This past weekend was Canada Day, and our nation turned 150 years old! Everyone had all sorts of plans and then mother nature pulled a trick on us and made it rainy and humid and dreary on the big day. Many local fireworks and outdoor activities were postponed, but in our house, the big plan was a FEAST so rain or shine. You can’t ruin our Canada Day plans Mother Nature!
A week ago I picked up a big bag of goodies from the President’s Choice Summer Insider’s Collection to try out and I knew at first glance I would be saving everything for Canada Day.
They had set us up with everything we could need for an amazing Canada Day party. Everything from PC Maple Flavoured Marshmallows and Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Truffles, to PC Loads of Canadiana Beef Burgers (stuffed with cheese curds and bacon!) and PC Smokie’s Poutine Flavour Pork Sausages and Shrimp Burgers, to Watermelon Lemonade and a Merengue Pavlova Nest.
You can bet we were looking forward to the feast! The nice thing about it was that come to Canada Day, the only thing we really needed to do was put the Pavlova together and throw everything else on the BBQ.
Fortunately, the rain subsided around noon at our house, so we were able to BBQ without an umbrella in hand. As fancy as everything sounds (and tasted) it really didn’t take any time at all to get our feast ready for eating!
And that Pavlova – I’ll share the “recipe” further down in this post, but it took a whopping 5 minutes to put together, and is basically a showstopper!
This season President’s Choice not only has their Insider’s Collection lineup, but also a whole line of Canada 150 merchandise that you can use all year-long to keep the Canada 150 Party going! In these shots, I’m using a blanket from the line as a tablecloth that has a Canada Flag on the other side. It’s super thick and would be such a great blanket to take camping or to the drive-in. And did you see the maple leaf-shaped burgers? How flipping cute are those!? 
As for the food, what can I say? We LOVED it. I think our favourite was the PC Smokie’s Poutine Flavour Pork Sausages, but everything we tried was delicious. My husband (the man who can’t eat anything interesting due to his Ulcerative Colitis) declared he did not care and ate everything except the Mango Salsa and Canadian Burger Buns (oh and I ate his strawberries off the Pavlova). I’m happy to report he is still alive, haha, and very much enjoyed diving into all this food!
We ate so much at lunch time that I don’t think either of us was hungry for the rest of the day (not that we didn’t find room to eat more…). Fast, simple, delicious, what more can you ask for when putting the food together for summer parties? And what’s more Canadian than a poutine flavoured sausage or a s’more made with a maple marshmallow!?
And let’s talk again about that Merengue Pavlova for a second…
All I did was whip up some cream to put in the middle, then topped with sliced strawberries. That’s it! Seriously, it took me less than 5 minutes to put together. You could do the same with the small meringue nests (or make your own) for individual desserts which would be possibly even more amazing. Just think about how much work everyone will think you put into making their dessert, when really it only took you a few minutes!
[Tweet “Party all summer long with the delicious summer foods in the @PresChoice #PCInsidersCollection”]
Originally I had planned to attempt to make the strawberries into a maple leaf shape but lost my nerve at the last second, haha.
Even without the maple leaf, it’s pretty darn fabulous if I do say so myself!
When it comes time for your next party, BBQ or gathering, head into your local President’s Choice store and see what you can find – I promise they won’t disappoint! And I know it sounds weird to have Poutine Sausages and Cheese Curd and Bacon-Stuffed Burgers – but trust them, they are gooooooooood.
What did you do on Canada Day? Did you eat anything AMAZING?
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for President’s Choice. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Umm, EVERYTHING in this post sounds delicious but still lusting most over the pavlova for sure! I will absolutely be picking some of those up now that you’ve told me about them (and they are GF!). Might even grab one this weekend 😀
Thanks for sharing this article. It’s amazing