I probably will go to hell for this …. I acknowledge, that despite this being a Christmas dish, the fact that I’ve taken the traditional French Canadian meat pie and made it without, well, ‘meat’ may add fodder to the national unity to debate (again). I want to assure everyone that my Canada not only includes…
Gluten-Free Pie Crust … made easy
Gluten-free pie crust made easy … see it step-by-step with photos. Speak to any home cook about pie crust, and most will wave their hands as if you asked them to explain nuclear fusion. (Not fission … fission is easy.) I’ll confess, I’ve never understood the OMG-look. I saw these same looks from my mother…
Thai Green Curry Chicken with Coconut Shrimp
Sensuous and aromatic …. Aromatically sensuous. If you have ever questioned or just not understood the importance of aroma in food, this dish will be your moment of epiphany. If you ever wondered why some people react to smells and tastes as if someone was whispering wanton words in their ear, you’ll understand when you…
Marinara Sauce … from harvest to scratch
There is making things from scratch … and then there is making them from harvest to jar or, in my case, from seed to jar. And as satisfying as all my preserves have been, there was nothing more satisfying than making my own marinara sauce with the tomatoes I grew myself. While the recipe that…
Crêpes with Caramelized Bananas (Gluten-Free)
Every week I race the slow but inevitable decline of the bunch of bananas I buy on the weekend. Every week I get two perfect bananas followed by two almost perfectly riper bananas followed by the predictable decline into a culinary argument of “Is this too ripe to eat?” Every week, some end up in…
Sweet Ginger-Garlic Chicken Wings
Ah, the chicken wing. At one time a throw-away piece of chicken, now an exercise in Friday-night indulgence. While I in no way, shape or form claim professional training or knowledge as a cook, I did spend a few years early in my university life as a line-cook in a busy downtown Calgary restaurant: Ed’s…
Maple and Bacon-Smoked Turkey Breast
Here’s an antidote for the boring, bland and dry bird … also known as the turkey breast. When Anne and I decided to have her parents over for a Thanksgiving brunch last weekend, I hummed and hawed over whether to do a small turkey for 4 people in the early day or whether to opt…
Roasted Rutabaga with Fall Herbs
Ah, the dreaded rutabaga. I suspect it is one of the veggies that people fear — and avoid — if for no other reason than the name itself scares them off. But truly, with the exception of the overly ubiquitous carrot and potato, most other ground veggies, at least in this country, have fallen hugely…
Friday Night Squash Fritters with Yoghurt-Feta Sauce
The squash are coming! The squash are coming! Ok, truth be told, they’ve been coming for awhile. Right out of the CSA gate, I had to contend week after week with summer squash and zucchini in particular. But for the past month, the misnamed “winter” squash have been taking up positions around my kitchen and…
Pumpkin Pancakes with Cream Cheese Sauce (Gluten-Free)
Thanksgiving and pumpkin…. Every holiday seems to have a culinary pairing that evokes comfort and connection. For me, Thanksgiving means pumpkin, typically in the form of pumpkin pie. Every fall, I buy a half-dozen pie pumpkins and through a simple process that takes an afternoon, I bake them, scoop out the flesh, drain them of…