What are you doing this weekend?

I'm going climbing. Well, providing that the climbing goddess and the weather co-operate.

If you don't have your dance card filled, the Nanaimo Global Film Festival is starting on Friday and running through to Sunday at Malaspina University. Festival passes range from $20 to $30 and are available until noon Friday at Green Communities in Port Place, Malaspina Students' Union, Nanaimo Arts Council in Rutherford Mall, and Van Isle Video on Bowen Road.

The line-up of films includes "The Fight for True Farming", a documentary on solutions to the social and environmental scourges of factory farming. "Frankensteer" is a documentary that reveals how the traditional cow has been turned into an antibiotic-dependent, hormone-laced, potential carrier of toxic bacteria, all in the name of cheaper food. Also, "Slow Food Revolution" a documentary on the slow food movement will be screened. With 50 films from all over the world, there's something for everybody!

For our southern islanders, Victoria's Slow Food movement is hosting an event this weekend that opened to the public. Here's an announcement I got from them about their Wheat & Community event:

Join Slow Food annd our Red Fife Wheat farmer, Marc Loiselle from Vonda, Saskatchewan for a discussion on the current state of wheat, including the fight against GMO and seed patenting, and the revitalization of heritage wheat varieties.

Seedy Saturday

Slow Food will be giving a presentation on Slow Food's new Manifesto on the Future of Seeds, prepared by the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. This was adopted at Slow Food's Terra Madre Conference in October, 2006. The following speakers are on the panel:

-Sinclair Philip, owner of Sooke Harbour House and Head of Slow Food Canada

-Marc Loiselle, a Saskatchewan farmer, founding member of Slow Food's Heritage Wheat Presidium and producer of Red Fife Wheat

-Mara Jernigan of Fairburn Farm Culinary Retreat and Guesthouse and Slow Food Canada's National Ark Coordinator

-Cliff Leir, founding member of Slow Food's Heritage Wheat Presidium and Baker

This presentation is to take place this Saturday, February 17th from noon to 1 pm at the Victoria Conference Centre located at 720 Douglas Street.

This will take place as part of Seedy Saturday, Victoria's 14th Annual Seed and Garden Show, from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is only $5 and free for those under 12.

*****

Last night's event in Parksville with Kate Green and the Ban Terminator Event went very well. I'm glad that these events are being attended by people outside the farming community. Word still has to get out to the public about this insidious genetically modified technology. Beleive me, it's not a seed, it's form of warfare. An enormous amount of genetic manipulation was done in order for this seed techology to be created. Once released, it also has the potential to destroy non-GMO crops via open air pollination. If you haven't already, check out the Ban Terminator website and the USC Canada site. If you have checked it out, pass the info onto to someone else. Thanks!




















(Kate Green from USC Canada)
I have an interview with Shaw TV this afternoon about Nanaimo 100 mile diet challenge. I'm thrilled that the local media is so interested in helping get the word out. I also have another Ban Terminator Event tonight at Malaspina University (7pm, Building 356, rm 109). They'll be showing excerpts from "The Future of Food'" by D. Koons-Garcia along with a Ban Terminator presentation. Come by the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet challenge table and say 'hello'.

I got home around 10pm last night from Parksville's event. Luckily, I had simmered and cooked up the beans for the soup before I left so all I had to do was toss in the leftover roasted veggies and fresh collard greens for my Tuscan white bean soup:

So good.














Unfortunately, I was hit with a bout of insomnia last night. Tossing and turning, next thing I know, it was 3:30 in the morning. EEK!
I finally got to sleep around 4ish. I'm gonna have to take a bath in a tub of squirrels in order to get bright-eyed and bushy tailed for my interview this afternoon.

Happy Eating!
Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

There's a honeymoon in my yarn!

Last night’s pre-Chinese New Year dinner went splendidly well. Here are some pics of the feast:

Panfried noodles with moose sausage and gai lan in black bean sauce. I serve the noodles on the side of meat and veggies so the noodles stay pan-fried crunchilicious!

The hot and sour soup:

And of course, the potstickers (BTW, Gina, anytime you're on the Rusty Coast, you're welcome to join my potsticker sweat factory)

The pork was locally raised and the moose sausage was from the stash that DH’s uncle so generously gifted us with. Pretty much all the veggies from the gai lan to the carrots to the mushrooms were all BC, if not locally grown or from the backyard.

Hot & sour soup is one of my favorites. It’s super-easy-peezy to make. It does call for a few non-local items but it my version is also chockfull of local veggies and meats. It’s a great soup for the chilly weather and it certainly warmed up the crowd. It’s actually nothing more than a stir-fried dish souped up.

Traditional hot & sour soup calls for bamboo shoots, lily buds and black fungus. I don’t like bamboo shoots, especially canned bamboo shoots which resemble waterlogged woodchips IMO, so I don’t use them. Instead, I add carrots and parnips cut up into matchsticks to add some crunch to the soup. Lily buds and black fungus can be found in most Asian food aisles in the dried food section. They don’t so much impart a taste as much as they are there for texture. Quite frankly, you don’t have to have them (stop throwing those chopsticks at me!). While at the Asian food aisle, pick up a bottle of the red vinegar. It’s not red wine vinegar but traditional Chinese red vinegar. You’ll need it for dipping for potstickers. I actually used Marley Farm’s blueberry vinegar since I had it on hand. Now that I’m completely pissed off all the Chinese food traditionalists, here’s my recipe for a Fast & Dirty Hot & Sour soup:

Pork:

2-3 oz of shredded or coarsely ground pork

2 teaspoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Mix all these together and set aside to let the pork marinade.

The rest of the crap:

1 cake of medium firm tofu – cut into cubes

1 coin of ginger – smashed and minced

1 carrot peeled and cut into matchstick size

1 parsnip peeled and cut into matchstick size

1 onion sliced thin

3-4 handfuls of mushrooms (white, brown, shitake) sliced thinly

1 small handful of dried lily buds – soaked in hot water for 20 mins. Cut into thirds

1-2 pieces of black fungus –soaked and sliced thin

6 cups of chicken stock – preferably homemade but who’s kidding who?

1 teaspoon cane or brown sugar

3 tablespoon red vinegar

1-2 tablespoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon white pepper

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sambal oelek or similar hot sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch – mixed with some water to make a slurry

-In your soup pot, over medium high heat, throw in the marinated pork. If you’re using good pork, there ought to be enough fat in it so enough oil renders down to provide enough cooking oil for the whole recipe. If you’re using anemic, super-leaned up supermodel pork, throw in some vegetable oil. Let the meat brown up a bit before you start stirring it around.

-Push the meat to one side of the pot and drop in one layer of mushrooms. Let those brown in the pork fat. Once golden brown, just shove them aside with the pork and lay down another layer of mushroom. Continue until all the mushrooms are done.

-Toss in the rest of the vegetables. Stir fry for a minute.

-Throw in the stock. Then toss in the seasonings, tofu, lily buds and fungus. Bring the soup up to a boil.

-Pull the pot off heat, stir in the slurry. Put back onto the stove and bring to a boil. The slurry will thicken up the soup a bit. Ready to serve. You can toss in some chopped green onion or cilantro to make it pretty.

Oh yeah, there’s supposed to be a beaten egg in there. I don’t like egg in my hot and sour soup. I like egg drop soup, just not egg dropped into my hot and sour soup. If you want you can add a beaten egg. Make sure it’s a local and free range, dems the rules. Simply slowly drizzle a beaten egg into the pot as you slowly stir the soup. The residual heat with cook the egg.

Warning: Knitting jabbering ahead.

Now that I’ve finished my Midsummer Night’s Dream sweater and the MIL sweater, I’ve had a moment to throw some new projects onto needles. I’ve got some small stuff, a pair of fingerless mitts for my sis and a pair of socks for DH (who wants to bet that the socks never get done??). For myself, I’ve started on a cardigan that I’ve been dreaming and scheming about since 2005: The Honeymoon Sweater.

No, it’s not Jackie Gleason bus driver sweater. It’s a sweater inspired by our honeymoon in Kyuquot.




























(Yep, dat's me)

We spent 10 brilliant and adventurous days kayaking along the Northwest coast of Vancouver Island. The days were filled with huge waves and hot sun. The nights were kissed by gorgeous sunsets. The water was the blue of Hawaii postcards and the horizon was our next waypoint.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for the right yarn. My sketchbook has a number of scribbled ideas for designs and motifs. Finally, I found a yarn that contained all the colours of our honeymoon. Wouldn’t you know it, it had to be a Noro yarn:

It’s Kureyon yarn, their wool yarn. It’s not as elegant and luxurious as the Silk Garden but its colours are so rich and intense. Since the honeymoon was more rustic than elegant, this yarn will do fine. I was able to pick up a small stash at the local yarn store on sale. Since the price of Noro yarn is a bit dear, I picked up a more reasonably priced Paton merino yarn in Peacock to help ‘stretch’ the fancy stuff.

So far, I have much of my first sleeve done. Don’t ask me about the torso. I haven’t planned that far ahead except to say that I’m thinking about throwing in some sort of beach landscape silhouette thing along the bottom. Or maybe a wave/ripple effect. Don’t know, I’ll get back to you once I figure it out. Or have the yarn figure it out for me.

I’m going to listen to Serena Ryder all day so I can sing along with all her songs at her concert on Sunday. I can’t wait!!!

Cheers!

Jen