Valentine fun

 Okay, I love to play with my food! I figured Valentine's Day would be a fun time to do this. 
I invited Richard for a mid-week Valentine's dinner. We started with a cold borscht beet soup, topped with sour cream and a heart-shaped pickled beet.

 Next I made a salad of blood orange supremes, served atop romaine lettuce and sprinkled with roasted walnuts, feta cheese and a few more heart beets...

 Since there was kind of a red thing going on, I made a reddish chicken...pineapple chicken in a red sauce with pineapples and red, yellow and orange peppers.

 For dessert, I made individual mini-cakes shaped like conversation hearts. Since Richard and I share the same initials, I made a teeny cake heart that said, RM x2.

Perfect way to say "I love you!" Hope your valentine's day was delicious too!

Fiddlehead time is finally here!

You know it's spring when the fiddleheads poke their heads out of the ground, ready to be snapped off, fried in butter and lemon, salt and pepper.

Nom nom nom. Spring is here!

Glengarry Chocolate Factory

I started with a cuppa coffee and waiting for my friend for lunch.

To have a chocolate factory in our little town is remarkable.And they serve crepes too? Amazing!

 We both had buckwheat crepes stuffed with ham and melted cheese. Delish!

We sat and talked for hours and had worked up an appetite for dessert. Anyone for a pear and dark chocolate crepe? Yummers!

Farm to Table Dinner

Last night Richard and I had the pleasure of attending the Farm to Table Dinner, put on by our local (and favourite) eatery, The Quirky Carrot. 

I was looking forward to eating a meal featuring food that was all locally grown.

 Service was in a barn at Avonmore Berry Farm in Avonmore...Two long tables with hay bales as seats.

Isn't this place just charming?

Tables all set and ready for guests. There were even cloth napkins for all. Very classy!

And I swore I'd photograph every last bit of food offered. Here goes!

Here's our charming hostess Julia serving a terrific hors d'oeuvre:
Corn cakes with bacon, avocado and candied tomato.

Next up? Buckwheat blinis with sturgeon caviar (can you imagine LOCAL sturgeon? Yes! It's from down the road in St. Eugene.) 

Even better, it was served with panache by the lovely Grace, Julia's daughter.

 There were also crostini with butter, radishes and Maldon salt. Fabulous!

 Here's Richard trying wild boar smokies with homemade ketchup and mustard.

OK, my bad. Somehow I missed snapping a pic of the zucchini fritters with lemon aioli (I was likely too busy stuffing my face with them!) 

And we can't forget the Beau's beer as well as a selection of assorted local cheese and grapes.

BTW that's Julia with Chef Bruce beside her.

 The buffet was amazing! Where to start?

 Roasted potato and green bean salad with walnuts and pesto vinaigrette.

 Market carrot and charred corn salad with jalapeno

 Quirky kale salad with shredded beets and carrots.

 A selection of amazing bread and rolls by Fleidermaus Farms.

OMG, all so delicious.

Too many good choices!! (Is there such a thing?)

 Heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese.

 Roast chicken...amazing...served with...

 ...smoked ricotta and tomato mash. Amazing!

 Quinoa-strawberry tabouleh.

 Somehow I missed taking a pic of the ratatouille (under the red cloth to stay warm) but I did eat it and it was yummy!

 Julia welcomed her guests and we all chowed down.

 After all that, there was dessert! Her charming staff served us strawberry-rhubarb crisp with a choice of homemade raspberry or blueberry or strawberry ice cream.

There were a bunch of picnic tables outside and since it was 30C, we decided to enjoy the summer air and eat outside. 
There was lightning most of the night but it never rained. A perfect evening!

I especially loved this photo of Richard and me taken by the amazingly talented Anick Bauer.

It seems to capture the moment so well.

Mini-chefs camp

Last week I had the pleasure of teaching 10 kids how to decorate cookies. It was part of a week-long mini-chefs camp. At the end if the week, the campers invite two people to lunch; the meal they took all week to prepare. The previous day the gang made spumoni ice cream. Their decorated cookies would accompany the ice cream. The following two days involved making soup and an entree. Great day, fun kids.

Trying something new

This recipe ran in last week's Ottawa Citizen and since I have scads of chard in the garden, I figured I'd give it a try. Yummy! Click HERE for the link to the recipe if you want to try this at home.

ChocoMotive

We headed over to Montebello, QC to ChocoMotive, a chocolaterie and cchocolatemuseum housed in a former train station.

 There's lots to see there including a few people making chocolate bunnies.

 There's also a huge selection of chocolate types...Richard picked hemp and acai berry (!!) and one with no sugar and almonds.

 The bee pollen chocolate caught my eye but I settled on a sea salt bar.

 We also tried their incredibly delicious hot chocolate. A teeny tiny cup was enough. This stuff was rich and delicious.

 It wasn't cold out or snowy, which is so odd for Dec. 28th, but the hot chocolate went down perfectly well, thanks very much.

Looking forward to a repeat visit to this place. Lots of fun and yummy too.

Cookie time!

 Polar bear gingerbread cookies with warm scarves...

...or funky blue snowflake gingerbreads. How does one decide?

Smyth's Apple Orchard

On Sunday we headed out to visit Smyth's Apple Orchard the place that grew the first McIntosh apple.

 Inside there is a myriad of choices of types of apples. We ended up buying a basked of McIntosh (natch) and a basked of Pink Lady.

 We asked if we could walk around the orchard a bit. Picking time is long gone but we were still curious and they said we were welcome to go for a walk.

 There were still plenty of apples out back waiting to be sorted.

 The orchard was absolutely huge. Lovely trees, each one had a support stick and tied up. What a lot of work!

I was looking for a real old-timer...maybe one of the original McIntosh trees? Then I read this article from CBC about the last McIntosh tree.

 On the way back there was a bit of a commotion. The friendly farm dog had to be distracted and just rubbing his belly did the job.

 A piggy had ventured over from the farm across the road.

 He was far more interested in the fallen black walnuts than the offered apple. I'm assuming the little guy ended up back across the road...