Edible Tulip

Christmas Champagne

And a very Merry Christmas to you all!

A glass of champagne in a tall red flute embossed with gold is a fine way to bring in an eve any time of year but especially amidst the flurry of holiday activity around Christmas. What better to help a girl unwind then a cheap bottle of champagne and a bath?

I'm drinking Seaview Brut Champagne out of Australia. It went for $11.45 CDN LCBO #216333 at the liquor store. A steal considering it actually has an earthy, grassy, embracing, full bodied, satisfying, not to sweet bite to its bubble. And that's what I like in a man, er, a champagne.

Check out this incredibly resourceful and inspiring Toronto-based food policy kitchen/garden/school/learning centre and treat yourself to a Xmas gift that any food would love (and it keeps on giving 12 months of the year!): the Good Food Box.

Here's an excerpt of their basic yet profound philosophy: "It's not just whether you eat - what and how you eat is also important. All of our programs are based on the idea that food has power: the power to inspire, to nurture, to build health, to fulfill deep social and cultural needs and to bring people in families, communities and other groups together. Foodshare's programs are trying to re-build the food skills that are quickly being lost in Canadian society, as people abandon the family meal tradition and turn increasingly to fast foods and eating on the run."

They also give workshops on such practical skills such as urban beekeeping and how to sprout!

The Pips of Pomegranates

Pomegranates are surely the sexiest of fruits. Not only do they historically symbolize fertility and rebirth but their actual physical being represents all things EROTIC: a leathery rind capped with a crown, a lucious interior of edible pink pulp, a personality that masochistically vacillates between sweet and sour, and a sassy slowly-untie-me outfit that requires a lot of work in order to get to the fruit inside. The best way to wrangle your way in is to cut off the crown and then cut the pomegranate into sections. Place the sections in a bowl of water, then roll out the arils with your fingers. Discard everything else. Strain out the water. Then open a bottle of slightly sparkling low sugar riesling (the Ontario Cave Spring label is very good) and feed the succulent arils whole, seeds and all, to a lover.

Pomegranates have such a lovely hue and rustic shape that they make perfect holiday decorations (edible decorations are my favourite kind!). Add them to vases of green berries, pine cones, holly and any other greenery. You can stand candles in this arrangement or gather it all around a bulb of an amaryllis.

Also, check out this wonderfully informative website with great recipe ideas and tantalizing photos!

Photo and recipe credit to POM wonderful pomegranates.

Holiday Eating (or: I ate lamb!)

Oh, the holiday madness begins!

This is a snapshot of my niece Kyra eating. She loves to eat. Mostly strawberry icecream but also just recently TOMATOES which she sweetly calls POTATOES. She is the adorable inquisitive imaginative creative musical tempermental angel of mine through the thick onslaught of holidays.

I will be spending Christmas with my family and my 2 nieces. We'll be comfortable in a farmhouse by Georgian Bay spending most of our time in front of a fire, beside a small spruce tree, drinking wine or coffee or out snowshoeing or x-country skiing. I know once I get up there I'll melt with the relaxation that family and holidays should imbue but don't always do. I start a new job in early January so I have to, as a good friend suggested, enjoy these holidays and as she wrote: "I mean REALLY enjoy these holidays".

Yesterday was dinner at my lovely Aunt's in Cabbagetown, Toronto. We now do a family gathering pre-Christmas because the actual holiday is always too short and the weather too unpredictable to expect long distance travellers.

Our menu was surprisingly spectacularly un-Christmas-like. I loved it. No peas. No mashed turnip or squash. No turkey. No stuffing. And no whipped fruit or pumpkin dessert. Instead it was a leisurely afternoon of drinking wine and visiting with favourite relatives. I also had two front flat tires on my car so an additional bit of excitement in -20 degree weather (thank you Christopher for getting down on your knees in the snow and hand pumping my tires!).

The food, alas, the food. Menu Follows.

Rising to the Occasion

There is a reason that bread is referred to as the ‘staff of life’. The finished product in ancient times relied upon the skills of several members of an agrarian community: the planters, the farmer, the harvester, the buyer, the miller, the baker, the vendor and the consumer. It is a food that unites and binds through the traditional ingredients of flour and water. The breaking of bread is an act of communion not only in religion but also in a deeply personal way - since the beginning of time, people have shared bread at meals in representation of the covenants that bind us all.

Bread making has been considered a lost culinary art in contemporary times. After all, we can find chewy baguettes and specialty-grained loaves in our local grocers. But the simple act of mixing flour with water to form a dough, adding a touch of salt and then shaping, kneading and baking it is still part of many family traditions, especially around the holiday season. Christmas morning in my family has always meant buttered brioche and sticky sweet buns while sitting in front of a fire.

I want to dedicate any spare time I have this holiday season to the revitalization of the age-old rhythm of working with flour covered hands. Nothing like a little kneading to work out the stress knots of the season!

Chinese Lanterns

As a prelude to Christmas, I'm dreaming in violet.

If you're into festivities but balk at tinfoil and sparkles and fluttering angels than an antidote to all of that glitz are chinese lanterns. They come in an array of colours and sizes and shapes and look elegant hanging from a bamboo stalk. The lanterns cost anywhere from $3 each and the bamboo costs a measly $1 for 5 feet. You can gather tiny ones together on a string and put tiny christmas bulbs inside or you can just stagger large ones across a window pane hanging from fishing wire.

This place in Kensington Market is brilliant for baskets, bird cages, blinds, tiny origami colourful magnetic insects, larger stuffed insects (a bright dragon fly hangs watchful over my poster bed), delicately painted fabric fans, tiny shellac jewellery boxes and of course chinese lanterns.

The Plaiter Place
384 Spadina Ave
Toronto, ON

p.s. while you are there, stop in next door to a fantastic discount kitchen store: Fortune Housewares

The Lowly Lima Bean

I know many people have a bit of a problem where the lima bean is concerned but I personally think it's a splendid little legume - sweet, creamy and rich with a meaty flavour. In the southern US they are often referred to as 'butter beans' and they are usually braised or stewed with thyme and salt (much like the Tuscan white bean recipe from Italy). They are excellent in a succotash recipe with onion, garlic, tomatoes, thyme, fresh or frozen corn kernels, salt and pepper.

I bought a few bags of frozen lima beans and boiled them to make a salad with tomatoes and sliced green cabbage and I'm happy to report that they retained their meatiness and depth of flavour. Lima beans are high in vitamins (vitamin B6, niacin, folate), protein, an excellent source of fiber , iron, potassium, and magnesium and of course they have very little fat.

High fiber, low fat, if nothing else the little lima bean sates your belly and keeps you regular.

Colour for the Season

Now that the wind is blowing and the landscape has muted, we could probably all use some colour in our little worlds of eating. Things like red cabbage, raddichio, green pumpkin seeds and carrots all blend together to create a mosaic of lunchtime POW. Chop finely. Drizzle with a light oil, sprinkle with red vinegar, add salt and any spicy herb you might like (fresh thyme, chopped coriander, fresh tarragon if you can find it or just lots of chopped parsley for bite) and toss until everything is wet and let sit. Cabbage loses its sting when it is allowed to absorb some dressing into its tough exterior.

Even though the days are getting cooler and for the most part I crave warmth I still like a little ZING in my day. Thai food and Indian food are perfect for me in this weather because they provide warmth, flavour and those saucy ZAPS of chutney or spicy sides to make a meal both sweet and sour. Because I'm a sweet AND sour girl after all...