On Friday April 11th, Green Enterprise Toronto, Slow Food Toronto and Local Food Plus will host the first annual Brewers Plate Toronto at Berkeley Church - a gala dinner event that pairs locally made beers with gourmet dishes, all made from local ingredients. Brewers Plate intends to promote local independent brewers, chefs, food artisans and local growers.

The tickets for this event are worth $150.00 each. Proceed for this event benefit Green Enterprise Toronto (GET) a non-profit initiative founded in 2006 working to promote “a future in which diverse, self-reliant local living economies prosper in a sustainable manner to meet the needs of people, planet and profit”.

One lucky reader of the Foodie-file will win two tickets to Brewers Plate Toronto. After this long, harsh winter it might seem impossible to eat a gourmet meal that was prepared with local ingredients however the six participating restaurants and breweries intend to do just that. To win the two tickets (more…)

This is Easter Brunch Italian style at my family home. It involves lots of cheese, eggs and bread and more cheese eggs and bread! I think it is my favourite holiday food of all. This year we were missing a double crusted pizza that is filled with (you guessed it) eggs, fresh cheese and dried sausage or it is also sometimes filled with a swiss chard and anchovy filling. Everything on the table is home made except for the Easter bread that was purchased which was actually a Polish Paska, but even that tasted quite good - like some nice Polish grandma made it. (more…)

Since I was already baking for easter, I made some hot cross buns to bring to “la famiglia.” I love to make bready things and watch the magic of rising bread. I was a bit distracted and added a tiny bit too much flour (serves me right for not measuring!) but they turned out yummy non-the-less. (more…)

This is the traditional cheese tart my family makes for Easter. It is served at brunch on Easter morning with lots of other eggy, bready, cheese-y dishes. Every year as it is tasted everyone comments on the flavour of the filling, the crust, the texture - is it too dry? to wet? too sweet? not enough lemon? too much cinnamon? etc. etc . I seemed to have passed the test this year, my version went over well with everyone, or I didn’t hear about it if it wasn’t as good as grandma’s! The speculation over how it turns out could be mitigated if there was an actual recipe to follow, but as in most traditional foods, the outcome is determined by how closely you have paid attention to the past and how many times you have attempted it yourself. (more…)

It’s the first day of spring but it still looks like winter everywhere. It’s the Thursday before Easter and I have promised to make the traditional cheese crostada my mother makes for Easter brunch. It occurs to me I had better pick up the ricotta cheese because everything will be closed tomorrow. I stop at International Cheese a few blocks from my house and see a line-up around the block, mostly Italian men (and a few ladies), sent to purchase the coveted fresh cheese required at any good Italian’s easter table. The cheese will be made into sweet and savoury tarts, put in soups and eaten fresh and unadorned. I circle the block trying to decide if I want to take the time to wait in the line. I decide (more…)

If you are looking for a fun activity with the kids while they are on March break or on a free weekend – take them to a sugar shack to see a real sugaring off. It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s all natural and it’s the season. Sap starts to run when the weather begins to warm up and the nights are still cold – usually late March to early April.

Here are some pictures from a recent sugaring off. (more…)

The first time I had Irish soda bread was at a tea room in St. George Ontario. They serve a plain version with honey and butter and a “spotted dog” dotted with currants. I immediately loved it when I discovered how easy it is to make, it became a staple in my baking repertoire for many years. It was one of the first things I ever mastered baking as a kid. The magic of the bread is the baking soda reacting with the acid in the buttermilk that makes the bread rise and creates a beautiful crunchy crust. I especially love it toasted and buttered. I have been reading many outraged postings by Irish folk who are mortified by what passes as Irish soda bread, I especially liked the taking down on “Society for the Preservation of Soda Bread” where (more…)

I am a sucker for this kind of thing. I love to see how people cooked before there were Viking ranges, slow cookers and microwaves. I am always amazed by the ingenuity of man. These pictures are from Historic Fort York in Toronto, they have a food program where you can experience cooking techniques and a very fine dinner from the 1800’s. I know I would have been a great pioneer – I am a master of ingenuity. As a matter of fact I find I define the people around me quite often by whether or not they would survive as a pioneer. People seem to fall into the two camps – the survivors and the ones who would be eaten by wolves - unless of course they hitched their covered wagon to a survivor. (more…)

Melitta recently hosted a coffee pairing seminar with Canadian foodie personality Trish Magwood preparing dishes with coffee and paring foods with coffee. Trish whipped up Spiced Nuts infused with coffee that were delicious, a rub for a steak that included coffee and and lots of yummy desserts including Chocolate Pots that were quick and easy to make. Everything was paired with coffee - a bit of a problem after three cups when you are shaking and jittery, I do not recommend this as an evening event! (more…)

On Thursday March 6th, as a kickoff to nutrition month, students from across Canada will take one big bite towards healthy living through healthy eating. The apple is used a launching point to teach kids about nutrition, local eating, global food systems while following the journey from the apple seed, to the harvest, to the market, to the core. The Great Big Crunch promotes a day of food education in the classroom and encourages the class to participate in a “The Crunch” with schools across Canada.

FoodShare has lots of ideas for ways to use apples to promote healthy snacking, to learning about growing our food supply to composting our food waste. (more…)