Here is a photo of the Rose Petal Jelly. I made it without strawberries, found a great recipe on a really good french food blog toquetoques.com

To make it, I used Rose Bud Tea that Dave brought me from China last year. It turned out beautiful as you can see, but I haven't tasted it yet....

Using the tea got me to thinking that a Jasmine Jelly may be a lovely idea.

Strawberry Season

We went strawberry picking the other day, my Mom and I, as has become our summertime tradition. So for the last few days I have been making all things strawberry! Strawberry jam, strawberry wine spritzers, strawberry sorbet, and today I'm going to try a strawberry rose petal jam. I'll post it as soon as I'm done....if it's any good.

Tarte a la Moutarde

Here's an easy little recipe, actually more of a suggestion, for a Tarte a la Moutarde. In my opinion the tomato is really the star here, but the French call it a mustard tart....

All you need to do is thaw and roll out a sheet of good puff pastry (try to find one that uses real butter) onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spread it with a thin layer of dijon mustard (regular or grainy), slice up a ripe tomato and lay it out on the mustard slicked pastry, chop up a bit of fresh basil if you have some and sprinkle it over top, lightly sprinkle some good, coarse sea salt, and grate a bit of parmesan cheese over top. Fold the edges over to create a nice, thick edge and pop it into a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden.

Cut into squares so that each square has a round of tomato and serve as an appetizer.

Le Temps des Lilas

It's my favourite time of year again! All the lilacs, apple and cherry trees are in bloom and are so fragrant and pretty! I wish it could last forever! My tulips are still blooming and the ferns have just finished unfurling. The grass is green and the new tender leaves are bright green on the trees. Mmmmm, spring!

Pizza Dough for Geege

Here is my pizza dough recipe. It is pretty loose, you just have to get to know the consistency and add more water or flour as you go....

Pizza Dough

500 g plain white flour

1 sachet traditional yeast (or about 1 tbsp.)

1 1/2 cups warm tap water

2 glugs olive oil

1 tsp salt

Pour a little bit of warm water over the yeast in a small dish and let sit until frothy. Stir the salt into the flour. Mix the water and olive oil together. 

Pour the yeast over the flour and then the water/oil mixture little by little, stirring with a wooden spoon. When it seems to be moistened enough to form a ball, turn the dough out onto the counter and knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball (about 5 minutes) adding flour or water as needed. Put the ball into an oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea towel for a couple of hours (in a warmish spot) or until doubled in size. Punch down, roll or stretch onto pizza pan, top with whatever and bake at a fairly high temp (375-425 depending on your oven) until golden and bubbly. Mmmmmmmm.

Healthy Banana Cake

I've been playing with variations of banana cakes for years, and I've come up with this one as a healthier alternative. It is really moist, quite dense and one of my favourites. You could add anything you like to it, like other nuts, seeds, dried fruit, chocolate, whatever. But it is yummy just in it's plain, uncomplicated form. Give it a try!

Healthy Banana Cake

1 cup organic old fashioned oats (not the quick cooking kind!)

1 1/2 cups organic whole wheat flour

3/4 cup organic spelt flakes (or coarse spelt flour)

1/2 cup organic wheat bran

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine all above ingredients together in a large bowl with a whisk.

3 organic bananas

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup unsweetened organic applesauce

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, mash the bananas, add sugar, oil, applesauce and vanilla and stir together until well combined. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Pour into a glass baking dish (I use an oval stoneware dish, but I suppose a 9x13 glass baking dish would do, but you may have to decrease baking time). Bake at 325F for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out pretty much clean.

PS Bonus! This cake is not only healthy, but vegan!

Tulips, rhubarb and garlic!

I've been impatiently monitoring the progress of my garden, and to my delight my tulips are slowly starting to come up! I spent a whole day in the fall creating a perennial garden from what was a rock garden (not my thing....). I planted tulips and daffodils, hostas and crocus (not sure what the plural of crocus is.). Anyways, I had no idea whether they would come up or when, but after carefully looking yesterday I saw about 6 or 7 tulip leaves and 1 crocus! I am so excited! Also, I had a lesson in garlic. Last spring I was so eager to plant my garlic sets that I ignored the advice of a seasoned gardener to plant in fall. From the outside they seemed to thrive all summer, but in the fall I pulled one up and it was a fully formed head of garlic, but tiny! So I left the rest in thinking they would just decompose over winter. But last week I noticed that they sprouted! So I guess I'll give them this growing season and pull them up in the fall to see if they're mature. I learn better from my mistakes than from others I guess....

And as for my rhubarb, it's coming along nicely and was not at all upset about last night's frost!