Return to St.Jacobs' Country 2012

We loved St.Jacob's farmer's market so much so we decided to return once again this year, even though it's usually an annual thing for us... (well actually we were headed to Cambridge, Ontario to pick up an awesome craigslist find AND had  already devoured the aged beef mennonite sausage that we picked up last time so it was worth another trip back to restock on sausage and yummy apples!)

My sister made gingerbread for the way, eating in the car is our #1 preferred activity, it's like a party on the road!!

Here's Anna Olson's Gingerbread recipe, super easy and always a hit!!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup fancy molasses

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp fine salt

1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup boiling water

   1. For gingerbread, preheat oven to 350°F (180 C).

   2. Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in molasses, lemon zest, then beat in eggs 1 at a time.

   3. Sift in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt, stirring until blended. Stir in sour cream, then boiling water.

   4. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 –45 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

   5. Cool cake for 20 minutes, before turning out on a cooling rack to cool completely.

   6. Serve gingerbread with sweetened whipped cream

Makes 1 9-inch square pan.

To make it extra special try coating it in chocolate ganache, it will harden into a nice layer on top, use the recipe from my peanut butter cake found here 

Last but not least I wanted to show off my lovely copper pots, a dear friend of mine sent them all the way up here from Denver, she is the sweetest!! (Hugs going out to "C" in Denver, Colorado)
I adore all things copper and have collected quite a few pieces already through thrifting, it's going to be the inspiration for my kitchen reno to work these pieces into the decor. 

St.Jacob's Country 2012

Seems a trip to St.Jacob's farmer's market has become our yearly tradition.   We love to make the trip west to visit the market and buy apples and of course those delicious apple fritters... it's always such fun!!

This year with all the rain we were worried the apples wouldn't be so good because I've been hearing this everywhere but we got a pretty good bunch of Ambrosia's and the fritters were delicious as always. Picked up a few other interesting ingredients for the first time like candy cane beets and black radishes (stay tuned to see what I can come up with)   I couldn't resist the blue potatoes and the bunch of Shiitake mushrooms (they're so healthy!)
We packed montreal smoked meat sandwiches, some sliced brie, my sister brought along some homemade oatmeal cookies that she baked and even though we originally went to st.Jacob's to buy apples I took some apples with me for snacking (check out the neat trick that I discovered for keeping sliced  packed apples from going brown) and of course we had to stop into walmart (just like the last year's trip, post here!) where we found these amazing non-alcoholic margaritas, we just loved them last year and so we continued the tradition and picked up some more along with the canned sangria's and had quite a nice lunch in the car.

Don't forget if you head over to St.Jacob's to check out the TWO antique markets, we thought there was only one but accidentally discovered another one this time.  Also the country bulk is really nice, it is right in the same building as the antique market and has an entrance on the side.  The saffron and vanilla beans are such a good price that I stock up whenever I'm there once a year.

If you want to make these apple fritters or fried apple rings try this recipe, it's one of the few I found online and from a show called "Ciao Italia" which I used to watch on saturday's on PBS's cooking lineup.  There is a video too on the site, here 

Fried Apple Rings

Anelli di Mele

INGREDIENTS

1 teaspoon active dried yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 F)

1/2 cup dry white wine at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pinch salt

1 cup King Arthur™ Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour

3 large (about 3/4 pound) Golden Delicious apples, cored and cut into 1/4-inch thick rounds

1/2 to 3/4 cup vegetable oil for frying

Confectioners sugar

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and allow it to stand for 5 minutes or until it looks chalky and bubbly. Whisk in the wine, sugar, egg, olive oil and salt. Mix well. Whisk in the flour to make a smooth looking batter. Cover and allow the mixture to rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

Dip the apple slices, a few at a time, in the batter making sure they are well coated.

Heat 1/2 cup of the oil in a skillet and, when it begins to shimmer, add the apple slices a few at a time. Do not crowd them. Fry them until golden brown on each side.

As they fry transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain. Keep them warm in a low oven until all the slices have been fried. Add more oil to the pan as necessary.

Transfer the slices to a serving platter and sprinkle them with confectioner's sugar.

Recipe courtesy of Ciao Italia