Artisan Sweet Cherry Bread

I grew up in a small town (pop. ~ 2,000).  One of my greatest pleasures as a child was waking up to the smell of bread baking from the local bakery less than a two minute run from our house.  I would quickly dress, get 50¢ from my Mom then out the door I would go anticipating the delicious flavour of fresh baked bread.  I'd arrive back at the house with the bread still warm.  This really was the best of artisan bread!

At one time, small Mom & Pop bakeries could be found in most villages, towns and even cities all featuring artisan breads.  Artisan breads are those crafted in small batches rather than massed produced.  Great attention is paid to the quality of ingredients.  Unlike massed produced 'stay fresh forever' breads, artisan breads do not contain HFCS, preservatives, artificial flavours or artificial colours.  As a result artisan breads do not keep as long so are best used within a day or two.  They are healthier for you!  Home-made breads made from scratch and baked in the oven or on the grill are considered artisan.  Breads made in a bread-machine are not because part of the results differ from handmade, oven baked.  Artisan breads are as much about the process as they are the ingredients and delicious end results.  Artisan breads are often referred to as speciality breads.

The small bakery of my childhood is no longer a bakery.  The very small, and I do mean small bakery in the village (pop. ~ 1,100) we lived in a few years back closed leaving the villagers quite disappointed.  The bakery in the town (pop. ~11,000) closed back in the 1980's leaving the town without a bakery.  About three years ago, a small bakery opened up down town featuring artisan breads.  I bake a lot of bread and always have, mostly artisan breads.

We have been fairly lucky at finding artisan bakeries during our travels.  One tourist village a few kilometres from where we enjoyed camping had a very tiny (about 8' square) bakery but the bread was baked in the most amazing outdoor oven I've ever seen.  That bread was incredible!  We haven't found an artisan bakery near our vacation home but there is an onsite small bakery at the Publix featuring fresh baked, artisan breads.  What has become increasing more common is small artisan bakeries selling their products through the big box stores.

We stopped at a Meijer's on the way home from our vacation.  They carry a small selection of artisan breads from a Michigan artisan bakery.  I thought the sweet cherry bread topped with icing would be a festive dish to take to the party we were attending the following day.  This was a delicate pink yeast bread dotted with maraschino cherries.  The icing was a simple thick icing sugar icing with just a hint of almond.  Almond extract is often used with cherries because it enhances the flavour of the cherries.  This would be rather easy to duplicate at home using a sweet yeast bread base (eg. the base used for cinnamon bread) then substitute maraschino cherries for the raisins and almond extract for the cinnamon, then adjusting to desired consistency.  I would add the cherries in just before finishing the first knead to prevent too much crushing.  Hmm, sounds like a bread experiment in development :)

Pusateri's Fine Foods

As a family of foodies we often gift each other with gourmet foods.  These tend to be foods that the person would not buy for themselves but not always.  When we wed almost 35 years ago, my husband's parents still had kids at home.  They started a Christmas tradition of giving a chocolate initial to each family member along with an institutional sized container of their favourite food (eg. dill pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup).  We continued with the large sized containers of food but one of our kid's and spouse took over getting the chocolate initials.  The good news is no one picked up on giving a live piglet in a dog carrier so that was a one year only foodie gift.  Our BIL was ecstatic with the piglet for starting his dream of becoming a pig farmer.  Two more piglets joined the lone one because not knowing anything about pigs, they need other pigs for the heat to stay warm in the winter.  But I digress.  Onto my foodie gifts...

One of our kids gifted me with food from Pusateri's Fine Foods with three locations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  I'm not a shopper as in department and grocery stores unless I have to but I sure do love the kitchen and gourmet food shops!  I have not been to Pusateri's myself but after perusing their website, it is on my list of shops to visit the next time we are in the GTA.  Apparently they have in-store sushi and olive oil bars!  Pusateri's has a catalogue for convenient ordering or you can order online as well as visit one of their locations.

There were four items in the gift bag.  The tall box contained Olearia San Giorgio extra virgin, cold extracted olive oil made in Italy.   This light fruit flavoured olive oil won the Sial Calad Olive D'or 2011 gold medal as well as International Recognition Olio Award 2010 in Hamburg, Germany.  I can't wait to savour this olive oil!  The taller jar contained Corte Donda Giardiniera made in Italy.  Giardiniera is a mixture of preserved vegetables with this one being French beans, pepper, fennel, onions, cabbage, celery, carrots, sunflower oil and vinegar.  The larger squatty jar to the front contained Mint & Pistachio Pesto from Bella Cucina Artful Food of Atlanta, Georgia.  This pesto is a winner of the Outstanding Product Line in the International Fancy Food Show.  I grow a lot of mint so this will be a product I will try to duplicate.  The smallest jar was Essence of Niagara White Ice Jelly produced by the Niagara Vinegar Co.  The Niagara region of Ontario is one of our favourite areas.  It is home to many ward winning wineries.  Actually the entire region from the Niagara spanning west along the Talbot Trail (Highway 3) close to the banks of Lake Erie to almost Windsor is a mecca for small wineries, produce stands, mushroom farms and so much more.  It is a beautiful drive!  We always come home laden with a multitude of foodie finds.  Ice wine is made from grapes that are allowed to freeze on the vine then picked at the coldest moment of a Canadian winter's night.  Each frozen grape only produces a drop of icewine which explains why icewine is so expensive.  Icewine is one of the very few wines my husband will drink.

We use a lot of olive oil in our heart healthy recipes.  I will be using the olive oil as a dip for homemade breads, in pesto and in homemade salad dressings.  The pesto will be used in a sauce as well as a spread, possibly for dipping breads as well.  The icewine jelly will be used as a glaze for brie of which I forgot to mention the package of Castello Rosenborg Brie (made in Denmark) for this purpose. The giardiniera will be used as a condiment similar to pickles.  Thanks so much to the gift givers.  You know who you are.  These wonderful foodie gifts are very much appreciated!  I can't wait to visit Pusateri's the next time we are in the GTA!

M & M Meat Shops Hot Dipz

M & M Meat Shops is a Canadian specialty frozen food store that I have mentioned before on this blog.  One of our friends owns a franchise so I do shop there from time to time but not on a larger scale basis.    The store is focused on foods for entertaining as well as individual serving sizes.  My three main purchases there are Atlantic wild salmon steaks, an oriental party appetizer mix and Asian style vegetables although from time to time I will try a different product for entertaining.  I doubt I spend much more than $150 a year there but what I do spend helps to support our friend.

During the holiday season my husband picked up two of the Hot Dipz.  One was spinach, artichoke and cheese dip while the other was roasted garlic cheese dip.  The 8.8 oz dip comes frozen in a vacuum sealed pouch inside a small box.  Each dip costs $3.79 regular price but it does go on sale fairly often.

To warm the dip, you remove it from the pouch and place in a heat proof dish.  For this particular dip the instructions said to microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir then microwave on high for another two minutes.

I make the vast majority of snack type dips from scratch but I have also buy a snack dip here and there.  As pre-made dips go, the M & M Hot Dipz are more than reasonably priced if not a bit lower in price than some dips in the dairy section.  The flavour of the spinach, artichoke and cheese dip was quite nice and it did get several compliments.  I served the dip with Tostitos Scoops, one of my favourite chips for dip.  The hot dip would have gone equally as well with pita bread wedges. 

All in all, I was quite pleased with the M & M Hot Dipz.  As a convenience product, the quality was quite good but then that is something I have come to expect from M&M Meat Shops.  Even though the price of food is a bit higher at M & M, the quality of the food is superior to most grocery store frozen foods focusing on entertaining or single serving size.  The Hot Dipz will be a product I keep a couple of packages on hand as something a bit different for entertaining.  I may even try experimenting with a homemade, freezable clone recipe.

M&M® Meat Shops

M&M® Meat Shops is Canada's largest specialty frozen food chains. The chain was founded in 1980 in Kitchener, Ontario by Mac Voisin and Mark Nowak. The stores can now be found across Canada. Most M&M® stores can be found in smaller strip malls. The stores are quite small and I do mean small. When you walk in the door there will be a long counter with a row of upright freezer behind it. On the other wall there will be a few shelves over bunker style freezers. Most of these stores are mom and pop operated with perhaps at most one employee. M&M® specializes in flash frozen meat that along with other offerings have made them quite popular for pre-made appetizers and desserts for entertaining, steaks for grilling and single serving meals.

Boxed

The majority of the meats at M&M® are boxed. Instructions for cooking the product via various means is printed on the box. Other meats and fish are cryovac packaged. About 98% of products offered are frozen. Some store offer small samples of a product they are trying to sell but not very often.

I don't shop a lot at M&M® for a few reasons. First it tends to be considerably more expensive than even the grocery store. It really is on the convenience end of foods so there isn't of lot that we can use. However we occasionally buy a dessert or pick up a couple of boxes of extras for just in case when hosting larger get togethers like the honey garlic chicken wings my husband picked up for Superbowl Sunday. Two things I really l really like there is their salmon (steaks or fillets) and their oriental vegetable mix with the miniature corn in it.

In the Box

Unless the food is cryovac sealed (steaks) or bagged (vegetables) it comes in plastic bags inside cardboard boxes or individual serving sized containers with a heavy plastic lid similar to the seals found on yogurts. The food in the bag has been flash frozen. What I don't like abough this packaging system aside of the box is the air in the thin plastic bag. This food is not packaged for long term storage.

This box that didn't get used for Superbowl Sunday cost $9.99 and contained 22 - 28 pieces of honey garlic chicken wings with instructions on how to cook from the frozen state using oven, barbecue or microwave. I decided to use the oven. It was as simple as opening the bag, arranging onto a Silpat® lined baking sheet and baking according to the instructions.

Cooked

Recall these wings were bought as a back-up for our Superbowl Party but weren't needed so I used them the next day for dinner. After hosting a larger event that involves several dishes/trays coming out over a 12 hour period an easier dinner is welcomed.

I put potatoes in to bake about 15 minutes before the chicken. The chicken wings were ready in 25 minutes with turning them mid way through heating. The wings came out nice especially for being frozen. They weren't as sticky as a fresh glazed sauce but they certainly would meat the need if you had a house full of guests and needed extra.