Question: when a person has fifteen pounds of tomatoes at her disposal, and she's made salsa and salads and even more salads and she still has a largesse of tomatoes that are rapidly becoming very, very ripe,
Granola is one of the most versatile breakfast foods around; it goes well with any fruit, it can be eaten with yogurt or milk, it can be an ingredient in baked goods, or it can be simply enjoyed as-is. The word granola can conjure up images of hippies and the “health food movement” of the 1960s, when eating something other than sugar-infused packaged cereal was considered a radical departure from mainstream breakfasts.
The end of summer is such a bittersweet time for me. I love the relaxed mindset of largely unscheduled days, but I also love the excitement and feeling of promise and new beginnings that come every September. I love the heat and sunshine of summer, but I also like thick sweaters and tall boots. The leaves are starting to change on the trees in my front yard; the air is crisp and cool in the mornings and evenings. Fall is right around the corner and so I am desperately hanging on to the last vestiges of summer.
I have just returned from a summer vacation at my in-laws’ home; my mother-in-law has an enormously prolific garden and every day — sometimes twice a day — she would walk down to the garden with a large empty bucket and then return to the house, the bucket overflowing with fresh produce. I ate my favourite Greek salad with abandon, and when we left, my mother-in-law packed a box full of sweet, vine-ripened tomatoes for me.
According to my children, one of life’s greatest experiences — especially in the summertime — is going to a soft-serve ice cream/frozen yogurt bar, the kind where you fill your own cup and select your own toppings. It is a lot of fun, to be sure, but it can be expensive, and if you join them in this indulgence, it can also be hard on the waistline.
In fall, a mom’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of lunches. School lunches, that is. Some of us eagerly look forward to the challenge of providing lovely, photo-worthy lunches with a wide variety of items every day, and others of us feel like Anne Boleyn on her way to the chopping block, knowing that our attempts to make pretend sushi rolls out of tortillas, cream cheese, and red pepper are only going to end in tears for everyone involved.
Summertime eating is practically synonymous with barbequing; the evenings are warm, the sunsets are late, and the backyard is practically begging to be the new dining room. Beers, burgers, salads, and good friends are all that is required for a perfect evening.
If I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this Greek salad. It is my number one favourite food. When I was pregnant with my second child, I ate this several times a week. These days it is merely a weekly treat, the Friday night meal I look forward to. It has replaced popcorn as my “no one else is home, it’s just me” dinner.
Hot and hazy summer days practically demand delicious frozen treats, and while I don’t mind buying the occasional box of ice cream delights, I also like to make my own. My kids enjoy helping with this recipe — they can choose the ice cream flavour they prefer, and squishing the scoops of ice cream between two cookies is a lot of fun. The cookies are tasty all by themselves, and they are the perfect size and consistency for making mini ice cream sandwiches. These cuties are proof that good things come in small packages!
Watermelon is such a classic summer snack, isn’t it? It’s the fruit of choice for picnics and soccer games; for me, it evokes nostalgic images of childhood and summer, along with ice cream trucks and playing in the sprinkler. A sweet juicy slice of watermelon goes with a hot summer day like a steaming cup of cocoa goes with a frosty day in January. But did you know watermelon also goes beautifully — incongruously enough — with feta cheese and mint?
The answer, these days, is food colouring, although when the cake was originally created the colour came from a chemical reaction between vinegar and buttermilk, which allowed the red anthocyanin of the cocoa to show through. Nowadays most cocoa is Dutch-processed and more alkaline, and so the colour change from the chemical reaction is negligible, which explains the use of food colouring to enhance the cake’s appearance.
Everything you ever wanted to know about red velvet cupcakes, but were afraid to ask!
I love vegetables — obviously — but cauliflower is not one of my favourites. I don’t dislike it; I simply don’t choose to eat it. It’s the vegetable that goes unnoticed on the platter of veggies and dip; it’s the vegetable that goes unseen in the produce section, what with all the other brightly coloured options waving their rainbow flags at me. Poor, under-appreciated cauliflower.
Sometimes, on a chilly, rainy day I get a craving for comfort food, and what could be more comforting than a big bowl of pasta with cream sauce? The problem is that cream sauce leaves me feeling bloated, heavy, and lethargic.
The solution? A sauce made from avocado that delivers the creaminess I am craving, in addition to the vitamins, fibre, potassium, and good fats that my body is craving. All that in less than fifteen minutes flat!
Sometimes we just need a little chocolate in our lives. And sometimes we need the cutest little cups of chocolate coconut cream pie; they’re so cute we could just die! These little pies-in-a-cup are the cupcakes of the cream pie world; a perfect portion of chocolatey goodness, with seasonal berries to boot. This no-bake recipe is so simple you will want to make it over and over again, and it’s so decadent and delicious, no one will believe it’s vegan.
Nothing spells P-A-R-T-Y like a good quinoa salad, or at least like this fiesta-in-a-bowl! Not only is this salad chock full of protein, fibre, iron, potassium, and Vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, but it is also chock full of amazing flavor. Cilantro, cumin, and lime combine to make a taste explosion.
Even though we hardy Canadians use the barbeque year-round, I still think of this time of year as the beginning of barbeque season. Not that I myself use the barbeque, mind you; I’m somewhat terrified of fire and I have visions of my hair going up in flames and the house blowing up if I make one wrong move with the grill. In any event, my husband is always thankful when the evenings are bright and warm and barbeque season is officially upon us, since that means he doesn’t need to be grilling in the dark, wearing a parka.
I am, most definitely, an early morning person and yet for some reason I cannot bestir myself to actually cook in the morning. This is especially true on weekends; after the weekday rush I prefer a leisurely morning of coffee drinking and relaxing to a morning of brunch-making and dish washing. As we all know, however, weekends are made for brunches. What's a girl to do?
It's been such a long winter, hasn't it? In the spring I long for greenery, both in my garden and on my plate. When my husband was growing up one of the first signs of spring was the sight of asparagus, which grew wild on his family's property, poking up through the ground. To me, one of the first signs of spring is seeing big, luscious bunches of asparagus for sale in the produce section. In any case, asparagus is a source of joy for me: a gustatory pleasure and a seasonal indicator. This Green Goddess Bowl is full of goodness and nutrition, and it tastes like springtime.
It’s the start of that sweet time of year known as berry season! Don’t you just love seeing packages of luscious red strawberries and big, beautiful blackberries in the produce section? My family gobbles them down like the nature’s candy that they are, but I also like to incorporate them into actual meals — dessert is a meal, is it not? This dessert would be a lovely ending to a brunch, or a fancy addition to an afternoon tea. The mini-cakes stand up perfectly on their own; together with whipped coconut cream and berries, they are divine.
As the temperature tentatively rises and spring seems like it may finally make its appearance, my thoughts turn to barbeque season. In my house, the grill is manned by my husband and his masculine love of fire, but that doesn’t mean I get a break from the kitchen: I am the sole preparer of the ever-important side dishes. No matter; this Caesar salad is a snap to make and is a wonderful complement to both grilled portabella mushrooms and ribeye steak. In other words, it is perfect for a barbeque at our house.
