It’s cranberry season in Ottawa (finally!).  I’ve had the recipe for cranberry maple butter bookmarked all summer and have waited patiently for cranberries to appear at the market.  I picked up these Upper Canada Cranberries a week ago – they’re pretty perfect looking.

I followed the recipe from the Small Batch Preserving cookbook and ended up with almost two full cups of delicious cranberry butter.

The boy and I sampled it on top of our “cheesy mouse biscuits”  (homemade herb crackers that actually have no rodent or cheese components).  If you want to know the story of the ‘salty cheesy mouse biscuits’ you just need to pick up a copy of the book Cherry the Pig.  In the story, Cherry bakes a lovely apple cake, but the mice who nibble at it think it’s awful.  Cherry’s feelings are hurt until she figures out that mice like salty cheesy biscuits.  Suffice to say, we’ve been reading this book a lot.  And I get a lot of requests for “cheesy mouse biscuits!!”.

Using this easy (and vegan!) recipe from the Straight from the Farm blog, I whipped up another batch this week for work.  I happened to be making pasta on the same night, so I thought it might save time to roll the cracker dough out in the pasta maker.  It worked like a charm!  I fed the dough through the rollers to the 3-4 setting and then cut out squares using a rotary ravioli cutter.

Homemade crackers are pretty unusual – despite the fact that they are a snap to make.  The novelty factor will impress everyone from toddlers through senior executives.

Exhibit A.  I’m really proud that he tried the cranberry maple butter (and liked it!) – he’s usually a bit of a jamophobe.

One problem.  Canning seems to require a lot of dishes.  And dishwashing.  Ugh.  What a mess!

After the “great tomato canning weekend of ’11” I caught the canning bug.  Since mustard is off the menu in our house due to allergies, I wanted to have something zingy that we could add to our burgers in its place.  Enter relish!

Looks at those red onions.  They are almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  We picked them up at the farmers market – likely the Roots and Shoots stand, but my memory is a bit fuzzy.

After thinly slicing the fennel, red pepper and onion, they needed to rest for a bit before being cooked.  I followed the handy recipe from Small Batch Preserving (but you can also find a variation online at the Three Clever Sisters.)

I’ve totally mastered the art of small batch canning.  Our large stockpot does double duty sanitizing the jars and then acting as the boiling water canner.  The small pot on the rear of the stove heats up the lids.  And finally, the smaller stock pot is used for cooking.  Easy.

I’m really fond of the small 125mL size jars – they’re the perfect size for condiments like relishes that you don’t use very often.  It’s also a great size for gifting.

Wouldn’t you like to get a little sampler of relishes and jams as a gift?  Affirmative.

This recipe is a keeper -it tastes great and it just looks like summer.  Mmm!

Few food-realted things in Ottawa have made me fume as much as the recent “great cupcake challenge” post on Apartment613.  I was upset that Thimblecakes (my choice for the best cupcakes in Ottawa) seemed to be getting judged unfairly against the competition.  And when I shared my outrage with my husband (a small business owner here in Ottawa), it hit a nerve for him about how people treat entrepreneurs in this city.

This type of food writing also left me with a bad feeling about how us food bloggers go about our business of critiquing food – many of us (myself included) having neither small business or culinary training. (A topic best saved for a separate post.)

On that note, I asked Wendy, the owner of Thimblecakes, if she would be interested in doing an interview for Apron Strings because these negative reviews stung me as if the shop was my own.  People who know me, know how special this shop is in my life (offering nut-free and vegan cupcakes and ice creams). It’s one of the few places I know I can easily take my son out to eat.  With no worries.  It is priceless.  And it is a one of a kind shop in Ottawa. And there are great people behind these cupcakes who truly want you to have a great experience and delicious cupcakes.  Whether you have allergies or not.

Welcome to Thimblecakes!

I wanted readers to know why Thimblecakes is so special and what sets it apart from other cupcake shops. Let’s get to know Thimblecakes!

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Many of your cupcakes are vegan. Are you a vegetarian / vegan?

I call myself a vegetarian with vegan tendancies! (I’m not strict. I cheat on dairy and eggs when it’s convenient! I know so bad! But only organic free range)

(I have been known to sneak cheese in the house after Alden is asleep.  Shh!)

How did you get into the baking business?

I started baking around 4 or 5 years ago when I tried a business venture that was going poorly. Broke, alone and bored my obsession with the Food Network took off. I would watch it while I baked, learning new skills with every batch! I found a new love.

With way too many sweets in the house I started giving them away to neighbours and when I found a new job, my new obsession turned into a business from all my give aways. My regular clientele encouraged me to open a store front and one, Dee even came up with the name after a little brain storming session! I’m so lucky

How did you know it was the right time to open a shop? Did you research other neighbourhoods?  Or was Centretown always the aim?

I did much research. I sat on many benches watching the flow of traffic day and night, weekends and weekdays. I thought I knew every space in the city for lease until I sat at the Bridgehead one day, looked out the window and saw a for lease sign in the window across the street. Woohoo!  It was perfect! 

 Is there a right time to open a small business? I don’t think one can know. You just have to give it a shot and see if people want what you’ve got! 

The cupcake display wall

Your shop is one of the few nut-free bakeries in Ottawa. (Thank you!!) What made you decide to go peanut/nut free?

We knew the unfortunate truth that food allergies are becoming common place. Two of my dear friends, one being my business partner is allergic to nuts and I felt just terrible for them that they would have to miss out on part of a celebration because of an allergy.

 I had tried for a year to be completely vegan so I also understood having to miss out. Then I met some friends that shared with me how hard it was living with an egg allergy. Then it hit me how many people were gluten intolerant. Then another friend mentioned how many young ones (and older ones) have type two diabetes. So we offer the whole spectrum of “free” cakes, because people need it and we can help (and I think they taste pretty darn GREAT!)

(Agreed!  Alden has nosedived into more than a few of your cupcakes.  And despite what a certain Ph.D candidate and university lecturer in law at Carleton thinks – it is not just for unvaccinated granola munchers.  Allergies happen and  Alden is fully vaccinated.  Posts like that make me so angry.  So angry.  No link for you law-man! )

Savouring a mini cupcake

Aside from offering allergy-friendly treats, your business also stands out because of your environmental concerns.  What are some eco-friendly things that people may not know about your shop?

I think it’s really important to use local and organic products and luckily we have many customers that also feel that way! It tastes better, it’s better for the environment and it gives money to local people!

We use environmentally friendly everything, so we apologize in advance if you’re used to Cotonelle at home. We have the rough recycled paper toilet paper at our shop! Myself and my partner take the recycling home every week from the shop as the city won’t give us bins, crazy eh? Same with the compost.

 (Yes!  I know how much our small family tosses into our Green Bin.  I hope food businesses will be able to take part in composting too.  It seems a logical extension to the program.)

People who aren’t parents probably don’t know the controversy over food dyes and artificial flavourings.  What’s your policy?

Our flavourings come from fruits and vegetables, we use very little extracts. (Only mint. I tried to use fresh mint and after a good puree it doesn’t even smell like mint anymore, weird!) The only coloring we use is in the vanillas because some of our clientele wanted to see splashes of bright colour.

 I always see your shop name popping up at local community events. 

We love to be involved with community events! If it wasn’t for this wonderful community, I wouldn’t have a shop! People have been so lovely to us, we try and help everyone that asks us, even if it’s simply a handful of free cupcake cards to give away as a prize for their event.

Our big one this month is for the Maycourt hospice. They’re doing a holiday tour to raise money where people visit the most beautiful homes in the city and upon return can indulge in some ThimbleCakes. I just love the Maycourt, perhaps it strikes the heart for me as my Grandmother had stayed there. What a lovely facility and a wonderful concept.

Last month we were involved with the running of the brides, a Humane Society fundraiser and of course Capital Pride! What fun that was!

I should have taken the photo before I bought half the minis. The dish on the left? All vegan.

Experimenting – do you set aside time each week to experiment with new flavours and combinations or is it more of an ongoing process?

We come up with new recipes every two months to keep our cakes seasonal! I usually put two or three days aside for experiments just before the new flavour launch. For example today we created 6 new flavours including Viva Puff (vegan), sea salt caramel and a lovely apple spice! I love baking! It’s such a fun challenge to create new flavours!

(Sea salt caramel!  My weakness!)

Vegan chocolate ice cream.

And last, but not least.  How do you handle food reviews?  I think you need to have a very thick skin to open a food business.  Everyone seems to have an opinion… and a blog.  : )

To be honest it breaks my heart when someone doesn’t love the thing l have poured my heart and soul into. I am so incredibly proud of this shop, its goodies and the staff that I can’t read them.

Luckily for every one bad one there are 20 rave reviews and three times that of verbal praises, but it’s that one poor one that sticks in my head.

I have a staff member, Jessica, who researches the reviews. I feel it’s still very important to know what people are saying and listen to what they want from us. There is always room for improvement and the pats on the back sometimes feel good too.

Parting words?

I would love for people to know that ThimbleCakes was created out of love! Any baker or chef, home or professional will tell you that there’s something about feeding people. It just feels so good to hear the mmms and “ this is so good” from happy people that it keeps me striving to make cupcakes that everyone can enjoy! 

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There you have it! A glimpse behind the scenes of Thimblecakes.  To my foodie readers, always question who is writing these reviews and don’t be afraid to use your own judgment.  In the world of cupcakes, some people like them sweeter, richer, denser, crumblier, taller, wider, smaller, cheaper….  you get the idea.  Taste and preferences are complicated.  And clearly, with the number of cupcake shops in Ottawa, there is something to suit everyone’s tastes.

Now, if you’ll excuse me,  I’m feeling the need to go eat some cupcakes…  signing off as Wendy would say, “Big smiles!”

369 Bank Street
www.thimblecakes.ca
(613) 695-0109

It was the first real week of fall and we managed to squeeze in a date night and we switched over into fall cooking mode.

Tuesday, September 27 – Tuesday date night at DiVino
We tried the 35@Divino for the first time this week. Three courses for $35 dollars. The feature region for that night’s dinner was Calabria (the “toe” of Italy). We splurged on the wine pairing too – which made for a pretty swishy Tuesday night out of the house.

While we debated the merits of the Italian ABBA-esque music playing on the speakers, we enjoyed our three courses. I still can’t believe that the husband’s pasta (strozzapreti?)was made in-house. It led to many questions about whether we needed to add a pasta extruder to our arsenal of kitchen gadgetry. (Although, after reading the description of this pasta on Wikipedia, it seems like it may be doable at home sans gadgets – all I need is a rolling pin and some deft hands to do the rolling.)

Sadly, pasta is one of those things that just can’t live up to a point and shoot camera in low light. Especially not handmade pasta. Cooked al dente, my minty pesto and the husband’s tomato and anchovy sauce were both simple yet extremely flavourful.
First course: bread stuffed with eggplant.  Mmm!

We read that Calabria was known for both its seafood and pork, so it came as no surprise that the third course choices were shrimp or pork loin. I was jealous that the husband got the parsnips. My favourite root vegetable!

Friday, September 30– Night out at Aroma Meze. No photo evidence!
After a stressful end of the work week and a bit of retail therapy, we settled in for some wine, wine, wine and a bit of food too. Aside from the existential question from our waiter at the beginning of the evening “do you know what you’re doing?” (I think so?) we were happy, full and a bit tipsy. The zucchini cakes (kolokithokeftedes), grilled smelts with chilli (marides) and lamb sausages with spanakopitakia were comforting and delicious. Loved the smelts! Wish I had taken a photo… I believe we had the 2008 Empelous Gis, Messinia, Peloponnese – Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon to drink.

Saturday, October 1 – Crackers!
Alden and I read Cherry the Pig in the morning. It’s a book about a pig who enters a pie making contest, but she overhears some hurtful mice saying how awful her pie is. At the end, she realizes that the mice like old hard cheesy biscuits, so she bakes them some. Then Alden decided he wanted to make “mouse biscuits”… so we baked crackers using the recipe on the Straight from the Farm blog.

Sunday, October 2 – homemade pasta and tomato soup
There’s only one thing you can make when you have homemade crackers in the house… and that is tomato soup. I tweaked this roasted tomato soup recipe to make it allergy-friendly. The chilly weather had me decked out in uggs and cableknit sweaters. Kinfolk style. Served with a side of smoked salmon for the boy makes it Gladstone style.

We cycled to the market to pick up a few items and ended up with overflowering bags of garlic, parsnips, turnips, plums and cranberries. Oh, and maple butter. Oh.my.god. The maple butter. After getting a sample from the Garland Sugar Shack, I couldn’t buy a jar fast enough. (Well, after asking if they used egg in the refining process… they don’t. Apparently that method is pretty out of fashion, but I still have to ask.) And there’s no dairy in it… despite the name.

After warming up with some hot chocolate, we got started on dinner. I made some pasta – inspired from our DiVino outing earlier in the week. My egg-free pastas are getting much better. And the husband whipped up a roast chicken.

For this round of pasta, I mixed half 00 flour and half durum semolina with a pinch of salt, olive oil and enough water to form a nice dough ball. I kneaded it until it was smooth and stretchy. It flew through the pasta machine like butter. The spaghetti making attachment got a good workout. Small people were impressed.

I missed all of the Vendemmia events over the past weekend, but I had a good reason. I was prepping for a certain three-year-old’s birhtday party! Initially, I was thinking of having a theme for the party, but in the end, I knew no one would care but me. Kids just want cake. Any shape. Any size. Cake. Why complicate things? Entertaining adults and wrangling toddlers is enough work isn’t it? Totally.

I was going to create a Lego cake, but at the last minute changed my mind and went for sprinkles.  Lots of sprinkles.

On the birthday menu there was a little something for everyone. We served:

• Baby carrots and cauliflower hummus (from Veganomicon)
• Veggie straws
• Berries from the garden
• Burgers (veg and non-veg) with buns made at the bakery on Preston
• Homemade pickles and relish
• Homegrown broccoli and carrot slaw with raisins (I did a variation on this recipe. Loved it! But didn’t snap a photo. Will definitely be making it again. A no mayo slaw! Yes!)
• Grilled eggplant and chickpea salad
• Cranberry and mango punch, apple juice, water
• One very large chocolate cake with sprinkles

I dug out my piping set and quickly traced a 3 and the edges with extra frosting.  Mmm.  And added lots of sprinkles.

The cake was a hit, but next time I’d only do a single layer.  There was a lot left over.

We ran out of time in the morning to make the sharky watermelon treat, so we did it in the afternoon for snacktime.  There are so many fun carving ideas on the watermelon organization’s website.  I’d do this again for sure.

And there you go.  Three!  Happy birthday big boy!

Alden is a homebody and it’s hard to convince him to leave his growing collection of Thomas trains to catch a bit of fresh air.  The one thing that did get him bopping out the door on Saturday morning was our regular trip to Whalesbone for fish. It was a great fall day to be out – light sweater weather and lots of sun.

At Whalesbone, Alden and I got to sample smoked wild salmon “Indian candy.” It’s salmon that’s been smoked, dehydrated and brined in maple syrup. (I think that’s right.) It ends up being totally sweet, sticky and five kinds of delicious. Alden went apey for the stuff.  We couldn’t leave without a package. Correction, an open package. There was no way Alden was going to wait to get home to eat more. He was nice enough to share a piece. Thanks, kid.

I bought enough baby scallops to cook the eggplant and broccoli stir-fry from the summer issue of Fine Cooking on Sunday night and do some on the BBQ as a treat on Saturday.

To make it a little more swish, I lightly marinated the scallops in some oil, lemon balm, rosemary and a bit of orange juice and then skewered them on rosemary from the garden. We also grilled up the last of our okra and served it with basmati rice. It took no time at all to put dinner together.

Alden suggested we eat outdoors. Good idea, kid.  Good idea.

I’m revising this post. I’ve been thinking about how I handled this review and I think I should have sent my comments directly to the owner before publishing my thoughts online. I’m taking down my disgruntled comments and will try to resolve my issues offline. In retrospect, I may have been too harsh given my previous glowing endorsements. I will admit, I felt pretty let down at my last outing, but throwing up a nasty review shouldn’t have been my first step to resolve the issue.

I’ll also be taking down the comments for this post. Thank you for commenting, but I need to try and do the right thing.

A fellow mom and I decided to set aside our holiday Monday to do some tomato canning. The husbands were briefed as to the plan and coordinated the management of children outside the house.

I booked the Vrtucar and did a run to the grocery store and farmers market early on Sunday morning to pick up our supplies: jars, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes – about 40 pounds in total. I bought beefsteaks from the grocery store and Romas from the farmers market. The grocery store tomatoes, sold in 3L baskets, weren’t a great deal, but at least they were from Ontario.

Next year, I’ll do a little more legwork to find someone who sells by the bushel – I would hope that buying in bulk would make the process slightly more economical. Because, despite what my hairdresser thought when I told about my tomato canning plan at my last appointment, it’s really not a money saving activity. At least not the first year when you need to buy your jars. Or factor in your time. And your spouse’s patience.

On Sunday night I mentally prepared: counting stockpots, collecting ingredients, dusting off my canning tools and rereading the instructions in my Bernardin canning book to determine the most efficient way to can the tomatoes in our limited amount of child-free time. I watched and re-watched the tutorial by the guys behind the Bitten Word. (Next year, I will heed their advice and bring beer.)
On Monday morning, with the children out of the house and off to the dinosaur museum, we quickly got the first batch of tomatoes washed, blanched and peeled. It took a bit of pot jockeying to figure out how to manage it all. The canner, the blanching pot, the lids, the ice bath… it was a squeeze.

Initially, we thought we could use the BBQ to avoid turning the kitchen into a steam bath, but the pots just didn’t fit. We would have to work with only the four burners on the stovetop.

Once the first jars (8 x 500mL ) were in the canner, we realized that the final water bath processing step was the Achilles heel of the production line. With only one canner, we had a bit of down time between each batch.  Not good.

With a bit more pot jockeying, we set up two more burners to sterilize jars while the canner was occupied and we got started on the next round. To be more efficient in this round, we opted for the bigger 1L size jars.

Lesson learned: If you only have one canner, use the biggest jars that you can fit in it. (Duh, right?)

The children arrived back at the house while round #2 was in the canner. We decided to pause for lunch and finish the job once everyone was tucked in for naps. Use your own judgment, but a third round of canning may be the straw that breaks the marital camel’s back.  Nevertheless.

When the third batch was in the canner, we made a quick sauce with the remainder of tomatoes. (Note: If you do this step, provide camel/spouse with back pain medication and/or beer to soften the news that after four hours, you just aren’t *quite* done.)

The final tally from our tomato canning day was:

• 12 x 1L
• 8 x 500mL
• 2.5 x 500mL sauce

Split between two families, we’d certainly have to can much more to have enough to last the winter. Spouses – this is your official warning for next year.

Okra. You know, those weird green pod things. What do you do with them?

Maybe you’ve heard about using okra in gumbo recipes that hail from the South y’all, but what if you don’t want to make gumbo?

The Waratah Downs farm booth at the Ottawa Farmers Market was selling some on Sunday, so I decided I would bring a bag home and see what could be done with it. I’ve never cooked okra and I’ve only ever eaten it once. The okra sat in my fridge for most of the week until I figured out what to do with it.

Having never cooked okra before, all I really knew was that it had a reputation for being a slimey. Gak. With this in mind, I entered my experiment with really low expectations. I’d already had a foccacia recipe failure the night before, so I was not on a winning streak in the kitchen.

This recipe changed all of that.

I found a Bobby Flay recipe for grilled okra. Now, I don’t have cable so I haven’t seen any Bobby Flay shows, but if this recipe is indicative of what he does, then I may have to turn into a big Bobby Flay fan.

Of course, I tweaked the recipe. It seemed a little spicy for me and I didn’t have any celery seed, so I revised to suit my tastes and pantry supplies.

Both the husband and I were shocked at how tasty this simple dish was. It was spicy, sweet, and a bit salty all at the same time. The lightly grilled okra retained a bit of crunch and was not slimey at all. And the cherry on the cake? It was fast. It took less than 10 minutes at the BBQ to have these ready for the plate.

It was such a hit that I’ve mentally reserved time this weekend to make a quadruple-duple batch of the spice seasoning and I’ve started researching different kinds of okra to plant in next year’s garden.

Okrafest!

Before...

After!

Last week flew by.  Every evening was filled with some activity: a cooking class on Monday, grocery shopping on Tuesday, birthday party on Wednesday, playdate on Thursday (complete with bee stings – only to me, but ugh!).  That’s a lot of out-and-abouting for someone who’d rather just be home picking tomatoes, reading cookbooks and playing legos with the boys.

I insisted on Thursday evening, that I wanted to cook Friday night’s dinner.  The husband had worn the apron all week by cooking and BBQ’ing and all I had accomplished cooking-wise was slicing tomatoes and tossing them into the dehydrator.

After my cooking class on Monday, I discovered that I might not hate polenta after all… the issue may in fact be my own cooking techniques.   So, I decided to give it another try.  Broccoli on polenta.  It’s a date, cornmeal.  The broccoli in the garden was at the perfect picking stage.  Look at that broccoli!  It’s straight out of Peter Rabbit!

I mostly-ish followed the instructions from this Food and Wine recipe except:

• I used regular broccoli, not rabe
• I added bacon, not sausage
• I omitted the wine and used chicken stock instead.  (No wine in the house!)
• In the polenta, I used chicken stock and water.. instead of just water.  I also added a bit of milk and parmesan.

I guess I followed more of the process than the finer details.

And voila. The finished dish. Even the boy poked his fingers in the polenta, but he feigned cooked broccoli. The young one, he is a purest. For him, it’s the raw way or the highway.

So, my final thoughts on polenta. With a bit of TLC and some add-ins: parmesan, milk, salt, pepper – it can be pretty tasty. But best of all, it’s fast. And it’s cheap. Ding ding.