12th January, 2009
Canadian Foodies in 2009
Wow! 2009 already!?
Let’s start the new year with a confession… I pretty much neglected the CanadianFoodies blog in 2008 (I’m sorry CF blog! I still love you!)
I didn’t stop eating, or loving food, I didn’t lose my passion to create food, write or share our experiences with you… or anything else like that
What I did do was try and cope with being busier than I ever have been before.
Floods and children, increasing demands at the office, our first major garden and all the while trying to not just survive, but improve life for our kids… you know, that whole life thing…
But it’s a new year, we’re back and this year our focus is once more going to change, or at least shift a bit.
This year, anyone who has stopped by in the past will notice an increased emphasis not just on food, but on healthier, greener, local and organic foods and the ‘greener’ lifestyle that we’ve been attempting to adopt over the past few years.
Mrs. Foodie and I have always eaten well (in a ‘healthy choices’ sense), but like almost everyone else, even we were guilty of the odd quick and easy processed foodstuff for times when time was in short supply (a couple frozen lasagna’s were a definite staple within our deep freezer) But, when we started having kids we began taking a hard look at everything that came into the house.
Foods with transfat were the the first things to go (and Mrs. Foodie felt the pain when our last microwave popcorn was finished).
Then, over the course of a year, we made choices to minimize foods heavy in sodium and saturated fats, we stopped using the microwave, stopped buying grocery store inst-meals and our occasional trips to the local farmers markets became a weekly event. In fact, in the summer months 80 - 90% of our produce comes from a farmers market.
We made a lot of headway that first year (2005) but the next year brought child #2, followed a year later by child #3 (yup, 3 kids in less than 34 months!) and we struggled to maintain our momentum forward.
But heare we are in 2009, the first decade of new millenium is coming to a close and through experience or wisdom the changes that we started 3 year ago have truly become second nature and we’re ready to take our ‘green’ life to the next level.
What exaclty does that mean?
Honestly I’m not 100% sure where the final destination is going to land us, but I do know the direction we’re heading.
The focus of this blog will continue to be food, (we’ll be posting a new recipe/meal of the week column shortly)
and we’ll continue to investigate the back stories and histories of the foods we eat. But now, in 2009, we’ll start to focus on food as part of our environmental impact, our carbon footprint. We’ll look at the choices we want to make and followup with the ones we’re actually able to follow through with.
And that’s just the first step of the journey…
Posted at 3:49 am | Comment (0)
7th July, 2008
Farmers Market Withdrawl
We’ve missed out on Farmer’s markets two weekends in a row now for various reasons and I’m starting to go through withdrawl.
I’ve pretty much run out of produce (except for lettuces and radish which we pulled from our own garden this week) and am dreading having to put in a visit to the grocery store to buy their ‘fresh’ product.
I’m not sure why Saturday mornings are becoming difficult (3 kids under 3.5 years old) but we’re having a hard time getting out of the house in time to make the markets.
I think this week we will visit the Eco-market at Hempola farms. We’ve been talking about it for a year, but Friday nights come and go and we always forget!
Ack - a note from the tech side of my personality… Apparently Hempola Farms haven’t updated their site since 2004! The good news is their Eco-Market will be up and running again in the spring of 2005! Doh! I missed it! Come on Hempola, I know farms aren’t always thought of as being part of the most tech-savvy industry, but try to make at least ANNUAL updates to your site if you are going to go to the trouble of having one!
Posted at 4:45 pm | Comment (0)
4th July, 2008
What does your garden grow?
Garden specs :
The 2008 garden is a little below 25 X 30 feet, or ~850 square feet.
Biggest pests so far:
- Mosquitos - Installed bat boxes and spray on repellent
- Ants - Don’t know what to do about this menace!
Grown:
We’ve planted the following:
- Corn
- Eggplant
- Various Heritage Tomatoes
- Ground Cherries
- Various Peppers (green, red, orange etc)
- Jalapeño
- Horseradish
Posted at 7:48 pm | Comment (0)
1st July, 2008
Upgrading my Blog
I am about to upgrade CanadianFoodies.com to Wordpress 2.5.
So please ignore any short term randomness as I disable plugins, upgrade and (hopefully not) troubleshoot. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program shortly!
Thanks for your patience.
* Update (15 minutes later) - Upgrade complete. If you notice any further randomness, it is completely my fault!
Posted at 3:28 am | Comment (0)
28th May, 2008
Breaded Veal with Mushroom Gravy
I forgot to take a picture! -ack- I must be out of practice…
I took a few days off work to celebrate an extra long holiday weekend (and my birthday - yay me!-) and that generally means a little more time to plan a nice meal.
And in typical fashion, I went with a few new dishes…
Thursday night meant Breaded veal in a rich mushroom gravy (a hunters-style gravy) and lemon beans (with lemon zest and more mushrooms) .
Posted at 3:47 pm | Comment (0)
5th May, 2008
Wintered Vegetables
We spent a day in the fields today. For future refernce (because I know you MUST be visiting and reading my site fanatically!) Sunday is garden day.
Unfortunately, and if you followed along last summer you probably know, we live in the city. Not that living in the city is unfortunate, there are plenty of good things about living in the city and at this point in our lives it just makes sense to be close to everything. But, I was raised in the country and would like to find my way back sometime before I retire :)
The unfortunate thing, and likely my least favourite part of city living, is our postage-stamp sized back yard. It’s big enough for a shed, a small deck and a large childrens play center (slide and swings), with just enough grass left over for the dog to do her serious business.
…definitely NOT large enough for a garden.
Community Supported Agriculture
Posted at 4:11 am | Comment (0)
4th May, 2008
The Perfect Steak
How do you know when your steak is finished on the bbq?
Practice.
But in the meantime, stop asking HOW LONG… because it’s not the right question.
Posted at 2:50 am | Comment (0)
24th April, 2008
Canadian Foodies in 2008
Hello everyone!
Thanks for visiting. To any of my old regulars, thanks for checking back.
We’ve been a little quiet around here over the past 6 months or so… what can I say :)
I’ve been hibernating through the long Canadian Winter!
Actually we’ve been really busy with other ventures… a new baby in January (our second daughter!), a flood in February that destroyed our basement, and being generally busy trying to plan out the future of CanadianFoodies.
Posted at 11:05 pm | Comment (0)
17th October, 2007
Thought of the day
Hello everyone!
I’ve been out of town a lot recently (with the day job) as well as launching a new blog (MichaelValiant.com - warning, not food related at all!) so I apologize for not being around here much.
Thanks for the comments (that took me forever to moderate)!
I will re-kick things off with a thought for the day:
I try not to eat any veggies that have travelled more than I have!
Posted at 4:17 am | Comment (0)
4th September, 2007
How to Roast Garlic
My summer experimentation with Garlic continues! Unfortunately, due to a frustrating lack of rain (from March to September we didn’t see more than 10 consecutively rainy minutes once!) our pickings from the CSA farm where we have shares (just outside of Barrie, Ontario) has been a little meager. But one thing we have had lots of is Garlic (and Garlic Scapes)
Garlic - Italy’s National Flower
Earlier in the season we used heaps of Garlic Scapes in a number of different recipes, including Steamed Garlic Scape, Garlic Scapes Diced in a Salad, and even Garlic Scapes as a Tasty Addition to several dishes, like stew and chili!
Now, we’ve seen the end of the Garlic Scapes, but we have heaps of Garlic.
What to do?
*QQ “Fight Mouthwash … eat garlic.” ~Lloyd J. Harris, The Official Garlic Lovers Handbook
Well, tonight we decided on Roasted Garlic! I don’t know why but this was a first for me. Strangly, even loving Garlic as much as I do I’ve never tried this one out.
I’ve been meaning to for years, but suppose I wasn’t really sure HOW to Roast Garlic.
I am happy to say that it was incredibly easy.
Also, it is fortunate that my wife likes Garlic as much as I do… Because it really doesn’t help a relationship when Garlic loving is one sided!
*DYK Studies show that eating Garlic regularly provides a number of incredible health benefits; from lowering blood pressure to fending off vampires!
How To Roast Garlic
- Pre-heat your oven to about 400°F.
- Peel the outside skin off your Garlic bulbs, leaving the skin on the individual cloves inside. It’s okay if some of the skin comes off the individual cloves but leave all the cloves attached!
- Nip off the top 10% of each clove with a sharp knife. I throw the tops into a salad usually.
- Pack the whole bulb into Tin Foil, but leave it open because you’re not quite done yet!
- Drizzle a good oil over the top of your Garlic Cloves. You should use a couple of teaspoons worth but basically just coat your Garlic Bulb.
- Sprinkle on some Basil.
- Seal tinfoil.
- Put Garlic in oven for 30-35 minutes.
- Allow to cool enough to handle with your fingers.
- Enjoy!
(click image to enlarge)
You don’t NEED the oil, the garlic turns out great even without it, but the oil caramelizes, with adds a wonderful element to this simple appetizer.
*QQ “Do not eat garlic or onions; for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant.” ~Cervantes, Don Quixote (1614)
Also, if you’re worried about eating that much garlic at one sitting, don’t be! After roasting for 30 minute, a Garlic Bulb loses most of it’s intensity and you’re left with an incredible mellow earthy (almost nutty) flavor.
I loved eating the garlic , but I’ve been told you can spread it across bread for a nice Garlic Bread treat too and I intend trying this out next.
If you have a differnt method of Roasting Garlic, or another good idea of what to do with the finished result (e.g. Garlic Bread Spread) please share! I have a ton of Garlic left and would love to learn more ways of How to Roast Garlic!
Posted at 3:05 am | Comments (8)
