Brie en Crute, Sticky Date Cake, Sideroads od Halton Hills Magazine

Merry Christmas!

Hello my fine followers! Well, the holidays are upon us and we all know what that means... Culinary indulgences! And in my family, we go all out! Not only do we enjoy a typical English Christmas brunch and dinner, but we follow it up the next day with a Boxing Day party laden with cocktails and snacks, finishing it all off with a great New Year's party at my Auntie's house! It's a great time of year to get into the kitchen and make some fantastic food. With us, it's all about tradition and today's recipes are classics for this time of year. These recipes are from my winter submission to the 'Sideroads of Halton Hills' magazine. Brie en crute is an appetizer that I absolutely adore. Creamy brie cheese wrapped in puff pastry and baked to perfection... Can it get any better? Sticky date pudding is a favourite Australian dessert. I first became familiar with it when I lived in Melbourne and have made it ever since. Rich, moist pudding topped with a warm caramel sauce. Yum! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Brie en Crute

Now, the brie en croute recipe is just a base for you to embellish! Caramelizing some onions, allowing them to cool and placing them on top of the brie before you wrap it in pastry is a delicious addition. Heck, once I even added some chopped and fried bacon to my brie en crute! Talk about pure indulgence!
As for the dessert, I've taken the traditional sticky date pudding recipe and converted into a cake. Doing this means that a bain marie (water bath), isn't needed to bake the cake. Also, using a cake tin instead of a pudding basin makes it easier to feed a holiday crowd. And let me tell you, your holiday crowd will love this sticky cake served with warm caramel sauce! Delicious! Alrighty my fave followers, enjoy the holidays and make sure to share some fabulous food with your loved ones (I know I will!)! Until next year, when the culinary adventures continue! All the best!

Sticky Date Cake

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Ontario Potatoes, Sideroads of Halton Hills Magazine, Spring Cottage Life Show

"I love an audience." Lucille Ball

Hello followers, staying bundled up these days?!
So, I have a couple of culinary adventures to blog about today! Last weekend I donned my microphone headset and did cooking demonstrations with Jane Rodmell for the Cottage Life Show! And, as usual, it was a great time! 'Cottage Life' is a magazine and trade show that embodies the meaning of Canadian cottage living. The magazine explores cottage country and everything that goes along with it: cottage style cooking, entertaining on the dock, building a dock, etc.! I love going to the Cottage Life Shows (which take place each spring and fall), and am always so happy when Jane asks me along to demonstrate some of her latest recipes. We did a four cheese dip with leeks and a lamb stew with white beans and squash. Both delicious! My favourite part of doing demonstrations is when an audience member comes up at the end and says that they would have never had attempted
this recipe at home, but now that they have seen it done, they will! Yay!

Here are the links to the recipes we did:
http://cottagelife.com/41161/recipes/leek-and-four-cheese-dip
http://cottagelife.com/41164/recipes/lamb-white-bean-and-rosemary-stew

Today's next adventure takes us to 'The Land,' our 10 acres out in Norfolk County. With winter around the corner, it was time to get the garden in order! This year, the weather played such a factor in our vegetable production. So much rain in the spring meant for a late start and a shorter growing period. We held off on a lot of our favourite veggies and kept to the basics. We gave special attention to our garlic patch and asparagus beds. With a little extra care from my Dad, we are hoping to have our first taste of homegrown asparagus next year! As I have mentioned before, asparagus takes three years to begin to produce edible stalks, so we hope that all of our time and effort will be worth it! I can't wait! During our visit, I got the glamorous job of turning over our compost heap. Oh joy! My Mum picked radishes, carrots, onions and herbs, while the rest of the gang dug up potatoes. Heck, even my nephew Evan helped out! We love potatoes and I am happy to say that we certainly have enough to just about get us through the winter! Potatoes are so versatile, that I have been preparing them in just about every way imaginable! Kevin's fave way for me to make potatoes is to simply roast them with rosemary and garlic. And with his suggestion, I decided to submit the recipe to 'Sideroads of Halton Hills' magazine as a part of my winter recipe collection. I hope you try this easy recipe out and enjoy it!