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A couple weeks ago (the day after Valentine’s Day to be exact), Murray and I made the 50-minute drive from Kitchener into Mississauga (Streetsville to be exact) to have afternoon tea at The Tea Room in the Robinson-Bray House (223 Queen Street South, Ph: 905-542-7674).
The side entrance to The Tea Room at the Robinson-Bray House in Mississauga, Ontario
The house was built in 1885 and owned by at least two families – the Robinsons and the Brays. In 1983, it was designated a building of “architectural and contextual value” by the City of Mississauga. It now houses several businesses including a gift shop, spa and The Tea Room.
The Tea Room is in the back of the building. You can enter either through the front or the side of the House. When we left through the front after finishing our tea, I noticed that a large room at the front of the house was vacant. The space had a lovely bay window looking out onto Queen Street. My first thought was that it would be a lovely area for The Tea Room to expand or move into.
But I’m ahead of myself. Let me share our tea experience.
You could order off the menu but we really didn’t give it much consideration as The Tea Room was serving a Valentine’s tea ($23 per person) which sounded really nice. It started with a delicious garden salad with sliced strawberries and cucumbers and pralined pecans. This was followed by a two-tiered stand filled with tea sandwiches, and heart-shaped chocolate chunk scones served with devon cream and preserves.
The tray of tea sandwiches included (clockwise from top right) egg salad on a mini croissant (which turned out to be a roll as you can see above), chicken and brie on a slice of baguette with sweet mango chutney, a roast beef and horseradish mayo wrap with caramelized onions, salmon mousse in a phyllo cup, and a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich.
Then, because we hadn’t eaten enough yet (!), it was time to choose a dessert. I don’t recall all the choices; the first couple our server described were all we needed to hear. Murray chose a Chocolate Crepe with Amaretto Cream and Mixed Berries.
Chocolate Crepe with Amaretto Cream and Mixed Berries
I opted for the Passionfruit and Mixed Berry Trifle, served in a tea cup.
The Passionfruit and Mixed Berry Trifle was garnished with a chocolate-dipped cookie and berries.
Whipped cream, passionfruit custard, cake and berries - a tart-sweet ending to a delicious tea!
Everything was washed done with a pot of Earl Grey tea for me and Assam tea for Murray.
The Tea Room’s servers were friendly and attentive. The decor of the two-room tea room was nice enough, although nothing outstanding. I’ll confess I wanted to straighten out the slightly askew picture hung off centre under a shelf on one wall of the room we sat in, but to Murray’s relief I managed to suppress the urge.
Other than the egg salad that was served in a slightly soggy mini roll instead of the promised croissant, the food was very tasty, especially the salad and desserts. Needless to say, we didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day!
Foodies who blog, bloggers who eat, and those who read food blogs will surely be interested in a list of the world’s 50 best food blogs compiled by Lynne Robinson for the Times Online on February 17.
Some of my fave food blogs are on the list – David Lebovitz, Tea and Cookies, In the Kitchen and On the Road with Dorie Greenspan, and Chez Pim. Poking through the list I discovered some new blogs which will likely become favourites including Tartelette and The Bitten Word.
Some other blogs I checked out (they shall remain nameless) seemed curious choices to me on a list of best food blogs. How they rated a coveted spot on this list was beyond me!
Suprisingly, my blog – FoodWise – didn’t make the list! Just an oversight, I’m sure. LOL!
If you check out the list, be sure to read at least some of the comments posted. Compiling a list of top food blogs is so subjective and, like any list of favourite ‘whatever’, the result will inspire discussion and debate. In the comments, blog readers offer their opinions about the list and share favourite food blogs that didn’t make the cut. Between the comments and the actual list, I’m sure you’ll find a few new food blogs to follow.
I thought Canadians drank much more milk than people in other countries but I was surprised when I saw these statistics reported in the February issue of Harrowsmith magazine.
This data is from 2005 and compares litres of milk consumed per person per year:
Finland – 176.8
Sweden – 144.9
Denmark – 131.5
Ireland – 125.8
Netherlands – 122.6
Australia – 103.3
France – 91.0
Canada – 83.8
United Kingdom – 78.9
United States – 81.0
Mexico – 37.1
Japan – 35.6
China – 8.5
Source: Statistics Canada
Over the past 20 years in Canada, the per capita consumption of fluid milks has declined, with the exception of chocolate milk.
That’s probably not surprising considering…..
* There are fewer kids today, therefore fewer milk drinkers.
* Milk competes with far more beverage options today than were available 20 years ago.
* In the minds of some kids, drinking milk isn’t that cool. Sadly, sports drinks and soft drinks or pop are often the beverages of choice. (Dairy farmer organizations are working hard to change that thinking with their current ad campaigns – Get a Load of Milk (and the Got Milk? campaign in the US) and the active promotion of the nutritional benefits of milk – Dairy Farmers of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Ontario and Why Milk?)
* The make-up of the Canadian population today includes more immigrants from countries where milk drinking isn’t part of their traditional foodways.
There are a few dairy products we’re consuming in greater quantities than we did two decades ago. It seems we like our cream – table, half and half, whipping and sour! Although the per capita consumption of these foods is still well below that of fluid milk, it would appear we are increasingly finding ways to enjoy these higher fat dairy options.
It will be interesting to see a comparison of these statistics in another few years.
These are Canadian dairy consumption stats (litres per person) for 2007 (black) and 1987 (red):
2% milk - 38.03 L / 62.53 L
1% milk – 18.3 L / stats not available until 1990
3.25% milk – 11.97 L / 28.59 L
Skim milk – 8.79 L / 5.26 L
Chocolate milk – 5.67 L / 3.99 L
Table cream (18%) – 3.11 L / 0.43 L
Half & half cream (10%) – 3.03 L / 2.89 L
Sour cream – 1.46 L / 0.80 L
Whipping cream (35%) – 1.21 L / 0.90 L
Buttermilk – 0.45 L / 0.52 L
Source: Statistics Canada and Harrowsmith magazine, February 2009
The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies from Harrowsmith magazine (Feb. '09 issue)
Last week our neighbour Jim brought over some chocolate chip cookies his wife Karen had baked. She had tried a recipe from the current issue of Harrowsmith magazine.
These cookies are chock full of yummy ingredients including oats, nuts, coconut, and three kinds of chocolate (milk, semisweet and white).
As for the “best ever” moniker, the cookies were very good (a little chewy, which is how I like them) and every bite had great flavour. But I wouldn’t give them a “hands down, can’t be topped, to die for” rating.
That shouldn’t stop you from trying this recipe. The cookies are really good, especially if served warm with a glass of milk!
The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Makes 28 large cookies)
2 cups large-flake rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 oz milk chocolate, grated (113 g)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans, lightly tosated
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Lightly oil two baking sheets, or line with baking parchment.
Place oats in the bowl of a food processor and whirl until very fine.
In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in coconut. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in brown sugar, white sugar and corn syrup until well mixed and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture and grated chocolate. Add chocolate chips and pecans; stir until well combined.
Roll dough into 28 balls; place each on a baking sheet, then flatten to 1 inch thick, leaving lots of space between each cookie.
Bake until just golden brown around on the edges, 9 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on racks.
Recipe Source: Harrowsmith magazine, February 2009
Flowers…..ah, carnations!
Flowers from my sweetie
A bouquet of flowers sweetly arranged in a vase was waiting for me when I arrived home from work on Thursday night.
My sweetheart wasn’t going to be able to spend Valentine’s Day at home with me as duty called and he needed to hang out in a few hockey arenas for the day and evening, scouting for players for the rebuilding Kitchener Rangers.
Being the thoughtful guy he is, he picked up flowers (including carnations, my favourite flower – I just love the look and smell of them!) and a mushy card ahead of time.
What a good guy! I think I’ll hold on to him. He’s a sweetheart the other 364 days of the year too!
Cards that included a sweet reminder of the joy of cupcakes…..
1 puppy + 1 cupcake = 1 sweet Valentine's Day card
A few valentines arrived in the mail including this cute card from my brother’s family (full credit to my sister-in-law who no doubt picked out the card!).
Inside the card (made by Carlton Cards) it reads – “It’s my Valentine smile – I’m supposed to have little frosting smudges around the edges. Hope your day is sweet!”
Aaaahhhh……a puppy and a cupcake! How cute!
Cupcakes are so popular these days. These mini desserts can be baked in many flavours and the decorating possibilities are endless. If you’re a cupcake fan, here are a few blogs you’ll want to visit:
Chocolate…..both sweet and salty
Murray and I don’t usually make too much fuss about Valentine’s Day. I did pick up some chocolate to share with him when he gets home tonight.
Lindt Fleur De Sel chocolate
Lindt Milk Chocolate pieces
I saw a couple new (or at least new to me) chocolates at the grocery store this week. First I found a bar of Lindt Excellence Fleur de Sel – dark chocolate with a touch of hand-harvested fleur de sel, or sea salt. (Chocolate and a hint of salt go very well together.)
I also found Lindt Lindor milk chocolate in a chocolate bar form, or so I thought.
Had I examined the picture on the box a little more closely, I may have clued in that the box contained chocolate pieces, not a solid bar.
Nonetheless, if you like Lindt’s Lindor chocolates (those foil wrapped round balls of chocolate with smooth and creamy centres), you’ll love this box of Lindor pieces.
I’ll confess I’ve sampled both chocolates already, and pronounced them good. Let’s hope there’s still some left by the time Murray gets home.
Lindt chocolates - Fleur de Sel bar (left) and Lindor milk chocolate pieces (right).
How I spent my evening: vacuuming up water in the crawl space
Last night around 11 p.m., between vacuuming up the melting snow and rain leaking into our basement, and emptying the Shop Vac too many times to count, I found myself cooking macaroni and cheese.
Murray and I had been sharing clean-up duty all evening. He’d been home sick with the flu during the day so he wasn’t feeling at full strength. With the rain still falling outside and the snow melting in the balmy 7F weather (that’s warm for February in Ontario!), we knew it would be a long night – and most of it would be spent in the damp crawl space.
The crack where the water was draining into the crawl space
At one point we calculated that 5 gallons of melting snow and rain was seeping into our crawl space every 5 minutes.
This little bit of water was nothing compared to the serious reports of flooding others in our area were experiencing requiring them to evacuate their homes as swollen rivers overflowed their banks.
But still, the crack in our home’s foundation was an inconvenient situation that required some effort and vigilance in order to prevent damage to our laundry and family rooms.
As luck would have it, the Shop Vac died at about 9 p.m., requiring a trip to Walmart (the only store open at that hour of the night that would have had a Shop Vac on its shelves) to buy another one.
Mac and cheese - the anytime fuel, I mean food!
But back to the mac and cheese! All that hard work meant by 11 p.m., Murray’s appetite had begun to return. He was feeling hungry enough for some comfort food for his not-quite-back-to-normal stomach. Plain mac and cheese with a squirt of ketchup would hit the spot, he thought.
Good thing we both fueled up on some energy-boosting carbs because we had to keep a vigil all night, setting the alarm clock to wake us every 1-1/2 hours to vaccuum up the water that just kept finding its way into our house.
By morning, thankfully, the little waterfall had diminished to a trickle. We agreed that a sump pump would be a wise investment. And so would more mac and cheese in case we don’t get the sump pump installed before the next ‘heat wave’ hits southern Ontario.
Have you got a favourite time, place or way you enjoy mac and cheese? Plain? With ketchup? Before or after tackling a big project? As a midnight snack? With canned tuna or ham and peas mixed in?
Kraft Foods has lots of recipes and suggestions for using mac and cheese.
(As delicious as Kraft Dinner mac and cheese is, I’ll confess our brand of choice is Presidents Choice White Cheddar, sold at the Loblaws family of stores.)
These muffins are full of apricot flavour and a surprise centre!
It may not be the season for fresh apricots in wintry southern Ontario, but you can make muffins that are ripe with the sunny flavour of apricots by using dried apricots and apricot nectar in the muffin batter, and apricot jam as the sweet surprise centre!
Enjoy!
Apricot Flavour-Full Muffins
(Makes 12)
1 cup (250 mL) boiling water
3/4 cup (175 mL) finely chopped dried apricots
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tablespoon (15 mL) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) salt
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) baking soda
1/4 cup (60 mL) butter or hard margarine, softened
2/3 cup (150 mL) sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup (125 mL) apricot nectar
1/4 cup (60 mL) milk
1 teaspoon (5 mL) lemon juice
1/2 cup (125 mL) apricot jam
Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or lightly grease with cooking oil.
Pour boiling water over apricots in small heatproof bowl. Let stand 10 minutes until softened.
Meanwhile, measure flour, nuts, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a large bowl; stir. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
With electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. Add egg; beat well. Add apricot nectar, milk and lemon juice; stir to combine. Pour mixture into well in dry ingredients.
Drain apricots; add to well. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened.
Fill muffin cups half full with batter. Make a small dent in the batter in each cup with the back of a spoon. Spoon 2 teaspoons (10 mL) jam into each dent. Spoon remaining batter over top.
Bake in a preheated 375F (190C) oven until muffins are firm to the touch, about 18 to 20 minutes. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before removing muffins to cool on a wire rack.
Tip
* Use peach or raspberry jam, or marmalade instead of apricot jam.
Recipe Source: Mostly Muffins by Jean Pare, Company’s Coming Publishing Limited, 2006
In the wake of job cuts and financial uncertainties, it seems everyone is talking about ways to reduce expenses and make their money go a little or a lot further.
Probably most of us have things we do to help save a few pennies here and there. Some of those “strategies” we might be willing to admit to in public; others – not so much!
The Morning Call newspaper in Pennsylvania recently presented their readers with five nominees each vying to be crowned the King or Queen of Cheap based on their cost-cutting tip. Readers were invited to vote for the best “on the cheap” tip. Here are the results based on 135 votes.
Who is the King or Queen of Cheap?
Butter lady: When she opens a new butter, she saves the paper wrapper. Then at the end of the year, she uses all those butter wrappers to grease her cookie sheets when making Christmas cookies. (14 responses) 10.4%
Vacuum bag dude: When the bag in his household vacuum is full, he uses a shop vacuum to suck all the dirt out of it. Then he uses the emptied bag over again. (17 responses) 12.6%
Pretzel salt dude: When he finishes a bag of pretzels, he runs the coarse salt left in the bottom of the bag through a coffee grinder so it’ll fit into a salt shaker. (47 responses)
34.8%
Dirty napkin lady: After dinner, she keeps the dirty napkins, which she finds come in handy for cleaning the grease out of pans or to clean up after her cat when it throws up. (37 responses) 27.4%
Dehumidifier lady: When the tank for her dehumidifier fills up, she dumps it in the washing machine and does her laundry in it. (20 responses) 14.8%
Ultimately, it was pretzel salt dude who received the title of King of Cheap for his salt-saving savvy. You can see him being crowned in a video interview on the Morning Call web site.
Saving money on food costs is certainly one way to fight the economic blues. But you have to admit that it would take quite a few bags of pretzels to really make a difference to the bottom line. There have to be some other practical ways to save on food costs.
I try to keep our weekly food expenses down by bringing a lunch to work instead of going out to pick something up. Planning a weekly menu allows me to take advantage of grocery store specials and what’s already in my fridge and cupboards and therefore maximize any leftovers and minimize food waste.
There are many other ways to shop and cook with economics in mind. Here are a few links that provide some helpful suggestions:
- Spend less and eat more with these cost-cutting tips
