November 21, 2013

Grapes with Gorgonzola and Caramel Crunch

I don’t care what anybody says, these are just the best flavour combination ever. Juicy, sweet seedless grapes wrapped in creamy and salty gorgonzola rolled in a coating of caramel crunch, heaven. It’s as simple as that. I can pop a chilled one of those into my mouth any time. It’s refreshing (the grape) sophisticated (the gorgonzola) and salted-caramel sweet. I rest my case (I am a lawyer, it’s a habit). I used to make... View Article

November 21, 2013

Kale and Feta Buttermilk Fritters

Fritters recipes usually get a lot of clicks on the blog. What does that say about us I wonder. We seem to like fried food. These little fritters are very easy to make and I only brush the pan with oil so they don’t stick. They are not fried in oil like you would normally expect fritters to be. You can serve them with sour cream, lemon butter, salsa or other toppings. They fit into... View Article

November 19, 2013

Roasted Mini Sweet Pepper

A few weeks ago my friend and blogger Val of more than burnt toast and I went to micro bar bites on Water Street shortly after they opened. We love the compact space, sitting at the beautiful long wooden bar and had fun and delicious food prepared by the talented chef Evelyn Takoff. I especially enjoyed the small plate of roasted shishito peppers, a mildly flavoured Japanese chili pepper that is harvested while green but will turn... View Article

November 18, 2013

Who is Afraid of Chocolate Truffles – Truffle Making Simplified

For many home cooks chocolate is one of the scariest things in the kitchen, and in my not-so-humble opinion, for no reason at all. (Golda Meir once said: don’t be so humble, you are not that great). True, things can go wrong, but they don’t have to and in any event, almost all chocolate mistakes can be corrected by simply melting the chocolate and starting again. You can’t say that about other culinary mistakes. More... View Article

November 12, 2013

Swedish Hasselback Potatoes

This roasted potato is a Swedish beauty first served at the Hasselbacken restaurant in Sweden (hence the name) a couple of hundred years ago, or so I hear. It’s a fun diversion from the usual potato dishes and quite easy to produce. The trick is to slice the potatoes thinly and down to about 1/4 inch from the bottom without cutting them right through. If you happen to cut one right through you can still... View Article

November 11, 2013

Rosemary roasted potatoes with blackberry ketchup

Most people love potatoes and for some, a meal is not a meal without them. This ubiquitous veggie is of global importance being the fourth most important food grown worldwide after corn, wheat and rice. Potatoes appear in every cuisine and sustained civilizations for thousands of years (Peru, Incas). Potatoes grow in a wide range of soils, climates and geographical conditions and to this day help enhance food security because they are easy to cultivate and calorie... View Article

November 7, 2013

Iceberg Wedgie with Blue Cheese

No, not that kind of a wedgie. This is a wedge of crispy iceberg or head lettuce, served with blue cheese dressing and confetti of chopped vegetables. It’s one of my favourite salads. If you don’t like blue cheese (some don’t), serve it with another dressing that you like. I know that head lettuce went out of vogue a long time ago, when the baby greens were born, but someone revived its popularity with this... View Article

November 7, 2013

Caramel Crabapples with Sugared Macadamia Sprinkle

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

November 7, 2013

White Chocolate and Blackberries Scones

Now that the weather has cooled down I started baking a little more. It’s nice to have something homemade available with a hot cup of coffee in the morning or offer to a friend who happens to drop by. Scones are not a uniform concept. They can be round, triangular, even square, large or small, taller or flat, sweet or savoury, cake-like or crumbly, made with flour or oatmeal and include raisin, currants, berries or... View Article

November 6, 2013

Roasted Sweet Dumpling Squash Stuffed with Warm Farro Pilaf

I hope you are cooking with squashes this fall. Don’t miss the season to use these beautiful and versatile fall vegetables when they are at their best. This season I have been cooking especially with Sweet Dumpling squash. Unlike other varieties, this one is easy to cut: its skin is not as hard as some of the other varieties and your knife will not be permanently jammed into it’s flesh. Sweet dumpling is a lovely... View Article

November 5, 2013

French Onion Soup Gratiné with Port and Thyme

We had our first snow fall here and the weather has cooled down. My husband is reluctantly talking about closing down his beloved sailboat  for the season. He is in love with her and has been pushing the boundaries, unable to leave her and (motor) sailing her up to yesterday with the heater and a hot drink keeping him warm. I, on the other hand, don’t have to close down my kitchen and in fact... View Article

November 5, 2013

Cabbage Rolls with Mushroom Risotto Stuffing

Let’s face it. Making Cabbage rolls can be quite a production and rather intimidating. Just boiling the cabbage to get the leaves apart seems bad enough but then you have to make the filling and sauce and roll them properly. Oye. Most people would be reluctant to go through all that and there are good Ukrainian places to buy cabbage rolls without all this fuss. But, we are foodies and we like to make our... View Article