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Have you had some cozy fun getting your hygge on? If you missed my hygge-inspired newsletter last week, you can catch up here.
This week, dive into the Newfoundland potato craze, complete with a recipe for one of my favourite childhood comfort foods — scalloped potatoes. Get baking with a recipe for biscotti, brighten someone's day with the From me to You campaign, get ready to cheer on East Coast chefs as they hit the small screen next month, and dive into Leslie Crewe's latest novel.
~ Jill, SaltWire Audience Team
Weekend weather
While the brilliant January sun beams down on the Maritime provinces, residents of eastern Newfoundland and Labrador are bracing for a blizzard. Warnings are in place. For details on that storm and the light snowfall that's in store for parts of Nova Scotia tomorrow, get Cindy's latest forecast here.
A passion for potatoes
While many of us were hard at work mastering bread baking over the past year, Newfoundlanders went in a slightly different direction — scalloped potatoes. Based on Google search results, scalloped potatoes were the fifth most food-related search in Canada during 2020, but #1 in Newfoundland and Labrador. And really, what's not to love? Potatoes - good! Cheese - good! Butter - good! So, drop the masher and switch up your potato game with this hybrid scalloped potato recipe — a mix of traditional scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin — which results in a creamy potato dish blanketed in bubbling cheese.
Get your biscotti on
Preheat your oven and put the kettle on - we're baking biscotti with Erin Sulley! Like Erin, I don't have the willpower or the desire to cut sugar from my diet - everything in moderation, right? If you're craving a sweet treat, try Erin's recipe for cranberry pecan biscotti. Dip it in coffee, tea or hot chocolate, kick back and enjoy.
Make someone's day
Engage Nova Scotia has kicked off a new initiative to uplift spirits during our pandemic winter. From me to You is an opportunity to brighten someone's day — perhaps someone you haven't met yet. You can get involved by writing or drawing a note and leaving it in a public space for someone to find. Learn more about this heartfelt campaign and how you can participate here.
Something to watch
Many top East Coast chefs have graced the MasterChef Canada kitchen, and the new season starting Feb. 14 on CTV will be no different.
MasterChef Canada: Back to Win will welcome 12 former competitors for another opportunity to win the title. Among the 12 chefs are Halifax restauranteur Andrew Al-Khouri from aFrite Restaurant, who placed 10th in season two, and season five’s second-place finisher Andy Hay of EDNA and Andy’s East Coast Kitchen.
Local reads
A memoir-writing course offered at a British library unlocks a Nova Scotia woman’s past, leading to new friendships and even some discoveries about herself.
It’s the basic plot of Lesley Crewe’s latest work, “The Spoon Stealer,” an enigmatically titled work that has already gone into its second printing and was on top of local bestseller lists for weeks after it came out at the end of September. Like her previous works, it’s filled with humour, heart and the everyday things that make life worth living, a winning style that keeps Crewe’s readers always wanting more.
Thanks for reading!
