Beware the Impulse Buy After conversations with lots of food shoppers, some of whom were strangers I accosted in the parking lot begging for a look inside their bags, I’ve discovered the art of grocery navigation is rapidly becoming a lost art. Apparently they don’t teach this stuff in schools. I suspect food companies are counting on that fact … Read More →
Butter for Flavour, Shortening for Flaky Layers Some online discussions cropped up about the ‘perfect’ pie crust so here’s my entry into the fray. Happy pie making out there you crust-obsessed whackos. People still insist they can’t make a good pie crust. I make a lot of pies, especially this time of year when apples literally fall off the roadside and root … Read More →
The Canadian penny is extinct but I still pinch them I’ve written about basic pantry inventories and starter kitchen equipment lists many times in the past for other publications. An entertaining conversation – some would say a healthy debate – invariably crops up but I think that’s a fabulous thing in this age where a vast swath of the population is rapidly losing its food … Read More →
Me. When I Have a Sore Throat. I’m not a fan of most modern over-the-counter medication. It seems these days many reach for a factory-made pill or potion at the drop of a slightly uncomfortable hat. I’m not talking about serious conditions here but rather the little signals that your body gives you for run-of-the-mill ailments, aches, and pains that crop up, … Read More →
Quick, simple, delicious. And oh yeah, it's healthy. The need for my gong bao recipe, one of the pillars of Chinese sauce mastery *, came up in conversation so here are the details recycled from a post long ago. This sauce is what you find wrapped around your beloved Kung Pao Chicken or Broccoli Beef takeaway at the local Chinese. Make a batch … Read More →
Glaze Naked Means More Apple Taste, Less Surplus Sugar I came home from the farm with another armload of apples today. They’re ripe at the top of the trees so next week it’s probably cider time with most of the crop. An unexpected bonus of the huge hoarkin’ truck is that I can park on the drive right next to one of my biggest … Read More →
About to be salsa My salsa catalogue has numerous entries. Some accommodate the seasons, some entertain strange ingredient lists, and others still are made for quick convenience. After weeks of my annual garden-inspired pico de gallo indulgences, I took a few extra minutes today for a quick bit of roasting to make another favourite when tomatoes are plentiful. Before … Read More →
If there were ovens in the wild The farm neighbour told me of a grand discovery across the road last weekend… blackberries. Something which I have a fond history with in fact. Seems they found a patch back in the brush on their side which means if I don’t already have some hiding on the edges of my own chunk of forest, … Read More →
Tamales Deliciously Deconstructed Who loves a great tamale? Who doesn’t live anywhere near a decent tamale stand or Mexican grocery? Who doesn’t have the patience or team of Mexican grandmothers to make them at home twenty dozen at a time? If you answered “me” to any of these questions, have I’ve got a solution for you. I’ve tackled … Read More →
Chic enough for dinner parties, Easy enough for a front porch snack There’s not much that says summer better to me than a freshly cracked watermelon. As a kid I preferred them to a cake for my summer birthday and still hold my own private melon celebration annually. My grandfather used to grow acres of them and I can still remember him ‘accidentally’ nudging one with the … Read More →
Grapefruit Not Included The grapes are flowing in from the vines, veg gardens are overly pleased with themselves at being productive, and I’ve just picked the first few test apples of the year off the trees. Still a bit small and tart but not horribly so. Give them another three weeks and they’ll be perfect. That didn’t stop … Read More →
What Well Dressed Tacos Are Wearing This Season When you hail from a hot climate, you’re going to end up with sour dairy. That’s how nature works. Thankfully sour doesn’t mean spoiled in many cases and clever food cultures have learned to embrace ambient heat and bacteria to give us all sorts of fabulous tastes from kefir to yogurt. The kitchens of Mexico … Read More →
Teatime 1.0 A welcome rainy day here in the wilderness today and I had extra rolled oats on hand. That means cookies. Despite recent cinnamon bun evidence to the contrary, I usually prefer a ‘less-sweet’ baked something with my afternoon tea break. A simple scone or my lightly-sweetened take on oatmeal and cranberry teacake-meets-cookie for examples. However … Read More →
Pour a Little Flavour When I realized the heat and humidity was literally melting the sugar stocks on my pantry shelves this week, I had to come up with a way to use two kilos of gooey sugar in a hurry. It was already a mushy brick and would have run all over the floor in another week I … Read More →
Three rises means fabulous texture - Best Teatime Ever It’s still uncomfortably hot by day. Nights at least cool down to below 20C which is when I’ve been baking my daily bread if I don’t otherwise fire up the outdoor ovens. I’ve been tinkering around with some old recipes that needed updates for one reason or another in between hammering out fiction chapters that … Read More →
Peppercorn Mayo at the Ready for my Afternoon Bagel Sandwich I keep harping on about how much better my homemade mayonnaise is compared to the ready-made examples in the market so I thought I’d move that whole rant out of the tested recipe substitutions department and onto its very own page. You will be amazed at how much better it tastes, how cheap it is … Read More →
Bread Without Making the Kitchen a Sauna In the heat of summer the last thing most anyone wants to do is crank the kitchen oven into overdrive. That means you have to head outdoors with any creative food urges that aren’t centred on ice cream production. You can cook nearly any recipe normally made indoors on the wide range of outdoor hot … Read More →
Pay no heed to the watermelon spectator in the background What to do on a hot and muggy afternoon? Make ridiculously hot pepper jelly of course. With thunderstorms threatening I don’t really want to be the tallest thing out in the middle of my field holding long metal gardening tools (and shouting “all Gods are bastards” while wearing copper armour in the Terry Pratchett vein) … Read More →
Delicious Like It's 1977 Again Orange Julius, for those of you that didn’t visit giant North American shopping malls in the 1970s, is a chain of stands selling their namesake orange and cream drink that’s been around since it started as a single stall in Los Angeles circa 1926. Not really milkshakes, not really fruit ‘smoothies’, they’re… Orange Julius. As … Read More →
Half the Taste is in the Charcoal Fire I wrote about several corn ideas last month but when it came to put cob to fire again yesterday I decided to make yet another south-of-two-borders variation by leaving the kernels on the cob and slathering it in mayonnaise, chile, and lime juice – the wildly popular elotes or “Mexican street corn”. This is a … Read More →
At Last Small victories are the way to go I say. Sure you can wage wars or attempt huge sweeping political change but I’m perfectly happy with the tiny triumphs in my life. It seems that my grocery lobbying efforts have finally paid off. Here in the French and Scottish influenced corners of Canada, you all know … Read More →
Canada Day Special - Pretty in Pink While They Last Happy Canada Day my fellow Canadians as well as to all you foreign interlopers. Not much to report on this year but I managed to make a day of it. With charcoal and tongs in tow, it was out to the farm to fire up the grill for a nice piece of halibut fresh from … Read More →
What to do when it's coming out of your ears The first batch of sweet summer corn landed from points south this week with bulging sacks of the stuff for a quarter an ear at the Megamarket. After such a long journey from distant foreign fields it’s nowhere near as sweet as the ears we’ll pluck locally in just a few short weeks but I … Read More →
Less Orange, More Flavour I didn’t realize that making Tex-Mex queso dip was a hurdle for some people. It’s a junk food indulgence I’ve been making since I was a kid but when I saw a scrum forming by a stack of the stuff on sale in the market yesterday I realized people are mystified by those orange jars. … Read More →
