Grow Me, Blog Me | Giveaway #3

It's time for the final Grow Me, Blog Me Giveaway! If you attended the 2013 Food Bloggers Conference at Hockley Valley, you likely received one of these fun Grow Your Own Mushroom kits.

So many bloggers have been taking over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with beautiful photos of their kits and the oh-so-pretty Oyster Mushrooms. In about 10 days, full Oyster Mushrooms are grown and ready for you to enjoy them. As mentioned on the back of the tag, grow the mushrooms, blog about them and send the link to me (shannon@mushrooms.ca) and you're officially entered for your chance at the final $50 Visa Gift Card.

A big congratulations to our previous winners Stephanie of Clockwork Lemon and Marlene of Life Through the Kitchen Window. Be sure to visit their blogs for the full recipes that go along with these beautiful photos.

The final of the 3 deadlines will be Tuesday July 2nd. If you've grown your mushrooms, now is the time to get that post up! Looking forward to the final round of fabulous blog posts.

Meatless Monday: Portabella, Pepper & Pesto Sandwich

The sunshine has finally come and I hope this time it's to say. In warm, sunny weather my favourite go-to lunch and dinner is a simple sandwich. Sandwiches are so versatile and so easy to enjoy with whatever happens to be in your fridge. For this sandwich, I went with juicy Portabella mushrooms, red and green peppers and my favourite combo, pesto and goat cheese.

Simply fry up the veggies. You can do this in a pan or on the grill and be sure to add all of your favourites- some eggplant and onions would also be great on this!

While these are frying, slice your fresh, homemade bread. Spread a generous heap of pesto and crumble goat cheese onto your bread. Laying the hot sauteed veggies over the cheese will allow it to melt perfectly.

Press the sandwich together and enjoy. This also makes for a great panini recipe, but my bread was just too fresh and delicious to grill. Get creative with your own recipe at home and make use of your leftovers too! If you'd like to make this a meaty meal, add some leftover chicken or turkey pieces to your sandwich.

What's your favourite go-to sandwich?

-Shannon

Queen's Park: Foodland Ontario Fresh Market

It's a busy time for us here at the Mushrooms Canada offices! So much excitement surrounding grilling season and the great weather that (we hope) is here to stay. This is why it's taken some time to pull together this little recap of the wonderful day we had with Foodland Ontario in Queen's Park, Toronto.

Each year, Foodland Ontario puts together a fabulous fresh market in the park to showcase all of the wonderful fresh and local foods that Ontario has to offer. Dairy was showing off their fantastic ice cream, Ontario Pork was doing a mouthwatering pulled pork on a bun, Ontario Berry Growers has some fabulous strawberries and of course Mushrooms!

Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Kathleen Wynne, started the day off with song by single the infamous jingle, Good Things Grow in Ontario! She also stopped by the Mushrooms Canada booth for a sample. In the warm, sunny weather our fresh Ontario Crimini Mushrooms with Spinach Dip went over so well! It was a light snack, packed with flavour. 

Longo's Markets were also there showing off their mushroom love! It was a beautiful display of fresh, local produce. There were so many tasty samples in the park!

After another day in the sun, the message remains clear, Good Things Grow in Ontario!