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 19, 2016
Baking bread feels so authentic, so fundamental to cooking. Just think of all the cooks over millenia baking bread for their families and communities all over the world. I don’t bake bread all the time but as is my style, every now and then I go all in and bake all kinds of breads for a while and then move on to something else until I revisit this art again. The inspiration for this round... 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
August 9, 2016
G was out on the lake all day with his beloved Isa Lei and I stayed behind to “do my thing”. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I’d make dinner tonight, I enjoyed reading in the hammock under the blooming wisteria on the south patio and we can aways eat out. But, it was a beautiful evening and I love to cook and find it easy to put together something quickly. So I was... View Article
August 8, 2016
I can eat pasta every day and the only reason I don’t is because I like to cook many things and can only eat so much. But believe me, in Italy, where others were doing the cooking I was eating fabulous pasta dishes every day, no exceptions and loved every minute of it. In the heat of the summer it’s nice to have light dishes that are refreshing and cooling without standing in front of... View Article
August 6, 2016
One of my favourite salads on the menu at the Eldorado in Kelowna used to be their grilled romaine salad, unfortunately no longer offered. So, if I am in the mood for a grilled romaine I have to make it myself. So it’s time to post the recipe, which is really no recipe at all, just a method. This is a rather substantial salad and quite filling, so depending on the size of the romaine... View Article
July 29, 2016
I had a few extra cooked yellow beets from a dish I made the other day and thought they would be interesting in a homemade hummus. I looked online for inspiration and found a recipe by Nigel Slater for red beet hummus with dukkah, an aromatic Egyptian spice blend made with chopped nuts, seeds and spices that has many uses in middle eastern cooking. I thought I could make the recipe with yellow beets, and... View Article
July 28, 2016
There is an art to travelling as a vegetarian. You would think that with the abundance of gorgeous produce in the markets, especially around the Mediterranean, it would be easy to find vegetarian dishes in restaurants but somehow it is not. Now, I am interested in food and culture and will try other things even if they are not vegetarian, especially the local and traditional. I am certainly not going to travel without experiencing local foods.... View Article
