January is a great month for reflection. A time to take a quick peek back in life, remember the highlights and plan for the highlights of the year to come. We wanted to share with you the top 10 highlights and most popular pieces on Canola Eat Well from 2014.
The Best of Eat Well
1. Baking with Canola Oil
We love to bake! One of our favourite features this year was “Not Your Grandma’s Dough” where we used frozen canola oil to mimic a solid fat in the recipe.
Not only was the recipe a hit with sweet and savoury pie lovers, but it led many people to ask for the canola oil conversions to use with their favourite baking recipes that traditionally use butter or other solid fats.
2. What’s Your Cupcake Personality?
Who can resist a personality quiz? Ours was a little different and mainly delicious. Whether the kid in you was drawn to the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cupcake or the Eccentric Nostagic described your soul, we all have one thing in common: our love of cupcakes.
We also set the record straight on baking cupcakes with butter vs. canola oil – there is really so very little difference!
3. #FarmToFood Conversations
Our farm memories are fading and our connections to farmers are becoming more distant. It’s astounding how in this hyper-connected world we live in, that we’ve managed to become so disconnected!
Connect with Farmers
We’ve made it our mission to reconnect #FarmToFood by inviting and facilitating conversation between our farmers who grow our food and the people who eat it via social media.
Two of our farmers told their passionate farming stories through their Be Well videos and a series of #FarmToFood blog posts and CTV Morning Live segments. Have questions about where your food comes from? Tag your tweets #FarmToFood and we’ll do our best to connect you with some knowledgeable resources.
Navigating Food Choices: A #CanolaConnect event
Our #CanolaConnect events were definitely a highlight of 2014. This event featured a Q&A open discussion with a sold-out crowd of 160 people and a panel that consisted of a farmer, a foodie and a home economist. To see the social media highlights, read our Storify.
4. #CanolaConnect Camp 2014
We gathered a group of amazing people from across Canada, left Winnipeg on a bus to travel over 400 Kms to Russell, Manitoba and surrounding communities to experience farming in Manitoba. The 3rd annual #CanolaConnect Camp brings together consumers and farmers to learn from each other.
The theme “Growing the #FarmtoFood Conversation” encouraged campers to make connections with the farmers and ranchers, hear their stories and learn about why farmers do what they do, how they market their products, and how technology has changed their farming practices. We toured their farms and homes, shared meals and stories over the busy two and a half days.
5. Rubs & Pastes 101
Ellen took to CTV and helped us learn about Rubs vs. Pastes for all our grilling needs. Check out our rub base that you can use on ribs, chicken, veggies and steak.
Rub: a combination of dry herbs and spices that is a dry mixture.
Paste: a combination of dry spices, herbs (dried or fresh) and canola oil that is a wet mixture.
6. Great Tastes Celebrates 25 Years!
Happy 25th birthday Great Tastes of Manitoba! Canada’s longest running cooking show hit a milestone this year and while they consistently beat out The Ellen Show ratings in Manitoba they are now heading into the production of their 26th season.
Ellen shared highlights from her years of working on the show.
7. Indian Cooking with Raghavan Iyer
Unless your mama is from western India, chances are this is not your mother’s mayo-smothered, garlic powder-ridden coleslaw. Chef Raghavan Iyer shared his tips with us for successful Indian cooking at home. I can still smell the aroma from his cooking demo with the Ontario Home Economics Association!
Get your taste buds going and try Indian Slaw with your next head of cabbage.
8. Does Science Belong on Your Plate?
A #CanolaConnect Event, which took place in October at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals.
The science of GMOs and food processing was presented by Nancy Ames of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Florida’s Kevin Folta followed by Q&A.
We played with gluten, ate DHA cookies, fielded questions from twitter and busted some common myths about how food is processed and plants are bred.
9. Cake of the Month with EatIn EatOut
We partnered up with EatIn EatOut to bring you a cake of the month. Yes, 12 delicious, mouthwatering cakes that you can make at home.
Ellen featured one of our favourites that quickly became your favourite cake – Milk Chocolate Nutella Torte!
Classic chocolate hazelnut spread added to milk chocolate cake, stacked four layers high with milk chocolate mousse.
This torte is mile high and will have Nutella lovers licking their forks.
10. Mango Quinoa Salad
This salad’s main ingredient, quinoa, is paired up with sweet mango, savoury cucumber, peppers and onions with the crunch of almonds.
An all time favourite recipe in our repertoire – Mango Quinoa Salad.
Eat Well…Ellen & Jenn
