Strawberry Blueberry Apple Crumble

Crumbles are my favourite way to use up fruit in the summer.  They are simple, fast, and most of all sinfully delicious!  I made this crumble last night as a spur of the moment dessert when I discovered that there were some strawberries in the fridge that seemed to be on their last leg.  To give the dish more substance and levels of flavour, I added in an apple and some blueberries and ta da! The perfect summer dessert! This dessert is also fairly healthy because there is only sugar, flour, and butter in the crumble topping.  There is no need to add additional sugar to the filling as the natural sweetness of the fresh fruit is heightened in the baking process.  I promise you, after tasting this crumble, it will become a permanent staple in your recipe box! 

Note: You may change this dessert up depending on what you have on hand and what fruit is in season.  Just try to balance flavours and textures. 

Note: Make additional crumble topping to keep in your fridge to add on top of baked apples or mini crumbles throughout the week.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, cut in chunks

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced

1 apple, cut in chunks

1 cup blueberries

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1.  Grease a 9 inch baking dish.  Combine fruit in a bowl and mix in cinnamon. Empty fruit into baking dish, making sure to spread fruit evenly. 

2.  In a food processor, pulse butter, sugar, and flour until crumbly.  Spoon crumble topping evenly over fruit.

3.  Bake at 375 º for 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold. (I prefer hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!)

Tea Sandwiches

Does it get more classy than afternoon tea with a close friend and petit sandwiches? Oh what a lovely way to spend the afternoon and catch up with a friend.  I don't know about you, but when I'm catching up with a friend, a quick bite to eat turns into several hours of continuous snacking. Somehow we never run out of anything to say and a large meal just tends to get in the way of our conversation.  Either your meal begins to get cold as you are telling a story, or you risk a serious class faux pas by telling your story with a bite of food still in your mouth! That's why an afternoon tea is the perfect environment for catching up! These dainty tea sandwiches allow you to take your time with your meal, which lets you enjoy the conversation just as much as the food.  

Tea sandwiches are very simple, quick to prepare, and generally do not require much ingredients.  Cucumber cream cheese tea sandwiches, in my opinion, are always a staple at any tea time, but from there I like to experiment with other types of sandwiches that will be served. Today I made a prosciutto tomato and bocconcini tea sandwiches to go with the cucumber ones. I always like to have a good balance of both vegetarian sandwiches as well as meat ones.  I had some leftover mini caprese salad that needed to be used up, which I thought would taste delicious with some salty prosciutto.  To add a bit more distinction between the two sandwiches, I chose to pan fry the prosciutto ones as well.  

Note: Both the cucumber cream cheese tea sandwich and prosciutto tomato and bocconcini tea sandwiches should be served immediately.  If left out, the cucumber sandwich will get soggy and the prosciutto sandwich will get cold. 

Cucumber Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches

Ingredients:

brown bread (preferably rye and thinly sliced)

cucumber

chives, chopped

cream cheese

salt and pepper

Directions: 

1.  Spread cream cheese on each slice of bread.  Amount of cream cheese depends on the thickness of the bread.  Set aside half of the bread slices.  Sprinkle chopped chives over the remaining half of the bread slices and cream cheese (you may also mix cream cheese and chives together before spreading).

2.  Using a mandolin, thinly slice cucumber into rounds.  If you do not have a mandolin, carefully slice cucumber with a very sharp knife.  Using a paper towel, gently dry off any excess moisture from the cucumber slices.

3.  Place cucumber evenly on top of cream cheese and chives.  Season with salt and pepper, and top with the reserved slices of bread with cream cheese. Carefully trim away crusts and cut into small rectangular or triangular sandwiches. 

Prosciutto Tomato & Bocconcini Tea Sandwiches

Ingredients:

brown bread (preferably rye and thinly sliced)

prosciutto

grape tomatoes, sliced

bocconcini, sliced

basil, chopped

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

cream cheese

butter

Russian mustard (honey mustard works just as well)

salt and pepper

Directions: 

1.  Mix together tomatoes, bocconcini, and basil with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, just enough to coat.  

2.  Set aside half of the slices of bread.  On the remaining slices, spread mustard.  Top evenly with prosciutto, tomatoes, bocconcini, and basil, making sure to drip off excess vinegar and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

3.  On the plain bread slices that were set aside, spread a thin amount of cream cheese.  Top prosciutto topped bread with cream cheese topped bread.  

4.  Butter sandwiches on both sides and pan fry on medium, until bread is toasted and cheese has softened. 

5.  Carefully trim away crusts and cut into small rectangular or triangular sandwiches. 

The World’s Grossest Food

Here is an interesting little article on some of the worlds grossest food.  Would you dare to try any of these?

Lemon Parsley Balsamic Tilapia

Whitefish is a type of fish that I am not very familiar with cooking. Thinking back on one of my favourite foods as a child and summers at my cottage, it's clear that I have definitely eaten my share of whitefish over the years through lots of orders of fish and chips. But it wasn't the whitefish that had my taste buds excited, it was the crispy batter hugging the fish combined with douses of malt vinegar that I loved. Whitefish doesn't have a lot of flavour on its own, but it has the ability to take on whatever flavour you choose to add to it. I decided to take on the challenge of making a light and healthy whitefish that would still delight my taste buds. It turned out to be much less of a challenge than I had thought. I found a very simple recipe for a tilapia marinade at RecipeZaar and paired my fish with a mini caprese salad instead of the greasy chips I have so any fond memories of devouring. After devouring this dinner with just as much enthusiasm as I had my fish and chips as a child, I would definitely make this light tilapia recipe again and would encourage you to try it out as well!

Note: To make the mini caprese salad, simply mix together halved cherry or grape tomatoes, mini bocconcini balls, chopped basil, a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and freshly ground pepper.

Ingredients:

4 tilapia fillets

2 garlic cloves (minced)

1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped)

1/2 lemon (including zest)

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 dashes Tabasco sauce

Directions:

1. Place parsley, lemon zest, and garlic into a jar. Squeeze in lemon juice

2. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Tightly close jar with lid and shake well.

3. Marinate tilapia fillets for 20-30 minutes.

4. Grill tilapia on medium for 5 minutes per side, making sure to let excess oil drip off of fillets before placing on grill. You may also bake tilapia for 30 minutes, or pan fry for 15 minutes.

I'll have another scoop!!

Sundays can be awfully gloomy.  I find I can never truly enjoy the day knowing that my weekend is about to come to an end.  Sundays are gloomy enough, but when the forecast reads 'cloudy with light showers,' the gloom level goes up a few notches.  Luckily this sunday the Weather Networks forecast, as well as my own personal forecast in terms of enjoyment for the day were wrong! My sister and I ventured out, with umbrellas stuffed into our purses, to go on an adventure through downtown Toronto.  I would take her to an area that I enjoy that she has never been to, and she would take me to an area that she likes that I have never been to.  This led me to take my sister to Leslieville in Queen Street East.  

I don't come to Leslieville very often, but when I do I always enjoy strolling around and checking out all of the little shops, cafes, and thrift stores.  This past Sunday happened to be the perfect day for walking around downtown.  It had not even drizzled rain all day, and the temperature was perfect.  It was warm with a light breeze, allowing us to walk around comfortably in a light jacket.  As the sun started to peek through the clouds, and we continued weaving our way through the shops, we began to notice that almost every single person was holding an ice cream cone.  This was clearly a trend that we needed to be apart of! 

A block later, our nose led us to the source of this popular ice cream that everyone seemed to be indulging in.  With the smell of fresh waffle cones wafting through the entire block, it would be hard to not notice Ed's Real Scoop.  Luckily there was no lineup inside so we were promptly greeted by a friendly member of their staff, who cheerfully offered us as many little sample spoons as we liked of their many unique and delicious flavours.  After much contemplation, I ended up choosing a regular scoop (they kindly allow you to have 2 flavours in one gigantic scoop, with no extra charge) of Red Hot Chili Chocolate gelato (what proper Red Hot Chili Pepper fan could turn down such a treat?) and Macaroon ice cream, and my sister chose a regular scoop of Bacio gelato and Macaroon ice cream, and, of course, we both got their hot out of the waffle iron waffle cone.  The name is not falsely advertising anything, this is the real stuff here at Ed's Real Scoop.  There ice cream and gelato is 100% natural, which means 100% full of big flavour! 

The Red Hot Chili Chocolate gelato has a smooth dark chocolate flavour that wakes up your senses as it slides down your throat and begins to heat up with the spiciness of the chili peppers.  The Macaroon ice cream is packed with shards of coconut and chunks of semi sweet chocolate with the perfect amount of sweetness, balancing out the spice of the chili peppers amazingly.  The Bacio gelato has the exact same bold flavour of Bacio chocolate, but smoother in its gelato form.  It is clear to see their dedication to delivering perfection to their customers in every little detail, from the mini marshmallow sitting at the bottom of each waffle cone so that the ice cream will not drip, to the flavour creator box that welcomes customers to submit flavour ideas for future ice cream and gelato flavours.  My delight in Ed's Real Scoop already has me planning my next Queen Street East adventure so that I can get my hands on another scoop! 

Ed's Real Scoop is located at 920 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON. 

Photo courtesy of blogTO. (I took my own on a disposable that needs to get developed...hmph!)