Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Some parts of this recent pregnancy have been hard on me. I gave up downhill mountain biking for the summer and have sworn off cold beers on the patio until after the wee one arrives. And while these first two items are decidedly first-world problems, my other issue is more of an actual concern.

Since about the 17th week of pregnancy, I've been unable to walk without pain and can't stand on one leg without severe discomfort. I had a similar issue when I was pregnant with Lily but it didn't start until well into my third trimester. Unfortunately, pelvic girdle pain (or SPD, as it is also sometimes called) is a common re-occurrence in second (and subsequent) pregnancies, so I wasn't totally surprised when I developed symptoms this time around. There is not much that I can do about the SPD and while I know that things will improve after I give birth, it is fairly frustrating to be so limited in my movements - at this point, I can't walk longer than about 20 minutes at a time (even at a very slow pace) and I can't participate in many of the physical activities that I normally like to do.

Because I need to find a silver lining in this situation, I've yet again turned to cooking to take my mind off my frustrations. A good friend of mine recently gave birth to her first child and I've been inspired to stock her fridge and freezer with goodies that will fill her (and her husband's) belly while they adjust to parenthood.

Muffins are one of my go-to gifts for new parents. I remember how challenging it was to find time to eat after I gave birth to Lily and muffins became a saviour food for me. I try to make a batch whenever a friend has a baby - baby clothes make great gifts but food is always well received!

I photocopied this recipe many years ago from some un-named cookbook. These muffins are high in fibre, low in fat, and amazingly delicious! They are simple to make and have always turned out well. I wish that I could remember the name of the cookbook so I could give credit where credit is due but I can't. Please just know that this is not an original recipe of mine.

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup wheat bran
3/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (approx 4-5 really ripe ones)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Line a muffin pan with paper cup liners
3. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients using a fork or wire whisk
4. In a medium bowl, beat together all the wet ingredients. The mashed banana needs to be really well mixed in.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes (or until done)

makes 12

The fruits of our labour

We drove through Salmon Arm a few weekends ago on our way home from Sunpeaks and as I previously mentioned, we stopped at DeMille's Farm Market. We've been stopping at Demille's for a few years now - they have a fabulous little petting zoo for Lily and they offer good prices on their #2 (read: not perfect) fruits and vegetables. Buying #2 produce is a great way to buy large quantities of fruits and vegetables in order to can and preserve them for winter.  For example: I bought 50 lbs of tomatoes for $20 and 20 lbs of peaches for $8 - sure, both were a little bruised and battered but the cost-savings was well worth it!

Canning and preserving might seem a little old-fashioned but it is really nice to have jars of homemade salsa and canned peaches throughout the winter. I'm not going to lie - canning is a fair amount of work! It is not hard to do but it is time-consuming. It's best done with girlfriends and a few glasses of wine but since I'm knocked up (as was one of my canning partners), we settled for lots of yummy snacks while we made salsa, peaches, and mango chutney. 

I have no idea where this salsa recipe is originally from but my friend Julie passed it along to me a few years ago. I've pretty much followed the recipe as outlined although I only added as many peppers as I had on hand (more red/orange/yellow peppers and less hot peppers). I'm a huge fan of corn and black bean salsa so we added a can of each, right at the end of the cooking time. 

A few tips:

1. Wear gloves when chopping the hot peppers! I have learned from past mistakes and am now exceedingly careful about not rubbing my eyes after chopping hot peppers. However, I thought that I could get away without rubber gloves and wow, was I wrong!!! My chopping hand was on FIRE for the rest of the night and no amount of Google-researched solutions worked to take that pain away. 

2. If this is your first time canning, see if you have any friends or family who can help you out. Scott's cousin Kelly helped me a few years ago when I first learned to can - her tips made a big difference! If you have no-one to assist you, check out the Bernardin Home Canning website for a how-to guide.  

I've never posted a scanned recipe into this blog so I'm not sure if this will work. I think that you should be able to click on the recipe image to make it larger or to print it off.


Notes to self from September 2013:
1. Using 60 lbs of tomatoes, use 10 cans each of corn and black beans.
2. Used 12 jalapeño peppers, 3 Habenero peppers, 4 hot red peppers, and 4 hot yellow peppers (approx) but this wasn't hot enough. Also used approx. 60 sweet peppers of assorted colours. Consider using 30 hot peppers?! Total pounds of peppers was 23 pounds.
3. Used organic tomatoes from Farm Box. Total cost per 500 ml jar was approx. $2.50

Cheddar Zucchini Fritters

I started making this recipe last summer and have been in love with it ever since!  I had subscribed to a CSA veggie basket and found myself with more zucchinis than I knew what to do with. I love chocolate zucchini cake as much as the next person but I wanted to do something different with my bounty.  I played around with this recipe a little to enhance the flavour as I found the original to be a bit bland. Dial back the spices if you like milder flavours.  Julie from the 'Dinner with Julie' website was recently looking for recipe ideas for excess zucchinis and she came up with a zucchini fritter variation that included feta (yum!) - trying this version is next on my list.

These fritters make an excellent side dish for a summer or fall supper - be generous with the sauce, you won't regret it. There are always plenty of zucchinis at local farm markets this time of year but they are also found year-round at the supermarket. If you want to make them on a hot summer day but do not want to use your oven, know that you can use a cookie sheet to bake them on your BBQ (bottom photo).

Cheddar Zucchini Fritters - adapted from Chatelaine.com

Ingredients:
2 small (or 1 large) zucchini 
1/4 cup (50 mL) cornstarch
11/2 cups (375 mL) grated cheddar, preferably old
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 egg white

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp dry mustard

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup Mayo
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp horseradish
1/2 tsp vinegar
pinch sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C). 
2. Coarsely grate the unpeeled zucchinis. Spread out over paper towels. Top with more paper towel and cover with heavy pot or dutch oven. Let sit for 10-20 minutes, changing the paper towel once during that time.
3. Turn grated zucchini into a large bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch and toss to mix. 
4. Add cheese, onions, and spices. Stir to mix. 
5. In a small bowl, whisk egg white, then stir into zucchini mixture along with generous pinches of salt and pepper. 
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Scoop about ¼ cup (50 mL) mixture onto baking sheet, then gently press down. Repeat with remaining mixture.
7. Bake in centre of preheated oven until fritters start to firm up and are golden on the bottom, about 15 min. Turn fritters carefully; they will be soft at this stage. Continue to bake until set and a deep golden on both sides, about 8 more min. Remove from oven and let stand a couple of minutes to firm up before serving.
8. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix mayo, mustard, horseradish, and vinegar. If necessary, add small pinch of sugar to temper the tanginess of the sauce.
9. Serve fritters with a dollop of sauce.

Pork and Chicken Orders - Bow Valley

There is info from Farm Box about ordering pork and chicken for the winter: 

This is it! Our last order of Chicken and Pork for the season!
Time to fill your freezers for winter!

Please place your order from the Farm Box Website by NEXT TUESDAY SEPT. 18th!
Pick Up will be from Canmore on Oct. 12th.

Holistically raised Pork from Fisher Farms near Didsbury is available in individual packages this time around, so you can pick and choose your sausages, chops, ham and bacon.  Supplies are limited, so place your orders early!

To Order Follow this link:
farmbox.ca/whats-in-a-box/#pork

Prairie Roots Organic Chicken from Sunworks Farm is a truly superior product that comes with a long list of certifications, including Organic, Free-Range, Humane, and Local Sustainable. Visit the Sunworks Farm website, or watch this Independent Video for more information on farm operations, and guiding principles.

To Order follow this link:
http://farmbox.ca/whats-in-a-box/#chicken


You will receive a confirmation from us when you place your order and payment is can be made upon pick up. 
Pick up will be on Friday October 12th - please be prompt..No stragglers! (We will be out of town on our annual farm tour following this order)

See you at the Market!

Chrystel & Avni

Farm Box  
'thriving locally'

online at: farmbox.ca ... join the conversation!

Caprese Salad

Scott's friend Rich was in Italy recently (I guess that Rich is considered my friend now too since I've known him for as long as I've known Scott - he was there when Scott and I met for our first "date", way back in 1993 - but I digress) and brought us back a fabulous bottle of olive oil.

I've talked a lot on this blog about 'good' olive oil vs 'regular' olive oil - this is decidedly a good bottle of olive oil. It's green in colour and bursting with flavour. An olive oil like this is best used in a dish where the flavour of the oil shines along with the other ingredients. Luckily (given that it's the end of summer and tomatoes are at their peak), caprese salad is one of those dishes.

Scott and I first discovered caprese salad on our own trip to Italy a few years ago.  It's incredibly simple to make but is always a crowd pleaser. As I mentioned above, it is best to make this salad when tomatoes are at their prime. Bocconcini cheese can be found in all major supermarkets, usually near the deli.  It's a soft mozzarella cheese that was traditionally made from milk from water buffalo. Commercial bocconcini is made with cow's milk and is much more reasonably priced that traditional bocconcini.

I recently bought locally-made bocconcini from Lina's Italian Market and to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with it and wouldn't spend the extra money again. One day, however, I will spring for the real water buffalo bocconcini - just to see if I can taste the difference - but at almost $7 per ball, it's a bit pricey for me right now!

Ingredients:
3 large tomatoes, thickly sliced
3-5 large bocconcini balls, thickly sliced
10 leaves fresh basil, finely chopped
Good quality extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Layer alternating slices of tomatoes and mozzarella on a plate or serving dish.
2. Generously drizzle with olive oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste (this salad loves salt!)
4. Top with chopped basil. If you are so inclined, add a little more olive oil.
5. Serve at room temperature with a crusty bread and a nice glass of red wine

The little things in life

I really love a good cup of coffee in the morning. We bought a Starbucks espresso machine many years ago - I worked for Starbucks while I was studying to be a social worker at U of C and I used the last of my student loan money to buy a machine when it was on sale at Christmas time. This was one of the best financial decisions that I've ever made (which should surely tell you something about the state of my financial affairs...)

We use our machine on a daily basis and I savour every sip of my morning caffeinated beverage (I switched to decaf for the first trimester of this pregnancy but have very quickly made my way back to one fully caffeinated Americano per day). We primarily use Oso Negro beans which I buy on the monthly 20% discount day at Nutters. I recently was given a half pound of ground espresso straight from Italy - fabulously smooth and mellow! I will search it out when I next go to Lina's Italian Market (a blog post for another day).

All this chatter about coffee and espresso machines was prompted by my recent purchase of Blackwell table cream at Demille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm (yet another post for another day - I really need to catch up after a summer of blog slacking!). I've bought this cream before but hadn't paid as much attention to it as I did this morning.  Simply put, it's the best cream that I've ever used in my coffee! It's only 10% milk fat but the flavour is fabulously rich. We stopped using sugar in our coffee after our Whole 30 experiment and while I have no regrets about that, I feel that this cream adds a little something special back into our coffee.

I have no idea whether Blackwell cream can be bought in the Bow Valley or Calgary but look for it at your local specialty food stores (or, stop in at Demille's when you are next passing through Salmon Arm - one of my next blog posts will hopefully give you more than one reason to stop!)