The Yum Yum Factor

This post is sponsored by   Persimon®  It's November and that means it's Persimmon season which also means it's time for  Persimon®  persimmons (Rojo Brillante) all the way from  Ribera del Xúquer in Spain. These particular fruit, known for their firm flesh and mild flavour, are ripe and ready to eat by the time they hit the grocery store, unlike other varieties  like the Hachiya which have to soften and ripen before they can be consumed. By getting these, you are taking the guess work out of it.  You will be able to find these in the store from now until February or until they run out of stock, so hurry up and grab a case or two while you can. Last year, I made a  Tarte Tartin  with my haul so this year,  Persimon® invited me to take part in their black box challenge, which is kind of like Chopped but I get to participate in my pjs in the comfort of my own kitchen. They send a bunch of bloggers a mystery box full of Spa...

First of all, I want to make it clear that this is NOT a magic, super fast pressure cooker stew recipe but it is still easier and quicker than doing it on the stove and the flavour is more intense so the extra steps are worth it. One the issues faced with making beef or pork stews in my Instant Pot is the disparity in cooking time for the meat vs the vegetables. I find that most stews leave me with vegetables that are about to disintegrate by the time the meat is cooked to perfection. To avoid this, many recipes will tell you to keep the vegetables almost whole to avoid this but I also don't want a bowl of stew with giant chunks of carrot and potato either.  When it doubt, I turn to Serious Eats to see how they deal with the dilemma. I like to call it WWKD (what would Kenji do?) I adapted his method to my recipe and it works beautifully but if you really insist on making it even easier,  you don't have to brown the cut up vegetables. You can always just throw in the ...

So, what is congee, you might ask? It sounds exotic but it's really just a nice, soupy, savoury rice porridge that is the perfect remedy for frigid winter mornings. Even though we go for dim sum regularly, we don't usually order this because it's really filling and it cuts down on the amount of dumplings I can scarf so it's something I save for home, but, pre , I didn't make this as often as I would have liked. Since my wizard pot truly lets me set it and forget it, I plan to make a batch of this every weekend over the winter. I am NOT a sweet breakfast girl but any porridge that lets me garnish it with crispy pork, chilis and other savoury treats is the food of my cold, dark heart. You can make congee with any sort of broth but chicken congee is a great way to use up the leftovers from a roast chicken, whether its a bird you roasted yourself or a bubble chicken that you picked up at the supermarket. Just throw in the entire carcass, all leftover meat, some ...

We all love a tasty rice bowl and I absolutely depend on it as a way to use leftovers without anyone suspecting they are eating leftovers, especially when I'm left with a little bit of this and that. It's the perfect way to stretch one leftover piece of protein,  a few tbls of leftover grilled vegetable or a small bowl of shrimp to that it can feed everyone. Bibimbap, Korean for "mixed rice" is not as scary as it sounds. At it's most traditional, it is made in a hot stone bowl so that the outside of the rice forms a crunchy crust and then you mix all of the ingredients together at the table, letting the oozy egg yolk and the spicy sauce blend together and bind the dish into a gooey, comforting mess. We skip the hot stone bowl and just use sticky sushi rice and rather than a traditional raw egg, I use a sous vide poached or fried egg on top. Okay, I know that this dish has lots of elements to make it come together, but they are all pretty simple ...

Can you believe I made those with very own hands??/ I was invited to take a course, free of charge, at the Bonnie Gordon College  and if I liked it, to share my experience and since I loved it, I am sharing. When it came time to pick a class, me being me, I immediately chose the one that terrified me the most - Croissants and Brioche Yes, I was that mom. At least I was not actually in costume I am an artistic gal and I am relatively sure I could crank out some decent sugar flowers - I was pretty much the reigning queen of over the top birthday theme cakes when The Kid was little. My giant castle cake that I fashioned for his Medieval themed Jousting Tournament party took me three days to finish and I had to leave the room when it was time to let the little heathens dig into it. I pretty much know how to make decent bread and The Kid has taken over the pie making duties so that left me staring the one class that made my stomach roll over. I set off to find the school o...

This week I attended the Taste Canada Awards   to witness a parade of Canadian talent in the world of cookbook writing (with a category for best food blog as well now!)

Poor Shack. Two of the things that he loves the most are things I almost never make for him - veal parmesan and arancini. To make arancini, you need to have cold, leftover risotto but, trust me, if I am going to stand over a stove, stirring rice, for half an hour, I am not going to put it all aside to use for fried rice balls. Occasionally, I might have gone out of my way to double the recipe so that I could make these the next day but, honestly,  that often just resulted in gluttony. We were left with all of us rolling around the house, moaning and groaning, with too much food in our bellies and still not enough leftover rice. Enter my Instant Pot. Since making my first batch of risotto in the pressure cooker, I have not looked back. I was the last person who wanted to believe that you could end up with a risotto that was indistinguishable from a lovingly stirred pan of soupy rice but, here I am, making risotto in the pressure cooker all the live long day...

For the last four days, I can't eat anything but soup after a difficult molar extraction. I know you feel me. There is only so much miso soup a gal can eat before she realizes that she is about to eat her own foot and when that happens, it's time to whip up something a little more hearty. My brain wants to eat steak and potato chips but my mouth has other ideas. When I make anything with potatoes, I always like to throw in a sweet potato to make it a bit more nutritious, flavourful and to give it some beautiful colour while I'm at it. Making it in the pressure cooker makes an easy soup, even easier and we are always on board with that. When you factor in the time it takes for the soup to come to pressure, you probably are not saving a ton of time but what you can do is throw everything in the pot, set the timer and walk away, catch up on American Horror Story and not worry that the pot is boiling over or losing too much liquid. Because there is no evaporat...

So, on Monday, November 14, 2016, I will be at the Taste Canada Awards as a Taste Ambassador to see which Canadians will win recognition for their work - cookbook writers, bloggers and culinary writers compete in the Oscars of the Canadian culinary world! Out of all of these 55 incredible nominees, 22 will be awarded a Gold or Silver award in categories that span both English and French language publications. You can join me there for lots of great food, wine and rub shoulders with the who's who's of the Canadian Food Scene! If you can't join me, follow online on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook while I cover all of the excitement. Check out  www.tastecanada.org/tickets/  for tickets! Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada

Fall is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, the wind is kicking up and the nights get progressively colder. As we sadly acknowledge that BBQ season is over, our tastes start to turn to heartier fare that sticks to the ribs and fills the belly. Unlike most people I know, I didn't grow up eating mac and cheese so I was a little late to the party but I have become a bit of an expert this past year, making a number of different versions in my pressure cooker, but I know that not everyone has one so stovetop mac and cheese lets you whip up the ultimate comfort food with the ease and speed that a pressure cooker provides. One pot, baby. I am all about the one pot dinners and as we start to gear up for the hustle and bustle of the impending holiday season, we all need a few one pot show stoppers in our back pocket. When Grace hired me to come up with a recipe using a couple of their Organic coconut products , I already had a bunch of them in my pantry so I jumped at the ch...

I had a bit of an odd week, media event wise. I attended two very different events at the same venue a few days apart from each other. WORLD VISION #HUNGERFREE I am always interested in organizations that are working towards food security, ending hunger and making healthy, tasty food available to everyone so I looked forward to attending this one. The gathering at Berkeley Field House (attached to the Berkeley Church), here in Toronto, was to celebrate with World Vision, who teamed up with Dennis Prescott to share his experience working with them in Kenya. World Vision is inviting Canadians to celebrate food with them and help support food projects for a #HungerFree world and this dinner was the official launch party. The setting was lovely with long tables covered with flowers and persimmons at every setting where everyone shared in a three course meal prepared by Prescott. To learn more about World Vision Canada, #HungerFree and find ways to get involved,  click here ...

Photo: Jeffrey Chan courtesy of Eat Well Canola *all activities and food were by Branding and Buzzing for this sponsored post, but, as always, all opinions expressed are my own To celebrate I Heart Farmers, the fine people of Canola Eat Well invited a small group of city kids to join them for a day in the country for some apple picking, flower arranging and picnicking on delicious, heart healthy foods, all prepared for us using Canadian canola oil by cookbook author, nutritionist and living Canadian legend, Mairlyn Smith .  Applewood Farm and Winery, where we all picked a peck of apples and threw down a shot or two of Boozey Apple Jack before hopping back on the bus The first stop on this warm, sunny, fall day, was to AppleWood Farms for some apple picking and a cider tasting before making our way to one of the prettiest farms I have ever seen,  South Pond Farms , to learn a bit about flower arranging and a lot about how canola is farmed, process...