Testing and Reporting - A Little Late

Last fall Chatelaine had me acting as a recipe tester again.  Of course I couldn't tell you what I was testing at the time, and I meant to do it when the issue containing those recipes came out.  I always get behind in magazines during the holiday season and have so much to catch up on afterwards that I'm afraid I'm a little late with this but I'll link you to the recipes as they appeared in the January issue.

One was called Maple-Walnut Quinoa Chicken when I tested it, but now they have changed the name to Maple-Cider Chicken and Nutty Quinoa.  Either way I thought it was good. I had never had quinoa before.  I don't know if I'll be making this recipe again, as the man of the house didn't care for the flavour.  In the past, if a recipe listed quinoa as an ingredient, I turned the page, but I wouldn't be so quick to do that now. I'm glad I tried this recipe.

The dessert I made was the Bushberry Pudding Cake.  The sauce for this one has whiskey in it, but the cake alone is still very good.  If you want to feed it to children without the sauce, or just make it that way, go right ahead.  I know I'll make this one again, and may try it with different combinations of fruit as well. Peaches and blueberries, or apples and blackberries would also be great, I'm sure.
If you do make this cake, and want to use the sauce, pour the hot sauce over the cut pieces, not the whole cake. The cake is fine cold, but the sauce needs to be heated.  If you pour the sauce over the entire cake, and there are left overs, the butter in the sauce congeals and that spoils the flavour as all you end up tasting is butter.  Without the sauce, it's a great picnic cake and is about to become a family favourite.

I didn't have time during the testing period to make the Bannock, though I had intended to. I have, however, made it since then.  This is extremely easy and well worth the extra effort if you are having something like chili, soup or stew.  I don't know that it even needs the cheese.