What to do with POTATOES!

We have produced and saved 1113 lb.s of compost from our waste bin during the month of June!

Flats of Ontario Strawberries have been purchased and frozen for future, strawberry compotes and strawberry coulis and to add to our fresh Fruit smoothies. A HUGE Hit!

Our rainbow Swiss Chard is growing like crazy with all the rain and now this heat. We will sauté it for greens and freeze.

Potatoes are flowering, way before any potato bugs could enjoy them…..meaning our potatoes are flourishing under ground and we will keep checking to see if we can enjoy some new mini potatoes in the coming weeks.

A few ways to enjoy our delicious Potatoes

Try boiling them up, melt butter in stainless bowl, (like double boiler) over water with cooked potatoes, Add Chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley (1-2 tsp of each) and salt & pepper to butter. Scoop out potatoes from water and add to butter/herb mixture. Place lid or foil over potatoes and hold till rest of meal is ready to serve.

Enjoy the first potatoes of this season. Sautee Or Steam Swiss Chard or Spinach in very little water. Drain from water, add butter, salt and pepper to taste

Yummyyyyy……. Add to anything that you have just grilled on your bbq and you are set for an outstanding fresh dinner.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

We had the wonderful opportunity to cater a fantastic event on July 24th, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. We served up. Pulled pork or grilled vegetables in a pita, the best dang butter tarts and kiju organic juices, a local producer in waterloo.

Each year, an ever-increasing number of men, women and their families are joining Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®: The International Men's March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® is a fun opportunity for men to educate the community about a very serious subject and to rally the community to take action to prevent sexualized violence. 

Interested in learning more or getting involved with Walk a Mile in Her Shoes? Check out their Facebook Page and Web Site for more information.

Start a Wedding Blog

AY's Wedding specialist Andrea shares some of her favourite wedding tips to help make your wedding a success!


Blog About It!


Consider keeping everyone informed by setting up a wedding website or blog.  Out of town bridesmaids or friends can easily feel left out of the planning process, be sure to keep in touch.  Try short, fun emails or blog entries that are full of info with dates, times, locations for any upcoming events or appointments.  You can list activities or events that are happening while your guests are in town.

Check out B&B locations for your guests to stay while celebrating your wedding day. Anything you can do to make the day a more intimate experience for your guests makes it that much more of a special day.

Check out some of our favourite wedding website providers and blogs!

Blogger - www.blogger.com

Wordpress: http://www.wordpress.com

Shared Weddings: http://www.sharedweddings.com

Keeping it Casual; 7 Ways to Use Mason Jars for Decor & Food

Mason jars aren't just great for soups, pickling and juice you can use them as a creative element to serve up your favourite meal or drinks.

Be sure to wash your jars throughly before serving any of these great mason jar ideas!


1. Use a variety of mason jars for Candle holders. Pour sand or kitty litter in bottom, about an 1/2 inch deep, put 8 hour votive candle in centre.  Display a variety of sizes (3, 5 or 7) always odd numbers, around floral  from your garden.

2. Serve up your signature drink; cosmos or Caesar in a mason jar

3. Put a layered salad or coleslaw in a mason jar and attach forks to the side of it with a piece of String, ribbon or Raffia (You can either put dressing on the bottom of the jar, layer salad on top, make sure there is a secure lid for each guest to shake up their salad before enjoying.

4. Serve up individual fruit salads or berries in small jars for dessert. Allow your guests to top off with chocolate, whipped cream, maple syrup or just enjoy their own local sweetness.

5. For Breakfast, put layered granola in mason jar, attach a spoon and supply yogurt or milk for guests pour over.

6. Instead of using a basket for your cutlery, put forks, spoons & knives in their own individual large mason jar at the end of your buffet

Wedding Tips from a Pro

AY's Wedding specialist Andrea shares some of her favourite wedding tips to help make your wedding a success!

This article is the first in a series showcasing innovative wedding ideas and creativity.


Colour is  Key


For a fun and contemporary look for your wedding, put together a great colour scheme. Check out home improvement stores, Home Hardware, Home Depot, Rona, Canadian Tire. Don’t rely on bridal magazines or websites, visit the paint display section and get paint chips and colour wheels to play with. These will give you great ideas for complimentary colours that will work well together to give you beautiful colour combinations for everything from gowns to flowers.


Looking for some online colour wheels or combinations?

Benjamine Moore & Co. - http://www.benjaminmoore.com
Behr - http://www.behr.com

May was a GREEN month

We've saved 1392 lbs OR 632.73 kilos (WOW!!) of compost during the month of May.

The City of Guelph high recommends composting. According to their web site " Almost 30% of the waste you produce can be composted at home and used to benefit your garden."

Interested in getting involved? Backyard composters can be purchased for $35 at the Waste Resource Innovation Centre, 110 Dunlop Drive (519-767-0598), Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Stay tuned as June's pile continues to grow and our carbon foot print continues to shrink.

An Extrodinary Niagara-on-the-Lake Experience!

We had an extraordinary opportunity to travel to Niagara on the Lake to visit the Jackson Triggs Winery. We had an amazing personalized Wine Tour from Michael.  Arranged by Lynda from Vincor. We continued to several other wineries including Tawse & Featherstone Winery.  Featherstone owned by Dave & Louise who used to own Guelph Poultry here in Guelph and now they make fantastic wines!  The Riesling Challenge was held here in Guelph on the weekend and not sure of the outcome, BUT Featherstone has won at 2 or 3 times in the past for their fabulous Riesling. Our Transportation to and from the wineries was provided by Red Car Services, Guelph (Barry was fantastic).

RBC Habitat for Humanity Women's Build Fundraiser

Last Wednesday we held an amazing fund raiser for the Guelph Habitat for Humanity Women's build.

This was at the RBC event in Guelph last night, promoting the women’s build in Guelph in June.

Marissa from Moxie Trades was there and brought her trailer. I bought a pair of RED work boots and a matching Tool Belt for that added touch.

We had way too much fun!

With a generous donation from RBC of $50,000 we have currently reached $62,000. But we need more! 

Want to help out? Check out the Habitat for Humanity of Wellington County for more information on how you can get on board or donate!

The Green Update - May 2010

In the month of May we processed 751 lbs of compost in the first two weeks……WOW! And compare that to April’s total of 394 lbs and you've got some serious improvement.  Okay okay.. for those readers across the pond thats 340 kilograms!

We are getting that much closer to eliminating another weekly pick up of our garbage bin.  We are presently down from 4 times per month, to twice per month. Our current objective is to achieve only 1 garbage bin pick up per month. With this kind of success imagine not only the reduction to our carbon foot print, but the decrease in our waste disposal bill as well!

Our Edible Flowers are growing extremely well. Unfortunately last week we experienced some frost and lost a few of our basil plants. We will replant herbs that are currently potted to make up the difference.

Thats it for now! Stay tuned for the month end update shortly.

Cook The Book - A Bethany's Hope Foundation Fundraiser

The crew and I had the opportunity to attend an amazing fundraiser in London this weekend with celebrity chef Michael Smith. The event, Cook the Book brought to us by the Bethany's Hope Foundation was WAY too much fun!! The Bethany Hope Foundation fundraiser was an amazing opportunity. Students from Fanshaw college cooked through his new cookbook with local hotel and restaurant chefs. What an experience! To finish off the evening we all got signed copies of Michael's latest cookbook. Check out all of the fun we had.

The Latest Appetizingly Yours Promo Vid is here!

The Green Update - April 2010

In the month of April, we have processed  309 lbs of compost  and we haven’t even hit the end of the month!

We also have turned over our entire garden and have potted all the perennial herbs, for easy weeding throughout the summer.

We are in the process of putting patio stones down and creating a garden experience for our client and staff meetings, right in our own backyard.

Picked over 100 Viola (Johnny Jump Ups yesterday) for sugaring, but found they didn’t hold well for very long.  I think we need to sugar them right away instead of a few hours later.  looking into some tips.

I started biking to work. At least 3 times a week. Over 16 km each way. Wooo Hooo!

The challenge is for other staff to do the same, if they live in Guelph.  We’ll see. Stay tuned for more from our Green Team!

Lobster Mac & Cheese

By Chef Brian Schmeler

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni 1 (2 pound) cooked lobster meat 2 tablespoons butter 1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced 1 shallot, chopped 2 cups milk/35% cream
5 tablespoons butter 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 pound shredded Gruyere cheese 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese 1 cup grated Romano cheese kosher salt and pepper to taste 3 tablespoons panko bread crumbs

Directions

1.  Add macaroni noodles to boiling salted water, cook until tender, then drain in a colander set in the sink, and rinse with cold water to cool. Set aside.
2.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in onion and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes.
3.  Melt 5 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Whisk in flour, and stir until the mixture becomes paste-like and light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Gradually whisk the milk or cream into the flour mixture, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook and stir until the mixture is thick and smooth, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Stir the cheeses into the thickened milk mixture until melted and smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then stir in the lobster, onions and macaroni. Place in casserole dish or a dim sum spoon and sprinkle evenly with panko crumbs.
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 until the sauce is bubbly, and the top is golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes.

Makes dinner for 8 or hors d’oeuvres for 32.

We made the 2010 Toronto Life Wedding Guide!

Check out our recent review in the!

Check out our recent review in the Toronto Life Wedding Guide!

Go for the GREEN in the Garden!

Spring has arrived and the smell, taste and feel of green is all around us. Your local garden center has begun stocking ready mix and gardening supplies. We've decided to step up our green plan and local food initiative to include a few new twists. Here are some of the ways we are helping out the environment and keeping our dishes fresh.

We are planting seeds! Thats right. Edible flowers are all the range in haute cusine this spring. The patio garden had been prepped, edible flowers and fresh herbs to come!

Not only are edible flowers beautiful they are accompanied by amazing flavour, vitamins and minerals.

Lilac blossoms are edible and have a pungent floral and lemony flavour? Make sure they are natural and not sprayed with herbicides and pesticides!

Marigold and Nasturtium contain vitamin c!

We are composting! Weigh in the compost. By measuring compost in the kitchen and what we bring home daily from events we can erase our carbon footprint.  We’ll keep you posted on how many lbs/ kilos we are composting monthly and the overall decrease in our carbon footprint.

We are sorting! Let's Sort. Each time the AY crew does a new event we take 3 containers, blue for recycling, clear for Garbage and a pail with lid for composting and all come back to our shop at the end of every event.

Spring Fever!

Well it looks like spring has arrived and I couldn't be more excited about it, warmer temperatures are rolling into the Guelph area and Spring Fever is in the air. 

Lots of extremely exciting things going on over the next couple of weeks! Between the Canadian Special Events and Meetings Expo last week and the Bob Rumball Fundraser April 17th we've got a ton of events happening.

Last week we attended the Canadian Special Events and Meetings Expo in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Fresh ideas, innovation and excitement were all in the air. We checked out some of  the latest emerging trends in the industry. One of our favorite exhibitors was Ice Culture. 

Coming up on April 17th is the upcoming fundraiser for the Bob Rumball Foundation. I've been working with the in anticipation of this year's event. This year the fundraiser will be held at Country Heritage Park. Interested in coming? Check out the details below.

The Gambrel Barn 

Milton 8560 Tremaine Rd.
Saturday April 17th, 2010
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm


Savour the Flavour an evening of fine wine, fine beer, fine food and live entertainment.


To order tickets please call 416.449.9651 or send an email to tasteofniagara@bobrumball.org

All Good Things Must Come to an End

What a great time! The Vancouver 2010 Olympics were unbelievable. Our final week yielded more hard work and dedication. Each night at Sochi Haus got bigger than the last, 4000 people move through each day making it one of the busiest venues in Vancouver.

The line up to get into the Sochi Haus is always huge! Russian entertainers outside keep the excited crowd occupied while they wait to get in.

I got to see the Women's Super-G event at Whistler! Such an amazing experience. Finished work at 2:00 am, slept on a bus to Whistler, met the boys in the morning, watched Lindsey Vonn race to Victory.

I caught up with Curtis and met his dog Bob! Who is a major chick magnet; What kind of a Dog? How old is he? The questions! He is part lab, austrailian shepard, pit bull and soooo cute.

Curtis, Dan and I caught a Julie Black set at the Whistler Live Venue in Whistler Village, which was a phenomenal. We spent the evening and enjoyed a wonderful super at Curtis' place in Pemberton. Dan made a melody of fresh root veggies with and oven roasted demi-glazed chicken.

Well, we left Vancouver today, March 2nd and its right back to the office! Looking forward to catching up with everybody in back at AY.

Thanks for the wonderful experience Vancouver!

Vancouver's Poem to the World!

We never claimed to be perfect,
That means we’ve learned to be humble.           
We say excuse me and I'm sorry…as well as please and thanks,           
Even when its not our fault we apologize.                        
Sure one arm of the torch didn't rise,           
But when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say…”We’ll help.”           
And yah, there is a fence around the torch,                        
But you can walk right up and shake hands with our prime minister and most famous Canadians.                        We put Gretzky in the back of a pick up, in the rain, not surrounded by police…and he was             okay,           
And by the way... the great one is Canadian…and HE wasn’t complaining!           
We do have security at the games, of course, but most people don't even have a gun they have to leave at home.           
The medals ARE under lock and key, but our doors and our hearts are open to the world.           
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week…but let’s not overlook the fact that our             banking system didn't.           
We didn't get the "green ice maker" right this time…but we will, eventually,           
Just like we did when we invented the zamboni.           
Citius altius fortius           
If you don't reach higher how do you get faster and stronger?           
Was the first quad jump perfect?                        
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world "in case" it didn’t take off?           
So big deal…one out of four torch arms didn't rise. Good thing we had three more! It’s called             contingency planning!           
But remember…the Canadarm works every time…in outerspace…and insulin turned out to be             okay.           
We couldn't change the weather, but maybe we can help to stop global warming.           
We don't have the tax base of the US or the power of the Chinese but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kick-ass venues in the worst global recession ever.           
Sure, some folks couldn't afford tickets, but our health care is universal.           
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song, but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event...together...spontaneously…and unrehearsed.           
What's more, we don't need permission from  anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercings and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world while our multilingual female haitian-born, black head of state shares a box with her first nations equals.           
We’ve shown the world that it doesn’t always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for             excellence, but not get hung up on perfection.           
And we’ve learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no-name newspaper guy and we don’t have to take it lying down!           
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics or a couple guys being 5 minutes late to a             ceremony,           
We know we’re lucky that these are the biggest problems we've had to deal with in the last couple             weeks.           
So take your cheap shots…Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world,           
We're bigger and better than that.           
What's more we're finally starting to believe it!           
Do you believe?

Greetings from The Vancouver 2010 Olympics!

I wanted to update everyone last week, but I think this is the first moment I have had been able to sit down to reflect on the games. I have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to see any events, luckily there’s always someone around to fill me in on the latest news and medal standings. So now I’ve managed to sneak over to my computer for a few quick minutes to fill everyone in…

Well it’s day 7 of the Games and I’ve been working at the Sochi Haus hosted at Science World in Vancouver, here to promote the 2014 Olympics in Russia, with Culinary Capers.

I started off my Olympics experience with a special event, the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies with my son Curtis and girlfriend Emilie. This truly is a family event; Curtis is working the groomers at whistler and my other son Dan the Man is on the dye crew at the Creekside Venue. It’s so great having the family out here helping out for the games.

I will be here in Vancouver until March 1st and get to stay right near the action up from Granville Island in a condo apartment that I am sharing with another Culinary Capers team member who also travelled to Torino for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Every morning we check out the TV from highlights of the action, then off the Sochi Haus we go.

I’ve definitely had the experience of a lifetime helping to organize the crew here. They are doing an amazing and of course delicious job! The energy and excitement has been both overwhelming and inspiring…Chef Brian has been working 10-12 hours a day – now that takes some athletic ability. We are trying to educate the Russians on how all wastet is recycled on a daily basis. Green is the way to go!

The city is packed and you never know who you’ll run into, saw Wayne Gretzky last night! Well, it’s been a great learning experience to working with all these different cultures from all around the world. I definitely have some great and delicious ideas brewing in my head for the AY menu!

Stay tuned….more to come!

Wedding Invitation Tip

Invitations are well recieved when addressed with a personal touch. When addressing, if you are inviting a friend who has been dating someone for a significant length of time, take the time to find out who "the guest" is. For example, address the invitation to "Ms. Anne Smith and Mr. Johnathon Thomas” rather than “Ms. Anne Smith and Guest”.

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010: February 12 – 28th, 2010

Excitement is building here at Appetizingly Yours Events & Catering as Brian (Chef), Jessica (Head Baker) and I prepare for our departure to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Partnering with Culinary Capers Catering in Vancouver, we are very proud to be stretching across Canada to connect our talents in culture, spirit and excitement of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. 

 

Follow us on our Blog as we highlight our experience at the Winter Games and beyond!

Choosing colours for your Wedding? I have a useful tip...

For a fun and contemporary look for your wedding, check out a local home improvement store, Home Depot, Canadian Tire or even Benjamine Moore to put together a great colour scheme. You don’t have to rely on Bridal magazines or websites, visit the paint display section, choose paint chips or colour wheels and take them home with you. These are great tools for choosing complimentary colours that will work together to give you beautiful colour combinations for everything from linens to menu cards, invitations, gowns and flowers.

 

Getting married? A few tips to personalize your day!

From the beginning stages of your planning, to the finishing touches on your special day, I have some tips to make your wedding personal and unique!

• Choose a theme to customize as a logo or design on your invitations, stamps, menu cards, favours, etc. such as: "two peas in a pod", "love birds" or the "perfect pear". The more creative you can be, the better - and remember, this is something that you just cannot over use! The theme itself can figure in all kinds of symbolisms.

"The Perfect Pear" theme

"Love Birds" theme

•  Monogramming is a very popular trend this season. In some weddings, they can be sprinkled here and there and in others, they've become the actual theme. Ring bear pillows, programs or guest books are a good way to bring the monogram into the ceremony. For the reception, I like to suggest getting creative with place cards and dinner menus, coasters, custom labelled wine bottles and even cocktail napkins. Of course, your wedding cake is a main focal point, and can be a great monogram display. Another idea is to have a monogrammed spotlight on the dance floor or as a backlight. You could also feature an elegant ice sculpture or embossing on champagne flutes!