Marie Cookpad

  You are probably wondering why I am showing you a fish recipe on a Monday.  Two reasons really.  First, as it is Canada Day back home I wanted to cook a typically Canadian dish, and not just Canadian, but a Maritime type of dish, and secondly  . . . it will take you a few days of preparation to get this dish put together, so I am giving you a heads up!    Down East Fish Cakes.  There isn't a Canadian Maritimer worth their salt that doesn't love or know how to cook these fish cakes.  They have been a Maritime staple for many years.  These delicious potato and fish cakes use a traditional down east kitchen staple, Salt Cod.  It hails back to the years when the fishing industry was really big in the Maritime Provinces. Humble people are the Maritimers, and in years before refrigeration they would salt their cod to use in the off season.  This was a great way to keep the cod. All they had to do was soak it to regenerate it and it was fit to eat.  Funny Story:  It is said that dur

  Here in the UK as I write this, we are enjoying one of the nicest days so far this summer.  The sun is shining and the skies are blue, well kind of hazy actually.  Its one of the lazy hazy days of summer!     I was up especially early this morning as we had a Missionary Correlation meeting to go to at 9:30.   I baked some special muffins to take  . . .  Sugar Jam Muffins  . . .  but then we ended up not going because it had ended up that Todd had a bad night last night, one of those night where he had not slept a wink (according to him) but in any case he felt pretty blah. So I told him to go back to bed.     The recipe itself is an old handwritten recipe  . . .  the kind that you write down  . . .  shared from a loved one or friend.  With really brief instructions.  Sometimes only the temperature and cook time.  These are the best kind of recipes.  The tried and trues, but with such a brevity of instruction, you do have to have somewhat of a natural feel for cooking!    These are a

  Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, months, years?  This year is turning into one set back after another!  As you know my mother passed away in January, very suddenly.  That was really hard on all of us.  Just the worst.  We all know we are going to lose our loved ones one day, but somehow, when it happens, we are never prepared for it.    Then my oven broke, not once, but twice  . . .  and I was without a working oven for about 2 1/2 months altogether.  After that somehow, its still a mystery to me, my stick blender disappeared. Not the whole thing, just the motor for it.  And now today my electric mixer has blown up.  Right in the middle of making these  lovely desserts.  I apologise in advance for the crummy photos.  They are not as pretty as they might have been had I not had to beat up the egg whites by hand.   I had no sooner got everything ready to go, went to plug in my electric mixer and there was a loud bang.  Let me tell you I just about hit the ceiling!  Shocking

   This week in honor of the world's first Pickle-nic Week we decided to invite some good pickle-loving friends over  for a picnic lunch to help celebrate with us. A Pickle-nic shared is a Pickle-nic joy doubled!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!   Pickles are the perfect picnic food don't you think?  Sweet/sour/crunchy and perfectly portable!  Of course our weather these past few weeks hasn't been all that Picnic friendly, so for safety we planned a Pickle-nic worth indoor picnic and of course Mrs Elswood's pickles were the centre of our picnic table feast. They are the only pickle I have ever been able to find over here in the UK that compares in taste and crunch to the pickles I was used to from back home.  I miss the pickles from home and its so nice to finally have a tasty alternative here that I can munch on and enjoy just as much!    Their sandwich slices were perfect in my ham and pickle buns.  Such a simple make also, with plenty of salty ham, sw