PC cooks, so you don't have to!

 

Chef Tom - my BFF in the kitchen

It’s always a treat to visit the Loblaw’s Test Kitchen and see what Tom Filippou, head chef for PC Cooking Schools and Dana Speers, head chef for the kitchen itself have — along with their team — cooked up for the holidays.

 

Generally speaking, I’m a big fan of the PC food line. It’s around this time of year, when I’m looking for help with holiday entertaining, that I appreciate it the most.

The product line-up is pretty exhaustive, so I can’t get it all in here, but here are a few items I thought really worth mentioning.

Try the sea- salt rosemary crackers with a little goat cheese and Black Label Bacon Marmalade. There are also excellent Black Label Flatbreads. Use both for cheeses and other snacks, but don’t discount them for dessert, either. Try the almond version with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with the Black Label lemon oil. For extra kick, use the salted caramel ice cream (but skip the oil).

If you like to make shortbread, and you’re not a purist, chop up some of the PC Milk Chocolate with Toffee Pieces  and Fleur de Sel and add it to the recipe. Naturally, you will have roasted the flour by spreading on a parchment-lined baking sheet and putting in a 300˚F oven; then turning slightly ever five minutes or so for about 20 minutes. SO worth it!

I also love the Fouée pocket flatbreads, which the PC team discovered at a small bakery in the Loire Valley. Try them filled with chicken tarragon salad There’s also a nice Tandoori Roti, which you can try with this recipe from the President's Choice website.

New hors d’ouvres include spicy jalapeno meatballs and Nova Scotian sea scallops, both wrapped in bacon.

Lastly, if you’re doing a cheese platter, grab some of the ash-wrapped Cendre Des Anges – heavenly. Or for convenience, grab a four-pack of mini Triple Crème Brie and top it with fun stuff (I love the Fig Cabernet wine jelly and the caramelized onion spread from the Black Label line.)

Hate hanging lights but love the look? Help is at hand.

Too cold/tired/busy/clumsy to get out there this weekend and install Christmas lights? If you live in the GTA, you can get someone from Canadian Tire, to do it for you. The retail giant has just added installing outdoor lighting and decoration to its roster of installed sales.

For $150, someone will come to your home (but not apartment, condo or commercial building) and install up to 80 feet of lights on either a first or second floor. If you want lights installed on roof peaks, shrubbery or trees, more than 80 feet of lights, or to add inflatables, you’ll pay more.

Pssst - I'm having mine done this week. Check back here next week for pics.

The price includes any necessary clips, but the homeowner supplies all lights, extension cords and timers. Installers bring their own ladder, but special equipment, such as a cherry picker, will also incur additional costs.

It works like this. After buying lights and decoration from your local Canadian Tire (you may also use existing lights, or buy them elsewhere, of course), the homeowner calls 1-855-682-4663 to get a quote, and book an installation date. An authorized installer will call back within 24 hours.

If you do decide to do it yourself, Allison Duffy, category business manager of Christmas and toys for Canadian Tire has some great tips for creating lovely outdoor lighting:

• Think about using larger bulbs to trim the house and eaves, and using smaller bulbs for shrubs and trees. Mesh blankets make super-fast work of lighting shrubbery, or patio railings.
• An easy way to determine how many bulbs you need for a shrub or bush is to estimate the width and calculate how many times you’ll need to wrap it around.  
• “Trend” colours this year are purple, blue and green. But go with what you love, be it multi-coloured or white – of which there are now many more warm white options.
• LED options are real energy savers – and the new generation of them has a much warmer glow – similar to an incandescent.

 

Pictures for Peace

Happy to share this one with you folks, as I’ve never thought there was anything that funny about Peace, Love and Understanding.

Okay, not a great segue, but any excuse to bring Elvis Costello into the mix is also okay with me.

Andrew Richard Designs is known for its beautiful outdoor furniture. But this weekend the reason to get yourself down to his Design Loft at 571 Adelaide Street East is to see stunning photography from Kris Reyes, a news anchor for Global Toronto’s Morning Show, and her husband, David Leggett.

In 2010, Reyes and Leggett quit their jobs to travel through Nepal, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii for six months. The exhibit, called Wander,Wonder, is the mesmerizing photographic document of that trip.

The works will be sold via silent auction in support of Artists for Peace and Justice. Move quickly, though, as the exhibit will only be in place until Sunday, December 2.

Learn more by clicking here or follow them @artistsforpeace

And since this is one of those times when a picture is worth 1,000 words:

Kauai - Hawaii's Garden Island -- David Leggett

 

Kauia -- David Legget

 

Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal --

 

Little Nepalese girl -- Kris Reyes

 

Mekong River, Laos -- Kris Reyes

 

I want flowers for Christmas

A few quick floral tips from the lovely and talented Bruno Duarte of Fresh Floral Creations. 

If you haven’t visited his little jewel box shop on Danforth, you should. It may just be the Platonic Ideal or a floral shop.

If you can't get down there, you can at least drink a few drops from the font of his floral wisdom. Here it is:

Line vases with a leaf to cover stems; Duarte likes dark brown Thai leaves.

Keep topping up water, but don’t add powders — they’re mostly sugar and can cause bacteria that contributes to rot.

Work with a maximum of three colours.

Stay away from too much glitter (however tempting it may be).

On a dinner table, the height of an arrangement should never be taller than the length of your elbow to your hand.  If you’re table is long, consider three several smaller arrangements.

For something different and striking, cut Amaryllis, and hang them upside down. Gather the stems loosely but firmly with a floral wire and fill the stems, which are hollow, with water. Suspend from a hanging light fixture. (And if you can’t figure out how to do that, call Duarte – Editor)

Want to switch it up for New Year’s Eve? Go with white, says Duarte. “You will have been bombarded with red and other colours. White will be fresh and clean, just like the new year.”

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Lovely Lisi.....

An afternoon of cooking with Kenwood

This week’s Hot Home column in the Saturday Toronto Star is all about test driving the Kenwood Cooking Chef with Sandra Bellomo, the company’s North American training and demonstration manager. Here are the recipes we made. They’re written for those lucky enough to own this $2,000 machine, but a competent home chef could easily adapt. Look at the post below for a separate gallery of shots from our afternoon of cooking.

Drunken Snowman Cocktail

Ingredients

• 2 scoops vanilla ice-cream
• 1 cup ice
• 3 oz. vanilla vodka
• 3 oz. Bailey’s Original
• 3 oz. Peppermint Schnapps

Combine ice-cream, ice and spirits and blend for 2 minutes. Serve in glasses rimmed with crushed candy cane.

 

Rim cocktail glasses with crushed candy cane for a festive touch

Chestnut Soup

Ingredients

• 15-20 chestnuts, preferably fresh, pre-boiled and peeled
• 2-3 shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• ½ cup water
• Sea salt
• Fresh black pepper

Using the chopping blade on the food processor, finely mince garlic and shallots. Set aside. Insert the Stirring attachment. Warm up the bowl and season with olive oil. Keep temperature between 70º and 80ºC.

After 3 minutes, add the shallots and garlic, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Adjust temperature to 110 ºC. Set timer for 24 minutes.

Add chestnuts and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for 2 minutes, then add 1 cup of stock and cook for 1 minute. Add the remaining cup of stock.

Note: It’s normal for induction heat to lose temperature when a cool liquid is added. During the next 4 minutes, the temperature will increase to between 99˚ and 108ºC. The best temperature for cooking soup is 100º and 105ºC. Use the splash guard to contain heat.

After 12 minutes, add water.

Chestnuts will soften as the soup cooks and mixes. When cooking is complete, pour soup into blender. Add heavy cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend for 2 minutes.

Cranberry Relish

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 date
• 1 orange
• 1 small piece of ginger (optional)
• 2 Tbsp of agave syrup

Using the citrus press, extract juice from the orange. Reserve. If you use ginger, grate it. Add the chopping blade to the food processor and add the cranberries, date, orange juice, (ginger if using) and agave syrup. Pulse until just incorporated.

Chocolate Mousse

 Ingredients

• 4 tsp butter
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 7 egg whites
• 6.5 ounces dark chocolate

Melt the butter and chocolate in bowl,keeping the temperature between 60º and 70ºC.  This should take under 6 minutes. Pour into bowl and set aside. Attach the Power Whisk to clean bowl, and add the sugar and egg whites. Whisk on max speed until it forms stiff peaks. Using the fold function, gradually add the melted chocolate and butter. Don’t mix too hard or you’ll knock the air out of the mixture. Pour into small glasses or chocolate dessert cups. Chill for 4 hours.

 Cranberry Apple & Walnut Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 2.5 cups vegetable stock
• 2.5 white wine
• ½ white onion
• 2-3 gloves garlic
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup walnuts
• 2 apples (Sandra likes Golden Delicious or McIntosh)
• 2 green onions
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• ½ tsp chili powder
• Sea salt
• Fresh black pepper
• Olive oil

Using the Mini Chopper Mill, chop the walnut coarsely.

Peel apples and pulse in food processor into medium sized pieces.  Set aside. Thinly slice the green onions in food processor and set aside. Chop garlic and half an onion.

 Add the Flexi Beater to bowl. Warm up bowl and season with a drizzle of olive oil. Set the temperature between 70º and 80ºC.

After 3 minutes, add onion and garlic. Let cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add rice and cook for one minute before adding wine.

Increase the temperature to 120ºC. Adjust the timer for 24 minutes, and set the machine to stir.

When liquid is absorbed, add in one cup at a time of the vegetable stock. Use the splash guard to retain heat.

When the timer gets to 17 minutes, add cranberries and walnuts, and set mixing speed to 1. At 14 minutes, add apple. In the last 5 minutes, add butter, Parmesan, green onions, chili powder, sea salt and black pepper.

Love having all the appliances function from one hub

 

 

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REPOST: Artichoke and Parmesan Soup from Patricia Wells

Cooking with the Kenwood Chef

Quelle machine. Look at all the stuff I made with Sandra Bellomo of Kenwood, and how much fun we had.

Sandra makes Drunken Snowmen (recipe in post above)

With all the attachments, the Cooking Chef is like a kitchen in a box

The first time I had Chesnut soup. But it won't be the last!

Consistent heat and stirring - the secrets to perfect risotto

The machine is great for melting chocolate and butter

We made a super fresh-tasting cranberry relish in about three minutes flat

Attachment tools are exceptionally well amde

Food processors are great for dicing and chopping. I like to prep loads of fresh veggies on Sunday, so it's easy to add a couple of veg dishes to meals.

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Yorkshire Puddings Using My Kenwood Chef

One cup, many views

Consumers are favouring simple to use one-cup coffee makers over more conventional makers, such as this vacuum model from Bodum

My faithful readers (that would be my kids, my husband and Bill Chow, who helps run the bench on my son’s hockey team and may just be my biggest fan), know how I feel about one-cup coffee makers. I think the plastic pods are wasteful (yes, yes, I know you can recycle some of them, but really, reduce comes before recycle, remember?), that they make dreadful tea** and that the beverage doesn’t stay hot for as long as conventional coffee makers. Which is why, btw, I sometimes heat the milk and or the cup when I test single serve makers.

 

The hordes, however, appear not to be with me on this one, as one-cup coffee makers, last time I checked, were the fastest growing segment of the coffee appliance category. I have to admit  too, that when the Man of the House (MOTH) took the pretty little Tassimo we tested to the staff room at his school, it was a smash hit. Teachers loved having fresh, hot coffee without a trip off the grounds, and MOTH said many were delighted by the discs that gave them a “latte”.

In fairness, I must also add that there are now companies
selling compostable single-serve coffee. Take Oakville-based Reunion Island. It boasts other sustainable practices — harvesting only from farms certified as green and fair, investing in local economic development in countries like Nicaragua and Tanzania, and partnering with organizations like Coffee Kids. Coffee is roasted at a local facility powered entirely by renewable Bullfrog Power. They also have some great recipes for cooking with coffee — Espresso Bourbon Caramel Sauce, anyone?

Reunion Island has teamed with Bunn, whose first made-for-home coffee maker works with pods. You can buy both the coffee and the maker at the website. That sounds a lot better. But I’m still not drinking the tea.

So it’s not news that lots of folks like these one-cups. What is news is that it manufacturers are now trying to differentiate themselves by creating signature blends — sometimes in partnership with brands with lots of heft.

Tassimo, for example, is promoting exclusive Tim Horton’s coffee disks. They’ve also launched a sweet holiday contest — inviting Canadians to nominate a “Tim” (or Tina, or Tom or Uncle Ted) they would like to reunite with for the holidays. Nice. Check it out on Facebook 

Nespresso has a sexy new machine, called the U, which has a lovely, tiny footprint and is super-easy to use. As per usual, it’s small and cute, but my complaints still stand (see above). New flavours from Nespresso include Hawaii Kona, which is grown on the side of volcanoes on Hawaii. In coffee geek terms, it’s fruity, subtle, nutty and silky. I’m not generally a fan of flavoured coffees, but I do make the odd exception – especially at this time of year, when I might mix it with hot chocolate for a sweet treat. So I did enjoy  Nespresso's naturally flavoured Coconut, Hazelnut and Macadamia nut. Very nicely flavoured.

Speaking of sexy, Nespresso just nabbed Penelope Cruz as the face of its marketing campaign in North America. Watch for her in an ad campaign that launches nationally in Canada on Dec. 3rd.

 

 

 

Penelope Cruz and I agree to disagree on one-cup coffee makers.

 

 

My fave way to make just once cup of coffee? A French press, preferably from Bodum.

** If you love tea, you need to visit the House of Tea, preferably in person. If that won’t work, check it out online 

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Speaking of artisnal

 Michael Simardone is a Toronto furniture builder. If that’s not artisanal enough, he also makes just about everything from building refuse and cast-aways. He and his wife Caroline are in the process of opening up a Junction storefront with his own pieces and accessories.

He and I worked together on an Upcycle Challenge for Habitat for Humanity Toronto this year, in which we strung together building  left-overs to craft something new. See the results below.

All that to say, if you’re an artisan, you might want to contact la Simardone about selling your stuff through his store. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be the century’s best business deal, I guarantee you’ll like him.

Michael is on a nice little stretch of street that seems poised to take off. Same neighb as the always-worth-a-visit Eclectic Revival  (Artisanal Steampunk?). And if memory serves, there’s a little resto about half a block west (north side) of Simardone that makes amazing pastry — some of which gets stuffed with fruit. Yum.  Art you can eat. 

Art for Craft’s Sake

Quick - if navy is the new midnight blue, what does artisanal mean? That’s a trick question — artisanal can mean whatever. Heck, I’ve squirted Srirachi hot-sauce into ketchup and called it “an artisanal blend of tomato and pepper”.

So I know, folks, that the term can tart everything from stationery with pictures of birds on it to the “limited edition” of a new line from a hip retailer, “richly inspired” by raw talent in a far-flung, picturesque spot, but mass made in China.

If you want the real thing, from Africa, for example, you have to go to Snob, a jewel box of a store tucked away in a tiny corner at 388 Carlaw, between Dundas and Gerrard. 

It's tempting to take one of everything at Snob

Right now, there are amazing textiles (ethereal threads of wool and silk washed into felt, heavy cotton fabrics with detailed stitching – both geometric and organic in design — in earthy browns, yellow and pumpkin tones - I’d use it on bedding, lampshades, headboards, soft ottomans.

 

 Also, elaborately carved poles on stands; in another life, they held up tents in a desert. Highly beaded and elongated wooden figures. And a curiosity cabinet, with artifacts such as hair picks made from ancient destructible woods. In fact, this store is a bit like the museum. Plan to stay a while.

Of all of the gorgeousness, the most beautiful thing there for me are the handmade Egyptian pendant Zenza lamps, with hammered patterns that create shadow webs on the nearest wall — to very, very pretty effect.

I know because I have one hanging in a hallway at home. Every time I look at it, I stop and marvel at the craft-work and the effect it has on light.

Recently at Snob, I saw for the first time the slim cylindrical pieces from Zenza. If I had a high ceiling and a lot of money, I’d buy 20 of them. The choice of models will only expand, given that Snob owner Denise Zidel (or, as her intimate friends like to call her, La Snob Dynamo) is now the national distributor for these pieces. Go and visit the store. In the meantime, check out the pics below.

Love the new textiles at Snob

 

The Zenza lamps I love, love love.

 

BTW,  a little birdie told me to look out for news from Snob early in the new year.

Around town, the shortest route to local talent is probably through the One of a Kind Show, which is the Platonic Ideal of Artisanal. One of the few home shows that’s worth the price of admission.Check out my Pinterest board for a sneak peak.

This holiday season, World Vision is selling scarves and jewelry to support their education and development projects. The Haitian hand-beaded necklace is attractive, with thin bands of strong colour.You need to order by Dec. 10th to get them for Christmas.