July 22, 2016

Heirloom tomato salad with Mona’s (Sunshine Farm) basil vinaigrette

We are just on the verge of tomato season here in the Okanagan and where better to get your tomatoes than at Sunshine Farm in east Kelowna. Run by Jon and Sher Alcock and their family, the farm is an intimate, hands-on operation that takes pride in quality and preservation and specializes in heritage rare and organic seeds from which they grow their produce. The Alcock’s daughter Mona Johannson, one of the best chefs in the Okanagan,... View Article

July 20, 2016

Summer vegetables dinner

Instead of posting a recipe I thought I’d photograph a mid week all vegetables dinner and offer that as an inspiration instead of just a recipe. A dinner like this requires imagination but as long as you know your way around the ktichen, you can reproduce it easily with the simple instructions I provide below. We are lucky here in Kelowna to live minutes away from several beautiful small organic farms that sell their produce... View Article

July 20, 2016

Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and raspberries

I haven’t publicized this much but in the last several weeks I have been immersed in cakes. Why, I’ll never know. It’s not even that I like to eat cakes so much, but I love making them. Cakes are so beautiful and require a certain level of skill in making them and then making them look beautiful. I don’t always decorate the cakes, often all you need with a slice of cake is a good... View Article

July 18, 2016

Cauliflower confetti salad with barley, roasted grapes and tahini dressing

Grain salads can be quite beautiful when combined with colourful seasonal vegetables. This salad would make a good option for summer entertaining because it is all inclusive:  it has grains, vegetables and salad greens all in one dish. The barley can be cooked in advance and kept in the fridge, but the vegetables are best cooked the day you serve it. I made this salad with three colours of cauliflower: white, orange and purple, but... View Article

July 15, 2016

Watermelon bites with feta mousse

Here is something fun to make with sweet summer watermelons. Did you know that watermelon and feta is a delicious combination? something about the sweet and salty that makes your palate sing. Cut the watermelon into 1.5 inch slices, as even as you can, then punch out rounds or squares with a small cookie cutter. These should be a one bite thing so don’t use too large cookie cutters. With a melon ball cutter scoop... View Article

July 13, 2016

Spring tarts with vegetable spirals

A couple of years ago a food pic went viral on the internet. I think it originated in Europe and featured a gorgeous round tart filled with spirals of multi coloured vegetable ribbons. The image proliferated in cyberland and here I am, two years later, jumping on the vegetable spirals bandwagon. Better late than never? you be the judge. The technique is not complicated but requires a good dose of patience. You slice the vegetables... View Article

July 11, 2016

New potatoes and yellow beans with Spanish green sauce – Mojo Verde

I was looking back at our two months stay in Spain a couple of years ago and remembered the roasted vegetables I used to order at various restaurants. It was not easy to find vegetarian options on the jamon Iberico and seafood focused menus and I often had to create my own lunch or dinner from side dishes they offered. There is an art to travelling vegetarian and I think I have mastered it. This is... View Article

July 9, 2016

Apple roses tart with thyme

If I have to choose between chocolate cake or apple tart, it will be apple tart (almost) every time. I apologize to all you chocolate lovers out there especially because I know all too well that sometimes only a chocolate will do, but the tart and sweet flavours of apple desserts win me over, especially when combined with a buttery, flakey pastry. I jumped on the apple roses bandwagon a while back, but it doesn’t... View Article

July 7, 2016

4-Cheese fritters with green and red tomato jam

I haven’t made cheese fritters in a while. After trying them at a cooking class party a few years ago I made them a few times but then moved on to other things. Last night I needed a few appies for a group of 6 who was coming over for a glass of wine before dinner at a local winery. I was browsing my blog, found these long lost fritters and felt up to the... View Article

July 5, 2016

Watermelon and raspberry salad with maple vinaigrette

I have posted a few watermelon salads before but one more wouldn’t hurt. Watermelon makes a refreshing summer salad and it combines surprisingly well with a number of surprising sweet and savoury things such as raspberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and even some salad greens. Local raspberries are available now, lush, soft and delicious, so why not use them as much as I can? This recipe though is straight forward: watermelon, raspberries, mint, chopped candied nuts and... View Article

July 4, 2016

Black beans and harissa tacos with pickled red cabbage

Lately tacos have been my go to dish for a quick lunch or dinner. If you have the basic components on hand, taco making is quick and easy. I usually have a stack of white corn tortillas in the fridge (don’t keep them in the freezer) and from there it’s easy to layer a taco from filling to garnish to sauce. Since I keep my kitchen vegetarian bean base is often what I use as... View Article

June 21, 2016

Fluffy Peanut Butter mini pancakes – no dairy, no eggs

I have posted several pancake recipes on the blog but here is one more: a fluffy stack of peanut butter pancakes that contain no eggs or dairy. The recipe came about through necessity – I wanted to make pancakes but had no eggs, made them anyway and they turned out as fluffy as any. Peanut butter pancakes were a specialty of Rosa Park, the woman who changed the world by refusing to give up her... View Article