Mom Approved Food

  Coffeehouses I spent several years of my working career overseeing construction and opening of multiple Coffee Culture® locations throughout Ontario and a Java Café ® in China, but are they coffeehouses? If so, what makes them a “Coffeehouse”? Merriam-Webster.com defines a coffeehouse as: “a business that sells coffee and usually other refreshments and that often serves as an informal club for its regular customers”.  Based on this both are coffeehouses, as are many other establishments, both independent and chain, throughout the world. Guelph has many coffeehouses, some independent, like Planet Bean, Red Brick Café, and Lost Aviator Coffee as well as all the usual chain coffeehouses, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Williams. Many of the independent coffeehouse’s specialty roast their own beans. The chains as well have coffee beans roasted especially for them, thereby making them each truly unique coffee experiences.   Where do you like to meet for Coffee? Let me know in the comments and rea

  Kaldi's Delicious Discovery! I find it hard to start my day without a big cup of coffee. No one knows the actual origin of coffee, however it is believed its history started in Ethiopia. Legend says Kaldi, a goat herder, in the medieval kingdom of Kaffa, discovered coffee plants in 850 A.D. His goats after eating the coffee berries had extreme energy. Kaldi informed local monks about the berries who proceeded to make a drink out of the berries.  From these humble beginnings coffee eventually spread throughout the world Coffee has actually been more important in my life than just waking me up. For several years, while working for Obsidian Group, I oversaw the construction and opening of multiple Coffee Culture® cafes. These coffee cafes were modeled on a European tradition of coffee houses that date back hundreds of years. Even after leaving Obsidian Group, coffee was still in my future. I spent a year in China working with a friend, Will Du, who owned a coffee machine manufacturi

  Indispensable Kitchen Tool Having the right tools in a kitchen is important, not just for speed, but also for the quality of the food being prepared. One tool that I believe is a must-have in any kitchen is an immersion blender, sometimes called a stick or hand blender. Patented in Switzerland in 1950, immersion blenders remained in Europe until finally making their way over to North America in the 1980s. Now, they're something that many home cooks have on hand, and for good reason. An immersion blender is one of the handiest, most convenient tools you can have in your kitchen.   Do I need an immersion blender  if I already have a countertop blender? The short answer is Yes.   The main difference is that a countertop blender features a jar on top of a motorized base that sits on your countertop while blending. An immersion blender is a handheld blender and does not have a jar. You can insert the blades into nearly any container, therefore, your blending is not limited

  My Philosophy of Cooking I  am going to provide you with a couple of my simplest and favourite soup recipes, however, first I thought I would tell you a little about myself and my approach to cooking. I have been cooking professionally for over 40 years . I apprenticed in fine dining where I learned the classic French Brigade system of kitchen management. I learned about mirepoix and their variations, roux, clarified butter, pure starch slurries and liaisons. I developed skill in creating from scratch; stocks, brown sauces and their derivatives, white sauces, tomato sauces, veloutés, beurre Blanc, hollandaise sauce, and its variations. I learned about butchery and spent a couple of years as a pastry chef before finally spending a year as a Sous chef.   After leaving fine dining I moved on to work in chain restaurants, and roadhouses. This was a major change from fine dining. Here it was mostly cooking of already prepared foods and plating of items. Virtually nothing was made fro

  When it’s cold outside how comforting is it  to sit down to a nice warming bowl of soup? Soup is replenishing, aromatized and a complete meal. According to the dictionary, soup is a liquid food derived from meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables. Soups have many forms—some soups are thin and served as broths, while some are thick and  creamy. Soups are like stews  however, soups have more liquid (broth) than stews. Do you ever wonder about how long this flavourful and nutritious food has been around? For thousands of years humankind has enjoyed the liquid foodstuff known as “soup” Food historians tell us soup is as old as the history of cooking. According to archaeologist John Speth, our ancient Neanderthal relatives were likely to have begun boiling meat to render fat from animal bones – resulting in a meat broth that they would have drunk as soup. In Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province, China, the first example of a soup bowl was discovered and thought to date back to 20,000 BC. Con

  I’m a big fan of Tea,  especially herbal teas you can make for free . Goldenrod tea is a good example.  This prolific herb which spills over the landscape in southern Ontario in late August and September, is not the allergy-causing plant ragweed, which it often gets mistaken for. Historically, Goldenrod was applied to the skin to help heal wounds, prevent infections and as a diuretic tea. Aboriginal people chewed on the leaves to relieve sore throats or toothaches. After the Boston Tea Party, which was significant in the American revolution, colonists dumped all their favourite Green and Black Tea and then made a tea of Goldenrod and called it “Liberty Tea” . In addition to being tasty, Goldenrod tea is considered helpful for addressing seasonal allergies. A lot of people mistakenly blame goldenrod for their allergy misery; however, a cup of goldenrod tea may just help alleviate all that sneezing and sniffling.   Goldenrod is easily foraged, and those sunny yellow flowers ma