Canadian Food 101: In honour of Canada Day!

Yup, that's me exercising my nationalist pride 

July 1, 2016 is Canada's 149th birthday!  

In honour of that, I'm re-posting one of my older Canada Day posts. Here, you'll find a ton of info on Canadian food and a few of our food traditions.

I've also updated it with a Youtube playlist of some of classic Canadian music, stretching across aaalll kinds of genres from the birth of 80's Canadian hip hop to Leonard Cohen, K'naan, A Tribe Called Red, and more!

Miniature Salmon Quiche for Canada Day (no crust or dairy)

Free of gluten, dairy, corn, nuts

Canada Day is coming up (July 1) and this is the first year we'll be in the US for it. Now most Canadians I know tend not to make a really big deal about Canada Day. And even those that do, it's really nothing compared to the 4th of July down here in the US.

But since I'm not home I'm feeling rather patriotic this year. So patriotic that I tried 3 times to make a a baked gluten free, vegan of Beaver Tails (like Elephant Ears, they're a flat, fried yeast bread usually sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon or smeared with nutella or something else).

So far I have yet to perfect a baked vegan Beaver Tail. Probably because it's the very antithesis of the buttery, fluffy, fried yumminess that are Beaver Tails. But I had a back-up in mind. They're not vegan, but they are baked and they are darned good. Miniature quiche made with salmon and local asparagus.

Steamed Butternut Squash Salad with Coconut Lime Dressing (gluten free and vegan)

Tropical Fall Salad

Tropical Fall Salad with Butternut Squash and Coconut Lime Dressing

Fall and Tropical are not two words you often see together.  Neither are "warm" and "salad."  Normally when I see butternut squash, I think soup.  

 However, here in Madison, WI, our weather has been a little funny.  About 4 or 5 days ago it was like 27C (80F) and humid, almost tropical, while yesterday I could have sworn it was going to snow soon.

So when I saw the piles of butternut squash at the farmers market yesterday, I didn’t think soup.  I thought coconut. 

Canadian Food 101

From Map-of-Canada.org

So today is July 1, Canada's 145th birthday! 

In honour of that (yes, in Canada we spell some things with a "u" that Americans don't, such as honour instead of honor), I thought I'd share some quintessentially Canadian food, and a few little Canadian tidbits.  In particular, I'm sharing because I know that most of my readers are actually American, not Canadian like me, so I thought some of you might find this useful.  For my Canadian readers, I hope this post raises nostalgia and feelings of pride, and maybe a few laughs.

I've provided a few lists for you here: First and foremost is, of course, Canadian food.  While I haven't been all across Canada (it is, afterall, the second largest country in the world) I've driven across the prairies a few times and have tried to provide some detailed info on certain traditional (and newly traditional) foods that I'm familiar with.  If I miss anything you'd like to see here, please let me know!!