strawberries

Hot Balsamic Strawberries
Hot Balsamic Strawberries

Hot Balsamic Strawberries excerpted from Vegan BBQ: 70 delicious plant-based recipes to cook outdoors by Katy Beskow. Photography by Luke Albert.

Vegan BBQ: 70 delicious plant-based recipes to cook outdoors

Vegan BBQ showcases 70 simple, summery recipes to cook on your barbecue, as well as delicious sides, dips and snacks to brighten up any alfresco event.

From Katsu burgers with wasabi mayo, Buttered Hassleback squash, and Sizzling fajitas, to Brown sugar baked beans, BBQ patatas bravas or Kiwi and avocado salsa, the recipes are easy to follow, using seasonal and readily available ingredients—proving that you don’t have to grill meat to enjoy a barbecue!

Plus, you’ll learn how to get the most out of your ingredients, how to host the perfect plant-based barbecue with friends and what essential kit you’ll need (including advice on small barbecue set-ups for balconies or bijou gardens).

(more…)

Breakfast at Wimbledon

I am a pretty big tennis fan. And this weekend just happens to be the final weekend of Wimbledon. Nothing is more iconic of Wimbledon than strawberries and cream, a tradition at the Big W since the tournament’s origins in the late 1800s.

Photo courtesy of Reuters

According to the New York Times, legend has it that King George V introduced strawberries and cream to courtside crowds. But the tradition actually dates from around the time of the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877, according to Audrey Snell, a librarian at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. The strawberry season just happened to coincided with the arrival of the tournament.

Check out a few other facts about the strawberries and cream served at the All England Club. Enjoy the tennis!

  • Served in a cup containing not less than 10 strawberries.
  • 8,615 cups of strawberries are consumed per day.
  • 28,000 kg of strawberries are consumed over the two-week tournament, served with over 7,000 litres of fresh cream.
  • To ensure the utmost freshness, strawberries are picked the day before being served. They arrive at Wimbledon at around 5:30 a.m. where they are inspected.
  • The price for a cup of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon 2012 is £2.5 or CAN$4.90.
Photo courtesy of vw.co.uk