Adventures With Meat

I hope you get a chuckle out of this ...

Last week, my in-laws gave us a bag of game meat (deer and moose) that a hunter from Nova Scotia had given them.  My mother-in-law has no experience cooking this type of meat (even though she is a fantastic almost-gourmet cook, they are not common foods here on PEI as we don't have any wildlife of that sort).  I was excited to have this to cook because I love deer meat especially and it has been years since I've had any.

So, I cooked up 2 huge steaks last Saturday night.  I think they were moose as the meat was really dark, almost black.  It was delicious, but as we were eating it, my husband commented, "I'll bet this is what horse tastes like."  YUCK!

Monday was Thanksgiving here in Canada.  We were invited over to my husband's parents for dinner - lunch for those "from away" :)  When we arrived, we found my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, and one of the other guests huddled around the beautifully roasted farm chicken.  My mother-in-law turned to me and said, "Have you ever seen anything like that before?"  I looked where she was pointing.  There were two lime green patches in the breast meat!  We ended up throwing out the chicken, the dressing, and the gravy.  We had a vegetarian Thanksgiving this year.  (By the way, I found out later that this is what was probably wrong with the chicken - deep pectoral myopathy)

Last night, I cooked a roast (either deer or moose again).  Laddie walks into the kitchen, smells the meat cooking, and says, "What kind of animal is in the oven tonight?"

Eating has become an adventure...

Honey Substitute

My husband has many allergies.  One of the most dangerous ones he has had to deal with is his allergy to honey.  In 2000, he had an anaphylactic reaction to honey and nearly died.  We never have any in the house and I try to avoid buying foods containing honey.  Many recipes, especially "healthy" ones, call for honey as a sweetener.  Molasses (fancy type) is usually my substitute for honey, but I have found sometimes molasses is too strong of a flavour.  It's usually fine in something like bread.

After some online searching, I came up with a substitute for honey.  If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of honey, I take a glass (liquid) 1 cup measure and put 1/2 cup of either brown or white sugar in it.  Then I carefully add enough water to bring the mixture up to the half cup line on the glass measure, stir, and use in the recipe.

Originally, I thought I could just replace honey with an equal amount of sugar.  This doesn't work, though.  Honey not only adds sweetness to your product but it also adds moisture, since it is a liquid.

Thanks for visiting today!

Homemade Tortillas

In an effort to be frugal, I tried making my own tortillas.  They were very easy to make, just a little time consuming.  I used a recipe from Cooks.com (go here to get it!).

 Yes, we like bananas (and they are $0.50/lb this week!)

They came out a little thicker and more irregularly shaped than commercially prepared tortillas, but they tasted very good.  This would be a good recipe to make in bulk someday when I have some extra time (haha).

Thanks for visiting today!

The Day I Pretended I Was a Tourist

Last week, my daughter and I went out for the day in Charlottetown with my sister-in-law who was home from Calgary, Alberta for a visit.  We went out for breakfast, did some shopping, went to McDonald's for lunch (at Lass' request - she loves the indoor playground), and then went down to the waterfront (Peake's Quay).

Cows ice cream!  Very yummy.  Lass had bubblegum (I can't remember their creative name for it - all the flavours have unique names).  It was bright blue and full of gumballs.

One of the many pretty window-boxes that are on all the shops at the waterfront.

My sister-in-law and I had tea (I had Irish Breakfast, she had Dalvay Breeze) at the PEI Preserve Company's Tea House.  We also had some of their famous raspberry cream cheese pie... delicious.  We sat outside at a little table and our tea was served in lovely china.  This fellow was standing guard outside the shop.

 A view of the boats anchored at the quay

On the way home, we stopped at Balderston's Farm Market in Stratford.  We saw some interesting vegetables...

...and beautiful flowers.  Can you believe this bouquet with the vase was only $12!  I love the colours.

They also have a U-Pick flower patch.  It is huge and full of gorgeous flowers of all sorts.  We picked a big bouquet.

It was a lovely day and we had such a great time!

Thanks for visiting today!

I broke the law... again

Just an update to my post "Breaking the Law".  Here is a recent article from the Charlottetown paper about what has happened to the Mermuys' business since they started selling the egg cartons ;)

I am amazed by the response.  On Monday, I went into The Turning Point and was able to get their last dozen eggs.  They can hardly keep them in the store.  I had a chat with a gentleman waiting to get his order rung through (he actually let me have the last full dozen eggs and took a carton with only 11 eggs in it because one had broken).  What a nice man!

Also, I discovered that eggs at the Atlantic Superstore (where I do the bulk of my shopping) are now $2.99 a dozen for large.  The "local eggs" are about 25 cents cheaper and they are so big that the covers on the extra large cartons will just close over them.  Now I can buy local AND be frugal!

Thanks for visiting today!

Feasting on Fragaria (aka strawberries)!

We have been eating LOTS of strawberries lately.  Fresh, local berries - not imported from anywhere (well, I did drive them home in my car).  The summers here are so short that I just go into a fresh fruit and veggie frenzy as soon as things start growing.  First comes the rhubarb, then wild strawberries, then cultivated strawberries.  By that point the garden is usually producing something - lettuce, spinach, green onions.  Raspberries come next and then blackberries and blueberries.  Last of all are cranberries (there's nothing quite like cranberries picked off the beach).

Back to the strawberries, though.  Of course, we've been eating them raw (Robbie has to have his cooked because of his plant enzyme allergy thing.  We pretty much have a microwave just so he can eat fruit.)  I've also made freezer jam and sorbet.  Both are super easy recipes.  For the freezer jam I just follow the recipe on the Garden Fare package.

The strawberry sorbet is pretty easy too.  Boil 1 1/4 cups water with 3/4 cup sugar for 5 minutes to make a syrup.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  Purée 3 cups strawberries (hulls and stems removed) in the blender until smooth, then add the cooled syrup and blend.  Pour into a shallow metal baking dish.  Put in the freezer and let it freeze until it's getting solid around the edges.  Stir to break up the frozen areas and return to the freezer.  keep doing this until it is slushy and can be scooped.  Serve or transfer to a tightly sealed container and keep in the freezer.  This makes about 4 cups (probably slightly more).  I got this recipe from a magazine (Today's Parent, July 2006).  The original recipe also calls for lemon juice, but I leave that out.  It might be a touch on the sweet side, but I think you could cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup.









It also makes a nice sauce for vanilla ice cream, as I found out when I couldn't get mine to freeze in time for a social.   Everybody wanted the recipe.

It's a delicious time of the year!  Thanks for visiting today.

Breaking the Law

I broke the law on Monday.  Well, kinda, SORTA broke the law.  I bought something ILLEGAL.  I know you're shocked.  I can hear your gasps of amazement and bewilderment ("But she seemed like such a nice girl!").  Well, what did I buy?  

EGGS!

Farm fresh ungraded eggs, to be precise.  And technically I purchased them illegally.  Why?  I bought them through our local health food store.  Here on PEI, small farmers can sell ungraded eggs from their farm gate but they are not supposed to distribute them through a shop.  The way the lovely couple who own the shop are getting around this law, for the time being, is quite inventive.  They are selling the egg CARTONS for $2.75 each and then they give you a dozen eggs free with your purchase of the carton!  Clever, aren't they?  Here is a link to an article about this situation.

These are lovely eggs and some are huge!  Look at the size of the egg in this next photo.

I am really looking forward to eating my farm fresh eggs.  Two observations about eggs from smaller farms:

1. The shells are (usually) much stronger.  The first time I remember cracking a grocery store egg after being used to farm eggs, I whacked the egg a LITTLE too hard on the edge of the sink (which is usually how I crack eggs for baking and cooking) and ended up with a disintegrated egg dripping through my fingers.
2. The yolks are quite a bit more yellow, darker than "store" eggs.

And in my personal opinion, farm eggs taste better.

I try to buy local if I can, but sometimes local products are out of my price range :( and I feel bad.  I do what I am able to do.  When we buy sausages (these are a treat!), we get them from our neighbours.  They make the most delicious sausage!  My husband's favourite is "Fire & Ice".  They are intensely spicy/hot.  I like "Hungarian" and "Bratwurst", spicy but not too spicy.  Yum... sausage...

I got off topic there a little bit, didn't I?  Anyway, I'm trying to avoid using my kitchen stove as much as possible lately.  Right now, it's 26 Celsius in the shade.  So no eggs or sausage for supper tonight :(  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all around (too bad we can't grow peanuts here!)

Thanks for visiting today!