The act of eating occurs repeatedly on life’s continuum, and marshalling your ingredients to do double duty is just good sense.
Tag Archives recipes
Plan for leftovers
First We Eat: Preparing ingredients to do double duty is just good sense
How we can be Gordie Howe in Canada’s kitchens
First We Eat: There are Canadian foods I’d love to see on my table if I could obtain them here
Interprovincial trade regulations exist to protect local economies, preserve regional autonomy, and of course generate local income. But even the Bank of Canada believes lowering internal barriers would boost our economy while effectively keeping our dollars in Canada.
A literary celebration of food
First We Eat: Like a good meal, ‘One Book One Province’ is meant to offer a shared experience
On the Prairies, the month is a hopeful time for food lovers: we’re perusing seed catalogues, planning our gardens and dreaming about salads made from the season’s first greens.
Comfort food for hard times
First We Eat: What foods help you find peace in stressful situations? Here’s one of mine
Hand-pulled Shanghai noodles redolent of wok hei, the near-mystical “wok energy” or caramelized smokiness that has been called the breath of a wok, are a revivifying dish of comfort — soul food for hard times.
Cooking Canadian, part 2: Shopping local
First We Eat: In recent years we’ve seen serious disruptions in our culinary supply chains
The eruption of trade wars and tariffs has me looking harder than ever at what we eat and where it comes from, like every other Canadian.
Cooking Canadian, part 1: Rediscovering cabbage
First We Eat: As Canadian food staples go, cabbage is cheap and plentiful
Cabbage and its bitter cousins — brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli — can be eaten raw, roasted, grilled, braised, stir-fried, steamed or simmered, best with something equally pungent, like garlic and onions, or salty, like anchovy or bacon.
Tools and techniques, part 4: Handmade
Inanimate objects have a time and place — but the hands are a cook’s first tools
My hands knead and stretch and shape, fold and pleat. They evaluate texture and assess degree of doneness. In the kitchen, my hands are my first tools.
Tools and techniques, part 3: Between a rock and a hard place
First We Eat: Pounding ingredients with a pestle encourages a calm approach to cooking
My mom tells me my counters are too cluttered. “Why don’t you put some of that stuff away?” she asks me repeatedly. Much of the counter space in my old farmhouse kitchen is occupied by electric tools designed to grind foods or to alter their shape: a food processor, blender and coffee mill stand shoulder […] Read more
Tools and techniques, part 2: Spurtles and spatulas
First We Eat: Preferring wooden hand tools means keeping a wide assortment
It was too hot in September 2024 in Grass Valley to be wearing my red crocheted holiday elf toque with the white pompom, but gift-giving was on my mind. Mom and I were in California to visit my best beloved auntie, and my cousin had told us about a terrific annual crafters’ sale. lt was […] Read more
Books worth cooking from, part 3: Anna Olson’s Baking Wisdom
First We Eat: The Ontario pastry chef’s book is meant to be accessible to beginners and pros alike
Perusing a library’s shelves, whether virtual or bricks-and-mortar, is always a pleasure, especially when I have food on my mind. To my great joy, I recently found an impressive new baking book from a Canadian pro. Pastry chef and TV/YouTube personality Anna Olson, who is married to chef Michael Olson, is a reassuringly approachable pastry […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
