BBQ Season - Woo Hoo!!!!!

One of the drawbacks of living a condo lifestyle is that you're not allowed to barbecue on your patio. One of the pluses of condo living is that when people want to get together for a BBQ, it's never at your house. Now that the gorgeous weather has come to eastern Canada, that identifiable smell infiltrates the nostrils and I'm out looking for the nearest backyard smoke. A fantastic jump start to summer appeared at my door.



BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine , has a wonderful program called View & Review. As a member, we partner with book publishers,food purveyors, grocers and publicists. President's Choice , Canada's largest grocer is one of our partners. Their new BBQ program has just kicked off and several lucky members of BACFF received a promotional package to try and review. The offering came packaged in a really practical and attractive cooler. The array of PC products: Slider Thins Mini Burger Buns, New World EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 100% Sparking Fruit Juice, Glaze with Balsamic Vinegar of Moderna, Maple Bacon Marinade, Grilling & Roasting Seasoning Grinder, Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies, Thick Cut Ballpark Hot Dog Rippled Potato Chips, a red (to stimulate the appetite) apron and a $10 Gift Card to purchase other offerings (my eye is on the PC Ice Cream).

The second kick start is the President's Choice Canada's Biggest BBQ Contest offering more than $65,000 worth of prizes to be won. This BBQ is touring across Canada and you can find all the details and stops HERE

We've all seen the sliders in restaurants and served at parties. Finding the actual buns, short of making them myself was always work. I was really excited to find them in this package and to know that they're available at my local grocery store. They do exactly what they're supposed to do - take a back seat to the filling and give you a fun option to serve in just about any setting. Of course it was the first item on my list to try. I used my regular hamburger recipe, just shaped the burgers smaller and paired them with the thick cut ballpark hot dog rippled potato chips and the sparkling fruit juice. At first I thought the potato chips sounded wierd; I mean why would I want a potato chip that tastes like a hot dog. This is one of those "don't judge a book by its cover" things - I love them!!! I rarely treat myself to potato chips which made these even more special. The sparkling juice; also really tasty. I'm going to redo this whole configuration for my nephew's 15th birthday party and I can't even imagine his friends not loving them.



On movie night, I took out the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies and introduced them to my company. I heard comments like "I doubt anything will be better than the PC Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie" and the debate lasted about 10 minutes representing the length of time it took for the debaters to finish the whole box of cookies.

I really wanted to try to combine several of the products together and came up with so many different ways. Do I marinate chicken tenders for skewers?...cook the chicken and create a salad ... so many options. I decided to marinate chicken with the Maple Bacon marinade, fast fry in the EVOO, add a goodly amount of fresh garlic (can you ever have too much garlic?, a variety of vegetables, and then put them over noodles and finish with the Glaze with balsamic vinegar of Moderna.




The EVOO, imported from Chile has this incredible fruity flavour with no bitterness at all. It's my new olive oil of choice. The marinade gave the chicken a slightly sweet bacon flavour that definitely came through after cooking. I've tried so many marinades that didn't hold up to the cooking - this one - very good. The best part of this one is that the sodium count is very low so makes it a "can do" for me. I put a little of the glaze over the top of it all and found the whole combination a hit. I'd make it again.



I didn't have an opportunity to try out the Grilling and Roasting seasoning but when I checked the sodium count I was very pleasantly surprised to see that it's very low.

I love that our grocers are making attempts to be more and more innovative with their offerings. I haven't always been entirely kind to the PC people but this BBQ has kicked off with a big thumbs up from me. PC's new tag line is "worth switching supermarkets for"... if you're in Canada and haven't been to a President's Choice store - what are you waiting for?