GLENORA — On a sunny afternoon, there’s nothing better than a picnic in the park.

At least that was the feeling in the Glenora community Saturday as hundreds of people came together for the annual ‘Picnic in the Park.’

“It’s sort of our focal point of the summer,” said Pam Wojcicki, director of hall rentals with the Glenora community. “Everybody gets together and you just kind of hang out.”

The ‘Picnic in the Park’ event has been going on in the Glenora community for more than 20 years.  What started out as a simple way to bring the community together has now grown into a full-blown festival.

“It became a little carnival and it grew and grew until one year we had 750 people,” said Wojcicki.

Families of all shapes and sizes could be seen joining in the fun on Saturday.  The Boomtown Sound filled the park with classical music as others enjoyed the pony rides, balloon animals, a bouncy-house, popcorn and a three-on-three basketball tournament.

This year’s picnic also coincided with the unveiling of the new Glenora playground and spray park, a project that’s been roughly three years in the making.

CTV’s own Graham Neil was on site for the official ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday.  After thanking all those who made the playground possible, the ribbon was cut and a ceremonious rock dedicated to the project’s largest donors was also unveiled.

Now, although the playground was officially opened Saturday, it has been open to the public for some time now, and residents are already seeing the positives.

“Every night of the week you’ll see at least one family here, if not five or six,” said Colleen Weremczuk, social coordinator with the Glenora community and one of the three organizers of this year’s picnic.  “It’s just a nice place to come together.”

Weremczuk has been a resident of Glenora for more than a decade. She said it’s her love for this community that drove her to help put on this year’s ‘Picnic in the Park.’

“There’s a lot of people in the neighbourhood that are just really good people,” said Weremczuk.  “I’ve basically grown up with my kids here and when you have young children it’s nice to have a place to connect to people.”

“I’ve lived in other areas of the city and I feel like this is my home.”

Weremczuk also said that while the picnic brings residents together, it also brings businesses together as well, something that only helps strengthen the community even further.

WhiteM26@mymail.macewan.ca

Volunteers from the Edmonton Food Bank set up shop at West Edmonton Mall Monday to accept donations to help raise awareness and end hunger, leading up to ‘Hunger Awareness Day’ on Tuesday, May 31.

Kelly Cailliau, resource development coordinator with the Edmonton Food Bank, was also at West Edmonton Mall to help raise awareness about a cause, that she says, can sometimes go over-looked.

“Hunger is an issue, even in our city. Some people think it’s only a problem over seas or in the inner-city, but hunger is an issue throughout Edmonton,” said Cailliau.

Cailliau continued to say that 15,000 Edmontonians every month eat food through the hamper program offered by the Edmonton Food Bank. Additionally, over 350,000 snacks and meals are prepared throughout the city and distributed by the Edmonton Food Bank every year, said Cailliau

“It’s just to become informed about hunger and to make a change,” said Cailliau.

Across Canada, food banks are teaming up with Kraft Canada, through the ‘Kraft Hunger Challenge’ to help reduce the number of Canadians who go to bed hungry. From May 31 to June 10, Kraft Canada will match any donations, dollar-for-dollar, made to any community food bank up to $200,000.

The Edmonton Food Bank will be at the Oliver Square Safeway tomorrow throughout the  lunch and supper hour collecting donations. Edmontonains can also purchase $5 and $10 pre-packaged food bags provided by Safeway. The bags contain canned goods and other non-perishable foods.

“Those are items that are on our most-needed items list,” said Cailliau. “It’s a great way for Canada Safeway to partner with us and to offer a simple and easy way for their customers to make a donation to the food bank.”

Donations can also be made online through the Food Banks website:

robbt@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — Six schools, three chef judges, one trophy.

Junior high students from six different catholic schools competed Thursday against one another in the seventh annual Iron Chef competition at St. Thomas More junior high school.

Each school had one hour to complete a dish comprised of one protein, one starch and a choice and combination of three fruits and vegetables. Each team chose to cook a dish from a desired country:

• St. Thomas More — China — Chicken stuffed wontons  w/Mango noodle salad.
• Louis St. Laurent — Mexico — Homemade Pollo Tostados w/salsa, sour cream and guacamole.
• St. Elizabeth Seton — Lebanon — Sheesh Taouk Chicken w/Lebanese cucumber and tomato salad and golden couscous.
• Sir John Thompson — Jamaica — Homemade rice and beans and Jerk chicken tacos w/mango salsa.
• St. Rose — Italy — Mini chicken sausage Gnocchi (Italian pasta dumpling).
• J.J Bowlen — France — Pecan crusted chicken cordon bleu w/garlic mashed potatoes and broiled beets.

CTS consultant with the Edmonton Catholic School district Robert Jong, oversaw the competition in what was his fourth year organizing the event. Jong credited the rise in television cooking shows for the competitions popularity .

“What we found is that there’s a lot of sports teams and those kids usually get all the notoriety, so we thought it would be really neat to have an event for foods kids,” said Jong.

Three chef judges surveyed the different teams as they cooked and prepared their meals in their own separate mini-kitchens:

• Tammy Genge — Red Seal Chef — Culinary Instructor at St. Jospeh High School
• Cheryl Shinkaruk — CTS event organizer and cooking enthusiast — Edmonton Catholic Schools
• Emmanuel David — Red Seal Chef — Chef at Bistro la Persaud

Judges were marking the student-chefs for cleanliness, originality, presentation and taste. It’s been said that a happy kitchen is a clean kitchen. The judges were watching scrupulously on whether teams were properly sanitizing their utensils, knives and cutting boards, as well as the overall cleanliness of the kitchen itself.

“This one kitchen in particular is doing very well, they have hot water in their sink, they’re cleaning as they’re going, they’re counters are always being wiped down,” said red-seal chef Tammy Genge. “Whereas if you compare it to some other kitchens where there is everything all over, they would lose marks for that.”

But the big test is taste. After the one hour mark teams presented their dishes to the judges, who later convened in a separate room to decide on the winning dish. For chef Emmanuel David the ethnic-themed competition is not only tough for the students but it’s admittedly tough on the judges as well as each dish looks and tastes completely different.

“This type of competition is quite a challenge for the kids, you have to be very versed with the flavour of the country,” said David. “It shouldn’t be ethnic, it should be a black box with the same ingredients and then that’s how you judge the skill level.”

In the end, a top three was decided on:

1. Louis St. Laurent — Mexico
2. J.J. Bowlen — France
3. Sir John Thompson — Jamaica

In the past five years of Iron Chef competition, J.J. Bowlen won four times but this year belonged to the trio of Kandace Riel-Tonn and twin sisters Cassie and Bailey Garbutt from Louis St. Laurent, along with their coach and  foods teacher Alexis Cavanagh. The trio admitted that toughest part of cooking their dish was preserving the distinct flavours.

“If you end up having it right, it ends up working very well, but if you end up doing it a little off like the salsa broth, it could end up throwing the whole thing off,” said Riel-Tonn.

A senior high school Iron Chef competition will be held at Holy Trinity High School on Tuesday.

robbt@mymail@macewan.ca

Breads at Bon Ton bakery in west Edmonton. Photograph by Megan Perras

EDMONTON — Eating healthy can be an arduous task sometimes. Especially for those with an unstoppable craving for those fabulous things called carbohydrates.

With bathing-suit season coming up, many people are trying to slim down and limit their intake of goodies that add on those extra pounds.

At first, Bon Ton Bakery would not seem to be the kind of place where one would go to find a healthier option, but that’s exactly what they’re providing their customers with. The bakery, found at 8720 149 St., offers breads that are a healthier option to the standard grocery store variety.

They have 100 per cent stone-ground whole wheat bread and they bake with flour in which the entire kernel is milled. This delivers all of the nourishment which can be found in the grain.

Their bread is baked in-house, which creates an enticing aroma when you enter the store. Bon Ton Bakery has been in business for over 50 years, and also offers gluten-free baking options.

Other healthy options at Bon Ton Bakery Include:

• Stone-Ground Multigrain Bread, 2.5g fat and 80 calories per 36g
• Multigrain Rye Bread, 1.5g fat and 110 calories per 38g
• Barley Ginger Spice Cookies, which are high in fibre, 13g fat and 310 calories per 75g
• Barley, Fruit and Nut Bars , 11g fat and 230 calories per 2oz
• Cranberry Raisin Nut Bread, 7g fat and 190 calories per 70g

perrasm1@mymail.macewan.ca

Samantha Jo's homemade gluten free cupcakes sprinkled with sugary pigs and chicks. Photograph by Tyler Grant.

By Tyler Grant

EDMONTON- Everyone loves cupcakes. That includes those who have to eat gluten free ones.

One problem is that it’s not easy to get a good gluten free cupcake similar to the glutentized counterparts. A girl I know let me in on a little secret she spent 12 years mastering.

Samantha remembers the days when she was a little girl enjoying cupcakes, but then she was diagnosed as a celiac. This put her in a situation where she either had to buy sub-par desserts, or she had to learn how to make them.

Everything you need to make the best gluten free cupcakes in town. Photograph by Tyler Grant.

The Ingredients (for two dozen cupcakes)

3 cups of pre-mixed gluten free flour ( Samantha recommends Namaste Foods Perfect Flour Blend)

2 ½ cups of white sugar

1 cup of cocoa

2 ½ tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

2 cups of buttermilk

1 1/3 cup of oil

2 tsp. of vanilla

4 eggs

The Mixing

Mix all the dry ingredients to get the lumps out. This recipe doesn’t require sifting as many other recipes do. Next, add all the liquid ingredients until cake batter is smooth. Once this is ready, fill the paper baking cups about ¾ full.

The Baking

Samantha Jo's cupcakes baking up nicely in the oven. Photograph by Tyler Grant.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the oven’s the right temperature, place the cupcakes in for 15-25 minutes. The gap in the time depends entirely on how hot your oven gets. The safe bet is to tap the center of the cupcakes to make sure they’re not gooey in the middle.

The Icing

4 cups of icing sugar

4 tbsp. of soft butter

4 tbsp. of cocoa

2 tsp. of vanilla

4 tbsp. of milk (add more as needed)

Mix these ingredients until they’re icing-smooth. If you make it a bit too runny with too much milk, just add a little more icing sugar to thicken it up.

GrantT6@mymail.macewan.ca

By Tyler Grant

EDMONTON- With food allergies and intolerances on the rise, it’s becoming more difficult for sufferers of food problems to go out on the town for dinner.

Even when you can find a place that caters to allergies and intolerances, the menus can be misleading. Normally, I wouldn’t put myself into a story, but an experience I had caused me to write this.

My girlfriend is a celiac. This means she can’t eat anything with gluten in it. No bread, no pasta and no beer. There are numerous products containing some form of wheat that people consume daily.

While visiting a restaurant, my girlfriend had ordered a salad with asiago crisps. These are thin slices of cheese baked on a cookie sheet. The problem is, whoever made this for my girlfriend didn’t realize this was how it was made. Instead of what she thought would be asiago crisps, she got two slices of bread with cheese spread on them.

The crisis was averted when management changed her order, but it got me to thinking how many places in the west end of Edmonton served up gluten free items on their menus.

These are the ones I’ve found. If you would like to add places, email me and I will update the map.

GrantT6@mymail.macewan.ca

View Gluten Free Eats in West Edmonton in a larger map

Megan and Jordan Wilson of Roots and Wings Permaculture relaxing after a day's worth of permaculture workshopping on April 2, 2011 in west Edmonton. Photograph by Tyler Grant

By Tyler Grant

Britannia Youngstown — As fuel prices soar, the cost of transporting food is on the rise. But, there is a solution that will only cost you some of your time, sweat and a bit of your patience. It’s gardening with a twist. Permaculture is a way of utilizing your yard for your culinary benefit, and maximizing the return on your investment of energy spent maintaining it.

Megan and Jordan Wilson of Roots and Wings Permaculture have taken to teaching workshops about the benefits of creating a permaculture in your own yard. Their most recent workshop was held at the Britannia Youngstown community hall on April 2.

What is permaculture?

“Permaculture is a system of designing a sustainable human habitat,” says Megan.

For the layperson, Megan says this means, “permaculture designs systems that produce as much energy for you as they consume over their lifetime.”

The best explanation Megan has for this involves the everyday lawn. Around our city, the majority of lawns are covered in grass the owner must cut, but gets nothing in return. Therefore, the person maintaining the lawn expends more energy than is returned to him or her.

“Using permaculture design,” says Megan, “you would want to meet as many of your own needs as possible, as close as possible to your door.”

What’s different from my regular garden?

Marigold seedlings sprouting out of the soil under a fluorescent light at the Britannia Youngstown Community Hall on April 2, 2011. Photograph by Tyler Grant

Brothers Mark and David Duke, attendees at the permaculture workshop, say they learned how to better last year’s unsuccessful garden.

“The techniques learned were probably something to the effect of: how to arrange your garden, how to arrange the environment, and how to grow certain plants and vegetation,” says David.

It’s not just in the layout of your yard, it’s also in how you manage your soil.

Another participant of the workshop, Wendy Fletcher, says she “learned a lot about lasagne gardening.”

As scrumptious as it might sound to have lasagne growing in your back yard, Wendy espouses her newfound knowledge that lasagne gardening is something you do, “if you’ve got crappy soil, you start off with newspaper, and then you do your compost, then topsoil. And, if you do it in layers, it’s supposed to help your plants grow better.”

What can you grow?

In Alberta, the options are plentiful.

Seeing as it’s April in Edmonton and there’s still snow on the ground, Megan described what she had in last year’s garden.

“I had corn growing in the back, because it would be tallest. I had tomatoes in the front. I had squash, I had onions, I had herbs, I had some flowers — some of them edible, some of them not — all growing in a polyculture.”

The Duke brothers have opted for vegetables in their 2011 garden.

“Looks like we’re going to do some more course vegetables this year,” says David. “I’d also like to try to grow more tomatoes. We’ve got broccoli seeds here. Last year we grew Romaine lettuce, but we might try something different this year.”

“Maybe we should try iceberg lettuce this year,” says David’s brother, Mark.

One of the other workshoppers, Karen Chennery, says she plans to grow Saskatoon berries in her yard.

“I learned they can be a bush or a hedge,” she says.

This is advantageous because for those who prefer plants over fences. Not only can a Saskatoon bush act naturally as a bush, it can also be a trimmed as a hedge.

Karen’s got an ulterior motive for growing Saskatoons though .

“If you can get fruit off it, why not?”

The other benefit to the permaculture workshop

Wendy Fletcher standing out front of the Britannia Youngstown Community Hall on April 2, 2011 just after the permaculture workshop. Photograph by Tyler Grant

Wendy Fletcher wasn’t just at the workshop to hone her gardening skills, she  happens to work for the Stony Plain Road and Area Business Association, which received the proceeds from Saturday’s events.

“The money that people paid for their registration fee — for the workshop —  is being paid to the Holistic Urban Market (HUM) that they are planning on putting in on Stony Plain Road,” says Wendy.

Jordan Wilson says they raised roughly $600 for the market.

The Holistic Urban Market is an initiative set up to rejuvenate the Stony Plain Road area through bringing together people from the surrounding community, who wish to make their neighbourhoods safer and more attractive.

Permaculture podcast with Megan Wilson

GrantT6@mymail.macewan.ca

Samantha Ellett takes a delicious forkful of a delightful European accident Tyler Grant invented during his travels across the pond. Photograph by Tyler Grant.

By Tyler Grant

Here’s one recipe that’ll fill your belly and keep you warm during the waning days of winter’s grasp. I first dabbled with this one after watching a flatmate in Germany toil over a stove. My thoughts of being able to one-up her resulted in this. It’s a touch on the heavy side, but a lot on the delicious side. This is the only dish I make using all four elements, so clear your stovetop and your stomach.

The Fixings:

800g-1kg of penne or rigatoni

3-4 palm size ham steaks

1 small onion

2 stocks of broccoli

250ml of whipping cream (liquid)

250ml milk (your choice, but I opt for 2%)

150-200g of feta cheese

3 cubes of vegetable soup stock or 2 tbsp vegetable soup stock powder

1-2 tsp of lemon juice

Pepper to taste

Course of action:

Fill a large pot with water, salt, and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Bring to a boil, add the pasta, and get the other fixings ready. This may seem odd to the seasoned chef, but a large pot of water needs a fair amount of time to boil. Seeing as this is the case, it should provide you with plenty of time to do your slicing and dicing. I also do this to make sure all the ingredients are piping hot at the same time.

Cut the broccoli in to bite-size pieces, and place them in whatever you use to steam vegetables. I have this nifty pot/steamer combo that sits one on top of the other.  Throw this on one of the back elements, but hold off on firing up the burner. Keep in mind, there’s a lot less water used in the steaming process, so the broccoli can be ready before you know it.

Cube the ham steaks into fingernail size chinks and toss them into a frying pan with the finely chopped onion. Like the broccoli, hold off on cooking these till everything is closer to being ready.

In a medium size pot, pour the whipping cream and milk in. Crumble the feta cheese with your hand into the cream/milk combination. Next, add the soup stock. If you’re using the cubes, bust them up with your fingers. Squirt in the lemon juice. Add pepper to taste.

All good things come to those who wait:

Penne can take a while depending on how soft you like it. El dente is the pasta connoisseur’s choice, but it’s up to you. Penne perfection is around 12-15 minutes depending on how hot your element gets. Once the pasta’s bubbling away, you can start the other things.

Fry the ham and onions on medium to high heat, but try to time it to be done when the pasta is — that means the onions are golden, and is just starting to get liquidy-film on it.

As for the sauce, there’s some cooking anomaly that causes the lemon juice to not make the milk and cream curdle. Trust me on this, it won’t get chunky and it’ll taste great. Be sure to keep the sauce on low heat until the cheese is melted or has mostly melted. Stir periodically to prevent the cheese from melting to the bottom of the pot.

Lastly, and it’s important that this step is last, steam the broccoli. Ideally, you want it a little crunchy, so, like the ham and onions, time it to be ready when your pasta is.

The Mixing:

Drain the pasta, and toss it back into the large pot. Then, put the broccoli, ham and onions on top the pasta. Now, pour the sauce over everything, and toss it all like you would a salad. This will get the sauce over everything, and will help melt any last bits of cheese.

Serve up a storm:

The best way to a member of the opposite sex’s heart is through his or her stomach. Keeping this in mind, dish out a couple spoonfuls, slice up some Italian bread, pour a couple glasses of your favourite wine, and watch the smiles, while basking in the glorious compliments.

Disclaimer: Tyler Grant cannot be held responsible for inadvertent feelings of lust brought on by the consuming of his European pasta invention.

GrantT6@mymail.macewan.ca

Tim Barath, cook at the Red Piano, shows off the Alligator Popcorn dish at the second annual Taste of Bourbon Street at West Edmonton Mall on Wednesday, March 30, 2011. Photograph by Mathew White.

EDMONTON – West Edmonton Mall was alive with flavour at the second annual ‘Taste of Bourbon Street’ Wednesday night.

Fourteen restaurants along the mall’s well-known strip took part in the event.  Each restaurant offered a unique selection of food while balloon artists, DJs and executive chefs entertained the large crowd.

Sheri Clegg, media and PR manager with WEM, said the event is “designed to focus attention on Bourbon Street and what it offers.”

“Bourbon Street has an exciting dynamic and a great mix of restaurants. There’s something to appeal to everyone’s tastes.”

Of everything offered, one of the more popular – and exotic – dishes of the evening was the alligator popcorn from the Red Piano.

Tim Barath, cook at the restaurant, explained how the dish is prepared.

“We get that (alligator) straight from Louisiana, hand-cut it, marinate it in butter milk over night and then just flour it and fry it,” said Barath.  “Just like popcorn chicken.”

The dish was served with a spicy-tarragon honey-mustard, which Barath says gives it even more of a twist.  He said the response has been great.

“Edmonton’s always been really big on alligator for some reason,” said Barath.  “We’ve had alligator in our store ever since we opened and I think this has been the best response to the alligator we’ve ever had.”

The event has not yet been confirmed for a third year, but Clegg said she is hopeful it will continue.

WhiteM26@mymail.macewan.ca

BRITANNIA YOUNGSTOWN — Despite the late March wintry conditions in our city, the outdoor planting season is almost upon us.

Falling snow may deter you from exercising your green thumb, but now is the time of year to get your plants started indoors.

“Start your plants under a light in mid-Marchish,” says Rosa Veldkamp, a member of the Britannia Youngstown Community League garden club.

A quick reading of the back of seed packages suggests getting your herbs and vegetables started six to eight weeks before the last threat of frost, which is in line with Veldkamp’s recommendation.

If you’re unsure of your botanical skills, the garden club meets on the first Thursday of every month at the Britannia Youngstown Community Hall at 15927 105 ave.  The next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on April 7. Guest speaker Kevin Napora will be speaking about landscape design at the meeting, but the garden club members can offer up friendly advice if you ask.

The Britannia Youngstown Community Hall will also be playing host to a Permaculture Workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 2. According to their website, the workshop is for “anyone who wants to learn about living sustainably, saving money, and likes eating nutrient-rich foods.”

The folks in attendance will be treated to a locally grown lunch, and are invited to stay for a potluck with the Edmonton permaculture community.

For information regarding registration, fees and who to contact, check the Britannia Youngstown Community League’s website.

GrantT6@mymail.macewan.ca