Road Trip - Bayfield, Ontario

Wow, it's been a while since there's been a new post on this blog! Since we moved last December there has been lots going on and now that it's summertime, we're really enjoying our new yard and garden. 

This is one of the things we've been spending time on.  Our house's previous owner planted beautiful perennial gardens so every week brings a new surprise.  

But last weekend we decided to take a break from our garden and head on a little road trip to Bayfield, Ontario.  Bayfield is a little village on the shores of Lake Huron, between Goderich and Grand Bend.  It's only about an hour from home.  We've been there on day trips several times but this time we stayed overnight at The Little Inn of Bayfield, located right on Main Street in the centre of town. 

The Little Inn is an historic property recently under new ownership and it was a perfect place to stay. We had a little room with a king sized bed on the second floor. Service at the front desk was beyond friendly and helpful. In fact, service was absolutely fantastic everywhere we went in the Inn and its restaurants and bars. 

The first thing we did when we arrived was make a beeline to the Inn's weekly Backyard BBQ, every Saturday this summer from 11:30 am until 3:30 pm or until the food is gone. It's all you can eat for $19.99 per person and the food was surprisingly delicious!  We had pulled pork, ribs, chicken, brisket, corn, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, amazing biscuits, and even pie for dessert. 

We also ordered some craft beer for Matt and a bourbon sour for me.  The BBQ is served outside in a lovely back garden with plenty of sun and shade. The service was once again terrific, especially from the young man handling the grill.

Next we headed for a walk down Main Street, which is great for shopping.  And then we walked down to the marina and main beach.  There are three beaches in Bayfield and we had a lovely time swimming in the lake.

For dinner we headed to the Black Dog Village Pub. We've had lunch here many times and we were looking forward to being able to stay longer and enjoy their extensive beer and cocktail list.  Unfortunately, service wasn't quite up to their normal standards so we were only able to order one cocktail each with dinner.  

The food was fantastic though!  This cauliflower & quinoa salad was so good I can't wait to attempt to make it myself. 

After dinner we were still thirsty so we headed to the Ashwood Inn's bourbon bar.  This place has been nicely renovated and has a huge patio.  

We headed back to our Little Inn for one last cocktail in their wonderful bar.  

We had a great sleep and in the morning we were delighted to find that breakfast was included with our room rate.  The breakfast buffet had eggs, bacon, sausage, cold meats and cheeses, excellent chicken and roasted vegetables, salads and desserts, plus juice and coffee. It was an unexpected treat. 

Before leaving Bayfield we stopped at the cutest bird store I've ever seen. Porter's Hill has a great selection of bird feeders and seed, plus other great gifts. And the service is extremely knowledgeable and friendly.  We will be back here for sure. 

On the way home we stopped by one of our favourite places, Twin Pines Cider House. We've been here several times but were pleased to see they now they have a new tasting room on the main floor.  We picked up some cider and glasses and headed home. 

It's so great to have such a wonderful getaway so close to home. Bayfield is definitely close enough for a day trip, but it was very relaxing to stay overnight. We will be back soon for sure!  

  

Beer Baron: Christmas in June | The London Beer & BBQ Show 2016

The Beer Baron is back! This post comes from Matt and you can find him on Twitter & Instagram @geekcanuck 

The London Beer & BBQ Show has steadily been getting bigger and hoppier with each passing year. At last year’s show, I discovered Elora Brewing Co.’s Lady Friend IPA and Maclean’s Ales’ Luck & Charm Oatmeal Stout, two fantastic beers that I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy many times since. What wonderful Ontario craft beer discoveries are in store for this year? Read on to find out!

The Ontario craft beer scene certainly seems healthy and ever growing. It’s pretty amazing what has happened in the last decade. This year, my most pleasant discovery of the show was Four Fathers Brewing Co., from just north of Guelph, which is a pretty wonderful part of the province for craft beer.

There is no such thing as a bad time for Russian Imperial Stout, so despite the almost-summer heat, I couldn’t resist trying their Pyotr Chetyre Russian Imperial Stout with Cinnamon and Vanilla and I’m glad I did. Hiding it’s 8.5% abv well, it was a welcome addition to the Ontario stout scene and was nicely balanced and not at all overwhelming, despite the style and spices.

On the other end of the abv and flavour spectrum - but no less a wonderful craft beer discovery - was Highlander Brew Co.’s Beerded Lady, a delicate but lively light ale that they somehow managed not to call a session ale, despite the rising popularity of the name. Beerded Lady had a subtle sweetness and a light hop finish that would make it a perfect summer ale.
    

                                         

Speaking of summer, Neustadt Springs Brewery brought their Sour Kraut raspberry lager to town, which is always a nice, tart treat. While you can sometimes find it Milos’ Craft Beer Emporium in London, the brewery in quaint and adorable Neustadt, Ontario is worth a visit if you happen to be heading up to Wiarton or Tobermory and need a nice place to stop for a break. The people and the historic brewery are both top-notch, as is the beer, though it seems in need of a marketing refresh to compete in the bold new age of Ontario craft beer.

Speaking of marketing and none-too-subtle segues, we have Cameron’s Brewing from Oakville, Ontario, who just this February rebranded and launched their bold and wonderfully simplistic new labels. Cameron’s beer has always been solid but I expect their rebranding will serve them well, just as Wellington Brewing did with their own bold rebranding and subsequent growth years before.

On the newer sider of the Ontario craft beer scene, we have Whitewater Brewing Co., from the Ottawa Valley. Interestingly enough, I first tried their Midnight Stout oatmeal milk stout at the tiny but wonderful Bayfield Wine & Food Festival in May. There is nothing tiny about Midnight Stout, it is creamy, bold and inviting and - god and LCBO bureaucratic processes willing - I’ll be thrilled to see it on the LCBO shelves this fall.

While it is the London Beer & BBQ Show (and a shout out to Shmokey’s for always having the best BBQ in town), there were a couple other surprises to be had, namely in the form of booze! The Clockwatching Tart and I both love gin and the Tobermory / Georgian Bay area, so it is no wonder we were drawn to the trying a gin & tonic from Georgian Bay Spirit Co., which featured juniper sourced from the Georgian Bay area and was really quite wonderful.

Just as the Georgian Bay Spirit Co. adds local flavour to make its product special, so too do the people behind Chic Choc spiced rum, who import their rum and then add a blend of nordic spices from the Chic Choc mountain region of Quebec. Smooth and happily not sweet, Chic Choc was another nice discovery and makes an excellent dark and stormy mixed with ginger beer or dark ginger ale.

That wraps up another London Beer & BBQ Show for us. Like Christmas, it was full of wonderful surprises, amazing scents and tastes, and fantastic people - and is also followed best by a nice afternoon nap. Cheers!

Happy Hour: Lavender Lady

I've been experimenting with gin cocktails lately. Gin is so refreshing as it gets warmer outside. 

I didn't used to be a fan of gin. Although my first-ever cocktail was a Singapore Sling (when I was not quite legal age), I found gin to be a little harsh when I was younger. I particularly disliked the combination of gin and tonic, which tasted like pine trees to me.  
It's amazing how our tastebuds change as we age.  Now I will seek out a refreshing gin or complex bourbon cocktail on a menu instead of something safe and sweet.

This cocktail is based on the "Lady" cocktails popular after prohibition.  A Pink Lady is gin, grenadine and eggwhite.  A White Lady is gin, Cointreau and lemon juice. I love the White Lady, so I thought I'd try to make a Lavender Lady with lavender from my garden. 

I made a lavender simple syrup by mixing a cup of sugar with a cup of water and steeping 5 sprigs of fresh lavender in the syrup as it heats.  I left the lavender in the syrup to strain as it cooled, for about an hour, creating a subtle, floral syrup.

Mix 2 ounces gin, 1 ounce lavender syrup and 1 ounce fresh lemon juice in a cocktail mixer half filled with ice.  Shake until the mixer is cold and frosty on the outside, about 30 seconds.

Pour the drink into a cocktail glass and garnish with a sprig of lavender.  It's not a purple drink, but it is light, floral, refreshing, and very lady-like.

Enjoy!  

Strawberry & Brie Puff Pastry Tart

Here's another Tart of the Month! 

I've been slacking on my tart prep in 2016. Things have been hectic and I've had very little time for baking, but this tart is so quick and easy, it barely counts as baking at all!

I had leftover cheese and fruit from a dinner party we had, so I decided to put it all together in some puff pastry for a tasty snack.  

You can use virtually any combination of cheese and fruit - blueberries and cream cheese, peaches and goat's cheese, apples and cheddar, pears and blue cheese... the possibilities are endless. 

Simply slice up the fruit and place it on a sheet of thawed puff pastry.

Then top with the cheese of your choice either sliced, spread, or crumbled over the fruit

I attempted to get fancy and create a braid pattern by slicing the puff pastry in diagonal strips on either side of the filling.  I should have started braiding at the bottom though.

My braid pattern didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped, but it's still kind of neat!

Mix an egg with a little water and brush over the pastry and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until browned and crisp.  The cheese will melt out the sides a bit but that's ok!

Slice and serve warm or at room temperature. This makes a great snack or appetizer for a party.  Or even a not-too-sweet dessert, perhaps with a little whipped cream or ice cream. 

Enjoy this easy tart with all the fruits coming into season soon!  

Happy Hour - Mint Julep

The Kentucky Derby is coming up next weekend. I don't follow horse racing, I just learned this from general chatter on the internet.  Two years ago, we drove down to Nashville via Kentucky and happened to be in Lexington on the weekend of the Rolex Kentucky horse racing event. We just managed to find a hotel room - the town was packed!  We had a fabulous time and returned the following year for Matt's birthday. On the way home from Nashville, we'd planned to stop in Louisville, Kentucky for lunch but we stopped at a visitor's centre on the highway and learned it was now Derby weekend and we should avoid the area at all costs!  So much for my thorough planning. 

Kentucky is where we fell in love with bourbon. Since we just bought a new house, we're not travelling this spring, so I thought I'd take a trip back to Kentucky through cocktails!

Tacos de Carnitas

It's clear if you've read my blog that we love tacos. We eat them every chance we get when we're out and about whether in Mexico, California, North Carolina, Toronto, Niagara or here at home in London, Ontario.  And I love to make them at home too.

Tacos de Carnitas are time consuming to make, but not difficult at all. And while you're taking the time to roast pork shoulder in its own fat, it only makes sense to make enough to feed a crowd. 


Even if, like me, you know people who "don't like tacos", these carnitas are so mildly spiced, tender, crispy and delicious, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love at first bite. 

The recipe and technique comes from The Food Lab at Serious Eats. I didn't make their salsa verde, because I have my own, canned last summer. But I followed the rest of the directions pretty much exactly. 

Here's what you need for these amazing tacos.  This amount will feed 8-10 people but you can easily halve or double the recipe.  I froze half of the roasted pork and then thawed and crisped it weeks later.

Craft Cider Revelations: Q&A with Revel Cider's Tariq Ahmed

This post comes from Matt Brown, The Beer Baron. Find him on Twitter & Instagram @geekcanuck

Last summer, the Clockwatching Tart and I got to spend a wonderful evening in Toronto on the Craft Cider Cruise. As you’ll see in the original article, one of the most exciting aspects of the cruise was discovering Revel Cider Co., which was brand new at the time. Since that time, we’ve been lucky enough to try a few more Revel ciders on rare occasions at Milos’ Craft Beer Emporium, but it wasn’t exactly easy to come by. So, you can imagine our delight when we saw this poster online and in the window at Milos’:

So, before we get to our Q&A with Tariq Ahmed, Revel Cider’s self-proclaimed “CEO, cider maker, delivery guy, sales guy, janitor – everything really”, let’s take a look at the four ciders that helped celebrate Revel Cider’s one-year anniversary celebration!

Bittersweet Freedom 7% abv: First up was Bittersweet Freedom, made from a blend of Bittersweet crab apples and Freedom, a heritage variety. “I chose Freedom apples for Bittersweet Freedom because it had nice acidity, a touch of tannin, and I found it along with the Bittersweets at the same time. Sometimes you just gotta work with what life gives you. I found Freedom had some great characteristics (tannin + acidity) when I tasted it for making good cider. It was also great that it happened to be organically grown from a farmer I trusted,” says Tariq. Personally, I enjoyed the slight bit of funkiness and tartness and that it started clean and crisp, with a lingering sweetness – a great start to Revelations month!

Oud Blanc 9% abv: The Clockwatching Tart was out of town and missed this one, but I’m glad I didn’t, as it was the highlight of the month for me and the best new cider I’ve tried in the past year. Admittedly, between loving Oud Bruin, the Flemish sour style of beer it is based on, and loving Ontario Riesling wines, I was pretty much the target demographic for this one, but still, it was amazing. Blended with Niagara-grown Riesling, I described Oud Blanc in my notes as aromatic, tart, bracing and amazing, which sounds about right. “I might make some of the Revelations releases again. Definitely Oud Blanc. But not till next year,” says Tariq.

Wild Honeycrisp 6.5% abv: Honeycrisp is without a doubt my favourite variety of apple for eating, but it isn’t cheap, which is probably why I’d never had it in a craft cider before now. The wild yeast imparts a bit of a tropical flair that isn’t present in the apple itself, Wild Honeycrisp was a very plesant surprise – even for Tariq himself. “For Wild Honeycrisp, I just brought the juice in and let the wild yeasts already present ferment it. I did that because I was curious what would happen.”

Revelry 7.5% abv: To celebrate Revel’s one-year anniversary, the final release of the month was Revelry, which uses the old pioneer technique for creating Apple Jack, which was a more potent version of cider. “Cryo-concentration is a technique developed in Quebec. Basically, it’s the same as making ice wine, except you press the apples and let the juice freeze - as opposed to letting the whole fruit freeze. Then you skim the ice off the top and use what's left,” says Tariq. The end result is something more sweet, warm and welcoming than the clean, crisp and funky ciders from earlier in the month. If you imagine Willy Wonka making a drink out of candy apples, you wouldn’t be far off on that Revelry was like.

Q&A with Revel Cider’s Tariq Ahmed

Q: How did you discover craft cider?

A: I discovered craft cider in Montreal originally quite a few years ago. I was 18 and had just won two Via Rail tickets from work at the time so a friend and I decided to go to Quebec. The hostel we were staying at was doing a pub crawl of brewpubs but I hadn't quite developed a taste for beer yet. An Australian named Shaun who we made with friends with told me to try the ciders - I was amazed that all of them were very different, even though they were made within walking distances. I've since gone back to Montreal after starting my business and had other phenomenal Quebec-made ciders. 

Q: What inspired you to open Revel?

A: I wanted to own a farm originally - I studied Plant Science at the University of Guelph and did an internship at Manorun Organic Farm in Copetown (Just north of Hamilton) in the summer of my second year. They had an old wine press there that I ended up using to make mead, wine and ciders. I would grind/press/ferment after doing full days of labour on the farm. That was where I really fell in love with making alcohol. For me, it was just another way to preserve the summer harvest (I also did many pickles and preserves in my time there). I came back to school, took an applied business course (by the end of which you come out with a business plan) and applied for a grant program offered by U of G called The Hub. It's a business incubator. I pitched to a panel of judges and was selected among four other businesses to be in their first cohort. The grant helped but mostly the fact that the judges believed I had a solid plan was the reason I took it to the next level.

Q: What was your favourite experience during your first year of business?

A: I can't really pin down one moment as a favourite from the first year. It's been a pretty amazing ride with all the recognition and the great feedback. I'm hoping year two will be more of the same. The constant learning is what's best for me.

Q: What advice would you give cider lovers to help them choose the best ciders?

A: I would recommend giving everything Ontario-made a shot and deciding what style you like best. Just like beer and wine, you can make cider in many different ways - that's one of the reasons I love doing it. But not every style is for everyone; try it all and find what suits you. Ontario apples are phenomenal though. Also, traditional Spanish and French ciders are often good if you can find them.

Q: What's something you see in the craft cider world that is worrisome?

A: The most worrisome thing in the Craft Cider world right now, at least in Ontario, is the insane percentages that the LCBO takes from every sale (regardless of if you sell in their stores or straight to bars/restos). It can be as high as 56% currently. Until that changes, not many cideries will be able to operate profitably, severely holding back the industry in Ontario.

Q: What is your personal favourite cider you've brewed?

A: Personally, I really liked Bittersweet Freedom. It had a nice tannic balance, with great acidity. Tannin is one of the hardest things to find in Ontario apples so I could only make so much. Hopefully, that changes in the future. In the meantime, I've also made an aggressively hopped cider called XXX (in collaboration with Clifford Brewing and West Avenue Cider). It was phenomenal, lots of Citra and Galaxy Hops. I will be making that again.

Our special thanks to Tariq for taking the time to share with us – and for making such an incredible and unique selection of ciders to enjoy during Revelations month! Can’t wait ‘til next year and more Oud Blanc!