March 29th, 2010 by admin
Easter is 5 days away. The stores are packed with chocolate eggs, and hollow chocolate figures of Bart Simpson, the Transformers and bunnies. Some of you may claim to be too grown up for Easter egg hunts….but we at UeaT encourage all UeaTers to indulge in egg decoration and hunts. Maybe even hold an Easter egg hunt across campus!
Before you set out to buy food colors and dyes for your egg decorating ventures, try out some natural dyes. You probably already have some of the ingredients needed.
Boil your eggs like you usually do, and leave them in the refrigerator overnight. Boil one cup of water with a small amount of your “color ingredient” until the water picks up the color. Strain the mixture, pour it over your eggs and cover for an hour. The longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the darker the color will be (but it will also seep into the egg, so it may not be a good idea to eat them).
The “color ingredients” can be a range of different spices, fruits, berries, vegetables, and teas. We like to use cherries (pink), blueberries (blue), instant coffee (brown), spinach (green), paprika (orange), grape juice (purple), cranberries (pink), powdered turmeric (yellow) and rooibos teas (orange). You can find a larger list here.
Send us your best colored egg pictures and we will add them to this space!
Posted in Tips and Shortcuts, UeaT | Comments
March 8th, 2010 by admin
FROM FIELD TO ART: Discussing the Link Between Food, Art and Social Justice
*A multi-disciplinary panel discussion on food issues*
Please join the Hart House Art, Farm and Social Justice Committees for a
multi-disciplinary discussion on the links between food, art and social
justice.
Artist Ron Benner, Geography Professor Sarah Wakefield, Slow Food
co-chair Arlene Stein and student food activist and The Hot Yam! member
Dulcie Vousden will discuss the various perspectives on today’s important
food issues and the valuable contribution of art to social justice.
*Date*: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
*Time:* 3:00 – 5:00 pm
*Location*: Debates Room, Hart House, University of Toronto
*Cost:* Free
*Speakers:*
RON BENNER – A Canadian artist, whose work encompasses a wide-range of food
and social justice issues. Benner will be exhibiting his work and discussing
the role that art plays in social justice.
ARLENE STEIN – Co-chair of Slow Food Toronto and Director of Catering and Events at Hart House. Stein is an active member of the local food community,
who is dedicated to food security and sustainability issues.
SARAH WAKEFIELD – Associate Professor, Department of Geography at the
University of Toronto. Wakefield’s research interests include urban food
security and the effect of municipal environmental regulation on
environmental and social justice.
DULCIE VOUSDEN – Hot Yam! member and student food activist. The Hot Yam! is
an all-volunteer vegan collective. Each week, the collective cook up a
delicious, mostly local, mostly organic and entirely vegan lunch for the
University of Toronto community.
For additional information contact:
Kelly Robertson-Reinhart
Kel.e.robertson@gmail.com
647-883-9606
Posted in Guest Posts | Comments
October 13th, 2009 by admin
Dear UeaTers,
Have you ever pondered over whether it is really possible to be a 100% locavore? Ever wondered if local trumps organic? What about culturally symbolic foods that can’t be grown in Ontario soil? Is the 100-mile diet just a trend?
To help you with your ponderings, we would like to introduce you to Eat Local!, a student run initiative on campus to promote eating local, sustainable foods. This group of students has worked very hard to put together an annual Eat Local! Day on campus which features information tables, guest speeches, a local farmer’s market and….A FREE VEGAN LUNCH!
Here is what one of the organizers of Eat Local! had to say about this initiative:
Guest Post by Lynnette Choo
The Eat Local! event started off as a group project for an enviro course in our undergraduate years. We were challenged to find something that we were passionate about and find a creative way to express that. Anne, Mina and I were all passionate about food politics and were particularly intrigued by the idea of eating locally. Since we all volunteered with the Hot Yam!, we decided on a public awareness event to show the benefits of eating locally and supporting our local food producers. And, most importantly, to show that there are so many diverse fruits and vegetables that can be grown in Ontario…not just potatoes.
With a free vegan, local and mostly organic lunch made by the Hot Yam! and partnering with UTERN, Eat Local! has grown, attracting over 200 attendees in the past. Last year we’ve included a small farmer’s market, a speaker’s series (from professors to chefs to farmers), booths from organizations like Local Food Plus (LFP), the Greenbelt, Foodland Ontario, and more. At Eat Local!, you can find useful resources such as a list of local farmer’s markets, small sachets of local and organic sprout seeds donated from Toronto Sprouts….and many more ideas on how you can start to eat locally.
We realized that eating locally is one of the many big food issues out there. We understand that when it comes to eating locally, we’re all struggling with our own dilemmas. Does local trump organic? What about culturally symbolic foods that can’t be grown in Ontario soil? Is the 100-mile diet just a trend? Is it really possible to be a 100% locavore? This event is here to spark interest and discussion. Food politics is everywhere.
So come out and join us at the third annual Eat Local! in October….it will be hosted on October 21, 2009 from 12:pm to 4pm at the International Student Center.
For more information, send us an email: eatlocaluoft@gmail.com
Posted in Events @ UeaT, Guest Posts, UeaT | Comments
November 26th, 2009 by admin
In UeaT’s opinion, the best thing about the holidays is the food. And the cookies. Gingerbread. Chocolate chip. Pecan. Shortbread. Caramel. Chocolate. Cookies!! You can buy them. Or make them. We prefer to make ours at home. It takes less than an hour to prepare a warm, buttery batch of cookies, and they make excellent presents. Just wrap them up in cellophane, or put them in a cookie tin. Cheap and yummy. Everybody’s happy!
For the next few weeks, we will share our favorite cookie recipes here (under the tag U-Cookie). We have made them all at home, so rest assured, they are easy to make.
First up, Lemon Shortbread Cookies with Cornmeal. These cookies are awesome because they melt in your mouth, but also provide a gritty texture. And the lemon flavor is subtle, and warm. These crumbling cookies are a delight to make (it takes only 25 minutes from start to finish) and a delight to eat.
(recipe adapted from Poppytalk)
You will need:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal, or a bit more if you really like the gritty texture
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup icing sugar (if you don’t have any at home, you can put regular sugar in a grinder until it turns to a powder, or simply use regular sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Lemon zest from one lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
What you need to do:
- Start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
- In a large bowl, using your electric mixer, blend all the sugar and butter until it is fluffy. It helps to have the butter softened.
- Gradually, add the vanilla extract and the lemon zest and juice. Keep mixing for a minute.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, cornstarch using a whisk or a fork.
- Slowly, add your dry mixture to your butter and sugar mixture. You don’t need the electric mixer at this point…it is best to use a form and mix by hand. Mix until they are just combined (you can not see the white flour anymore), but don’t over-mix it.
- At this point, the mixture should be soft and doughy. Break off a small piece and form a ball with your hands (about two inches in diameter). Lay the dough-ball onto parchment paper (which should be spread over your baking sheet) and slightly flatten the ball with a fork.
- Keep doing this until you have used up all the dough. Remember to give the cookies a couple of inches space to be able to expand.
- Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes…the bottoms should be slightly golden. Take them out and leave them to cool.
And thats it!! 25 minutes and you have awesome cookies ready! Enjoy!
Posted in Cookies, Recipes, UeaT | Comments
December 7th, 2009 by admin
Hello to a new week and the first snowfall of the season!!
We suggest that you stay indoors, drink warm hot chocolate, and bake some delicious Shortbread Sugar Cookies. They are super simple and quick to make, and turn out absolutely amazing!
(Click on the image to make it larger)
Posted in Cookies, Recipes, UeaT | Comments
