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I have to be honest and say that Black Friday has never sat well with me. The Holiday season, and all the spending that surrounds it, causes me to become a touch anxious. During my childhood, we saw our Christmas tree reflect how our our society was changing. Each year the gifts became more plentiful, and the frenzy of shopping, spending, wrapping and giving became more extreme. Now I have young adult children who are trying to live their lives in ways which reflect their values and priorities, which I must admit, are also a reflection of mine. This image, which came across our Instagram feed, says it all.

A few years ago I sat down with my two adult (or almost adult) sons and we discussed how we wanted to celebrate the holiday season. We saved the traditions that had importance to us. They offered help during the holidays with cooking and planning, in order to ease the burden on me, and we all agreed that presents were not the priority, but time together would be the focus. My extended family has been more of a challenge to convince.

Along the them of more time, less money, I have compiled a few ideas make your Holiday Season less costly, allowing you more time with the people you love.

Replace rampant gift giving with a single gift exchange, secret Santa or Yankee Swap. At our holiday party this past weekend we did a Yankee Swap. Everyone buys one gift, picks one gift, and has a chance to trade (or steal) the gift after they are all unwrapped.

Bake together. My Mother hosts a cookie baking party with her grandchildren each year. She looks forward to this day and it gives the kids, ranging in age from 7 to 30, a chance to interact with each other over a shared project.

Re-gift. We all have something beautiful at home that we once cherished, but no longer need or have a place for. Letting go of the stigma of giving away something you own is difficult, however this might end up being a win-win situation for everyone.

Re-purpose: If you have a creative streak, it might be possible to come up with some wonderful gift ideas. One year I planted succulents in tarnished silver tea service vessels (cream & sugar) and gave them as a funky retro gift. They looked so pretty I wanted to keep them myself.

Opt out. It’s been difficult, but I have informed my family that I want to opt out of the gift giving and participate only in the ‘eat, drink and be merry’ part of the festivities. This was met with initial resistance, and although I have asked not to receive gifts, some members of my family still insist on buying for me. It’s a personal struggle that continues because I find it difficult to show up empty-handed, knowing that others have spent money on me. We are still working it through.

In the spirit of simplifying things, here are a few ideas for gifts you can easily make in large batches, package in decorative containers, and give to almost anyone.

Vanilla Extract

You will need one tall, slim, 8 to 10 oz glass bottle or jar (repurposed is best) and 4 vanilla bean pods. Slice open the beans and put them in the jar. Pour over at least 1 cup of vodka, bourbon, rum or brandy. Close the jar and shake. You can give this gift immediately, add a fancy label, and get creative when selecting the country of origin of the vanilla beans. What’s important is that the recipient not use it for 4-6 months, but shakes it occasionally. Aside from cooking with it, you can add a few drops to a smoothie, yogurt, coffee, and creative cocktails.

Christmas Morning Muesli

Mix 5 cups of rolled grains (could be oats, flax, spelt, barley, whatever you like or a combination of them all) with the zest of 2 oranges or clementines, 1 cup of chopped nuts (pecans, pistachios, almonds, any nut will do), 1 cup of dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries, cherries), 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla powder. Mix well and package in repurposed mason jars.

Rosemary Lemon Finishing Salt

To make a large batch, take 2 cups of sea salt, 3/4 cup of dried lemon zest, and 3/4 cup of dried rosemary. Combine all the ingredients and divide into small decorative jars (a small amount of salt goes a long way).

It’s official. We are four weeks away from Christmas and that means preparations are in full swing at the Red Apron. We have started decorating the store, hanging the ornaments & decorating the windows. Whether we are ready or not, it’s coming.

So how can the Red Apron help you this Holiday Season?

1. There are four weeks of Red Apron ‘Dinner to your Door’ deliveries before deliveries left of 2019. Ordering healthy, delicious and nutritious meals from the Red Apron means you have more time left in your schedule to get ready. The Thursday meal is perfect for your own holiday entertaining on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Whether you are feeding 2 or 20, we have you covered.
2. Our retail fridges and freezers are stocked with Holiday Appetizers including bacon-potato-cheese poppers, pretzel bites & beer cheese, sweet & sour meatballs, dips & spreads, a carefully curated selection of cheeses and charcuterie, crackers & chips, just to name a few. If you are hosting friends for a pre-holiday get together, filling your fridge & freezer with these convenient options will make entertaining a breeze.
3. Red Apron Gift Cards make the perfect gift for anyone who loves good food and doesn’t always have time to shop and cook. It’s the gift that keeps on giving into the New Year!
4. Our freezers are stocked with Turkey Pot Pies & Tourtière which make for simple and delicious dinners on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years, or any time in between. Our 9.5 inch pies serve 4-6 people generously and bake from frozen in under an hour.
5. Shop our in store selection of Foodie Gifts including cookbooks, jams, preserves, stocking stuffers like specialty tinned seafood, fine olive oil, caramel corn, decorated cookies, peanut brittle, and much more.

6: Pre-order your Red Apron Whole Turkey or Turkey Dinner for 2 (or 4-6-8, etc) for pick up in our retail shop on December 23rd or 24th. These freshly prepared meals will make it easy to host a small our large group on December 24th or 25th. Just re-heat, serve, and enjoy your company.

A reminder that we are closed from 4pm on December 24th until 9am on January 2nd, 2020, with Delivery Service resuming on January 7, 8 & 9, 2020. Stock your freezers with Red Apron Take Home Dinners to feed yourself through the Holidays.

This week’s recipe is for a delicious holiday appetizer that we have often made for the retail store. Regretfully we will not be making them this year, but it’s one you can easily prepare yourself.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

I consider myself the ‘Leftover Queen’. I can look into an empty fridge or freezer that is full of odds and ends, and within 30 minutes I can produce an amazing meal for 4-6 people. It’s my superpower and I am not shy to brag about it. But I have a secret weapon. The Red Apron.

At the end of each week my fridge and freezer are both full of quality leftovers. Those, plus a few key ingredients, and I can make magic.  My pantry list includes the following:

• a good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• lemons, limes and green onions
• good local flour in the freezer (I keep Almanac Grains 00 durham flour in my freezer)
• a bag of rice in the cupboard (basmati or jasmine are my go-to choices)
• at least one ripe avocado
• cheese (any kind)
• bones (from chicken, beef, lamb from meals I have brought home)
• fleur de sel & some fresh herbs
• fresh eggs
• not so fresh bread
• corn flour tortillas in the freezer
• one can of fire roasted tomatoes
• one box of good quality pasta

If you open my fridge or cupboard on any given day, these are the things you will find. You would wonder – ‘does anyone live in this house’? I do have the benefit of living within walking distance of a few good grocery stores, and the Ottawa Farmer’s Market.

Often for breakfast I serve breakfast tacos. I scramble up some eggs, heat up any leftover rice and beans from the week, dig out my any leftover slaws or salsa from the week, shred some cheese and slice up the ripe avocado and give it a squirt of lime or lemon juice. I heat up my tortillas from the freezer (over the gas flame on my stove) and I have a very tasty breakfast. It works just as well for dinner with any leftover chicken, beef or pork.

My most recent infatuation is with fresh pasta, made using Almanac Grains 00 Durham, which paired with just about anything is delicious. A good quality boxed pasta does the trick too. You can take one can of fire roasted tomatoes, add any leftover vegetables you have from the week, and toss with some freshly boiled pasta and grated cheese (parmesan or cheddar) or crumbled feta or chèvre. This is an easy Friday night dinner. This example below uses leftover salmon, fresh kale from a salad that didn’t get eaten, and a can of diced tomatoes.

Eggs (Bekings) paired with pretty much any Red Apron Dinner leftovers, make a great omelette the next day, or stir fried with some plain rice, makes a delicious and nutritious dinner.

This past weekend I made the most amazing soup/stew. Our Thursday ‘Dinner in the Bag‘ featured chicken, on the bone, with mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. I had a lot of that meal leftover. I took the remaining meat off the bone. I put the bones and skin in a large saucepan and I browned them on medium high heat until they were good and crispy, with lots of brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan – ‘Flavour’ – as my Cordon Bleu Chef would say. If I had had an onion or leek, I would have chopped that up and added it in too. I deglazed with a little white wine (or white wine vinegar, hard cider, or cider vinegar) and added about 4 cups of water (or stock) and the remaining bits of gravy from the meal (I had one in the fridge and one in the freezer leftover from other Red Apron meals). I let that bubble on medium heat for 30 minutes.

Then I strained the ‘stock into the blender, and added with the remaining mashed potatoes and pureed until it was creamy. Meanwhile, I took the leftover chicken, and all the vegetables left over from the week (I had Brussels sprouts from Thursday, and arugula from Wednesday’s meal) and put them in my saucepan with a good dollop of butter, and cooked them on medium heat until warmed through. I poured back my ‘veloute‘ and seasoned with salt – et voila! A delicious, hearty and nutritious chicken stew. I served 3 people generously and it was made completely out of leftovers.

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!