Jun. 28, 2021
Cooking In Season
Salad Meals to Beat the Heat
In this recipe round up, I have gathered my best and most delicious summer salad meal recipes in one post, for days when it’s too hot to cook!
Every year around this time, I offer a giveaway on my blog, sponsored by the lovely folks at Rancho Vignola, my very favourite seller of nuts, dried fruit, and fairly traded chocolate. This may seem like an odd giveaway unless you have tried their products. The freshest, most flavourful nuts you can imagine; the plumpest and tastiest dried fruit; and wonderful chocolate confections (toffee almond milk chocolate, anyone?)
Rancho Vignola is a wholesaler based in Armstrong BC, specializing in directly-trade new crop nuts and dried fruits. I have been buying their products for years, at least 8 years before I started partnering with them in my business. I can vouch for the freshness and quality of their products and I’m thrilled to be working with them again this year.
Usually, Rancho products are only available by wholesale mail order, but at this time of year, you can catch them at one of their Western Canada Harvest Events, where anyone can sample their fantastic products, buy in quantities smaller than 5 pounds, and take in live music and recipe samples.
Next weekend, Nov 30 and Dec 1st, is the Rancho Vignola Harvest Event in Sidney, held at the Mary Winspear Centre. I’ll be there both days; on Saturday I’ll be doing several cooking demos throughout the day and I’d love to treat you to some recipes made with Rancho products.
In the meantime, one lucky reader of my blog will win a gorgeous gift basket of nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate. Giveaway rules below. This gift basket, showcasing the best of the new crop, and valued at $100, will be available for pick up by the winner at the Sidney Harvest Event Nov 30 or Dec 1st. And if you don’t live on Southern Vancouver Island, don’t worry! Rancho Vignola will ship the basket to you.
To qualify for delivery, you must have a Canadian shipping address. Enter the draw in one of four ways:
Giveaway ends by 9 pm on Thursday, November 29th, and a winner will be announced by 7 am the morning of Nov 30th.. That’s five days, folks!
(Non-winners will be very happy to note that Rancho Vignola’s December Online Harvest Sale is coming Dec 1st to 15th. Sizes as small as 1 pound, an NO minimum order required! So, if this post has piqued your interest, and you can’t make it to any of the Harvest Event locations, you can order some products to try through the December online sale.)
Jun. 28, 2021
In this recipe round up, I have gathered my best and most delicious summer salad meal recipes in one post, for days when it’s too hot to cook!
Oct. 25, 2020
Quince have a wonderful flavour, but an almost impossibly hard texture. Read on for a quick kitchen tip that makes quince easy to peel and cut!
Sep. 27, 2020
Pumpkin spices scones are a perfect fall treat; not-too-sweet, fragrant with spices, with a full complement of rich pumpkin flavour.
Notifications
We use a variety of nuts in our Christmas baking so this would be fantastic for us!!! My favourite treat to make is my Pecan Meltaways, but really ANYTHING with nuts is a winner for me!
We like to sprinkle the dried fruit and nuts on our oatmeal for a hearty breakfast.
Loved the fresh nuts and dried fruit mix that I bought last year. Scrumptious!
I love Rancho Vignola products – such a variety and they are all delicious. Hope to see you there….
Love their products, thank you for the reminder.
There products always looks amazing.
We love their products, and your recipes! We’d also love to win a gift basket
Rancho V’s dried pineapple rings are ALMOST like a trip to Hawai’i. Hard to believe they could be that amazing…but yes, they are Aloha! I don’t know what their hazlenuts are *almost like* but they are just The Most Delicious nuts anywhere. Superlatives right?! Everything they sell is really good and everything that Chef Heidi suggests using them for is also a Very Good Idea. Thanks for coming to Sidney every year & thank you for offering this contest every year! See you at the show.
I look forward to this event every year! Looking forward to stocking up my pantry and freezer!
Here is deliciousness in a basket !
This would be a fabulous introduction to my Irish relatives, who are visiting for Christmas , to experience a taste of British Columbias bounty.
We bought a selection of nuts and dried fruits last year at Mary WInspear and everything was incredibly yummy!
Yum! Staple in our families diet. Love their products!