March 9, 2015
Sometimes the best salads happen when you least expect it. I was making a fennel and blood orange salad with the usual accoutrements and decided to add the lone acorn squash that was sitting on my counter. I roasted thin wedges of it with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of brown sugar and I have to say it made this salad (you can eat it with the skin, no need to peel).... View Article
March 2, 2015
A healthier alternative to regular pancakes that are loaded with eggs, butter, sugar and dairy, this easy recipe calls for mixing flour and water and letting it sit covered for several hours or overnight before cooking. The flour ferments and lightens with the air bubbles and the pancakes are surprisingly light and delicious. This morning I used half white flour and half garbanzo flour because that was what I had in the pantry but I... View Article
March 1, 2015
The title image is recent – seitan and broccoli stir fry. the rest is from 2015…. Once in a while I crave these high protein gluten patties that are quite popular in vegetarian and vegan cooking. Seitan (pronounced Say-Tahn, a strange name) is made from wheat gluten and has texture and flavour reminiscent of poultry or meat. The original method for making seitan involved making a dough with regular flour and rinsing it... View Article
February 19, 2015
After enjoying Seville orange marmalade right in Seville, Spain, I came home craving the chunky bittersweet marmalade for my morning toast or croissant. I brought some of the marmalade back with me but it’s now long gone. I planned to get some thick skinned oranges and make a batch of simple marmalade that I can put in jars and keep in the fridge (serious canning is not for me). However, when I went out to... View Article
February 18, 2015
A while ago I attended a special dinner at Mission Hill Winery in Kelowna. The dinner was held in their Chagall room where a long table was set with linen, flowers and crystal and dinner was served family style. The Chef served a dish of roasted cauliflower and chickpeas that was just my kind of food. I adapted it to my vegetarian cooking style omitting the prosciutto that he draped over the dish. I didn’t... View Article
February 17, 2015
You know what it’s like coming back from an extended vacation. It’s great to be home and if you are like me, you are looking forward to your own food again. As good as food is when you travel, the familiarity of one’s own kitchen and food is always welcoming and comforting. I have been making very simple foods since we have come back. Clean and flavourful vegetable soups made only with vegetables, no grains... View Article
January 28, 2015
I have taken a liking to salads that are composed of many vegetables, all finely chopped and tossed together in a harmonious pile. They are easier to eat than a large leafy salad and the flavours blend together so nicely with the dressing, just my kind of thing. I have had one such salad recently on a side trip to Merida last week. We went there to take a cooking class at Los Dos cookings... View Article
January 26, 2015
One item that appears on almost every plate here in the Yucatan peninsula are the brightly coloured pickled red onions. If you look at any cook’s kitchen here you are sure to find a jar or a dish of this lovely condiment hanging around to be used with just about every food other than dessert. There are various ways of making these pickled onions but what is unique here is that they make them with... View Article
January 3, 2015
The red doors in the wall surrounding the villa swung open and we were invited into a charming courtyard dominated by a lone giant banyan tree. Lorenzo led us through the open style villa to the covered patio at the back of the house and we settled in the comfortable wicker furniture covered with colourful cushions. After a few words of introduction Lorenzo invited us to the outdoor kitchen at the end of the patio.... View Article
December 10, 2014
Hola from the Mayan Riviera. We arrived here a few days ago and I am just getting into the swing of things. The pace is different here. The trip down was a “speedy” 26 hours with an overnight stay at an airport hotel, thanks to the monopoly that Canadian airlines have over the Canadian skies. I believe it takes the same amount of time to fly around the world. Upon arrival we had to endure... View Article
December 4, 2014
This week is clean the fridge and pantry week as we are heading for the Mayan Riviera for a couple of months. My fridge is always full (overfull, perhaps?) so I had plenty to work with. I made all kinds of interesting salad combinations, a couple of rice pilaf with the vegetables that I obsessively buy (can’t resist), roasted the root vegetables and even made some cookies, just for fun. Many didn’t get photographed but... View Article
December 4, 2014
You may have noticed that I have been experimenting with cooking without dairy. I was resistant to the idea of making pseudo-dairy foods for quite a while (just eat less of it, no?) but recently decided to give it a try partly because a number of my readers are vegan and I thought it would be a nice gesture at the very least. This cashew cream worked out quite well and it is versatile enough... View Article
