Feature of the month for November 2015: Animal Parade Kids Supplements

"Nature's Plus Animal Parade is the world's greatest line of Children's Vitamins and Supplements! Only Animal Parade offers a cascading variety of luscious flavors, enticing textures and diverse formulations - making nutritional supplementation fun and easy for you and your kids. Featuring whole-food fruits and vegetables, along with other critical vitamins, minerals and nutrients, Animal Parade delivers superior-quality support for children's healthy growth and development."

from Nature's Plus, naturesplus.com

They are made with:

• Whole foods and green super-food extracts and concentrates for ultimate nutritional support
• Bioflavonoids and botanical extracts
• Naturally derived essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids
• Most are sugar free and sweetened with xylitol

We have lots of samples so ask us today!

D E F Gs of Foodie Figures of Speech

Pepper your language with these expressions your grandparents used... people will wonder, but it will be delicious fun!

Different kettle of fish
If something is a different kettle of fish, it is very different from the other things referenced. 

Duck soup
(USA) If something is duck soup, it is very easy. 

Easy as pie
If something is easy as pie, it is very easy indeed. 

Easy peasy
(UK) If something is easy peasy, it is very easy indeed. ('Easy peasy, lemon squeezy' is also used.) 

Eat humble pie
If someone apologises and shows a lot of contrition for something they have done, they eat humble pie. 

Eat someone alive
If you eat someone alive, you defeat or beat them comprehensively. 

Egg on your face
If someone has egg on their face, they are made to look foolish or embarrassed. 

Fall off the turnip truck
(USA) If someone has just fallen off the turnip truck, they are uninformed, naive and gullible. (Often used in the negative) 

Fine words butter no parsnips
This idiom means that it's easy to talk, but talk is not action. 

Finger in the pie
If you have a finger in the pie, you have an interest in something.

Food for thought
If something is food for thought, it is worth thinking about or considering seriously. 

Forbidden fruit
Something enjoyable that is illegal or immoral is forbidden fruit. 

From soup to nuts
If you do something from soup to nuts, you do it from the beginning right to the very end. 

Full of beans 
If someone's full of beans, they are very energetic. 

Glutton for punishment
If a person is described as a glutton for punishment, he happily accepts jobs and tasks that most people would try to get out of. 

Go fry an egg
(USA) This is used to tell someone to go away and leave you alone. 

Gone pear-shaped
(UK) If things have gone pear-shaped they have either gone wrong or produced an unexpected and unwanted result. 

Good egg
A person who can be relied on is a good egg. Bad egg is the opposite. 

Grain of salt
If you should take something with a grain of salt, you shouldn't accept it as true without looking more carefully at it. ('pinch of salt' is an alternative) 

Gravy train
If someone is on the gravy train, they have found and easy way to make lots of money. 

Why Does Foodstuffs Carry Toys for Just 2 Months of the Year?

Good question. 

We've been doing this for several years now and the best reason we can give you is this - just as the making and sharing of simple food from our past gives us joy - so does the finding and sharing of such uncomplicated fun. Much as we'd like to we can't take time out for toys all year long - we're mostly about health and specialty foods - but the time many of us take for indulging this sort of soft spot is at Christmas holiday time. 

So go ahead - put a giant rainbow spring in the middle of the table, plug in the lava lamp, wind up the 'roo-in-a-box, call everyone to dinner with a "ting" on the triangle and have a big fun family get-together with lots of good food and wonderful silliness.

Can you have wheat germ if you're sensitive to wheat?

Many recipes call for wheat germ for it's health benefits. But can you have it if you have a wheat allergy or sensitivity? The easy answer is no - but have no fear! There are great substitutes. 

Wheat Germ contains fibre, protein and B vitamins to name it's most common positive benefits. But for those who want to avoid it here are some excellent substitutes:

Rice Bran (gluten free) - contains good amounts of magnesium and iron. Source of B vitamins, especially B-5 & B-6.  Also an excellent source of fibre of course. Consider your overall arsenic consumption as it relates to rice products when using rice bran as it has been found to contain higher levels of arsenic than whole rice.  

Oat Bran (wheat free) - Similar in texture and nutritional benefits to wheat germ. Contains fibre, iron, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and some B vitamins

Flax or Chia seed ground (gluten free) - contain more fibre, calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids and less fat than wheat germ. Similar texture but not quite as sweet as wheat germ. 

Sunflower seeds ground (gluten free) - add texture, protein and fibre to bread and other baked goods. They contain far fewer carbohydrates than wheat germ, but roughly the same amount of protein. They do have more fats but they are high in heart-healthy polyunsaturated fat.

There are probably many other ingredients that people substitute for wheat germ but this is a good start. Any ground nuts or seeds could work too, if you wanted give them a try.

Get creative and go bake!

Harvest Time

by Pauline Johnson

Pillowed and hushed on the silent plain, 
Wrapped in her mantle of golden grain, 

Wearied of pleasuring weeks away, 
Summer is lying asleep to-day,-- 

Where winds come sweet from the wild-rose briers 
And the smoke of the far-off prairie fires; 

Yellow her hair as the goldenrod, 
And brown her cheeks as the prairie sod; 

Purple her eyes as the mists that dream 
At the edge of some laggard sun-drowned stream; 

But over their depths the lashes sweep, 
For Summer is lying to-day asleep. 

The north wind kisses her rosy mouth, 
His rival frowns in the far-off south, 

And comes caressing her sunburnt cheek, 
And Summer awakes for one short week,-- 

Awakes and gathers her wealth of grain, 
Then sleeps and dreams for a year again. 

Emily Pauline Johnson (known in Mohawk as Tekahionwake –pronounced: dageh-eeon-wageh, literally: 'double-life') (10 March 1861 – 7 March 1913), popularly known as E. Pauline Johnson or just Pauline Johnson, was a Canadian writer and performer popular in the late 19th century. Johnson was notable for her poems and performances that celebrated her First Nations heritage; her father was a Mohawk chief of mixed ancestry, and her mother an English immigrant. One such poem is the frequently anthologized "The Song My Paddle Sings".

Her poetry was published in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Johnson was one of a generation of widely read writers who began to define a Canadian literature. While her literary reputation declined after her death, since the later 20th century, there has been renewed interest in her life and works.       ~  taken from Wikipedia

Feature of the Month for October 2015: Dandies Mini Pumpkin Marshmallows

All natural pumpkin flavoured vegan marshmallows! Delicious little treats for big and small. Dairy free, peanut & nut free, vegan, non gmo. They make regular marshmallows too in larger and mini's so come in today and bake up something sweet!

Memories of A Movable Feast

Marissa, Mandy and Marcia...                                                         with Deborah (2014)

Deborah Palmer for years gave her own wonderful variety of cooking-together-classes in her Georgetown home and later in the cooking studio above Foodstuffs.

Deborah moved to Ottawa in 2014, where she still cooked with JAZZ.FM in the background, thanks to the internet. In 2011 she wrote about how much she loved music and cooking as solitary - and social - joys. Here are Deborah's words, exactly as she wrote them :)

Just had a concert by Bill Evans drop in my vault. I have loved his take on jazz for decades, so serene, so meaningful. I knew so little about him. And why did I need to know? Ross Porter from JAZZ.FM radio led an interview with Bill Evans while Evans was driving. It was curious, quiet, candid, and sad. Bill Evans’ music stands alone.
 
I have learned of many other pianists who are playing their way from the fluences of Bill Evans. This concert was 1975. In 1975 in Toronto I had no jazz friends until Joseph, my husband now for thirty-something years. 

This preamble closes on jazz, music, mindful music, and loud, screaming, head-filling music. I need it when I miss it, in cooking classes. I always get to pick; if my students choose, it’s from my CD stash. Music is THE ingredient in every recipe. I miss everything in our classes, especially my friends the cooks. I deplore to ever balance editing, the hours of shopping, one place to another to find another elusive product; once found, the consideration—how to make it available. The balance of class and prep, tipped to hours of cleanup. 

During each class is always some of the best time in my life. Every bit is worth it; I feel I created a party every time for ten or twelve friends. To watch the dynamics in the room, the pleasure in their decision making, changing things to suit, then tasting, considering—that’s just cooking as it should be. For me, to watch a room of people come together is the best. It worked so well, if I left the room for fifteen minutes no one would notice. My reward IS that.

Twelve years; so many stories, so many friends, so many great evenings. I am making a change to pen and paper to find the key to let it out. I think of Our Feasts, see faces and recall wonderful funny nights, laughter and cheers, success for all, and great simple food. I have been told a number of times that our classes have changed a career path, or opened one wide. Parents have let me know that their sons have found a path to cooking schools and programs. Cooking is work, no doubt, but it is satisfaction every day to create and enjoy and know others find joy in what we cooks do. Find the place that feeds your muse.

I made the scene and let it go on its merry way. I am so glad.

Listen to Mr. Evans as long as we can hear or feel the vibrations.

Coffee

Coffee arrives, that grave and wholesome Liquor, 

That heals the stomach, makes the genius quicker,

Relieves the memory, revives the sad,

And cheers the Spirits, without making mad...

Anonymous

Feature of the Month for September 2015: Peeled Snacks

Did you like the Snap Peas? Well we now have something even better (but really almost the same)! Peeled Snacks! They are Organic, Gluten Free and Non GMO pea snacks! There are 3 flavours, sea salt, garden herb and southwest chili and they are delicious. Check out their website for more details! www.peeledsnacks.com