This week was the launch of the premiere The Great Canadian Wine Match. The fun slogan is “Red, White and Truth North Food.”

Please join in and vote. It is wine pairing in 6 different categories: chicken, beef, pizza. cheese, seafood, dessert. Click on each image below for each different category. I have nominated a wine in each of the categories.

If you tweet, use the hashtag #GCWM. Thanks!

Thanks for your votes!

Note – There is a bit of confusion. The image for the Riverview is the same as the Ravine wine. That’s an oops I am trying to correct.

My inner child took over last night and I made a batch of Easter nests with eggs. The recipe is an old classic and a goody.

Easter Egg Nests

Makes 12

a splash of marshmallow vodka – optional for the “big kids”

1. Melt the chips and pb in the microwave on medium power for 1 minute. Stir and nuke for another minute.

2. Remove from the microwave and stir until all ingredients are blended. Add the vodka and stir well. Toss in the noodles and stir until all the noodles are coated.

3. Spray 12 muffin tins with oil. Scoop the noodles into the muffin tins, making them bowl shaped to hold the eggs.

4. Place the eggs in each nest while the chocolate is still soft. Store in fridge until they are firm.

Wishing You and Yours A Beautiful Easter Day

Full of Hope and a Little Too Much Chocolate!

There’s a dear little plant that grows in our isle,
‘Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that sets it;
And the sun of his labor with pleasure did smile,
And with dew from his eye often wet it.
It grows through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,
And they call it the dear little Shamrock of Ireland.
~ Irish Blessing

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and all the buzz is about green beer, so I’m thinking about green wine instead. Now, the thought of colouring wine green is rubbing me rather abrasively, so went looking for green glasses instead.

It was fun! I hope you enjoy them. There is something for every budget and type of party. You can click on each pic to find out where to purchase them.

Green plastic glasses at Party City         Green recycled glass from the UK

Luigi Bormioli at Target             Artland Iris Goblet at Sears

Green Lustre – Bed Bath & Beyond     Fun Plastic Glass at Party City

“Here’s to the land of the shamrock so green, 
Here’s to each lad and his darlin’ Colleen, 
Here’s to the ones we love dearest and most. 
May God bless old Ireland, that’s this Irishman’s toast!”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everybody!

“You can do almost anything with soup stock, it’s like a strong foundation. When you have the right foundation, everything tastes good.” ~ Martin Yan

At any given time, Anselma House & Haven Houses’ 75 beds are full. That’s 75 women and children who have had the courage to leave an abusive relationship. That’s 75 women & children who have experienced hatred and pain from someone who was supposed to love and cherish them. Many left in a hurry with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Many left fearing for their lives. They all need food, clothing, protection and time to rebuild and restructure their lives. Anselma House & Haven House, women’s crisis shelters, do their best to provide just that.

A week ago I was honoured to join a group of women from Leadership Waterloo who organized a cooking event with The Soup Sisters. We were divided into smaller groups to make great big batches soups for Anselma House and Haven House. There was chicken noodle soup, hamburger soup, lentil soup and a few others. The group I was in made a delicious batch of hearty chilli.

It was such a fun night! Each of us paid $50 to cover the cost of the groceries and wine with our meal. First we were given cutting and chopping instructions and safety tips. Then we donned our aprons and grabbed our knives. We chopped, peeled, cooked, stirred and laughed the evening away. I was given the especially fun job of crushing canned tomatoes by hand! I felt like I Love Lucy in the grape stomping episode. If there had been an award for the messiest apron, I would have proudly won it.

When it was all done and the big pots were full and simmering on the stoves, we sat down for a group meal. We were served a bowl of the lentil soup that one group had made, some bread and a glass of wine. After our meal we poured our big pots of soups and chilli into storage containers for the Soup Sisters to deliver to the shelters.

When we were done, we learned we had made enough soup for two weeks of meals for those 75 women and children. It was wonderful to be part of such a soul-full evening. Abuse is sadly rampant in our world and it truly was an honour to be part of the healing. Thank you to the Culinary Studio for being the host kitchen.

Click here for the photos from the February 26^th event. You will notice we had one Broth Brother with us.

If you suspect you or someone you know is in an abuse relationship, read this list of “Characteristics of Abusers” put together by Anselma House. Please know that people are available who want to help you or your friend.

Here is “The Soup Sisters Cookbook”

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“Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.” - Craig Claiborne

What exactly is a “foodie?” The word gets used a lot and was even spoofed in a recent TV ad for Boston Pizza. So, I googled it and found this:

“Noun 1. foodie - a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)”

That’s pretty much what Diane Smith Stewart said too. Recently I met Diane through mutual friends and when I asked her about food and cooking she said, “I love to bring joy to others using food!” She loves everything about food. She loves trying new pairings, new cooking techniques and presentations and she is always looking for a new food or recipe from a part of the world she hasn’t yet experienced.

I like Diane because she also really enjoys *sin.* She loves great wine and the finest of spirits. Her favourite drink is the Rusty Nail, a mix of Drambuie and Scotch. It’s possible the name Drambuie came from the Gaelic phrase dram buidheach which means “the drink that satisfies” and I think that suits Diane perfectly.

Diane & Dwayne - photo credit Diane Smith Stewart

Diane has been married to Dwayne for 20 years and they are not looking back. They are busy parents supporting all the activities of their two teenagers, 18 year old Sarah and 15 year old Cam. They do all that while running two Vancouver businesses, one of which provided the official snow removal services for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.  Yes, their lives and full and gratifying.

Diane and her daughter. Photo by photoart by Simpson

When she celebrated Robbie Burns Day with friends a couple weeks ago, she whipped up a Drambuie cream sauce for the haggis. Diane is an organic food person. She grows some of her own vegetables and supports local producers, so she made sure she served her sauce with the most delicious, savoury haggis she could find.

Diane also said her sauce is wonderful on ice cream and you might want to eat it straight from a spoon. “But,” she says, “try not to drink it all before supper!!”

“Bring Joy” Drambuie Cream Sauce

1. Place Drambuie in saucepan, bring to boil and reduce by half (about 10 minutes).

2. Remove from heat and stir in cream. Heat to warm, do not boil. Serve.

Yum!!!!

How to Make a Rusty Nail

Slange Var!

One of the Diane's gorgeous cakes

You might enjoy more Cooking With Sin recipes for Robbie Burns Day on “Ode to the Haggis” Burns Nicht.

“Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.” H. D. Thoreau

This past Saturday I shared Flaming Cherries Jubilee, a simplified version of  “She’s a Trooper” Cherries Jubilee on the Cooking Stage at The Total Woman Show in Kitchener. On the Friday evening before I was practising my flambé skills – fortunately nothing was singed! – when I realized I was running low on Kirsch. I made a point of heading out early Saturday morning to buy another bottle only to learn the entire city of Cambridge was sold out!

I needed something with an alcohol content of 40% so it could ignite and one of the liquor store managers talked me into using marshmallow vodka. I had never bought or tasted it before, but I decided to take his word for it. I’m so glad I did!

When I arrived at the show I was so happy to find out my friend Jay Chagnon was hosting my segment. I was also relieved to have my friend Chef D of Chef D TV working nearby to help re-jig that cooking surface for me. Jay and I ended up inviting Chef D to join us on stage and we had a fantastic time. Much hilarity ensued and I just hope the audience had as much fun as we did.

Me and Chef D on The Total Woman Stage - Photo Credit K. Stenhouse

Deciding to add the marshmallow vodka at the last minute was certainly a risk, especially with a live audience there to taste it, but it was a wonderful surprise! In fact, it was so good that two of the volunteers who were helping afterward cleaned up the pan with their bare fingers! Yup, “finger licking good!”

If you saw us on stage, you know we joked about measuring the booze with a “wrist feel” where you pour until your wrist feels lighter, but for this post I’ll give you some more specific amounts. Feel free to add as much as you want. That’s all part of the fun and it’s especially timely for a Valentine’s Day dinner.

Flaming Cherries Jubilee

1. Pour the can of cherry pie filling into a large pan. Heat on high until bubbling.

2. Move the cherries to the side of the pan then pour the alcohol onto the scrapped side of the pan. This ensures the alcohol comes in contact with the pan directly and heats up quickly. Using a lighter with a long nozzle, ignite the alcohol.

3. Let the flames burn down then mix it into the pie filling. You can also douse the flames with the pan lid if you wish.

4. Pour the warm cherries and sauce over individual dishes of vanilla ice cream and serve.

*Tip* You will want to make this in the evening when it is dark to appreciate the glow of the flames.

I especially like this recipe because it is very simple, very showy and the cherries remain a nice red colour.

Photo credit www.RovingEye.ca

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Monica and her dad are very close and they have an annual tradition; they make wine together at a local wine makers. It is a special father-daughter venture and each year they choose a new red grape juice to work with. They have made Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet, Cabernet-Sauvignon and several others.

While she teaches grade 5 students by day, on the holidays Monica might be your tour guide on a bus trip to Montreal or New York. She has been to New York enough times that she has several favourite places. It was at a little Italian restaurant in NYC where she fell in love with their sangria and she set out to make her own version at home in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

Monica loves to entertain and invite people to her home. When it comes to party hostesses, she is one of the best. She is especially known for her delicious sangria. She has worked hard to find the right mix and at her last party I got a chance to have a few sips of it myself. I just loved it!

I find that sangrias can sometimes have a bit of a dry edge, but Monica’s is a smooth as silk. Her key ingredient cherry brandy. It works wonderfully.

“I Love NY” Sangria

1. Mix the liquid ingredients together in a pitcher or punch bowl. Monica pours her sangria into large plastic pop bottles which are nice to pour from and make it easy to store.

2. Monica keeps a bowl of frozen berries nearby to spoon into each cup as it is served.

Note: You want to look for cherry brandy specifically, not Kirsch. Kirsch is a cherry brandy that is made with the whole cherry, including the pit. It works really well in my Flaming Cherries Jubilee, but is too bitter for Sangria.

Cooking With Sin got a really nice boost this week. Natalie MacLean, our extraordinary Canadian sommelier and wine writer, invited me to become a wine reviewer on her site and to post some of my recipes there too.

You can see my wine reviews on my profile page an the recipes are here.

I would love to hear from you if you have any wine suggestions.

Yesterday Natalie put a link to the CWS recipes in her newsletter. And the “icing on this delicious cake” for me is that I’m right beside a link for Kevin O’Leary.

Carla's Profile Page

Natalie MacLean newsletter Jan. 18, 2013

Cheers!

Carla

“A person with increasing knowledge and sensory education may derive infinite enjoyment from wine.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Natalie MacLean is a passionate sommelier dedicated to sharing her expertise with Ontarians and people across Canada. Recently she interviewed one of my favourite people, Arlene Dickinson of CBC’s Dragons’ Den. Arlene’s personal journey from humble beginnings to solid business success is truly inspiring.

One of my two commitments to Cooking With Sin is to share personal stories and near the end of the interview Natalie asked Arlene about wine makers and taking wine tours. Arlene said it so well,  ”When you actually talk to the owners they all have great stories… We’re back to mentorship, right? There’s a great story everywhere.” So true. Thank you Natalie and Arlene.

So, how would you describe Kevin O’Leary as a wine?

“May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early!

My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall!”

 ~ Aleister Crowley

This quote makes me smile. It reminds me of the old SNL sketch “Lowered Expectations.” If you saw it, back in the day, you can probably still hum the tune. I am hoping 2013 will be a no nonsense year. No blubbering. No boasting. No baloney. Just lots of humour with a reality check.

You may have guessed I’m not a big believer in new year’s resolutions. They are usually doomed to fail for many good reasons. On the other hand I do take time to reflect and ponder at the start of a new year. My thoughts for 2013 are on my personal blog CarlaJohnson.ca.

For Infinity Magazine’s Winter 2012 issue I wrote an article featuring King’s Court Estate Winery in the Niagara Region here in Ontario. Roland Zimmermann, the owner & vintner of King’s Court, and I came up with a great drink you will find absolutely perfect for toasting in the new year. It is a mix of three very spectacular, Canadian ingredients. Enjoy!

King’s Courtini

1 shot King’s Court Estates Vidal Icewine VQA
1 shot Pure Canadian Maple Syrup
2 shots Canadian Whisky

1. Place ingredients in a shaker of ice.
2. Shake and strain into ice-filled martini glasses garnished with something festive.