend. Start this recipe the night before so it has time to marinade.

• one roast, 2.5-3 lb
• 3 cloves of garlic, slivered
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar (good quality)
• 2 Tbs fresh rosemary, chopped (I am using dried from last summer, but it is from the stem, so the quantity is not a drastic difference)
• 3 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• jar tomatoes, diced or crushed plus the juices

Using the blade of knife, insert the garlic slices into the meat. In a ceramic dish with a lid (or large freezer bag), combine the vinegar and rosemary. Add the meat with garlic, turn to coat completely. Cover and let stand in the fridge overnight.

Heat the oven to 350F. On the bottom of the roast pan (I used my large cast iron pot), spread the onions. Lay the meat in the centre and pour over the marinade. Sprinkle with freshly cracked sea salt and pepper corns. Add the tomatoes.

Cover with a lid (or aluminum foil if it’s an open roasting pan) and cook until tender with a fork, about 3-3½ hours.

Let the meat rest in the pan for 10 minutes before carving. Serve with onion, tomatoes and juices (deglazing if necessary), and garnish with a sprig of rosemary on the serving platter. I recommend glass of red wine, garlic-mashed potatoes, and steamed green beans. Delicious!

Got leftovers? Thinly sliced beef, with a slice of sharp cheese on a roll will make excellent left over lunches for work.

If you are taking cupcakes to work, having a family get together, or on dessert duty for a bake sale, being able to toss together 24 cupcakes for under $15 is ideal, plus $4.72 in one-time costs for decorating supplies ($1.99 large coupler and $2.19 for Open Star Tip #1M;).

• 70c for two disposable icing bags
• 50c for simple decorations on 24 cupcakes (20c for mini swedish berries, 12c for licorice allsorts and 16c for sequin/sprinkles)
• $1.49 for mix on sale (no taxes)
• $3.49 1 lb bag of icing sugar
• $3.64 1lb of butter
• $3.29 1 package cream cheese  (for cream cheese) or $2.89 1 package Crisco (for butter cream)
• assume vanilla or milk is a staple ingredient at home

Happy eating

1. Make your cake from a boxed mix.

While I am huge proponent of natural ingredients and saving money, they go on sale periodically for rediculously cheap. So cheap, you couldn’t make it for less. There are also only 2 bowls, one set of beaters and maybe a spoon and spatula to clean up. No measuring spoons and the measuring cup is just for water!

Key notes for successful cake:

• sift the dry ingredients. They have been sitting in a bag and are clumpy. This is critical!
• combine the boxed mix with a package of pudding mix powder; according to my sisters, no extra wet ingredients are necessary and it prevents the cake from being crumby. They said vanilla pudding flavour is inoffensive/neutral and butterscotch goes well with spice cake; cake mix boxes with pudding aren’t the same thing. You still need to add the dry pudding mix.
• mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and then add wet to dry.
• Some boxes don’t say so the times are as follows:
  • two 8″ pans (metal or glass) are 33-36 min at 350F.
  • one 9×13″ pan (metal or glass) are 32-25 minutes at 350F
  • one Bundt™ Pan is 38-43 minutes at 325F because it is dark metal/coated
  • 24 cupcakes is 18-21 minutes at 350F (metal pan).
  • reduce baking time by 1-2 minutes if using the 1 cup water: 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce (in lieu of oil)
• I found that a box of mix was enough to make  one glass 8″ pan or a regular 24-muffin pan, plus a regular 6-muffin pan. The minimum times for each was ideal, even with applesauce but without the pudding mix because I got that tip later on.

2. Purchase commercial buttercream icing if you are making this project for the first time and it’s late evening.

Nothing is worse than struggling with a new recipe that has a reputation for breaking beaters and the stores are closed. If you are making your own, the recipe for buttercream pretty easy:

• ½ cup solid vegetable shortening
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter or hard margarine, softened to room temperature
• 1 tsp clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 Tbs milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Makes about 3 cups of icing.

Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using. Reference: Wilton Recipes

2a. Buttercream icing is very sweet and Cream cheese frosting (my favourite) has a Tangy flavour.

• 1 package (8oz or 250 mL) regular cream cheese, room temperature (reduced fat is better for a glaze)
• ¼ cup butter, room temperature
• ½ tsp vanilla (or milk, or OJ, or liquor)
• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Can be frozen. References: Canadian Living, All Recipes and Simply Recipes.

Useful Comments by Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic:

• Cream cheese has dairy. It needs to be refigerated, but the sugar will allow it to stand out for a few hours, but not extended periods of time.
• [If frozen] just bring it to room temperature and then beat it until fluffy again.
• Cake usually lasts about 2-3 [days] tops. This frosting isn’t a stabilized buttercream and will go funky if left out for a long time. Frost the cake the day of.

2c. Experiment with icing flavour variations:

• Adding a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice is always great for exotic chocolate cakes.
• Adding freshly ground ginger helps spice up a carrot cake.
• Freshly ground chai spice or even the contents of a bag of earl grey tea are heady and aromatic.
• The scrapings from a vanilla bean can be very sweet and heavenly for red velvet or dark chocolate cakes.
• If using citrus juice (instead of vanilla), grate in some of the zest.

3. Decorating was the daunting part for me, but it turned out to be really easy.

Get a 1M tip (about $2.50) and large coupler (also about $2.50), plus at least two disposable Wilton icing bags (30c each). The trick to success for icing cupcakes is to hold the tip 90° from the surface. Starting along the outer edge and pipe in a concentric circle towards the centre. Release the pressure and lift up the tip. Repeat for a smaller circle (2nd layer) in the centre. I gave some ideas yesterday of what to put on top, but it’s not really necessary.

I picked up a dozen commercial brand cupcakes. A few white icing on vanilla, and chocolate on chocolate. I also got a few specialty ones from the Classic selection: peanut butter cup-chocolate, mint-chocolate, and pink lady (strawberry). However, it was only a dozen and we have 20 staff … so I thought I would try my hand at making some.

For my first ever attempt, I used commercial buttercream icing (from the bulk-barn) and half had little round disk sprinkles (on a confetti-vanilla cake batter) and some had a mini swedish berry in the middle. A few others had a liquorice on the top. Although the flavoured ones went first, I was delighted to hear that many of the staff preferred mine because they were much less sweet (i.e. didn’t make the inside of your mouth tingle from too much sugar). A few even did a taste test and mine was the preferred choice (how happy was I)!

The next batch was a spice cake for a family dinner. I made my own cream cheese icing and drizzled melted caramels over top the icing in a zig-zag pattern. Here is a photo of what went to work … detailed instructions to follow tomorrow:

The raised plots are 6×12 ft and filled with soil, and water barrels/well water is provided. You bring the tools and seeds and a suggested donation of $25. The only rules are no commercial pesticides (as per the law), no gardening during worship on Sunday mornings, and to keep your area clean. They also recommend that “the only critters that came for a visit (and dinner) were racoons, who absolutely love corn on the cob!  We recommend that you don’t try growing this.“ Last year the twenty plots sold out, so they added another ten for this season. They also expanded a deer fence, added a seating area and are planning a welcome BBQ for the gardeners to get to know each other at the start of the growing season.

The organizers recommend an organic weed and insect remedy that can be prepared by mixing: 4 cups (1 litre) white vinegar, 1⁄4 cup (50 ml) salt & 2 tablespoons (30 ml) liquid dish soap. Spray onto weeds or insects, but be careful not to spray on your plants!

We are super excited!

We have a rather elaborate garbage system in the kitchen: a basket for recyclable plastics and cans, a bin for paper and cardboard, a stainless steel mixing-bowl for scraps, a small green bin for anything else compostable but that I don’t want in my garden (like bones, fats, scrapings from the plate after eating, tissue paper, tea bags) and a general garbage bin for everything else. It consists of only 1 small kitchen-catcher of garbage that goes to the curb each week plus our recycling and large bin compost.

The bowl for scraps is specifically for pre-cooked items like:

• vegetable or fruit stalks, seeds and peel
• egg shells
• coffee grinds and loose tea
• leaf clippings from house plants and flowers

We generate a least 1 -2 bowls per week of just these few items from food preparation and they get dropped in one of the black compost bins in my garden. This process has saves me $20-40 in bags of soil plus another $120 in mulch delivery each year.

I have two bins. The active one I keep closest to the house where I mix the bowls of food scraps with layers of peat moss through out the whole year. In late summer, before the September harvest, I empty the other compost bin that has been resting beside my rhubarb patch and combine it with manure in a wheel barrow. A bit messy, but this dark and nutrient rich mixture gets folded into my garden soil and then topped with cut stalks from the irises and lilies to create a mulch that protects my perennials over the winter.

The active bin gets emptied into the empty resting bin and rinsed out with a garden hose. To start a fresh compost, on the bottom goes the raked leaves and clippings from my perennial garden, as well as the soil and annuals in planters, as I clean up my garden for winter and again in the spring. Then throughout the year I add the food scraps and layers of peat moss. This 2-year cycling between the two bins enables a fully decomposed compost with enough decay to kill any seeds that may have been active.

Hand pulled weeds and grass clippings are put in paper bags for the city to collect. We are combating ragweed, clover, dandelions, thistles, crabgrass, and broadleaf plantain, as well as cinch worm and leather jackets. It’s a loosing battle, but we do pay a lawn care company to come by and fertilize and spray the new non-toxic variety of herbicide and nematodes. I also thatch and over seed in the spring, and Steve will water and mow the grass at a good length of 2-3″ all summer. Between the two of us, we have a vibrant garden and a lawn project in progress.