"Tour de Winnipeg"

Just a couple of weeks before The Big Day, I had a lovely visit from my dear friend Andrea and her hubs, Colin.  They were on their own blog-worthy journey: a cross-country move from B.C. back to Ontario, visiting friends along the way.  I was lucky enough to be one of them!  So, I acted as a "Winnipeg Ambassador" and took the lovely couple to the Forks after a delicious meal.

On the pedestrian bridge at the Forks.

Since Andrea and Colin were here for just one night only, I wanted to showcase as much of the culinary diversity of the city as I could.  So, I devised the following menu:

 

And here's how I pulled it off!

Getting ingredients ready for the pickerel almondine...

Look at those gorgeous filets, thanks to the Gimli Fish Market.  I could link to the recipe, but it was pretty simple: I put the filet on top of a "bed" of sliced red onions and lemon wheels.  Top with paprika, thyme, salt, pepper, green onion, basil, slivered almonds, and dot with butter.  Wrap and bake.

The appetizer: kubasa, pickels, bison burgers, and Bothwell cheese.  Mmm.  I put a hoisin sauce glaze on the burgers as a nod towards Chinatown down on King street.  Colin seemed to really like it!!

Finished fish!  Loosely based on this recipe.  For all you Americans, yes, pickerel = walleye.

Asparagus with goma (sesame) dressing.  I fell in love with this after Deb introduced me to maguro goma-ae, a tuna and avocado salad at her favourite sushi place, Naru.  I found a recipe for it here, and used it to symbolize all the Japanese restaurants in the city (even if they're mostly owned and operated by lovely Koreans...)

Red velvet cupcakes.  What more can I say.  You're all familiar with my recipe, but I made them mini this time.  Portion control!!

Cinnamon buns from Stellas.  Calm down... yes, I know they're not from Tall Grass Prairie.  But honestly, I was at Stella'a already buying some focaccia to represent Little Italy on Corydon, so I just picked them up there.  They were QUITE delish.

Overall, I must say, I was rather pleased with the whole event.  Andrea and Colin are so sweet that they sent me some Irish breakfast tea as a thank you for hosting them (Andrea is an incredibly thoughtful person and also likes to send gifts by mail frequently.  I most recently got this awesome Ravenclaw laptop case from her!!  Isn't she fantastic??)

I always love when people come to visit and see this life I've built for myself out here in the Prairies.  It reminds me that, even though my friends might USUALLY be far away, they're still willing to take the time and see what I'm up to.  It was so much fun having this fantastic couple over... and set the stage for me to develop a "five-point Winnipeg tour" for my parents when they visited!  There was lots of good food involved there, too, including a trip to Fude in the Village... but I digress.

Wondering what the best way might be to tackle the quintessential Manitoba beet,
-Honeybee

Red Velvet Valentine

Last week, knowing that the obligatory-day-of-love-expression was upon us, I figured it was high time to try making a Manitoba favourite- Red Velvet Cake.

Yes, it's as red as it looks.  Mmm.

The creation of these puppies made my kitchen look an awful lot like one of Dexter's kill rooms...

I've been meaning to try out a recipe for this cake for a long while.  I first tried red velvet cake at Guildy's, a delicious and very popular little eatery at work.  I've also seen it featured at Salisbury House... which may be the only thing I eat from there ever again.

One thing I've been made clear on: red velvet cake should be MOIST.  So, as with most of my food experiments, I Googled my way to this recipe (yay, fellow Blogspot user!)  The title for her post caught my eye:  The BEST Red Velvet Cake Recipe ~Easy, Homemade, Moist with Southern Flair~.  It did not disappoint.  I did make a bit of a mistake, though... I accidentally added double the amount of coffee called for.  Oops.  As a result, you COULD taste the coffee a little bit in the end product, but it was still mostly red velvet goodness.

Baking.  I really should clean my oven window...

I was originally going to debut my efforts during a baby shower/potluck held yesterday... but then decided that my coworkers have been guniea pigs often enough for my baking efforts.  Not that they mind... but for a baby shower, I wanted to be sure I was putting my best foot forward.  So, my American Sign Language 102 class got to be the taste testers this time during our class on Valentine's day.

Cooling cupcakes.  The two crackly-looking ones in the front are the sugar-free versions I made for my two diabetic classmates.  That's the joy of Splenda.... hooray for measuring cup-for-cup!  It did result in a bit of a different texture, though (Jarred let me have a bite of his)

Valentines Day-themed frosting (these later got a cinnamon heart decoration as well)

The diabetic cupcakes again- no cinnamon heart, just a drop of food colouring for decoration (and a sprinkling of Splenda on top-- I accidentally added far too little to the actual icing.  Still tasted okay, though)

For the actual baby shower, held for our genetic assistant Lisa, I decorated with a different cream cheese icing (found here).  I will confess: I didn't like this one as much as the one included in the cupcake recipe.  The icing was lighter, but also very soft (probably because of the whipping cream, and also due to my reluctance to add SIX CUPS of icing sugar).  It didn't really set up nicely.  It also made A TON, probably enough for twice as many cupcakes.  I probably won't use it again myself, though my coworkers seemed to like it quite a bit.  Now, I'm left with the problem of having leftover icing in the fridge... this could end badly.

Cupcakes again: same recipe, but in opaque silver wrappers, with the softer whipped icing piped into a spiral on top.  Blue sprinkles, since Lisa knows she's got an XY bundle of joy on the way!

These sort of remind me of the cupcake dolls that my sisters and I had when we were younger.  I think it was Sar that had a cherry-scented one with a spiral frosting "hat".

Overall, the cupcakes seemed to be a hit with both classmates and coworkers.  One doc, who couldn't be at the potluck due to clinic, had one brought to him by Jess... and apparently proclaimed them "AMAZING".  I know he used to work as a cook, and he seems to be a gentleman of very discerning tastes, so that made my week!

Off to think of ways to use up that remaining frosting (without eating it straight with a spoon...)
-Honeybee