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key lime pie

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With all the snow that came down last night, and the nasty roads I kept hearing about, today seemed like a great day to stay in.  We were reminiscing about the cruise we took last month (more to come on that), and recalled the fabulous weather at all the ports. Q wished that he could live in the Bahamas, and on days like today, I wish we did!

Our first port was Key West, Florida, and all the reviews about the quaint little town said that we needed to try the Key Lime Pie. We happily obliged. We had lunch at a restaurant near the water and ended our meal with the much talked about pie. It was delicious, and even hubby, who normally does not have a sweet tooth, enjoyed it.

It was a great after lunch project, the smell of the citrus reminding us of summer and hot places. Q did most of the work since it’s super simple to make.  The crust is sweet, the luscious filling is tart and the dollop of whipping cream rounds it all out.

Key Lime Pie
Adapted from Christine Cushing

Crust:
1 cup graham crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
2 TB sugar

Filling:
1 can condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup key lime juice

Topping:
1 cup whipping cream
2 TB icing sugar

Combine the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and sugar. Press into a pie dish and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Combine the condensed milk, egg yolks and key lime juice and mix until well combined. Pour into the prepared crust and bake at 300 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Once cool, refrigerate.

Combine the whipping cream and icing sugar and beat in a mixer until you get peaks. Dollop onto each slice of key lime pie and garnish with a slice of key lime.

president’s choice for the holidays!

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Christmas and baking seem to go hand in hand and that’s certainly true in this household. Baked goods as gifts for friends and family just seems so personal and special. With just a couple days left until Christmas, President’s Choice has you covered with a giant array of mixes for those with time constraints or those who think they can’t bake.

I was excited when they sent over a box of holiday goodies for me to try out. It included everything from mixing bowls, measuring cups, baking mixes, cookies as well as great hostess gifts like chocolate!

Q and I spent the morning making gingerbread men! All that we needed to add to the mix was an egg and some water. This was perfect, since I didn’t really feel like running out for some molasses and other stuff I would have needed. Q was in charge and he felt a great sense of accomplishment, being able to say that he made the cookies himself.

I loved that President’s Choice also had a gingerbread man cookie cutter complete with stencils to help with the decorating.  He gave these out to his cousins and they made cute little gifts.

President’s Choice also has some great items that would be perfect for your dinner party, either for Christmas or New Year’s. Items like the PC Moroccan Cigars or the Shrimp & Scallop Sushi Bites would be perfect appies. For dessert, our Christmas dinner will definitely include the PC Decadent Molten Chocolate Cakes. I might also have to include a sugar cookie tree (cutters from PC!).

Disclosure: I received a variety of products from President’s Choice along with a gift certificate to try out some of their frozen items. I was under no obligation to write about them. Opinions are my own.

food blogger cookie swap: lavender shortbread

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I had a really fun experience last year when I participate
in the 3rd Annual Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I got to connect with bloggers that I didn’t know and of course, taste some delicious cookies!

This year, with us leaving on holidays, I had to think twice
whether I could make the deadlines. I decided I just couldn’t miss out. For the
swap, we needed to make a new recipe we hadn’t tried before and send it to
three assigned food bloggers.

I knew I wanted to try something with lavender. Most of the
cookies I had found with lavender were of shortbread. Mmmm….shortbread!

I chose this recipe from Dessert First because it was simple
– butter, sugar, flour. My kind of shortbread. You don’t need a lot of
lavender, a little goes a long way.

In the midst of work deadlines, Q’s activities and packing,
I managed to find a chunk of time to bake, wrap and send the cookies. In my
haste though, I completely forgot to include the personalized letters along
with the recipe – sorry folks!

Thanks to the bloggers that sent me cookies. I did receive
one package before I left and they were a nice sweet treat. Looking forward to
devouring more when I get back home!

Thanks to Lindsay and Julie for organizing another
successful cookie swap! Through blogger participation, over $13K was raised for
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

Lavender Shortbread
Adapted slightly from Dessert First

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon dried lavender

Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until creamy.
Add the flour and beat until combined. Add the lavender and beat just to
distribute through the dough.

Form the dough into a log, wrap in plastic and chill for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Cut the logs into rounds and place on parchment lined baking sheets
and bake until just golden, about 18 minutes.

edo elves spreading holiday cheer (giveaway)

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Edo Japan is making this holiday season even better! Edo Elves
will be hard at work spreading holiday cheer from
November 28 to December 21. The elves will be seen throughout Calgary,
performing good deeds and trying to make someone’s day a little
brighter.

Edo Japan is also helping
the Calgary Food Bank to provide food and resources to those in need.
Together, both organizations are working to reduce hunger in communities
in which they serve and make the
holiday season simply better. For every $25 gift card sold, Edo Japan will donate $5 to a local food bank, in hopes of raising more than $15,000.

Check out this video to see the Edo Elves in action.


To find out where the Elves will be and who they
will be surprising, follow them on Twitter at @edo_japan and #EdoElf and
on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/edojapan.

Want
to win a $25 gift card to Edo for yourself? Leave a comment here, on Facebook or on Twitter and let us know how you are spreading some
holiday cheer this year.  Contest closes on December 16th and is limited to readers in Calgary and area.

wine review: durbanville hills

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I’m so happy to have my good friend guest blog today! Durbanville Hills sent me some wine to review and Sarb was kind enough to do a wine review for me. Thanks Sarb!

When Food Mamma asked me to be a guest blogger and do a wine review, I was pretty excited.  I mean who doesn’t love an excuse to try something new, especially a new bottle or two of wine!  The timing was great as well because we had friends coming over for a dinner and play date so I thought it would be a great excuse to ply them with wine and pick their brains about what they thought as well.

So before I start in on the night’s festivities, let me introduce the wines.  The producer of the wines we sampled was Durbanville Hills based out of South Africa.  Provided for our sampling pleasure were a 2012 Sauvignon Blanc white wine and a 2010 Shiraz red wine.

Admittedly neither I nor my guests are a sommelier, in fact my friend AG thought it might be pronounced somolian, but we did our best to give our impressions of both the Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc.  Out of the chute, I must admit that my palette is skewed toward red wines as I tend to prefer a stronger and full flavour.  Luckily AG has a preference for white wine with its more subtle flavours and his wife, KG, just likes wine so we covered all the bases.

We started the night with appetizers from the New Tandoori King restaurant.  Featured were their delicious potato samosas, fish pakoras, paneer pakoras and sinfully sweet gulab jamuns.  In case our friend Dr. BK came by we had homemade salsa with gluten free corn chips to ensure we had something for her to snack on.

All three of us started out with the Shiraz to go along with the appetizers.  KG and I both noted that it had a peppery smell that was very pleasant and AG was done with his first glass and appetizers and on to his second glass before he could give me his thoughts on its aroma.  He really liked how it tasted as he loaded up chip after chip with salsa and sipped the Shiraz with it.

We all agreed that the spicy flavour of the Shiraz stood up extremely well to the intense flavours and heat from our appetizers.  My friends AG and KG both said that the Shiraz was a smooth red wine with a clean and spicy flavour.  AG said it tasted almost smoky and KG said it went down a little too easily because we had polished off most of the bottle very early into the evening.

The recommended pairing on the label was robust dishes of game, poultry and red meat but I think our spicy selection was a great compliment to the smoky, earthy and spicy flavour notes of this wine.  One of the best features, from my perspective,  was how smooth the wine tasted.  Often, red wines can have an almost acidic or sour taste and this wine, while not sweet was refreshing and pleasing to the palette.

As we all settled on to the sofas, the three of cracked open the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to sip while we got caught up.  It was an easy sipping wine all on its own and could have benefitted from a little bit of time to chill but was still very fruity and silky.

The nose and flavours of the white were an extreme departure from the red wine.  It was far more subtle and AG commented that it reminded him of the wines they had tried in Europe on their recent trip there.  AG said that the flavour was the right balance of sweet and dry and that he was surprised that it was not a French wine.  I told him that he was just trying to show off for the blog!

I have to say, the gulab jamuns definitely tasted that much more delicious accompanied by the Sauvignon Blanc but I am sure it would do well with a pasta dish or seafood as well.  All in all the company was the star of the night but AG, KG and I definitely enjoyed the night a little bit more thanks to contributions from the wine.

If they are in your budget and you want to try a new red or white wine with some friends I would definitely recommend that you give the Durbanville Hills Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz a try.