Archives: News

At the Red Apron we have many occasions throughout our day to feel good about the service we provide. It’s such a privilege to know the work you do is meaningful and important. It’s not always easy to feel valued in the service industry, where wages are low, and staff are often treated badly by clients and sometimes even employers. That’s why at the Red Apron we work so hard to fight these stereotypes and soak up the good vibes when we get them.

Today I was speaking with a regular client, named Paula. She has mobility issues, and relies heavily on her service dog, friends and family to help her manage. She was the first person to place her Turkey Dinner order this season. She shops regularly at the Red Apron, asking friends to pick up her food because she lives outside our delivery zone. However each year she orders our turkey dinner for Christmas to enjoy herself, and give to those friends that support her throughout the year.

I was telling Paula that, in addition to all the turkey dinners we cook and sell (about 1500 portions each Thanksgiving and Christmas), we donate turkey dinners to CHEO in partnership with our good friends at Refuse to Lose. For as long as we can remember we have been sending 20 or 30 meals over to the Oncology Ward, where some kids are too sick to leave the hospital for the holidays. The Red Apron donates the dinners so that the children, their families, and the nursing staff can enjoy a turkey dinner on Christmas day, just like the rest of us. Paula raved about our meals, our service, and the work we do in the community, and it made me feel good. And feeling good about what we do is important to me, and my team. 

So as we plunge head first into our busy season, which will stretch our abilities to their max, I am going to take a few minutes to feel good, and be grateful for the fact that I love what I do and feel proud of the business we run.  It’s not without challenge, hard work, and occasional frustration, but the Universe has been kind to us and seems to always have our back!

All this to say, the Red Apron 2019 Holiday Menu is posted on our website and we are taking orders now, until we sell out. The meals will be ready to pick up fresh on December 23rd and 24th which falls on a Monday and Tuesday this year. Our Tourtière is ready now and available for pick up in our retail freezers, to bake from frozen. We also have our Turkey Pot Pies, a delicious seasonal treat that our clients love. One pie can serve 4 people VERY generously, and 6 people with a side salad or vegetable. 

If you are feeling up to a bit of an adventure, I am sharing our Tourtière recipe here, filling only. You can make these pies ahead of time, assemble them with the pie dough (link to recipe) and freeze them for later. This recipe will yield 1-2 pies, depending on the size of your pie plate. I suggest one large deep dish 10 inch pie plate. 

1 lb

ground pork (we use local Patch Farm or Ontario Berkshire pork)

1 lb

ground beef (our beef is all from Enright Family Farm)

1 cup

diced onion

2 teaspoon

salt

1/2 cup

apple cider

2 teaspoons

dried sage

1 teaspoons

dried savoury

1 teaspoons

dried thyme

2 teaspoons

granulated garlic

1 teaspoon

cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon

nutmeg

pinch

cloves

1/2 cup

Panko

1 tablespoon

dark balsamic

Note:  The herb and spice blend is really what makes the difference in this dish, and it’s also a matter of personal taste. I suggest you mix all the spices and herbs together and blend them well. Then add half the mixture to the meat and taste. Continue adding and mixing in the spices until you find the flavour that works for you. You may need to add more salt after you have found the desired taste.

In a large sauce pan on medium high heat, add the pork first, cooking until some of the fat has rendered. Remove the pork and add the diced onions, and sauté the onions until clear. Add the beef and cook stirring constantly so the meat doesn’t clump. Add back the pork, mix, and add the salt, herbs and spices, mixing until thoroughly combined. (See Note Above) Then add the cider, balsamic, and last the panko. The panko is added to absorb all the liquids and fats so that the mixture is not dry. Turn off the heat and continue to stir until everything is combined. You can add more panko if the mixture seems too wet.

Allow the filling to cool completely. Line your pie plate with your bottom crust (see recipe below). Add the Tourtière filling, packing in gently and filling just to the top of the pie plate. Place your top crust on and pinch your edges. Cut one small hole in the middle of the pie top and brush with an egg wash.

At this point you can freeze the pie to bake from frozen at a later time, or bake right away.

Bake from frozen (or fresh) in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the meat is fully warmed through. 

Pie Crust

The secret to a good pie is in the crust. We have found that the simplest and most effective pie dough is made using 2.5 cups of flour, a pinch of salt, ¼ cup butter, ¾ cups of lard and a small amount of ice water. The flour, cold butter & lard can be pulsed together in a food processor until the texture resembles crumbs. Do not over mix. Transfer the ingredients to a large bowl and sprinkle with enough ice water to allow you to form the dough into a ball. Divide the ball in 2, wrap in plastic wrap and let the ball cool in your fridge for at least a half an hour. This makes one full bottom and one full top, or two pie bottoms for an open-faced pie or galette.

I find that November can be a boring, dark month, and the weather isn’t always ideal for spending time outdoors. With the November Time Change the days are shorter, the nights are longer and colder, and our ‘nesting’ instinct seems to kick in. Here are a few ideas and recipes for Ottawa Foodies, to make this month a bit more interesting.

Spend a few nights in The County  and stock up on wine, beer & spirits for the Holiday Season! Just a short drive from Ottawa, Prince Edward County offers a huge selection of wineries, microbreweries and distilleries. You can avoid the summer crowds, and have an easier time finding accommodations. My favourite stops include Kinsip House of Fine Spirits where you can sip on creative cocktails, while watching the fancy chickens hunt and peck. There are many beautiful restaurants to choose from, but I always enjoy Pomodoro in Wellington where they prepare beautiful and hearty pasta dishes and classic Italian starters and mains, and the prices are very reasonable.

If you can’t make it to The County then head over to City Hall on Thursday November 7th for  Outstanding in Their Fields event put on by Savvy Company. Sample wines from Ontario at this Taste & Buy event!

Another idea for November is to get a head start on your holiday baking and freeze some cookies for guests to enjoy or to give as a gift.  Better yet, organize and host a cookie exchange!  Gather your friends on a Sunday afternoon and bake up big batches of cookies to share, and store for the holidays. Decorated cookies keep well dry, like these ginger people below. Scoop and bake cookies (this month’s recipe) can store well frozen and unbaked.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

4 cups

granulated sugar

3 cups

butter, softened

1 cup

molasses

4

eggs

9 cups

all purpose flour

2 ½ tablespoons

baking soda

1 ¼ tablespoon

cinnamon

½ tablespoon

salt

½ tablespoon

ground ginger

½ tablespoon

ground cloves

¼ tablespoon

nutmeg

zest from one orange

½ cup

candied ginger, chopped

1 cup

granulated sugar, for rolling

Preheat your oven to 325F. Beat the sugar and butter together until light in colour & fluffy, scraping down the bowl occasionally. Add the molasses and beat while adding the eggs one at a time.

Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, along with the zest and candied ginger, stirring until just incorporated. Scoop out the dough to your desired size and roll each ball in the remaining granulated sugar.

Note 1: Use ice cream scoops to form your cookies. You can buy them at CA Paradise in a variety of sizes and it makes scooping cookies, scones, and batters fast and easy and your cookies will all come out the same size!

Note 2: At this point you can freeze your cookie balls and save them to be baked at a later time.

Place cookies on a baking sheet. For thick chewy cookies you can leave the ball round. If you prefer a thin cookie, you can flatten them gently. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until nice and brown. Remove from baking sheet onto cooling rack. Store in an airtight container. These cookies keep well for a week or two!

We are celebrating Halloween this week at the Red Apron. This means we are loading up with seasonal treats and special surprises.  Our Red Apron Dinner to your Door Halloween meal is a colourful mixture of seasonal ingredients including Ontario Berkshire pork, pumpkins, dark purple and green vegetables, and chocolate!

Call us at 613.695.0417 or email your orders in today.

Our retail store is well stocked with seasonal items like our famous Red Apron Pumpkin Pie (in the freezer), seasonally themed cookies and cakes, and these beautiful candied apples made just for this week only. If you stop by the Red Apron on October 1st, and you are wearing a costume, then you will be treated to something special!

There are so many events and activities going on in and around town including Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada, and Zombies at the Diefenbunker. For a list of some of these events visit this link.

If you have tricker-or-treaters in the house, a simple, nutritious and delicious Halloween dinner is soup and cornbread. Both can be made ahead and re-heated before you hit the streets to load up with candy.

Red Apron’s Pumpkin Curry Bisque Recipe

This recipe works well with most winter squashes including butternut, acorn, turban, buttercup, pepper, etc.

Ingredients:

Olive oil or canola oil

1 medium

white onion, diced

2

clove garlic, diced

1 can

pumpkin puree or 1 to 2 small pie pumpkins

4 cups

chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

1

Bay leaf

1 pinch

sugar

1/3 teaspoon

curry powder, or to your taste

1 pinch

nutmeg

1 cups

whipping cream

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. If using whole pumpkins, cut pumpkins in half and remove seeds.  Place cut side down on a greased baking sheet and bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until tender.  Let cool and remove pumpkin meat and mash with a fork.
2. Sauté onion and garlic in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add pumpkin puree and chicken stock, bay leaf, sugar, curry, nutmeg and mix well. Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer. Simmer for  20 – 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning.
3. Remove from heat, add half-and-half and coo enough to blend. Blend in batches in a blender and add more water/stock if necessary to achieve the desired consistency.  Re-warm and serve.

Red Apron’s Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread Recipe

Transfer batter to an 9×9 greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees in a pre heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. You can bake this in muffin tins too, lined with muffin cups. Enjoy warm or freeze until needed. Warm before serving.

This is the most beautiful time of the year to live in Ottawa/Gatineau. We are privileged to be treated to a spectacular colour show put on by Mother Nature. People travel from all over the world to drive through our countryside and see the lights and colours before the cold winds of November blow all those beautiful leaves away.

It’s a wonderful time of year to get out and enjoy a good hike, and Ottawa is surrounded by excellent hiking opportunities. This past weekend Julie hiked the Meech Lake Trail and took these beautiful pictures. I was in Wakefield for a short hike, and a glass of wine at Le Hibou, overlooking the river and the hills. It was a beautiful day. Explore Magazine has a really great list of the 10 best hikes near Ottawa.

You can also find an abundance of colour at the local Farmer’s Markets, where the harvest is still in full swing. Colourful pumpkins & squashes, late harvest tomatoes, an abundance of cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, and colourful carrots, make a Chef very happy. The weather is cool and we can enjoy braised meats, slowly roasted vegetables, soups and stews.

After a long hike in the woods, there is nothing like a hot bowl of soup and some crusty bread to warm you up. The technique I use for making pureed soups is the same, regardless of the ingredients, so in this recipe I will offer up alternatives as we go through the cooking process.

Apple Butternut Soup

This recipe works well with most winter squashes including pumpkin, acorn, turban, buttercup, pepper, etc.

Ingredients:

Olive oil or canola oil

1 medium

white onion, diced

2

cloves garlic, diced

1 large

Butternut Squash (you can substitute almost any root vegetable or squash)

4 large

apples (these can be omitted, and replaced with almost any vegetable of your choice)

4 cups

or vegetable chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

1

Bay leaf

2 tablespoons

Butter

1/3 teaspoon

curry powder, or to your taste

1 pinch

nutmeg

1 cup

whipping cream

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Note: Roasting the vegetables first gives them a depth and intensity of flavour, however the vegetables can go right into the soup pot, covered with stock, and cooked until tender before pureeing.

1. Cut butternut in half and remove seeds.  Place cut side down on a greased baking sheet and bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until tender.  Let cool and remove meat and mash with a fork. This technique works for any squash. However if you are using root vegetables, like carrots, you can just peal them, toss them in oil, and roast them for flavour.
2. Peel and slice apples and toss with melted butter.  Place in 375 degree preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until they start to caramelize.  Let cool. You could also do this step stove top in a hot sauté pan on medium heat.
3. Sauté onion and garlic in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add butternut puree, apples, stock, bay leaf, curry, nutmeg and mix well. Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer. Simmer for 20 – 30 minutes. Add salt, taste for seasoning and adjust.
4. Remove from heat, add cream and cool until safe to blend. If you have an immersion blender you can do the next step in the pot. Blend in batches in a blender until smooth.  Add more water/stock if necessary to achieve the desired consistency.  If you are looking for a silky texture, you can pass the soup through a fine sieve before re-heating until warmed through. Serve with warm crusty bread or croutons. You could garnish with toasted nuts or pepitas, chopped herbs, or a dollop of sour cream.

Other variations on this recipe could include:

• Sweet potato, tomato with paprika – garnish with pine nuts or pepitas
• Carrot & Lentil with curry powder – garnish with yogurt dollop
• Potato & Leek with Thyme & Cream – garnish with croutons

The possibilities are endless!

This is the time of year for expressing gratitude for our abundance – of food, friend, family and good fortune. This year, we cooked Thanksgiving dinner for over 1500 people in Ottawa. Our team worked extra hard to make this happen, as this volume is in addition to what we do in an average week of lunches, dinners, daycare meals, take home meals, etc. And we executed it flawlessly, if I do say so myself.

The services we provide to the community are important, and the choices we make for our ingredients are ones I am extremely proud of. We could choose to support factory farms, large producers, and importers of food from far away places. In fact, in Canada most fruits and vegetables are transported at least 2,500 km from their point of origin to your table. But at the Red Apron we choose to support local growers and producers as much as possible. 

So this Thanksgiving I would like to first express gratitude for the abundance of food we are able to source from our farmers. It’s an honour to be part of this local food chain. But most importantly I want to acknowledge and thank the Red Apron Team, the people who make this all happen. We are fortunate to work with the most amazing group of talented, dedicated and hard working people who put care and attention into everything they do. And I feel privileged to be part of their team.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And for all those leftovers I am sharing a link to a Food Network Article on using up that extra turkey!

It’s Apple Season!

Apples were first cultivated in Canada by early French settlers in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley around 1633. While Nova Scotia can claim much of Canada’s early apple-related history, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia have since become major players in the industry. One of the biggest benefits of a thriving apple industry is that Craft Cider making is on the rise. New players are entering the market each year, including local makers like Farm Gate Cider near Arnprior, selling at Ottawa Farmer’s Markets.

Gather up your friends and family and head out to pick apples at one of this region’s many “pick your own” orchards. It’s a fun way to spend a beautiful fall day and there are only a few weeks left of picking! Then head back to the kitchen and cook up batches of your favourite apple recipes to freeze for later or enjoy now.

You can find comprehensive list of local orchards at here but our favourite is our good friends at Hall’s Apple Orchard. They have been delivering apples to us for years for our apple pies, apple whiskey jam, apple sour cherry jam, Thanksgiving stuffing, and other delicious apple treats. Our apple whiskey jam was made for your cheese board paired with some sharp cheddar, and spiced nuts. We also serve it on our Monday sandwich with cheddar and bacon!

Apple pies freeze well and can be baked from frozen in under an hour. We sell them frozen and unbaked in our retail store. Apple Sauce is easy to make and a great accompaniment to Pork, Chicken or Beef.  One great after school snack that kids love is apple slices dipped in almond or peanut butter – if you haven’t tried it – I think you will be surprised.

For a quick and healthy dessert, try stuffing and baking apples.  Hollow out the core of an apple and stuff it with whatever you like:  chopped walnuts, almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, granola, even chocolate chips.  Bake them with a bit of butter and apple juice in a casserole dish for 20 minutes until the apples are tender and the flavours have melded. Serve with whipped cream or some of Pascale’s Vanilla Ice Cream!

Our favourite variety of apple is Honey Crisp, and they deserve their name. They are sweet, large and crisp. This week’s recipe is a simple strudel made using store bought puff pastry sheets. The same filling works in a pie shell too!

Easy Apple Strudel

1 sheet

Puff Pastry Sheets

1

egg

1 tbsp.

water

2 tbsp.

granulated sugar

1 tbsp.

all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp.

ground cinnamon

4 large

Firm Apples (Granny Smith, Courtland, or any firm baking Apple) peeled, cored and thinly sliced

Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

Directions

Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 40 minutes or until it’s easy to handle. Heat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Stir the egg and water in a small bowl.

Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the apples to the flour mixture and toss to coat.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 16×12-inch rectangle. With the long side facing you, spoon the apple mixture onto the middle of the pastry sheet, spreading evenly from one end to the other. Fold the side closest to you up towards the middle and brush with egg mixture.  Fold the side furthest from you towards the middle and press to seal.  Place seam-side down on the baking sheet.  Brush with the egg mixture. Cut several 2-inch-long slits 2 inches apart on the top.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the confectioners’ sugar, if desired. Slice and serve warm.

There are a number of ways that the Red Apron tries to be a good environmental citizen. We drive electric cars, support local growers and producers, recycle cardboard, cans and bottles, save all our food waste for local farmers to feed to their pigs (trim, peel, etc.) to name a few. We detail these efforts on our website of you are  interested in learning more.

We are working to eliminate all single use plastics in our shop. This means we have paper straws, biodegradable cutlery, paper shopping bags, spoons to stir your coffee, biodegradable salad bags, etc. Single use plastics end up in landfills or oceans, and slowly break down into micro plastics, causing harm to our oceans, animals and humans.

The challenge for consumers is that there is a lot of packaging out there that looks ‘green’ but isn’t. The biggest culprit is cardboard packaging which has a plastic liner. Many people think these products are more environmentally friendly than a container that is 100% recyclable – but it’s not. The product does not go in your green bin or your blue bin. It rightfully belongs in the garbage.

There is a lot of confusion about recycling plastics which leads to people putting items in their blue bin that don’t belong there, and items in their green bin that are not compostable. This CBC article does a really good job of breaking it down for you.

The Red Apron does uses two products for most of our packaging. Our fresh meal is largely packaged in 100% compostable boxes. These products go in your green bin, and are made from plants – inside and out. The food will only keep well in this container for 1-2 days, so if you are ordering the fresh meal and not eating it right away you should transfer your food to an airtight container BEFORE putting it in the fridge.

Our new partnership with Tilton, a Quebec based, family owned manufacturer of containers, is a relationship we are hoping to carry us into the future. Our goal for this relationship is twofold: replace ALL single use plastics with items that they manufacture which are made from 100% from recycled materials and are 100% recyclable in Ottawa; and where possible, to replace some of our containers with those that are made from plants, and are 100% compostable.

We continue to look for better and better solutions and we welcome suggestions and feedback from all of you!

It’s the time of year that our attention turns to Thanksgiving preparations. It’s a huge holiday for us at here at the Red Apron, as we provide solutions to help you gather your family and friends around a delicious meal, prepared using local ingredients.

The first step in our preparation involves ordering the birds. We have been using the same supplier for our whole birds for a number of years. We get them in weighing 15-17 pounds and the whole bird cooked will serve 12-20 people generously. We advertise 12, however I personally have fed 20 people with this bird. They are locally raised, and meaty.

Meanwhile, we are sourcing organic and local pumpkins and squashes for our pies. The pie pumpkin is a good choice and we get a fair amount of those from a variety of growers. But we also find that any  orange winter squash with a dry, sweet flesh makes excellent pumpkin pies. Our variety of choice is the Candy Roaster from Rideau Pines farm. These pumpkins and squashes are being turned into buckets of pumpkin puree – the base for our famous pies.

Apples from Hall’s Orchards are on order and need to be cored and diced for our Savour Stuffing and the Cranberries from La Vallée des Canneberges are being turned into Cranberry Sauce for our retail shelves. This sauce also makes a beautiful accompaniment to a cheese board.

We are taking orders now for Whole Turkeys Dinners for 12, Turkey Dinners for 2, Pumpkin Pies and a number of other seasonal items. Call our email your order in today.

I am sharing our recipe for Pumpkin Pie, in case you decide you want to try them yourself.

Pumpkin Pie

1 ¾ cups

pumpkin purée

1 cup

brown sugar

¾ cup

heavy cream

1/8 cup

molasses

2

eggs

½ tablespoon

vanilla

½ teaspoon

each of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

½ teaspoon

salt

Unbaked pie dough rolled into a 10” pie plate *note 2

Whisk all ingredients until smooth. Pour into an un-baked pie shell. Bake in a pre-heated 325 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the centre of the pie is set.

Note 1:  We use a variety of winter squashes for our pumpkin pies. Any relatively dry, dark orange squash will work. Roast the squash whole, then cut in half, scoop out the seeds, then the flesh, discard the seeds, and purée the flesh in a food processor. You can use any leftover squash purée to make a delicious soup!

Note 2: You can find our recipe for our pie dough on our blog or you can purchase unbaked pie shells in your local grocery store. You can also bake the filling like a custard in individual pots in a shallow dish of water in the oven.

The life of a farmer is challenging. Every year presents unpredictable weather conditions that invariably impact their crop in either positive or negative ways. This spring came late, and it was extremely wet. Some crops were effected by fungus and rot, others were late to start. This means that apples and pumpkins are not ready for us yet, and it will be tight getting them in before Thanksgiving. September has started off cool, and if it doesn’t warm up soon, then our farmers could lose product in their fields that may not have a chance to ripen fully.

Knowing this, we wonder why anyone would willingly take on such challenges when there are so many factors that are completely outside of their control. This is why we have such deep respect and appreciation for those who choose growing and raising food as their life’s work. It is truly a noble profession.

My own experiences with growing food are pathetic to say the least. My berries have been consumed by the birds and the squirrels. My three heirloom tomato plants produced one tiny, little ripe tomato, pictured here. Don’t laugh! That’s why I am a chef and not a farmer.

Each September and October to celebrate our farmers and their harvest by creating 5 weeks of 100 mile menus – where each Thursday meal of our Fresh Meal Service is created using only local ingredients sourced from within 100 miles of our shop.

The 100 mile diet was conceived by writers Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon who wrote a book about their year of eating only foods grown within 100 miles of their home. They did live on Canada’s West Coast so they had a bit of an advantage with a longer growing season. But the book inspired a food revolution, and encouraged readers to support local growers and producers, to preserve the harvest, and to eat seasonally.

I was fortunate to be able to visit Italy last month, and while there ate my share of pasta and pizza. Fresh pasta is something I have enjoyed making at home and find it surprisingly easy. While in Italy we had a chance to teach a pasta class to a group of 10 people. Armed with only wine bottles, and a stove that could barely boil water, we managed to execute 4 lovely pasta dishes with different sauces and stuffings. I thought I would share one of those recipes with you this week.

The flour I used for my pasta this weekend is a 00 Duram wheat flour purchased at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market from Almanac Grains. It made a delicate pasta with a nutty flavour and a beautiful colour. We use some of their flours in our baked goods and breads. Later this month Almanac is hosting a Farm Day on Sunday September 29th from 11am – 4pm on their farm located at 446 Lower Oakleaf Road in Delta – about a 90 minute drive from Ottawa. There will be a farmer’s market, sourdough workshop, beer garden and much more!

When I make fresh pasta I follow a few simple rules. First, I always make it on the counter (granite or marble). I pour 4-5 cups of flour on the counter, make a well in the middle. I drizzle in a tablespoon of good olive oil, a few pinches of salt, and I start cracking eggs into the middle – usually 3-4 to start.  Using a fork stir in the eggs, gradually incorporating more and more of the flour. A dough scraper comes in handy at this point for combining the rest of the flour and egg. Too wet – add more flour. Too dry – add another egg or a few teaspoons of water. Form a ball and kneed and kneed until it is smooth. You should feel the texture change from grainy to silky. Wrap in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes but preferably an hour or two.

If you have a pasta a machine then you know what to do next. If not, I am sharing this wonderful link from Bon Appetite where their Chef makes 29 different shapes of pasta using 4 different doughs. It’s amazing and a really fun way for the whole family to get involved in preparing dinner.

Easy Bolognese

2

Onion, diced

2 cloves

garlic, finely diced, cut into small pieces

2 tbsp

butter or oil

1 lb (454 g)

medium lean ground beef

1 lb (454 g)

ground pork

1⁄2 cup (125 ml)

red wine

2 cans (796 ml each)

crushed tomatoes

2

bay leaves

2 tsp

chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, oregano and/or thyme) 1 pinch red pepper flakes

In a large saucepan over high heat, soften the vegetables in butter or oil for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the ground meats and cook, breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Stir occasionally until cooking juices have evaporated.

Deglaze with the wine and reduce until almost dry. Stir in the canned tomatoes, herbs and pepper flakes. Cover and let simmer on low heat for 2 hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning. Serve over fresh pasta with parmesan cheese.

Our mission at the shop has always been to get our community back to the table to eat together. Whether it’s over a cozy home-cooked meal or your favourite takeout, we know important conversations happen around the table, memorable traditions are formed and lasting relationships are built by sharing your meals together. It’s a pretty simple concept but one that is often lost in our too-busy-to-make-time culture.

With that said, we know that Back to School is a particularly special time to get back to the table and to be sure we’re engaging with and checking-in on our kids and family members who are shifting back into a more strenuous routine. Dinner around the table and forming predictable routines means our kids, whether small or tall, feel a sense of security and belonging at home. Not only that, there has been plenty of research that shows teens who have between five and seven family dinners per week received better grades in school, as well as the family time providing a critical role in language acquisition leading to improved vocabularies and better readers compared to those teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week. In addition, only 9% of teens who ate frequently with their families did poorly in school, according to the report. Hard to argue with those amazing benefits!

While there is no question that eating together is beneficial in so many ways, we know it isn’t always easy or enjoyable to rush home from work to pull together a healthy meal for your family. That’s where we come in. The meals we cook are made with ingredients we want to feed our own families, organic and local when we can, but always real, whole and nutritious. Our dinners for two are usually enough for 2 adult portions with some leftovers, and if you’ve got time to throw together a simple salad or steam some vegetables, you’ve got a wholesome meal you barely have to think about. Our Fresh Meal Service, portioned for 2, 3, 4 or more is very generous and almost always provides leftovers for lunch the next day.

Here are some other suggestions for nourishing meals and snacks you can pick up for hectic back-to-school lunches and dinners.

• Our frozen Burritos can be thawed and reheated at 375 for 15-20 minutes and make an awesome lunch option for work and school alike
• Both the Salmon Salad Nicoise, and the Asian Noodle Bowl can be served cold, making them ideal for quick, hearty lunches
• Our sandwiches are large and would likely offer 2 lunches for 1 kid, depending on appetite.
• Red Apron Hummus with Fresh Veggies or Pita
• Against the Grain Purple Tortilla Chips with Grilled Corn and Tomato Salsa
• Our Kale Slaw With Carrots Cabbage & Apple Cider Vinaigrette keeps well and can be served on the side or as a topper for tacos or burgers.
• Our single-serve freezer meals make excellent lunches if you have access to a microwave
• Our Southwestern Organic Black Bean, Sweet Potato & Corn Salad With Chili Lime Dressing is a protein-packed option that keeps well in the fridge and offers a filling snack or meal whenever your hunger kicks in
• Red Apron stocks a variety of local cheeses and crackers that make excellent lunch box snacks with a few grapes or apple slices
• If you’re looking for a sweet treat for your little (or big) ones, our nut-free carrot cake is a school-safe option your kids are sure to love!

We want to help you and your loved ones return to the table this Back-to-School season, so pop in and ask us how we can help you stock your fridge or freezer with meals and ingredients to feed your friends and family!