Prairie Palate: We should know how to prepare food and it's the best way to have control over what we eat
On a Friday over lunch after our weekly trip to the farmers’ market, I asked Mom what her favourite desserts were. Her 82nd birthday was rolling around soon. I’d already decided on the main course — cioppino, Mom’s favourite fish dish. It’s a tomato-broth-based, Italian-derived fisherman’s stew that’s been part of our family’s repertoire since […] Read more
Prairie Palate: Always there with friendship, moral support and help in an emergency
Our neighbours are one of the reasons Dave and I are able to live in the country. Admittedly, as writers, we have the wrong skill sets for rural life. Dave can edit a short story like nobody’s business, and he’s a fabulous writer, but he’s not so good at manual labour or at troubleshooting failed […] Read more
A home-cooked birthday meal for Dad and friends helped to solve the gift-giving challenge
I recently spent a considerable amount of time perusing old photographs as I edited a vanity press family history book written by my mother. When I showed Dave the wedding photo of my parents — taken 63 years ago — he confessed he would not have recognized the young and handsome couple in the image. […] Read more
Make a batch of stock and freeze to have on hand when you want to make soup
Our globe tracks a circular route around the sun, and life often mimics that pattern. As does culture. Skirt lengths go up and come down, narrow lapels and three buttons come in and out of style. And crafts too, come in and out of fashion. These days, it’s common to see young people perusing websites […] Read more
This method of baking in a heavy pot will produce an amazing crust
When Mom learned that Dave and I were going to spend two weeks writing at Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, she said, “Make sure you say hi to Shon and Steve. They’re good folks.” So, soon after our arrival, I parsed the village’s streets, looking for evidence of potters. When I found a front yard […] Read more
First We Eat: Here’s a pie recipe to use up the last of the frozen or the first of this season’s rhubarb
Dave and I celebrated a significant anniversary recently. We’d met in Banff, at a writing retreat. During that two-week span, he’d flirted shamelessly, held my chair, chatted me up, sat with me at meals, taken me swimming and to dinner, everything but serenaded me. For that, we waited 10 years, and then it was an […] Read more
First We Eat: Curried Salmon with Spinach and Chickpeas
Dave and I are writers. Every room in our house is filled with books and literary journals, framing windows and filling every shelf. Upstairs in my studio, half the room is devoted to my culinary library. The kitchen, too, has a bookshelf, thanks to my mother. Mom is in her early 80s. Back in the […] Read more
First We Eat: What kind of fat is best? What kind of sweetener? Does it really matter?
I started baking at six, the same age I first climbed onto a horse. I was too short to mount a tall gelding unaided, and in the kitchen, I didn’t realize that what I wanted to make first — cookies — were among the most challenging of any sweet. But at my first gymkhana, when […] Read more
First We Eat: … and now I’m back home — really home — in Saskatchewan
I was an Air Force brat, born on a French airbase, raised on bases in Manitoba, northern Alberta, Quebec, Vancouver Island. In 1973, after my dad had mustered out and went on to earn a degree and teaching certificate, my grandparents were deciding to retire from farming. Teaching did not agree with Dad, and when […] Read more
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