Delishsis at the Toronto Wine & Spirits Festival

Last week we had a girls night out at the Toronto Wine & Spirits Festival. We got a couple of our girlfriends together and headed down to the awesome outdoor venue Sugar Beach in Toronto to enjoy night of wine, cocktails and delicious food. Below are some photos of our adventure…

Join us on Instagram to see full size photos and more from the night. Clockwise from left: Some Barefoot Bubbly with a side of Dim Sum from Spring Rolls. The beautiful venue at Sugar Beach. A & N watch some experiments with liquid nitrogen and burbon. Caesar with Lemongrass Infused Vodka from Magic Moments Vodka. Chinese Pork Bun from Berkeley Events. A & N enjoying it all. Ginger Infused Watermelon Juice with Green Tea Foam from Berkeley Events. The best Pork Tacos from Milagro. A & N at Sugar Beach. Judging the Cocktail Throwdown. If you’re wondering, we picked the  Caesar with Lemongrass Infused Vodka, the winner of the night !

Strawberry Almond Milk Shake

On hot muggy summer days like this one, what we crave are light meals and cold drinks. This Strawberry Almond Milk Shake is a perfect way to start your day as part of your breakfast, or enjoyed as a tasty anytime treat. With only 3 ingredients: strawberries, almond milk and honey it’s something that can be whipped up in no time. Not only does this shake taste amazing (fresh strawberries, nutty almond milk and sweet honey) but it’s also swimsuit season friendly AND diary free thanks to one of our new favourite ingredients, Almond Milk.

INGREDIENTS:

makes one shake

  • 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
  • 1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk
  • 1 tbsp honey

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
  2. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Strawberry Salsa

Something we love and are slightly obsessed with, is foods which incorporate contrasting flavours. The combination of spicy & sweet, sweet & sour, sour & spicy liven up food and make it exciting, kind of like having a party in your mouth. This Strawberry Salsa definitely brings the party with sweet strawberries contrasted by spicy jalapenos, onions, sour lime and lively cilantro. Not only does this salsa taste and look great, it’s super easy and can be ready in 5 min!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 quart of strawberries or about 2 cups diced
  • 2 jalapenos finely diced (taste them first as jalapenos can vary in heat)
  • 1/2  medium onion diced
  • 1/4 cup of cilantro chopped finely
  • juice of 1/2 lime

DIRECTIONS

  1. Chop of everything
  2. Add all ingredients to a medium sized bowl and combine
  3. Enjoy on tortilla chips.

Super Easy Strawberry Jam

It’s always nice to have some homemade strawberry jam on hand. It can be put on your morning toast, served on top of vanilla ice cream, or even stirred into some oatmeal to change things up a bit. When preserved properly in jars, it also makes a really nice homemade gift to bring to the hostess of your next summer party. Today we share a super easy, no fuss and not too sweet strawberry jam recipe that we learned from Grandma B.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 quarts of fresh Ontario Strawberries (makes 4  250ml jars of jam)
  • 1/3 cup of sugar
  • juice of 1 lemon freshly squeezed

DIRECTIONS

  1. Wash and hull strawberries
  2. Transfer to a food processor and pulse a couple of times until strawberries are chopped up but not pureed if you like some texture to your jam
  3. Transfer into a large pot
  4. Add sugar and lemon juice and stir
  5. Cook on medium high, stirring frequently
  6. Cook until jam bubbles and thickens about 1/2 an hour
  7. Optional: Preserve in preserving jars, we used Bernardin jars with snap lids
  8. Enjoy however you like!

Strawberry Bruschetta

When we think of strawberry recipes our minds immediately jump to sweet things like pies, jams and shortcake.  To start off our celebration of strawberries here at delishsis, we decided to start off with something a little unexpected. This strawberry bruschetta is one of our favourite strawberry recipes of all time. It has that element of surprise and totally tastes like a party in your mouth.  It has the perfect amount of sweetness from ripe, freshly picked strawberries that’s balanced by the tangy taste of goat cheese, a drizzle of balsamic, followed by herby fresh basil and the spice of cracked black pepper. All of this on top of a grilled slice of french baguette and you’ve got the perfect summer appetizer that can be whipped up in under 15 minutes! We love it and hope you do too!

INGREDIENTS: makes 12 pieces of bruchetta

  • 12-14 fresh strawberries, diced
  • 1/2 french baguette sliced
  • 4 oz goat cheese
  • olive oil to brush on baguette slices
  • balsamic vinegar for drizzling
  • 4-5 large basil leaves
  • fresh cracked black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

  1. dice strawberries and place in medium mixing bowl
  2. chop basil leaves finely, add to bowl and let stand
  3. slice baguette, brush with oil and grill on BBQ until lightly toasted
  4. once toasted, spread goat cheese on each baguette slice
  5. top with basil & strawberry mixture
  6. drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar
  7. top with fresh ground black pepper
  8. enjoy!

In Celebration of Strawberries!

If you know anything about the ladies behind delishsis, know this: the Billark sisters LOVE strawberries. To celebrate both the coming of strawberry season and our mutual love for them, we’ve decided to devote the rest of the month here at delishsis to STRAWBERRIES!

We have fond memories of going strawberry picking every June with our Grandmother, a tradition we still have today.  There is nothing quite like the taste of a warmed by the sun, freshly picked, small, sweet Ontario Strawberry and that’s why we usually end up eating more in the field than we carry out of it.

Although sadly, this year we didn’t make it down to Niagara-on-the-Lake for this lovely tradition with Grandma B, we were thrilled that Whittamore’s Farm of Markham, Ontario set up a pop up strawberry stand in our neighbourhood on Roncesvalles at Westminster this weekend. The friendly people from Whittamore’s Farm are going to be there every day  until the end of Strawberry season selling strawberries picked fresh each morning. Isn’t that so awesome ?!

We were busy all weekend creating and shooting sweet, savoury and spicy (yes spicy) Strawberry recipes made to showcase this glorious fruit.  We can’t wait to share them with you in the days and weeks to come! Wondering what to expect? Well, we’re not telling you. You’ll just have to check back tomorrow!