We are always so happy to welcome Emily Richards back to the Petits Chefs kitchen lab. Emily is a Professional Home Economist with over 20 years’ experience working in the food industry. If you were a regular viewer of Canadian Living Cooks on Food Network you might recognise Emily! This week was her TWELFTH time working with the boys!
It’s always very rewarding when chefs want to come back and work with the Petits Chefs over and over again and Emily is one of those. She’s taught them how to make gnocchi from scratch, strawberry and rhubarb pies, sticky date pudding, how to grind meat and make their own sausages, she showed them how to bake hors d’oeuvres for the holidays, they made gnocchi from her book, Per la Famiglia, they made ricotta-stuffed pasta shells they’ve learned how to make arancini, stuffed jalapeño peppers and fresh pasta and in June we made a super popular spaghetti frittata with the club. We’re always so grateful for Emily’s visits as she doesn’t live in the city and it often takes a while for her to get to us and it’s always a little unpredictable what the weather will do in December!
This visit went smoothly as the weather cooperated and we celebrated her recent book, Comfort Food, the latest in the iconic Best of Bridge series!
From the publisher:
Classic comfort foods and contemporary twists on feel-good family favorites from Best of Bridge.Following the success of Weekday Suppers and Sunday Suppers, the Best of Bridge ladies are back with Best of Bridge Comfort Food, another essential cookbook devoted to 150 all-new recipes for timeless comfort food recipes and modern-day variations of many of those old favorites. This is a cookbook that is sure to become a new family favorite and kitchen staple alongside your well-used and much-loved Best of Bridge cookbook collection.
In this new book, you will find nostalgic feel-good meals that have been passed down through generations like Oven-Fried Chicken, Three-Cheese Oven-baked Mac and Cheese, Pork Chops and Apples and Bangers and Mash. You’ll also find elevated variations of comfort classics like Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf, Slow Cooker Cuban Style Shredded Beef, Jerk Chicken and Jambalaya.
As always, recipes have been developed in the beloved Bridge fashion with classic Bridge wit with one-liners that make you feel like the ladies are standing in the kitchen next to you. Recipes, as always, are simple while delivering satisfying, dependable, and delicious results. Best of Bridge has always evoked the goodness of home cooking and that wonderful feeling of family, friends and comfort. This is a cookbook that aims to capture all of those lovely elements both on the page and on the plate.
There are a LOT of recipes in this book that I thought the boys would like to make but in the end decided on the meatballs in mushroom gravy – similar to those iconic Ikea meatballs we all love! this recipe involves a lot of hands on which was perfect for the third last day of school…
Chopping and dicing…
Working with raw ground meat (we used chicken and turkey)…
Some of the boys LOVED this part. Some, not so much. But that’s ok. Everyone participated in some way…
(this is the correct way to measure liquids – making sure you are at eye level. Love that the boys know this!)
See – there were lots of “not touching meat” jobs!
And as soon as we started cooking the meatballs and the gravy, the aroma in the lab was incredible…
Look ma – just like Ikea meatballs – only better!
Emily is a true pro – she glides into the lab, knows where everything is and just gets on with setting up stations for the boys to work at – even before I’ve finished teaching my classes for the day (she is a mum of 3 so she “gets” kids so well!)! She calmly led them through the various steps of this recipe (it’s not complicated but it does require a bit of organisation) and we were finished well before our time was up (NOT common!). Bonus? The boys went home with an excellent “go to” recipe in their back pocket that they all felt confident they could make on their own! This is what cooking with kids is all about!
Thanks, Emily – we’re SO grateful for your guidance, expertise and good humour (essential on the third last day of school!). We can’t wait to see what you publish next 🙂
Follow Emily and Best of Bridge
Purchase Best of Bridge Comfort Food for yourself on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store in your country) or for free worldwide shipping, purchase on The Book Depository
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains affiliate links from The Book Depository. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
__________
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of “Comfort Food” from the publisher. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
__________
__________
MY BOOK! In the French kitchen with kids is out now! Click here for details and how to order!
The food looked great but it’s very difficult to get a grip on ‘comfort food’ down under currently – temperatures in the 40 deg C range and smoke everywhere. Enjoy the cold, folks.