Resto Gare, the reinvention of long loved La Vieille Gare in Winnipeg’s French Quarter, has been on my hit list since its refreshed unveiling in 2008.  I am pleased to say that I finally got a chance to try their fare at a recent Christmas party.

I am always thrilled to be included in the staff celebrations of a diagnostic centre that I work with in my role with CancerCare Manitoba.  I really appreciate that this group is always up to try something different and they have introduced me to a couple of venues I may not have otherwise discovered.

Resto Gare Bistro is located at 630 Des Meurons Rue in a Canadian Northern Station Building that will celebrate its 100^th birthday next year.  The attached train car is only one year younger, being built in 1914.

The lovely interior is the perfect setting for a Christmas celebration with its colour pallet of gold and poppy red. Warm wood, rustic open beam ceiling and plush furnishings keep you cozy as you gaze out the window at the falling snow.

Being a large party. we had a limited menu, but the choices where all exemplary.  I started with the creamy potato and leek soup.  I think perfecting this simple dish shows a chef’s finesse. This one was the right consistency; you could taste both the leek and potato and it was seasoned perfectly.  This got me excited for my entrée and I was not disappointed.  For my main, I enjoyed Manitoba pickerel, pan seared in herb butter and topped with crispy pancetta, corn and a micro shoot salad and served with rice pilaf and perfectly cooked beets and Brussel sprouts.

My colleges raved about the rosemary and mustard rubbed Prime Rib; the half roast chicken served on preserved lemon smashed potatoes; and the wild mushroom and leek risotto with pecorino cheese.

The dessert cart selection was extensive.  I abstained, but heard the moans of my coworkers who indulged in the lemon tart, traditional maple sugar pie and the candy cane crème brûlée.

I look forward to revisiting Resto Gare, perhaps for a more intimate dinner in the train car.

Kath’s quote: “Light, refined, learned and noble, harmonious and orderly, clear and logical, the cooking of France is, in some strange manner, intimately linked to the genius of her greatest men.”-Rouff

Love-that is all.

I recently had the opportunity to work with CJ Katz who was on a media tour promoting her award winning cookbook Taste -Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table.  CJ is a food writer, photographer and culinary judge but best of all she is a prairie-girl, residing in Regina.  If you still need items to put on your Christmas list or to purchase for other foodie loved-ones, this cookbook is exquisite.  As the back cover states: “a feast for the eyes and food for the soul”.  Throughout the recipes themselves, CJ weaves the story of the seasons of the priaires, the land itself and the local growers and producers.  All the mouth-watering photography is her own!

D loves Christmas and turkey is one of the primary reasons why.  He enjoys Christmas dinner (duh) but LOVES turkey left overs. 

While he was still roasting turkeys for a recent dinner, I came home to this gorgeous pot of turkey soup and basil dumplings, bubbly on the stove.

I, on the other hand, would just as soon get the left overs all used up and move towards some lighter fare.  Here is a recipe that will satisfy us both.  It would be perfect for a Boxing Day Brunch but is so festive, it could be featured on any holiday table.

I apologise that I do not have any photos of this one.  Food styling is a hectic business and I was so focused on making the food look good, that I plum forgot!  Trust me, with the contrast and vibrant colours in this dish-it is gorgeous.

Kath’s quote: “Rational habits permit of discarding nothing left over, and the use to which leftovers (and their economic allies, the wild things of nature) are put is often at the heart of a cooking’s character.”-Richard Olney

Love-that is all.

 

For our family the Christmas season is launched with a turkey dinner that for 15 years D has planned and catered for 70-80 staff and volunteers of a charity that we support.  There have been various configurations of people who have worked on our team to spoil the guests and thank them for their faithful work.  When D worked at Winnipeg Harvest there were volunteers from Germany and our good friends from Sicily are often in Canada and available to help us out.  But last night was particulary special (for me at least), because it was our family: Sister #3, an Honourary Sister, my Beloved Bro-in-law and my handsome (and hard-working) nephew,  our Son, Daughter (in law) #3, Daughter #2 and The Frenchman.  We are a well-oiled machine thanks in part to our years of participating and D’s organizational skills but also because I think that our family just works well together.  We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we are there to enhance each other: Sister #3 is always D’s right hand in the kitchen, Daughter #2 typically starts the evening off by getting the dish pit organized, etc. etc.

Here was the menu:

Hot Spiced Cider and Cranberry Punch

Salad Noir with Balsamic Dressing and Dark Chocolate Shavings

Harvest Bakery Dinner Rolls

Roasted Turkey and Gravy

Quinoa, Wild & Basmatic Rice Stuffing

D’s Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Mashed Potatoes

Cumin & Coriander Fingerling Carrots

Sweet Potatoes with Honey & Cinamon

Spiced Ginger Cake with Salty Caramel Sauce

Coffee and Assorted Tea

The hit every single year are the sweet potatoes.  One attendee shared with us that they start talking about the taste of them in their office in August.  D found a gluten-free stuffing made with Quinoa which was appreciated.  We were concerned that the Salad Noir might be too unusual, but everyone loved it!

The rewards of the evening are many: for me, the admiration and appreciation lavished upon my husband is wonderful to see and I’ll admit it-I love the kitchen parade, when everyone pulls themselves away from the task at hand to recieve an ovation.  But the best part is when, to close the evening, tapers are distributed and lit and we are included in the singing of Silent Night.

So as of this morning our kitchen is back to normal and preparations for our own festivities can begin in earnest. 

Kath’s quote: “Bad hair day?  You’re a virgin, you’ve just given birth, and now three kings have shown up — find out the happy ending at a church near you.” -Unknown 

Love-that is all.

When I was in Constance Popp‘s store this weekend, she had assembled special gift baskets of Manitoba goodies for purchase as Christmas Gifts.  Making a commitment to buy local is not an offhand decision. If you are price conscious, you will have to change your mindset in order to get on board.  People often ask me in my profession as a Media Planner-is XYZ the “best deal”? Is it the “cheapest”?  My consistent response is that I recommend mediums that are the most cost “effective” and that the investment in representing your brand with a vehicle of quality is the best long term decision you can make.  So too, with Buying Manitoba.

I read with interest the supplement published for the Manitoba Food Producers and ripped out the participant list to load enter into my Blackberry so that I can refer to it when shopping.  Then I concluded that my local readers may have missed this weekend’s reference and may want it as well:

Bakery and Sweets

• Chocolatier Constance Popp
• Double D’s Cheesecake
• Gunn’s Bakery
• Jeanne’s Bakery
• Mordens’ of Winnipeg
• Piccola Cucina

 

Dairy:

• Bothwell Cheese
• Notre Dame Creamery
• Oak Islands Acres Goat Dairy
• Organic Meadow

Meat & Fish:

• Danny’s Whole Hog BBQ
• Del’s Specialty Meats
• Freshwater Fish
• Granny’s Poultry
• Mariner Neptune Fish & Seafood
• Pioneer Meat
• The Carvers Knife
• Winkler Meats
• Winnipeg Old Country Sausage

Produce:

• Northern Asparagus Farms
• Peak of the Market
• Precision Produce

 

Grocery:

• Bee Maid Honey
• Beeproject Apiaries
• Black Pearl Coffee
• Buckshots
• Canadian Gold Beverages
• Countrysides
• Delicious Kicks Salsa
• De Luca’s Specialty Foods
• DiSanto Foods
• Ferme Larielle Farm-Golden Flax
• GORP Clean Energy Bar
• Green Bean Coffee Imports
• John Boy Farms Apple Cider
• John Russell Honey
• La Cocina Foods
• Local Meats & Frozen Treats
• Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods
• Mountain Top Honey Farm
• Naosap Harvest-Organic Wild Rice
• Nature’s Farm
• Northern Meat Services
• Perfect Perogies
• Progressive Foods-Quick Cooking Barley
• Shoal Lake Wild Rice
• Solbery
• Superior Harvest Foods
• Wild Man Ricing
• Wendell Estate Honey
• YOMM Beverages

I have regularly purchased 27 brands from this list.  How did you fare?

Kath’s quote:  “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”-Thomas Jefferson

Love-that is all.

 

In my life, food and friendship are very intimately connected.  I love to celebrate my friendships with food but another characteristic is also true: my fascination with food has brought people into my life, whom I might not have encountered otherwise.  One such person is Constance Popp.  We met and have had occasion to reconnect through our mutual friendship with the Manitoba Canola Growers. 

I am absolutely fascinated by Constance’s story, the places she has travelled and the people she has met though her passion for chocolate.  She is a prolific story teller and I am not sure if it is my fascination with her craft or the samples of chocolate that she continually gifts me with, that continually draw me to her.

The first time that I spent time with Constance I tasted her newly invented Chocolate Birch Bar which was a luscious combination of white and milk chocolate that had been kissed with Manitoba birch syrup.  Some artisans pay lip service to utilizing the highest quality, local ingredients-Constance is the real deal, folks.  That same weekend when we made smores at a campfire, she added homemade marshmallows as her contribution.

More recently she brought along her luscious cream cheese frosted cupcakes to an event

and then just this week a little plate of macaroons, another cupcake and a spicy dark chocolate were set in front of me.  I have tasted macaroons at the world famous Laduree on the Champs Elysee in Paris and these raspberry and caramel confections were far, far superior!  In every single morsel I can taste the love and integrity that she puts into her art.

I have heard that her chocolate drink (Constance’s answer to hot chocolate) is worth the drive to her Portage Ave. (1853-at Ferry Rd.) shop and the little inauspicious cup did not disappoint.  Au contrare-with one sip, my eyes automatically closed so I could shut off the outside world and just concentrate on the taste on my tongue. 

The drink is not gussied up with whipped cream and syrups or shavings, as the elixir is exquisite on its own and any enhancement would be an insult to the pure and at the same time, exotic taste.   I placed the lid back on the cup and immediately drove home so that I could share the last sips with D.  Not surprizingly, Constance slipped a couple of little treats into a bag for me to also take home to him.

I would have pressed Constance for her secret but she didn’t require any coaxing.  She told another customer at the till, “if you like these (cocolate peanut butter cups) , shoot me an email and I will send you the recipe.”  My impression is that Constance so loves the world of chocolate that she wishes that as many people as possible can share in its pleasure.  Her chocolate drink recipe is one part almond milk to three parts regular milk combined with one part milk chocolate and three parts dark chocolate straight from her enrobing machne, for this drink could never be duplicated at home.  You would have to be a chocolatier, like my friend to make it.

Kath’s qute:“Carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested; that it does not cause the same harmful effects to feminine beauty which are blamed on coffee, but is on the contrary a remedy for them.”-Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin

Love-that is all.