The first time I ever attempted making coconut whipped cream was for a potluck party; I had decided I would take layer cake with coconut whipped cream and chocolate ganache. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Well, the whipped cream was such a failure that I found myself scrambling at the last minute to figure out another potluck contribution.
Do you have a sweet tooth? Apparently if you are always craving sweets, your diet may be deficient in protein. It seems a bit counterintuitive—want a chocolate bar? Go eat some almonds—but it is actually very true.
Some flavours are just meant to be together—it's like destiny, food-style. Cilantro and lime are flavour soul mates—they just go together like peas and carrots. The addition of cilantro and lime to a basic dish, like rice and beans, escalates it from "plain and boring" to "superstar." Add a little cumin into the mix and the flavour is out of this world.
I went on a fabulous beach vacation over spring break and now my pants don't fit. The button on my jeans is protesting my overconsumption of beer and "hey, it's vacation!" tortilla chips and chocolate treats.
Last month, when it was minus thirty outside and it felt like winter would never, ever end, I went grocery shopping and saw in the produce aisle asparagus on sale. Signs of spring! My husband grew up in a place where asparagus grew wild and to him, springtime was ushered in by the sight of asparagus poking through the soil. I'm happy enough to see it in the produce section.
“You know I really don’t like eggplant, right?” my husband said to me as I sliced the beautiful purple vegetable into rounds. I just smiled and continued slicing, because I had a feeling that this time would be different.
There are numerous articles written by numerous experts with regards to getting children to eat their vegetables, but I have a very simple answer: make vegetables delicious and appealing.
Sometimes, amazing things—like penicillin, Viagra, potato chips, and the microwave—are created entirely by accident. As everyone's favourite fuzzy-haired painter, Bob Ross, says, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." That may or may not be a completely true statement, but this dish, full of gorgeous roasted vegetables and zestiness, was created by accident, and it was indeed a happy one.
A few months I saw a package of freekeh in the grocery store, and I couldn't stop making jokes about it. It's super-freekeh. It's time to get your freek on. Let your freek flag fly. But it's no joke that this roasted wheat is the new supergrain in town! While I'm not ready to kick quinoa to the curb, I am always ready to add a delicious new grain to my repertoire, especially one with so many health benefits.
When I was a swinging single girl, I used to eat the following things for dinner on a rotating basis: instant rice with steamed broccoli, popcorn, and pasta with jarred sauce. Regardless of the brand I purchased, the sauce never had quite the right flavour for me—it was always too sweet or too garlicky, too bland or too bloat-inducing. I wasn't much of a cook back then (obviously), so I didn't know how easy it can be to make a basic tomato sauce.
It seems whenever I turn on the news these days, the first story is about the frigidly cold weather, followed by advice on staying warm. When the wind chill factor dips below minus thirty, there is not much that can tempt me to leave the warmth of my house, even if the fridge is almost empty and the cupboards are nearly bare.
When I received a copy of Homemade Doughnuts, by Kamal Grant, for review, my eight-year-old son nearly lost his mind with happiness. This book provides a number of delectable doughnut recipes, as well as icings, glazes, fillings, and fun toppings, like carrot sprinkles and orange dust, which I can't wait to try. My doughnut-loving son and I spent several evenings together at bedtime, reading through the recipes and admiring the gorgeous photography.
Forget the mom wars, I'm more interested in the cookie wars. I am a die-hard chewy cookie person—I purposefully under bake my cookies just the teensiest bit, so that they are soft and chewy in the centre.
Here's the situation—it's 11:55 and you're hungry. Starving, even. You cannot stop thinking about lunch. Temptations abound; the takeout place around the corner is calling out its siren song of french fries and pizza by the slice.
Is there anything more comforting than a steaming bowl of soup on a grey and frigid day? Some late winter days are so devoid of colour, with the grey sky matching the grey grubby snow on the ground, that I find myself cooking the most brightly coloured dishes I can think of. This tomato soup fits the bill: it's warming and comforting, and the colour is restful to my winter-weary eyes.
I often get asked how I handle mealtimes, given that I’m vegetarian and my family is not. One very simple trick to satisfy everyone’s taste is to prepare meals that are vegetarian, and then cook meat on the side. Stir-fries are perfect for this, and I make one such dish at least once a week.
Here's the situation—you are just about to slide a perfectly prepped roast beef into the oven when your child announces, "I don't want to eat meat anymore." You wonder how in the world you are going to make dinner in su
It all started, many years ago, with an obsession with Tim Hortons' cranberry blueberry bran muffins. My soon-to-be husband and I were cross country skiing and we stopped in Canmore to refuel and get lunch; I looked at all the baskets of baked goods and chose a cranberry blueberry bran muffin, not knowing that one bite later I would be hopelessly hooked. I thought about that muffin for days, and after that I would go out of my way to obtain another. I would stop at nothing, it seemed, to get my muffin fix.
