I will be at the Good Food Festival this weekend with the whole Canadian Living Test Kitchen team where we will be demonstrating our “Tested Till Perfect” recipes and techniques on stage and interacting with our readers. Saturday afternoon I’ll be at the Canadian Living Stage making good use of my years of pastry training by showing the audience how to mask a cake and use a pastry bag. I will be giving away prizes but you need to come to the show to find out how to win! (more…)

I wanted wine recommendations for our Passover menus this month so I called up Anne Martin, our new wine writer, to ask her the dreaded question – know any good Kosher wines? Turns out, that’s not the loaded question it once was. Not only did she come up with three decent picks but it turns out Canada has three certified Kosher wineries Rodrigues in Newfoundland, Rush Creek in Ontario, Munro Meadery also in Ontario (who really make mead which is wine made from honey and is classified as a fruit wine. (more…)

This is a call to all foodies to look for your local M&M Meat Shop, buy a burger for $2.50 and help to fund research for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). This is a debilitating disease that greatly hinders the ability of the people who suffer from it to enjoy food of any kind. Every year M&M Meat Shop fire’s up the grill and cooks for a cure. Saturday, May 10th, 2008 celebrates its 20th Anniversary Charity BBQ Day at more than 465 store locations across Canada. Franchisees and volunteers will be flipping burgers and hot dogs and accepting donations to reach this year’s goal of raising $2 million for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). (more…)

Friday night was the first Brewers Plate event in Toronto celebrating local eating and local craft breweries. Arriving a bit late, we found ourselves celebrating more brewing then eating so in fairness I feel compelled to stick to the beer aspect of the event rather than the food. But not to worry - there is plenty to share on the beer front. Thank goodness I ran into Troy Burtch from Great Canadian Pubs and Beer who pointed me right away in the direction of the gems to be had on tap. (more…)

Thank you to all who contributed with great ideas for eating locally in Canada. I loved the personal stories and learning about great new options like the aerogarden and cold pressed canola oil. I hope everyone is taking notes about great places to shop, products to eat and for those more ambitious types - where to forage!

It was hard to pick a winner, too many great ideas - so we put our favourites in a hat and drew one out. And the lucky winner of two free tickets to tomorrow nights Brewers Plate event is (more…)

Have you seen this book? It has been circulating around the office and I have been waiting for it to land on my desk. The photography is gorgeous and mesmerizing (with the exception of the disturbing photo of Anthony Bourdin… talk about your naked chef!) and each photo illustrates the essence of the chef and his or her’s “last supper”. I especially liked Canadian son Martin Piccard’s euphemistic description of his last meal on earth where he “would be full of the adrenaline of his last happiness.” Although some hyper chef-y types went for the haute cuisine, for the most part - (more…)

I have been working on a cookie story for the Holiday Best special issue Canadian Living puts out for Christmas on international cookies. Quite often in Scandanavian countries ammonium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent in cookies. I was curious to know why this would be the leavening of choice instead of baking soda or powder. I found out a few interesting facts:
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Marcus Samuleson from Aquavit restaurant in New York had a cooking demo at DISH Cooking Studio last Thursday. He was showcasing Bluestar’s cooking ranges and cook-tops. His new venture Merkato55 just opened last month and features a pan African menu.

His menu featured african flavours - shrimp with piri piri sauce, Kofta Meatballs with Okra tomato sauce and ethiopian beef stir fry served on Injera bread. He brought these spice blends for his audience to appreciate - they look like the colours of Africa. (more…)

On Friday April 11th, Green Enterprise Toronto, Slow Food Toronto and Local Food Plus will host the first annual Brewers Plate Toronto at Berkeley Church - a gala dinner event that pairs locally made beers with gourmet dishes, all made from local ingredients. Brewers Plate intends to promote local independent brewers, chefs, food artisans and local growers.

The tickets for this event are worth $150.00 each. Proceed for this event benefit Green Enterprise Toronto (GET) a non-profit initiative founded in 2006 working to promote “a future in which diverse, self-reliant local living economies prosper in a sustainable manner to meet the needs of people, planet and profit”.

One lucky reader of the Foodie-file will win two tickets to Brewers Plate Toronto. After this long, harsh winter it might seem impossible to eat a gourmet meal that was prepared with local ingredients however the six participating restaurants and breweries intend to do just that. To win the two tickets (more…)

This is Easter Brunch Italian style at my family home. It involves lots of cheese, eggs and bread and more cheese eggs and bread! I think it is my favourite holiday food of all. This year we were missing a double crusted pizza that is filled with (you guessed it) eggs, fresh cheese and dried sausage or it is also sometimes filled with a swiss chard and anchovy filling. Everything on the table is home made except for the Easter bread that was purchased which was actually a Polish Paska, but even that tasted quite good - like some nice Polish grandma made it. (more…)