Product: TILDA Basmati Rice

We have this joke about how I love me some rice. There's normal portions of rice and then my portion of rice (imagine, if you will, a pyramid).

It's ridiculous because it's TRUE.

And Tilda's Basmati is rice royalty. Fluffy, long-grained, and non-sticky.

I was ecstatic to collaborate with Tilda on their latest two minute rice packets.

I opened this one up right way and literally two minutes later, pilau (indian masala-spiced rice) was standing up to the other indian dishes on my plate, dishes that took way longer than two minutes, mind you!

If you've ever cooked rice on the stove or in a rice cooker, you know it doesn't take two minutes. And this is no Uncle Ben's two minute rice, this is gourmet, fluffy, long-grained, no-preservatives, BASMATI rice.

It's portioned to serve two (one, if you're talking about me).

I can't even tell you how pumped I am about this product. The other packets didn't last long enough to even try various recipes, I was just happy eating them as is.

And excellent addition to the pantry, well worth having, and so tasty, you may just start eating rice like me.

Recipes to try with Tilda's Steamed Rice Pilau: Tilapia Curry and Indian Style Beets.

Product: Green Mountain Coffee

There are two smells worth waking up for.

Coffee. and. Bacon.

Not necessarily together(but that would certainly be bliss!)

Green Mountain Coffee is one of those coffee brands that just got it RIGHT. Founded as a small cafe in Waitsfield, Vermont, the brand has since grown to more than 100 high-quality varieties and most recently acquired Keurig, the single cup brewing system (my sister has one and it's brilliant!).

It's easily the best coffee I've had on vacation when Earl Grey just wouldn't do, and the Nantucket blend has such a lovely fragrance perculating throughout the house, like a promise of the weekend to come...

Many thanks to Green Mountain Coffee for refreshing my coffee stash with the Nantucket and Island Coconut blends!

Product: Black Summer Truffles from OGourmet

I received this product to review from OGourmet, which is a Canadian company dealing in fine food products from around the world.

I chose a jar of Extra Fine Black Summer Truffles as I'd never cooked with truffles, and only had dishes with truffle oil in the past.The "Tuber Aestivum" whole black summer truffles, is part of a line of truffle-inspired products imported from Viani & Co. Not knowing what to do with the little jar of black summer truffles, it sat for a while in our cupboard, until the other day, when I decided, that for New Year's Eve, I would make an attempt to cook with it.The Gilded Fork proved helpful in my task whilst Googling recipes using black summer truffles. However, by not having as much time as required in the recipe (fresh truffles, soaked in olive oil for a few hours), I made my own modifications to The Gilded Fork's recipe, here for only a small portion of pasta, as follows:

Ingredients:

1 black summer truffle
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Small portion of pasta for two
2 cloves garlic, minced

Prep:

Chop truffle

Chop garlic

Pour olive oil into chopped truffle

Gently cook the garlic until softened. Do not burn the garlic. Remove from the heat and add the truffles with the rest of the olive oil.

[Chef’s Note:  It is important that truffles never be “cooked”, but just gently warmed, so as not to destroy their delicate flavor.]

When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the truffle and olive oil along with a splash of the cooking water, and gently reheat over very low heat.  After trying the dish, neither of us could taste the truffles; individually they didn't seem to have any stand-alone flavour. 

As I said, I tailored the recipe to just a small portion of pasta, enough for two bowls. The rest of the pasta I served with an easy sauce using Morningstar's Veggie Meatballs, which are delish and really have a meaty texture.

So, I ask, what did I do wrong with the truffles and do you have any tips or recipes on how to cook with black summer truffles?

Product: Pita Break

I was recently sent a large box filled with  Pita Break products: a variety of One Bun pitas and Lavash "Flax and Honey" crackers.

Now, it's no secret that I like to eat, so it was almost instantaneous that I broke into the Lavash cracker box!  It just so happened that I'd just met up with some friends for after-work beers, and these crackers were the perfect snack for the walk over to our Chinese restaurant for dinner.

Slender maybe, but quite "Lavash" in size, the nutty, natural, fibrous flavour would appear to be rather tasteless, but instead is quite the opposite.

Full-mouthed and double-fisting the crackers, all of us agreed they were addictive!

The pitas?





Are quite simply, fabulous.  And the variety that they have is astounding!

My favourite is the Breakfast Pita: Cranberry Orange.  They were so good in the morning and as a snack (of which there were many while these babies were around) they were perfect with a bit of almond butter and/or jam (usually both, who am I kidding?).



My hubby preferred the Apple Cinnamon.



And because we often like making breakfast egg sandwiches the Breakfast Muesli was perfect for this.



And let me just say, what an ingenious idea to make hamburger buns THINNER!!!

Hooray, right? These sandwich and burger buns didn't last very long; especially with my husband's home-made burger recipe; they work together so well!

What's better than the thin hamburger bun?  The OneBun Hot dog bun - not only thinner, but like a taco, sits neatly on it's side. Love it. And multigrain, to boot!



We can't get enough of these pitas..they're all -natural, preservative free, kosher and made in Toronto.   And they even won the Best Lunchbox Item and Best Snack for the Canadian Live Foundations LIVERight Awards.

Congratulations you guys, I'd have to agree.