recipes Archives - Page 10 of 16

Squash, Pear and Parsnip Soup with Maple Croutons.

When it’s too cold to go outside make soup instead

First We Eat: Some say this comfort food has the power to do everything from curing the sniffles to mending a broken heart

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith December 6, 2019

When my sweetie caught a cold recently, he asked me to stop in at our favourite Chinese restaurant and bring home some hot and sour soup. “Are you kidding me?” I said. “No way. I’ll make you some.” Next time you slurp some of this Szechuan soup at your fave joint, look at it closely. […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Preserving pickles and relishes

First We Eat: Making your own means personalized flavours from ingredients you can trust

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith November 15, 2019

Whenever one of my sons visits, he invariably rummages through the fridge, hunting for a jar of beet pickles or dills. When he finds it, he devours half of its contents. It’s been that way for years; I am the Condiment Queen. My pantry — and my sons — are full of preserves. They are […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Giving up the garden

First We Eat: After a lifetime of successful gardening Mom is now giving it up as it becomes difficult to manage

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith October 18, 2019

This spring, I stood in Mom’s backyard with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, digging out all the soil in her raised beds. “Take it all,” she said when I slowed down. “I’m done with it.” “Not even a potful of lettuces?” I asked, thinking of the preceding summer, when she’d grown more lettuces than she […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Farmers’ markets are more than food

First We Eat: When I take my aging mom it’s a slow, social event as she carefully examines everything and talks to everyone

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith August 9, 2019

We’ve finished our coffee, and I am helping my mom into my car for our weekly trip to one of the local farmers’ markets. She has her green corduroy tote bag over one arm, her purse holding its little zip-up change purse on the other, her favourite feathered hat on her head, her cane in […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Let us eat cake

First We Eat: Try this cake recipe at your next celebration — sure to be a crowd-pleaser

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith May 17, 2019

Cake is an important part of my family’s birthday rituals. When I was a kid, Mom made birthday cakes that contained coins wrapped in wax paper — for her five kids, but also for my dad, but always chocolate for him, and no coins. I began to bake as a youngster, and in later years, as a chef, restaurateur and […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Try this caesar salad dressing recipe

First We Eat: Not just for salad it’s also great spooned over a variety of foods like grilled or roasted veggies

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith May 3, 2019

We arrived for a preliminary visit at the farm in June 2010, a month ahead of our move-in date. Over-anxious? Eager? Yes, both, but mostly we came early to help my aging parents move out — into a bungalow in a nearby town — and to paint the old farmhouse we were moving into. I […] Read more

Mustard greens, or flowering gai lan, a Chinese form of broccoli, are assertive and blend well with strong tastes.

Farm Life, FarmLife

What to use for salad greens while waiting for local produce

First We Eat: In winter, turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and veggie dishes

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith April 18, 2019

In winter, when arugula and other salad greens travel thousands of miles, have been contaminated with E. coli or are too costly, I turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and robust vegetable dishes. Mustard greens, or flowering gai lan, a Chinese form of broccoli, are assertive and blend well with strong tastes. When I […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Cooking on a winter-weather shoestring

First We Eat: Golden Vegetable Latkes

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith March 22, 2019

The view out my window is relentlessly white. Deep snow has collected across the yard, and the temperature is hovering around -30 C, as it has for the past week. The forecast for the coming week is no better. The roads are rotten. Winter weather means that this week’s cooking must be from the pantry, […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Saying farewell with apple crepes

First We Eat: What better way to pay tribute after hearing  my cooking mentor had passed away

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith March 8, 2019

I learned recently that my culinary mentor, Madeleine Kamman, died in July 2018. At the time, the event went unnoticed. But when I got word, the news flattened me. Madeleine was the tigress who taught me to trust my palate, who set my benchmarks. She valued methods, flavour principles, terroir — that ineffable link between […] Read more

Farm Life, FarmLife

Reclaiming our peasant heritage

First We Eat: Don’t be intimidated by Boeuf Bourguignon —  just a fancy name for beef stew

By dee Hobsbawn-Smith March 1, 2019

Yesterday I walked home from morning coffee at my neighbour Sharon’s house, my passage closely observed by a leggy Black Angus calf. She bounced up to the barbed wire fence, her head high as she gave my dog and me the once-over. Jake stopped in his tracks, uncertain what this until-now-predictable creature was up to. […] Read more

GFM Network News

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Tag Archives recipes

When it’s too cold to go outside make soup instead

Preserving pickles and relishes

Giving up the garden

Farmers’ markets are more than food

Let us eat cake

Try this caesar salad dressing recipe

What to use for salad greens while waiting for local produce

Cooking on a winter-weather shoestring

Saying farewell with apple crepes

Reclaiming our peasant heritage

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