Food Mamma

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win with london drugs photolab!

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A big thank you to London Drugs for helping me celebrate Food Mamma’s anniversary!

I am a big believer in trying to capture the moment. I know I drive everyone crazy taking pictures of everything, not only the food. It’s always fun looking back, the pictures bringing back memories of precious times.

Want a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from London Drugs Photolab?  Use it to make prints, enlargements, photobooks, mugs, calendars and more! There are a few ways to enter below. Winner will be chosen on Tuesday, April 1st. Good luck!

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win with cococo chocolatiers!

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It’s my birthday! I will be doing some celebrating with chocolate so it seems like the perfect day for this giveaway.

A big thank you to Cococo Chocolatiers, owners of Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut, for helping me celebrate Food Mamma’s anniversary!

Ah chocolate! The perfect thing to celebrate a happy occasion or to make a bad day better.

Want a chance to win a gift basket from Cococo Chocolatiers, owners of Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut?  There are a few ways to enter below. Enter to win an amazing chocolate basket filled with their signature copper ballotin
box, handcrafted chocolate moulds, baking ingredients and of course
treats for kids.  Winner will be chosen on Wednesday, March 27th.  Good luck!

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fish and chips

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To Q, St. Paddy’s day reminds him of milkshakes, like the ones he made in preschool a couple years ago. To me, it reminds me of the times I’d go to the pub and watch an old friend and her celtic band. While there, my favourite thing to eat was fish and chips.

Last month, to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday, we decided to have a fish and chips party. She loves fish so it seemed like the perfect meal to celebrate her special day. My sister-in-law made an awesome fish ceviche, a recipe I’ll have to snag and share.

The batter was nice and crisp and the fish turned out amazing! We cheated with the fries and bought the coated ones that we love. Served along side tartar sauce and sriracha, we happily filled our bellies.

Fried Fish

4 pounds cod
4 cups + 1 cup flour
2 TB baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup cold water
2 cups + club soda
salt
pepper

Combine the flour (4 cups), baking powder, eggs, spices and cold water. Add the club soda until you get a nice thin batter.

Dredge the fish in the flour and then in the runny batter and fry until golden.

apple pie with a cheddar crust…for pi day!

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It’s Pi Day – giving me a great excuse to make a pie. I’ve had this on my list of things to make and what better day to make it.

Sugar and cinnamon tossed apples are baked within a cheesy, buttery crust. The sweet and savoury combo is definitely a win!

Apple Pie with a Cheddar Crust

Cheddar Crust
From Martha Stewart

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Pulse flour and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds.  Drizzle 1.4 cup water evenly over mixture. Pulse until mixture just begins to hold together (dough should not be wet or sticky). If dough is too dry, add more water, 1 TB at a time, and pulse. Add cheese; pulse until combined.

Shaped into 2 disks, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes or up to overnight.

Filling:

5 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and sliced
2 TB lemon juice
1/2 brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Finish:

1 egg
2 TB water

Combine the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, flour and spices.

On a floured board, roll out pastry, using your pie plate as a guide.
Place the first circle in the pie plate and fill with filling. Top with
the second crust. Fold bottom pastry over the top and crimp the edges.
Using a pastry brush, brush the crust with the egg and water mixture and add some vents.

Bake at 375 F for about an hour, until the crust is nice and golden.

win with castello!

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A big thank you to Castello Canada for helping me celebrate Food Mamma’s anniversary!

We go through a lot of cheese at our house. We always have a variety on hand to please our palates.
It’s the perfect snack or great to add to a dish – from goat cheese to mascarpone, and of course Q’s favourite, brie!

Want a chance to win a fantastic cheese board from Castello?  There are a few ways to enter below.  Winner will be chosen on Wednesday, March 19th.  Good luck!

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banana nutella spring rolls

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While we were in Houston in December, we stopped to have dinner at one of my favourite restaurants, P. F. Changs. We may have gone there a couple times, but more on that later.

We had ordered the banana spring rolls for the three of us to share.  Hubby and I were lucky to get a bite before Q inhaled the dessert. He loved it! How could you not? Bananas enveloped in the crisp spring roll wrapper and topped with ice cream and caramel. Yum!

This was a super easy dessert to make at home. In fact, it was made even better with Nutella!  A spread of chocolate down the middle of a spring roll wrapper, a spear of banana, rolled and fried to perfection. It’s fruit so it’s not bad for you, right?

win with starbucks!

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A big thank you to Starbucks Canada for helping me celebrate Food Mamma’s anniversary!

From mommy dates with peppermint mochas to dates with Q’s friends for steamed raspberry milk, Starbucks is one of my favourites.

Want a chance to win a prize pack from Starbucks?  There are a few ways to enter below. Winner will be chosen on Friday, March 14th.  Good luck!

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shrimp po’boys for mardi gras

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Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday – that’s today! I had many ideas of what I wanted to make for the day. I thought about pancakes and thought about beignets. I decided to be practical though because what I really needed was dinner.

Mardi Gras is largely associated with New Orleans so what better way to honour it than with a classic – Shrimp Po’ Boy.  I found a fantastic recipe in the cookbook “The Southern Po’ Boy” by Todd-Michael St. Pierre.

With activities every evening, I didn’t have a lot of time but luckily this recipe was easy and didn’t take long at all. The cornmeal added a nice crunch to the shrimp. We used crusty rolls, spread with mayo and sriracha, and topped with lettuce, green onions and the crisp shrimp.

Q’s reaction when he took a bite….”Mamma, this is not good….this is awesome!”. So awesome in fact that he came home after martial arts and asked for more. Yay!

Shrimp Po’ Boy
From “The Southern Po’ Boy” by Todd-Michael St. Pierre

Fried Shrimp:
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp onion powder
canola oil, for frying
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal

Make a spice mix by whisking together the salt, cayenne, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper, and onion powder in a small bowl.

Place the shrimp and 1 TB of the spice mix in a large bowl, sprinkle over the shrimp, and toss to coat.  Pour the buttermilk into a medium bowl.  Whish together the flour, cornmeal, and remaining spice mixture in another bowl.  Dip the seasoned shrimp into the buttermilk, then coat with the flour and cornmeal mixture, tapping off the excess. 

Working in batches, fry the shrimp until golden brown, about 4 minutes per batch.

birthday month

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It’s March! It’s a great month with lots to celebrate. Like my birthday. It’s also my blog’s anniversary! Hard to believe it’s been four years since I started documenting the food that we have eaten, either in my kitchen or at a restaurant. In our house, we usually do celebration week but I figured we would celebrate my blog all month long!

Q was only 1 when I started this blog. Over the years, we have spent a lot of time in the kitchen – baking, cooking, spending time together. I love that I am able to capture our moments on this blog.  Looking back at some of the recipes, I can recall what age Q was, if he was sitting in his bumbo while I cooked or whether he was helping me cut vegetables for dinner. This blog has been a fun creative outlet and has introduced me to so many fantastic people!

To help celebrate, I have partnered up with some AMAZING sponsors for some awesome giveaways – a few of the things that I love. A huge THANK YOU to Castello Canada, Cococo Chocolatiers, owners of Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut®, Edo Japan, London Drugs, Second Cup – McKenzie Town Centre and Starbucks Coffee Canada for your very generous prizes.

I figure we should start off the week with a Facebook contest. Check out my page, be sure to like it and follow the instructions to enter.  It’s super easy and you will be entered to win gift cards for Edo Japan!

Thanks for all your support. I’d love to hear from you, what you like, what you would like to see more of – any of your comments would be much appreciated.