Picnic at the Brickworks 2011

photo credit: Melissa Yu

photo credit: Melissa Yu

photo credit: Edward Pond

It is that time of year again when we clean up, put on the "good" plaid shirts and go to the Brickwork's Picnic.This a harvest celebration where local growers, ranchers, fishers and artisans are praised for their hard work. This year our farm will be featuring our own pulled heritage chicken served on a maple leaf (how Canadian, I know...). Mark has been dreaming up this one for awhile and as usual it will taste splendid!

This is a great day out in the big smoke (a.k.a.Toronto), were we meet and greet other foodies, farmers and chefs while literally eating our faces off (note to self: bring track pants for car ride home). I look forward to this picnic all year and this year it should be even better, Harvest Kitchen Sisters will be there in full swing promoting the blog, all the while stuffing our mouths. If you are in the Toronto area on Sunday and are looking for a great day full of food and festivities, this a great event! For those of you who are not, look for the after post of our take on the day!

Tickets are still available! For more information click here and/or here.

Dead Beat Blogger Returns!!!

Whoa, whoa whoa. As you can tell Laura and I have been finding it increasingly difficult to blog, life is busy, there is always something on the go and I'm even finding it hard to cook and create

recipes. Brutal, I know.So here's just a tidbit of what I've been up to:

Camping with the girls on the long weekend

Robyn's Sweet Potato Salad

Camping Feet

Raspberry Bran Muffins: Recipe here

Ruby sunning herself

Tam's chocolate chip cookies

Breakfast

Breakfast

Ali and her gold coat

Of course

Spinach Salad

Black Bean Burritos : recipe here Made without Meat

The View

Robyn

Ali

Amy and Hayley

New Potato

Salad: Recipe Down Below

Grilled Zucchini

Tam in the Sun

Fire Roasted Chicken

New Potato Salad:

1 1/2 quarts new potatoes, washed but of course with the skins, boil gently until slightly soft not mushy, 15-20 min.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves fresh garlic

a whack of rosemary (large bunch)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Puree everything except the potatoes in your food processor.

Pour over cooled potatoes and allow to chill for atleast two hours.

Enjoy!

Kensington Market

From the City...

I remember when I first moved to Toronto a couple of years ago I wanted to venture to this Kensington market that I had heard so much about. I wandered for about two hours somewhere along Bloor Street but luckily I finally found it. Since then the market has become my favorite place in Toronto, hands down. Luckily Simon and I live good and close because we venture there for just about everything; from meat and vegetables to bread and cheese.

Here's some pics I took along my journey through the market the other day...

Finally the home to farm fair!

From the City...

Well two weeks ago now (shesh, slacking on the blogging) Laura and I helped in the kids room at Slow Food's annual Farm to Home Fair. It was another great slow food event with lots of good food, people and information for those interested in supporting local.

We also used the event as an opportunity to promote our blog by handing out little bags of goodies including basil seedlings and seed potatoes.

...a little fun in the kid's room! I didn't manage to get a good pic of it but Laura and I had brought in a couple bags of soil, some shovels, toy tractors, assorted plastic pigs and cows and a handful of beans and potatoes for the kids to 'plant'. It was pretty fun.

...deliciously beautiful bowls of goodness.

...Our friends from KEG were also there doing a maple syrup tasting as well as giving information on their very popular (rated number 1 by Toronto Life Readers 2009) CSA box, which Simon and I are so excited to be taking part in this summer!

...music was provided by the super talented Toronto band, The Strumbellas who fit the venue and the crowd perfectly (photo credit: Megan Ward).

All in all it was a pretty great way to spend a Saturday right here in the city...

Eatin' Bunny

From the country...

I just spent a bit of time reading a New York Times article about killing rabbits for food. A very interesting article which includes some commentary from the fantastic Novella Carpenter. This particular article spawns an all out war on her blog by people who commend raising rabbit for food and extremists who believe we are eating our pets. A super interesting read and some great points being brought up. Check out the article Don't Tell the Kids (just click the image on the right side...) and the uproar on http://novellacarpenter.com/. Interesting stuff, oh and Amy this one is for you.... If this doesn't sway your opinion an raising back yard rabbits, I don't know what will. Of course I am for it(did you even need to ask?).

here bunny, bunny, bunny..... OR kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit....(they just keep comin')