A couple months ago we were contacted by the The Galt Museum to help them out with a cool idea they had for their annual Night at the Museum event. They asked us if we'd be willing to come in during their gift shop sale and talk a little bit about the greatness of local food and how us folks in Lethbridge might go about supporting our local farmers while preparing for our Christmas festivities, also if we would be willing to prepare a few little goodies for shoppers to snack on. And of course we said, "Boy! Would we??"

So i've been in contact with a few of the plethora of friendly organic farmers that surround our little city, and the support we've had for this program has warmed me from the inside out. If there was ever a doubt in anyone's mind about how amazing it feels to support your neighbours, meet the producers of your food face-to-face and see the happy lives that their animals (your food!) lead, I strongly encourage you to give any of these farms a call and go see for yourself. I honestly don't remember the last time I met so many hardworking, honest, friendly and truly genuine people in a two-day period, and the belief I have in what Mitch and I are trying to contribute to our community is totally rejuvenated!

We began with a visit to Vital Green Farms, north of Park Lake, where we were greeted by Joe Mans and given a tour of his farm and processing plants. Vital Green is Alberta's only certified organic dairy producer, and they also provide organic sheep's products, which are GREAT for the lactose-impaired like me :) We had a long good talk with him about the industry, his challenges, and our mutual food geekiness. He gave us some of his infamous 52% cow's cream and sheep's cream (FYI- average grocery-store whipping cream is 35%- Joe's cream is the only 52% available in Alberta!) as well as a block of Sheeps' Gouda. He then insisted we visit his friends the pig farmers down the road and sent us on our way. (For a great read about Joe and his farm, check out this article- you need to scroll a bit!)

 At Broek Pork Acres, the first thing we noticed was the free-grazing herd of pigs- we had to wait at the driveway for a particularly slow-moving pig to cross the road. After a few moments's distraction from the dozen or so adorable farm kittens that greeted us (hey, we're only human), we found owner Allan in the cutting room, dividing his own meat himself along with his daughters. Apparently we came on a good day, as they had just been to slaughter, and we got a great look at the process. He showed us the storage locker, where a few giant hogs waited to be cut, and loads of cuts had already been packaged (a process they also do themselves at the farm). The knowledge this man has about the cuts on his product was unreal, and he introduced us to a few of their clients' favourite ways to receive their pork, and gave us a sample pack of in-house sliced Black Forest. 

 Then we visited Wayne and Anne at Pura Vida Farms, organic producers of beef and poultry. I was especially excited for this one, because Anne had told me about "how cute the turkeys are!!" on the phone- and I LOVE cute animals (little did I know!!). Wayne showed us his storage room and geeked out with us for a while about food and restaurants, and he took us on a walk through his herd of cattle. He and Mitch talked at length about beef cuts while I made friends with their overly-affectionate donkeys, George and Summer, who followed us closely and nuzzled my cheeks throughout the entire stroll (their adorable dogs were also there- so much animal love!). We also went to see the turkeys, who were overjoyed to see us and crowded us at the door to say hi. This is the farm where I especially felt I was in the company of fellow animal lovers, as was made evident by Wayne's calm and gentle tone when talking to his donkeys and cattle, and the giggles with which he dealt with the excitable turkeys.  They gave us a whole chicken and some ground beef to take home, and I think we even made a little progress business-wise (hint: I see gluten-free meat pies in your future...). 

 (Side note: we prepared a pasta dinner last night with some of the goodies we brought home yesterday- I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures, but it was fresh fettuccine with sheep's cream sauce and ham, topped with sheep Gouda. We whipped the cow's cream by hand to top the dessert, which took all of 80 seconds to complete- anyone who has whipped cream by hand before knows how amazing this is! )

 The last stop for the week was this morning, just north of Fort MacLeod, where we visited Ben and Anita at Fairwinds Goat Farm. They invited us in for tea and we discussed the event and the possibility of a Southern Alberta Slow Food chapter, which Anita is hoping to spearhead (stay posted for progress on that!). They took us through the facilities, where we saw their staff Alberta and Bertha packaging yogurt, and they showed us some chevre cheese that was draining and waiting for packaging. We saw storage lockers full of feta and other cheeses (I've never seen so much cheese in my life), and they gave us some cheese and saskatoon berry yogurt to take home. We visited the goats in the barn (again, ADORABLE), and helped them chase a renegade back into the barn. 

 note: I snacked on the saskatoon goat yogurt for lunch- DELICIOUS!

 To taste these amazing products, nab a Lethbridge Personal Chefs recipe to try at home, and to find out where in town you can buy these goodies for yourself, come see us at the Night at the Museum event at the Galt Museum on Dec. 1 at 5pm- admission is free, drinks will be available, and the food will blow your mind!!

 

Preppin' hard for the @ckxu FunDrive wrap-up party! We adore hors d'oeuvres...

HI GUYS.

So, I wrote a blog post last week (that took me foreva-eva) about my latest obsession with Cajun/Creole/Soul Food, and my hilarious (but super tasty) scraps-in-the-fridge attempt at gumbo. I had it all nice and ready to go and then the internet ruined my life and everything was gone. I've been so mad at the internet ever since that I've only been using it to watch clips of Ellen on Youtube. (....)

Anyway, here are some photos of me and my lovely assistant making yummy Not-So-Gumbo, inspired by this amazing site about real gumbo. Why didn't I make real gumbo? Well, for one thing, it would cost me $100+ to go out and buy all the seafood in this nice man's recipe, assuming I could find even most of it. For another, my "research" (IE., constant late-night mouthwatering Google sessions) has learned me that gumbo is all about using up what's lying around- which, for Southerners, tends to be awesome seafood. 

 The only purchase I did make for this endeavor was a bag of shrimpies that I used to make the seafood stock. I completely emphasize with this gumbo dude on the stock thing- you MUST make your own. It takes forever, but it's sooooo worth it for the ridiculously tantalizing sweet-spicy-seafoody smell that fills your house. Trust me. 

 So, after making my one purchase, I gathered what other stuff I had lying around- peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, zucchini, kale, squid, chicken breast- and made a pseudo-gumbo. YUMMY.

PS. My giant post that disappeared into the oblivion of the internet was mostly me geeking out over my upcoming honeymoon, which maaaaaaaayyyy be soul-food inspired. More on that later!!

 

Austria:

 

 

Italy:

 

 

New baby:

 

 

Engaged!

Uhh....hi.

I suppose I owe you, my giant interwebs fanbase, an apology. As a good friend recently pointed out, I haven't blogged in seven weeks. And he said that almost a week ago.

I fail.

But guys! It's because we've been really, REALLY busy- which is awesome! Let me break it all down for you. Here are some important things that have happened:

1. We found out in early April we had to move by June. At the time this was awful news, but it was a delightful blessing in disguise, because we ended up finding a lovely little dream home for us, our animals, and our blossoming business. 

[Oh, what's that I just said? Blossoming?...]

2. Our business is BLOSSOMING! We've been getting phone calls from all over! From all these people we don't know! They tell us they heard about us through OTHER people we don't know! How cool is that? We've been working semi-regularly, at a really great pace for learning new things while we work and really taking the time to make everything absolutely perfect. 

3. We took a little jaunt over to Vegas last month. After our 6+ month winter (ugh), we were DYING for some sunshine, so we spent a long weekend lounging by the pool under palm trees and stumbling around with buckets of hotel-made sangria. While we were only gone for a few days, planning the trip took a lot out of us and being there REALLY took a lot out of us. I needed a vacation from our vacation, let me tell ya.

And most recently...

4. Mitch left a couple days ago for Austria. He's off working in a bunch of Austrian restaurants, learning how to make schnitzel or whatever. It's pretty cool, I guess, him getting to do a neat thing like that, being selected out of all the culinary students in the whole college to leave his girlfriend all alone in their brand new house to go galavant all over Europe and be a culinary rock star. Sigh. At least I get to join him kind of soon-ish, which leads me to...

5. I've been pretty damn busy planning my own end of this European getaway. Again, the timing is pretty intense, having to move, save money, quit our day jobs and plan 5 weeks worth of Europing all in a matter of a few weeks, but heck, I like being busy! And in just two weeks time I will be on my way across Canada to visit so many beloved friends in Toronto and Montreal before meeting up with my love in Vienna. We will spend a week together in the Austrian Alps before heading to Italy to eat and drink and make a special trip to his grandparents' hometown. 

Bliss!

So there will be lots to talk about over the next while, and I better save some words for it. So, I shut up now, and leave you with a glorious little look at our new home:

:)

Last night was the Lethbridge Twestival, an event coordinated by a few of our buddies to support the The Lethbridge Family Centre. I'll definitely post an entry soon for a more detailed account of its awesomeness, but suffice it to say a good time was had by all!

The pressing issue today, however, is Mitch's menu for his practical assessment for culinary school. Our good pal (and lover of all things gastronomical) Mel came over so she and I could taste test our way through his test run, and boy oh boy, are we having fun.

My boyfriend impresses me immensely. He does these extremely elegant and clever things with food- for example, our caesar salad had an oozy egg yolk on top, which was brilliant, since he made the dressing really light and vinaigrette-y (balance!). He put cracked pepper right in the pasta dough, which was not only delicious but quite beautiful. 

Here is the fun we had: 

Note Mel's adorable companion, Sam. She and the rest of our animal clan (our house is a zoo) will likely be frequent guests at Casereccio.

Well well well. 

Here we are. I haven't had a blog in years, and I'm feeling a bit rusty. Admittedly, this time around should be a little different than the musings of my early-20s, hopefully less full of drunken ramblings about heartache and girlish gossip (don't worry, there will definitely still be drunken ramblings, but they will probably mostly be about the Food Channel).

I kid. Welcome to Casereccio! The Unofficial Lethbridge Personal Chefs blog. This should be a fun peek into the world that is our new "career"- I quote this word because I still can't believe that our utter geekiness for food and cooking has somehow lent us an income at all, let alone a real business!

Casereccio: italian for homemade. 

Let me muse on the importance of this title. First, it's twofold- doubly clever, if you will, because (you will find this as no surprise I'm sure) I am an immeasurably clever person. 

'Homemade' is a very important notion to Mitch and I. Not only is it significantly healthier to make your own food, but it is a lot more fun. If I have any intention with this blog at all, it's to show the world how lighthearted and goofy and downright silly cooking can be.

And now...Italy. I have to admit, when Mitch and I first met, he drove me nuts with the Italy stuff. He is a proud Italian and would rant (for DAYS) about the superiority of Italian food. I would smile and nod- silently fantasizing about a cheesy croissant or crab stuffed crepes or anything else full of cream and butter- and think he was crazy for preferring, what? Spaghetti? Pizza? What the heck else are Italians known for?

Now... well, I stand corrected. He has definitely lead me to see things his way. The classic simplicity of great (and few) ingredients, and oh, the olive oil! What a little olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt won't do to a perfectly thin piece of prosciutto with focaccia. The wonders of a perfectly ripe tomato or freshly picked basil. The indescribable perfection of a curl of asiago cheese.

Mmmmmmm boy.

So...here is Casereccio. Here you can expect posts with recipes, photos, stories and rants. A little behind-the-scenes peek at our food-obsessed world. I hope you enjoy every last bite!