Local Foodie Night in Ottawa

Outstanding in our Fields

A Farm Feast Night

Saunders Farm along with Savvy Company and Epicuria Fine Food Store are excited to host this new culinary experience. Everyone is invited to explore the wonderful activities at Saunders Farm in the summer sunshine - roam the luscious gardens, get lost in a maze and cool off in the splash pad. After a hayride and tour of the Farm, you can watch the team of chefs from Epicuria create a feast using farm fresh ingredients produce. Guests will gather around a 100+ foot long chef table to enjoy the three-course gourmet dinner paired with premium wines handpicked by Accredited Sommeliers of Savvy Company. It promises to be a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon and evening with friends and family.

Buy your tickets online here.

DATE: Saturday, July 11, 2010.

TIME: Come anytime after 3pm to explore Saunders Farm. Hayride at 5pm, dinner at 6pm.

LOCATION: Saunders Farm, 7893 Bleeks Road Munster (15 mins south of Stittsville, 30 mins from downtown), Ottawa

ADVANCE TICKETS ONLY
$80 per person
$70 Designated Drivers
$10 kids under 10 years old
Tickets include complimentary afternoon admission to Saunders Farm, hayride, meal, wine tasting and taxes.

Buy your tickets online at http://outstandinginourfields-rss.eventbrite.com/

A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to help train more farmers to grow and sell local produce.

Free (or nearly free) stuff you should know about

Let's start with the free...

On Thursday, April 14th, if you bring your own mug in, Starbucks will give you a free brewed coffee.


That's great if you drink coffee, not so good if you drink Green Tea Latte's.
Now for the nearly free:

On Wednesday, April 28 from 5-10 p.m., Baskin Robbins will host its second annual 31¢ Scoop Night in support of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation (CFFF). You can enjoy a 2.5 oz scoop of your favourite ice cream or a 3 oz Soft Serve cone for only 31¢ (plus taxes where applicable). You will also have the opportunity to donate to the CFFF and participate in the activities that participating restaurants have planned with local firefighters.


For locations, just check out the website here.

Back to free: The Simply Raw Lifestyle Festival, being held this year on June 19, 2010 from 10am to 9pm, is a free outdoor event for foodies. You can learn more about it at their website.



If you know of other free, or almost free, food events and would like me to post about them, just drop me a line!

Ottawa Food Bloggers, Urban Element and the Chicken Farmers of Canada

Any where else, other than a gathering of food bloggers, this would seem odd. But when a bunch of food bloggers congregated together at the Urban Element on Tuesday, February 2nd, this was the norm. Amazingly, the staff didn't even bat an eye when asked to "pose" with the various hors-d'oeuvres!

We were all there at the invitation of Chicken Farmers of Canada, for a social gathering of Ottawa Food bloggers, with appetizers, cocktails, a cooking demonstration and to hear Ron Eade give a talk on sodium and writing about food.

Ron didn't spend his entire evening talking about salt, but touched on alot of little things about food writing: the time it takes not only to write a blog, but to read and comment on others, the passion that comes through in some blogs, picture size, links and recipes. And one I've been guilty of lately - frequency of blogging. (I owe my blog a big apology for the neglect it's seen over the last few months.)

Pulled pork with smoked tomato jam

Cod cakes

Mini chicken pot pies

Sundried tomato strata with C'est Bon goat cheese

Chicken dumplings with peanut sauce

Caramelized onion tarts and pear tarts with Bleu Bénédictine

I am allergic to penicillin, so fortunately I only took one small nibble of this tart, without any cheese, when I realized it had blue cheese on it and I really should not be eating it.

In-house pork rillette with Rochon farm zucchini relish

The food made for us by the staff was not only beautiful to look at, but pretty darn good too. I did find it ironic that an event hosted by chicken farmers had cod and pork as part of the appetizers, though the cooking demonstration for the evening was centered around chicken: chicken liver pate, made for us by Chef Candice Butler.

Not being a fan of anything involving liver, I pretended I didn't hear that part of the recipe and tried the pate anyways. It was tasty but quite rich, I had a difficult time finishing my piece.


The highlight of the evening, for me, was getting an opportunity to meet some local food bloggers. I admit, I had not known about all of them, or that there were quite so many in Ottawa, but it was a pleasure to be included in their company. Some, like Shari of Whisk: A Food Blog, I had been reading for ages and had exchanged emails with. While others, like Don of foodPrints, Rachelle of Rachelle Eats Food, Eva of Eva's Food World and Pearl of Eaten Up, I hope to make part of my regular reading and meet again at future events (which means I better stop neglecting my blog!)

Big thanks to Ryan of Fat Canary Communications for inviting me, to the Chicken Farmers of Canada for hosting this little party, and to the staff at the Urban Element.