It’s zucchini time in the garden and wild blueberry time in Nova Scotia, and what a fabulous combination!
We had a request for D’Arcy’s lemon zucchini muffin recipe this morning. The original recipe came from Anne Lindsey’s “New Light Cooking” cookbook (which is one of our favourites – our focaccia with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon comes from the same cookbook), but we tweak it to accommodate for food allergies. All of the muffins we serve are egg-free so our daughter can take the leftovers – if there are any – to school in her lunch.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded (unpeeled zucchini)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Coarsely grated rind from 1 large lemon
1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
egg replacer to replace one egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (we often sour rice or coconut milk for dairy issues)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup wild blueberries
Lightly spray nonstick muffin pans or line with muffin liners.
In a large bowl, stick together flour, zucchini, sugar, lemon rind, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate bowl, combine egg replacer (or lightly-beaten egg), soured-milk, oil, and lemon juice. Pour over flour mixture and stir just enough to moisten, being careful not to overmix.
Add blueberries and combine.
Spoon into prepared pans. Bake in 190*C oven (375*F) for 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden and firm to touch. (May take longer if using real egg.) Makes 12 muffins.
This morning around the breakfast table, we were dealing with gluten-free and egg-free diets, as well as no cheese for another guest. We tried two new recipes, both which were successful. Since I posted the photo on our Facebook page, I’ve had requests for the recipes, and also from the guests, so thought we’d post them here for easy access.
Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free banana muffins
Gluten, egg, and dairy-free banana muffins
Mix the following together with beaters until smooth:
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil (we use canola)
2 tsp. egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water OR 2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine the following dry ingredients, then add to the wet mixture and stir until moist. Do not over-mix.
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (We used Bob’s Redmill)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Line muffin tins with papers, divide batter between 12 muffin cups, and bake in 350*F oven for 20 – 22 minutes.
Egg, dairy, and gluten-free crepes
CREPES:
3 Eggs worth of prepared egg replacer
3/4cup rice milk
3/4cup Water
3 TBSP oil (we use canola)
1/2 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour (We used Bob’s Redmill)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 TBSP potato starch
1/2t Salt
Combine together all ingredients in bowl and whisk until combined. Batter will appear deceivingly thin. Cook crepe in hot, oiled frying pan and top with desired filling. This morning we served our egg-free guests crepes filled with asparagus, tomato, basil, chives and boursin cheese; and our cheese-free guest, the same herbs & veggies in scrambled eggs. (Pictured above.)
As you can see from above, these recipes are also soy-free. However, the flour we used (Bob’s Redmill) is processed in a factory that uses soy and tree-nuts, so we consider these recipes both “unsafe” for our daughter. If we used a different flour, they would be safe.
Please let us know how they turn out for you! We will definitely serve both of these recipes again!
Beautiful rhubarb. Photo credit: Taste of Nova Scotia*
As spring arrives in Nova Scotia, so does the growth of one of our local food treats – rhubarb! I LOVE rhubarb. Although technically a vegetable, in Nova Scotia we mostly treat it as a fruit. Rhubarb will be found growing in many people’s gardens and will then be found at the breakfast table for the next few weeks in various forms: warm from being stewed with maple syrup and a touch of lemon (perfect with vanilla yogurt and some granola!), and often chunked in muffins. The tartness of the rhubarb is perfectly offset by the sweetness of the struesel topping. The following is one of our favourite muffin recipes:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg (We use egg replacer)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
3 cups chopped rhubarb
TOPPING:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon cold butter
Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, if using or add egg replacer. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and alternate with sour cream, beating well after each addition. Fold in rhubarb.
Fill paper-lined or greased muffin cups three-fourths full.
Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon in a small bowl; then cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm. Yield: about 1-1/2 dozen.
We hope you enjoy – either at your breakfast table or at ours! 😉
Breakfast by request this morning? French toast with fruit and “Acadian Maple” pure maple syrup, made on D’Arcy’s porridge bread. This is a recipe we discovered years ago in our “Taste of Nova Scotia” cookbook and D’Arcy makes it at least once each week, usually twice. Described as, “a wonderfully fragrant, soft brown bread”, it gets rave reviews by all. We often make this bread for the kids’ teachers as thank-you gifts, and one teacher in particular has come to the house offering to pay D’Arcy to make it for him! For the record, I like it best when it’s still warm from the oven and slathered with butter and molasses!
Recipe by Taste of Nova Scotia:
Porridge:
3 cups boiling water
¾ tsp salt
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
Bread:
1 cup warm water
1 ½ tsp granulated sugar
4 tsp dry yeast
2 cups porridge
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
½ cup molasses
7 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp salt
In a saucepan, bring water and salt to a boil; add rolled oats and bring back to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set porridge aside. In a small mixing bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water; add yeast and let rise until foamy. In a large mixing bowl, blend together porridge, brown sugar, oil and molasses. To porridge mixture, add yeast mixture, stirring to combine. Add flour 1 cup at a time, stirring to blend well, and continue to add flour until dough starts to come clean from the sides of the bowl but is not dry. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and somewhat elastic. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size. (60 – 90 minutes).
Punch dough down and divide into six equal pieces. Shape into loaves and place two loves each into three greased 10 – x 6-inch double bread pans. Cover and set aside to rise in a warm draft-free place until double in size, approximately one hour. Bake in a preheated 325*F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until loaves are golden brown. Makes three double loaves.
** If you are so inclined, we’ve been nominated as Best Bed & Breakfast in the Truro & Colchester Chamber’s 2013 “Best of Colchester” awards. Voting takes place until May 15th. We’d be so grateful if you’d click on the website and vote for “Belgravia” as “Best B&B” up to five times per IP address. You do not need to register, nor do you need to vote in every category. Thank you in advance!
It’s national Teacher Appreciation Week this week and at our daughters’ school, the parent-teacher group has been making sure there have been special treats for the teachers each day to show them how much they are appreciated. Little treats like a mural that says “We love you” made out of kids’ drawings, ‘real’ toilet paper in the staff washroom (hey – these things matter!), and today, a tea trolly with treats. Although I can’t be at the school to help deliver the treats, D’Arcy made a batch of his “to die for” blueberry muffins this morning to send.
Thank you teachers!!
Here is the recipe:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs OR 2 tsp egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with pastry blender, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.
Happy New Year! Gosh, keeping the blog updated has taken a backseat to life recently. We had a busy and fun Christmas break, entertaining a total of 72 friends and family at different times during the twelve days we had off from school.
I’m amazed at how fast the month of January has flown – they say “time flies when you’re having fun”… This semester, I’m teaching Entrepreneurhip, Experiential Tourism Products and Services, Into Psychology, and Intro Sociology at the Pictou Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College; while D’Arcy continues to teach Grade 6 at a school not far from mine.
The boys are curling every day after school, and at least one day on the weekend. They are heading “South” to Yarmouth tomorrow for their first Canada Winter Games (2015) qualifier. The tournament is double-knockout and the top two teams will automatically move forward to next year.
The “mate” or “third” of their team is from Yarmouth, so the boys and their coach will be staying at their house, for which we are very grateful. I spent last weekend cooking and baking, to send some food along (the least we can do): lasagna, chilli, homemade macaroni & cheese, four loaves of bread, blueberry muffins, and homemade granola bars.
I posted a photo of the granola bars on my personal Facebook page and got such a response of friends looking for the recipe, that I decided to post it here for more people to enjoy! I must begin with the caveat that each time I make these, they are slightly different, depending on what ingredients I have on hand. Although they are not gluten free, they are peanut, tree nut, egg, and soy free. (Dairy free too if you omit chocolate chips, or use Enjoy Life or Divvies brand chocolate chips.) I hope if you try them, you will enjoy!
The base of each recipe is:
2 cups flaked oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
To this, I added:
1/2 cup hemp hearts – be sure to use the nutritious hemp hearts 😉
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
generous handful raisins
generous handful dried cranberries
handful of chocolate chips
Other suggestions would be to add flax (I was out), coconut, dates, or any other dried fruit.
Bind together with:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
Mixture will be crumbly. Press into a well-greased 11×13 pan. Bake in 375*F oven for 20 minutes or until edges are browned. Cut while still warm, or they become difficult to cut through.
This bars have quickly become a lunchtime or snack favourite in our household and the bonus is that they are economical, allergy-free, and litter-less!
(I promise not to take so long until the next post…)
“We have now completed our 3rd stay here and it’s like visiting family. Situated on the outskirts of Truro, within easy walking distance of the town, a beautifully appointed house with lovely, well equipped rooms. Breakfast was delicious as usual and we shall return again, if only to hope we get the blueberry waffles next time!”
We have guests staying with us this week for five nights while they do some genealogical research and explore Central Nova Scotia. We serve something different for breakfast each day, and so far this week they have had omlets and Eggs Florentine. Helen’s comment inspired me to serve our waffles with blueberry sauce today. There was not a bite left on anyone’s plate when I cleared them, so I thought I would share our blueberry sauce recipe:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine:
2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP lemon juice
3/4 cup water
dash of salt
Bring to a boil and add:
1 TBSP corn starch mixed with 1 TBSP water
Stir until thickened.
Top waffles with blueberry sauce, vanilla yogurt and wheat germ, and serve with maple bacon.
SO YUMMY – and this also works well for blueberry shortcake when put on a scone with whipped cream!
Did you know that Belgravia Bed & Breakfast is the only accommodation in Nova Scotia that advertises as “Peanut & Tree nut Free”?
This came about after our youngest daughter was diagnosed with severe food allergies when she was just ten months old. Initially her list of allergies was long: peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, dairy, cinnamon, banana, avocado, kiwi, strawberries, celery, citrus, pineapple, blueberries, grapes, melon… The only fruits she could have were canned peaches, pears and applesauce. It was overwhelming at first and we had to learn a whole new way of cooking and baking. Luckily, our baking was mostly homemade due to the quality of breakfast we provide at our bed & breakfast anyway, so we just had to modify some recipes, not learn how to bake from scratch…
Traveling still makes us nervous, but we know she can’t live in a bubble either. We are fortunate that she has outgrown most of her allergies and is left with *only* peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and soy – all of which result in anaphylaxis and, as per her most recent blood work, appear to be life-long. At home, accommodating these allergies has become second nature. She can be around eggs as long as they don’t touch her and she doesn’t ingest them, so we use a separate spatula for cooking eggs for our guests than we do when flipping egg-free pancakes for her. She has her own separate washcloths so that we don’t accidentally wipe her hands or face with a cloth that has wiped up egg. (Learned that one the hard way!) We also ask our guests to refrain from bringing peanut or nut products into our home. (Learned that one the hard way too!)
Showing off her 16 pokes after her allergy tests – 14 skin pricks, blood work and her MMR immunization (grown on egg, so her allergist administers that one and watches her afterwards for reaction)..
When we travel, we tend to take a lot of our own food with us, so that we know there will be something safe for her to eat. We tend to dine at restaurants where we know they take allergies seriously. Did you know that Boston Pizza and The Keg keep allergy binders with all ingredients for the recipes included? Each will wipe down all surfaces and change all cutting boards & utensils when they know they are preparing a meal for a guest with allergies? For our daughter’s particular mix of allergens, McDonald’s french fries and a burger without the bun are “safe”! Regardless, she does not leave our house without carrying her two epipens – just in case! All six of us are trained to use it in an emergency.
Here at the Belgravia, we “get” food allergies and do our best to accommodate any type we can, with notice. We’ll make room in our fridge and freezer for your own special food/ice packs. We will also tailor the breakfast we serve to accommodate your needs. One dietary restriction that affects more and more people is the need to be gluten-free and we can accommodate that too!
One of our favourite gluten-free recipes is for Buttermilk Apple Cake, passed along to us by former guests, the owners of Valley Flax Flour.
1/2 cup Brown sugar
2 cups Buttermilk (we’ve also soured rice milk successfully)
1 cup Brown Rice Flour
1 cup Flax Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
2 medium Apples, cored & chopped
Lightly grease and flour (gluten-free, of course!) a 2L baking or Bundt pan
In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and buttermilk.
Combine rice flour, flax flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add apples to wet ingredients; mix until combined.
Spread batter evenly in the pan.
Bake in an oven preheated to 350*F for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan before removing and cutting into 12 servings.
Traveling is stressful enough, without worrying that you are going to end up sick or having to spend time hospital – or heaven forbid – worse, because of something you ate. Here, we will do our best to keep you safe!
If only it would be this easy when she becomes a teenager…
It’s no secret around here that D’Arcy is the one who does all the baking – He’s affectionately known as “The Muffin Man” by some. We often get requests for his recipes and are always happy to share! This week, he was asked for his lemon-blueberry muffin recipe, so we decided to share it here as well. We hope you enjoy!
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Rind of 1 lemon
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
To make muffins: Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & lemon rind in large bowl. Beat egg in medium bowl; add milk and butter. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed. (Batter will be lumpy.) Stir in blueberries. Fill muffin pans 2/3 full; bake at 375*F (190*C) for 20 minutes.
We had a fantastic blueberry season this year, and overnight blueberry french toast became a new favourite among our guests. Because we’ve had a couple of emails asking for the recipe, I thought I would post it here! This recipe’s yield is four servings, but it easily doubles or triples for more servings. You can use any berries or fruit in season with a corresponding flavored syrup if you don’t have blueberries.
4 cups French bread cubes
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
2 cups fresh blueberries
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup. maple syrup
blueberry syrup
Place bread & cheese cubes in a lightly greased 9″ (23cm) square baking pan. Layer berries over top.
In a small bowl, beat eggs, milk, cinnamon and maple syrup; pour over berries. Refrigerate overnight.
Bake, uncovered, at 375*F (190*C) for 45 minutes, or until egg mixture is set.
