Cherry Hand Pies and Sour Cream Ice Cream
Dinner was a barbecue at Cheryl‘s tonight, where we both met Aimée of Under the High Chair, who was coming through town from BC en route home to Montréal, for the first time in actual 3D.
That’s us: Cheryl, Aimée, Me. They’re holding Mila and Matteo; the two three-year-old boys are trying to figure out how to blow up the house from the empty planter behind us.
Curiously we didn’t spend a whole lot of time alienating our husbands by huddling in the kitchen or chatting about food blogs and camera lenses and Twitter. It could be that we were too busy monitoring our collective toddlers, attempting to keep them from steamrolling each other (no need to mention which one might have been steamrolling the others) – in fact, an unassuming passerby might have fancied us a regular group of friends getting together on a Friday night until dinner came out, and we all pounced for our cameras, maneuvering around the picnic table like a bunch of girly Jedis, poking at food, turning it this way and that in the light. And the boys just stood back, silent, all accustomed to the pre-meal ritual. Mike even dutifully dressed his burger and asked if I needed a photo before he bit. I’m so proud. Snif.
Before dinner, there were sticks of watermelon and jicama to nibble on with dishes of chile-spiked salt to dip them in. Then Cheryl’s husband made the burgers (recipe: ground Hoven farms beef – that’s it. No egg. No breadcrumbs. No ketchup. No S&P.), which we topped with Elna Edgar’s asparagus relish (confession: I ate a serving of it straight up with a fork. I don’t think anyone noticed) and Cheryl’s homemade ketchup. Beside it, a romaine, grilled avocado and corn salad with chipotle Caesar dressing. The kids got bison hot dogs. (Aimée opted for a kid-sized burger, which looked like a slider.
I, of course, un-daintily opted for the fist-sized burger.)
For dessert she scouted out some actual sour cherries to make hand pies – another on my to-bake list. Her pastry was wonderful – I should have known someone so adept at making peroghies could handle pastry no problemo – and the filling was just right; not overly sweet, with a zero sog factor. You’ll have to wait until next week for her to retrieve the recipe from her brain and record it on her blog.
With it – ready for this? – oh wait, you already read it at the top – Sour Cream Ice Cream. It’s delicious. We guessed at first that it was buttermilk, on account of the tang – and yet it was pure white. Sour cream. Genius!
Before I go I have a few suggestions if you’re looking for ways to spend your long weekend. I’m sorry for the last-minute notice, but tomorrow is Food Day. I know! It’s like I’ve gone my entire lifetime without knowing Christmas existed. Food Day. How could there be such a thing and I don’t know about it? There are events going on all over Canada (but mostly out east – we need to rally the troops out here!) to celebrate local food, and Anita Stewart is extending an invite to the World’s Longest Barbecue. The idea is that you gather a few friends or family members (or strangers – what the hell) and sit down to a feast of the best local food you can find. Then share it on their website. I’m thinking lamb chops and chard.
Second – this weekend is the Summer Country Drive – a do-it-yourself tour of a couple dozen farms, U-Picks and other interesting rural locales. I’ll be making the rounds – The Blooming Fields has limited strawberries (expect this everywhere), but tons of saskatoons, peas, onions, Swiss chard, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, and probably mini tomatoes and beans. They also have Sunday brunch at 12:30, English high-society style, with a costume contest if you’re up for dressing circa 1920s. Edgar Farms is in the midst of super-sweet fresh pea season, and will have a petting zoo and bale fort, and are stocking the farm store with fresh Swiss chard, beets, spinach, lettuce, peas, and produce (like the asparagus relish I like to eat with a fork). A message from The Jungle Farm read: We will have lots of pickling cukes, lettuce, spinach, zucchini and summer squashes available this weekend as well as a great crop of lilies and u-cut flowers. We are also serving beef on a bun at our farm store, as well as home baked apple pies, Jungle farm chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and a large selection of jams, jellies, salad dressings, pickles and our home made naturally fermented sauerkraut. We will also have Innisfail growers vegetables including new potatoes and a selection of BC fruit at our farm store. Unfortunately it is too late for U-pick strawberries at our farm. We will be offering a hay ride tour of the farm and have a large playground for the children.
So there you go – as good a reason as any to hop in the car on a beautiful day and spend a few hours poking around some good local farms. And coming home with dinner. And letting us know about it! Happy Food Day!
Cheryl’s Sour Cream Ice Cream
AuthorJulie
Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth, or blitz in the blender for a few minutes. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Makes about 1L.
Ingredients
Directions
Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth, or blitz in the blender for a few minutes. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Makes about 1L.
Oh, lucky luck you! I met Aimee at the beginning of July in Montreal. She’s just lovely. Smart and gorgeous and very well versed on food and a delight to spend time with. Glad the Alberta chicks showed her a good time!
You Canadians and your awesome holidays. Chicago’s Casimir Pulaski Day just doesn’t hold a candle.
We’ll be heading out to Edgar Farms and others on the way to a housewarming in Red Deer this afternoon. Elna was wonderful with the kids last weekend and gave them a sneak peek at the hay fort – they’re excited to go back for the petting zoo… I’m excited to go back to get more peas hehe.
I’m off to my urban u-pick site. -My MIL’s back yard !
Raspberries, Saskatoons, Nanking cherries.
At 91 she needs help with the volume and the higher bushes. She can still out-pick anyone else in the family. Great advice on jam making, too.
Not even a mention of what you have going on with the watermelon; is that a salt/red pepper flake dip? Have a beauteous weekend with all the local produce that is coming out of your area right now. Ours, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, have been cooked on the vine this past week with temps of 109.
Enjoy very much the peeks into your life, and your ‘homegrown’ recipes.
Pat: yep – scroll up – before dinner, there were sticks of watermelon and jicama to nibble on with dishes of chile-spiked salt to dip them in.
This looks great.
I always put EVOO & Sea Salt & fresh Ground Pepper on my watermelon. I love this idea of dipping into this seasoning mix. Looks great. And the skewered watermelon idea is great too. 🙂
That ice cream looks interesting as well. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe w/ sour cream before. I’ll have to give that a whirl.
I can’t believe I will be stuck in a 747 on Food Day forced to nibble peanuts.Blech.
This meal was amazing! I wish I would have eaten more of everything, but those kids kept me hopping.
Great recap! I’ll be sending my readers here as my memory card was full, remember?
Lovely to meet you–I actually had ‘dinner with Julie’, how cool is that?
What a great host Cheryl was, too. An evening to remember!
Love the watermelon idea….what is the salt mix and the ratio…
That whole meal looks SO good! I LOVE avocado on a salad. I haven’t had grilled avocado though…I’ll have to try that!
I love your shirt in the picture! Where did you get it?
Sounds like an awesome meal with an awesome bunch.
People think I am nuts b/c I like salt on my watermelon. I shall have to show this this post — true foodies eat their watermelon with salt!
I had to show this post to my husband and my friend! They lol because this is the life they live around me. Especially the pre-eating photography ritual!!
What a fun time you all had.
Laura
It looks like everyone had a wonderful time. I love using sour cream in my home-made ice cream. It gives it such a unique tang. I’ve used sour cream & cream cheese to make cheesecake ice cream, too. I love ice cream – the sky’s the limit!
The watermelon with chili spiked salt looks great.
Everything looks/sounds absolutely delicious. From the picture-perfect bugers to the salty dip for watermelon. But truly, what could be better than cherry hand pies and sour cream ice cream? I think there’s no contest. Perfection.
Looks not only delicious, but like a fun visit too!
Everything looks awesome! Just made some of Cheryl’s pie dough up. Chilling it in the fridge until tomorrow when it’s cool enough to make some of those hand pies, I’ll be making blueberry!! YUMMMM!
Morgan – the shirt is from Banana Republic! On sale.
Thanks for introducing me to Cheryl’s blog…another Albertan out of Calgary but with a soft spot for Edmonton? I will try the vinegar pie crust dough today in Italian plum handpies!
Julie, do you think I could bake the blueberry hand pies on the Barbecue?
Looks like a great party! Love the menu, love the guest list. Wish I had a handpie to celebrate with ….oh well. My butt will thank me tomorrow for not being able to do that!
I couldn’t have said it better myself! So I shared the the ugly, er. prep bits of the day over on Backseat Gourmet.
We had a great time, only wish it was longer.
To answer the questions about the chili-salt ratio, I think it is to taste. Julie found it spicy, but the rest of us thought it was good (as Mila would say, “Come on, don’t be such a wussie.”) Phew, thankfully she didn’t say that to you yesterday! I used about a handful of chili de arbol to about a cup of salt.
PS Cherry Hand Pies for Breakfast! Yum. Recipe coming.
Ha! A handful for me would be about a cup.. now THAT would be spicy!
It’s OK, she could have called me a wuss to my face.. that’s what I was calling myself! I am a spice wuss. Although I am getting better. It could be that I dredged the watermelon (as I am wont to do with any sort of dip) rather than just poke a toe in.
For the record … Hand pies made on the BBQ ROCKED!!! I will never turn the oven on for pie in the hot hot weather again!!
I did not know they were visiting BC, this is where I live. Wow, what a great time you had. And the food looks delicious.
Christina – cool!! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to answer before you tried it – can you let us all know how you did it??
Looks like a fabulous time. Cheryl’s ice cream sounds wonderful too. She sent me a link to salted caramel ice cream and if the sour cream ice cream is half as good, you had a real treat!!
Hey Julie!
So it was super easy. I made 4 hand pies as you normally would, stuck them on a smaller baking sheet that would fit on the upper grill so they wouldn’t be on the direct heat. I used a baking sheet because I was worried it would get a sticky mess everywhere as they cooked and sure enough they did ooze as they cooked. Next time I may try using a tray made out of foil. I pre-heated the BBQ on high and then lowered it to med-low and baked them for about 30-40 minutes (I tried to keep the BBQ around 350 F. Worked beautifully!
Christina, you are BRILLIANT! I can’t wait to try this! makes sense – when you close the grill, it creates an oven environment! Maybe if there’s beef or pork cooking at the same time it would infuse the pies… mmmmmmmm
You could even plank a pie. HMMMM…