Hello readers!  Ready to root me on in a cooking contest?  Part of the fun for the upcoming “Eat, Write, Retreat” conference that I will be attending in Philadelphia later this month, is a Culinary Challenge.

When my contest package was delivered, I was thrilled with all of the OXO gadgets that it contained and quite frankly stumped, when I saw that my secret ingredient was …RAISINS! For an original appetizer challenge, good grief, what was I going to come up with?

I had already imagined that I would be preparing an olive tapenade or figs wrapped in a smoky bacon or something with potatoes.  Why didn’t I get potatoes?  I’ve not been dubbed the “Queen of Carbs” for nothing!

Don’t get me wrong, I love raisins.  In my cereal, cookies, rice pudding and even salads they are an integral addition, but an appetizer?  Up until that moment, the only appetizer dish with raisins as an ingredient that I have had the pleasure to enjoy, married them with baked brie, pecans and brown sugar.  I still make this dish each Christmas, much to my family’s delight.  The sole experience I have had with raisins at dinner time, though, was in a regional dish served to us when visiting friends in Sicily.  While Concetta (Connie) was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on our supper, her cousin called to inquire what was being made for the Canadian visitors.  When Connie explained, her cousin responded with “What, you are making them eat peasant food?”  Connie defended herself by saying:  “They requested Sicilian recipes, what was I to do?”

When you hear a recounting of Sicilian history and make note of exactly where the island dwells in the Mediterranean, it is not surprising that there are many Arab influences on the cuisine.  I think that both Connie’s recipe and my adaption of it hold true to this notion.

I didn’t actually know the difference between natural and golden raisins (natural are brown and golden are well, just that) until I was putting together the ingredients for this appetizer.  This recipe, along with a healthy dose of your day’s veggies, contains 3 portions of fruit because it takes just 1/4 of a cup to provide a fruit serving.  This was new to me too!

My readers know how important family is to me.  Many of the farms that produce most of the world’s supply of raisins are century old family farms where raisin knowledge is passed from generation to generation.  I would love to wander the rows and rows of grapevines and meet the growers of the San Joaquin Valley in California.  San Francisco has long been on our bucket list and is only a three hour drive away.  Now, I’m California dreaming……

Kath’s quote:  “Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.” 1 Samuel 25:18

Love-that is all.

Until I was 19 years old and traveling through Europe, I did not eat cheese with one exception: mozzarella and it was always cooked, either on top of pizza or broiled with paprika on an English muffin or crusty bun.  The latter was my Mom’s invention and we would often have one at breakfast time.  I am still not fond of blue cheese but have loved every other variety I have ever tasted.  I certainly would not say that I have a discerning cheese  palete.

Recently, I met someone who does-Chef Michael Howell was a judge for the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix held earlier this year in Montreal.

He has ben touring Canada to showcase the winners including:

Ricotta (Quality Cheese)

Grizzly Gouda (Sylvan Star)

Le Noble (Fromagerie Domaine Federal)

Bleu d’Elizabeth (Fromagerie du Presbytere)

Le Mamirolle (Fromagerie Eco-Delices)

Applewood Smoked Cheddar (Cows)

Queso Fresco Cheese (Latin Foods)

I was surprised to see that a “fresh” cheese – the Ricotta was this year’s grand prize winner.  I can’t wait to whip up a manicotti and taste it this weekend.  I was also intrigued that there is now a grilled cheese category and that a Queso Fresco won.  Winnipeg has their own maker of this variety in Whiteshell Cheese.

I went to their facility on Dufferin Ave. in Winnipeg’s North End this week to pick some up for the TV appearances.

Over the course of two days 225 cheeses were judged in 19 categories. The judges evaluated the taste of each selection as well as firmness, texture, visual appeal such as creaminess for soft cheeses and colour for hard cheeses and those with rinds.

Like a little mouse, I had a couple of nibbles of the winners as I was striking the set (don’t tell any one).   My favourite selection was the Applewood Smoked Cheddar which I can imagine as a grilled cheese sandwich sometime soon.  Is it lunch time yet?

Kath’s quote: “Splendid cheeses they were, ripe and mellow, and with a two hundred horse-power scent about them that might have been warranted to carry three miles, and knock a man over at two hundred yards.”-Jerome K. Jerome

Love-that is all.

D and I are empty nesters for a couple of weeks while Daughter #2 is in Nicaragua on a study trip with the Canada Food Grains Bank.  She is not much of a meat eater.  So, when we don’t have to take her preferences into consideration, we have meat, primarily beef at most evening meals.  Our favourite treat to have with a steak is a fleshy/steamy baked potato with the “works”, as we learned to write it on our orders, when we both worked at The Keg Restaurant.  The “works” means both butter and sour cream and chopped green onions and real pieces of bacon.  Mushrooms are another favourite to have with a steak.  I saute slices in a hot skillet with butter and garlic.

This week though, I changed things up a bit and seared a couple of thin New York steaks and then sliced them up to have over a salad of mixed micro greens with a fig and balsamic dressing.  I found that corn on the cob is now in at Sobey’s so I steamed up a couple of cobs and placed a loaf of bread into the oven to bake.  I typically make my own dough in a break-maker, but I recently found frozen bread dough (also at Sobey’s) that I used to buy, before I received my bread machine.  It is the easiest thing in the world to place a frozen loaf under a tea towel on a prepared pan and throw it into the oven at the last minute.  And what a treat-bread so hot that the butter just disappeared into its pores!

The steaks this week were the excuse I needed to try Earl’s Signature Steak Wet Rub that I received as a gift when I could not attend the preview of their spring menu event.  The rub is made with olive oil, soya, garlic, lemon juice, porcini mushrooms and cayenne pepper. To this, roughly chopped fresh basil, rosemary and parsley is added.  The wet rub tenderized our steaks and added such a depth of flavours.  I had never enjoyed the taste of lemon on beef before-brilliant.

Of course the only archived steak photo that I have, depicts it smothered in barbeque sauce….

D started his career behind the broiler bar at The Keg and prepares a perfect steak.  We are typically purists and only season a steak with Montreal Steak Spice which we enjoy on a variety of foods as well.  I think that the exact ingredients are a closely guarded secret but our best guess is that it contains (in addition to coarse salt and pepper and dehydrated onion and garlic), paprika, crushed red pepper, caraway, dill and coriander seeds and perhaps some mustard.

With D’s flare (no pun intended) for steaks, he often pulls out all the stops for celebrations like birthday dinners.  I recall one year when he offered up two choices of “toppers”.  One was sauteed garlic shrimp and Bearnaise sauce and the other was a balsamic tomato salsa and goat cheese.  Both were divine and it was impossible to choose between the two, so most of us had a nibble of each.

It has been a very long winter on the Canadian prairies but spring has finally arrived.  D has his special tongs polished up and the barbeque has been moved into position.  Let the grilling season begin!

Kath’s quote: “It is a very beautiful day. The woman looks around and thinks: ‘there cannot ever have been a spring more beautiful than this. I did not know until now that clouds could be like this. I did not know that the sky is the sea and that clouds are the souls of happy ships, sunk long ago. I did not know that the wind could be tender, like hands as they caress – what did I know – until now?” – Unica Zürn

Love-that is all.

D and I do not do the “brunch” thing very often for two reasons:

1) we usually have the house to ourselves on Saturday morning and we like to schlep around in our jammies and drink coffee and read the paper (the real physical newspaper, printed on newsprint) and while the morning away.  The first one that gets motivated to check emails or unload the dishwasher is a dirty rat because they have changed the mood and the other invariably feels guilty and joins in.

2) we attend our neighbourhood church every Sunday morning.  I suppose we could go out to eat afterwards (many people that we know, do) but we typically know what we want to prepare about half way through the sermon.  I find that eggs are the easy ingredient to whip up quickly and taste like you went to an awful lot of trouble.  The more cheese, butter and bacon (!) that you add to them, the better the whole brunch experience becomes.

This past Saturday, we broke with tradition and stopped in at a family owned place that we heard does a good job with serving up old school, “tastes just like home” cooking.  The décor is a bit on the “old-school” side as well and not in a funky/retro way, but in a “we haven’t had to reno since we opened in the 1980’s” kind of way.

D chose a “Skillet” because he likes to eat right from the frying-pan on an ongoing basis.  His eggs, peppers and cheese were a gooey concoction served over home fried potatoes.  Like I said above, pretty hard to get it wrong.

I, on the other hand, being more sophisticated and refined than my husband, selected a two-egg omelet and added diced smoked ham and mushrooms.  Truth is, I ordered from the Senior’s Menu and they believe that if you are over 55 you prefer smaller portions, which I do, in fact.  So my brunch was a great deal and just the right quantity to boot.

I can see why this place is popular with the locals.  Friendly waitresses walk through the room constantly to inquire “How ya doin Hon?” and pour a continuous stream of coffee.  We met the owner at the door.  He loves his business and taking care of his friends and neighbours.  I guess that is what serving up comfort food is all about.

The restaurant is located in a strip mall at 35 Lakewood Blvd.  It is the kind of place that Moms and families are comfortable at.  The kids can make a ruckus and no one would mind.  Might be a good spot to go for Mother’s Day if you live in the south end of Winnipeg.

Kath’s quote: “Be content that those who can make omelets properly can do nothing else.”-
Hilaire Belloc

Love-that is all.

We are into our Isla routine of waking up with the sun.  We are rewarded over and over again with incredible colours and play of light and water.

We spent a lovely morning on the Caribe side of our little room and the delightful street patio.

D is really content this year to just stay put in the mornings.  I did some beach-combing while D read and sunned in the hammock.  He is learning how to truly relax and lap up the pleasures that the island has to offer.

In the late morning, we walked to the north Colonias to explore together. As much as I love Centro, the “neighbourhoods” offer a charm all their own.

And the people are just as gorgeous as the brightly coloured buildings.

I spot a place that I absolutely cannot resist capturing with my camera.  It has a familiar feel and then I realize that it is Lolo Lorena’s.  I have dined there only once and it was dark when I arrived and so I did not recognize it in the brilliant sunshine.

Lorena is across the street from a house where a person creates shell hangings that are illuminated.  I got a gorgeous one for our gazebo back home.  At $30 for a work of art, I was thrilled.

We found this little place for lunch only to find that they weren’t yet serving lunch.  We always seem to want to eat earlier than islanders.

So we stopped  (for our very first visit) at Iguana’s at Marina Pariso.  You might say that Iguana’s is appropriately named.   The lunch area is a shady spot under a canopy of leaves with beautiful lanterns adorning the boughs.

We shared lunch of fish and chips (fabulous fried fish and ok fries) and a simple but absolutely delicious onion and potato omelet.

With 2 icy cold coronas to wash it down and a beautiful setting, it was a great lunch.

We strolled down to the marina before winding our way back through the Colonias and our way home.

We actually wore ourselves out with the long walk home, so we had to rest up before we ventured out for the evening.

Kath’s quote: “Laziness is nothing more than resting before you get tired.” -Jules Renard

Love-that is all.