MARTY WILL BE ON BREAKFAST TV ON JULY 30TH!!!!!
I like to think of myself as a Muskoka Girl. For the few short weeks that I am here every summer, I start every day with a polar bear dip and try to end each the same. I lie in my hammock,read on the dock, ride in the boat, shop in the small towns, hunt for worms, fish, swat bugs, avoid mice, bears and raccoons, barbecue and roast marshmallows and hot dogs on the fire. I must be a Muskoka Girl.
Yet, last week when I went to Bracebridge to meet Marty Curtis
of Marty’s World Famous Cafe, I was humbled in my Muskokaness. Discovering that Marty and his World Famous Buttertarts, Big Ass Pies and World Famous Bean Salad have been at 5 Manitoba Street for 12 years – his ice cream for 13 -and that I had never been there was a shot of Muskoka humiliation, which I quickly washed down with a Big Ass Brownie and the yummiest cup of Indian Chai I have ever had.
I made the trek from Whiteside Bay to this Muskoka landmark cafe
in order to meet Marty and review his new book ,MARTY’S WORLD FAMOUS COOKBOOK. The book itself is beautiful. Evocative photos of boathouses, Muskoka chairs, sunsets and loons drifting along quiet bays encased in mist interspersed with scrumptious, mouth-wateringly real pictures of Marty’s creations. The recipes are simple, with ingredients that are easy to obtain. I am afraid of pastry. I cannot make it, I cannot roll it, I do not actually like it very much when someone else makes it, I am more of a filling girl! But Marty assures me that his pastry, passed down by the Grey Nuns of Quebec, through his family, is fail safe and his manner is so calm and reassuring that I believe him and have promised to give it a try.
My favourite parts of his cookbook are the burgundy pages. Each of these contains words of wisdom , folk stories, personal essays or advice from Marty, not only on how to cook, but on how to be – "IN THE ZONE
– the place deep inside our soul that harbours our ability to achieve anything we put our mind to."
Marty asked me if I remembered those Sunday dinners my would make and my mind went immediately to how much work I put into a special family dinner. But, he had a different focus; one I’d never really thought of myself and one I will now work towards. Marty remembers how delicious his mom’s Sunday dinners were because of the care and mindfulness she put into preparing them. She had the day to work at it, enjoyed the process and could cook from "the zone." The meals weren’t rushed; it wasn’t a race home from the office, a quick grab and defrost from the freezer with some boil-in-the-bag veggi.es. Sunday meals are delicious because they are a labour of love.
I like to apply Marty’s theory to just about anything we cook at the cottage, especially if it is barbecued or made with bacon. This morning I made BLT’s with fresh cut bacon from the Cottage Butcher in Bala, Ontario grown tomatoes and Cosmo’s handmade 4 year old cheddar from the Bala Farmer’s Market and toasted scones from Don’s Bakery. I’ve made this meal a number of times when I’ve smuggled these same ingredients into Toronto, but somehow, food always tastes better up here. Now I know that it is because when I come to the lake and get away from city pressures, time constraints and endless demands, I am in my Muskoka zone.
Thanks to Marty and his World Famous Cookbook, I will be there a little more often with some magnificent recipes like Buttertart BBQ Rub, Candied BBQ Asparagus, The Ultimate Canadian Back Bacon Sandwich, Big Ass Quiche, Soul for the Chicken Soup and Marty’s World Famous Buttertarts.
CONTEST::::Is your mouth watering? Send in a story about a great food experience you and your family shared: a reunion, a birthday celebration, a holiday feast and win a copy of MARTY’S WORLD FAMOUS COOKBOOK for yourself.
My fondest memories involve making mini pizzas after church on Sundays with my Dad. We would all work together in the kitchen while dancing to old songs on the radio. Family time was so precious and this was one of the few times we all were together as a family.
I love cookbooks, and experimenting with new recipes. I would love the opportunity to win this! Thank you for the chance!
Summertime is always the best time for food at my house. My husband does all the cooking as I’m afraid I’m lacking in the area of culinary skill. But boy does he make up for my short comings! My husband is a teacher, so he has the summers off to experiment and create great meals for us using fresh and organic foods. I love summer!
Cooking is the finest way to spend a day….it is like creating art!
Oh, a new cookbook! Yes, please enter my name too!
Please enter my name in this contest. I love to try different cookbooks
Canada Day is a great time to reunite our family with a great BBQ in the backyard with everyone wearing red and white.
My fiancee would be happy for me to cook more. He’s a great cook but I think he would like me to be to. These books would surely benefit me.
I have great memories of delicious meals in late summer/early autumn at my parents cottage. We bought food at local farms and cook up ratatouille, apple pies and crisps, corn on the barbecue — new dishes every year but it always tasted so good and fresh.
The most recent, new memory for us, was finding a gluten free recipe for a cake that was mouthwatering and tempting for those of us in the family who don’t have celiac disease – and we found it. An italian recipe for an Almond Chocolate cake. It is divine and contains no flour, only almond flour and loads of wonderful, dark chocolate. The result was a moist, flavourful cake – and lots of requests for the recipe. It’s gonna be a favourite around here from now on!
Croquettes are deepfried meat paste filled balls or logs. Looks gross, and sounds bad for the diet, but it tastes adictively good.
During family get togethers my Dutch grandmother would make these for the whole family to enjoy. My uncles in order to try to have more for themselves would go out of there way to try and gross us little kids out. They’d give horible discriptions and would open their mouths and make awful sounds. But we’d all just giggle and say we’d eat them anyways.
Our best meal memory – making waffles over the fire (an iron waffle plate) at the cottage. I remember that it too took hours to eat this breakfast, which became lunch. The first waffle always got thrown out as it was the fire tester – trying to find the perfect fire for the waffles. We top the waffles with white sauce, fresh fruit, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of icing sugar. Mmmmmm. We recently made these same waffles with my 3 young boys. I’m not sure who was more excited – them or ME!
I love my Grandma’s scones! She always has a big jar on the counter full of them. I keep meaning to ask her for her recipe since she lives so far away…
I have fond memories of making cloverleaf buns with my Nana every special occasion our family had. When she passed away, I asked if I could have her recipe box as she was very secretive about her ingredients. I spent many hours going over her recipes and now my daughter and I make those buns for our special occasions and they are just as delicious. They don’t last long on the table!!
Every summer growing up we would move into our camp after school ended, and we would be there until the day before school started again. I always remember digging clams and having the whole family over for a clam bake. Nothing is better then melted butter running down your chin, and a stomach full of steamed clams. Now with children of my own we can’t wait to go to the camp. My girls love digging for clams and most of all eating them.
I grew up in Edmonton, with all of my relatives scattered over Nova Scotia, I was always envious of the big holiday meals since it was always only the 4 of us in Edmonton.
Now as a mom to three boys I try to do a larger meal on Sundays that forces us to sit down together, but it is the big holiday feasts that I pull out my inner Martha, I plan for weeks, cooking everything from soup to dessert, but what makes it special is that my mother-in-law brings a fish curry for my husband and 3 brothers and my mom makes the cranberries. We have a small house but somehow we squeeze 18 people onto three tables bookended.
Would love to add another cookbook to my growing faves, Marty’s World Famous would be a much cherished book for me to share recipes with my boys and grow more of our own traditions with family favorite meals.
I remember fondly our Sunday dinners while I was growing up. My grandma would come over and I remember her teaching me how to cut green beans! We would usually have a good roast, with roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding. How I love yorkies to this day! Our usual Sunday desert was a lemon meringue pie and I was always in charge of stirring the pie filling. Gosh this is truly one of the best memories I have of growing up. The liveliness, the family, the warmth and the smells in that kitchen will always be with me.
What a wonderful contest, thanks!
My mother never shared a lot of her recipes with me. We were a family of 13 and there was never time. Marty’s book would fill the gap in my knowledge of what to do with pastry edges and how to spice up meat. Please enter my name in to this contest.
Every july 1st we have the biggest fanciest party for our entire 65 member family and Canada!
Well… a funny memory. My young daughters don’t always do the greatest job trying new things. One thing that didn’t go over quite as well as I would have hoped were Yorkies. My 3 year old ate everything on her plate and just sort of pushed that Yorkshire Pudding around the gravy unsure about whether she would eat it. That is until my hubby reached over speared it and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. The waterworks! She cried until I made a new batch… and you can bet your bottom dollar that she ate that one in a hurry!
I would love to win the cookbook :O) I’m constantly searching for new and interesting recipes that the whole family will enjoy.
My grandma started a family tradition many years ago by making a decorating her childrens birthday cakes. My Mom followed suit and we always had the most amazing cakes for our birthdays. Now that I am a Mom I also make and decorate my daughters birthday cakes. Since my Mom has gotten older I make my nieces birthday cakes and she supervises and helps with what she can.
Great post & what love adventures up in Muskoka. Having come from Ireland with no family here, we make all holidays special by having the friends – that have become family – get together & no matter what the meal is, it is always special because of the company and the sentiments expresses.
One Christmas eve, I made beef wellington for the first time. What a beautiful meal. The wellington, roasted potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli in cheese sauce. Definitely not low fat but a decadent Holiday meal. Everyone enjoyed.
I just saw the segment on BT – my mouth is still watering!
My dad, brother, and I all have our birthdays within 5 days of each other. We usually had one celebration with one cake with all our names on it. One year, my mother decided that we should each have our own celebration, but the thought of all that cake was just too much! My dad decided he wanted birthday pie, I opted for birthday cheesecake, and my brother went for the traditional cake. I can still taste that cheesecake, many, many years later.
Ack! I am so JEALOUS. There is no such thing as cottage country here in Alberta, and even if there were, it would be out of our financial reach. My hubby and I have such fond childhood cottage memories – I think it is one of the things we regret most; that we will not be able to give them to our own children.
Enjoy and treasure your cottage life…and good luck with that pastry!
what a fun post! i love finding little quirky cafes like Marty’s. i love the sound of those butter tarts – my husband’s fave dessert of all time. enjoy every minute of your blissful cottage life!