Sweetness & Bite

Sara's "Sweetneess & Bite" a culinary exploration of honey.

Delicately scented with various herbs, berries, and flowers, comprising of both sweetness and bite, honey has the ability to impart an interesting depth of flavor to nearly any recipe. Flavors can range from mild to aromatic, spicy, fragrant or herbal. Just think, there are as many flavors of honey as there are flowers... such room for creativity!

For this evenings Cooking Club I thought it would be so interesting if each of us were to choose a different flavor of honey, and then utilize that flavor within our individual dishes. Oh yes, and please bring your jar of honey along for the "honey tasting" portion of the evening. I plan to put out a series of little dishes so we can taste each of the honey's used for the evenings meal. Looking forward to an evening dedicated to honey!! Yum-yum!
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HONEY ORIENTED BEVERAGES
JT- Mocktail: alcohol-free drink served during food prep. time
SARA- Sommelier:`Súmul'yey: manager of wine service during dinner
AMANDA- Sparkling Water or Tea: simple bev. served with dinner/dessert
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HONEY RESOURCES
Chilliwack River Valley Honey Farm:
There will be a booth at the Granville Island Market on the 10th,11th & 12th of November. You will be able to buy any one of their huge selections of honey! Take a look at what they offer... http://www.chilliwackhoney.com/products.html#honey
Recipe Ideas:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_honey.shtml
http://www.honeyassociation.com/recepies2.htm
http://www.honey.com/recipes/index.asp
http://www.goldenblossomhoney.com/searchrecipes.asp
http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa060997.htm

Farm Fresh

Amanda's: "Farm Fresh"

Did you know that the average shopping cart of household groceries has traveled 2500km to reach Canadian supermarkets? Eating locally all year round means fresher, tastier, more nutritious food. It alleviates environmental impact caused by transporting food over long distances and it spurs local economic growth while conserving farmland through active agricultural use. Eating locally builds community and allows people to know how and where their food is grown. Increasing the amount of local farming also increases our level of food security and the capacity to feed ourselves.

This month’s cooking club is intended to get us thinking about the delicious foods that are grown in our local area. For your dish please choose at least one signature local ingredient that you can tell the group about. For example, instead of making your chicken souvlaki with meat from Safeway, try using chicken from Thomas Reid Farms in Langley:
http://www.trforganic.com/photos.htm
To round out your pasta sauce, try using a local wine, like a pinot noir from Glenugie Winery:
http://www.glenugiewinery.com/about/index.html
The best place to talk to local farmers in town is one of the many Farmer’s Markets:
http://www.eatlocal.org/
Have a wonderful time exploring the tasty ingredients we have locally! For more reading, please visit the following links:
http://www.ffcf.bc.ca/
http://www.cityfarmer.org/
http://www.sustainweb.org/chain_index.asp
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FARM FRESH BEVERAGES
AMANDA- Mocktail: alcohol-free beverage served during food prep. time
SARA- Sommelier:`Súmul'yey: manager of wine service during dinner
JT- Sparkling Water, Coffee or Tea: simple bev. served with dinner
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Cucina Toscana

Shellee's: "Cucina Toscana"

Welcome to a taste of Tuscany! Tuscany embodies a combination of the elements of the land and the simple pleasures in life. Good people, good food, and good wine. That Italian way of life, la dolce vita, is indisputably linked to the Italians' instinctive knowledge of how to live, and how to eat and drink well.

Tuscany itself is a charmed land, so alluring and desirable. Imagine the vineyards:
rows of baby green vines that march in arrow-straight formation up the gently rolling hillsides, bounded by single files of darker green cypress trees, snaking sandy roads leading to rust-colored farmhouses and moss-coated castles, symmetrically rounded hilltops surmounted by golden towns. Every inch of land has been sculpted to be fruitful, yet beautiful.

Tuscan cooking is represents the bounty of simple tastes prepared with expert mastery. The simplicity of dishes is bound to a cultural story of minimal, simple ingredients cooked wisely. The sometimes-difficult conditions of life lived so close to the land imposed the use of unadorned food, oil instead of fat, soups instead of pasta, and rich variety of breads. Traditional recipes passed down through the family are worth their weight in gold. The dinner table is the scene of many conversations, debates and decisions; favorite foods evoke happy memories, good health and comfort.

Let’s live like the Italians do for one evening and live to eat while the rest of the world eats to live!
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TUSCAN BEVERAGES
MICHELLE- Mocktail: alcohol-free drink served during food prep. time
SARA- Sommelier:`Súmul'yey: manager of wine service during dinner
SHELLEE- Sparkling Water or Tea: simple bev. served with dinner
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RECIPE RESOURCES:
http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/recipes.asp
http://www.tuscany.net/recipes/tuscanr.htm
http://www.zuppa-toscana.com/
http://www.yourwaytoflorence.com/recipes/
http://www.west175productions.com/cucina_toscana/tv.html
http://italianfood.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=italianfood&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.terraditoscana.com%2Fuk10f.htm