Maple Syrup

Hello from the province of Quebec.. and no I am not there as much as I would love to be :) But my taste buds sure are. Keith and I and one of our grandsons went on a hiking trek this past weekend up on Capillano Mountain. It was a wonderful experience. On the way home we stopped at a farmers market in North Vancouver. There was an organic farmer there so I stocked up on some much needed stuff. One of the things they also had was Maple Butter. Now I have maple syrup many MANY times but never maple butter. They said to use it on crackers or toast but to use it sparingly. At the cost of it I knew it would be VERY sparingly. Well I had some on some toast when I got home and awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww it was to die for!! OK you wouldn't want anyone to die let alone for maple butter but oh man it was sooo incredibly good. I had one more cracker tonight for a bed time snack and I keep thinking oh I could have half a dozen crackers without batting an eye. But after eating one, the gag reflex kicks in and I stop. That and the fact that one should be wary of eating anything that does not come with a nutritional panel on the container. You just know that has more calories then one could ever wear off unless you had a trainer named Bob or Jillian!!

And Quebec is not in my 100 mile challenge but I have family still living in Quebec and it's within their 100 miles so in my french brain that works. Well at least that is my story and I am sticking to it... yummm~~~

It made me think of this dessert my mom and grandmothers used to make. I am sure some of my cousins reading this will have a smile on their faces :) It was called Sucre a Creme. Sorry I don't know how to do french accents on here. Basically it was brown sugar, thick real cream and butter.. yup really good thing on a high cholesterol diet... but we never had to worry about that in those days. So they would bring this to s boil till only they knew when and then we would have it as pudding... oh oh oh.. my mouth is salivating just thinking about it.

My paternal grandmother when she knew I was coming down for a long weekend she would always make a jelly roll cake using the Sucre a creme as a filling. I would pester her with questions about her family history and we would sit around her table eating this cake and having tea in fancy tea set. Great Memere and granddaughter bonding moment! I will never forget those moments.