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.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Chef Jesse Friesen of 295 York is one of the rising stars on the Winnipeg culinary scene. He is oozing with talent but most importantly is humble, down-to-earth and the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. I have seen him in some very stressful food service situations and he is as cool as a cucumber.

I am personally up to my eye-balls in alligators right now but my friend Susie Parker owner of Sparker Strategy Group invited me to a Manitoba Chicken event and having had the pleasure of attending these in the past, I was absolutely going to find a way to attend. Upon entering The Food Studio I was warmly greeted by Manitoba Chicken Ambassadors Karen Armstrong and Wayne Hiltz. After Wayne and I chatted about the effect of the TPP on the Manitoba poultry industry whilst sipping on a lovely Popular Grove (the Penticton winery who provided all the wine pairings) unoaked Chardonnay, it was time for the parade of exquisite creations from Chef Jesse.

First up was this delectable boneless fried chicken thigh. Without exception the persons seated around our table automatically started remembering their Mom’s or Grandma’s fried chicken. It was that good. I was more than content with the buttermilk soak and southern crust but when I heard Chef Jesse mention that he had concocted the gravy from bacon and liver, well how could I possibly resist?

By way of switching gears, a smoked chicken and crab Chipotle Soup with an aged Syrah came along next.

Chef Jesse has picked up many food nuances from time spent in the Caribbean and his jerk wing salad was perfection in my mind. Feta, coconut and a honey-lime vinaigrette offset the jerk rub and made the dish sing with sparkling flavours. We sipped upon the tropical essences found in an unoaked Pinot Gris with this course.

For the fourth course, piquillo stuffing had been rolled up with a tender chicken breast and was nested in roasted squash rice with creamy dabs of pungent goat cheese.

The most ingenious dish was a dessert featuring…..chicken. Being a lover of the sweet and salty combination, the saffron cheesecake and candied chicken skin had me giggling with the notion that Chef Jesse had indeed pulled it off!

Just this weekend I had assisted Sister #3 as she catered a multi-course dinner and she spoke of the adrenaline rush that she gets when the final dish is presented for tasting. I can only imagine how a risk-taking chef like Jesse feels when he views the empty dessert dishes coming back to the kitchen.

I was so glad that I had cleared my evening to spend it in the delicious company of these good folks. I smiled and mumbled to myself as I strolled to the car “Winner, winner chicken dinner!”

Kath’s quote: “And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.” ― Sherman Alexie

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

At “Life is Good” our summer beach house, weekends are lovely and brimming with family. I love to make suppers from scratch and serve up some special treats of things that the kids might not have the time or the budget to make on their own. With the price of protein as high as it is right now, I love getting wind of a nutritious meal that stretches an item like shrimp into a full meal deal.

Recently, the team at Go Barley sent me this recipe for Barley, Mango and Sweet pepper Spring Rolls with Dipping Sauce including delectable Shrimp. Having cooked often from their award-winning cookbook, I knew that the recipe would be packed with flavour, healthy & simple ingredients and affordable barley!

I prepared the pearl barley earlier in the day, while I was taking care of the dishes from brunch. This way, we were able to spend the afternoon on the beach with the Wee One, arriving home just in time for me to swing into action.

I got everything prepped in order to start making the rolls and was able to coax our 2 year old grandbaby to snack on the red pepper and mango to hold her over until supper time. The rolls were fun to put together and I even had a volunteer of our son-in-law to help me out. We have to be particularly resourceful when we are up at the lake because there are a couple of country stores but not one with a full complement of items. Therefore, when I ran out of large rice papers and had to resort to smaller ones, the process got a little bit more time consuming.

When another contingent of family arrived just in time for supper, everything was ready to go for a casual dinner. We knew that there would be snacks around the bonfire later that evening, so we were all content with the lighter fare.

Kath’s quote: “The keynote to happiness within the four walls that make any home is plain, wholesome, well cooked food, attractively served.”-
Louis P. De Gouy

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

On the afternoon of day one of camp, we were off to CIGI (Canadian International Grains Institute) with a perfect view of the Canadian Human Rights Museum.

The host for our afternoon has traveled around the world with CIGI. Here’s what CIGI does:

CIGI’s technology facilities provide access to a large variety of processing equipment in one location. Combined with the knowledge and expertise of our staff, we have the capacity to meet the specific needs of customers seeking to investigate and optimize the use of Canadian field crops in their products.

We toured their milling and bio-product facilities in addition to pasta processing and noodles and Asian products. I learned something new that day-a noodle is cut and a pasta is extruded. I had never thought about the distinction before.

Of particular interest was the baking facility where CIGI’s pilot bakery can simulate practices used in large and small commercial bakeries throughout the world.

Pasta, noodles and bread are my absolute favourite foods (with the addition of my beloved potatoes of course).

At home in the same building is the CMBTC (Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre) which is a unique, one of a kind, non-profit organization created to add value to the Canadian malting barley industry. In addition to malting facilities, we visited both of the brewing facilities which are capable of brewing 11-300 litres of finished beer. The Friday afternoon was a warm one and our tour was drawing to a close, so beer sampling seemed like a very, very good idea!

The last stop for that day was an extended time at Jane’s restaurant at the Red River College Patterson Global Foods Institute; the details of which will have to wait for another day and another post.

Kath’s quote: “Most people hate the taste of beer – to begin with. It is, however, a prejudice that many people have been able to overcome.” -Winston Churchill

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.

Our first morning of “camp” began with a presentation about how public perception is fashioned and our role in maintaining our own perspective a.k.a “keeping an open mind”. I added the “heart” part because I believe that perception isn’t just about what our brains process but what our emotions tell us as well. Sometimes I get labelled as being “too emotional”, typically by a person who is (in my opinion), too “rational”. In this, and most aspects of my life, I believe that the extremes must meet in the middle to find a common ground. I strive to do this on a daily basis.

Case in point, I had preconceived notions about what I was going to see and learn about on an agricultural based biotechnical tour, which was the first stop of our day. I imagined robotic machines and rooms of whirring and spinning contraptions with few, if any, people involved in the process. I was surprised to be shown otherwise. Canola plants were lovingly being tended to by real people.

I love farmers and I am especially fond of the Canola farmers that I have met over the years. They are risk-taking, intelligent, educated, family-centric, land-protecting, animal-loving, community-giving persons who work hard, so very hard. In my mind, I am all for whatever can be done to make their jobs easier. They feed me, my family and the world.

We learned about the making of improved canola hybrids ( simply put: a hybrid is like the offspring of D and I). Scientifically stated: “A cross of specific parent plants using controlled pollination. The resulting seed will produce plants with very specific characteristics.” Just like our son is the perfect blend of my husband and my characteristics… “From the twinkle in the breeder’s eye (tee hee), it takes 7-10 years to develop and make a canola hybrid available to the farmers.” We’re talking disease resistance, water use efficiency, etc. and why this is so important on a Global scale was explained to us the next morning. The lady wearing the gorgeous turquoise gloves above is carrying off the “controlled pollination”. In other words-the Canola Connect group were voyeurs of plant sex!

Having worked up a hearty appetite, lunch was served in the adjacent dining room. Lovingly prepared and catered by Seasons Catering, the menu was an extensive offering of prairie treats:

The Wheatberry Salad featured was a delightful assembly of cranberries, pepitas and diced apples tossed in a blood orange vinaigrette utilizing Winkler Virgin Canola Oil.  Thick tomato slices of tomato were topped with boccocino cheese, ribbons of basil, balsamic vinegar and East Selkirk Virgin Canola Oil. A third oil -Grandview Canola was highlighted in the Chimichurri. We would learn more about theses artisan oils over the weekend.

Sablefish (also known as Back Cod) has a high fat content and is perfect for roasting. The dollop of pesto added to its moisture and flavour.

Dessert was a selection of verrines including Cholocate Panna Cotta with White Chocolate Mousse, Lime, Coconut & Mango and Raspberry & Lemon. All were silky and sublime. We campers were wonderfully nourished, rested and off on our next adventure.

Kath’s quote: “I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts.” –Graham Kerr

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.