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| Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon Pasta |
29 November 2009
Next in our Canadian Chef Series.....A Recipe for Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Simple Dill Cream Cheese Sauce from Chef Michael Smith
25 November 2009
A Recipe for Michael Smith's Frozen Butter Biscuits for Thanksgiving
Frozen Butter Biscuits
I'd love to take a few moments to wish all of our American friends a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have many hands to make the work lighter and many smiling faces around your table. There is just so much to be thankful for....despite everything!!
Thanksgiving here in Canada was in October so we are ogling your recipe ideas for the Christmas holidays. So for the past week or two I have not been baking up a storm, or been up to my elbows with saucepans, nor do I want to stick my head in the oven either...just kidding. Our time will come and I hope you have many things to make you truly thankful.
I have had these biscuits waiting on the sidelines to have their time to SHINE!!! These are gold-standard biscuits from Canadian Chef Michael Smith. These are another one of the down-home dishes I enjoyed from his latest cookbook The Best of Chef at Home which I reviewed in an earlier post. His secret? Frozen butter! It’s an old pastry chef’s trick that has served him well. Butter tastes great and adds that flavour that is just essential when baking biscuits. When the butter is frozen it becomes very easy to shred into the dough. This allows for a very flaky biscuit. I broke the biscuits in half and topped them with Greek yogurt from Pike Place Market in Seattle as well as some homemade raspberry preserves. These flaky morsels did not last long and are so versatile. I have made them several times adding different cheeses and herbs.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!!!
Thanksgiving here in Canada was in October so we are ogling your recipe ideas for the Christmas holidays. So for the past week or two I have not been baking up a storm, or been up to my elbows with saucepans, nor do I want to stick my head in the oven either...just kidding. Our time will come and I hope you have many things to make you truly thankful.
I have had these biscuits waiting on the sidelines to have their time to SHINE!!! These are gold-standard biscuits from Canadian Chef Michael Smith. These are another one of the down-home dishes I enjoyed from his latest cookbook The Best of Chef at Home which I reviewed in an earlier post. His secret? Frozen butter! It’s an old pastry chef’s trick that has served him well. Butter tastes great and adds that flavour that is just essential when baking biscuits. When the butter is frozen it becomes very easy to shred into the dough. This allows for a very flaky biscuit. I broke the biscuits in half and topped them with Greek yogurt from Pike Place Market in Seattle as well as some homemade raspberry preserves. These flaky morsels did not last long and are so versatile. I have made them several times adding different cheeses and herbs.
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.
It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!!!
**Frozen Butter Biscuits**
by Canadian Chef Michael Smith from the Best of Chef at Home
print Michael's recipe
by Canadian Chef Michael Smith from the Best of Chef at Home
print Michael's recipe
4 cups of all-purpose flour
2 large spoonfuls of baking powder
2 small spoonfuls of salt
2 sticks/8 oz/ 1 cup of frozen butter
1-1/2 cups of milk
a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper
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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together until they’re evenly mixed. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Shred it through the large holes of a box grater or potato grater directly into the flour. Toss gently with your fingers until the butter shards are spread evenly throughout the flour.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together until they’re evenly mixed. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Shred it through the large holes of a box grater or potato grater directly into the flour. Toss gently with your fingers until the butter shards are spread evenly throughout the flour.
Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir with an upside down wooden spoon to form a dough mass. The handle of the spoon is gentler on the dough. Fold the dough over a few times with your hands until all the ingredients come together. If necessary add a few spoonfuls more milk to help gather up any stray flour. This kneading will strengthen the dough a bit but not enough to toughen the biscuits. It will also help them form a crisp crust when they bake.
Pat the dough out on a lightly floured cutting board forming a loose round shape. Cut into wedges – like a pie - or any other shape you’re in the mood for. Position on a baking sheet; sprinkle on a bit of coarse salt and coarsely ground pepper. Bake for fifteen minutes or so. You’ll know they’re done when they turn golden brown. Enjoy at once with lots of brown butter!
You may also enjoy....
Biscones from One Food Year
Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits from One for the Table
Biscuits and Gravy by Pioneer Woman Cooks
Buttermilk Biscuits with Goat Cheese and Chives by Elise at Simply Recipes
22 November 2009
A Recipe for Butternut Squash Focaccia with Caramelized Onions
Butternut Focaccia with Caramelized Onions
Who doesn't love the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven? This feeling is something you just can't purchase at your local bakery or at Costco. Making bread is an act to not only feed my family and myself, but to nourish my soul as well. I can pick up a fresh loaf of bread within a five-minute walking distance from my home, but I occasionally like to make my own bread just for the comfort factor. When I attended the very first ever Foodbuzz Festival I was one of the lucky recipients of the new Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg book Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have been eagerly browsing through it's pages and have my eye on a pumpkin brioche, but before I venture into artisan breads I was looking for something to do with the leftover mashed, roasted butternut squash I had on hand.
One bread I enjoy making at home is focaccia. In addition to thinking it's one of the easier breads to bake, I also love it's diversity. It is quite often baked with sea salt and rosemary, but, you can easily add thyme or sage instead, not to mention goat cheese, caramelized onions, olives, garlic, nuts, anchovies, and fresh tomatoes.The sky is the limit!!!!Don't you just love it!!!
Focaccia or panis focacius is a traditional Italian bread whose recipe dates back to ancient Rome. It was a flat bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace. The word is derived from the Latin focus meaning “centre” and also “fireplace” ...the fireplace being in the centre of the house. Like pizza, it is made from a simple and basic yeast dough that is often cooked with olive oil.
As mentioned earlier I had some leftover butternut squash so I decided to bake a focaccia loosely based on a recipe I found on the internet from Gattina of Kitchen Unplugged. The Internet is a very useful tool when searching for ideas. She had produced a foccacia using mashed pototoes so I said to myself why not try butternut squash instead. When I was in Greece a few years back on the small island of Kea at Keartisinal Aglaia Kremezi taught us how to make a focaccia using zucchini picked fresh from her garden and then grated into the dough. What Aglaia taught me was to make use of what is available to you as well as use the best ingredients possible. This is how you will become a success in your own kitchen and leave people wanting more!!!
To follow through with the almost sweet tendencies of the squash I chose to caramelize some cippolini onions to add on top. These are small sweet onions, having more residual sugar than garden-variety white or yellow onions, but not quite as sweet as shallots. Their sweetness makes for a lovely addition to recipes where you might want to use whole caramelized onions. Replace the cipollini onions with shallots if you cannot find them as they will substitute very well. Shallots are quite a bit pricier. The onions add a sweet flavor that plays off the salt in this bread nicely. Feel free to use chopped kalamata olives instead, add goat cheese, or just use herbs and salt. To add that depth of flavour you will find the method of roasting your butternut squash here.
Once the dough has risen it is common practice to "dot" the bread. This creates multiple wells in the bread by using a finger or the handle of a utensil to poke the unbaked risen dough. As a way to preserve moisture in the bread, olive oil is then spread over the dough, by hand or with a pastry brush prior to rising and baking. Whatever you do, your house will smell like HOME. It is simply not something that can be duplicated!!!!
The verdict.....This bread was delicious and can be made in stages or made all in the same day depending on your own schedule. Everything about it appealed to me. This is the perfect base recipe for making all sorts of different flavoured focaccia bread! With it's gorgeous orange hue this would be perfect for the American Thanksgiving coming up. A Happy holiday to all our American friends. I will be making this again and again and have even entered it in a recipe contest.
**Butternut Squash Focaccia with Caramelized Onions**
8 oz /1 cup mashed butternut squash, precooked ( I had leftover roasted butternut which makes a world of difference!!)
25g fresh yeast or 1 package dry
3 cups flour (+ 1/4 cup for dusting)
1 cup whole milk, lukewarm
2 teaspoons sea salt (and extra for topping)
5 teaspoons canola or corn oil
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil ( and extra for drizzling on top)
1 teaspoons dried crushed oregano
a little water (if the dough is too dry)
1 cup caramelized onions (see recipe below)
dash of chili flakes or red peppercorns
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In a large mixing bowl, combine fresh yeast, flour, mashed butternut squash, oregano, both oils and salt. Add milk (most of it but not all... later during the kneading after you get a good feeling of its moisture, then decide if more milk is needed).
Dust the work table with 1/4 cup of flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Please note that the dough in the beginning feels a bit dry, but later turns sticky (so don't rush to add excessive liquid too soon). The dough should be slightly sticky.
Put the dough in a large bowl pregreased with olive oil, cover with pre-greased plastic wrap and place the bowl on the lowest shelf of the fridge; let it proof overnight.
The following day remove the dough from the fridge and fold it (but do not knead) a few times, just to re-distribute the yeast cells.
Grease the baking tray with olive oil, and your hands too; gently press the dough until it reaches the sides of the pan. This may require a resting period depending on whether or not the dough is too springy depending on the gluten content of your flour. Sprinkle with the caramelized onions and chili flakes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until it has a doubled in volume.
"Dot" the bread with your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon to create dimples. If the dough seems sticky dip your finger into a tiny bit of flour or olive oil. Brush olive oil onto the surface of bread. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Pre-heat oven to 230 C/450 F.
Bake the focaccia for 5 minutes, then lower to 200 C/400 F until it's done, it may take 20 - 25 mins in total. Unmold the bread and let it completely cool on a rack.The focaccia tastes best in the first 2 days.
Good enough to make 6 sandwiches, or simply to cut into chunks, accompanied with tomato sauce (or in this case a nice dip or spread).
Caramelized Onions
1 cup sliced cipollini onions (or shallots)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
Heat olive oil in a medium to large pan. Add onions and sauté on medium low for about five minutes. Add the sugar and stir. Cook the onions until they are soft and a light golden colour.
What are our friends doing with focaccia?????????????
Susan at A Year in Bread - Easy Rosemary Focaccia
Luisa of The Wednesday Chef - Focaccia di Patate
Seven Fishes.com - Easy Italian Herb Focaccia
Martha Stewart - Eggplant Focaccia
Bay Area Bites - Caramelized Cipollini Onion Focaccia
Margot of Coffee & Vanilla - Green Olive Focaccia
Pinch My Salt - Herbed Focaccia from the Bread Bakers Apprentice
18 November 2009
A Recipe for Ricotta and Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta Shells with Pesto
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| Ricotta and Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta with Pesto |
Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard, to get her poor doggie a bone, and when she got there the cupboard was bare.....well you know the rest. Yes the cupboards here at MTBT were bare so what to do, what to do? Shall I call out for pizza, invite myself to a friends for dinner or get creative in the kitchen and use what I have available. Canadian Chef Michael Smith would be so proud!! Put those chef hats on tight because Valli is in the kitchen!!!!! Could it be that even a week later I am still reeling from all the wonderful food we had in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival and still need a reality check...sigh....This is probably the first meal I have actually attempted in the past week or so without just pulling something from the freezer. Well I was feeling creative so let's see what we have in the kitchen to work with without heading to the grocers.
17 November 2009
Food buzz....Take 2
I Love Foodbuzz!!!!
My sentiments exactly!!!!
My day started off with pastries and fruit at the Ferry Building where I met Ryan "The Girl" one of the amazing staff at Foodbuzz who pulled this off. I also reconnected with Chez Pim who was on our BlogHer panel with me last month where we spoke about How Our Blogs Can Save the World representing BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine. She was there signing her new book. This followed by a seminar with Sue from Cowgirl Creamery who guided us through 5 cheeses. She was a wealth of knowledge and has a passion for cheese that could not be matched. In 1997, Peggy Smith, a seventeen-year veteran at my "still to try favourite restaurant" Chez Panisse, joined Sue Conley, a former owner of Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, to create Tomales Bay Foods in downtown Point Reyes Station in western Marin County. The Tomales location included Cowgirl Creamery, a viewable cheese manufacturing facility, which utilized Straus organic milk. Their flagship store is downstairs at the Ferry Building where Sue and Peggy feature their own award-winning cheeses along with cheese from around the world. In the seminar we were fortunate to try their delicious Fromage Blanc with a touch of creme fraiche that imparted a slight tanginess, Inverness, Mt Tam, Red Hawk seasonal cheese and their new (and yet to be released) Batch 11. You NEED all of these cheeses each with its own attributes!!!!!
Morning Buzz with Cowgirl Creamery
After the seminar I moved on to explore The Ferry Building Marketplace located within the historic Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street along the Bay where shops large and small celebrate food in all its forms, offering everything from artisan cheeses, artisan breads made with organic flour, California olives oils including citrus olive oils with names like Blood Orange, Lisbon Lemon, and Persian Lime, macarons and French pastries, a myriad of exotic mushrooms, to the freshest of local fish and seafood. This is California where food never tasted fresher!!!! Where ingredients are fresh, recipes are simple, yet the results are sophisticated and intoxicating. It is also the home of Sur la Table which has long been associated with farmers markets. I visited the original Sur La Table that was founded in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Farmers Market a few weeks ago. With retail locations across the country, an e-commerce site, and a mail order catalog, Sur La Table carefully designs each store to have its own distinctive look and feel.From Moroccan tagines, Portuguese cataplanas and Spanish paella pans, to tart pans and tutove pins, Sur La Table provides the unexpected and a sense of discovery. Here I started collecting those "stocking stuffers" for Christmas with wild abandon!!!I met up with Joan of FOODalogue where we were able to try a new taste sensation Sea Beans on the main floor. We wandered the farmers market for hours with new sights and sounds at every turn. Joan was a wealth of knowledge about the different fruits and vegetables we were seeing. Some were exotic like Buddha's Hands. For over a millennium, the Chinese and Japanese have prized the bizarre Buddha's Hand Citron, which looks like a cross between a giant lemon and a squid, and can perfume a room for weeks with its mysterious fragrance. I'd use it for it's zest or to make some citrus flavoured vodka!!!! Joan also introduced me to Pimientos de Padrón which are small green peppers roughly the size of your thumb. They’re fried in olive oil, salted, and served at many tapas bars in Spain. Besides being salty and sweet, most people eat Pimientos de Padrón for the fun of it. Eating them is considered a form of culinary Russian roulette. Some are sweet. Others are hot enough to make your head spin. I NEED these. We also met up with some very quirky characters from Cirque de Soleil who engaged passersby.
All the Ferry Building has to offer...
From here it was a quick jaunt to the Metreon in the afternoon where a mix of bloggers, artisan producers, brands, wineries, breweries and chefs converged for the three-hour "Tasting Pavilion." Attendees had the opportunity to sip, share, taste and talk as they learned about everything ranging from chocolate and wines, to artisan confections and local produce from Frog Hollow Farms. Alder Yarrow, the granddaddy of wine bloggers and proprietor of Vinography.Com, guided two tasting seminars... "California Sparkling Wine" and "Underappreciated California Merlots."
Also in the Tasting Pavillion were the winners in the Bertolli Sauce Kitchen. The three bloggers, selected by the Foodbuzz community to demo their recipes, used Bertolli Sauces as the backbone of their own inventive appetizers or main courses which were fortunately dished out to all the eager bloggers in the crowd. Nearby, six bloggers were featured as Nature's Pride "Bread Ambassadors," cooked and demonstrated their own unique winning recipes integrating Nature's Pride bread for their fellow food bloggers to sample. I also had the opportunity to meet up with long time blogging friend Kelly of Sass and Veracity and my new discovery Josee of Daydreamer Desserts.
Tasting Pavilion at the Metreon
Many of you may have heard me rave about the Farm to Table Outstanding in the Field dinners. I have always dreamed of attending one of their dinners at long communal tables with new found friends each time they have come to my province of British Columbia here in Canada. So far I have always had obstacles in my way for one reason or another. This year in my area they held a dinner at the University of British Columbia Farm in Vancouver as well as in Pemberton, which is up near Whistler, both about 4 hours from my home. Imagine my insane delight on Saturday night when Foodbuzz teamed up with "Outstanding in the Field" for a farm-to-table family-style feast. Saturday night’s Foodbuzz dinner & awards ceremony was beautifully set in the Greenleaf Produce building. It is not an easy task to bring a few hundred people together for a dinner in a warehouse at one long snaking table with a makeshift kitchen. Somehow, with the help of some great locals and I am sure a lot of hard work, it all came together flawlessly. As Jenn says, " Very rustic and the perfect environment to enjoy a menu of farm fresh products. Our menu was created by Chef Dennis Lee of Namu. All of the food was local, organic and sustainable and the meats were all pasture-raised. It was really nice to enjoy a guilt free meal of the highest quality." We had a truly wonderful and memorable dinner, in really great company. I had the honour of sitting with our posse and longtime blogger friends Peter of Souvlaki For The Soul, who came all the way from Australia to be at the festival, Jenn and Roberto of The Leftover Queen and The Foodie Blogroll, Peter and Christey of FotoCuisine , Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen (my cohort for the weekend and co-founder of BloggerAid - Changing the Face of Famine) , Joan of FOODalogue, Pat of FoodWedsHerbs and Claudia of Jet Set Wisdom. Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon Vineyard, paired wines for the event, talked with diners about each wine and provided tasting notes. It was a magical evening where 250 bloggers from the world over sat at long snaking tables of mismatched china and were the recipients of some of the best food known to man. We have been inundated by brussel sprouts recipes on Foodbuzz blogs ever since!!!!!We had some real converts!!!! After dinner, Foodbuzz honoured the Foodbuzz community's incredible blogging talent at the First-Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Awards Ceremony. During the course of the evening I also met Marc of No Recipes and Blog Away Hunger and Lori Lynn from Taste With the Eyes and Father Adam.
Outstanding in the Field is Outstanding....
This was an incredible weekend that I hope next year you all have a chance to attend. The city of San Francsico is always so welcoming and Foodbuzz made this a magical experience. But what makes a weekend one for the memory books was meeting (or at least trying to meet) 250 bloggers from 27 States and 4 countries who we already had so much in common with... a passion for food and our blogs....and we obsessively photograph each and every bite we eat and never blink an eye!!!! Thank you Foodbuzz and thank you everyone who made this an experience of a lifetime...until next year...adieu!!! Giz and I missed the brunch at Luni and instead headed to the Napa Valley for some more wine tasting and a true California experience.....stay tuned!!!!Some photos courtesy of Peter of Peter G Photography , Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen and Joan of FOODalogue.
Old friends and new...
Check out what old and new friends are Buzzing about at the Foodbuzz Festival......Jenn and Roberto of Leftover Queen and Foodie Blogroll
Joan of Foodalogue
Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of My Pants
Mardi of Eat, Live Travel, Write
Lori Lynn of Taste with The Eyes
Chrystal & Amir of The Duo Dishes
15 November 2009
Foodbuzz.... Take 1
I wouldn't normally consider myself a superstitious person but the events of this past Friday...yes Friday the 13th...had me singing another tune. Not singing in the literal sense (that would clear a room very quickly) but feeling differently about life's direction and taking the bull by the horns.
One event in the past week that was certainly an adventure, if not life changing, was the few days spent in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival. You have heard about this event countless times over the past week, but after car accidents, book releases, and loosing fillings I am a little behind the times. It has been months in the planning for not only the talented staff over at Foodbuzz but for Giz and I to meet up in the big city. I met Giz and her daughter through their blog Equal Opportunity Kitchen and what transpired from there was nothing short of a miracle. In the past year we started a social network BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine, published a cookbook to raise money for the School Meals Programme and finally met in San Francisco at Foodbuzz. You probably thought all along that since we both live in Canada and both have similar ideologies that our paths would have crossed long ago. We are on opposite ends of this huge country we call Canada but are not very far apart in our long term goals. It was like meeting a long lost friend after all this time and even if we were both tired we sprung into action and set out to explore San Francisco.
After flights from opposite ends of the country we met for the first time at our home for the next 4 days The Galleria Park Hotel which is a stylish boutique hotel in Union Square in downtown San Francisco and part of a group of hotels in the Joie de Vivre chain. I give a shout out to the attentive staff at the hotel as well as their social awareness. Joie de Vivre Hotels is a grass roots organization that strives to have a positive impact on their community. Each of their hotels is dedicated to donating to organizations in their communities.
Galleria Park Hotel’s philanthropic partner in the You Can Make a Difference program is The Gum Moon Asian Women's Resource Center where they address the needs of women and children in geographic and social transition. They provide services and programs that help develop life skills that help people integrate into society in order to support themselves and their families. Kudos to the Joie de Vivre!!!
First stop for Giz and I.....Chinatown. I was in San Francisco last month so read all about Chinatown in my last post. Where else can you find beautiful scarves for $1.50 and fun and fanciful cosies for your wine bottles. Mix this with the local flavours, sights and sounds and it is an idyllic way to spend an afternoon... and let's face it we were starving!!!!!
Day 2 lead us to North Beach, with deep roots in the Italian community, where we sought out macaroons the size of our heads that had inspired me on my last trip. As Canadians we visited our very first Trader Joe's which we have read about countless times on your blogs and also visited Fisherman's Wharf; which I missed during my last visit. I was fascinated by the shapely sourdough and the sea lions at Pier 39 with their engaging personalities.
From there we moved on to the Ferry Building and an outdoor extravaganza to titillate our taste buds and "rev" us up for more to come. What a line up of tasty treats from the Mission District to the Ferry Building and everything in between!!!! From authentic wood-fire oven pizza, to rotisserie roasted porchetta on a bun, to antojito style tacos, to organic oysters... all culminating with organic ice cream and cupcake nibbles.
This weekend went down as one for the memory books. Kudos to the staff at Foodbuzz for pulling it all together to make it one of the best foodie weekends imaginable!!!!! I hope you all get to attend next year!!!!!!More to follow tomorrow........................................ Foodbuzz Take 2......
14 November 2009
It's Here.......
It's Here.....
After a year of collaberation and hard work from a small group of dedicated members we are proud to announce the BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine Cookbook is flying off the shelves!!!! "We should all be proud of our efforts", say administrators Giz and Val.
Food does not simply nourish the body; food also celebrates what makes the world diverse, as well as what unites us. The BloggerAid Cook Book is a collection of international recipes illustrating that we can work together and unite for a greater cause. The over 130 authors of this cookbook are food bloggers from around the world who have endeavored to make a difference by raising funds for the World Food Programme and encompassing their passion for "all things foodie" at the same time.
Through these recipes they share their traditions and an insatiable curiosity about new flavours. They pay tribute to the home cooking of our grandmothers, while celebrating the exoticism and richness of a world brought closer together by their hopes to make a difference. With recipes such as Tomato-Cheese Ravioli with Eggplant Sauce, Spicy Serundeng Tuna and Peanuts, Serrano Ham Paella with Oyster Mushrooms, Raspberry Mascarpone Bites and Triple Layer Orange-Passion Fruit Tart we are doing our part to say that bloggers can change the face of famine.
100% of BloggerAid-CFF's proceeds from the cookbook will be sent directly to the WFP's School Meals Programme, which benefits an average of 22 million hungry children each year. School meals are important on many levels. In countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each day boosts enrollment and promotes regular attendance. Our children are the key to a better future.
This book is a virtual way for all of us, wherever we may be and however rich or poor we may be, to pull up a chair at the same table and share what we have.
Follow this link to purchase your copy of The BloggerAid Cookbook. If you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends we can be well on our way to making a difference. Remember it takes only 25 cents to feed a child a school lunch...imagine the possibilities!!!!
12 November 2009
Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club Serves up "Windowpane Potato Chips" & "Sliders with Dijon-Shallot Relish" for the Holidays
Windowpane Potatoes
Well we're home from the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco. Before I can tell you all about it it's time for our monthly get together!!! So glad you could join us once again!!!! This month our Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club chose the theme TAPAS, APPETIZERS & SMALL PLATES in honour of the looming holiday. Check out this month's menu where we share our ideas for a cocktail party that will knock your socks off...and just in time for the holiday season!!!!!!! We love to share these ideas with you each month by putting together a delicious meal for each other through our Virtual Supper Club. The idea is simple because we all share a common interest in cooking and all things "foodie". This is a team effort where we get together virtually once a month and combine what Cooking Light readers like best...good food with great company!!! Why don't you join in by visiting us at their blog Test Kitchen Secrets. Bring your own dish and join the party!!!!!Ultimately this is what has brought myself Val of More Than Burnt Toast, Helene of La Cuisine d'Helene, Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, Jamie of Mom's Cooking Club and Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen together to share their love of food, blogging and their commitment to a health conscious lifestyle to create the very 1st ever Virtual Supper Club sponsored by Cooking Light magazine!!! We all share a love for Cooking Light magazine which has an emphasis on healthy eating and living. Each issue covers light cuisine and included more than 70 delicious and flavourful recipes. It also explores food and nutrition news as well as fitness, health and beauty.
Now what about those appetizers!!!! Appetizer recipes come in all shapes and sizes and from all 4 corners of the world. The French refer to them as hors d'œuvres or in the case of a one-bite appetizer they are called an amuse-bouche. Antipasto is the Italian equivalent of hors d'oeuvres, meaning “before the meal" typically consisting of savory cold foods such as cheeses and raw or marinated vegetables, as well as cold cuts and cured meats such as prosciutto. These tasty little morsels of food, no matter what you want to call them, can be as simple as a slice of mild cheese with a cracker to a hearty soup of onions and French bread. An appetizer refers to a small portion of food served before a meal, but it can also refer to the first course of a meal. As the years have gone by appetizers have evolved into a whole new meaning and with international influence can become a meal in itself.
They are referred to as "orektika" in Greece but are outshadowed by the more popular mezes table which can be an array or appetizers or little plates. The little plates are shared by everyone at the table, which provides a wonderful variety of flavour and texture sensations for each guest. Mezes is usually translated from Greek to English as "appetizer's", but, this translation does not do justice to the fundamental role mezes play in Greek tradition. Zorbas the Greek sums up the essence of Mezes the best....
"On the coast I felt for the first time what a pleasant thing it could be to have a meal. We started eating and drinking, the conversation became animated. I at last realized that eating was a spiritual function and the meat, bread, and wine were the raw materials from which the soul is made."
Similar to mezes, Spanish tapas can be practically anything from a chunk of tuna, cocktail onion and an olive skewered on a long toothpick to meat with sauce served piping hot in a miniature clay dish. They are served day in and day out in every bar and café in Spain. So much a part of the culture and social scene that the Spanish people invented the verb "tapear" which means to go and eat tapas! Here tapas have evolved into an entire cuisine where we hit the tapas restaurants and order as many different tapas we feel we can eat and combine them to make a full meal. Just like in Greek tradition the serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them. When last in San Francisco we discovered a fabulous Catalan tapas place run by a food blogger Brett Emerson called Contigo. He chronicled the birth of his new Spanish restaurant on his blog In Praise of Sardines.
According to The Joy of Cooking, the original tapas were the slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips. This was a practical measure meant to prevent fruit flies from hovering over the sweet sherry. The meat used to cover the sherry was normally ham or chorizo, which are both very salty and activate thirst. Because of this, bartenders and restaurant owners began creating a variety of snacks to serve with sherry, thus increasing their alcohol sales. The tapas eventually became as important as the sherry.
Sliders with Shallot-Dijon Relish
Distance prevents the 5 ladies of our Virtual Supper Club from gathering as a group in each others homes but we have enjoyed getting to know one another and have developed an international appetizer bar from the pages of Cooking Light magazine that is sure to bring smiles when your family and friends visit your home this holiday season. See us on their blog Test Kitchen Secrets!!! What better way to enjoy each others company virtually as well as begin the holiday season than with tapas and appetizers.For our virtual feast I was delighted with these see-through Windowpane Potato Chips. Fresh herbs were sandwiched together between 2 paper-thin slices of potato. Very impressive for your guests and a sure-fire conversation starter. I continued on with another delicious appetizer Sliders with Shallot-Dijon Relish. These were perfect tiny tidbits and it was hard to stop at just one. Helene brought spicy Grilled Pepper Poppers which had our taste buds hopping here. Shelby really enjoyed this challenge. She outdid herself with tiny flavourful bites of Harvest Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Tarts....so good!!!!Aggie delighted us with Mini Frittatas with Ham and Cheese. These were quick to make and were devoured even quicker. Her West Indies Shrimp rounded out our cocktail party with finesse!!! Jamie WOWED us with her Warm Cranberry-Walnut Brie . She says this brie was unbelievable! So simple to make but OMG delicious. She also treated us to some amazing seafood Mini Crab Cakes with Herbed Aioli . Check out each of our blogs for photos and links and enjoy the party!!!!
5 November 2009
2 November 2009
Canadian Chef Josée di Stasio and a Recipe for Pasta with Tuna & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
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| Pasta with Tuna and Sun-dried Tomatoes |
If you have been following More Than Burnt Toast you will know I started a weekly feature to highlight Canadian Chefs a few months back. Other commitments slowed my progress down, but now we are back in full force to bring you all that Canada has to offer!!! Through your TV networks, or perhaps on other blogs, or even just right here on More Than Burnt Toast you may have heard of some of our Canadian chefs. For those of you who haven't, I hope you will find it interesting to see what our chefs are up to, a little about their history and how they came to love what they do. For the next few months I will continue to feature one of our Canadian chefs each week. There will be some chefs you have heard of and adore and some lesser known who are up and coming. As the eleventh installment in my Canadian Chef series I introduce you to:
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