STEMS & FORKS

Beautiful musings of flora and fare.

stemsandforks

Mochi Balls with Fermented Organic Blueberries from Chile

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This post was sponsored by Fruits From Chile. All thoughts and opinions are my own

If you didn’t get it right with your new year’s resolutions this month, don’t worry. There’s another new year coming up on February 5th 2019 and you can start anew! With the Lunar new year just around the corner, I thought these Mochi Balls filled with lacto fermented organic Chilean Blueberries would be perfect to ring in the new year and provide a second opportunity to become healthier and kinder to one’s body and mind. 

Lacto-Fermented Foods:

So we all know how naturally fermented foods provide healthy probiotic bacteria. Stuff that’s good for our gut. Studies have shown that the natural probiotics created from fermentation also increases vitamin content thereby boosting our immunity naturally which helps fend off the flu and cold. (source) Consuming fermented foods are also safer to consume than raw as the lactic acids essentially kill off the bad bacteria such as E-Coli. (Source) And it has been proven time and again that improving gut health aids digestion thereby helping promote healthy body weight. It doesn’t stop here. There are a plethora of reasons lacto fermented foods are good for us. 

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Kumquot Orange Cake with a Grand Marnier Pomegranate Icing

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This post was sponsored by Paderno. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My long term memory is strong, vivid and somewhat creepy. A couple years ago I ran into a classmate from grade 5 on the bus. Her face was exactly the same. Dimpled chin, large freckles and green eyes. I had fond memories of her. The first time I ever had a pomegranate was in fact when Kelly offered me half the fruit. I still remember sitting in the classroom portable and Kelly telling me that we had to count how many little “ruby” seeds there were in one pomegranate. It was something she would do with her brother at home. Count every single red juicy gem and report back home on a pomegranate chart. Apparently the average was 500. 

I remember that first seed I popped into my mouth. The sweet, sharp yet sour juice bursting in my mouth was unique. And simply a lot of fun plucking the little gems and counting them. 

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Grapefruit Rosemary Vodka Fizz with Montellier Sparkling Water

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This post was sponsored by Montellier Sparkling Water. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Grapefruit, lime, rosemary, ginger and vodka with a splash of sparkling water. With those ingredients, I think this drink should be renamed to Winter’s Healing Cocktail!  

I have a confession. I was a late bloomer with cocktail consumption. In my twenties when Sex and the City was at its peak, every Generation X’er was drinking Cosmopolitans pre dinner. I however would always order a simple unadulterated glass of red wine. I was a purist when it came to alcohol. Anything mixed with syrups and fruits then shaken with ice and priced over $15 did not rock my boat. I felt I was too “mature” (and perhaps frugal!) to have spiked fruit punch before dinner. 

Well the pendulum has definitely swung the other way. Now cocktails are my new obsession. The flavour combos are infinite. The whole shaken or stirred, ice or no ice, to garnish or not, to make it fizz or flat, warm or cold and to find the appropriate glass to reflect the cocktail’s personality are not immature at all. It’s really and truly ART. Or as I like to call it now. Its like cake in a glass!

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Kimchi Walnut and Arugula Crostini with Campania Tomato Sauce

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This post is a not for profit collaboration with Mealshare. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I could sit here and lecture you all about sharing, giving and ending youth hunger but lets be frank. The reality is most of us want to enjoy our first world lives…dinner out with friends and family. But I know We ALL Want to make a DIFFERENCE. Which is why the concept behind Mealshare is brilliant. 

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Food Styling and Photography Workshop Paris France-Saturday February 2nd 2019

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SOLD OUT

POUR LE FRANÇAIS 🇫🇷, VOIR CI-DESSOUS

Elise Dumas from @thepineapplechef and I are thrilled to announce that we’ll be joining forces again to offer an intense full day workshop from the city of love, Paris France.

Join us for a full day of intensive learning – whether you’re a hobby photographer or an established influencer, you’ll get tons of styling and photography advice and inspiration to thrust you to the next level.  We’ll have step-by-step demos, hands-on practice breakouts with Elise and I guiding each participant individually. All our tips and tricks will be shared so come armed with questions. We’ll also have a  practical session on how to navigate social media and treat your blog/social media like a business. We’ll have available food props, boards, fresh botanicals and of course food to style and shoot. 

Spaces are limited so book soon.

Food Styling and Photography Master Class:

When:

Saturday, February 2nd 2019

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Where: 

Gorgeous classic Parisian Studio in the trendy 7th Arrondissement, Paris, France

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Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake with Mulled Wine Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Poached Pears

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This post was sponsored by Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi Wines. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Please enjoy wine responsibly.

Wine, chocolate and cake. My three Achilles heel, my guilty pleasures, my three best amigos. These three are my food soulmates. I know it sounds extreme but that’s how much I love wine, chocolate and cake. And interestingly all three came at different points in my life.

Cake.

As a child, I’d remember attending birthday parties and seeing my friends crowd around the gift table ogling all the colourfully wrapped gifts shaking, sniffing and guessing what was in each package. I however, would be in the kitchen ogling the cake. Wondering what flavour was inside. Praying the icing wasn’t that flavourless saccharin drenched grease from a can but a fluffy home made butter cream or cream cheese icing. I’d then cue myself up in the line of kids just so, to make sure I got the right piece. That is, the largest piece and the piece from the moist centre. And of course, I always had seconds and occasionally thirds. 

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Spiced Rum, Date, Walnut, Molasses Bundt Cake with Rum Caramel Drizzle

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Koreans can’t bake.

That’s been my insecurity since starting this baking journey. That I’m Korean. And unlike my fellow caucasian friends, I have no family pie recipe or a mom that baked chocolate chip cookies with me on Saturday mornings. The only things I baked as a child were Pillsbury crescents from a tin or boxed Duncan Hines. Baking from scratch was never a part of my family growing up.

Instead, my Saturdays consisted of Korean language classes followed by math drills with Sargent Shin… and his chopstick wand. After math, my sisters and I would get to watch some TV whilst stuffing thousands of Korean dumplings called “mandu”. Okay. Maybe not thousands but god did it ever feel like thousands! Only after all the mandus were stuffed and our math drills were done correctly, were my sisters and I allowed to bake Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake. And if we were really lucky, my mom would have bought the chocolate icing in a carton for us to ice the yellow cake with. As a child, baking this cake and devouring it was my escape, my utopia, my moment of being unkorean. 

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SweeTango Apple, Chèvre and Cardamom Tart (refined sugar free)

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This is a sponsored post in collaboration with SweeTango. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Apples are the most cultivated and universally recognized fruit and perhaps one of the oldest that has existed on earth. It’s also arguably the most written about fruit in fables, religion and myths. It has been symbolized as both good and evil.

In the western world, we know the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, where the serpent tempts man to eat the forbidden fruit thereby starting the fall of man and the Christian definition of sin. Irish folklore has it that if a woman peels the skin of the apple in one continuous ribbon and tosses it over her shoulder then the initials of her future husband will appear. And the Trojan War? Well, the idea of Troy tossing the golden apple to the chosen goddess soon evolved to an ancient Greek tradition of throwing an apple to the one you love. 

SweeTango apples available early October to mid November. See SweeTango.com for a retailer near you

It’s no wonder this beloved fruit has been developed and bred into such amazing varieties. One favourite variety of mine is SweeTango. Grown in Canada exclusively for the Canadian market, SweetTango is a premium apple variety famed for its crisp, sweet, tangy and juicy bite. SweeTango also holds the Guinness World Record for “Loudest Crunch of an Apple” (March 2016) The bite registered at an impressive 79.1 decibels. To put things in perspective, a normal conversation clocks in at 60 decibels and a vacuum or kitchen blender 70-80 decibels (according to American Speech-Language Hearing Association)

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Food Styling and Photography Workshop

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FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3rd 2018

SOLD OUT

One Day Intensive Workshop

This workshop will demonstrate how to style food to tell the best and most appropriate visual story for your food or subject.  Through elements such as props, natural light, angles, botanicals and editing, the simplest food or subject can be transformed into an opulent visual story. Learn how to achieve a bright and vibrant scene or a dark and moody painterly capture.  

There will be a hands on style sessions where you can create a still life scene with cake, food and props. As well as an opportunity to work with a model to learn the art of Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro/lighting and triangle technique in portraits. All this will be followed up with a tutorial on editing your work in Adobe Lightroom.

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FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

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FOOD STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20TH 2018

SOLD OUT

One Day Intensive Workshop

This workshop will demonstrate how to style food to tell the best and most appropriate visual story for your food or subject.  Through elements such as props, natural light, angles, botanicals and editing, the simplest food or subject can be transformed into an opulent visual story. Learn how to achieve a bright and vibrant scene or a dark and moody painterly capture.  

There will be a hands on style sessions where you can create a still life scene with cake, food and props. As well as an opportunity to work with a model to learn the art of Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro/lighting and triangle technique in portraits. All this will be followed up with a tutorial on editing your work in Adobe Lightroom.

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