A new Christmas tradition Rock Buns

A few years ago I purchased The Gentle Art of Domesticity *by Jane Brocket (at the recommendation of my friend Jill on a post I cannot now find on her blog) as a gift for  Mary, my husband's mother and a good friend of mine (I dislike the term Mother-in-law).  Mary and I love this book , because it is all about crafting and creature comforts.

One of these such things is Rock Buns, which have now become a seasonal treat in our house that are much enjoyed warm out of the oven with a glass of scotch.

They are sort of like scones or a giant cookie made with candied fruit and peel, and lots of spices. They are nothing like fruit cake, but are very rich and sweet (made with brown sugar), our whole family loves them.

All that being said I am not going to post the recipe, because I feel they are a unique recipe (maybe only in Canada) and needs to go along with the story in her book of the place they have in their (the authors) family.

My own mother visited Mary and discovered the book as well and so I sent her a copy last Christmas.
Recently I purchase Jane's newest book Turkish Delight And Treasure Hunts  for Mary's birthday, which features recipes from children's books. I have not read it yet, but Mary says it is quite cute. I did take a peak and the first recipe was Pickled Limes from Little Woman, which I have always been curious about and am dying to try.

*Note: If you do purchase this book, beware that when converting the recipes from English to American measurements there were some errors made and you should print a copy of the corrections .

Oreo Cookie Fudge

This is an amazingly tasty recipe from my friend Carrie who makes it every Chritmas and gives to her (lucky) friends, she has moved to Ontario so this year I will have to make it myself.....and possibly share. Carrie made it in the microwave (you could to), but I choose to make it on the stove. I am just waiting to buy a really square pan as my 8x8 has really rounded edges that make weird bars.

Anyways, an easy recipe, great for sharing and even better for eating.

8 squares of semi-sweet  or unsweetened chocolate or the equivalent in chocolate chips


1 can of sweetened condensed milk (evaporated)
2 tbsp vanilla extract

10 Oreo cookies cut into chunks

parchment paper


Put condensed milk and chocolate in sauce pan and heat for until choclate is melted. Stir. Add vanilla. Stir. add cookie pieces. Stir


Pour into a parchment lined 8x8 or 9x9 square pan. Cool in fridge. Cut into squares.

Apple Crisp

I can never find a good Crisp recipe when I want one, so I now have my own formula for a really good Streusel topping; I like it with big crunchy pieces. This is quick and only uses one bowl, so there is not a lot of clean up. It is also a tasty breakfast the next day.
Filling

3-4 apples (I use Gala-if using other kind of apple they may require more flour as Galas do not have a lot of juice)
¼ C Flour
1T White Sugar
2 t cinnamon

Topping

1/3 C Flour
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
¼ C Butter
½ c Cup Oats

To do
Peel, core and slice apple and mix in a bowl with remaining filling ingredients.

Arrange apples in greased pie dish or other smallish casserole dish (8x8), pour any remaining flour over top of apples.
In same bowl cut butter into flour and sugar until crumbly and mix in oats. Pour over apples and pat down.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serves 2-3

All Things Pumpkin

One of my favorite things about fall, is all the pumpkinny flavorued things that are available, pumpkin spiced lattés, pumpkin scones, pumkin ravioli…to name a few of my favorite.

I thought I would list of few of my pumpkin endeavors and one that I plan to try when I carve up my pumpkin that has sat on our dining room table for all of October as our decorative centre piece.

Pumpkin WafflesThese I tried last year or the year before and they were a keeper. They are absolutely delish with butter and maple syrup. This year I made and froze some for Lochlan and then I can just pop them in the toaster for a quick yummy snack or lunch.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins with Streusel Topping
These I made a few mini ones, and a few loaf shaped ones and I have to say they were so rich, I should have stuck with a smaller size, the mini loaves were waaaay too intense. Also the Streusel topping was a bit much, they would be just as tasty without it I think.

Pumpkin Pasta from Jamie Oliver's website
I may make some adaptations to this, but will post later on how it goes.

Gingerbread Cupcakes With Lemon Butter Cream

I made these gingerbread cupcakes courtesy of Martha Stewart and then used a Lemon Butter Cream Recipe of my own devices.

Lemon Butter Cream

6T (6 oz) Butter
3 Cups Icing Sugar
Lemon Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from one Lemon


Whip butter until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes) with electric mixer, add sugar 1 cup at a time. Icing will be quite stiff, add zest and juice and beat another 3 minutes. Pipe onto cupcakes.

My mother in law has the Squeeze-It Kit from Tupperware, and it ices cupcakes really well and doesn't (in my opinion) waste a lot of icing. I thin the next time I go to a Tupperware party I will order one.

Best Oatmeal Cookies

My mother in law, Mary, made these and I liked them for Lochlan because they are a nice round shape and are not super crumbley (come on, it is oatmeal so donèt quote me on that). I make them with raisins for Lochlan and choclate chip for his dad.

Butter ½ C

Brown Sugar 3/8 C
White Sugar 3/8 C
Egg 1
Soda ½ t
Flour 1 & 1/8 C
Oatmeal 1 C
Raisins or chocolate chips or ? 1 C
Cream butter well. Add sugars gradually. Add egg, cream well, add soda, flour and oatmeal, mix well.
Stir in raisins etc. Roll in to 1 T balls and flatten onto greased or non stick pan. Bake for 8-9 minutes at 375.
Cool on rack.

Chocolate Sauce

I found this recipe for Chocolate Sauce and it is pretty good considering it has no butter or cream. We used it on icecream last night and today I used it with hot milk to make HoCho and it worked really well, just thought I would share.

Variations on Lemon Loaf

So I was making Mrs Stratfords Lemon loaf a few days ago and wanted to mix things up a little and couldn't decide between adding blueberries or chocolate chips. In the end I went with blueberries, with amazing results. I also mixed things up a little by baking it in a round bundt pan instead on a loaf pan again, it was a nice change.
Today I needed to bake something and thought I would go for chocolate chips but it turned out we had no lemons, so I used a Honey Tangerine...SO GOOD! Again I went with the round pan which l;ooks pretty and makes nice little pieces. My coworker Sabine somteimes made a Nutella cake that was something similar so I think next time I will leave out the citrus and try swirling the Nutella in the batter.

Tiger Butter Memories

This is a recipe that has been around however I didn't peg it down until visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Vernon. Brent and I had a beautiful evening with his brother Steve and Steve's wife Deb. We ate Christmas goodies chatted, laughed, and soaked in their outdoor hot-tub under the stars with snowflakes frosting our hair and our eyelashes. Before we went home that night Deb wrote out two Christmas goody recipes for me, this being one of them.

This summer Debbie passed away of cancer, as I made this recipe this week I've been thinking of her. Food is a wonderful memory-instigator and I think using and sharing recipes is a beautiful way of remembering those we love (near and far). When you use this recipe I invite you to think of those who have shared something sweet with you...

"1 lb (2 C.) white chocolate
3/4 C. peanut butter
2 oz dark chocolate

Mix white choc. w/ p.b. melt in double broiler or microwave. Cover cookie sheet w/ wax paper. Pour melted mixture onto cookie sheet. Melt dark choc. Pour & swirl thru."

Note: I usually add my own revisions to a recipe but this is the exact wording from the index card Debbie copied for me.