Wunderbar! {Four Oktoberfest Celebrations in Ottawa}

October is almost upon us and there are some great beer and food festivals happening all over Ottawa! Alex and I, along with some other wonderful friends will be attending Beau’s Oktoberfest and are so excited! The array of food and drink to be had, seems endless!

Check out some of the other Oktoberfest celebrations going on in our fair city!

Prost! (Cheers!)

-Tina (Turnip)

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1. Oktoberfest Ottawa 2013

Date: September 27th – 29th, 2013
Location: Clark Fields Park in Barrhaven
Tickets: $20.00 for a Single-Day pass. Beer, wine and cider tokens are sold separately.
Motto: “Food, Fun, Froth, Frauliens Und Fantastich Musik!”

Oktoberfest Ottawa 2013 is touted as Ottawa’s premier Oktoberfest celebration and music festival. This year, the festival will host many local and Canadian performers such as Good2Go, Amanda Rheaume and Hollerado. In addition to the music, the festival will include 3 heated Bavarian beer-haus style tents, with sausage and pretzel eating contests, and of course some great Bavarian food and beer from local breweries including, Broadhead Brewing Company, Hogbacks Brewing Company and Big Rig Brewery.

2. Octoberfest on Sparks Street

Date: September 27th – 29th, 2013
Location: Sparks Street Promenade
Tickets: $5.00 button purchased at the entrance gate. $1.00 of each purchased button will be donated in support of the Ottawa Food Bank.
Motto: “The sausage, the beer, the lederhosen… must be Octoberfest on Sparks!”

Octoberfest on Sparks Street will be held on the patios along the promenade. There will be a main beer hall as well as micro-brew tents to fill up on your favourite beers. Food will include traditional Bavarian fare. There will also be Oompah music, games, contests and prizes. Not only a great celebration of food and drink, this festival does some good in the community with a portion of the entrance fee proceeds heading straight to the Ottawa Food Bank.

Update: Sparks Street will also be celebrating RibtoberFest October 3rd - 6th. There will be 17 different rib vendors spread over 5 blocks on the Sparks Street promenade.  This festival will also include beer, live music, games and prizes. 

3. Beau’s Oktoberfest 2013

Date: October 4th – 5th, 2013
Location: VanKleek Hill
Tickets: $22.00 with no transportation or tokens, $37.00 with transportation to and from Ottawa, $52.00 with transportation to and from Ottawa and 3 beer tokens. NOTE: Tickets for Saturday October 5th are sold out. Tickets are still available for Friday October 4th.
Motto: “Food, Music, Beer and Fun for the Whole Family!”

Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company puts on an annual Oktoberfest celebration like no other. This year musical acts include some Canadian music by great talents such as Kathleen Edwards, The Sadies, Young Rival, The Balconies, Sloan, Rich Aucoin and The Mahones. Of course, no Oktoberfest is complete without fabulous food and drink and Beau’s festival delivers the best Ottawa has to offer, with food coming from such restaurants as, the Arrow & Loon, the Barley Mow, The Branch, Bridgehead, Brothers Beer Bistro, Hintonburg Public House, Pascale's All Natural Ice Cream, The Piggy Market, two six {ate}, The Smoque Shack, Union613, Whalesbone Catering and The Works.

Beau’s featured beers will include, Lug-Tread Lagered Ale, Night-Märzen Oktoberfest Lager, The Tom Green Beer (Milk Stout), Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale (B-Side Brewing Label), Smokin' Banana Peels (Rauch Weissbier), Two Weeks Notice (German Porter), Mr. Hyde (Roggenbier), Oktobock (Bock) and Dampf Punk (Dampfbier).

Oktoberfest is Beau's signature fundraising event. This year funds are being raised for Canadian Canoe Foundation, United Way Ottawa, Kiva, Just Food, Rethink Breast Cancer and the VKH Agricultural Society.

4. Oktoberfest in the Byward Market

Date: October 18th – 20th, 2013
Location: Byward Market Square
Tickets: Free
Motto: “Ottawa's only FREE Oktoberfest!”

The Byward market Oktoberfest will feature family programming all weekend long and great live entertainment on Friday and Saturday night. There will also be barrel races, free wagon rides, games, the quintessential sausages and pretzels and of course, beer.

Hooray for Farmer's Markets!

The time is upon us; Farmer's Markets are here! Brewer Park, Byron Park, Centrum Plaza and now even Sparks Street are holding markets to buy wonderful, local, delicious delights! Yesterday was the first really warm day we've had this spring and I just couldn't be stuck in the office all day! So, on my lunch I ventured out to check out the first edition of the Sparks Street Farmer's Market in efforts to find something simple to make for dinner.

Gorgeous day for the market on Sparks Street!

Although there weren't many vendors, there were some great ones including the ever popular and well-known Art-is-in Bakery, Hearty Bakery (baked goods), Just Farms (local produce) and a kiosk selling honey and beeswax products.

Art-is-in Bakery with a long line up, as usual!

At the market I picked up a potato dill loaf from Art-is-in (and an almond croissant to snack on), some beautiful purple spring onions from Just Farms, and a rocky road brownie treat from Hearty Bakery!

These few ingredients helped make an appetizing Farmer's Market dinner later in the evening.

Spring Farmer's Market dinner.

Lightly sauteed asparagus and spring onions from Just Farms. Great mild and sweet flavors.

Soft and chewy potato dill Art-is-in bread.

Homemade garlicky lemon basil hummus. Basil from the plant I bought at the Brewer market a few weeks ago.

Farmer's Markets are a great way to help support small, local business and local ingredients. The spring markets have been great so far, and I cannot wait to see what's in store in harvest season later in the summer and early fall!

-Turnip (Tina)

Ottawa Foodie Challenge 2013 - Team Turnip & Bean!

Team Turnip & Bean dominating the "hug a local food blogger" challenge!

If you happen to follow Tina or myself on any of the various social media platforms you probably know that we have been super excited to compete in our very first Ottawa Foodie Challenge! This past Saturday the day was finally upon us and we ventured out to The Kavanaugh sales centre on Beechwood in order to meet our fellow competitors, receive our list of clues, and fuel up on some delicious croissants and coffee, provided by Art-Is-In Bakery (both Tina and I later regretted not snatching seconds for the road!). Unfortunately it was a little chilly out and we both opted to wear jackets over our turnip & bean team shirts!

The rules were fairly straight forward: there were approximately ninety clues, each of which described a local restaurant, store, person, or other item you of which you needed to photograph. Each team of two had from 10:00AM to 5:00PM to solve the clues, travel to the required destinations, take pictures, and finally upload them and submit them. There were a total of six mandatory clues which needed to be solved in order to qualify for the grand prize (which was worth over $1,000 and included a Vitamix blender, a giant jar of nutella, and a gift basket, and several other fun foodie prizes!). There were also several photo contests competitors could win with fun themes like "scenic selfies," "daring and brave," "beautiful and delicious," and the category in which we won: "kitchen party!"

Ain't no party like a Kitchen Party!

After the challenge began, Tina and I decided to dedicate a good fifteen minutes to reading through and solving the clues that we knew off the top of our heads (which turned out to be quite a few, thankfully!). We then tried to quickly categorize clues based on the area we were likely to find them, and then set off. We ended up trying to complete clues in the Vanier/Beechwood area surrounding the start point first, and then travelled to the Market, Downtown/Elgin, Preston/Chinatown, Hintonburg, and finally ended our day in Westboro. Our day consisted of a lot of speed walking, confused store owners ("you're the second person to ask me if we carry geoduck!"), on-the-fly detective work and of course, lots of laughs. I honestly couldn't ask for a better and more knowledgeable foodie partner in Tina. She was down for every challenge (she even attempted to stick an entire piece of pizza in her mouth!), and knew obscure things, such as the ingredients to a mirepoix (maybe I just need to brush up on my foodie knowledge)!

Tina hulas while I get my guac on

We ran out of time at the end of the day and despite having solved a number of the clues we just could not risk spending extra time on travel when we still had to upload all of our photos and calculate our score. We ended up heading home around 4:00PM and had everything ready to send in within 45 minutes (I'm super happy we decided to do this, as we heard that other teams did not manage to upload and send in all of their pictures in time!).

The after party was hosted at Urban Element where we shared a couple glasses of wine and sampled some of Urban Element's new tiffin box dishes (my favourites were the beef kofta and then the brownie served with mango kulfi). The judges poured through all of the entries in a couple of hours as everyone in the room eagerly awaited the results. We found out that we won the "Kitchen Party" photo contest and graciously accepted our $50.00 gift certificate to Zest Cafe in Gatineau along with our super cute trophy!

Our final score for the day was 625 points, and the grand prize winners came in with a whopping 715 points! Tina and I both had a blast and were more than happy to come home with over $200 in prizes (Tina also won a Supply & Demand gift certificate with a clue she submitted prior to the big day!). We are both looking forward to trying out some of the new restaurants and stores we encountered during the day (stay tuned for a post from Tina!). We would also like to extend a huge thank-you to Carolynn and Larissa and all of the sponsors for putting on such a fun, educational, and community-building event that supports such a great cause; the Ottawa Food Bank!

If you are interested in learning more about the community, love food, and enjoy a healthy dose of competition I highly suggest competing in 2014! I know Tina and I will both find a way to stay involved!

- Bean (Alex)

Ottawa Good Food Box and New Recipe: Lettuce Wrap Peanut Chicken & Spicy Broccoli

I picked up my very first Ottawa Good Food Box this past Wednesday, and I am very happy with the result. Definitely a great way to welcome the first day of Spring! If you're curious as to what the Ottawa Good Food Box is, they describe themselves as "a non-profit community-based initiative bringing neighbours together to buy a variety of delicious and nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices." I first found out about this initiative when researching local food co-operatives and I thought it would be worth a try. I have been striving to add more fruits and vegetables to my diet and I have also been trying to purchase locally grown items where I can (I've been finding this is a little more difficult during the winter months). The Ottawa Good Food Box states that they "strive to source contents as locally as possible, balancing that with the goal of good value for customers." I ended up ordering the medium sized box for $15.00, however, they also offer small and large boxes, fruit bags, and an organic produce box. If you would like to check them out, you can access their website here. 

I received the following items:

6 Apples, Sweet Potato, 2 lb carrots, 5 bananas, 2 bok choy, mango, head of lettuce, 3 oranges, small bag of mushrooms, broccoli, and 2 lb bag of yellow onions

All in all I would say this is a great way to supplement your fruit and veggie intake. I found the value and quality of the produce to be better than what I have been buying at the grocery store this time of year (even the fiancé agreed - he remarked how fresh and green the broccoli was as we ate it!). It was also very easy to order (they offer online ordering and payment for select pick-up locations around Ottawa). My only complaint is that the pick-up hours at the location I chose were 10am - 4pm, which interferes with the hours I work. Not too much of a problem though - if I order again I will just choose a location closer to my workplace! 

Here is a simple recipe utilizing the lettuce and broccoli I received in the box:

Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce and Spicy Broccoli

Ingredients

For the Chicken Wraps

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 1/2 tbs soy sauce

1/2 tbs sesame oil

1 tbs vegetable oil
5 lettuce leaves

Place chicken breasts in resealable container or bag with soy sauce and sesame oil. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (I did this in the morning before leaving for work, and cooked the chicken when I returned home).

Once chicken has marinated, remove from container (shake off excess marinade) and cook in sauté pan with 1 tbs vegetable oil on medium heat. Cook each side approximately 3 - 5 minutes, or until no pinkness remains. Place chicken on lettuce leaf, pour over peanut sauce (below), wrap up and enjoy!

For the Peanut Sauce (I used this Martha Stewart recipe)

3 tbs smooth peanut butter

2 tbs fresh lime juice (~1 lime, juiced)

1 tbs Asian style chili-garlic sauce

1 tbs brown sugar (I used dark)

Combine ingredients and in small sauce pan on low heat. Stir regularly until heated. Spoon over chicken.

For the Spicy Broccoli 

2.5 tbs soy sauce

1/2 tbs sesame oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp chili flakes

2 broccoli crowns, separated into bite size pieces

Combine first four ingredients and set aside. Steam broccoli until desired tenderness is reached (usually 5 - 10 minutes). Pour sauce on top and enjoy!

This ended up being a surprisingly quick and delicious weeknight meal using ingredients I already had around the apartment. Our "wraps" were more like tacos, as it was difficult to wrap the lettuce up around the chicken. I wouldn't change a thing though!

I'm looking forward to sharing some more recipes using the ingredients of my Good Food Box over the next week! Stay tuned!

-Alex (Bean)