We were delighted to host a potluck in conjunction with Sobey’s Potluck Challenge.  When we invite this particular group of friends over, I am not sure who is the most excited: the parents because they get a breather from their kids (we take the kids off their hands for the evening) or the kids who are anxious to see each other and head down to our play area in the family room.

But we always start the evening off with a family dinner.  The contributions to our “Tastes from Home” potluck were homemade chicken noodle soup, green bean casserole (a classic modified to be made without cream of mushroom soup) to accompany the macaroni and cheese that I had prepared,

a make-it-yourself spinach salad and watermelon and brownies for dessert.  The hit in the dining room where D, myself and Sister #3 were supervising the little ones was the chicken noodle soup.  The noodles were lovely and fine and the broth had a hint of what we guessed was fennel in it.  We couldn’t confirm because the home cook that contributed it had to attend another event, but she sent a stock pot full of soup over with her husband and girls. We grown ups in the room loved the green beans and the spinach salad.

My contribution of Mac and Cheese was modified from an old family favourite.  We have been preparing Best of Bridge’s Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese for years.  But recently, we had been saving the dish for special occasions because it was anything but low fat and low calorie.  I performed a test run of the recipe for Daughter #2’s birthday dinner.  When the original recipe and my version were tasted side by side, no one could tell the difference.

The moist, dense brownies for dessert were perfection.  One bite could truly satisfy a chocolate yearning.

Now, who wouldn’t want to cook for these adorable kids? They are well mannered, taste everything and have sophisticated palettes for children their age. This is, I am quite sure, because of the example and encouragement of their parents.  All the parents in our circle, simply place wholesome, home prepared foods in front of their families and let the kids take it from there. Soon there will be another little guy around the table, as they have a brand new baby brother!

In the foreground are three sisters.  They all help their parents in the kitchen and one of their favourite pastimes is flipping through pages of cookbooks.  I kid you not.  When we were invited there for dinner recently, all three of them were on the floor by the cookbook shelf in the kitchen, oohing and awing over various recipe photos, sharing them with each other and then requesting of their Mom that they make the most popular items.

The Wee One (our Granddaughter) is also a part of this group.  This weekend she tried grilled eggplant for the first time!

After our successful potluck, the kids donned t-shirts which served as painting smocks and made painted terra-cotta pots for their Moms for Mother’s Day.  These children are truly blessed with amazing Moms who know that time invested in the nurturing of these little ones is their most important work.

So as far as a Food Revolution is concerned, the need is not great amongst our particular circle.  But please do not misunderstand me; we know that we are a privileged group.  We have the luxury of time and can afford a variety of wholesome ingredients to prepare for our families.  Such is not the case the world over and indeed not even throughout our own neighbourhoods and communities.  We try not to take our blessings for granted and know that our responsibility is to share our knowledge with other families by example, with hospitality and with contributions of money and time to organizations that help feed families nutritious food.

I applaud Jamie Oliver and his efforts through Food Revolution Day-a global day of action celebrating the importance of cooking good food and inspiring in children a love of healthy food that will last a lifetime.  Sobeys wanted all Canadians to get involved and show off their cooking skills and that is why they created the national potluck challenge.  I encourage you to host your own potluck but also to tweet and/or post to Instagram about your potluck event with the #PotluckChallenge hashtag.  Sobeys will be donating $1 to the Cooking Towards Independence Project-a joint initiative between Sobeys and the Children’s Aid Foundation that will set up cooking workshops with children across Canada.

Kath’s quote: “As soon as I was old enough to peer over the worktops, I remember being fascinated by what went on in the kitchen. It just
seemed such a cool place, everyone working together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh doing it.”-Jamie Oliver

Love-that is all.

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.

D and I are empty nesters for a couple of weeks while Daughter #2 is in Nicaragua on a study trip with the Canada Food Grains Bank.  She is not much of a meat eater.  So, when we don’t have to take her preferences into consideration, we have meat, primarily beef at most evening meals.  Our favourite treat to have with a steak is a fleshy/steamy baked potato with the “works”, as we learned to write it on our orders, when we both worked at The Keg Restaurant.  The “works” means both butter and sour cream and chopped green onions and real pieces of bacon.  Mushrooms are another favourite to have with a steak.  I saute slices in a hot skillet with butter and garlic.

This week though, I changed things up a bit and seared a couple of thin New York steaks and then sliced them up to have over a salad of mixed micro greens with a fig and balsamic dressing.  I found that corn on the cob is now in at Sobey’s so I steamed up a couple of cobs and placed a loaf of bread into the oven to bake.  I typically make my own dough in a break-maker, but I recently found frozen bread dough (also at Sobey’s) that I used to buy, before I received my bread machine.  It is the easiest thing in the world to place a frozen loaf under a tea towel on a prepared pan and throw it into the oven at the last minute.  And what a treat-bread so hot that the butter just disappeared into its pores!

The steaks this week were the excuse I needed to try Earl’s Signature Steak Wet Rub that I received as a gift when I could not attend the preview of their spring menu event.  The rub is made with olive oil, soya, garlic, lemon juice, porcini mushrooms and cayenne pepper. To this, roughly chopped fresh basil, rosemary and parsley is added.  The wet rub tenderized our steaks and added such a depth of flavours.  I had never enjoyed the taste of lemon on beef before-brilliant.

Of course the only archived steak photo that I have, depicts it smothered in barbeque sauce….

D started his career behind the broiler bar at The Keg and prepares a perfect steak.  We are typically purists and only season a steak with Montreal Steak Spice which we enjoy on a variety of foods as well.  I think that the exact ingredients are a closely guarded secret but our best guess is that it contains (in addition to coarse salt and pepper and dehydrated onion and garlic), paprika, crushed red pepper, caraway, dill and coriander seeds and perhaps some mustard.

With D’s flare (no pun intended) for steaks, he often pulls out all the stops for celebrations like birthday dinners.  I recall one year when he offered up two choices of “toppers”.  One was sauteed garlic shrimp and Bearnaise sauce and the other was a balsamic tomato salsa and goat cheese.  Both were divine and it was impossible to choose between the two, so most of us had a nibble of each.

It has been a very long winter on the Canadian prairies but spring has finally arrived.  D has his special tongs polished up and the barbeque has been moved into position.  Let the grilling season begin!

Kath’s quote: “It is a very beautiful day. The woman looks around and thinks: ‘there cannot ever have been a spring more beautiful than this. I did not know until now that clouds could be like this. I did not know that the sky is the sea and that clouds are the souls of happy ships, sunk long ago. I did not know that the wind could be tender, like hands as they caress – what did I know – until now?” – Unica Zürn

Love-that is all.

I love to entertain, but there are occaisions when time is at a premium and I want to look like I went to all kinds of trouble, even when I didn’t.  On this particular evening, I had invited three young families over so that they could enjoy some quiet adult only time, before the busy Christmas season.  D and I took the little ones downstairs for chicken fingers and fries while watching animated seasonal specials on the big screen.  Shopping at Sobey’s for an event like this is an absolute pleasure.  From the moment that I got out of the car, without having to fish for a coin for a cart, I know that I have come to the right place.

I went right to the deli section and was out of there in 20 minutes including the check out,  where there were enough staff on that I was in a line with only one person in front of me and they were just finishing up.  I could stand and chat with the cashier, instead of heading to the end of the conveyor belt to bag my own groceries.  In addition, she was free to visit with me as there was another person in charge of bagging  up my  purchases.   And the best part was that even though I had brought my own groceries bags, there is no charge for Sobey’s bags so if I had forgotten, I  would not have had to run back through a busy parking lot to retrieve them from the car.

Previously, in the deli, the helpful staff made suggestions of taste combinations and allowed me to sample items that I was considering purchasing.

As a result, I bought all kinds of goodies that I had never purchased before including this savoury sausage encrusted in Parmesan cheese.  So  everybody wins: my guests, the store but especially me!

I had the choice of a number of raw mozzarella brands and styles and in the end, selected the discs which means that the assembly of the caprese salad was virtually instantaneous.

Feta is one of my favourite nibbles and Sobey’s offers a number of light varieties.  This way a bevvy of olives can be indulged upon.  So too, they carry a light artichoke and asiago dip which I served up with veggie sticks and a gorgeous variety of crackers.

Bothwell cheese is a local brand that our family is crazy about.  My personal fav is  black truffle which is so deep and rich tasting that I simply put it out in little, pea size bites.  I also made a baked brie topped with apples, cranberries, pecans and lots of brown sugar and butter and then wrapped in phyllo.  That was the most timing consuming dish to make it took all of 4 minutes.

I know that the adults enjoyed themselves but not more so than D and I who were got to snuggle up with three adorable little guys and kick off the Christmas season.

Kath’s quote: “The art of keeping a good table, consists, not in loading on a variety at each meal, but rather in securing a successive variety, a table neatly and tastefully set, and everything that is on it, cooked in the best manner.” –Catharine E. Beecher

Love-that is all.