Mushroom & Chevre Hand Pies

Mushroom & Chevre Hand Pies

May I present to you Mushroom & Chevre Hand Pies. These piping hot appetizers feature the often-ignored, much under-rated white button mushroom. Sure, a mushroom by any other name would sound more interesting, but why stuff a pricey, short-seasoned morel into pastry where it’s battling cheese, 

Dill Zucchini Fritters

Dill Zucchini Fritters

Summer is racing for the finish line. Before it gets there, it has some hurdles to clear. One of those hurdles is zucchini. Sure, an individual zucchini isn’t much of a challenge, but what about the bushelful your neighbour left on the back porch ? 

Root Vegetable Chips

Root Vegetable Chips

I’m on CTV News at Noon today helping Nancy Richards make homemade root vegetable chips. On the mess scale they’re more work than stovetop popcorn but less bother than pie. And that’s with making your own tzatziki for dipping. Last night I was making chips for the demo 

Last-Minute Sugarplums

Last-Minute Sugarplums

I always assumed sugarplums were plum-shaped candies made of marzipan and dusted in sugar. When I asked friends and family for their theories, guesses ranged from holiday jellies to booze-soaked prunes. We had never seen, let alone tasted one. To us, these Christmas confections existed only in Clement Clarke Moore’s poem 

Deconstructed Apple Baklava

Deconstructed Apple Baklava

This recipe is a game changer. It turns baklava into a no-fail dessert for two types of Baklava Balkers — those who think phyllo is too hard to work with, and those who think the classic Greek dessert is too sweet. I’ve blogged about working with 

Spinach Dill Pockets

Spinach Dill Pockets

The Messy Baker launched two weeks ago today. I’m not sure where the time has gone, but since the book’s release I’ve hosted a garden party book launch, been on stage with Kim Severson at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia, found myself on the 

Hungarian Beef & Mushroom Soup

Hungarian Beef & Mushroom Soup

The weather has cooled just as I feel squashed against the ceiling of my baking limit. At a time when I can’t face another bag of flour or brick of butter, the overnight temperatures dip to chilly, pull-up-the-blankets digits. I awake to the hum of the furnace, the tip of 

Black Bean, Corn & Barley Salad

Black Bean, Corn & Barley Salad

So, Eric Idle came to dinner and was seated beside me. We were going to entertain the other guests with a ripping rendition of The Dead Parrot skit. Only I was so busy thinking up clever tweets I forgot my lines. So I went upstairs to 

Black Currant Jam

Black Currant Jam

When I was very little, I thought my mother knew everything. Absolutely everything. If I had a question, she had an answer. If I had a problem, she had a solution. She cured my near-fatal bout of the mumps with teeny-tiny vanilla cupcakes. She could