Love Tastes Like Strawberries

When asked what a person's favourite season is, many would reply: summer! Others, who long for the crisp mornings and breezy afternoons may say autumn or spring. Then of course, there are the Canadians that take their patriotism a little too seriously and choose winter.
When I am asked what my favourite season is, the answer is simple: strawberry season!

For just a few weeks each year, Nova Scotians relish in the sweet natural treat of local strawberries. We ditch our scarily large, firm and tasteless California substitutes for a much more modest looking, but oh so sweet Nova Scotia strawberry.

So, because strawberries make up about 80% of my diet this time of year, and since it's been a while since I've done a pastry post, here is a delightful recipe for Strawberry Shortcake - one of my utmost favourites!


Zoe's Sweet Strawberry Shortcakes


For the shortcakes:

1 2/3 cups  all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar (if your hand slips, and you accidentally add four, don't worry - it's for the best)
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 hard-boiled egg yolks (yes - you must boil the eggs first then just use the yolks - just trust me)
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest (optional)
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream


Shortcake assembly:

1 box of the delicious, ripe strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

whipping cream, beaten to soft peaks (as much as you like)

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, egg yolks, and salt. Pulse to combine. Add the butter and zest and pulse until the flour resembles coarse meal. Add 2/3 cup of cream and pulse until the dough comes together. I always forget to only put in some of the cream. Oops.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead a couple times and then pat it into a rough circle about 6 to 7 inches in diameter, and 3/4 to 1-inch thick - thicker is better.

Now you can make the biscuits into whatever shapes you like. Here, being lazy, I cut the dough into six wedges, however a solid cookie cutter (I have a heart-shaped one, perfect if making dessert for your sweetheart) or a drinking glass will do to make neater shortcakes. Chill the shortcakes for 20 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush the tops of the shortcakes very lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle lightly with the coarse sugar. Bake until risen and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Turn the pan around halfway.

While the shortcakes are baking, toss the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl. Let stand a few minutes so the strawberries and sugar really get cozy with each other - creating seriously yummy effects.
Now, just cut the shortbreads and spoon on the whipped cream and strawberries and smile in sweet, berry satisfaction. White wine accompaniment not compulsory but highly recommended.

Can't Stop Listening: Carla Bley

To me, Carla Bley is one of the most interesting musical figures in North America in the past several decades - seriously, read her biography.

I was introduced to Carla during my undergraduate degree while studying arranging for large ensembles. Her music captivated me at once with it's quirky melodies, heavy chordal structures and innovative presentation of theme.
I once read an interview with Carla where she spoke about her composing process and her inner struggle at the beginning of each big stint of writing wherein she doubts her capabilities and feels that perhaps she lost all of her inspiration in the past few months. Then, she sits down and writes a single thought, a small idea of perhaps only a dozen notes on a page. This becomes the start of her next big idea.

Carla Bley is a wonderful example of an artist that came to jazz and creative music by chance but has started small and her career grew with her ideas. Carla's music is a huge inspiration for young female composers such as yours truly because of her willingness to take risks and write music that is far from perfect but entirely beautiful.

Here's some samples of Carla Bley being her naturally hip self:

Kitchen First Aid: Tips to Avoid Disaster

We have all been there. You've been slaving away for hours trying to make the perfect pastry, the most delectable casserole, a dreamy sauce. Then, you get to a stage and something doesn't seem.... right. You triple-check the recipe, recount the steps in your head and still somehow, your vanilla custard looks more like scrambled egg whites than something you can spread in a tart.

Suddenly, you start to sweat a little, you can feel your pulse begin to quicken, you look at the clock and see you have 25 minutes before guests arrive and you have flour in your hair. Well, if there is one thing I have learned, crying and stamping your feet does not make your hollandaise sauce any less revolting looking (although it feels like it will!).

Well friends, fear no more, I'm going to teach you a Zoe-original method that I use, well, a lot.

CPR: Culinary Pandemonium Recovery

I feel the same way about cooking and baking as I do about being a musician: it's not just the amount of skill or talent you have, it's how well you can handle those small (or very large) mistakes we all make from time to time. Because some days, the damn pie crust just does not want to roll out (can I get an Amen?).


Here are some very straight-forward but helpful hints I've acquired (mostly the hard way) over the past few years.

1. Accidentally dumped a little too much of one ingredient in your dish? Hand slip while holding the salt? Well, the only sure-fire solution to that problem is letting your hand slip with everything.. aka. get ready to double that recipe! I had to freeze five tart doughs once... oops!

2. Here's a classic Zoe move: slaving away over your cake only to take it out of the pan too soon and it crumble into several steaming, vanilla pieces. Here's a couple great tricks: a) make a simple syrup on the stove with sugar and water (or you can add fruit to reduce down) and fill in the cracks. This will hold the cake together and make it a smoother surface to ice. b) fill in the cracks with frosting... who doesn't want more frosting? c) crumble that cake up, because you're making trifle!

3) When candy and fudge won't set: Add more liquid (cream) and but that pot back on the stove to keep boiling.. and have faith!

4) When your frosting looks like sugar soup. Well ladies and gentlemen, I don't mean to brag, but frosting just happens to be my specialty, born out of a long and deep love affair with birthday cake. The key to saving your frosting is small additions. Take a PORTION of your icing and add more confectioners' sugar until it's starting to get super thick, then add VERY small amounts of milk, or butter, or cream cheese, or really and delicious wet ingredient at a time while continually tasting so that the sugar doesn't dominate and give your guests cavities.

5) How to fix a cream sauce: I'm not sure if this is the best method, but it works for me! I set my sorry looking sauce aside and boil some new cream in a pot until it's reduced down significantly. Then I simply add the sorry sauce and whisk until my biceps are numb and voila! The creamy delicious sauce of your dreams.

I hope this helps your future kitchen endeavours, and I will be sure to post more as more disasters happen - which they will!

What are your go-to kitchen nightmare fixes?

Sweet Harms: Teaching Harmony Singing at an Early Age

As a self-proclaimed "choir geek" from an early age, I have been very lucky to spend a good portion of my life sharing songs with others. I could go on all day about what choral singing has done for me as a person, but I will spare my readers from the never ending list. Namely, choral singing as a child gave me life long friends, positive childhood musical memories, a supportive atmosphere to be myself and a strong sense of community.
Musically, choral singing as a child gave me strong sight-reading skills, the ability to hear moving chordal structures, self-discipline in practicing, a healthy understanding of vocal technique and the ability to sing contrasting harmony against a melody.
However, there was one aspect of choral singing that did not carry far through my vocal upbringing: learning by rote.  In elementary choirs, a "call and response" method is often used to speed along the learning process and can allow all singers to learn on the same level as many young children have not yet learned to read music. As the choirs I began joining became more advanced however, all emphasis was placed on sight-reading and learning scores from a theoretical standpoint. Let me now state, that both of these methods of teaching and learning are effective and build different skills in singers. Now, as I work more with adult singers, I see a strong disconnect between what we can read on the page and understanding what we are hearing harmonically.
As a singer coming from a predominantly classical upbringing that launched herself into the jazz idiom, in some ways I had to teach myself how to listen again. I had become so "stuck" to the score that I felt as though my ears were lacking the discipline that my theory knowledge had far outstripped.
Recently I have begun to work with some of my private voice students  on the relationship between melody they have learned vs. what they hear in the accompaniment and encouraging improvised melodic development by having them pick out notes from what they hear in the piano, or for some more advanced students, giving them a starting harmony note for a phrase and asking to complete the harmony by listening to the progression of chords underneath. This is the foundation for teaching simple composition, improvised singing and melodic and harmonic arranging. And it's FUN! For some of my students who are strong music readers, this has pushed them to step outside their comfort zone and into new musical territory, while for others who have strong ears but are slow in theory, this method teaches them to think critically and theoretically about what they are singing.

I love harmony singing and I believe having a multitude of methods of teaching harmony is perhaps one of the most important aspects of early musical development in singers.

Can't Stop Listening: "Ode", Brad Mehldau

Pianist Brad Mehldau is one of those musicians who has people talking. Not every jazz musician I know is a fan, while others worship his music. To me, Brad Mehldau represents a new generation of musicians that are willing to take jazz as we know it and turn it into something that is not completely different but rather, shows a new side of  the modern jazz personality.

I've been listening to Brad Mehldau for quite a few years. His trio work, which often includes complex arrangements of newer pop tunes (most famously, the vastly overplayed Oasis song, "Wonderwall") and jazz standards. However, departing from the trio setting that he has become known for, Mehldau released a chamber jazz album in 2010 called "Highway Rider" that earned him some much deserved praise.

I was very fortunate to see Brad Mehldau live in a rare duo setting with saxophonist, Joshua Redman at the Montreal Jazz Festival in July 2011. It wasn't until then that I really found an appreciation for Mehldau's innovative improvisation and mastery of his instrument. Watching these two fantastic musicians interact was an experience I will never forget.

And luckily for all of us, Brad Mehldau has a new album out. Coming back to his trio roots, "Ode" is comprised of completely original material (a rare treat from Mehldau) and is highly unique in feel but with echoes to other artists including a dedication to Michael Brecker and some piano styling that this particular blogger finds to be slightly reminiscent of Thelonious Monk. "Ode" features Mehldau on piano, one of my favourite current bassists, Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. His compositions riveted me at many points but I think it is Mehldau's improvisations that are really the shining star of this record.


Here's a little taste of the title track, "Ode", I hope you enjoy as much I did.