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Have you taken the opportunity to get out and embrace the beautiful colours of the season? If you're looking for some weekend adventures to help with that, scroll down for five things to do this weekend in each of our lovely provinces. Hankering for a new recipe? This week I bring you the ultimate sandwich, complete with a recipe for homemade focaccia along with a couple of recipes for putting a savoury spin on October's favourite squash. And this week in our Local Read, meet Delores Griffin and get a taste of her biscuits in The Biscuit Bible.
I hope you enjoy!
Jill, SaltWire Audience Team
Weekend weather
Cindy says it's time to put away your shorts – a blast of cold is coming. Get your weekend forecast here.
The ultimate sandwich
A co-worker and I both share a strong passion for sandwiches. It's the one food we both agree if we could only eat one thing for the rest of our lives, it would be the sandwich. They're versatile, quick, can be eaten with one hand while you work from home! To make the perfect sandwich, like this fried mortadella with American cheese sauce and focaccia from Matty Matheson's Home Style Cookery cookbook, it all starts with the bread. So before you dive into the ooey-gooey goodness in the pic above, start by making his homemade focaccia, you can get the recipe right here.
A savoury spin for pumpkin
When you hear pumpkin recipe, I'm guessing the first thing that comes to mind is pumpkin pie. But the humble pumpkin can be used in so many other dishes with different flavour profiles. This week, Chef Ilona Daniel puts a savoury spin on the ancient squash, showing readers how to prepare a Chinese-style pumpkin and chive omelette, and also provides a recipe for curried pumpkin soup. Never having really cooked with pumpkin before, I'm excited to give these a try before Halloween!
Celebrating food and film
Devour! Food Film Fest is back for its 10th year, though they're dubbing it year 9.5 due to some scaling back to meet Public Health guidelines for COVID-19. This year you don't have to trek to beautiful Wolfville, N.S., to partake in the world-class festival that celebrates food and film. Most of the 44 events in five days will be virtual. You can still expect to see some familiar foodie faces, like Nova Scotia star chefs Craig Flynn and Jennifer Crawford.
For a complete rundown of Devour! The Food Film Fest programming, from Wednesday’s opening drive-in gala through multiple screenings and workshops and Sunday’s closing gala The Truffle Hunters, visit devourfest.com.
Unplug, unwind, enjoy the great outdoors
Take in the beauty of autumn on the East Coast with these activities to get you and the fam out of the house, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of fall.
Five things to do in Newfoundland and Labrador this weekend:
- Take one of these five great fall hikes.
- Visit Campbellton Berry Farm for a fright in their haunted corn maze.
- See if you can make it through Lester Farm's Moonlit Maze.
- Join the Gander Burger Battle and vote for your fav.
- Explore a local farmers’ market and support our producers and makers.
Five things to do in Prince Edward Island this weekend:
- Get spooked at the Haunted Theatre at the College of Piping.
- Wander the Belfast Corn Maze, Market and grab some lunch in their BBQ pit.
- Meet Toby the Turnip and explore Fortune Bridge Farms corn maze. For the brave, go after dark for their Haunted corn maze, two nights only on Oct. 29 and 30.
- Take in free tunes with Tunes on Tap at Copper Bottom Brewing Co. this Sunday.
- Explore a local farmers market and support our producers and makers.
Five things to do in Nova Scotia this weekend:
- Venture into the Hanks Farm corn maze with your flashlight and help raise money for the new Cape Breton Cancer Centre at the same time.
- Test your nerves at the Alderney Landing Bluenose Ghost Festival.
- Wander a quiet beach in search of sea glass.
- Take the kids to the Lunenburg Library or Margaret Hennigar Public Library for a Halloween scavenger hunt.
- Explore a local farmers’ market and support our producers and makers.
Local reads
For traditional recipes that will forever stand the test of time, check out Delores Griffin’s book, The Biscuit Bible, which details everything anyone would ever want to know about biscuits. It contains easy-to-read information about all of the ingredients and stories from Island seniors and will give you a chuckle with the sweet biscuit jokes scattered throughout, like ...
“Why was the buttermilk biscuit not liked by the other types of biscuits? Because they said it was too cultured for them."