Goan Dinner Party

Posted by Maureen on Jun 25, 2012 in Dinner Party, Featured Slider, HM Kitchen, Products | 3 comments I have wanted to cook Goan food since our trip to Austin, Texas and a visit to G’raj Mahal in February. The layered, warmly-spiced, creamy sauces are intoxicating. Goa, being a northern coastal region of India, incorporates a lot of chilies, coconut milk and seafood into their dishes. The heat of our current summer also made me want some spice and beer, to share with good friends on a lazy...
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A Diner with ‘tude!

Posted by Maureen on Jun 16, 2012 in Featured Slider, Products, Restaurants, Road Trip, Travel | 0 comments It’s another gorgeous summer day in the windy city. We have a leisurely start and decide to take a mini road trip to Wisconsin for a late lunch. Frank’s Diner in Kenosha has been featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. Frank’s covers “diners” and “dives”. The drive to Kenosha is unremarkable highway. The Smith Falls-sized town is pretty...
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The Dish: Amazing Tomato Sauce!

Posted by Rob on Mar 26, 2012 in Featured Slider, Merchants, Products | 0 comments In the winter, we buy good canned tomatoes, in whole and crushed and sauce form because good, fresh tomatoes are nowhere to be found. Recently in a local gourmet store, we happened upon a small, stubby bottle of cherry tomato sauce, made in Italy by Agromonte. It looked just like the old stubby beer bottles and it even had a pop top. We opened it several weeks later to make pizza and...
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Piggy Market 2.0!

Posted by Maureen on Nov 27, 2011 in Featured Slider, HM Kitchen, Local, Merchants, Products | 1 comment The new and even better Piggy Market re-opened November 12th as an artisan delicatessen and craft butcher shop. I dropped in this week for a quick chat with Dave Neil, co-owner of Piggy. He explained that craft butcher is an Irish designation for meat that is hung to age not cryovaced. The new butchery offers custom cutting of local beef (O’Brien Farms) and Ontario pork as well as heritage...
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Pascale’s Haute Chocolat

Posted by Maureen on Nov 23, 2011 in Featured Slider, Local, Merchants, Products | 1 comment By now most of us in Ottawa are familiar with Pascale‘s wonderful ice cream creations. Most of us have had the pleasure of her truly inspired flavours at a local restaurant (Whalesbone, Allium, SmoQue Shack, Arc) or snagged a pint of creamy goodness at the Farmer’s Market at Lansdowne or Piggy Market. This weekend on our weekly trek to Piggy (recently renovated and expanded. –...
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Dish: Jam Session

Posted by Rob on Nov 9, 2011 in Merchants, Products | 0 comments I’m a jam guy. I really like good jam. By good jam, I mean the kind where the fruit flavour (and content) is prevalent and it’s not overly gummy with pectin and other thickeners. As well, most commercial jams are just too damn sweet and frankly, it’s unnecessary. I’ve come across some tremendous jams in our travels, and I always pick up a couple to bring home and have no...
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