HOMEMADE RHUBARB GINGER COMPOTE

I have friends that do rhubarb all summer long. I don't known if it's my poor soil that tends to the alkali due it's clay origins, or where the plant grows, which I don't water, but after a good spring crop, it often looks sick with spots that I googled and may be magnesium deficiency, and with smaller stalks and leaves that wither more often than not. But that first crop is precious, and I love the mix of rhubarb and apple in a crisp, so I will often freeze the pieces for the fall or winter when I feel again like using an oven.

This time, in honour of a summer party with scones, I opted to try a new recipe for Rhubarb Compote from Food May 2005 page126. The recipe is simple enough. Chop 1 3/4 pounds (800g) of fresh clean rhubarb stalk into 3/4 inch (2 cm or length of your thumbnail) lengths, about 6 cups. Add 1 cup of sugar (could try less) and let sit for 10 minutes in the saucepan you want to use to cook in. It's supposed to bring out the juices, but it didn't do much in my case. Bring to boil on medium heat (to avoid burning sugar crystals) and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the rhubarb breaks down. Mine needed a lot more time, and still had large chunks that I eventually hand mixed into more of a puree. The chopped 1 inch of raw ginger was meant to be pressed through a fine sieve, discarding the solids left, but that didn't work for me, providing no liquid. I ended up pressing it through a garlic press and discarding solids, but I think a fine chop and throwing it in with the rhubarb while it softens would be the best. 

So shorter segments of rhubarb with a little less sugar and the ginger straight in next time. Cook to preferred appearance, but like applesauce, the brown lumpy mess is hard to make appealing. I would cook to softness and hand puree. Unique rhubarb flavour in a pourable form. Great on ice cream or to spoon over a fresh scone or on a pancake. Yum!

Fresh from the garden

Alternatively, I have also tried to make rhubarb tea, and quite liked it. It might be interesting in a crockpot, because boiling for one hour on a hot day is too much heat and humidity on the perfect day to drink it. Here is Martha's recipe:

Take 8 rhubarb stalks, chop into 3 inch long chunks, and place in 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, and simmer for 1 hour. Strain the water into a pitcher and discard solids. Add 1/3 cup sugar (start with 1/4 and add to taste). Cool and serve on ice in tall glasses. Garnish with fresh mint. 

TONIGHT, I FEEL BLESSED

Today is my summer birthday. I am 47 and a half, and I am over the hill. I spent the weekend getting ready for a second annual high tea to celebrate. I bought 2 teapots second hand and doubled my cutlery to improve on last year. I wanted to say thank you to my friends, and insisted that they don't trouble themselves to bring anything, and I provided three types of tea, and scones and so many snacks that they prevented us from even putting the lasagne in the oven, or touching the fabulous verrines for dessert!

The scones were so-so but generously received and still very popular,

Plain and currants

the spreads way too numerous but spectacular (homemade rhubarb ginger compote, Saskatoon berry jam hand carried from Saskatchewan, haskap berry jam, and home made dulce de leche made from sweetened condensed milk over a double boiler), but the day was the pinnacle of one of my favorite weeks to date.

 

I worked in the SSU, a place that pays me less money for more hours, but I have relearned to be human and enjoy the rhythm that is a little more flexible.

I left my daughter at home for 3 days in a row. I thought she might clean her room, but it got worse and worse over the week. She bought candy and lunch at the canteen. I was never so proud! While I was gone, she took rainbow belt candy that she had bought at the canteen, mixed them with sugar and water, and melted them in a microwave safe container to set them in heart shaped molds in preparation to my party. I did come home to a kitchen counter and floor covered in sprinkled sugar, but they were beautiful creations that were a hit at the party today. She also took the gingerbread energy balls  and chocolate covered almonds I had left her and made them into these creations, even serving them in some muffin liners she found (I know because all the sprinkles had chocolate fingerprints all over them, and somehow what is taken out is never quite all put back the way it was!)



My favourite parts of this week though, was finding out that she went to the store herself for the first time and bought something (yes, candy). She also went to the library, TALKED to someone, found out the book she wanted wasn't in, and found something else to read in the meantime. When I was discouraged that I wouldn't have time to mow the lawn and fix some details I had hoped to have time to do before the party, she reassured me the truth that my friends won't care, and reminded me that I did cut back lots of brush and replant trees and bushes in a better place and fix the door and paint the cabana!

This morning she brought me breakfast in bed with a tray, and had made a card with a trail of glitter and a gift bag with a precious stuffie she was ready to give to me, I was overwhelmed. The day was busy making scones and ruining macaron,

Macaron fail! I think instead of overbeating after added the sugar to the eggs whites, I actually underbeat.

and prepping bruschetta



and potato salad, but there was a lot of unexpected rain, and the house had to be prepared in case of an indoor party. So when the rain seemed to have passed by 2:30 pm, and we put things outside for the tea, she greeted the guests in her finest outfit (and dressed me from head to toe, even doing my hair!),





handed them personalized Union Jacks she had drawn and glued onto toothpicks. My friends were interesting, funny, intelligent, and generous, and it was an amazing afternoon that ended a dusk.

My heart is full, and I feel very blessed.

OBSESSED WITH A TREASURE HUNT FROM 1982

I have spent a few late nights and couple of days wandering the streets on Montreal obsessing about a treasure box buried here 37 years ago. The Secret was a treasure hunt written as a fantasy tale and including the following twelve paintings that match with a poem, both of which contain clues to finding a plexiglass cube containing a work of pottery art that contains a key leading to a gem.
Only two were found, and the game was thought to be over when the author Byran Preiss died in a car accident. But after learning of in on a recent flight over the Atlantic on a treasure hunting documentary, I have pored over photo number 9, and tried to find my own clues.



Here are some of the clues I found.

This is the image associated with Montreal. It's almost irrefutable now. What is clear is that there is a Dutch connection, which I find strange because that is not at all an obvious group to choose for this place. There are some interesting resemblances, but they may be a bit of a stretch. Here is the Rembrandt that, I agree, seems to underpin the style of the painting by artist Jean Jude Palencar.

Humans tend to see human faces in the images that are around us. They call this pareidolia. It's the phenomenon that leads us to see the man in the moon, or figures in the changing clouds above, or, in rock formation, before it fell, "the old man of the mountain"of New Hampshire fame.

We also sometimes take things and attribute more and different meaning to data than is actually the case. This is called apophenia. Both I, and others, are at great risk of these phenomena, but it can lead to some pretty impressive detective work.

Here is the breakdown of one treasure hunter's findings:

I am afraid that this same hunter makes a compelling argument that the casque was in the plaza in front of Place Ville Marie, and due to renovations, will likely never be found. But this hunt is less about certainty, and more about the search, so I have taken a few walking tours myself to see what I could find.

Also a highly renovated place, the Place du Canada has a statue of John A MacDonald that some claim looks like the man in the image. I'm not that convinced, but here is the statue that stands downtown, near an equestrian that represents the fallen at the Boer Wars, the closest monument I have found to the Netherlands connection, also in the old Golden Square Mile.

Close-up of Sir John

Facing south from Rene Levesque (Dorchester Avenue in a prior era)

Facing towards the east, in front of the still grand SunLife building, in Dorchester Square.

Whoever did this website, they have been delving down this and other rabbit holes for a lot longer than I have. 

My ideas: 

The calendula flower confirms for me that this is Montreal, with the numbers 67 representing the Exposition that the city is famous for. I also see a open musical note in the 6, which could represent the Montreal Jazz festival.

The tesselation of squares remind me of multiple buildings around the city 

These are the two images that have been solved to date:

Chicago: Grant Park: Irish/Scottish immigrants: the water tower is the far right tower on the highest level, minus the windmill.

Cleveland: Greek Cultural Garden: Greek immigrants.

JAZZ BERRY BLUE

I was at the pub Brasserie Bernard in Outrement, and I couldn't stop looking at the paintings on the wall. I recognized a couple, and had fun going around trying to understand them. In the end, when I asked the owner about them, he was kind enough to share a key with me, so I could walk around to identify all the cities. The series is available to view jazzberryblue.com and to purchase on etsy.

FIRST DIPERIE TREAT OF THE SUMMER

PECAN FRUIT CAKE BARS

I had a bunch of Chateleine magazines given to me by a cousin, and I found the recipes fabulous. It's been a long time I had my eye on trying this but never did until now!

November 2000, this pretty recipe was posted. It is a real treat, and a great way in the new year to use up any left over candied fruit.

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup rum

Microwave uncovered on high for 1 minute. Stir.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup white sugar

Cream together.

1/2 tsp vanilla.

Add to creamed mix.

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

In separate bowl, blend flour and salt.

Stir dry into butter mixture. Press into 9x 16 pyrex pan.

Bake 10 minutes at 350 F.

2 eggs, whisked

3/4 cup corn syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T flour

Stir until mixed. 

2 cups pecan halves or pieces (substitution unblanched almonds)

1 cup candied fruit 

Stir in raisins, pecans, and candied fruit. Spread over warm crust, evenly distributed.

Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, until set.

Cool.

Cut into 2 inch bars. Freezes well or keeps up to a week in the refrigerator. 

In a pan before slicing: Jewelled and gorgeous!

PARTY PLANNING

A visit to St. Anne's market for supplies, including two teapots at NOVA.



Scones trial, to make sure I still got it!



Break out the candy Princess Pirate made on a day she was alone and full of ideas! I know we are out of chocolate chips, but I should check out the sprinkle supply too!





Hairstyles

BONNE FETE ST JEAN BAPTISTE

These adorable delicious cupcakes were made with love and homemade icing by an orderly colleague who has the most beautiful spirit. She is generous to a fault and much loved, and on this day, much celebrated for her contribution to the celebration that has become the kickoff for summer, since school in Quebec always lets out the day before.

HOW TO CLASSIFY A TREE'S LEAF

SILENT SPRINGS

A wellread friend mentioned this book to me, as a call to awakening that is as true today as when it was written over 50 years ago. Author Rachel Carson published this book in 1962, originally from a series in the New Yorker. She starts with a fable, from a possible present, inspired as Keats writes, The sedge is wither'd from the lake, and no birds sing."

E. B. White, "I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially."

Albert Schweitzer, "Man can hardly even recognized the devils of his own creation."

Sometimes she sounds a little unrealistically resistant to innovation: "Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of the sun that have existed before there was any life on earth; radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the atom."

Mostly, she reminds us of a horrible history of interfering and with complex systems that we only partially understand, with great natural and human cost.

Jean Ronstad, "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know".

Dr. Charles Elton The Ecology of Invasions

DDT discoverer Paul Mülle of Switzerland won the nobel prize for its use as an insecticide (synthesized in 1874 in Germany, discovered in 1939)

1. DDT is a chlorinated hydrocarbon, like dieldrin, aldrin and enduring.
2. alkyl (organic) phosphates interfere with the necessary breakdown of acetylcholine by the cholinesterase enzyme, to stop the neuronal message and allow for new messages to be sent.

In Greek mythology, the sorceress Medea, enraged at being supplanted by a rival for the affections of her husband Jason, presented the new bride with a robe possessing magic properties. The wearer immediatedly suffered a violent death. This death-by-indirection now finds its counterpart in what are kow as "systemic insecticides".

Mutagens, Carcinogens: radiation, herbicides, insecticides

Single crop farming
Dutch elm disease
Human casualties, Dr W.C. Hueper authority of environmental cancer
Ecological disasters;
insecticides 1960 Tule Lake and Lower Klamath, Colorado
insecticides 1954 Clear Lake, California
1954 dutch elm disease and robin's death East Lancing Michigan
The Lost Wood essay by Tomlinson
herbicides 1959 Bridger National Forest Wyoming - sage "brush control"
Arsenic sprays on tobacco fields have ceased, but the contamination continues. From 1932 to 1952, the arsenic content of a cigarette increased more than 300%

Water, Soil, Plants, Sky, Fauna and Mankind are affected

Pests: japanese beetle, gypsy moths, fire ant, blue tick

It is hard to understand how people still glibly live on consuming and wasting and reproducing as if there was a neverending shortage of resources, and that climate change does impact them while the island edges flood and the weather changes more rapidly then ever before. We have learnt a hard lesson with DDT, but continue to entertain strange ideas of control of our natural world at the same time bemoaning the losses we have needlessly cost. This book is a reminder to do better, and has given me pause in my idea of treating my ash tree with pesticides, and a renewed enthusiasm to plant more trees and flowers for my own precious land.

GARDENERS ARE EVERYWHERE

I arrived home from a trip by airplane, and had to walk to the commuter train by an underpass. I was amazed and impressed to find that the glass roof not only let in light but housed an exotic well-kept garden! Beauty can be found anywhere!

MY KID MAKES MY LIFE WAY MORE FUN!

When I go outside to call her in for lunch and find her reading in the perfect spot of shade (it's ALWAYS shady, no matter where the sun shines from) beside a rainbow coloured spiderweb she put together while I was in the kitchen!

When I find out why she asked to use some scrap pieces of wood while I was cleaning out the shed!

Mowing the lawn, I find a cache of mud buns!

When I go to change her sheets, a menagerie needs to be moved to remove them!

On my table when I get home from work, a catapult made with 100% upcycled parts!

DESIGN CLASS CAKE PROJECT

I loved this project, and she put a lot of thought and work into it. It was inspired by the Nerdy Nummies version, but the details were all her own. It was certainly impressive from the height point of view, and required hand delivery to display it at school!

The idea

The result

The sweet reality

SPRING FLING

This year was a slow spring, but there is always a moment where I notice the increments and then I notice there was an explosion of growth, and all the trees have their leaves, with many seeds spinning down to feed the squirrels and flowers to attract the first bees and butterflies. 

It draws me every year to the forests with muddy paths in search of the precious spring flowers that emerge from the winter's thaw for the briefest of time, but only last until the canopy of leaves begin to block the light to the forests' floor. So the order that spring followed this year was: crocuses,

trout lillies, trillium, tulips, forsythia, lilacs, crabapple blossoms, cherry blossoms, primrose, vinca, honeysuckle, spirea, lupins.

Robin's eggshell

Spectacular Spirea

Trametes versicolor or Turkey Tail

Trout lilies

Trilliums, my favorite

SAINT ANNE'S MARKET

It's time for the open air Saturday market, and I have been exploring ways to get there that is a little more environmentally responsible. Certainly it is a great thing to have local produce. Some of it is so fresh and inexpensive, but a couple of my favorites are the more expensive premade items.

Ste. Anne's market had a new location this past weekend. Usually for the winter, they are housed in the gymnasium of St. George's Anglican church, but they were spilling over 3 weeks ago onto the street and decided to find a home on McGill's west island MacDonald campus. Their usual place by the water is still too iffy because of water levels flooding the boardwalk and sidewalks for longer than usual this year.





I like to go hungry with the variety of baked goods are a good place for breakfast, with the possibility of getting coffee in a ceramic mug if you get there early enough. Like everything though, it is quite a Herculean task to get anything without creating single service waste. If you want sugar and milk in your coffee, even the mug is not enough. So after feeling guilty for a UHT cream container and sugar packets (I can't seem to drink it black, unfortunately), I  now drink my coffee at home and put my muffin wrapper in the compost when I get home.

My two favourite purchases were injera wraps filled with spicy lentils and potatoes (try this recipe at home for Mesir Wat). That being said, there were fresh asparagus, radishes, red and orange tomatoes,  basil plants and a fresh heads of lettuce, with dirt and insects to prove it for a highly affordable $1.50 each.



and some Argentinian shortbread cookies filled with dulce de leche and rolled in coconut (Alfajores).

I was intrigued by this new-to-me fruit called the haskap and purchased a jam to serve with scones on my summer tea party.



Although cash seems to go very quickly, and the temptation is great to buy more sweet than necessary, but when I am able to make the train leaving at 10 am and come back on foot or bike (it's a longest walk but beautiful at 13 km), or even drive the short distance for a local product, it is a great Saturday morning with an exciting prospect of fresh products as the summer nears.

ITUNES CANNOT SYNC TO iPHONE BECAUSE PHOTOS LIBRARY IS UNAVAILABLE

Every once in a while, while I sync my phone, mostly for the photos that I have taken in the meantime, I get the message above. I am usually doing something on the computer at the same time, and notice that the screensaver has turned the screen off, so I figure it has something to do with that. Sometimes it seems that the photos are fine, and sometimes I do nothing but press the x to close the warning message, and promptly forget to check why that might be. But today I thought it through, and saw that my photo library unavailability had nothing to do with the screen of my phone, so I found this helpful information on this hyperlink.

Turns out, my photos library had permission for read only. I unlocked the settings and gave permission for read and write, and this time itunes seems to have synced my device properly. Here's a reminder for when it happens again!

INSECT DANCE PATTERNS UNDER THE BARK

SUNNY DAY AND A FLUORESCENT SPIDERWEB IN THE BACKYARD

I was making lunch. She was making a spiderweb and finding the perfect reading spot that was always in the shade, no matter what hour of the day. Reading about extinct animals. Never ending creativity!