Got Maple?

Delicious Butter Tarts - (recipe adapted from) Pies and Pastries, Pg. 205 - Mona Rhodenizer (Mrs. H. A.)

What better way to celebrate Canada then with one of Canada's quintessential desserts - The Buttah Tart!  Ooey gooey buttery goodness bundled into a tiny adorable extremely polite Canadian pie.  You can eat at least three in one sitting without feeling the slightest bit of greed or gluttony.  Nausea on the other hand?...binge at your own risk.

Similar in consistency to a pecan pie, the butter tart tends to be bit runnier in consistency due to the absence of corn starch.  While Mona's recipe is indeed "delicious" as the recipe claims in it's title - we decided to kick up the Canadiana factor a bit by swapping the corn syrup for Nova Scotia maple syrup.  We've said if before and we'll say it again - Maple Syrup - you can put that shiz on anything!...and we strongly support making it it's own food group...right along with candy, candy canes and candy corn (thanks Buddy!).

"Just Nan's" Scratch-My-Back Cookies

Dutch Oven Detour - “Just Nan’s” Scratch-My-Back Cookies

Peter’s Mamma recently passed along his Grandmother’s recipe books to him – pure gold!  Chock full of handwritten food spattered recipes, random notes written throughout, pages falling out, covers held together with tape – all signs of coveted and well used recipes.  Handwritten recipe books like these are a bit of a lost art – these days the interweb is our cookbook!

Pratically Perfect Peach Crumble

Dutch Oven Detour - Practically Perfect Peach Crumble
(adapted from Martha Stewart's Peach Crumble)

Last weekend we headed to the Valley just in time to catch the end of the peach season here in Nova Scotia.  It was our first visit to the Dempsey’sCorner Orchards in Aylesford – a U-Pick paradise.  In addition to the perfectly ripe peaches – you can pick your own pears, plums, corn, grapes, pumpkins…and even sunflowers!  We left with a bounty of beautiful tree-ripe peaches (lots of peach preserves in our future!) and a few new friends, including these adorable little fellas.