Fancy Baby Boomer Potatoes

              I was given a few bags of the Little Potato Company Baby Boomer Potatoes and Fingerling Potatoes recently with the challenge of coming up with a recipe to make them delicious for people to make at home.

I have only used the Baby Boomer potatoes so far but I prepared them in 2 ways.   One way was a family style dish that I just created with stuff I had in my fridge and pantry.  The other one was a bit fancier for a cocktail party for those people that don't like the same old cheese and crackers or shrimp and cocktail sauce.
These potatoes are great if you want to make a quick meal because the come pre washed and you don't have to peel them.
It's high in potassium because of the thin skin.  They are a Canadian company from Edmonton, Alberta

The Cocktail Party - Shepherd's Pie Potato Bites

Ingredients:

2 lb lean ground beef

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

1 large yellow onion

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp Worsteshire sauce

1/4 tsp chili flakes

1 tbsp paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 cups of either water or beef stock

1 tbsp. dried parsley

1 tbsp. dried thyme

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp. flour

1 - 1.5 lb bag of the Little Potato Company - 

Baby Boomer potatoes

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of milk

2 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp fresh chives

 Step 1 - Brown the ground beef in a large skillet or as I used a cast iron Dutch oven.  When you have the meat browned you can add the onion diced and the garlic crushed.  Add the tomato paste, worsteshire sauce, chili flakes and the thyme, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper.  Add a tablespoon of flour and mix the meat mixture.  Add the water or stock and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add the frozen peas and simmer for another 10 minutes.  The mixture should be thick but have a bit of a gravy left.  Add water or reduce until you get the best consistency.

 Step 2 - Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 15 minutes or until they are fork tender but not too soft.

 Step 3.  After the potatoes have been drained and cooled until cool enough to handle then scoop out the middle using a melon baller.  This is the fastest easiest way to get a round centre to fill.

Step 4 - With the potatoes that you scooped out add the butter and milk and salt and pepper and mix until smooth mashed potato consistency.  Set aside.

Step 5 -   Fill the scooped out Baby Boomer potatoes with a teaspoonful of the ground beef mixture.  You can cut a piece off the bottom to make the potatoes sit flat if needed.

Step 6 - Using the mashed potato mixture top the potatoes using either a spoon as I did or if you want to make them fancy you can pipe the potatoes with a piping bag or using a ziploc bag and just cut a little hole in the bottom corner of the bag.   I didn't bother as this was a test but for a fancy cocktail party it will look better if you pipe them.

Step 7 - Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top.   You can prepare this in advance for a party and keep it in the fridge until your guests arrive and then you can bake them off.

Step 8 - Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and they are warmed throughout.  Garnish with chopped chives  and transfer to a serving platter.
A bag should make at least 24 potato bites.

 Recipe Number 2 -  Creamy Smokey Baby Boomer Potatoes

Ingredients:

Half of a 1.5 lb bag of Baby Boomer Potatoes
1 cup of Sugar Snap Peas
4 slices of Smoked Prosciutto or Smokey Bacon
1 large yellow onion
1/2 of a red pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 green onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 cloves of garlic crushed


Directions:

Boil the bag of baby potatoes in salted water for about 15 minutes.
In a separate large saute pan fry the bacon or prosciutto until crispy and then remove the crisp prosciutto or bacon and chop into small pieces and set aside.  Leave about 1 to 2 tbsp of the bacon fat in the pan, drain if there is more than that or add butter if there isn't enough fat left.   Add the chopped onion and then the chopped garlic to the bacon fat in the pan.  Cook until translucent and then add the diced red peppers and the sugar snap peas.  Add the seasonings, paprika, salt and pepper.  Add the Baby Boomer potatoes to the pan and then add the heavy cream.  You can add some stock, or hot water about 1/2 a cup.  Let it simmer on medium low heat until the heavy cream reduces and the vegetables are cooked.  Add half parsley and half of the bacon or prosciutto to the pan and toss everything together and serve on a large platter and garnish with the parsley and some of the bacon.  I made a prosciutto rose out of a piece of uncooked prosciutto to dress the plate.

It should serve 4 people.   This dish is pretty flexible.  I just kept adding things.  It wasn't a pre planned dish.   I could have added spinach or kale or  other vegetables but the most important part is the cream sauce and the smoky flavour from the bacon and smoked paprika.   I am sure you can find ways to make the plate look fancy for special guests but the flavour will be a hit with whoever you serve this to no matter how you plate it.

I made a lot and had about half left over and just reheated it the next day and it was even better.  It just lost the fresh green look of the vegetables.

This is a great dish to make if you forget to defrost some meat but you have bacon or prosciutto in your fridge.  I guess you could even use ham or chicken and it would work just as well.
I don't have step by step photos for this one because I was just creating it as I went along. I didn't crisp up the prosciutto but I have added this step to this recipe for a better result.

Recipe and Photos by Linda Matarasso and potatoes supplied by the Little Potato Company, all other ingredients are my own.

Sobeys Holiday Blogger Challenge

photo provided by Highroad

I got a very last minute invitation to participate in a Holiday Blogger Challenge at an event hosted by Sobeys.  I already had another event that I was planning on going to but couldn't pass up this invite to join an Ultimate Holiday Blogger challenge with fellow food bloggers and see what Sobeys had in store.

The event was held at the fabulous Cirillo's Academy on Dundas St. West on a snowy night this week.

I was the first guest to arrive, I left early because it was snowing and rush hour and I wanted to make sure I didn't get stuck in traffic.  I would rather have time then be stressed about being late.

I walked in to a beautifully decorated space with festive drinks like a cranberry and rosemary vodka I think.   I tried the pomegranate and mint gin drink and it was really pretty and great.  Really set the mood for the evening.

As other guests and bloggers arrived we were also treated to an amazing spread of cheeses and charcuterie that was explained by their "Cheese Strategist" as he was called.  There was also a "humane meat" expert there to chat with us about the Certified Humane meats that Sobeys carries.

We sipped on delicious drinks and nibbled on yummy bites while getting to know the Sobeys team, I have never met any of them before except for our new Food Revolution Ambassador Monika who wasn't there that night but other Food Rev Team members Carol (@greatmealideas), Mardi (@eatlivewrite) and Christine (@typeAconsult)  were there.   Thanks to Mardi for suggesting that they invite some of the Food Rev Ambassadors.

After we were warmed up we were then assigned the evenings mission of creating a Holiday dish from a "Chopped" style box of items.  No scary items in this box though.  We also had the use of a small pantry of extra Jamie Oliver and Sobeys brand items.

The Box contained the following items:

photo provided by Highroad

Kale,

Certified humane Pork Loin

Cabbage

Pomegranate

Clementine

Cheese

Wild rice

Orange Rosemary glaze

Parsnip

Dijon Mustard

Fennel

I was paired up with Isabelle, a food blogger that I don't think I have met before although I may have seen her at other events possibly.  Mardi and Carol were paired up and Christine was paired up with a blogger from Halifax, and the other 2 bloggers I didn't know were paired up.  Sobeys people chose the match ups.

We had about an hour to make our Holiday Dishes so we got right on it trying to come up with ideas.  I immediately thought of a kale salad since it was fairly simple and would fit with the box of ingredients.

Isabelle thought that we should swap the wild rice for Arborio rice and I like it better so I agreed.  We skipped the cheese altogether.

I made a vinaigrette with the pomegranate juice, clementine juice, mustard and oil and white wine vinegar and we added some shallots.  It turned into a beautiful orange pink color that I dressed the chopped Kale with.

Then I coated the pork loin in mustard and salt and pepper and sliced it into medallions and tried to pan fry it.  I wanted to get a sear but the pan wasn't hot enough.  Before I fried the pork I toasted quinoa, then walnuts and then fresh rosemary in oil.  I took out all 3 things and placed to the side and then added the shallots and then the pork loin.  We added Sriracha to the orange glaze and I added that to the pan after I cooked the pork a bit.

photo provided by Highroad

After madly chopping things Isabelle made the risotto with white wine, and she added some of the walnuts, green onions and some of the kale.  Remember that Risotto takes 20 min of stirring so that took a big chunk of the time.    

We had a food stylist on hand who went around helping everyone with their plating.  We had to make 4 plates for the judges.  Since we had a salad, rice and the glazed pork she suggested we put the salad in a bowl on the plate.  We madly tried to get all the plating done at the last minute.  I wanted to cook the pork as last minute as I could to keep it warm.

We put the kale salad in the bowl and then topped it with the popped quinoa, clementine segments, shaved fennel, the walnuts and the pomegranate seeds.  Thinking about it now I think I would have plated it different to show all the elements better.

I spooned the risotto on the plate in a row and then placed 3 slices of tenderloin to the side of the rice.

We garnished with fresh rosemary and some of the fried rosemary and fresh ground pepper.   It needed more color on the rice and meat so I took some of the clementine slices and dragged it through the glaze sauce and put it on the plate.  It's hard to make it look and taste good with both hot and cold items on the same plate but this is what it looked like when we were done.

me and Isabelle with our finished dish. photo provided by Highroad

The judges really loved Isabelle's risotto but they found the plating not as great, saying they had to spin the plate around to eat it.   We were trying to keep the salad fresh and add height but I am sure there may have been better ways to accomplish it.  It seems like a few of the blogger teams made variations of the same kale salad so they didn't really say anything about the salad other than the fact that the fennel wasn't dressed because we placed it on top of the dressed kale.  We didn't want the dressing to turn it pink but I guess it would have tasted better if we had mixed it in.

Food is very subjecting.  Anyway.. an hour later we were done with the cooking challenge and since the judges ate the food we prepared they had lots of Sobeys food they wanted us to try.

We tried some Maple bacon which was a big hit with all of us.  They made little blt crostini's with it.

We also had little dishes of the 3 different ready to heat side dishes like a Spiced kale and Chick Pea Pilaf, Sweet Leeks and Mushroom Pilaf and Butternut Squash and Quinoa Pilaf.  I liked the Kale and Chickpea one the best, it had Moroccan seasonings.

I forgot to mention that we had some of their Maple Wood Smoked Trout on cucumber slices with cream cheese when we first arrived.  That was from Manitoulin Island  and made from sustainable trout.  It was delicious.

Then the meat guys had us taste some of their Pull-Apart Roast Pork and their Beef Pot Roast with a bit of potato on the side.

They finally rolled out dessert which I loved which was Jamie Oliver's Apple and Blackberry Crisp with Ice Cream on the side.  I love crisps in the winter months.

I have to thank Sobeys for being so generous and hosting a fun hands on event.  They even sent us home with a huge gift bag with some of the Sobeys Sensations products like Chocolate Truffles, Lemoncello Butter Fudge, Belgian Biscuit Collection and Compliments Dark Chocolate covered Marshmallows which I dived into and couldn't stop eating, I polished off that whole box in a couple of days.

You can participate in their Better Food For All Contest to win $1000 in Sobeys groceries by taking a photo of your best Holiday Dish and tagging it #betterfoodforall on Instagram and Twitter.
Follow Sobeys on Twitter here:  @Sobeys

Second Cup Reimagined for the future

Second Cup Cappuccino

What:  Second Cup Reimagined Launch

Where: 289 King Street West at John Street

Why:  Newly renovated and rebranded Second Cup Coffee Co. cafe.

Second Cup "Reimagined" one of it's downtown Toronto stores with a fresh new Re-Brand and Look and a new way of serving up coffee in a beautiful and bright just renovated spot.

I have been to that Second Cup location in the past since it's across the street from the Bell Lightbox and steps away from Roy Thompson Hall in the Entertainment District on King Street.  The space used to be dark and cramped with not a lot of seating.

photo provided by Second Cup Coffee Co.

When I walked into the cafe,  and I have to say Cafe instead of Coffee Shop because it really feels like an upscale and hip Cafe now.   I was blown away when I walked in.  The space is all white with wood touches and modern coffee bar equipment.

Some of the new changes that are a lot different than the other coffee chains around the city are the new addition of a Slow Bar which takes it's time brewing your coffee in a couple of ways.   There is a Punk Steam and a Pour Over station.   The Punk Steam is a freaky looking 4 beaker water bubbling thing that looks like something in a science lab.  It's meant to brew a full flavour coffee.  While the Pour Over station is a manual process where the Barrista pours water through a (Melitta) style coffee cone and filter into a container underneath.   They control the speed at which it flows through.  Both coffees aren't your sitting on a warming element all day types of coffees.

They are made as you order and will take about 5 minutes to make.  There is a regular faster style of coffee for those on the go but this coffee shop is meant for people that like to sit and relax and recharge themselves and they also have the option to recharge their phones with a genius little built into the coffee bar surrounding the stations where you can attach your phones to a plug in USB style charger while waiting for your coffee instead of cords and searching for power outlets.   This is the best thing I have seen at a cafe in a long time.

Then there is also the art on the walls which is designed to show the independent location with local artists reflecting the community wall.  The take out coffee cups also have a re design from local artists.

The coffee,  it's sourced from the highest quality beans and roasted in small batches and ground as they make your coffee so it's always going to be fresh.

The food,  they have added some interesting and healthy choices like an egg white and spinach breakfast sandwich and an egg and sundried tomato sandwich that I really loved.   There is also granola, oatmeal, muffins, scones and other menu items.

The coolest thing that I noticed when I first got there was the Milk on Tap near the entrance and beside the sugars and lids etc.  No more milk cartons.  This was a brass tap with a white labelled handle.  So beautiful and I hope keeps things a lot cleaner.   There is only a couple of things a couple of people mentioned to me,  they forgot to add lactose free and nut milks like almond or soy milk etc.  Hopefully that will change as people request it.

The seating, you have a choice to sit at the bar or in very comfortable semi booth like seating.

The cafe opens to the Public with a ribbon cutting ceremony at noon on December 5th, 2014 and they will be giving out free coffees all afternoon.

Don't be surprised if you see me hanging out there during some big film festival that happens around there.

photo provided by Second Cup

For more information check out their website at www.secondcup.com