Blueberry Pie

Turns out, I'm obsessed with pie this Summer. It started with pecan pie, which was wonderful (but I should have made my own pastry). Then I moved on to chocolate cream pie. Which again, was wonderful. Not better than the pecan pie, but a different kind of wonderful. This time I made my own (graham cracker) crust, the best I've ever made thanks to my new food processor. This past weekend I couldn't shake another pie craving. I wanted blueberry pie. Made with fresh blueberries. And homemade pastry, my food processor triumph with graham cracker crust suddenly giving me confidence to attempt the real deal. So I came, I saw and I think I conquered. Likely in large part due to these recipes from Cook's Illustrated which I found in my ever-reliable New Best Recipe Cookbook.

Weapons. Waffles. Cherry Tarts.

The calendar says that it's July 7th, which means that a full week of Summer fun is already behind us. Our Canada Day long weekend was non-stop activity. We saw You're A Good Man Charlie Brown (thumbs up from all of us) at Stratford, followed by a great family dinner at Bentley's where I am always tempted by so many things on the menu but always order the Coconut-Lime Thai Noodles. Then we woke up early Saturday morning and sold $125 worth of treasures at a community garage sale. We celebrated by taking the boys to the Mandarin for the first time. The dessert buffet was a hit but the meal cost us nearly all our garage sale profits. Sunday David and I ran in the Embro Highland Games 10K and nearly died. Okay. I nearly died. The distance didn't bother me as much as the hills. (Or is it the highlands?) Whatever they were, there were too many of them. But we did it, and a couple of minutes faster than last year. We celebrated our survival by hosting a get-together with the cousins - think water balloon fights and water gun play and lots of other activities featuring water because it is so, so hot in Southwestern Ontario right now. Monday afternoon we went to see Brave, which was deemed scary by some of us (big ol' mean bear) but overall another winner from Pixar. A jam packed weekend, which is why this weekend has been a bit more low key. But still fruitful. (Yes, I'm talking about cherry tarts!)

Penne with Chili-Rubbed Flank Steak and Pineapple Salsa

One way I know that dinner has been excellent - I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch before we're even finished clearing the table. David got stuck with dinner making duty tonight. I'd picked out the recipe and bought the ingredients but got side-tracked helping plan a medieval studies project and study for a french test around the dinner hour. That might be another reason why I liked this pasta so much. Everything tastes better when you just show up and dinner is served. I'm proud of David for sticking with this dish. It included weird things like red onion and jalapeño pepper (weird is a relative term, remember). And at the point he ended up with a bowlful of this, he wasn't sure this was going to be a hit:

Peach Frozen Yogurt

Back in May I spotted a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker on sale at HomeSense. It was less than half price and an appliance I have had my eye on for quite some time. My 'to-do' file of recipes (the paper one that falls out of my cupboard above my computer whenever I open the door) has more than a few ice cream recipes lurking within, waiting to be brought to life. So I bought it. Flash forward several months. A half dozen peaches sit on the kitchen cupboard. Anna Olsen offers up a tantalizing recipe for peach frozen yogurt in her cookbook Fresh which I peruse on the couch. The perfect storm of events for a maiden ice cream maker voyage.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

This oozy, gooey, delicious crisp tastes just as much like Summer as the Cucumber, Tomato and Feta salad I made on the weekend. I have walked by fresh rhubarb at the grocery store for weeks now without putting some in the cart. I'm so glad I finally decided to bring some home. I didn't really know what I was going to do with it but that's half the fun. I toyed with making some kind of barbecue sauce or maybe a syrup for a cold drink but then when I was putting away some frozen lemonade I bumped up against a large bag of strawberries from Heeman's I had put in the freezer a couple of weeks ago. So I decided to keep it traditional and go for a crisp.

Strawberry Jam

Local berries are available here in SW Ontario, so we loaded up the car and went to Heeman's, our favourite berry place, to pick up a flat. Yup, a flat. Cause when we do berries, we go big or go home. Funny story about Heeman's. A couple of years ago David went on a field trip with Patrick to O'Shea's, another lovely local farm operation. Apparently whenever the poor guide tried to talk about some aspect of the farm, Patrick kept asking her if she knew about Heeman's. Strawberries? They have those at Heeman's. Flowers? We get those at Heeman's. A few of the parents told me later it was one of the most amusing field trips they had been on, because Patrick wouldn't shut up about Heeman's and it was putting the guide into a bit of a fluster. Which sounds a lot like Patrick. He's very chatty and does fluster like no one else.

Peaches for dinner!

Well, officially this recipe is advertised as an appetizer, but I made it for dinner one night and it was delicious. Ooey, gooey and messy but worth the clean up involved. I can't say that the fam was as excited about this dish as I was. While D. loves peaches I think he wishes I would just focus on the classics like his beloved peach crisp and stop being so fancy-dancy with fruit.

So all this recipe requires is quesadillas, peaches and brie cheese. The dip is honey and lime juice/zest. You assemble the peaches and brie on the quesadilla, top it with another quesadilla then heat it up in a frying pan on the stove. I didn't do the best job cutting up the brie but no matter - it ate just fine. The full recipe, including the dip, can be found here at Cooking Light.

Fresh PB&J

I can't believe that Ontario strawberry season has come and (nearly) gone again. We ate a whole whack of fresh local berries the past month. Most of the time we ate our berries washed and sliced, very simple but very tasty.

To round out strawberry season I decided to try a strawberry dessert. I let Google guide me this time out (strawberry dessert) and one of the first hits was Fresh Strawberry Bars from Better Homes and Gardens. This recipe brings together the flavours of a peanut butter and jam sandwich in a dessert bar. I had just enough of my homeade strawberry jam from last season to use for this recipe. It was spread on top of the base just before the berries were spread overtop.


This dessert was a real winner with all of my guys, who are peanut butter fanatics. I found the base to be quite rich but managed to eat my share! We enjoyed our Strawberry Squares after a very casual Sunday dinner featuring another Summer sandwich - the Classic Club. Our version featured sourdough bread, crisp bacon, turkey, lettuce, russian mustard and....apple slices. My husband doesn't like tomato very much, so I've started substituting apple slices on his sandwiches. If you've never eaten apple on your sandwich, you should try it. I whipped up a couple of side salads (pasta and coleslaw) to have along with our Clubs. A great (and easy) Summer dinner.