Miso Soup With Everything

It seems like I’ve been narrowly skirting around illness for weeks now. The thought of miso soup sounded like an excellent idea and I pulled my usual trick of investigating what was hanging out in the fridge and pantry…

Fresh Winter Potato Salad

I was walking home tonight, thinking about what to make for supper. I wanted to eat garlic, having just read an inspiring paragraph about its health benefits in the book Food Security for the Faint of Heart…

Quinoa, Fennel and Pomegranate Salad

I found a recipe that I am super inspired by. It’s by Yotam Ottolenghi, published in this month’s issue of Bon Appetit magazine. Yotam is an Israeli-born chef who is renowned for his treatment of vegetables.

Cheerful and Simple Kumquat Salad

Kumquats are amazing.  You eat the whole fruit.  They are the size of an olive, the rind and pith are sweet like candy and the flesh is just the right amount of tart.  I appreciate that they appear in markets when it starts to get cold because they are cheerful and full of vitamin C….

Moroccan Carrot Salad

At this time of year I can get my favourite carrots. They’re grown in Lillooet and are amazingly sweet and delicious. The only carrots I’ve had with more flavour were from my own garden. When I worked in a produce department we used to sell out of them constantly, so I know that I’m not…

Sweet Herb Stew

Typically when improvising I play with a lot of hot flavours. I love Chinese and Indian cooking and draw liberally from their spice palette. But the other day I felt like making something not spicy. Go figure. Cuisine wise, I generalize more when I’m thinking about European cooking. For instance, I think of the herbs…

Potato, Leek and Mushroom Gratin (gluten-free or not)

Its time to make gratins again!  Here is the beautiful thing about a gratin….while it is true that it takes a bit of effort to make, it prepares a large amount of  food that you can then reheat for your dinners all week-long.  With a salad, a gratin counts as a complete meal! If you…

Yam, Swiss Chard and Chipotle Gratin

I recently made a very, very good yam and swiss chard gratin from Smitten Kitchen.  I also recently made a pork loin with fruit stuffing and a chipotle sherry cream sauce from a restaurant cookbook.  The fruit stuffing was delicious and the sauce was amazing but altogether the pork loin dish managed to be simultaneously…

Sweet and Sour Honey Pickled Beets

I think of pickled beets as being very Canadian.   I moved to the States when I was 9 years old, and I can remember being REALLY  excited about eating home-made pickled beets when we came back to Canada to visit family.  In my family, if you are having guests or extended family for dinner…