February has our thoughts turning to romance with the approach of Valentine’s Day. This year picture yourself romantically holding hands across a beautifully prepared meal while the flicker of candles light up your loved one’s smile. Can you see it? No? Could be the two kids crawling under the table and your exhaustion from preparing the meal alone blurring your vision!

For some, preparing a meal at home has all the romance of a crowded bus stop. But it doesn’t need to be if you take a different approach and look at it as a way to spend quality time with your loved one. One of you not a cook? Don’t worry, there are always simple things to do in the kitchen such as boiling water, setting the table or opening the wine!

To help create a romantic and fun atmosphere in the kitchen here are a few tips to help get you on your romantic journey.


• Banish the bright lights. Dim the switch, choose the under the counter lights or light candles to help with the relaxed mood.

• Prepare a special drink to enjoy together while cooking. My recipe for Sgroppino below is a perfect starter with fresh oysters. Give the non-cook the task of keeping these flowing!

• Play a collection of your favourite and most memorable songs to reminisce about together.

• Feed the kids early and rent their favourite movie for them to watch; it should buy you a few hours at least!

• Keep your menu simple and easy to prepare. Cooking together should be fun and enjoyable, now is not the time to try complicated recipes. Chicken Piccata and Creamy Brown Sugar Strawberries are simple yet delicious.

Sgroppino
Serves 2
Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250ml) of chilled Prosecco (or any sparkling wine)
• 2 tbsp chilled Vodka
• 1/3 cup frozen lemon sorbet (or gelato)
• ¼ tsp chopped fresh mint leaves

1. Pour the Prosecco and vodka into 2 champagne flutes dividing equally.
2. Spoon a scoop of the sorbet into each flute.
3. Top with fresh mint and serve immediately.


Freshly Shucked Oysters and Mignonette
Serves 2
Notes: If you don’t want to shuck the oysters, pick shucked ones up from your local seafood store on your way home and keep them on a plate of ice in the back of your fridge until ready to eat.

Ingredients:
• 12 freshly shucked oysters on the half shell
• Lemon wedges, to serve
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 125ml (1/2 cup) red wine vinegar

1. For the Mignonette sauce, stir the shallot and vinegar together in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Note: the sauce can be prepared the night before and kept in the refrigerator to let the flavours infuse.)

2. Serve the oysters with the lemon wedges and the sauce for drizzling. Enjoy these casually in the kitchen with the Sgroppino while you are preparing the main meal.


Chicken Piccata
Serves 2
Notes: To butterfly a chicken breast, lay the breast on a cutting board. Using the edge of a sharp knife parallel to the cutting board, begin cutting down the length of the side of the breast. Carefully slice the breast in half widthwise almost to the other edge. Keep that edge intact and open the breast along the "fold."

Ingredients:
• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, butterflied and then cut in half
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 65ml (¼ cup) fresh lemon juice
• 125ml (½ cup) chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons capers (from jar), brine rinsed off
• Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place the flour on a plate and dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

2. In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes or until chicken is browned. Turn chicken over and cook for 3 minutes. Remove, transfer to plate, cover to keep warm.

3. Into the same pan, add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Season to taste. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 1 tablespoon butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

4. Serve with rice, roasted potatoes, steamed vegetables or green salad.


Creamy Brown Sugar Strawberries
Serves 2

Ingredients:
• 12 large strawberries, cleaned with stem still attached
• 1 cup light sour cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup brown sugar

1. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and vanilla.

2. To serve, using the stems as handles, dip the strawberries in the sour cream and then into the brown sugar. Enjoy!

Tune in to CTStv Real Life with Sharon Caddy today (Feb 9) at 4:30pm EST to learn about fun Valentine crafts to do with the kids as well as some yummy no bake sweet treats for your sweetheart!

For a great romantic and easy meal this Valentine's Day check out my Food & Wine Pairing Column at BalanceMyLife.  Remember to check back each month for a new beverage and my top food pick to go with it!  Tough job, but someone has to do it!

My Free Recipe of the Week is now available and you're going to love this one! If you dothen be sure to sign up to receive these great free recipes each week at http://www.thecookscompanion.ca/

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I love the versatility of this coffee cake not only in when you can enjoy it but what you can add to it to make it your own! Throw in some raisins, dried cherries or chocolate chips to change up the flavour. Enjoy it with a scoop of ice cream for dessert or indulge in the afternoon with a cup of coffee. Pair it with sliced fresh fruit and call it breakfast! Any way you slice it (no pardon on this pun!) you'll love the flavour of Sourcream Coffee Cake. Enjoy!

Upper Canada Cheese Company Wants YOU to Vote in the Guernsey Girl Cheese Recipe Challenge

Guernsey Girl is the proud new addition to the Upper Canada Cheese Company’s family of artisanal quality offerings made in Jordan Station, Ontario. Created by cheese maker Lauren Arsenault, this fresh cheese is loosely modeled on both a Cypriot style cheese and, more precisely, a Scandinavian Bread Cheese, which has a deliciously salty flavour and squeaky bite. The Upper Canada Cheese Company invites you and the general public to vote in the “Guernsey Girl Cheese Recipe Challenge.”

The “Guernsey Girl Cheese Recipe Challenge” asked fourteen of the area’s top toques to get cooking with our Girl! The result? Fourteen edible masterpieces created by the pros, from chefs to bread makers, in an application they best thought suited the cheese. Entries include: Lynn Crawford‘s Chicken Cutlet Milanese with Lynn’s Crunchy Vegetable Salad and Guernsey Girl Cheese, Lora Kirk’s Slow Braised Short Ribs and Guernsey Girl Cheese Poutine, Anthony Walsh’s Warm Salad of Winter Radishes and Legumes as well as baker Andrea Damon Gibson’s Guernsey Girl Goes Mediterranean. From starters to mains, desserts to apps – our participating chefs went the whole cow!

Upper Canada Cheese is asking the public to Vote for its TOP THREE choices to be eligible to win a coveted spot for a winner and guest at the Final Cook-Off where the voting public’s top three chefs will compete for our girl’s unwavering affections. Location and date to be determined – but don’t worry – our Girl never stands anyone up! Go here to have your say: http://www.uppercanadacheese.com/

A Bit About Our Girl:

As noted by Toronto-based cheese sommelier Julia Rogers (http://www.cheeseculture.ca/), Guernsey Girl holds its shape when fried or grilled, the surface caramelizes evenly and quickly, and the interior becomes wonderfully supple.

Julia Roger’s Tasting Notes:

· Guernsey Girl is a delicate shade of ivory, with a pale lemon undertone. (Its colour will vary with the seasons as the herd’s diet changes.)

· The surface has a slightly porous texture, while the interior is dense and completely smooth.
· Muted on the nose, but with aromatic interest on the palate, Guernsey Girl expresses savoury, herbaceous and mineral notes, and a subtle melted butter finish.
· Acidity is low. Salt is in balance, adding zest but not dominating the flavour profile.
· The curd is squeakily resilient, but not rubbery, and leaves the palate clean.

Like all of the Upper Canada Cheese Company cheeses, Guernsey Girl is made only from the pure rich milk of a single herd of Guernsey cows on the Comfort farm. This and every Upper Canada Cheese expresses the unique terroir of the heart of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Region.


So get voting and please, let your friends and cheese-lovers in on the action. This is, after all, one very popular Girl!

For more information, to interview Upper Canada Cheese Company or any of our participating recipe challenge chefs, please contact:

Mary Luz Mejia of Sizzling Communications

Email: maryluz@sizzlingcommunications.com // Cel: 416.992.2644

I was honoured to speak last night to a great group of people at the Canadian Club of Halton Peel.  Topic of discussion was how I built my business by using Social Media as part of an integrated marketing plan.  A testiment to the powers of Social Media and how we share information today - here is a photo taken by Sonny Jelinek, Chair of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce, during my talk.  He was tweeting as I was talking tweet!!  Love it!

http://snap2twitter.com/SonnyJelinek/photos/319115

Canadian Club of Halton Peel

Thursday, January 21, 2010
Oakville Conference Centre
2515 Wyecroft Road, Oakville, Ontario (QEW & Bronte Road) L6L 6P8
Registration/Cash Bar 6 pm Dinner 7 pm Students $15 Members $30 Non-Members/Guests $40

Nadine Hughes
Entrepreneur, Chef, Award-Winning Author & Television Personality
“Tweeting My Way to Success”

Nadine Hughes is a renaissance woman whose forté is making food fun again. Mother of two young boys, wife, serial entrepreneur, world traveler and food expert extraordinaire, Nadine is a woman who literally walks the talk. Nadine frequently appears as a television and radio guest discussing food, entertaining and how family fits into all of it. Nadine started her circuitous journey towards running her own food-related business after having successfully operated her first start-up, a third party logistics company in Australia, with her husband and business partner. After selling the company to Shell Petroleum in 2005 and moving back to Oakville, Nadine has taken all of the business savvy she acquired over the years and merged that with her passion – Food!

Today, Nadine is the owner and creator of The Cook’s Companion (www.thecookscompanion.ca), through which she offers kitchen consultations and menu planning services. She also runs a hands-on cooking and entertaining school offering classes to adults and teens throughout Southern Ontario. A published writer and avid social media user, Nadine recently published her first E-book: “The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet: Easy Ways to Put the Fun Back into Entertaining” (www.thegroovemamma.com). In addition to The Cook’s Companion, Nadine created the internet based The Menu Companion, (www.themenucompanion.com) that markets and sells comprehensive menu planners focused on the planning and preparation of dinner parties.

Nadine has single-handedly built her successful brand by economically using today’s internet and social media marketing tools. Learn how one savvy woman’s journey to success happened one tweet at a time!

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Registration Form – January 21, 2010

Reserve places for ____ Students ($15) ____ Members ($30) ____ Non-members ($40)

Name(s) ______________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________

e-mail: (optional) _____________________________________________

Telephone __________________________ amount enclosed $ ____________

Reservations made by telephone or e-mail – non-members please provide Visa, M/C, Amex information
Cheques should be payable to The Canadian Club of Halton Peel

P.O. Box 52148, Oakville, Ontario L6J 2W7 Tel: (905) 827-6302
Email: bwylie@globalserve.net (Barry Wylie, President)
Memberships (12 months rolling): $30 Single; $55 Family; $75 Corporate

Mad Men Martinis

We might have just come out of the holiday season but it's never too early to think about your next party!

When was the last time you had a cocktail party and by that I mean a true cocktail party in the Mad Men sense?

Read more of my "stirring" article at Balance My Life.

Come join the fun on Twitter!  For each new follower, I'll send you my 12 Days of Cookies recipe booklet for free!  Just DM me your email when you start following and I'll send it to you asap.  It's my gift for saying thanks for following!  www.twitter.com/nadinehughes

The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet

Easy Ways to Put the Fun Back into Entertaining

By Nadine Hughes - WINNER GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOK AWARDS

Food personality, cooking teacher, mom and serial home entertainer Nadine Hughes, author of the new E-Book: “The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet: Easy Ways to Put the Fun Back into Entertaining,” has recently won the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in the Best Entertaining Cookbook category for Canada. “With over 26 000 cookbooks being published around the world every year, it’s an honour and a joy to have been selected amongst so many entries,” says Hughes.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards was founded by Edward Cointreau in 1995 (originally titled The World Cookbook Awards). The awards are designed to honour those who “cook with words” and due to “The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet’s” impressive win, Hughes has a chance to compete in the Best in the World cookbook category in Paris in February, 2010. This is particularly impressive because Hughes’ book is an E-Book and not a traditional print offering.

Part of the cookbook’s massive appeal is that Hughes understands just how time-strapped many of us are, which is why she offers a host of elegant menus, recipes and tips designed to get the party started right. Flavour-packed, accessible recipes and tips that deliver are the book’s mainstay, as is Hughes’s “no-stress” cooking approach. This is a one-stop party-planning resource - from providing general tips on planning and hosting a party, to providing menu and recipe ideas. Hughes also provides many useful tips on getting organized in advance – including insights on preparing a room, setting a table as well as a detailed schedule for starting your preparations.


"What a thrill to be recognized by Gourmand! The Groove Mamma is an extension of me so to have my words and thoughts bestowed this award is a great inspiration for me to keep on doing what I do!" says an excited Nadine.

To learn more about “The Groove Mamma” or to interview Gourmand World Cookbook Award winning author Nadine Hughes, please contact Kimberly Plumley at Publicity Mavens at 250-390-9285 or via email at kim@publicitymavens.com.

I've just completed my 12 Days of Cookies recipe booklet and it's yours FREE with every purchase of my eCookbook, "The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet - Easy Ways To Put The Fun Back Into Entertaining". $7.98 at http://www.groovemamma.com/

It's full of my favourite tried and trusted cookie recipes from my childhood to today!  Recipes like my mother's Lemon Raspberry Butter Cookies and this year's favourite Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti.

It's my gift to you this holiday season.  But don't delay - the offer is only good until the end of December!

I satisfied my craving this week for a traditional meal of Prime Rib Roast with Gravy and Yorkshire Pudding!

Instead of a traditional muffin tin, I used my mini loaf pan and they collapsed just enough to create these wonderful little valleys in the top so the gravy could pool there perfectly!  Heaven on earth!

And the hot roast beef sandwiches for dinner the next night were a dream!

To get the recipes sign up for my free Recipe of the Week at The Cook's Companion

Need to find a "WOW" wine to bring to dinner tonight?  Be one of the first to try this great new wine!

2008 BLIND RIVER SAUVIGNON BLANC (LCBO #141499) from New Zealand is being released in the Vintages section of the LCBO today.


As well as being called one of the '60 Best New Zealand Wines 2009', the 2008 BLIND RIVER SAUVIGNON BLANC has had stellar reviews in the press overseas where they have described it as "awesome", "intense", "finely textured"and "elegant" with "a mass of passionfruit and elderflower scents" and "zesty acidity and a lively zip".. Here in Canada , local wine writer Natalie MacLean rated it 91/100 and called it "Stunningly delicious Sauvignon Blanc with vibrant notes of fresh grass, lime, chives and green apple. Not too herbal. Refreshing and mercifully free of oak. A zesty aperitif or a companion to a wide range of dishes. Superb effort!" Toronto Star writer, Gordon Stimmell also rated it highly at 89/100.

Step out of the box and try something new today!
And once you try it - let me know what you think of it!

Below is the connection to the LCBO website which can tell you what locations in your area are carrying the wine. I know for sure that it is in stock at (1) Queens ' Quay, (2)Queen and Coxwell as well as (3) Yonge and Empress (Yonge north of Shepperd)

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/lcbo/product/details.do?language=EN&itemNumber=141499

Cheddar Dill Puffs

Without a doubt, one of the most popular hors d'oeurves I have ever served people. 

Trying to get ahead on a few holiday catering jobs I have so took the time to make 200 of these light, fluffy and savoury bites.  They're perfect with a glass of wine, beer or champagne.  And the best part....I bake them, freeze them and then pop them in the oven frozen whenever I need them!  Hardest part...keeping my families hands away from them when they're cooling.

I"m having fun on FoodBuzz lately so visit me there to get the recipe!

http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/1566181-cheddar-dill-puffs

A visually stunning and equally delicious salad for the holidays!

Beet Carpaccio Salad with Goat's Cheese is simple to make, requires no cooking (who doesn't love that!) and is a great way to get your taste buds jumping at the beginning of a meal.

For everyone who tells me they don't like beets - this is the one that always wins them over!





BEET CARPACCIO WITH GOAT CHEESE & ARUGULA


Makes 4 servings

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Notes: This raw dish is all about the best ingredients you can find. A great goat cheese and a fruity, high-quality olive oil will result in flavour that is as stunning as the presentation. An elegant but simple starter to any meal.

Ingredients:
• 2 medium beets, peeled and stems trimmed to 2 inches

• 1 ½ tablespoons red-wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup goat cheese, crumbled

• 4 cups (packed) baby arugula (or other delicate green such as watercress)

• 1 large Belgian endive, thickly sliced crosswise

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil



1. Using stems as a handle, slice beets paper-thin with a sharp knife or slicer (wear protective gloves to avoid staining hands). Toss with vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl, then let stand 5-10 minutes or until the beets just start to wilt.



2. Divide beets among 4 large plates, overlapping slices slightly. Top with goat cheese.



3. Toss arugula and endive with 1 tablespoon oil and salt and pepper to taste, then mound over goat cheese. Drizzle beets with remaining 2 tablespoons oil.