Valerie 的个人资料A Canadian Foodie:照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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2008/12/13 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!Girls just want to have fu-un!
Cathy, myself, Marie and Dalene coming home October 2007 from a weekend at Marie's Kelowna Paradise. I bought us the "specs" as a little group gift to remember together as we are all usually rearching for our reading glasses these days... and everyone of us remember the days of the "cat-eye" spectacles! I think I even owned a pair! Va-va-va vrooom! Here we are at the Edmonton International Airport in front of the WEM waterslide mural. We had a quiet blast that weekend, and have had the privilege of many years of friendship.
We didn't cook at all, but Marie will have her Okanagan wine list ready for me to share here, shortly!
Never ever to old to have a whole lot of good, clean (or even a bit of silly) FUN!!!! 2008/12/8 Celebrating the Bounty of Alberta: Slow Food Brunch at Mary Bailey'sCelebrating the Bounty of Alberta: The Annual Slow Food Brunch at Mary Bailey's
Merry! Merry! The Annual Slow Food Brunch was held at Mary's home Sunday, and each member of the organization that attended brought a dish that celebrates our fresh local prairie food. This was my first "annual brunch", as a new member of the Convivium. The talk was about the food, and the sourcing, and the bounty of this season. Above, left, are Peter, Sara, and Mary toasting the season. Jerry Kitt and his daughter, enjoy the feast while Brad Smoliak gently cuts into Mary's Beet and Leek Tart Tatin.
Jerry Kitt, the owner of FIrst Nature Farms, and the member representing our Edmonton Convivium who attended the biannual Terra Madre Conference in Italy this year, shared his experience and the nine Principles for Security in Times of Climate Change which is part of the organization's World Wide Campaign for Signatures. It was an emotional sharing and one that I plan to work at to participate actively in this critical movement toward change. Jennifer CK writes about Jerry's farming history here. Please take the time to consider the nine principles for security and at least think or comment about this campaign. Both Mary and Jerry brought back some Presidia labeled items for us to taste and to learn about.
The fresh and crispy greens are from Greens, Eggs, and Ham. The greens were unbelievably fresh and I found it amazing that they are still harvesting these from their outdoor garden at this time of year! Andreas and Mary Ellen also brought two plates laden with their turkey and duck charcuteries. Kirstin Kotelko from Spring Creek Ranch brought her Basil Tomato Sausages. These are my personal favourite of Spring Creek's specialty sausages, and I have tried them all! I am a fan.
Barb brought the most tender Moroccan lamb from a neighbouring farmer friend as well as her homemade choke cherry syrup. Talk about memories of my Grandma and childhood! Hello! I need some more of that syrup, Barb. Yum! Brad brought the egg dish which I just wanted to look at; it was so pillowy and caramelly and crunchy and perfect. I didn't see any one sharing recipes, but even if I had this one, I know I could not get mine to look like this!
I tried to get photos of everything, but it wasn't easy because as soon as the food came out, so did the crowd, so I missed so much, like Darlene and Vince's scalloped potatoes and Thea and Chad's special dish playfully titled: "Brawn" with Saskatoon and Juniper gelatin accompanied by Treestone Bakery Bread. Thea explained that "Brawn is a combination of turkey, pork, venison, bison, duck, and rabbit - all roasted, then slow-cooked in a turkey-duck-rabbit stock. It was developed from Chad's memory of what his dad would cook back in Newfoundland." I am glad I asked. I had no idea what love was worked into that dish, but I did appreciate it!
Below, Tara's delectable tarts. I tucked this one away and enjoyed it in the evening, as I savoured the memories of this busy day... mmm!
I brought my favourite recipe of oven roasted root vegetables, and even forgot to photograph them here. I will enter the entire recipe on a blog to follow. I also brought two Angel Food Cakes that I made the day before. One was made with organic chicken eggs from Sunworks Farms, and the other was made with duck eggs from Greens, Eggs, and Ham. The chicken egg cake was much more moist. A lesson learned. But, there are so many variables, and not so manypeople I know using duck eggs to learn how to maximize them in this recipe. I will say that this was my third attempt at this cake, and that I really spent some time trying to learn how to succeed with them in this recipe. However, I also made zabaglione in my Thermomix with the duck eggs and didn't even bring chicken eggs to compare them with. In this dish, the duck eggs out-perform the chicken eggs in all areas. The zabaglione didn't break down. It sat for over an hour (well, the scrapings of the bottom of the pitcher did), and was still not breaking down. I always try to have duck eggs when making this dish. I find it is outstanding when made with them. (You can buy them at Sobey's on 4th Street or make arrangements directly from GE&H.)
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Though I took many photos, I also missed many happy faces, but caught some, too!
I can think of no better way to have spent this beautiful fall morning. Mary's home was warm with friendship, full of very interesting people, and I learned a great deal. Yeah! 2008/12/4 LefseA Visit with a Dear Neighbourhood Friend: LEFSE
Marg Kline and her older sister, Chris, grew up on their family farm close to my dad's childhood farm near Bengough, Saskatchewan. Interestingly, and completely by coincidence, years later, Chris lived down the street from us, and Marg moved to Red Deer, too! Both sisters and their husbands were close friends to my parents for the rest of their lives. Sadly, Marg died earlier this year, quite quickly.
In December of 2007, I drove mom down to Red Deer to have a good visit with a few old neighbourhood friends for the day. We called Marg and Don unexpectedly for them, but had planned to see them before we left from home. They were eager to see us and put the coffee on and we were there within 15 minutes after our call. Both were looking pretty spiffy. Marg said she was all dressed up as they were going out for dinner that night with friends. She never missed a bit and kept a very busy social calendar. After catching up on all of the children and grandchildren as well as enjoying Marg's colourful artwork hanging on her walls, mom asked if she had any extra Lefse to share. And, Marg had taken some out knowing it was Helen's favourite treat.
Here is Marg proudly holding her perfect Lefse. She offered to teach me how to make it this year. She and Don have done it together every year for as long as she can remember and I got a very detailed lesson on how they did it. But, it was still, very clearly, the kind of lesson that you could really only learn by doing it together. I feel so blessed to have had this experience, and to have been a part of this proud sharing by Marg and Don as they went through the motions of the making for me.
Below you can see how big they are and the board she rolls them out on. Don has the special stick he uses to turn them with and to move them with.
She divides the big ones into four. Of course, we all thought that was not a good idea, and ate four each to drive that point home!
The rolling pin and the pan have been in her family for years. I know Marg will be so missed this year at Christmas.
This is the year that someone else in her family needs to pull everyone together to make the lefse. That is why she has made it all of these years - to pull the family together, each generation, to their past.
This is the year that their will be tears worked into the lefse. Tears of remembering and of loving. This is the year to make sure that Marg's tradition lives on in the lives of her family. This is one reason that our traditional food is so personal and meaningful to us. This is one reason to celebrate our multicultural heritage as Canadians. We don't have to travel the world to know the world. We live inside of our multicultural communities and are so fortunate to share in the bounty of each traditional food.
It is each story like this one that provides another sheaf from which we weave the identity of our Canadian prairie cuisine.
Marg's Lefse Recipe
In her own hand...
 2008/12/2 Happy Birthday, May!The Cabbage Roll: An Alberta TraditionThe Cabbage Roll: An Alberta Tradition
Anyone from Central Alberta or the Edmonton area has eaten cabbage rolls and loves them. They, pyrogies, and other Ukrainian delights have become a fundamental part of our festive prairie cuisine. This happened through the influx of Ukrainian settlers in the late 1800's in the north-western prairie area now known as Alberta. You will almost never attend a casual prairie wedding, or a festive meal (like Christmas), without the addition of a large pan of cabbage rolls. This is, of course, accompanied with the most in-depth, and often heated discussions of how good they are, and which way to make them is best: with meat, or without; small, or big; tomato sauce or not. When the at-home-chef gets a compliment from an "outsider" that is truly a compliment! People do not hand out such compliments freely in the west. They must be earned through years of practice and with the sweat on one's brow that demonstrates evidence of passion for the family and for the food the family partakes of. The recipes that pass through the fingers of time lay at the table of each future generation as a testament to the love and devotion of those that came before.
In our home, it is called "Sarma" and made with sour cabbage and double smoked ribs and bacon from our local Hungarian grocer. Two or three times a year Vanja and I make a trip to the Hungarian Grocer on 118th Avenue. Just to step into the tiny little shop, hear the door bell gently tinkle our arrival and smell the smoky fragrance of the meats hanging on the back wall is reason enough to make the trip. Yum. Of course, Vanja knows his smoked meat. Being from the former Yugoslavia, he has slaughtered his own pigs, butchered the meat, prepared the brine, and made his own prosciutto and smoked prosciutto. There is nothing like Vanja's home-cured meat except maybe Vanja's dad's home-cured meat! As Slav Heller, a fellow Slow Food member wrote to me, "All the greatest foods haven't been invented in up-scale restaurant kitchens and certainly not in the big business food labs. They have evolved through people's effort to preserve foods or make them edible, and taste is secondary..." Yet, they are delicious, or we have acquired the palate that believes that is so. It is these very foods that resonate within my heart strings.
Vanja's father was the "Maker of the Sarma" back home. It was his special honor. Now it is mine,
Please see my slide show under A Prairie Christmas for pictoral instructions for making the Sarma. It is melt-in-your-mouth fantastic!
Sarma (Smokey Sour Cabbage Rolls)
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Lip-smacking and finger-licking home food prefection. Time For ChangeTime for Change
This year was it for me. With twenty six years of teaching reading and writing, then writing and reading and loving every nanosecond of it, I got sick. Literally. And had to slooooow way down. It's not that I did the same thing for twenty six years. Never. One of my daily mantras is "change is a rest". I am motivated and challenged by change. I am excited by it and driven by it.
First, an Early Childhood Specialist. The magic of teaching tender little ones how to read, write, and think was an empowering gift. Picture twenty seven little cuddles wrapped around your arms and legs purring peace and security while reading to them. Can you feel the gentle tickles? The enormity of my responsibility was consistently compelling. Understanding that sacred trust inspired each day. Yet, they grew, and I grew.
Next, the middle years. As tweens and teens struggle to understand their place in this world, "we" abandon them. The intensity of the struggle is so consuming that it sucks the oxygen from the air. As adults, we flail, gasping. We panic in search of an exit to find space to breath. Yet, they need us to stay put. They need us to learn to breath their air. And, they need the strength and firmness of our guiding hand every step of the way. And now, more than ever, they need to learn all over again how to feed themselves.
Oh, they are eating, and eating, and eating, and eating. But they must learn how to feed themselves. Most of them have no idea where their food comes from, or how it got into their hand. Most are two and three generations away from the farm, and most have never even been to one.
This is the "New Age". It is the age of instant gratification: "I am hungry; I will eat something." And, in minutes, or even seconds, something is being eaten. Why? Because it can be. Our youth are satiating themselves effortlessly.There is no sense of satisfaction gained through the quest for food. There is no quest. There is no satisfaction. There is: "I want more."
The notion of us as hunters and gathers is completely lost to the emerging culture of this generation. What is truly troubling is that meal planning, meal preparation, and the concept of working to meet one's nutritional needs is mute. Gone. Dead as the dinosaurs. Almost forgotten. So very few families actually engage in the activity of preparing an evening meal with their children, or even for their children, that kids actually find it fun! It is a novelty. It has become an elite after school activity, and everyone's favorite complementary course in middle school because most rarely get to do it at home. (If truth were to be told, they would find it fun at home if they did it everyday, as long as they were involved in the preparation process, and not just the clean up!)
Most know what salad dressing is. It comes in a bottle. Too, too few know how easy it is to make their own.
Most know how to open a can, rip open a bag, and use the microwave. Too, too few know how to peel a vegetable, to use the stove top, or to use an oven. Most know how to order take out, how to pick up fast food, and how to buy something processed out of a machine. Too, too few know what most vegetables taste like, or what any herbs taste like, let alone what they are called, or how to prepare them. Too, too few know how to handle a small knife, a peeler, or to even what constitutes a healthy well balanced snack, let alone how to make one.
So, this is my year. My year for a change. A change from the writing and reading and thinking to the shopping and cooking and thinking.
I am teaching FOODS! Back to work, and back to basics! My year to make a difference. I always try to do that in this profession, but this time it will be in a more fundamental aspect of my student's lives: their ability to be independent, self reliant, and knowledgable regarding their personal health.
I plan to develop a framework that each can hang some very basic knowledge upon: what real food is, where real food comes from and what impact eating real food has upon one's body and out local economy. The impact that purchasing real food has upon our local economy and the future of the world's ability to continue to produce real food compared to purchasing processed and manufactured food is critical knowledge to impart to our young. It is my hope this knowledge will be wrapped in the positive experiences created in our foods classroom this year.
Our Foods Lab is a happy, happy place, just as every kitchen should be. Just as every home would be, if the kitchen was warmed with the smells of the evening meal inviting the family to be together. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the see-saw generation. The one that will take us back to our roots. To our tables. To our farms and our fields. To the parts of our past that we have forsaken in such a very short time for the convenience of Time. Yet, that is exactly what we have lost. 2008/12/1 Of All Smells: BreadOf All Smells: Bread
There is nothing more characteristic of the prairie home than homemade bread. It is in my blood. I have always loved making it. I have always been interested in making it. I bought my first Magic Mill stone wheat grinder when I was 18. Working full time for the past 20 plus years has certainly curtailed my bread making as it is a bit time consuming for one not at home through the day. Now, with my Thermomix, I can effortlessly bake wholesome homemade bread, and grind the wheat with it, to boot, should I choose. (Yet, I still can't part with my Magic Mill.) Though, this is not a "commercial" for the Thermomix. Like a calculator, you have to know how to do the math before you can use it properly. There is nothing as gratifying as working the dough to get that pillowy soft consistency that you feel growing even as you place it in its proofing bowl. And, who did discover that these four basic and simple ingredients (salt, water, yeast and flour) could create such fragrant sustenance?
This most basic of recipes for white bread also works well with finely ground whole wheat flour and for buns.
White Bread
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