Food Musings

A Winnipeg blog about the joy of preparing food for loved ones and the shared joy that travel & dining brings to life.

Meet Carman and Donna Jackson-Enlightenment

September21

I will admit it.  I get focused on the things that I care deeply about and then I allow my world to revolve round those things.  The movies and documentaries I watch, the books, both fiction and non that I read, the articles I peruse in magazines and on line, are already filtered through the “everything about Kath” screen.  This is not a bad thing necessarily, just life.  In the mean time I allow the media (and often the more extreme American media) to shape my impressions about certain aspects of today’s world and I create stereo-types about people and things that I do not really know about.  Does this happen to you as well?

Case in point: Before my weekend away with the Manitoba Canola Growers at “Be Well Camp”, I had a very different impression of a Manitoba cattle raising family.  But now I have had the pleasure of meeting Carman and Donna Jackson of the High Bluff Stock Farm.

This was my first visit to the area surrounding Inglis, MB.  The setting is rolling and lush.  We passed the scenic Assiniboine River Valley and the Shell River Valley which join at the Shellmouth Dam to form the Lake of the Prairies, en route to the farm that morning.

Mom Donna and Tomina, the youngest of the five Jackson daughters are absolutely gorgeous! Tall, lean, healthy and glowing (but also stylish and well-coiffed)-they are a testament to country living.  I wonder if I could transform myself if I spent some time on their farm…..

Carman and Donna were perfectly articulate about their farm and the Canadian beef industry.  You can discern in a moment that they are well educated and on top of their business.  When you learn that the rest of the girls are off at various high profile universities and careers, you see the commitment that the family has made to making the most intelligent decisions for their animals and the environment.

Their beautiful, white coated Charolais herd are obviously well loved and not shy around humans. One of them really wanted to get into a family photo.

And so the Jackson family created a 360 impression of a cattle farm family for me.  Thank you Carman and Donna. And to all of the other families who I previously regarded with my high fluting/urbanite glasses on-please forgive me.  I was misinformed but now I have been enlightened!

Does anyone know why I instantaneously fell in love with their horse?

Kath’s quote: “Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth.”-Li Zhaoxing

Love-that is all.

Meet Bruce and Carol Dalgarno-Radical Hospitality

September20

I would consider my family hospitable people.  By this I mean we take our turn hosting Christmas and dinners at the lake and enjoy going to an extra bit of trouble when we entertain.  We are very intentional and organized when we host.  We divvy up responsibilities and tasks so that the evening will go off without a hitch.

I cannot imagine welcoming a busload of absolute strangers (let alone food writers).

I cannot imagine pulling this off and celebrating my grandson’s birthday in the same evening.

I cannot imagine hosting anything at all after devastating winds have threatened my community and our livelihood.

I cannot imagine doing this without my husband who gets called away at the last minute to answer an alarm as a volunteer fire fighter.

I cannot imagine pulling together any kind of composure and grace under these circumstances.

There is “hospitality” and there is what I call “radical hospitality”.

And yet that is just what Carol Dalgarno did this past Friday evening when Pen-Dale Farms in Newdale, MB was the first stop on Manitoba Canola Grower’s “Be Well” Weekend.

Since Bruce had been called away to fight a field fire in the area, we never actually had the chance to meet him but had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with his family and friends who shared their story. Pen-Dale is a fourth generation farm and they operate a 3000 acre mix of canola, cereals, oilseeds, grasses and pedigree seeds.  All this seems daunting enough but they do so at an elevation approaching 2000 feet which means that the area has one of the shortest growing seasons for agricultural land in Manitoba.

I know that I would have immediately taken to Bruce as my sweet Dad was also a grain farmer who left his land in southern Saskatchewan only because there was a war to be fought but returned every year to help out at harvest time and then sent his eldest sons to do the same, until his parents were too elderly to sustain the land.  “Farming allows Bruce to feel the earth, to smell and watch crops grow.”

We were treated to my first “Supper in the Field”- a term known to most farm families.  During harvest time meals are taken to the field so as to be time efficient for the workers.  Often friends who have other occupations assist at harvest time and so there are many to provide a hearty meal for.  A friend of Carol’s had been recruited to feed us and I will have to get one of my fellow travelers to remind me of her name.

Salads had been prepared from the abundance of freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers, baby potatoes boiled and mashed,

and beef was sliced to our liking along with hearty baked beans.

A gorgeous pumpkin trifle was our dessert, and even though I shy away from desserts in the city, I enjoyed the first of many sweet tastes of the weekend.

The sun was just setting as we boarded our bus to head to our next destination but I will not ever forget the Dalgarnos and their radical hospitality.

Kath’s quote: “Beans are highly nutritious and satisfying, they can also be delicious if and when properly prepared, and they posses over all vegetables the great advantage of being just as good, if not better, when kept waiting, an advantage in the case of people whose disposition or occupation makes it difficult for them to be punctual at mealtime.”-Andre Simon

Love-that is all.

 

Apres Tennis Steaks

September19

At 50, D is in better shape than he has been in his life.  He goes to the gym three times a week and plays tennis another 1-2 times.  Last night was one of his mid-week tennis dates.  I had the grill all fired up when they guys arrived, D put down his racket and picked up his tongs.

There were three of us for dinner and I had three different steak cuts ready to go.  One was an inside round with very little visible fat or marbling.  The grain of the meat was very compact and dense and so that morning I had prepared a marinade to add some flavour and tenderness.  I had found the recipe on the Canada Beef website in the recipe section and picked up all kinds of other suggestions and tips while on the site.


Jamaican Jump Up Marinade
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
I used this to marinate an inside round for 8 hours and a sirloin for ½ an hour. We also basted a rib steak on the grill with it.
Ingredients
  • ¼ c steak sauce (I was out and had to use a BBQ sauce and it worked well)
  • ¼ c strong brewed coffee
  • 2 T canola oil
  • 1 T minced ginger root
  • 1 T fresh thyme
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • ½ t allspice
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Whisk together in a small bowl.

The steaks that I had purchased varied in price per kg according to the cut.  What proved to be interesting, to those of you managing a grocery budget and thinking that a regular steak dinner might be too extravagant for your family, is that the steak that was the least expensive turned out to be the taste hit of the dinner.  With marination the inside round was certainly as tender as the sirloin and almost as flavourful as the rib steak.  Sometimes, when you are standing in front of the meat section at the grocery store, this is a tricky decision to make, so consult the Canadian Beef website.  The site puts steaks into grilling vs marinating vs simmering categories, so no matter what the cut or how little you spend, you will always be serving up a flavourful and tender steak.

D sliced all the steaks into medallions and we placed a platter on the table.  Beef can hold its own against other robust flavours and so I also served brown and wild rice pilaf, roasted beets, sauteed Swiss chard and pine nuts and a tomato, cucumber and feta salad with a precious stash of pungent olives that I had purchased while in Ireland this spring.

So in spite of the guys working a full day and then playing over two hours of tennis, they had been fortified to take on another day.

Kath’s quote: “People who like to cook like to talk about food….without one cook giving another cook a tip or two, human life might have died out a long time ago.”-Laurie Colwin

Love- that is all.

 

Chicken Mole-Bikinis & Margaritas Pt 3

September18

Mole Poblano is a popular sauce in Mexican cuisine.  It is prepared with dried chilies,  ground nuts and seeds, spices, Mexican chocolate (which is traditional ground with sugar and cinnamon) and a variety of other ingredients including onions, plantain and garlic.  Because of the labour-intensive nature of the mole, it is often made in large batches for special occasions, such as holidays, birthdays and weddings.  Since we were celebrating upcoming nuptials and because Laura never does back down in the face of a challenge, she lovingly prepared this authentic dish.

Laura gave me two recipes which she indicates that she used in combination for her dish.  This version is from the Food Network and is marked “Easy”. (Doesn’t look easy to me-I typically buy the Dona Maria Mole Sauce at the Mexican grocer).


Chicken Mole
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Laura poached the chicken breasts, placed on a bed of rice and then poured the mole over top at serving time.
Ingredients
  • 1 chicken (3-4 pounds) cut into pieces (Laura used boneless breasts)
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • kosher salt
  • ½ c sesame seeds
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • ½ t anise seeds
  • ¼ t coriander seeds
  • 6 dried quajilo chile peppers
  • 4 dried ancho chile peppers
  • 6 T canola oil
  • ¼ c raisins
  • ¼ c whole almonds
  • ¼ c hulled pumpkin seeds
  • 2 6 inch tortillas torn into pieces
  • 1 2.7 oz. disk of Mexican chocolate, broken into pieces
  • pinch of sugar
Instructions
  1. Place chicken and peppercorns in large pot, cover with water and season with salt.
  2. Bring to a gentle simmer over low heat and cook until tender, about 40 minutes.
  3. Transfer the chicken to a large plate and set the cooking liquid aside.
  4. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing until golden, about 5 minutes.
  5. Set aside 2 T for garnish and transfer the rest to the blender.
  6. In the same skillet, toast the cloves, cinnamon stick, and anise and coriander seeds until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
  7. Add to the blender.
  8. Meanwhile, add the raisins, almonds, pumpkin seeds and tortilla pieces to the canola oil and cook, stirring, until the seeds and tortillas are golden brown, about 2 minutes.
  9. Add to the blender along with oil from the skillet and cook, stirring, until the seeds and tortillas are golden brown, about 2 minutes.
  10. Add to the blender along with the oil from the skillet.
  11. Add the softened chilies and puree, pouring 2 to 3 cups of the soaking liquid to make a thick, smooth sauce.
  12. Heat the remaining 2 T canola oil in a large pot over medium heat, Add the chile sauce and fry, stirring until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes.
  13. Add 4 c of the reserved chicken cooking liquid and simmer until the sauce starts to thick, about 20 minutes.
  14. Add the chocolate and simmer, stirring frequently, until the chocolate melts and the sauce reduces, about 20 more minutes.
  15. Add the sugar and season with salt.
  16. Add the chicken pieces to the sauce and warm through over low heat.
  17. Garnish with reserved sesame seeds.

My contribution to the evening was a simple watermelon and feta salad.  I prepared three c of watermelon balls, covered with 1/2 small red onion slices and 1/2 c of crumbled feta and drizzled balsamic vinegar over all.

Kath’s quote (I was searching for Mole quotes and found this one -wrong kind of mole but…): “Their [watermelons] cleansing action you can discover for yourself; just rub them on dirty skin. Watermelons will remove the following: freckles, facial moles, or epidemic leprosy, if anyone should have these conditions.”-Galen (129-216 A.D.)

Love -that is all.

 

Sunday Dinner to end a “Be Well” Weekend

September17

I arrived home from my weekend at Be Well Camp (details of our full itinerary in future posts) hosted by the Manitoba Canola Growers with two expectations: 1) I would have to hustle to get MSD (Mandatory Sunday Dinner) on the table and 2) dinner conversation may focus around what I had learned on my weekend away and that eating more items which had been produced by provincial growers and processors (no matter what the cost) was going to be my new mantra.

Imagine my delight when I walked in the door and was told to go directly to the dining table as dinner was being served.  There were purple and blonde beets from our Blue Lagoon crop share, wild chanterelle mushrooms which had been foraged from the Belair Forest where our beach house is located, wild rice linguine, and live, rope grown mussels simmered in canola oil, a splash of wine and local herbs.  I know, I know the mussels came from PEI but if Manitoba was adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, we would have enjoyed Manitoba mussels instead.

I added two loaves of bread for dipping into the broth produced by the mussels.  One loaf was left over from my weekend breakfast basket which had been assembled by Chef Mary Jane Feekes of Benjamin’s in Selkirk MB and the other had been purchased a top of a hill at the Asessippi Autumn Feast.  The wheat had been milled, formed and baked in 45 minutes right before my eyes.

Our family is crazy about Floating Leaf brand rice blends and pasta that we have been tasting over the summer.  Floating Leaf is a Winnipeg producer of Shoal Lake Wild Rice and the linguine is made from stone ground wild rice flour, durum wheat semolina and farm fresh organic free run eggs. The artisan pasta is thinly rolled and slow dried at room temperature. When handled thusly, the unique nutty flavour of the rice is maintained.

For dessert we had the heavenly heart shaped cookies that had been made for us by the Kracher family of Freefield Organic Farms and pumpkin scones that the Frenchman had just whipped up (recipe in a future post).

I feel so blessed to have been invited on my weekend, but also to come home to a family who already “gets” the importance of from scratch-cooking with the best that Manitoba  has to offer.

Kath’s quote: “Cookery, or the art of preparing good and wholesome food, and of preserving all sorts of alimentary substances in a state fit for human sustenance, or rendering that agreeable to the taste which is essential to the support of life, and of pleasing the palate without injury to the system, is, strictly speaking, a branch of chemistry; but, important as it is both to our enjoyments and our health, it is also one of the latest cultivated branches of the science.”-Frederick Accum (1769-1838)

Love-that is all.

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