This is by far my favourite "meatless meal". I know it sounds a little strange, but it is so delicious!

Credit goes to Nettie Cronish (author of "The Idiot's Guide to Being a Vegetarian"). When I was attending chef school, I also worked at Dish Cooking Studio and Upstairs at Loblaws Cooking School, assisting chef's in the kitchen.

Nettie taught classes at both of these venues, and through working with her, I gained an appreciation of the wonderful flavours of vegetarian and vegan cuisine.

You'll see that the recipe calls for "arame" which is a sea vegetable (a type of seaweed). It is a good introduction to seaweed because of it's mild taste. It is high in calcium and zinc, and has cancer fighting properties. You can find arame at the natural foods store on Bridgeport Road. The dish is still delicious without the arame, should you wish to leave it out.

Again, you'll have to trust me on this one! Even my husband, the meat lover, enjoys this dish.

ingredients:

method:

What I tell them is always the same – it’s all about organization and planning ahead.

When I entertain personally, I like to do EVERTHING ahead of time, no matter how small the detail. Several days before the party, I set the table (I love this part) – it gets me in the mood to entertain, and it ensures that I’m not racing around at the last minute washing all of the cutlery that is sitting in the dishwasher! I think about how I’m going to present the food (I almost always entertain buffet or family style) and I gather up my serving platters, forks, spoons, salad bowls…you name it. I plan the menu, and most often come up with something that is done in advance and only needs to be heated – I want to enjoy my guests and not be stuck in the kitchen all night. Popular choices are one dish meals that taste great, even if they are made the morning of or the day before (which often allows their flavours to mingle and develop). In the fall and winter months, I offer things like beef short ribs and make ahead mashed potatoes, chili with an add-your-own toppings bar, seafood pot pie, navarin of lamb…In the spring and summer months, I often prepare dishes that can be served cold or at room temperature, like a poached or barbequed side of salmon, sliced flank steak, cold beef tenderloin or a nicoise salad, etc. I think about what drinks I’ll be serving (red wine!) and purchase all non alcoholic and alcoholic beverages several days in advance. Point it, if you space out your to-do list over the week, you’ll get a few things accomplished each day and won’t be exhausted come the day of your party.

A few other tips to try:

That being said, I can’t promise that these tips will turn you into Ms. Martha, but I do hope that it will make you more relaxed and confident at your next gathering (and failing that, give us a call and let us do the work for you!)

First, two FANTASTIC new people have joined the dana shortt gourmet team – Sandy Gilbert and Carol Scanlan. The business has really grown over the last several months, and I’m so pleased to report that we now have more than one person (me!) assisting customers in the front of the shop. The response to the new staff has been overwhelmingly positive – we hope that by having more people out front to help you, your experience at dana shortt gourmet is an even better one.

Second, we’ve expanded our store hours. We are now open on Mondays, and are open earlier – from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. I hope that these new hours will better suit the needs of our customer’s hectic and busy lifestyles.

Third, we’ve replaced the front chest style freezer with the largest, upright freezer I could purchase! I’m not kidding when I say they had to disassemble the entire unit to fit it through the front door. With the new freezer in place, you can clearly see all of our products, and we are able to feature both individual and family size entrées of all of our items (no more running to the kitchen to see if we have anything left in our back freezers!)

Forth, we’ve updated and expanded our pick up catering menus, which are now available on our website – www.danashortt.ca. We’ve added three new entrees to our food shop menu (lamb shepherd’s pie, cashew chicken curry, and sausage, chicken and white bean cassoulet) a new cheese torte from “yummy foods” (cream cheese, chili, maple, pecan and ice wine) and our soon-to-be-famous cinnamon buns (available on Saturday’s).

Fifth, we’ve hired a professional photographer (Kirsten Loop of Loop Photography – check out her website at www.loopphotography.ca) to take shots of our pick up catering platters and hors d’oeuvres. The shots look fantastic and I can’t wait to share them with you! Within the next few weeks, we hope to add a picture gallery to our website, as having a visual will make your party planning even easier.

Don't get me wrong...I love shepherd's pie made with beef (technically, if it's made with beef, it's called "cottage" pie...) but I wanted to update our recipe a bit to make it even more special and unique.

Chef Lynda Young (a.k.a. resident recipe tester!) had fun in the kitchen coming up with her latest creation - a shepherd's pie made with the traditional ground lamb, red wine gravy and mashed sweet potato topping. It's soooo delicious, and healthy as well.

Scones have been a best seller since we opened the shop, so we thought it would be fun to come up with another ready-to-bake breakfast goodie.

On Saturday's, we now offer our mouth watering cinnamon raisin buns. We package 8 buns in disposable, oven ready containers. Simply bake until puffed and golden and top with our buttermilk cream cheese icing.

The buns freeze great too...if you don't want to eat them all at once, simply wrap the leftover buns in saran and freeze. When you're ready for more, thaw the buns in the microwave (use the defrost setting - it will take about 2 minutes) or wrap the bun/s in foil and re-heat in the oven until warm.

Many of you have raved about "yummy foods" sundried tomato and pesto goat cheese torte (we sell 1/2 lb wedges or 2.5 lb or 5 lb wheels in the store).

To open a tight bottle top or jar lid, use plastic gloves. Or, bang (tap) up the top and side of the lid with the back of a butter knife, and then unscrew. Works every time!