Stay tuned because I’ll be blogging about the event next week!

This week I’ll be in Toronto, attending the ShesConnected Second Annual Social Media Conference.  For those of you who are wondering what ShesConnected is, it is a network of highly influential digitally connected women in Canada, specifically Moms, who are active bloggers, Twitter users and online contributors and who have established relationships with other influential women.

“Digital women are becoming a force in helping other, less connected women find brands to trust, brands to promote and brands to use.  They also work to clear up misinformation and help other women make choices for their families.”

The conference starts on Thursday, September 29^th through to Friday, September 30^th and the two day agenda is packed full of great sessions from “What is a blogger worth?” to “What brands want from bloggers and digital women” to name a few. There will also be a Conference Party at Town Shoes called “ShoesConnected”.  I haven’t told my husband for fear that he may call the bank to report a stolen Visa card!

CFC is one of the sponsors of this conference so we’ll have a booth set up where people can drop by for a chat. We’ll also be tweeting out some great facts about chicken, including delicious recipes.  Should be fun and I look forward to meeting all of these lovely ladies!

This is going to be a busy week, so I decided it was time to revisit one of our past blogs.  I chose this one because it is full of great tips on how to cook perfectly moist chicken in a frying pan.

When it comes time to make a simple but flavourful dinner, one of the most common staples of Canadian households is a pan-fried chicken breast. It can be breaded, rubbed, glazed or sauced to easily add to the flavour, and when cooked properly, it's simple and doesn't add a lot of fat to the cooking process.  So, what's to know about pan frying? 

Well, as it turns out, there are a few easy techniques that will help you make your chicken seem like it came from a chef's kitchen. The first thing to consider is the pan http://www.chickenfeeds.ca/2010/04/technique-choosing-a-pan/. Personally, I prefer stainless steel for its ability to keep a consistent, medium-high heat. If you just cringed at the thought of your chicken breasts sticking to the pan and covered in oil, read on - this is for you.

When you're heating a pan, a few things are happening. At a molecular level, the atoms that make up the steel begin to vibrate - randomly at first, but as they begin to vibrate faster, the surface of the pan begins to change. As the pan reaches a consistent temperature, the surface normalizes, and no longer clings to what is placed on it.  This takes some practice and some familiarity with your cookware, but the easy test is to place a few drops of water in the middle of the pan. If it evaporates, it's not hot enough. If it stays together in a droplet that looks like a ball of mercury and skates along the pan, it's at exactly the right heat. You'll have to play around with this, but with my pan, it takes about 10 minutes at medium-high heat to get to this stage.

Once you've wiped any testing water away with a towel, turn the heat down a bit and pour in a small amount of oil. It should shimmer in the pan, and distribute along the surface like "legs."  For this type of heat, it's best to use an oil with a higher smoke point, like peanut oil or regular olive oil (not extra virgin). If the oil smokes, it's too hot, and you should wipe out the pan (don't pour water into it) and start again. Assuming, however, that you've reached the perfect consistent temperature, pat dry the chicken breast with paper towel and place it presentation-side down in the pan until it develops a nice, brown crust.

At this point, make sure that you don't overcrowd the pan. Doing so can rapidly drop the temperature of the pan and does not allow moisture room to evaporate. Flip, and cook until juices run clear and the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Celsius. If you're cooking a particularly thick piece of chicken, you may want to put the pan in the oven to finish the chicken, but for most, you should be able to cook evenly in the pan. The advantage of this method is that the same reaction that causes the nice brown crust on your chicken also creates tasty bits left in the pan, called "sucs."  By deglazing the pan by pouring in a small amount of wine or stock, you can keep all of that flavour and use it in a sauce.

Hopefully this will improve your pan frying technique and make those easy weeknight meals even tastier. If you have any questions, be sure to ask them in the comments, and we'll try our best to answer them for you!

Nearly 300 agriculture journalists, broadcasters and communicators arrived in Canada last week for the 2011 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists annual congress.

Held in Guelph and Niagara Falls, the congress’ theme was “Experience New World Agriculture” and featured delegates from 30 member countries.

The honorary Chair, Lyle Vanclief, former minister of agriculture welcomed visitors to Canada and Pierre Lemieux, the Secretary of State for Agriculture, presented introductory remarks on behalf of Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz.

After a day of annual meetings, and a session entitled Canada 101, delegates boarded coaches and participated in three different agriculture tours of southern and eastern Ontario.

The Lake Huron tour (the tour I was part of) visited the St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market – Canada’s largest year-round farmers’ market, the Martin Family Fruit Farm – one of the largest fruit farms and fruit packers in southern Ontario, the Hensall District Cooperative – the largest independent farmer-owned agricultural cooperative in Ontario and one of the world’s largest processors and suppliers of edible beans, Danzel Holsteins a free-stall dairy operation with 100 cows, FGC Inc. – a hog and poultry barn builder with construction sites around Ontario and some new projects in Russia, the 2^nd largest cattle feedlot in Ontario – a 10,000 head operation owned by the Van Osch family, and finally a tour of one of Canada’s largest wineries, Jackson Triggs.

Delegates, both international and those from Canada, were very impressed with the stories these farmers and businesses had to tell. There were many, many stories to take in and the journalists took the opportunity to ask their own questions of the producers. Every visit felt a bit like a media scrum but without the tension or pointed questions.

Delegates on other buses also toured the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario regions. Some had a fair distance to cover which put into context the distances that Canada’s food producers, and products, must travel on a daily basis as part of doing business in such a large country. There were many references to how big Canada was in comparison to the home countries of the delegates. The CEO of Hensall District Cooperative, Earl Wagner, added context to explain how geography is an added dimension or challenge here in Canada. “Our vehicles cover 3 million km per year which is the same as 75 trips around the earth” he said.

The three tours met up again in Niagara at the end of the week and the visitors had time to compare notes, and ask more questions, about all the things they had seen along the way. This included some pre-congress tours in British Columbia and Alberta as well as workshops and a boot camp for winners of the 2011 IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agriculture Journalism award. This boot camp provided participants with expert training and feedback through on-site writing or broadcasting assignments and further developed their leadership skills through formal in-class training.

Before, during (and it’s still going on after) the four-day congress, there was a significant amount of Twitter and Facebook chatter between delegates, about the tours, about the congress itself, and about the 2012 congress in Sweden. Organizers provided a portal on the congress website at www.ifaj2011.com to harness all the messages on Twitter that used the #ifaj hash tag. In many cases, the journalists were filing stories and blogs on the fly so the content was coming out “as-it-happened”.

Over the days since the event, it was clear that all participants thoroughly enjoyed the exposure to Canada’s “New World Agriculture” and their chance to meet Canada’s agriculture communicators in their home setting. The organizers did a bang-up job and were saluted at the closing ceremonies and the handing over of the IFAJ flag to the Swedish delegation.

With promises of seeing each other next year, delegates left Niagara Falls to either head straight home to recover from the whirlwind week or went off to even further Canadian agriculture adventures on the Atlantic coast in New Brunswick.

When the weather starts to cool down, we start thinking about comfort foods.  There’s something especially comforting about a hot and hearty casserole that makes it the perfect dish to serve during the cooler months.

Casseroles are a popular choice because they are easy to prepare and mostly freeze well so you can separate them into individual portions to enjoy for lunches or for quick dinner during the week. 

Our casserole recipes take a healthier twist by substituting traditional ingredient and by using lean chicken.

Cassoulet of Chicken with Mixed Beans

This classic French comfort dish is usually made with duck, sausage, goose, lamb or pork.  In this recipe, we keep all the flavour but trim the fat down by using lean chicken.  Navy beans make this a high fibre comfort food that is sure to become a family favourite.

Creamy Cabbage Chicken and Egg Noodle Casserole

The combination of potatoes, cabbage and egg noodles make this the perfect recipe to enjoy on a cool autumn evening.

Cuban Style Chicken Picadillo with White Rice

This chili-like casserole uses traditional Cuban ingredients and is packed full of flavour.  So next time you’re craving chili, why not give this recipe a try?

Mac and Chicken Burger Casserole

Here’s a classic recipe that is always a hit with the kids and can be cooked either in the oven or in a slow cooker. 

Stacked Tortilla Bake with Chicken Chili

Tired of lasagna?  Then try this recipe that uses tortilla shells and Mexican ingredients.  It freezes well so you can make a few batches and take them out on those busy nights when you don’t have time to cook!

Do you have a casserole recipe that uses chicken?  If so, please share your recipe with us in the comments!

If you’re anything like me, you hate coming home after a hard day at work and feeling rushed to make dinner.  That usually means picking up the phone and ordering out from your local pizza joint but dinner doesn’t have to feel like a chore.  These recipes take less than 30 minutes to make which means you’ll have more time to spend with your children or to kick your feet up and relax!

Ground Chicken Salsa Sloppy Joes

This is a healthy take on the traditional sloppy joe but your kids don’t need to know that plus the recipe only takes 15 minutes to make!

Simple Chicken Curry

This healthy Indian dish takes a mere 30 minutes to make and is the perfect way to enjoy chicken on a busy schedule.  Serve it with Naan bread or over your favourite rice.

Chicken and Vegetable Pockets

These chicken and vegetable pockets save you time by using store bought rotisserie chicken and refrigerated crescent rolls.  Eat them on the go or enjoy them at the dinner table with a fresh salad!

Quick Thai Noodles

This is a quick and easy way to enjoy the flavours of Thailand any night of the week. So don’t pick up the phone and order take-out, the delivery time will take a lot longer than the 25 minutes it takes to prepare this dish.

Apple Pie Chicken

This dish is the perfect comfort food to enjoy during the Fall season and is a lot healthier than eating a slice of apple pie.

I recently received a comment about a few of our recipes.  It pertained to some of the ingredients we use and that people may not be familiar with them.  So I decided to go through some of our “different” recipes to see where substitutions could be made in hopes that people will try them.

Potato Chicken Curry Stir Fry with Roasted Buckwheat

This is a spicy recipe that is served over roasted buckwheat.  If the thought of buckwheat makes you cringe, then you can always serve this tasty stir fry over rice, on its own, or with crusty bread.  If you can’t handle the heat, omit the chilli pepper flakes.

Chicken Tart with Kamut Berries and Spinach

Some people would look at this recipe and think to themselves “what the heck are kamut berries?” If you really want to know, there’s a note at the end of this recipe that explains what they are.  An easy substitute is to use your favourite rice.

Chicken Pizza with Gorgonzola

Although I am a big fan of gorgonzola cheese, not everyone enjoys its unique flavour.  Try using goat cheese, or a sharp cheese of your choice as a substitute.  This recipe also uses mozzarella, so you can omit the use of the other cheeses altogether!

Tournedos with port and raspberries

These chicken tournedos don’t have to be made with the fancy port and raspberry sauce.  They’ll be just as tasty with your favourite BBQ sauce or sauce of your choice.  Click here for our step-by-step video on how to make chicken tournedos.

Polenta chicken bake

In this recipe you can substitute the polenta with pasta or serve it with crusty bread and turn it into an Italian style Sloppy Joe!

Polenta chicken pizza bites gluten free

This recipe also uses polenta but you can top English muffin slices or crusty bread with these delicious pizza toppings that your kids will love.  Keep in mind that by using bread you are not longer preparing a gluten free recipe.

So next time you come across a recipe that sounds a little different, take a look at it and see where you can make changes to accommodate your taste buds and cooking skills!

Have you made any changes to our recipes?  If so, we want to hear about them in our comments!

Once again, children are heading back to school and it’s time to remember the basics for sending them off with safe (and healthy) lunches.

Parents are reminded to follow the Be Food Safe (http://www.befoodsafe.ca) basic practices of Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill to help reduce their family’s risk of foodborne illness.

When packing lunches to take to school – or the office – keep the following food safety tips in mind:

• Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least twenty seconds before you prepare food or after playing outside, touching pets and using the bathroom. Sing “Happy Birthday” twice while washing hands to make sure you are washing long enough to send germs down the drain!
• Work on a clean surface. To prevent cross-contamination, always use a clean cutting board. Use one cutting board for fresh produce or bread and a separate one for meat, poultry and seafood.
• Rinse fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten. Dry with a paper towel.
• Rub firm-skin fruits and vegetables under cool running tap water or scrub with a clean vegetable brush while rinsing with running tap water.
• If lunches are made at home the night before, keep them in the refrigerator until it’s time to go. Make sure the refrigerator is at 4°C (40°F) or below at all times and use an appliance thermometer to check the temperature.
• Use an insulated lunch box, with an insulated bottle for hot foods or a frozen gel pack or a frozen juice box to keep perishable foods cold.
• Wash insulated lunch totes or boxes with hot soapy water after each use.

Smart students and parents never leave perishable foods out at room temperature for more than two hours. Toss any perishable food not eaten at lunchtime.

If you follow these tips, your lunches will stay fresh and safe until you eat them (or trade them).

When fall is in the air, people start to think of cozy soups and stews that take advantage of all the wonderful root vegetables overflowing farmers’ markets and grocery shelves.  Sweet potato, white potato, carrots, beets… all add delicious flavour, and all are an excellent source of fibre.

When you’re making soups and stews, remember they don’t have to be difficult at all, and they’re a wonderful way to begin experimenting in the kitchen. Just find a recipe you like, try it once the way it’s written and then play around with it. Use the basic ingredients but don’t be afraid to experiment.

That’s what I love about soups and stews - they allow lots of flexibility and it’s really easy to make creations your family will love.  If your recipe calls for three cups of potatoes, try substituting one and half cups potatoes and one and a half cups of carrots to try a new and different flavour combination. Keep track of your family’s favourite vegetables (and the vegetables not to use) and create your recipe accordingly – if they love carrots but aren’t a big fan of beets than substitute carrots when beets are called for.

In the 1940s and ’50s, home cooks made tons of terrific soups from scratch. It’s a great way to provide nutrition that’s satisfying, comforting, fast and takes advantage of what’s in the garden or what’s available locally. The most wonderful soup and stew recipes keep all of this in mind. Nothing is better in the fall than when it’s cool outside and you have a savoury soup simmering on the stove for dinner.

Now is also the time to check out some great slow cooker recipes too that are perfect for putting together a simple stew without a lot of work.

Check out the recipe section of the Chicken Farmers of Canada website for some great recipe ideas.

Until next time, keep well,

Judy Foodie (Judy Scott Welden)

If you’re anything like me, you hate wasting food.  I’ll admit I’m very strong on using my green bin and recycling so my tendencies are not create more waste than I need to. That’s why when I buy vegetables, like broccoli, tomatoes, celery or any kind of vegetable for that matter, I like to use as much of them as I can.

Most people will throw away the stems of broccoli or the leaves of celery but these all have the same, if not more, nutrients than the way we typically eat them.  When I buy broccoli, I will use the flowerets as a side dish but I always keep the stems because they are just as tasty and nutritious.  Also, my attitude is that I bought this so why shouldn’t I use every bit of it?

That’s where soups are perfect!  I make mine in my slow cooker.  Making soups are fun because you can use all the leftover vegetables you have in the fridge. You know, the stuff you would just get rid of?  I just experiment with it.  This weekend I made a soup using chicken broth, the stems of broccoli, and leftover parts of tomatoes (not including the icky parts, just the parts you can’t slice and put on a sandwich), kale, shallots and red pepper that would have been left to rot in my fridge.

I tasted it and realized it was missing something so I added some tomato juice and some cooked and shredded chicken thighs.  I also went through my freezer to see what needed to be used. Right next to my newly-bought bag of frozen peas was a bag that contained about half a cup of peas.  I then plopped them in too. 

Okay, so it’s no clam chowder or minestrone but it’s tasty none the less and chock full of really good stuff!

Soups were created for a reason!  They were made to use left overs and your favourite ingredients.  It’s all about experimenting.  Hey, I’ve cooked some pretty gourmet meals in my life but I still like to experiment and to be honest, I had a taste of my crazy soup concoction tonight and it was really good!  I can’t wait to enjoy it over the next few weeks!

As a Canadian who grew up in Europe, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some very wonderful people who have taught me a lot about life and about cooking.

I remember being a very young child living in Brussels, Belgium, growing up with my parents and my younger brother and older sister, all of us learning from each other and the world around us.

When we were posted in Belgium, we had the greatest cleaning lady who would also cooked us amazing meals, some of them from her traditional Spanish roots.  Adela was her name and I will never forget when she introduced me to a frittata for the first time in my life.

It was that feeling of comfort.  Breakfast mixed with dinner and the most amazing flavours of golden sliced potatoes with onions and peppers.  It was like heaven in my mouth!

So simple and yet so delightful.  Since then, I’ve made many a frittata although I do cheat a bit.  When I make this traditional Spanish dish I use frozen hash brown potatoes, and every time, I switch up the ingredients.

I’ve made it with red peppers, onions and broccoli.  I’ve made it with asparagus, shallots and mushrooms or spinach, cherry tomatoes and onions.  There are so many ways of enjoying this dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The frittata will not disappoint.  It’ll become a family favourite.

On that note, thank you, Adela, for introducing me to this wonderful Spanish dish!

Here’s a frittata recipe that uses pasta, showing you that there are many unique ways of enjoying the flavours of Spanish cuisine.  Mediterranean Chicken & Pasta Frittata

If you read this blog then you already know that this week is going to be a busy one for me.  That means hubby will be in a scramble to find something to make for dinner. It’s not that he can’t fend for himself, but we have two big dogs that both require at least an hour a day of exercise so by the time he gets home from their daily run, he really doesn’t feel like preparing dinner.  That’s usually when I’m at home making dinner.

To make sure hubby doesn’t order out on the nights I’m not home (like tomorrow night) I took it upon myself to prepare him some meals, one of which he turned his nose up to until I told him how easy it would be to cook and of course, that there was cheese involved.

I have four boneless skinless chicken thighs marinating in a mixture of equal parts plain 2% yogurt and store-bought salsa.  I know; shame on me for the store bought salsa!  I don’t usually buy jarred salsa but I will admit that it is a better option than fresh when baking anything with it.

So tomorrow night, all he has to do is bake the chicken thighs in their marinade.  He’ll need to preheat the oven to 400 *F and bake the thighs for 35 minutes, remove them from the oven, top them with grated cheese and bake them form an additional 5-10 minutes. Once out of the oven, all he has to do is top each thigh with freshly chopped cilantro and enjoy with prepared salad from my local grocery store.  

Talk about a super quick healthy meal that tops ordering out any day!

And if you are wondering, yes, I did chop up the cilantro for him.  It’s in the fridge in a tightly sealed container with damp paper towel.  I also wrote down the cooking instructions for him.  Is he spoiled?  I’d say so!

It’s been quite the summer with family gatherings and other events I haven’t had much time to myself.  On top of it all, I’ve had a sinus infection for the past little while.  Humph!  So once again, next weekend will be filled with family gatherings, one of which I’m hosting.  We’re planning to have a BBQ because, let’s face it, summer is coming to an end and I want to get as much use out of my BBQ before the cold weather hits.

So I decided this weekend to start preparing some food ahead of time so that I’m not tearing my hair out on the day of the BBQ.  Plus, I’ve got a fully loaded week before then so I won’t have much time to prepare this week.

Some of the menu items at our BBQ will be chicken shish kebabs.  So over the weekend, I prepared some marinades, cut chicken breasts into cubes and placed them in freezer bags, added the marinade and froze them.  That way all I have to do the day before the BBQ is to take the marinated chicken cubes out of the freezer and let them thaw.  I like to freeze my chicken in marinade because I find the chicken really takes on the flavour of the marinade when it is thawing.

I kept the marinades very simple.

For the Greek kebabs I mixed olive oil with lemon juice, fresh grated garlic and oregano.  The only preparation I’ll need to do for these kebabs is to cut up some onions and red pepper that will be skewed with the chicken.

For sweeter kebabs, I mixed vegetable oil with honey, soy sauce and freshly grated garlic.  I’ll skewer these with chopped red onion and diced pineapple.  Pineapple is great grilled because it caramelizes!

Of course, the usual BBQ fare will be served.  Burgers, sausages, and locally grown sweet corn.  As for the rest, I love that my local grocery store always has very fresh vegetable and fruit trays.  I’ll also pick up so prepared salads to which I’ll add fresh vegetables and have a selection of homemade and store bought dressings.  The key is to make sure there’s enough variety for everyone.

Do you have a time saving tip to prepare for a party?  If so, we want to hear about it so let us know in the comments.