giving thanks for this time of year

I have so much to be thankful for.

I have people to love who love me. We share interests, exchange ideas, help to make each other better, and hold the memories to a lifetime together. These people also happen to give and enjoy good wine. I am certainly thankful to friends who bring over nice wine when they come for dinner (or anytime for that matter).

I am supported in my choices by this same network of love and trust and it seems to continue to grow and strengthen as I get older and have more interesting impulses, ideas, and things to say. I hope they know that I thank them every day for this ongoing support.

I am extremely thankful that I live in a place that has clean water and air and my food is relatively safe to eat. I am not, for example spending my Thanksgiving exposed or in limited shelter, escaping from a deluge of red poison. I send my prayers to anyone who is not warm and being made welcome at someone's table this weekend.

And, of course, I am thankful for the food that I get to cook and eat - let me not forget to acknowledge my thanks to the people who have grown and cared for the food that I try to prepare as artfully as I may. I am also thankful to have friends and family to cook for and eat with, which is a joy to me always.

On Saturday I hosted my very first Thanksgiving meal since returning to the prairies. It was actually the first real sit-down dinner party (and I think probably the largest of it's kind) that I've ever hosted here. I will not take full credit for the success of the evening. My sister, Sarah, and the every constant and culinarily inclined Joey were the secrets in the sauce. Thanks to all of my friends and readers who came over. You're the best. Seriously. Someone compared the first few moments of the meal to that scene in Chocolat with Juliette Binoche - you know, the one where everyone suddenly starts eating silently and in slow motion and then they all break out into laughter. It was, admittedly, reminiscent of that scene.

Thanks to Marius and Four Whistle Farms for cutting me a beautiful leg of lamb. Weighing at almost 6 pounds it was enough to feed the fourteen of us and then some. I made slits in the meat just under the fat and inserted fresh organic garlic from Peas on Earth farm and big rosemary leaves from our own garden plants. Then I applied a rub made from grainy mustard, extra virgin olive oil, copped garlic, garden rosemary and oregano, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and a splash of maple syrup. I was actually quite rushed to prepare all of this in the 45 minutes between leaving the market and having to get back in the car to run to work for my 3-hour Saturday afternoon shift. So I know that this can be done quite quickly. I placed the meat in a roasting pan under 4 red onion halves, wrapped the dish tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerated it for about 4 hours.

My other major cooking triumph that night was the vegetarian shepherd's pie. I got the idea when I was on the bike at the gym (watching food tv, of course). Hrm, side note, must get back to the gym after this weekend....
Chuck Hughes hosts the show Chuck's Day Off. I've never seen him before but I certainly approve of the butter, cream, and chevre that are used in the mashed potato part of the recipe. Switching lentil for ground beef is easy and super cheap and healthy. Lots of fresh wild mushrooms from the downtown market really gave the dish its character and texture. I roasted the spaghetti squash and garlic the night before to save time. It was possibly my favourite part of dinner and I still had tons to send home with friends and for my own leftover supply.

Joey made mashed yams with a maple candied walnut top. There was none left at the end of the night. And he made as much of it as I made of the shepherd's pie. Sarah and her boyfriend brought wine and made an arugula salad with dried currants. So many friends brought cheese - proof, if ever I needed some, that they love me.

Oh yes, and there were incredible devil's food cupcakes that Joey's friend made. Apparently she got the recipe from Joy of Cooking. They were so good and I got so many compliments about them I am planning on making sure she starts working at a bakery very soon. Has anyone seen help wanted signs at any nice little bakeries in town?

Other dessert items included a late night apple upside-down cake that I cranked out with roasting, cleaning, setting, and generally stressing the night before. There was also the requisite pumpkin pie, and other super sweet cakes and goodies.

If you were there, tell me what your favourite dish was. Or tell me what you’re thankful for. If you weren’t there, tell me what you had at your Thanksgiving this weekend. Or what of this harvest you may be thankful to receive this year.

U-Pick is amazing!

Can you believe that I've lived here my whole life and never visited a U-Pick berry farm? Well the time has come, I thought, to correct this gross oversight in my agricultural education. I recently visited Roy's Raspberries, just a mere 10 minutes drive from the city. A quick left off of Highway 16A, a couple clicks past the Devon overpass is a hideaway I've probably driven by a hundred times. There's a sign on the highway, so you really can't miss it, but if you need to, you can call ahead and ask for directions. The picking should still be good for a couple weeks, I think.

At Roy's Raspberry Farm "Alberta's Finest" berries are thriving. Many of the bushes have been around since the 70's when Roy Boyko first planted on his 20 acres. They grow about a dozen different varieties of raspberries - Thornless, Summit, Souris, Red River, Qualicum, Newburg, Mammoth, Jewel, Honey Queen, Fall Gold, Double Delight, Chief, Boyne, and Bounty. Did you even know there were so many kinds of raspberries? I guess I should have, but when you hear that 97% of plant diversity has disappeared from our supermarkets since the 1950's it's difficult to conceptualize this when it comes to actual species.

My sister and I ventured out into the field with our homemade berry picking buckets securely fastened around our necks with measuring tape and shoelaces to keep both hands free for easier picking. Lorraine Boyko, wife of Roy's son Harvey who now runs the farm, gave us a rundown of the procedures and offered us old car mats to sit on so we could get down low where the berries were growing.

We walked a good distance away from the main house and the highway, though unable to get away from the noise of the traffic. When we found a spot that looked good, my sister and I got down to it, grabbing handfuls of berries - half of which made it into the buckets, the other half somehow ended up in our happy tummies... I really don't know how that happened...

We picked and ate for about a half hour, walking around the fields and sampling some of the other berry varieties. We focused on the oldest bushes with the most fruit, which we discovered later were Boyne raspberries. Sweet, tart, and juicy, the bright crimson berries were honestly the most raspberry-tasting berries I've ever tried. Nothing tastes better than fresh picked fruits and veggies, and this was an experience I'll never forget. What's more, I'm looking for reasons to go back as soon as possible...

Back at the hut where we received our instructions and mats we settled up with Lorraine and for all the raspberries we could pick and eat, it came out to $6.75(!) There are recipes for muffins, pie, and a summery beverage all using their fresh raspberries. I haven't yet tried them since we ate all the raspberries before I got a chance, but the recipe sheet is going in my need-to-try book for sure.

U-Pick, where have you been all my life?

montreal delights

Montreal. It evokes in my mind a city of light, of culture, and most certainly of some of the best food in North America. The most common refrain of its utterly European style and lifestyle makes you feel like you are in a place where everyone is zigging in a country where people are known for zagging. Montreal is groovy. It's old and up late and may boast some of the best ethnic food in Canada. Even its high-end designer, haute cuisine establishments are serving up artistic creations topped with infused foams and strange and exciting fungi.
Montreal, not unlike Toronto in this respect, strikes me as one of the brunchiest towns I've ever had the pleasure of dining in. Very good eggs and toast places with charm and character pop up all over the place. Visiting this city with sisters as my guides, I have eaten some very yummy late-morning-breakfast-lingering-into-long-afternoon-coffee-and-walking-around meals. This time I returned to L'Anecdote on Rachel and Saint-Hubert. The inside of it is deceptively large. The front area is very retro and has big cosy red leather booths with wide windows that look out onto Saint-Hubert. Further back bigger tables are available for larger groups. In the front, dessert and chrome sparkle to greet the new customers.
An old friend from art history met me by the Sherbrook metro and we walked over together. The trouble is, we got so wound up in visiting and coffee that I sort of forgot to take a before shot. This is what was left of a very large and tasty diner breakfast. Delicious.


Then we continued strolling and ended up on a mission for beer. My friend was about to move and the occasion definitely called for a couple cold ones. We discovered a very interesting deppanneur on Duluth. Lots of locally microbrewed beers at a very good price with mix and match deals. Ultimately, we found a very pretty little spot to get ice cream on Saint Denis called Au Festin de Babette. He had orange chocolate and I had pistachio.
Later in the afternoon, I met two of my very best friends at the bus terminal, down the street from my sister's apartment where I had been staying. We wrapped our arms around each other, said a quick hello while they freshened up back at my sister's, and we were back out on Saint Denis. We stopped for a quick bite and a slice of pie at Rockaberry (mocha tiramisu, which we saved for later) and then shopped the afternoon sun away. As it set we headed to our hotel, The Queen Elizabeth, and checked it. After another quick recharge, we returned to the Plateau where my fabulous sister was waiting to join us for dinner at one of my favourite restaurants in Montreal.
Just a short walk down Saint Denis from my sister's house is Chuch, a vegan Thai restaurant with the most remarkable fake meat I've ever eaten. The textures are so real and the sauces are so flavourful that I enjoy it as much if not more so that non-vegan Thai food. The four of us went crazy. Though there was only one vegetarian among us, I would describe the lot of us as more or less flexitarian. The vegetable dumplings went so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them. When the rest of the food arrived, I was sure to keep my wits about me before having at it like the lost boys in Hook.
We each chose a non-meat or a sauce that sounded scrumptious and got a few helpings of rice to round things off. My sister was incredibly helpful in recommending her favourite dishes, and I usually take my cue from experts when they know more than me in a resto. The four of us shared Chicken in red and green curries, Beef in three sauces, and duck with deliciously guilt free crispy skin.We shared two bottles of white wine - a Gewurztraminer than needed to be way more chilled than it was, but was still quite promising - and a Pinot Grigio.
At this point in the story I should probably tell you that I was in Montreal celebrating my birthday... that officially began at midnight and was rung in with mocha tiramisu pie for the birthday cake. Sorry dear readers, that I have no picture of that magical moment either. But I can tell you that when the three of us friends woke up in out big comfy beds in the Queen E the next morning, and before we checked out and left town, we said goodbye to Montreal in style, with room service.