AMY - Day 3

This morning I again made a smoothie for breakfast, and it was very tasty! I added more blueberries this time for a slightly thicker shake. With this I got lots of fruit, and dairy products but no grains or protein. After class today I went to various locations in Kelowna in order to find my groceries to complete my dietary needs for consumption. I went to Johnny's Meat Market for chicken and cheeses, the farmers market supplied me with oats and flour (made in Enderby by Wolfgang's Grain and Flour) and vegetables like kale and peppers. Meghan was kind enough to provide me with a variety of herbs from her garden to take home as well. I than went to Choices to pick up some milk, but the only local milk they had available was butter milk from d'dutchmens dairy. I had hoped to go to a honey farm, to see how they collect the honey from bee's, however the one I planned on visiting was closed, or too busy today so I went to the Jammery instead. The honey they have there is local, from Keremeos. I asked about the honey because I noticed tons of variety on the shelves. They had the regular, runny honey, as well as creamed honey, and a variety of flavours like Ice Wine, Blueberry, Strawberry and Peach.There fruity varieties are all made from local fruit concentrates! I was able to try a sample of the Ice Wine flavour, and it was very sweet and tasty. I also learned that honey does not go bad, as bacteria cannot enter the substance and thus it is great for cuts and scrapes! I also went to Arrowleaf Cellars, a local vineyard and winery very close to my house. This is a small business which is family owned, and I got to sample a couple types, and purchased a white and a red from the First Crush collection. Mission completed! I got everything on my list from yesterday, although I have to do something with this wheat...

For lunch I had snack foods, I had apples with cheese, some red wine and roasted chestnuts! This met every requirement except grains. After looking for an extended period of time for some recipe of bread that had no yeast, no baking powder or soda and no butter, I gave up and decided to conduct an experiment. I mixed my whole wheat flour with some buttermilk and honey and made a thick dough. I then rolled this into small, flat shaped balls and put them in the oven for 15 minutes or so. They came out warm and smelling good, they smelled a lot like plain wheat, but they buttermilk and honey really added flavour! They were also very dense but very satisfying and definitely a whole lot of grain servings to check off my Canadian food guide today. I also am in the process of making my own pasta, whole wheat egg noodles to be precise. I have made the dough, and rolled and cut about half of it into pasta strips to make into a meal later on.

For dinner today I was feeling pretty confident in my experimental abilities, from the chestnut roasting to biscuits and pasta noodles. So I made breaded chicken skewers. I sliced up the chicken and put it in a mixture of flour and oats, than into buttermilk, and back into the flour and oats. I than stuck it on skewers of rosemary stems from the herbs I got, with a combination of local peppers and onions to add flavour as well, I than stuck some herbs into the chicken for more flavour. I put this breaded chicken and veggie skewer combo in the oven to bake, and proceeded to warm up some of my biscuits from earlier. I put cheddar cheese with the biscuits, and layed some kale down under my fresh chicken skewers to give the meal some aesthetics (and more veggies), paired the dish with a lovely white wine and was happy as a clam! Dinner included food from every group, and a fair amount of it all, so it was very successful!

Overall, today was full of experiments and trials, and lucky for me they all turned out well. I feel like I am really improving on cooking skills, as I am pushed out of my comfort zone for nearly every meal. Tomorrow my goal is to make pasta noodles! And hopefully decide how to consume those delicious looking beans!

- Amy