October 17, 2019
My kind of salad, with sweet potatoes, black beans, pomegranate seeds and chopped pistachios combined for a spectrum of textures and flavours. I make this salad all year round and change it a little with every season. In the fall I add pomegranates or even firm, ripe pears for a touch of fruity flavour. In the summer I add fresh corn, roasted on the grill and scraped off the cob into a waiting... View Article
March 2, 2015
I hear the temperatures have dropped in Canada so I thought I’d post a recipe for a nice warm, soft polenta to warm you up. Polenta is cooked cornmeal and not exclusive to Italian cooking, as anyone who has had grits or mamaliga (Romanian cornmeal porridge) or corn pudding knows. The simplest way to make polenta is to cook it with water or stock until the grains are soft and plump and this takes a... View Article
October 18, 2014
I am not very good at using the freezer but my fridge always has some cooked items ready to be incorporated into my daily adventure in the kitchen. Any time you’d look in my fridge you are likely to find a container with cooked grain or legumes, homemade dressings and sauces in little jars, store bought sauces that I like, creme fraiche etc. These items make it easy to quickly assemble a lunch or dinner... View Article
December 9, 2013
You have to hand it to the Italians. The best foods come from their culture and history. Pasta, risotto, polenta. I can live on these foods, and believe me, I do. It might surprise you to learn that in some parts of northern Italy (Veneto, Friuli and Lombardy) pasta was virtually an unknown food as recently as three generations ago and it was polenta that sustained life in those regions. I find this fascinating. I... View Article
October 5, 2013
Fall mornings are a fabulous thing. Who invented them? Morning hot chocolate on the patio is ever more enticing as we watch the fog lifts slowly off the lake to reveal the beautiful silver blue of early morning. Although we know it is coming, fall seems to arrive suddenly. One morning it’s summer, the next morning it’s fall. “Don’t remember summer even saying goodbye” says David Mitchel in Cloud Atlas. Suddenly the days are shorter and... View Article
September 29, 2013
I have already talked about the abundance of wild mushrooms at the market right now. This is the thing about seasonal cooking. The season is short and if you want to enjoy the bounty it means using the same ingredients in different ways for a while until…….. The King is dead long live the King….and new produce dominates the market stalls. I have featured wild mushrooms in Stuffed Zucchini, quesadillas and risotto and today in this gratin... View Article
July 11, 2013
Here is the recipe for the potato vegetable salad that I prepared for the Diner en Blanc the other day. As far as I am concerned it’s a full meal deal but also makes a nice substantial salad to serve alongside other foods. Make it with small new potatoes cut in half or quartered and add corn, green peas, green beans, radishes, green onion, shredded radicchio and whatever else strike your fancy. I like adding... View Article
July 3, 2013
Potato salads are a regular feature in my summer kitchen. They are easy to make, satisfying and flavourful and I like them combined with other summer vegetables and dressed with a tangy vinaigrette. I noticed that I have been making more and more potato salads with vinaigrettes and less with mayo based dressing. This salad was made with waxy yellow skinned, golden fleshed potatoes that keep their shape when they cook. I steamed them over... View Article
June 25, 2013
To be honest, I seldom make a soup exactly the same twice. I tend to build a soup up from what I have in the fridge, what inspires me that day and of course, what I may be “in the mood for” at the time. This hearty yet not heavy soup makes a perfect complete dinner, nice when served with a crisp salad and crusty bread. One caveat: don’t use dried herbs. The aroma and... View Article
August 1, 2012
Here is a pretty dish to make where you want a little more elegant presentation of a rustic dish. Any combinations of root vegetables works. I bake them in a ceramic baking pan and then cut into squares. To get the height I stack two squares one on top of the other, it looks more interesting that way. Alternatively, bake them in a deep pan and stack them up to the top. This is the... View Article
July 25, 2012
If you have read my Seattle Excursion post you’d know that I sometimes go to great length to find oatmeal for breakfast. Must be my comfort food. Recently I had breakfast at Diner Delux in Calgary and ordered their delicious Maple Fried Oatmeal with Lemon Curd, a fried square of oatmeal served in an individual cast iron skillet floating in a maple flavoured sauce and topped with a dollop of lemon curd. The lemon curd cuts down the... View Article
June 5, 2012
Acorn squash along with other squashes are fall and winter vegetables and I cook with them often as soon as summer is over. I do however like to use squash as a “container” and stuff it with various grains and vegetables and I can do that any time of the year. Being the starch lover that I am, I can never have too much starch (read The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall). Acorn squash... View Article
