Eat Alberta 2012

It's that time of the year again...Eat Alberta 2012 is April 14th this year and will be held at N.A.I.T this year. Just looking at the schedule sounds like it's going to be a jam packed day! Gnocchi making, sausage making, macaron making, and how to make preserves...the list goes on! Check out here to get the full deets and tickets!

Edmonton Downtown Dining Week: March 2-March 11

It's that time of the year again! The Downtown Business Association presents Downtown Dining Week from March 2-March 11 this year. Go here and check out the participating restaurants this year!

Baking and Pastry Classes at NAIT-very hands on!

I have always been fascinated with baking. I baked some things that turned out very well and some not so much. To perfect the art of baking, I figured it's time to take a class or two to help me with what baffles me the most: how to perfect the art of baking. 

NAIT has long been known for their hands-on classes, especially their culinary institute. To quench my curiosity, I decided to enroll in well, three classes. BAK 50: Advanced Cakes,Pastries & Chocolates, is the one I want to take. The class, however, requires two prerequisite courses be taken, BAK 17 and BAK 31. BAK 17 is Decadent Chocolates & Truffles and BAK 31 is Cakes, Pastries & Plated Desserts. Without much hesitation, I enrolled myself in the chocolate making class!

The class was spread over 3 classes, 4 hours-long each. In this class, you learn the different qualities of chocolate, the ingredients that go into chocolate, how to temper chocolate (reheat and cool down), how to mold it and the mystery that everyone is wondering about...how do they get the filling into chocolate?! (Caramilk anyone? It's actually real simple. You pour melted chocolate into a mold, wait a few seconds, and dump the chocolate back out again. Wait a few minutes for the chocolate to settle in the mold. Fill the molds with your desired filling, pour melted chocolate on top of the mold and scrape the excess chocolate off the mold. Taaadaa! Not so secret anymore! Well, I still think it's cool.)


In this class, we learned how to make dark and milk chocolates with liquor fillings, truffles, almond rochers, buttercream caramels dipped in chocolate, chocolate dipped strawberries and applying design transfers on to chocolates. I had A LOT of chocolate to take home!

I only took two pictures from this class. I didn't bother bringing a camera, but now I wish I did. Next time!

I really enjoyed this class. It was very hands on. The only drawback I had to this class was that each class was too long.I would have preferred if each class was only 3 hours long, spread over 4 classes.  My next class starts beginning of March and I'll be learning how to make cakes, pastries and plated desserts.I am excited!


If you are interested in learning more about these classes or others, go to their website.

Recipes to Riches..SeasonTwo!

Do any of you have a special recipe that you would like to share with the rest of Canada? Recipes to Riches is back! Remember that awesome show with Food Network Canada and President's Choice? I sure do. The first season just ended back in December and boy was I ever excited about the show. There are 7 categories to be one including appetizers, entrees and desserts. For each category won, there are 3 contestants that can win $25,000. Whoever wins that category qualifies for the grand prize of $250,000. Their products are then made available at participating Loblaw (Superstore) Stores the following weekend for consumers to enjoy. Consumers can then vote for their favourite recipe. Their votes are tallied and the winner of the grand prize is announced on the final episode.

As pumped up as I was about this show and the upcoming season, I had no recipe to enter. What you say?! Being the foodie I am, whenever I cook, it is mostly from a cookbook. If not, it's usually a modified version of it or something that I've made up but obviously not good enough to win...sigh.Ah well, now I have time to come up with a recipe for the next season!

Go here to check out the official contest page!

Glo McNeil wins the Recipes to Riches contest!

The winner of the R to R contest was announced on the finale of the show this past Wednesday. Winner? Glo McNeil and her Luscious Lemon Pudding Cakes. Although the recipe was very simple...it was also very tasty. Who doesn't love lemons? Check out the finale episode here.

Who do you think should've won? I didn't vote for Glo myself, but I had a feeling she would...just based on the number of supporters on Facebook and her story and her personality, probably helped her win this contest. Regardless, great job Glo!

Recipes to Riches: time to vote for your favourite category!

Now the time has come. If you have been following Food Network Canada's Recipes to Riches, here's your chance to have a say in your favourite category! Originally 7 categories, it is now down to 6 as Sonya and her gluten-free cookies were exempt from the grand prize. The category/person with the most votes wins $250,000. Now that's a lot of cash to boot! I know who I'm voting for...Go here to vote! You have until Friday, December 9th, 11:59EST before the polls close.

Recipes to Riches: Week Seven

This is it! This is the very last episode before Canada gets to vote on who gets the grand prize of $250,000! Who will it be? Will it be this gentleman and his "slow and low pulled pork"?

Two packages or pork (200g each) were included in this week's R to R.

The final R to R episode was in the category on main entrees. This is the big one! The entree is the star of a meal! The three contestants this week were Eva and her lobster mac 'n' cheese, Robert and his pulled-pork meat and Scott with his braised lamb shanks and orzo pasta.

This was another disappointing episode for me (in terms of who won). Robert and his "slow and low" pulled pork won against Eva and Scott, which I think had better entree items. Although Scott got eliminated during the batch-up contest because he didn't have a clear recipe written down (he eyeballed everything), Eva had a good stab as the winner. Although I'm sure the judges have it down right; not many people would pay a hefty price tag for a premium product in a super market. But I know I would--it'll always be cheaper than eating out!

I cooked the pork for dinner last night so that we could get a taste of this before we voted for the final winner (the polls open on December 7th, 12:01am EST). I already knew that I wouldn't vote for this person, probably because I have had pulled pork many times...and although it takes a while to make (slow roasted for 12 hours), I wanted to vote for something different. Nevertheless, the pork was very tender, and perfectly seasoned with the right amount of tang.


Wanna watch the final episode of R to R? Go here!