The Foodie-file: Cremant for New Years Eve
If you want to drink Champagne all night long but don’t have the budget for it, look for a cremant instead. It sparkling wine from France – made exactly the same way as Champagne but made from the grapes of the region where it is produced. The one pictured here is Chateau De Montgueret, Cremant [...]
The Foodie-file: Tea is Food Too, Right?
Christmas is behind us for another year and I am food-ed out. I always love the anticipation leading up to the day: deciding what treasures will be resurrected for the Christmas table, collaborating on the menu, the shopping at the bustling St Lawrence Market the day before Christmas. Inevitably overbuying because I can’t resist some [...]
The Foodie-file: Christmas Eve Dinner, A Fish Feast
Christmas eve in my family’s home means a fish feast. Part of our religious tradition is that we fast and do not eat meat the night before Christmas. Of course fasting in Italian culture is relative: being relegated to eating no meat calls for an extravagant feast of fish! The tradition is that there are [...]
The Foodie-file: Christmas Traditions, Long-Johns
Every culture has some type of deep fried donut that is a specialty of the region. In my family, you cannot have Christmas without this version. My grandmother always called these Long-Johns and so now does the whole family. I can’t imagine that was the moniker in the old country but that is how our [...]
The Foodie-file: Homemade Panettone
Panettone is Italian Christmas cake, it is egg and butter enriched brioche type dough studded with dried fruits. For Italians the smell and taste of panettone is Christmas – it is given as a gift and eaten Christmas morning for breakfast. In Italy they are beautifully wrapped and hung in shop store windows.
The Foodie-file: Danish Shortbread Revisited
Here is my attempt at the Danish cake from my previous post. I had to take two tries at it to get it as good as the version I had. The first one was a bit too cakey, not quite as cookie like as the original version - but edible none-the-less! I tweaked it and [...]
The Foodie-file: Chestnut Buyer Guide
As promised, I have done some research about chestnut products and where to buy them. Fresh chestnuts, chestnut puree, peeled vacuum packed and jarred chestnuts are mainly seasonal items so you will be hard pressed to find them year round outside of specialty food stores. You should be able to find them in most urban [...]
The Foodie-file: Deli Lunch
Today the Canadian Living test kitchen went for a holiday lunch at The Centre Street Deli and had a toast to our holiday break with some good Jewish smoked meat! The deli is a North Toronto institution and serves authentic deli goods from Matzo ball soup with homemade chicken stock, to hand sliced corned beef. [...]
The Foodie-file: Danish Shortbread
I was at a tree trimming party on Saturday afternoon and my friend Debbie brought a butter pastry that was divine. We all voted it best treat on the Christmas cookie platter. She said she got the recipe from someone at her work that always brings it to group meetings.
I don’t have the recipe [...]
The Foodie-file: Roasting Chestnuts
One of my favourite things about winter is roasting chestnuts. They make me think of being at my parents home when, after the dishes had been cleaned up from dinner, my mom would pop them into the oven and we would crack and eat them while watching the hockey game trying not to burn our [...]
