Can you believe it — it’s Second Cup’s 35 anniversary. In honour of the milestone, Alex and I went to a tasting session called a “cupping” held by Second Cup’s coffee expert Patrick Russell. To say we learned a lot would be an understatement…. turns out we’ve don’t know beans about the bean! Here are some of our mistakes….
We kept coffee in the fridge
Wrong, wrong wrong. Ground coffee is very porous so keeping it in the fridge infuses it with leftover chicken curry or whatever else it sits beside. Keeping coffee in the freezer is even worse – all the moisture is drawn out, which dries the coffee out. (I now store my coffee in an airtight, lightproof canister.
We bought in bulk.
Once ground coffee only stays at its fresh for about a week. Russell recommends only buying as much ground coffee as you need for the week, or ideally, grinding as you go.
We used tap water, left overnight in a pre-programmed machine, to brew our coffee.
Eeek. Not good. Russell advises using fresh, filtered water to do your beans justice. Fresh, filtered water contains more oxygen, which means more flavour.
(Don’t judge) We’d never cleaned our coffee machines.
Drops of oil on the surface of brewed coffee can be caused by residue build-up inside the coffee machine. We had washed the different components separately but it’s important to run the machine once a week with one part vinegar and four parts water and then again with plain water.
Expand your coffee repertoire and stop by a Second Cup location tomorrow, September 30, where they will be offering their new coffee, Blend 35, for a very special price in celebration of their 35th anniversary. Visit secondcup.com for more info.
And enter to win an amazing Second Cup gift pack: a French bodum coffee press, a $20 gift card and a pound of Second Cup’s limited edition Blend 35 coffee. Leave a comment below letting us know how much a cup of Blend 35 costs at all Second Cup locations on Thursday September 30. Winner will be announced on Monday October 4.
Sep
22
Fall is synonymous with apple picking for a lot of Canadians. Now is the time we start to see Canadian apple varieties creeping into grocery stores all across the country. Our terrific new intern, Miranda, has a serious love for farms, and she went north of the city this weekend to a local apple orchard (Albion Orchards) to learn about apples. She brought us a bag of the most delicious, crisp Macintosh apples and shared some interesting apple facts. Here’s her report:
Did you know that apples last a whole year in storage? This means that a lot of apples in stores right now are in fact from a whole year ago.
Farmer Scott explained that apple trees are like people, they thrive when they are younger and yield far more apples then older trees. As trees get older, they produce less apples than their younger counterparts.
Apple trees can continue to produce apples well into their 40th year! The trees at Albion Orchards ranged from 2 years to 40 years old!
A lot of apple orchards have pick-your-own orchards – and this means that a lot of apples get knocked off the trees in the process of picking. These apples are still delicious and often get made into apple cider – yum!
Apple picking tips: twist the apple in one direction until it comes off the tree – don’t pull! If you pull the apples you can damage the branch that it grows on and prevent new apples from growing in that spot next year. Also, pulling apples causes more apples from the top of the tree to fall of, leaving more apples on the ground.
Thanks Miranda!
Sep
20
We were shooting on location this Saturday. The shoot was at an incredibly stylish, enormous, fancy home with spectacular rooms. We had models, stylists, gorgeous clothes (gorgeous food too!) and even a very cool, super nice celebrity (can’t say who until the December issue comes out…boo!).
As our food stylist and I were futzing around in the homeowner’s kitchen we spotted this:
How wonderful to see a few Chatelaine recipes ripped out and tucked into the “savers” pile. These were from August’s “Rehearsal Dinner” (a personal favourite that I’ve made at home several times). We’re always tickled to get a glimpse of our recipes out in the “real world” and it put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Sep
16
Miranda was testing a scallop recipe today. It’s got this luscious spicy-sweet sauce, yum. Scallops are caught in-shell and for the most part are shucked at sea. Then when we buy them (either fresh or frozen) there’s usually still a tiny muscle on one side. It’s the muscle that attaches the scallop to its shell. Before cooking, simply pull it off (and discard) — it gets tough when you cook it.
Sep
10
One of our favourite pages in the magazine to work on is Loose Ends. Every month we come up with ways to use any extra ingredients we call for in recipes — like if we call for half a can of pumpkin in a dessert, on the Loose Ends page we give you 2 short recipe ideas for the rest of the can.
We’re shooting a picture of all the extra ingredients for the November issue today. Here’s our photographer Rob with Sandi from the Art department, arguing over where to put a pile of cranberries. Meanwhile, recipe testing marches on in the background — Lyn and Meaghan are working on soups for the January issue. All in a day’s work…..
