Try this bread recipe — baked in a pot

Try this bread recipe — baked in a pot

First We Eat: 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

We can’t wait for rhubarb!

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?

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



Darl's Honey Lemon Chicken.

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