I had my annual Christmas lunch yesterday with my girlfriend whom I have known since I was one year old (so let's just say it's been going on for a few years now!!). We have always exchanged presents at this time of year and this year was no exception. Although we also exchanged birthday presents at this time and considering our respective birthdays are in May and June it goes to show we haven't seen each other for a while! Anyways we had a wonderful pub lunch (good stick to your ribs beef dip sandwich loaded with mushrooms and thinly shaved beef!) and exchanged presents. Much to my surprise and pleasure she gave me two wonderful food products I have not tried before - The Herbery's Spiced Oil and Blueberry Balsamic Zest. It was to my surprise because it was the first food product gift given to me in quite some time. It's amazing that once food, cooking and entertaining become part of how you make your living people shy away from giving you gifts that have anything to do with food! It's like when I started my company The Cook's Companion a girlfriend gave me a new cookbook as a congratulations present. Her husband thought it was a ridiculous present to give to an owner of a cooking school. How wrong he was. Like most foodie's I need to find new inspiration daily, not just to make the nightly dinner but to inspire and motivate my clients. New products like food products and cookbooks can help provide that inspiration! So if you're still searching for that gift for that certain foodie in your life you can't go wrong with an exotic selection of products from your local gourmet food shop or browse the food section of your local book or magazine shop!
Happy holidays to you all and special thanks to my friends who help to keep me inspired!

How do I know it's winter time? Not by the wreath that I just hung up on my door nor the pristine white snow from our first snowfall last night and not even from my son heading off with snowpants to school for the first time this year. Although all of these are indicators that we can finally stop kidding ourselves it's only fall, it's the smells eminating from my kitchen that put me firmly into the winter wonderland spirit. On tonight's menu....cottage roll, sauerkraut and whipped potatoes. It's been cooking since 9am this morning the house smells so good I could eat dinner now at 3pm! I know the snow will probably melt by tomorrow but tonight I'm going to light the fire, pour a glass of wine and enjoy a hearty family meal! Won't be so pretty tomorrow morning when the house still smells like sauerkraut but I'll just have to brew an extra strong pot of coffee to cover the smell!

Here's my easy recipe for winter warmth!

Ingredients:

• 1 cottage roll, size is up to you depending upon how many you want to feed (these are found in the refrigerated butcher section in your local grocery store usuall next to the hams)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 4-5 slices of salami, diced (or other smokey type meat - bacon, pancetta, pepperoni etc)
• 2 cans sauerkraut (you can rinse them with water if you don't like it as sour as I do)
• 1 cup (250ml) of water

1. In a large stock pot, add the onion, bay leaves, salami, sauerkraut and water.
2. Make a slight whole in the middle of the sauerkraut and nestle the cottage roll in the middle.
3. Cover and simmer over low heat for 5-6 hours or until the meat is fork tender, turning meat over periodically and spooning the sauerkraut over top to keep it moist.
4. Remove meat from pot. Slice thickly and serve with sauerkraut and whipped potatoes.