Cooking for my dog!

Well today was a fun day. I did a cookday for my dog Macie.

Macie got sick with a serious skin condition called malascea (sp?). Basicly a bad fungus infection that went undetected for months. We had visited a Homepathic vet and he had mentioned that we need to take Macie off store-bought dog food and start cooking for her. Her diet was to consist of sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips and potatoes, cooked and mashed. Well that helped and she lost a lot of weight.
Then we added cooked mashed beans (kidney, Lima, Black, lentils, and chickpeas).
Then we found out she wasn't getting enough protein so we added tofu and also added a small cucumber to her food as well.

Since last February of 2008, my wife and I have been cooking for our dog, even she has a Personal Chef!
It is amazing to see how much mash you get out raw vegetables. Today I did 8 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of Sweet potatoes, 6 pounds of parsnips, 6 pounds of turnips and 1.5 pounds of carrots. so that is 31.5 pounds of vegetables.

I got................ are you ready 2 weeks worth of food, or 28 1.5 cup as she eats twice a day.

I love that I have my puppy back and she loves having her daddy as her Personal Chef.

Ontario Pork

Well - first it was Mad-Cow affecting beef sales and imports from all across Canada, then we had the bird-flu, we have finally put that to rest and now "The Swine Flu" has hit one farm in Alberta. In light of this news, at least 10 countries including China have put a ban on all Canadian Pork including farms here in Ontario.

Now I understand that people and countries have to take precautions to protect themselves and their citizens, but I feel you should do so only after you have all the scientific facts and if pork from all parts of the country is proved to be a danger, then go ahead and impose your restrcictions,

In today's economy, by outrightly banning products to be shipped to a country can cripple an industry. Thankfully the United States and Japan who are Canada's largest importers of Pork have remained committed to Canadian Pork.

As this Flu Epidemic, hopefully does not become an pandemic, and hopefully fades to the background. I encourage you to seek out stores and butchers that sell local Ontario Pork and serve it to your family. Your local farmers will thank you.

Thanks for listening and have a great day.

Chef Tim

100 Mile Meals

It is amazing in this day and age and with the state of the economy, that more people aren't doing 100 mile meals or at least trying to support their local suppliers. There is a new show on Food Netowrk Canada, that shows families going through the 100 Mile Challenge. It is a good lesson for all to at least find out what different types of things can you get in your area.

I started offering 100 mile menus last year and I was pleasantly surprised at how many products were available in the Ottawa and surrounding area that I thought was otherwise "off-limits" for the 100 mile dinner.

Finding Local wineries, and mills that still make flour was interesting. I went down to Upper Canada Village to find the flour. St. Albert Cheese Factory makes fresh churned butter and cheese. Cochrane's Dairy offers fresh milk. And Beaverbrook Farms has many different meats to choose from and Mariposa Duck Farm has some amazing products including the Foie Gras which is available at Aubrey's meat and deli in the Byward market.

If you are looking for an alternative to store bought, imported products and support your local economy, investigate your local area, you might just make some interesting discoveries.

100 Mile Meal Menus will be available as of June 1, 2009.

Have a great weekend.

Tim


There is a plethera of local farmer's markets on the weekends that you can go and find local producers.