Monthly Archives: May 2012

Weekly Food Box

Posted on May 25, 2012 by | Leave a comment
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I’m not sure how we lived with any amount of excitement in our lives before we were regular consumers of the Real Food Connections weekly food box.

This appeals to all of my senses and personality quirks.

I LOVE the excitement of getting food surprises every single week. I can’t tell you how much I love it.

I love that we are supporting local farmers, something that is very near and dear to my heart. My husband and I share a dream of becoming farmers someday. In the meantime, I’ll continue to slave away in front of the keyboard in my office, I guess.

I also really love coming home and dreaming up delicious things to cook with each week’s treasures. It’s like I’m on an episode of Chopped. The best part, I’m always the Chopped champion in my house.

I love that we’re getting so much value out of these boxes. I usually feel guilty walking out of RFC with all the food we get. It’s a weekly ‘Start the car!’ moment.

Here’s what we got in this week’s box:

  • 1 lb of soldier beans (with a great recipe)
  • chili gouda
  • a dozen eggs
  • loaf of multigrain bread
  • a large bag of baby spinach
  • swiss chard
  • rhubarb
  • 1 lb cubed stew venison (red tailed deer)
  • 2 lean burger patties
  • 2 smokies (part ground pork, part bacon, all perfect-breakfast-meat)
  • 4 cheddar bacon sausages
  • 2 pork chops
  • radishes
  • 2L chocolate milk
  • broccoli sprouts
  • an Early Girl tomato plant (!!!)
  • 4 honey crisp apples

If you aren’t already a regular customer at Real Food Connections Fredericton, you need to be. Trust me.

PS – There is so much more than just food there. Check them out!

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A Condiment for All Occasions: [Recipe] Compound Butter

Posted on May 21, 2012 by | 4 Comments
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The Victoria Day weekend reminds me of many things, among which are canoeing, camping, beer, and BBQ.

This particular Victoria Day weekend went more like this: exploring, beer, work, yard work, and BBQ. Meh. You can’t win ‘em all.

We did finish the weekend well – with our first grilled steak of the season – a succulent locally produced rib eye. Now, I hope you all know that steak just isn’t quite complete without a compound butter melting all over it.

A compound butter is, simply put, a butter with other flavouring agents mixed in to them – spices, herbs – anything you can dream up – let your imagination go wild.

Tonight’s choice was a compound butter flavoured with horseradish, chives, and lime zest. Other compound butter suggestions:

  • Chili and lime
  • Blue cheese and worcestershire sauce (makes corn on the cob a new experience)
  • Capers and lemon (Can you imagine the impromptu sauce this would make over a fish filet?)

 
Here’s how we made ours tonight.

[Recipe] Horseradish Chive Butter

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped chives
3 tbsp horseradish
1/2 tsp lime zest
1/2 tsp salt

There really isn’t much method, just prepare the ingredients and mix well.

I rolled the butter into a log with parchment paper so we can keep it in the refrigerator and use it when we need it.

So easy for such a huge difference in your meal. I’m excited to try it on boiled new potatoes, on steamed green beans, and on corn on the cob.

Tonight’s dinner: grilled rib eye, mashed potatoes with garlic cream cheese and steamed spinach, Chickadee Larder corn relish, grilled portobello mushroom, and fresh pea shoots.

Oh, and horseradish butter, of course.

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A Trip to New Brunswick’s Past: [Recipe] Rhubarb Pudding

Posted on May 14, 2012 by | 3 Comments
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When I was young, I remember playing in my grandma’s field. There was a very large rhubarb patch there, and from time to time we’d rip off a huge stalk of it, wipe it on our jeans and chomp away. Our faces contorted with the sour taste, but we always went back for more. Such fond memories… I’m sure there are a myriad of sophisticated ways to enjoy rhubarb, but that one will always be my absolute favourite. This pudding is a very close second.

Look at this gorgeous vegetable’s natural beauty. We got this radiant local rhubarb from Real Food Connections here in Fredericton.

I found this recipe in ‘Favourite Recipes from Old New Brunswick Kitchens’ by Mildred and Stuart Trueman. I adore this recipe collection. It is a great culinary representation of old New Brunswick and current New Brunswick. The ingredients in the book are always at the ready here. Reviewing the recipes has really made me even more proud of my heritage and my province.

This is a perfect Springtime dessert. Rhubarb is in abundance, and even though it’s getting warmer the nights give way to a bit of a chill. Let this dessert take the chill off – it will warm you from the inside out.

Now, let’s gather our ingredients and get going.

Rhubarb Pudding

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 to 1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped

1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup brown sugar
butter the size of a walnut (I LOVE these kinds of measurements)
1 tsp vanilla

Sift your dry ingredients. I could have taken a picture of this step, but who needs to see a mixing bowl of white powder?

Add rhubarb, and milk.

Mix well.

Pour this mixture into a large, well-greased casserole dish. Set aside while you make the sauce.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together. Yup, that’s it, that’s the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the batter mixture.

Oh, oh.

So close.

Yeah, when the recipe said a LARGE casserole dish, I probably should have paid better attention. Oh well, no going back now.

Bake covered (and on a sheet pan) at 375F for 40 minutes.

And here it is…

Oh my.

Serve.

The rhubarb provides a tangy contrast for the sweet buttery sauce. Simply lovely. Good luck saving some for tomorrow.

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Local Chow: Week 2

Posted on May 10, 2012 by | 1 Comment
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If you tuned in last week, you’ll know that Fred Rickton (my new name for husband) and I have begun purchasing a local food box on a weekly basis from Real Food Connections, here in our hometown of Fredericton.

Tonight we went to pick up our second box, and I don’t know how it’s possible, but we might be even more impressed with this box than with our first.

This week our box held the following gorgeous local products:

~ a dozen antibiotic-free eggs courtesy of Hilltop Pork
~ a loaf of homemade multigrain bread baked by Soleil Bakery
~ a large bag of mixed greens from Villeneuve Family Farms
~ very fresh new radishes
~ 4 sundried tomato basil sausages also from Hilltop Pork
~ 4 beef patties
~ chicken thighs
~ 2 great looking ribeye steaks
~ 2 salmon filets
~ a chunk of mustard pepper gouda
~ rhubarb
~ at least 1 lb of fiddleheads
~ a head of pak choi
~ potatoes

I can hardly wait to dream up dinners this week.

A big thanks to the great staff at RFC – they’re informative, friendly, completely flexible, and patient. It makes it an absolute pleasure to shop there. For the first time in a long time, Fred wants to come shopping with me – that’s a VERY good sign that you’re doing something right.

If you’re not already buying local, start. It healthy for the local economy, the planet, you and your family, and your pocket book.

Next week, I’m hoping to pick up some NB duck fat for cooking. The excitement’s a bit too much to bear!

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Our First Food Box Order

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | 2 Comments
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Husband and I recently decided to start ordering a food box of locally produced meat and veggies from a local store called Real Food Connections. You put your name on the list for a box, then pick it up on either Thursday or Friday evening. The goods in the box are a bit of a surprise, although the nice folks at RFC really aim to please and allow you to swap anything in the box for anything else you’d rather have in the store.

You should check out RFC’s website – there’s a lot of information there, along with profiles of the local farmers producing these amazing products.

All of the boxes have some things in common, but you also get to pick a couple of things when you get there. This week we got our choice of herbs and a cheese. We chose parsley for our herb and a goat feta for our cheese.

This is the first week we’ve ordered, and we’re VERY excited about this week’s haul:

- basil plant (this was an add on for us)
- italian parsley plant
- radishes
- goat’s milk feta
- 1/2 lb fiddleheads (YAY for fiddlehead season!!!)
- multigrain bread
- two bags of sprouts
- eggs
- milk
- 3 lb potatoes
- bag of baby spinach
- ground chicken
- chicken breast
- mango curry sausages (4 lg)
- 2 massive breakfast patties

How much fun will it be to come up with meals with these products this week?!? I can’t wait.

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