Tag Archives: Dish Catering

Heirloom Tomato Galette and a Family Reunion

This past weekend we hosted our Triennial (that’s once every three years) family reunion at our cottage, Our first one was 18 years ago, in 2000. This summer we topped out at 43 guests. A tent and more than a few blow up mattresses were involved. Luckily the weather cooperated.

For lunch on Friday, I made a bunch of these galettes. Taking advantage of glorious summer heirloom tomatoes and corn, I added some dijon mustard and Gruyere cheese to amp up the flavour.

In my mind, a galette is the boho-chic French cousin of the tart. Free form and just a little rough around the edges, she is way more fun than a tart.

No need to use a tart pan, just roll out the dough into the approximation of a circle or oval. Once the toppings are in place, gently pleat the sides to form a border.

The dough I use for this galette is a bit unusual in that it contains sour cream as well as butter. The sour cream contributes to a super-flaky crust, almost reminiscent of puff pastry, but without all the work. It rolls out like a dream, no cracking.

The video below demonstrates how to make the dough and assemble the galette. I like to make a few recipes of the dough at a time and then just freeze the rolled out pastry. That way, I can bake a galette whenever the mood strikes or hordes of guests descend upon me.

We hired an amazing caterer so that no one had to spend the entire time in the kitchen. Aside from the galettes, my daughter and I baked over 375 “Bubbe Cookies (poppy seed cookies created by my grandmother, who we called Bubbe) and crafted a Bubbe cookie wreath to welcome everyone.

We introduced our newest cousin to Bubbe Cookies. She’s a fan!
In past years, we crammed the days full of games and activities. 2012 featured “The Amazing Race- Wedding Edition, in honour of my brother’s upcoming nuptials. Under the guise of helping the betrothed couple prepare for the wedding we were divided into teams and went off on a car rally-treasure hunt to the lovely town of Perth, Ontario.
2015 featured a donut eating contest, where the donuts were dangling from a string, as well as another “Amazing Race” car rally, this time to the booming town of Smiths Falls, Ontario. This year, it was a bit more low key, with more time chilling, and just a bit of drinking. Now that all the little cousins, nieces and nephews have reached the age of majority, everyone indulged in margaritas on Friday night and Cherry Lemon Gin and Tonic on Saturday night.

Being surrounded with loved ones, watching the sun set and eating great food…We are blessed.

Click here to print recipe for Heirloom Tomato, Corn and Gruyere Galette.

Cherry-Lemon Gin and Tonic

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One of my favourite things to create is cocktails. It’s a bit of a joke in our family, since I don’t really like drinking them. My drink of choice is wine, preferably a very chilled Australian Sauvignon Blanc. I’m going through an Australian phase now. Perhaps it has something to do with my binge watching Masterchef Australia. Australians are so much nicer than Canadians and Americans. They always hug each other after each challenge. Sorry, I digress. Back to cocktails.

Mixing up different flavour combinations and then taking pictures of them is my idea of fun. I especially like to create cocktails with my brother-in-law Brandon. He is always game to try something new. This genius cocktail idea came from my friend Erin, at Dish Catering. She was telling me about a new cherry flavoured gin, made by Dillon’s. She mixed it with Fever Tree Lemon Tonic water and said it was outstanding. If you can’t find Cherry Gin or Lemon Tonic, I think you could use regular gin and tonic and add a bit of lemonade, cherry juice and some fresh cherries. Not quite the same, but, in a pinch, it would still be quite good.

Fresh cherries get muddled in the bottom of the glass. A shot of cherry gin, some lemon tonic water and lots of ice. Really refreshing. If you’re a G&T fan, this could become your new favourite drink. We’ll be serving it at our big family reunion next weekend. Nothing brings families closer together than lots of gin, or in the case of our family, Prosecco!

I have spent the past week immersed in studying light. The uber-talented food photographer Bea Lubas, threw down an Instagram challenge this month to shoot only using backlight. Bea’s philosophy is that “If you want to improve your photography, don’t take pictures of food. Become a student of light and take pictures of it instead.”

Backlight is when the light hits the subject from behind. Most food photography is side lit (light comes from the side of the subject), as it is universally flattering. Backlighting is difficult to do well. If you’re keen to learn more about it, Bea wrote an excellent blog post on the subject. It really helped me to nail the technique.

Here is a photo I shot, using my iPhone, showing the setup I used to get my photo.
I undertook 4 backlighting photo sessions this week, practicing, trying different windows at different times of day. I shot carrot cake (recipe coming soon), but didn’t love the results.
I shot blueberries, with somewhat better results.
My final shoot was this G&T. The sweet spot, for me, was a North facing window at around 2:00 pm. It was a grey rainy day and the soft light coming in through the window created that magical glow. I used a white foam core board at the front of the image, to throw some light back onto the front of my scene, as that area was quite dark. Check out the #belightinspired gallery on Instagram to see the amazing images others have created.

Click here to print recipe for Cherry and Lemon Gin and Tonic.

Hibiscus and Grapefruit Gin and Tonic

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Gin and tonic is not really my drink of choice. I’m not much of a hard liquor drinker. Perhaps it has something to do with an unfortunate evening with vodka when I was in junior high school. But that’s a story for another time. My husband, on the other hand, loves gin and tonic.

At our family reunion weekend this past summer, I hired a wonderful caterer to help out with all the cooking. We were a big group and I didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen all weekend, missing out on all the fun. Erin, the owner of the catering company, suggested we set up a gin and tonic bar for the first night when everyone arrived. I quickly informed her that I didn’t drink gin and tonic. She told me that, clearly, I have not tried the right gin and tonic and she was on a mission to convert me. I agreed, with the caveat that we have some wine and Prosecco ready, just in case. I was fully expecting to take a polite sip, smile and say, “Thanks, that’s lovely.” and quietly pour the drink down the drain when she wasn’t looking. I’m terrible at confrontation.

She mixed up a cocktail using The Botanist Gin, Fever-Tree Tonic Water, and a squeeze of fresh lime. I took a sip and discovered that “Say. I like Gin and Tonic. I do!!” Everyone adored this delicious drink. The gin is created using 22 hand foraged natural botanicals. Gin is traditionally made with juniper which I find has a strong pine presence. The Botanical gin does use juniper but it is judiciously balanced with other botanicals including mint, elderflower, sage, orange peel and thyme to name a few.

Fever-Tree tonic water is the perfect accompaniment to The Botanist Gin, as it is crafted using floral botanicals. The combination of this tonic and that gin are culinary alchemy. I should mention that this is not a sponsored post, but it sure could be. I have come over to the dark side!!In early October we were out for dinner in Toronto and the waiter handed us a gin and tonic menu. One of the cocktails featured The Botanist gin and Fever-Tree tonic. It arrived at the table with a little tray containing dried hibiscus flowers, cucumber and a slice of grapefruit. The hibiscus flowers turned the drink a pretty pink colour and added a lemony-tart and berry-rich flavour. The grapefruit upped the pucker factor and made this an extremely easy to sip, refreshing drink. Last week, as my husband was sipping his gin and tonic and I was enjoying a glass of wine (I’m not totally converted yet!) he asked me how many calories we were each consuming. I did the math and discovered that 1.5 ounces of gin with 6 ounces of tonic water contains about 180 calories. A 5-ounce glass of white wine, I boasted, is only 120 calories. He then asked me when was the last time I poured a 5 ounce glass of wine? Ouch!

Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen