I am starting a new monthly feature here at the Foodie-file called “Foodie Finds Friday”. The regional and local way of eating has really taken off and people across our giant nation know their own best food finds but if you are outside the geographical area you are out of the loop. I want to celebrate food from coast to coast so from now on Fridays will be the day to showcase a region, city, or foodie-event. Hopefully I will get a lot of participation and we can all learn about the best dishes, fruits, drinks or specialties from downtown Vancouver, BC to Elora, Ontario.

To launch the first friday: A GIVE AWAY! (more…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

On Thursday March 6th, as a kickoff to nutrition month, students from across Canada will take one big bite towards healthy living through healthy eating. The apple is used a launching point to teach kids about nutrition, local eating, global food systems while following the journey from the apple seed, to the harvest, to the market, to the core. The Great Big Crunch promotes a day of food education in the classroom and encourages the class to participate in a “The Crunch” with schools across Canada.

FoodShare has lots of ideas for ways to use apples to promote healthy snacking, to learning about growing our food supply to composting our food waste. (more…)

Terroir has become an important idea that is influencing food trends here and Canada and across the globe. The idea is that what we eat and drink is affected by the environment where it is produced. With more consumer demand for locally produced foods and drinks and the resurgence of artisan and small-scale local producers, Canada is perfectly poised to take advantage of the terroir ideals. (more…)

Friday night was the Women and Wine party at the Fifth in Toronto. Our wine writer Anne Martin participated on the panel of foodie and wine-os competing in a culinary and wine know-it-all contest. Local food celebrities Lucy Waverman, Trish Magwood and Donna Doher among others also participated. Here are shots from a successful night of fundraising for lupus.
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Wow! How fun reading your responses – thanks for everyone who wrote in and participated, especially those who aren’t even able to pick up tickets in TO! Ok – we had way too many responses to actually try out the hangover cures (and if we had we would probably need to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning at this point) therefore Colleen and I have based our winning cure on your creativity and our past libation experience.

Although all of you had excellent and creative comments, the tickets are going to (more…)