The Sugar Shack

Every year, close to springtime with snow still on the ground, my husband and I make a pilgrimage in the woods and head for a sugar shack. This is also known in our neck of the woods as “la cabane a sucre”, and it’s basically a chance to stuff your face. Bacon and eggs, beans in maple syrup, ham and cheese folded in a pancake, split-pea soup, and, if you have room, taffy on the snow.

What am I saying? Of course you have room! It’s the best part!

For the first time, my son got a taste. He loved it so much, he stole mine.

What do you get when you mix fresh cool air from walking through the forest and a jolt of sugar with the intense taste of maple syrup? A very sleepy baby!

 

 

I carried him out of the car seat like taffy slipping out of my arms and he barely fluttered his eyelashes. I plopped him down in my bed in full snow-gear and he had the longest nap in recorded history.

Sugaring off is such a short period of bliss. The very next day, the snow was gone.

Here’s a quick recipe I created to use up the maple syrup in a healthy way.

Baby Muffins

We’ve just survived a bout of eye infections, ear infection, runny nose, cough and last, but not least, gastro. In other words, he had the plague.

It’s been a long road back to health, and it’s also been difficult to find ways to tempt his appetite. I’m usually quite lucky on that front. Though he has a rough time sleeping, he is not a picky eater and most of the time even loves broccoli. There are days he eats so well, it looks like I’m shoveling coal into his mouth.

This time, it’s taken a while to regain his usual feeding frenzy. When he’s getting over an illness, I always make chicken broth from scratch. When he’s willing to slurp that up, I also bake him some healthy muffins. He devours them, and most of his baby friends do too when they come to visit. The parents love them too. So I thought I’d share our favorite muffin recipe with you:

Zippy Muffins are made with raspberries.

Banana Flax Muffins (makes about 12)

Dry ingredients:

1 2/3 cups unbleached flour

1/3 cup flaxmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

Wet ingredients:

4 mashed bananas

1/2 cup of applesauce, or more if you need to add moistness to the batter.

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

A dash of whole milk, just enough to make it a little more wet when mixing into dry ingredients.

Simple instructions: Mix wet into dry ingredients. Don’t overmix. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. You can add raspberries or other fruit into the wet ingredients, but keep at least 2 mashed bananas.

For the vegan version, my Zippy muffins, see this post on my food blog. I assure you that unlike most vegan muffins, these are light and airy.

For simple chicken soup, here’s my remedy for the flu.