French Market N'Awlins Salad

 

This past February, at the ripe old age of 26, I went to Disneyland for the first time. I have to admit I was hesitant about the idea at first, thinking I'd be overwhelmed by the crowds and underwhelmed by the food - and, as you can probably guess, food is pretty much the most important part of any trip I ever go on.

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Fresh Mascarpone with Balsamic Cherries

Recently I took a Continuing Education course at NAIT called "Young Cheesemaking Fundamentals" - after attending Eat Alberta in April, I knew I wanted to come back to the NAIT kitchens as soon as I could. Chef Allan Roote welcomed our tiny class and got started right away. There were only eight of us, which I thought was perfect, as there was lots of hands-on learning and we could easily crowd around Chef Allan and watch his demos closely. Over the course of the night, we tasted and made yogurt, mascarpone, ricotta, mozzarella, and cheese fondue.

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Sour Cherry & Almond Tarts

Once I get the first whiff of spring, I immediately want to do the following, all day every day: 1) stroll along Whyte Ave, coffee in hand; 2) sit on a patio, any patio, and get day-tipsy; and 3) go to the farmers' market, namely the Old Strathcona Farmers Market. The Strathcona market is great because it's indoors, so even if you have premature spring fever and it's still -10 degrees outside, you can get that lovely market experience without freezing your buns off. 

We went to the Strathcona market a few weeks ago, and it was packed with equally eager market-goers. Among the goodies I picked up was a bag of frozen sour cherries from Rainbow Acres farm. I can never find cherries in the grocery store that aren't candied or swimming in sugar, so this was exciting. Real cherries are such a rare treat. Plus these were already pitted! Since then I've browsed what feels like hundreds of cherry recipes, until I finally landed on this cherry almond tart from the Joy of Baking. It was a tough decision, but someone had to make it. 

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Dark Chocolate & Sour Cherry Cookies

These are insane. I first made them last Christmas – I can’t remember how I stumbled across the recipe, but I’m really glad I did. These cookies are one of the many delicious looking things that Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery has to offer - a chewy, intensely chocolately cookie studded with tart cherries... decadent yet balanced. Straight up delicious.

This particular batch came about for a few reasons: first, my brother recently came back from Toronto, and he brought me a jar of Soma Dutched cocoa powder (which I wanted to use). Secondly, he and I struck a deal that if I baked something good with that cocoa powder, he would put on my winter tires. Bonus reason: I wanted to include these in a box of goodies for a certain special guy on our second date. The results have been amazing. Having traction on ice is alright, too.

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