Culinarium

Today I went to a cute little shop. I bought one of those voucher things online and finally got my butt over there to check them out and I am glad I did!

Culinarium was a great little shop featuring all locally sourced food. Most of it was jarred yumminess (think jams, jellies, soups, sauces, juices, marinades etc) but they had some locally sourced produce, cheeses, charcuterie products and they are also a source for meat-share programs in the GTA. (I, myself am looking into the chicken-share program FYI). I did get some yummy tomatoes (the romas were sooo ripe they were soooo soft (I had to put them in my purse instead of the bag because I was afraid they would get smooshed) and I couldn't wait to get home to make salsa with them!) and onions and shallots and granola...and this stuff called ginger syrup (made with ginger and Canadian maple syrup that I am going to DIE for when I mix it with sparkling water to make my own form of ginger beer!!! OMG CAN'T WAIT!I tasted a bit when I got home and I JUST CANNOT WAIT!) It was a great little shop with friendly and helpful staff and I will DEFINITELY be going back again to see what's up over there! I even had a little taste test which I am surprised to find that I have a palate refined enough to differentiate between locally sourced organic Ontario asparagus (from Barrie-Hill farms no less!) and organic asparagus sourced from 'somewhere-but-they-don't-know-where'...I seriously could taste the difference (it wasn't as pretty as the asparagus from 'somewhere' but my oh my did it ever taste FRESH!MMMMM!) I was pretty proud of myself! :)

Right now I am taking a break from "stocking the store" - I made FRESH SALSA (with those sexy little Romas, some beefsteaks and onion (also from Culinarium) and some incredibly HOT PEPPERS that I stupidly decided to taste a bit of and my mouth is STILL on fire! (the wine does not help, but it makes me not care!)) I have fresh herbed chicken baking in the oven, along with a beet, a sweet potato, some regular potatoes, and my FAVORITE roasted cauliflower recipe (can't find the link to my previous post at the mo', but will post it soon!) Mmmmmmmmmmm yummy!

Looking forward to posting more often int he coming days! I bought some BISON today, so look for commentary on that, as well as fish-capades galore!

And probably some posts about feeling like a nut job always packing food in my purse!

AH! I feel so revitalized! ONWARD HO!!!!!!