Woohoo!

It finally began to feel like summer this weekend! Which is awesome, because it’s only Spring. After a very rainy and dreary April it was nice to get some hot weather our way.

We headed down to the States on Friday to spend the weekend with Adam and his family at Maple Falls. The only thing wrong with the weekend was the hour and ten minute wait at the border going down. However, luckily for us it was about a 5 minutes wait coming home.

We took advantage of the glorious weather and went bike riding, swimming and walking in the sun.

We biked into Maple Falls and discovered some new trails, including a road that lead us to this sight.

We rode up to to see a large building on fire surrounded by fire trucks. We asked a bystander what was going on and they said it was a controlled practice burn. Turns out it used to be the old elementary school but due to asbestos and the age of the building it had to be taken down. This was also a practice run for soon-to-be firemen who were getting used to the water nozzles. They weren’t allowed in the building because of the safety hazards.

It was sure a sight to see, and we were quite close to it actually. There was a basketball court not too far that some kids were playing at, and some neighbours had brought out their lawn chairs to witness the burning. It was already super hot out Saturday morning, and standing next to a giant blaze made it even hotter.

We rode over to the gas station to get some refreshments.

And later after swimming, some leftover brownie with ice cream and strawberries. Refreshing – definitely hit the spot.

We took our niece for a walk with Lainey, but after a little while Lainey decided she had enough walking in the heat – so we gave her a little lift in the buggy. At first she wasn’t sure about it, having to push her into it, but after a moment she realized how much better it was and decided to get nice and comfy for the ride.

Another way to cool off? Banana Ice Cream.

This one-ingredient ice cream was all the rage last year, with someone even making a banana ice cream maker (which, really, is sort of ridiculous). All you need is some ripe bananas, and a food processor.

I had made it last year, but for some reason I wasn’t quite sold on it. Maybe it was the bananas or the fact that I think I made it in a blender – but I didn’t love it.

However, having made it again now with a food processor I really, really, love it.

I was looking for something to make last week with the ripe bananas on the counter, something that wasn’t banana bread or muffins. And actually, these banana’s were already frozen in my freezer – so I still had ripe bananas on the counter to use up (and I did, i’ll share that later). I had thrown a bunch of ripe bananas in the freezer to use in smoothies, but hadn’t used them yet.

It’s naturally sugar free, raw, vegan, and all other allergens-free ice cream. Unless you’re allergic to Bananas, then I feel very sorry for you.

The key to making banana ice cream is:

• Ripe bananas. You don’t want mushy, brown or gooey bananas, however. You want the banana peels to be spotted, but the banana’s themselves still good looking with few or no spots. The sugars will have just started to break down, making them sweeter, but the banana is still firm. This will give it a better consistency when making ice cream.
• Freeze them thoroughly. I’ve seen people do this with banana’s frozen for a half hour or so, but my banana’s had been in ziplock bags for at least a month – Now, I’m sure you don’t want to wait that long, but toss your cut up ripe banana in a bag and wait a few days, even a week until you make it. If they aren’t frozen enough the texture will be too runny. Slice them up, freeze them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and then transfer them to a plastic bag to freeze further.
• Food processor. If you don’t have one you can try a blender but I’m not sure how it will work out texture wise, you might need to add a little liquid to get it moving around in a blender.

And that’s it. Banana Ice Cream.

Frozen Banana’s

First becomes a crumbly texture

Next, it’ll begin smoothing out. I had to scrape it down a few times to get the mixture going again because it will start to ‘cluster’ up

And finally, smooth, delicious soft serve banana ice cream

You can also transfer to a container and freeze for hard ice cream

Banana Ice Cream

• 3-4 ripe bananas, sliced and frozen thoroughly

Directions:

Remove frozen banana slices from freezer and place in food processor.

Turn food processor on and blend bananas, stopping to scrape down when needed.

Allow to blend until smooth. You can eat the ice cream as a soft serve, or freeze in container to harden.

Feel free to add in:

• Almond Butter
• Peanut Butter
• Chocolate Chips
• Nutella
• Nuts

What’s even better?

 How about a Banana Ice Cream Sandwich with Gluten Free/Wheat Free/Dairy Free chocolate chip cookies - A totally Dairy free, Lactose Free and allergy free ice cream sandwich! Perfect for warmer weather. I suggest using a ‘non’ stuffed cookie with this one.

The banana chocolate chip cookie combo is definitely amazing.

To make the ice cream cookie sandwich, spoon banana ice cream on a cookie, top with another cookie then wrap in tin foil and freeze for 10-20 minutes before eating. Or, eat immediately for a slightly messier ice cream sandwich.

Yesterday my mom, aunt, another aunt, two cousins and I jumped on a ferry to the island. My mom’s aunts live in Half Moon Bay, near Sechelt, and we were also able to visit to my grandmother (my mom’s mom) who is no longer with us, but who rests in a quaint family site. We spent the afternoon having tea, and lunch (which included my family’s famous pickled beets), while reminiscing with my great aunts over old photo albums. I miss my grandma, and my mom misses her mom, however, being with the great aunts felt like being at Grandma’s again. I love the old decorations, the antique tea cups, and the feeling of being at a grandparents. My mom’s aunt said she can just call her momma now too. It was a really great afternoon with family, finding out about our heritage (my mother’s family actually has First Nations in their bloodline, and some of her family has gained First Nations Status.) Looking at photos from the early 1900s, in the photo albums we were looking at, you can really tell some of her relatives were of native descent. This is interesting to me, because I’ve just begun my PDP for teaching, and we are now being made more aware of Indigenous education, and teaching First Nations children in the education system.

{my awesome fishing teacup}

{one of the old photographs, my moms grandma as a baby at their home in old North Van, circa 1910}

Her house had a beautiful view of the water, and just outside her balcony was a large apple tree. She said she wasn’t able to pick the higher ones, so my two cousins and I decided we would try and get some down (without the crabby neighbour downstairs making too much of a fuss.) We knocked down quite a few, and filled up an entire paper grocery bag full. They are currently sitting on the counter in the kitchen, what they will be baked into is still yet to be determined.. though I’m thinking some sort of pie most likely. They aren’t very crisp apples, pretty soft. Good for baking.

 {Melis and I gathering up the apples}

{Our bushel of apples! Quite impressive, thanks to my cousins climbing skill ;) }

Once we were finished picking apples, my great aunt told us there were a ton of blackberries down the trail beside her house – so off we went to pick some. My cousin Melis went full force with another branch to get right in there, while Andrea and I stayed on the outskirts of the bushes – FYI sandals and a dress are not great blackberry picking clothes.

{Basket of berries}

{Walking back to the house with our berries}

I actually made these bars before I left to go to Europe, but I was having problems uploading the photos. Now I’ve got it all fixed – so I thought I would share it.

My family is sort of a square family – in the sense that they were all great bakers (perhaps where I get it from..) and squares and bars are kind of their thing, along with canning of course (salmon, beets, pickles.) My grandma made matrimonial squares (date squares,) nanaimo bars, lemon squares etc. and they were good. My aunts and cousins and I have tried to re-make her recipes, and we’re pretty close I think.

These can be made with any berry really, I was thinking of making them again this week with the blackberries, and maybe some of Adam’s mom’s rhubarb. Perfect for back-to-school lunches.

Blackberry Crumb Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg
• Zest and juice of a lemon
• 4-5 cups fresh berries of your choice (blackberry, blueberry, raspberry etc)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9×13″ pan.

2. In a food processor, add 1 cup sugar, flour, and baking powder. Add in lemon zest, and butter and egg. Pulse until well blended, dough will be crumbly and resemble small pea-sized pieces. Pat half of this dough into the pan gently.

3. In another bowl, stir together the rest of the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the berries. Sprinkle the blackberry (or whichever berry you chose) mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

These tasted even better once refrigerated, but feel free to dig in while their still warm! Best if kept in the fridge, or freeze.

I have 5 days left in this country – and Summer has finally decided to stick around. We had to endure a rather unruly June, but July has been quite nice. I have been told I’m not really allowed to complain, however, as I am going to Europe for a month. Where the weather looks like this:

Believe me, I will not be complaining.

That is, until it is so unbearably hot and humid that I can’t sleep through the night. Who can stand sleeping in anything when it is THIS hot. Adam and I have shrugged off our duvet cover each night, and even having a thin bed sheet on top is too much. Each morning I wake up in a tangle of bed sheets and the duvet half on the ground. I find I toss and turn more in the heat.

I remember my mom telling me that when she took my brother to Italy when he was a baby, they would let him run around naked indoors because it was too hot. I can’t imagine a baby in that heat! At least I know i’ll be well hydrated, because I will be hooking an IV of fluid up to myself in the form of a straw – and some Pellegrino.

Tonight we also had Adam’s baseball BBQ and game – it was great until my allergies began to act up. Thankfully my current bed partner (Adam) doesn’t mind crawling in bed with a girl covered in a face mask and a lovely nose strip (thank you Breathe Right)  It’s the only thing that will do the job right now. Along with allergy medicine, nose spray, and an Advil decongestant. I really hope my future children do NOT inherit my allergies. Summer’s really suck with them.

On another note..

Berry season is in full swing – delicious local berries are readily available as we make our way through the seasonal peaks. Strawberry season is almost over – but there is still plenty of time left to go and pick some (I believe end of July is the finish). Unfortunately we haven’t been able to hit up many U-Pick farms, due to the fact we’re moving, packing, and (I’m) leaving the country later this week. However, last year we did visit Krause Berry Farms in Langley, and loved it - Their welcome sign is, after all, a giant strawberry.

They provide all the info for each berry season and schedule. If you have a free weekend I suggest visiting them, the farm and cafe are awesome – corn pizza, fresh fruit smoothies, milkshakes, sky high pies, and mini donuts! You can also buy frozen foods and bring them home with you! You can read about my older post and visit to Krause Berry Farms here.

I made these strawberry cupcakes for our blogger picnic a few weekends ago – they are perfectly light and refreshing without being overly sweet.

I picked up the cute mini purple cupcake stand from our visit to Steveston the weekend before from a store called Serenity Home Decor. They have lots of unique and adorable gifts, cupcake related items, baking, novelty etc. Definitely worth a stroll through.

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes 

You will need:

24 baked and cooled yellow cupcakes

one batch of Swiss Meringue Buttercream

local, fresh strawberries, washed & sliced (reserve smaller strawberries for decoration)

Fresh Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

5 large egg whites

1 cup sugar

3 sticks butter, chilled, cut into cubes

Directions: 

Add washed, sliced strawberries (about 3/4 cup) to a food processor, and pulse for a few minutes until pureed. Do not drain, or add sugar. I like to leave the seeds instead of draining it like a coulis and heating it up – leave it fresh and un-cooked. Set aside.

In a metal mixing bowl, preferably from your stand mixer, place over a pot of simmering water, not boiling. Add sugar and egg whites. Be sure there is no yolk or oil in the egg whites, they will not whip properly otherwise.

Whisk constantly, until thermometer reads between 140-160 degrees F. If you do not have a thermometer, heat until sugar is completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot. This takes about 7-10 minutes.

Transfer metal bowl back to stand mixer, with whisk attachment and whip until the egg whites are thick and glossy and cool. The bowl itself should be cool to the touch, again this takes about 7-10 minutes on high.

Once the glossy thick texture is achieved, switch to a paddle attachment, and on medium add the chilled cubes of butter, one at a time, until fully incorporated.

The texture will begin to change, to a heavier, silky texture. It may look curdled, but continue to mix and it will become smooth once again. This time my butter was a bit too warm, and my frosting was curdling and soupy. I place it in the fridge for 15 minutes, added a couple more pieces of chilled butter and began to whip again. It became smooth once again.

Pour in the pureed strawberries, and whip for a moment to blend completely. No artificial colouring needed here – all natural baby.

Using a star tip, pipe strawberry buttercream onto cupcakes. Slice reserved smaller berries, dried/wiped dry, and place on top.

These cupcakes are best eaten the same day – but are ok to be stored in the refrigerator for a day or two at most. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

 These would be perfect for a summer picnic, a bridal shower, baby shower, or summer BBQ as a light and tasty tag-along dessert. You can most certainly swap out Strawberries for other berries as well.

Enjoy your summer =) Any plans??  I suggest visiting a U-Pick Berry Farm! Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries!