Truffle Mutt

Blogging By Mail is Here!

My package for the Blogging By Mail event came on Thursday night.  This unique event was created by Nic at Baking Sheet and what a fantastic idea it was.  We're constantly sharing experiences, pictures and ideas but this is a great way to do it hands-on, up-close-and-personal, etc, etc. 

I was more excited than a little kid at Christmas.  Seriously, possibly sadly, I was.  On the to my door from the mailbox I was shaking and sniffing in a mad attempt to guess the contents.  Just the week before I was surprised by a similar package from Nic herself.  She had sent all the participants a thank you note along with a few treats to sweeten the deal.  Wow!  What a great hostess and what great white chocolate blondies.   

When I spotted the second package in my mailbox I think I actually squeaked.  I didn't even shut the door as I went for the scissors and began cutting away.   The package contained a neatly wrapped stack of ginger, cranberry and walnut chocolate bark and a bundle of homemade granola.  Totally ignoring the voice inside my head telling me not to spoil my appetite before dinner I tucked into my goodies.  Realizing that I still needed to take pictures, and I'm thankful that this thought occurred to me in time, I put it away until later, but not too much later. 

My package came from Suzie in New York and I personally want to thank her for participating in this exchange.  Hopefully I'll be able to beg and plead to get the recipes out of her.  Her recommendations for the granola were yogurt and she mentioned it had to be full fat (well of course!)   :o)  and fruit compote.  The granola is almost gone though and I've only eaten it on ice cream.  That might seem weird, but don't knock it.

Thanks to Nic, Suzie and Sam at Becks & Bosh who got my package last week.

Canada Eats

A few weeks ago Lyn of Lex Culinaria sparked a wild fire when she suggested a blogging event to celebrate Canada Day.  My mailbox was instantly filled with eager participants, excitedly sharing thoughts and ideas.  In the end, it was decided that the event would be called "Taste Canada", and Canada's own, food famous, Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess, put together a fantastic intro to the event on her site.

Here we go then. What does Canada taste like to me?

I would have to say that the center of my Canada has always been my parents’ acreage.  It’s where I grew up, spent most of my life and it will always feel like home.  As if it were yesterday, I see the early morning sun shining through the spruce in the backyard and covering my bed in a sea of glimmering light.  I recall climbing trees, building forts and catching a zillion bugs.  I remember Mom and Dad getting us out of bed on hot summer nights so we could watch the passing thunder storms, and all four of us huddling under sleeping bags on the trampoline to gaze in wonder at the northern lights.  I'd have to say that Canada is everything that my family has made it to be.

So, when I started to think about my taste of Canada, I naturally turned to foods passed down to me by my family.  However, in the search for possibilities, I soon realized that most of what I considered to be Canadian was not Canadian at all. My list wasn’t made up of Canadian symbols like poutine, maple syrup or raisin pie, but of foods stemming from my German heritage. At first I was worried that this would be the wrong direction for a Canada Day event, but after much debate I decided that the origin wasn’t what mattered. What makes these foods Canadian is me and because they've become traditions deeply rooted in the soil of my Canadian family they are Canadian.