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I love to bake.  I love creating delectable treats for friends and family to enjoy. I have to admit that I do a lot less baking now that I'm married.  When Hubby and I were still dating, I did a lot of baking!  My Grandmother always told me that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach! Boy, was she ever right!

On a recent trip to Montreal and Quebec City, we were able to sample some divine, delicious, scrumptious treats. These are the kinds of treats I never make because...well, they seem A) so labour intensive and B) the professionals do such a great job at creating them, so why should I bother?
Here's the tiramisu we ordered at juliette & chocolat in Montreal.  The rest of our party ordered various types of pot de creme (I believe there was one with passion fruit and another with chocolate brownie and sea salt).

As soon as we returned from our trip, guess what was waiting for me on my front doorstep?


A copy of Grace's Sweet Life: Homemade Italian Desserts from Cannoli, Tiramisu and Panna Cotta to Torte, Pizzelle and Struffoli!

Okay, how did the book gods know that we have a penchant for cannoli, tiramisu, and basically anything Italian?!

"Now you have no excuse" and "Could you make me that?" were words my husband and our 3 year old uttered through the drool as they leafed through the cookbook!

The book is filled with fabulous yet complicated recipes that can be reproduced in your own kitchen. The photos and presentation are stellar. Yes, my friends...even you can create spectacular, mouthwatering, eye-catching Italian desserts like Grace Massa Langlois can!

To learn more about Grace and to view recipes and stories about her Italian heritage, check out her website: www.GracesSweetLife.com.

Where to Buy:
Available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Since we do live on beautiful Manitoulin Island, I thought it would be wonderful to incorporate a bit of the local flavour and share some Island gems with you. Every week, I'll be showcasing a different Island "must see"!

My very first Island spotlight is the amazing Gypsy Family Farm.

If you've ever visited Manitoulin Island and have stopped by the Farmers' Markets, undoubtedly you'll have met Farmer Ted.

He's the guy with copious amounts of fresh local produce, smiling and always ready to offer suggestions and recommendations of what to buy and how to prepare it! I always love bumping into him at Farmers' Markets. Honestly, his produce is beyond compare! I've bought everything from lipstick red peppers to assorted squash from him. You can tell how much hard work and dedication he puts into his farming!

The group description on Gypsy Family Farm's Facebook page reads:

Put a face on your food. Welcome to Gypsy Family Farm where everything has a story. We are located on pristine Manitoulin Island, Canada and are dedicated to food production through ethical farming practices.

What I love about Gypsy Family Farm and Farmer Ted is that they work tirelessly to provide people with real food. Real, fresh, local food! Farmer Ted posts regular photos of what he's growing and he also offers farm shares to Island residents. Farm share members can get a glimpse of what they are about to receive every week.

Gypsy Family Farm also makes jellies and other good things!  Last year, I picked up some of Farmer Ted's Royal Pain jelly! It is perfect served on top of stone-milled crackers with melted Brie! Oh, so good!

Next time you're at the Farmers' Markets on Manitoulin Island, make sure you stop by and say hello to Farmer Ted. Oh, and make sure to pick up some delicious lettuce, peppers, lettuce, and other Gypsy Family Farm items for a mouthwatering salad made with all local produce! Farmer Ted is fabulous at introducing people to new, interesting, and unusual edible masterpieces (like the "lipstick" red pepper I mentioned earlier or the "crayon carrots" he has).

Photo credits: Gypsy Family Farm and Farmer Ted photos via Google Images. Royal Pain image courtesy of yours truly.

When my lovely friend, AwesomeGal said she would be in my 'hood, naturally we had to plan a visit!  AwesomeGal and I worked at the same school in Toronto TEN years ago! Whoa. That makes me feel really old!  AwesomeGal was the Activities Coordinator and I was an English teacher at the school.

We've kept in touch ever since I left Toronto.  We have been trying to meet up over the past few years, but it just wasn't in the cards. When the opportunity presented itself, we jumped at it.  I have to say that it was really nice having my good friend over (even if it was just for the night).  There's nothing like rehashing funny stories from a time long before Little One was even a glimmer in my eye.

Hubby and I also got to meet AwesomeGal's other half, AwesomeGuy (seriously, he is so awesome! Love that guy!).  Because their stay was so brief, we spent the night hanging out at our house and then capped off the remainder of their stay with breakfast at The Garden Shed Cafe and a walk along the boardwalk at Providence Bay.


Little One loves showing people "The Many Faces of Little One". It's her latest "thing"! She shows us her happy, scared, shy, shocked, cold, hot, confused, surprised, and MAD face! 


If  you're on Manitoulin Island, you have to try out the scrumptious breakfast items on The Garden Shed's menu!  I'm a fan of the Mediterranean Omelette (followed closely by the Florentine Omelette).  If you're like me and love black olives, the Mediterranean Omelette is a must.

Just for some variety, I tried the Reuben Omelette.
Heaps of corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut overflowed from the giant fluffy omelette! The combination was just right. The only thing is that Laurie's omelettes are HUGE! She does get bragging rights for the hugest, fluffiest, most delicious omelettes around, but you might consider sharing with a friend or taking the rest home for later! At The Garden Shed, I'm known for doing that! I can usually be found doggy-bagging my meal and quite often Hubby or Little One will finish it for me later.

Another fun dish to try is the Breakfast in a Bowl and if you're the type of person who loves a great deal, the Potting Shed Breakfast is a good one! It's only $2.99 for eggs, toast, and bacon!
The Garden Shed offers a different jelly for your toast every day. Today's jelly was rhubarb. Their watermelon jelly is also quite tasty.

The ambiance is fantastic. It's a real treat and a surprise to enjoy a meal amongst the greenery and stunning, vibrant flowers at J.D.'s Garden. Relaxing atmosphere, quaint environment, and fun local flair.

Lots of laughs were had and I'm really hoping to see AwesomeGal and AwesomeGuy again soon.

Hubby: So, you mean we wasted over $1000 on getting a new water purifying system installed in the house?

Me: No. We didn't waste money. You drink the tap water. I trust our tap water. I do! I know it's perfectly good for us to drink! I just feel even better if it's filtered even more.

Hubby wasn't too happy when I came home from the Superstore with a PC universal water filter system/jug and a pack of 5 filters. I had been on him about getting a new water filtration system in our house with UV filter, etc, etc, etc. We ended up getting the works done last year. Living on a farm, I wanted to spare no costs when it came to our drinking water. I was so happy and felt so secure in knowing that our drinking water was absolutely, positively safe to drink.

Then I bought a PC universal water filter system and filters! They were on sale and I had been wanting to get a [insert name of popular drinking water filtration pitchers] for a long time. A pack of 5 filters for $7.84 (on special) was a much greater deal than the "other" leading brand. I went with the PC brand. The price was much better and I love and trust PC products.

I do realize this whole thing with our drinking water is a bit excessive and is entirely psychological on my part, but I cannot help it. Hey, and if this makes me drink more water, then that's a good thing! Right? Yes, I have noticed that I've been drinking A LOT more water since I purchased it. I've been drinking more than a pitcher of water a day!

Maybe because she sees me drinking (and loving) the water from the new pitcher, Little One has been drinking more water too.
It looks so pretty too, no? Check out those sleek contours! It's aesthetically appealing, right?

Because I am a President's Choice fan, check out just one of my tea shelves in my "tea pantry"!

Among my favourites are the PC Chocolatey Mint Black Tea, PC Chai Tea, PC Green Tea, PC Rooibos Tea, PC Mulled Apple Herbal Tea, and PC Organics Jasmine Herbal Tea.

See? I told you I was addicted!

President's Choice really is worth switching supermarkets for!

Disclosure - This is not a paid/sponsored post. This time I'm just sharing how much a absolutely LOVE President's Choice products! All the opinions on this blog are  honest and my own.

If you've been following Food Network Canada's hit reality TV show, Recipe to Riches, you'll no doubt be excited about tonight's episode!  It's the season finale of Recipe to Riches and we've been waiting in anticipation to see who the $250,000 grand prize winner will be!

Each week, we checked in to see who won $25,000 and their recipe made into a President's Choice product.

Who did Canada vote for?

Jacqui and her Peach Bliss cake
Glo and her Luscious Lemon Pudding
Melaney and her Bannock Hazelnut Pie
John and his Chicken Grenades
Rosy and her Kulfi Karma ice cream
Robert and his Slow and Low Pulled Pork
Only a few hours until the grand prize winner is revealed! Who do YOU think will win?

Such a difficult decision, as we loved them all!

The Recipe to Riches  Entrées episode was a really nerve-wracking one. All three recipes sounded delicious! I  have to say that my husband was confident that the pulled pork sandwich recipe was going to win. We had a friendly bet going on (as we do each week for Recipe to Riches). He was rooting for the pulled pork. I can't say I don't blame him. It's such a "manly man meal"! BBQ meat and a dish  you can eat with your  hands while chatting with friends on the deck? Oh, yeah!

As an official Recipe to Riches blogger, I had the amazing opportunity to recreate the winning Entrée recipe.
I have to tell you that I'm one of those people who needs to get everything sorted and organized before I start cooking. I mean really sorted. Like lining up all ingredients, prepping and putting things in a particular fashion before I get started.
For Rob's pulled pork (Hubby really liked the name Bobby's Bodacious BBQ Buns), I first collected all my ingredients.
 I lined everything up. Yes, my friends think I've got issues...particularly a Watkins and PC brand obsession. I looooove PC products!
 Is it just me, or is this not beautiful?
All the colours and fragrances of the spices were just beautiful! In a bowl, I mixed the paprika, brown sugar, kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, freshly ground pepper, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, and ground cumin.

Now, that's a lot of flavour right there!

I then rubbed the spice mixture all over the bone-in pork shoulder picnic roast. I reserved 2 Tbsp of the spice mixture to add to the sauce. I put the pork in a metal pan and tightly wrapped it in foil. Into a 325 degree oven it went!
I initially wanted to cook it for 6 hours, but ended up taking it out at 5 hours. The house smelled amazing! My toddler kept asking, "Is it suppertime yet? I'm hungry!"

Sorry, kid. You get a glass of milk and honey on toast for a snack while Mommy is cooking :)
 Once the pork was cooked to perfection, I unwrapped it, pulled the pork off the bone, and I began shredding the pork with two forks.
 The meat was so tender, so juicy, and it just fell off the bone.
While the meat was cooking, I did two other things. I made the coleslaw and sauce. For the coleslaw, I made the slaw with the cabbage and other ingredients in the food processor. You can also buy ready-made slaw and add ready-made coleslaw dressing. If you're like me and have a mother-in-law who is a farmer, you'll want to make your coleslaw from scratch. It's actually easier and faster to make than you think. Plus, seasoned farmers' wives would frown upon buying coleslaw when it's something very commonplace in rural areas. Hey, if you're in a pinch and don't have time, just buy the mix! I won't tell! ;)
For the sauce, I combined ketchup, apple cider vinegar, cola, maple syrup, and the reserved spice mixture. I boiled the sauce mixture in a pot on medium heat for about 25 minutes.

 Pour half of the sauce mixture over pork and combine. Use the other half to put on the sandwiches. "The secret is in the sauce!" Ha! Ha! I don't know why I've always wanted to say that.

The Assembly:
Slice bun in half, slather sauce on top and bottom (cut ends) of bun, top with pork, mound coleslaw on top of pork, place top bun lid. This recipe makes 8 servings.

Recipe to Riches airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm on Food Network, and Saturdays at 8pm on Global TV.  The Entrees episode was the last one before the big competition. Next week is the Recipe to Riches marathon! 

Find them on Facebook and on Twitter to join in on the fun!


Disclosure: As an official Recipe to Riches blogger, I  have been compensated for recreating the winning recipe and writing a review post. All opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

Truth be known, my husband has an aversion to any recipe that does not contain meat. Oh, he'll eat whatever I serve him, if he knows what's good for him! Just kidding. He's pretty open-minded and will try anything and everything I serve him. Tofu just isn't one of those things. Though he likes how I season them and infuse certain flavours in the tofu dishes, he claims that that palatability is just not for him. Fair enough.

I grew up eating tofu on a somewhat regular basis. Since my Dad is Chinese Caribbean, we are no strangers to tofu. Tofu is a common ingredient in many Asian dishes. Also as a vegetarian for most of my adult life, tofu was a mainstay in my diet.

Tonight, I was craving tofu for supper. A friend of mine from university (we were both vegetarian and involved in some environmental groups together) had this amazing tofu recipe that called for chili flakes and other ingredients I cannot remember. It was a sweet yet spicy tofu dish. Since I couldn't recall the exact recipe, I had to improvise.

First, I poured over some of my favourite cookbooks in hopes of finding something similar to the recipe I had in mind.
So many tempting recipes, but not exactly what I had in mind. I was left up to my own devices for this one.

For supper, we had Tofu Satay on rice noodles with steamed Bok Choy drizzled with sesame oil and Lychee milkshakes and chilled Lychee for dessert.

Please keep in mind that I rarely measure ingredients when it comes to cooking dishes (except for baking, where exact measurements are a must).

C's Tofu Satay on Rice Noodles
Ingredients:
1 or 2 packages of firm tofu, cubed (depending on how many people you're feeding)
1 sweet red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 onion, chopped
cooking oil
Cilantro, chopped (to garnish)

Sauce -
vinegar
soy sauce
chili flakes
dash chili powder
onion powder
garlic powder
3 Tbsp peanut butter
After you've prepared your tofu and your veg, cook tofu in a pan with a little oil until slightly browned. Add your veggies and cook with sauce.

While you do this, you can steam your Bok Choy and rice noodles. This whole meal takes less than 30 minutes to make from prep to finish.

My non-tofu-eating husband said this was the best tofu dish he's had so far. He really liked the combination of sweet and spicy (sweetness from the peanut butter and heat from the chili).

On bed of rice noodles, place tofu satay. Sprinkle with chopped coriander to garnish. Drizzle sesame oil over Bok Choy and serve.

Many of my readers always ask me the following questions:

"Where is Manitoulin Island?"
"Are you located in British Columbia?"
"How do you pronounce that again?
"Oh, Northern Ontario? Like, are you really north? Is it cold up there?"
"Why would you leave Toronto for a place up north?"
"What is there to do in a place like that?"

I  have to say that I am truly blessed to have been able to leave the rat race and plant new roots in such a beautiful, pristine environment. "The Island" has so much to offer. A Taste of Manitoulin is but one of the many events that takes place on Manitoulin Island. Take a look and see for yourself!



Special thanks to Robert Maxwell of Digital Peasant Media for putting together such a fabulous video. If you are looking for a professional independent contractor (for videography and photography) to tell your story, check out RobertMaxwell.ca! Robert shoots and edits all the videos himself.

Yes, that's me in the first interview. Note to self: This is why one must never leave the house without doing hair and make-up! Gah! I didn't expect to be interviewed. I just wanted to check out the local products and sample all the local fare! I was caught off-guard and sound like a bumbling idiot! Very eloquent speaking for an English teacher!


For another taste of what awaits you on Manitoulin Island, check out Robert's video for Manitoulin Chocolate Works!
Now, don't you want to come visit us on beautiful Manitoulin Island?

"Mmmmm! What is this, Hon?", inquired Hubby. "It's really good!"

"It's Bannock Hazelnut Pie. I got the chance to make the winning recipe for Wednesday's Recipe to Riches show and blog about it."

"Oooh!" said Hubby with a note of surprise in his voice. "I'd actually highly recommend it. It's got lots of flavour in there. It's very good, considering there's no meat in it!"

Did he just say "It's very good, considering there's no meat in it"? My beef farmer husband makes me laugh.

I  have to say that when I saw the winning Recipe to Riches "Savoury Pie" recipe, I got really, really nervous. First off, I'm terrible at making pie crusts! They almost never turn out the way I want them to. However, when I realized that this recipe had bannock instead of pie crust, I sighed with relief. The other reason I was nervous was...well, this is Recipe to Riches! This is the Food Network! Eeeeek!

I just didn't want to mess up Recipe to Riches contestant, Melaney Gleeson-Lyall's winning recipe!

For those who don't know what bannock is, it's "any variety of flat quick breads". (According to Wikipedia). In Canada, it's known as "frybread", "scone", or "Indian bread". I remember learning about bannock in school when we studied Canadian culture/history. It wasn't until I moved to Manitoulin Island that I had a chance to try bannock for the first time at a Pow Wow. I didn't realize that some of my friends on "the Island" made scone/bannock at home, at their hunt camps, at parties, etc.

For this recipe, I first washed and prepped the veggies. Onion, celery, carrots, butternut squash...chop, chop, chop.
I grated the sweet potato.
I also set aside sweet potato to boil and then make the mashed sweet potato for the bannock.
 I finely chopped the fresh rosemary.

Chopped roasted hazelnuts. Okay, you have no idea how difficult it is to find hazelnuts in Northern Ontario. No. I'm not kidding. I drove all the way to Sudbury (over 2 hrs by car each way) in search of the one ingredient I didn't have on hand. Hazelnuts! I scoured three stores in Sudbury. No hazelnuts. They had every other possible nut available, but no hazelnuts!

None of the stores on the Island had hazelnuts either.

"Yikes! This is hazelnut pie! Not walnut pie or macadamia nut pie!"

Fortunately for me, a friend who was in Toronto not too long ago, happened to have hazelnuts at her house. I know. What are the odds, right?

In a pot, I cooked up the vegetables, vegetable stock, and crushed hazelnut to make the stew. I just happened to have made homemade vegetable stock the other day. How handy.
The aroma throughout the house with the stewing vegetables and the fresh rosemary was mouthwatering!
I transferred the stew into a glass baking dish and proceeded to make the bannock.
In a bowl, I mixed the mashed sweet potato, flour, and other ingredients together.
Then I made the bannock to go on top of the vegetable mixture.

While this was happening, my toddler was yelling that she needed my "help". When I got to her, she had stuffed an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Great! Note to self: Keep bathroom door closed when executing very important Recipe to Riches task!
Okay, I sprinkled chopped hazelnuts on top of the bannock and placed bannock on top of veggie mixture and baked in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes.

Little One devoured her food! Not only is this dish loaded with veggies (even in the bannock!), but it's toddler approved!
The recipe was not as difficult as I led myself to believe. It sounded a bit daunting, but was actually do-able and not overly complicated. The only part that was a little labour intensive was the chopping of the vegetables. I was afraid of making the bannock, because I  had never made it before, but it turned out well! What a terrific recipe! The house smelled fantastic and the Bannock Hazelnut Pie was DELICIOUS!

Hubby is onto his third serving as I type this. He can't stop saying how delicious it is...even without meat! Can you tell he's a beef farmer?

I would definitely serve this at a dinner party. It would be great for Meatless Mondays or for when  you're having dinner guests over who are vegetarian. I would definitely buy this at the Superstore though. Why? We don't have hazelnuts in this part of Northern Ontario! Well, maybe in hazelnut coffee or hazelnut chocolate bars!

For the complete recipe, visit Recipe to Riches on the Food Network and view Bannock Hazelnut Pie.

Congratulations to Melaney Gleeson-Lyall for her winning recipe!

Recipe to Riches airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm on Food Network, and Saturdays at 8pm on Global TV.
Find them on Facebook and on Twitter to join in on the fun!

Disclosure: Recipe to Riches is compensating official Recipe to Riches bloggers with Loblaws gift cards for recreating the winning recipe and writing a review post. All opinions on this blog are honest and my own.