Bench Talk

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.

My daughter is currently doing a school project for which she is trying to create an allergy-friendly recipe collection that would suit her brother.  She is finding recipes online, mostly, then altering them to use ingredients that are dairy, nut and egg free and that we have in the cupboard already.

Here is one of her recipes and a picture of the cookies.  This one was already allergy-friendly but we didn’t have any non-dairy milk available so she found a substitute.

There are many things that come with the Christmas season: The smells of holiday baking permeate throughout the house, Christmas songs fill the grocery store aisles 24//7, and egg nog makes its yearly return to our glasses. To spice up your holiday drink routine, we have an eggnog recipe to try out while at home over the holidays. While brandy is the usual boozy ingredient to pair with the 'nog, who says we have to follow all the traditions!

Side Note: A hand mixer or stand mixer will make this a lot easier, but it can still be made by hand (you’ll just get a good forearm workout!)

This is a decadent breakfast option that is great to make ahead for brunch or Christmas morning. I have definitely skipped the rest time and baked immediately with the same delicious results. I have made many variations including apple/cranberry, apple/pecan and  pumpkin spice! 

"For me, my favourite weekend dish is making potato scones for brunch. I'm not much of a breakfast cook but after trying these for the first time in the UK several years ago, I was sold. I had to learn how to make them! After several attempts, I think I finally got 'em right." 

-Lucy

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. 

Soup season is upon us, and we've got an exclusive soup recipe from Scratch Provisions owner Trent Loewen. If you weren't aware, Trent is a Red Seal chef that trained (and taught) at Stratford Chefs School.

It is a super quick and easy soup you can easily make at home. But dont let the simplicity fool you, it's very tasty. Prep is quick and there’s room to add your own twist to it!