Back in Business
This is sort of a bonus to my three part Holiday Gift Guide.
Welcome to “Toronto: Down Under”, a celebration of Australian Cuisine.
Luke Hayes-Alexander will be coming down from Kingston for THREE DAYS ONLY to cook some of the great cuisine he experienced on his two week trip to Australia, where he staged in some of the best restaurants in Sydney. Australian John Placko, one of the most knowledgable and skilled modernist chefs in the Toronto will be there. Rounding out the team will be Matt Kantor, of Secret Pickle, Little Kitchen and Ghost Chef.
It was announced today shortly before 10am and within two hours tickets were 50% gone. Don’t miss your chance! Get more information and buy tickets here. Do it now before they’re gone. They make a great holiday gift for you and your significant other, or for that Aussie-lover in your life (which, if you and/or your significant other are Aussie is the same person).
(Then come back and read around my blog some more. I like when people stay.)
Edit: I forgot to hit “send” on this yesterday and as of about 10:30am Thursday there are fewer than 10 tickets left.
Still struggling to find that chanukah, Christmas, Festivus or just regular old “I like you” gift? Here’s my three part series. Keep this in mind for birthdays and anniversaries too (my birthday is coming up in a little over two months, ahem). Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.
These are some books that I’ve acquired in the last few months, some of which I’ve written about previously:
All books in this section are worth having on your shelf for a variety of reasons.
A shortened version of Amazon’s description:
Eleven Madison Park is one of New York City’s most popular fine-dining establishments, and one of only a handful to receive four stars from the New York Times.
ELEVEN MADISON PARK: THE COOKBOOK is a sumptuous tribute to the unforgettable experience of dining in the restaurant, where the latest culinary techniques are married with classical French cuisine. The book features more than 125 sophisticated recipes, arranged by season, adapted for the home cook, and accompanied by stunning full-color photographs…. ELEVEN MADISON PARK is sure to be one of the most talked-about cookbooks of 2011.
Most of the recipes are involved but this is a beautiful book. It’s basically food porn. As the authors advise in the introduction to the book, “If you never cook, this is probably a book that should stay on your coffee table. Many recipes require a significant time commitment, a certain level of skill, a reasonably equipped kitchen and a healthy dose of persistence. That said, every recipe has been tested multiple times by both members of our team and by friends of the restaurant. If you follow them exactly, they will work, and you will be rewarded for you efforts.”
In other words, it’s a coffee table book.
The images in Eleven Madison Park seem to leap off the page. For example:
Eleven Madison Park is a hefty tome. At nearly 400 pages, it feels like it’s around 8lbs (though I haven’t lifted a weight in the gym in awhile so my sense of weight might be off) and is 12 inches tall, 11 inches wide. This is one with which to whack burglars (on TV they always use baseball bats). The recipes are organized by season and are intended to be cooked in the season in which they’re presented.
Description from Amazon
(I’d have shortened it, but it was too good to.)
Reviving the inspiring message of M. F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf— written in 1942 during wartime shortages—An Everlasting Meal shows that cooking is the path to better eating.
Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks.
In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Tamar shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s great chefs know: that great meals rely on the bones and peels and ends of meals before them.
She explains how to smarten up simple food and gives advice for fixing dishes gone awry. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery, and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully.
By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have. An Everlasting Meal is elegant testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today.
This isn’t really a cookbook, though I’ve put it in the “cookbook” section of this article. Modeled on M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf and written in descriptive prose, Tamar Adler has produced a book about eating affordably, responsibly and well. Every chapter has an essay but not every chapter has a recipe. An Everlasting Meal is the exact opposite of Eleven Madison Park. Both are enjoyable for their own reasons and both add something to your bookshelf. Foreword by Alice Waters.
Partial description from Amazon:
In his more than sixty years as a chef, Jacques Pépin has earned a reputation as a champion of simplicity. His recipes are classics. They find the shortest, surest route to flavour, avoiding complicated techniques.
Now, in a book that celebrates his life in food, the world’s most famous cooking teacher winnows his favourite recipes from the thousands he has created, streamlining them even further.
Essential Pépin spans the many styles of Jacques’s cooking. Many of the recipes are globally inspired, from Mexico, across Europe, or the Far East.
In the accompanying searchable DVD, Jacques shines as a teacher, as he demonstrates all the techniques a cook needs to know. This truly is the essential Pépin.
Essential Pepin is beautiful and educational. As blogged about here. Essential Pepin is useful for cooks of all levels.
Euell Gibbons was one of the few people in this country to devote a considerable part of his life to the adventure of “living off the land.” His greatest pleasure was seeking out wild plants, which he made into delicious dishes. The plants he gathers and prepares in this book are widely available everywhere in North America. There are recipes for delicious vegetable and casserole dishes, breads, cakes, and twenty different pies. He also shows how to make numerous jellies, jams, teas, and wines, and how to sweeten them with wild honey or homemade maple syrup.
I blogged about Stalking the Wild Asparagus here. I had a library copy, returned it, and then bought a copy from Amazon. It was subsequently loaned to a friend who facetiously reprimanded me a couple weeks later because he’s reading it now and it’s not foraging season. I’m okay with that. He’ll just have to get his own copy. Or, if he steals mine, buy me one.
As blogged about here.
Description from Amazon:
If there is a frontier beyond organic, local, and seasonal, beyond farmers’ markets and sustainably raised meat, it surely includes hunting, fishing, and foraging your own food. A lifelong angler and forager who became a hunter late in life, Hank Shaw has chronicled his passion for hunting and gathering in his widely read blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, which has developed an avid following among outdoor people and foodies alike. Hank is dedicated to finding a place on the table for the myriad overlooked and underutilized wild foods that are there for the taking—if you know how to get them.
In Hunt, Gather, Cook, he shares his experiences both in the field and the kitchen, as well as his extensive knowledge of North America’s edible flora and fauna. With the fresh, clever prose that brings so many readers to his blog, Hank provides a user-friendly, food-oriented introduction to tracking down everything from sassafras to striped bass to snowshoe hares. He then provides innovative ways to prepare wild foods that go far beyond typical campfire cuisine: homemade root beer, cured wild boar loin, boneless tempura shad, Sardinian hare stew—even pasta made with handmade acorn flour.
I still haven’t given it a thorough read because library books and other books keep distracting me. I’m still reading my way through my liquor cabinet.
Partial description from Amazon
When school teacher Mrs. Q forgot her lunch one day, she had no idea she was about to embark on an odyssey to uncover the truth about public school lunches. Shocked by what her students were served, she resolved to eat school lunch for an entire year, chronicling her experience anonymously on a blog that received thousands of hits daily, and was lauded by such food activists as Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, and Marion Nestle. Here, Mrs. Q reveals her identity for the first time in an eye-opening account of school lunches in America. Along the way, she provides invaluable resources for parents and health advocates who wish to help reform school lunch, making this a must-read for anyone concerned about children’s health issues.
I read some of her blog in 2010. I may have commented once or twice. This book is a great first-person account of what a lot of people know is a flaw in school meals. It also points to the overall affects of food with little nutritional value that’s served to school children.
Partial description
From farmer Joel Salatin’s point of view, life in the 21st century just ain’t normal. In FOLKS, THIS AIN’T NORMAL, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact.
Salatin understands what food should be: Wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life. And his message doesn’t stop there. From child-rearing, to creating quality family time, to respecting the environment, Salatin writes with a wicked sense of humor and true storyteller’s knack for the revealing anecdote.
This is what I said about the book last month: “Humourous, astute (though with a bit of “kids these days!” ranting that may seem cantankerous to some) and inspiring with action items for change at the end of each chapter.”
Product Description
From the author of the bestselling Red, White and Drunk All Over, this book will amuse and enthrall with its character sketches of obsessive personalities, travel to lovely settings, mouth-watering descriptions, of food and wine, “hidden” wine education and neurotic humor. Standing firmly against wine snobbery by insisting that good wine doesn’t have to be expensive, award-winning wine writer Natalie MacLean travels the globe on an uncompromising quest to find fabulous wine bargains.
You can read my post about it here. I’m still reading my way through my liquor cabinet with stops to read library books. I think that I need to use the holiday break TV hiatus as my opportunity to read more.
Other gift guides online:
WISHING YOU A HEALTHY, HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON FULL OF GOOD BOOKS, PATIENCE AND LOVE.
Note: Some of the images didn’t make the transition when I changed my blog hosts. I’m in the process of replacing them.
Still struggling to find that chanukah, Christmas, Festivus or just regular old “I like you” gift? Here’s my three part series. Keep this in mind for birthdays and anniversaries too (my birthday is coming up in a little over two months, ahem)! Part 1 is here, part 3 is here. I’ve added some suggestions since this guide was originally posted.
CSA membershipBuy someone a farm share for the spring/summer (and in some cases, fall and/or winter) season. Pay the farm at the start of the season, receive produce from them. For more information on Ontario CSAs check this site. My own summer & fall CSA is Everdale Farm. In Toronto there’s The Cutting Veg, Culinarium, Kawartha Ecological Growers (winter shares available); and Leslieville Market Winter Food Mix through the winter. Feel free to share your favourite year-round CSAs in the comments.
Farms such as Stoddart Family Farm have meat CSAs for pasture-raised meat.
Monforte Dairy offers a cheese CSA.
Companies such as Front Door Organics, Mama Earth Organics, and Green Earth Organics. I’m not endorsing any of them specifically because I have no experience nor connections (I’m guessing they’re all good). You can google “organic home delivery” to find one that’s right for you.
Of course! Canning!
Product description of Home Canning Starter Kit:
This kit contains the essential tools needed for beginning canners or for those looking to upgrade their equipment. It includes a starter set of home canning recipes and a home canning “how to” DVD (English/French).
Set of 12: waterbath canner, canning rack, jar lifter, funnel, lid lifter, bubble remover/headspace gauge, 4 mason jars with lids, pectin, and canning DVD
Capacity: 21 quarts/20 litres
Materials: Enamel canner
You can get one from Amazon, Canadian Tire or at hardware stores. Because they’re an occasional use item, they’re good for sharing with friends. I’ve had two friends offer to loan me theirs but I didn’t get around to taking the first friend up on his offer in the summer and the second friend offered just recently.
Partial description:
Make natural nutrition-packed sauerkraut and pickled vegetables with this ceramic crock pot from Germany! Sauerkraut has been recognized as one of the healthiest foods, and was even used on sailing ships to protect sailors from scurvy.
You can make delicious home-made fermented vegetables in 4-6 weeks.
See the range of ceramic fermentation crock pots and full product descriptions here and buy it online from Upaya Naturals.
You need a canning book, like this one by Sarah B. Hood.
(An upcoming part of this gift guide is exclusively books.)
Want to make your own preserves pretty? Read Well Preserved’s series, Pimp That Preserve.
Also from Well Preserved:
Educational art work from Well Preserved!
Buy it here.
They’ll be adding more to the store.
Two of my favourites, both Canadian, are David’s Tea and NourishTea. These are really the only two brands that I drink these days.
Montreal-based David’s Tea has outlets across Canada. They sell hundreds of teas and tea accessories. I own two of their “perfect tea mugs” (one at home, one at the office), which has a strainer for loose tea built in and a lid that flips over to hold the used strainer. I’ve also had many of their tea collections and own a variety of flavours in different containers & tins. They sell custom tins that you can personalize. Read their holiday gift guide and the products that they’re promoting as their favourite holiday gifts. Buy in store or online.
NourishTea is a brand of loose-tea that you’ll find in retail stores (store finder). The company offers authentic loose tea mostly made from certified Organic tea leaves. This is straightforward tea. Just the leaves. Though David’s Tea is one of my favourites, the inclusion of “natural flavouring” on their ingredient list is bothersome. NourishTea doesn’t need an ingredient list. They make good quality tea that should please everyone. The company also has a strong charitable component. 1% of nourishtea’s net proceeds in 2011/2012 will be donated to charities including Action Against Hunger.
Interested in giving a NourishTea gift basket? Click here.
I have a number of varieties of NourishTea, and also own their paper tea filters. Why not combine products from both companies? Try NourishTea teas in a “perfect mug” from David’s Tea.
You’ve read about it in Edible Toronto and Toronto Life. I’ve been eating it for over a year. From Toronto Life: “[Rossy] Earle hand-picks a proprietary blend of peppers and combines them with aromatic garlic, scallions, cilantro, parsley and other spices. Tart lemon and cider vinegar give the sauce a mild sharpness, which is mellowed out by fruity olive oil.” Yeah, what they said.
In Toronto you can find it at Pimenton (681 Mount Pleasant Rd.) or Culinarium (705 Mount Pleasant Rd.). I know this lacks convenience for a lot of people, so you can email Rossy to see if she can make something work for you.
Update: Rossy’s hot sauce was also mentioned in a BlogTO gift guide, as recommended by Beast chef/owner Scott Vivian.
Offering food tours (groups and private), cooking classes, corporate team building activities and more, a Culinary Adventure Company gift certificate makes a great gift. Until January 6th, 10% of every gift certificate purchased will be donated to Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue program. Purchase a gift certificate & you could win a pop up dinner for 12 ($1200 Value)
Dining at a discountTwo new discount websites have recently launched.
DiningDateNight gives you access to exclusive offers at top restaurants, where you get 30% off your entire bill. Here’s how it works:
21 restaurant. 1 year. 1 card. 21 restaurants are participating in Tuesday Foodie which offers a 30% discount on food, every Tuesday in 2012. 1200 available. Learn more.
For the vegan on your list (or person who likes vegan food because some of us appreciate it all), Hogtown Vegan is offering gift certificates. Find them on Facebook and Twitter (I learned of the gift certificates via Twitter). Read reviews at Toronto Life and BlogTO.
Instead of a gift certificate to a store or restaurant, try a gift card for an experience. Choose from categories that include body and Soul, Getaway, Gourmet, Wine & more. See the Samba Days website for more.
This one is a late addition to this list because until I saw it on their Facebook page, I forgot that they sell gift baskets.
Give a gift that is truly unique while introducing your family, friends and colleagues to amazing Canadian foods. Check out this year’s basket selection to learn more. Free delivery to anywhere in Canada.
A gift basket from Forbes will appeal to locavores but also your relatives and friends in the U.S. and abroad who want something “exotic” from your home land. BlogTO recently asked some local authorities on food and drink for their wish lists of locally produced or locally available gifts and Forbes was mentioned in the resulting piece.
I have a few of their products and don’t buy maple syrup from anyone else. It’s #3 dark or nothing. I buy my brother-in-law a gallon every 2-3 months. He cooks with it and also decants it into a smaller bottle, keeping the gallon in the freezer. I’ve recently bought pickled spruce tips for one friend (birthday gift), mushroom mustard for another (hostess gift) and have tasted pretty much every product they sell. A recent taste of the wild strawberry jelly took me to a special place. I think I saw unicorns there.
If this inspires you and yours to forage on your own, part 3 of this gift guide has some books you should read. In fact, my copy of Stalking the Wild Asparagus is currently in the possession of a Forbes employee (*wave*), and the book was recommended to me by Mr. Forbes himself.
The holidays are upon us. Why not give someone a thoughtful gift that will feed their body or soul? I’ve been working on this list for a couple of weeks.
Gift certificate for The Love in the Kitchen/Meghan Telpner products.
Two years ago I bought my mom and sister gift certificates to Meghan Telpner’s The Love In The Kitchen Academy for mother’s day. The workshop that we attended together, the one about superfoods, changed my sister’s life.
This voucher is good anytime and can be used to make purchases online, or in person for any classes, workshops or products.
Support FoodShare’s great work this holiday season by sharing with others. The sale of FoodShare gift baskets support a variety of Kitchen Programs including: the GoodFood Café, Community Kitchens and Baby and Toddler Nutrition. The contents of these baskets have been grown and prepared in FoodShare’s programs. Holiday gift baskets are available in 3 sizes. Custom baskets available.
Looking for a meaningful holiday gift for your staff, clients, friends or teachers? Contribute $25 to The Stop towards the purchase a food hamper for a family, and we’ll send your giftee a lovely card (drawn by kids in our After School Program!) telling them you’ve made a donation in their name. Stress-free holiday shopping that makes a difference!
More here (technically the deadline for sending names has passed but maybe you can still get in).
More holiday gift guide posts to follow.
