Canoe Up North

For those of you who are getting tired of postings about jam and/or blueberries, scroll down. Otherwise, I'll just share my second attempt at making freezer jam. Of course, I used some of the fantastic wild blueberries that I slaved away picking, sacrificing relaxing afternoons and a pain-free lower back. It was worth it. Even after two seasons of picking, I'm still amazed by the bounty of the fruit so packed full of antioxidants and flavour! In fact, as long as I'm Up North I refuse to buy berries at the grocery store. It's just not the same.

I wanted to make freezer jam because by not cooking the berries you don't kill off as many of the healthy benefits. Plus it's a lot easier and quicker than traditional canning methods, although the jars can tend to overload the freezer instead of the pantry. You wouldn't even have to use the canning jars; any glass jar or plastic container would do. The only special "equipment" needed is the freezer jam gelling powder which should be available at most grocery stores.

I followed the instructions on the package exactly, using a pastry cutter to "chop" the fruit. You can eat the jam right away, but I found that letting it freeze for awhile helped to set the flavours. I made the jam a few weeks ago, and found that the jar I took out today for my toast tasted better than the stuff I ate right away. It was almost like eating fresh berries, which will be great for the winter months to come. 

Winter may be on it's way, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Not long ago we tested out our new canoe, and, more importantly, how the dogs would fare in our new canoe.

It's a Mad River beauty made out of Royal X, which is a combination of plastic, foam and kevlar. It's meant to take a bit of a beating from rocks, which we considered important given the fact that a large percentage of the shoreline is rock. It's also got a bunny on it :o)

We decided to get life jackets for Reina and Nanuq. Partly because we know that the Churchill has a pretty strong current in places. Also partly so that if they jump out of the canoe we can try to lift them back in using the handy handles on the back of their jackets, or at the very least we can tow them from a rope if we can't get them back in and they won't get tired out. It seems kind of silly to see them like this, given that dogs are naturally very good swimmers, but better safe than sorry, no?

It was a gorgeous day out, so calm that the river mirrored the sky. Pictures like this make me wish I was a painter and could re-create this scene on canvas. But I'm not. 

The dogs were a bit unsure at first but settled down after awhile. Nanuq even fell asleep, which is consistent with his behaviour during long-distance truck rides. Reina, also in keeping with her normal habits, wouldn't lie down but needed to stay alert to see everything. 

We got a little nervous when we saw a black dot on the shoreline in the distance. What would the doggies do? Should we avoid it? We decided to go nearer to test the reactions.

I only got this one shot of the black bear. He seemed to be fishing or rooting around in the reeds for some other tasty treat. He either didn't care about our presence in his vicinity or he didn't see us, although I have trouble believing the latter because the dogs sure made a ruckus. Luckily, my fellow paddler was able to grab Nanuq by the lifevest as he was trying to jump out of the canoe towards the bear. We had tied a tow rope to him already so he wouldn't have been able to swim away, but I was also worried that if he got into the water he would be able to lead us toward the bear! Reina didn't quite look like she would jump, but I had her by the collar as well just to be sure.

Eventually we drifted far enough away from the bear that the dogs settled down again. We paddled by that spot on the way back and at first I thought he was gone, but then I saw two little ears stick up out of the reeds. The dogs must not have noticed because they didn't stir at all. We continued along quietly enjoying such a breathtakingly beautiful day in a beautiful part of our country.

Second Verse, Same as the First

A couple of months ago I failed to mention a very important event. Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring have come and gone Up North, and I've tried to share the most relevant Northisms that I could with you over the year. That said, as one year has passed (on July 15th, to be precise), it is time to replay the seasons under the guise of a not-as-neo-northerner. Sure, I'm still New compared to people who were born here, or even those who have moved here long ago. But I'm not the youngest chick in the hen-house anymore. Or, if you prefer, the youngest kit in the beaver dam? The youngest bear cub at the dump? The youngest gosling in the gaggle? The youngest...well, I'm sure you get it.

Here's a familiar scene, if you were with me one year ago. This year's Blueberry Season has just about ended. Being as I am a little older and wiser this year, as well as more knowledgeable about the lay of the land, I found myself picking from a different patch; one that was even more generous than my pickin' grounds of last year. The place is a former burn site. About four years ago a forest fire blazed through here, leaving the charred carcases of spruce to enrich the soil and allowing lots of sunlight to stream in but still giving sufficient cover from the elements. Over time nature regenerates, and the most heartwarming sign of this miracle are the blueberry bushes sprawled across the rocky ground.

Blueberry Wine

Given my previous posts about Chokecherries, it is only natural that I turned to wine-making once again. The Choke juice is still fermenting in the basement, bubbling happily away in its glass jars. I check on it once a week to swirl the jars a bit and skim the top. It smells like a real winery down there, so I have every reason to believe that my little experiment will yield some delicious results. Cue the blueberries. The recipe is from a friend that I've made Up Here; not from here originally but with an enviable knowledge of picking, foraging, preserving and fermenting. The recipe is from her grandmother, so you KNOW it's gotta be good. Here's what to do: make a syrup with 1 and 1/2 litres of water and 4 cups of sugar (I.e. boil them together). Pour over approximately 12 cups of blueberries in a sterile jar. You can crush the berries or leave them intact, the difference is that the crushed berries will take only around 4 weeks to ferment properly, while the intact berries will take around 6 weeks. After the allotted time is up, bottle.

Blueberry Crown Rolls

Another familiar sight...you must be wondering if I've any new tricks still tucked up in my sleeve. Well, just wait for the next one! In the meantime, I decided to replicate the success I had with my Chokecherry Crown Rolls. They turned out perfectly the second time around and were devoured and praised by all. Here's the link again. The only difference is the filling: I boiled down 2 cups of blueberries with 1 cup water and a 1/4 cup of both sugar and cornstarch. This is a great snack to take to a potluck, meeting, picnic or gathering. 
And now for something totally different...

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

One of the advantages of making one's own ice cream, other than the quality, freshness and ability to control every ingredient, is that you can make flavours that you just won't find in the store. Or even if you do come across the same flavour in the frozen food section, odds are that yours tastes better. Especially if it's Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream.This is another guaranteed crowd pleaser: given the amount of praise it got, I'm surprised the bowls didn't get licked out when I took it to a dinner party for dessert. I certainly didn't have any leftover to take back home. Now, the recipe is from a cookbook called The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, so I can't share it here, but there are other bloggers in Internet World who do not have the same qualms about sharing copyrighted, non-public recipes, so if you happen to type some keywords into a certain popular search engine, who am I to say what you might end up with? If you don't want to, I'd say this recipe alone is worth the price of Lebovitz's book. I'll be making it again very, very soon.

Finally, since Summer seems to be at it's end, I'll share some photos from the past month or so, if only to try and hold on to the warmth and sunny weather for awhile longer. 

The puppies are still alive and well. They both got their swimming legs this summer, although Reina still views the deep with some trepidation.

Heading out for some evening fishing. This is the boat launch area in town, frequently used on a day as beautiful as this one.

 Pelicans gliding over the waters of the Churchill River Basin.

The clouds Up Here are simply breathtaking. It's like one could reach out and stroke their fluffy underbellies.

Not a bad view while fishing out on the open water. A lovely end to a fantastic day.

Even More Choked Up

Just had to quickly share this most delicious use of chokecherries yet! I was Googling different uses for the little guys and came across something called a Chokecherry Crown Roll. It's a lot like a danish, and it is AWESOME!

Chokecherry Crown Roll

The dough for these rolls is quite easy to make, and super soft and sumptuous. Here's the link to the site found at Food.com. I altered the filling amounts because it's really hard to pit the cherries, so I was only able to get 1 cup of the cherries themselves, and more easily had 2 cups of juice. I followed the instructions for making the filling, but doubled the sugar and cornstarch amounts because of the extra juice, and also because I thought the mixture was still too sour. In fact, when I had my first taste of the finished product it was still a little too sour so I had to compensate by slathering more icing on top, which, when you think about it, isn't a difficult decision to make at all.

These rolls were well worth the effort; I took them to work and everybody raved about them. Plus, given the fact that the nearest bakery or doughnut shop is almost 200 km away, they were an extra nice treat. And you don't really need chokecherries; I'm definitely going to try making some blueberry crown rolls as well. Oh, the possibilities!

A Little Choked Up

Last year around this time I was reveling in the profound plethora of wild blueberries growing all around me. This year, I suppose because of a lack of rain, the blueberries are small and I haven't picked many. Instead, I've been focusing on a different native fruit, one that is by far less sought after than the popular blueberry. This one is found on a tree, and it's quite the sourpuss and a bit of work to manage, but it packs a huge flavour punch in every small red or purplish orb. Of course, I speak of the humble chokecherry. 

  

For someone like me, situated in Northern Saskatchewan, far away from the warm fields of Niagara or the lush valleys of of the Okanagan, having fresh fruit in the house is not as simple as heading to the store. Unlike Back Home, there are no farmer's markets within 400 kilometres of Up Here. Even those supermarkets in the vicinity (and I use the term "vicinity" loosely) only have fruit from California; "vine ripened" peaches that are still hard and packages of strawberries that are half rotting and half white still.

Chokecherries are quite small, incredibly sour, like to cling to their stems and have pits that are about equal in size to the total parts of the flesh. In other words, they are a pain in the ass to pick and cook with. But I have persevered and found more than one application for the miniscule fruit. The above photo shows what I like to call "The Motherlode". I came across one tree that was literally doubled over under the weight of all the cherries on it. A beautiful sight for any picker.

Chokecherry Wine

Naturally, my first inclination was to search for a way to make the fruit that I had so diligently plucked into some type of alcohol. I found a bunch of recipes online, but being as I was in The North with no fancy wine-making supplies at my fingertips, I was kind of restricted in what I could take and run with so I decided to go old school. The only recipe I found that didn't involve some sort of yeast and/or special was from a nice blog called Prairie Sunrise Homestead. The photo on the site shows a tattered page from an old cookbook sponsored by Safeway, and the only ingredients are chokecherries, water and sugar. For those who don't know (I didn't), a gallon is 16 cups, a quart is 4 cups and a pound of sugar is around 2 cups. The wine has to sit for at least 6 weeks, I won't be able to report on the taste for awhile, but rest assured that I'll keep you posted. Unless I poison myself. Hehe. Gulp.

Chokecherry Juice

3 cups chokecherries, crushed

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

4 cups boiling water

Let stand for 24 hours.

Bring juice to a boil and bottle in hot bottles

After the wine was mixed and set to sit, I decided to satisfy my need for instant gratification and make some juice so that I don't have to wait 6 weeks for a sip of some chokecherry goodness. I got the recipe for the juice from my aunt, who passed it on from a Mexican Mennonite woman she met while living and homesteading in Northern Ontario. How could it possibly be bad? Feel free to add more sugar. I did.

Now onto the jam...

Chokecherry Freezer Jam

I didn't have any pectin lying around, but I did have some freezer jam powder so I decided to try it out. The package says that no cooking is needed, but I thought that cooking the berries slightly would help get more juices out, so I put six cups of chokecherries in a pot with a cup of water and gently simmered for a few minutes. Then I strained them in a frustratingly small-holed strainer. I think if I had a better strainer I could have gotten more pulp, but as it is I only got 2 cups. I tried to use cheesecloth, but the pits kept popping out as I squeezed. Damn those pits. Anyway, I followed the directions on the package, mixing in 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar and only half of the powder in the package (because 1 package calls for 4 cups of fruit. Once again, if you want to put in more sugar, go nuts. This recipe filled six 1/2 cup jars perfectly, but the consistency was off. I'll have to try a more conventional jam recipe and procedure next time, I think.

The fruits of one's labour all stacked and jarred is a pleasant sight, although somehow it never seems to fully represent the hours of work that went into it. So after a full day of picking, washing, crushing, simmering, pouring and canning, what was I going to make for dinner? And would it include chokecherries...

French Inspired Blini

4 Tablespoons sour cream
2 eggs
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
3 cups milk
2 Tablespoons oil

Combine the first 4 ingredients, then add the flour. Slowly add the milk until you get your desired consistency; you might not need it all depending on how thick or thin you want the blini to be. Add a drop of oil to the batter, then use the rest on the pan. Fry on medium-low heat and flip halfway through. Traditionally, the filling for the blini (at least the way I was taught) consists of meat which has been simmered: 3-4 hours for beef and pork, 1-2 hours for chicken, and then ground along with sauteed onions. Salt and pepper, parsley, nutmeg, dill, basil and egg are added to the ground mixture and then they are put in the blini. It's really quite delicious, especially served with sour cream. 

Like I said, I was low on inspiration for dinner after all the chokecherry stuff, so I Googled chicken recipes, as I had a leftover cooked chicken breast in the fridge. A few pages later I decided to whip up a quick batch of crepes and make a chicken and mushroom filling. I went for the crepe recipe my family always uses, but then decided to try the blini, which was shared by a Ukranian friend of mine. The recipe for the chicken filling and sauce I got from Canadian Living, and I have to say, it was SUPER delicious. This is one of my favourite dinner moments; the one when I try a new recipe, sit down to take my first bite and revel in the lovely flavours that I have created. The dish is one I would be happy to be served at a restaurant; in fact, I'd likely go back there again and again. And again. The only thing I did differently from the recipe on the site was that I used parmesan cheese instead of fontina and I didn't really measure the ingredients for the sauce, rather I threw together what I thought would be good amounts and it worked really well. No chokecherries were harmed in the making of this dinner. Can't say the same for dessert.

My favourite crepe is a simple one. Sure, it's fun to get fancy with fruit and whipped cream, but I truly do enjoy a crepe rolled up with a spoonful of sugar and lemon juice. I had a few blini left over after dinner, so I decided to roll up a couple of sugary crepes and then dallop the chokecherry jam I'd made on top. A liberal squeeze of lemon and a puff of powdered sugar later, I was in heaven. A nice end to a long day.

Toast to Summer!

Arguably the best thing about summer is the abundance of beautiful, colourful, ripe fruit. Being a gal who likes to enjoy the odd beverage, I'm more than happy to trade in my normal glass of red wine and take advantage of such a circumstance by muddling, slicing, freezing and blending my favourite fruits into lovely and refreshing cocktails.

I recently purchased the KitchenAid citrus juicer for my stand mixer and I'm taking advantage of how easy it now is for me to make lots of lemon and lime juice, which is perfect for a not-too-sweet cocktail.

 

Naturally my first drink would be of the lemonade variety...I went for Old-Fashioned Lemonade with mint and Gordon's gin. Shake together of lemon juice, sugar, mint leaves, gin and top with sparkling water. Sprite or tonic water would work too, I'd just put in less (or even no) sugar. Another nice version is to put fresh thyme in the drink instead of the mint leaves, and for that one I used Hendrick's gin...what, you don't have more than 1 kind of gin at home? 

 

Lemonade gets a nice perk-up with some strawberries muddled in, or raspberries or blueberries. I used gin again because that's what I like, but vodka would work well here, or rum. I think I liked this better than the regular lemonade.

Staying with the same idea, I decided to make a Raspberry Limeade with mint and local raspberries, kind of like a raspberry mojito but using white sugar instead of cane sugar and with gin (I don't like rum, thus I don't keep it around the house). Super yummy!

 

Straying from the citrus-based drinks, I made an Amaretto Fruit Punch by muddling some cherries and then adding amaretto, pineapple juice and sparkling water. I needed to top it up with the water because I didn't have much pineapple juice, but it was a little weak so I think next time I won't add any at first and see if it's better. Still, a lovely flavour.

I bought pomegranate juice in order to make my own grenadine (see this blog if you want to do it too) and I had some leftover, so I blended it with ice, watermelon, some of the grenadine and some vodka for a tangy and anti-oxidant-rich blender drink. 

Sticking with the blender and watermelon, I tried out the flavours of a Watermelon Margarita. Crushed ice, watermelon chunks, lime juice, tequila and triple sec were combined in the blender to make this frosty special. I can't say that I would prefer it to a normal lime margarita, but it was a nice and refreshing change to the everyday drink. 

Lastly, I used the watermelon juice from the bottom of the container (I like to cut my watermelon into chunks and store them in the refrigerator for a quick bite whenever I want a little juicy goodness) to and tried out a Watermelon Cosmo. Watermelon juice (replacing, of course, the traditional cranberry juice), lime juice, vodka and triple sec make a nice summer martini to sip in the backyard. If you're not sure, a simple splashing together of watermelon juice and vodka would do the trick, try garnishing with a wedge of cucumber, which has similar flavour to the watermelon. Voila, a Watermelon Martini!

The drinks here are only a small sample of the many fruits available throughout the summer: there is so much more experimentation to do! Cheers!

Life in Bloom

Taking a break from the drama of forest fires and cooking disasters, I thought I'd simply share with you some of the beauty of a Northern Summer. I've captured some of the gorgeous wildflowers that can be found in Northern Saskatchewan in early-mid summer. Of course there are many more than these few, for example we get our fair share of dandelion and ragweed, and many tiny little flowers, but I just didn't feel the need to share these burdensome or miniscule plants here. Enjoy what I've pegged as the cream of the crop so far:

Some of the first blooms to appear are the Wrinkled Roses (Rosa rugosa), which showed themselves in mid-June and remained for about 1 month. They mostly flooded the roadsides, making the drive to and from town even more beautiful than it already was.

The Bunchberry flower (Cornus canadensis) reminds me a little of the trillium, which is the provincial flower of my home province, Ontario. The white flowers both like to grow in the shade of the woods, but the obvious difference is that the flowers have four petals instead of three.

This very common prairie flower is called Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). It also reminds me of home in that it makes me think of the experiments I did as a kid with Queen Anne's Lace; once plucked, the stems can be placed in water infused with dye and the white flowers slowly turn the colour of the dye. 

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) seems to spread like, well, wildfire. It can be found dotting most landscapes, especially meadow-y areas and roadsides. Update: after a few heavy rains the forest fires around here seem to have petered out...for now).

Here's a cluster of Fireweed at a bend in our walking trail. I love how it brightens up the greenery.

You won't find the lowly Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridium) in any bouquets or vases, but its soft pinks lend a romantic hue to the lush meadow scene.

These fragile flowers are called Smooth Aster (Aster laevis). They have a lovely purplish/blue colour and I think they're really cute. 

  

I have no idea what these little plants are; they're not even flowers, I know, but I simply had to include them here because I liked the look of them so! It's like a tiny forest in the meadow.(Update: I have since identified these weeds as Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) thanks to a  beloved and knowledgeable Aunt).

Northern Hedysarum (Hedysarum boreale) are vibrant pinks, blues and purples. I've only seem them on the side of the road, so they must like open air and slanted, gravelly banks. 

I'm not sure about these yellow flowers; they seem more like weeds than flowers but they line the road so beautifully and intermingle with the Hedysarum so nicely that I couldn't ignore them. As to their name, your guess is as good as mine.

These little daisy-like flowers grow easily in my backyard and around fences and roadways. The Scentless Chamomile (Matricaria perforata Merat) has become a nuisance to many, but I don't mind it's sunny little heads poking around the yard a little.

This stalk looks a bit like Lupin (Lupinus argenteus), but I'm not convinced that it is. Not only did it have the audacity to remain nameless, it was also swaying in the wind on the day that I saw it, so I couldn't get a clear shot of the thing. (Another update thanks to Auntie; these are actually Purple Fringeless Orchids (Platanthera peramoena), just so you know!)

I've saved my favourite flower for last. It grows on the Canadian Shield right beside the water, apparently happy with trading spacious soil for a spectacular view. It looks like some sort of Bellflower, possibly the Wilkins Bellflower (Campanula wilkinsiana). I think they're absolutely beautiful and I hope you have too!

Where There's Smoke...

It's that time of year again!

As summer has begun in earnest so have the forces that have the greatest potential to destroy a gal's Northern Summer...Forest Fires. Last October I wrote about a couple of fires that came within a few dozen kilometres from town. A few pieces of ash fell and I got a slight whiff of campfire for a couple of days. At the time it seemed scary, but after this past week I realize that my initiation into the world of forest fires was a mild one. Now we're in the big leagues.

This was the site that I beheld while taking the dogs for a walk the other day. Where I stood to take the photo is about 5 kilometres from town. I'm not sure how much further the fire is, but it's close. Too close. Last year I was disconcerted by thick smoke blanketing the sky, but I was still much to far away to actually see it billowing.

In the past few days there have been at least three separate forest fires burning close enough to town to require constant monitoring and combative action. In fact, there have been enough helicopters and water bombers buzzing above our heads to make the area surrounding our little Northern Town seem like a war zone. Which, I suppose, it is. One morning was particularly smokey like I'd never seen before. The most perturbing blaze was next to the only road out of town; this one was reported quickly and largely stifled. Or so I hope.

It's an eerie haze that subdues the sun in such a way. Interestingly, depending on the wind, a lot of the smoke over our heads is actually from a forest fire in Alberta (or several, perhaps, I'm not sure). Whatever its origins, this smoke has mirrored an experience that I had while being a tourist in Buenos Aires, Argentina. You see, whatever it is that they use to fuel their cars gets into one's nose and...well...some of its residue seems to stay there and...comes out in one's tissue. What I'm trying to say is that I had some sooty snot in my kleenex yesterday. Sorry. But it's true (oh like you don't look at your kleenex before you throw it out!).

The sun goes down on another day and we are still Up North to see it. There has been talk of evacuation, but nothing to serious at this point. A few years ago the entire town was flown out to Prince Albert and Saskatoon. Many stayed at the Univeristy of Saskatchewan campus, others with friends and family. In the end, the fire stayed away and residents were able to return to their homes, although not all were still intact. Sadly, some hooligans stayed behind and broke into multiple homes, which I suppose is inevitable during natural disasters.

 

Speaking of disasters, I once tried to make pasta without a pasta roller. I thought of blogging about it but it was pretty nasty so I didn't. I couldn't get the dough thin enough and the resulting ravioli was thick and gummy. I've included a picture, but I'm sure as hell not enlarging it like the lovely and successful pasta pictures included below. After a meal that was a little hard to swallow, I learned my lesson and vowed never again to make pasta until I had a pasta roller. Well...I got one! I found a great deal on a roller and two cutter attachments for my KitchenAid and didn't waste any time clicking "Buy".

Homemade Fettuccine and Alfredo Sauce

 

I decided to ease into pasta making after my overly ambitious ravioli, so I stuck to something simple like Fettuccine Alfredo. I found a recipe for the pasta from this link on the Food Network site. I had a few bumps along the way, including not making my flour well big enough for the eggs and they, well, my Eggs Ranneth Over! No worries, I eventually kneaded them into a workable dough. Rolling said dough was more difficult than I thought it would be simply because I didn't realize how thin the dough has to be flattened with the rolling pin first. The initial piece of dough got quite smashed and torn on its first few passes through the rollers, but after I got the hang of it, the pasta rolled smoothly from there.

I didn't use the alfredo sauce recipe from the webpage, instead I simply sauteed 4 minced garlic cloves in some butter, maybe 1/4 cup, then added about 1 cup of heavy cream and simmered, then turned down the heat and added almost 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese. A liberal sprinkling of freshly cracked pepper and a bit of salt finish the sauce. I've gotta say, freshly made pasta tossed in a from-scratch sauce and topped with some backyard parsley (fresh, of course!) was the best Fettuccine Alfredo I've ever had. Maybe I'm biased because I made it all, but I doubt it. And it didn't take as long as it would seem. Most importantly, cooking distracted me from the Smoke; not just in my kitchen for once, but in the Great Out-of-Doors. 

Now if making rain were as easy as homemade fettuccine!