Mixing it up with Zoe Ford
Zoe Ford would have been my kind of person.
She always set a pretty table, even when eating by herself. She loved cookies and always had three different types in her pantry. She was born in 1908 and grew up in Boston, Mass. Zoe was grandmother to Jo Notkin, born in Montreal, Que.
Notkin had been highly influenced by summers with her grandmother in Massachusetts. These were summers filled with handmade food and lots of entertaining. As Jo grew up, she tried her hand at a number of things, including shucking oysters, creating shoe jewelry, working with organic textiles and then she started a catering company. She named the company Maison Zoe Ford after her grandmother.
From the very beginning, in 2009, Maison Zoe Ford Catering focused on offering food that she considered “beautiful, simple and delicious.” She showcased her talents on Season 8 of Canada’s Top Chef on the Food Network. Catering was one way to share her talents with food. The other is to create something similar at home as obviously we can’t have Jo in our kitchens whenever we would like. That’s how the pre-mixed foods started.
Baking from scratch is something we might want to do but it isn’t always possible or practical. Many people don’t bake a lot but do appreciate quality baked goods that taste homemade. If that’s you, this is the packed mix you will love. Let’s start with the Crispy Pancake Mix with Cinnamon Sugar. It makes 8 large or 12 to 14 smaller pancakes that puff up perfectly. You will add milk, eggs and oil to the mix. The cinnamon sugar is included and adds that homemade touch.
Or how about speedy cinnamon buns? All you add to this is butter and cream or milk. The rest is in the package. Craving carrot cake but it’s so much work? Try the carroty cake mix. It makes one loaf and all you need is eggs, shredded carrot and vanilla. And a loaf pan.
There are other mixes too, like big time brownies, little angels powdered donuts and sunshine buns, to name a few. The dry ingredients are fresh, sealed in a resealable bag so you can use some or all the mix. It’s all produced in Canada under the watchful eye of Jo. It’s a new way to bake from scratch and still have that homemade deliciousness.
I think Zoe Ford would be very happy to see what her granddaughter created from all those summers they spent together.