Mix the Bakery

Well, we finally made it to Mix the Bakery on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Despite eating a filling lunch up the street, we were determined to taste something yummy.

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Doughnuts: Vegan no less!

I am always on the hunt for good egg- and dairy-free baking recipes for my children, who have food allergies.  As I stood in my local library, flipping through The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book: Great Dairy, Egg, and Nut Free Treats for the Whole Family by Kelly Rudnicki, I started to excited. I rushed home with the book, ready to try one of the many appealing recipes.

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DOW: B-52

For our first shot drink of our "drink of the week" series, we chose our favourite shot, the B-52. Named after the B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber, this famous drink is built rather than mixed.

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Strawberry Jam

June means a lot of different things to different people, but to strawberry lovers (at least in the northern hemisphere) it means fresh, ripe strawberries! We are lucky to live close to the fertile Fraser Valley, with its abundance of farms, including Emma Lea Farms on Westham Island in Ladner.

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Brown Dog Cafe

vegan whole-wheat banana pancakes

If you're looking for a lovely way to enjoy breakfast, you can't do much better than the charming Brown Dog Cafe. The owners and staff are deceptively easygoing, as they manage to deliver a meal with high attention to detail, down to the adorable cookie accompanying your cappuccino.

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DOW: Old Fashioned

We thought we'd try another classic drink. The Old Fashioned has been around for about 200 years.

Recipe:

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (or a sugar cube)
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• club soda (or water)
• 2 oz whisky

Put sugar in an old-fashioned glass. Add bitters and crush sugar, spreading around the sides of the glass. Pour in a splash of club soda. Then add the whisky and stir.

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Go-to Marinade

This seafood marinade was devised by Frank Pabst, currently the executive chef at Vancouver's Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar, who recently won Vancouver Magazine's Chef of the Year.

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DOW: Hell's Gate Brewing

Hell's Gate Brewing was established in 2008, and the brewery is currently located in Delta, near Vancouver. I was at the packy last night, and there was a promotion for their two beers, a pale ale and a lager. I forewent the tasting and simply brought home a six-pack of each.

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Organic Dark Chocolate Toffee Almonds

A Whole Foods treat found in the bulk section. These babies are huge!

Go now.

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DOW: Gin and Tonic

"Summer! It turns me upside down. Summer, summer, summer. It's like a merry-go-round."

No, not quite, but today certainly evoked it with clear blue skies, and the taste of a balmy day. To us, summer means gin and tonics.

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Chao Ga (Vietnamese Rice Porridge)

After reading a tweet about Vietnamese rice porridge, I searched for a recipe and found one that I adapted. It ended up being so yummy that I want to run out to buy nuoc mam (fish sauce) and make it again.

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