Beachcomber's Drums of Heaven

In my collection of postcards, I did find this post card which brought fond memories.

The Beachcomber Polynesian restaurant was such a great place to celebrate special events.  The first I was there was there was on a first date.  The restaurant was so dark, with a rounded blue ceiling filled with what looked like stars, one could hear running water as you were ushered by your waiter over wooden bridges to your table. The first to come to your table was a dish of what looked like egg rolls, luckily I lift the dish to see it better and smelt lemon. And quickly realizing they were rolls of washcloths to wipe one's hands.  

Thus one of the reason, I do not have pictures of this place, is that it was so dark and took a while for your eyes to get use to the lighting. 

I also took my husband there on his birthday. The place was so popular but one could not reserve spot for two,   We ended seating in their lounge sipping drinks with floating gardenia or roses.  By the time a spot opened up for us at eleven o'clock, we were no longer hungry. 

Their speciality was chicken drums of heaven served with a sweet chilli sauce.  This beautifully presented dish did in fact look like little drumsticks. 

The Beachcomber was open for 30 years between the early 1960s and 1990s.  

To my surprise, I found two recipes for the drums of heaven that were posted by the Winnipeg Free Press. The drums of heaven that I remember were more the breaded type that would have been deep fried.  For the shower, I did bake them in the oven at 375 for 30 to 45 minutes on parchment lined cookie sheet. 

With the help of my husband, I used only chicken drumstick which are a little larger than the ones used at the Polynesian restaurant as they used the wing part for the little drumsticks. 

How to make the Lollipop or drumsticks:

Holding the thin end firmly, cut the skin around the bone to release it.

Push down the bone forcing all the meat to the end.

The next step we did not do but shaped it into a ball

If you like you can pull the meat over the end, so that the skin is in side the ball.

Marinade the prepared chicken drums overnight.

Marinade:

• 1 tsp Chinese Five Spices
• Minced garlic clove
• 1 T sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
• parsley
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 T vegetable oil
• chopped fresh ginger root
• 1/4 c  wine
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) cornstarch

To bake the drums of heaven, the marinade was drained, then the chicken was dredged in flour, then dipped into beaten egg, then rolled into Panko crumbs. The drums were placed standing on the cookie sheet lined with parchment and baked until golden brown

A sweet and sour sauce was used for dipping. 

They can be frozen and reheated in an air fryer! Delicious. 

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Salad Bundles with Marinated Peppers

These salad bundles had incredible taste and did look lovely on a white platter.

The Salad Bundles are between the meatballs and the sandwiches on the left bottom of the picture.

These were prepared by Anna Olson for a High Tea  years ago and I had always wanted to prepare them as they do look incredible.

Red peppers were first roasted, then placed in a bowl and covered with saran wrap to let steam for about 10 minutes.  Peel the peppers and discard the seeds. Cut into 1 inch width strips.  Marinade the red peppers in minced garlic clove, Olive oil, salt and pepper and a splash of Balsamic Vinegar.  The marinaded red Peppers will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.


Having watched the video a couple of times, the process of wrapping the bundles was not as easy as Anna made it.

For the bundles, marinaded red peppers are spooned in to a endive leaf, then bundled in a Boston Lettuce leave and tied with a chive that has been blanched in hot water.  

The Boston leaves were way too big and when wrapped one could not see the endive or red pepper.  Lucky I had Romaine Lettuce growing in my garden that were the size of the palm of my hand and worked much better. However the lettuce was difficult to fold around the endive and red peppers to get a neat bundle!  I did not get the wow factor as I did with the other dishes for the High Tea shower!

Camembert, Figs and Candied Walnuts open faced Brioche sandwiches

This was my daughter's favourite that I served for her High Tea bridal shower.

Maybe it was the camembert slices. It could have been the candied pecans that I baked using molasses and some chill flakes.  Or it could have been the Brioche, my Babka bread that I make for Easter that reminded her of her grandmother and the lovely breads she baked!   

One could use the same recipe that I used for the watermelon bread or the pinwheels. Here is my aunt's recipe that uses 10 cups of flour, one could reduce the recipe or make all of it and freeze half the dough for other uses later.

Slices of Bread were toasted and assembled with a slice of camembert cheese, dried figs topped with candied pecans.  

I had planned to pick up fresh figs at a new Italian market that opened up very close to my neighborhood, but I think the dried figs worked well with the cheese and the candies pecans.

Foie Gras on Dried Apricot Appetizers

This appetizer for the High Tea Bridal shower was suggested by my husband. We had tasted this in Paris at a reception.  Foie gras was served with dried apricots along with Champagne.  

A perfect combination that my daughter loved!

Since I couldn't find foie gras, I used duck and pork Pate instead.  I had thought I would marinade the dried apricot as I thought the paring would be nicer.  I tried the pate with the dried apricots and canned apricots, my husband and I preferred the dried apricot better as it did not take away from the taste of the pate. 

I had originally thought of assembling a marinaded apricot with pate on caramelized onions. 

I do not have a picture of the appetizer itself, the appetizer is on a Birk's Vintage cake stand between the Ladybugs  and the Beet appetizers

Pickled Beet, Goat's cheese and fresh Mint appetizers

This appetizer quickly disappeared at the bridal shower.  Maybe it was the color or just the amazing taste of pickled Beets with Feta Cheese and garden fresh curly Mint! 

The appetizers was very quick to assemble and looked spectacular plated on a white dish.

Although I had robust pickled beets that I had canned last fall, I decided to go with store bought sliced pickled beets for convenience as my canned beets were whole! 


The beet slices do need to be dried so that they are not messy on your plate. Crumble feta cheese on the beet slices, then garnish with a fresh Mint leave!  Drizzle Balsamic vinegar on the Beet bites.

Ladybug Appetizers

An idea that has been floating around the net is cute little lady bugs made from cherry tomatoes, pitted black olives, basil and something for the lady bug to sit on. Some used crostini, others slices of cheese to layer the ladybug on.  I used provolone cheese shaped in a log which was easy to slice.  Some use reduced Balsamic Vinegar for the dots, yes, we did try but the dots ran away!  

Since I had chives, my friend used them to make ladybug antennae. Very Cute!

Zucchini Rose mini Frittata

The challenge was to do bite size and freezable appetizers for the Bridal Shower before the temperature rocketed to the high thirties. 

These Frittata froze well.  And looked lovely on the Platter. 

My recipe for the frittata is very similar to a Quiche recipe

4 eggs

3/4 - 1 c Ricotta or Cottage Cheese  

1/4 c milk or cream

1/2 c parmesan cheese

zucchini, chive blossoms

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Grease or spray 3 mini muffin trays
Whisk eggs, then add cheese and milk and whisk

Fill the mini muffins 2/3 full 

Cut Zucchini strips very thinly. This is best done with a mandolin cutter.  Cut the zucchini strips in half as too big for the mini muffin tray. Roll each strip into a rose and place into the centre of the mini muffin.  I also used chive flowers which cooked nicely and did not lose their color in baking. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top before baking.

Bake at preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  

Watermelon Bread Fancy sandwiches

Watermelon bread sandwiches were certainly a hit with the ladies at my recent High Tea Bridal shower for my daughter.  It also was a lot of fun to make and I was happy with the look of the bread along with the taste.

The recipe for the bread 

2 T dry traditional yeast  softened in about 1/2 c warm water

2 T white granulated sugar 
3 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 cup milk 
1 egg 
2 tbsp  butter, softened

hand full of raisins

Since I always use traditional dry yeast, it needs to be softened first, or you'll have crunchy grains in the dough.

Mix yeast, sugar and about 1/2 c of lukewarm water, let yeast proof. 

Beat the egg, then add to warmed milk and melted butter.

Add egg mixture to yeast mixture

Mix in one cup of flour with spoon.

then another cup gradually until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.

The food color is then mixed in when about  2/3 of the flour is added as you want the dough wet and sticky but firm enough to be able to divide the dough. This way the dye can be mixed much easier into the mixture. 

The bread is divided into half and dyed pink. 

The other half is divided into half; one is left white, the other part dyed green for the rind. 

Raisins are added to the pink dough and more flour incorporated to form a soft dough.  Add a bit more flour to the other pieces of dough, knead, oil the dough, cover with saran wrap and let rest until dough doubles in size. 

Now the fun starts in shaping the watermelon.  

Punch down the pink dough.  Shape the pink into a smooth log shaped roll.  Check that the length of the roll fits a loaf pan.  

Roll out your white dough large enough to completely wrap around the pink dough, Brush the white dough and the pink log with milk.  Wrap the red log, making sure it is completely sealed so that the dough does not poke through.  One of my seams did burst, but still looked okay in the end. 

Repeat the same steps with the green colored dough. 

Pop the watermelon dough in a greased loaf pan. Let rise until dough doubles in size. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Let the bread rise in the pan, then on a rack until cool. 

Now the best part of trying a new recipe is the testers.

In figuring out the length of the roll to fit a loaf pan, there was pink dough left over as was some white dough when rolled out to fit the pink.  

The filling used was suggested by a friend who ran a Tea Shop in Carmen, Manitoba. 

8oz Cream Cheese was blended with a can of drained and dried crush pineapple in a food processor.

My friend, Nancy who was helping me prepare the sandwiches, suggested adding pickled ginger for an extra kick!