So, where have I been?

My second son's Bar Mitzvah is in four days. Anybody who has experienced being the mother-of-the-Bar-Mitzvah knows where I have been.

The baking day was only one of the stressful moments, although it was lots of fun, too. Daily practice, buying clothes for everybody, paying invoices from the synagogue, the DJ, the photographer, the florist. Helping him write his speech. Invitations, RSVPs, keeping track of gifts so he can write his thank-yous next week. Family flying in from out of town, who need to be housed, fed and entertained.



All in all, lots of stuff. Celebrating a milestone like this is not trivial (or cheap).

But in the end, what it amounts to is this. Miracle Boy, who started life with so much fear and pain and hope, is now a gorgeous thirteen-year-old, eye to eye with me, smart and funny and healthy.

That is where I have been. Next week - pictures and stories!!

Spring Paleo Manitoba Supper

 

Yesterday I was at Petrasko Bros picking up some bedding plants, and of course I had to get a picture of this sign. It just shows how Manitobans feel about spring and summer, after six months of the white stuff on the ground. This year actually was pretty good, spring was early and we had some amazingly warm days in March and April. But now we have local asparagus (yes, I know it's June. We're in the NORTH here, people). We have local greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers from Greenland Gardens. We are fortunate to have local mushrooms year-round from Loveday Mushroom Farms, and we currently also have local onions (of which unfortunately I don't know the provenance - but I trust Eatit.ca when they tell me something is Manitoba-grown). I've also been picking up local produce and organic baby veggie plants at the Red River General Store. A bit of a drive, but so worth it.

So, on to our dinner the other night. Sometimes we are fortunate to have pickerel or northern pike from the lakes of Northern Manitoba, but this was a vegetarian one, with free-run eggs from Nature's Farm in Steinbach. The garlic is not yet local, but I can't cook without garlic. Sorry. I'm not sure why I put the container of tomato sauce (homemade - that's another post) in the picture, maybe I was planning to use some, but in the end I didn't.

Paleo purists will complain about the bag of bagels in the background. All I can say is that my kids are not there yet. Baby steps.

Anyway, we had two main dishes - a mushroom fritatta, and of course, this time of year, we must have asparagus.The cooking oil of choice in paleo cooking is coconut oil, not local, alas. With global warming, though, who knows? Coconut palms at Portage and Main ...

These pictures are mostly just an excuse to show off my beautiful cast-iron pans, which I bought at Pollock's Hardware Co-op, a beautiful place in a beautiful city. Once you start cooking with cast iron, you will never want to go back to those nasty Teflon non-stick pans. Ditch that toxic cookware, people!

Anyway, you heat up your coconut oil, saute your onions and garlic until they are transparent but not brown, then add your mushrooms. Yum. Your kitchen smells good. You scramble up your eggs, add a little oregano, basil and thyme (very shortly those will be extremely local, from my garden!). Salt to taste. Add to your pan, turn down the heat, cover and let it cook merrily away. You may have to brown the top under the broiler, if your fritatta is too big to flip. I'm a wimp that way.

As mentioned, all meals this time of year must include asparagus, on pain of displeasing the Locavore Gods. So here's the braised asparagus dish that went with the fritatta. Start onions and garlic the same as before (although I think I may have used butter instead of coconut oil for this - anybody got a source for local organic butter??).

I think I added a little salt, as well. Fresh, local asparagus does not need any enhancements, in my humble opinion. The flavour of asparagus is what's called the fifth flavour (not sweet, salty, bitter or sour). I don't buy imported asparagus because I really don't think it can stand up to travel. So this time of year is especially precious to me.

So, here is the final product. I'm still learning about food photography as well as cooking and blogging, so bear with me. It was yummy, though.

I would love to see what you are cooking up this time of year!

The Great Manitoba Food Bloggers' Bake Sale!

Chocolate dipped marshmallow pops

My presumptuous brownies

 Wow. That was quite the experience. The Manitoba Food Bloggers were having a bake sale in support of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, so I decided to join in. They were being supported by the Manitoba Canola Growers, so I modified the Better Brownies recipe I got through the Fast Paleo website. Paleo frowns on vegetable oils such as canola, but I found some local non-GMO oil and went with that. I also used Cocoa Camino organic fair-trade chocolate chips, which are probably also not strictly paleo as they may contain traces of dairy, etc. Hence, Almost Paleo Brownies ;-). I didn't have time to make a blog post about making them, but that will come.

Chocolate bourbon balls

Man, was I intimidated when I got to Aqua Books and saw what the pros had brought. Some of them actually were professional bakers. I stupidly didn't record the names but just look at these pictures and drool ...

I did receive some kind words from some people who tried the brownies. I wasn't surprised that they didn't sell out ... believe me, those pops above were gone within the first hour!

I also received a very cool white apron, courtesy of the Manitoba Canola Growers, which, as you can see, received very good use when I was cooking for Shabbat after I got home from the bake sale. I hope it washes out, but if it doesn't, it's a well-loved apron and my kids all went gaga over it.

There was a photographer there from the Winnipeg Free Press, who took a picture of those of us who were there in our fancy white aprons, so stay tuned for that.






 Of course, the absolutely best part was hanging out with all these foodies for a few hours. They are very cool, knowledgeable, friendly and welcoming to amateurs like me. The odd chef wandered in and I managed not to fan-girl too badly.

 Thanks again, Shel and others, for letting me play with the big kids and I hope we raised lots of cash for Jamie Oliver's good cause! Looking forward to spending more time with you and learning more about good, local food.

Why Blogging About Food in Manitoba is Really Cool

Chef Michael Shafer demonstrates

Sometimes you just have to step out in faith and ask to play with the big kids. I have recently joined a FaceBook group called Manitoba Food Bloggers. I'm fortunate to be in a group there with people like Shel Zolkewich, Rebecca Hadfield, Ron Cantiveros and other luminaries of the Manitoba food blogging world. They talk about food and farming and restaurants in Manitoba and are generally awesome.

Now I am still recovering from an amazing lunch that I enjoyed on Monday, courtesy of Tourism Winnipeg as part of their kickoff of national Tourism Week. In particular, they were launching Peg City Grub, a very cool blog featuring as many as possible of Winnipeg's 1100 restaurants. It is written and photographed by Robin Summerfield, who totally rocks, and not just because she checked out this blog and decided I was a good fit.

The event at the Forks started with a demonstration by Chef Michael Shafer, of Sydney's at the Forks and the newly opened Rudy's Eat and Drink. Not being a pork eater, I am not clear on the details of the tenderloin he was working on, but I do know it involved Fort Garry Dark Ale, and the smell made me hungry.

That was a good thing as we then moved on to an impressive lunch, which I live-tweeted - how nerdy can you get? Luckily so did a few other people, so I didn't feel too freakish. I also got to meet and share a table with some delightful bloggers. Now I have some real-life faces to put to the posts I see in the FB group!

The lunch consisted of a lot of tiny courses, each supplied by a different restaurant at the Forks. I didn't partake of all of them (in particular, I passed on the crab, bison and chicken), but those I had were delectable. A few pictures (by no means everything we were offered!) just to make you hungry, too.

Empanada from Chilean Corner

Greek Salad from Zorba's Pizza

MB pickerel from Fergie's Fish 'n Chips

Seasonal mini-pie from Tall Grass Prairie Bakery

Three-chocolate canolli from Casa Bella

 So now I am really happy I plucked up the courage to ask Robin if this event was only for the important people with big blogs. It wasn't, and that is what this city is like.

Oh, and one more thing. Those awesome folks from Manitoba Food Bloggers are holding a bake sale on Friday at Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, from 10 am to 2 pm, in support of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day. I will be contributing some almost-paleo brownies, which are currently making my kitchen smell good and about which I will be blogging shortly. I hope to see you there!

My Favourite Grocery Store!

There are quite a few wonderful local grocery stores here in Winnipeg, and this time of year the farmers' markets start popping up like mushrooms after the rain, too. But I want to tell you about my favourite of all, year-round.

It's a little operation on Wall St., just north of Portage, if you happen to be local and want to check it out. It's called Eatit.ca, because it started purely as a website, but branched out into a real store.

It started as a family operation, but was bought up by Vita Health, also a local company, a couple of years ago. I was a little concerned when the original owners burned out, but Ryan, the current manager, has done an excellent job of keeping the atmosphere and the high standards that were its hallmark. Most of the original staff are still there, which I think is quite telling.

One of the many things I love about this store is its emphasis on locally grown produce. Living in Winnipeg, that is not something we take for granted. For six months of the year, the ground is covered in snow and all we have by way of local produce is carrots and potatoes from last year, and of course the local mushrooms. But when the tomatoes come in, we know spring is on its way. These are hothouse tomatoes, it is still too early to hope for field ones. But they make my heart sing anyway.






But here is the real kicker - fiddlehead ferns. They are only available for a couple of weeks every year. They aren't even the tastiest greens around. But they are local, they grow outside without plastic or heating, and if you blink, you'll miss them. Every year without fail, I find them at Eatit.ca, and my spring is just not complete without them.

Of course the store also carries local organic milk and local free-run or organic eggs, pickerel and pike from the local lakes, as well as salmon that didn't come from China, bison and elk and halal chickens. You can find most of the organic big names on the shelves, but also Manitoba maple syrup (not this year, alas) and locally grown and ground flour. Most of the produce is still from far away, but those "Manitoba Grown" signs are becoming more and more frequent. I can't wait till they cover the whole cooler.

If you visit that little store at 603 Wall St., be sure to say hello to the staff from me. If all else fails, there's always Eatit.ca.

What is your favourite grocery store?

Quick test post

Trying out the Blogger app on my iPhone. My laptop charger died and I can't use my computer, so sad.

Let me know if you can see this!

On Jian Ghomeshi and Feminism

OK, I will admit it. I'm a groupie. This cutie here is Jian Ghomeshi, host of the CBC show Q (which you USAmericans can hear on PRI and Sirius Radio! Check out the website). He's an impeccable interviewer and his velvety tones are really sexy. If I miss hearing him in the morning, more often than not I'll download the podcast so I can catch him later. Hearing him flirt with Dr. Ruth should make you an addict, too.

He's also an avid Twitter user, and unlike many people in his position, he reads fan responses and sometimes even engages in conversation. Not too many thrills compare to that, even though his tone in our latest exchange was distinctly irritated. Can't say I blame him too much - I do keep coming back to the same thing, and here it is.

Jian likes to address male interviewees as "Sir". Nothing wrong with that - courtly and old-fashioned is extremely charming, especially when combined with above-mentioned velvety tones. The problem is that he has not yet found an appropriate female equivalent, and tends to address his female interviewees by their names. I have been bugging him on Twitter for a couple of years now to find an equally respectful mode of address for women (or girls, or gals, or ladies - see the problem?). In our latest Twitter exchange, Jian suggested that I should find a larger issue to concern myself with. But actually, I think that is a pretty darned large issue, and it comes down to the question of how, and why, women earn respect in our society, and more importantly, from themselves.

The "official" or formal equivalent of Sir is Madam, as in Dear Sir or Madam. I did suggest to Jian that he should experiment with using Ma'am, as is so prevalent in the American South. He responded that many women are not comfortable with that form of address. When I queried whether anybody knows or cares whether men are comfortable with the term Sir, he said that he'd been using it for five years and no man has ever complained.

So, why would a young woman squirm at being addressed as Madam (or perhaps My Lady, as the medieval equivalent of Sir?) or Ma'am, while a young man is fine with being addressed as Sir? We use Madam for women in formal positions of power - Madam Justice, Madam Speaker. I can't imagine the Speaker of the House (any house) feeling uncomfortable with that form of address. So why is it not appropriate for a female actor or activist, regardless of age? Does it imply an old woman to you, more than Sir would for a man? Or is it an enhancement in status for a man to be addressed with that form of respect, while it detracts from a woman's status? Why would it be a detraction for a woman to be addressed as being mature and worthy of respect? This is coming from the women themselves - but the internalisation of the patriarchy is no new phenomenon for us. See Ashley Judd's fabulous essay on the subject. 

Am I crazy to be hearing echoes of the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy here? A mature, powerful man is sexually attractive, whereas a mature, powerful woman is a cougar, unless she abandons all claim to sex altogether. A Madam is a woman who runs brothels, where young, low-status but attractive women cater to the desires of men who are addressed as Sir. The waters become successively murkier the deeper we delve into this.

Jian himself is a strong feminist - just this morning his opening essay was a stirring indictment of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their neglect of women musicians. But even he is stuck on this thorny issue of address. Yes, it seems a small thing, but I think it is a canary in the coal mine - if we can find a satisfactory mode of expressing respect to women, it will indicate that there is more true respect for women in the bedrock of our society. Call me a dreamer.

What do you think?