A NOD TO CANADA & ALZHEIMER'S IDAHO SUPPORT GROUP DINNER

If you follow this blog you know that one of the things I do is make the dessert for the Alzheimer's Idaho (local grassroots organization) monthly support group meeting which meets on the last Friday of the month.  Since  I am still filled with warm, fuzzy feelings from my recent vacation (Alaska & beautiful BC) I thought I would make them tea treats for dessert.  Inasmuch as this is dessert and not afternoon tea, I just made a selections of four sweet items, no savories they will have just eaten dinner.
*A BIG THANK YOU AGAIN TO BUTCHART GARDENS FOR FEATURING THIS POST ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE!
 

Butchart Gardens Ginger Scone (makes 10)
1½ cups All purpose flour
1tsp Baking powder
1tbsp White sugar
¼ cup Crystallized ginger (chopped)
1/3 cup Unsalted butter (cubed)
2 Medium eggs (fork beaten)
½ cup 2% Milk

Method
Set oven to 350°F
Blend flour, baking powder, sugar and crystallized ginger together.

Use hand cutter to blend in butter cubes until crumbly.
Add eggs and milk until all ingredients are combined (being careful not to over mix).

Drop by large tablespoon on parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush the tops of the scones with an egg wash and then sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until light brown

Tip: I chop the ginger with a mezzaluna and then take some of the flour and sprinkle on the ginger and move it around so it all gets some flour - this will keep the pieces from sticking together in a lump and ensure good distribution in your dough.

A very simple way to make little tarts is to make your favorite pie crust recipe (in my case I only needed a few so I just made 1/2 a recipe), cut out little circles, bush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar and bake.

They puff up beautifully when they bake and then using a piping bag top each with your choice of item, I choose Meyer lemon curd.

After putting the little tart bites in the fridge to set the curd, pipe them with some sweetened whipped cream.  Here we have the tarts and the scones. The little tarts are good with a myriad of toppings.

To go with the scones some Butchart Gardens strawberry jam and some clotted cream. Real clotted cream is very easy to make if you remember 8 hours before you need it to put the cream in a low and slow oven.  If not a good substitute is "faux" clotted cream.

Only three ingredients needed for the faux clotted cream - sugar, whipping cream and sour cream. 

Recipe:
 Substitute for Clotted Cream 
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream 
Directions: Using a whisk attachment for your mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form.  Remove from mixer and hand whisk in the sour cream and confectioners' sugar until just combined.  Store in fridge.   
Sugar cookie crust fruit tarts were next. After making the dough press into your molds.  I only needed (8) so I also made a big square one to give to my son and his family for their dessert last night.

 I find it easier (much) to use a pastry bag to fill the tarts.

 Here are the little ones.

And the big tart shown as I am in the process of "painting" the fruit with the apricot jam mixture.  Not only keeps the fruit looking fresh but give it a glossy, professional, finished look.

Recipe:
Ingredients for Sugar Cookie Crust
 3/4 cups butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cornstarch

Cheesecake Filling
16 oz cream cheese, room temp
8 oz mascarpone (or faux, see recipe below) 
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 small pkg Jello instant cheesecake pudding mix
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Fruit
Seedless grapes
Sliced strawberries
Sliced kiwi fruit
Blackberries

For Glaze - 1/3-1/2 apricot jam plus 1T water or more depending on the thickness of your jam.

Spray individual tart pans with the non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°F, rack in the middle. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mixer and use the paddle attachment and cream together butter and sugar for 5-7 minutes - it really needs to be 5-7 minutes.  Then add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

Add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cornstarch. On low speed incorporate dry ingredients. Mix until smooth, the dough will be thick.

Scoop up about 2T of dough and roll into a ball in your hand.

Press the cookie dough in the bottom of the tin (spray them with non stick spray) way up the sides of each tin. Be sure to have the dough uniform in thickness, it is better to be a little thicker than too thin.

Bake 10-12 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.  While still hot if the dough has baked up too high to allow a good well for the filling, take the end of a wooden spoon and tamp down the dough.

Remove the cookies from the tins and set on a rack to cool.

Cheese Cake Filling
Place the cream cheese and mascarpone in a bowl and blend until creamy using your mixer.

Add in the sugar and pudding mix and whip until combined.

Add in the cream until desired consistency.

Pipe or scoop cheesecake filling into cookie tart.

Top with assorted fresh fruit.

Place the apricot jam & water into a pan and heat just until melted and stir to make it smooth.

Let the apricot solution cool just a little and then paint fruit with a pastry brush.

Store in the fridge until ready to eat.

  Tip #1: I have a love/hate relationship with mascarpone cheese because invariably even though my local store carries it just seems like every time I need it they are out and so I just make a "faux" mascarpone and save myself some grief.
Mascarpone Cheese Substitute 
Ingredients: 

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (I use the softened) 

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

 2 1/2 tablespoons sour cream

Directions: Combine well and use in recipes calling for Mascarpone cheese.

Tip #2: NO NOT substitute low fat cream cheese or sour cream in this recipe DOES NOT WORK!

Tip#3: Grab your little bowl of apricot jam and water and your brush and sit down and take your time brushing the fruit.  This is not hard but you don't want the jam mixture to drip onto the tart filling so I find sitting down while doing this makes it so much easier and you get a little time off your feet too!

Ah, last but not least the wonderful Butchart Gardens tea trifle.  This is not a published recipe but I did drop a little hint in my first photo.

Resource

Candied ginger, online, specialty stores and Trader Joe's
Wilton round tip #2A used to fill the tarts
Wilton star tip #2D for whipped cream
Wilton tips and bags, Walmart
Mrs. Earls Meyer Lemon Curd, specialty stores and online
Tea pot, Leeds pottery creamware, specialty stores and online
Cake stand for tea trifle, Home Goods
Tea Tray basket, Target
Individual cups for trifle, Walmart
Tart pans, Williams Sonoma
Butchart Gardens strawberry jam, at their store in BC
Butchart Gardens Link
Two tiered stand and red plates, HomeGoods
Birds Custard Powder, Available at Cost Plus and other stores that carry international products and online.
Ginger scone recipe, Published by Butchart Gardens 
Battenberg lace napkin, Marshall's  
Alzheimer's Idaho Link 



Thank you for stopping by

AMAZING WAY TO COOK CORN - WATCH THE VIDEO!

This is a first for me as I have never posted a link to a video but when our dear friend George sent us this video we knew we just had to try this way to fix corn on the cob and when we tried it worked just like the video.

Could not be easier, decide on how many ears you want to cook, in my case 2.

I did vary a little from the instructions here - in the video you are shown to cut the end off the corn after microwaving but since it will be very hot I decided to cut it before cooking to minimize the handeling of the hot corn and it worked great. Might try it the other way next (cut after cooking) but our corn was cooked perfectly!

In the microwave for (4) minutes per ear, we had two so (8) minutes.

Now here comes the magic part, using a hot mitt you just squeeze the end and out pops the corn, cooked perfectly and you did not have to shuck it and no pesky silk to remove.  There were only a couple of pieces of silk that easily pulled away from the cob.

It is VERY HOT so be careful but I just put in the corn holders and let it cool a little while putting my dinner together.  A local store has been having the decadent French President Sea Salt Butter (from Normandy) on sale and it is perfect with corn because you butter and salt in one application.  Corn is such a summer staple and this makes it so easy.  All of you friends who live in the Sacramento area you know what I am talking about with that wonderful Sloughhouse corn that you wait in line for and get big brown bags full to share with your friends and neighbors. We have good corn here in Idaho but I confess every summer I think about Sloughhouse corn and fresh tomatoes from the garden for dinner! So good!

Here is the link to the video: Corn

Thank you for stopping by!
 

VANCOUVER ISLAND - GREAT PLACE TO SPEND A FEW DAYS ANYTIME OF THE YEAR

As I mentioned in my last post, I believe that the (3) iconic places in Victoria are, the Empress Hotel (this photo) Butchart Gardens featured on my last post and of course the beautiful Parliament buildings. The Empress is so beautiful however when I post travel tips I try and post the bargain places and the Empress is definitely not a bargain place - more like a great place to celebrate special times like a special birthday, anniversary, etc.  Afternoon tea at the Empress is amazing but a little pricey. Here is the current afternoon tea menu:

AFTERNOON TEA

$59.95

Fresh Strawberries with Empress Cream

Smoked Salmon Pinwheel with Dill Cream Cheese

Roasted Bone In Ham with Tarragon Dijonnaise

Free Range Egg Salad Croissant

Cucumber & Ginger Mascarpone on Butter Brioche

 Moroccan Spiced Coronation Chicken on Marble Rye

Freshly Baked Raisin Scone with Strawberry Jam & Empress Cream

Pistachio Raspberry Dacquoise

Tropical Fruit Lamington

Earl Grey Mascarpone Tea Cup

Valrhona Chocolate Cremeux Tart

CitrusVanilla Shortbread

AFTERNOON TEA ADDITIONS

ROYAL TEA

Complementing our world renowned Afternoon Tea,

Royal Tea offers an additional tier of three local Salt Spring Island cheeses,

a glass of tawny port and fresh honey harvested from

the honeycombs of Chef’s honey garden.

An additional $30 per person

SPARKLING WINE

Sumac Ridge Stellar’s Jay Brut $14

Villa Teresa Prosecco $14

Cipes Rose Pinot Noir Brut $16

Children are half price and they do offer a senior rate of $29.95.  My husband is not a "tea" kinda guy but he will have tea on Vancouver Island because he knows that pleases me and also that it is a tradition. If tea is not your thing and you are not staying at the Empress and just want to see this lovely place then I would suggest going to the hotel and having a drink or two at the beautiful Bengal Lounge.

Parking can be a problem in the old part of Victoria but there is public parking on the west side of the Empress. They also serve lunch and dinner in the lounge. Beautiful place to relax after some shopping/sight seeing in Victoria.  I might suggest that the Grand Grapefruit Cosmo is pretty darned good. Also remember all prices are in Canadian dollars and depending on the exchange we do get the benefit of having a little stronger dollar. The cash registers in Vancouver and Victoria are set up to give you change using American dollar exchange rate. It is not necessary get Canadian money.  Watch out for those Loonies and Toonies - which is the nickname for the $1 and $2 coins - it's easy to leave way too much tip! The Toonie is gold in the center. The Loonie came first - it has a picture of the common loon on the coin and when they came out with the $2 coin later, well, it very quickly became the Toonie!

 

Lots of ways to get around the historic district from hop-on, hop-off buses to trolley and carriage tours.  The clippity-clop of horses hooves is a summer sound in Victoria. Once again, this is not an inexpensive way to see the city - 30 Minutes will run you  $100 and if you want to really have a long nostalgic ride it will cost you $225.

A much less expensive option is one of the hop-on, hop-off buses. This particular bus for a one day pass is $29 adults, $25 seniors and for a two day $37 & $32. Great way to see this historic city.

 A particular favorite this trip was a visit to The Robert Bateman Centre.  It was not open the last time we visited Victoria so we were eager to see the gallery. If you don't know who Robert Bateman is, he is a Canadian wildlife artist, nature painter and environmentalist.  I think of him as a Canadian Robert Redford but his art is not making movies but making beautiful paintings.  I gave my husband a print of his famous buffalo painting entitled "Chief." The tour does not take long, the cost is $12.50 adults and $8.50 seniors.  It was so wonderful to see so much of his original art work.  Another clever thing that they have done is that when the art work has a bird in the painting you can press a button and hear the sound of the bird.  My husband and I were alone in one of the rooms and did simulcast bird noises! The center is located on the harbor across from the Empress in the old Steamship building. There is a gift shop downstairs as well as a restaurant (not part of the Centre) and a Starbucks. We had a cool drink on the patio of the restaurant and watched the boats and water taxis. 

The many pubs are great places to eat and they too can be a little pricy but if you are looking for a less expensive meal we had dinner one night at The Old Spaghetti Factory which was very good and simply dripping with hanging baskets of beautiful flowers as are all the businesses in the historic district.  I also need to mention, if you don't want to wait in the summer, make a reservation, even at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  Our last trip was in March of last year and reservations were not necessary.

Last but certainly not least are the beautiful, historic Parliament buildings. I apologize for not getting a better photo and for the wires that were attached to some repair items but these buildings are simply beautiful.  Located adjacent to the Empress and looking right at the harbor. They offer several different tours, unless you are taking a group tour reservations are not necessary.  Here is a link to their webpage: Parliament Tours

They also have a small gift shop and this is a great place to find reasonable souvenirs.

Thank you for stopping by.