Prosciutto wrapped Ontario Asparagus with Parmigiano Reggiano

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." Doug Larson

Hiya followers, I hope you like today's quote! It put a smile on my face and I couldn't help but use it, considering I just saw snow flurries! Also, I have exciting news but I will wait until the end of my blog to share! Ha!
I love asparagus. For me, asparagus is so much more than just a vegetable, it encompasses Spring! When I see it's bright green colour and realise it is a product of Ontario, I cannot wait to taste it's fresh flavour. Asparagus is always the first major crop to be harvested in Ontario and always gets me so excited!
Asparagus has been cultivated and eaten since the time of the Egyptians. With it's elegant appearance, you can't help but understand why asparagus has always been a favourite on the tables of nobility and royalty throughout history. And no wonder the ancient Roman Cato recorded his precise growing methods, because they sure are needed! Through growing asparagus ourselves, do I further appreciate this rather fickle plant. When my Dad decided to grow asparagus in our garden up at our 10 acres in Norfolk County, he thought it was going to be easy enough. Then he started to do the research and quickly realised that growing asparagus is quite unique! It takes three years of careful gardening to produce the delicate, edible stalks. We bought one year old roots hoping that they would give us our loved asparagus a year sooner, but they failed to thrive. So, seeds it had to be and now, after three years of holding our breath, my parents finally got a taste of homegrown asparagus a couple of days ago! Vibrant in flavour with a mild sweetness, my parents enjoyed every last morsel of the handful of asparagus they picked. I am rather envious that I wasn't there to savour it with them, but I know that I will get my chance soon! Now that our small crop has been established, I am so, so happy that we will be enjoying our very own asparagus for years to come!

Photographer: Bert Visheau

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Prosciutto wrapped Ontario Asparagus with Parmigiano Reggiano
(makes 1 dozen)

12 asparagus stalks, washed and the bottoms trimmed (preferably Ontario grown!)
6 pcs prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
Fresh ground pepper

Blanche the asparagus by bringing a medium pot of salted water up to the boil and toss in the asparagus stalks. Fill a large bowl with cold water and set aside. Allow the water to come back up to the boil and remove the asparagus after one minute of cooking with tongs or a slotted spoon. Plunge the asparagus into the cold water to quickly stop the asparagus from cooking any further. You want the stalks to still be a bit firm. Once cooled, remove the asparagus and allow them to dry on a clean tea towel or paper towels, set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the cheese, parsley, lemon zest and a couple grinds of black pepper. Spread out the lengths of prosciutto, and place a generous 1/2 tsp of the cheese mixture down the middle of each slice. Place the top of a stalk of the asparagus on an angle at the end of a slice of prosciutto and begin to roll the stalk tightly upwards until the prosciutto is wrapped around the stalk. Repeat. Either serve immediately at room temperature, chilled or hot (heat a pan or grill on medium high and quickly fry/grill the asparagus and prosciutto for a few minutes, turning often, until the prosciutto is brown and crisp, serve immediately). Sprinkle any remaining cheese mixture on the bottom of your platter for a lovely presentation, enjoy!

Prosciutto and asparagus go hand and hand, and the splendid appearance of this simple appetizer will surely please any guest!
Now, as for my announcement... I have started a new full time Chef position at the fantastic Spirit Tree Estate Cidery in Caledon! Kevin and I first discovered Spirit Tree while on a Sunday country drive a couple of years ago and I just had to blog about it! The cidery is nestled amongst the apple orchard in which the soft and hard ciders are made of on site. Spirit Tree also offers artisan breads which are baked in the wood fire oven, pastries, savoury fare which can be enjoyed in the Tasting Room, along with locally made food products, wood worked items and artwork. Oh yes, and how can I not mention that Friday evenings are wood oven pizza night?! Yum! I am so happy to be apart of the team and please, please, come and visit us there! Make sure to stay warm my chilled followers, and I will be back again next Monday! Bye!

Avgolemono Soup

"I have seen the Lady of April bringing daffodils, bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain." John Masefield

Good day my happy followers! How was your weekend?
Rarely do my sweetie Kevin and I both have a weekend off, so I am happy to say that we just spent two lovely, lazy Spring days together! We took advantage of the mild weather and went for a leisurely stroll and had all of the windows wide open. I love the smell of fresh, rainy air. I picked some flowers and also did a bit of work in our garden and also did some cooking, of course! It being Orthodox Easter, I only had one dish on my mind... Allow me to explain! My best friend Mary's background is Macedonian and Greek. Growing up and visiting her house was always filled with culinary adventures! Being brought up in an English home, I discovered so many exotic and strange flavours at Mary's house. Feta cheese, olives, oregano, roasted peppers, spanakopita and all of the special foods that are prepared at Easter time. Brightly coloured red and turquoise eggs, braided Easter bread flavoured with mahlab seeds and those scrumptious dense cookies, dusted with so much icing sugar that they are best eaten over the sink! And last but not least, my favourite, avgolemono soup. Yum! Simply made of homemade chicken broth, thin noodles, egg and lemon. So fresh, so vibrant, absolutely delicious and prefect for Spring. For my version of avgolemono, I have used Helen's soup as inspiration.

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Avgolemono Soup
(serves 6  to 8)

6 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade) or low sodium store bought

2 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless (or 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped)

2/3 cup orzo pasta (or rice or noodles)

2 eggs

½ lemon, juiced

Sea salt
1 tbsp parsley, chopped for garnish
6 thin slices of lemon for garnish

Place the stock in a medium pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and add in the chicken thighs. Cover with a lid and simmer until fully cooked, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the thighs and set aside for a few minutes to cool, then chop into small pieces. Stir the orzo into the broth, replace the lid and allow to simmer for another 8 to 10 minutes until the pasta is el dente. Add the chopped chicken thighs back into the soup. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl until frothy, whisk in the lemon juice. Remove a ladle of the hot chicken broth and vigorously whisk it into the eggs and lemon juice. Whisk this egg mixture back into the pot of broth. Remove the soup from the heat, taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately and garnish with the chopped parsley and slice of lemon. Kali orexi!

Avgolemono soup is a delicate soup that must be eaten immediately after being made, or the egg will separate. Of course, my version of this soup is different from Mary's Mum's, but it's still very tasty! Well, my followers, that's my adventure for today but there will be another one next week! And as a matter of fact, Kevin and I are going to be doing some wine tasting in Niagara-on-the-Lake this week, so I will definitely tell you all about it! Have a great week and I'll be back next Monday!

Jane Rodmell's Lemon Honeycomb Pudding

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment." Ellis Peters

Ahhh, Spring is here in all her glory! I hope you are enjoying this lovely Easter weekend, my fun loving followers!
I always know that winter is over when the Spring Cottage Life Show is on and I am doing cooking demonstrations with Jane Rodmell. The show was last weekend and I must say, it was a success! If you haven't been out to the International Centre for a Cottage Life Show, you should. There is so much to see and do, even if you don't have a cottage! Ha! Of course, my favourite place in the whole show is the Cottage Kitchen. That's where the live cooking demonstrations take place and right beside it is the wine booth where sampling is always encouraged. This year, Jane and I did our demos with eggs. Eggs are one of those foods which are so, so versatile! I must admit, I have an egg almost every morning for breakfast. Fried, scrambled, poached, boiled, etc., I'll take 'em any way you make 'em! Kevin and I discovered an egg farm just outside Georgetown last year and we have been going back for their large brown, farm fresh eggs ever since. And believe me, you can certainly taste the difference between farm and store bought eggs. In fact, I did a taste test not too long ago and hands down, the farm eggs won. So, for the demonstrations, I bought several dozen eggs for Jane and I to do our demos with and people loved our tasty samples. We did a frittata with asparagus, prosciutto with thyme and a delicious, light as air pudding. Lemon honeycomb pudding is a recipe which Jane's Mum used to make for the family. It is so simple and the result is a lovely layered pudding, which will impress any guest! Perfect for Spring, I just had to post Jane's recipe!

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Jane Rodmell's
Lemon Honeycomb Pudding
(serves 6)

Ingredients
3 eggs, separated
1/2 oz (15 g) pkg gelatin
1/2 cup sugar (125 ml)
Finely grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
6 tbsp 35% (whipping) cream (90 ml)
11/2 cups whole (3.2%) milk (375 ml)

1. In a large heat-proof bowl, beat together egg yolks, gelatin, sugar, zest, and cream.
2. In a saucepan, heat milk to simmering. Gradually whisk hot milk into egg mixture. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir constantly while custard heats through and thickens to a creamy consistency. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.
3. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Pour lemon custard through a strainer (to remove zest) and into egg whites; fold together. Pour
mixture into a 4-cup (1-L) jelly mould. Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours. When pudding is firmly set, loosen edge with a knife and turn out onto a serving plate.

http://cottagelife.com/46432/blogs/cottage-feast/jane-rodmells-lemon-honeycomb-pudding-recipe

Something else which signifies Springtime in my family is a visit back up to 'The Land'. For those of you who don't know, we have 10 acres of land out in Norfolk County, Ontario. Five acres of it is woods and the other five was a soy bean field which we have converted into a lovely meadow. With so much clover, it is always a buzz with busy bees! My Dad got in touch with the local arbour society and had a few hundred trees planted. We have also put in a few fruit trees and have a large garden. My Dad, my sweetie Kevin and my brother Jordan just went up on Friday for a visit to see how our land held up over winter. Besides a fallen tree, everything was in it's place. In the garden, our garlic patch and asparagus are up and growing! Did you know it takes 3 years to establish an asparagus patch?! Well, lucky for us, our third year has arrived and we have edible stalks growing! But, as you can see in the picture below, the frost got to some of the asparagus and killed it. But, with more stalks coming up, I think we are finally going to be enjoying our very own asparagus soon! I cannot wait to taste it! Anyhoo, I should go, we are having Easter dinner at my Grandparent's house and also celebrating my Grandmother's birthday! Yay! So, have a great Easter and we will catch up soon! Bye!

Photographer: Bert Visheau

'Happy 2nd Blogoversary!!!'

Hello followers! Yes it's true, today marks the two year anniversary of my culinary blog! Hurrah!
In the past two years, I have posted 155 blogs, 132 recipes and have had over 13,500 views! Wow! There have been quite a few happy moments in the last couple of  years and also some incredibly sad. But, through support and being together, those sad and gloomy places aren't visited as often as they were before. A lot of good food has been consumed, a lot of new and exciting places have been discovered around our wonderful Ontario and many great people have been met along the way. Today's photos have all been taken in the past year. They are definitely some of my faves, including a couple that have not been seen before! Also, to celebrate this anniversary, I have decided to add something new to my blog! Starting today I will lend a bit of my culinary knowledge and have a new page dedicated to my useful 'Kitchen Tips' (see below!). Please contact me if there are any problems in the kitchen that you think I could help you with! And, as always, recipe requests are happily received!
Lastly, I'd just like to say thank you! I am so happy that I started this silly little blog and so happy that you have dropped by at one time or another to visit! Thank you so much, my loyal followers! There are still so many culinary adventures to be had, so make sure to come back often! Bye for now!

Kitchen Tip Number One: The Cutting Board Trick

One thing that I have seen way too much in my cooking days is a sliding cutting board. Having your board get away from you while using a sharp knife can easily result in nasty cuts and bruises. Nobody wants that, right?! There are fancy rubber mats and other store bought devices to keep your cutting board firmly on the counter, but I have a simple trick that does the job just as well!
Place a damp tea towel or some damp paper towels under your cutting board. This will anchor it in place and allow you to chop-away without your board flying away! Try it out!