Food

Food - it's how we nourish ourselves and each other. 

We try to make most of our food from scratch and with healthy ingredients (from our urban gardens whenever possible). But with a house full of young kids, we also try to make our food easy, cheap, yummy, and fun. 

You can find all the recipes and food-related writing I've shared compiled here.

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Zucchini Recipe #1: Savoury Zucchini Muffins

First published September 18, 2014 on http://www.alleygardening.blogspot.com

Wondering what to do with those end-of-season zucchini's that no one wants to eat? Cheesy, 

sugar-free, and delicious, these muffins are a great addition to back-to-school lunch boxes!

But first, a little muffin-making 101 that will benefit all your muffin experiments! Do you know the trick to delicious muffins??? Always combine your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients in separate bowls first. Mix the two together only at the very end, and DON'T OVER-STIR. Fold dry and wet together gently with as few strokes as possible to get them only just incorporated. This is how you guarantee light, fluffy muffins instead of hard, chewy rocks.

Savoury Zucchini Muffins

Dry Ingredients - Whisk together

       1 cup all purpose flour

       1 cup whole wheat flour

       1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

       1 1/2 tsps baking powder

       1/2 tsp baking soda

       1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients - Whisk together

2 eggs

1/4 canola or sunflower seed oil

1 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1 cup grated cheese (I used a combination of Edam and Old Cheddar, but I don't think you can go wrong here. After all, what cheese isn't good?) 

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

 Very gently fold the dry and wet ingredients together until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently scoop into muffin tin (makes 12 muffins). 

 Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and lift muffins onto their sides to cool.

 Enjoy!!!

       

It's Raspberry Season! Make this Raspberry Pie Recipe!

First published August 2, 2014 at http://www.alleygardening.blogspot.ca

The Best Raspberry Pie

It's my favourite raspberry recipe from my childhood -- my mom's raspberry pie with meringue crust.

In reality, I think this pie arrived on our plates very few times. Although big raspberry bushes lined the south side of the garden in my very, very early childhood, within a few years, the patch had been reduced to just the wild brambles along the west fence. Later (I think) there were virtually no raspberries at all.

I doubt I was much more than a toddler when I had this pie for the first time, but I remember it clearly. Of course, human memory is ridiculously imperfect. Most of what we "remember" is just our logical brains manufacturing and filling in the numerous blanks. But who cares! My memory is of taking a big bite of fresh raspberries, cool whipped cream, and this luscious and completely unexpected crust, and thinking, "Wow! This is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted!!!"

Put this Raspberry Pie at the top of your To-Do List.

Every summer after that, I hoped and pined for raspberry pie, and I'm sure it did occasionally arrive again. So this summer, with a bumper crop of alleyway raspberries dropping to the ground, my mother's raspberry pie went on the to-do list.

Now I must admit, I had only a list of ingredients for this pie, no directions. So I believe I made a few errors. I will try to guide you away from doing the same. Here's what you need to make this pie, too:

6 soda crackers
1/2 c. walnuts chopped small
1/4 tsp. salt

3 egg whites
1 c. white sugar (I used 1/2 c. of brown sugar, instead, and it was still PLENTY sweet, but yielded a softer, chewier crust)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

small carton whipping cream
1 T. powdered sugar
2 1/2 to 3 c. fresh raspberries

The walnuts  really make this crust!

1. Roll soda crackers to a fine powder. (Tip: Place them in a sandwich bag and roll with rolling pin.) Combine with walnuts and salt and set aside. (This is where I believe I erred. I combined all dry ingredients at once. Instead, try following the method in step 2 below.)

2. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar and baking powder.

3. Fold together the cracker mixture, egg whites, and vanilla.

I should have beaten the sugar into the whites.

4. Spread this mixture into a pie plate, pushing slightly up the sides. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. I lightly greased my pie plate with non-hydrogenated coconut oil (we don't use hydrogenated oils in our house), but I'm not sure this is necessary.

Prepped crust

5. Let baked crust cool 15 minutes, then refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Crust out of oven.

6. Whip cream and powdered sugar until peaks form and cream does not slide out of bowl when tipped. But don't turn it into butter!!!

7. Very gently fold raspberries and whipped cream together being careful not to mash your beautiful raspberries.

8. Pile the whipped cream - raspberry mixture into chilled pie crust. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Ta Da! I hope you love it as much as I do!!!