Ever wondered what the conversation centres around when three bloggers get together for lunch? Emma is a blogging friend that I have known in cyberspace since I first created this place in January 2010.  At that time, she was an old-pro having ventured into the blogisphere a year prior.  I was immediately drawn and inspired by Emma’s beautifully crafted Winnipegomyheart and not just because of the obvious unifying heart theme. I knew that J2 (Daughter #3) who is the Lady behind Baby Lady of the Prairies and Emma would hit it off immediately and I was correct.  Both are expecting babies and J2 grew up in the same neighbourhood where Emma now resides.  Conversation centred around the gorgeous elm-lined neighbourhoods of Winnipeg, how difficult it is to find a mid-wife here, the balancing act of family & work & money and not surprisingly -food!

I picked a spot that would be central for all of us and would not mind if we lingered in conversation for the afternoon. Elements-The Restaurant (599  Portage Ave.) is operated by Diversity Foods which was created by The University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation and SEED Winnipeg.  Chef Ben Kramer is one of their senior employees but in my mind the he runs the novel restaurant with the care and attitude as if he was the sole proprietor.

My daughters tell me wonderful tales of meals that they regularly enjoy at U of W.  In fact, my youngest is so impressed by the quality and value, she finds that it is hard to justify packing a lunch to lug to school.  I have enjoyed a number of school day lunches and a couple of private evening events at Elements.  In every case, the food has been innovative and well-prepared.

On this weekend day, I mistakenly assumed that the restaurant would not be busy.  But when we arrived there was a wonderful vibrant community feel, even though University classes were not in session.  Our server was very busy and the kitchen must have been too, for she would keep us posted on the progress of our meals.  We were so busy becoming acquainted with a new friend that we hardly noticed.

Our new friend started with a spicy tomato soup and then tucked into the Mushroom Almond Burger (without the bun) as she is eating gluten-free.  She said that she should have asked whether or not the patties are made with bread crumbs.  As I have known her for years in cyber-space but had never met her until this lunch date, I did feel comfortable to ask her for a taste.  But, the almond patty sure looked delicious!

My daughter-in-law enjoyed Huevos from the weekend brunch menu.  She is hooked on the Mexican Eggs from Stella’s and was hoping that this choice would satisfy her craving.  She was well-pleased, but added that she would have loved a slice of avocado or guacamole with the dish.

I had been craving a burger too and opted to add the house-made back bacon as a topping.  My lunch came with a soup as well.  The savoury mixture was a combination of Creole pork and shrimp, with rice and a red wined enhanced stock.  Our server had to check the exact ingredients with the chef when I inquired for details.  She said that their daily soups change according to surplus ingredients in the kitchen.  I make what I call refrigerator soup at home doing exactly the same thing and I appreciate a resourceful cook.

Kath’s quote: “The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite.”-A. J. Liebling

Love-that is all.

Hello readers.  Do you happen to work close to City Hall?  Although I love so many things about working from my home, I must confess that I miss the days of having an office in the Old Market Square area of Winnipeg, where we had our pick of excellent dim sum restaurants.  The literal meaning of dim sum is “touch the heart” as it was never intended as a main meal but as a snack, to satisfy a yearning (appease the heart).  Dim Sum is also unique because of the manner in which the food is served: towers of steamed baskets all containing wrappers or dumplings of savoury food are wheeled around the restaurant on carts for the customers to choose their selections while seated at their tables. Since you can dictate your own pace, this proves to be handy if you are in a hurry, as we happened to be on this day, with only a designated half hour for lunch.

We started our lunch at Kum Koon Garden (257 King St.) with sticky rice-a compact little package of rice that is stuck together with a meaty shiitake mushroom and ground meat which has all been steamed inside a lotus leaf.  Some versions at other Winnipeg restaurants include a piece of Chinese sausage.  I prefer Kum Koon’s version.

We also tucked into two varieties of shrimp dumplings: one was full of plump shrimp and lots of chopped ginger and the other blended the shrimp with chopped spinach.

Each was different enough tasting, so as not to be redundant.  I enjoy my dim sum dumplings with just a dribble or two of soy sauce but Chinese hot sauce is also on the table and I know more adventurous eaters that love it dolloped on.

Although my lunch date was content to let me do the selecting, I saw his eyes light up when little pieces of gingered beef were being paraded around.

We offset the sweetness of the dish with another: Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) which was perfectly prepared and literally bursting with flavour.  Without the inclusion of a dish like this one, dim sum can be a bit off-balanced as far as all the food groups are concerned.  Loose Chinese tea had been poured to warm us up.

The birthday boy that I was treating to lunch that day, enjoyed the novelty of dim sum.  In my opinion, Kum Koon Garden has the most appealing décor.  Winnipeg has a bevy of Asian restaurants to choose from, but for some reason the locations that serve dim sum are congregated downtown.  If you have a favourite dim sum spot in the suburbs I would love to hear from you, so that I can visit.  Leave me a message in the comment section.

Kath’s quote: “You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair. “ -Chinese Proverb

Love-that is all.

Hello readers?  Would you consider yourself a competitive person?  I do not.  I know that one of my sister-in laws would disagree because she witnessed me in a match of some kind with her sister.  I will admit there are some people that I would like to “beat” because they seem so determined to do the same to me.  So does this mean that I AM competitive?  I would prefer to deal out a game of solitaire than play a round of cribbage, any day of the week.  Recently though, I entered a culinary challenge and when I got Daughter #1 and D involved in the tasting process and they commented: “yeah, that is very good” I probed further: “what would I need to do to take the taste from “very good” to prize winning?”  So I suppose I do like competition, but only when I am competing with strangers.  I would be uncomfortable putting my skills up against those persons whom I love and cherish because I would want them to win and that may influence the way I approach the competition itself, perhaps with a goal to d-rail my own success.  I sound pretty mixed up, don’t I?

The Frenchman let me post this photo of him to illustrate to Daughter #2 (currently in Nicaragua) that I do not just post unflattering pictures of her in the midst of eating. 

This past weekend, instead of assembly around our dining room table at home for mandatory Sunday supper, we did so in the fellowship hall of our church.  D, J1 and J2 were entered into a Sweet or Savoury cook off but it was also a potluck, so while the official entries were being judged, we could get our meal started.  I personally wish that I had left that table unvisited because once an official dish was assessed, it was put out for the rest of us to share and the entries were magnificent! My personal favourites were almost entirely in the Savoury category which is typical of my palette.

Here were to entries, in the order that they were registered:

Jambalaya

Southern Cajun Gumbo and Rice

Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce

Swedish Cream

Biriani Lamb

Indian Butter Chicken

Beef Bourguignon

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Pecan Pie

Japanese Chicken

Classy Chicken

Fruit Crisp

Sriracha Balsamic Glazed Ribs

Mustard Rubbed Pork Roast with Blackberry Sauce

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Apricots and Walnuts

There were three esteemed judges: one a cook from a popular Italian restaurant, one a foodie blogger known to me and then I am not quite sure what the claim to fame was of the third judge, but he may have been selected for his neutrality, because he had interned at our church, but had returned to his home church.  The task of “neutrality” was a difficult one, because in addition to three members of my immediate family, Sister #3 had entered two dishes as well, one each in both categories.

I decided to cast my “People’s Choice” vote outside of my family.

Had I not, I would have had a difficult time voting between D’s dish and the Frenchman’s.  The latter was a combination of sweet and salty tastes in the Savoury category and as my readers know-this is absolutely my cuppa tea!

When all was said and done, my foodie family came away with the most prize ribbons:

Sister #3 took 3rd place in the Savoury category with her Beef Bourguignon

and J1 took 1st place with the Sriracha Balsamic Glazed Pork Ribs.

Sister # placed again in the Sweet category having made her luscious white chocolate raspberry cheesecake,

whereas J2 took top prize with her Fruit Crisp.

A second family collected a couple of ribbons as well: Bob Blanchard for the Biriani Lamb and his wife Madelaine for her Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce.  People’s choice went to our Musical Director Julian for his rendition of Indian Butter Chicken and J1 was called up a second time for the “Best of Show” award.

This was a delightful way to spend a Sunday evening.  The cost to enter a dish for competition was only $3 and the money raised will go to youth mission work this summer.  Around our dinner table we agreed that in addition to this price, the cost to attend could easily be $20 per person (and not simply providing a potluck dish, as it was in this the first year).  We were stuffed with some of the finest tastes we had enjoyed in a very long time.  When I saw Sister #3 the next evening, she was still full!

Kath’s quote: “Competition is easier to accept if you realize it is not an act of oppression or abrasion – I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition”. –Diane Sawyer

Love-that is all.

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.