What Raeanne’s Lovin
Family Movie Night
I love summer with all the fabulous outdoor activities that long days bring, but these shorter fall days are perfect for movie nights. And now that the days are getting cooler, I’m excited about cuddling up on the sofa with my family and watching a movie. My husband and daughter prefer super-hero or action flicks, whereas I enjoy family comedies, but one thing we can all agree on is a great food movie like The Hundred Foot Journey.
Sometimes on a movie night, we’ll have what we call a “picnic supper” where we bring our plates into the living room and have assorted appetizers for supper. Or depending on the hour, my husband will make popcorn. A current favourite around our house is Lime and Chili Pepper Popcorn (it’s so good that a recent batch barely made it out of the kitchen before it was all gone).
Regardless of the particular snack or the movie’s genre, I love to break out the afghan, maybe start the fireplace, curl up with my family, and take in a great show.
What Jenn’s Lovin
Pick a Peck of Apples
A peck of apples is approximately 10-12 pounds or about 32 medium apples. I had the opportunity to pick my own peck of Honeycrisp apples in Ontario this season and we have been enjoying them amongst the Manitoba varieties that we’ve also acquired for fall storage. I’m a stickler for minimal food waste and one of the key places to ensure this does not occur in my home is with food storage.
Best Apple Storage: In a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The apples give off a gas that will turn other produce bad and the bag prevents this from happening. Be sure to check your apples carefully as any apple(s) with a “bad spot” or bruise will speed up the ripening of the surrounding apples and so comes the saying “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch”.
I encourage you to visit a local orchard, check your local fruit share program for city harvests or visit your local grocer to pick a peck of Canadian apples for fall fresh apple eating, baking and cooking!
What’s your favourite apple recipe?
What Simone’s Lovin
Herbs for Fall
So, I’ve enjoyed my fresh basil in salads and in freshly made pesto. The chives’ purple flowers have decorated deviled eggs, and there’s fresh frozen dill for this winter’s servings of borscht. It’s early September, and I recall the year I experimented with Chimichurri Sauce. Have you ever had it? Wow! What a beautiful blend of ingredients to add to an aioli as a topping for fresh corn on the cob…or to top a warm potato salad…Or, after you read the recipe, how would you use this sauce?
Simone’s Favourite Chimichurri Sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled (or more…)
¼ cup rice vinegar 60 mL
½ cup canola oil 125 mL
½ cup flat leaf parsley, 125 mL
½ cup cilantro leaves, 125 mL
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, 60 mL
¼ tsp cayenne, 1 mL
¼ tsp ground cumin, 1 mL
This recipe is best done in a food processor set with the stirring blade. With the motor running, drop clove(s) garlic through the feed tube and allow the blades to chop the garlic in pieces. Add the parsley, cilantro and basil leaves, the cayenne and cumin to the garlic. Pulse the mixture till the leaves have been chopped to a desired fineness. Add the vinegar. Blend. Through the feed tube, drizzle the canola oil, allowing the sauce to thicken somewhat with the slow addition of the oil. Store in the refrigerator for up to three days, or freeze in ice cube containers for future use.
Yield: 1 cup (250 mL)
What Ellen’s Lovin
Tulips
Tulips, yes, tulips, when temperatures start to drop and before freezing, bulbs need to be planted for spring bloom. If you want to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary as a nation (2017 is the year) you can purchase Canada 150 tulip bulbs, red and white, from Home Hardware locations.
4 key facts about the Canada150 bulbs.
- The public can purchase Canada 150tulip bulbs at participating Home Hardware stores nationwide as of September 2016, so they can enjoy the beauty of this special tulip as part of the Canada 150 celebrations in spring 2017.
- The National Capital Commission(NCC) is the official gardener of Canada’s Capital. The NCC is responsible for designing and planting close to one million tulips of 100 varieties, in 100 flower beds, which brighten the region in springtime.
- The most spectacular display of tulips is in Commissioners Park by Dows Lake, where 250,000 tulips of 60 different varieties bloom in the park’s 30 flower beds.
- The first tulip beds in the Capital were planted in 1945, when the Netherlands sent 100,000 tulip bulbs as a postwar gift of gratitude for the role that Canadian soldiers had played in the liberation of the Netherlands.
Be Well… Raeanne, Jenn, Simone & Ellen
