New Canadiana Cookbooks: Eat Alberta First

New Canadiana Cookbooks: Eat Alberta First

First We Eat: Author Karen Anderson provides insights into Alberta people, places and ingredients as well as recipes

To kick off a new series on modern Canadian cookbooks, I am happy to introduce the latest book from Alberta writer Karen Anderson, Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes from Where the Prairies Meet the Mountains. Full disclosure: Karen is a longtime friend, locavore dining companion, Slow Food stalwart and all-time great woman. […] Read more

Chocolate cake — inverted, with whipped cream and spoon.

Celebrating recovery with food

First We Eat: Long journey back from foot injury

It has been 18 months since a motorcyclist knocked me down and drove over my left foot. This morning I ran seven kilometres. That achievement is due as much to the perseverance of my physiotherapist as to my own bulldog nature. At the time of the accident, I was in the Comox Valley on Vancouver […] Read more


Whole star anise, cinnamon sticks and cloves are common ingredients in spice blends.

Spice it up

First We Eat: Curries come in a rich assortment of flavours and rely on many spices

I’ve been lucky in love. Along the way, I worked hard to learn from good relationships that ended as well as from more difficult ones. Last month, my husband, Dave, and I celebrated 15 years together. They have been happy and loving years, filled with joy and the wonder of living life together as an […] Read more

Exacting cooks know it’s important to choose the right tool for the task.

The mettle of metal cooking pots

First We Eat: It matters what your kitchen pot is made of

Metal matters, as surely with knives and kitchen pots as any other farm tool. As we speak, a pot of split pea soup burbles on my gas range in a pot of enamelled cast iron. I feel safe about leaving it on its own. Much safer, say, than leaving our new kitten, Hercule, on her […] Read more


Once properly seasoned, woks are ready to prepare mouth-watering meals like this.

How to wok the talk

First We Eat: The distinctive wok toss isn’t just an art. It’s also science

I received a wok and cookbook recently. The 14-inch wok has a long wooden handle and a looped helper handle on the opposing side. The book, The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, is by J. Kenji López-Alt, a cook, an MIT-trained scientist and architect, and author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. His […] Read more

A delectable panettone, ready to eat.

Perfecting panettone

First We Eat: Patience is required to make this classic Italian bread, but it’s worth the time and effort

Panettone is the Armani of sourdough, a tall, tender, airy dome garnished with raisins and candied citrus, sometimes glazed with chocolate. Complex and subtle, it is immensely popular in Italy and around the world. Making panettone is a patient multi-day process, which may be why so many Italians buy theirs. But it’s worth it, in […] Read more


Swiss-French author Sylvie Bigar writes about her obsession with the south of France and cassoulet in Cassoulet Confessions.

Vive la Cassoulet

First We Eat: Many different ways to serve this classic French bean dish

I just read Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France, Family, and the Stew That Saved My Soul by Sylvie Bigar. Bigar, a Swiss-French writer, is obsessed with the south of France and cassoulet, the classic southern French bean dish. Her Jewish Ashkenazi family (diaspora Jews who settled in the Alsace region of France, and before that, Poland) […] Read more

Duck breast roulade from Steve Squier, chef at Picaro in Saskatoon.

Food influencers

First We Eat: How to translate culinary art into home cooking

In a pivotal moment of the 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada, the protagonist Andrea, a fashion novice played by Anne Hathaway, snickers as she watches her icy boss Miranda, played by the iconic Meryl Streep, make decisions for a fashion shoot. Miranda, reputedly modeled on the equally iconic Anna Wintour, head of Vogue magazine, […] Read more


The Cook the Books competition featured one crepinette-like dish where flank steak was stuffed with mushrooms and chives, rolled up into a tube, seared, roasted, carved and served up sushi-style.

Up to the challenge

First We Eat: Canadian culinary students inspire at Cooks the Books competition

When I arrived in Toronto in early November, I left winter behind. The skies were blue, the temperature a humid 23 C, about 40 degrees warmer than at home. My sister struck up the grill and I spatchcocked a chicken, rubbing it with garlic, fresh-cut thyme, spices and black olive paste. An hour later, we […] Read more

The sweet story of ginger beef

The sweet story of ginger beef

First We Eat: Sticky, chewy, gingery, sweet and spicy — what’s not to love?

Ginger. It’s my favourite flavour, deliciously lemony, woody, earthy, with a backbite of spicy heat. I eat crystallized ginger every day. Plus it’s good for me — it soothes gastric upsets, lullabyes an overstuffed belly, calms nausea, eases arthritic inflammation, and perhaps offers antioxidant resistance to heart disease. When cooking, I put one or more […] Read more