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L'il Sprouts

11/17/2020

Several years ago, I took part in the Food Bank Challenge, in which we were given a food hamper to live on for a week. To be honest, it wasn't great food. Old white bread, cheap "no name" garlic sausage, plain yogurt with a broken seal. Food I would never buy myself. I'm big on quality ingredients from local sources, and this hamper was not that. Except...

There was a container of Saskatchewan lentils.

Those lentils were my lifesaver. The first thing I did was start sprouts. It takes 5 days to get edible sprouts, so there was no time to waste. They were my vegetable. The green in my sandwich. The crunch in egg salad. The fresh in the bland. The grand in finale.

I discovered another great use for lentils I had never tried before. I took a recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese and instead of using ground meat, I used lentils. It was delicious. I still make it. And I still sprout, especially as winter sets in. The sight of fresh green food growing on my windowsill is a wonderful antidote to winter.

I know a lot of folks had a hard time with the Food Bank Challenge, especially those with young children at home. There were no easy convenience foods, nothing quick or pre-prepared. I survived the challenge because a) I like to cook from scratch and b) I like lentils.

Sprouting is easy. Here's how: Put 2 to 4 tablespoons of lentils in a jar. Cover with water and soak for an hour. Pour off the water. Every day, cover the sprouts with water, give them a shake and drain. By day 5, you'll have edible sprouts. The lentils will be soft enough to eat and the sprouts will be green and crunchy. After 7 days I put them in the fridge. Try it!!

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What's in a Cover?

11/16/2020

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Sure, we could have used a picture of Thelma with her camera. But instead, we used a picture of young Thelma with a book. Reading is so important to Thelma—in fact, you could say reading changed her life and led her down the path of photography.

In honour of Thelma, my publisher and I will donate $1 for every book purchased in 2020 to Read Saskatoon, the literacy change-maker in our community.

Thelma always believed in the power of reading. She read to her children, even when they could read themselves. When they left home, Thelma found herself in a mid-life depression, searching for new meaning in her life. She volunteered to read to seniors at the care home on her street. Listening to her read seemed to open the floodgates on their own stories. Thelma saw the pride and joy in their faces, and she wanted to capture that in photographs. The rest, as they say, is history…

Three major exhibitions (and a fourth coming up), Saskatchewan Order of Merit, a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award, and countless admirers of her positive message of creativity and following your passions to your destiny. As she said, at the age of 99, “It’s a good thing I found myself, or I would not be here today.”

Sheryl Harrow-Yurach, CEO of ReadSaskatoon: “We know one in three Saskatchewan adults struggle daily with reading and writing. Strong literacy skills are foundational to an individual’s economic, social, educational, and employment success. Even more significant, strong literacy skills are foundational to a family’s success. Children’s first teachers are their parents. Their home is the first classroom, and the community is their first school. And like Thelma and Amy Jo, and in the words of one our clients ‘Please get involved! You can’t afford not to. There is more to life than our own little space. Bringing community together through literacy makes our Saskatchewan families stronger because we never stop learning. Ever!’”

For those of you who have purchased a copy of Thelma, $1 is already in the kitty. Thank you!! For those of you thinking of a book for yourself or others, consider it a $1 gift toward the strength and success of the new readers—and their families—in our community.

Now, in pandemic lockdown, reading is Thelma’s lifeline to the outside world. The last time I was able to briefly visit, she was reading Guns, Germs and Steel. I took her the new biography of Sylvia Fedoruk, which truly delighted her. She’s probably read another three books since then :)

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A Sticky Situation

11/6/2020

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November 7 is National Kladdkaka Day in Sweden. Literally that means: National Sticky Cake Day. Literally: the best easy gooey yummy chocolate cake day ever.

Lucky for me, National Kladdkaka Day lands on the first winter blizzard of the year (predicted for Saskatchewan this weekend) so I predict I'll light a candle, pour a cup of coffee and cozy up to a nice slice of kladdkaka.

I recently made a dinner of Swedish meatballs with homemade lingonberry sauce (take that IKEA) and kladdkaka with whipped cream. So Swedish of me. Since discovering I have Swedish ancestry (through my grandma's grandma) I have been happily channelling my inner Swede one bite at a time.

But you don't need to have Swedish genes or a winter blizzard or a special day to get sticky with kladdkaka.

Kladdkakka – Swedish Sticky Cake
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch salt

1. Prepare your baking dish. Use a 9 inch/23 cm cake pan or tart pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper (or regular paper) to fit in the bottom of the pan. Butter the pan, set in the paper, then butter the paper. Also butter up the sides of the pan. If you don’t do this your sticky cake will stick. Heat oven to 350F.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan or the microwave oven. Whisk in the sugar.

3. Whisk the eggs into the butter. Mix in vanilla.

4. Shift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Fold the flour into the butter mixture until combined. It should be thick but not lumpy.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 20-22 minutes. The cake is done when the edges and crust are cooked but the centre is still jiggly. Kladdkaka should be soft and molten in the middle, but don’t worry if it’s not jiggly, it will still be delicious.

7. Cool cake before removing from the baking pan. Sprinkle with icing sugar, with or without a paper snowflake stencil, or serve with whipped cream with or without a sliced strawberry or other fresh fruit. Ice cream is good, too.