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celebrating apple month at home tasting room

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Hubby and I had date night earlier this month celebrating apple month.  BC Tree Fruits hosted an event at Home Tasting Room where, along with other bloggers and media, we sampled apple inspired food prepared by Chef Rogers.

I’m not a huge fan of beets but the organic beet and apple salad with fresh Calgarian mozza and house grown lemon basil was amazing.

The swiss gougere with Ambrosia apple mousse and candied pecans was a favourite among the crowd.  So light and tasty!

The Noble Farms duck and apple pastilla with ambrosia apple gastrique was hubby’s favorite.  The combination of the apple and the duck in the flaky pastry was definitely a winner.

Another tasty bite with the Braeburn apple and fig tart with organic cold smoked cheddar and sailor jerry cream.

We were also able to view a cooking demo where Chef Rogers prepared a Sous vide Broek Acres pork belly.  He was also kind enough to prepare a non-pork version for us, AAA Alberta beef hanger with apple foam and puree.  Delicious!

It was a great evening tasting the delicious bites and learning about the apple picking and production process.  One of my favourite tips provided by Darcel, a nutritionist with BC Tree Fruits and a grower herself, was putting grated apple in various dishes.  Any way to sneak in fruits and veggies is always a good thing.  From the delicious food that we sampled, it was evident that apples can be incorporated into any kind of dish, both sweet and savoury.  Check out the BC Tree Fruits website for lots of apple recipes.

You have until the end of the month to participate in BC Tree Fruits “Artful Apple” contest and win prizes like an Okanagan vacation.

homemade ferrero chocolates

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Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate the day of love, I made hubby one of his favorite chocolates – Ferrero Rocher. 

It was ridiculously easy to make and so good! The recipe for this is all over the web.  You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make the chocolates.  Just hazelnut wafers, crushed hazelnuts, nutella and chocolate.

Hubby loved these and thought they tasted even better than the real thing!  A little dangerous to be able to make these so easily at home.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share a line from one of my favourite poems, Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way.

Homemade Ferrero Chocolates
10 hazelnut wafer sticks
1 cup roasted hazelnuts, chopped
2/3 cup Nutella
1 cup chocolate chips
2 tb whipping cream

Crush the wafers and mix it together with the hazelnuts.  Once combined, fold in the Nutella.  Chill the mixture until firm, about 1 hour.  Form small balls and chill again for another hour.

Melt the chocolate and whipping cream in a double boiler.  Dip the hazelnut balls into the chocolate until covered.  Garnish with more hazelnuts if you wish.  Enjoy!

caramel popcorn twists

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Every good road trip has to have a big bag of something salty.  Last year, when we drove to Kelowna, we took along a bag of popcorn twists.  These twists, which just melt in your mouth, take me back to my childhood.  I noticed a recipe on the bag for caramel popcorn twists and put it in the back of my mind to make one day.  Well, one day was today.  I made up a batch of these and they were so  good! I didn’t want them fully covered with caramel, so I halved the recipe.  This way, each popcorn twist was only half covered and allowed you to get some sweet and some salty in every bite.

Want to try some?  These will be at the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale being held this weekend at Casel Marche.  I will also be baking up some whipped shortbread with almonds and chocolate as well as some almond roca shortbread.  Hope to see you all there!

Caramel Popcorn Twists
Taken from the back of a bag of Old Dutch Popcorn TwistsPlace one 175 g bag of Old Dutch Popcorn Twists™ into a large roasting pan and pre-heat the oven to 250°F.

In your largest pot, combine 3/4 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup corn syrup.

Bring the above ingredients to a rolling boil for about 2 minutes. Then stir in 1 tsp of baking soda. This will cause your caramel to foam. Allow the foam to cook slightly then remove from heat.

Pour the caramel over the popcorn twists and stir until completely mixed.Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 45 minutes, stirring your mixture every 10-15 minutes.

Remove from oven, pour on wax paper. Allow to cool slightly, break apart & enjoy!

moon palace shortbread

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It is quite obvious to anyone that knows me how much of a sweet tooth I have.  To find that the resort had little shortbread cookies everywhere for us to enjoy was quite the treat!  Some of these were chocolate, some had nuts, others had coconut.  They were so yummy.

One of the chefs, Manuel, was kind enough to share how to make these delectable cookies.  He was very sweet and worked with the hostess to translate the recipe for me.  I haven’t made these yet myself at home.  I’m afraid they won’t last long if I do!

Moon Palace Shortbread

2.5 cups sugar
1 pound butter
5 eggs
5 cups flour
1 TB baking powder
splash of vanilla

Cream together the sugar and butter and until fluffy.  Add in the eggs, one at a time followed by the vanilla.  Add the flour and baking powder and mix until the dough comes together.  Bake at 350 degrees until the cookie sets but doesn’t brown.  Makes lots!

a week in paradise

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We just spent a week in paradise.  As temperatures fell in Calgary and we finally started experiencing winter, we flew to Cancun and enjoyed the sun, sand and heat in the Mayan.

We traveled with some close friends who had 2 kids – a 3 year old like Q, and a 1 year old.  Q and J kept each other company – they are the best of friends. They have a total love/hate relationship and as much as they fight and compete, they are lost without each other. After having a shouting match in Tulum in front of a group of tourists, over who was more mad at the other, one lady remarked how they were like a married couple.

As with most all-inclusives, you pray that the resort you’re staying at has good food.  Really, if the food is good, who cares about anything else.  The Moon Palace had the best food, and lots of variety.

Even with the variety, I was drawn to the simplicity of the fried tortilla chips, fresh Mexican sauce and creamy guacamole.  I had this at every meal!  The Mexican sauce was pico de gaillo with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime.  I think I got my daily dose of veggies just from this.

The chefs at Moon Palace were kind enough to share a couple of dessert recipes with me.  I am excited to share these in upcoming posts.

 
 
 

biscuit pudding

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It’s so nice to have my parents back home after their five weeks away in India.  Q was lost without them and couldn’t wait for their return.  We wanted to make them something to welcome them back home.  One of my dad’s favourite desserts is biscuit pudding and my aunt happily shared the recipe.

Biscuit Pudding

It’s the simplest thing to put together and is a comforting dessert.  The Maria biscuits absorb the sweet milk making it almost cakey in texture.  Kinda sorta like tiramisu, without the coffee.  The layers of cookies, whipping cream and nuts is comfort in a bowl.

Biscuit Pudding

biscuit pudding
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Ingredients

  • 1 package Maria biscuits
  • 1 can of evaporated milk
  • 1/2 can of condensed milk
  • 4 cups heavy cream
  • 1 TB icing sugar
  • 1 cup nuts
  • grated chocolate

Instructions

  1. Mix the evaporated milk and the condensed milk together.
  2. Whip the cream and the sugar to make whipping cream.
  3. Line a 13" x 8" dish with a layer of biscuits.  Pour 1/3 of the milk mixture over the cookies. 
  4. Cover the layer with 1/3 of the whipping cream and 1/3 of the nuts. 
  5. Grate some chocolate over the nuts. 
  6. Repeat for another 2 layers.  Refrigerate over night.
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maple cinnamon granola

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On the search for a healthy snack, I thought granola would be the perfect thing.  With all the nuts and seeds, I figured it would be yummy to munch on, while providing energy for us and the little guy throughout the day.  When searching for recipes, however, I realized that many were full of large quantities of oil.

I was excited when I found Ellie Krieger’s Nutty Granola recipe because it had no oil!  Just some good old maple syrup and some cinnamon were used to create this delicious snack.  I added some seeds and coconut to the mix and was able to put it in the oven in minutes.  Q loved the granola and happily picked through it naming all the nuts and seeds.  A fun protein-packed snack for a toddler (and his mamma).

Maple Cinnamon Granola
Adapted from Ellie Krieger

3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine the oats, nuts, seeds, raisins with the maple syrup, salt and cinnamon. Spread the mixture onto a greased baking sheet and bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.