I batted two for two on my recent trip to Regina; sitting down both evenings with the creators of the food that I had the pleasure of sampling. At his restaurant Flip, Chef Dave Straub (recent silver medal winner in the gold plate competition), pulled up a chair with his beer to discuss the details of his winning creation and share his passion for prairie food.

Chef Dave is the real deal. Farm to table is not just a passing movement, but Dave’s life. A farm boy from Pense, SK just west of Regina, he was baptised in the hospitality business by washing dishes at Danbury’s. Ironically the building just across the street that once housed Danbury’s is now home to Crave and the Chef that squeezed Dave out of his gold plate was none other than Crave’s Jonathan Thauberger.

In between, he attended culinary school and did his own research at a number of iconic restaurants including Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park in NYC, rated the fifth best restaurant in the world! Hearing him recount that visit, his face took on the appearance of a fan that had caught the puck that was shot by his favourite player to win the Stanley Cup.

But, to the food….

Our attentive server did such a delicious job of describing the evening’s special that it was ordered before we could blink: a nibble of silky pasta topped with shrimp and pancetta, luxuriating in a tomato butter sauce and crowned with a gently poached egg and fennel pollen . What a fabulous start.

I was ready to go exotic but when I spied perogies and sausage on the “Comfort” section of the menu, I could not resist. Flip’s premise made sausage had a little bit a heat and worked beautifully with potato & aged cheddar packets. Caraway beets and mustard chive creme fraiche, sealed the deal.

The short rib plate was selected by one of our guests, but we all had tastes. You know that you are with good friends, when no one is shy about passing their plate around to share the bounty. The ribs were first braised and then slowly roasted to create a fall-off-the-bone taste sensation. Perfect for a meat and potato lover, it came with cheddar mashed potatoes and an arugula salad.

A brick-roasted chicken looks pretty pedestrian in this shot. Believe me, it was anything but! We had just returned from Tuscany the week prior and Italian families, especially in Tuscany, have been cooking what they call “pollo al mattone” for centuries. From my own research, there are a couple of secrets to this cooking style: 1) you have to ensure that the half chicken is lying as flat as possible in the bottom of your skillet 2) the best fry pan to use is a well-seasoned cast iron one 3) wrap a couple of heavy terra-cotta bricks in aluminum foil and place directly on the chicken. The trick here is weighting the chicken so that the skin makes contact with the hot pan and it cooks evenly. Perfectly executed.

I would drive to Regina just for another taste of this dish!

D LOVES seared scallops and orders them every chance he gets. As soon as I spied them on the menu, I knew immediately that they would be his choice. The crispy pork belly and lapsha noodles in a vanilla saffron sauce was the delicious icing on the “cake”.

I have no recall of the name of this chocolate feature but it was an ode to campfire s’mores and we made short work of it.

I feel very badly that even though we moved our dishes under the best lighting in the café, my photos are so lacking compared to the real experience. My niece once shared that a dish was “groan worthy” and that is the only descriptive that adequately describes Chef Dave’s dishes: groan worthy and we did, groan that is.

Kath’s quote: “Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.” –Charles Pierre Monselet, French author (1825-1888)

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

Fenix is a place on Isla Mujeres that I had watched with interest on message boards when it opened and then garnered its fair share of fans. Until this past spring, I had never visited. In fact, I didn’t even know where it was. When we met friends from Puerto Moreles who came over by ferry to spend an afternon with us, we walked along Playa Sol and then rounded the corner to Play Norte. When I thought that we were almost out of beach (and a place to share some lunch), there it was. We immediately ordered a round of cold ones and a couple of small plates to share. Since there were four of us and only three of these tempura shrimp with curry dip, we ordered a second plate and each had 1 1/2 skews. Delish.

The goat cheese stuffed chilies on crostini hit the spot especially with the pesto drizzle that circled the plate.

These were not the best Patata Bravas I had ever tasted (that honour goes to Segovia in Winnipeg) but they were tasty enough.

The ceviche of the day was this lovely green one; the result of tossing the veggies and seafood in pesto.

Service was fairly prompt and the banos clean and well stocked, even though they were quite a distance from where we were seated. We could have done without the afternoon’s entertainment of live music as we were trying to get to know our guests a bit better but the music did add to the atmosphere.

Overall a very pleasant experience.

Kath’s quote: “It is a curious thing, but as one travels the world getting older and older, it appears that happiness is easier to get used to than despair. The second time you have a root beer float, for instance, your happiness at sipping the delicious concoction may not be quite as enormous as when you first had a root beer float, and the twelfth time your happiness may be still less enormous, until root beer floats begin to offer you very little happiness at all, because you have become used to the taste of vanilla ice cream and root beer mixed together. However, the second time you find a thumbtack in your root beer float, your despair is much greater than the first time, when you dismissed the thumbtack as a freak accident rather than part of the scheme of a soda jerk, a phrase which here means “ice cream shop employee who is trying to injure your tongue,” and by the twelfth time you find a thumbtack, your despair is even greater still, until you can hardly utter the phrase “root beer float” without bursting into tears. It is almost as if happiness is an acquired taste, like coconut cordial or ceviche, to which you can eventually become accustomed, but despair is something surprising each time you encounter it.” ― Lemony Snicket

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

Persons like me: haphazard, un-exacting, short attention span, make terrible bakers and I am a terrible baker! At Christmas, when it is time to bake festive cookies, I typically choose to prepare a slice or a candy or avoid the task all together and depend on the talents and gifts of my friends and family.

We were as busy as little elves in the bakery. Friend Getty, is moving so fast, she went out of focus!

So when an opportunity came along from my friends the Manitoba Canola Growers to learn from one of Manitoba’s best bakers, in the company of many of my foodie pals, I jumped at it. Chef MJ Feeke is an instructor at Red River College, runs a multi-faceted food business AND perhaps most importantly, is a Mom to a busy family.

Benjamin’s Gourmet Foods on Eveline St. in Selkirk, Manitoba was already decorated for Christmas.

We were in expert hands.

Baking alongside with us were Jen and Will Bergmann, a third generation farm couple who are also raising a family (three under the age of 3 1/2). They, along with so many farm families that I have had the pleasure to meet through Canola Connect, are the new generation of farmers: young, hip, attractive, passionate, educated, hard-working.

If you are watching your grocery budget, have a dairy sensitivity or allergy, the recipes that we used all contained canola margarine. Sister #3 (as she is known in this space) came along to add an extra dose of sweetness to my evening. We were in the same group of four and split up our dough forming duties.

Chocolate Chip Orange Shortbread was rolled out and then cut into triangles.

Chocolate Mint Crackle Cookies, were rolled (to the exact size of an eye-ball), thumb-pressed, baked, iced and sprinkled.

Red Velvet Rose Cookies were piped (hard work I heard), baked, piped with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with red sugar.

Lemon Poppy Seed Slices were cut, baked and drizzled with lemon icing. They were the easiest and in my humble opinion, the tastiest of the cookies.

These festive wreaths were assembled from a myriad of mini holly leaf wafers and finished with a red bow.

The heart shaped Brown Sugar Cut Outs are seen below. Somehow I missed photographing the Spicy Logs. Maybe it was because we made zillions of cookies that evening.

I thought that these were the prettiest: White Chocolate Raspberry thumb cookies. They reminded me of the almond thimble cookies with raspberry jam that my little Polish Grandma used to make.

In the end, isn’t that what Christmas baking is all about? Sharing a treat, spreading love and good cheer, making memories and reminiscing about Christmases gone by. I hope that your Christmas preparations and the season ahead will be filled with peace, comfort, joy and….cookies!

Kath’s quote: “When I buy cookies, I eat just four and throw the rest away. But first I spray them with Raid so I won’t dig them out of the garbage later. Be careful, though, because that Raid really doesn’t taste that bad.”-Janette Barber

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

Later on day six, we dropped Victoria & Don off at North Beach, returned the golf cart, spent a little time at Luna d’Miel (see my beachcombing haul) and then a lovely late afternoon at the beach to visit the gang.

Even though I am never in the market for a straw basket while on Isla Mujeres, I do love this beach vendor when he comes by with his colourful fare.

We also have taken many photos of this gentleman over the years.

This was our spot to while away a number of hours doing nothing else but gazing at the sea.

D went to fetch supper for home while I read and took photos of the changing light as the sun went below the clouds.

We had hoped for a rotisserie chicken but no shops were open so he stopped at Pita Amore. One pita was chicken with garlic and onions and the other one a classic with curry sauce. We also enjoyed their flan.

We spent the evening at our home-away-from-home to watch “Suits” on Netflix and then sleep for 9 blissful hours.

We are so looking forward to our 2016 stay at Villas San Miquel on Isla Mujeres. We imagine ourselves heading to the beach in the morning and then again in the late afternoon-our favourite times to beach it. In the afternoons we love to read in a hammock or get some shopping done. The convenience of staying at the villas will mean that all these opportunities will be within easy reach. To think that I will have an unobstructed view of the sea and the convenience of Centro at the same time, it almost sounds too good to be true!

Kath’s quote: “I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.