It’s official: they’ve got Skills

When it comes to photography and culinary skills, two of the very best in the province can be found in Woolwich Township. Kristi Rex and Stacia McLean, both residents of Breslau and Grade 12 students at Grand River Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, were gold and silver medalists respectively at the Skills Canada Provincial Finals held at RIM Park on Apr. 30- May 1. Rex won gold for photography, while McLean took home the silver in the culinary portion of the event.

“That was my first time competing in the photography competition, so I wasn’t expecting to place at all,” said Rex, 17, who beat out 30 other competitors from across the province.
“I was thoroughly surprised.”

McLean, 18, failed to make it past the qualifiers in last year’s Skills Canada competition and had a similar sentiment for her second-place finish this time.
“It was surprising. I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.

Skills Canada was founded in 1989 as a national, not-for-profit organization that works with employers, educators, labour groups and governments to promote skilled trades and technology careers among Canadian youth.

There were three components to the photography contest. The first was each competitor had to submit a portfolio of their work, the second was an interview portion with the judges, and the third was a practical test of skills broken down into three challenges. One was a before-and-after test where they had to edit a ‘before’ photo to look like an ‘after’ photo that they had been given.

The second portion involved photographing someone else at the competition – be it a judge, a spectator, or another competitor – and tell a story with that photo shoot.
In the final portion they were given a standard piece of paper and were told to take a creative shot with it.

“I folded mine in different ways and played with the shadows and exaggerated the shadows and put it in black and white,” Rex said.

The competitors were given six hours to complete their assignments and Rex completed the assignments using a Canon Rebel DSLR.

For the culinary competition, McLean had 3.5 hours to make a complete three-course meal from scratch by herself. The first course was minestrone soup, the main course was a beef roulade with braised cabbage, potatoes, and steamed broccoli, and the dessert was chocolate mousse.

“I had known the menu since February because the first competition was at the beginning of March, so I had time to practice and perfect it and get all the nerves out,” she said.
Rex said she was first exposed to photography in her Grade 11 communications technology class, and it was her teacher who encouraged her to enter this year’s contest.
Her passion led her to apply for photography at Humber College, which she will be attending in the fall with the hopes of establishing a successful career in the future.

“Eventually I’d like to do freelance work and travel and take pictures all over the world, but to start off I’d like to work in a studio as an assistant photographer.”

McLean started cooking when she was very young. Her father owned his own catering business and bistro, and eventually opened a kiosk in the airport. It was his death about two years ago, however, that really pushed her into culinary.

“That was the moment where I decided that I really wanted to do this.”

“I was the only one cooking in the household, so I was kind of forced to, but I wanted to.”

She also intends to turn her passion into a career as she will be attending Niagara College in the fall for Culinary Management.

“The head judge was actually my professor this fall, so it was cool to meet him and now he’s seen what I can do, rather than just being another student,” she said.
“Now he can say ‘oh it’s the silver medalist.’”

Neither student can proceed to nationals this year as there is no photography competition and only the gold medalist from the culinary competition moves on, but both say their experience at provincials has given them an enormous boost.
“It’s definitely given me confidence in photography and it showed me that I can work under pressure,” said Rex.

“I wasn’t sure of that, but in the competition I was really calm and that surprised me. It just shows that when you’re doing something you enjoy, you’re OK with that pressure.”

With BBQ season here, try something bold

The sun is shining; the birds are chirping; now it’s time to spark up the old BBQ. Instead of going with the traditional steaks, burgers or that old standby, the hotdog, why not try something new? Say, BBQ Almond Crusted Trout with Wasabi Butter & Asian Inspired Chick Pea Salad?

This recipe may be a little out of your comfort zone but after giving it a go you will have the confidence you need to be more creative every time you fire up the barbecue throughout the summer.

Our recommended side dish is crisp and refreshing and should be served cold. Making this a few hours ahead of time is ideal along with the wasabi butter. Wasabi butter goes well with numerous dishes, especially fish, so be sure to make at least a little extra. Try it on your favorite cut of steak. It’s also great on popcorn and gives traditional mashed potatoes some serious attitude.

All of these ingredients are easily found at your local grocery stores, so no need to fret about having to find exotic ingredients. Always remember to wash your produce thoroughly.

This healthy, feel-good summer time dish is quick to put together and will be sure to impress your family and friends.

Chickpea Salad

• 1/4-cup oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 medium red pepper, diced
• 3 sprigs of green onions, chopped
• 1/4- cup celery, diced
• 1/4- cup carrots, diced
• 1 medium sized raw baby bok choy, thinly sliced
• 28 oz can chick peas, washed and strained
• Chopped cilantro to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sized mixing bowl add oyster sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and ginger and wisk together to create vinaigrette. Then combine remaining ingredients, cover and place in the fridge for up to 2 hours.

Wasabi Butter

• 1/4-cup salted butter, room temp.
• 1/4 tube of wasabi paste
• Pinch of black pepper

In a small dish, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly and then set aside.

Almond Crusted Trout

• 4 6-oz trout fillets, skin on
• Oyster sauce to glaze fish
• 3/4-cup of sliced blanched almonds
• Salt and pepper to taste

Turn one side of BBQ on low and other side on medium to high heat until BBQ is preheated to 400 degrees;

Thinly coat trout with some oyster sauce, followed by a bit of salt and pepper. On top of the glaze, press a generous amount of almonds to fully cover and so almonds are sticking to the fish;

On the low heat side of your grill, place fish skin side down (fish does not get flipped). Cook for 6-8 minutes;

Finish with a dollop of wasabi butter on fillet immediately after it’s removed from the grill and serve alongside chickpea salad.

Bringing history to life

The opening paragraph of Geoff Martin’s essay “From the Banks of the Grand” is a detailed description of his great-grandmother’s funeral – a touching account of the burial of her coffin in the late summer about six years ago. It provides a glimpse into some of the Mennonite funerary traditions, including the passing of the shovel used to fill in the grave from family member to family member.

“I didn’t know her too well – I didn’t spend a lot of time with her – but all four of my grandparents are alive so for me it was the first family death,” said Martin in a phone interview from Chicago, a city he’s called home for almost two years.
“Out of that myself and an uncle and my grandparents travelled around in the evenings and visited some of my great-grandmother’s surviving relatives and family members and friends, and we got a sense of her story.”

That story formed the roots of the Elmira native’s essay, which was recently named as one of four shortlisted essays for the prestigious 2011 Edna Staebler personal essay contest in The New Quarterly magazine. The award, now in its third year, is for $1,000 and is named after a Kitchener author who donated $25,000 to The New Quarterly upon her death in 2006 at the age of 100.

“We felt Geoff recounted, with great sensitivity, an important bit of local history,” said The New Quarterly’s editor, Kim Jernigan, in an email while travelling in Copenhagen.

The essay is much more than a family history lesson, however, and was originally written for Martin’s English and cultural studies class while working to complete his masters degree in English Literature at McMaster University in 2009-2010.

It traces the history of Block II, a parcel of land in what is now Waterloo County that was settled by his own Mennonite ancestors under deeds that were illicitly issued by Richard Beasley more than 200 years ago. The land is part of what’s known as the Haldimand Tract, formed in 1784, and extends about 200 km from the mouth of the Grand River in Lake Erie, through Waterloo Region, before ending near Dundalk.

Beasley had done business with the Iroquois in the past, so when the Six Nations decided to divide and sell their land along the Grand River, they turned to Beasley. Under the terms of the treaty the Iroquois couldn’t sell land directly, only through agents who had to take out a mortgage with the government.

That mortgage became problematic when Beasley eventually sold parts of the land to the Mennonites who were moving to the region from Pennsylvania. The Mennonites could not own the land until the mortgage was repaid, and so they felt cheated. The Mennonites eventually formed what is known as the German Company and eventually bought Block II from Beasley, as well as other tracts of land throughout the region, including in Woolwich Township, which was known as Block III.

Through his research, Martin not only uncovered the wrongdoings towards his own people, but that the Six Nations Iroquois people, also known as the Haudenosaunee, were never adequately compensated for the land.
In his writing Martin explores the events that took place along the banks of the Grand River centuries ago from a Mennonite perspective, from the British Loyalist perspective, and from the Six Nations perspective.

For example, Martin writes that while Beasley is often highly regarded as the first European settler of Hamilton, he also suggests that evidence from historical placards found in Brubacher House, a  Mennonite homestead-turned-museum at the University of Waterloo, describes Beasley’s dealing’s as decidedly criminal.

“The thread through it all is my own personal interaction with that history and the way that I kind of stumble upon it and what I learn in the process,” said Martin. “At the end of the essay I’m forced to confront my own politics in terms of my attachment to that place and my sense of home in that place and my greater understanding now of the complicated history of that place.”

His work also helped him realize that the modern contention surrounding land claims along the entire watershed have a real historic precedent and that “the past” is never really past, particularly in places like Caledonia that have ongoing land claim issues to this day.

“The fact of the matter is that these contentions and land claims are not going away. They’ve been around for 200 years,” he said. “When the land claim flared up in Caledonia in 2006, most Ontarians had no way to account for this strange, sudden interruption; wasn’t all that stuff settled hundreds of years ago?

“In truth, it wasn’t.”

As one of the shortlisted winners for the award, Martin has had his entire essay published online at The New Quarterly website, and despite this being the 28-year-old’s first published work, he has plans for more writing in the future.
“I definitely owe it to my family because they invested a lot of time, so I owe them something and I’m still interested in that,” he said.

“I think this is the start of a bigger project and I’m continuously reading and thinking about it. I’m not sure what the next step is, but whether this portion becomes a chapter in a book, we’ll see.”
To read his essay for free, visit http://tnq.ca/magazine/free-e-book-banks-grand.

Celebrate mom’s day with meal of local fare

We all know what special day is coming. Five years ago Mother’s Day wasn’t only my mom’s special day but also the first day Mackenzie came to stay with us and our family grew. Every day we see busy moms planning a special celebration such as a baby showers, weddings and birthdays … or just searching for a healthy meal to help them get through a crazy day.
Food evokes senses unlike anything else. Nothing says home like the smell of Sunday roast or chocolate chip cookies. Our moms are largely responsible for instilling these emotions in us. Now, at 4 and 5, our little ones already look forward to Sunday morning pancakes, the ones I remember the smell of waking up on Sunday mornings past. You don’t need a 20-ingredient recipe to show mom you care: plan a local brunch and we’ll show you the way.
This recipe is sweet and savoury; feel free to serve with fresh berries and whipped cream if you feel the urge. For more recipes and ideas go to www.neverenoughthyme.ca and check out our blog.  Happy cooking!
Ingredients such as eggs, apple smoked bacon or sausage are available at Stemmler’s, while Martins Family Fruit Farm  can supply you with Red Prince or honey crisp apples, sweet potato and local maple syrup.

Crepes

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 6 eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• vegetable oil

 
Whisk eggs, milk, and melted butter together, add the flour, sugar and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Place in refrigerator for approximately 1 hour or make the night before. Bring the crepe batter up to room temperature;
Preheat teflon crepe or sauté pan on med-low. Brush pan with vegetable oil, ladle crepe batter into pan. This will make a very thin pancake once golden on one side flip to other side.

Garnish for the crepes

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet potato cut into matchsticks
• 3 honey crisp or red prince apples
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 5 sprigs of thyme remove leaves
• 2 tablespoons soya oil
• 1/2 tablespoon maple vinegar or balsamic
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• Sea salt and cracked pepper to taste
• 4 oz crumbled goat cheese

 

Peel apples, cut into 4 wedges and remove the core, each apple should be cut into 8- 12 wedges depending on size of apple;
Place on parchment-lined baking tray with sweet potato and pecans;
Drizzle with maple syrup, soya or olive oil, season with salt and pepper;
Bake in preheated oven at 375 F until tender.
To assemble the dish, fold crepe in half and then in half again, to create a cone or triangle shape, do this for 3 crepes. Add apple and vegetable garnish to the top and crumble on the goat cheese. Serve with a side of bacon or sausage. We suggest the apple smoked bacon found at Stemmler’s. Drizzle with maple syrup and celebrate each other.
Happy Mother’s Day.

Music to their ears

It takes a village to raise a child, and Elmira’s Rachel Clark hopes her hometown community can help her ongoing work to support a Kenyan orphanage when she holds a benefit concert today (Saturday) at Trinity United Church.
The variety show is titled “Until Alone is Over” and will include performances from 50 of Clark’s friends and family, and audiences can expect a show ranging from acoustic duets to solo dance routines. There will also be African jewelry and other items for sale, and all money raised will be sent to Kenya to help ongoing orphanage and community work.

Clark first travelled to Kenya back in 2009, but has returned every year since and made a deep connection with her host family and with the children at the Faraja Children’s Home in Ngong – about 40 minutes outside the capital city of Nairobi.

“Even before I went I had always had a heart to help and I’ve been overwhelmingly blessed,” she said while sitting in her Elmira home.

“I can’t help but have compassion, especially after being there and seeing how they lack the basics. It’s so overwhelming that we can live at such extremes in our world, and it’s not fair.”

After her first trip with the Global Volunteer Network, Clark made the trek in 2010 with two of her friends, and last year she brought a group of nine other Canadians to volunteer at the orphanage and to tour the Kenyan countryside in conjunction with the Waterloo-based Bucket List Travel Adventures.

This year, however, Clark will not be making a return to the country she loves so dearly, for several reasons. The trained dancer and actress has been offered a role in the upcoming stage production of Annie – “I can’t perform forever and once you get your foot in the door at a professional theater you want to keep it there” – but she also hopes the money she saves from not travelling will be put to better use by the Kenyan people.

She is helping her host family build a bigger house so they can accommodate more volunteers from around the world, and she hopes they can convert their existing home into a safe house for street kids or families looking for a fresh start.
This will be Clark’s second benefit concert for her ongoing work in Kenya. The first was in 2008 in preparation for her first trip, and the fact she can now speak personally about the work being done there and show photos of her working with orphans will inspire others to do the same.

“It’s an interesting perspective now, having gone three times,” she said. “They’re going to see pictures of me with the kids and it makes it more tangible.”

Her travels even inspired her cousin, Heather Clark, to write a novel incorporating Rachel’s stories of Kenya. “Chai Tea Sunday” was published earlier this month and Heather will be at the show to read excerpts of the story and to sign copies of the book.

“We went through my journals and pictures and she videotaped me and interviewed me. We kept in touch while I was in Kenya the last two times, and she wrote a book based on some of my experiences there and characters that I’ve come in contact with.

“It’s literally as if she was there. I read the book and thought ‘these are my words’ and it’s still sinking in.”

Never one to sit still for long, Clark has toured the world while working on a cruise ship, and is currently working as a waitress in Waterloo while also teaching Zumba dance classes and working at Reid Woods group home in Elmira – work that she says has helped make her transition from working in Kenya to returning to North America.

She hopes to return to Kenya in the next few years and take her parents with her to show them the work she has done and to teach them about the country she has grown to love so much.

The benefit concert on Apr. 28 will have two show times, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children and students, or whatever you can. It will be held at Trinity United Church, 21 Arthur St. N. in Elmira and the church is wheelchair accessible and care for young children will also be provided.

Putting together pulled pork perfection

Pork shoulder is a great cut of meat for this recipe and budget friendly. Pick up your meat from a local butcher or the farmers’ market if this is accessible for you. You can be creative as you wish with sauces from smoky, sweet or spicy.  There are plenty of great BBQ sauces available at your local grocery store or use ours.

Most of this recipe can be done ahead of time and is a great time-saver or addition to any potluck or family gathering.

The key to creating great pulled pork is to braise your meat for 5-6 hours until it becomes fork tender.  This can be done in your oven or slow cooker, but you may need to add extra cooking time of 1-2 hours for the slow cooker.

To make your pulled pork into a stellar meal, we recommend constructing a sandwich using fresh hoagie buns and top your pulled pork with our Good Ol Granny Slaw served beside your favorite leafy green salad.  A delicious and fun BBQ-style meal that can be done indoors and ahead of time that the whole family will enjoy.

The Pork:

• 1 (5 to 7 pound) pork roast, preferably shoulder or Boston butt

The Rub:

• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 3 tablespoons coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon of canola oil
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup

The Stock:

• 1 cup diced onions
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1-2L of beef stock (to fill roasting half way)

The Sauce:

• 1/2 cup of pork shoulder stock reduction
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup yellow or brown mustard
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/4 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Rub the spice blend all over the pork and marinate for as long as you have time for, as little as 1 hour or up to overnight, covered, in the refrigerator;
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F;

Put the pork and stock in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours, flipping the roast at the half way mark.  Roast the pork until fork tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 170 degrees F;
To make the barbecue sauce: combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until smooth;

Remove the pork roast from the oven and transfer to a large platter. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes. While still warm, take 2 forks and “pull” the meat to form shreds. Using 2 forks, shred the pork by steadying the meat with 1 fork and pulling it away with the other. Put the shredded pork in a bowl. Pour 1/2 of the sauce on the shredded pork and mix well to coat;

To serve, spoon the pulled pork mixture onto the bottom 1/2 of the hoagie bun, and top with the slaw. Serve with your favorite leafy salad.

Good Ol’ Granny Slaw:

• 1 head green cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 large carrots, finely shredded
• 3/4 cup best-quality mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 cup diced Granny Smith Apples
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine the shredded cabbage, carrots and apples in a large bowl. Whisk together the mayonnaise, dijon, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and then add to the cabbage mixture. Mix well to combine and taste for seasoning; add more salt, pepper, or sugar if desired.  A dash of water never hurts.

A new take on aboriginal issues

When news of the horrific housing situation in the northern Ontario aboriginal settlement of Attawapiskat first broke last fall, many Canadians were confused with how conditions in the community could have become so bad. Dropping temperatures and health and safety concerns due to inadequate housing was what prompted a state of emergency to be declared. Many residents were living in tents, trailers and temporary shelters that lacked running water and electricity, and some were even living in buildings right next to the site of a raw sewage spill from 2009 that was never adequately cleaned.

Those conditions created a public outcry and political debate over what should be done for the residents and how the $90 million that the community has received in federal funding since 2006 was spent.
For St. Jacobs’ Mark Bauman, the feelings surrounding the conditions at Attawapiskat are much more visceral.

“I was ashamed to be a Canadian,” Bauman said Monday, a little more than a week after the contractor and Woolwich Township councillor returned from a two-week trip to the isolated Aboriginal community as part of a Mennonite Central Committee Ontario project called Building Hope.

Bauman, who has more than 35 years of construction experience, wanted to donate his time and talents to the community after an announcement was made at his St. Jacobs Mennonite Church by the MCCO that they were looking for volunteers for the purpose of helping to rebuild and renovate some of the dilapidated homes in Attawapiskat, as well as learn more about the challenges that affect the people of that community.
He submitted his application and was readily accepted onto the team.

Since 1981 MCCO has received invitations from the community to improve the quality of life for the approximately 2,000 people that now live there.

There are currently 122 families living in condemned housing that was built in the 1970s and has not been properly maintained, and there are 19 families living in makeshift tents and shacks without electricity, running water, or plumbing. The MCCO estimates that some 250 new homes are needed to alleviate the over-crowding ad sub-standard housing in the Mushkegowuk Cree community.

Bauman arrived at the MCCO north office in Timmins on Mar. 19 and after a couple days of orientation, the group of three volunteers travelled 500 km north to the community. He said that from the moment they arrived he felt welcomed by the people that call Attawapiskat home.

“We were strangers, we were a minority definitely in their community, and they would stop and talk to us; you wonder if we would do the same here, stop and talk to a minority that was working in our community,” Bauman said.
Attawapiskat is very similar to towns in southern Ontario, Bauman explained. They have a hospital, an airport, an arena and a community centre. There is an elementary and a high school, a number of churches, coffee shops, gas stations, a fire department and government offices.

Yet the community is so remote that it is only accessible by air year-round. It is accessible by water in the summer as it sits on the edge of a river that is one of the main drainage rivers of James Bay. It was historically a seasonal camp site that had been visited for centuries by aboriginal ancestors, and families traditionally left the location during the winter.

That all changed in the 1960s and ’70s when the temporary dwellings gave way to more permanent buildings. Yet those buildings have not been properly maintained, leading to the problems seen today.
While in the community, Bauman worked on about three separate houses to try to improve the standard of living for those families. Most of the work was focused on removing wet wallboard or floorboards, and any insulation that was wet or moldy. He replaced the floors and the ceilings in several bathrooms, as well as the front entry on another home.

Bauman admitted the work he could do was limited mainly by the lack of supplies. Given the isolated nature of Attawapiskat, supplies must be transported in via an ice road from the south, but because of the warmer temperatures this spring the road broke up nearly six weeks early, which meant many supplies failed to make it to the community this year.

“You don’t go next door to Fairway Lumber; you have to plan six months ahead,” he explained.

As a result Bauman said that he had to be much more frugal with his demolition jobs than he would be working at his job with Menno S. Martin Contracting, located in his hometown.

“We would tackle one room in a house, or part of a room, and get that done and try and finish everything up in one day,” he said, “whereas around here I would just gut the whole room.”

The actual construction process was similar to his experiences working in more southern climes, but with one major exception: in Attawapiskat the frost can reach depths of up to 10 feet, compared to about four feet here, and there is even permafrost in some areas, meaning a lot more care was required when installing underground water pipes to prevent them from bursting.

“Their main waterlines are 18-feet below ground,” Bauman said, adding they placed styrofoam around the pipes as well to insulate them from the cold, and that a second piece of pipe surrounded the original pipe to prevent frost from tugging the joints apart.

While he may not have accomplished as much work as he wanted to before returning home on Apr. 5, Bauman said that the trip really opened his eyes to the challenges that face the First Nation’s people of Canada.
“I’ve learned to take a second look. When people say ‘they should just move’ well, no, they shouldn’t just move,” he said, noting the fact that they were living on that land centuries before Europeans ever set foot in North America.
“It really bothers me when people say ‘here’s the solution.’ First Nations people are rightly suspect of ‘White Man’ solutions.”

Bauman believes that a movement towards the Habitat for Humanity model of volunteers building new homes hand-in-hand alongside the people who will actually be living in those homes could be adopted for future projects like this, and he is acting as a construction liaison for MCCO to determine what needs to be in place before any similar projects next year.

“I’ve laid out what has to happen each month for the next year in order to make a new house or a renovation, and it would be the chief and council that would need to identify where the need is the greatest and we’ll work with that.
“Obviously this isn’t the whole solution, building one house, but it’s a way of building a bridge and saying that we here in the south understand and sympathize with their plight.”

Asian-type condiments make it easy to spice up any dish

Feel like take-out without going out? Something ethnic to put a spin in your week? A fresh spicy sauce is key to this! Building up your pantry of ‘Asian-type’ condiments can be easily done from any well-stocked supermarket. And once you have them in your pantry they keep very well and can be mixed, matched and used in a variety of different ways to add zip to any dish.

Try sesame oil and soy sauce together with a little maple syrup to marinate chicken. Or an oyster sauce rubbed on steak before grilling.  We’ve tossed the steak slices in cornstarch prior to cooking, as opposed to adding the cornstarch in later to make a thick sauce. This will give the beef a nice crispiness against the smooth sauce.

The beef was enjoyed alongside a big pan of stir-fried veggies: mushrooms, peppers, onions and broccoli.  Another option is to roast your broccoli, to get similar results from a quick stir-fry: toss broccoli in a little oil and salt; spread on a baking sheet and roast in a hot (425°F) oven for 5-10 minutes, until edges begin to brown. The whole dish would be great with steamed rice, of course, or even egg noodles.

Stir-Fried Beef with Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained; divided
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1-2 red chili, or red chili paste, seeded and chopped
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar or dry sherry
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 lb top sirloin steak, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• About 2 tbsp grapeseed oil

To make sauce: place 4 tbsp of the beans in the bottom of a small food processor, or use a hand blender; Add remaining sauce ingredients and blend until the sauce is smooth;Slice steak into thin strips: a trick to doing this is to freeze the beef for about 30 minutes;  Just before frying, toss the beef in the cornstarch. If you do this too far in advance, the meat will become sticky and gummy; Heat a very large frying pan or wok over high heat; add oil and then quickly add all of the beef at once;  Using tongs or a wooden spoon, quickly cook beef until desired doneness (medium is nice). Then add all of the sauce and cook for one final minute.

Magic’s a family affair

In the world of magic there are a few big names: Chris Angel, David Copperfield, Penn and Teller. Elmira’s Kent Thuroo and Allie Stortz hope one day to add their names to that list. The brother-and-sister team have been performing tricks as a team under the name Kamagic for the last few months and were last seen entertaining the crowds at this year’s Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, with Kent providing sleight-of-hand tricks and Allie balloon art.

“It was a nice way for us to hang out as I was away at college for a while and we drifted apart; now we are getting closer through magic,” said Allie.

The siblings work well as a team interacting with each other as they perform for their audience. They find being related helps, as they can bicker with one another, which adds to the show. Allie acts as an assistant to Kent for a few of the magic feats, including the hippity-hop rabbit trick in which he uses cardboard rabbit cutouts that switch from one box to another.

“In the skit, I like one rabbit and she likes the other rabbit and we joke around like that –  it gets the audience really excited,” said Kent.

“I bring in more the children and he brings in the adults to our shows,” said Allie.

The magic started for Kent just before Christmas last year when EDSS drama teacher DJ Carroll held a magic class.

“I always had an interest in magic but never really thought much of it until the class had to perform magic. At first I thought it was a bit silly, but then over Christmas break I received a magic trick and I loved it.”

Kent enjoys performing street magic where he can use his prestidigitation tricks and up-close magic, but he is expanding his skills and is in the process of learning a few new tricks involving metal rings.

“It takes a lot of practice. I pretty much practice every day all the time, even when I should be paying attention in class I am usually practicing magic or trying to figure something out,” he said. “I started off doing card tricks and ventured on to children’s magic and I have plans to develop some of my own stage illusions.”

During shows, Allie acts the part of magician’s assistant and afterwards when Kent is packing up she makes balloon art for the children.

“I am still a beginner and I learn more and more everyday about how to build balloon art, but it is a lot of fun. It just seems that it is something that goes along with magic and works out at birthday parties as kids like the magic but they get to keep a balloon animal or something,” said Allie.

The duo has made an attempt to be quite  professional, designing and making business cards and placing an ad on Kijiji about their talents and availability for shows. So far this year the duo has worked at the festival and four parties, with a few more planned for the spring and summer.

“We have had some people respond to the ads and have begun to book a few dates,” said Allie.

The secret of a good     magician is to use their banter with the audience to misdirect them, and Kent admits that made him nervous at first but it is something he has had to overcome over the last few months.
“I still get nervous when I am in front of a large crowd, but once I get going and start interacting with them it becomes quite easy to perform.”

Kent just came back from a trip to Las Vegas with his dad, Bill, where he got to see performances by some of the big names like Copperfield and Angel, as well as Nathan Burton and Mac King. He was also called up on stage to help his favorite act, Penn and Teller, carry out an illusion.

“It was great meeting them and being a part of the show. I just love the way Penn can hold an audience with the way he speaks,” he said adding he hoped to be able to perform at that level one day.

Magic is all about figuring out the trick and that only comes with practice, said Kent.

“I have had some help from the guys at a magic store in Kitchener, but for the most part I just try to figure out everything for myself. It is all just trial and error.”

The siblings say their family fully supports their new venture and it has really brought them closer as they use them to practice on.

“After a few hundred tricks the family can get a bit tired of it all, but they have totally supported us through this whole thing,” said Allie.

Magic has also been a diversion from Kent’s online video gaming, where he would play World of War Craft for hours on end.

“It is much more fun doing magic than sitting in front of the computer playing games.”

Kent and Allie are preparing to audition for Canada’s Got Talent next year with a new act, but he will not give away any of the details, saying he does not let anyone know how he performs his tricks as he doesn’t want to get in trouble from other magicians.

“It’s all part of the magician’s code, you never reveal your secrets.”

A dish to help us mark the first anniversary of The Culinary Studio

This week we celebrate our first anniversary in business together at The Culinary Studio. If you haven’t had a chance to come see us at our Belmont location in Kitchener, here’s a little bit of what we’re about: we are a recreational cooking school, looking to teach people of all ages and gender how to cook from scratch using good quality and, whenever possible, local ingredients. Whether you are a seasoned cook in the kitchen, or just starting out, there is something for everyone.
Over the past year we have discovered what people want to learn most to improve their everyday lives in the kitchen. Our popular Monday night cooking series teaches everything from proper knife skills to homemade stocks to finishing sauces. For those more adventurous, our international classes ranging from Indian cuisine to sushi night are very popular.

Both of us, Jody and Kirstie, spent many years in both the restaurant industry as well as teaching the culinary arts at both the high school and college level. We wanted an inviting space for like-minded people to come together and share their passion for great cuisine. Our philosophy is simple: great food kept simple, by using the best quality local ingredients and time-honoured cooking techniques.

For this weekend’s column it was really tough to narrow down a recipe to help us celebrate our anniversary. So we took a look back as to what we were cooking a year ago. Here is one of our first recipes taught at The Culinary Studio. It uses proper knife techniques, proper sauté techniques and isn’t afraid to get creative using different veggies and local cheeses.  Pre-heat oven to 425°F; place baguette slices on a baking tray and toast until just golden brown;

Warm Vegetable and Herb Crostini with Sheep’s Milk Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 baguette, sliced on the bias
• 1 good clove of garlic, cut in half
• 2 tbsp+2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1 celery, julienned
• 1 onion, julienned
• 1 pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped mixed fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley)
• 1-2 tsp sherry wine vinegar
• 1 cup of crumbled or shaved sheep’s milk cheese, such as Toscana

remove and, while still hot, take cut side of garlic and scrape on bread; chop the rest of the garlic clove to sauté with vegetables;
Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add all vegetables and sauté over high heat for about 4 minutes, or until soft. Add chopped garlic and sauté for 1 more minute; season with salt and pepper and add chopped herbs and cook just to warm through; Remove from heat, stir in sherry wine vinegar;

Using tongs, top bread slices with about 2 tbsp of the vegetables; top with cheese, place on a platter and drizzle with remaining extra virgin olive oil. Add some more freshly cracked black pepper here too, if you like.