Mom, the Lunch Lady

 Celebrate Canada with a collection of patriotic foods. From red and white, to maple and classic Canadian desserts, you will be inspired to have the most delicious Canada Day ever! Every year on July 1st, our nation celebrates it's birthday. With Canada slowly coming out of lock down, many of us having received at least one shot of the vaccine, I am hoping many take this opportunity to celebrate our country this Canada Day.  In celebration of life slowly starting to become normal again, I've reached out to fellow bloggers, and asked them to share recipes that would be a great addition to any Canada Day get together. From Maple syrup, to classic Canadian dessert, these recipes are sure to make you want to sing Oh Canada! Red Velvet Pancakes with Maple Syrup Buttercream Start your Canada Day off on the right foot with these rich Red Velvet Pancakes with Maple Syrup Buttercream. It's like eating cake for breakfast! From Easy Recipe Depot Vegan Maple Pecan Donuts These Vegan M...

 Happy New Year!!! With 2021 upon us, I wanted to look back on how much my blog has grown over the last six months. Here are the top 10 most popular blog posts and recipes from 2020. How was your New Years Eve? Ours was very quiet and relaxing. We ordered in some pizza, played board games while watching New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV, waiting for the ball to drop. It was nice to have the kids spend the evening with us. I've never been one to go all out for New Year's, but it felt very strange this year. Especially seeing the artists perform in front of tiny groups, wearing masks. I truly hope 2021 brings us more normalcy and safety in regards to health around the world. I have only been blogging for 6 months so far, but every day I am delighted to see my little blog grow. I am gaining more readers, and making wonderful blogging and Instagram friends. The support from these groups has helped me slowly start reaching a bigger audience. I am grateful for all the support I...

 A nod to my French Canadian heritage, Buche de Noel aka Chocolate Roll Cake, pairs a light chocolate sponge cake, with creamy and slightly sweet candy cane flavoured whipped cream. This irresistible dessert is a cake lover's dream! There is no other holiday I like to bake for, more than Christmas. Growing up my Mom started her Christmas baking weeks in advance and the variety of desserts she served could rival a small bakery. My favourite dessert Mom would make is Buche de Noel, or chocolate roll cake. Buche de Noel originated in France in the medieval times. A pagan tradition was to cut a large log (preferably from a fruit tree to ensure a successful harvest in the coming year) to bring home and placed in the hearth. It was often decorated with ribbon before being burnt, sometimes being anointed with salt, wine or holy water before setting it on fire. Once lit on Christmas Eve, it was said to be good luck if the log burned at least 3 days (preferably until New Years). As hearths ...

An interesting combination of potatoes, carrots and bacon, make up this delicious French Canadian dish.   I never really knew where this recipe originated from, or if anyone other than my family ever made it, or something similar. So, before writing this post, I decided to do some investigating.  Chiard  (pronounced 'shaw')  is an old French Canadian dish. It's also called  pate a la rapure , by the Acadians. It is slang for 'grub' and 'mess' or 'foul up'. Which really explains the dish, since it doesn't logically make sense; but it sure does taste good. Diced salt pork was once a favorite ingredient, which explains why we make it with bacon. Other recipes call for a mixture of ground meat, onion and salt pork; so I think 'our recipe' is better, LOL. Though I'm sure some onion fried up with the bacon would be really good. I grew up eating this at least once a week. Back then bacon was less expensive than it is today. And what's ch...

Sucre a la Creme, Sugar Fudge, or Penuche is similar to fudge but has a distinctly different grainy and crumbly texture. The addition of Bailey's Irish Creme liqueur make this perfect for St. Patrick's Day! For years, my mom has visited several times per year, for a week or so. It was a great time for us to enjoy each other's company and a nice little break for my Dad. But seriously, it was usually when my Dad would go away on hunting excursions. Since the pandemic, we haven't been able to visit much and I miss both my parents terribly. When mom can come and visit, I love having her here! Not only is it nice to have someone to chat with,  and it's great to have another adult that appreciates the new recipes I'm always trying. Rather than hearing negative comments and refusals to eat dinner, Mom is always happy to dig into anything I create. When she visits, we always brainstorm recipes and late one night, I mentioned making Sucre a la Creme. Mom learned h...