Yes – it’s that time of year where there’s an insane amount of food events. I went to the Toronto Food and Wine show on Friday, took a rest on Saturday and went to two food shows on Sunday. (Toronto Garlic Festival and the Canadian Health Food Association Trade Show).

Todays blog post is going to be dedicated to the CHFA Trade Show as I want to share with you some of the trends I noticed. I walked around the show for almost 3 hours but needed more in order to walk thru the 800 exhibitors that are at this show.

Naturally I picked up some samples to take home plus I sampled plenty while I was walking thru the show. No need for breakfast or lunch.

1. DRINKS – I spotted: cold pressed watermelon , blueberry juice, water infused with a variety of flavours and fruit, and more. This category seems to be exploding!!

2. TUMERIC – There was tumeric tea and a tumeric drink that caught my eye. Something tells me that we are going to see more and more products that contain this spice.

3. PUFFED QUINOA  – I’m guessing that this is going to be the new “granola”. I can see myself sprinkling this on top of my yogurt with fruit or integrating it into fruit crisp recipes.

4. BARS – Cricket bars, and sprouted bars and more!! I actually first got introduced to Cricket Bars on a trip to San Francisco last year so I’m delighted to see that they are now in Canada.

5. COCONUT – Not exactly a new trend but it’s certainly continuing to grow. I sampled the Wasabi Coconut Chips and can’t wait to try them in a salad or crushed on top of a piece of salmon.

 

Hopefully you will see many of these products in local health food stores, and even in the health section of major grocery stores in the near future.

For more information:

Please visit the Canadian Health Food Association Website: www.chfa.ca

I got tired of  making blueberry crisps, so I made a Blueberry Cobbler instead. (just like that) I searched online for a recipe and discovered that there’s LOTS of recipes out there….and they are all a little different!

After reading (err..scanning) thru many recipes I finally found one that suited my needs. This is code for …I had all the ingredients in the pantry/fridge.

It’s a winner. The blueberries become all goo-ey and the cobbler part was perfect.

Here’s the recipe:

Blueberry Cobbler (taken from www.wickedgoodkitchen.com)

Ingredients:

For the Blueberry Filling

6 cups of blueberries

1 cup of sugar (I used less)

2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons of all purpose flour

For the Buttery Biscuit Crumble Topping

1 cup plus 5 tablespoons of all purpose flour

6 tablespoons of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into bits

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 tablespoon of sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly butter a pie plate, baking dish etc.

2. Prepare the blueberry filling: Place blueberries into the prepared baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Add the flour and whisk until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle evenly over the berries and toss gently.

 

3. Prepare the buttery biscuit crumble: In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until well combined. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a course meal with small pea-sized pieces of butter.  In a small bowl, whisk the vanilla into the beaten egg. Gently toss the egg and vanilla into the flour mixture until moistened and the dough starts to hold together.

4. Assemble the cobbler: Sprinkle the biscuit crumble evenly over the fruit filling. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon (if desired).

5. Bake for 40 minutes.

**I promise that your kitchen is going to smell delicious and the blueberries will be bubbling away.

This recipe was so good that I’ve made this cobbler twice in one week.

Sadly I never have ice cream in my freezer but I bet this blueberry cobbler would be absolutely perfect with a scoop of ice cream!!

Happy Baking.

 

Today was one of those days that was just perfect for raspberry picking. So off I went to Whittamore’s Farm armed with a few empty shallow containers!!!

Then I went home and the fun started!! I proceeded to make a “few” (ha) raspberry crisps. Here’s the recipe I used:

RASPBERRY CRISP (taken from Taste of Home)

4 cups of frozen or fresh raspberries

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour

3/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cold butter cubed

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, gently toss raspberries with sugar and 3 tablespoons flour. Transfer to a greased square baking dish.

2. In another large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, remaining flour; Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle over berries

 3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remember those 3 containers of raspberries? Well add 3 quarts of blueberries (on sale at Metro 3 for $5) and this is how many crisps you will get!! (16 individual, 3 medium sized portions, 1 large)

I clearly had a productive day. Felt great to be back in the kitchen again!!

Happy Baking.

For more information:

Whittamore’s Farm...(906) 294 3725

PLEASE NOTE: the last day for SUMMER pick your own will be MONDAY AUGUST 5th (from 9 am to 5 pm). The farm will then be closed for a week and will reopen with late summer/autumn crops on Wednesday Aug. 14th.