HaliBloggers Eat Atlantic Dinner Party!

All I can say is our HaliBlogger Eat Atlantic Dinner Party was a complete Success! Even though only Lynn, Jaime & I were able to make it, the food was absolutely phenomenal!

The Appies

I could not have asked for a better spread of appetizers while we prepared our rather late Supper! There was sourdough bread purchased at the Farmer’s Market at the VG:

Cow’s old white cheddar cheese from PEI:

Raspberries, cantaloupe, snap peas

I didn’t even know you COULD buy local cantaloupe?! It was absolutely PERFECT and I munched, munched and munched some more!

While enjoying a glass of Blomidon Estates L’Acadie Blanc:

The Salad

I have to say that Jaime totally outdid herself with this salad! It was probably my favourite part of the entire meal (aside from the delicious bread and cheese!):

It had local salad greens & spinach, Ranchers Acres Goat Cheese:

The most DELICIOUS baby tomatoes I have EVER tasted! They were orange in colour which does NOT mean they are not perfectly ripe. I have never loved tomatoes like I loved these ones! I could have literally sat there and snacked on them and watched a movie! And perfectly sweet apples (which I can’t remember the name!):

Beautiful local blueberries:

most of which all came from the VG Farmer’s Market!

The Potatoes

We decided that we were going to do most of the cooking on the BBQ so Lynn brought some Scotian Gold potatoes and we simply cut them up, tossed them around with some seasonings & local organic garlic. The farmer who produces this beautiful garlic is a farmer from Victoria Harbour, Len LeVine.

He had been growing organic garlic in Nova Scotia since the 70’s. I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful bulb of garlic in my life!

The potatoes were put into a foil packet and tossed on the BBQ. The results were perfection:

The Corn

I was in charge of the “shucking” :

Aren’t I a good shucker? :-D

The Bird

We ended up with an Eden Valley whole chicken purchased at Pete’s Frootique! We decided rather than roasting it whole, it would be best to prepare it for the BBQ. All of us were “first timers” dealing with the full bird, so Jaime did some googling and used her “phone-a-friend” lifeline and she did a beautiful job of butterflying it for grilling. Seasoned it with this yummy local seasoning:

and placed on top of tinfoil it cooked perfectly:

The Wine

I was in charge of the wine! :-D I took one of Lynn’s suggestions and picked up the Blomidon L’Acadie Blanc, but I also decided that we should try some Blueberry wine from Lunenburg County Winery since I knew that there would be blueberries involved in our meal:

Did you know that the wrapper around the cork must display this logo of the wine glass with a lobster claw in order to be “distinguished” as a true Nova Scotian wine? The lady at the NSLC was super helpful chatting with me about which wine to select. I’m only starting to learn about wines and need all the guidance I can get!

The Spread

The Dessert

Hello ice cream! Even though my gut was already pretty much past it’s max, how could I NOT have ice cream!

And as if “ice cream” wasn’t enough, it was topped with thawed and simmered strawberries from Webster’s Farm a la FarmGirl and especially since she couldn’t make it tonight, we had to “honour” her in some way, right?? :-D

And of course the rest of the HaliBloggers were missed, but we most DEFINITELY enjoyed some fan-TASTIC local eats in the presence of some wonderful company. Once thing is for sure that there is NEVER a moment of silence whenever we get together! I just realized that I have no pictures of US!

Cheers to an incredibly successful (no cheating) Eat Atlantic day!!!

Did any of you pledge to participate? How did it go? What it an eye opener?? How easy was it for you to “find” local food?