Well that was fun...

We were back at Winnipeg Harvest today. We were honoured to cook for their round table symposium for National Hunger Awareness Day. Many different community leaders were there, from the media to non-profit agencies, to business leaders. It was nice to hear people talking about working together and finding common ground from which to move forward.

We really want to move away from disposable dishes and so this was the first time we used real dishes even though we didn't have an on-site kitchen. It struck me as we carried in 12 boxes of china that it's quite a bit more work to use the real stuff. Had we used paper, we could have carried all the dishes we needed for 40 people in one trip. We could have thrown them out at the end of the meeting and not had to worry about washing them.

But why bother with good food if you're going to eat it off of styrofoam? I hate that shivery feeling I get when my spoon scrapes the bottom of a styrofoam bowl--it makes it hard to enjoy that last bite. Anyway, now we have our own dishes for up to 100, and we will use them whenever we can. Now we're on the hunt for good silverware and our own cloth serviettes.

We really like setting a nice table and serving food to people that tastes good and is good for them. We like being able to offer something that is fresh and affordable and just a little bit different. It's a great way to be involved in National Hunger Awareness Day.

Our beginnings

We've always liked to cook, but it was only after we needed to find caterers for Winnipeg's 2004 Food Security Assembly that we really started cooking together for larger events (outside our weekly family gatherings that feature up to 30 people!)

When we couldn't find people who could cook affordable, healthy, locally produced, mostly organic food with lots of vegetarian and vegan choices, we decided we could take on the task. The result was a lot of happy, well fed people who encouraged us to keep cooking.

And so we have.

This new blog is our attempt to "bump it up a notch" as a friend who attended a recent event we catered said we should. We'll post our recipes and our thoughts on food and cooking here... enjoy!