Sometimes it happens quite by accident, and before they realize what has happened, the individual is knee deep in requests for the product that was once their hobby.

That is the story I heard when I went to the Cheese Boutique on Monday, and listened to founder of Upper Canada Cheese Company, Wayne Philbrick,  talk about how he had started his business. Making cheese was something he did for friends, and the “wine club” that this foodie belonged to, wouldn’t let him show up to their monthly tastings without a sample of his home-made cheeses.Lauren Arsenault, original Guernsey Girl

Now, I’ve had a soft spot for Upper Canada Cheese Company before I heard this story, since I drove by it many a time as I planned my wedding just down the street from their storefront at Inn on the Twenty last May.

In fact, seeing the local cheese store inspired me to add Artisanal cheese stations to our cocktail hour which was a huge hit with our guests, and I do believe their Niagara Gold was featured in the lineup.

So as this burgeoning cheese company grew, it needed to expand. Enter Lauren Arsenault—cheesemaker extraordinaire. She’s the lady or the “girl” (it’s OK, she told me she doesn’t mind being called so) behind Guernsey girl Cheese. A Scandinavian-style cheese, Guernsey stays firm on the outside and even crisps with heat, and the inside gets soft and gooey.

Lauren, who is part Norwegian said she was excited to bring this "bread-style cheese" to the masses. The cheese is versatile enough to grill on the barbecue, so she's hoping that the current excitement about Guernsey Girl is just the beginning as the weather warms up.

Now there was more to the event than just talk. There was a live cook-off happening, featuring Guernsey Girl and let me tell you that I gladly sampled all the offerings.

Lora Kirk wooed me with her Slow Braised Ribs and Guernsey Girl Poutine, Andrea Damon Gibson The winning entry(founder of Fred’s Bread) made me pause with her interpretation titled Guernsey Girl Goes Mediterranean—an olive and chipotle bread smothered in melty cheese, but it was Jason Bangerter (Auberge du Pommier) who I fell hard for with his Artichoke and Guernsey Girl Terrine. The terrine featured all Niagara ingredients (including the prosciutto). It was baked, but just before serving fried up in a pan and drizzled with a Muscat vinegar reduction, a garlic infused oil and some micro greens. 

Bangerter confessed that he didn’t dream up the recipe for the cook off, but rather re-interpreted an old favourite he had created while working in Switzerland where he used cave-aged Gruyere, instead of the Halloumi style cheese. However, this reincarnation has won him over. “I think it’s better than the Gruyere,” he said. “The cheese has a buttery finish that blends well with the other ingredients. You have to cook it to get it's full flavour."

It seems I'm not the only one who thought so, since when the votes were finally tallied, Chef Bangerter's dish emerged victorious.

Piled high with toppings, often sectioned into segments of what each of us liked (no olives on my part please!) and a thick pillowy dough that had us eating every last piece of the crust.

Yep, mom made great pizza, and we were spoiled. There was something about my mom's pizza that brought us all to the table, and not once did we ever complain that we didn't get "take-out" like all the other kids.

One time, one of my cousins left his slice of pizza unattended while he washed his hands, and when he returned found the dog had helped himself to the slice. My cousin tried to take the piece of pizza back, before he was reassured that we would gladly give him a new slice, if he surrendered his piece to the dog. It really was that good.

Now that I have my own family, pizza isn't as regular as it was at Mom's house, but it's still something the whole family loves.

I've tinkered with a dough recipe for a while, wanting to make it more "multi-grain" and came up with what I think is a pretty good balance. The trick to good dough is repetition. Eventually, you find the right texture and consistency that you like.

Here's my multi-grain pizza dough recipe:

1 1/3 cups warm water

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp honey

Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water. Let sit until yeast starts to foam.

Meanwhile mix

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1 tsp salt

Add yeast and water mixture to dry ingredients and knead well (12 to 15 minutes).

Take 1 to 2 tbsp of olive oil and grease a large stainless steel bowl. Place dough, covered with plastic wrap in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2 to two hours.

Then proceed to roll out dough on some additional cornmeal.

Once it's rolled out, you can top it with whatever you like.

You could add some of these:

One of my favourite combos is a combination of chipotle salsa and olive oil spread thinly over the crust topped with mozzarella, chicken, red peppers, fried onions and sauteed mushrooms.

That's the beauty of pizza though. No matter what your family likes, you can find a combination that will please everyone. If not, just do like my mom did and divide it up into sections! Enjoy.

Maybe I'm nesting? Who knows? Baking bread, as soul-soothing, as it can be, is a long arduous process, dotted with kneading, rising, more kneading and often more rising.

Monkey Bread Enter the stand mixer, with it's constant whirring, and bread making is not such a challenge anymore. I used my KitchenAid to make brioche dough this weekend because I was inspired by a recipe on the blog Smitten Kitchen. Strangely, I find the hypnotic whir of my KitchenAid almost as cathartic as kneading the bread myself. And truly with a brioche dough, warm hands can wreak havoc, so the machine is often the best way to go.

Monkey Bread has had a surge in popularity lately. It's gone from being a virtual unknown cake/pastry up here in Canada, to having William's Sonoma carry special mixes and pans for baking this sugar-crusted treat.

When I saw the recipe and photos at Smitten Kitchen, I read through her blog post. One of the recommended ways to make the bread was with a brioche dough. I knew how to make brioche dough, so I figured I would try it that way.

I used this recipe, for the dough which yielded enough for two batches of monkey bread, or, a batch of monkey bread and a small batch of cinnamon buns (I opted for the latter).

The recipe also called for a cream cheese icing, which is also found with this dough recipe, so it was a perfect combo.

Here's what you need.

1/2 portion of brioche dough

1/2 cup of melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Grease a bundt pan well with butter. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Roll our your portion of chilled brioche dough into an 8 x8 inch square and cut into 64 pieces. Seperate the dough, before it warms. Roll each piece into a ball. Dip with a fork into melted butter, then coat with sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Stagger coated balls into bundt pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one hour. Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 30 to 35 min.

Coat with a cream cheese icing.

1/3 cup butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup of cream cheese

1 cup of icing sugar

zest of one orange

1/4 tsp almond extract

1-2 tbsp milk

Cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy with beaters. Add in icing sugar and incorporate well. Mix in zest and almond extract. If necessary, add milk to achieve desired consistency.

Verdict:

Although fun to pull apart the crusty little bite sized pieces of cinnamon dough, the outer layer was too crisp for my liking. I personally think the cinnamon buns are a much better use of brioche dough. The family agreed.

So I whipped up a half batch of these babies alongside the Monkey Bread, since I had the extra dough. I used walnuts instead of the standard pecans, but boy where they tasty. There's nothing like a good brioche dough. Even though I've never actually used it make brioche.

Why would I when I can make these instead?

During that time, I wasn't the healthiest eater-- quite the contrary actually. I relied heavily on dairy Non-vegetarian lentil soupproducts and eggs to supplement what I wasn't getting from meat and as a result ended up less healthy than when I started. When my doctor diagnosed me with high cholesterol, that was the last straw. I was depriving myself of things like succulent prime rib, and guilt-inducing bacon and I had high cholesterol.

I threw in the towel and rejoined the ranks of the carnivores, or as one of my stepsons likes to say "meat-a-tarians." Hubby, who is a personal trainer by day, once explained to the boy that there was no such thing.

The conversation went a little like this:

Boy: "Dad, if vegetarians are people who only eat vegetables, what do you call someone who only eats meat?"

Husband: "Dead. They don't live long enough to give them a name."

End of conversation.

Can you tell we were struggling to get him to eat his vegetables? Anyhow, that was a couple of years ago, and I'm proud to say that, despite his ongoing aversion to tomatoes, he's a pretty good veggie eater otherwise.

The following soup is not vegetarian. But it could be. You'd just have to leave out the bacon and replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. You know, take out all the flavour. And what fun would that be?

Pain au chocolat

Giving established places like Clafouti something to talk about Nadege is an unassuming bakery with sleek lines that evoke a "France moderne" but the food is definitely deeply rooted in French tradition (with a few exceptions). Macarons, the French meringue based confection usually sandwiched with ganache entered the scene a few years ago, so Nadege has stepped up to the plate with a variety of offerings from Blackberry and Chocolate (yum!) to Mojito (pass). Of course they also have the regular pastry offerings you would expect, Croissant, Almond Croissant, Pain au Chocolat and the most decadent Chocolate Almond Croissant. I tried a unique pairing of Pistachio and Dried Cherry which was didn't quite have the depth of flavour I was hoping for.

But the one thing that has me truly tickled about Nadege is their introduction of Cannele to the Toronto scene. I have yet to see these little Bordeaux specialties anywhere else in the city.

Baked in copper molds, they are speckled with vanilla and have a soft custardy inside.

CanneleAlthough I didn't try their sandwhiches, they were pretty enough to frame. I'll definitely be going back for one of those soon. So definitely give Nadege a try. Although don't get carried away and ask the staff for a "Café Crème" or a "Café au Lait" because they'll look at you strangely. Just order a latté like the rest of Toronto does.

 Nadege, 780 Queen St. W. 416-368-2009.

A concoction made of milk and/or cream with real dark chocolate melted in for good measure, it's good on its own, fantastic with a warming shot of brandy or cognac and sinful with a little coffee.

When a foodie friend suggested I try hot chocolate with Garam Masala mix, how could I resist?

The recipe comes from Arvinda's Artisanal Spice Blends but her recipe uses milk, and cocoa powder, and well, it's just not the same decadent consistency as doing it the way I learned a little while ago.

So taking inspiration from Arvinda's recipe, and using her Garam Masala spice blend, here's my version.

Garam Masala Hot Chocolate

1 cup whole milk

1 cup 18% cream

113 gr. bar of 70 per cent dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli)

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp Arvinda's garam masala spice blend

1 dried red chili

Pour milk and cream into a saucepan. Bring to a light simmer. Add spices and chili, remove from heat and let steep for 1 hour.

Strain mixture.

Reheat milk and cream mixture. Once warm, add broken pieces of chocolate, and stir until melted. Add sugar to taste.

This drink will warm you from the inside out, even without the cognac. A perfect little indulgence for someone like me, who's abstaining from alcohol right now. It's also a great way to end a meal.

Cheers!

Well, my mom came through and I found myself poring over not just volume 1, but volume 2 as well.

And although I love the books, and I say this with the greatest affection for Child, some of the recipes are more complicated than they need to be. There, I said it. Challenge me if you must, but it is the reality by my standards, and that is saying a lot from someone who is taking chef training as a hobby.

I don't doubt that much of what is in the books is directly taught at the Cordon Bleu. The problem being that some of it is clearly restaurant cooking.

Case in point: Coq au Vin.

A great braising dish, this one becomes unnecessarily complex with seperate recipes for the brown-braised onions (to be added at the end) and the sauteed mushrooms, also to be added as a garnish. I puzzled over this, and can only come up with this explanation: in a large production kitchen, you would make these onions or mushrooms in large batches because they would be used for several dishes. At home, it just doesn't make sense.

Now, the chef in me says: "Wait! How will the chicken get the flavours of the onion, if they're not cooked in the dish?" The practical side of me says: "And that's yet another pot to wash!"

So I tinkered with the recipe and referenced the Larousse Gastronomique (one of the previous year's Christmas gifts), and found that a delicious result could be achieved in one dish and dare I say it, maybe even a little bit healthier! Note: I did not say this is "healthy". It still contains bacon and enough fat off the chicken.

Just to make sure I didn't deviate too far, I even did the flambe. (Be sure to stand back, as you'll be surprised by how high the flames will rise). The result was a rich sauce, tasty mushrooms and onions to boot and a perfectly braised chicken thigh. I also used only thighs, which not only makes this an economical option, but the dark meat works best with the slow braising. I like this recipe because it breaks all the rules-- using red wine with poultry and beef broth instead of chicken. Of course if you were so inclined you could make your own dark chicken broth by browning the bones first, but that's another time-consuming endeavour.

Coq au Vin (à la méthode Vixen)

3 to 4 oz of bacon

2 onions, sliced

1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered

2 lbs of chicken thighs, skin on bone-in.

2 tbsp cognac

1/2 can of tomato paste

3 cloves garlic

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

1 cup red wine

2 cups of beef broth

Cut the bacon into strips widthwise and saute until brown in a dutch oven. Remove from pan. In the bacon drippings, brown the chicken with the skin on. After all sides are brown, remove and let sit.

Add in the onions and brown, slowly over low heat. Add mushrooms and continue to cook, adding a little butter to prevent sticking. Stir in tomato paste and minced garlic. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes before proceeding.

With a heavy lid in hand, pour in the cognac, stand back, and ignite. Snuff out the flames by placing the lid over the pot and letting them die out. Scrape the bottom of the pot, pour in the wine, and simmer to reduce by half.

Coq Au VinAdd the broth, bay leaf and thyme. Remove the skin from the chicken and add thighs (without the skin) to the pot.

With a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the pot, place in oven at 350F for an hour. Baste chicken every 15 minutes to keep moist. Remove from oven, and if sauce needs thickening, take chicken out of pot and reduce. Replace chicken and serve.

Serve with roasted new potatoes and green beans.

Have you noticed my absence in in recent months. I know I haven't been wowing you with great recipes or photos worthy of a little salivation over the keyboard. And for that I apologize.

However, you should know that there is good reason for my absence. I am pregnant. And those first few months of morning sickness really took a toll on what was produced in the kitchen. In fact, in kinda screeched to a grinding halt as I opted for frozen lasagnas and yogurt-fruit smoothies. The thought of raw chicken made me want to gag, and to be honest, I wasn't even too keen on the idea of eating it, even when someone else cooked it (sorry Hubby!)

Luckily now I'm past my first trimester, and my appetite is back. So I promise I'll be a little more diligent.

On that note, I'd like to introduce you to a new cookbook that embraces one of my promises to myself this year, to eat locally, and ethically where possible.

A Year in Lucy's Kitchenby Lucy Waverman gives excellent suggestions for meals every month of our Canadian year. While it's true that we may have to rely on canned goods in the winter, Waverman makes the most of them, noting that they can be substituted with fresh ingredients when in season, like in the following recipe.

The book is beautifully illustrated, but it's not food porn. Don't expect a glossy photo with every dish. Each month also takes into a account seasonal holidays, and incorporates recipes that could be used every day, or for these special occasions. Most importantly though, the recipes are simple. They are easy to execute and make cooking easy.

Waverman hits a homerun with this one.

In the following recipe, I would suggest one small tweak when using canned tomatoes. Drain them, or the wine in the recipe won't have enough time to evaporate by the time the fish is cooked. I loved how fast and simple this dish was. I did about 15 minutes of prep work and it was in the oven.

Halibut with Spiced Moroccan Saucecopyright Random House

By Lucy Waverman

SERVES 4

The combination of spices and colours makes this a real taste treat and feast for the eyes. I make it with fresh tomatoes in summer and good-quality canned tomatoes in other seasons.

1⁄4 cup chopped fresh coriander

1⁄4 cup chopped parsley

2 tsp chopped garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

Pinch cayenne

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1⁄4 cup lemon juice

1⁄2 cup white wine

2⁄3 cup chopped fresh or canned tomatoes

4 halibut fillets (about 6 oz/175 g each)

1⁄2 cup cracked green olives

PREHEAT oven to 425°F.

CHOP coriander, parsley and garlic in a food processor. Add oil, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper and puree. Add lemon juice and combine. Reserve 2 tbsp spice mixture.

COMBINE wine, tomatoes and remaining spice mixture in a baking dish. Place halibut in baking dish in a single layer, skin-side down. Spread reserved spice mixture over fish.

BAKE for 15 minutes. Add olives and continue to bake for 5 minutes, or until white juices appear on fish. Serve fish with sauce.

Excerpted from A Year in Lucy's KitchenCopyright © 2009 by Lucy Waverman. Photography by Rob Fiocca. Excerpted by permission of Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved.

And in case you were wondering, this is how mine turned out, served over a bed of multicoloured rice.

From advice on choosing farmed fish that doesn't harm its environment to commentary on using more than just "choice" cuts of meat and from tips on foraging in the spring to canning in the summer, Crump and Schormann take you on a culinary journey.

Crump admits he's only after the end product. And the end product has to taste good. He writes: "A local, seasonal, organic tomato tastes better than its alternative... I suppose if it were the other way around, I'd have to consider switching, luckily I don't."

The recipe titles scream simplicity. What you see is what you get: Chicken Under a Brick; Salt-Baked Arctic Char, Bread and Butter Pudding. They are all exactly what you would expect. Start with good ingredients, and it's hard to go far wrong. Some jumped out at me. I can't weight to try my hand at the Mile-High Pumpkin Pie, the Oatmeal Molasses Bread, or the One-Pot Fish Soup with Rouille. And I'm already dreaming of spring when I can try my hand at some of their rhubarb offerings.

I tried out one recipe, which I've been given permission to reproduce here by Random House. I should note that the recipe in the book gives you the amount of potatoes in weight, as well as a unit count.

I would go with the unit count. The weight (4 1/2 lbs for 4 medium potatoes) didn't seem quite right (that would be some heavy potatoes), and when I tried it that way, the mixture came out quite wet, and not workable.

I roasted my potatoes on a bed of salt in their skins, which helps keep the mixture drier, and I used a potato ricer, to lessen the mashing which can cause the potatoes to become more glutinous, which makes for tougher gnocchi. Though as noted in the recipe, the addition of sweet potato will lessen the chances of that happening.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

By Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann, authors of Earth to Table

Adding sweet potatoes to a gnocchi recipe makes it a little easier for the home cook to pull off, because sweet potatoes have less starch than potatoes, and a high starch content can make gnocchi dense and tough. The combination of sage and sweet potatoes is one for the ages.

Serves 6 as a main course

4 medium sweet potatoes

4 medium Yukon gold potatoes

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1⁄4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

2 extra-large eggs, beaten

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1⁄4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

12 fried sage leaves (see tip) 

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place sweet potatoes and potatoes on a baking sheet and roast until soft, about 2 hours. Let cool slightly, then cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. (This should yield about 5 lbs of roasted potato mixture.)

Add flour, salt and pepper to the potato mixture and mix together until smooth. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs. Using a fork and starting in the center of the mixture, incorporate eggs into mixture. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a soft, slightly sticky, spongy dough forms, being careful not to work dough too much. Shape into a ball and place on a lightly floured cutting board. Cut ball into 8 pieces and cover with a clean tea towel. Dust a baking sheet with flour.

On a lightly floured surface, working with one piece of dough at a time and keeping the rest covered, roll each piece into a 20-inch rope, about 1⁄2 inch thick. Cut rope into 1-inch lengths. Using your thumb, roll each piece of dough over the back of the tines of a floured fork, leaving an indention from your thumb on one side and the markings from the fork on the other. Place gnocchi on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. (Make ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day, or freeze in an airtight container for up to 1 month.)

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Plunge half the gnocchi into the boiling water. Once they float to the surface, cook for 1 minute longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a baking sheet or plate and continue cooking the remaining gnocchi. Drizzle with oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan and fried sage leaves.

TIP:  There is such a things as “tough herbs” or winter herbs, like sage or rosemary.  These hearty herbs that keep growing well after the first snowfall can handle being fried- the result is crispy and delicious.  In a small frying pan heat ½ cup of canola oil until hot but not smoking.  Add hers band cook until crispy, about 30 seconds, and remove from oil using tongs.  Transfer to a paper plate lined with paper towel and use as needed.

Excerpted from Earth to Tableby Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann. Photographs Copyright © 2009 by Edward Pond. Excerpted by permission of Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

I was inspired to cook up a Venison Ragu to serve with some Sweet Potato Gnocchi a little while ago. It was a perfect slow cooking meal for a Sunday afternoon. I used a fruity Pinot Noir as the wine in this dish as the venison needs something assertive, but not too aggressive.

Stay tuned for the recipe for the sweet potato gnocchi with comes from Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm.

Venison RaguVenison Ragu

4 slices of bacon

2 ½ pounds venison shoulder

2 tbps olive oil

1 onion, small dice

4 small carrots, small dice

1 red pepper, small dice

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp tomato paste

beef broth

1 cup red wine (pinot noir)

Thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns and allspice berries. wrapped in cheesecloth.

All purpose flour

Slice bacon into small pieces and fry to release the fat. Remove pieces of cooked bacon.

Cube the venison into one-inch square cubes, being careful to remove any silverskin first. Dredge in some all purpose flour. Heat some olive oil in a Dutch oven, and brown the pieces of venison in small batches so as to not crowd the pot.

When venison is browned remove from pot. Add in the onions, carrots and red pepper. Sweat until softened. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for another minute and a half. Then add red wine and reduce, until nearly all evaporated. Put meat, and any juices back into pot and add enough beef stock to cover meat about 1/2 way.

Toss cheesecloth packed with 2 sprigs of thyme, one bay leaf, three all spice berries and a dozen peppercorns. Cover with a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of the pot, with a hole in the centre to allow some steam to escape.

Bake at 300F for several hours (3 to 4 hours is best). Check every half hour, and baste, or turn meat as necessary.

You will know when the ragu is ready, when the meat is tender and pulls apart easily. Remove from oven, take out spice bag, and shred meat with a fork. Serve over gnocchi.

 Venison

 Diced vegetables ready for the pot  Herbs and spices