The calendar tells me it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow – I wouldn’t believe it, but it tends to be righter than me – which requires parents to produce heart-shaped foods for their offspring. If this sounds like you, here’s a tip: you can cut soft pitas with scissors into hearts to make heart shaped pizzas. In other news, my mother in law is back home from the hospital, her broken right arm in a sling. (She’s OK with me sharing this news, and in fact would love for me to share my iphone photos of her epic purply-black bruise with friends far and wide, but that’s not exactly food blog fodder.) She’s right-handed, of course, which means learning to do everything with her left, including eating, and there won’t be much cooking for awhile. So my dinnertime decision making has come to factor in what can do double duty as future meals for her, too. I roasted a pork loin for dinner one night, then slicedContinue reading

Allison took pity on my cranky, overtired self and made a home delivery of finger cakes made with puff pastry, fig jam and bitter orange. They were still warm. Having made eccles cakes for fathers’ day she had leftover puff pastry, and decided to roll it and spread it with fig jam, then bitter orange peel, and fold it over thus. Brilliant, no? It goes to show there is a whole world of eccles cake possibilities out there, and you can cut them into any shape you want. I may or may not have shared. She even took a picture as she made them and emailed it to me. Aw. A warning: I may be brief and perhaps uninspired when it comes to recipes this week. (In fact, I may have been sparse the past two weeks already. Sorry ’bout that.) My lack of time management skills means I a) never get things done while I’m away, and 2) seriously underestimated how much cooking (andContinue reading

Those of you who don’t follow me on twitter may not realize I’m in Austin, Texas right now. I am. At the IACP conference. It’s almost a hundred degrees, and I’m the only one not wearing strappy sandals. Since I arrived yesterday afternoon, it’s been nonstop. I think I may have slept for a bit in the middle there somewhere. So yesterday? at food camp? I met Dorie Greenspan. Who was absolutely lovely and friendly and exactly like the Dorie I had in my mind, once I filled in all the gaps. And then I went to a party at the museum Kalyn, and Eliese, and Jaden, and so many people I have a bag full of cards and a brain full of good conversations. And Kalyn and I went to La Condesa for margaritas and a late nibble, which were stupendous. And this morning, at food camp? I met Shauna. (Finally.) And Dan, and Gaby. And we walked in the wet heat to theContinue reading

We did it! We had ourselves a potluck! People came! Even the sun showed up. It was a potluck miracle. I’m still a little breathless about it. I don’t know where to start. How about at the beginning, when I hopped in the shower just as the doorbell rang? Turns out I told some people 2, and others 3. My mind, of course, was set for 3. I was so unusually completely on the ball. But then again not. So I got to meet everyone with sopping wet – and then varying degrees of dry-ish hair. Somehow it seemed appropriate. It was so great to meet so many of you in person, and to have you all meet each other! I’m so glad you all were up to coming to a house full of people you had never met – at the house of someone you had never met. We were all kind of in the same boat. The Prosecco helped. My only regret isContinue reading

Awhile ago I was auctioned off at a live auction – at a fundraiser for Neighbourlink Calgary – and so today I made dinner for 10 for the highest bidders. On the menu: potato, lentil and spinach samosas with fruit chutney, Gouda gougères, curried mango chicken in wonton cups. roasted tomato and red pepper soup, caramelized onion and cambozola flatbread, chicken tagine with spring vegetables and couscous, spinach salad with purple onion, oranges and pumpkin seeds, and roasted asparagus. For dessert, ginger crème brûlée with caramelized pears and brown sugar-vanilla shortbread. Just got home. Am v. tired. Luckily Sue was here this afternoon to be my artichoke wingman as this was my very first attempt at this particular tagine, which was made with skinless, boneless chicken thighs, onion, lemon, fennel and artichokes, trimmed and quartered and choked and bathed in lemon water as they waited to go into the pot. It was all very simple (once we navigated our way around the artichokes, which I’veContinue reading

Sorry this took me so long – I had plenty of requests for a dairy-free Nutella recipe, and realized that the formula I used in a story in City Palate a year or so ago was just that. Since I had requests both here and at the Family Kitchen, I posted the recipe over there.