Last night I went to see Woodkid at the roundhouse in Camden. One of the best gigs I have ever been to. At about 11.30 having polished off 4 pints food was in order and lots of it. So I went for a large mixed meat doner kebab. Now there are many who would judge me for this, but I don’t care.

1. It was actually very civilised came on a plate and was even preceded by a starter of tarama and hot pita (although I would have been happy to eat it with my hands from a bundle of greasy paper)

2. Having spent my primary school years being rewarded with McDonald’s on a Friday if I wasn’t kicked out of lessons, and starting the day by cooking myself super noodles for breakfast to eat watching the snorks, donner kebabs will always have a home in my heart.

3. Who says doner kebabs are only for drunken heathens!? I used to leave college at 11am every second Monday and get a doner on the way home to enjoy with my friend Sophie whilst we watched Jeremy Kyle. Yes I have an appreciation of the finer foods in life, I’m as poncy as the next foodie, I’ve worked in organic butchers and done work experience in posh restaurants and yes I am obsessed with growing my own stupidly obscure vegetables, but I’m not going to turn my back on foods that illuminated my childhood! The chilli sauce may have come out of a squeezy bottle but it was home made and insanely hot.

I’m glad to say at least I got over the Jeremy Kyle phase…. Anyway what better thing to do after dragging oneself through a hungover day at work on 5 hours sleep than go and be virtuous on the allotment. Yes I can think of many things I felt more like doing… Sleeping, eating, drinking sugary tea and not move from the sofa except to go to bed. But my bare rooted gooseberries weren’t going to plant themselves!

Well the allotment was looking pretty great I have to say, well not mine specifically, but the site in general. Insanely vibrant new growth everywhere bathed in evening sunshine. I have discovered that there is a pest/problem for everything. Weevils for beans, birds that eat rocket, something that eat beetroot leaves, wind and cold that kills tomatoes. How many different ways can I destroy my plants this year? Well I guess we will have to wait and see. But here’s how it’s looking so far.

The allotments in the evening sun

Purple potato leaves

Very nibbled rocket

My tiny little apple tree

Beetroot

Way too thickly sown wild flowers

Little leeks

One of the first raspberry canes to come to life

Broccoli, with a pretty lame netting attempt

Strawberries

Rhubarb

Midget broad beans – a fifth of the height they are meant to be

The saddest tomato plant in the world

The gooseberries!

Fruit bed – Gooseberries, Rhubarb and strawberries

Anyway I am now just where I need to be, on the sofa with TV, wine, a cat and a prawn and monkfish curry. Nom.

I stole this recipe off the bag of the Truvia baking blend and just adjusted to make it even healthier.

CRUST/TOPPING
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups oat flour or Almond mill
1 tsp cinnamon
3⁄4 cup coconut oil, in more of a solid state.
1⁄2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1⁄3 cup Truvía Baking Blend
FILLING
4 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1⁄3 cup Truvía Baking Blend
2 tsp lemon juice
1⁄3 cup corn starch

Directions: Assemble all ingredients; preheat oven to 325° Place oats, flour, cinnamon, coconut oil, salt, vanilla and Truvía Baking Blend in mixing bowl, mix at low speed for 1 minute. Scrape sides of bowl, mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Portion 2⁄3 of oat mixture into greased (I used coconut oil) 13” x 9” baking pan; set aside remaining 1⁄3 of mixture for topping. Press oat mixture into bottom of pan to form crust. For filling: blend raspberries, Truvía Baking Blend, lemon juice, and corn starch until uniform. Spread over pressed oat mixture. For topping, add remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

For those of you who dont know, we used to live out of town on a couple acres and guess what?  Never saw a deer.  It was only after the city grew out to adjoin our property that the deer became a problem – a combination thats been around a long time.  Read any of the diaries from the settlers coming west to Oregon and you read stories of near starvation – very few deer.  Deer are abundant today because of mans improvements and once the green yards, water fountains and “ice cream” plants sprung up with the new housing the range maggots moved in.  So today I put the fence up around our vineyard and sprayed the apple trees with “deer out” ( a minty smelling, but apparently bad tasting product). 

HANG ON I’M GETTING TO THE BEE REPORT   :)

Earlier in the week the well went out.  It’s something always in the back of your mind.  Rows of berry plants, 20 fruit trees, the vineyard and a huge veggie garden over an area of about an acre require water.  Even in the mild weather things were drying out.  It was putting the vice grips on my mental health, so today I called another company to come check things out because the first one couldn’t seem to be bothered.  Fortunately it was only a $200 fix, but the pump is old and he told me the bearings could go at any time.  That’s a $3000 dollar fix.  If you look for humor you can find it in most things and today when I was outside leaning against the fence, writing out the check to pay for the repairs he was writing up the receipt and said something that made me chuckle.  He was on the phone to his wife and in reference to the check I was writing said “Gotta go honey, this is the part I like best.”  Ya gotta love honesty.

I could be calling him again tomorrow or next year.  No way of knowing.  That’s farming.  Ok, so it’s small scale, but anyone who has attempted to grow serious amounts of food knows there’s a lot at risk and a lot that goes into it.

Speaking of growing things – been selling numerous raspberry starts and today the phone began ringing with inquiries for our organic rhubarb.  Our usual spring time sales. 

Spent the morning building “supers” for my beehives.  I enjoy the construction part, the painting not so much.  Had on the perfect music for building beehives too.  The group is from Tacoma Washington. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwgGshVf50

The BEE Report – The hives are looking good and needed some room to expand, so I added a super (a box with frames) to a couple of hives.  This gives them room to move up and build more comb for honey and brood.  Both are needed before we can expect them to store up honey for us Beeks.  I checked the hive with our new queen and saw that she was a busy bee.  The brood (capped larvae) from the old queen was scattered everywhere.  It should be a solid block more or less.  The new queen seems to be filling in the spaces so it looked good, even though its still pretty early to tell how well the new queen is doing.  Another week or so.

I so very badly wanted to look in the new hive taken as a split from Phyllis hive  but they say not to disturb them for three weeks.  Sometimes a good cigar (a rare treat for me) and a gin and tonic on the front porch is the better part of valor.  The tonic was perfect, drank from an iced pint beer glass.  The glasses all have different sayings and painting on them.  I always save a special one for my friends so if you ever stop by to visit you will get the glass that says “Yellow Snow”.  It’s actually a beer brewed by Rogue Ales.

Tomorrow I hope to plant potatoes.  Peas, beets, lettuce, spinach, cabbage and tons of garlic and onions are well on their way, compliments of my better half who specializes in those things.   Had better wrap this up and help her set up the deer sprinkler so we can keep those buggers out of the garden tonight.

Happy Gardening.

I admit it: I got a little carried away at the farmers market last week. When the stone fruit arrives – spring’s first apricots, nectarines, and such – I get really excited. I definitely went a little crazy, snapping up as much fruit as I could carry in two hands and 4 shoulder bags…a little overboard considering it’s just the two of us (the dog doesn’t count).

Now I’m “challenged” with what to do with all of this fruit. Luckily, I woke up this morning very hungry. This is what I created to start my day off on the right note: a breakfast quinoa with mixed fruit, kefir, and toasted nuts. My apricots and nectarines were especially soft, so they went in, along with some beautiful raspberries for tartness and kefir for tang. I sprinkled some toasted almonds and coconut on the top for crunch and voila, a beautiful, healthy, and helpful (as in helping me clear out the fridge!) breakfast!

Here’s how to pull it all together:

Use quinoa leftover from last night’s (or last week’s) dinner, or make a fresh batch in a jif. i prefer my quinoa more chewy, but if your softer, increase the water to 1.75 cups.

Bring 1.5 cups of water to a boil. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, use a fine sieve to rinse 1 cup of quinoa under running water (rinsing removes the bitterness).

Once the water is boiling, throw in the quinoa and a pinch of kosher salt. Boil for 5-8 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Add 4 T fresh lemon juice and cook 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat and add a touch of vanilla or almond extract. Put the lid back on and let the quinoa rest while you cut up the fruit.

Cut fruit into bite-sized pieces. If you wish, you can also toast nuts and/or coconut for sprinkling over the top. Chia or hemp seeds would also be a nice addition.

To assemble, fluff the quinoa with a fork, then scoop into your breakfast bowl of choice. Mound the fruit on top and drizzle with kefir around the sides. Sprinkle nuts on top, and enjoy a delicious start to your day!

You can tuck into our Sujon Mixed berries all year round – YUM

Ingredients 

Berry Mix
2 Cups of Sujon Mixed Berries frozen (Blueberries, strawberries, Boysenberries, Raspberries, Blackberries)
5 T water
3 T Manuka Honey
Bring water and honey to the boil and add Sujon Berries and Simmer until Berries are warm

Cream Pat
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk 3 large egg yolks
3 T Honey
2 tablespoons (20 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornflour

Directions

Mix the sugar and egg yolks together.  Sift the flour and cornflour together and add to eggs mixing until you get a smooth paste. Bring the milk and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Pour the egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes thick.  Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Whisk or stir before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.  Serve with Sujon Mixed Berries on top… A naughty but nice way to get your servings of fruit for the day

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Raspberries in beginning stages, they start off as delicate little flowers. Aren’t they sweet? (Two pictures)

It’s kind of weird but good. This was inspired by my Healthy Desserts cookbook. I added banana and yogurt because it was tasting rather blah without it.

Time required: 30 min

Yields: 4

Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $26

Cost per portion: $6.50 (almost as ridiculous as going to Booster Juice actually)

Kitchen implements I used:

• bad ass blender
• zester
• juicer

Ingredients:

• 1 package of extra-firm silken tofu, drained
• 1 lemon, use zest and juice
• 1 banana
• box of raspberries
• ¼ C honey
• 4 heaping spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt

Instructions:

1. Blend the shit out of the tofu. Which is harder than it sounds.

2. Zest and juice the lemon.

3. Throw everything in the blender except the raspberries and puree or whatever until it’s smooth.

4. Chill for a bit, add berries, voila!

Verdict: I liked this but I’d like it better if it came out yogurt smooth, it was a bit gritty going down. It tasted good. I doubt Boyfriend will eat it. His eyebrows almost shot off his face when he saw me pickup tofu at the grocery store (which by the way was in the deli aisle).

Playlist: construction

In the garden itself, I’m continuing to struggle with my ambivalence about growing fruit. I was at a brunch with Brother John Hansen recently, the monk at Saint John’s Abbey who cares for the apple orchard. He said, “There is not a creature alive who doesn’t love an apple tree.”

I’ve found this to be true as well: mice, moles, voles and rabbits all attack it from the bottom. Caterpillars and other insects descend on the blossoms as soon as they appear. Deer that have not so far bothered my garden at all, come out and gobble the tender branches. Because of this, my two apple trees (which I’m sure were on the verge of giving fruit this year!) are dead.

very good compost behind the barn…

OK, but there are berries. Raspberry bushes are the obvious choice, since they seem to grow more or less wild. After a few years of trying to find the right spot for them, I’ve got a new cleared space. It ain’t pretty, kind of a hummock filled with rocks, but I brought in new soil and compost and planted nine sticks with roots, as well as four blueberry bushes.  I still have a few plants over with the huckleberry bushes I planted last year. I’m anxious to see if those huckleberries are going to come back (I can’t think of a berry that is not perennial, but it was mighty cold this winter).

Somehow, planting sticks feels less hopeful than planting seeds. Even with a little mass of roots attached, they just look so very, very dead.

The ambivalence for berries comes from one simple question: is it worth it to tend them for what you get? I do believe, again, that raspberries are a no brainer. They are not hard to cultivate or care for and the fruit is so delicate that it is best picked close to home and close to eating time.

Blueberries and strawberries, however, I think should mostly be left to other people. I’m considering the blueberries an experiment, but I don’t plan to grow strawberries. There are a number of You-pick places around and for an hour or two I can get enough berries for jam and frozen berries for the year. The cost of mulching, pruning, covering, weeding, and otherwise caring for strawberry plants (and maybe also blueberry bushes), makes this the best option.

So for a while at least I’ll feel foolish watering my sticks, hoping for fruit by August. And then, hopefully, it’s just a matter of not letting the raspberries take over everything else.

I am happy to say that I am (finally!) not afraid to make pies. I used to agonize over the crust – the dough was always too dry or too wet, too crumbly, wouldn’t roll, etc. – but ever since I started using Elise Bauer’s recipe that combines butter and shortening AND combines everything in a food processor, the crusts are a dream

This is a combination of about 3 Internet recipes for the filling and Elise’s crust.

Ingredients

Combination Butter and Shortening Crust

1 medium tart apple, peeled and diced

1 cup fresh rhubarb, diced

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup strawberries, sliced

1 T lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425F

2. Prepare crust as per linked recipe. Roll half and place into pie dish

3. In large bowl combine apple, rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries

4. Toss with lemon juice

5. Combine sugar and flour. Pour over fruit and toss to thoroughly combine

6. Pour fruit into crust

7. Roll second half of dough, place over top of the fruit, seal by fluting the edges and cut the crust to create steam vents

8. Bake 40-50 minutes, watching that the edges of the crust do not burn

9. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or yogourt

Serves 6-10

Over the last few months I’ve attempted to put together a post several times, but alas they were not meant to be. From the Norwalk that ruined my Holiday baking plans, to the apartment flood that drowned my lap top, it’s been a rough couple of months for baked goods.

But never fear, I’m back and just in time for Halifax Food Bloggers’ May Challenge: The Farm-Market-Table Recipe Contest, presented by the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market. Basically, this month all HFXFB members have been challenged to create an original recipe using only ingredients from vendors at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market. Challenge accepted.

Seeing as this blog was started as a way to showcase local ingredients, it only seemed natural that I would pull myself up out of my rut and get a post together for this. It also only seemed natural that I should blog a recipe that I originally dreamed up in August, and that was my original inspiration to start this blog: lavender pavlova.

I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for months now, adjusting this and that, but this time… oh this time, it’s just right. This delicate dessert has just the right amount of sweetness, and foreshadows the flavours of summer by combining the lightness of lavender with the tartness of Nova Scotia berries.

To get this post started, I made my way down to the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market to pick up my baking supplies, and to take advantage of I Love Local Hfx’s Open City AKA stuff my sweet little face with local goodies.

My market list included

fresh eggs from Hill Crest Farm,

lavender sugar from Seafoam Lavender Farm,

frozen raspberries and blueberries courtesy of Noggins Corner Farm ,

and a bright pot of pansies from SeaBlooms. Yup, I’m feeding you flowers this week.

Although this recipe takes a little while to prepare, it’s actually not too difficult, and it’s definitely worth the wait. Trust me.

Nova Scotia Berry Lavender Pavlova
Yields 6 servings

For candying the pansies
½ egg white
⅛ tsp water
as needed Seafoam Lavender Farm lavender sugar

For the lavender meringue base
2½ egg whites
1¼ C Seafoam Lavender Farm lavender sugar

For the lavender whipped cream
1 C Scotsburn whipping cream (not from the market, but this is one of the few exceptions granted for the competition)
1 tbsp Seafoam Lavender Farm lavender sugar

For the blue-raspberry coulis
½ C frozen wild Nova Scotia blueberries, thawed
½ C frozen Nova Scotia raspberries, thawed
1 tbsp Seafoam Lavender Farm lavender sugar

Let’s start by putting some frozen raspberries and blueberries out to thaw. You’ll need ½ C of each for the coulis, plus some for topping the pavlovas. Thaw out whatever you think you’ll need. I trust your judgement.

Now just leave them in the bowl, and let’s get started on the pansies.

Not only are pansies my favourite flower, they’re also edible and look beautiful on desserts. If you’re able to pick them right before serving, then you can stick to fresh pansies, but if you want to pick some in advance for use later you can candy them. As long as you let them dry properly, you can store them in an air tight container for quite a while. Last year for our wedding I candied about 100 pansies over the course of a couple weeks. Sure, by the end I was kind of losing my mind, but I’m sure we’ve all done crazier things for love.

To get things started, crack open an egg into a small bowl, and carefully separate the egg white from the yolk.

My trick is to use the two halves of the shell and gently slide the yolk back and forth, letting the egg white slowly drip away. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?

Take half the egg white and put it aside. Add just a tiny bit of water, maybe even less than ⅛ tsp, and then whisk them together.

Now it’s time to paint.

Well, paint the slightly-diluted-egg-white-mixture-onto-the-pansy time, that is.

Do yourself a favour and invest in some paint brushes that will only be used for this. Otherwise, that’s just kind of nasty.

Carefully paint the back

and then the front.

Now carefully sprinkle lavender sugar on the pansy. Tip: If you’d like the lavender sugar to be a bit finer, you can try putting it through a food processor. I’ve had varied results with this.

Put some parchment paper on a wire rack, and let the flowers dry while you make everything else.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the lavender meringue, add two more egg whites to the ½ you already put aside.

Put ‘em all in the mixer with the whisk attachment and let ‘er whip! Tip: let the eggs reach room temperature before you use them. This will help them foam up and expand real good in the mixer.

Once the egg whites start to foam up, start to slowly sprinkle in the lavender sugar.

Slowly now, don’t rush. After a while, the egg whites will become glossy and form stiff peaks.

Tip: While you’re waiting for this to happen, try not to handle the egg whites if at all possible. If you’re able to just let them whip without any interference that’s best. Otherwise, you might deflate your lovely airy egg whites, and that’s just sad. Trust me. Learn from my mistakes.

Once the eggs whites are ready, gently scoop them into a piping bag, then pipe the egg whites out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Start with a circle for the base and then slowly double up around the edges to make a little bowl.

The second you place the meringues in the oven, turn the heat down to 300 degrees. Start the coulis (see details below) while you let the meringues bake for approximately 30 mins. Then turn the oven off, leave the door slightly ajar, and leave the meringues right where they are. That’s right, just leave them there until they’re completely cool.

This might take a little while, so it’s a good thing that you were multitasking and working on the coulis already. Well played.

To make the coulis, put 1 cup of the now-hopefully-thawed-mixed-berries in a saucepan and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp of lavender sugar.

Over low heat, bring the berries to a gentle boil. The raspberries will come apart, and the blueberries will get really soft and start to bust a bit. This is also another great multi-tasking opportunity. Wash your mixing bowl and whisk attachment, dry them, and then put them in the fridge to chill.Let the berry mixture cool a bit. Then take the cooled-down-coulis and pour it into a blender. Blend it. Once blended, pour the mixture into a sieve over a small dish.

There are a lot of seeds that will get in the way, so gently shake and tap the sieve to help speed the process up. Tip: try doing ¼ of the mixture at a time, and cleaning the sieve off in between. You can also try screaming at it, but I found my technique was a little more effective.

Once all the seeds have been removed, you have your blue-raspberry coulis! Set it aside, and make sure it has completely cooled before you use it.

Still waiting for the meringues to cool? Luckily you still have lavender whipped cream left the make. Lucky!

By now, you’re awesome at multi tasking, and your bowl and whisk attachment have already been chillin’ for a bit. Take ‘em out, pour in the whipping cream, sprinkle in the lavender sugar, and start the mixer.

Be very careful as the whipping cream starts to fluff up. There’s a very delicate line between beautiful, light whipped cream and weird, gross curdled mess. Please, don’t cross that line. As soon as it looks like whipped cream, carefully test it.

If it makes soft peaks, and the texture feels right, just stop right there. Don’t mess with perfection.

Hopefully the meringues have cooled by now. Fill each once with lavender whipped cream, drizzle with blue-raspberry coulis, and top with thawed berries. Add a pansy, and voila! The perfect locally inspired dessert to celebrate spring.

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

I make enough for Todd too of course. He’s like a little kid…gotta sneak in those veggies where you can. Potato bread with Earth Balance morning, noon and night is not an acceptable diet. Hey, I never said we were perfect. I’d live solely off banana chips if I knew it could adequately sustain me…

What’s this mean for you, dear reader? It means a green smoothie recipe! Yay! As always, use what works for you and what you have on hand.

A Tropical Green Smoothie

Inspired by…just me

Makes 5 cups

• 2 cups non-canned coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 2 large handfuls of baby kale or spinach
• 1 1/2 cups frozen tropical fruit mix (mine was mango, pineapple, strawberries and peaches)
• 1/2 cup frozen berries (whatever type you prefer, I used blueberries, blackberries and raspberries)
• 1/4 tsp. fenugreek seeds (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. loose leaf green tea
• 2 Tbsp. whole flax seeds
• 1/2 tsp. erythritol or other sweetener
• splash of vanilla extract
• dash of ground cinnamon

Pour the milk into the blender first, followed by the kale and finally the frozen fruits and remaining ingredients. Blend well, about 1-2 minutes.

Yum. Green, tropically goodness.

You might also like:

Ginger Blackberry Green Smoothie

For Mother’s Day I decided cupcakes were a must. My mama loves the flavor combination of dark chocolate and raspberry, so this recipe from one of my favorite baking bloggers was perfect. If you love baking, or just love looking at fabulous photos of cakes and confections you MUST go check her out. Everything she makes is adorable and inpsirational. She’s extremely talented.

Now, back to the cupcakes. This chocolate cake recipe is by far the moistest I have in my collection. Swiss meringue buttercream is a favorite of mine. It does take a bit more work than traditional American buttercream, but it’s worth it in the end. Don’t be intimidated by it, embrace it, and than eat all of it when you’re done. I have an electric stove so I’ve managed to burn eggs in just about everything on the stove (i.e pastry cream, SMB.. everything you can think of. Everaythang? YES eve-ray-thang.) You just need to take your time and it will all come together. I’ve learned how my stove top works best for me, so you just need to figure out what way will work best for you.

Rosie’s recipe called for raspberry puree or chopped, fresh raspberries. I just used a few tablespoons of seedless raspberry preserves. We’re all friends here and friendship needs honesty, so I’m required by the laws of friendship to tell you that I was just too lazy to make puree. My grocery store doesn’t have it for some God awful reason. I also wanted to eliminate any chances of raspberry clogging up my piping bag because I was using one of my dads old Ateco tips. I couldn’t tell you the size because I don’t pay attention, but it’s a bit bigger so I’m sure clogging wouldn’t have really occured much. They’re sharp, and they hurt my dainty fingers. My dad acutally used to decorate cakes. He even did it when he was in the army and won 2nd place in a cake decorating competition. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit his awesome cake decorating ability, but I did inherit his old cake tools.

My name is Siobhan and I can’t frost a cake. Welcome to Can’t Crumb Coat Anonymous.

Hence, why I stick to good old cupcakes. I was going to include the recipe here, but I think you’d much rather check it out on her blog because she has tons of pictures (and her cupcakes came out way prettier).

I also made my mom a sugar scrub. I started making them last summer with this recipe. We both love it! You don’t need to moisturize after you get out of the shower with this stuff either because of the coconut oil and jajoba oil. This time around I added some organic grapefruit oil to it – it smells even more delicious. I picked the prettiest rose petals to match the scent, too.

I mixed my normal complete pancake mix, spiked with some vanilla extract and cinnamon. After dividing the badder on the skillet, I sprinkled in handfuls of blueberries. I had a banana, so I sliced some up and threw some slices in some pancakes.

Banana blueberry pancakes topped with blueberry syrup! Heck Yes!

We went food shopping for the guys house and obviously got a little carries away.

In the bright side, I finally found raspberries! As soon as I walked in the house, I threw a handful in some cottage cheese, and topped it with cocoa powder and Splenda! (Its even better with chia seeds.) I have jonesing for this!

Delicious!

I wasn’t super hungry for dinner, so I tried Fage’s Pineapple Fruyo, topped with chia seeds. I really enjoyed the big chunks of pineapple!

In other catching up details, last weekend was quite busy. I participated in the NAMI Walk on Saturday and my little cousin received her First Holy Communion!

NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Battling depression, and having developed a sweet spot for the mentally ill during my Psych rotation, I really wanted to participate in this walk. A classmate of mine, Dave, jogged with me. Unfortunately, this walk was during the height of my allergy induced stuffiness. “Dave! Slow down! I need to blow my nose!”

Olivia, looking too cute, received her first Eucharist, the second sacrament in the Roman Catholic religion! I was very proud of her!

I asked dad to take a picture of us… Needless to say, I don’t think he has the steadiest hand. (Haha! Sorry, dad.)

So, you are probably wondering why the title of the post is “Candy Bars,” yet not once have I mentioned a single piece of chocolatey guilt… Time for some reviews! The two bars that I will be reviewing today, remind me of two of my favorite candies! The first is the Chocolate Caramel Cluster Zone bar; the other, the Chocolate Hazelnut Atkins bar.

I bit into the Chocolate Caramel Cluster bar on my way to work one night and was surprised at the presence of actual caramel! A Baby Ruth candy bar is nougat, peanuts, and caramel covered by chocolate, and thats exactly what I tasted when I bit into this bar! Its time for a side-by-side comparison, shall we?

Not to mention all the vitamins and minerals you’re getting in the nutrition bars!

Now, onto Atkins! I remember that I had this bar before, but could not recall my opinion. When I came a cross it, again, I snatched it up. Hazelnuts are a pretty mild-flavored nut. After my first bite, I savored the bar, thinking I had tasted this before… but I wasn’t referring to the bar… It tasted like Ferrero Rocher! I love biting into those wafer bars to find a creamy chocolate with a hazelnut center!

*Don’t forget: Atkins bars use sugar alcohols to limit the net carbs.

The problem is I don’t measure things when I cook so it is really hard to write a concrete recipe. Will have to get some new measuring cups and make sure I do it properly. That and the fact time seems to vanish.

Anyway I have been thinking a lot about how many additives and things are in our food and drink.

I am seriously contemplating learning to make my own ginger syrup/cordial as I have fallen in love with this simple easy and delish drink.

It is so simple to create

Crush a couple of handfulls of frozen raspberries in a container with a fork or spoon

Pour over the ginger refresher cordial to just over the top of your crushed raspberries
(to the Americans reading this its like a flavour syrup for water not alcoholic)

Mix well

Put the lid on your container and put in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavours meld together (this gets better the longer you leave it after a few days it goes from ginger with raspberries to raspberry with a hint of ginger)

Take your glass. Pour in about 1/4 mineral or soda water (I use mineral water)

Spoon in 2-3 teaspoons full of your mix (it may take more depending on glass size and strength of flavours)

Stir well

Slowly top up with more mineral water

Sit back, sip and enjoy.

It is quite lovely as someone who is not a big drinker to sit down and have something pretty to drink with dinner it turns it into more of an event.