First We Eat: What better way to pay tribute after hearing my cooking mentor had passed away
I learned recently that my culinary mentor, Madeleine Kamman, died in July 2018. At the time, the event went unnoticed. But when I got word, the news flattened me. Madeleine was the tigress who taught me to trust my palate, who set my benchmarks. She valued methods, flavour principles, terroir — that ineffable link between […] Read more
First We Eat: Don’t be intimidated by Boeuf Bourguignon — just a fancy name for beef stew
Yesterday I walked home from morning coffee at my neighbour Sharon’s house, my passage closely observed by a leggy Black Angus calf. She bounced up to the barbed wire fence, her head high as she gave my dog and me the once-over. Jake stopped in his tracks, uncertain what this until-now-predictable creature was up to. […] Read more
First We Eat: You’ll want to give this ramen noodles in a tasty broth recipe a try
It’s a wintry morning in Calgary, where I am visiting my son and his partner. We are bundled up, standing in line. Even though the chinook is blowing in, the morning is raw, and I am grateful I didn’t make any assumptions and underdress. It’s still deep-freeze Prairie winter. The restaurant’s door opens at 11 […] Read more
First We Eat: Aquaponics on the Prairies make local sourcing of fish easier
We didn’t eat much fish when I was a kid, just the occasional trout my grandfather reeled in from the North Saskatchewan River, and East Coast cod on Fridays. Not until we arrived on Vancouver Island did I learn to love fish, especially West Coast sockeye salmon, although the act of fishing struck me as […] Read more
First We Eat: After a long, cold winter day relax with a steaming bowl of barley risotto
So there I am one afternoon, lying on the couch and staring out the window. The sky is blue and glazed with ice; drifts of fresh snow lie in shadows across the fields and pastures. Once I get out there on my skis, my blood pounding through my veins and arteries, I’ll enjoy it. It’s […] Read more
Whatever you call them, they are a delicious Prairie harvest tradition
We gathered at my parents’ house on a mild autumn evening, clucking over Mom and Dad’s recent renovations, sipping Dad’s homemade wine, letting our appetites build for the fowl supper. Our neighbour Ken commented on the lineup he’d witnessed en route. “Halfway down the street and around the block,” he claimed. I was disinclined to […] Read more
First We Eat: Traditionally a whole pig would be roasted on a spit but here’s a smaller oven version
I visited my sister and brother-in-law in the Toronto area for Thanksgiving this year, the first time, perhaps ever, that I wasn’t home to cook the feast for my favourite holiday. But even though I wasn’t in my home kitchen, food played as large a part as usual. “We have errands,” my sister said soon […] Read more
First We Eat: And what better way than with a pot of homemade soup?
One of the great truisms about food is that by cooking the foods of our forebears, we maintain or re-establish a link with our heritage. My mother’s antecedents were off-colony Hutterites who arrived in Saskatchewan at the turn of the previous century from a colony in South Dakota. Earlier, my great-greats and their babes had […] Read more
First We Eat: Try this recipe to pickle colourful jars of crisp mixed vegetables
Dave is mourning the passing of the lake that almost surrounded our house for seven years. It covered 15 acres at its peak, in fact a large slough, but “lake” dignified what was a difficult situation. And now he mourns its loss. Our lake arrived suddenly and unannounced in April 2011 with the flood that […] Read more
First We Eat: Now is the perfect time to try some fresh local honey
About 30 years ago, my brother the horticulturalist planted juniper shrubs along the west face of our parents’ house in rural Saskatchewan. Under Mom’s benign care, they throve, but eventually succumbed to legginess and the scraggy look of a once-stylish haircut overdue for a trim. As you may already know, Dave and I moved in […] Read more
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