As you know, we're turning 90 this year. As part of our celebration, we're sharing memories of the bakery from family, friends, staff and our wonderful customers. If you have a story you'd like to share, please send us an email at info@christiesbakery.com. We'd love to hear it! 

This week Jen, one of our amazing team members (you may have seen her on Broadway), shared a family memory we wanted to pass on to you.

Happy New Year!

I hope you’re all staying safe and enjoying the holidays. 2022 kicked off yesterday, and in the theme of a new year, I thought I’d participate in the annual tradition of making (and hopefully keeping) new year's resolutions. With that in mind, here are some of our resolutions for the new year.

For most people, the traditions around the holidays involve having family together for dinners and gatherings. For me and my family, our traditions include working long hours together making special seasonal products for our lovely customers and our own family. 

Making Panettone is a loving and personal process. In the beginning of November, I brought to life my very special “Italian sourdough” which is cultured specifically for Panettone. This year, I named her “Ingrid”. She will be on a consistent and frequent feeding schedule throughout the holiday season, gotta keep her healthy!

It’s probably safe to say that we all never seem to have enough time in the day. I’m merely working a job and going to school, some of us are doing that plus a second job. Then there’s all the parents having to do everything AND raise a family. I often find myself getting ready to eat dinner later and later, and by 10:00 I don’t really have enough energy to make a nice meal, nor do I have the time. Luckily for me, all students, and busy parents our Heat & Eat collection of products make it easy to make delicious, restaurant quality meals in a matter of minutes! 

Using our Heat & Eat pizzas and a handful of other ingredients I can guarantee you a nice dinner or lunch in only five minutes! We’ll be making a caprese salad to go along with the Heat & Eat Pizza of your choice. To be able to start cooking and eating in five minutes I’m going with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette rather than a glaze or reduction.

Last week my parents were in town. It was the first time I was able to see them in over a year and a half, besides a virtual chat of course. Obviously I love when I get to see my parents because it means that there will be food and drinks aplenty. And yes spending time with them,  catching up, and doing all the things parents and children do. But from day one to the last day of their trip, lunches, dinners, and get togethers were planned. Between the going out and homemade meals, it was abundantly clear how deep the tie between my family and food is.

You may know how linked we are to bread and baking (it has been our business for over 50 years after all), but I thought I’d share more about our family and our connection to food. Please forgive me for getting sentimental!

There are countless organizations in Saskatoon providing valuable services to communities in need. The Okihtcitawak Patrol Group is one of those organizations. They are an indigenous led group that provides community support in the Pleasant Hill and Riversdale areas. I spoke with Delano earlier this week and learned more about their efforts and how the last year has gone.

A grilled cheese is probably the simplest sandwich one can make. Even the name is just two words! But like most things in life, the simplest ones tend to be the best. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure your grilled cheese is just as tasty as mine is, but if you include one or more of these tips you can take your grilled cheese game to the next level! 

With all due respect to the straightforward grilled cheese and classic PB&J, and even the sophisticated C.L.U.B sandwich, there is one sandwich I hold in higher regard than any other: the almighty B.L.T. While the CLUB describes the locations of select ingredients (chicken, lettuce under bread), the B.L.T describes the small amount of ingredients required to compile a delicious sandwich: Bacon. Lettuce. Tomato. Simple. Elegant. Tasty as heck.

Here are my tips to creating the best version of the best sandwich on the planet. 

When it comes to backyard barbecues and get-togethers, one of the first things that comes to my mind is burgers and hotdogs. Growing up in California especially, eating burgers for dinner (and sometimes breakfast) was more of a regular occurrence. It’s safe to say I’ve had my fair share of grilled patties in between buns, from ones I’ve cooked myself to those at someone’s house or a restaurant. But the one thing I’ve discovered that all burgers share is that there is no one thing in common. Everyone has their own recipe and preferences, from bun to cooking method.

To test this theory I asked some of the Christies staff what their ideal burger consisted of. If there was enough consensus I would be able to use the results to build the perfect Christies burger! While some folks shared similar tastes, not one single burger was identical to another. If you’re craving a burger after reading this, get a head start and order some hamburger buns! 

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there! From kisses on boo boos to cures for broken hearts, moms always know what to do and say. They have one of the hardest jobs in the world, and that’s in addition to whatever their day job may be. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t take this opportunity to say happy Mothers Day to my own mother: I love you Mom, I hope you have a great day (but all that pressure is on Dad). But I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate the matriarch of my family and the mother of the bakery, my Nona.

Everyone loves pizza. Is that an overstatement? I don’t think so, but hey, if there is someone who doesn't like pizza, to each their own. I for one, love pizza — and that’s even if I wasn’t part of a family that made pizza for a living.

Pizza is really just flat bread and toppings. Simple right? Not so fast. Within simple ingredients comes infinite possibilities. One of the things I love about pizza is how there are so many styles and kinds. People around the globe have taken flat bread and toppings to make something unique to their region or city. Here’s a list of the different styles of pizza. I’ll point out most of these are in the US, as I haven’t had the opportunity to explore pizzas from around the world… yet.

One of our lovely staff members, Zarish, asked me to participate in a short film for a class project. We talked through some of the history of my family and the bakery, as well as what this last year (and a bit) has been like for us at the bakery. I hope you give it a watch. Zarish did a wonderful job!

Pasta: it’s a simple five letter word, and it sounds like a simple meal right? You’ve got your carb, you’ve got your sauce, you combine and serve. Easy-a-pleasie. But we all know pasta is much more complicated than that. Sure you can boil your noodles, and you can get your sauce in a jar (and no one is blaming you if you do!). But, you can also kick things up a couple notches with different shaped (or even handmade) pasta, and pair that with varying styles and flavours of family or scratch-made sauce recipes; some sauces are red, some white, and some are even green. Those colours might remind you of a certain country’s flag, no? ;)

Let’s take a look at pasta, and some things we can do to spice up our day-to-day pasta routine.

If you live in Saskatoon, you’ve likely heard of Christies Mayfair Bakery. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on some of the best bread and pastries in Saskatchewan. Christies is a Saskatoon institution, making bread, cinnamon buns, and artisan sourdoughs for nearly a century. We had a chance to talk with one of the co-owners, Tracey Muzzolini, during a break while she was making fruit cake during the Christmas season. We talked about family recipes and what it’s like running a family business and what goes into working alongside your family for so long.

A lot of times, it’s easy to guess what someone might be passionate about: an athlete pursuing a professional sports career or an artist travelling the world to find inspiration for their next project. Other times, someone might be doing what they love in a field you might not expect. For Steven Hawrishock, owner and proprietor of Kitako Lake Honey, it’s definitely the latter.

He comes from a family of beekeepers, and while many of us might run away at the first sight of those little striped stingers, he couldn’t think of anything else he’d rather be doing. We recently had a (virtual) chat with Steven to learn about life as a beekeeper and producer of honey. Within a few minutes of talking, it became crystal clear just how much he loves what he’s doing, so I had to find out how someone becomes as big of a lover of bees and honey as he is.

We love french press coffee: it's simple, low-waste, and keeps lots of the coffee bean oils in the brew.

French press is a great starting point for coffee drinkers looking to take their home brewing to the next level! You can play around with the amount of water and coffee beans used to find a flavour that works for you! See the How-To below.