Tackling Food Waste

Tackling Food Waste

This month’s Canadian Food Experience Project focuses on resolutions. I could have used my culinary bucket list as my contribution, but I don’t do proper resolutions and felt this was a bit of a cheat.  Then I rethought things. I’ve been wearing blinkers. The word “resolution” 

Avocado Tomatillo Sauce

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 

Burma: Rivers of Flavour – An interview with Naomi Duguid

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 

Canadian Food Experience Project – Concord Grape Jam

Canadian Food Experience Project – Concord Grape Jam

Growing up, my mom’s homemade grape jam appeared on the table in recycled baby food jars with a paraffin wax seal. While the jam bubbled and the jars boiled, she melted bricks of wax on the stove top in an old tomato juice can with 

8 Reasons to buy a Food Dehydrator

8 Reasons to buy a Food Dehydrator

My bedroom closet houses clothes, shoes, a cat-clawed housecoat, my knitting needle collection and a food dehydrator. Too wide for our narrow pantry, this unit spends most of the year in a corner of my closet looking like an abandoned R2-D2 action figure on Boxing 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Plums and Hazelnuts

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 

Honeysuckle Sorbet

Honeysuckle Sorbet

Right outside my kitchen porch, a graceless post stands cemented in the ground. Its thick, square bulk is so awkward it can’t be passed off as rustic. Ferns and periwinkle hide its base while a honeysuckle vine attempts to disguise the rest of its towering 

No-Bake Coconut Bars 3 Ways

No-Bake Coconut Bars 3 Ways

Bespoke. If you want to be a stickler, this term applies only to made-to-measure items you wear, such as tailored Savile Row suits or custom loafers. It draws a faint chalk line between high-end fashion and “built to order” non-wearables. In the worlds of fashion 

Muhammara – Walnut and Aleppo Pepper Dip

Muhammara – Walnut and Aleppo Pepper Dip

Muhammara (pronounced moo-hahm-MRAH) is a classic Mediterranean dish. It’s a dip. It’s a spread. It’s addictive. You have been warned. Pitas are the authentic accompaniment, but I’ve been gobbling muhammara on homemade piadinas to no ill effect. Don’t let the simplicity of the dish fool