Halloween Food Fun!

Left to Right and Front to Back
Puking Pumpkin, Bones and Blood, Witches Fingers,
Black Pasta with Roasted Squash and Garlic Oil, Shrimp with Black Garlic Salsa
 Black Rice Pudding with Mango
Carrot and Black Bean Soup Shooters, Black and Orange Cheese Platter
The HEAD waiter and Bloody cocktails!

If you are hosting a kids Halloween party, limiting the menu to horrendously sweet dessert items and junk food makes sense, but, if you are looking to amuse a more sophisticated Hallowe'en reveller, I've developed a bunch of delicious Halloween food ideas that incorporate the classic holiday colours - Black and Orange.  Along with the colour theme, I chose some fun kid recipes that impart a gory Halloween feel without the gory-post junk food marathon stomach ache!

Black and Orange Soup
Make it from scratch or choose a quality brand from the grocery store.  Obvious choices are Carrot, Squash and Black Bean.  For appetizer style,  you can heat up the soup and serve in shooter glasses.  If you want to serve sit down style,   pour each soup slowly (at the same time) into either sides of a bowl.

Shrimp with Black Garlic Salsa
In a food processor combine 2 heads black garlic, 1 Jalapeno, 1 green onion, 3 Roma tomatoes, juice of 1 lime, 2 Tbsp Grapeseed oil, 1/2 tsp sea salt.
Place cooked shrimp on a platter and top with black sesame seeds.


Black Bow-Tie Pasta with Roasted Sweet 
Potato and Garlic Oil

Boil two cups of bow tie pasta as per package instructions.  Peel and cube 1 Sweet Potato. Toss with 1 tsp olive oil and roast in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.  Combine pasta and sweet potato in bowl, top with a garlic oil and goats cheese!

Black Rice Pudding with Mango

Cook 1 cup of purple Thai rice as per package instructions.  Once cooked add 1/2 cup coconut milk and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Cook over low heat for another 5 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp of vanilla then cool.  Place rice pudding on small spoons and top with mango!


Black an Orange Cheese Platter

There are so many different varieties of cheese you can use for this.  My favourite shown here are Cinderellon, Rouy, Aged Cheddar and a Guinness Cheddar.  Add some dried figs, apricots and pecans for good measure.





Bones and Blood

To make the bones use fresh store bought pizza dough.  Cut dough into  strips (vary the length and thickness for variety). Flour your work surface and use your hands to roll each strip with the palms of your hands to create a rope.  Use a sharp knife to cut (lengthwise) a small slit into both ends of each rope.  Roll the two pieces (on each end) into themselves to create the knobby part of the bones. Place on a baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes, depending on how large your bones are. Serve with tomato sauce!

The Puking Pumpkin

 Carve out a small pumpkin and use your favourite guacamole to simulate the puke!  Fun for the kids and super tasty!










Witches Fingers
Use any sugar cookie recipe for this ghoulish treat! Once you make the cookie dough store in fridge for 20 minutes.  Slice into thick pieces the size of a finger.  Roll into a log, pinch the cookie in two places (to make knuckles) and use the back of a knife to embellish each knuckle. Bake as per cookie instructions.

Gifts from the Kitchen

The holidays are fast approaching and for me, what usually gets left to the last minute are all the little detail gifts;  teachers, bus drivers, hostess gifts - you get the picture!  One of my favourite things to do is to make these great Gifts from the Kitchen.

 Unique and economical, making these are an activity that the entire family can get involved in.  I like to use reusable glass cannisters and containers and pretty them up with some fabric and ribbon. 

No extra trip to the shopping mall is necessary, simply add a few basic staples to your grocery list and you are ready to go.

Jalapeno & Lime Sea Salt

Jalapeno & Lime Sea Salt
1 cup sea salt
Zest of 3 limes
3 Jalapenos (I used red ones, hence the colour)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees
Cut jalapenos in quarters.
Place jalapenos in a food processor and pulse until jalapeno is in smaller pieces.
Add salt and lime zest and pulse until combined.
Spread salt out on cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes (to dry out any moisture from chili or zest).
You may need to break salt up with back of fork when it comes out of the oven.
Let cool and transfer to small containers.
This salt is perfect on popcorn, potatoes, grilled meats and fish! Great as a Ceasar Rimmer!

Wild Mushroom & Herbed Rice

 Use quinoa or couscous, simply change cooking method on gift card.

2 cups long grain rice
1/4 cup dried, wild mushrooms
2 Tbps dried chives
1 Tbsp dehydrated onions
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt






Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
Combine all ingredients in bowl and place in a 500ml mason jar.
If doubling the above recipe add the herbs and spices to each jar individually.  Otherwise they will fall to the bottom of  bowl and you will end up with uneven distribution of seasoning.
Make sure to add gift tag with ingredients and cooking instructions ~ simply follow instruction on rice package.

Sweet & Spicy Pecans

These are addictive so once you make them hide them ~ I speak from experience!

2 eggs whites

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp sea salt

1 Tbsp cayenne pepper

5 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk egg whites until frothy.  Stir in sugar, sea salt and cayenne.

Fold in pecans until they are evenly coated with mixture.

Spread evenly on the parchment lined baking sheet.

Place in oven for 20 minutes.

Lower temperature to 250 and cook an additional 10 minutes.

Remove and let cool!

Pumpkin Lovin!

I recently had a harvest gathering and was thinking about how I could use jack-o-lanterns to light up the back yard.  The thought of carving large pumkins was to much for me too fathom.  Instead, I used adorable sugar pumpkins and ghostly looking butternut squash.  Alternate to using typical pumpkin carving tools, I opted for ease and used my husbands cordless drill, a pilot bit and some different sized hole saws.  What I thought would be more of a project for myself ended up being loads of fun for the entire family.  I should have known the three men in my life would enjoy the project more than me.  At least now, I know how to get them involved in decorating - just add power tools!

To gut the pumpkin, a hole was cut in the bottom (to keep top intact).  Then a spoon and hands pulled out the pumpkin "guts" mmmmwahahaha!  The seeds were reserved for roasting of course.  The seeds from these small pumpkins were small, tender and plentiful!

To gut the butternut squash a 2 inch hole saw was required for the entire cavity as the guts are mostly solid except for the very bottom. Use the drill to cut a whole then with a little elbow grease and a sturdy spoon - gut it!

Use a tealight to illuminate the jack-o-lanterns.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup of pumpkin seeds, wash and dried well
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp hot sauce
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Place seeds in a bowl and add melted butter and hot sauce.
Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake until golden brown, stir every 10 minutes.

Add any other spices that you like! Approximatley 1 tsp of one of the following.
cumin, chili powder, allspice, cinnamon.

Highly nutritious, pumpkin seeds are a great source of zinc, iron, fiber and fatty acids. Eaten by the handful or tossed into salads, this seasonal treat is delicious.

Happy Halloween!

Cheese Curds, Red Wine and Creton oh my!

I was recently on a summer holiday in Quebec. We were staying in Saint – Ferreol les Neiges, which is  30 minutes outside Quebec City, near Mont Saint – Anne. The area is a great place for outdoor adventure and fabulous food finds. . Surrounded by the beautiful rolling Laurentians and St. Lawrence River, the landscape is dotted with breathtaking canyons, waterfalls, walking trails and bubbling creeks. Thank goodness for the beckoning of the outdoors, all the walking and exploring was needed to balance out all the rich and delicious French food.

Jean-Larosse Waterfalls

Located at the base of Mont-Sainte-Anne these falls are composed of 3 wonderous cascading waterfalls (12, 19 and 41 metres high). To get there you simply follow the well maintained trail and then descend down the 400 steps to the bottom (and yes back up when you are done).

Creton

A traditional Quebecois food, traditionally eaten at breakfast on toast with either mustard or sometimes jam. Recipes may vary but typically contain ground pork, milk, onions and spices including cloves and sometimes cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg. I'm hooked on this delicious find!

Cheese Curds-Poutine
You can’t visit Quebec without having cheese curds. If you have never had cheese curds, the texture is unlike any other cheese. Chewy and soft, the texture is something that your either going to love or hate. Sold in most local marches and fromagerie, bags of these delicious morsels are sold at room temperature. While delicious on their own, the ultimate way to enjoy these curds is of course in another must have food  - Poutine.  This poutine was made at Cap Tourmente, 100 different varieties of poutine were available.  While my children opted for the traditional  cheese curds, gravy and fresh cut fries, I went for poutine with goose meat and sweet green peas.

Cap Tourmente is a national wildlife area, known as a critical habitat for the Greater Snow Goose during migration.  Flocks of tens of thousands of these birds stop to feed on the bullrushes in the spring and fall.

I’ile d’Orleans
Located 15 minutes from Quebec city, I'ile d'Orleans is a food lovers paradise.    This fertile land produces different crops that are harvested between March and October.  Market gardeners, winemakers, apple growers and poultry, lamb and duck farmers along with choclatiers and cheese makers create delicious local products that are hard for any foodie to resist.  While the island  has many great places to stop and have a meal, you can sample the wares of the purveryors.  In 2006 the farmers participated in writing a cookbook "Les Producteurs toques de L'ile d'Orleans (Farmers in Chef Hats).  The cookbook was so well recieved that it won the World Best Local Cookery Book!

Our summer trip was rounded out with Whale watching in Tadoussac, Zipling at the Canyon Mont-Sainte-Anne and Horse Back Riding.  All adventures for which we were well fed with great local cheese, home cooked meals with friends and of course fabulous red wine!  I can gaurantee this will not be my last trip to this fabulous countryside in Quebec!

The Hilltop Market - Haliburton, ON

I grew up cottaging on Lake Kashagawigamog, just minutes outside the village of Halliburton. As a child, the hilltop market was a 12 minute walk away. A place to go to with my sister, to buy Lolas, Lick –m-ade, and pepperettes. When you didn’t want to brave the hustle and bustle of Haliburton on a hot Saturday afternoon, it was the one stop shop for campfire smore ingredients and a pound of bacon for Sunday’s breakfast! This quintessential corner store is firmly embedded in my memories of the cottage. Over the years, as my relationship with food evolved, my main reason to visit the store was for nostalgia’s sake. Eventually the store closed .

In the fall of 2009, the Hilltop re-opened, with a fresh philosophy and rustic facelift, I was ecstatic when I walked in for the first time. The aesthetic of the store is warm and inviting; pine floor boards, crisp white shelving lined with local preserves and burlap sacks to showcase the freshly baked and delivered bread. The cold chest houses artisanal, local cheeses, smoked bacon, while the front counter showcases deliciously decadent brownies and peanut butter cookies. Alongside these fabulous finds are your typical corner store staples, pop, marshmallows, canned beans, pasta, cracker jacks, bubblegum, sweet tarts, chocolate, and firewood just to name a few.

The operators of the Hilltop, Lisa Marchant and Collin Burke have a vision that goes beyond that of your basic general store. While the store provides the locals and cottagers with both practical and gourmet food, it also provides local merchants and vendors a chance to showcase their amazing products. Creating this type of community based business that is locally driven is part of what makes the Hilltop experience so special.

With less than a year under their belt, I have a feeling they are just getting started.
I was so taken with the place I went on three separate occasions to sample various products. Here is my shopping list

First Visit: Fresh coffee, jalapeno pickled eggs, pickled green beans, peanut butter cookies and marshmallows (for the kids)

Second visit: smoked cheddar cheese, smoked sausage, freshly baked Italian loaf.

Third visit: 2 more smoked sausages, Clamato (for Caesars on the dock) 2 Jones sodas and bubblegum (again for the kids)