Written by Rosemary Mantini | 30 May 2011
Posted in KitchenMama

I bet you thought that going gluten-free-dairy-free meant the end of scrumptious desserts. Well, that's just not true. A few substitutions here and there, and you'll find yourself creating food that's as, if not more, sumptuous. Take ice cream, for instance.  Ok, so you can't have dairy. No problem; use coconut milk instead. I recently had a few scoops of dark chocolate ice cream made entirely from coconut milk. It was so thick and creamy, and what coconut taste there may have been melded perfectly with the chocolate. There's also the ubiquitous soy milk that can be used anywhere regular dairy is used.

So, when a friend of mine dropped by for a visit yesterday, I thought I'd throw together a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I didn't, however, want to use any of the butter substitutes available on the market because that would have involved a time-consuming errand. So, I pulled out one of the ever-present staples in my pantry -- olive oil. I can just see your eyebrows arching at that revelation. The olive oil won't lend its strong taste to the cookies. First, the recipe calls for only a little bit of oil. Second, there's so much sugar in the cookie that whatever olive flavour might be there is effectively disguised. However, feel free to use butter, if you can, or a milder oil, like canola.

Written by Rosemary Mantini | 23 May 2011
Posted in KitchenMama

Are you going to the Niagara Food & Wine Expo that's running from May 27th to the 29th? A neat thing that will be happening is that the event organizers have partnered with a local non-profit charity called Project SHARE. It works like this: for every sample glass that is returned, $1 will be donated to the charity. I've been to a few tasting events where this sort of arrangement has been in effect. The collaboration is a great example of making good use of a little thought-of part of a tasting event. We all get a glass. Then, at the end, we take it home and add it to our collection or drop it off at a table on the way out. I know that the tasting glass is a fun souvenir to bring home; but, do you really need another one taking up space in your cupboard?