Ann_T, today I'm jealous that you have that butcher shop within reach. How wonderful! Now I have to go figure out the exchange rate so I can see what the prices are in $US.
Are there many places like that where you live?
Mmmmmm, corn and butter. No salt?
FabulousFoodBabe, there are a number of farms in the area where you can buy free range chicken, beef, duck and of course fresh produce. I bought a baby goat from one of the local farmers back in April. I still have quite a bit of it still in the freezer.
I should have said just corn, butter, salt and pepper. Got to have fresh ground pepper too. But when corn is ready it takes centre stage. We will make a meal of just corn, nothing else. Thankfully I have a husband who loves fresh corn as much as I do. We both grew up in Ontario. He is from the Windsor area and I'm from the Toronto area.
Ann,
I clicked on your blog and my screen rolled right down to the picture of Cowichan Bay meats and I was washed away with wonderful memories.
My mother grew up in Cowichan Bay in a house put together from several cottages, right across from the original Cowichan Inn. My grandparents owned a marina and guiding business there.
Food memories are flooding back now, the 'Indian candy' smoked salmon made by Minnie, who lived with my grannie, the home made lemonade, figs warm off the tree outside the kitchen window. The berries we picked by the pail to made pies and crumbles.
My Cowichan Indian sweaters, driving go-carts around my cousins place in Maple Bay, catching a dog fish, getting hooked with the gaf hook as my father fell backwards out of the fishing boat...
Thanks for the memories.
Wow Kerry, you do have some wonderful memories. I'm glad my pictures are jogging them for you. I'll try to post a few more of the local scenery this week.
Gorgoeous osso buco Ann. What gives it that creamy yellow goodness?
Your website is beautiful, by the way. You seem to cook and bake a lot of great food. Do you teach cooking or do anything else professionally in the buisiness or is this all for leisure?
Thanks Shaya.
I just love good food and I like to cook and bake. Just for leisure. I've been a stay at home wife/mom for 27 years.
The veal shanks are browned and cooked with onions, garlic and a carrot (I hate carrots, but can handle the flavour and sweetness that one adds) , seasoned with fresh rosemary and sage, a little white wine and some chicken broth. And then roasted in the oven, basting often, until tender. I covered them for the first hour and just basted for the last hour. I used the stick blender to puree the veggies into the sauce.
Ann, what's your food background? Where did you live before moving to Vancouver Island?
Susan, I don't really have a food background, except for the fact that I have always loved to cook and to eat. I'm originally from the Toronto area but have moved around a bit. Just after we were married we moved to Grand Rapids Michigan for a couple of years. I took a few hands on cooking lessons from Pat Davis. She ran a cooking school in her home. Matthew was born while we were in Grand Rapids so he actually has dual citizenship. We moved back to the Toronto area and lived there for the next 12 years and then ended up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for 5 years before moving to Vancouver back in 1998. Then we ended up in Dunkirk, NY for two years. I really liked living there. I was only an hour from Buffalo, Erie, PA and Jamestown , and all of these cities had Wegman grocery stores. So I went into Buffalo at least once a week and usually into Erie and Jamestown once a week too. And we were less than three hours from Toronto. So we would get down to Toronto quite often.
We moved back out west the summer of 2001 and lived in Nanaimo for 3 1/2 years before selling our house and moving to Vancouver for a year. Moe was working on a few things and it was easier to do from Vancouver. Matt lives in Victoria and we really missed seeing him whenever we felt like it so we moved back to the island last December. Since we are less than an hour from Victoria we see a lot of Matt now. Thankfully he is happy to have us so close too. My son is a real foodie too and is becoming quite a good cook. I recently gave him my Cuisinart . It was an excuse to buy a new one for myself. Here are my new toys.
Breakfast wasn't too exciting. But the bread is homemade french bread and the honey is local. I didn't hear any complaints.
Oh and I forgot to post a picture of my fridge. Since I shop on a regular basis, I don't keep a lot in it and I'm not big on leftovers so I try to not save anything that I will just end up throwing out a week later.
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