November 19, 2013
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 12, 2013
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
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
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
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
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
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 4, 2013
Foodies in Calgary are fortunate to have the Cookbook Co. Cooks. Over the years Gail Norton and her team managed to put Calgary on the culinary map attracting cookbook authors, famous chefs and food professionals from across Canada and the US to their cooking school at 722, 11th Ave. SW. Along with their City Palate magazine, the Cookbook Co. is definitely the place to go for all things culinary in Alberta and beyond. Tuscan chicken... View Article
October 30, 2013
Sometimes I am in the mood for potato chips. It’s hard to avoid them altogether. If I happen to have a bag of good chips at home I am not beyond getting into it it once in a while. However, here is a better version of chips, using variety of vegetables to create a lovely melange of vegetable chips with or without oil. Commercial potato chips, after a few handfuls they lose the appeal and... View Article
October 26, 2013
Figs must be perfectly ripe when you buy them. Unlike other fruits that may ripen on your countertop in a few days figs do not continue to ripen once they are picked off the fig tree. This necessitate touching them before buying to make sure they are a little squishy, indicating the inside is nice and ripe. Figs that are firm are not ripe. Figs that are wet and oozing are overripe, but they can... View Article
October 23, 2013
Squashes are in season and make my head spin when I am at the market. So many varieties, colours, shapes and sizes. Needless to say I love them all and pile my kitchen counter with a few of these gorgeous things. What can I do? Vegetables are my “thing”. I get so excited I almost forget the weather is changing and it’s getting cold outside. There are the usual varieties of squashes, like butternut and... View Article
October 20, 2013
I recently jumped on the bandwagon for spoon appetizers, I wonder where they started. I liked the idea right away, when they first came into vogue, but it took me a while to follow this trend. Once I begun making them though, I was hooked. Yesterday I had the opportunity to make some pre-dinner appetizers and my inspiration was a lunch at Noble Ridge Vineyard and Winery prepared by Chef Darin Patterson of Bogner of Penticton restaurant.... View Article
