Toronto Green Living Show 2015

The Green Living Show at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre just happened this weekend. I was lucky enough to have time to go and check it out. There was so much to see that I spent an entire day there looking at all the different things.

There were lots of stuff to see, like what can they do with fallen trees in Ontario. How they recycle them and turn them into furniture, decors and work of art instead of just breaking the pieces into wood chips! The picture to the right is more of a displace piece but there were a handful of companies there that used reclaimed wood to make home furniture! The pieces were very pretty but everything was pretty much custom made and very expensive. You're looking at about $1000/sqft for a table.

There were 4 main areas of interest for me: Gardening, Green Home, Green food, vehicles and inventions.
I'll talk about some worthy mentions in each area

Gardening

I've been meaning to try out container gardening for a while, but with all the stuff between getting married and moving out, I haven't been able to start anything. All I have is my 1 pot of basil that is still growing strong. So one thing I was looking for at the show was more gardening info and seeds to help me start my garden whenever I finally settle down.
I learned about the different community gardens available in Toronto, some of the initiatives that they have for kids and learning about food.Landkind.ca has several offerings that range from very easy ready to harvest planting box to weekly CSA box! If we ever get permission from real estate at work to use a balcony, I think the harvest box is perfect for us!
Another worthy mention is a more global organization called USC Canada. It's not just about sustaining food, but seeds as well!  The company promotes biodiversity to avoid strains of food from going extinct. Within Canada, they have a seed library and host events such as seedy Saturday to promote increasing biodiversity. They have lots of material you can use to help with your own gardening. They also work with 11 countries around to world by providing various programs that build food security for the locals.
On a side note, I learned from a blueberry farmer that I cannot grow blueberries indoors. A mature blueberry bush is huge and it is actually a cold weather plant. You actually need to let it hibernate in the winter so it will have fruits the following year. Now if only I can find 4 friends who are interested in buying a bush too then I can get that special deal they had for blueberry bushes.

Green Home

Since we just brought an old home, I spent lots of time in this area looking at different stuff.
I'm not ready for a reno now, but I know I will have to reno it sooner or later since it is almost 50 years old. Having said that, I will be spending the next several years gathering a lot of different info so when I renovate, I renovate right.

Lets start from top to bottom.

Roof

Ever since Solar panels for roofs came out I've been intrigued with the idea of getting one whenever I buy a house. There are many options now that make it possible. I talked with several companies and 2 stood out for me. Wasser Resources because they looked into more then just electricity and they also helped several houses in Ontario get as much off grid as possible. The other thing that interested me was how they put on their panels. This group actually perferred if you do not have shingles so they can place their panel right on your roof. We couldn't get into too much details for now that works and how the panels can protect the roof without shingles but that can be a nice cost saving right there. The other company was Polaron Solartech as they have very affordable options to get into solar! They have 3 options for going solar, a) you rent the roof to the company and at the end of 20 years you'll own the panels yourself, b) invest in half of the up front cost for the panels, receive more yearly cash inflow and own the panels at the end of 20 years, or c) buy upfront and they just do the installs for you. I love how this is so flexible and really allows anyone to get into the market.

With or without solar panels, I still need to find a way to cover my roof. Zimgroup was there to introduce their metal shingles. They look like the clay roofs and I love how they're energy efficient with a 50 year warranty. This is definitely staying on my list of products I'll be switching to whenever I do the reno and replace the roof.

Framing

This booth catch my attention because they had a giant wall there. When I looked more closely, I found out that it was made of small pieces. They had a sample wall that they were taking apart and putting it together to show people how it works. The cost of the wall is about twice as much as you would pay for normal construction material, but apparently it can be put together in less then half the time. I guess it depends on who's putting it together as they should be familiar with the product to achieve that type of time. I was surprised at how solid the wall actually felt. Another plus side is that you don't actually need dry way to go on top of this wall! If you like the wood finish, all you have to do is stain and coat the wall and you're ready to go. Downside I found, the walk is not perfectly flat, I did find some edges that didn't quite line up with each other and no matter how perfect you do it when it goes up, over time when wood expands and compresses due to weather, I believe you'll find these bumpy edges. The other downside is the pattern of the wood. Because they're small blocks of wood, the grain is not continuous and it becomes blocky. I personally like wood panel on wall but I like it as 1 long panel from top to bottom. The choppiness of this wall does bother me. 

Inside the house

And of course, there's everything that happens inside the house ranging from kitchen vents, wall paper to home automation. It's honestly a pity that Greening Homes only does work within GTA and my new house is outside GTA. They have some amazing designs that I really like and some good ideas to how to make things greener. Ecobee is one of Nest's competitors. It's a local company and the same price as Nest. However since my husband and I really don't change the temperature, we don't have the need to use something like Ecobee. We can make due with a simple timer thermostat. The home automation tool we were more interested in was valta. It allows you to remotely turn things off if you have the device plugged into the valta socket. I'm definitely interested in the power bar that they are currently working on in their product line. 

Lots of things to consider, good thing I have time before we actually do a reno.

Green Food 

There were a good amount of food stands there selling all sorts of stuff so I'll only mention my top 2.

Rolling meadow dairy is definitely my top pick. They are raising cows the way they were raised hundreds of years ago, on grass. I was wondering what's the difference between normal, organic and "grass fed" was. Apparently it's all in the diet and even "organic" milk doesn't come from cows whose diet is all grass. Their diet just has to have more then 30% grass to be organic. I was surprised at the Omega 6 and 3 ratio between standard milk and the milk form rolling meadows. There was a study done by the University of Toronto that found these differences. Whenever I finally start my baking business, I would love to use the dairy from here but they can't seem to keep up with the demand for their product. Hopefully, adding additional farms to project will help keep up the demand and I'll be able to get my hands on some of that product.

The other food item I have to mention is Nona's sauces. I only tried the Alfredo but I couldn't believe there was no dairy in it. It was so good, so creamy, but apparently dairy free. Somehow, she made the sauce and used Cashews for the creaminess. It was amazing.

Vehicles

There were some really cool bikes and add-ons to bikes to help make it become an everyday vehicle that anyone can use no matter what's your fitness level. But as great as that is, it really only works well in the summer. In the winter, I'll still prefer a car then trying to bike around in the snow.

I've always thought I'll end up with a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla but I might actually consider an electric vehicle. I always thought of the Civic or a Corolla because they're affordable, good on gas and good on maintenance. Now with the rebates available in Ontario on electric cars, it makes some of them more affordable. The BMW i8 in the picture to the left is definitely not in my affordable category, but it was so pretty I had to take a picture of it. Based on my initial research, the base price and maintenance cost seems  comparable to any other car. One key benefit most people rave about is the lower monthly cost gas vs electricity.

But as nice as all that sounds, I'm still concerned about using an electric car in Ontario's cold winter. Just this past year, we've had extreme cold alerts every other day. There was a day so cold that I had multiple co-workers who's car wouldn't start because their battery died. If I drive an electric vehicle, wouldn't I be in even more trouble? Also, what about traffic jams in the winter? If I go with the most affordable car which is the Nissan Leaf, it's range is only 85km per charge. But what's that range in the winter, in traffic where we can be stuck up to hours? It would really suck if my car just dies while I'm trying to drive because people stop driving properly in the snow. 

So if anyone has an electric vehicle in a place that gets really cold with lots of snow etc, let me know how it goes! 

Last by not least, you can't have cars without tires. If you have tires that need to be thrown out, please don't just throw them into the garbage, bring it to rethink tires. They collect your tires for free and they recycle the rubber!!! Great initiative to support.

Inventions

There was a part of the fair that had booths MARS showcasing some of their entrepreneurs who have green inventions. I've already mentioned some of them in the above sections such as the bike and valta. There were some other products/projects that fall into this category but and was done outside of MARS so they were hosted in other parts of the exhibition. Ecobee was one of them.

Go Kin Packs is an other one. Their idea is to generate power from walking so you can charge your devices! The power generating device is the same weight of a 1.5L bottle of water which I can attest to is quite heavy when you're going on long steep hikes if you're out of shape. I'm half sold on the idea but I don't think it'll be right for me due to the weight.

An other item I thought was cool but maybe not right for me as the foot pump washing machine. It looked very fancy and pretty but it holds such a small amount of clothes that i wrote it off. When I googled it at home hoping to find the name of this company, I found out that it's not the only one available. I personally think the GiraDora is a better fit for what I would need just based on size alone.

Overall, great show. I learned a lot. I'll probably go again next year :)

Raspberry Swiss Buttercream on Chocolate Cupcake

It was time to make a new flavour and add it to my collection of buttercream flavours.

I personally love berries so I decided to try to make a raspberry Swiss buttercream.
I used the same method I use for strawberries.
Cook the raspberries down until it's concentrated and mash it up.
The more it's cooked down the better so you remove as much liquid as possible and left with flavour.

Even though the puree is about the same color as the strawberry one, the difference in the buttercream colour is huge.
I've never had such a dark deep beautiful red color before with strawberries.

I also find I have to use more raspberries then I do strawberries when flavouring buttercream.
It seems like out of the 2 berries I've tried so far, strawberry is the strongest flavour so you don't have to use too much of it.

An other difference between the raspberries and strawberries is the number of seeds. For such a tiny berry, there is a ridiculous amount of seeds in it.
Honestly, seeds makes the flavour feel more real but it's a pain to pipe roses as the seeds get stuck in the piping. I also feel like the seeds add more fibre so if possible I would like to keep it in.

My co-workers loved the result. As always, the sweetness is at such a level that people don't feel guilty eating multiple cupcakes so they went back for seconds.
I also asked them about the seed and no one seemed to care if there's seeds vs no seeds.

So my conclusion about this flavour, if requested, I can seed the raspberry puree and use the 1M tip for piping the cupcakes.
If I'm using it within cakes or just a circular tip, then I can leave the seeds in if they do not make a request.

Right now, I take personal orders from friends and family for cakes and cupcakes as I continue to grow the number of flavours I can create on a consistent basis.

One day I'll open up a store ;)

Quick and Easy Fried Rice with Sausage

This is a super easy to make fried rice. Usually done in 15 mins, about the time it takes to cook the sausage. I like to use sweet sausages for this particular recipe but honestly you can use any meat when you make fried rice. I just find sweet sausage to be very easy to use as it's full of flavour so there's less things you need to do when you need to cook something fast.

Trick to cooking good fried rice is using day old rice. After the rice has been cooked and been in the fridge for a day, it's at a good dry level that makes it perfect for fried rice.

Quick and Easy Fried Rice with Sausage

Makes about 7 bowls of rice Prep time: 10 mins cook time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• cooked rice - 3 rice cooker cups when uncooked rice
• 400g of Sausage (I use Chinese Red Sausage or Sweet Longaniza)
• 2-3 Green Onions
• 2 Eggs
• Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tbsp oil

Directions

1. Start to heat up the pan
2. While the wok is heating, cut the sausage into bite size pieces.
3. The pan should be hot by the time you're done cutting, add the oil and the garlic to the wok. Then add the sausage you just cut up.
4. While the sausage is cooking, dice up the green onion
5. Stir the sausage around so it cooks evenly and scramble the eggs in a bowl.
6. When the sausage is done cooking, mix in the rice and stir around. The rice will change colour due to the sausage. Add a touch of Soy Sauce. I usually pour straight from the bottle and make a circle around the pan.
7. Once it's well mixed and the rice is all warmed up, mix in the green onion.
8. Make a hole in the middle and pour in the scrambled egg.
9. Let it cook a little bit before mixing the rice into egg

And you're done :)

Simple, fast and tasty.

Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Meatballs with Chia Seeds

Chia Seeds were recently on sale so I decided to buy some to see what the fuss is all about.
Honestly, it's hard to see the health benefits when you're just trying them out. I think you have to be committed to eating them to really truly see the benefits of switching to Chia.

One of the things I like about Chia Seeds is that it's easy to use.
It's so easy to incorporate since it's tasteless unlike Flaxseed and you DO NOT have to grind it up before you use them.
I can just throw the Chia Seeds into my smoothie in the morning to give it that extra boost without any extra work or throwing off it's taste.

Since it has the abilities to soak up water and gel things up, I figured why not try it in meatballs.
Turkey is healthy, Chia seeds are healthy, lets make a healthy meatball. The gooey cheese in the middle definitely helps counter the lean meat I used and make it moist and tasty.

It's pretty easy and if you lack time, you can skip the browning process in a skillet and just preheat the oven to a higher temp, like 450 degrees F, and cook it for 5 mins before adding the sauce and turning down the heat.

Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Meatballs with Chia Seeds

Makes 20 meatballs Prep Time 45 mins Cook Time 45 mins

Ingredients 

• 2 lbs ground Turkey
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp Parsley
• 1 tsp Basil flakes
• 2 or 3 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 1/2 garlic powder
• 1 Egg
• 125g Mozzarella Cheese - Cut into 20 cubes
• half a can of pasta sauce

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix together the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs and chia seeds.
2. Add the turkey and mix it in well.
3. Make a hole in the middle and crack the egg in it. Whip the egg.
4. Mix the meat with the egg.
5. Preheat skillet to medium low heat and preheat oven to 350 degree F
6. Grab a handful the meat mixture and press it flat on the palm of your hand.
7. Place a cube of cheese in the middle and curl your hand to make a fist to close the meat ball.
8. Roll it around a bit to make sure it's closed and you can't see any cheese.
9. Place it in the skillet and while it browns, make the next one.
10. Keep on repeating steps 6-9 until you finish using all the meat.
11. Place brown meatballs into a baking pan.
12. Once all the meatballs are browned, add the pasta sauce into the pan.
13. Bake for about 25-30 mins so the meatballs are cooked and the cheese is all melted.

Great on pasta or on it's own :)

Steamed Tofu with Minced Shrimp and Pork

In this dish, the pork and shrimp mixture nicely contrasts the softness of the tofu creating a very nice feel in your mouth when you eat it.
It's not too complicated to make as long as you have minced pork on hand as the shrimp can be minced up quite fast.
Any pork and shrimp left over can be cooked on it's own in a "meat ball" which is quite tasty on it's own.
The shrimp is actually the star of the dish while the pork is used as a binding agent for the pork since it's not fully minced and needs help to stick together.

Steamed Tofu with Minced Shrimp and Pork

Makes 8 blocks Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 10-15mins

Ingredients

Main:

• ~50g  of Minced Pork
• 100g Shrimp (peeled and shelled)
• 1 package soft or silky Tofu (Other Tofu like all-purpose or firmer ones are fine too but in a steam dish, you can use more delicate tofu)
• 1 tsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar

Sauce - Optional:

• 1/2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp Corn Starch
• 1/3 cup water

Directions

1. On a cutting board, start chopping up the shrimp and mince the shrimp. It does not have to be finely minced, you can have some bigger pieces but you'll want to have at least 1/2 to 3/4 shrimp in a nice paste
2. Mix with the mince pork. Use just enough to help bind the shrimp together, you may not need to use all 100g. I personally like more shrimp then pork
3. Add soy sauce and sugar and mix
4. Open the package of tofu and very carefully rinse the tofu water off.
5. Cut the tofu into enough pieces to fit your steam dish. I'm able to fit 10 pieces before I run out of room.
6. Put all the tofu pieces onto the dish and lightly score the top with a hash pattern.
7. Put a spoon of the pork and shrimp mixture on top of each tofu piece. (picture to the right)
8. Cover the dish with saran wrap and steam for 10-15 mins.
9. Keep an eye on the meat, the pork will be the longest thing to cook so depending on how much pork you used, the cooking time can vary.
10. Once it's done steaming, you'll still find a considerable amount of water in the dish, try pouring as much out as possible.

The dish is basically ready but if you find it too bland because the tofu is bland, either make the sauce or just add fish soy sauce to the dish.

1. If you want to make the sauce, in a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the sauce.
2. Heat it up in a skillet until a boil.
3. Cook until the sauce is at the right thickness to your liking.
4. Remove from heat and pour on top of the tofu.