You might not know this, but I have a dairy kitchen and haven’t prepared meat for over 20 years. This is one of the reasons why I post so many salad recipes!! I truly do love eating salads and when I have guests over that don’t eat dairy or wheat….then it’s a great opportunity for me to try out new recipes!!  The menu included: tuna burgers (see previous post), kale salad, napa cabbage salad with lemon pistachio vinaigrette, sesame tofu, and dessert. A perfect combo of protein and vegetables.

I have made napa cabbage salads before but  always with an asian vinaigrette. This recipe appealed to me as it WAS TOTALLY different. My only complaint was I had to shell the pistachios as I didn’t have time to find them unshelled. Not the end of the world.

For some reason I’ve never made a pavlova before.  But my friend assured me, that it’s super easy to make so I tried it. I searched online (for a change) to find a recipe  (thanks AllRecipes.com) and before you know it my Kitchen Aid was on full blast whipping up egg whites. What I didn’t know, is that it takes A LOT OF  TIME TO BAKE. This is not at all like making cookies!! However it’s worth it.

Here’s the recipe: (taken from AllRecipes.com)

In the past, I’ve made crisps, crumbles and cobblers. Now I can add  “BUCKLE” to that list as I just made my very first Huckleberry Buckle. That’s right,…I used the huckleberries that I picked up at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market.

After a lot of research on the internet, I selected a recipe from AllRecipes.com.

I am not going to tell you that this recipe was a winner, infact the final result was HORRIFIC.!! I  actually spit out the huckleberry and so did others. Trust me…I like almost everything. It’s hard for me to remember the last time I spit out food. But this FRUIT is not very likeable. It’s not sour, i’ts not sweet., it’s just FOUL. The buckle was a hit though. I would certainly use this recipe again but would use raspberries or blueberries instead.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups Hucklberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup of butter

3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Place the huckleberries in a bowl and add the boiling water and sugar. (I then drained it after 10 minutes due to a readers comment on allrecipes).

Grab another bowl, and mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

Grab yet one more bowl and cream the butter and sugar.

Take the flour mixture and add it to the butter/sugar mixture. Then stir in the milk. The mixture will be thick and lumpy.

Spread the batter into a greased pan. (I used a pie plate) Pour the huckleberrie mixture ontop of the batter. Dot with remaining butter. (I dotted it with a bit of batter too for “visual appeal”)

Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. I read another comment that suggested to place a pan underneath your pie plate in the event that it bubbles over. Great advice. Oh how I love comments that are posted on the internet.

FINAL RESULT

PS I had another 2.5 cups of huckleberries left and I threw them out. Won’t be buying this fruit anytime in the near future but will certainly be baking another buckle again with another type of berry!! Stay tuned

It was a hot humid day in Ottawa on Sunday and the line ups at Taras Lemonade Stand at Landsdowne Park indicated that everyone was thirstier than normal.

Eventually I knew I had to stand in line too!! I ordered a cucumber lemonande drink but was so thirsty that I didnt have time to take a picture of my drink !

This motivated me to google a recipe and to try it at home!! I found a recipe on the All Recipes website, then I adjusted it (naturally).

Basically you need to have just two ingredients – a cucumber and some lemons

Ingredients:

1 english cucumber, sliced thinly

3 lemons, juiced (you need about 1/4 cup of lemon juice)

1 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

Method:

Boil the water and the sugar to make a simple syrup

Mix the sliced cucumber in a blender and then strain the pulp from the liquid

Mix the simple syrup, the lemon juice and the cucumber juice – I used 1 cup of cucumber juice, to 1 cup of simple syrup and 1/2 cup of lemon juice but I found it too tart and added quite a bit more water till I found the right balance. Next time, Im going to try and use only 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

END RESULT

It is indeed an interesting mix of flavors and a GORGEOUS summer drink – I totally love this shade of green.

I wonder how it will taste with vodka? hmmmmm.