There are so many options for picnics that can range from very impromptu casual style to more elaborate events. Today, it was about 30C on Prince Edward Island so the theme for the day was casual….very casual.
I had made a batch of pan rolls yesterday and shaped them into the perfect size and shape for slider sandwiches. These are so easy to pull together and they are very tasty. Essentially, for each one, all I used was some black forest ham, a slice of tomato, some JJ Stewart beermustard sauce, slices of cheddar and havarti cheese, and lettuce from our own garden.
Ham, Cheese, and Tomato Sliders
Of course, a bowl of the quintessential all-time favorite picnic salad – potato salad – provided a great side dish to the sliders and it’s always a hit. Just make sure to keep this salad refrigerated.
Potato Salad
A tall pitcher of cold, refreshing lemonade proved to be a thirst-quenching drink on this hot afternoon.
Lemonade
Dessert was simply colorful marshmallow squares. Nice and summery as well as yummy!
Marshmallow Squares
And, juicy watermelon always goes great on a hot summer day and it adds such a splash of color to the table.
When it is so hot, I like to keep meal prep to the minimum and go with very simplistic foods and ones that can be prepared early in the day and refrigerated until use. This picnic menu is so easy to set up buffet style whether it is for 3-4 people or several more.
While picnics don’t necessarily require table centerpieces, they can take a picnic from mundane to wow with very little effort. Today, I simply walked to the nearest flowerbed and picked some daisies which, with their yellow centers, fit in with my summery yellow color theme. I think daisies go very well with wicker picnic baskets!
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Today, I am sharing a new recipe for pork chops. In addition to PEI pork, I am also featuring two other PEI products, both from J.J. Stewart Foods and Soda Company, in Stratford. The first is a new preserve flavor — Cranberry Champagne with Crystallized Ginger — and the second is from their maple mustard line.
This is a very easy recipe to make and does not take a lot of time to prepare. It is essentially pan-fried pork chops with a pan reduction sauce made with chicken stock, orange juice, mustard, and the preserves. This recipe is easily doubled.
½ cup chicken broth 2 tbsp orange juice 1½ tsp balsamic vinegar (I used Liquid Gold’s Grapefruit Balsamic Vinegar) 3 tbsp J. J. Stewart’s Cranberry Champagne with Crystallized Ginger Preserve 1 tbsp J.J. Stewart’s Dill and Chardonnay Maple Mustard ¼ tsp onion ⅛ tsp garlic powder
Method:
Assemble ingredients.
Over medium heat, add 2 tsp olive oil to small frypan. Add pork chops and cook, turning once until cooked to desired doneness. Remove chops from pan and transfer to oven-proof covered dish. Place pork chops in oven set at very low temperature, just enough to keep them warm while preparing sauce.
Add the chicken broth, orange juice, and balsamic vinegar to frypan. Over medium heat, cook liquid (uncovered) until it reduces to about half.
Whisk in the mustard along with the garlic and onion powders until mixture is smooth.
Whisk in the preserves. Cook until mixture becomes the consistency of syrup.
Return the pork chops to the frypan and heat for about 1 minute, turning the chops at half-time to glaze both sides.
Serve hot with the cranberry-ginger sauce mixture drizzled over top of each pork chop. Serve with potato or rice and your favorite vegetable(s).
Serves: 2
Note: Other brands of preserves, mustard, and balsamic vinegar may be used in this recipe; however, flavor will differ.
You may also like this pork chop recipe from My Island Bistro Kitchen:
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I am always thrilled when I discover products made on PEI. I recently paid a visit to the small commercial kitchen of J.J. Stewart Foods and Soda Company in Stratford, PEI, where I met with owners and sole employees of the company, Heather and Thom MacMillan.
Under the brand label of J.J. Stewart, the MacMillans are producers and purveyors of a number of fine food products that includes preserves, flavoured mustards, sauces, pickles, salsa, lemonade, sodas and, of course, their signature artisan root beer.
While I was anxious to find out more about the products they make, I was first curious to learn about J.J. Stewart and his connection to the company.
The MacMillans tell me that the J.J. Stewart branding came about because of the root beer they were making. They have been producing their artisan root beer since 2009. When they were searching for a brand name for it, they discovered that Heather’s grandfather, John James Stewart, made and sold root beer in the early 1900s in his general store in Wood Islands, PEI. So, with the lineage and history, it seemed only fitting that their root beer should bear his name.
So, that explains the root beer but what prompted the production of the sauces, preserves, maple mustards, and pickles? The MacMillans have been in the tourism business for many years. They decided it was time to downsize and slow down so they sold their hotel business in Wood Islands and moved to Charlottetown. However, their retirement was short-lived as their lifelong entrepreneurial spirit was still prompting them to do something else. Both like to cook and when the Embers Company in Kinkora, PEI, became available for sale about three years ago, they bought it along with rights to the recipes for specialty food condiments that were already well-known and received on the market. They have continued to produce those items as well as develop, test, and market new items, like Peanut Butter and Cranberry Champagne Jam with Ginger, under the J.J. Stewart label.
The dividing line between mass-produced mustards, preserves, and sauces and those produced by the MacMillans lies in the care and attention to detail that can only come with hand-producing small batch quantities, using high quality ingredients, and adhering to a strict individual quality control process.
Large Cooking Pot inside the J.J. Stewart Kitchen
The difference can also be discerned in the taste and flavour when pure ingredients are used. Wherever possible, the MacMillans use regionally-produced products. Thom says he can actually pinpoint the berry field at Penny’s Farms in Belfast, PEI, where the strawberries are picked for the J.J. Stewart Strawberry Preserves! The berries for their blueberry products come from Wyman’s near Morell and the cranberries and raspberries are locally sourced as well. Cucumbers for their mustard pickles come from local roadside farm stands which offer the freshest of garden vegetables. The maple syrup comes from Acadian Maple Products in nearby Nova Scotia. J.J. Stewart products have become synonymous with quality so much so that the MacMillans tell me that people buy their preserves by the case in the summer and their freshly-made mustard pickles are a fall favourite which customers also buy by the case to have as their winter supply.
Like any food product produced and marketed for sale on PEI, the MacMillans are subject to food regulation and provincial inspection processes to ensure their products are safe for the market.
Bottles of Dill and Chardonnay Maple Mustard Waiting to be Labeled
The artisan foods produced by the MacMillans are a perfect blend of modern and traditional fare. Under the J.J. Stewart label that bears his picture, look for modern products like blueberry salsa and blueberry barbeque sauce and a number of flavoured mustards along with old favorites like mustard pickles and raspberry and strawberry preserves.
With distinctive flavour pairings like Dill and Chardonnay Maple Mustard and Wild Blueberry Sauce with Grand Marnier, for example, the J.J. Stewart line of products brings together the best flavour combinations. J.J. Stewart products are both delicious and very versatile. Whether used independently on their own as they are or incorporated as an ingredient into a recipe, these quality products are palette pleasers.
Over the next while, follow my blog postings as I use a number of their products in different recipes.
I am sure J.J. Stewart would have been happy to sell these products in his general store and he would, no doubt, be both thrilled and proud to know that his descendents are carrying on the tradition of producing artisanal root beer and other tasty products. The J.J. Stewart speciality item products are available in select locations in the Maritimes. For example, they can be purchased at the PEI Co. Store in Charlottetown’s Confederation Court Mall, at Riverview Country Market in Charlottetown, and at several other locations across the Island as well as at Sugar Moon Farms in Truro, Nova Scotia.
Thom MacMillan at the J.J. Stewart booth at the Charlottetown Farmers Market
Each Saturday morning, you can also find Thom at his booth at the Charlottetown Farmers Market where sales are brisk and you’ll find regular customers returning week after week to pick up their favorite J.J. Stewart products. Farmers markets are great venues for customers and producers to meet and interact. In fact, Thom says he gets the greatest feedback and new product ideas from his regular Saturday morning customers. Be sure to drop by the Farmers Market and taste the J.J. Stewart products at the tasting bar set up in their booth.
Tasting Bar at the J.J. Stewart booth at the Charlottetown Farmers Market
In the summer months, their products are also sold in their own J.J. Stewart Mercantile Store in Cavendish, PEI. Additionally, products are also available online at www.jjstewartfoods.com and they ship across North America.
My Island Bistro Kitchen’s Old-fashioned Jam Squares
For my feature recipe today using a J.J. Stewart product, I have chosen to use their Raspberry Preserves in old-fashioned vintage jam squares. For this recipe, you need to use a superior quality jam or preserves because that is what gives the square its flavour. Red jams or preserves work best because, for plate presentation purposes, they are the most showy. I found the J.J. Stewart Raspberry Preserves to be a nice, thick consistency which is necessary in order for it to stick to the dough and not be runny when the squares are cut.
My Island Bistro Kitchen’s Old-fashioned Jam Squares made with J.J. Stewart’s Raspberry Preserves
My Island Bistro Kitchen’s
Old-fashioned Jam Squares
These are an old-fashioned favourite that I grew up with. They are easy to make and take common ingredients. While any kind of jam may be used, they are most showy when red jam (preserves) is chosen.
Ingredients:
⅓ cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond flavoring
½ cup white sugar
1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp cardamom
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
½ cup J.J. Stewart Raspberry Preserves
Method:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Assemble ingredients.
Ingredients for Jam Squares
Prepare 8”x8” pan by lining with parchment paper.
With electric mixer, beat butter well. Beat in egg, vanilla, and almond flavouring. Mixture will appear lumpy.
Sift and mix together sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.
Grate the rind of one lemon. Stir in grated lemon rind.
Add dry ingredients to butter-egg mixture and blend thoroughly.
Gather up dough and shape dough into a small oblong shape.
Cut off about ⅓ of the dough and place in freezer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, press remaining ⅔ dough into prepared pan. Place pan in freezer.
When the reserved dough has been in the freezer for 15 minutes remove both reserved dough and the pan from the freezer. Evenly spread the ½ cup raspberry preserves over dough in pan.
Using a grater, grate the chilled and reserved 1/3 dough evenly over the jam.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until topping on square is lightly golden in color.
Let square cool completely in pan before removing and cutting into 16 squares.
Jam Squares
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(Mostly) PEI and Maritime Food – Good Food for a Good Life!
