Summer’s here and that means it’s time for a trip to the berry patch. As a child, my mom would lug me, my brother and an armful of empty ice cream pails to our local U-Pick strawberry field. It was messy business crawling along the straw-packed rows of ripe berries. It was impossible to keep our clothes from getting stained and dirty so, in her motherly wisdom, mom dressed us in our oldest, rattiest, nearly-grown-out-of clothes. This way it wouldn’t matter when our knees were stained crimson red from the juice of the berries we’d accidentally crawl over, or if the front of our shirts were full of strawberry juice that had dribbled down our chin as we bit into the biggest berry we could find.

To keep herself sane, Mom always had a check list to complete before we left the house on our berry wrangling adventure.

First on that list was to always make sure to go to the bathroom before heading out on our adventure, since we knew the berry farm only had one lone outhouse along the side of the field. Enough said.

Secondly, we’d nearly bathe in mosquito repellent. If you think grocery shopping with an impatient child in your cart is hard to do, you should attempt getting 8 ice cream pails of strawberries off the plant with two whining, complaining kids that are getting eaten by mosquitoes. It’s not going to happen. You will pack up with the one-and-a-half pails you managed to get off the plant before the kids went berserk and head for home, stopping to buy some strawberry jam at the store along the way.

And lastly, we made sure to not have any breakfast before heading to the farm (OK, maybe that was on our list, not hers). We always joked about how it was a good thing that the farmer didn’t weigh us before and after picking. If my Mom had to pay for the berries my brother and I put in our bellies instead of our pails, I doubt she would have taken us picking anymore. It would have led to financial ruin.

I’m grown now, with children of my own. Although we’re not able to make it to the berry patch every year, when we can, we get out there to pick our share of fresh strawberries. The kids love homemade strawberry jam, and they know that for fresh jam, we need to get fresh berries. And while we slowly move our way along the row, picking only the reddest berries, I know that they are busy filling their bellies more than their baskets. And I smile.

My Strawberry Shortcake after a visit to the berry patch when she was 3.

Anytime berry season hits, the one dessert that people typically think about is Strawberry Shortcake. There are two kinds of strawberry shortcake; the sponge cake-type, and the biscuit-type. Today I am sharing my recipe for Gluten Free Classic Strawberry Shortcake, which is the light biscuit-style shortcakes that many of us had to leave behind when going on this gluten-free journey. After several attempts, I believe I got it just right. The biscuits are airy and delicate, overflowing with luscious strawberries and lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Other Berry-licious  Gluten-Free Recipes You Might Enjoy:

• Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar
• Strawberry Mango Salsa
• Gluten-Free Lemon Cornmeal Waffles with Strawberry-Rhubarb Syrup
• Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
• Gluten-Free Lemon Strawberry Cupcakes
• Strawberry, Balsamic Vinegar, and Black Pepper Jam
• Gluten-Free Fruit Pizza

The post Gluten Free Classic Strawberry Shortcake appeared first on The Baking Beauties. © 2012 - The Baking Beauties

There I was, in a room full of people I didn’t know, save for my benefactors – the two gals from the Manitoba Canola Growers – with whom I had been traveling. I was sure no one knew me as I sat picking out a few familiar faces from the people seated at other tables. They were only familiar because of social media. Either I’d seen their profile pictures on-line, I had read their work, or I may have even had a Twitter conversation with them. But, that was the extent of it. I looked a few tables over and saw Heather Travis, the friendly voice behind Canadian Beef. I knew her, but would she know who I was? The internet is a huge place, and it’s easy to be overlooked.

Later, when I approached Heather to introduce myself I expected a polite handshake and some awkward small-talk, followed by an uncomfortable silence at which time I would quietly excuse myself and return to my own table.

Since she was seated at a table with other sponsors and some of the conference speakers, I was a bit intimidated as I approached her.

“Excuse me, Heather?” I said, tapping on her shoulder.

She turned to face me. “Yes?”

“Hi, I’m Jeanine Friesen, of The Baking Beauties” I said, offering my hand.

“Jeanine!” she said, jumping up and giving me a hug. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

And that’s when I knew that everything was going to be alright that weekend.

For those of you that have been following me for a while, you may remember me mentioning a “My Cookies are the Best” contest, hosted by Manitoba Canola Growers. The contest was open to all members of Food Bloggers of Canada (FBC). The challenge was to create a cookie recipe that uses canola oil. There were going to be two winners, one from Manitoba, and one from elsewhere in Canada. The prize? An all expense paid trip to Hockley Valley to the first ever Food Bloggers of Canada Conference.

I really wanted to attend this convention. When you’re a single-income family, with two kids, blogging conventions just aren’t a part of the budget. But after winning a trip to Toronto last year through Redpath Sugar, I knew the possibility of winning existed, slight as it might seem. So I entered four recipes to increase my chances.

Crisp Gluten-Free Gingersnap Cookies

Gluten-free Turtle Cookies

Gluten-free Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Chewy Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

The contest closed November 28, 2012 and I had put it in the back of my mind until the morning of December 3rd, 2012 when, without a cup of coffee to yet touch my lips, I read the following email:

Hi Jeanine and CONGRATULATIONS!! You won a trip to FBC2013 with your Gluten-free sugar cookie recipe!

I had to read it two or three times before it finally sank in – I wasn’t dreaming – I was actually going to have an opportunity to attend the FBC 2013 Conference.

I’ve never been to a conference before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. So I read about the line up of speakers, scoped out who all the sponsors were, and checked out my fellow winner’s blog, Maya’s Kitchen. As the two Canola Grower winners, Maya & I were going to be sharing a room at the conference. After determining that there would be plenty to learn, that the swag would be sweet, and that my roommate was indeed not a psycho (don’t judge, you’d do the same thing), I was set.

Be authentic. Voice your personality. Share your story. – David Leite

FBC2013 was the first held by the Food Bloggers of Canada. Similar conventions have been an annual event in the US for the past number years and by what I’ve heard, they are much bigger events. Not that bigger is necessarily better though. One of the great things about this conference was its small size. There were only about 100 people attending, which made it a very comfortable, intimate setting.

The speakers were all down-to-earth and approachable. They didn’t just stick around for their 45 minute session and then leave. They spent the entire weekend eating, chatting, laughing and learning along with us attendees. They were available all weekend. Now, I haven’t been to a conference before, but I don’t think that is the “norm” for conferences. At times I was literally surrounded by the conference speakers. During David Leite’s session, David was five feet in front of  me, Dianne Jacob five feet to the right, and Dana McCauley five feet behind me. I was in the center of all this knowledge and food journalism experience. Amazing.

There were so many great topics covered – photography, bookkeeping, working with brands, making money with blogging – and in such an interesting way, that it’s difficult to say which was the most informative. Sessions were directed at the writing aspect of food blogging, as well as the technical aspects of running a website business. One of my favourite sessions was Recipe Development with Mairlyn Smith, Stephanie Eddy, and Adell Shneer. Mairlyn Smith, with her wit & humour, brought a lot of energy to the Sunday morning session – something we all needed after a few late nights.

It’s just so neat to see how others create their recipes. How they tweak, test, and re-test until they are satisfied. I really appreciated each panel members openness when sharing their process with us. It was great to see how similar my own method is to these professionals. However, they’ve given me a few new ideas that I know will help me with the recipes that I develop in the future.

The food was fabulous. Hockley Valley did a magnificent job catering the event and, for me, there were also plenty of gluten-free items available. They even had gluten-free muffins available during the coffee breaks.

Many of the sponsors provided us with succulent dishes and plenty of Ontario wine to go with it. I don’t usually drink wine, but figured, where else am I going to have the opportunity to taste such a variety of wines at once? So, I started to accept ‘just a sip’ when the wait-staff came around. Apparently I have been drinking very  harsh wines until now, because many of the ones I tasted were actually pretty good.

Most of what I learned was behind-the-scene-knowledge about blogging. But I hope that some things will make their way to the front page. I also hope that, even though I was gifted this great opportunity, it will be you, my readers, who benefit the most from what I’ve learned.

L-R: Our driver, Jenn, Me, Ellen, and Maya

I am extremely thankful for the opportunity provided by the Manitoba Canola Growers. Not only for the Food Bloggers of Canada convention, but the extras they have done to promote me and my blog. Since winning the “My Cookies are the Best” contest, I have had the opportunity to be on CTV Morning Live, got to share my story with the Be Well readers, was interviewed by the Manitoba Co-operator, and most recently received a letter of congratulations from my local Member of Parliament.

The Manitoba Canola Growers have given me some fantastic opportunities to talk to people about a living gluten-free life and to help them realize that it can be a very delicious life. Thank you Ellen and Jenn for making FBC2013 a fabulous weekend.

I tip my hat to Mardi, Melissa, and Ethan, the founders of Food Bloggers of Canada, at doing such a fabulous job organizing this inaugural event for Canadian food bloggers. Thank you!

Disclosure: My travel, conference fees, and other expenses were all paid for by Manitoba Canola Growers. The opinions expressed are completely my own.

The post Canada’s First Food Bloggers Conference, Eh? appeared first on The Baking Beauties. © 2012 - The Baking Beauties

This past weekend we celebrated Easter, as did many of you, but I also celebrated a birthday! It isn’t often that my birthday lands on Easter, but since it did, I figured I would make a cake that would be perfect for both a birthday and Easter. A week or so before my birthday, I came across this cake on Pinterest and was very intrigued.

Carrot cake – well, we have carrot cake lovers in this house (our wedding cake was actually carrot cake).

And cheesecake – I’ve been meaning to make a cheesecake after buying a fair amount of cream cheese during our latest trip to the U.S.A. (seriously – at $1/brick, how could I say no?? The lowest price we see in Canada is about $3 – and that’s store-brand on sale. Needless to say, I have a fair amount of cream cheese stashed away in my deep freeze right now. And yes, you can freeze it – I always do, and have never had any issues. I just defrost it in the fridge, and proceed like normal.)

This cake was really easy to make, the components can easily be made in advance, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated. Even the assembled cake can be kept in the fridge from the day before. Perfect for any celebration, really. And although the cream cheese frosting is sweet, the tartness of the cheesecake in the middle makes everything about this cake perfectly balanced.

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As with each holiday, I try to find ways to make it special for my kids. At Halloween we carve pumpkins as a family, Christmas we do “Elf on a Shelf”, Valentine’s we have a special supper, where the table is nicely decorated and everyone gets to drink from fancy glasses. Although our Easter traditions already consist of making Easter Story Cookies and having an early morning egg hunt, I thought preparing and nibbling on this sweet and salty popcorn would be fun for the kids too. Leave a bowl of Bunny Bait out, and you might just be able to catch a glimpse of that crafty cottontail.

Please visit Mommy Moment to view my guest post and get the full recipe.

The post Gluten-free Bunny Bait ~ An Easy Easter Popcorn Recipe appeared first on The Baking Beauties. © 2012 - The Baking Beauties

I have been trying to find ‘the’ pound cake recipe for a while. I’ve had as many errors as trials, and just felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. Last week, when I just wanted to play in the kitchen for a while, and not have to experiment with figuring out the flours, starches, and liquids, I just simply adapted a recipe from Simply…Gluten-Free. Carol is a genius in the gluten-free kitchen. I’ve admired her work for years already, and have had success with all the recipes of hers that I’ve tried. That said – I had high hopes for this pound cake.

And let me tell you, it did not disappoint! This was seriously the best lemon-anything I’ve had in a while (well, since the doughnuts at least), but it was so good, and seriously got better each day after baking it. The first day it was good, but letting it sit on the counter, the second, third, and fourth day, it was even better. So moist, and lemony, purely delightful. I’m sure that this recipe could be adapted as well, to create more delicious pound cake recipes.

The post Gluten-free Lemon Pound Cake Recipe appeared first on The Baking Beauties. © 2012 - The Baking Beauties