Mount Hope Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association

The Great Cookie Caper of 2018

Cookie Decorating at Relish Cooking Studio

On the sunny afternoon of December 2, families and friends from across the MHBPNA neighbourhood arrived at Relish Cooking Studios on Victoria St. for some sprinkle covered fun.

We were greeted with the delicious smell of fresh baked sugar cookies, and the kids (and adults) did not have to wait long to slather frosting on cookies and apply layers of festive sprinkles.

A batch of Basic Sugar Cookies made by the Relish Cooking Studio team.

Donna-Marie Pye, best-selling cook book author and co-owner of Relish Cooking Studios, had some tips to share with the group and suggestions on other ways to utilize the recipe during the holidays and beyond:

• To get cold butter warm enough to beat for the recipe you can grate it using a regular cheese grater
• Use proper measuring cups for wet and dry ingredients
• When measuring flour, scoop the flour from the container into your dry measuring cup and overfill it and then level it off with a flat utensil.

Sprinkles galore! A decorated cookie from the event.

In addition to using festive cookie cutters, you could also try:

• Try cutting out small circles, bake and cool. Then layer your favourite jam on a cookie and top with another for sandwich cookies.
• After cutting out small circles, instead of baking them flat on a baking sheet, fit the dough into mini-muffin trays and bake. Then fill the cookie with chocolate sauce or caramel for a treat.
• This recipe works well all year long. Try using different seasonally themed cookie cutters, or add food colouring to the frosting.

Donna-Marie and Relish Cooking Studio have shared their recipe for Basic Sugar Cookies below so everyone can enjoy some cookies over the holidays!

Basic Sugar Cookie Dough

Method…

1. In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; stir into butter mixture in 3 additions. If necessary, knead to form smooth dough.
2. Divide dough in half; shape into discs. Wrap each in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.(Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.) Let stand at room temperature until soft enough to roll out, about 15 minutes.
3. To Make Cookie Cut Outs: Between waxed paper or on lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Place cookie cutter on dough; cut to make shapes, re-rolling scraps as necessary.
4. Arrange, 1-inch apart, on parchment paper–lined rimless baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in 375°F oven until edges and bottoms are light golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on pans for 1 minute; transfer directly to racks to cool completely.(Make-ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container; store for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.)
5. To Make Lemon Frosting: In bowl, beat lemon juice with meringue powder until foamy and glossy, about 2 minutes; beat in icing sugar until stiff, about 4 minutes.
6. Divide icing among small bowls (you’ll need 1 bowl for each colour of icing). Using food colouring, tint each bowl to desired shade. Working with 1 colour at a time, spoon some of the icing into piping bag fitted with small plain tip; pipe outlines around edges of cookies. Let stand until dry, about 20 minutes.
7. Gradually add water to some of the icing, 1/2 tsp at a time, until mixture is consistency of molasses. Spoon onto centers of cookies; using toothpick or skewer, spread to piped edges, popping any air bubbles. Decorate with dragées, sprinkles and/or coarse sugar (if using). Let stand until dry, about 30 minutes.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

This event was a partnership between MHBPNA and Relish. For information about partnership opportunities or other MHBPNA events please contact us at mhbpna@gmail.com.

written by Kate, Partnerships Director

Newsletters, AGM

Newsletters are being delivered right now! If you did not receive one, you can pick one up at our notice board in the Breithaupt Centre. Or come to our AGM, 11 AM Saturday morning at the Centre and pick one up as you meet your neighbours!

MHBPNA Annual General Meeting, 2018

Workshop on Wheels was a success

The rain stopped, the sun came out and we had a great ride last night through Mt. Hope – Breithaupt Park and then down Weber into the “mean streets” of downtown Kitchener.

Here is the “official” city of Kitchener picture at the start of the ride:

Here are Ted (MHBPNA-Communications) and Levi (MHBPNA-Co-Chair) before the ride.

Here are a group of cyclists waiting for the light at Guelph and Weber.

Everyone who participated had great insights into biking in Kitchener and Darren from the city wrote down what we said. We will be writing an article on this event in our upcoming September Newsletter!

Workshops on Wheels in Kitchener

The city of Kitchener says:

“Join us for a fun ride – or walk! Explore new routes. Share your ideas on how we can encourage more people to choose to walk or cycle as we create a new Cycling and Trails Master Plan for Kitchener. Each ride is co-hosted by city staff and a local resident. All skill levels are welcome to participate. Each ride is five to ten kilometres with lots of rest stops and fun conversation with your neighbours along the way.

No registration is required. Rain or shine. In extreme weather situations, please visit this webpage to see if the ride or walk is cancelled. Be sure to subscribe to Bike Kitchener email updates for cycling news and updates on the master plan.”

The ride for the Mt. Hope – Breithaupt Park neighbourhood is on Wednesday, Aug 22 at 6 pm at the Breithaupt Centre.

Check out all the facts and updates on this page.

See you there on Wednesday!

Neighbourhood update, August 2018

Here are a few things happening in and around our hood in the weeks and months ahead:

The City of Kitchener is having several “Workshops on Wheels” to discuss the Cycling and Trails Master Plan. The event for Mt. Hope – Breithaupt Park is scheduled for Wed, Aug 22, 2018 and starts at the Breithaupt Center. But anyone can participate in any of the rides. Just show up and talk with folks. Information is on the City’s website here.

The Guelph Street Community Garden hosts “potluck” dinners, every Wednesday Evening through July and August, 6 – 7:30 pm. For information on the garden click here.

There is a Sacred Heart School and Convent charrette proposed for this fall. This is after the model of the 152 Shanley Charrette.  That one was very helpful and well organized. It remains to be seen if the city will be able to sell the Shanley property, but some good ideas were generated. We hope the charrette for the Sacred Heart property goes ahead and leads to something productive being done with those historic buildings.

Most of our ‘hood is within a 15-20 minute walk to the Kitchener Blues Festival which is taking place August 9 – 12th. That is very soon! Personally, I’m not even a huge fan of blues, but there is so much great music over the weekend that it is always an amazing event and it is wonderful to see downtown Kitchener transformed into a space alive with music, people, food and good times. My picks this year are Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding (Friday) and the Last Waltz tribute (Friday). I urge everyone to check out the schedule, search for YouTube videos of interesting artists and get some rest so you can rock out!

Do you know of more events relevant to MHBP? Please email us at mhbpna@gmail.com.

Ted P.

Duke Street West Music Fest — 2018

For several years a few people on Duke St. West have been thinking about organizing a music event in our ‘hood. The Duke Street Playground seemed like a logical place because it has play equipment for kids and many green spaces for playing and several trees for shade. In fact, many people call it the “Duke Street Park” because it is so lush and green for most of the summer. There are several “Porch Parties” in Kitchener and Waterloo that show people love to play and share music. We decided the playground would have just one stage which made it easier to organize.

A small committee (Emily, Eli and Ted) was formed from the Mt. Hope – Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association to organize the event we would call the “Duke St. West Music Fest” (DSWMF). We decided on Saturday, June 23 as the date and started preparations a few months before by talking with the “Love my Hood” folks. We applied for a City of Kitchener grant to cover the Porta-potty rental, food and modest honorariums for the performers. Filling out this long form was the first test of our “team work” and after a few weeks we learned we had been approved!

We advertised on social media and our newsletter for musicians within our MHBPNA boundaries and received enough responses to fill the three hours! Our cool poster can be viewed here.

The day of the event we were threatened by rain and potential thunderstorms. We had to make a big decision about cancelling or continuing knowing that we might have to abandon the event if the thunderstorms materialized. Much time was spent on weather apps and websites!

We had several tents loaned to us by Extend-A-Family and neighbours. So we decided to go ahead, but then were informed by the city that we could not use power! This threw a wrench into things, but we agreed to go “acoustic” and moved the stage area to the front of the playground. The new location made it very inviting for people walking past to hear the music.

Ultimately some rain did fall but very little affected the performances and we were very happy. At one point I counted about 60 people listening to the music, talking quietly in the background, playing on swings and other equipment and generally walking around and enjoying the atmosphere. If you include all the people who came through, staying for different lengths of time, and those close by listening on their porches, we estimate around 130 people attended! We ordered two deliveries from the good folks at Planet Pizza on Breithaupt Street and they were will received by everyone.

We were very happy with the attendance and enthusiasm of everyone. It makes us excited to try it again next year. As Eli said “next year we will have sun and sound!”

Ted Parkinson

Duke St West Music Fest (Update)

UPDATE: The rain is going away, but there are safety concerns about running power. The rain might come back and the ground is wet as well.

However, we have three tents and a porta potty, plus snacks!

So we have decided to make the event acoustic and more of a “hang out” kind of thing. We hope everyone will still come to listen. We can even order pizza after 3.

We will see about re-scheduling the event with “amplified sound” later in the summer (with an alternate rain location).

We really hope we see you all there and will stick to the basic schedule as much as we can.

Thanks for your understanding.