Yellowhead brewery serves the wurst lunch in town
Yup that’s right, wurst as in sausage, as in their top-notch house-made bratwurst. Along with brat, try their really good potato salad, not too creamy (chef Danny Schutz’ family recipe). The pretzel’s not as chewy nor as salty as a Bavarian but equally as delish served with a mustardy butter, or was that a buttery mustard? Terrific spot for lunch and it’s only $10. Yellowhead Brewery, 10229 105 Street, 780-423-3333, yellowheadbrewery.ca.
Food in the city
Business people, master gardeners, journalists, professors, farmers, communication experts, public health specialists, food bank directors, project managers, landscape architects and biologists are the 15 members of the newly-minted Edmonton Food Council, chaired by Northland’s Stuart Cullum and Tomato editor Mary Bailey. Their task? Help the city move forward with a food and agriculture strategy. For a complete list of the volunteers and their bios visit edmonton.ca.
Truffles, anyone?
The new shade in the Le Creuset lineup of hard-wearing, oven-to-table enameled cast iron pieces is a sumptuous milk chocolatey, forest floor-ish shade called Truffle. Ideal for bringing a steaming pot of carrot soup or family mac and cheese to the table.
We’re doing the turkey again?
Some people love spending a weekend cooking a turkey with all the trimmings for Thanksgiving dinner. Other people? Well, for them there is the Sorrentino’s Holiday Bird. A beautifully roasted turkey redolent of fresh herbs, with a golden, crispy butter-basted skin, a pancetta/cranberry stuffing with orange, gravy, of course, and brandied cranberry sauce. Lots of sides available too. You can purchase pans of traditional mashed potatoes, balsamic glazed carrots, tiramisu. No muss, no fuss. Now, that’s tradition we’d all love to start (stuffed turkey package feeds 10-12 people, $195+ GST). Visit sorrentinos.com/catering to order.
The party is in the kitchen
Kitchen by Brad (kitchenbybrad.ca) will be at the City Market on 104 Street every Saturday until October 12 featuring bacon jam, Brad’s BBQ rub and assorted sweet and savoury sauces and marinades. On Thanksgiving weekend, Kitchen at the City Market features necessary culinary items like poultry stock and poultry gravy, and other comestibles suitable for a weekend of feasting.
Let’s celebrate good culinary equipment
Sherwood Park’s Pan Tree Kitchen celebrates their first anniversary! The store, well-stocked with culinary treasures, functional cookware, high-quality tools and gadgets, specialty foods and a superb demonstration kitchen, has been embraced by the community. Join them Saturday, September 28 from 10am-5pm for door prizes, demos and special promotions. #550, 220 Lakeland Drive, Sherwood Park, thepantree.ca.
Uncorked
Shelley Boettcher has written a third edition of her book Uncorked: The Definitive Guide to Alberta’s Best Wines $25 and Under, co-written with fellow journalist Darren Oleksyn. Uncorked continues in its practical no-pretence style to provide a handy guide to what’s on the shelf. One thing we love: Each wine has a closure icon beside the write-up so you’ll know if you need to bring a corkscrew along or not. Because, that shoe thing against the wall? It only works some of the time. Available in October at Audrey’s.
Get yourself down to Rge Rd
After some tense moments with a wood-burning oven installation and all the usual hiccups in creating a restaurant of your own, Caitlin Fulton and Blair Lebsack opened the doors of Rge Rd in late summer. It’s a comfortable space, using much reclaimed and repurposed materials such as barn board and some stones from the original Alberta Hotel. The room speaks of place and smells like good cooking. Of that there was never any doubt. Blair’s food is always delicious, and he’s an accomplished chef who doesn’t talk local, he does local. Look out for news of Rge Rd farm dinners, spectacular events held on farms throughout the region. They are a must go, as is Rge Rd.
Prairie cookbooks
Culinaria, an upcoming exhibit at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library (basement of Rutherford Library South, University of Alberta), includes a print and online exhibit of early 20th-century western Canadian cookbooks. Kristine Kowalchuk and grad student Caroline Lieffers curated the exhibit, and their research has led them to believe that “there were some crazy recipes in those books.” Kristine focused on community cookbooks, the most commonly printed prairie cookbook in the first half of the 20th century. It’s probably not much of a surprise to discover that rhubarb dishes and pickle recipes were popular. On the other hand the saskatoon was not considered worth eating. So, if you’re looking for an old-timey recipe for saskatoon pie, better ask your mother. The exhibit runs from October 10 through February 7, 2014. For more information visit library.ualberta.ca.