~ A blog for the citizens of Durham Region and others to enjoy, Bowmanville, Newcastle, Ajax,Whitby, Pickering, Clarington. This blog is about Food, Life, Culture
From September 9 to 18,featured restaurants throughout Durham Region will be creating exclusive prix fixe menus and serving up mouth watering dishes. Many of the restaurants will be partnering with local producers to use fresh-from-the-garden ingredients.
“Join us as we discover new dining experiences and enjoy delicious food!”
These make a fabulous Christmas morning treat to go along with an egg white fritatta or they make a delicious, healthy and festive Christmas dessert. I use rich and creamy Greek yogurt from Voskos (available in most grocery stores). Originally from Southern Living magazine.
Ingredients: 4 large Golden Delicious or Jonagold apples 4.5-oz. lowfat granola 1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger 1/4 cup butter, softened 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 3/4 cups apple cider 1/3 cup cherry preserves 1 (8-oz.) container Voskos Greek yogurt
Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cut apples in half, cutting through stem and bottom ends. Scoop out core and pulp, leaving a 3/4-inch shell. Cut about 1/4 inch from opposite side of apple, forming a flat base. 2. Stir together lowfat granola and next 3 ingredients. Spoon mixture into apple shells, pressing to gently pack. Arrange apples in a 13- x 9-inch pan. Pour cider around apples in pan. 3. Bake at 375° for 25 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender, basting twice with pan juices. 4. Place apples on a serving plate. Add preserves to pan juices, and cook, over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, 5 to 6 minutes or until thickened. Serve apples with warm sauce and Voskos Greek yogurt.
Note: Baking times will vary greatly due to the ripeness of your fruit. Begin testing for doneness by inserting a wooden pick directly into the fruit (not granola mixture) after 25 minutes of baking. A wooden pick should be able to pierce the fruit easily with just a little resistance. Overcooking will lead to the fruit losing its natural shape and becoming mushy.
Author Dr. Bernie S. Siegel: Prescriptions for the Soul: Daily Messages of Inspiration, Hope, and Love–Prescription#250
Song of Life
The world didn’t begin with a big bang, but with a silence which was replaced by the symphony of Life, Each of us had the right to choose the instrument by which we create our music and serve to maintain the harmony. We may all play different instruments and make different sounds, Some of which hurt our ears, but when we are all playing the same tune, Inspite of our differences, we are in harmony, and that tune is the song of songs called Life.
Solution of the Day
Join the universal Orchestra: toot your horn, sing your heart out, bang your drum, and harmonize.
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Recently my Peanut & Nut Free Company Frostines Edibles was mentioned in the Toronto Star courtesy of the Omakase Box Company ( pronounced oh-mah-kah-say) founded by Jing Loh & Nancy Huynh his fiancé. To read more about their company click on their logo. Jing was referred to me a couple months ago by the owner who started the company “Savouries- A Online Gourmet Food Company.” The mention of my company was a small one, but every bit of publicity always helps when you have a small business like mine. The only error in the mention is that Jing mentioned my company is in Bowmanville, but no, my company is located in Newcastle, Ontario.
You can read
You can read the full article about Jing’s and Nancy’s company by clicking this link: Toronto Star Article. I wish them both all the best with their new company.
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Happy Birthday Melissa!
My daughter Melissa will be celebrating her 12th birthday on Tuesday May 31, 2011. “Happy Birthday!” from your mom and brother Richard when it comes. She said she would like to be a Doctor when she grows up, I am sure she can be whatever she wants to be. She is into Anime & Rock Music and is very adventurous. (Picture taken on March 28, 2011.) She is big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean so for her birthday I will be taking her today Saturday, May 28 to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Just the two of us, a bit of mommy me time with her, because we don’t get out often. It was either that or Ku Fu Panda. I refuse to sit through two hours of Ku Fu Panda, I swear I would pass out from boredom, oh, my, gosh! Anyway, I love any movie Johnny Depp appears in he’s funny so I can sit through that.
I promised my daughter I would feature one of her favourite Rock Bands on my blog because it’s her birthday…I swear this child of mine doesn’t have one West Indian bone in her body, she was not born in the Caribbean so, what do I expect. Oh, my, gosh!
Enjoy!
Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The band often performs more than 300 times each year and holds long global tours, most of which last more than a year. They have been nominated for seven Juno Awards and have won twice.
When You Need to Understand Your Purpose and Your Future
Lord, speak to me of my future. Holy Spirit of truth, teach me the truth about my life and my purpose. Tell me something about what is ahead so that I can have rest in my soul about it. Give me a vision for my future that assures me it is secure. Help me to have joyful anticipation about it. Even though You may not reveal the details of it, help me to see that I have a good future to look forward to.
When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
John 16:13
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Featured Musician for the Week: “Jewel”
Jewel Kilcher is 36 yrs.old and is professionally known as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet. She has received four Grammy Award nominations and has sold over 27 million albums worldwide. She spent most of her young life in Homer, living with her father, Atz Kilcher. The home she grew up in did not have indoor plumbing; it had a simple outhouse instead. She and her father sometimes earned a living by singing in bars and taverns. For a time, she was poverty-stricken and lived in her van while traveling about the country doing street performances and small gigs. Jewel married nine-time world champion pro rodeo cowboy Ty Murray on August 7, 2008. http://www.jeweljk.com/
I Love Jewel because she sings with such sincerity and I love this song. Today I dedicate This song by Jewel, along with the other three (4) songs below to someone very close my heart, whom I miss dearly everyday……
Enjoy the songs!
I got my eggs & pancakes too and got the maple syrup–everything but you……I love that part of the song, oh, my, gosh! Yeah……..everything but you “Bright Eyes.” Oh, my, gosh!
Taylor Dayne (born Leslie Wunderman0) is 49 yrs.old is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, dance artist, and actress. Taylor Dayne began singing professionally after graduating from high school in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, singing in little-known rock bands such as Felony and Next. In May 2010, she lobbied congressional leaders on Capitol Hill on behalf of NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and VH1′s Save The Music Foundation to reduce cuts in music education in America’s schools. http://www.taylordayne.com/
Classic Taylor Dayne she has a beautiful voice, love all her songs, including this one ….Enjoy!
I dedicate this beautiful song to someone whom I consider to be the love of my life, someone who means the world to me “Bright Eyes” you will always be in my heart forever. Today, I feel truly blessed to have a heart filled with love for you. Even if your not here and you can’t hear me, God can. My love for you continues to flow endlessly and is waiting here in my heart. Where ever you are I hope all is well.
Love this song by Keyshia…. and it says exactly how I truly feel, If I can’t be true to myself and God who can I be true to? There is no one that can ever replace, “Bright Eyes” why the heck do I say “Bright Eyes?” Oh, my, gosh! Laughing with myself, well, that’s just my nickname for them, but because they have the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen, not to mention their smile. A very special person, who is one of a kind that I miss so dearly everyday of every hour…..
Snack ninjas Nancy Huynh and Jing Loh are in their element during a covert mission to J-Town.
There are Baby Ball Cookies, Choco Waffles, mango-shaped chewies, grow-your-own miso soups and more to gawk at in the Japanese mini-mall’s snack section.
We giggle over the snappy display that explains how freeze-dried, all-in-one, instant miso soup is “Easy to make! Always fresh! Wherever you go!” Just place the cube in a cup, add hot water and stir.
Loh grabs another package of instant miso soup for comparison.
“That’s just the usual kind,” sniffs Huynh. “This is a cube that grows into a soup.”
The vegetarian MSG-free version of this quirky cube has a chance of making it into
one of Huynh and Loh’s next Omakase Boxes. The fledgling food business is named for the Japanese term for asking the chef to choose your meal. (Neither is Japanese — his background is Malaysian Chinese, hers is Vietnamese Chinese and both grew up in Toronto eating Asian snacks.)
In omakase spirit, each month Huynh and Loh mail a surprise box of carefully curated “cool and unique” treats to subscribers.
Eighteen trailblazers got Omakase Box Volume One in late April. It was filled with Rosewood Estates Nutty Honey (Ontario honey with walnuts), Algonquin Tea Company’s “organic and ethically wildcrafted” Awakening Tea, lavender currant shortbreads from Toronto’s Tea Aura, chocolate-chip cookies from Frostines Edibles in Bowmanville and a matcha-flavoured Kit Kat or green tea Aero.
“I feel like we’re just out there trying to pick up new things and share them with other people,” explains Loh. “Really, it’s just about sharing our tasting experiences.”
He’s 27 and lives in Toronto. She’s 25 and lives in Hamilton. They became friends at Queen’s University while studying commerce. Their first foray into entrepreneurship, selling custom polo shirts, flopped.
“Food makes a lot more sense,” says Huynh.
“Yeah, because it’s our one passion,” chimes in Loh.
The Omakase Box evolved from a friend’s attempt to enlist their help with his online marketplace idea. They didn’t think people would be keen to try new foods that way, so came up with a tasting box.
They dubbed themselves ninjas because ninjas are always out on a search.
Huynh, who has “a pretty big soda addiction,” has a business card that shows her ninja avatar with a bottle of Italian lemon soda. Her title: Imagineer and Ninja by night.
Loh’s ninja avatar has a peach lollipop. His title is Sensei + Daily Trick-o-treater.
I invite myself along on a snack-finding mission. Right now the only thing they’ve green-lighted for an upcoming box is a jar of Goan khaldin coconut curry sauce from Eudora’s Fine Foods in Brampton.
We rendezvous at Union Station and head in Loh’s grey Toyota Corolla to Samosa King/Embassy Restaurant at Finch Ave. E. and Middlefield Rd. for samosas and Indian sweets. We take turns hogging a bag of spicy cassava chips mixed with curry leaves.
Next up is New Spiceland, a Sri Lankan supermarket at Steeles Ave. E. and Markham Rd. The ninjas pause over gaudy pink, white and green marshmallows.
“We try to stay away from MSG and very obtuse food colouring,” says Huynh. “But we don’t have any formal mandate.”
At J-Town, at Steeles Ave. E. at Victoria Park Ave., they reminisce about eating Baby Ball Cookies as kids. Says Huynh: “These are basically potato starch balls. You put them on your tongue and they pretty much melt.”
They scour labels and remind each other that they should be buying wholesale instead of retail. They figure the Omakase Box needs 100 members to work. It’s $74 for three months, and $1 from each box goes to Food Banks Canada.
“Even if this doesn’t work out for us financially, we’re going to love doing it,” vows Loh.
“I can’t wait to go home and grow my soup,” says Huynh as they drive away with their snack haul.
Later they email sad news that the miso soup cube was neat to watch growing for a few seconds, but the MSG-free broth wasn’t that flavourful.
Nostalgia and a short ingredient list have helped Baby Ball Cookies pass the preliminary tasting. Crisp Japanese cookies with creamy chocolate centres have earned a tentative nod because they “highlight a culture that favours delicate and bite-sized portions with complementary textures.”
Cassava chips, however, are the snack mission’s unequivocal hit.
“The experience of eating these introduces a root vegetable not too common in North America, and a new ‘herb’ — the curry leaf,” the ninjas write. “The spice factor was exciting. Each bite was utterly satisfying.”