We will have some Easter specials like hot cross buns, which I have never made before, but I’m going to give it a shot!  If I am successful, we will have hot cross buns available Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  On Sunday we will also have carrot cake cupcakes, Easter Strata and a candy egg hunt.

The Ploughman’s Lunch is an English dish consisting mainly of cheese, bread and sweet pickles or chutney.  Ham and hard-boiled eggs are also often involved.  While cheese, bread and chutney were commonly eaten together in England throughout the ages, the name “Ploughman’s Lunch” was first introduced in England in the 1950′s by The Cheese Board as a marketing vehicle for cheese which had recently been de-rationed.  There’s some random trivia for you!  Our sandwich version of this lunch is J and M Farm’s smoked ham, Oliver Farm’s organic provolone cheese and house-made sweet mustard pickles on an Avalon bun, as always served with fries or salad.

The sweet mustard pickles really make the sandwich. They were made back in August using Grown in Detroit cucumbers, and is my most very favorite of all my mother’s pickle recipes.  Granted, this is the wrong time of year to be giving you a pickle recipe, but dedicated picklers can thank me later!

• 4 large ripe cucumbers (regular garden cucumbers, not pickling), peel seed, cut into chunks and sprinkle with salt.  Let sit for 3 hrs and drain.

mix in a saucepan:

• 1 1/2 cups mild vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp tumeric

Add the cucumbers and simmer until easily pierced with a fork.  Pack in jars and cover with the syrup, seal while still hot.

Enjoy!

In other menu news, over the next couple weeks we will be introducing some new items, including a sandwich involving… pickles!

Sweet potato & peanut butter

Roasted heirloom tomato, onion and hot pepper

Curried Hubbard squash with coconut milk and toasted seeds

Lentil & Vegetable topped with fresh red onion salsa

Corn & Basil, a summer soup topped with a fresh red onion salsa

Chilled Cucumber, a summer soup topped with chives and fresh tomatoes

Beet, Millet & Black Bean topped with house-made croutons

Baked Potato soup topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and green onion

Closed December 24th and 25th

Open regular hours December 26th to 30th

Closed December 31st to January 10th

Friday January 11th back to our regular hours (8am to 3pm)

Give the gift of brunch! BSL gift cards are now available in any amount

Wishing everyone happy happy holidays, from all of us at the BSL!

Best wishes from everyone at the BSL

In many aspects Canadian Thanksgiving is quite similar to American Thanksgiving, except we do not celebrate Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving, we celebrate it the day after Christmas and call it Boxing Day.  True story …the more you know…

Help us celebrate our first Canadian Thanksgiving in America, this weekend with a Thanksgiving Brunch!  We will be serving a Turkey Benny, Pumpkin Pie Tarts, Cranberry Scones and of course the traditional Thanksgiving Poutine.

We’ll be celebrating Saturday Oct 6 and Sunday Oct 7 9am to 3pm

We will be open Sunday September 9th, 9am to 3pm for regularly scheduled brunching   Wishing everyone a great weekend, hope to see you Sunday!!
Sincerely,
Deveri

You have probably heard about the wonderful benefits of kale.  Sylvia Rector recently wrote in the Freepress about the spread of kale salad across Detroit.  Kale is constantly making top lists for healthiest food, and for good reason.  It is packed full of seemingly every vitamin and nutrient around.  It is also available at farmer’s markets and backyard gardens in abundance right now!  So it’s here, it’s good for you, but what do you do with all this kale??  I love kale salad but I can’t eat it everyday!  Enter the kale chip.  These are so easy to make and I believe they are literally, not figuratively, addictive.  I was very skeptical when told that kale chips could be eaten as a substitute for potato chips.  I thought there was no way I was going to be able to trick my body into eating kale – the healthiest of the healthy food – instead of a deliciously greasy junk food like potato chips.  But after testing it out, I am a convert!

Kale chips can be made just by tossing the leafy greens in some olive oil and sea salt, but the recipe below is my fave.  It also doubles as an amazing salad dressing.

I made this in a large quantity for the restaurant, so it will fill 2 large sheet pans. For personal consumption you may want to adjust for a smaller batch, but if you do make the full recipe I’m confident that none will go to waste!

Set oven to 250 F

3 large bunches of kale – tear the leaves off the stems and into large bite-size pieces, wash by soaking in cold water and spinning dry.

Dressing
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp maple syrup

Whisk all together until completely combined.  Adjust to taste, add more maple syrup for a sweeter taste or to cut the acidity of apple cider vinegar, add more tamari for a saltier flavor.  If you’re a fan of salt and vinegar chips you may want to add more apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.

Pour half the dressing over the kale, toss the kale to coat, and add more dressing as needed to fully coat the kale but without being soggy.  Save any extra dressing for another batch of kale chips or a salad!

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, arrange kale in a single layer on pan.  Bake at 250 F for 40 min turning kale every 15min or so.  Watch them closely at the end as they will go from perfectly crisp to burnt in a very short amount of time!!

Happy eating!

I love July and August when local produce is bountiful and we can practically live on fresh salads.  This is the time of year to let all of your salad boundaries down and combine any number of ingredients!  One of my favorites that is delicious with everything, is roasted cherry tomatoes.  I went to the Tuesday Eastern Market this week to pick up some salad mix from Food Field and impulse purchased beautifully coloured cherry tomatoes.  Unfortunately they only had 1 pint left, now I know for next time to get there early!

When cherry tomatoes are fresh from the vine I can eat them like candy, roast them and I lose all control!  I actually can’t believe that any of the roasted tomatoes made it into our quiche today.

Below is the recipe for roasted cherry tomatoes that I used for the quiche.  It is super easy, delicious and versatile.  I play pretty fast and loose with recipes so feel free to adjust at will.

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1/3 cup lovage, finely chopped.  Lovage is a leafy herb that looks like parsley, but tastes like celery, it is a flavourfull addition to almost anything and can be found at your local farmer’s market.  I love lovage (I also love saying that) but many different herbs would work well here, I’d recommend basil or parsley but it’s summer time so let your imagination run wild!

1 – 2 cloves garlic minced

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

10 – 15 turns of the pepper mill

Set oven to broil.  Or if your oven doesn’t broil, 500 F will work.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl, toss until tomatoes are fully coated.  Move all ingredients to a baking pan/dish, place in the oven and roast for 10 – 15 min. I check them at around 10 min, give them a stir.  The tomatoes should be starting to crack, but still be intact.  I like to catch them just before they crack so they pop in my mouth with a little flavour explosion!

These tomatoes can be added to a salad, pasta with a little extra olive oil and parmesan, quiche, burst and spread on sandwiches, eaten with fresh mozzarella and basil as a twist on a caprese salad, or just popped whole into your mouth.  Enjoy!