It’s time to announce the theme for Home Ec #5 (it’s in 1.5 weeks)!   Drum roll please… 

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Our fourth Home Ec event was on Monday, May 31 (they are always the last Monday of the Month).

20-30 people gathered with small trays of finger sandwiches to share.  Some were newer interpretations of finger sandwiches, others included homemade bread and others were true to the roots of sandwich trays (peanut butter and banana spirals and maraschino cherry wheels were big hits).  And let’s not even talk about the Whoopie Pie!

There was a lot of discussion on what constituted a finger sandwich.  Was crust allowed?  Did the bread  have to be bleached white?  Did a wrap count or is that too modern?  Do you have to eat them with a raised pinky or is that optional?  None of this conversation was remotely serious – but the eating was.  We ate more than 80% of the spread and the rest went home with people…

The evening was super fun – Home Ec is simply about getting good people together and sharing conversation.  The conversation often hedges towards food but there’s no format or rules.  It’s been a lot of fun to meet a group of strangers and meet some new friends.

Emily made an amazing signature cocktail that included a recipe we shared for infusing gin with tea (we team up with The Avro to design a one-off cocktail for the monthly event).  We both agreed we needed to do something with tea and I remember our buddy Sean from Punk Domestics mentioning infusing booze with tea.  He pointed me to an article on tea infusions written by Shae of Hitchhiking to Heaven and we were set!  We really need to do some more infusion, in a hurry!  Check out yesterdays photo essay of the cocktail being made – the pictures were taken by the same fantastic photographer that took these, the lovely Margaret Mulligan.

We handed out our fourth HomeEc badge with more to come!  The next Home Ec is Monday, May 28th – the theme (this one is super easy) will be announced on Sunday.  We hope to see you there.

We’re taking a quick break from the tour of our new home to take care of some needed business.  Specifically:

Home Ec is a non-competitive evening for a chance to meet people who share interests of food, community, conversation and enjoying each others companies.  Newcomers are welcome and we do our best to make sure you’ll meet others and hopefully have a good time.

We have a different theme every month.  This month it’s Finger Sandwiches.  The Avro fits about 30 people so don’t worry about brining a lot but bring some tasties to share.  This is the fourth monthly event and we’ve had newcomers at each one – let’s keep the streak alive!

Some of the crowd are passionate cooks who will go all out and others are far more casual  – this is about participating, not about mastery or trying to show each other up.  If you participate by bringing some tasties to share, you’ll get a one-of-a-kind badge (it’s actually a pin) like the Boy Scouts that shows the world you got game!

We’ll have people mark their plates so you know what you’re biting into (we’ll do our best as a community to describe each dish and help you identify which dishes contain meat, nuts or other things you may love or avoid). 

We’re also teaming up with The Avro to create a designer cocktail.  Emily and I are building something TEA-riffic this time after doing some consulting with Sean at Punk Domestics.

It’s 19+ because of liquor laws in Ontario.  There is no cover and we’d love to see you there.  you don’t have to RSVP but it helps us account for the number of buttons (you can do so by leaving a comment on this post or adding yourself to the facebook attendees).

Hope to see you there!

We’re just over 2 weeks away from the next Home Ec event!  It’s been a while since we’ve shared what Home Ec is all about, so here’s the blow-by-blow:

• It’s a free event held in a small bar in the east end of Toronto (The Avro).  Because of liquor licenses, it is 19+
• It is a non-competitive gathering of strangers who are interested in food.  The crowd is friendly and approachable.
• Each event has a one-off badge (a pin) like Boy Scouts or Girl Guides.  The pin is generally associated to some form of challenge and a theme for that month.
• We team up with The Avro to create a one-off cocktail that melds some form of preserving with their wicked knowledge of mixology.
• It’s held the last Monday of the month from 8-10 (though some come early and even stay late!)

Here’s the theme for April:

We’ve just found out via a friend (thanks Nat!) that it’s also the kind-of one-year anniversary of the Royal Wedding (Part 2) – it’s gotta be fate!

Be as literal or as inventive as you wish.  Arrive with small serving (there are generally less than 30 people there) of finger sammies.  Be inspired by high tea, the Queen or the last time everyone stood around in dark clothing sharing a few bites!  We’ll have a small form so each person can fill out the details of what’s in theirs so you’ll know what you’re biting into in advance.

We hope to see you there – although there is a core group of people who have become regulars, there’s always newcomers and, so far, everyone has been really friendly.  You can RSVP on Facebook (optional but it helps us plan).

Here’s the recaps from the last 3:

• Home Ec 1 (Bring Your Own Bar Snacks)
• Home Ec 2 (Preserve Swap)
• Home Ec 3 (Food on Sticks)

We hope to see you there!

Monday night was our third Food on Sticks – it was a great night with lots to eat and some great people to share an evening with.

Our friend Margaret Mulligan went above and beyond twice – first by taking photos (she’s a professional photographer) and second by bringing crickets on a stick!  She had some that were plain, some dipped in chocolate and others that were on pretzels with caramel and chocolate.  Check out the post she wrote on the process – it was an epic journey and we’re so thankful for the work she put in!  They were an absolute hit.

There were a lot of sweets this time.  Here’s a partial list of the food people brought (the items I remember):

• Stick S’mores
• Beet Quicjles
• Cake Pops
• Watermelon and tomato salad
• Pickled garlic and cheese
• Chocolate nutty heaven with some form of soft caramel that was amazing
• Cheese puffs (3 different types)
• Dairy free triple chocolate brownies with candied ginger (I’m really enjoying dairy free baked goods that people make and may need to learn some more about them…)
• Chocolate, peanut and bacon wrapped bananas

And there was more.  We hope you’ll come and meet some friendly people; the next event is April 30th.  We have the theme picked but we’ll announce it closer to the date (if you can’t wait, drop us a line in the comments and we’ll give you advanced warning!)

Here are Margaret’s great shots (make sure to check out her epic cricket post):

Dana just finished the new poster for our next Home Ec night!  Check it out:

Home Ec is all about meeting new people, making something and sharing it.  It’s not competitive and the community is super-friendly.  We hope you’ll come out.  Everyone that shows with food on sticks will get a custom pin as their ‘badge’ proving they have the Food on Stick skill!

This months theme is food on sticks.  There’s no way to heat things there so be imaginative – we’ve been thinking of everything from salads to pastas and more; as long as it’s on a stick of some sort.  We’d love to know that you’re coming – RSVP (not required but it helps us plan) on FaceBook or let us know by the comments below!  The last two events have been very well attended and a whole lot of fun!

We had an awesome evening of Preserve Swapping at Home Ec 2 last night (It was originally scheduled for Feb 27th and while we tried the best to get the word out about the change because of an unplanned business trip, I’m afraid we have missed some).  There will be one more preserve swap this year (in the fall) and a food swap before then; so there will be lots of opportunities to get involved in soon.  apologies if our messages didn’t reach you; we’re learning as we go…

Before we review, let’s announce Home Ec #3: Pot Luck on Sticks!  Come with bite-sized portions of your favourite foods (be creative) served on sticks on Monday, March 26 from 8:00PM-10:00PM.  You can RSVP on the Facebook group (which will make it easy to let you know of any updates) or stay tuned here.  You will be asked to fill out a small card describing your goody (simple facts like whether it’s vegetarian, contains nuts, etc).  We hope you’ll come out and meet some fantastic people – all are welcome!

The Preserve Swap was epic last night with several hundred jars of preserves traded.  Here’s a pic from early in the night:

Here’s our haul:

The complete list of what we came home with:

• Apple Butter
• Quince Elderberry Jam
• Roasted Peppers
• Crabapple Jelly
• Banana Butter
• Rosemary Jelly
• sun-dried Tomatoes
• Italian Vegetable Pickle (Antipasto)
• Pickled Chilis
• Nectarine Ginger Jam
• Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
• Tomato Sauce
• Wild Grape Juice (unsweetened; this will be made into vinegar)
• Pickled Hot Pepper Rings
• Apple Sauce
• Spicy Pickled Cauliflower
• Dill Zucchini Pickles
• Maple Sap (yep, right out of the tree!)

Swapping is an unbeleivable way to diversify your pantry.  As the variety of products in our CSA box tends to decrease in the darker months of winter, it’s a welcome boost to our cooking to have such an influx of new flavors and treats.  It’s also a great help in planning for next years preserving season and let’s me try things and decide on what to make in the coming year.

Emily made another killer cocktail with our Cold-Brewed “Espresso”.

A special mention to the kind folks (Lorraine) at Sausage Partners who brough fresh scones (fresh as in still warm from the oven) and passed around samples with their jam. 

We hope that you’ll come out to the next event – there’s a great group of people who are passionate about food waiting to meet you!

Team,

A brief but important post today.  An unplanned business trip has forced the change of dates of both events that we’re hosting this moth.

To be clear, the new dates are:

• HomeEc 2: Preserve Swap is now on the evening of Monday, Feb 20 (a week earlier than announced).  All the details can be seen here.
• An Evening at the Theatre (With the Leslieville Market and us to see the play SEEDS which features the story of a lawsuit between a Canadian Farmer and biotechnology giant Monsanto) has been moved to Tuesday, Feb 20th (back 1 day).  There is still a performance the night of the 20th so ticket purchasers can keep their tickets or contact Joel to swap for the 21st (he will put you in touch with the right person).  Click this link to see more details.

We apologize for the inconvenience.  Here is what we are doing to try to ensure everyone knows in advance:

1. We’re posting this notice today.
2. We’ve sent messages to everyone who has RSVP’d or been invited to the Home Ec Event on FaceBook.  This is the only record we have of people who are coming for certain.
3. We’ll be putting a few posters around the ‘hood featuring the new date of Home Ec.
4. Leslieville Farmers Market and we will both be updating our Facebook pages and tweeting about the change of dates.
5. Joel will write to any that replied to the post about the theater night (which also counted as a ballot to be entered in a draw for free tickets to the event).
6. We’ve added an event page for the Theater night on Facebook for updates (a great lesson going forward – this allows us to update people in case of personal emergencies like these).
7. We’ve updated both posts – both their content and a large disclaimer at the top to note the change of plans
8. We’ll be checking for tweets/retweets about either event and getting the word out directly to anyone who has messaged about either event.

Apologies for the change, hope you can still make it out!

We’re also open to suggestions or your concerns – send Joel an email at joel (a) elevenideas.ca if you have either (or both)!