September 12, 2016
I am cleaning up my garden before leaving on our trip. It can get cold here and I didn’t want to come back to frozen vegetables and forgo the fun of picking my own vegetables and cooking them fresh. I had a large amount of sorrel, both green and red and I gave it a whirl in the food processor with olive oil, then filled glass jars with the “pesto” and put it in the... View Article
September 5, 2016
Eggplant, peppers, onion and zucchini are a classic mix in Mediterranean cuisines and very much the kind of foods I grew up with. I was reminded of this dish in a Spanish class recently (taught at VOM FASS by Heather of Heather’s Kitchen) and in the process of cleaning out the fridge before we left on a trip, made this dish for dinner one day. Even if you don’t usually like eggplant, I think you... View Article
September 3, 2016
With the abundance of ripe and delicious tomatoes out now we use them every day in some form: salads, sauces, jams, gazpacho, tarts and more. We haven’t tired of them yet and by the time we do, it will be the end of their season and we will move on to something else. This is the beautify of eating seasonal food, before you have had your fill, they are gone. Since for me a meal without... View Article
August 31, 2016
Here is a recipe for yellow beans using the tomato vinaigrette from the previous post. Serve it warm or at room temperature but not cold as the oil in the dressing needs to be liquid (it thickens in the fridge). Yellow beans are soft and buttery and the acidity in the vinaigrette compliments them beautifully. Substitute green beans if you don’t have the yellow variety. To cook, steam the beans or cook them in boiling... View Article
August 29, 2016
I would venture to say that this vinaigrette is so good that it doesn’t require a salad. Give me this dish with a crusty baguette and leave me alone and I would finish it right off the skillet, still warm and you will hardly need to rinse the skillet. As all good food tends to be, it is super simple and depends on the quality of ingredients. I was watching a food show on Netflix... View Article
August 27, 2016
Here is a recipe for a simple potato salad that works well with any summer meal. It can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a couple of days without diminishing its quality and travels well to a boat or a picnic. I don’t know about what it’s like where you live but here certainly it is beginning to feel like fall. We wake up to cooler temperatures and a little rain... View Article
August 26, 2016
Summer beets are completely different species than their winter counterpart. In the summer beets are fresh, cook quickly and their natural sugars come forward in a subtle and delicious way. I prefer roasting beets (unless I intend to pickle them) as roasting brings out their flavours beautifully. I don’t trim them too much before cooking, to avoid the juices from running and some of the flavour with them. It’s not a bad idea to wear thin... View Article
August 25, 2016
Corn hardly needs an introduction. Nothing says summer more than fresh corn on the cob with a little butter and a generous sprinkling of sea salt. A corn feast of eating a bunch of corn freshly picked that morning and bought directly from the grower is the best food memories of our summers. Leftover cobs can be stripped of their kernels with a sharp knife and the kernel used on their own with a little... View Article
August 18, 2016
The larger zucchini that have grown to a considerable diameter can be used for many things, one being a base for mini “pizza” rounds. This is kind of fun as an appetizer and if you use prepared toppings, it’s not that much work to prepare. I had small jars of pizza sauce and artichoke pesto from William Sonoma that I needed to use and were perfect for this little recipe. You can get more creative... View Article
August 16, 2016
Cauliflower has a love-hate affair with foodies. Some love it some don’t. I am on the love-it camp and especially so when it is roasted. Roasting cauli brings out wonderful flavours, completely different than when you steam it. The cauliflower “steaks” became trendy a while back and it’s not a bad way of preparing them. You cut the cauli into thick slices through the stem and end up with beautifully shaped floral portions that you... View Article
August 15, 2016
With tomatoes in season and beautifully ripe, needless to say we feature them on the daily menu with pleasure. Tomato salads, tomato sauces, bruschetta with tomatoes and even fried green tomatoes get reinvented in one delish dish after another. This past week we had company and I knew that one of our guests loved a good gazpacho. I was inspired to prepare a couple of jars of this chilled soup to have available as an... View Article
August 10, 2016
Corn in Kelowna is wonderful. We get it directly from the growers, freshly picked that morning and still cool from early morning breeze. The season for corn is fairly short so we try to take advantage of it and include corn in much of our summer cooking. Corn should be cooked soon after you buy it as it tends to convert its sugars into starch and loses the crisp texture and sweet flavour quickly. I... View Article
