Desserts

Skor Cake

With the last week of Claudia’s vacation coming to an end, I decided to make my all-time personal favourite cake. Sure…cheesecake is pretty good, and nothing can truly compare to an amazing piece of red velvet. But THIS cake is simply the best (sorry but I had to quote the Queen, Tina Turner there).

My brother and I were born 2 years and 1 day apart from each other. Growing up, we often shared birthday parties.  We actually still do to this day.  The one thing that Claudia did well was although we never really had individual birthday parties, we always had our own cake. Probably because she knew I’d throw a fit if I had a Superman themed cake and my brother would be the laughing stock of his friends if he had to have a Strawberry Shortcake themed cake. But I digress…

Skor Cake is now my staple birthday cake every year from Claudia. My brother also gets Skor Cake, but his typically comes from Dairy Queen in ice cream form. Again, even in adulthood, we still need to keep our birthday cakes different. I encourage you all try Skor Cake for your birthdays. Friends – you are worth it!

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Desserts

Pumpkin Scones

I realize that the spicy and savory taste of pumpkin is typically reserved for autumn when the weather becomes slightly cooler and you need something warm to pick you up – not when it’s +40 celsius with the humidity in August. As I mentioned in my last post, this is week two of Claudia being on vacation. This recipe is her most favourite that I bake and she requests it often. These scones are dense and almost exactly like the pumpkin scones you will find at your neighbourhood Starbucks. I was given this recipe from a friend of mine a few years ago. I’m actually not entirely sure where she found it, so I apologize if I’m not giving the proper recipe credits. In other words, please don’t sue me if this is your recipe. I’m just trying to be a good daughter, after all.

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Desserts

Blueberry Lemon Loaf with White Chocolate Icing

For the next few weeks, I am cooking and baking alone. Claudia has decided to leave me and head out of town for a well-deserved vacation. As she left, she gave me simple, yet specific instructions for the blog –  post her favourite recipes of mine that I make for her. Simple enough.

This first “on my own” recipe is a new addition to my baking repertoire. I’ve adapted this blueberry loaf recipe from Jen on her How to Simplify blog by adding lemon zest to the loaf batter and making my own white chocolate, lemon icing to go along with it. This recipe makes a dense, sweet loaf which is perfect for blueberry season. Onward!

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Dinner

Dill Potatoes

This particular recipe caused a lot of different philosophical cooking debates between myself and Claudia. The largest being that young garden potatoes should only be used in this recipe. ONLY THIS RECIPE. I learned this the hard way when Claudia called me up last week to tell me she dug out some “nice young potatoes” from our garden in Saskatchewan. When she told me this I was quite happy, as I had my eye on this great potato salad recipe that I wanted to make for her and my Dad the following week. BIG mistake. BIG. A mere two seconds went by after the words “use these young potatoes for potato salad” flew out of my  mouth when Claudia interjected with one word – “No”. Being quite a stubborn daughter and fond of debate, I then asked her why I couldn’t use the “young garden potatoes” for my potato salad. Her answer (said in a sarcastic ‘well aren’t you a piece of work’ response – quite possibly rolling her eyes at me): “Because, young potatoes are for dill potatoes only.” Fair enough Mom, fair enough.

Dill potatoes are very common in Ukrainian households. Maybe it’s because potatoes were a staple on the farm or in gardens. Probably because it was dirt cheap (no pun intended) to grow and cook with in general. Either way, they are so simple to make, yet so comforting and delicious. Best in summer when you have “young potatoes” and fresh garden dill. Now, when I asked Claudia her definition of “young potatoes” for this post, I didn’t get a really clear, definite answer. Essentially, they are potatoes that are pulled out of the ground at an earlier stage and not left to fully mature. P.s. they are delicious!

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Dinner, Healthy, Salads

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I will be the first one to admit that I can be pretty lazy when it comes to cooking. I would be lying if I said a tuna sandwich and basic salad (we’re talking chopped up romaine lettuce and salad dressing from a bottle) doesn’t find its way into my dinner rotation three-plus times a week. With summer here, and my own motivation for cooking dwindling, Claudia decided it would be best to share one of our all-time favourite salads. It is simple, colourful, and most of all – flavourful. Did I mention how easy it is? Seriously, the hardest part about this salad is grating some onion. I would have said slicing strawberries, but come on – grating onion is definitely more lackluster and not as glamourous as slicing strawberries. Back to the recipe!

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Uncategorized

Ukrainian food is good for you

A good friend of ours forwarded this cute article to us. Looks as though Snowflake the dog’s life was extended greatly by his fantastic diet of Ukrainian favourites, such as perogies, holopchi and nalysnyky!

We must agree, all that buttery deliciouness Claudia has been making all these years is good for something. At least for Snowflake anyways!

©Wendy Ducharme

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Desserts

Monster Cookies

Although Claudia’s chocolate chip cookies were the ultimate staple dessert in our house while growing up, monster cookies were a close second. As you can see in the picture to the right, I was quite a fan of the cookie dough while baking. I’m not entirely sure where I got the idea that eating raw cookie dough was a good idea. I blame my Dad. After all, he was always the one who would say “Jaime, can you make me some cookies”.  I was 5.  All I knew in the end was that cookie dough tasted amazing, and so do these easy Monster Cookies.

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Dinner, Healthy, Soups

Curryflower Soup

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Curry is not a typical spice in the Ukrainian chef’s arsenal. But this soup has been a great addition to Claudia’s cooking over the past few years. I didn’t really grow up having this dish, which is a good thing. Both me and my brother were pretty fussy kids growing up. If it wasn’t in the realm of BBQ hamburgers, perogies,  and my personal favourite – Cheese Whiz sandwiches (yes, believe it!), we weren’t eating any of it. So, if Claudia put this in front of us prior to 1996, we would have probably made such a fuss that she never would have attempted this dish again. That, in itself, would have been a tragedy.

Curry (and other Asian culinary influences for that matter), began showing up in our household well after us kids became adults.  Curryflower Soup is now one of the more “exotic” dishes  in regular rotation. Its mellow curry flavour and hearty vegetables are perfect for the rainy days of summer and the freezing cold temperatures of winter.

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Desserts

Special K Frosted Chews

This is one of the easiest and most delicious desserts in Claudia’s repertoire that I definitely needed to inherit. Although these are technically called “Special K” treats (I expect major props from Kellogg’s for the shout-out by the way), you can easily substitute any of your favourite cereals for this dessert. Rice Krispies would work well, but Claudia has insisted Special K is far superior to anything else out there on the market today. Enough said – you don’t question the expert, as I once again found out today. But more on that in a bit.

This dessert usually pops up as part of Claudia’s Christmas baking line-up. Each Christmas Eve, I raid the dessert platter to ensure the Frosted Chews are where they should be. Great frozen, these treats are still definitely much better when eaten when they are a little warm and melty from the assembly process. I simply cannot muster up the words to describe how amazing these little treats taste. For the little effort it takes to create these gems, I highly recommend you try these immediately.

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Dinner, Ukrainian Dishes

Nalysnyky

If you haven’t read the Inspiration section of this website prior to reading the rest of this post, I highly recommend you do. Mainly because it explains the copious amounts of sinful butter in this recipe. Well, it sort of does. It more or less justifies it as an essential in Ukrainian cuisine.

Nalysnyky (pronounced NAL-YES-NAH-KEH) is a staple on our family dinner table on all holidays. They are often made ahead of time and frozen until the day of the dinner event. I actually have never had them otherwise until I made this recipe with Claudia for the blog.  I have to admit, if you can, eating them fresh is the way to go. Nalysnyky is essentially cheese filled crepes (slathered in butter of course and baked). This recipe takes a total of one hour from start to finish and truly is worth every minute.

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