Is there even such a thing as too many cookbooks?

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

Korean Style Flank Steak.

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


Running out of zucchini recipe ideas?

Running out of zucchini recipe ideas?

Prairie Palate: Try this French Zucchini Loaf for lunch or dinner

As luck would have it, I am penning these words in France. I arrived in Paris this morning full of bad airplane coffee and a fat slice of spice cake, which passed for breakfast aboard my flight. So, first things first. Settle into the hotel room then venture out in search of lunch: a good […] Read more

Meals in the field can be a challenge to plan for.

Tribulations of cooking for the harvest crew

How many to cook for? Where are we eating? Did they move fields? Are there enough utensils packed?…

I came across an article on my Facebook feed during harvest titled “10 Reasons Cooking for a Family Sucks.” It was humorous, as the articles from the popular parenting website Scary Mommy often are, but I noted how similar I feel at this time, cooking for our harvest crew. We have a really amazing system, […] Read more


Six tips for safe barbecuing

Six tips for safe barbecuing

Looks good, doesn’t it? But every year there are reports from incidents resulting from gas barbecues. Here are six common barbecue safety mistakes — and how you can avoid them.

Will your family be ‘schpocking’ at Easter?

Will your family be ‘schpocking’ at Easter?

Prairie Palate: This ancient game of cracking hard-boiled eggs traces back to Russian tradition

In some parts of the world, the new year is celebrated at the spring equinox. This makes perfect sense. At the equinox, the days get longer, the sun gets warmer and things start to grow again. Spring is nature’s new year. OK, OK, it’s still half winter here, but a New Year’s celebration would pick […] Read more


Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

In honour of my Irish grandmother here’s a traditional potato recipe

Since St. Patrick’s Day is nigh upon us, I dedicate today’s musings to my grandmother, Josephine O’Hara. Or, as I knew her best, Grandma Jo. Grandma Jo was proud of her Irish heritage. So proud, that dinner on St. Patrick’s Day was akin to Christmas or Easter. In other words, a feast. There would be […] Read more

Mexican pork carnitas

Mexican pork carnitas

There’s lots of oranges and limes available now so this is a perfect time to make this

I remember the first time I picked an orange. Not from the produce section. Not from a fruit bowl. Not from the recesses of my Christmas stocking. Picked an orange from a real orange tree. I remembered it today because I just picked an orange and the smell took me back to the first time […] Read more


Juniper berries — tasty addition to venison stew

Juniper berries — tasty addition to venison stew

Prairie Palate: These are perfect added to any stew made with wild ingredients but also go well with beef

One crisp winter day I set out to pick juniper berries at a local park. I planned to make bigos, an old Polish stew, for a dinner party that week, for which juniper berries are a traditional ingredient. Being both frugal and old-fashioned, I decided to forage the junipers in the wild, or at least […] Read more

Pepitas are the seeds from an oilseed pumpkin variety.

Pumpkin seeds with no shells

Pepitas are loaded with nutrition and have no hulls

Growing up, pumpkin seeds were a once-a-year treat. As a child there was the confusion of whether they were to be shelled like a sunflower seed or just chewed. Personally, the hulls were a bit too fibrous, but once you got inside, those seeds were very yummy. As an adult I noticed that there were […] Read more