I ate, I drank and I sure as hell tweeted.

I had heard of Eat.Drink.Tweet last year by some local folks that are certainly more in the 'social media~know' than me. Fun was had by all last year and this year, I was determined to join in.

Allison Markin is the brain child behind this succesful networking event and she runs a nifty little company in Penticton called All She Wrote Consulting. Basically, Allison has been making all kinds of sparks in the field of marketing, event management, coordinating seminars and speaking at conferences. With an organized approach, a great team to help her out and a state-of-the-art conference buiding (The Jim Pattison OUC Centre of Excellence building), this event was sure to be a hit. 

Did I forget to mention the beer and wine? Not only was this a mother board-overload of social media information (I have never seen so many iphones in one room), but they gave us booze... at lunch time! :D 

With wine tasting Friday night, care of the Naramata Bench Winery Association we were wined, dined and dazzled... and it was still only Friday. 

I was thrilled to have met all the great folks that attended this event and to the speakers, thanks for doing all the hard stuff and passin' on the goods to us. 

Cannery Brewery in Penticton was kind enough to keep our taste buds buzzing with their generous samples of micro-brewed goodness. 

This view finder helped me find my way to Red Rooster Winery where I was treated to an exquisite Malbec that shall remain in my heart forever.

Rainy Day Smoothie

Its wet out this fine Friday!

Tomorrow is Sunshine Festival here in Vernon and I'm hoping that Mommy Nature decides to let the sun shine rather than continue her, rather dreary, onslaught of wetness!

However, my green garden is very green with lotsa greens and green things coming~which makes for great green smoothies!

Todays Treat:

Fresh strawberries
kale
parsley
cucumbers 2 x mini guys is what I used fresh from the market
chia (about a tbsp)
juice or almond milk ( I guess soy milk if your into it)
banana (the blacker the better ha!)
ice cubes 4 or 5 of em


Juice the first 4 things, then add it all into your blender apparatus~!
Done!

Yum!

Enjoy!

Reduce? What? You mean my money can work for me?

Reduce Reuse Recycle

We have heard this all before many times... But I realized that I learned habits for each of these principles Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in different stages of my life. I believe now, I am in the journey of refining these principles.

When I was a teen I really was about the recycle stuff. I worked hard to try and teach myself and others (mostly my family!) that they needed to recycle. I was passionate about it and I was beginning to see how much I loved to see our waste be somewhat controlled.

When I became a mother, I realized the value of those bits of recycling for amusing my ever curious, quite crafty kid! Whether it was for holding buttons or rocks, or painting pallets, beads and the like, the giant recycling bag had the purposeful item needed for any project! It also made for great bath toys, bug traps and other child like, worldly treasures.

It seems as I ease my way into my dirty thirties, I have realized that the word 'reduce' is merely a word to me. Not so much a practice... Reduce what? How much crap I buy? Question all my purchases? Always? Wow! Is it worth it? Yes!

Responsibility always is worth it! I feel better and I know I'm part of the solution. I may not always be right with my choices, I make mistakes all the time. But I'm evolving and learning all the time. Refining is the key.

Some Reduce Ideas:

Glass milk jugs: buying milk in glass bottles means that you can get your milk and bring back the glass bottle. Or say if you don't bring the glass bottles back, they make excellent vases for your fresh summer flowers.

Egg Cartons can be brought back to many farmers market people that sell eggs. They like to receive their own cartons back often and they may give you a deposit back when you purchase from them.


Buy goods in jars and glass ware rather than tin. that can be washed and reused. Tin cans have a purpose and we all have been trained to buy them, but they contain BPA in the linings and usually have more preservatives in them like Edta and such. In glass that has been canned, the heating process eliminates any harmful bacteria.

I often shop for pretty bottles when buying vinegars and such, then when they are empty, I clean them and decorate them for gifts to give away scented oils or they make nice homemade salad dressing containers. I keep wine corks, or any corks really! I love corks! They make for great crafting! I had a friend that made a moveable puppet out of corks and eye hooks once. They also make nice stoppers for your collected pretty bottles!

I buy sandwich bags about once or maybe twice a year, then just wash em and re use them.

I buy cling wrap a few times a year, tinfoil too. I reuse as much as possible with stuff like that. I wash it and store it. I like parchment paper for baking and you can reuse that quite a few times. i can usually get a coupla' years out of a roll of that. Both cling wrap and tinfoil can be recycled.


Buy Bulk! Bulk buying is more work, but it is much cheaper and you have much less waste. When you buy cleaning products in spray bottles, when they empty, buy bulk cleaning agents to refill them with rather than always buying the small amounts. This way you buy much less often. the same can be said for dish soap and hand soap. Concentrated cleaning products are even better, because you use very little, then just add water. Trust me! There are some great concentrated, natural cleaning products out there (ie: Citra Solv)



Some Reuse purposes:

-Styrofoam trays from the grocery store (unless they have stored meat) can be reused as a paint plates, glue plates all the things moms and day cares need for doing kids crafts.

Egg Cartons can be brought back to the farmers that sell eggs. They like to receive their own cartons back often and they may give you a deposit back when you purchase from them. Make sure they are clean!

Or you can use them to start your seeds inside early spring for your garden. They make perfect little seedling nests.

Yogurt containers and the like are a tough one because you can end up with so many. But you can keep them and use them for tupperware when you go some where for dinner and want to bring food back home with you or to hold the leftover food you want to send home with others.

Another wonderful purpose for yogurt containers is to protect your baby plants in the garden when you first plant them this time of year. Just cut the bottom of the yogurt containers out and gently place over your new baby plants. Tomatoes, basil and peppers are the most happy when you do this.

Keep your silver lined coffee bags and give them to crafty folk that know how to make purses and like from them. I know in our community there are a few people that collect those bags to make new things from. My friend Katie in Vernon owns a little craft business called 'Kate's Crafts' and she makes beautiful clutch purses out of woven, recycled coffee bags. Love it!

Some Recycling Tips:

Recycling is totally an evolving art form. Every few years, new ways of recycling products arises and our waste once again can be controlled that much more.

The recycling guide for our community has lots of different references to make sure your recycling gets the right place.

www.okanaganreuses.com

This is a wonderfully comprehensive website that gives you insight into all kinds of things you can do to get rid of your junk and find things you may need!

The Recyclapedia option on this website is an awesome resource for finding out what you can and can't recycle.

For example I looked up styro foam on here to see what can be done, as it is not recyclable and rather terrible in our landfills. It says that packing peanuts and clean, reusable styro foam might be accepted by UPS and other packaging depots like that.

Freecycling Network
www.freecycle.org

Freecycling in Vernon is a google group that shares and asks for items that people may have or need.

You need to sort of ask to join this group and you can follow the prompts for our area on the freecycling.org website.

This group is monitored and there is no profit to be made at all. Most items are to be picked up in a timely manner so you need to be prepared to get it quick.

The only real rule is that before you ask for something, you give something first.

You wouldn't believe what I have seen given away on here. If you are looking for something in particular, this is a great network to try and find it at no cost.

Good luck all on your journey of the 3 R's! May we teach our children well to maintain these simple principles for proper waste reduction!

Eating Together! Food, Family and our Community.

So I gave a speech last night at a Chamber of Commerce Event in Vernon. It was only to a small group of folks, but I really took the time to analyze my thoughts about the topic I decided to talk about.
Thanks to my co-worker Nikki, it is much more readable, with my atrocious grammer fixed up!

Eating Together! Food, Families, and our Community


I am, first and foremost, a community participant, food advocate, Tweeting and Facebook HOUND. I have a regular little radio show on 107.5 Kiss FM every Sunday morning called ‘Food for Thought’ and I work with many other community-minded foodie folk across the Okanagan trying to bring awareness and change to how we prepare and eat food together.

In the past I have had the pleasure of working as a kitchen manager with Nature’s Fare Markets, a farm laborer with Friesen’s Country Thyme Gardens and Zelaney Farms and a food server in restaurants such as Hubert’s in Lumby and Paradise Camp on the back side of Silver Star Mountain Ski Resort. All these positions have given me a unique view into how food has shaped our community.

My current full time gig is working as the marketing coordinator for Rancho Vignola Nuts and Dried Fruit in Armstrong. I have had this remarkably satisfying job now for the past 2 years and am very thankful for the opportunities it has allowed me.

Rancho Vignola is a dried fruit and nut distribution company that selectively sources fresh nuts and premium dried fruit from growers and distributors in Canada and abroad. These products are only purchased and distributed during the current year of harvesting. This makes for products that are noticeably fresher and more shelf-stable than the ones available in the grocery store.

On average, eating a meal at home with our families is not an everyday practice. It is difficult, with meetings and our children’s extracurricular activities, to be able to sit down together and enjoy a meal. Approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of Canadian families seldom or irregularly eat together in any given week.

However, I don’t believe many families would choose this separation. We need to be shown how to prepare food together. We need to discuss how even the youngest of our family members can be a part of building a meal.
You share your day, you share your knowledge, and most importantly, you share your time by working together to prepare, eat and clean up after a meal.

Even if it only happens successfully once a week, or it happens at breakfast rather than dinner, having children and teens participating in the preparation of meals will most definitely encourage healthier habits once children grow and live on their own.

Our need to eat has not changed for us as a species, but certainly the choices of what we eat have. We feel much more pressure to eat for the sake of schedules rather than our actual hunger and convenience foods have certainly become a huge commodity market because of this trend.
Though eating is a basic necessity, cooking or preparing food is not! With the amount of instant food marketed to us today at bargain barrel, discount prices, we can easily choose to not prepare meals at all.

However, our health and the well-being of our children is at stake when making such choices. I have come to the realization that teaching parents to prepare meals is one thing, but our resources may be better spent teaching our children. Encouraging discussions about where our food comes from and how it is grown in schools is going to prepare our children strongly for the pressures of eating healthy as adults. Math, science and social skills, interaction, sharing, and basic manners are all a part of preparing and eating food together.

Community participation and the growth of community around the topic of food can help to facilitate this knowledge in children. Whether it’s having neighborhood potlucks, sharing your favorite home-baked goods at bake sales, or sharing recipes with friends and family, these actions show our children the power that food has for bringing people together.

Rancho Vignola encourages alternative buying or bulk buying opportunities once or maybe a few times a year. This means getting friends and family together to coordinate an order large enough that those involved have stocked pantries! Many folks that buy from us, share stories about how they have potlucks and events to bring people together for putting in their yearly fall order. Generations of families purchase together from Rancho Vignola, building relationships with each other that many of us take for granted.

Purchasing products that can be stored for up to a year in our houses is not a new concept. But today in the age of instant satisfaction, purchasing our food for the day or the week is a more practiced alternative. Storing semi-perishable food in cold storage, refrigerators, or freezers encourages people to have on hand nutritious ingredients year round.

Operating on the principle that ‘food is community’ is part of what has made Rancho Vignola successful. From the families who grow the food to the families who sit together and share it, food creates a human bond.
Sharing food has been a powerful marketing tool for the company, and one that is universally needed and accepted.

The vibrancy that exists in our food culture here in the Okanagan is unique. We have a wonderful growing season here and many farmers and gardeners. We have successful and vivacious farmers markets that provide us with not only food, but culture, music, and art, encouraging our friends and neighbors to make an income off of providing us with goods we want and love.

We have community volunteers that work long and hard to provide us with community gardens, community kitchens, and ‘Good Food Box’ programs where we can share knowledge, develop ideas, and eat healthy food at little to no cost! Supporting these initiatives is the key to keeping them. Knowing about them... is a start!

In the United States and Great Britain, Jamie Oliver has pounded the pavement and bureaucratic brains trying to get people to see how what we feed ourselves and our families affects our ability to live healthy, balanced lifestyles. I feel he has done a fantastic job of making the general public aware of this problem. But it is up to us in our community to try to encourage change here.

The Slow Food movement, sustainability, 100 mile diet, food security... these are all words and statements that are hot on the lips of foodies today. All these statements are pointing towards bringing people together over the issue of food - talking about it, thinking about it, considering the pros and cons of your next meal!

Though this might not be exactly what some of you want to think about on a regular basis, thinking about it now and sharing your knowledge with your family, friends, and coworkers is going to encourage a better, healthier aging process with less illness, less depression, and more energy to truly live your passions. More energy to participate in this lively, bright community we call home.

Here are some really good links I wish to share:

www.projectchef.ca
Project CHEF: Cook Healthy Edible Food is an experiential, curriculum-based school program aimed at children in grades four and five that teaches students about healthy food: where it comes from, what it tastes like, how to prepare it and how to enjoy sharing it around a table.

www.soscuisine.com
A site to help families build personalized meal plans based loosely on what is in season in their region. It’s not a perfect match to region yet, but it’s close and the recipes are mostly easy and fast.

http://foodaction.ca
This website is really a ‘one stop shop’ for information about what is happening food-wise in our community. Here is where you find out about programs such as The Good Food Box, community gardens, and community kitchen initiatives. Gleaning projects are also posted regularly on this website. If you have a local company that sells food or you are a food producer, you can add your company to the ‘Local Food Directory/Map’

www.ranchovignola.com
@RanchoVignola also me tweeting for Rancho.
www.facebook.com/RanchoVignola is our Facebook page (Please ‘like’ us!)


@jaymemckillop is my Twitter handle.

http://www.1075kiss.com
Local First radio! Supports many great projects in our community and is a huge supporter of the farmers market.

Your Gone...

YOu left all of a sudden... it felt like.

You forgot to say goodbye... the last time I saw you, you had that sickness...
you know the one that takes your soul and chews it up like zombie breath.

Its too bad to see you gone. I didn't even know where you were...
thought you were home but I was wrong. I'd see you and people would talk,
say you were sad.

Gone. You left again. This time you had more problems and I know its gonna be hard to find you.

I wish you would come out of the zombie grip. You got more than that Man!
You are more than that. I used to cry when you sang.

you had the right passion my friend. Thats what counts. Ive figured it out. You helped piece the puzzle my friend. You

helped to introduce the right magic...

I won't forget though your forgotten. I want to remember and honor your hopes.

You woulda liked it that way I know it. Before when you were you. Its hard to fight through what you've done to yourself.

To know you. You tipped the scales and fell along. YoU rolled down hill.

If you came back I would help you.

I would promise to visit and say the right things.
You deserve it. You dreamed it. I remember.

You're Gone my friend. I would welcome you back.

At least I would try.

Soul

Soul

Passions misplaced.
Set down like dirty dishes stacked high.
Another day will come and go without use of creative juices to fuel the next step.

Years maybe? Feels like it. What so lit me alite before, has only sparked my interest occasionally by others who do it well.

Time. I say. More
As if cramming more hours down my throat would squelch something haunting.

Haunted. Not by fears or expectations, recognition or responsibility.
By sheer need. True possession. Absolute sincerity of self.

Justification.

Soul

Sometimes Inspiration comes in a simple shade of grey...

Im flawed



Im flawed and Im sure of it now. I don’t say it to make you feel sorry for me. I don’t say it to make you look for physical scars or secrets I have kept from you. If you knew me, you would know I wear my secrets like cheap costume jewellery bought second hand.



Im flawed. I don’ t need to say how. Maybe I don’t even know really. Maybe the face I look at in the mirror everyday is simply an image imagined thru the veil of social pressure. Maybe the ‘skinny’ mirror has finally swallowed me whole and left me thinking Im still beautiful.



Im flawed. I had my teeth fixed to try and fix it and Im grateful! For now I have a bright smile with friendly teeth. Straight or not they are mine to rub my tongue over, instruments to begin digestion of food made with love.



Im flawed. I have curves and get called matronly. I have been hurt by that before... robust, curvaceous, buxom, voluptuous... I prefer warm, soft and womanly, words that don’t describe whats my outside, but words that matter when encircled in the embrace of an opinion that matters.



Im flawed. I except that. Not for the sake of you or anyone else. I except that for the me that gets buried under my own hurtful words screaming myself into silence. I except that for the me that try’s too hard to hate what I must present, physically to the world. I except that for the people in my life I hold so dear, who’s physicality has absolutely no bearing on what I think of them.



Im flawed. Im passionate. Im hopeful. Im strong. Im healthy. Im happy. Im flawed.

Need a killer Veggie Pate?

This dip is wonderful as a vegetable dip, serve with crackers or even as a sandwich spread. Delicious!


Toasted Walnut Pate

You will need:

1 hand full of fresh oregano
60g of Feta cheese
1 lemon
4 cloves of garlic (less is fine if you don’t want it too garlicky)
1.5c toasted walnuts
(to toast, put in a dry frying pan over low heat until you can smell them toasting. They burn easily so toss them intermittently).
1 can of tomato paste
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
A hint of smoked paprika
Fresh pepper to taste.

In a food processor, toss in your garlic cloves and feta. Run until smooth. Add your toasted walnuts, then run the processor again. You will have a grainy paste after this. Take your fresh oregano and chop it slightly. Get rid of any stems or woody parts and throw it in with your can of tomato paste, apple cider vinegar,lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper. Run one last time in the processor until you have a smooth paste.

~Enjoy~

Secrets that comfort on cold winter days

I am totally giving away my secrets with this one... well not really! This is the comfort of comfort food with a couple twists. I have made this in many ways, but this week? This is my fave!


My way Mac ‘n’ Cheese w/ Sesame Seeds

You will need:

Some fresh Thyme (chopped fine)
Some fresh or dried Marjoram (use oregano if you don’t have marjoram)
Whole wheat/kamut/spelt macaroni (the white just don’t cut it in my house)
1.5 cups Monterey Jack cheese (grated)
1c milk
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tbsp of butter
1 small bunch of broccoli (stem and all)
1 chopped leek
1 lemon juiced
1/4c of sesame seeds
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.Boil water for pasta and add some salt to the water. Get out a sauce pan and place your butter in over medium heat. Soon as your butter melts, add your flour and cook the flour until all the butter is absorbed. Add you milk very slowly and heat through, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add half your cheese, stir in with your leeks, salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat. Chop up your broccoli into bite size chunks. Add your broccoli to your pasta water about 2 minutes before you strain your pasta. Just until it is nice and green. Don’t over cook your pasta because it still has a trip to the oven to make. Put your strained pasta and broccoli into your pot, pour your cheezy sauce over it all and toss until the sauce is covering every ounce of macaroni. Squeeze your lemon in there, chopped herbs, salt and pepper, then toss one last time. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and place the pot, with a lid, in the oven for 1/2 hour. Done!

~Enjoy~

**Tip** You can add any green, red, orange or blue veggie you want to this dish. If you don’t have sesame seeds? Go with sunflower seeds. Toast them a bit first to really bring out the flavor.

~Them naughty legumes.... ppp Peanuts~

I dunno about the rest of you... but I love Peanut butter!

I know I know peanuts are 'bad' and big, crappy false food companies use their 'no peanut' strategy to sell terrible, chemical laden food to honest folk! I am not of the mind to buy such things though... and if you have an allergy to peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, or anything related to nuts... DON'T EAT IN MY KITCHEN.

I'm very sorry! I sympathize deeply with those that are allergic to nuts or peanuts!

I couldn't imagine my life without nuts/peanuts in it.

I have a few problems though with the mistreatment of peanuts. First of all, they are not nuts! They are legumes! Banning peanuts from schools is understandable if there deathly allergic kids. I understand that. But all nuts???? Man oh man! In this day and age where people are eating less and less meat, we have to look at this issue in a different way.



Anyways, on that note... here's how to make peanut butter!!!

2 cups of roasted peanuts
1 x food processor.

(no a blender will not work for this).


Put your peanuts in the food processor and turn it on!

Let the food processor run until you have the most perfect, amazing, wonderful, fresh peanut butter.


If you like your peanut butter a bit salty? Add some sea salt to it. If you like your peanut butter sweet, add a drizzle of maple syrup or honey and run the food processor until smooth. If you like chunky peanut butter, add some pre chopped peanuts at the end of this process and stir them in.
Place in jars and repeat.

Tips: Don't make more than 2 cups at a time otherwise the peanut butter doesn't come out smooth before your motor on your food processor gets over heated. Trust me... been there!

You don't have to use peanuts, you can use pecans or macadamia nuts too. These nuts are as high or higher in oils than peanuts so they work great!

If you want to make almond butter, follow the same instructions but you will need to add a drizzle of almond oil (or grape seed) to smooth it out while the food processor is running. Almonds don't have as much oil as peanuts.

***Note*** I buy raw peanuts cuz I'm spoiled. I then roast my own on a low temperature for a while to make them uber delish'us. I find peanuts that are pre roasted are full of unnecessary oils. Just a hint for those that are interested!

Me and my monkey talkin' about kitchen Multi tasking!

Sunday's are more often than not completely dedicated to cooking/baking/cleaning/prepping/saucing/dishing/drying/canning and MUZAK!

My kitchen is often a flurry of activity from mid morning till bedtime. I love to cook... but who has the time? Its dedicated, hard work to feed ourselves somewhat nutritionally all week on a budget! An organized pantry, fridge, freezer and spice rack, are extremely important when trying to kitchen multi task. So I dunno how the heck I pull it off every week, cuz none of things apply to my kitchen. My fridge is a precarious Jenga game of sequentially aging food like substances. But hey, I rotate and over the years I have systematically adapted my creative chaos to work for me.

Preparing food for ourselves is such a journey of trial and error. I am sure most people who love to cook won't tell you they were born with it. But they can tell you who taught them and what they loved about those peoples cooking.

In our family, the kitchen is the hub. In my grandma's kitchen, you often had 3 generations of family members cooking, prepping and laughing together. Now that tradition has passed to my mothers kitchen.

One of my fondest, child hood memories are the times Mom was away and Dad cooked. My Dad made the best homemade pizza ever.. and chili! My Mom hates beans, so the only time in my childhood I ate them was when Mom was away and Dad made chili.

Pumpin' Pumpkin Pipin' HaWt

Family Friday Nite!

Gotta make recipes for the radio that are pumpkin'lish'ious.

The adventures of 2 sugar pie pumpkins...

Quarter 2 sugar pie pumpkins, spread with a drizzle of olive oil, touch of sea salt and place upside down with a dose of h2o.

Pop in the oven @ 4oo degrees or so, until the flesh is mushy. Peel off the skin, when cooled, and set aside in a mixing bowl.

Wash and de'muck'ify your seeds. Wash 'em good (don't fret over a bit of pumpkin muck, your gonna dehydrate them anyways).
Let the seeds drip dry in a colander for a bit.

Place the seeds in a bowl, coat with a bit of olive oil, some chili powder, smoked paprika and a touch of sea salt. Coat 'em good and place on either your dehydrator screen evenly, or on a cookie sheet with parchment on it. Spread really nice and evenly. Place the seeds in the dehydrator and run for 8 hours or so on 115 degrees or so. In the oven, 200 degrees for about an hour or 2 maybe? Check it often.


Sunday Nite Potluck!

Pumpkin Walnut Artichoke Orzo

I haven’t used orzo too much. I know it makes a tasty greek pasta salad. But I needed to use pumpkin in something... this worked. I saw something similiar with squash... Pumpkins squash right?

1/2 sugar pie pumpkin roasted and diced
1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic diced
1/2 cup of chickpeas
1 cup chopped kale
1 med. grated carrot
1/2 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup lightly toasted walnuts whole
1 cup feta cheese cubed
1 small jar of marinated artichokes, chopped (keep some of the oil)
1/4 red onion diced
A light sprinkle of chili powder
A squirt or two of white wine vinegar to taste
Fresh ground pepper & sea salt to taste


To cook your pasta, season the water (sea salt and olive oil) cook according to your personal pasta rules. Drain and set aside.

I pretty much chopped everything else up and lightly sauteed it with the vinegar, chili powder... while its hot, toss it in to your pasta, add the feta and walnuts...done. This way is hot... but its yummy cold too.

You can even add all your veggies raw to the hot pasta. Toss everything together, then once cooled, add your cheese.

More to come....Still got a whole pumpkin roasted that needs a life!

Not gonna lie? Might be pumpkin soup... Im thinkin' for the spice/curry fans... I feel something brewin' along that vein... Send ideas and Stay tuned!!

Pleasant plant pleasures Abroad?!... Well in Alberta*

This morning I had the pleasure of browsing the Downtown Edmonton Farmers Market. The last one of the season. Of course with this weekend bringing the promise of much anticipated stomach stretching, it was a busy, bustling hub of delicate masses of food.

But nothing stood out quite as much (to me!) as the abundance of beautiful vegetables. I love visiting other towns and cities during harvest season, because you see what grows where and why we grow what we do at home. The growing season this year in Alberta was a bit....wet! Alberta (or some parts of it) have experienced an drought for the past 3 years. Until this summer!! It rained and rained and rained... leaving many gardens muddy and cold.

Some of the veggies that do well here in this region, dislike our heat at home and actually thrived in the gardens here this summer.

I'm talking about Brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips and cauliflower. Ohhhhhhhhh how I love thee... I wanted to bring a swack of stuff home for my own feast of giving this weekend.. alas tho.. I don't think they woulda let me on the plane..would they??

The one thing that jumped out for me tho mainly was this bizarre type of cauliflower I saw called Romanesco Cauliflower! WOW it was a trippy swack of fractals piled up on one another... It seriously made me think that I have to grow this magic madness veggie!

Anyways, I stole a picture off the internet for you all to enjoy.

Thanks for reading! From the Edmonton Airport, I wish you all happy stuffing your faces this weekend.

Cruciferus Crunching cabbage n' kale

It seems today that I wanted cabbage very badly. I began my day by preparing cabbage salad that my friend Enaunda taught me how to make. It is wonderful and I crave it often.

Slice up some cabbage, kale and whatever other vegetable you think would fit and you toss it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you wanna get fancy, add some feta. It lasts a couple days in the fridge at least! Infact, it gets yummier with age! Don't we all?

I probably could easily say that I almost always have cabbage on hand. Kale is a very close second... I love spinach, but I have a hard time with the plastic tub of spinach from the GStore...it gets all slimy in there and its stinks! Soo I tend to mostly eat spinach when I can get it fresh! Thank gawd it has a long growing season!

Kale, on the other hand, lasts FOREVER in the fridge! It tastes like crunchy spinach and it goes in everything!

Today it made its home in: My cabbage salad, salad rolls and my cabbage roll babies... mmmmmmmmm ~cabbage rolls~

My mom gave me a whack of vine ripe, splotchy, bountiful red tomatoes that seriously tasted like heaven. Some were just over ripe enough to make sauce. They sat patiently on my counter for a couple days until, tonite... chopped and roasted with garlic, fresh oregano and dill. Then buzzed with that wand thing. Fittingly called a 'buzz buzz'! I promptly stir in some lemon zest and check if it needs salt or not.

Hey, wanna know the trick to get the cabbage for cabbage rolls all nice and limp? (*snicker*)

Pop it in the freezer! Don't tell my mom I told anyone that tho... its a secret.

When you pull the cabbage out to unthaw, pop it in the sink with some water. It thaws quickly.

I made the filling with 1 cup rice and 1 cup pearl barley, a whack of fresh corn off the cob, zukes and kale from my garden. Coupla spoonfuls of greek yogurt (sour cream, normal yogurt, nothin' if you wanna skip the dairy), some nut yeast (aka nutritional yeast), chili powder and smoked paprika. Salt and pepper to taste of course. If I ever leave that part out about salt and/or pepper, assume its in there, cuz it is... I just gap out and forget to say that..... fresh ground pepper and sea salt to be exact!

Take some of that sauce and cover the whole bottom of a casserole dish. Preferably something with a lid.

Take your limp (*snicker*) cabbage and stuff it full of the rice stuff. Roll it loosely and place them in your casserole dish.

When you have placed all your rolls, douse them in the rest of your sauce. I like saucey rolls....! Yum!

Pop in the oven 350 degrees covered for about 40 minutes. Then take the lid off and let them brown up a touch on the top.

Voila! Serve with a salad..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I am pretty sure that cabbage rolls are one of those genetic things that telepathically got passed on from generation to generation. Cuz I don't ever recall actually learning how to make them... I just know how! Maybe its cuz my grandma made em all the time and my mom and my aunty... that it has become almost innate in our family genes!

None the less these lil' rolls of happiness are the best post summer meal and they freeze exceptionally well.

The only thing missing, is some toasted sunflower seeds! I am outta them and it drives me crazy. I use them in so much and I don't realize how much, until they are all gone. Oh well... Rancho season has begun and soon enough I will have more.

Lotsa love in the Kitchen tonite.

The Harvest Pie of Shepards Lentil

Sundays are always a cooking day for me in some form or another. Whether it is about coordinating food for the week or if it means 'company's coming', I spend 4 to 5 hours of a Sunday cooking!

This crisp and cloudy Sunday afternoon, I decided to make a Lentil Shepards Pie. Mashed potatoes and savory lentils absolutely deserve a place in heaven together. All the vegetables in my garden right now are begging to be sauteed in lentils, then topped with pillowy tators!

Here's how to make it:

10-12 yellow skinned tators (chopped & covered in water to boil)
1/4c of butter milk
1tbsp of butter
A sprig of fresh rosemary

1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small head of cauliflower
1 small head of broccoli
4 small carrots
1/4 braggs (soy sauce is fine, just use A LOT less & supplement with water)
2 tbsp of nutritional yeast
1 tsp of chili powder
1 cup of brown lentils
1 med zucchini
Some kale or chard
2 cups cooked brown rice
2 eggs (beaten)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Boil tators until they are soft for the squishing. Drain your tator water, but save 2 cups and set it aside. Add buttermilk and most of the butter (save a bit) to the tators and start mashing. Add a bit of the tator water in till you get a nice smooth texture. Chop up your rosemary as fine as you can and stir that into the mashed potatoes . Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a dutch oven or a large pot, saute your onions and garlic lightly in your left over butter on medium heat. Add your chopped carrots, broccoli and caulflower. Add braggs, nutritional yeast, chili powder, tator water and lentils, then cover and simmer until the lentils are cooked.

Remove from heat and stir in brown rice and beaten eggs. Transfer veggie mixture to a greased casserole dish with a lid. Then smear your velvety smashy tators all over the top. Bake covered in the oven for 10 minutes or so. Then remove the lid and let brown up. Approximately 20 minutes.

Serve hot hot hot!

P.s. This recipe loves hot sauce ~ Don't be shy now!

Tip: If you have a dutch oven, then you get to cook it all on the stove then transfer it all to the oven! Every foodie must have Le Creuset!

Clean Demon

Cleaning is so subjective. Everyone has their own view of what 'clean' is!

Some days, clean to me is nothing but outta site outta mind...stuff tucked in unused closets and under beds. Other times... clean is every surface scrubbed with mixed emotions of love and hate...almost rage.

Sterile has never really been in my conscious cleaning practices. For the most part I'm a fan of borox and tea tree oil. But there comes a point where I no longer can contain my urge to completely rip apart my house and put it back together with a whole lot less stuff and every surface scrubbed with the most astringent thing I can find!

Is this some process of neurotic catharsis? Or a generational, seasonal 'dung out? I seem to remember this phenomena with my Mother growing up. Every change of season, some kind of crazy, neurotic episode forced my mother to frantically clean every nook and cranny in our house. It was almost like some sort of 'Clean Demon' had possessed her for the duration of time it took to clean her entire house, stem to stern!

I have inherited that 'Demon! Possession has truly taken hold of me!

But when it is all done and I climb into bed with clean sheets, freshly showered, I feel like a new woman.

Thanks Mom...

For anyone else going through your 'Clean Demon Possession'

*Cheers*

Here's to fall!

May it bring a bounty harvest, a nutty revolution and a Clean House!

How Come Toronto has all the cool VEg FolKs??

I'm Jealous!! I am soooo jealous. The Toronto Vegetarian Fair is happening Sept. 10-12th and I want to go!! I have wanted to go for a couple years now!! All my fave bloggers are gonna be there.. tons of amazing speakers and demonstrations and...of course...FOOD!!!!!!!! But alas *sigh* Toronto is...hmmmm... like 4000 kms away and I can't go!

I love the path that food is going. I have read many books about food security and how we treat the food we eat. But social media and general education of the world around us at our finger tips has really really enlightened many of us in the micro-managing of what we put in our bodies. Now, don't get me wrong... I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to learn about food! Infact, the recent candy attack I have had lately has taught me a lot about how my body reacts to what it is fed!!! But I continue to be fascinated by what wild imaginations people have with their food and how innovative we can become with raw vegetables, seeds and nuts!




If you are a ridiculously obsessed Foodie Freak, like myself, here are a few of my all time favorite blogs to check out: MakingLoveInTheKitchen StraightFromTheFarm TorontoVEG

Fresh Mint... How I love thee

Food For Thought

This ‘salad’ can be breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner! High in protein, low in fat and just plain easy to make!

Orange & Date Quinoa w/ fresh mint and walnuts

You will need:
1 c quinoa (dry)
4 large dates (soak in water for 1 hour)
1 small orange
1 hand full of walnuts (toasted)
As much or a little fresh mint as you would like.
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook your quinoa to the desired texture and set aside to cool. Take your soaked dates, slice the pits out and cut into small chunks. Toss with your quinoa. Toast your walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat until they are browned slightly. They burn quickly so don’t take your eyes off ‘em! With your orange, zest some of it into your salad, then segment your orange. Finally, chop up your mint really fine and toss everything in your salad together. Done!! This salad keeps well and can be enjoyed up to 3 days after making it.

~Enjoy~

Tomatillo Enchilada Action

Food For Thought

These precious little green gems that have sprouted beautifully in our garden, make me oh so very happy and a sauce that I can’t get enough of. Oh and just as an extra bonus, this bad boy is *gluten free*

Quinoa Enchiladas w/ Tomatillo Sauce
You will need:

• 10 small to medium fresh tomatillos
• 4 cloves of garlic (less is fine if you don’t want it too garlicky)
• 6-8 fresh tomatoes (or a big can of canned ones)
• 3 limes (zest and juice)
• 2-3 hot peppers (jalapenos, cayenne, pasilla, banana peppers... all are good!)
• 1 large red onion
• Some fresh cilantro
• 2 sweet peppers (either red, yellow or orange)
• 1 tbsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp of chili powder
• Fresh pepper to taste.
• 2 cups uncooked quinoa
• 4 cups refried or mashed pinto beans (black beans work well too)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup white cheddar cheese
• 60g of Feta cheese
  
• 3 limes (zest and juice)
• 1/2c toasted sunflower seeds
• 12 medium to large corn tortillas

Cook your quinoa according to packaged instructions and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Chop your tomatillos in half and toss them in a big bowl along with the roughly chopped sweet peppers and 2 of the hot peppers. Throw in 2 cloves of garlic, the olive oil, half the paprika and chili powder, a dash of salt and some lime zest. Toss this all together until the olive oil is mixed in well. Lay this out on a baking sheet and place in the oven.

Let this bake until the edges of the peppers turn brown. In the meantime, take your tomatoes and dice them. Chop the rest of your garlic and toss it in with your tomatoes. Chop up your hot peppers, red onion, your cilantro and add them to your tomatoes also. Squeeze in your lime juice and add all your zest.
Mix well with the remaining paprika and chili powder. A touch of salt may be needed and some fresh pepper. Now you have made some fresh salsa.
Half of your fresh salsa you are going to want to heat up on the stove with your bean mixture. The other half you will want to put in the food processor with your roasted tomatillo concoction. Once you have pulsed your tomatillos with your salsa, you have the sauce. Once you have simmered your beans with the other half of your salsa, you have you filling.

Pour a bit of your sauce in the bottom of your casserole dish (9x11 pyrex is what I use). Take your tortillas and dollop a bit of quinoa in the centre and a dollop of bean mixture in each one. Loosely roll them up and place them neatly in your casserole dish. Once they are all placed, pour your sauce evenly over the whole thing, cover with your white cheddar, a sprinkle of feta and your sunflower seeds for some crunch. Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges of the tortillas are browned.

Don’t be surprised if you have filling or sauce left over. You can freeze both or make another casserole dish of enchilada’s. These are easy to freeze once they are prepared also.




~Enjoy~

Day 3

Wild Rose Cleanse and I are getting along quite nicely this afternoon I am happy to say. Feeling alive again, happy to be cleansing and not yearning for my bed like yesterday. I think for me, the decision to purge my body of its unholy inhabitants for 12 days really gives me a sense of control.

My next step is going to do 12 days of yoga straight! I used to be a yoga-aholic! Never ever missing a night of yoga. No matter what I had planned in a day, there was guaranteed to be a 1/2 hour that I practiced yoga naked in my living room. I think I had that sense of control in my head then. That feeling of calm that I feel lately I have been scrambling to find. Again, like cleansing, starting it is the hardest part.