Bake with abandon!
Eleven years ago today, I was extremely busy. When I wasn’t kissing the man behind the hat, I was getting my photos taken, greeting guests and exchanging vows. Today I spent an embarrassing amount of time poking about the archives of my computer. I was …
Cherries, currants and raspberries arrive at such an inconvenient time. It’s hot. It’s often humid. And our old stone house holds the summer heat like a wood-fired brick oven. Once the warm weather has worked its way into the walls, I’m hesitant to fry a …
I think we had frost last night. I’m not sure. I got home at midnight after a 15-hour day which involved three amazingly inspiring meetings and one stomach-churning moment where I irrevocably shattered the screen on my beloved iPad. I’m proud to say I didn’t …
As the late-summer harvest reaches its peak, I’ve been covering the basics of homemade jams and jellies. Making delicious, well-set preserves isn’t alchemy but you do need to have a few basic pieces of equipment and understand what’s required to make jams safe. Below is …
Even with a solid recipe, good ingredients and the right equipment, telling when a jam or jelly is set can be tricky. If you don’t cook it long enough you can end up with fruit sauce. If you cook it too long you have a …
So, now that you have all the preserving equipment at hand, what goes into a delicious, properly set — and safe — batch of jam or jelly? Other than a recipe written and tested post-1989? Not all that much. You actually require more equipment than ingredients …
My Cherished Canadian Recipe Everyone in my immediate family uses the same shortbread recipe. We got it from my mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from a rather odd neighbour. My grandmother wanted the recipe so badly she dutifully wrote out …
The other day I admitted I had a great big culinary knowledge gap. Oh, I was willing to share my apricot ignorance, but I was a bit smug about peaches. I considered myself a veritable Ms Know-It-All when it came to my favourite stone fruit. …
Ever feel like you’re the last person to learn something? For example, did you know WTF does not stand for “What’s the fuss?” Or maybe you were absent for the lesson on narwhals. How else would you know they’re real creatures and not some Disney …