My Mom used to make a wonderful  beet dish. I remember it  having a pickled flavour and she served it with thinly sliced onions. She made everything she cooked look so easy, and I wish that I had her recipe.

I love beets and I have wanted to make something with them for a long time. On a recent weekend trip to my local farmers market I found, farm fresh beautiful beets. I was told that were picked  that morning.

I can’t recreate my Mom’s beets but making this beet recipe captures the essence of her cooking.

Ingredients:

2 large beets

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion (thinly sliced and caramelized)

1/4 cup goat cheese

1/4 cup toasted pecans

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions for roasting the beets:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Remove the stems and leaves from the beets. Wash and dry with paper towel.

Have enough foil to double or  triple wrap each beet. Place the foiled wrapped beets on a baking sheet and roast about 60 minutes depending on the size, mine were large.

Wear clean disposable or dish gloves to protect your hands from the colour and heat of  the beets. Remove beets from the oven, upwrap each and peel, the skin should come off easily.

Cube the  beets, pour the  olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Gently mix, and put on a baking sheet that has been prepared with a little olive oil.

Turn the heat to 425 F. and roast beets for about 25-30 minutes depending on the size.

Once cooled you can put your salad together. I layered starting with Boston leaf lettuce, topped with roasted beets, caramalized onions, toasted pecans and finishing with a sprinkling of feta cheese.

Tips:

Prepare yourself unless you like the colour red on your clothes, counter and cutting board. I used gloves when handling the beets, covered my counter with newspaper and my boards with parchment paper.

Add your favourite herbs and spices when roasting.

Serve the roasted beets as a side or main dish with or without the lettuce.

Can be enjoyed warm or cold.

It is always great to find a new twist to an old theme. I was remembering making zucchini boats years ago. They was delicious! But I couldn’t find the recipe.  Since zucchinis make such a great vehicle for a filling and I thought a rice mixture would work perfectly, especially since we are a rice loving family!

This recipe could be used as a side or main dish.

4 zucchinis (medium in size)

1 cup of Basmati rice cooked (about 2 cups cooked)

2 cups fresh spinach blanched and chopped

1/3 cup melted butter

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 clove garlic minced

3 eggs beaten

3/4 cup milk

8 slices of ham

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese topping

1/4 shredded mozzarella cheese for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a 9×13 inch baking dish

Cut zucchini lengthwise and scoop out inside flesh.

Place hollowed halves in the prepared baking dish.

Cut the ham slices in half and line the inside of the zucchini.

Cook 1 cup of rice drain and cool. Combine spinach, rice, melted butter, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, eggs, and milk. Combine well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fill each zucchini with the rice mixture, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes and then top  with mozzarella  cheese and continue baking until the cheese melts.

Broil briefly to brown the tops.

Tips:

I always use Basmati rice. You can substitute any rice you like.

Omit the ham for a meatless dish.

Add any dry spice of your choices for additional flavour.

Butter tarts are a distinctly Canadian summertime sweet treat. There are many different recipes and most of them are pretty good, but butter tart fans know when they taste one if it hits the standard of perfection they are after.

This is a recipe that I have tried to perfect over the years.  I can’t count the amount of tarts that I have baked as entries to our local fair. I try to think about who I am baking for. My brother in law John, likes  a drip down your chin, runny filling.  Our friend Mark who is recipient of the extras from my fair entries, likes a slightly oozy filling, with a thinner crust. Then there are the fair judges, those are the ones that I can’t figure out and I have come to the conclusion that it is a very personalized taste.

What I know now is that the butter tart lovers that I know will not turn down one of my tarts they just want to give me reasons to give it another go so that they have more to sample.

Here is my latest version. I adapted a recipe (for the filling) from a real Canadian chef named Anna Olsen. This one has my family and friends asking for more!

Ingredients

Pastry:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cups shortening

6 Tbsp cold water

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Cut shortening into the flour using a pastry cutter until the mixture is crumbly.

Pour cold water into the dry ingredients and form into two balls.

Lightly flour the counter top and roll the dough. A 4″ round cutter is the ideal size for your tart shells.

Tart Filling:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

dash of salt

3/4 cup raisins

Melt and stir the butter and brown in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture comes to a bubbling boil. Remove from the heat.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs maple syrup, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Slowly  pour into the hot sugar mixture whisking constantly.

Sprinkle raisins into the tart shells and pour the filling into each tart shell.

Bake the tarts for 10 minutes at 400 F, reduce the temperature to 375 F and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Cool for about 5 minutes in the tins. Twist each tart to make sure it releases, store in the pan until completely cooled.

Tips:

Adding a Canada Day touch to my favourite butter tarts. I used the leftover scraps from the pastry to make maple leaves. I took it one step further and used a leaf from my backyard to get the imprint…Just Amazing results!

For another good pastry recipe, follow the pastry direction on the back of the Crisco shortening box.

Nuts especially pecans work well combined or as a substitute for the raisins.