Menu for Hope 6: Comfort and Restoration

Menu For Hope has reached out help to the world's needy since 2004. What started as a relief effort by Pim of Chez Pim to help those affected by the devastating South East Asian Boxing Day Tsunami, has grown to an annual fundraiser, raising more than a US$250,000; in recent years the funds have been given towards the United Nations World Food Programme. These six years food and drinks bloggers worldwide have rallied together to provide prizes for the annual online raffle ranging from coffee with Thomas Keller to dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants to neighborhood food tours to boxes of cookies made by food bloggers.

In 2006 I was privileged to serve as the Canadian Prize Coordinator--my fellow Canadian foodbloggers generously provided a slew of amazing prizes. People all over the world responded eagerly, earmarking their ballots for prizes from the Great White North.

This year, when the lovely Tara of Seven Spoons contacted me to donate a prize, was happy to help in whatever way I could.


My regular readers know that I christened 2009 as the Year of Comfort and Restoration. I've posted about foods that make me feel better--physically and emotionally. From the healing powers of Nanaimo Bars to Steak and Guinness Stew's clockwork appearance on my table every St. Patrick's Day, food is integral to my overall well being. With this in mind, I decided to tie my entry to this theme.

CA11: Comfort and Restoration
This package contains:
-1 new, lidded Paderno 33cm x 23cm/9"x13" non-stick oblong baking pan
- the dry ingredients needed to make one tray of Nick Malgieri's Supernatural Brownies
- 2 50g packets of tea from Distinctly Tea (Evening Fireside and Chocolate Supreme)

We've all had those days when all we want is a cosy little spot to relax and and regain our energies. I think this package would be a welcome treat if you want a little restorative comfort in your life.

The powers of a good brownie are known far and wide. I'll put together the dry ingredients for his chewy brownies along with the pan. all you need to do is add butter, eggs and vanilla (and of course heat). Depending on your day, it can be a single serving or you can cut it into 24 pieces--it's up to you. The full recipe and instructions will be provided.

Many people reach for a good cup of tea after a long day. Evening Fireside featuring notes of chamomile, mint and orange--perfect when you need a little bit of tender loving care. Chocolate Supreme contains real cacao bits, cinnamon, cardamom and a number of other spices and is utterly soothing when your nerves are frayed and your passions are a little too close to the surface. Both are caffeine-free, Rooibos teas.

Shipping: worldwide: There are no restrictions as to who can mark their ballot for this package as I will ship it to anywhere in the world.

You can find the rest of the Canadian prizes on Tara's site. To peruse the global list of prizes, please visit Pim's site.

To buy a ballot, here's what you should do...

1. Go to the donation page at (http://firstgiving.com/menuforhope6) to make a contribution.
2. Each US$10 donation will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like by entering the prize code in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your contribution. E.G: A US$50 donation may be two tickets for UW99 and three tickets for CA11.*
3. Some companies will match personal charitable donations made by staff. If your company has such a program, please remember to mark the appropriate box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address. We need this so we can contact you in case you win a prize. If you do not do this, we will be unable to contact you. Please be assured that we will not share your email address with anyone.
5. Raffle results will be announced on 18 January on Chez Pim.

* N.B: Canadian tax laws prohibit charitable donation receipts to be issued by registered Canadian charities for raffle or lottery tickets. The UNWFP is a U.S.-based charity; should any donation receipts issued, you will need to seek professional advice regarding applying them to your Canadian income tax return.

cheers!
jasmine



I'm a quill for hire!

Julia's oeufs à la bourguignonne

"It's called microblogging--all you do is very quick updates about what you're doing."

Ummm...yeah. (That was me two years ago, when I first heard of Twitter)

I checked it out and all I saw were a lot of "Just got in from a great night out!" and "Finished dinner. Kids in Bed. All's quiet." and "Waiting for the movie to start" type posts.

Ummm...yeah.

I had better things to do.

And in the intervening years, it became the new online it-thing to do. I was still skeptical about it all. But in these two years, it became less about bursted updates and more about community building and knowledge sharing. This is something I could be interested in.

After having a post or two of mine Tweeted and ReTweeted, I decided to give it a shot. I'd known there was a pretty thriving food community there: food is one of the topics groups coalesce over, so I was pretty sure I'd find yet another online home. I was right.

No, don't worry, I'm not going to evangelise about microblogging. All I'll say is that I'm having fun with things, communicating with others, challenging myself to the 140 character limit and trying a few different writing techniques--my favourite thus far is the serial--sequential posts that tell a tale in real time. As usual, if my longposting schedule leaves you hungry for more of my inanities in bite-sized portions, you can find me @cardamomaddict.

Anyway, our dear Hélène of La Cuisine d'Hélène mused about a Tweeted and blogged event celebrating Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the Julie and Julia film. Truthfully, I don't follow that blog and when I perused the book I thought the writing was pedantic and lacklustre. Yes, I know they're popular--they're just not my cuppatea.

But the idea of a Julia Child blogging event kept hold of my imagination.

To participate all we had to do was blog a recipe from either Volume One or Two of Julia's influential books.

Problem. I don't have a copy of either--they are on my "eventually I'll get to them" list. No copies were found at any of the used book shops I checked and I really didn't want to drop $50 on either tome. Desperate to participate the answer came to me: in the thousands of foodish posts housed on the interweb should be a number of recipes from these two tomes.

I was right.

Shari of Whisk came to the rescue with this post that lists a number of Julia Child recipes as posted by various bloggers. Given my own time and pantry constraints, along with a craving for gooey-centred poached eggs, I found my entry recipe for oeufs à la bourguignonne, courtesy of Melissa of The Traveller's Lunchbox.

Really: mushrooms and bacon in a red wine sauce with poached eggs. It combines so many of life's good things...why would I choose anything else to celebrate Julia?

Red wine sauce is incredibly simple and goes wonderfully with eggs, beef and chicken and really should be part of the usual repertoire. Of course the ideal is to make your own beef stock, but I used water-soluble squeeziebeefie. The sauce didn't take that long and can be left to its own devices for most of the time it's on the hob. I made a full recipe, keeping leftovers in the fridge to be used with a bit of beef and umm...for dipping torn bits of bread and bagel into.

Thanks Hélène for organising the Mastering the Art of French Cooking event. If you're interested in what others are doing, please visit her round-up.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Welcome home Jenny

A few weeks ago Jenny of All Things Edible invited all of us over for her housewarming. The catch is we are to bring something to nibble or sip on.

I was lucky enough to meet our lovely Jenny a couple of years ago when she swung through Toronto. She, our favourite Puff of Cream and I spent a few hours together shopping, eating and talking. Jenny is absolutely darling and I'd be so happy to get together with her again.



So when she emailed the event announcement, I knew I wanted to particpate. But what to bring? We'd just done our DB tuiles and although she gave us license to morph them into something housewarmy, I didn't want to go that route.



Given it's winter here in Canada, I thought I'd offer up something warm and savoury to share with the crowd. I decided upon a variant of my bacon, ramp and mushroom swirls--I like the flavour combination: tangy cream cheese, sweet onion and savoury mushrooms. Instead of little spiral rolls, I decided on a mini-springroll like offering, this time with phyllo.



In general, these mini rolls are very easy to whip up. Just pre-cook and cool the filling prior to spooning it onto the phyllo. Roll them up and bake in a preheated oven (380C/375F) for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden.


As usual, I didn't really write out quantities. Sorry. I know...a bad habit..especially if you want to recreate these...just rough out approximately one to one and a half teaspoon of prepared filling per roll

- a knob of butter

- a couple of cloves of minced garlic

- a medium minced onion

- a few handfuls of chopped mushrooms

- a splash of white wine vinegar

- salt

- pepper

- thyme

- softened cream cheese--enough to bind

Soften the onions in butter, add the mushrooms and garlic and stir while letting the mushrooms soften. Add the vinegar, then season to taste. Remove from heat and add the softened cream cheese. Let cool before filling the rolls.

cheers!
jasmine

Daring Bakers: Basic Pizza Dough

OOPS! Okay...I'm late...profuse apologies. I thought this month's DB post was due on Thursday 30 Oct...not Wednesday 29 October...and technically, it still is the 29th...

Oh well...that's what happens when you're off in all directions.

As you've probably noticed, many home pizzarias magically popped up this week, thanks to the late, great Shar of What Did You Eat? and the very wonderful Rosa of Rosa Yummy Yums. They decided to challenge us to make pizza dough by hand, and in the fashion of true pizzaiolos.

I have a favourite pizza dough recipe, courtesy of (the once divine, but now demoted since her last cookbook) Delia Smith, but every once in a while go in search of another. When in those moods I whole heartedly approach the new recipe...only to quickly morph into my comfort zone.

Yes, I followed the DB recipe...okay, I halved it, and used my handy pan, but still it was followed. Much to my surprise it worked...even the special flippy pokey tossy method. It didn't fall to the floor and it didn't end up on the ceiling...okay...no worries about that, I am 5'1". Instead of making three pizzas, I decided to make two largish ones...heck...it was eDay...and well, you know what I think of eDays (and yes, I'll probably treat the US election in a similar fashion).

The dough was thinnish and tasty and held the far-too-many toppings I loaded onto it. I'll probably come back to it and play with it some more.

And my toppings? Well...I went for pickable--as in bits I can pick off the top as I'm transfixed to the results ticker, and then wolf down the bready bit during lulls. Salami, onions, black olives, garlic, jalepenos, cheese and tomato sauce. If I had anchovies, they'd be added as well...

From this:



To this:



And here's how:

cheers!
jasmine

Daring Bakers: Lavosh crackers and toppings

Note to self: there's a reason you named your stove Beelzebub

Sigh...

You see, he fed me a line and I believed him. He actually made me believe he wasn't demon spawn, he wasn't a product of an unholy alliance between (insert your own despised political party *here*) and (insert your own despised corporate sector *here*), he wasn't put on this planet to convince people that big box prepared processed and cooked takeaway foods really is the way to eat

I thought we had a break through. I stopped cursing at him and he stopped playing with the temps to keep a constant heat. It was a lovely three weeks. I made banana breads, scones and cookies and lost nary a one.

Admittedly, my time management has been in the loo this month. I didn't get around to this month's Daring Bakers' challenge until this morning. Our dearest Natalie of Gluten a Go-Go and Shel from Fishbowl challenged the vast DB masses to make Lavosh crackers and toppings. The lavosh recipe is easy and I will keep it on hand to make again...hopefully with a different stove, whether mine or borrowed

Maybe Beelzebub picked upon my slightly elevated stress levels or he picked up on the urgency of the issue (heck, the post needs to be up today). Maybe he thought he was being taken for granted. I don't know, but he was a naughty boy. Whatever he thought, he played with the temperature dial like a bored teenager with his PSP.

The dough is very simple and easily adaptable to your palate. I had no issues making the ball, passing the window pane test, letting it rise, getting it to double in size or rolling out the dough. I had no issues choosing its flavourings--I chose freshly cracked black pepper, ground salt and sesame seeds. I wound up baking them on two trays...and I'm glad I did.

This is what happened to the first tray. I suppose if I were making cocoa or molasses lavosh, it would be fine...but I wasn't. Yes, I tasted a shard. Apart from the heavy charcoalish notes along with the bonfire-like aromas left in the condo, it was quite tasty.




Here's the second tray. MUCH better. Okay...slightly underdone in spots, but I can live with that. I think next time I'll toast the sesame seeds before sprinkling them on the wet dough.

Same dough. Same oven. Same cooking time.

Sigh.

The second part of the challenge was to make a dip for the crackers. Our lovely hosts suggested salsa. Even though we were recently in the throes of tomato season, I wasn't in the mood to make (or buy) a salsa. Instead, I opened a bottle of my lascivious peach chutney and tried the crackers with it--absolutely delicious.

Yes. It was my breakfast.


To read what the other DBs did with this challenge, take a meander through our blogroll.


cheers!
jasmine

Say Cheese: Stilton

Mmmm....cheese.

If you are a regular reader, you've picked up that I, in fact, am part mouse...which is probably a good explanation for my (ahem) towering stature. It's definitely in the running for my obsessive cheese cravings...well, that and My Dear Little Cardamummy adores cheesey goodness...come to think about it, so does My Equally Dear Not Little Carda..daddy (goodness, that makes him sound like some sort of mutant winged insect, doesn't it?...must come up with a different name at some point).

Alas their cheesey love doesn't seem to be as broad as mine. Cheddar and mozzerella, Swiss, cream cheese and cottage cheese are also good and satsify them quite nicely. Me, I gobble them all down, but also feta, halumi, brie, marscapone, anything studded (peppercorn, fruit, juniper, truffles), anything soused (whiskey, port, stout)...but I think above all, everything bleu.

So when our wonderful Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once announced Say Cheese, I knew I'd be participating. Not only does it celebrate her 700th post, it also celebrates cheese. To participate, all we were asked to do was photograph and post about our favourite cheese. A non-cooking food event (Yay as I'm not in much of a cooking mood right now).

Hmm...easier said than done, I think. Asking me to narrow down my favourite cheese down to one is like asking me to weed my cookery library to 100 titles or select my most favourite pair of vampily-heeled shoes, or narrow down my list of foods to eat before you die to just 10. Yeah I can't just choose one.

So I chose a family of cheeses: Stilton.

Mmm...that blue-veined English dairy marvel. It's not for the feint of heart, but it's also not to be feared. I love its creaminess--both in colour and texture--and how the sharp blue veining is such a flavour contrast. It's a little salty and I suppose very hearty. One of my favourite uses is to mix it with butter and let it melt over a thick, juicy steak: sheer delirium.

Oh nummy nummy nummy.

But I recently found out there's more than blue out there. My preferred local swankyfooderie has one of the best (if not the best) cheese case in town...and there I found some of what I think of as the traditional Stilton's siblings.

There's White Stilton which is the cheese without the blue veining and fruit Stiltons which have puréed fruit injected into the plain cheese. I picked up some Apricot Stilton, but they also had a few wedges of cherry in the case. All are good--I'd say if I couldn't have blue, I'd go for the salty-sweetness of apricot. But by my palate, they are all good.

Haalo will be posting her round up in a few days, please check back to her site to see what other cheesey wonders people have posted about.

cheese! OOPS. I mean cheers!
jasmine

Red, White or Swiss: Rösti and veal and mushrooms in white wine

or Rœstis et emincé de veau, sauce au vin blanc et champignons...

or Kartoffelrösti und Zürcher Geschnetzeltes

About a week and a half ago, the lovely Zorra of Kochtopf sent out a note saying she was homesick for her beloved Swiss homeland. Swiss National Day is on 1 August and she'd appreciate if we'd help her celebrate by blogging about dishes that were red, white or Swiss by 29 July.

I must admit that my knowledge of Switzerland and Swiss things is rather spotty:
- Its provinces are called cantons
- It's a landlocked nation with a good defensive army who supply mercenaries to the Pope
- The first Swiss-related food I had was Nestlé's chocolate something or other, the next was Swiss cheese, and the next was rösti--grated potato cakes.
- There are four official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh)
-The Von Trapps fled the Austrian Nazis for Switzerland
-I've flown over parts of it, so I can tell you the Alps are pointy (which means the mountains are relatively young).
- The Swiss Rocket Man is pretty cool
-The once-popular Helvetica font is named after the rootword that forms Helvetii, a tribal group found in that area
- Their humanitarian tradition includes The Red Cross
- The Geneva Convention
- The League of Nations was based in Geneva
- Napoleon conquered the Swiss army in the late 1700s, imposed a new and unpopular national constitution, but within a quarter century Swiss independence was regained and the other European powers recognized the nation's neutrality through the 1814-1815 Congress of Vienna
- Sir Roger Moore lives there

When it came to cooking for this event, I decided to make some Swiss foods. Unfortunately, the only thing that came to mind was rösti--absolutely delicious, but a bit predictable. Sigh...what to do, what to do...

As luck would have it, I was invited to friends' for supper last week...and one of them is Swiss.

After a delicious meal that included gazpacho and barbecued venison, I told them of the event and asked for some suggestions--but not rösti...I'm sure there will be several versions of it for the event. I left with a borrowed copy of Schweizer Küche/Cuisine Suisse/Swiss Cooking by Michael Klein and Yvonne Tempelmann, a trilingual (German, French and English) book featuring traditional home cooking from the mountainous country.

After flipping through the pages, and pausing over all the cheese-ladened goodies (Appenzeller fried cheese fritters, spinach gnocchi with Schabziger cheese, potato-tomato bake), I decided on a mushroom and veal dish, swathed in a white wine sauce...which is recommended to be served over...umm...rösti.

Really, was there a doubt that the fried potato cakes would be absent? If there was, take a look at this post's title...it kindasorta gives it away.

Both dishes were very easy and quick to make. The rösti is a very quick and simple way of doing away with a few extra boiled potatoes from last night's supper. And I'm seriously thinking of encasing the veal dish in a puff pastry or a shortcrust pie the next time I make it...

Veal Strips from Zürich
adapted from Swiss Cooking by Michael Klein and Yvonne Tempelmann

Olive oil
500g thinly pounded veal, cut into strips
salt
pepper
a spoonful of flour
1 minced onion
200g finely sliced mushrooms
1 tsp white wine vinegar
100ml white wine
100ml beef stock
200ml heavy cream
1 Tbsp cornstarch
finely chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

Fry the veal, remove to a bowl; sprinkle with salt, pepper and flour.

In the same pan, sauté the onions and mushrooms, adding extra oil if necessary. Add the vinegar and wine; reduce the liquid to half. In a measuring jug mix together the stock, cream and cornstarch; add to the pan a stir well. Bring it to a simmer. Tip in the meat and juices, stir well and let the sauce thicken a bit. Season to taste. Garnish with parsley if desired.

Rösti
adapted from Swiss Cooking by Michael Klein and Yvonne Tempelmann

600g day-old boiled potatoes, grated
salt
pepper
nutmeg
butter
1 minced onion

Season the potatoes and set aside.

Sauté onions in butter. Tip in the potatoes and stir--you want to heat through the potatoes, so this will take a few minutes.

At this point you could either

• Pat all the potatoes into a cake and fry over a medium flame until the potatoes become a crisp brown.

or

• Remove the potatoes to a bowl. Take out one quarter, shape into a cake and fry as above, frying as many cakes at once as will fit in your pan.

cheers!
jasmine

Mmm...Canada: Bacon, ramp and mushroom swirls

Earlier this month Jennifer and I issued a challenge to the foodblogging (and foodblog reading) world. We want to know what Canada tastes like to you. She's interested in all things sweet and I'm interested in the savoury side of life

In my entry for Jennifer's event, I stated that I think Canadian cuisine (savoury or sweet) developed through adapting family and cultural dishes using a mixture of indigenous and introduced foods. For that post, I made spiced blueberry-maple syrup that combined indigenous ingredients (maple syrup and wild blueberries) along with introduced flavours (cinnamon and black pepper).

For my own event, I'm keeping within that theme and expanding it a teeny bit.

In May a good friend of mine left a box of wild bounty she collected from her properties for me. My, those were some lovely looking ramps.

My idea was quite simple: work with flavours that play well together to bring out their oniony-garlicky best. Essentially what I think of as the basic tenet of cooking (Canadian or otherwise)-- simple homey cooking that's unfettered by fashion that uses what's easily available in a tasty way that's not only soothing but also makes you glad you're home.

In researching the various rampy treats, I came across a a recipe for a savoury ramp strudel. With a few tweaks (aided by a bit of a stromboli fascination), I decided to make savoury, swirly buns, using bacon, cheese and mushrooms. It sounds like a lot of elements, but really, it isn't. Plus, it combines those ingredients in a way I think of as Canadian in substance and spirit:

• Pigs were brought over fairly early in our history,
• Quebec has a great cheesemaking tradition, and we do make our own versions of American and European cheese
• Mushrooms are both harvested wild and cultivated
• Prairie wheat was used to mill my flour
• Herbs and spices from Europe and Asia

Again, this is a recipe that really doesn't need one. Okay...the bun part does. If you don't have a recipe you like, I made mine based on Edna Staebler's Neil's Harbour White Bread (and I used one-third the recipe).

The filling:

• streaky bacon, chopped into bits
• ramps (spring onions, green onions, globe onions or leeks will also do), green and white bits, chopped
• chopped mushrooms
• salt, pepper, thyme
• softened cream cheese (any soft or melty cheese will do)
• one beaten egg
• Parmesan cheese

Make the dough. During the first rise, fry the bacon until crisp and evacuate the bits to a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan. Fry the ramps and the mushrooms in the fat--add some oil if you need to. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Reintroduce the bacon to pan and give it all a good stir. Remove contents to a bowl and set aside.

After the dough has doubled, role it out to a 24x30 cm (8"x12") rectangle. Smear with cream cheese and spread the rampy-baconny-mushroomy topping over the cheese. Roll the sheet up, so you have a 30-ish cm log. Slice in 12 rolls and place in a baking tin. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Let rise until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 200C/400F and bake for 10-15 minutes or until done.

Check back on Canada Day (01 July 2008) to see Mmm...Canada: The Savoury Edition's round-up)


cheers!
jasmine

Mmm...Canada: Spiced blueberry-maple syrup

This week you'll hopefully notice that things seem to be a little more Canadian in the foodblogging world. Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess and I are hosting sister events, celebrating our home and native land, under the theme of Mmm...Canada.

Earlier this month Jennifer and I issued a challenge to the foodblogging (and foodblog reading) world. We want to know what Canada tastes like to you. She's interested in all things sweet and I'm interested in the savoury side of life .

For me, savoury or sweet, Canadian food draws upon a mixture of indigenous and introduced foods. And I think this makes sense, given our national history. Settlers and immigrants came here to start new lives, but at the same time wanted to maintain their own cultural identities. Wave after wave came, bringing their own seed and livestock, building upon this land's foods. Some introduced flavours have been here for centuries, while others for only a few years.

With every group of settlers--whether they arrived in the 17th century or the 21st, adaptation was was important. Apart from the weather (-30C in winter and +40C in summer) and eventual cultural, social and political changes, they also needed to find ways of eating that reminded them of distant family and friends with ingredients that were available here.

To be honest, when I first thought of Canadian confections, I thought of two things: maple syrup and wild berries. I know it's a bit cliché on a couple of fronts. Maple syrup because, well, it's maple: we produce 85 per cent of the world's maple syrup and the leaf is on our flag. Wild berries, because they are directly linked to our forests and untamed areas, homesteaders, bears and all that.

Sigh...you'd think I'd do better than that, wouldn't you? I mean, Canadian sweets are plentiful--butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, sugar pie, fruit pies, anything appley, ice cream (I can go on and on)--to immediately leap to two obvious ingredients was a little...anticlimactic.

But not.

To paraphrase the late, great James Barber, aka The Urban Peasant and a favoured Canadian cook: "You do the best with what you've got."

How perfect a food theory is that? And how à propos to apply it to Canadian cuisine--I mean it's what we've been doing for years, is it not?

My entry for Mmm...Canada: The Sugar High Edition is my spiced blueberry-maple syrup.

It's a simple twist on two very Canadian ingredients (Elmira purveyed the syrup and the blueberries were harvested last summer from Sudbury, Ontario). Add to that the ubiquitous, familiar and exotic cinnamon and black pepper, and we've got a meeting of East and West, indigenous and imported and sweet and spicy...

Yeah, I think this sweet says Canada to me...

This is one of those bits of instinctive cooking that really doesn't call for precise measurements.

Spiced blueberry-maple syrup
Maple syrup
Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Cinnamon
Black pepper (optional)

Add all to a sauce pan and bring to a boil while stirring. Lower the flame and let as much of the liquid boil off, leaving as thick a syrup as you wish. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Pour it over buttery pancakes (as shown), over ice cream, fruit fritters...whatever you want.

Check back to Jennifer's site for SHF 44's round up on Canada Day (1 July 2008).


cheers!
jasmine

Mmm...Canada: A wee bit of inspiration

Jennifer and I have received great response from people who've found out about Mmm...Canada, both savoury and sweet--and we're looking forward to reading about how Canada tastes to them.

At the same time, I've received notes from people who'd like to participate, but because they've never visited Canada, they're not sure what "Canadian food" is.

Well, you know...there are Canadians who aren't sure they can answer that question, so don't get too stressed about it (okay, I don't expect anyone to get stressed about it...this is supposed to be fun, and hopefully tasty).

Here's where I'll try and offer a bit of guidance. Instead of only giving you links to sample dishes, I'll just give you some raw ingredients...all Canadian-grown...All you need to do is be creative in how you use them. This by no means is a complete list, so if you know of something that I'm missing or you think would be a good addition, please leave a comment...

Dairy & Eggs

• You probably don't need me to tell you about eggs, cheese, cream, milk, sour cream or yoghurt...and not all dairy products are made with cow's milk
• You should know that we've a rich cheesemaking history.

Fish & Seafood:

• Cod
• Dulse (okay, it's a veg, but still)
• East Coast Diver's Scallops
• Halibut
• Herring
• Lobster
• Manitoba Gold Eye
• Pacific oyster
• Pickerel
• Prawns
• Salmon
• Trout
• Whitefish

Fruits

• Apples: Cortlands, crabapples, Crispins, Empires, Golden Delicious, Gravenstein, Idareds, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Spartans
• Berries: blackberries, blueberries, cloudberries, cranberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, raspberries, saskatoon berries (or service berries), strawberries
• Mellons: muskmellons, watermellons
• Pears: Anjou, Bosc, Clapp, Bartletts
• Stonefruits: apricots, cherries, chokecherries, nectarines, peaches, plums
• Grapes
• Rhubarb
• Tomatoes

Grains

• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Oats
• Rye
• Wheat

Meat & Poultry

• Beef and Veal
• Berkshire Piggies (and other breeds)
• Bison
• Caribou
• Chicken
• Duck
• Foie gras
• Mutton and Lamb
• Pork
• Turkey
• Venison

Sweet Things

• birch syrup
• honey
• maple syrup
• molasses
• sugar (from sugar beets)

Veggies

• Asparagus
• Aubergines (eggplants)
• Beans and Peas
• Broccoli and cauliflower
• Corn
• Courgettes (Zucchini), Cucumbers
• Fiddleheads
• Globe onions, green onions, leeks, ramps
• Leafy things: cabbages, Chinese cabbage, lettuces, mustard greens, radicchio, rapini, spinach, celery
• Morels
• Peppers: sweet and hot varieties
• Potatoes: sweet potatoes, Yukon Gold
• Pumpkins and squashes: acorn, buttercup, butternut, hubbard, pepper, spaghetti
• Root veggies: beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, rutabaga
• Sprouts

Other things that I wasn't sure how to classify

• Beers, wines, spirits
• Canola oil
• Garlic
• Mustard
• Red River Cereal
• Soy

Miscellaneous association, and government websites--I've tried to keep the list to "noncommercial." If anyone has a link for foods from the any of the territories, I'd be very happy to know.

• Beef Information Centre
• BC Tree Fruits
• CanolaInfo.org
• Chicken Farmers of Canada
• Dairy Farmers of Canada
• Foodland Ontario's Seasonal Availability Guides and Recipes
• Growing Alberta Recipes
• NewBrunswick.net Recipes
• Ontario Cheese Society
• Québec Wines (in English)
• Prince Edward Island Visitor's Guide about island food
• Société des Fromages (Quebec cheesemakers, in English)
• Taste of Nova Scotia Recipes

cheers!
jasmine

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