foodmamma

On Saturday, August 11, 2012, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Dairyland mobile team will be at the Calgary Wellness Festival. Festival-goers will have a chance to enjoy a free sample of Dairyland chocolate milk & white organic 2% milk so keep your eyes out for the Dairyland van!

Location: Murdoch Park, Centre Avenue and Ninth Street NE, Calgary, AB
Date: Saturday, August 11, 2012, 2pm to 6pm
On Saturday, August 18, 2012, the Dairyland mobile team will be at Calaway Park. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the Dairyland team will be handing out samples of 250 mL cartons of chocolate milk and poured white organic milk. Their station will be fully equipped with a photo booth and participants are encouraged to pick their favourite Dairyland blue milk moustache, pose and get uploaded to the Dairyland Flickr page!

Location:  Calaway Park, 245033 RR 33, Calgary, Alberta
Date: Saturday, August 18, 2012, 10am to 6pm

For a chance to win a $50 grocery gift card, courtesy of Dairyland milk, let me know what you like to eat with a tall glass of milk.  Either leave a comment below or send me a tweet (@fareenjj).  If leaving a comment, please be sure to leave your email address or email it to me (foodmamma [at] gmail [dot] com) so that I can contact you.  Winner will be chosen on Monday, August 13th at noon MST.

One of my new favourite shows is Bake with Anna Olson.  It’s like a teaching cooking show, where Anna shows you a technique or a skill and builds on it, starting with simple to complex.  When I watched the episode with brownies, I knew I had to make them!

I had a house full of people coming in a couple of hours and had errands to run and cleaning to do, but I still had to squeeze in brownie-making time.  It didn’t take long at all to put these together and all in one pot – a bonus!  I didn’t have time to roast the pecans in butter and salt and just tossed them in but the brownies still tasted really good.  I opted to use a mini muffin tin and made them into two bite brownies.

The aroma of the chocolate filled the house and it was intoxicating!  They were easy to make and so delicious, I know I will be making these again and again.

Fudge Brownies
Adapted from Food Network, Bake with Anna Olson

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a mini muffin pan for 24 brownies.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium pot over medium-low heat, stirring until melted. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar and brown sugar right into the pot. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the vanilla. Stir in the flour and cocoa powder until evenly combined.

Roughly chop the pecans and stir most of them into the brownie batter. Divide the batter into the muffin pans and sprinkle the remainder of the pecans on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops of the brownies lose their shine. Cool the brownies for an hour before removing from the tin.
 

We had a barbecue awhile back and it included a lot of meat!  We really needed to balance out the meal with some carbs and veggies and this was the perfect dish for it – Potato and Green Bean Salad.  It didn’t take long to make and the crisp beans with the cooked potatoes provided great texture.  I served this warm but it can easily be served cold, perfect for taking along to a potluck.

Potato and Green Bean Salad

2 large potatoes
1 pound green beans
2 green onions
1/2 cup mayonaise
2 TB grainy mustard
2 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Boil the potatoes until fork tender.  Blanch the green beans for one minute and immediately place in some ice water.  Combine the mayo, mustard and vinegar and season well.  Add the potatoes, green beans and onions until well coated with the dressing.

It was a fun ten days in Calgary celebrating 100 years of the Stampede.  Everyone knows that when you go to the grounds, you have to try some of the delicious fatty foods that are everywhere you look!  Here are some snapshots of what my friends and I sampled.  I was so excited to find a place that did corn dogs made without pork.  Yahoo!!

It was another crazy weekend but hubby and I managed to squeeze in some time to do some shopping for some work boots for me, for my day job (one of them anyway).  These were the girliest ones I could find without actually buying pink!  I never guessed I would ever need these!

We were both hungry and decided to go for a quick bite. I was wanting some really good salmon and hubby knew just the place – Towa Sushi.

I had been to Towa a couple of times but not for years.  After our experience, I am kicking myself for not going back sooner.  It was so good!

We arrived around 6pm on a Sunday night and it was packed!  
We waited a few minutes before we got seated and ended up at a counter at the window.

Because all I really wanted was salmon, we ordered 3 rolls packed with it.  The first was the Tempura Spicy Salmon Roll.  I loved this roll, in fact, I think it was my favourite of the night.  The salmon was so fresh and there was lots stuffed into the roll.  I liked that the outside had the tempura coating, providing that perfect crunchy texture in contrast to that of the salmon. So good!

We also had just the plain old Spicy Salmon roll and that was delicious as well.  Although the prices for the sushi were on the higher end, you could taste why with every bite.

Our last roll was the Towa Special Roll.  This consisted of salmon, red tuna and white tuna.  This was also stuffed generously with the fish.  The quality of the salmon and tuna was exceptional.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Towa, so satisfying.  I will definitely be back for more.

This is another recipe that I will be submitting for the Hidden Valley Ranch Recipe Challenge.  With it being bbq season, I had to do something that I could just throw on the grill.  My first attempt with these were with regular Ranch dressing but hubby thought the spice of the Spicy Ranch would be the perfect kick.  He was right!  The heat was just enough, not overpowering at all, and even Q was able to eat it.  Out of all the recipes that I had come up with, this was unanimously the favourite amongst my family and friends.  Hope it’s a winner!

Spicy Ranch Shrimp Kebabs

1 pound shrimp, chopped
1/4 cup spicy ranch dressing
1 TB garlic
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced OR 2 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups panko

Mix together shrimp with all the ingredients.  Shape into kebabs using the end of a wooden spoon.  Place on a grill until the shrimp are cooked.