Maple-Brined Pork Roast with Roasted Pear Chutney

The nights are cool and the days are warming. Maple trees start to drip their liquid gold into buckets from Maple farms across the NorthEast. Did you know that it can take up to 40 gallons of the sap to produce just one gallon of syrup? If you haven't ever been able to visit a maple farm, I highly recommend it. It's an amazing process and I've never heard of a maple farmer that wasn't happy to have a few extra hands around to help. You better hurry though, the season often only lasts 4-6 weeks before the trees bud and the sap stops running.

Virtual Potluck and Coombs Family Farms

Photo from www.coombsfamilyfarms.com

Every year around this time, the weather starts warming up and Maple trees start to release their sap. When I lived in Montreal I loved this time of year when sugar shacks would start popping up all around the countryside. These little shacks would create wonderful meals centered around the wonderful maple syrup. Every dish had some kind of maple product in it and we even drank maple water; the pure sap straight from the tree.

Tour de Food Trucks ~ March 2012

It's a beautiful day here in Minnesota. People are outside enjoying the sunshine and what better way to celebrate Spring than the return of the Food Trucks!

Today was the first day that many of the trucks were back on the streets in Minneapolis and a group of MN Food Bloggers got together for a tour and feast of food. We ate some great food, reconnected with truck owners and got excited for the rest of the season to come.

Some of the trucks we visited today were:

Smack Shack
Get Sauced
Simply Steves
Barrio

 Enjoy some photos of the day:

Lemon Pudding Cakes with Raspberry Sauce

We're at it again. The Virtual Potluck team joined up with True Lemon this time and we've got a whole assortment of dishes using their products. Check out our host blog here to join the party.

I love to use fresh lemons and limes but I rarely have them stocked in the fridge and since I cook so randomly, meaning I rarely plan ahead, when I need a lemon or lime it's never there. That leaves me a few options, but most are artificial and don't provide the pure lemon flavor you're looking for in a lemon centered dish.

Poutine

As a missionary I spent two years in the Montreal area of Canada. In each city that I lived in, one of our favorite things to do was to try and sample the Poutine from as many different places as we could to determine who had the best. For those not familiar with Poutine, it's a combination of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. Sounds pretty simple but there are so many variations and favorites that you almost never get the same thing twice.

Nuts About Oats

I'm so excited to announce my participation in the Nuts About Oats Contest sponsored by Peanut Butter & Co. and Bob's Red Mill!

I was one of six bloggers asked to create a breakfast recipe using peanut butter and oats. It took me about 2.5 seconds to figure out what I wanted to make. I grew up with my my Mom making these amazing cranberry cream scones and I knew I could easily integrate some peanut butter and oats into them and make them even better.

Polish Sausage with Smothered Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes

It's buffalo week with Virtual Potluck! Ever cooked with buffalo meat or sausage? If you haven't you're going to have lots of recipes to try out now. Visit our host blog to see join in the potluck!

This buffalo came to us directly from The Buffalo Guys. The thing I liked most about the buffalo meat is that it's lower in cholesterol and fat than other comparable meats. These buffalo are happy guys out roaming free on the range and no fillers or other nasty stuff to get in the way. The flavor is great and we used all of them in a variety of ways. Hot dogs went into some Mac and Cheese for  the kids, Andouille sausage went into a Jambalaya and the Polish Sausage went in to the dish I'll share with you below.