I am not certain how long the Garwood Grill has been on Pembina Hwy. but our Mom says that she and my Dad used to enjoy going there.  My Mom has lived in her home in EK for 55 years and so it is likely that this was when she and my Dad lived on Chevier Blvd. in the 50’s.  Could this be so?

I know that I have been enjoying their “home-cooked” recipes for 25 years.  Particularly memorable are the Burgers and Denver sandwiches and their Clubhouse can hold their own against the Wagon Wheel and Rae and Jerry’s.  I have even indulged in the past on their Classic Pork chop Dinner.  All carefully prepared using from scratch ingredients.

Lately though Sunday breakfast is what draws Sister #3, an honourary Sister and me (when I am free from family responsibilities).  Eggs over easy arrive perfectly cooked, the Canadian back bacon is thickly sliced and the hash browns arrive “crispy” as ordered.  Coffee is frequently refilled and service is more than pleasant.  The Garwood is a real “old school” jewel in Fort Garry. 

Kath’s quote:  “He smiled rather too much. He smiled at breakfast, you know.” -Charles Wheeler

Love endures.

These days the world is a connected and smaller place and we are all very culinary sophisticated.  So I was unprepared for the answer when we recently asked Daughter #2’s BF if he liked Dim Sum.  Of course it became my mission to right the wrong of someone having never tasted one of our favourite foods.

In our younger years in the restaurant days, we had a friend from China named Tommy.  He was a famous eater due to volume and the hot sauce poured onto everything including scrambled eggs.  He turned us on to many Asian culinary delights including Dim Sum.  But it took us along time to get the hang of the art.  Once when daughter #1 was just a baby I took her to the ladies room to change her Nappie (sounds better than diaper in a food blog) and when I got back, our table was covered with food!  D said yes to every item that came by on the cart.  Instead of savouring the morsels and then anticipating the arrival of the next one, we were out the door in 10 minutes, stuffed to the gills.

When my office was next to Chinatown, Dim Sum Garden was a weekly treat and we turned many people onto Dim Sum there.  We had an “A” list of our favourite items that we recommended for their introduction: no to the desserts and NO to the chicken feet.

The first taste….

And so it was with great delight that we took the BF to Dim Sum Garden (our family’s personal favourite).  We like their version of sticky rice and find their prices most reasonable.

Inside a packet of sticky rice

Kath’s quote:  “If you never try a new thing, how can you tell what it’s like? It’s men such as you that hamper the world’s progress. Think of the man who first tried German sausage!”-Jerome K. Jerome

Love endures

We gathered recently for a good old fashioned working bee.  Daughter (in law) #3 had made too much perogy filling for another get together that she had hosted and invited a gang over to use it up.

We set up different work stations: one to stir the dough for the outside, another to cut the dough, a multi-person station to fill the wrapper and another to package the finish product. 

Not what ours looked like

Son #1’s first ever home-made perogy!

Now here’s where we went amiss. I had a whole stack of won-ton wrappers at home in my freezer and I brought them along to speed the project along.  Had we also set up a boiling station, I think the end result would have been more successful because my perogy portion got overly soft and a bit gummy before I could serve them as a meal.  Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

We even got out our Baba aprons.

What a lovely way to pass an evening.  Son #1, Daughter #1, Goddaughter #2, Sister #3, Daughter (in law) #3 as I had mentioned and me.   There was pizza, wine,  good conversation and great laughs and we all went home with a packet of our accomplishment.  I’m thinking they knew what they were doing in the “olden days”.

My Mom is the Peroqy Queen-ask anyone who has ever tasted her’s.  Now I am pretty sure that everyone thinks that their Mom holds this title.  If so, send me your Mom’s recipe and I’ll test against my Mom’s:

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 t salt

3/4 c warm water

2 T oil

1 well beaten egg

After mixing, let the dough to rest in the fridge or an hour or so before rolling out.  I have also used a pasta roller for this process with great success. 

Kath’s quote:  “Food is a subject of conversation more spiritually refreshing even than the weather, for the number of possible remarks about the weather is limited, whereas of food you can talk on and on and on.”-A.A. Milne

Love endures.

When I worked in Osborne Village, the Spicy Noodle House was a particular favourite of mine.  I would almost always decide upon a soup but if I was there with someone willing to share and my office gang almost always was, we’d share soup and another of their many stellar dishes-Shrimp Foo Young, Fried Vermicelli and Egg Plant with Black Bean Sauce stick in my memory even now.

On this day I was meeting a friend and colleague for “just soup” before a business presentation.  Their Spicy Peanut Noodle Soup is a classic.  It is a perfect blend of my fav firey spices-cumin, cayenne and red chili powder but you can still taste the heartiness of the broth.  If you want to be crazy decadent -order it with the Deep Fried Pork Chop.  The tender yet crispy strips are tasty on their own but even better floating in the soup. 

Now it would come as no surprize that I am an enthusiastic eater.  I can be dainty enough with the spoonfuls of broth but the noodles posed a real dilemma.  I suppose I could have requested a knife and cut the noodles into spoon size but where would be the challenge in that?  So I persevered and did my best to get the firm and delectable noodles to my mouth- but alas.  Two splatters of spicy broth landed on my white suit jacket.  I had hope that the people we were presentating to were food appreciators as well.

Kath’s quote: “Good manners: The noise you don’t make when you’re eating soup.”-Bennett Cerf

Love endures.

In the last hand full of years we (the Sisters) have lost two amazing friends to breast cancer.  They were younger than me and in their passing I got two whacks on the side of the head to be more careful with this precious gift of life.  Yesterday we received more bad news and this has effected me in a new way.  The passing was of a young Mom and I am profoundly conscious of the loss.

I have always known what foods I should avoid but am appreciating again what foods I should include in my diet to maintain good health.  Perhaps if I was more focused on what I should be consuming and not finding ways to treat myself with what I should not be eating, the waist band on my jeans might be a little friendlier to me too.

So here’s my personal (but pretty public pledge):

1.  Include more fish espeically those species high in Omega 3

2.  Include more whole grain foods especially flax seed. 

3.  Choose brown over white rice and noodles. 

4.  Select low fat dairy options.

5.   Include nuts and beans in more recipes.  I hate beans (please send me your favourite bean recipes).

6.  Increase fruit and veggie servings to 9+ per day especially broccoli, sweet potatoes, berries, spinach…..you likely know the list.  The brighter the colour, the better is my general rule of thumb.

8.  Liberally use garlic and other fresh herbs.

Food like all other precious gifts in our lives is meant to nourish and sustain not clog and corrode and so we need to do our part and make smart choices.  This sound like a commercial?  Maybe, but it is sent in love.

Kath’s quote: “l’chaim (to life)”

Love endures.