May 23, 2017

Orecchiette con Cime di Rape (“little ears” pasta with rapini)

When we stayed in Italy, now more than a year ago (how time flies) I attended a private workshop at the home of the fabulous Elvira Zilli in Frascati, on the hills outside of Rome. The entire experience was one of the main highlights of the Italian adventure and I wrote about it in detail here. We made many delicious dishes in that workshop and the underlying theme was pasta making. Elvira and her friend... View Article

May 20, 2017

Parsnip, Carrot and Potato Soup

The last trip to the market filled my fridge with all kinds of produce and this week I did pretty well with what I bought. I have cooked the foraged mushrooms from Scot Moran in a beautiful pasta dish made with home made tagliatelle, used the fingerling potatoes and various radishes in a summer potato salad and cooked the long red stalks of rhubarb, some to top a bowl of steel-cut oats in the morning... View Article

May 18, 2017

Fingerling potato salad with spring vegetables

It’s summer potato salad time, even though summer is not quite here yet. Yesterday was a sunny day so I finally got all the new herbs planted. A lot of them grow back every year but I still like to plant new ones and refresh the look each season. The chives are threatening to take over their section, competing furiously with the adjacent spread of oregano. Various thymes are stubbornly rooted, refusing to budge (I... View Article

May 17, 2017

Cream puffs with lemon cream filling, caramel glaze and a surprise vanilla sauce

I have been experimenting with eclairs lately and although they are good enough (delicious, really) to eat they are not good enough to photograph and post quite yet. I am trying to bake them so they are perfectly smooth on the on top with no cracks, and decorate them with a glaze in a smooth symmetrical fashion. So far, no cigar. However, with every batch of eclairs I make a few small cream puffs that... View Article

May 15, 2017

Lentils, walnuts and vegetables salad with shallot vinaigrette

When vegetables are fresh and tender in the spring I like to combine them with lentils to make  different salads. The idea here is to build a few layers of flavours and textures so every bite has a surprise. This salad is good served warm or at room temperature. Today I had crisp white baby turnips fresh from the market and thick local spring asparagus from Osoyoos in the south Okanagan. For a tangy note I... View Article

May 13, 2017

One dough two ways: Pizza Napolitana and a loaf of bread

Naples left a lasting impression on me. There is something about this place that speaks to you, or shall I say sings to you, belting out arias from every street corner with drama, tragedy and romance all intermingled in a timeless opera of real life. We didn’t stay there long but just long enough to know that I have to go back. Pizza in Naples (Napoli in Italian) is extraordinary: thick and chewy crust, sweet,... View Article

May 11, 2017

Lake House Store cooking class – roasted butternut squash ravioli

I recently attended a cooking class at the Lake House Store in Kelowna. This is one of my favourite stores in town and much of my cookware and kitchen gadgets come from there, not the least a Kitchenaid,  Vitamix,  Fissler pressure cooker, Le Creuset, Nesspresso coffee maker (for my husband) and more, none of which I would do without. The state of the art kitchen is surprisingly spacious, hidden during the week by beautiful merchandise displayed on... View Article

May 9, 2017

Raw artichoke salad with grilled bread

When baby artichokes are available one of the ways to serve them is raw, very thinly sliced and tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I serve them with spring greens and baby arugula to layer the flavours, and shave parmigiano on top. It is a delicacy that if you love artichokes I am sure you would appreciate. Baby artichokes work best but for this salad but if you don’t have them use... View Article

May 6, 2017

Quinoa patties two ways

I mentioned a few posts ago that the confetti quinoa recipe can be made into vegetarian burgers or patties that you can serve as burgers or as the protein component for dinner with a nice sauce to go with it. The full recipe makes quite a few patties so you can freeze what you don’t need right away. I made the patties from what was left of the confetti quinoa after I served it first as... View Article

May 1, 2017

Middle eastern rice with noodles

So does it seem I am cooking a lot of rice recently? It’s probably true and I am not apologizing. Rice goes well with so many dishes and is relatively easy to cook. I have also been on a Middle Eastern “kick” in the kitchen and rice is an important part of this cuisine. I find the flavours of the foods I have tried to be robust and generous, much like the people that make... View Article

April 29, 2017

Romaine parcels with romaine dipping sauce

Here is a fun way to serve a caesar style salad that you can eat with your hands. The inner leaves of romaine are wrapped together with a semi circle of rice paper creating a parcel that you can grab and dip into the dressing. Kind of fun and different. The recipe is adapted from master chef Michel Richard’s Happy in the Kitchen cookbook, a large format book full of beautiful recipes and delicious foods... View Article

April 27, 2017

Quinoa confetti with feta, tahini yogurt and pistachio yogurt

I posted recipes for cauliflower “rice” before. It’s a useful method to add cauli to various dishes without the florets dominating the shape. Today I had a white and purple cauliflower and this dish evolved from it. Once I chopped and roasted both cauli and aded them to the cooked quinoa I needed more colour so into the processor went a few stems of broccolini, chopped into rice size pieces and roasted for a few... View Article