Category Archives: Produce

Chicken Cordon Bleu – The MMJ Way

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This was our take on Chicken Cordon Bleu and it turned out great!
chickenBleuHere’s what we did different from the classic recipe…
We used;
Our skinless boneless chicken thighs that we get in St Jacobs instead of breast.
Mozzarella cheese that we got at a privately owned cheese maker in Millbank (same place where we are getting our honey!).
Black Forest Ham we get from Harriston instead of prosciutto.
Finally, Instead of coating with breadcrumbs we just put a little olive oil and some S&P.
Sliced and put on a bed of greens from our Plan B Organics CSA box…
Delish!!

Lunar Rhythms Farm

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Organic produce anyone? This week’s road trip took us to visit Jessica and her dad Dave at Lunar Rhythms farm.

Jessica runs a CSA produce box program near Oshawa (or is it Whitby?). This is her second season of providing winter vegetables to her customers. She gave us a tour of her greenhouse that has beautiful spinach and other leafy veggies. It was beautifully warm inside the greenhouse – it probably helped that it was a sunny day – but it was so nice to see leafy veggies growing in the dirt in mid-February. That night we had a delicious fresh organic spinach salad. Delish!

I also purchased some organic garlic which most of will go into my next batch of infused olive oil! I’m so excited as nothing compares to local organic garlic. Yummmmm.

Sam got to take a walk around and met Penny and Star their two dogs as well as her first meeting with some chickens – not much interest and an almost nose touch with a BIG cow. It was pretty funny – the beautiful friendly cow was interested but Sam was to say the least a curious but rather shy! Definitely one of those times you wished you had the camera ready! Oh well, maybe next time!

Jessica answered lots of questions that I had. Nothing like talking directly to a true expert when you are trying to get educated on what is involved in growing organic and in facilitating a CSA produce box program. Hopefully we will be able to find a way to economically provide this to our customer as well at some time. It definitely would be great to be able to off our customers healthy, affordable, delicious fruits and vegetables to  complement the healthy delicious meats on their plates!

 B.

The Royal Winter Fair

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2011 marked our inaugural trip to the Royal Winter Fair. Both John and I have wanted to go to the fair for years. Our friend Lisa was our catalyst to go this year as she mentioned that she has wanted to go for years as well. So off we went. Well, let me tell you we were not disappointed and this is definitely the first of many trips to come.

If you have gone to the fair you already know what I am talking about. But for those that don’t, here are some (not all!) of the highlights:

The Animals; Sheep – who knew there were so many different sheep. Goats – the cutest animals – John fell in love. Pigs – pigs are awesome. Cows – LOTS of cows. Chickens and Turkeys – there are so many gorgeous – yes gorgeous – different types of chicken and turkeys!

The Produce and Dairy – they have awards for everything…giant pumpkins, apples, squash, zucchini, best cheeses, best eggs. They even had a butter carver on site!

The live Bee Hive – that was cool. Did you know that in the winter the hives survive outside by not moving too much to waste energy but by moving from outside to in to keep the hive warm enough not to freeze. So cool.

The Animal Petting area – man, can those goats, sheep and llamas work you for a little piece of kibble – they are pros! They let you think that they are eating out of the palm of your hand – truth be told – it’s the other way around.

The SuperDogs show. I have seen it before at the CNE and I will go see it again. It is exciting, corny and just so much fun. I’m sure our yellow Lab Sam would have loved it to!

The shops – lots of fascinating different vendors – too many to check out in one day. I am hoping that the ‘Paw Protector’ cream that I got for Sam’s feet to fend off ice and salt this winter works well and I am looking forward to donning my new ‘coshmere’ scarf! (it was only 10 bucks!).

I am mentioning last but they are definitely not least …. The people working and volunteering at the fair. We had some of the best conversations with farmers and volunteers that are a wealth of great information. They really make THE place to go for tons of great information.

It was great day and I already can’t wait until next year. I think the only thing we’ll do different next time is get weekly passes.

B.