Family Reunion Flavours

      This past weekend we hosted our annual family reunion. Terry is one of seven siblings and every year as many as can assemble to enjoy each others company.  We all bring our own food, and some to share and I was very pleased that my contributions were largely locally produced.

We BBQ-ed Bison burgers, Burt Smokies and Creative Meats Hot dogs.  I made two salads- a cole slaw and an Asian Peanut Noodle Salad from a recipe I borrowed from my cousin. There is no pleasure quite like watching loved ones enjoy the food you've made for them. Truly.

Here's the recipe, I've italicized the ingredients that are not local:

Cole Slaw- 

Finely chopped carrots and cabbage- thank you Valley Veggies.

Dressing:

1 egg, 

3 tbs cider vinegar 

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp dry mustard 

11/4 cups canola oil

1 tsp milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 - 2 tsp sugar (to taste)

     Blend in a food processor. Keep separate from the cabbage and onion until you are ready to serve. My husband loved it and so did others. Cole Slaw is not my thing- I barely tasted it.

     My cousin has served the Asian Peanut Noodle Salad at a few family functions in the past and I love, love, love it! It's got a great kick to it! I made a few changes to the dressing, but here's the link to the original: Asian Peanut Noodle Salad.

     I used the ontario peanut butter from ELS, which is not smooth, but provided all the right flavour. I had local honey, garlic, one green pepper, carrots, and but the soy sauce, ginger, pepper flakes, pasta and vinegar were not local, however they have been in the cupboard long enough to be considered family. 

  This was the first time I made the asian salad, and had I not had local peanut butter I may have skipped it. Which got me to thinking about some of the other ingredients- like ginger- is there a local source of ginger? Can we grow ginger? How does ginger grow? Surely it would be worth a try. 


If you have any ginger growing information- please leave a comment or link.


Shannon D.