Research released recently by Sobey’s Inc. includes data that is contrary to our own family’s experience. The study reveals that there is a generation gap when it comes to food knowledge and confidence in cooking (only 31% of 18-29 year olds feel confident in the kitchen).  The survey also revealed that Canadians are consuming too much processed food as opposed to made from scratch food.  This I know is true, even though I make it my mission to not be so with my family.

The findings do not match up with our family or our immediate circle of friends and I was wondering why this is the case.  I have discovered two primary reasons also through Sobey’s research: 1) “When cooking skills are passed down from generation to generation, there’s more enjoyment and collaboration in the kitchen.” In my parents’ house, I recall from as far back as I can remember, being included in the joy of cooking for our large family.  It started with pretty simple tasks: how to peel a potato and shuck corn, to pinching down the edges of a perogy and cutting out the form of a biscuit with the edge of a glass and finally how to make my Mom’s cinnamon buns and blueberry pies and how to perfectly grill a medium rare steak.

2) “Canadians who cooked with their parents (57%) are much more likely to love coking as adults and are more likely to involve others in their own cooking, fuelling a virtuous circle.”  So too from a young age, the kitchen has always been the centre of our home.  First toys were Tupperware, measuring cups and spoons and pots and pans.  Water play at the kitchen sink was much loved as well as playing with a piece of leftover pizza or cookie dough.  Our families’ favourite meals have always been: make-your-own salad, make-your own-sub and make-your-own pizza.  Now that our children are adults, together with their spouses and significant others, we can see the fruits of this atmosphere.  We get invited to their homes for dinners; everyone takes turns making meals at our family cottage and they contribute courses for special celebrations like our birthdays. Heck, in our house, we’ve even had family cook-off competitions.

But we know that we are not typical and that is why Jamie Oliver (a fav in our house)  created a global day of food action called Food Revolution Day to inspire persons the world over to stand up for “real” food.  In recognition of FRD, Sobey’s has launched Canada’s Biggest Potluck Party challenging Canadians to host a potluck leading up to FRD on May 16.

If you want to register your own potluck event, invite friends and plan your potluck luck items, go to http://betterfoodforall.com. You can also access Jamie Oliver & Sobeys recipes, as well as tips and tricks for hosting the perfect potluck party at http://betterfoodforall.com/potluck-inspiration/. You’ll find tons of information there!

Our potluck is scheduled for tonight when we host our monthly Young Families’ Group-a time for parents to socialize with other parents, while I, D and Sister #3 take their kids off of their hands for an evening.  We always start with a family supper-kids in the dining room with us and parents in the living room, eating off their laps.  Our potluck theme is ” Tastes from Home” and we plan on sharing family favourites.

Kath’s quote: “The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet.” -Judith Martin

Love-that is all.

This post topic was suggested to me by a friend of mine who is a busy Mom and juggles many responsibilities.  Here’s her Facebook message to me: “Blog idea for you- fast food that is not from a drive through. I had an amazing (not hot) fresh mushroom pizza from Piazza de Nardi today
as I was rushing around, so much better than a greasy burger in the car and cheap at $2.49! I just ran in and grabbed it so it was just as
quick as a drive through, besides I was waiting for a train!!!”  This got me thinking about how we can still make nutritious choices, even when we are in a hurry.

Daughter #3 for example loves subs and artisan sandwiches that she picks up at the Safeway deli.  I have also tasted these and they are so much better than Subway’s.  I had not noticed, until I gave up salt recently, how salty tasting Subway is.  My husband picked up a six inch tuna sandwich for me last week and I could hardly eat it for the salt.

Recently a Papa Murphy’s opened in our neighbourhood and D encouraged me to stop in on their opening weekend to save the hassle of cooking when we were on our way up to our beach house for the weekend.  All that is required is a pre-heated oven, remove the plastic wrap and presto, you have made supper!  We chose a large Gourmet Chicken Garlic which was created when a creamy garlic sauce (I would deem that it was close to alfredo) was smeared on their original crust (although the “delite” crust looks very appealing too).  This was covered with roasted chicken pieces, tomatoes, green onions, parmesan and herbs.  It came on its own special pan which ensured a crunchy crust when it was pulled out of the oven.  Best of all, it was ready in ten minutes! Did I mention that it was absolutely delicious-as good as I make, and that is pretty darned good?  Later that evening, D got out a piece as we were watching a movie and declared that it was even tastier cold.  I could not imagine this, so I had to try a piece myself and sure enough….what a great snack.  I thought that they were such a good deal that I purchased three single topping pies at $6 each to have around for our boarder, when we are not home for supper.  Even if he ate the entire pizza, I could never feed him for $6 AND since you bake them at home, there is no provincial sales tax-win, win, win.

This isn’t from The Calabria Market but The Marion Street Eatery

D and I recently met the folks who operate the Calabria Market on Scurffield Blvd.  When I mentioned that I would be teaching in the area this fall, they encouraged me to stop into their deli for an Italian sandwich made of Italian meats and cheese on a Panini.  I plan on doing so.  Although I also have yet to sample their pizza, I have heard their fans claim that it is the best pizza in Winnipeg.

Have you ever tasted a Vietnamese sub?  They are called Binh Mi.  At Saigon Jon’s Vietnamese Kitchen they are made with a fresh baked white or multigrain baguette, pickled daikon/carrot slaw, cucumbers, pickled red onion, fresh cilantro, and choice of jalapeno-kind of like a Vietnamese Vermicelli Bowl but with a bun instead of the noodles.  You will get a choice of Aiolis/Mayo: Thai Basil Aioli, Sriracha Mayo, Roasted Shallot Aioli or Cilantro Lime Mayo.  I think that you would know which I would chose.

Kath’s quote: “Prepared and fast foods have given us the time and freedom to see cooking as an art form – a form of creative expression.”-Jeff Smith

Love-that is all.

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. As we (participants) share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice.

Our twelfth and final task was of the project was to write about a farmer or producer that we knew of that practices “farming sustainably to honour the land and to grow or produce food that may be of a heritage lineage or particularly representative of the terroir of your area”.

My memory immediately went back to the morning that I met Carman and Donna Jackson at High Bluff Stock Farm.

This was my first visit to the area surrounding Inglis, MB.  The setting is rolling and lush.  We passed the scenic Assiniboine River Valley and the Shell River Valley which join at the Shellmouth Dam to form the Lake of the Prairies, en route to the farm that morning.

Carman, Donna and all five of the Jackson daughters are tall, lean, healthy and glowing (but also stylish and well-coiffed)-they are a testament to country living.  When I caught up to them recently, they were on the road for spring break.  Tomina the youngest of the sisters and Donna picked Erin up in Saskatoon where she obtained her Honours Degree with a major in Political Science. Together they toured Lakeland College’s farm and Ag department at Vermilion where Autumn secured her Diploma in Agribusiness. The latter and Fawn, who has her Masters degree from Oklahoma State in International Agriculture, would be met up with in Calgary.  They intended to skype Haylan (a graduate from Dalhousie University in Halifax) and have a wonderful couple of girl days!

When I first met Carman, Donna and Tomina they loved to share the experience of living and working on their diverse, mixed farm.  They share grain farming responsibilities with Donna’s parents and her brother and much of their crop is considered seed grain.  You can discern in a moment that they are well educated and on top of their business and the commitment that the family has made to making the most intelligent decisions for their animals and the environment.  They have created a low stress atmosphere for their prized cattle who are provided the best in nutritious feed, shelter and veterinarian care.

Their beautiful, white coated Charolais herd are obviously well loved and not shy around humans. One of them really wanted to get into a family photo.

Their passion for their animals and the land is so apparent in every thing they believe, say and do.  I am so glad to know them, as they created a 360 impression of a cattle farm family for me.  Thank you Carman and Donna. They are proud cattle ranchers, proud Manitobans and proud Canadians and their commitment to their style of farming and ranching makes me proud too.

Does anyone know why I instantaneously fell in love with their horse?

Kath’s quote: “Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth.”-Li Zhaoxing

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. As we (participants) share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice.

I unfortunately missed out with posting our ninth task of the project which was to write about “a Canadian love affair” with a recipe, food product, wild food, chef, etc. but I have been given permission to get caught up on the assignment now, so here goes.

My Canadian love affair ticks off a number of the criteria – the product is wild rice, specifically the Floating Leaf Brand.  I even love the brand name as I have a pond in my back yard where I grow floating cabbage and hibiscus.  The pond has a little fountain which means that we always have the sound of trickling water in our yard which is especially nice when sitting out back with a glass of wine in the evening.  The floating leaves swim around on the surface of the pond and when they bump into each other they grow babies that are attached by tendrils to their parents.  Once they are large enough, I snip the families apart and by the end of the summer the entire face of the pond is covered with floating leaves.

There are two myths which float around wild rice. Firstly, the plant is not even in the rice family but a grass and secondly, is that most of the aquatic seeds are cultivated and not wild at all.  But in Canada we are blessed with truly wild, wild rice which grows in our clear, freshwater lakes and rivers at my latitude and further to the north.

Three generations of the Ratuski family of Floating Leaf have the experience to harvest the seed at precisely the optimum moment.  There is very little “processing” that occurs thereafter: the seed is simply cleaned and roasted.  There are some instances when the colour of the seed is almost black which creates unusual colour contrasts to a finished plate.

The primary reason why I love wild rice is that although the nutty taste is decadent, it is low in both calories and fat.  In fact, lower in both categories than quinoa which is the golden child of fat and calorie watchers right now.  Wild rice is a complete protein containing all essential amino acids, B vitamins: niacin, riboflavin, thiamine as well as potassium and phosphorous.  This makes wild rice nutritional superior to brown rice and many whole grains.

Our family has many favourite wild rice dishes: cream of mushroom & wild rice soup, broccoli & wild rice and quinoa & rice patties. The Floating Leaf brand has a number of rice blends including basmati, brown and quinoa and we love them all.  We have even sampled their artisan linguine made from wild rice flour, other flours and organic free run eggs. The pasta is thinly rolled out and dried at room temperature and retains the nutty taste of the rice itself.  It holds its own against heavy sauces like our favourite-Italian sausage, grilled zucchini and red peppers.  In summers, we take packets of Floating Leaf’s wild rice pancake mix with us for weekend breakfasts on the deck at the lake.  The mix even includes ground flax which I try to consume once a day to help stabilize my blood pressure.

How often do you find an unprocessed food that adds colour & textural variety to the plate, tastes unusual & distinctive, is low in both fat & calories, is packed with additional nutrition and is truly a local Canadian prairie food?  Floating Leaf Wild Rice-has it all!

Kath’s quote: “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” –La Rochefoucauld

Love-that is all.

I was given a very thoughtful gift this Christmas.  It was a basket of Manitoba food products.  The one that I was most excited about was the organic wild rice from Horseshoe Lake.  The lake is located in an isolated area in central Eastern Manitoba in the pre-Cambrian shield.  We used to holiday at Nutimik Lake in the Whiteshell, so the rugged rocky landscape and the pristine lakes are familiar to me.  I learned that the company has been a family run business for over 50 years and that owner Gus Carlson built one of the very first Manitoba wild rice processing plants.

Wild rice is low in calories and fat, and high in protein and natural fibre.  It also contains a wide variety of minerals and vitamins such as riboflavin and niacin.  I decided to punch up the protein even more by adding quinoa to the recipe and was very happy with the results.  The texture of the rice and therefore the cake is firm and chewy and the rice retains a nutty quality.  When mixed with celery, green onions and minced ginger the result is a complex combination of flavours.  If you think that the ginger might be too much of a surprise, try switching in out with lots of chopped garlic.

Kath’s quote: “rice is the best, the most nutritive and unquestionably the most widespread staple in the world.” –Escoffier

Love-that is all.