Anybody seen this Infomercial?

So....I was watching the Food Network yesterday and saw this informercial...

Any thoughts?

It's a company based out of Brampton. It's a pretty cool idea but is it any cheaper than buying blueberry plants at a nursery or even Home Depot or something?

Ontario Asparagus is Out!

As per usual, I went to the market on Saturday....but this time I was so excited to see that Ontario asparagus was already available! There was none last weekend but this weekend many vendors had some (grown in Courtland, ON). I could hardly contain my excitement for this pretty green vegetable. I've really missed green vegetables!

Asparagus is very high in folic acid and is a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A & C, and thiamin. In fact, asparagus is one of the most nutritionally well-balanced vegetables in existence. It leads nearly all produce items in the wide array of nutrients it supplies in significant amounts for a healthy diet (see: http://www.asparagus.com/).

I'll be posting a few asparagus recipes in the next few weeks but here are a couple of that I made tonight:

Cheesy Asparagus Risotto

• 1 Ontario onion - diced
• 1 Ontario carrot - diced
• 1 tbsp Ontario butter and olive oil
• 1 carton chicken broth (4-5 cups)
• bunch of Ontario asparagus
• 1 cup arborio rice
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Canadian Parmesan Cheese (available at Covent Garden Market)
• 2 triangles of Light Laughing Cow cheese

To begin, prepare the asparagus. Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus and set aside. Cut the remaining asparagus in pieces. Place the tough ends of the asparagus in a pot with the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 15 minutes to flavour the stock. Remove the asparagus ends. In a heavy-bottom saucepan sweat the onion and carrot in the butter/oil mixture. Add the rice and stir well to coat each grain with butter. Add one ladle-full of stock and cook, stirring constantly, until it is absorbed. Repeat until there is only spoonful of stock left. Add the asparagus pieces and remaining stock to the pan and stir until it is absorbed. Season to taste and stir in the cheeses.

My husband said this was one of the best risotto's I've ever made. I tend to agree!

Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto

Wrap your asparagus spears with a thin slice of prosciutto. Drizzle with olive oil and grill on medium-high heat on the BBQ for a few minutes on each side. It's so easy but it's hard not to burn the ends of the spears. I burned them tonight but they were still very good.

This is a wonderful recipe that my good friend Jen has made me on several occasions. Now, I make it all the time too.

Unfortunately, the prosciutto was not local but.....it was so worth it! Apparently there are some local producers but I'll need to look into this and publish my findings.

A Rhubarb Fool and Real Food!

I was able to purchase my first little bunch of rhubarb last weekend and was so very excited to try out a Rhubarb Fool. For one reason or another I had never heard of this recipe but have since come across it many times in the last year or so. I had to try it!

It's a very simple recipe:

Cut up the rhubarb into small julienned pieces (or bite sized pieces) and put them into a pot. Add the juice of one orange and 1/8 cup of sugar--there is less sugar required because the orange juice adds so much sweetness--yes, yes,.....I know...oranges aren't local..but anything to cut down on the sugar content! Simmer until rhubarb is cooked through but not so mushy that they're falling apart. Let cool in the fridge. In the meantime whip a small carton of whipping cream with some honey until you get peaks. Mix the rhubarb mixture into the whipping cream. That's it!

Now, what I would do differently next time is double the amount of rhubarb I used or use half the amount of whipping cream. I would have liked to have a fuller rhubarb flavour.

This brings me to my next topic of the day--eating 'real' food. People are probably reading this post and thinking 'What? I thought she ate only healthy food? Cream isn't a healthy food!' Again, like my previous post of butter vs. margarine, cream has been given a bad reputation as a 'bad' food, but in reality, it's a 'real' food that has not been processed like the cans or tubs of fat-free or low-fat whipped cream (ingredients: water, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils, sodium caseinate, vanilla extract, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60 and betacarotene).

Actually, I've just finished a great book by Nina Planck called "Real Food: What to Eat and Why". I absolutely loved this book and recommend others to read it. In the book she talks about the foods that she ate while growing up on the farm compared to the foods that she began to eat when she moved out onto her own. She began to avoid foods like eggs, butter, oil, etc..
However, by doing so she began avoiding 'real' (or traditional) foods altogether. But once Nina went back to her original roots and began eating foods that she grew up on she actually lost the 25 pounds that she gained while living on her low-fat vegan diet. In the book she also talks about how many illnesses and diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes began to increase when everyone's consumption of the 'bad' foods declined. She also provides a lot of information and research showing that fats and cholesterol are actually good for the body.

Anyways, it's a very good book and I definitely think it's worth reading.

Here's a link to an interview: http://www.foodrenegade.com/an-interview-with-nina-planck/

Salad Season is almost here...

Wow! It was a beautiful day today! Actually, this whole month has really been unnaturally warm for this time of the year. The benefit of this weather though is that the greenhouse produce grew really quickly and there is even some field spinach and rhubarb ready to be picked.

So because of the abundance of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other greens (like spinach and mizuna) it's led to an earlier salad season too.

Here is a pasta salad recipe that I tried earlier this week:

-fresh and local pasta noodles -- Glenda's at the Covent Garden Market has great pasta
-ontario spinach leaves
-ontario tomatoes
-chickpeas
-feta cheese (got mine at Smith's cheese -- Covent Garden Market)
-dressing of your choice

Mix and serve.

While I made this salad I started to wonder....where in the world do chickpeas come from??? After doing a little bit of online research (aka Google) I found that most of the world's chickpeas are grown in India. Oops! I guess my chickpeas are totally NOT local then, eh? Oh well, they're very nutritious and a cheap source of really good protein.

But then I wondered....can they be grown in Ontario? I still don't really know, but I did find a few guys/gals in the UK who have planted some in their gardens and have been successful (see: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/vegging-out/growing-lentils-chickpeas_11998.html). So if they can be grown in a wet/cold climate like the UK then I would assume that they can be grown here too at some extent (??).

There isn't much talk about local legumes in Ontario is there?

An Experiment!

I decided a few months ago that I would try and grow some of my own vegetables this summer. I have never had a garden before so this is definitely going to be a something new for me. What says local eating more than growing your own food? Right?

My husband is going to get started on the raised beds next weekend so that I can start planting the peas and such! Because we have a smaller yard we are going to do a raised bed along our shed and the fence line with 2' width or so. We couldn't possibly fit a square or rectangular shaped garden without sacrificing much of our yard or my daughter's play space. And, the area with the most sun is along that fence line so it works out.

I planted my indoor seeds about 3 weeks ago and am happy to announce that they're actually sprouting. I'm so excited! Every little milestone will be such a big deal for me. I just can't believe that these tiny little seeds will actually grow into something that we can eat! I know, I know...this is where all of our food comes from but for me to be able to grow them myself is exciting. My biggest fear is that I'll be a total flop and will end up with nothing edible. This year will be trial and error and next year I will perhaps know what I'm doing. Or maybe I'll be successful. Who knows?

I'll be planting a little bit of everything (one or two plants of each) and we'll see where that takes me. I'll figure out what works and what doesn't.

So far, indoors, I've got peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon, onion, chives, thyme, lettuce and cucumber. They've all sprouted so far with the exception of thyme and cucumber (??). My peppers finally made an appearance in the last couple of days.

This is what my sprouts looked like after the first week:

And the third week:

Later I also plan on planting some peas, beans, radishes, green onions, some more herbs (parsley, cilantro) and a couple of corn stalks (which will be separate from the main garden).

I'll update my progress as everything comes along. Wish me luck!

Chocolate, Chocolate, and more Chocolate

So Easter has passed once again. And, once again, we have ended up with a huge load of chocolate. Only child/only grandchild, etc.. = spoiled child. Now, the question is....what in the world am I going to do with all of this chocolate?

Other than doing a fondue or making chilled fruit dipped in chocolate, what else can I make? The hubby is gone for the weekend so it's a girls weekend. I've got plans to make chocolate-dipped bananas for our movie night on Friday but that's about it....I refuse to buy strawberries until they're in season here so I'm a little limited on the fruit right now...

Seriously!!! Look at it all!! And we only got her one chocolate--the rest came from other people!

Any suggestions? And, remember, I'm looking for somewhat clean/seasonal recipes LOL (no pressure!)...