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?