The holidays are fast approaching, so I have decided to treat my Foodie-file readers to EIGHT WEEKS OF HOLIDAY GIFTS – I am reinstating the cookbook giveaway! Every week from now until New Year’s, Foodie-file subscribers will have the chance to win one out of a variety of eight, brand new 2008 cookbooks. All you have to do to get in on the fun is (more…)

This weeks Canadian foodie-find is from Ontario, where three new pear varietals are being celebrated. We received the pears in the test kitchen this week and have been munching all week long at various states of ripeness to determine our favourites.

The three varieties to look for in your local shopping markets are (more…)

Rheanna Kish from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen spent last weekend in the rustic climes of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (also know as the Queen Charlotte islands) canoeing, carousing and picking up foodie finds for me. She returned with two glossy purple jars of Salal jam and jelly. Salal grows prolifically all over the Pacific Northwest and the berries have been eaten and used for medicinal purposes by aboriginal people for hundreds of years.

The berries are dark purple, (more…)

This week’s Foodie-find is brought to you by our bleary eyed web editor Collen Tully who brought back this artisan moonshine (yes I said artisan and moonshine) from the lovely idyllic PEI (now that’s shattering the Anne of Green Gables’ image I’d say)!

Paul Berrow of The Myriad View is creating this heady distillation in Rollo Bay. He told Colleen that he started making hooch as a joke 4 years ago and it really took off. Paul and his wife, who run every aspect of their business, are making the real thing from a 200-year-old recipe. The old timers attest to it when they come by and tell him “This smells like shine!”

We test drove it in the test kitchen as an accompaniment to the cloth bound cheddar tasting. It is actually really quite smooth and has a very fruity taste, a bit like rum but not as spicy - we liked it! Paul suggests using it in a cocktail with lime and cointreau to make a “Shinerita.”

Paul is also making gin, we didn’t get to try it, Colleen kept it for herself!

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Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar from Prince Edward Island is made of raw milk from P.E.I. Holsteins, wrapped in muslin rubbed with lard, and aged for 12 months.

The resulting cheese is a deep, yellow colour with a crumbly texture and creamy tasting interior. (more…)

In this week’s question Karen asks me: In your May 2008 issue there is a recipe for Pitcher Cosmopolitans, on page 140. I started making this last night but was aghast at the proportions of vodka/liqueur to cranberry juice. One and three-quarters cups of alcohol to one half cup juice - yikes! Also, if I have done my calculations correctly, I would have a pitcher with a combined total of just over two and one quarter cups of liquid to create eight servings? Please tell me this is a typo - or do cosmopolitans really pack this much of a punch? Karen Brown (with pitcher waiting) (more…)

As I made my way east from St Andrews by the Sea to St John New Brunswick, the road sides were brimming with high bush blueberry. I stopped at the St John farmers market and bought a quart. They were car snacks and breakfast for the next three days. (more…)

I am travelling in New Brunswick for the weekend and I had every intention of making Kelly’s Sticky Buns, in the quaint little village of Alma right outside Fundy National Park, my find for this week but alas, (more…)

Rheanna Kish from the test kitchen was recently in Manitoba, so I asked her for a foodie-find from there for today’s post. Here is her recommendation: (more…)

This prosciutto has become crazy popular with Toronto chefs. You’ll see it on menus all over town in these parts. Mario Pingue of Niagara Food Specialties specializes in all things porky. It’s his prosciutto, though, that has a melt in your mouth nutty sweetness. It’s something almost impossible to find outside of some Italian guy’s basement who makes his own. (more…)