Branding Pierre Berton

Photo courtesy of cbc.ca

Pierre Berton: current reference or what? Here's a recent article I wrote about how an historian is championing Berton's place in Canadian culture. My editor published my lede, with the phrase "joint-rolling" in tact!

Who said academics are stuffy?

Chicken in milk

Even though I own most of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, I can't say that I've ever really noticed this particular chicken dish before. But it's been buzzing on many of the food blogs I read, so I was anxious to give it a try.

The preparation itself is really simple: brown a chicken and then throw all the other ingredients (milk, garlic, sage, cinnamon, lemon) in a pot to cook away in the oven. It's that easy! Be prepared to salivate from the smells that come from the oven as it simmers away -- the combination of cinnamon and sage may sound odd, but it's absolutely divine!

Here's what the finished product looks like.

The chicken itself is so tender and moist that it comes apart easily with a knife, and the milk curdles into this delicious sauce that would be great scooped up by crusty bread, or was also lovely poured over the mashed potatoes we had it with.

I made this for a belated birthday for my mum. Here she is with the extinguished candles (not representative of her actual age!) on the rhubarb upside down cake we had to celebrate. The rhubarb came from the patch in the backyard, so it was fresh as can be.

The meal was the end of my good daughter duties, because the next day I took the leftovers of that cake to a girlfriend's house and ate it with her and her three-year-old son, who referred to the rhubarb as 'Rudolph'. He still seemed to like it, even though it didn't come with a glowing red nose.

Amazing asparagus

Asparagus is probably my favourite vegetable and when it's in season (like now) I try to eat as much as possible. I steam it, roast it, grill it and eat as is, or use it in salads. So what if it makes yer pee stink? It's good for you!

One great way to use up the asparagus you buy at the farmers market -- which is where you should be getting local stuff -- is to make Jamie Oliver's asaparagus and potato tart.

The filling is mashed potato, eggs, cream and cheese...sounds good already right?

How can anything that involves this much cheese be bad?

The filling gets put into a filo dough base, and you lay the asparagus (1 lb.) on top before it goes in the oven.

Weighing out the stalks.

The end result is really tasty, and any leftovers heat up well. It's kind of like a quiche, but more substantial and definitely less eggy. Perfect for a springtime lunch or dinner, served with a salad!

Springtime asparagus tart.

Springtime in the capital

The tulips are out in full force in Ottawa, making the city quite colourful. We had a rainy, rather cold weekend here (only five degrees here this morning...yikes!), but it was still time for a bit of sightseeing.

The tulips above are some of the beauties in front of my building.

My parents came for a quick visit this weekend and on Saturday morning, we headed off to the Rockcliffe Rockeries for a bit of a walk. As you can see, it was raining, but the flowers didn't seem to mind.

There are more daffodils than tulips on display at the Rockeries, and here are some peeking through the wet grass.

My favourites are the grape hyacinths! Love the colour.

Muffin tops

I've been making these muffins with some regularity for the last little while. They're really yummy, and freeze well, which means they're great for packing in lunches.



Here are the ingredients all set and ready to go. Clockwise they're the dry ingredients, with pear chunks on top, wet ingredients (including yogurt) and the crumbly topping.

I can't say it's the least fussy recipe ever, but the time spent is worth it. I like the addtion of the pears, and I've used rock hard ones straight from the grocery store, and squishy soft ones that have been lounging in my fruit bowl for a few days. Can't say it makes a difference -- so whatever you've got, use 'em!

One tip for the topping: the recipe says you can either use the granola/butter/sugar mix for the topping, or just plain granola. Go for the addition of the butter and sugar for a better texture.

I use this granola, in case you're interested.



And here they are all ready for the oven.

But my picture of the finished product didn't turn out, so you'll have to take my word that they're good! Can't wait to try them with peaches this summer.

In a spring 'frame' of mind

I bought two prints when I was in Cuba and I finally got them framed.

I like that they're kinda weird dudes with fruit on their heads. These came from a street market in Havana that we stumbled on about 20 minutes before we were supposed to meet our bus to get back to the resort. Most of the market was crafts -- the cigar box, coconut shell, fishbone jewellery variety that we saw pretty much everywhere. In other words, crap. But the last row of this outdoor market was chock-a-block full of awesome art. Most of it was really colourful acrylic stuff that was fun, but not really my cup of tea. But some of it was really, really cool. I only wish that we'd bypassed the other stuff sooner and spent what little time we had looking more at the paintings and sculptures, as I suspect I could have come home with more than these little prints. Ah well, they'll have to serve as my memories for now, and if I ever go back, I'll know better where to go.

'Twas a lovely spring weekend here. I spent most of this afternoon looking at houses and condos on the old 'open house' circuit. Exhausting! But the sunshine and warm weather made up for it.