Avocado Tomatillo Sauce
It has snowed so much lately my shovel and I are on a first name basis. It sees my boots coming and says, “Hello, Charmian.” I nod, pull my hat down over my ears and grab the chirpy shovel in a choke hold. Together, Shovel …
Bake with abandon!
Savory
Apple Roasted Cornish Hens | Improv Recipe
This improv recipe is a testament to my impulse shopping, poor sense of timing and the power of the common cold. Impulse shopping: A few months ago, I found fresh Cornish hens at the butcher shop. As I stood at the meat counter waiting to …
Smoky Navy Bean Soup
In my early teens, I had a brief but passionate flirtation with tinned Bean with Bacon soup. My mom, like a sensible parent, didn’t try to talk me out of my crush. She figured I’d eventually come to my senses, and let me ride things …
Burma: Rivers of Flavour – An interview with Naomi Duguid
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Naomi Duguid about her award-winning book Burma: Rivers of Flavor (Random House ©2012). In April, the book won the IACP award for Culinary Travel, and just last week was awarded Gold by Taste Canada —The Food Writing Awards …
Tomatillo Chicken – An Unexpected Canadian Harvest
When I was a child, my mother had a vegetable garden in the side yard. She grew runner beans and radishes, beets and Swiss chard. I remember neat rows of fancy-topped chives whose pungent smell drove me away, and giant bunches of rhubarb that whispered …
Roasted Golden Beet Salad with Tarragon Dressing
Gold is the new red. At least for me when it comes to beets. In the past I have been more than a little vocal about my dislike of your garden variety red beets. I want to like them. Really. They have a gorgeous ruby …
Stuffed Mushrooms with Plums and Hazelnuts
Perhaps it’s the difference between European and North American sizes. Maybe our crops are bigger and our platters smaller. If shown the same mushroom, would French and Canadian eaters argue over whether it was small, medium or large? I don’t know. But I do know …
Browned Butter Mushroom Ravioli with Sage
This ruffled plant is not a flower. It’s a King Oyster mushroom. I grew it from a kit I got at the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference back in February. The kits, courtesy of Mushrooms Canada, are intended for kids. It says so right on …
The Canadian Food Experience: English Cucumbers
Living in Ontario has many advantages. Spring brings maple syrup, fiddleheads, ramps, rhubarb and garlic scapes. Summer provides back-to-back crops of fruits and vegetables starting with seed-studded strawberries and ending with juicy, sweet peaches. Good luck keeping up with all Autumn provides — apples, beets, …