How to: Root Cellar Cake

Well, I never saw the day coming where I'd be making a Root Cellar cake. Sure, I've made a lot of random cakes in my day - a Gangster Sloth, a 'fermented' Wolf Head, and the ultimate nerd cake collab for a Nerdy 30 party, but a root cellar? Nope, didn't see that one coming!

If you're not familiar with root cellars, they're essentially cellars that are built directly into the ground or out of the side of a hill/cliff for storing your veggies. They're pretty standard in the area I'm from, in particular, down over the ridge in Elliston, where the town actually holds the title of being the 'Root Cellar Capital of the World'! So again, never thought I'd be making one out of cake and buttercream! However, when my Elliston-born biffle was celebrating a milestone birthday, giving me no theme to go on, it just somehow seemed right!

Snowballs

Favourite traditional foods and snacks vary across the province just as much as the accents and sayings, but one 'cookie' you'll find commonplace in every Newfoundland community, is the snowball. I don't know what it is about snowballs but people love them! And let me tell you, you'd be hard-pressed not to find snowballs in someones house during Christmas... that is of course unless they've already polished them off or haven't gotten around to making them yet ;)

These snowballs are amazingly delicious and total crowd pleasers. Every time I've made them I've received nothing but compliments on how good they taste and everyone always asks for the recipe. Once upon a time I didn't like coconut. To think what I was missing out on!

Behind the Scenes at Roots, Rants & Roars 2015!

For me - someone who spends the majority of their time staring at pictures of food, taking pictures of food (yes I'm one of those), pinning recipes (like there's no tomorrow), and wasting hours browsing Munchies and the Food Network - having the opportunity to spend a weekend volunteering at the Roots, Rants & Roars Festival with the creme de la creme of Newfoundland chefs was exciting, to say the least!

Not only did I get to taste the majority of the food served up over the weekend, but I was front and centre to all the action. I was a server for 'The Feast'; therefore, I was in the kitchen, up close and personal with all the chefs, chatting it up and watching them in their zone! Their energy and focus was impressive and seeing them working the line and plating their creations was about as good as it gets. Forget the fact I had never served before and was serving 7 courses to roughly 350 guests, I was in my glee!

Summer Food Bucket List

I really feel the Newfoundland food scene has come alive over the past few years! While food has always been a very prominent part of our culture, it seems lately we've really kicked it up a notch. We have the top ranking restaurant in Canada, local chefs winning national competitions left, right and centre, and our restaurant scene is exploding with new and exciting menus, straight across the province! We have a developing food truck scene, easier access to local produce, and a growing number of events focused specifically on celebrating our food and culture. In short, if there was ever a time to be a foodie in Newfoundland, that time would be right now. 

With that in mind, and summer spreading her hand ;) I'm excited to share my own personal summer foodie dreams as part of Eventbrite's Summer Food Bucket List project! If you've never heard of Eventbrite, they're a fabulous resource for finding events happening in your area or other places you plan to visit! And for the event planners out there, they offer free event management tools to share, promote and track your event progress! Be sure to check them out.

Let's get to that list, shall we? 

Copycat PK's Pizza Fingers

I can picture it now, lunch time at my old elementary school. Dozens of kids would swarm to the main entrance to find delivery guys from the local restaurants arriving with bags of take-out. Believe me when I say, there was nothing more exciting than waiting for your name to be called. Now, it was pretty rare for me to get in on this action, as my mom usually packed my lunch, but on the wonderful occasions that I did, there was only one thing I would request - pizza fingers and fries from PK's!

Roughly two decades later, I'm still smitten with pizza fingers. So smitten that I just had to try my best to replicate the recipe at home. My first few attempts, while tasty, weren't quite right. They were baked (because I didn't own a deep frier) and leaked a lot as they cooked. However, as soon as I got a deep frier for Christmas, I was able to test them the way they were intended. I'll be honest, when I took that first bite of my legit deep fried pizza finger, my 8 year old self lost it. I had succeeded!

My Year in Food 2014

So despite my efforts, it seems I've waited til the very last day in January to share my year in food. To be honest, I'm not sure what happened to January, but I am sure of two things: #1 The Steve Miller Band totally nailed it in Fly Like an Eagle, cuz let me tell you, 'Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future...' and #2, I have been all kinds of slack with my blog these past couple of months!

Nevertheless, I have still been running around seizing foodie adventures and enjoying lots of delicious foods, a.k.a. stuffing my face and loving every minute of it! Overall, 2014 was pretty great - we spent loads of time with family and friends, vacationed in London, experienced some new dishes and enjoyed some foodie firsts - just what a good 'Year in Food' needs.

For 2015, I wish for the same. I'd also like to carry forward a few of my foodie resolutions from last year including my plan to cook more often without a recipe (so far, so good!). I'd also like to retry my Nan's bread recipe - I want to master it! Or at least succeed with it... lol. And finally, a resolution I always have - to get out to more restaurants I've had my eye on (Chinched, I'm looking at you!).

But for now, I would like to share my 2014 Year in Food. If you enjoy this, I encourage you to check out My Year in Food 2013 and My Year in Food 2012 for many more drool-worthy moments ;)

The Ultimate Fun Foodie-Friendly Gift List Take 3

                                             Santa Claus is Coming to Town - California Raisins

With Christmas day exactly 5 weeks and 6 days from today, it's time for the third installment of The Ultimately Foodie-Friendly Gift Guide!! As in previous years, I have searched the internet for weird and wacky and wonderful items that any foodie/non-foodie would appreciate. And as always, I've included one of my favourite Christmas songs for you to rock out to while scrolling. So without further ado, click play on the masterfully selected California Raisins - Santa Claus is Coming to Town and enjoy your perusing!

Please note, for anyone shopping in St. John's, I've spied many of these gifts in the following stores: Living Planet/Johnny Ruth, Freak Lunchbox and Living Rooms.

Kitchen Armour

Nobody should enter the kitchen without the proper attire. Here are a few places to start!

The Walking Dead Apron

Breaking Bad Apron

They See Me Rollin' Apron

Fried Cod Tongues with Scrunchions

I sometimes wonder, if I didn't grow up eating cod tongues, would I dare try them today? I honestly have my doubts, but I'm glad I did because cod tongues are now what I reference each time I come across a new and odd sounding food. I always think, well... if I like cod tongues, then maybe *insert odd sounding food here* will be good too?

Anywho, since I like to keep all my favourite recipes together on this blog, and since the food fishery is now officially open for the next 3 weeks, I thought I would share this quick and easy recipe for fried tongues. If you've never tried them, they're highly delicious - be adventurous!

My Food Infatuation Turns 2!

Photo Credit

Yesterday My Food Infatuation turned 2! And there has been quite a bit of blogging happening over the last 730 or so days! To date I've had nearly 90,000 views on over 130 posts, and I've been very busy on social media. In addition to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, I've created my first two YouTube videos and a Google+ account. Still really enjoying the blogging-life and looking forward to keeping it going for a third year!

Once again, thanks to all my followers and supporters. Keep the comments and shares coming, and stay tuned for lots of new recipes and foodie fun! ;)

xo,
Food Diva

My Year in Food 2013

After a few delays and many a power outage, I FINALLY bring to you my 2013 Year in Food!

Just like the song says, 'Another year over and a new one's just begun'. Like many years, 2013 had its ups and downs, but I can honestly say, overall, it was a good year. Not only did I get a new job and travel to Ottawa for training (my first time there), I also traveled to Toronto for my birthday to see a couple of amazing concerts (Beyonce & Jay-Z/JT - also my first time there), and my husband and I finally bought some camping gear and spent several days camping in Gros Morne (also my first time there!) To cap it all off, we spent a nice long Christmas vacation with both of our families, in two separate parts of the province. I have so much to be thankful for this year!

With that said, 2013 started off a little rough for my family, as we were forced to say goodbye to my Nan. Although I attribute my cooking skills to my mom, I like to think I've inherited a little bit of my Nan's cooking abilities as well. I have so many memories of Nan's food, and even though I wasn't a big fan of 'cooked dinner' as a kid, I did love her boiled puddings - in particular her 'plain pudding' - and of course her desserts! It was rare to visit on a Sunday, without an apple pie, or sponge cake - or both - for dessert! She grew the best veggies, made the best rhubarb jam and you couldn't find better bread - something she taught me to make back in the summer of 2012.

So as 2014 is upon us, I have a couple of things I want to make happen - I would like to prepare more of the snacks and breads I eat, I would like to cook without a recipe more often, I of course want to continue trying new foods and I definitely want to give my Nan's bread recipe another go! I am very excited for the food adventures to come in 2014, but without further delay, let's look back at what deliciousness 2013 had in store :) ...you can see 2012 here!

St. John's Farmers' Market - A Newbies Guide!

Last summer I made a promise to myself that I would start doing more of the things I wanted to do vs. just talking about them. The St. John's Farmers' Market fell into that category - something I always wanted to check out, but never got around to. Yesterday, I happily attended my very first St. John's Farmers' Market!

For those of you who are newbies like me, it can be a little confusing when trying to figure out where you have to go. It's located in the Lion's Club Chalet behind the parking lot of the Re/Max Centre, on Bonaventure Avenue. I will advise, parking is a bit intense - even for the calm parking lot driver - so if you suffer from parking lot rage, you may want to park across the street... or bus it, or walk ;)

We managed to snag a spot in the Re/Max parking lot, then proceeded to the lion's club after slight confusion... after seeing what looked like a few stands, plus the hula hoopers we determined we should go to the building pictured below. So I repeat for newbies, it's NOT in the Re/Max Centre, it's in the building that says 'Lion's Park'.

As you can imagine, she's a little packed on the inside, but not unbearable - you can also escape out the back door for more vendors and some fresh air! There's everything from handmade soaps, to crafts, to artwork and lots and lots of food - the wonderful aroma of tastiness smacks you in the face at the door and it's AWESOME!

Shalimar Restaurant - Review

So aside from doing a number on my knee, after gracefully descending some concrete steps... this past weekend was a good one. If you've been following my blog, you will remember my friends and I recently formed a foodie group in an effort to organize ourselves into trying several restaurants around town. And as previously mentioned, since the co-founder and I each have a blog, we thought reviews would be a nice touch. After all, if you've never been to a restaurant before, it's nice to have an idea of what you're getting yourself into. Just keep in mind, we're no Karl Wells, so we don't claim to know techniques and pairings on a food critic level, we just know what we like and hope our review can give you an idea of what to expect.

Similar to the last post, we will be breaking our review into what we consider to be the key points of a restaurant outing:

1. Logistics
2. Service
3. Atmosphere
4. Quality of Food & Drink
5. Overall Experience

In addition to a quick note on each category, we've also included our individual rankings out of 10. You can find mine below, and Terri's (foodie group co-founder) on her blog Pop Culture, With Sarcasm.

So without further ado, I present to you the results of our second group outing:

The Touton Mountaineers visit Shalimar Restaurant

Hash

So you've cooked the big turkey, you've fed the masses, you've sent everyone away with a turkey party favour... you're feeling pretty good about yourself! You think to yourself 'I've pulled it off again', when suddenly it hits you, 'what am I going to do with all these leftover veggies?!' Unlike turkey, boiled veggies aren't easy to pawn off on relatives. And as usual, you've overestimated, paranoid you wouldn't have enough to go around. God forbid you not have an endless supply of veggies on hand.

In any case, there's no need to panic! Boiled vegetables make excellent leftovers. They're ideal for cold plates, and are amazing in Hash! In fact, whenever I'm making a cooked dinner involving boiled veggies and salt meat, I like to throw on a bit extra, explicitly for hash!

Cod au Gratin

Sorry it ain't prettier!

I've been going a little heavy on the sweets lately, both in life and on the blog. Soooo, it being the New Year and all, and time for a detox of sorts, I decided it best (for all of our sakes) that I post some savory dishes! At first, I considered Stewed Chicken with Dumplings, but thought better of it, knowing you're probably all still gagging at the thought of turkey or any of its relatives. Instead, I’ve opted to post a fish dish. 

Typically, my cod dishes tend to go one of two ways - fried with scrunchions and drawn butter, or mashed up in some fish and brewis. But a few weeks back, I found myself craving Cod au Gratin. Now, in all honesty, I had never made the dish myself and had not had it in several years, but I’m proud to say it came out tasting just as delicious and creamy as I remember from home.

My Year in Food 2012

2012 reminded me once again that sooo much can happen in one year. It was an interesting year to say the least, and although it wasn’t my best year to date, I’m okay with that, because 2013 just stopped in to take the title.

One great thing that came to fruition in 2012 was my blog. I’ve wanted to have one for a while and finally made it happen. So since I’m celebrating my first New Year's as a blogger, I thought it would be fun (if not for you, at least for me lol) to recap my year in…. you guessed it, food!

Let me first start by saying, this blog & my online presence through Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest (follow me!) has really helped me to broaden my food horizons. For too long I’ve been eating the same old things and shying away from experiencing new flavours and new dishes, and while those old favourites are favourites for a reason, I’ve realized the potential of greatness in new dishes as well. And not to go all philosophical on you or anything, but the same thing can be said for life – sometimes you just need to break out of the routine and try something different, life’s too short and too incredible to do the same thing (or eat the same food) every day!

On that note here are my 2012 Food Highlights!

Apricot Raisin Cake

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, which means I will be handing one of these cakes over to each of my Nans. Apricot cake just happens to be their favourite Christmas cake and for the past couple of years it has been my Christmas gift to them. Not only is this cake moist and delicious, but it's comprised of simple ingredients. I found this recipe on Rock Recipes which is a blog by a fellow Newfoundlander. I would highly recommend this site to anyone! Some amazing recipes on there.

Pineapple Squares

Tis the season of cookies and squares, and although these don't pop into my head when I think of Christmas, they’re a welcome addition to any festive platter nevertheless. Not only are they light and fluffy and refreshing - making them the perfect cap to those heavy Christmas meals - but they're also super easy to make. Not to mention, versatile - if you switch out your square pan for a round pan, you've got yourself a fancy little pie! ;)

Tip: If you’re a bit paranoid about using raw eggs in the recipe, leave them out, or better yet, skip the middle layer altogether and just double up on the top whipped layer.

Fish 'n' Brewis

It doesn't look like much, ladies and gentlemen, but don't let this picture fool you, behold the deliciousness that is Fish 'n' Brewis. 'What is this masterpiece?' you ask? Well my friends, it's a very simple, very delicious, combination of 3 ingredients: Codfish, Hard Bread, and Scrunchions a.k.a. tiny fried pieces of pork fat. Next to Jigs Dinner, this is the quintessential Newfoundland food.

Now, I will admit, like most Newfoundland dishes, there are a few varieties. Some people like to mash potato into the mix, or substitute the scrunchions with fried onions (a much healthier alternative). There's also some discrepancies in the naming, I like to call the above fish 'n' brewis, while my husband and his family refer to it as Fisherman's Brewis and call Fish 'n' brewis a decomposed version of the dish served with potatoes. Either way, this is what comes to mind when I hear the words fish 'n' brewis, it is the best, and my favourite way to eat it... not that I'd turn down the other stuff ;)

Newfoundland Jigs Dinner

One of my favourite meals to cook, and more importantly eat, is Jigs Dinner. Growing up, it was always a treat to have, and now that I live away from home (luckily still in the province), I love cooking it up for any occasion. For me, it's a full sensory overload of nostalgia - the sound of the bubbling pot, the smell of it wafting through the house, the site of the peeled veggies on the counter and the anticipation of the delicious feed ahead. In my opinion it's the quintessential comfort food.

Over the years, I've discovered there are many varieties or definitions of a proper Jigs Dinner. It really seems to be dependent on where you were raised in the province, or where your parents were raised. Below is a breakdown of what I consider to be the perfect Jigs Dinner.

Jigs Dinner: Blueberry Boiled Pudding, Carrot, Turnip Tops, Salt Pork Ribs, Buttery Mashed Turnip, Potato