Crumpets and Coffee

Marion Cunningham is a morning person. If you’re not sure who Marion Cunningham is, allow me to introduce her.

Marion is wholesome.

Her picture tells me this. Imagine: side part over a broad forehead,bibbed dress, braided necklace, smile that crinkles the eyes. Here recipes also tell me this. Consider: oatmeal custard, welsh rabbit with beer, cinnamon butter puffs, Creek Bank potatoes, date raisin condiment. Those are just a few.

Marion Cunningham is kind. She bakes for people. Period.

Marion Cunningham is my guru. She will remain my guru for the next two months.

Haley and I have decided to explore various ingredients, cooking styles, flavours, and meals as we blog. For the months of February and March, we will focus on breakfast. Our study goes this way: Haley will jump, leap, dive (actually) into the big beautiful book titled, “A Real American Breakfast.” I will wander through a slimmer volume, Marion Cunningham’s “The Breakfast Book.” As you can imagine, I’m already quite taken with Marion. I also like her opinions on breakfast.

Here are a few:

Breakfast…involves no alcohol and usually consists of grains, dairy products, fruits, and maybe eggs or a little meat or fish.
I agree. Alcohol at breakfast? Marion and I perish the thought.

Gathering at the table for breakfast allows us to weave our lives with others--and that should be a daily pleasure.
Very nice.

I…love eggs…I can only eat one hard-boiled egg, but if I’m soft-boiling them I do it by twos, mash them up in a bowl, sprinkle salt over them and a little bit of pepper, and eat them with toast--and that suffices for hours.
Marion knows her mind, which I love. And pays intense attention to detail, another excellent trait in a guru. Besides, I could use a breakfast that suffices for hours. I'm usually starving by nine.

Lead, Marion I will follow.

Crumpets is the first place Marion led. I thought, I want to try the English Muffins! But Marion explained that crumpets were the ones with all those nice little holes. This is because of the baking soda.

Marion also says that you must split and toast the muffins, even hot off the griddle, and spread them with butter or jam or honey.

Marion was right. Yum.

Crumpets
Interpreted from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book
one dozen round crumpets

1 package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 ½ cups milk, warmed
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup warm water

Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a large bowl. Add the sugar, stir, and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the milk, flour, and salt. Beat until smooth. Cover the bowl and let stand for one hour. Stir down. Dissolve the baking soda in the remaining ¼ cup water and stir into the batter. Cover and let rest for 30 min.

Heat a pan, or two pans, (I used a large griddle) and grease some 3 inch rings (Marion says you can use tuna tins with the tops and bottoms removed. I used 2-inch high canning jar lids.) When the griddle is hot, place the rings on it and fill each with three tablespoons of batter. Lower the heat and cook slowly until the crumpets have lost their shine, and are dull and holey. This takes about ten minutes. (Marion says not to flip the crumpets over but to just cook them on one side. I did flip my crumpets and I thought it finished them nicely.)

Toast, slather, and eat.

Banana Pops

Rach -

It's only a matter of time before we develop webbed feet and gills over here in Chillwack. As the rain comes down the kiddies and I have turned to kitchen pursuits, dance parties, and indoor playgroups to maintain our sanity. Yesterday we made your latest bread offering, and I am already adding it to our regular rotation. I was out of maple syrup so I swapped honey with fabulous results.

Finn and I have developed a new treat - banana pops. This is a child-friendly, though definitely not mess-free, activity.

To make 4 pops:
(this only makes enough for 2 people - it's impossible to have only one each)

1) Cut 2 bananas in half. Insert a popsicle stick or a popsicle holder into the cut sides.

2) Melt 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of natural peanut butter together in the microwave.

3) Dip/spread bananas in the chocolate-peanut butter mixture.

4) Roll in coconut (could also use chopped nuts or crushed cereal)

5) Freeze on parchment - I use silicon liners.

6) Barricade the freezer from yourself and any little ones - better yet, spend 20 minutes getting everyone in to rain gear, 15 minutes splashing in puddles, and another 10 minutes changing into dry socks and pants. The pops won't be quite frozen solid yet but at that this point you won't care.

Right, Rach, talking about myself again. I'm sure Caleb can get on his own rain gear.

Back to Food..

Rach-

Sorry about the long absence. As you know, December, typically a favourite month of mine, was a rough time. Food lost its appeal. Smells hit me with a staggeringly nauseating force. Chocolates and treats remained untouched- an entire box of Purdys is languishing in our pantry. As you know, I'm pregnant again. Fortunately, food and I are reconnecting. We're both playing coy - I'm being a bit fussy, and my pantry is still sending out some pouty neglect vibes - but no one said that the road to reconciliation was easy.

With the worst behind me, and finally after an ultrasound yesterday, a due date confirmed (August 1), I'm ready to get back to some normalcy. I'm back in the kitchen. This week was the week of the chicken enchilada. I made a giant batch on a Tuesday, and Finn munched through that Pyrex dish for multiple meals afterward. Chicken Enchiladas are another recipe that I can't actually provide you with a recipe for. No, this is another 'method' meal. My filling is never the same, and my sauce is rarely either, but they never fail to taste fabulous. The photo doesn't convey the true glory of this meal. I've made a few blog-worthy dishes in the past few weeks but somehow managing to get a photo is another story. This shot was captured mid-devour.

1 - You need chicken. For a 9 by 13 casserole dish, which I can squeeze about 8 good sized enchiladas into, you need to have about two to three cups of shredded or finely chopped chicken. You can use leftover roast chicken or just cook up a few chicken breasts. I like save time and make this dinner with leftover chicken, so I usually just plan a chicken meal and cook extras earlier in the week. You can use a bit more chicken if you want just chicken in your filling, or less if you like to add lots of extras.

2 - Filling time. Next, you need to look through your fridge and see what veggies you have on hand. On this occasion I finely chopped: one good sized onion, one red pepper, and a few cloves of garlic. I sauteed these over medium heat in a tsp of canola oil and then when they were cooked I added a cup of leftover rice, the shredded chicken and a cup of salsa. I added salt and pepper, a dash of cumin and a dash of chipolte powder (chili powder would work too). I also added about 3 ounces of cream cheese (optional) and stirred this over the medium heat until the cream cheese was melted. I then added aprox 1/3 cup of water to keep the mixture moist. Black beans, corn, and olives would be other filling ideas.

3-Prepare the enchilada sauce. I combined one cup of salsa, one cup of tomato sauce, one cup of chicken stock (water would substitute) and one cup of sour cream. I seasoned with another dash of cumin, and chipotle. The sour cream is optional. Basically you want a tomato sauce with a runny consistency. This is going to soften up your tortillas and make them melt in your mouth. Pour enough sauce into a large baking casserole to cover the bottom.

4- Assembly time - Put about half a cup of filling onto one tortilla with a sprinkle of shredded cheese. Roll each tortilla and place seam-side down in the sauce. When all your tortilla rolls are nice and snug in your dish then pour over your remaining sauce. Cover the pan and then bake these for 45 min at 300 degrees. Take the cover off for the last 10 minutes and then sprinkle them with shredded cheese.

5 - Enjoy! Serve with sour cream, salsa, and or guacamole.

Sorry to those friends who I should have informed personally about our latest addition - Third child neglect is already becoming a reality..

Hi Haley,

I felt The Guilt last night. That weight of responsibility to a sister, particularly to one who is younger than you, is a hefty thing. Particularly when you slip up.

Like I did when I told Crach Friday was ours and downtown would be our oyster.

The next day I made a series of small mistakes: I invited two of my friends. I made plans for lunch at a particular restaurant at a particular time. I accepted a shift for Friday morning.

In none of these did I consult Crach. Rather, I dumped the plans on her last night on a car ride home and then got snippy when she wasn't thrilled. Relationships can be so tricky. An action rarely leads to the conclusion you hoped for. Around Christmas these intimacies seemed to be even more riddled with puddles and pot holes. Our expectations are so high. Time is so short. Life is so busy.

Now I want to say that bread is the boon:constant, comforting, simple. Although, that isn't real true. In a way, bread is just bread. But I like it. And yesterday I was happy to make it and it felt simple, comforting, and constant.


This is Maple Oat Bread is really good. It's sweet, but brown, whole-wheaty, and soft.


Maple Oat Bread (Adapted from Beth Hensberg's Honey Whole Wheat Bread)
1 cup warm water
pinch sugar
2 packages yeast (4 and 1/2 tsp)
1 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cups oats
3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 Tbsp salt

Combine water, sugar, yeast and wait ten minutes for the yeast to foam.

Warm the buttermilk to take off the chill. Melt the butter and combine the two, along with the maple syrup.

In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, oats, and salt. Add the buttermilk mixture and the yeast mixture. Mix smooth. Add the remaining flour half a cup at a time, mixing smooth after each addition. Knead 7-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough will be a bit sticky, just be patient and add Tbsps of flour to your counter top as you knead.

Form the dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let rest for one to one and a half hours, until doubled.

On a floured counter top, divide the dough in two, shape and place in greased bread pans, and let rise another 45min, or until doubled.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40-50 min.

Savory Shortbread

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath, wondering, whose going to win this year's Reems Eats Christmas draw? While this is exciting, I want to draw (pun-ha ha) your attention to a new Christmas treat that you too could be serving to adoring guests, or toting to froofy cocktail parties. (If you go to froofy cocktail parties. I have (bragging) actually been invited to one. I'm twenty-seven; I think it's high time I attend an event titled, 'cocktail party.')

While I have a sweet tooth (all Reems' do) at Christmas I actually (shocking) become overloaded with chocolate, almond, cinnamon, and sugar. That's not to say I stop eating, no, no, no, but it is nice to bring in an alternative (in addition to the ever popular spinach dip). This recipe for lemon and thyme shortbread comes from the cookbook, Savoury Baking and its wonderful. It tastes a lot like a cracker, but with a little more weight. The lemon is subtle, the thyme interesting, and the sprinkle of coarse salt gives the cookies a nice finish.

Oh, and the winner is...drum roll...Cautiousmum, congratulations.

The recipe can be found here, on the NPR site.

Christmas Cookies and Giveaways

Rach -

How was the puff pastry course? I'm looking forward to my own private tutorial over the holidays.

Yesterday was our first foray into Christmas baking this year. Of course, despite my attempt to keep the halloween cookie cutters in the cupboard, Finn felt that bats and pumpkins would be a nice addition to the more traditional stars and angels. We made the dough, cut out the shapes, all with the intention of icing in the afternoon. A day later the cookies are still un-iced; after sampling half the dough I just wasn't sure that Finn's little body could handle the sugar consumption. Maybe tomorrow. I'm not going to provide a recipe, there are enough sugar cookie recipes online and in your dusty cookbooks.

Now for the giveaway. Leave a comment telling us your favourite Christmas treat and we'll announce the winner next week Wed (the 15th). The randomly drawn name will be shipped a specialty Reems stollen.

Here are a few other seasonal recipes I trolled from our archives:

Biscotti

Not-So-Traditional Christmas Cookie

Monster Cookies

And some Dutch selections:

Speculaas

Boeterkoek

Blueberry Buckle

Rach-

The Reems Eats 2010 Conference was epic. Your post had me chuckling all over again. I was daydreaming today about our lovely little noodle shop, where after an hour at our counter perch, our pores breathing in the pork-tenderloin-infused-steam from vats and vats of broth, we both experienced the horror of standing shiny-faced in front of the singularly most unflattering mirror in all of Vancouver. Definitely not a first date kind of place. But wow- a great bowl of noodles.

Carmen, or Auntie Carmen is she known in these parts, has arrived. I warned her upon her arrival that if she wanted any respite at all, she needed to tone down the fun. Fun auntie = busy auntie. Well, she has not heeded my warning, she has already taught Finn a few classic Guy dance moves, and along with other unsuspecting visitors to the Campbell house, has run multiple 'races' around our main floor. Finn is just doing his part in trying to keep her youthful figure.

I had to post something delicious. Our freezer is full of blueberries, and I've been on a bit of a coffee cake binge lately; there is something about cold days and a cozy home makes anything streusel high on my list right now. Once again I've been turning to King Arthur, this time for their Blueberry Buckle The only change I made was using brown sugar instead of white in the topping. Blueberry buckle - if not because it's delicious, make it because of the name. I really have to get into the history of food names, I'm sure I'm not the only one with this curiosity. I'm adding Buckle to the list, somewhere after Bundt, Grunt, and Muffin (I know, muffin sounds normal but say it a few times).

I must log off, the fake fireplace is on, and Carmen needs a reading companion.

Readers, stay tuned for our first annual giveaway later this week.