In honor of Canada’s diversity, having made Nanaimo bars from the English speaking part of the country, I decided to make something from the French speaking part of the country, Québec, as well. It was a tribute to the maple leave with recipies for both the main course and dessert featuring maple syrup. Plus, to get the day started we began with a local favorite of Maple Butter on bread. Several years ago, Scott, Eva and I traveled Québec City and took a trip around Ile d’Orléans. Very agricultural. We stopped along the way and bought a cookbook put together by the local farmers. called Les Producteurs Toqués (farmers in chef hats). It is in English and French. For the main course, I made Carré d’agneau et poires caramelisées à l’érable (Maple rack of lamb and caramelized pears). The maple past was reminiscent of spare ribs and quite tasty. The lamb took longer to cook than anticipated (almost 1 hr instead of 30 min) I think our oven may be off. With the lamb were pears caramelized in butter then a touch of maple syrup and thyme were added. I was in heaven. Eva loved them and Scott said he liked them too, but it would not make his top 10 because it was lamb. But at least he thought it was delicious. As we had finished up the Gratin Dauphinois (potatoes au gratin) and had no potatoes, I went for plan B – Trader Joe’s Potato Pancakes, left from Hanukkah. It was perfect. For dessert, Tarte aux pommes et caramel à l’érable (Maple caramel apple tart). I even made my own Pate Brisée. It was good, but not our favorite. We all prefer the more traditional apple tarts I generally make, one with a custard and one without. But it was good to try something new. Otherwise, I have been working a lot on my blog and added many countries if you are up for taking a look.