sesame seed candy with tahini

til ka ladoo with tahini | conifères et feuillus food blog

The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.  -Ann Wigmore

I have been hesitating to write this post for some time now. I certainly didn’t want to publish it before Halloween lest I rain on somebody’s parade. Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween. Especially now that I have children, it’s even more special. My only issue lies with the candy part of it. I know, it’s candy, it’s not meant to be healthy. But have you looked at exactly what the candy of today is made with? It’s beyond my comprehension that this is what we give our children … as a treat …  and in copious amounts to boot. What message are we sending out?

This year, as in the past, I bartered most of what was collected for homemade candy and cookies.til ka ladoo with tahini | conifères et feuillus food blog

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cinnamon buns

whole wheat cinnamon buns | conifères et feuillus food blog

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. -Khalil Gibran

It’s time to say good-bye to our beloved Île d’Orléans strawberries until the next growing season. When I was growing up, strawberry season lasted about a month. One month. Can you believe that?! Present day, thanks to advances in farming techniques, we get to enjoy local strawberries until October! Despite a longer season though, these little wonders will surely be missed.whole wheat cinnamon buns | conifères et feuillus food blog

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as autumn as apple pie

best apple pie recipe | conifères et feuillus food blog

The beauty of dead hydrangeas is a memento of the broken promise of an endless summer.

Every year, for even a fleeting moment, I buy into the promise of an endless summer. It’s hard not to in the middle of a Montréal heat wave in the middle of July. This year has been especially deceiving because even well into October we’ve had some unseasonably warm days and a few more coming up according to the latest weather forecast. But the nights are getting cooler and the evenings darker and certainly autumn is here, settled in with deep roots. My hydrangeas can attest to that. They have dried up; beautifully as they always do, as beautiful as they were when they bloomed, only now in hues of brown and red. They are blessed, these gems, to have this endless beauty long after summer has passed, and promises of an endless summer are broken on a cool autumn evening. And celebrations of new sorts begin.

Autumn, here, is celebrated with simple delights such as apple pie.classic apple pie with a whole wheat pastry | conifères & feuillus

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shades of blue – part 3: blueberry lemon cake with cinnamon

blueberry lemon cake with cinnamon | conifères et feuillus food blog

I’ll paint my mood in shades of blue, paint my soul to be with you. -Céline Dion

Years ago, when we were but newlyweds, while hiking in the Charlevoix region of Québec, we noticed blueberry shrubs growing all along the side of the trail. They were the famous bleuets sauvages, the wild blueberries of Québec. They have been thriving here for thousands of years, native to the glacial soils of our boreal forests. It was early in the season and the berries were young and green. But how ever young and green they were, they were waiting; waiting for eager hands to seek them when the time was right, when they would be ripened to shades of blue.blueberry lemon cake with cinnamon | conifères & feuillus Continue reading “shades of blue – part 3: blueberry lemon cake with cinnamon”

shades of blue – part 2: blueberry almond tartlets

blueberry almond tarts with a whole wheat crust | conifères et feuillus food blog

Everyone grieves in different ways. For some, it could take longer or shorter. I do know it never disappears. An ember still smolders inside me. Most days, I don’t notice it, but, out of the blue, it’ll flare to life. -Maria V. Synder

blueberry almond tartlets | conifères & feuillusOver a decade ago, I lost my first pregnancy, my first baby, and with it, everything else it seemed.  Death is so final, and I guess that is what makes it so hard. However, I think any other sort, I could have learned to accept. But to have to mourn for a child was and still is beyond my capability to handle, to reason, to understand. I cried, I yelled, I died. And I still cry. But such is life, not every flower blooms, not every blossom becomes a fruit and not every child is born. There are no reasons, no explanations. It just is. Continue reading “shades of blue – part 2: blueberry almond tartlets”

shades of blue: breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins

whole wheat breakfast blueberry muffins; conifères et feuillus

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance- pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thought. -William Shakespeare

breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins | conifères & feuillusI love summer mornings when I can wake up with the sunrise and the world (it seems), as well as my loves, are still asleep and quiet. And I have time to sort out my thoughts. I do this best in my kitchen while measuring and weighing, mixing ingredients and watching something great come together.

In this quiet solitude, I take out my hurts and pains; so many shades of blue. I weigh and measure them as I do my ingredients. Some remain raw and heavy as they were the day they happened and I sink them quickly into the deepest, darkest oceans of my thought. In these quiet mornings, I look for answers. That never seem to come. But a walk in my garden always lifts me up; on dew laden grass, barefoot. I hear bird songs over scents of rosemary. I see the miracles of petals and leaves, and small creatures, and the beauty of life and decay and the fragility of it all.

Life is fragile. We are fragile. And we damage easily. But the thing about life is that another morning still comes and begins a new day with a new sunrise and if we are lucky enough to have that, then we should be grateful and make the most of it; weighing and measuring what we have and making something great out of it. Continue reading “shades of blue: breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins”