Uplift: Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got baking in my tummy

Yummy local treats

If the smell of freshly baked goods make you happy, then you’ll be smiling from ear to ear about the trifecta of tasty treats talked about in Winnipeg this past week.

First off was the reopening of Tall Grass Prairie Bread Co., a Wolseley staple, on Westminster Avenue earlier this week.

The bakery was damaged by torrential rains that hammered the city May 30.

Or, as the story says in a play of words from My Fair Lady, “The rain on grain didn’t stay mainly in the drain.” Rainwater proved too much for the roof and leaked inside, destroying ceilings, walls and linoleum floors.

It put the bakery out of action for three weeks.

But rising like a… loaf of bread in the oven, the bakery reopened Tuesday, offering everyone who walked through the door a free cookie.

“I’m so happy it is all done,” said Tabitha Langel, one of the bakery’s four owners. ” We even had to have the oven pipes dismantled and put back together.”

“It’ll be good to get back to baking,” said Paul Langel, another of the owners. “We’re looking forward to welcoming back our regulars, our neighbours and our customers from across the city.”

•••

Just a short bike ride from there is the local Stella’s Bakery on Sherbrook Street.

The local chain began in Osborne Village in 1999 as an over-the-counter breakfast and lunch café, but it has since grown, first to Grant Avenue, next to Sherbrook and, since then, the Buhler Centre across from the University of Winnipeg on Portage Avenue, the Centre culturel franco-manitobain on Provencher Boulevard, a hopping spot on Pembina Highway and a location at Richardson International Airport.

Stella’s prides itself on making everything from scratch.

And while the restaurant chain is named after Stella, you won’t find the namesake working away in any of the kitchens — as it turns out, Stella was the name of the owner’s cat.

•••

A cookie baked by Winnipeg’s Scientific Sweets was posted on Instagram by Khloe Kardashian, who first came to fame on the family reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. That’s because the cookie featured Kardashian’s daughter, True, and it was part of a custom order by the celebrity to celebrate her two-month-old going to Los Angeles for the first time since her birth.

Kardashian can be heard on the video, as she zooms in on the cookies, “Oh my God, my little baby.”

That video, and the publicity from it, caused bakers Jenn Strauman and Mary Lou Vendivil to jump with joy. The pair, who work as lab technicians in a Winnipeg hospital and bake on the side, initially thought it was a joke when they were first contacted by someone claiming to be one of Kardashian’s assistants.

“We are just hobby bakers in Winnipeg and for them, our cookies, to land in a celebrity’s house is just insane,” Vendivil said.

All this reading about food has made me — and likely you — hungry. At least we now know some places where we can go to get a treat.

Shelley Cook, Columnist

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No grudge against Grudge

The remake of Japanese horror film The Grudge is shooting in Manitoba. (David Appleby photo)

Winnipeg and Selkirk may have been holding a Grudge lately, but thankfully they are not holding a grudge.

The two cities have been hosting the shooting of a new horror franchise, The Grudge. The movie features Betty Gilpin, who is in the Netflix series GLOW; John Cho, who stars as Sulu in the new Star Trek franchise; and Andrea Riseborough, who was in Birdman.

The movie is shooting here not only because of the tax incentives provided, but also because the city and province are “very film friendly” as executive producer Schuyler Weiss says. READ MORE

Marathon winner chugs competitors

The Winnipeg Free PressLook ma, no beer: Manitoba men's marathon winner Corey Gallagher crosses the finish in 02:37:47. (ANDREW RYAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The Winnipeg Free Press

Look ma, no beer: Manitoba men’s marathon winner Corey Gallagher crosses the finish in 02:37:47. (ANDREW RYAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

This year’s Manitoba Marathon winner might have drank a beer to celebrate, but at least he didn’t have to chug one this time during the race.

That’s because Corey Gallagher, who won Sunday’s men’s full marathon in a time of 2:37:48.5, is also the former beer mile world champion and record holder.

To win Sunday’s marathon, Gallagher only had to run 42 kilometres. To win the Beer Mile in 2014, he had to run four laps around a track, downing a beer after each lap. READ MORE

Newcomer welcomes newcomers

Aya Hasan, 11, hands out balloons at the annual Welcome Fair for Canadian newcomers Saturday. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Guevara Shekhmos was one of the volunteers at the third annual Newcomer Welcome Fair last week.

What’s interesting is that Shekhmos only arrived in Winnipeg less than two weeks ago, after leaving Syria as a refugee a few years ago.

The fair, which draws crowds of people who recently moved here, is organized by Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, the Citizen Equity Committee, and Manitoba Association for Newcomers Serving Organizations, to help them feel welcome. READ MORE

Joining together for hungry

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSLubna Usmari from the Manitoba Islamic Association, and Rocky Baronins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are gearing up for their annual food drive. (JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Lubna Usmari from the Manitoba Islamic Association, and Rocky Baronins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are gearing up for their annual food drive. (JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The city’s Muslims and Mormons are getting together this weekend and the city’s hungry will be the beneficiaries.

Members of the Manitoba Islamic Association are joining with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the 13th annual food drive for Winnipeg Harvest.

The two organizations will be collecting food in marked grocery bags left on porches on Saturday. They expect, along with matching donations, to leverage about 68,000 kilograms of food for the province’s largest food bank. READ MORE

Raccoon superhero

CPIt took this raccoon 20 hours to scale the UBS Tower in St. Paul, Minn., on June 12. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio)

CP

It took this raccoon 20 hours to scale the UBS Tower in St. Paul, Minn., on June 12. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio)

It wasn’t Spiderman who scaled a tall building in St. Paul, Minn. last week — it was a raccoon.

That raccoon’s feat made it famous around the world after video images of its climb to the roof of the 25-storey UBS building made it on the Internet. The raccoon began climbing Tuesday morning but didn’t make it to the roof until early the next day.

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Go to school, win a truck

CPStudent Zach Zurba (centre), Kevin Mitchell, general manager of Twin Motors, and teacher Patty Goodine pose with the truck Zach won for having good attendance. (Handout photo/ The Canadian Press)

CP

Student Zach Zurba (centre), Kevin Mitchell, general manager of Twin Motors, and teacher Patty Goodine pose with the truck Zach won for having good attendance. (Handout photo/ The Canadian Press)

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Zach Zurba, a Grade 10 student, was the lucky winner of a 2004 Chevy Avalanche donated by a local dealer. The other five students received gift packages of items worth more than $1,000.

And the students will be trying their best next year to show up at school: next year’s prize is a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

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Sisler High School interactive digital media department head Jamie Leduc with students Denise Dionasa (left) and Marcelo Aiello as they try to pick up salt and pepper shakers while wearing vision-impairing goggles and dexterity-reducing gloves. (ERIK PINDERA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Students at Sisler High School received a lesson in accessibility recently and came up with practical solutions.

Ninety students from grades 9 to 12 took part in a five-day workshop to teach inclusive design and engineering.

The students came up with salt shakers that are not only easier to pick up, but also easier to figure out which is a salt shaker and which is filled with pepper. READ MORE

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