April 14, 2017
The small Honey Belle pears are ideal for poaching and serving as a stylish little dessert that is easy to execute. I thought I’d use saffron threads in the poaching liquid to give them a pretty golden colour and a delicate saffron flavour and also add a warm tone to the sauce. You can poach the pears whole or cut in half. They cook quickly so be careful not to over cook them. Last time... View Article
December 19, 2016
Local fruit and granola dishes are featured on any breakfast menu on the Mayan Riviera and although I rarely order it at restaurants I enjoy making it at home now and then. Just like we have unparalleled berries, apples, pears and stone fruits in the Okanagan, local fruits here are so ripe and full of flavour that they hardly resemble the version of these same fruits that we get at home. I am yet to... View Article
September 7, 2016
I am not going to wax poetic about the change of season. Or am I? We bloggers tend to do that. I will say however that summer seems to be retreating and fall is in the air. The mornings are cool, the sun sets early, the days are shorter. A trip to the farmers market makes you wonder where the green beans and summer berries go. Apples and pear are piled on the stands now... View Article
June 10, 2016
My head has been filled with visions of cakes lately. Vanilla cake, chocolate cake, lemon cake, oye. There is not much opportunity to bake cakes these days because I cook for two most of the time but on the weekend we had friends visiting so the opportunity arose. I baked a vanilla cake and instead of serving a slice of cake with a pile of berries and a large dollop of whipped cream I thought... View Article
July 16, 2015
Do you sometimes take your breakfast to go? I am not advocating it but if you do, then an oatmeal smoothie may be the way to go. I am a big fan of oatmeal for breakfast and this smoothie incorporates the elements of a morning oatmeal into a drink. Smoothies are not an exact science so don’t get hung up on quantities. Add your ingredients to the blender and enough liquid of your choice to... View Article
June 9, 2015
By the time you read this post I will be well on my way to Central California driving along the Oregon coast and Route 101and hopefully will write from the road. I scheduled a few recipes to intersperse between the travel posts (that I hope to write) because after all this is primarily a blog about cooking. The experiential travel is fun for me to write and hopefully fun for you to read. So while... View Article
May 18, 2015
I saw these pears at the store the other day. You think of pears as a fall fruit but this honey belle pear variety is only available here for a short time in the spring, from March to May. It’s a New Zealand pear, small and colourful with a pink blush over a lovely green background. It has a sweet flavour and crisp texture and I enjoyed eating it fresh, sliced into salads and poached... 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
August 31, 2014
We have had some magnificent peaches here in the Okanagan Valley this year. Peach orchards are interspersed among the more than 200 vineyards and cherry orchards and we even have a community called Peachland nearby. Although I didn’t get to pick my own fruits off the trees (must put that on my list for next summer), I was able to purchase them throughout the season directly from the growers, usually picked that morning, still warm... View Article
July 25, 2014
Since I bought the new Vitamix blender I can’t stop blending things. It does such a good job and creates a wonderful texture. Earlier in the spring before the seasonal berries were in I made smoothies with frozen fruits and ended up with a sorbet, not quite what I intended but good anyway. Now that fruits are in season I use fresh fruits to make various smoothies and they are fresh tasting and refreshing. If... View Article
November 7, 2013
Here is a fun little sweet bite to make when crab apples are in season. I had these crabapples left over in my fridge and they still looked good and tasted good. Instead of making a crabapple preserve of some kind, I thought I’d make them into little caramel apples. I love caramel and candied apples almost as much as I love cotton candy:) but find them too hard to eat when they are made... View Article
