First We Eat: Try this cake recipe at your next celebration — sure to be a crowd-pleaser
Cake is an important part of my family’s birthday rituals. When I was a kid, Mom made birthday cakes that contained coins wrapped in wax paper — for her five kids, but also for my dad, but always chocolate for him, and no coins. I began to bake as a youngster, and in later years, as a chef, restaurateur and […] Read more
First We Eat: Not just for salad it’s also great spooned over a variety of foods like grilled or roasted veggies
We arrived for a preliminary visit at the farm in June 2010, a month ahead of our move-in date. Over-anxious? Eager? Yes, both, but mostly we came early to help my aging parents move out — into a bungalow in a nearby town — and to paint the old farmhouse we were moving into. I […] Read more
First We Eat: In winter, turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and veggie dishes
In winter, when arugula and other salad greens travel thousands of miles, have been contaminated with E. coli or are too costly, I turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and robust vegetable dishes. Mustard greens, or flowering gai lan, a Chinese form of broccoli, are assertive and blend well with strong tastes. When I […] Read more
First We Eat: This was once a good way for butchers to use up trimmings but now a good way for you to control ingredients
Sausages used to be the great unmentionable, made from things no one wanted to know about, never mind eat. But although they began as the thrifty butcher’s way of using up trimmings, sausages have gone uptown. Making your own sausages, like anything homemade, means the cook controls everything, from the selection of meats, salt and […] Read more
First We Eat: Golden Vegetable Latkes
The view out my window is relentlessly white. Deep snow has collected across the yard, and the temperature is hovering around -30 C, as it has for the past week. The forecast for the coming week is no better. The roads are rotten. Winter weather means that this week’s cooking must be from the pantry, […] Read more
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
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