Trip to Calgary

My friend Sarah and I share a deep love for all things cheese. This recipe is from the archive for a delicious Creamy & Cheesy cauliflower.

Its been a little while since my last post, and I apologize but this post has nothing to do with the upcoming Easter holiday, but that's because I just spent the last 5 days in Calgary, Alberta.

My husband and I, will be moving there in about 2 months for duration of 2 years and I had the pleasure of going out west to find accommodations, thank goodness for my friends Sarah and Mark. Wow!!! Not only were they perfect hosts, but they drove with me all over the city day after day looking for a place to live.

People in Calgary say its tough finding a place to live not just because it is very expensive (current price of a home, condo, or townhouse is over $460 000) but because the city is bursting at its seems and there is not a lot of vacancies to rent or real estate to buy. Growing up in Toronto I was optimistic that I have seen everything, the traffic, the insane real estate prices and the general mayhem of living in a large metropolitan. Nothing was further from the truth, Calgary stands on its own, with no comparison.

There are an endless number of people moving into the city everyday, there is no shortage of jobs. The city is constantly buying out homes to expand the city streets, construction doesn't stop... except when its too cold to work. People drive erratically, rushing due to the long commutes.... nevertheless this young city outpours with positive energy, and vigor for life. Most of the people in Calgary are not actually from this city but they don't want to live anywhere else. They love having the mountains a 45 minutes drive away, fabulous skiing in the winter, hiking, kayaking in the summer plus endless other sports are at everyone's fingertips, this a very active city. In addition Calgary is a multi-cultural center and over the last years it developed an amazing array of different restaurants everywhere, not just downtown. A truly great place to live.

Coming to Calgary I met a lot of wonderful people. The locals, as soon as they found out that I'm a food writer couldn't stop telling me about all the best places for grocery shopping, gourmet cheese shops, their favorite restaurants, family recipes for "Ginger Beef" (that's for another blog entry), the best pancake recipe and endless food related stories. I have the fondness memories from Calgary and can't wait to experience it all and write about it.

Between looking at homes I also had the pleasure to come along to a real cowboy bar (Ranchers) with live country music. Hanging out with a brigade firefighters and paramedics (my friends friends) I knew I was in safe hands. In addition to experiencing the cowboy night life, Kyle one of the firefighters, a champion two-stepper, taught me how to country dance. That was a lot of fun!! I am sure I will be doing some more two-stepping when I'm back in Alberta.

Who could say no to this sweet little face?

The day before my flight back I finally saw a few places that were nice, close enough to the hospital and not exuberantly out of our price range. Talk about moving fast, on the day of my flight we put an offer and when I landed I found out that it was accepted. Shopping for a home in 5 days, who said it couldn't be done!! :-) There is still one very important condition that has to be met, Madison our black lab needs to be approved by the condominium committee. Wish us luck!

Click here for my Creamy and Cheesy Cauliflower recipe.

Cool Cucumber Salad

A few days ago I was inspired to make a salad that was light, refreshing, and would remind me of hot summer days. Winter in Canada always seems long and harsh. By the end of February I long for those hot summer days...

All this day dreaming took me back to the innocent days of my childhood. All the kids at our families cottage running around freely, our mom's calling us for dinner and at the table waiting for us was "Mizerja" salad. Yummy, creamy, refreshing and of course delicious. There never seemed to be enough, we engulfed it, literally. The word Mizerja translated to a cucumber salad that is made with fresh cucumbers cut into thin slices, seasoned with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper plus a generous amount of sour cream or whipping cream and often garnished with dill.

I was craving Polish Cucumber Salad, but without all all that extra fat and calories from sour cream or whipping cream. Yoghurt? Why not! I love yoghurt, especially natural Balkan style yogurt, it has a little bit of fat, but it tastes delicious and typically it is a good quality product. Plus it has much less fat and than sour cream or 30% whipping cream. Changing a recipe with a lot of fat to a small amount of fat and still keeping all that creamy texture, in this recipe really worked out well, a moment of brilliance. On an aside, I'm sure this dish would be similarly tasty using 1% or 0% yoghurt.

The brilliance of this recipes is straining the whey through which we eliminate a lot of excess water and sourness. The final result is a more creamy flavoured and thick textured yoghurt. To the yoghurt add thinly sliced cucumber, salt and pepper, and for a modern twist instead of dill add sliced mint leaves. Voila!! Easy and delicious.

Yes, this salad was perfect, a perfect salad for a hot summer day... now those hot summer days need to arrive. However I can only do so much.

For a full recipe click here.