One of the things that has been really taking up my time is working on a charity banquet, an Oxfam-style Hunger Banquet to be precise. Given that hunger is indeed a food-related topic, and given that the food served at the banquet will be as local and in season as possible, I thought I’d post something about that here.

That, and to be honest, I want to get the word out on this important event to help make it a success!

From our official media release:

Hunger Banquet to Benefit Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, The Children’s Breakfast Clubs and Oxfam.

On Saturday, November 20, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., the Toronto Zen Centre hosts a Hunger Banquet to bring attention to the world-wide crisis of hunger.

Every day, 24,000 people die of hunger, three-fourths of them children under five. In our country, too, people suffer from hunger. Each month, more than 700,000 Canadians receive food from a food bank.

The Hunger Banquet is held at the Steelworkers Union Hall at 25 Cecil Street. To experience the realities of food and hunger, attendees are streamed by random draw into high, middle, or low income groups to reflect the inequalities of food distribution on our planet. Following a presentation by a guest speaker who will address issues of hunger caused by the recent flooding in Pakistan, everyone is served a full vegetarian dinner. Food has been generously donated by local organic farmers and food suppliers, and prepared by local chefs.

To attend the Hunger Banquet, please make a reservation by November 16th. Call the Toronto Zen Centre, at (416) 766-3400 or send an e-mail to: info@torontozen.org. Space is limited and reservations are required. The minimum contribution is $40 per person to be donated to hunger relief. Canned or boxed food items for an emergency food bank are welcomed. The Hunger Banquet is a volunteer driven initiative and all proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, The Children’s Breakfast Clubs and Oxfam’s hunger relief campaign in Pakistan.

I also want to mention we will also be having a speaker from the Children’s Breakfast Clubs who will address the issue of childhood hunger in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

People who attended the banquet last year were very moved by the presentations and really felt it opened their eyes to the issue of world hunger. Many expressed appreciation for having been able to attend.

On a more personal note, you can also get tickets directly from me (and I’d be glad to tell you more about the event if you’re interested!). Just hit the ‘contact us’ tab for my email address, or use the contact form.

And as for the food that will be served? Well, I am friends with both of the chefs and I can promise you the food will be good… while neither of them currently owns or works at a restaurant, both have been cooking for many years and both currently work as caterers/personal chefs.

Please consider attending this special event, and I would be very grateful if you shared this post with family, coworkers and friends in the GTA.

Rich’s birthday was a week away and I still wasn’t allowed to eat any gluten whatsoever.

Now, this may not seem like a huge deal, except every year that we’ve been together I’ve baked him some sort of birthday treat. Last year it was the caramel cake for the Daring Bakers Challenge. Previous years involved cupcakes or cookies. How can it be a proper birthday without some sort of sweet indulgence? I suppose for this year I COULD have just made him something and not had a chance to sample it myself. Totally possible, not unreasonable. And yet, I didn’t like the sound of that. I’ve been very good on this diet; I’ve eaten very few sweet treats over the last few months. So I should be able to share some treats with my husband on his birthday, right?

Then I remembered Babycakes, the NYC bakery that is well known for its wheat-free (often gluten-free) vegan treats. And that a friend of mine had forwarded me one of Goop’s newsletters, that contained a few of the Babycakes recipes in it. I’d saved the recipes for a special occasion, and well, I think a birthday counts! Given I’m going to always be at some level of gluten or wheat-free, I figured I might as well just invest in buying the book, and went to the bookstore yesterday to grab a copy. I also spent some time skimming reviews of the book online.

The reviews I skimmed told me two things: first, that the recipes weren’t really foolproof, and second, that the frosting recipe isn’t popular – many had trouble getting the consistency correct, and also weren’t fans of the taste. Armed with this knowledge, I set out first thing this morning to whip up a batch of the vanilla cupcakes.

And the result?

I was so pleased to find these are a fantastic replacement for my usual gluten-y vanilla cupcake recipe. I made a few small substitutions to the recipe, in spite of the many warnings that the recipes would only really work if you follow them to the letter. I replaced the garfava flour with half garbanzo, half rice flour, as I couldn’t find garfava flour yesterday, but also because I’m not a fan of the strong bean taste of things made with only bean flour. As well, I didn’t have any lemon zest, so I left it out, instead opting to put in a tablespoon of lemon juice. And finally, I decreased the amount of agave syrup a little bit, replacing some of it with just plain water (to make sure the liquid amounts would still add up).

I noticed as these were baking they looked, well, like cupcakes! I’ve become so used to gluten-free baking over the last few months that I was genuinely surprised by this, as most things I’ve made have had different textures to their gluten-y counterparts. Different doesn’t usually mean bad, per se, just not what I’m used to. But with these cupcakes it was somewhat comforting to know they’d look like they were supposed to.

I found the baking time written in the recipe was a bit off for my oven. When I pulled them out after 22 minutes, they were a bit over-baked. I know, I should have watched them a little more closely, but hey, mea culpa. So if you make these yourself, do keep an eye on them after the 15 minute mark.

Texture and flavour wise, they’re awesome. Lightly vanilla flavoured, good crumb, not weirdly chewy like some gluten-free baking. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

As for the frosting, well…. I decided to go with an old standby, the chocolate recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I figured that hey, I’m not trying to avoid all refined sugar for this, since it is for a birthday, after all.

The cupcake recipe is available over at Epicurious. Note that as written it makes 24, but it halves easily.

Chocolate Buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening, at room temperature
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated, butter-flavoured margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons soy milk (or other vegan milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Using a hand mixer, combine the shortening and margarine. When well combined, sift in the cocoa powder and mix well. Then add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, adding in splashes of the soy milk between additions. One everything is combined, add in the vanilla and beat well for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Makes enough to generously frost a dozen cupcakes, or lightly frost 2 dozen.

Cathy from Aficionado submitted this lovely nasturtium petal syrup. Nasturtiums are a pretty flowering plant that is also often a weed… and Cathy wanted to be economically and environmentally friendly and use it to make something delicious! I love it.

Michelle of Big Black Dog made these lovely Biscuit de Savoie. It’s a jelly roll with her own home canned nectarine raspberry jam, and also includes Drambuie and Cointreau. Yum!

Sarah of What Smells So Good? submitted “Not A-Nutter” Carrot Cake, with carrots from her own backyard, strawberries from a farm local to her, maple syrup from a sugar bush 15 minutes from her house and Canadian canola oil. Now that’s local!

Anna from Baked By Anna submitted this delicious looking Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd Cream. She says she’s in Oxnard, Southern California, where lemons are a staple crop and available year-round. She even has her own lemon tree! She thought a Iight, airy chiffon was a great way to end a meal in these dog days of summer, and I’d have to agree.

Eliza from Notes from my Food Diary baked up this Black-Bottom Peach-Almond tart. She just had to make a peach tart for the summer, and the peaches are, of course, local! I love the peach and almond combo.
 
 
 

Dilek from à la Dilek submitted two tasty baked treats: Caramel Panna Cotta Törtchen and White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake. The picture here is of the Cheesecake, but do visit her blog for more photos! The raspberries are local to her – yellow ones, no less!

Kitty from Fahrenheit 350° submits this Pretty Pear Tarte. She says her mother-in-law has a gorgeous pear tree growing in her garden, so she used those pears for her tarte. Yum!

And of course, I made Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream with local strawberries I picked up from the farmer’s market a 5 minute walk from my house.
 
 
Thanks so much to everyone who participated! All your baking has made me really hungry for something sweet. And a special thanks to Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess, who created the whole Sugar High Friday concept back in 2004.

Next month’s host is Rivka of Not Derby Pie, who has chosen the theme, “Toasted”. Good choice for the colder months ahead! I can imagine lots of toasted nuts are going to get used this month.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Upon arriving we noted the crowd wasn’t quite as big as at the winter version, and we didn’t have to wait at all to get in. The two women running the ticket booth noted there was a short lineup just 30 minutes prior to our arrival, but even so, at the winter festival it was pretty well full from open to close, with at least a 15 minute wait (often longer) at all times.  That said, there were still lots of people in attendance to enjoy what cask ales were on offer this time around.

Ticket prices included a nice souvenir half-pint glass and two beer tickets for $8.  If you wanted food as well, your admission was $12 instead (we saw sausages being enjoyed by many of the attendees), and for $3 you could purchase an additional beer ticket. Not a bad price considering what you’re getting!

Rich and I did our usual method of attack when it comes to these events: each of us got a different ale each time we refilled our glasses and let the other taste, so in total we got to try 6 of the casks. Here’s what we had, complete with some notes:

C’est What? Caraway Rye (County Durham Brewing Company) – Interesting, tasted like caraway rye bread or crackers. A bit of a novelty, not something we’d order regularly.

Cameron’s High Hop Silver – Absolutely the winner of the afternoon for us. Hoppy and a bit sweet and just really good. Great summer beer. Searching Cameron’s blog tells me that this is a special beer they only make occasionally, a blend of their Auburn and Cream ales with the hoppiness kicked up a few notches.

Compass Albion Ale (Better Bitters Brewing Company) – Rich refers to this one as a good session ale. It’s an Extra Special Bitter, easy drinking, and not strongly flavoured (so goes fine with whatever you might be eating).

Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale – One of my favourites on tap at the Vic last year, so I really wanted to try it on cask. It was great, refreshing and with a hint of orange peel flavour. I’ll seek this one out again.

Michael Duggan No.9 IPA - Really good, classic IPA. Well rounded, not just hops.

Neustadt Black Velvet – A novelty beer again – a mixture of cider and stout.  Someone else there commented there was a bit of a shoe polish smell/aftertaste. I can’t say I disagree. Not bad overall but not something I’d ever order again. Hey, I was being adventurous; I ordered this one when they were out of the two I wanted to try instead (Black Oak Summer Saison or F&M Stonehammer Strawberry Light).

We’ve also had a number of the beers on offer previously, so we avoided getting things like Durham’s Hop Head or Hop Addict or Granite’s Hopping Mad, given we wanted to try new things instead. All three of those are great, hoppy beers for those who enjoy that; highly recommended and well worth seeking out. Victory Cafe usually has Hop Addict on tap and often has either Hop Head or Hopping Mad on cask in their regular rotation.

The next Cask Ale Festival should be in January 2010. I’m not rushing away the summer, but I am looking forward to attending the next one!

There were lots of vendors showing off non-food items like home decor and appliances, clothing, cars and bikes, and building supplies, but hey, this is a food blog, so I’m going to talk about the food!

Tons of great food vendors were on hand to display their products and answer questions from the huge crowd. While the show was pretty busy on Saturday afternoon when we arrived, the food sections definitely had the biggest crowds!

Lots of local and semi-local organic and natural food vendors were at the show, with a huge variety of products to try – baked goods, chips, chocolate, soy and rice milk, dairy-free ice cream, sauces and more. We tend to shop at stores that have a lot of these products, so we already knew about most of the companies that were in attendance. Some of our favourites include Sweets from the Earth (love the biscotti), Natur-a (their maple soy ice cream is really good), Shasha (ginger snaps!), Neil Brothers (chips and salsa, plus products from a lot of other companies they distribute here in Ontario), Taste of Nature (granola bars) and Yoso (soy yogurt and soy cream cheese).

This year’s show also had a Fresh Farm Fare section, where local farmers and local chefs were paired together to create amazing food. Tickets were just 2 dollars each, or a pack of 5 for 10 dollars. Most dishes were 1 ticket, although some of the meat stuff was 2, but as vegetarians Rich and I didn’t try those.  What we did try, however, was fantastic.

In the photo below we’ve got Sovereign Farms Early Spring Ontario Greenhouse Panko’d Tomato Goat Cheese Salad, Cottage Cheese Gnocchi with Wild Leeks and Preserved Lemon, and a selection of three Ontario cheeses: feta, goat cheese, and a sharp cheddar.  Ok, so we went for a lot of cheese, what can I say? All three were really lovely, and probably would have cost 10 bucks each if we’d ordered them at a local restaurant, so 2 bucks each was a bargain. My favourite was the goat cheese salad.

After stuffing our faces with food, we decided to check out the Grapes and Hops Tasting Pavilion. Tickets here were also 2 dollars each or 5 for 10 dollars. We assumed that for that price, we’d be getting a little tasting pour of wine or beer, so opted to buy 5 tickets, but soon discovered that most places gave very generous pours for 2 bucks, as you can see from the photos below.

First we tried a Riesling from Inniskillin. It was really lovely, dry and crisp. We’ll probably pick up a bottle or two of this over the summer, as it was the perfect wine for a hot summer day.

Next we decided to get two different rosé wines and compare them. On the right is Ladybug rosé from Malivoire. On the left is Canada’s first biodynamic wine, a Cabernet rosé from Southbrook Vineyards. Both were nice, but we preferred the Cabernet rosé from Malivoire, finding it a bit better rounded and less ‘young’ tasting.

I didn’t get a shot of the beer we sampled, but it was Cameron’s Auburn Ale. It wasn’t anything amazing but it was a nice, drinkable beer, a bit on the sweet side, and with a bolder hoppy taste than we were expecting. A good beer for parties, we figure, since it’s something many will like.

After sampling all that food, beer and wine, we were pretty stuffed, so figured it was time to head out. Overall it was a fun show, and a great place for foodies to get samples and learn about new organic products coming out. We’ll be back next year!

I wrote up the details for the FoodTV blog, Food for Thought.

Thanksgiving here in Canada was the weekend of October 11th.  I had all kinds of plans to bake and cook and blog about it, but something else ended up taking up my time.

My beloved cat Mouse died.

Mouse had been quite ill for a few weeks.  Her liver enzymes were way up and she had a UTI, as well as having a very elevated white blood cell count.  She’d been through liver problems in the summer of 2007 as well, so we were familiar with treating them, and had high hopes she would recover.  To make a long story short, this time she simply couldn’t.  She had always been a fragile little cat, with a sensitive stomach and only one working kidney.  In the end, both her liver and kidney were giving out, and in the end she couldn’t eat, was very weak, and was very, very ill. So on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, we said goodbye to our little Mouseycat, which broke our hearts.

We miss her terribly.  She was such a wonderful little kitty, we were very luck to have her in our lives.  So, even though it’s over a week late, I’m posting my Thanksgiving pumpkin pies in dedication to her.

Pumpkin actually has a bit of a connection to Mouse and her illness.  See, Mouse had not been eating much for weeks, and we were trying anything we could to get her to eat.  We bought stinky food, we warmed it up, we whipped it into a paste, and so on.  Anything to get her to eat a little.  I’d read that sometimes when cats aren’t eating you can try a little plain canned pumpkin to see if they like it.  Apparently it is quite tasty to many cats and it will help get their appetite back.  So I went to the store thinking I’d buy some pumpkin and whatever Mouse wouldn’t eat, I’d use for pies.  Unfortunately, I never did get to see if Mouse would eat pumpkin, since I couldn’t find it at the store that day, and the next day we brought her back into the vet for more tests, right before we found out she wasn’t going to make it.  But I did find some pumpkin at the store on that fateful Saturday, and so I used it to make something tasty for Rich and I.  Hopefully Mouseycat would approve.

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Makes 2 dozen two-bite pies, or 1 dozen two-bite plus 1 small (4 serving) pie

Filling:

1  cup canned pumpkin (plain)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1  egg
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 can Regular or 2% Evaporated Milk (full can is 370ml – use half)

Pie Crust (makes enough for 1 9-inch pie):

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold, salted butter
2 Tbsp cold vegetable shortening
3 Tbsp ice water

For Filling:

Whisk together all ingredients except evaporated milk until smooth.  Then, gradually whisk in the milk until fully combined. Do not worry if it seems runny – it will set while baking. Set aside.

For Crust:

Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl.

Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Break up the shortening and add it in bits to the bowl.  Continue using the pastry blender (or fingers) and cut it into the dough until the mixture becomes small clumps.

Add the ice water and gently mix with a spatula until fully incorporated.

Form dough into a ball, roll in a little flour, and wrap with plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 1 hour.

For pies:

Prepare pie dish or muffin tins by lightly greasing them.  Preheat oven to 350F.

Take dough and roll out on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. For a regular pie, just make sure you roll your dough in a circle and place it into the pie plate.

For mini pies, cut circles of the desired size from the dough, just as if you were cutting cookies with cookie cutters.  I used a pint glass for this purpose.  Take the rounds of dough you just cut and place them into the greased muffin tins.

Pour pie filling into each crust, filling them as full as you can without spilling outside the crust.

Place into pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or until filling is set and crust is lightly browned. For a full size pie you’ll need more time – 60 minutes or so.

The event advertises itself as ‘BYOR’: Bring your own reuseables (plates and cutlery). However, if you don’t have your own, don’t worry – a lot of the food is served on a stick kabob style, or on napkins.

Today is the last day of 2008′s fair.  Unfortunately it looks like it’s going to rain most of the day, but most of the vendors are in tents, so you shouldn’t get too soggy if you want to check it out.

A few more photos are available over on my flickr account.

In previous years, Bluesfest tended to have just the basics of festival food: fries, hot dogs, burgers, and other ‘North American’ basics. As we wandered the grounds on that first night, I was pleased to discover this had changed. An Indian food vendor now offers pakoras, samosas, curry, and butter chicken. At another booth, Caribbean flavours are offered in the form of jerk chicken and roti. Still another had popular ‘Californian Mexican’ dishes, including quesadillas and burritos. Greek gyros and Middle-eastern pitas (falafel, shawarma) round out the cultural selections. I also can’t forget to mention the one that made me laugh a little, given I’m from the Maritimes myself: a ‘PEI food’ booth, featuring lobster rolls. And of course, they’ve got some Ottawa favourites: smoked meat, pizza and fish & chips. Want dessert after your meal? They’ve got Beavertails, chocolate fondue with fruit, and donuts to choose from.

Another great addition has been the wine tent. Previously, only beer and coolers were available, but this year they’ve got a tent set up with a variety of wines available to try. While I wouldn’t say Bluesfest is the best place to have a wine tasting, it is nice to have it as an alternative to the rather mundane beer selections.

Overall, I’m pleased with what choices we had while we were out enjoying some great live music. However, I am glad tonight is the last night: I could really use a healthy, home-cooked meal!