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!

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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.