If you have been wanting to buy some of those gorgeous green gooseberries but are not sure what to do with them, let me help you out. First of all, make yourself some gooseberry jam. Hands down my favourite jam in the universe! But definitely, definitely make sure you save some berries to make a jar (or
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July 28, 2012
Spiced Gooseberry Chutney
April 8, 2012
Lemon Feather Cake for Easter (gluten free)
Easter is good times in our family. Our first big gathering since Christmas, the return of the spring sunshine, and the weekend feels all about fresh air and smiles rather than food. We always make something lemony for Easter dessert. Lemon seems to suit the budding fresh springtime energy of the day. Or maybe we are
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February 20, 2012
Olive Oil Tasting
“Operation Use-It-Up” has lost some momentum these last three weeks – weeks in which more food made it into my freezer than came out of it. Sigh… However, I will persevere. In the meantime, let’s check out this fun thing I did at a cooking class two weeks ago. AN OLIVE OIL TASTE TEST!
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February 10, 2011
Japanese Sour Cherry and Green Tea Sorbet
Very early spring is all about Japanese cherry blossoms and fresh new flavours. This early spring weekend marks the return of the annual Victoria Tea Festival, held at the Crystal Gardens downtown. Tea traditions, tea trends, cooking with tea, perfectly brewed cups of tea, presentations and much more. I am lucky enough to be one
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February 5, 2011
Bittersweet Chocolate Taste-Off
Here’s my problem: I like to use the phrase “business write-off” to justify lots of impulsive food purchases. Like last month, when I bought a whole bunch of new and different baking chocolates that I had seen crop up at the supermarkets. My vague idea was to “try them out sometime”, but really, if I could
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November 7, 2010
The Winter Squash Taste-Off
Autumn: the time of year when every cook, I’m sure, has the same burning question: What kind of winter squash is worth the effort of peeling, chopping, and cooking? I mean, there are so many varieties for sale and they are all pretty tough to crack. Which ones taste the best?! In my Local Harvest cooking class (autumn version only),
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October 26, 2010
Fire’s Love, My Favourite Hot Sauce
This post is for all of you out there who don’t like hot sauce that this a) too vinegary, b) too flavourless and c) too hot. I am a big fan of hot sauce, myself (and I even like the vinegary ones) but I do not like hot sauce that sacrifices flavour for screaming heat. Blech. For
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August 16, 2010
The Recipe That Never Was
I had originally planned for this to be a post about Grandma’s blueberry muffins – about how I was out-cheffed by my very own mother-in-law. Only a week after I had blogged my definitive blueberry muffin recipe, she showed up at a family picnic with the best blueberry muffins I had ever tasted. (Damn her).
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July 28, 2010
Golden Kiwifruit
The golden kiwi is my new favourite fruit, and I don’t even like kiwis. Actually the golden kiwi was my new favourite fruit several years ago when I first tried one; now it is just one of my regular favourites. They are available mostly in the summer, coinciding with the winter (kiwi’s ripening season) in
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July 19, 2010
Rainier Cherries
I knew them as Queen Anne cherries growing up, but Rainier Cherry seems to be the name of choice in the supermarkets now. Whatever the name, they are my hands-down favourite cherry variety. Seriously YUM. Not only are Rainier cherries a beautiful two-toned yellow/blush colour, they are also intensely tasty, sweet and complex, occasionally with
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