With Valentine's Day right around the corner, today's newsletter is all about love. Indulging in sweet treats, recipes featuring aphrodisiacs, stories of sharing love and giving back, and a new diamond crafting craze (OK, so it's not with real diamonds, but it sure is cool!)
I hope you enjoy,
— Jill, SaltWire Audience Team
Weekend weather
The early-week snowstorm that crossed the region, then stalled off the coast of Newfoundland, continues its unusual east to west push. While the snow in a line of instability reaching back from the system continues over much of Newfoundland and Labrador, it will begin to sink across eastern regions of the Maritimes tonight. While the weekend outlook is brighter, our midweek could be whiter! Details here.
Sweets for your sweetie
With Valentine’s Day coming up on Sunday, here are a couple of ideas if you want to make something sweet for your sweetheart. The sweet and salty white chocolate love crunch is the perfect snack to munch on while you’re cuddled up with your favourite person on the couch. And homemade doughnuts! Who doesn’t love homemade doughnuts? Brace yourself for plenty of hugs and kisses when your loved ones taste these chocolate baked doughnuts with raspberry glaze.
Turn up the romance
As the oyster has long been thought to be an aphrodisiac, it makes perfect sense to include it in your Valentine's Day dinner plans. Whether you prefer them raw on the half shell (my personal fave, topped with a little mignonette) or cooked, chef Ilona Daniel is ready to help you wow your special someone with a recipe for pomegranate mignonette that will make your raw oysters sing, and her recipe for oysters Kirkpatric with aged cheddar for those who prefer them cooked.
#funfact — pomegranate is also known to be an aphrodisiac so this is a double-whammy!
Get scampi!
For our next installment of making restaurant-quality dishes at home, don't skip the shrimp! Shrimp scampi began to appear on restaurant menus in North America in the 1920s, so it has a historical fashionable flair to it and a romance perfectly suited for Valentine's Day. Bonus: it's actually quite simple to recreate at home! Mark DeWolf shares his personal recipe with you here.
Spread the love
An organization that helps people with varying abilities hopes the community will spread the love to its residents on Valentine’s Day.
For the second year in a row, Breton Ability Centre is asking people to mail cards to make people at the centre “feel more connected,” said Harman Singh, CEO of the Sydney River facility.
“Valentine’s Day is all about love,” she said. “One of our priorities at Breton Ability Centre is to help our residents and clients feel more connected to our larger community.
“Our residents were thrilled to open their lovely cards last year on Feb. 14, and we know this time around will be even more special. This simple gesture will help further reduce the stigma of intellectual disabilities.”
Valentine’s Day wishes can be sent in the form of cards, pictures or postcards. They should be mailed or dropped off at Breton Ability Centre, 25 Inclusion Dr., Sydney River, N.S. B1S 0H3.
From one Island to another
In September 2019, hurricane Dorian ravaged the Bahamas. Almost a year-and-a-half later, a 30-foot container full of relief supplies is en route to Grand Bahamas.
“I feel good; it’s done,’’ said Luke Ignace, who led a P.E.I. effort that stretched as far as Halifax to pull in items for the hospital in his native country.
Ignace is a student at Holland College and runs his own Black barber business on Victoria Row. He has been collecting medical supplies, such as gowns and scrubs, wheelchairs, medical bags, walkers, hospital bedding and infection kits, as well as items for kids, including soccer balls and Frisbees.
“It’s been crazy trying to bring a lot of people together … and trying to stay on top of things. This was a long time coming, and it’s finally done. I had a lot invested in it.’’ Read more of this touching story.
Diamonds are a crafter's best friend
What do you get when you cross paint-by-numbers with cross-stitch? One of the newest crafting crazes sweeping the East Coast: diamond art painting.
Sparkly gems fill up the page and, once completed, you have a beautiful, three-dimensional picture!
The kits come with everything you need: a stylus, wax to help pick up the gems, a tray sorter, all the gems and the canvas print, says Joanne Newman of Get Messy NL, a place dedicated to arts and crafts in Paradise, N.L., noting that Get Messy NL was one of the first in the area to sell these kits.
Local reads
At age 106, Thomas Simmons was once the oldest living resident in North Preston. As an elder in the historic African Nova Scotian community, he helped to keep its history alive through his storytelling.
The father of 13 children and 38 grandchildren, Simmons died in March 2019, not long after sharing some of his stories in Wanda Taylor’s new book, It’s Our Time: Honouring the African Nova Scotian Communities of East Preston, North Preston, Lake Loon/Cherry Brook.
Through stories from Simmons and other descendants of the area’s original settlers, readers get a deeper look into life in the African Nova Scotian communities. Taylor’s book traces in detail the establishment of the communities in the late 1700s and follows their struggles and progress to today.
Thanks for reading!
