With Christmas around the corner and families staying put, it’s beginning to look a lot like a different kind of holiday season. Lots of things are up in the air and I’m not talking flying. Life as we knew it is a little blurry right now. I’m trying to look at the positive, but with so many small businesses getting shut down again and struggling to survive, it can become dispiriting. “This won’t last forever,” encouraging as it sounds…is not soon enough. We should help to save lives while also saving livelihoods. We have to take care of ourselves the best we can. Little things here and there help to uplift our spirits.
So I’ve made cookies. Lots of cookies. Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin with Indian spices, Thumbprint with Jam, Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chunk and finally holiday shortbread. The one with the least amount of ingredients and the most challenging.
This one is a Martha Stewart original. The only thing I’ve changed is instead of using granulated sugar I’ve substituted with organic cane sugar. They’re really yummy. My added touches: some are cut out round and sprinkled with chili cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar. Or; should you decide to melt chocolate, you can dip half the cookies in the chocolate, as shown.
Shortbread Cookies with Cardamom
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground *cardamom
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar (original recipe calls for using granulated).
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Whisk flour, salt & cardamom in a medium bowl.
Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in Vanilla.
Reduce to low, and gradually mix in flour mixture.
Press the dough into a 10” x 15” rimmed baking sheet on top of parchment paper. (the recipe doesn’t call for this but this way turns out being a lot easier to work with the cookie dough).
Press parchment paper onto surface and smooth top. Remove top parchment; wrap sheet in plastic. Refrigerate 30 minutes. This will help the dough become harder and therefore easier to cut into cookie shapes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using snowflake (and other) cookie shape cutters, cut out cookies, and arrange by size on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
Sprinkle with sanding (icing) sugar. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes.
Let cool on sheets on wire rack.
You can freeze what you don’t immediately eat. I freeze all my cookies. Once thawed they’re as good as new. Enjoy!
*Cardamom is a spice made from the seed pods of various plants in the ginger family. Cardamom pods are spindle-shaped and have a triangular cross-section. The pods contain a number of seeds, but the entire cardamom pod can be used whole or ground. The seeds are small and black, while the pods differ in color and size by species.
Canadian Thanksgiving is this coming Monday, October 12th. With whomever you decide to celebrate with, be it friends or family in your small group – here is an easy and delicious little recipe to add to your dinner. Or; just have them for breakfast or afternoon tea.
photo: d. king This plate belonged to my grandmother.
I used Wensleydale cheese only because I was looking for a good way to use up this cheese which is one of my least favourites, and I love cheese. This type of cheese is not easy to spread on crackers as it crumbles and it has a slightly sweet taste. However it’s awesome in this recipe. You can also use aged cheddar or a combo of cheddar/parmesan. I bet Gruyère would be good too. This recipe was supposed to be scones but I think they turn out more like biscuits. The lavender pepper is a nice added touch and something I’ll continue to use.
Cheese Biscuits with Lavender Pepper
Ingredients
1¾ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
5 Tablespoons cold butter, cubed
¾ to 1 cup buttermilk
1 cup shredded *Wensleydale (the one without cranberries) or other cheese
1 ½ teaspoons dried, culinary lavender flowers (or use 1 teaspoon fresh lavender flowers)
1 tsp. **Lavender Pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a shallow mixing bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and lavender pepper.
Add the cubed butter and cut into the flour using a pastry cutter or a fork until butter is about the size of small peas.
Stir in the buttermilk, a quarter of a cup at a time, until it forms a wet dough. Stir in the cheese until completely combined.
Scoop onto a baking sheet by large spoonfuls and bake 12 to 15 minutes until tops are golden brown.
photo: d. king. Adding red chili pepper spread is yummy.
*Fun Facts: According to the official website of the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, a.k.a. the company that produces Wensleydale Cheese, the first people to make this particular dairy delight were French Cistercian monks back in the 12th century. After arriving in Wensleydale and the nearby surrounds, they set about making their cheese, albeit with ewe’s milk rather than the cow’s milk typical today. I say Ewwww!
Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit fame) is an advocate of a good hunk of Wensleydale, but did you know that the Aardman Animations shorts helped revive the company back in the 1990s? It’s true! The brand was floundering, but animator Nick Park’s (coincidental) decision to namedrop Wensleydale Cheese helped boost sales. You can now even get Wensleydale Cheese wrapped in Wallace and Gromit branded packaging.
Another fun fact: I never watched Wallace and Gromit – but I think this marketing ploy was genius.
**To make lavender pepper combine black peppercorns with lavender flowers (half and half) and grind together using a clean coffee grinder or herb grinder.
The lavender works surprisingly well with pepper, offering a flowery note that stands up to the peppery bite without the bitterness. Also good to use on pork, chicken or beef.
This is not a conventional winery. For good reason this is perhaps the most visited and extraordinary award winning winery in Canada.
photo: d. king
Located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Summerhill has a breathtakingly extensive view overlooking Lake Okanagan coupled with an organic farm-to-table bistro offering culinary creations by award winning chef Jeremy Luypen who works closely with local farmers and growers (I had lunch there and it was excellent) and of course there’s the wine…
great setting for a wedding reception wouldn’t you say? Photo: d. king
Brut on the Beach
Recently I was very fortunate to be a guest of Summerhill’s most interesting and entertaining proprietor Stephen Cipes and his gracious wife Rie at their lakeside home. It was there, and at the winery tasting room that I got to sample most of the Summerhill wines (all of them organic by the way) that I was not familiar with. What a treat!
Before this I cannot believe that I was accustomed to only drinking Summerhill’s “Alive” label red and white wine (also vegan) bought at my local wine shop. Back at the winery I discovered so much more. I liked the Robert Bateman series Merlot the best out of all the reds and ended up buying several cases of a mix of red & white varietals with a few rosé & bubbly thrown in. I’m really picky regarding rosé wine, however for me, theirs is the best I’ve come across to date. It’s a gorgeous coloured medium-bodied delight. Plus it’s still summer and Rosé is a solid summer staple. We enjoyed a few bottles at my friend Margeaux’s after leaving Kelowna and moving onto Castlegar.
On their website I discovered so much more information which I’ll share a bit with you below. For full story you can visit: https://www.summerhill.bc.ca/
The Summerhill *Pyramid is second only to the Great Pyramid of Egypt for alignment and precision. Please see link below for the incredible description because the story is quite amazing.
Photo: d. king
Driven by conscience and passion:
A former New York commercial real estate developer, Stephen Cipes was the recipient of the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, seemingly more a spiritual visionary than Wall Street hard-nose. One day he just decided to pick up and leave the rat race for cleaner living. With a dream and a vision, the Cipes family bought Summerhill Vineyard in 1986, and moved to Kelowna from New York the following year.
Stephen had a vision to preserve the pristine conditions of his family’s new home in spite of the rapid agricultural and civic development. To protect the Okanagan’s lake and inhabitants, Cipes set out to prove that organic wines are better in every way – in the way they taste and make you feel as well as in their impact on community and environment. The result is that Summerhill has been a hub for organic viticulture in Canada.
“Be a conduit and allow your vision, your dream to come through – and fortify it every day.” – Stephen Cipes.
Photo: d. king
Almost as soon as the Cipes family arrived, the vineyard was transitioned to organic maintenance and replanted with European vinifera winemaking grapes imported from France and Germany.
Summerhill’s first experimental crush of wine was in 1990. This was the same year as the formation of BC VQA (Vintners Quality Assurance), in which the Cipes family took an active role developing. Preliminary meetings to form VQA were hosted by the Cipes family at Summerhill Vineyard.
Stephen’s New York business sense drove the tiny Okanagan wine industry forward in those early years by focusing on making traditional method sparkling wine, producing the most expensive wines the valley had seen to that point, creating the region’s first destination tourist attraction winery, and by bringing international attention with write-ups and glowing wine reviews in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Photo: d. king
His vision was that the pristine Okanagan valley, the northernmost desert viticulture region in the world, had the potential to make the finest wines in the world and bring pride to all Canadians.
Summerhill has accomplished a long list of “firsts” on the way to making this vision a reality.
We are Okanagan Valley pioneers in making organic wine, ultra-premium quality wine, and in establishing the model of a tourism destination winery in this beautiful place. We have worked with our provincial government to change rules so as to allow wineries to cater to wine tourists, establishing over twenty new policies for the entire province including the allowance of restaurants at BC wineries.
Our team members have sat on boards and committees to help draft the national organic standards for wine in Canada, and we have worked with the BC chapter of Demeter to certify the first biodynamic vineyard and wine in our province.
We have integrated Permaculture design principles into our farm and business.
The Summerhill Pyramid is the first wine cellar in the world to knowingly integrate sacred geometry for the benefit of the wine.
Summerhill uses no animal byproducts in its winemaking, and is therefore vegan friendly. Some animal byproducts commonly used in winemaking include fish bladders, gelatin, egg whites, milk, and milk byproducts. Summerhill uses none of these ingredients in our wine.
We were once asked whether our Biodynamic practices are vegan friendly. Some biodynamic preparations are made with animal parts, and our farm composts are made with animal manures. These animal parts are not in the wine or in any way touching the grapes. They are used as a medium to create beneficial soil bacteria that aid processes in the grapevine’s immune system. We must leave it to each individual vegan to decide whether the biodynamic preparations are a deal breaker or not.
“Be whole unto yourself at all times, and envision the world in which you want to live.”- Stephen Cipes.
The man is full of surprises. He wrote a book I’m now reading called “All one Era“. I’m delighted to call Stephen & Rie my friends.
Since we’re in the heart of blueberry season I thought it timely to offer you this delightful tasting muffin recipe courtesy of my friend Lynn. She made a batch and we went through them in no time.
These are, in my opinion, the best tasting gluten-free muffins using healthy ingredients. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Ingredients:
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 large egg
¼ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1 ½ cups spelt flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ cups frozen or fresh blueberries
4 Tbsp. melted butter
Pre-heat oven to 375F.
Line or grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl whisk together yogurt, egg, vanilla, milk + honey.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Add blueberries. Toss to combine.
Add the yogurt mixture, the melted butter and stir until just combined. Do not over mix.
Portion the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until tops spring back lightly to touch.
Let muffins cool for a few minutes in the tin before removing them to a cooling rack.
Don’t you love blueberries? There’s so many ways to celebrate them. They go with just about everything from cereal and smoothies to enhancing cocktails like sangria. One of my favorite cakes is a blueberry/lemon. The lemon compliments the blueberries really nicely. Blueberries are delicious, they’re loaded with vitamins and look so pretty. What’s not to love?
BC Blueberries are a big deal for British Columbia. Blueberry Day is a way to show appreciation for our province’s hardworking BC blueberry farmers while commemorating the start of the fresh season.
Annually, the BC Blueberry Council begins fresh blueberry season in July. With more than 600 high bush blueberry growers covering more than 30,000 hectares across the province, this is a busy time for the BC Blueberry Council and its members.
Pick your Own Berries
BC Blueberry farmers are offering U pick this summer under special COVID-19 protocols – find the farm closest to you on GoBlueBC.ca.
Restaurants, caterers, and chefs across the province are getting behind BC Blueberries with special menu items. The full list will be published online at GoBlueBC.ca.
For ways on how to incorporate the super berries into your daily routine, visit bcblueberry.com and visit their social media pages @bcblueberries.
BC Blueberry Day is a way to remind us that we should celebrate BC Blueberries all year long. Whether fresh or frozen, BC Blueberries are a versatile pantry-staple that should always be at the top of every shopping list.
…plain old apple cider, while still nicely refreshing, is so last century.
Photo: d. king
Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood welcomes a new player to the vicinity with Vancouver’s first cider tap house and eatery…aptly named The Cider House. We’re lucky to have them.
Photo: Tamara Gauthier
I went to their soft opening last Friday with my friend Tamara and we were both pleasantly surprised to see their extended selection. In fact I wasn’t sure which cider to sample first so I decided to go with a flight of four different types from their extensive tasting menu. Blackberry Hibiscus, Rosé , Passion Fruit and Oak Aged. All made in house; all excellent. Tamara sipped on their local apricot cider.
The food menu looks good too, but I’ll have to go back. For their opening they ordered pizza from Virtuous Pie on Main St. Can’t complain.
Me taking a photo of a pretty patron. Photo: Tamara GauthierPhoto: d. king
The Cider House offers something fresh, good menu, casual charm, welcoming staff, friendly clientele and the location…
Courtenay & Stephanie. Photo: d. kingPhoto: Tamara GauthierThe location. Photo: d. king
Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting.
Cake is for all Occasions. Cake is good for Grieving. Cake is good for Celebrating. And if you’re like Marie Antoinette, it also comes in handy for fending off revolutions.
I’ve been eating a lot of cake lately. Thanks to my friend Tammy and her sister Shelly who’ve started a home baking company featuring a slew of the most delightful varieties.
Tammy Preast (l) and Shelly Dueck (r) Two Twisted Sisters
An amazing assortment of two-tiered & bundt-style whole cakes or by the slice (when available – 4 slice minimum). Slices are generous too. They started Twisted Sisters Baking Co. out of a love for baking and when self-isolating during this covid-19 period. See menu at bottom.
So if there’s one good thing I can say that comes out of this covid period it’s these twisted sisters with their top-quality cakes.
Coincidence of Coconut Cake, 3-tiered layers of coconut delight finished with Coconut Buttercream Frosting and a layer of toasted coconut. It was moist and super delicious.
For breakfast this morning I had a piece of fluffy creamsicle cake made with fresh orange juice and a delicious zesty frosting. Perfect start to the day. I must admit it was not my first choice, however it surprisingly ended up becoming one of my favourites. That’s because I normally go for chocolate.
Zesty Orange Cake baked with fresh orange juice & orange zest then finished with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting.
Another favourite is the perfectly pink vanilla sour cream almond cake with vanilla almond buttercream frosting. Shelly added lavender to the icing and it was incredible. In a perfect world I would eat it all day long. But the coconut cake was excellent too as was the old fashioned raspberry/lemon and carrot cake. Like I said…
If you live in Vancouver and you love cake (I don’t know anyone who doesn’t) then give them a try. You don’t need an excuse although birthdays, anniversaries and just plain I want cake are good ones to start with.
Pretty in Pink, Almond Vanilla Cake with Almond Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. A lavender twist. This was half a slice.
Now, more than ever, we must strive to stay the healthiest we can. We already know what food groups are most beneficial for us, however we don’t always look into the science behind why that is. Thought it would be of interest to share the science behind An Apple A Day – taken from Edible (the magazine for Vancouver food & wine country).
What role does the proverbial apple-a-day have in keeping the doctor away? The fruit is rich in bacteria, and some of those are highly beneficial to human health. A single apple can carry more than a 100 million microbes, according to a July 2019 article in TheGuardian.
Once in your gut, those bacteria colonize and improve your personal microbiome, which research suggests is linked to overall health, including mood and cognition. In Gut feelings: How food affects your mood(Harvard Health Publishing), Dr. Uma Naidoo reports that 90 percent of serotonin receptors are found in the gut.
Diversity is an important factor for a thriving biome, and organic apples reportedly have a greater range of microbes – yet another reason to choose organically grown apples if you can afford to. Most of the bacteria will be killed by cooking, so eating the raw fruit will make your biome happiest.
After witnessing the incredible new super charged dinner nightclub ASIA SF in Palm Springs with friends the other night, I was certain that *SF stood for super fantastic. It was in fact a super fantastic evening sitting at a table of movers & shakers and influencers, starting out with signature cocktails named after our transgender servers. Servers who doubled as performers. Each of them come out one by one to lip sync and dance to electric music and they give a vibrant impressive performance. We had a great table too. however there’s really no bad seat in the house as each lovely lady bump and grind their way around, so you cannot miss
Three of our terrific transgender entertainers.
.
Our Table. Best seat in the house. Sitting at our table at the very end are Dennis Costa and Tom Beatty of Bouschet and PS Air Lounge.
With Tracy, Tammy & Candy.
Oh; I almost forgot to mention the decadent 5-course Cal Asian inspired cuisine which is part of the package. Sooo good!
Tasting Menu for Foodies – we had everything on it and it was all superb.
Just Justin with one of the ladies
Tracy & Candy
This is going to become my new favorite hangout. Aside from the dinner show Wednesday through Sunday starting at 6:00 pm, there’s a cocktail show with bar bites on Friday & Saturday at 8:30 pm which includes admission to The Forbidden Citydance club immediately following the show. I checked out the sexy space. Trust me; you will feel like dancing! There’s also an outdoor fountain patio. I’m so happy I never got rid of my glitter disco pants.
With Tammy (l) and Candy (in middle). My Tiara was a gift from my dear friend Colleen.
And let’s not forget
There’s the elegant Lotus Lounge open Wednesday through Sunday where is served Happy Hour 3:00-5:00 pm with bar menu available. It’s a really cozy area with style and a fireplace. Open 3pm – until closing (they didn’t specify the closing time but I’m sure it does indeed close at some point).
*By the way, SF stands for San Francisco as up until now that was the only ASIA transgender dinner nightclub show location. They’ve been doing it for almost 22 years and it’s considered an entertainment landmark. We’re very fortunate to have them here in Palm Springs.
I think Tracy’s shoes deserve some credit of their own. One of the fabulous transgender performers (r).
Bouschet: best described as a specialty marketplace in Palm Springs offering a large selection of fine wines, liquor, craft beer, gourmet specialty foods, exquisite giftware, and an amazing bistro menu, weekly wine tastings, and special events. Yeah, that’s it. I’ve been for wine tastings and the other day right after A Curated Collection I had lunch there with friends. It was pretty darn good.
Al demonstrates to Candy how to use the Napa wine station card which is really cool. You load on the amount of your choice. Then use as a credit card to taste samples, half or full glasses of great wine. Love!
I was also lucky enough to get a sneak peek of a soon to be opened super cool lounge – called PS Air. My friend Candy introduced me to the owners who obliged us by opening a special bottle of wine reserved for a wine tasting that evening. It was outstanding. They were celebrating Black History Month by offering tastings of bottles by black winery owners. This particular wine was owned by the first black winery owners. Siblings Deneen, David & Coral Brown of Napa Valley. The bottle we tried was called Chaos Theory – a wine the Obama’s brought to the White house as one of their favorites. “Chaos” ha, ha. Nevermind!
Alison Martino, Candy Shannon Glickman & Kiki Tormo sitting in First Class. Photo: Candy Shannon Glickman.
Talking with Tom Beatty, one of the co-owners of PS Air – a lounge at the back of the store that is sure to become a Palm Springs Favorite. Opening late March.
About the Dynamic Duo:
Dennis Costa and Tom Beatty have been a successful duo for 22 years. Personally and professionally they have experienced some of the great pleasures that life can bring.
Kiki Tormo – from Candy’s photos.
Denniscomes from an Agricultural and Viticulture background. After a successful dairy business his family planted grapes and grew predominately for Sutter Home. Dennis also worked in his earlier years for Mondavi Wines of Woodbridge, which at that time had only one bottling line. After personally tending to the grapes from planting, growing, and harvesting almost 200 acres, they decided to sell the farm to Sebastiani Vineyards in 1999.
Tom, a native of Chicago, has worked an illustrious career as an International Flight Attendant for 33yrs. He has traveled to every continent except Antartica – which he claims would just be too cold for him. He has explored the world and enjoyed many different cultures, people, food, and of course wine. Together Dennis and Tom have traveled extensively and have been fortunate to savor some of the finest wines in the world.
Together with their love of wine they created Rainbow Ridge Wines which was featured in Wine Enthusiast Magazine and also Wine & Spirits Magazine. Their first varietal was an obscure grape by the name Alicante Bouschet. This wine received many awards and also ratings of 91 and 90 respectively. You may notice the name BOUSCHET reminiscence of their first endeavor. This wine was magical!
I’m ready for take off. Photo: Candy Shannon Glickman.
COME FLY WITH ME!
BOUSCHET – 611 S PALM CANYON DR (same shopping center as Revivals) (map)
With Christmas around the corner and families staying put, it’s beginning to look a lot like a different kind of holiday season. Lots of things are up in the air and I’m not talking flying. Life as we knew it is a little blurry right now. I’m trying to look at the positive, but with so many small businesses getting shut down again and struggling to survive, it can become dispiriting. “This won’t last forever,” encouraging as it sounds…is not soon enough. We should help to save lives while also saving livelihoods. We have to take care of ourselves the best we can. Little things here and there help to uplift our spirits. 
Thought it would be of interest to share the science behind An Apple A Day – taken from Edible (the magazine for Vancouver food & wine country).
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 
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