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
Try this bread recipe — baked in a pot
First We Eat: This method of baking in a heavy pot will produce an amazing crust
We can’t wait for rhubarb!
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
Is there even such a thing as too many cookbooks?
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
The scoop on making cookies
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
Making room in the freezer
First We Eat: The offer of some grass-fed beef was incentive to finally dig through all that frozen food — some really old frozen food
I was sitting at my neighbour Sharon’s kitchen counter on a Sunday morning, enjoying our weekly coffee. My puppy, Jake, fussed at my feet, so I didn’t hear what Sharon had said, just held out my empty mug for a refill and shrugged. Sharon, who has known me for nearly 30 years, poured more coffee […] Read more
Even marathon runners can have high cholesterol
First We Eat: A recipe for Porchas!
I am a runner. Last fall, I ran my first 10-km trail race as a family event, with my youngest son and his partner, and in May, I’ll run in the Vancouver Marathon’s 20-km race. I like the endorphins, that runner’s high, and running is good for me. It keeps my brain focused, my lungs […] Read more
And this is how it all began…
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
Chili recipe to feed a crowd
First We Eat: After a cold winter afternoon outdoors with friends here’s a tasty way to warm up
For the past seven years, we’ve greeted the new year by throwing makeshift curling rocks across the icy lake that surrounds our home west of Saskatoon. The lake arrived in spring 2011, eight months after we’d taken up residence on what has been my family’s farm for decades. Following the flood, we used a neighbour’s […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
