This recipe was inspired by Ron, the Wandering Shepherd. He makes fresh cheese curds and said they are great fried. He wasn't kidding. I pan-fried the curds in oil for a few minutes then threw them on a salad for lunch. You could use any cheese resembling halloumi. The cheese must keep its shape when cooked.
For vinegar I used our Wild Rose Vinegar, for which I used apple cider vinegar as a base.
Enjoy!
Serves 2
Salad
• Small handful of cheese curds • Few handfuls of arugula • 2-3 cherry tomatoes, quartered • Fresh chives or basil, chopped • Ground black pepper
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a small sauté pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the cheese and cover (the oil can be messy). Fry a few minutes on each side, until the cheese is golden and crispy. Toss some greens on each plate, add the tomatoes and cheese. Drizzle some vinaigrette, top with chives or basil and a twist of black pepper.
Apple Cider Vinaigrette
• 3 tablespoons olive oil • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar • 1 tablespoon honey • a small pinch of salt
Mix all the ingredients together.
Most of you probably know how to make a mojito, but when was the last time you did make one? Perhaps you don't have a muddler. Well, neither do I. What I do have, though, is the night off from work and a lifetime supply of mint leaves. See 
I adapted this recipe from an old cookbook called Kountry Kitchen Vol. 3., which I found in a used bookstore a few months ago. It seems to have been printed by one of Cape Breton's Presbyterian communities. Interestingly, most of the recipes are desserts, cakes, squares, pies, and candies. Only a few page are dedicated to actual meals.
Our mint patch has taken over the herb garden. The top canopy is almost chest-level, like a hedge. It has engulfed neighboring oregano and chives. Minty sucker scouts are popping up yards away. We act now or... deal with a worse situation next year. The strategy? Eat it.
I'll be cooking a few recipes with mint to keep the invasion in check until we feel like bringing out the big shovels. I did a stint of digging a couple of weeks ago to transplant a section of this leafy tyrant to a plot by the mailbox.
This first recipe is a simple tabbouleh, which can be made with bulgur or couscous--both are good. Some people find tabbouleh bland. I keep it interesting by toasting the couscous/bulgur.
One ingredient I use whenever possible is honey. 
Blackberries; one of the best known wild foods and the tastiest of all berries, in my opinion. These were picked in the yard this morning, and it seems we'll have a steady supply of them for a few weeks. The most common pairing of blackberries is with apples, but I've decided to keep it straight and make a Blackberry Oatmeal Cake, adapting an earlier recipe for 
Our new friend Walter is a master fly fisherman, and one of the most generous guys around (thanks again for the delicious trout!). And the plums that grow over at his place are hands down the best I've ever had. He collects up to seventy grocerie bags full a year, and this season he shared some of the bounty with us.
Although these plums are sweet and juicy by themselves, I couldn't resist making a chutney with them. I love a good chutney or compote. Whereas Jams are sweet, chutneys are by definition both sweet and sour. I used apple cider vinegar to boost the tanginess.
This morning we topped our french toast with some chutney. It was the perfect breakfast! You can also spread chutney on banana bread or even grilled meats, poultry or fish. You don't need a lot; a small spoonful goes a long way. I also find it to be better with a few hours of cooling time, as the wait gives flavors a chance to set.
We just bought a century old farmhouse on Cape Breton Island. As eager and excited as I am to unpack, August is one of the busiest months of the year at the restaurant. So without much time to fuss, I threw together this quick side dish, which you can also serve for lunch with cheese, toast or salad. I decided to bake fresh garden tomatoes (from Bridget's parents, who just moved a load of stuff up here--thanks guys!) with a few herbs that were already established on the property; chives, oregano, sage, mint, thyme, lavender and rosemary.
Mixing together a lot of different herbs can be tricky, even suprising. To have a good balance of flavours you need to dose accordingly. Taste the herbs and ask yourself which is strongest or most pungent. Decide how much of each flavouring you want. Careful with herbs like thyme and rosemary, they tend to give most of their fragance once they are cooked. Tomatoes go well with oregano, so I used more of that.
Infusing vinegars is easy. All you need is a jar, some vinegar, and one or more of your favorite herbs, flowers or spices. Here, beside the house, we've got whole hedges of wild rose (Northeastern rose or Rosa Nitida), and there are thickets of blooming elderflower down by the river. Why look further.
A month from now we'll have a deliciously floral vinegar to use in salad dressings and other sauces all through the winter.
You can also infuse vinegar with herbs like thyme, rosemary, tarragon, oregano or sage. If you have nasturtium, that tastes great too. Some people use plain vinegar but I prefer white wine or apple cider vinegar, which have a smoother finish and more depth of flavor. Don't discard the pickled flowers. Those are tasty too.
As you may have noticed, wild mushrooms are starting to pop out. One of the tastiest 'shrooms you can find on Cape Breton Island is the Chanterelle (mushroom ID info 
Chanterelles and Turnips
I love making fish and chips on the porch with my little camping propane stove. Cooking outside is one of the great joys of summer. If you have a fryer, this recipe will be quite easy. If you're going the old-fashioned way, it can be a bit tricky.
Two of the most important things: the oil and the temperature. Use an oil with a high smoke point like peanut or sunflower. You also need to make sure your oil is always hot. Otherwise you'll end up with a soggy mess. So don't fry too much at a time, that brings down the temperature. Just remember, good oil and hot oil will make quality fried goodies.
No one seems to know for sure where this application of "fool" originates. It does, however, reference something ridiculously tasty. Fruit fools couldn't be easier to make, and they are a favorite dessert at the Inn. Serve yours with either ice cream (good for summer days) or fresh whipped cream. I tend to cook and eat recipes for the blog in the morning when the light is best for taking pictures, and I must say this goes very well with a French-pressed coffee.
Thanks to the neighbor down the road for the heritage rhubarb!
Enjoy!
Why not right? Runny egg yolks make great salad dressing. I made this the other day with a suillus mushroom foraged by Earlene from the Inn. She told us that the suillus goes really well with eggs. So I went ahead and put together this salad, topping it with the mushroom sautéed in butter, garlic, and fresh herbs. Yum. Feel free to top your breakfast salad with whatever you have around; toasted nuts, cheese, smoked trout, crispy bacon...
Enjoy!
These little strawberries are ripening fast, and in a couple of weeks the boom will be over. Yesterday we went picking with the idea of making pies. Wild strawberries (also known as wood strawberries) grow in a bunch of different areas--on roadsides, along rocky river beds, in open fields and forests. If you take a walk this week, chances are you'll see some. But be warned, unless you find a really good patch, filling a whole jar can be seriously time consuming. I decided to make small individual tarts (3" in diameter) because picking enough for a normal pie would have taken us the entire week. I do prefer the wild strawberries to the giant-sized ones you find in the store, but that's a personal thing; their taste reminds me of the jams my grandmother used to make.
Enjoy!
Now I know "hummus" means chickpeas, but really we use the name for anything resembling a beany dip. I've tried many sorts of beans and the white (or white pea bean) really works for me. Instead of the usual smooth tahini, I've toasted sesame seeds, which gives this hummus a little crunch. For a spicy kick I also added some hot sauce. You could easily put more or less, depending on the level of hot that you enjoy. Also, the recipe yields 4 cups, which may seem like a lot, but trust me, you'll go through it fast enough.
I don't eat beef often, but when I do I like it to be a thick, juicy steak that's packed with flavor and served with a couple of buttered veggies. Caramelized onions are a great topping for steak. They are so versatile and adaptable. Sweat them, grill them, brown them... they can be found in a wide range of recipes. Onions are cooked so often here that we have a running joke about it. "Mmmm, something smells good..."
Just how sauteeing onions can turn the ham-handed novice into a fantastic cook, marinating your meat can turn a cheap cut into something quite delicious. Marinating adds flavor but also acts as a tenderizer. Here, the acidity in the wine will tenderize the meat by breaking up the bonds that hold the proteins together, this is also called denaturing.
"Contentez-vous de peu et vous serez toujours heureux."
My parents came to visit this week and so did my girlfriend's family. We all had a great time together, enjoying the scenery, the food and a few drinks. Since the weather has been so chill and the water so cold, we also went oystering and musseling. One afternoon we set out at low tide and returned a little later with no less than eighty oysters and sixty mussels, all of them wild, fresh, and mind-blowingly good. We ate the shellfish on the back deck, now also known as the Weekend Oyster Bar.
These twice-baked sweet potatoes have crispy, carmelized skins and a smooth tangy filling. Add a dollop of crème fraîche and indulge. Don't ask me why crème fraîche is so hard to find. Until I started making it myself (cultures are from 
Serves 4
One of my all-time comfort food favorites is the grilled cheese sandwich. No surprise there. This is my second post on that heavy-sitting delicacy. One of the three cheeses here is my own, a homemade goat cheese. Cheese is easier to make than you'd think. You should check it out. The other cheeses are the cheddar and parmesan leftover from my Pinwheel Loaf. Let's hope that one day I am making all my own cheeses. For now, one at a time. The whole wheat bread is also homemade and I'll probably post the recipe here because the results are well worth it -- depth of flavor and a nice crust.
Instead of using pine nuts in the pesto, which come most often from the far end of the world, I used sunflower seeds. They're just as good, cheaper, and they grow closer to home. Use any herbs that are available; pesto is also good with parsley, chervil, and even chives.
This idea came from my girlfriend, whose mother used to make pinwheel loaves with pepperoni. What gives mine a sharp, salty flavor is the cheese; a mix of strong cheddar and aged parmesan. This is perfect as an appetizer, cut on a board into 1" slices, or for lunch with a crispy salad. I used King Oyster mushrooms because of their meaty texture and taste, but you could use any kind. I can't wait to go foraging for mushrooms this summer. Then I'll be making mushroom pinwheels and other recipes with chanterelles, king boletes, and shaggy manes.
Enjoy!
