Bake with abandon!
I’m going to steal President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan, “Yes, we can!” Hope he won’t mind. It’s for a good cause — yogurt. You see, while I love my homemade yogurt, for almost a year I’ve been frustrated. The instructions on my electric yogurt maker …
Here in Ontario, school began yesterday. Despite having graduated from university last millennium, to this day fall still brings anxiety dreams where I race from room to room trying to find my class, or arrive on campus only to learn I forgot to register, or …
When you do nothing to your pear tree but leave it be, you can expect trouble. And trouble came to my friend in the form of dozens and dozens and dozens of bug-free, blemishless, picture perfect pears. Her punishment? Driving some over to me. That’ll …
This is — or rather was — Aunt Hilda’s pastry board. It’s now mine and I’m hoping her tenacity and good baking karma will transfer to me through this well-loved board. Not only was Aunt Hilda a fabulous cook, she never stopped learning. After years …
I’m telling you up front, this cookbook scared me when it arrived. I haven’t the patience to make confit, wouldn’t touch foie gras if you paid me and can’t even begin to tell you where to get quail eggs. Venison, bison and Cornish hens have …
This is me, in all my stick-figure glory. You can tell because a) the caption says so, and b) it ends in disaster. Before you write to inquire how I am, I assure you this drawing depicts a dream, not reality. Although I recently joined …
Pink. I hate it. It’s yet another carry over from my childhood. Every time I wore any shade of fuschia, magenta or bubble-gum some well-meaning adult would put a hand to my forehead and ask me if I was feeling all right. Classmates? They’d just …
This recipe is enough to make me eat my words. I don’t like marzipan, I find Emeril Lagasse’s TV persona annoying (his toothpaste commercials were the final straw for me) and I avoid pre-packaged items on principle. And yet, this recipe, which became a favourite …
A local Indian restaurant makes an addictive appetizer — bite-sized vegetables dipped in a spicy chickpea batter, deep fried and served with a cilantro dipping sauce. Whenever Andrew and I dine there, I pluck all the cauliflower florets from the plate and eat them myself. …