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 

Mac and Cheese Makeover | Cheddar, Avocado, Lime & Shell Pasta

Mac and Cheese Makeover | Cheddar, Avocado, Lime & Shell Pasta

Some cookbooks have a way of breathing life into everyday ingredients. Some produce delicious dishes you will turn to again and again. Others peek into foreign worlds — celebrity kitchens, orchard tours, or chef-approved culinary techniques. Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese by Stephanie 

Roasted Golden Beet Salad with Tarragon Dressing

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

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

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 

Improv Recipe: Garden Greens Pasta Sauce with Tomatoes

Improv Recipe: Garden Greens Pasta Sauce with Tomatoes

Cooking with seasonal foods can be a bit like getting dragged on stage for an improv act. Even though you’ve been told the basic premise you don’t really know what’s coming, you’ve little time to think, and your success requires saying “Yes!” to what’s handed to 

Garlic Scape Soup

Garlic Scape Soup

Don’t believe everything you read. When researching how to grow garlic, every source I read said garlic from seed was next to impossible or took years to mature. Bulbs were the way to go. So a year ago, out of curiosity,  I left some scapes 

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