Beer! Hogtown Brewers Launches in TO

One of my favourite things to ask people is to tell me a story. So when I heard that five rugby playing buddies had started making their own craft beer, I wanted to know more. Hogtown Brewers, has recently entered the market as one of Toronto’s newest brewers, and it all stemmed from a desire to make a local beer that they wanted to drink.

For cute rugby boys, they’re pretty smart too. All of them kept their full time jobs, they’re renting brewing space, (instead of dropping serious money on their own right off the bat) and most importantly, they’re listening to customer feedback.

(A little tease of Hogtown Brewers at the Toronto Underground Market)

I first met some of the Hogtown Brewers crew at the TorontoUnderground Market back in November. They were proudly, (if not slightly shyly) pouring pints of their Hogtown Ale and genuinely inquiring what people thought of it.  They welcomed comments and suggestions via an online form as well so that people who were too nice to criticize in person, could still give their opinion.

Then, their master brewer took what they had learned from the public and actually made changes. The goal was to create a craft beer that was flavourful but wouldn’t alienate people.  At the Toronto Underground Market, enough tasters commented that the beer was a bit too bitter that they decided to rejig the formula.

At the official Hogtown Brewers launch party at The Duke ofDevon they had made the necessary adjustments and the response from the public was overwhelmingly favourable. The beer was great, servers were decked out in Hogtown t-shirts and even the hors d’oeuvres paid homage to Hogtown with little pastry pigs on top of meat pies.

For now you can find Hogtown Ale on tap at The Duke of Devon, but keep your eyes open as they’re looking to expand to other restaurants and pubs in the city soon. 

Cheers boys!

Fancy Valentine's Day Breakfast

A gorgeous setting, gourmet food and a panel of talented experts are worth getting up early for on Valentine’s Day. Where did I find all of these things in one place? At the “Steak Your Claim as a Foodie” breakfast held at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

Toronto is one of many cities taking part in Social Media Week around the world between February 13^th and 17^th.   The week features lectures, panel discussions, events and tweet ups all focused on emerging trends in social and mobile media across major industries.

On Valentine’s Day I got up extra early for 7:30am breakfast in the opulent setting of the Ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.  Chefs manned cooking stations at one end of the Ballroom and served a wonderful breakfast to hungry attendees. At one station, eggs were poached on demand to create lobster eggs benedict, at another a rich and spicy hot chocolate was served with Hawaiian malasadas for dipping. And who could resist the multi-tiered chocolate fountain?

giveaway, Giveaway, GIVEAWAY!

To fully jump back into blogging, and to convince readers that they should still come visit me here, I’m giving away something shiny and new!  Oooooh!  KitchenAid has provided me with a brand new 13-cup food processor to give away to one lucky reader.  Exciting!

I’m going to make this real easy for you, in order to qualify for the random draw that I will do on Friday, November 25^th, all you have to do is comment on this post and tell me:

-One thing you’d make with your new food processor

AND

-One thing you’d like to see me make on Jumbo Empanadas. 

Easy peasy.  If you’d like a second contest entry, then tweet something like: 

“@brilynnferguson is giving away a KA food processor on Jumbo Empanadas http://jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/2011/11/giveaway-giveaway-giveaway.html and I want to win it!” 

Feel free to customize your tweet, you’re a creative bunch, just make sure you @mention me and link to this page and BAM! you’ve got a second entry!

Apologies to my foreign friends, the contest is only open to Canadians, but everyone else is welcome to comment!  Good luck!

Post World Dulce de Leche Day Round Up

After World Nutella Day I was pretty excited for World Dulce de Leche Day, although I think I needed more backing power.  It was not quite the resounding success I had hoped for,  The round up consists of a small but awesome group of bloggers with an immense love of all things DdL.  I know there are more DdL lovers out there so I'll have to start my campaign earlier next year to get more people involved.  Nevertheless, enjoy the following treats, they look pretty amazing.  I certainly haven't tired of the sweet, caramelly goodness of dulce de leche yet so I will be in using it throughout the year.

Happy World Dulce de Leche Day!

I love delicious, arbitrary holidays and that’s why I decided a few weeks ago, on World Nutella Day, that there should also be a World Dulce de Leche Day.  Patience is not my strong suit so I couldn’t wait any longer than the end of February to declare a second gooey, sticky, food centred holiday.  February 28th has arrived and that means that if all has gone according to plan, there should be a spike in food blog posts about dulce de leche and the world will be a sweeter place today.  If you’re one of the lovely people who have chosen to wax poetically, or otherwise, about the virtues of dulce de leche, send me a link to your post and I’ll do a round up of goodness at the end of the week.

Dulce de Leche Cookie Sandwich

World Dulce de Leche Day is TOMORROW, that's Monday, February 28th! If you're stuck for an idea about what to make, bake a batch of cookies, any type of cookie, place a spoonful of dulce de leche on a freshly baked and cooled cookie and sandwich it together with another cookie.  Presto! You've got yourself a post for World Dulce de Leche Day and a sweet treat to beat away a case of the Mondays.  It's win-win.  I opted for Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookies to go with my Dulce de Leche, but feel free to choose whatever makes you happy.  Just be sure to send me a link and let me know about it tomorrow!

Banana Dulce de Leche Smoothie

Have you figured out what you’re making for Dulce de Leche Day yet?  February 28th is fast approaching so get those recipes ready!  No need to come up with something extravagant either, (though by all means, go ahead if you want to) you could just make something simple like this Banana Dulce de Leche Smoothie that I made today.  It consists of nothing more than a frozen banana blended with milk, yogurt and a big dollop of dulce de leche.  It’s the perfect post-yoga beverage.  As I mentioned a little while ago, I’ve started doing Bikram yoga because I got a deal on a 25 class pass.  When I first started, I hated it.  It made me feel absolutely terrible but people kept telling me it would get better and that I would start to love it.  Today marks my 14th class and I’ll tell you straight up, I still hate it.  Hot yoga is hell yoga.  The problem is, it’s extremely effective… So even though I’m in agony before, during and after every class and I wonder if I’ll make it til the end, I’m seeing improvements.  I’m also stubborn and determined to use up the entire 25 class pass so I force myself to keep going.  As a reward for dragging my body to yoga I make myself something awesome after each class, like Raspberry & Blueberry Crumb Bars or a Banana Dulce de Leche Smoothie, any suggestions for next time?

As always, a friendly reminder to get your Dulce de Leche posts ready for Monday, February 28th, you’ve got one week before the big day!  If you want to read more about it, click here.

Get Your Dulce de Leche Recipes Ready!

While it's perfectly acceptable to eat dulce de leche with a spoon, I know you bloggers are a creative bunch so get your recipes ready for World Dulce de Leche Day!  It's coming soon, so get in the kitchen and get busy.  Then, on World Dulce de Leche Day, February 28th, post your amazing masterpieces and send me a photo and a link for the ultimate dulce de leche round up.  And yes, I've been made aware that there's actually a Dulce de Leche Day in Argentina, but really, can you ever have too much dulce de leche?  It shouldn't be restricted to one country, we need to bring this sweet to the whole world!

If you need help making dulce de leche, David Lebovitz provides the following recipe which couldn't be easier, (and doesn't risk having a can of boiling liquid explode everywhere).

Dulce de Leche or Confiture de Lait (Adapted from The Perfect Scoop)

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Pour one can (400 gr/14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.

Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).
Once the Dulce de Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.
Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.

Coming Soon: World Dulce de Leche Day!

 There seems to be a “day” for everything.  Today was World Nutella Day, January 23rd was National Pie Day, April 14th is National Pecan Day, May is apparently is a whole month devoted to Chocolate Custard, September 17th is National Apple Dumpling Day and December 7th is National Cotton Candy Day.  I don’t exactly know who makes up these so-called National and World Days, but I feel like I need to add one to the mix- World Dulce De Leche Day.  I will concede that Nutella is pretty amazing, but Dulce de Leche is equally so and it deserves a day in the spotlight too.  How about arbitrarily making February 28th,World Dulce de Leche Day?  Why not?  Who wouldn’t want a day devoted to sweet, gooey, decadent dulce de leche?  Food bloggers have got quite a lot of influence around the interwebs, so spread the word, there’s a new holiday in town and it’s delicious!

For any of you out there who may not be familiar with dulce de leche, (what rock have you been living under?) it’s a thick, caramel-esque spread which is Latin American in origin and whose name is literally translated as “sweets made of milk”.  Dulce de leche is essentially sweetened milk that has been cooked to the point of caramelization but how this is achieved, varies. 

One way to make dulce de leche is by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk, in the can, fully submerged in water in a pan on the stove top.  If that sounds scary, it should.  If you’re not careful, there’s a possibility that the can could explode.  The thought of boiling hot dulce de leche being flung all over my kitchen in a single bang does not appeal to me.  That’s why I’ve adopted David Lebovitz’s much safer method of pouring a can of sweetened condensed milk into a pie plate, covering it with tinfoil and baking it in a water bath at 425F for about an hour to an hour an a half, until it darkens.  Same great results, minus the explosion potential.  Win-win. 

I’m going to get the February 28th Dulce de Leche Day festivities started early with, (another) David Lebovitz recipe, this one for Dulce de Leche Brownies.  I already love brownies so when you add swirls of dulce de leche, it pretty much puts them over the top.  And it’s easy to do too!  Now then, on to official business, if you’d like to participate in World Dulce de Leche Day, simply make an awesome sweet treat using dulce de leche, take a photo and post about it to your blog on February 28th!  Send me the link and your info to brilynnf @ yahoo dot ca and I’ll do a round up of all the awesomeness!  If you don’t have a blog, that’s cool, just send me a pic and a line about you and your recipe and I’ll post that too.  Spread the word!  There’s no reason World Dulce de Leche Day can’t become as successful as World Nutella Day, (or why the two shouldn’t be combined for ultimate world domination).

Dulce de Leche Brownies, (from David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris)

8 tablespoons (115g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup (200g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140g) flour
optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C).
Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn’t reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.
Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Here comes the fun part.
Drop one-third of the Dulce de Leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining Dulce de Leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the Dulce de Leche slightly.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
Storage:These brownies actually become better the second day, and will keep well for up to 3 days.

PFB Voting and A Story About Pavlova

It’s time to vote for your favourite contestant to advance to the next round of Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog. Hopefully that’s me! You’ve got until September 23rd to make your vote count and can do so right here.

And for you, I’ve got a little story about food and travel! Back in university, I did a semester abroad at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. A lot of my memories from those 6 months revolve around trying new foods and seeing new places. One of my favourites finds was the New Farm Farmer’s Marke. It was there that I tried Greek yogurt for the first time, sampled wine on Saturday mornings and learned to actually enjoy eating olives. Aside from my market finds, one of my many food discoveries in Australia was the pavlova. A wonderful dessert that every Aussie I met, fiercely defended as being Australian in origin. I had no reason to doubt them at this point although I thought it a bit odd that they were so adamant that pavlova came from Australia.



Fast forward 5 years and I found myself in New Zealand, once again eating and traveling around and enjoying myself immensely. That is, until one night when I was cooking with friends and the topic of what to make for dessert came up. Someone asked me if I’d had a pavlova since being in New Zealand. I foolishly replied “That’s the Australian meringue dessert, right?” Uh oh. Now Kiwi’s are generally pretty laid back people, they don’t tend to get angry very often but there’s a limit to every Kiwi’s patience and apparently I crossed the line when I dared to suggest that pavlova might come from Australia. Clearly, according to the kiwi’s I was with, it’s a Kiwi invention. Only Kiwi’s could come up with something as delicious as pavlova, not bloody Australians!


Upon my return home I decided to test out my pav making skills with a bit of seasonal Canadian flavour. I topped my pavlova with a maple syrup infused whipped cream and some fresh peaches and blueberries. Maybe I can now start claiming that Canadians invented the pavlova?

Pavlova, (from the very Kiwi, Edmonds Cookery Book)

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup caster sugar
3 teaspoons cornflour

Preheat oven to 150 C. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff. Add water and beat again. Add sugar very gradually while still beating. Slow beater and add vinegar, vanilla and cornflour. Line an oven try with baking paper. Draw a 22 cm circle on the baking paper. Spread the pavlova to within 2 cm of the edge of the circle, keeping the shape as round and even as possible. Smooth top surface over. Bake pavlova for 45 mins, then leave to cool in oven (Do not open the oven while it is baking! It may deflate!). Carefully life the pavlova onto a serving plate. Decorate with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Serves 6.

Project Food Blog: Challenge #1

I Love to Bake and Blog: Peanut Butter Banana Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting

Ready, Set, Blog Post! That’s the title of the first round of Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog, a riff on the popular cooking elimination programs that are currently dominating reality TV. This is the beginning of 12 weeks of challenges which will ultimately lead to one food blogger being crowned the next food blog star and winning a cool hard $10000 and a special feature on Foodbuzz for a year. That’s a big deal. And here’s why I think that food blogger should be me:

Pumpkin Gnocchi: I wish I could go to Italy to learn to make it authentically!

I was never one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. While other youngsters had dreams of being ballerinas, fire fighters, astronauts or famous singers, my stock standard answer of what I wanted to be when I grew up was “I don’t know.” As I progressed through elementary school, that answer didn’t change. In high school when others were picking out university programs, I selected six schools at random and applied, without any idea where it would lead. In university when others were applying for jobs or further education I still didn’t know what I wanted to do next and so I decided to take some time off.

Me at The French Laundry: The happiest place on earth, (forget Disneyworld...)

It was during that time that I began to truly identify my love of food and also when I began blogging. For a period of time I thought maybe I could earn a living cooking, but with a university degree in Physical Health and Education, I decided that I had better head to culinary school first. After a year long chef training program I started my first job in a restaurant kitchen, ready to begin a culinary career. Things were finally starting to take shape, except I hated it and wanted to quit after my first week. It improved following the rough start and I managed to stick it out for 14 months, but I knew that restaurant work wasn’t for me. Back to square one.

Culinary School: I learned a lot, but the restaurant business is not for me

Once again, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, I took off and traveled for a year. The one thing that remained constant throughout my travels was my love of food and desire to taste as much of each country as I could. Looking back through my travel pictures, there’s an inordinate amount of food photos to prove it. Since returning home I’ve been looking for a job and applying to a variety of positions but as always, without knowing what it is I really want to do.

Pad Thai in Thailand: Street food is awesome

For anyone who’s been in this situation before, you’ll be familiar with the line of questions you get from others who are trying to help you out. One of the most popular questions is “If money/time/obstacles weren’t an issue, what would you most want to be doing with your time, what would make you happy?” This is not an easy question. I started by answering with my old favourite response of “I don’t know.” But then I started to think about it and the beginnings of a new, better answer began to form.

Skydiving in New Zealand: Not as big a rush as eating at The French Laundry

What would make me happy? I’d ultimately like to spend my days cooking, baking, eating, photographing, traveling and writing about it all. Essentially, I would like to be a professional food blogger. But how do I make that happen? Foodbuzz has provided me with a good way to start on the path to food blogging success with Project Food Blog. Not only would the exposure be good, but just think what I could do with $10000! I could take the Ice Cream Technology course offered by the University of Guelph, the only one in Canada of its kind. I could plan a trip to Italy and learn pasta making from the masters. I could outfit my kitchen with all sorts of new gadgets. And throughout it all, I’d be blogging and sharing my cooking experiences with the world. Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Adventuring and Eating Around the World: Something I'd like to do more of

So when voting opens for the first challenge on September 20th, help make my food blogging dreams a reality by voting me into the next round of Project Food Blog. Need any more proof that I’m serious about food? Here are three reasons:

Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream: One of my favourite homemade flavours

-I started blogging in 2006, over four years ago, I’m serious about this!
-When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is what’s for dinner.
-I got a bigger rush out of eating at The French Laundry than I did from skydiving.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Spring Has Sprung, Maple Syrup Is Here!

Maple Sap Dripping Into Collection Bucket

Spring has sprung, the sap is flowing and it’s time for maple syrup and another Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 post! Each month Foodbuzz hosts a wonderful event whereby 24 bloggers post about 24 different meal experiences in 24 hours. It was easy for me to pick a topic this month as it’s maple syrup collection time. Canadian cuisine may be difficult to define but one food item that I associate strongly with Canada is maple syrup. And when you live in the country, surrounded by maple trees, it’s impossible not to have an appreciation for the sweet stuff.

Wood Fired Oven Used to Boil Sap Into Syrup

A memory that I’m sure is shared by many Canadians is a springtime visit to the sugar bush on an elementary school class trip. There you got to see not only how maple syrup is produced, but you also, (and most importantly) got to sample all sorts of maple products. The only problem is that too much maple candy can make anyone crazy. In retrospect, I feel bad for any teacher who has ever had to take their class to a maple sugar bush because that bus ride home is anything but pleasant. Want to know what a maple sugar high is like? Just watch this clip of Friends where Ross and Chandler stay at a fancy hotel, six hours away from home and on the way hit up every maple candy stand they see. Ross overdoses on maple candy and is completely nutty. Now picture Ross, times 30, in child form and you’ve got one of the worst ideas for a class trip ever. But also one that creates lots of memories.

Pouring Freshly Made Maple Sryup

In an effort to recreate some childhood memories, I recently visited a local sugar bush and was treated to a tour of the sugar shack, complete with mandatory maple taffy tasting, (a classic sugar shack treat, made by boiling maple syrup and pouring it over fresh snow). Bob and Mary-Beth Gray of Kemble Mountain Maple Products collect sap from their maple trees and boil it down to syrup in enormous pans, heated by a wood fired stove. The amount of wood they go through in one day is astounding, requiring them to constantly feed the fire with long logs. The fire heats the sap and it reduces, flowing down a gradient, becoming thicker at each level until it can be poured out as syrup at the other end. Tasty, tasty syrup.

Making Maple Taffy

I left the sugar shack eager to return to my kitchen and to create a meal full of maple flavour. The options were endless but I eventually narrowed my choices down to include a maple flavoured cocktail, salad dressing, two maple glazes and a maple cookie. Let’s begin with the cocktail, shall we? It’s a good one and it’s called a Maplelito, a riff on the class mojito but it’s made with maple syrup instead of mint. In my version, I combined the juice of 1 lime, an ounce of white rum and an ounce of maple syrup and served it over crushed ice. Delicious.

Maplelito!

Next up was the salad course. In general, salad is for rabbits, but when you add maple cured bacon, homemade croutons, red peppers and freshly made maple vinaigrette, salad is awesome. The vinaigrette recipe is an inexact science but contained the following: maple syrup, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, paprika, dry mustard and salt.

Maple Dressed Salad with Maple Cured Bacon Bits

The main course featured a double dose of maple syrup with maple glazed carrots, (recipe from Bon Appetit) and soy and maple glazed duck breast served over garlic mashed potatoes with a wild mushroom ragout. Making the duck breast couldn’t be easier. Simply season on all sides with salt and pepper and score the fat in a crosshatch pattern. Place fat side down in a skillet and allow some of the fat to render out and the skin to become crispy. Drain off most of the fat, flip with duck breast, glaze with equal parts maple syrup and soy sauce and put in a 400 degree oven for about 6-8 minutes, glazing again half way through. Remove from the oven and let rest before slicing and serving.

Maple and Soy Glazed Duck Breast with Maple Glazed Carrots, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Ragout

For dessert I made Chewy Maple Cookies from the always enticing blog, Habeas Brûlée. Danielle says these cookies, which were initially created by her partner Dave, are basically maple candy in the guise of chewy cookies. And although mine looked nothing like hers, they were still addictive and definitely along the lines of maple candy. After a couple of these cookies you started to feel a little loopy and doped up on maple sugar.

Chewy Maple Cookies

An all around sweet evening.

All of the maple syrup I used to create this meal came from:
Kemble Mountain Maple Products
“Produced with pride from the forests of Ontario’s beautiful Niagara Escarpment.”
Bob and Mary-Beth Gray
519-371-9128
kemblemt@log.on.ca

Vita-Mix Giveaway!

Oh yes, you read that correctly, I’m giving away a Vita-Mix! After a long dreary winter we could all use some cheering up and in an attempt to make one lucky person especially happy, I’m giving away a brand new Vita-Mix 5200. If you’ve never heard of Vita-Mix then you live under a rock. Seriously. It’s a high powered blender that can chew up virtually anything. How do I know this?

Quick Raspberry Ice Cream

Recently the wonderful people at Vita-Mix offered to let me try one out and I jumped at the chance. I love kitchen toys and this is a particularly awesome one. After playing around with it for a while, (and pretty much throwing everything in my fridge and cupboard into the canister just to watch it blend) I decided it was selfish of me to keep something so great all to myself. But I didn’t want to give it up though either. So I asked Vita-Mix if they would be willing to give away another blender to one of my readers. They graciously agreed and there you have it.

Silky Smooth Pumpkin Soup

I’m not the only one who thinks highly of Vita-Mix. Michael Ruhlman lists their blender as one of his favourite kitchen gadgets, (besides his hands that is). And I could give you a list of all the things you can do with your Vita-Mix, but we’d be here forever.

Almond and Lemon Macaron

Here are a few random suggestions:

• Grind your own almonds and then proceed to make Almond and Lemon Macarons.
• Whip up a homemade prune and Armagnac bbq sauce and then smother it on ribs.
• Whir together some cream, sugar and frozen fruit and you’ve got soft serve ice cream, freeze it a little longer if you want to be able to scoop it.
• Smoothies, smoothies, smoothies.
• Soup! You can make hot soup, from raw ingredients in about 5 minutes. And the texture is out of this world, super smooth.

Homemade BBQ Rib Sauce In Blender, After Blending and On Ribs

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Want a chance to win? There are lots of ways:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite Spring recipe.
2. Twitter about the giveaway, linking to this post and leave me another comment to let me know. Or follow me on Twitter! @jumboempanadas
3. Post about the giveaway on Facebook, linking to this post and leave me another comment to let me know.
4. Post about the giveaway on your own blog, linking to this post and leave me another comment to let me know.

I'll give you an entry ballot for each way that you enter the contest. Unfortunately the contest is only open to readers in the USA and Canada, (but I love you all equally). Make sure you leave an email address,(or link to your blog if you have one) so that I can contact you if you win. The contest will run until Saturday, March 28th, at which point I’ll use a random number generator to determine a winner. Good luck everyone! Happy Spring!

Banana Berry Smoothie

Peanut Butter and Caramel Smores

As I’ve said before, I find blogging events useful when I’m looking for inspiration. Sometimes the theme alone is enough to get me thinking in different directions. Although whether or not those different directions actually make sense is another matter entirely. When I found out The Peanut Butter Boy is hosting The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition #5 and the theme is sandwiches I immediately had an idea of what to make. It was like a cartoon light bulb went on above my head. For some reason all I could think of was a peanut butter, apple and cheddar panini. It’s not completely out of left field though, there’s a logical train of thought that brought me to that idea. It went something likes this: I like granny smith apples with peanut butter. I like apple pie with cheddar cheese. I keep seeing paninis on all the blogs and don’t use my panini maker nearly enough. Therefore, if apples are good with both peanut putter and cheddar cheese, all three should also be good together. And what better way to put them together than in a panini? Once I had the thought, I knew the only way to get it out of my head was to actually make this concoction.

When I went to get my panini maker out of the cupboard it had the waffle plates on as opposed to the panini plates and I decided that a waffle shaped sandwich was the way to go. I then built my sandwich on homemade bread, with a thick layer of peanut butter, thin slices of granny smith apples and smoked applewood cheddar cheese. I squished the whole thing into the panini/waffle maker and waited for it to do its thing. The result? Ah… it was ok. It seemed like pure genius in my head but once it was on the plate I just wanted to deconstruct it into apple slices smeared with peanut butter and a grilled cheese sandwich. The sum was not greater than its parts. Sigh.

But I couldn’t submit a less than stellar sandwich to the Peanut Butter Boy so something else had to be made. It was about at that time that I reverted back to my love of desserts for inspiration. I had some caramel sauce in the fridge, leftover from making apple strudel and I knew there were graham crackers in the cupboard, leftover from making cheesecake and before you knew it I had built a peanut butter and caramel smore. Now that’s a sandwich to be proud of! As if smores weren’t already good with layers of graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate, I jacked them up with caramel sauce and peanut butter too! The only problem is that I now believe that all smores should be made like that… After you try it my way you’ll be a believer too.

Monthly Mingle: Caribbean Cooking

In my quest to find inspiration by resuming participation in food blogging events I thought it seemed only fitting that I partake in one being hosted by Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey? Her Monthly Mingle was the first blogging event that I ever entered and when I saw that the theme for this month was Caribbean Cooking, I decided I should definitely be able to figure out something to make for it.

When I think of the Caribbean the first thing that comes to mind is Cuba. Cuba, si! It’s the only place I’ve been in the Caribbean and I’ve been three times. Although I can’t believe over two years have passed since I was there last, (and according to that post, over two years since I started baking from Dorie’s book!). I need to go back. I need to feel that soft white sand between my toes and sip on a mojito, or perhaps a Cuba Libre at inappropriately early times of day, (ie- 10am). I need to spend some time walking the beach, floating in the ocean, playing a little volleyball and then returning to my room to find swans made of towels. What else do I need? Tropical fruit! And that’s where the Monthly Mingle comes in. Despite the fact that I dislike pineapple upside down cake, I love pineapple, particularly fresh pineapple. Ideally I would eat all my pineapple fresh from the tree, but given that I live in cold and snowy Canada and it’s still the middle of winter here, that’s not going to happen. What that means is that by the time a pineapple has travelled from the tropics to my house, it’s likely not at the pinnacle of ripeness. Fortunately, it can still be salvaged with the addition of sugar, dark rum and roasting. While we’re at it, let’s throw in some more tropical flavours with coconut and bananas. What do you get? Roasted Pineapple with Coconut and Banana Ice Cream. It’s as close as I’m going to get to the Caribbean anytime soon and it’s delicious!

If you’re hosting a food blogging event, let me know! And Peanut Butter Boy? Don’t worry, I’ve got something planned for The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition…

Roasted Pineapple (Adapted from Michael Smith)

1 Pineapple skin and ends trimmed off and cut into rings, core removed
3 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup dark Cuban rum
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ cup flaked coconut
Banana ice cream, preferably homemade :)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place sugar, rum and allspice in a bowl and stir together. Toss pineapple slices in mixture and lay into a 9" by 13" baking pan. Pour the remaining syrup overtop. Roast for 1 hour, or until pineapple is caramelized and tender, flipping half way through. When pineapple is completely tender sprinkle a little extra sugar on top and stick under the broiler to caramelize. Put a slice of pineapple into a bowl, sprinkle some coconut onto the middle and top with a scoop of banana ice cream. Serve immediately.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Five Courses, Five Primary Tastes

It’s time for another round of Foodbuzz 24, 24,24, whereby 24 bloggers post about 24 different meal experiences in 24 hours. This month I proposed to make a five course meal, with each course highlighting one of the five tastes, which are bitter, salty, sour, umami and sweet. The folks at Foodbuzz thought that was a good idea so here we are! Let’s get right into it.

European Imported Beers

The first taste that I wanted to highlight was bitter. The bitter taste can also be described as sharp and can be detected in chocolate, coffee, olives, beer, bitters and some leafy greens. Since it’s my dinner to host I’m allowed to say that liquid courses count! That means it’s time for beer. To whet our appetite for more good things to come, we sampled some European imports. Beer always makes me hungry for snack food so it’s a good thing the salty course was up next.

Roasted Potatoes with Bacon, Cheese and Parsley

Salty tastes are produced predominantly by the presence of sodium ions. My favourite example of the salty flavour is bacon and I seriously debated for a while about just serving a few different slices of homemade bacon on a plate. Who wouldn’t love that? My somewhat rational side eventually vetoed that idea but only because I decided to enhance bacon with other delicious things like potatoes and cheese. Roasted Potatoes with Bacon, Cheese and Parsley from Gourmet complimented the beer perfectly and it began to become clear why it’s essential to combine all five tastes for ultimate enjoyment.

Lemon Raspberry Sorbet

After all of that saltiness we needed a palate cleanser. Sour taste buds to the rescue! Sour is the taste that detects acidity. The most common food group containing sour tastes is fruit like lemons and limes but wine can also have it. One bite of this mouth puckering Lemon Raspberry Sorbet is all you need to know exactly what sour tastes like. It’s definitely not dessert and you wouldn’t want a whole bowl of it but it was a great way to prep the mouth for umami. U-ma-what??? Just keep reading.

Roasted Veal Chops with Morels

Umami is the 5^th taste, although it is only as recent as 2002 that it has been included in culinary textbooks and literature as such. The concept, however, is not new. Escoffier identified sauces made with veal stock as having a flavor distinct from the four primary tastes although it took another hundred years before this fifth taste was finally accepted as valid. The word umami is Japanese and can mean yummy or delicious and has been described in English as meatiness, relish or savouriness. The umami taste is produced by compounds such as glutamate and is commonly found in fermented and aged foods, among others. Some examples of food containing glutamate are beef, lamb, mushrooms, parmesan and Roquefort cheese as well as soy sauce and fish sauce. I decided to take a cue from Escoffier and made Roasted Veal Chops with Morels to give my main course that umami taste.

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Chocolate Crumbs and Candied Kumquats

Finally, we end our meal with the sweet taste, one that is generally regarded as a pleasurable sensation. Sweetness is found in sugar rich foods and naturally in things like fruit, honey and maple syrup. I chose to go the less than natural, (but still very sweet) route with White Chocolate Cheesecake with Chocolate Crumbs and Candied Kumquats. Even the sour foods have been made sweet in this dessert, as kumquats are transformed into candied bites of sweetness with the aid of a simple syrup. I usually find white chocolate almost too cloyingly sweet to bear but combined with the tanginess of cream cheese it was actually quite enjoyable. Which reminds me, although each of the primary tastes can be delicious on their own, they’re at their best when combined with one another for a more complete and well rounded flavour. And although I enjoyed my five courses of tastes, I like how they play off of each other best as opposed to being sampled separately.

Be sure to check out the other 24, 24, 24 meals, there are sure to be some interesting ones that no doubt make full use of all five primary tastes. And if you’re looking for umami, look no further than the following recipe for Roasted Veal Chops with Morels.

Roasted Veal Chops with Morels, (From Gourmet, Adapted from Jean-Jacques Rachou and Charlie Palmer)

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 1/4 oz dried morels (about 1 1/3 cups)

2 (1 1/3-inch-thick) veal rib chops

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 garlic clove, smashed

1 thyme sprig

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

2 tablespoon Cognac

1/2 tablespoon chopped chives

1 teaspoon chopped tarragon

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Pour boiling water over morels in a small bowl and soak until morels are softened, about 30 minutes. Transfer morels with a slotted spoon to a medium-mesh sieve set over a bowl. Press on morels with back of spoon to remove excess liquid (be careful not to squeeze out all the moisture), then add to soaking liquid and reserve. Rinse morels to remove any grit. Reserve morels and liquid separately, allowing liquid to settle.

While morels soak, let veal chops stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Pat chops dry and season with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper (total). Heat an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet (not nonstick) over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil and heat until smoking, then add veal chops and sear underside well, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn chops over and sear 1 minute.

Add butter, garlic, and thyme to skillet and baste veal with melting butter. Transfer skillet to oven and cook, basting every few minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into center of chop registers 130 to 135°F for medium-rare, 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer chops to a plate to rest. Discard garlic and thyme, keeping juices and fat in skillet, and return to burner over medium-high heat. (Handle will be very hot.) Add morels and sauté 1 minute. Add shallot and sauté 1 minute.

Remove from heat briefly and add Cognac, then return to heat and deglaze, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until most of liquid has evaporated. Slowly pour in reserved soaking liquid, being careful to leave last tablespoon (containing sediment) in bowl. Add meat juices from plate and boil until liquid has reduced to about 1/3 cup.

Stir in crème fraîche, swirling to incorporate, and boil until morels are lightly coated and liquid is slightly thickened. Stir in chives and tarragon and season with salt and pepper. Serve chops smothered with morels.