The Produce Box is Here! The Produce Box is Here!

The Produce Box is Here! The Produce Box is Here!

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First off, kudos to anyone who got that reference. Now, on to the produce box. I was so excited to get it that I completely forgot to take a picture of it before I started putting away the contents–but I’ll post one next week, I promise. Overall I was very pleased with it. Here’s what was in it:*Leeks*Yukon Gold Potatoes*Bibb Lettuce*Spinach*Collard Greens*Cameo Apples*D’Anjou Pears*Strawberries*Asparagus*Purple Carrots*Red Peppers*Tangelos (similar to tangerines) What struck me right off the bat was how well balanced…

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Beyond the Grocery Store

Beyond the Grocery Store

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I was going to post about Sunday night’s salad today–but in light of recent events, it will have to wait. It all started Sunday evening (after the salad) as I was feeling smugly satisfied for having made such a healthy, veggie-filled dinner. That was when my curiousity got the better of me, and I decided that Food Inc. would make an enjoyable (or at least informative) after-dinner movie experience. I knew full-well what I was in for. Actually, its surprising…

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Sunday Salads and Monday Muffins

Sunday Salads and Monday Muffins

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Sunday evenings in our house tend to end up in a mad cooking frenzy–a desperate effort to get the fridge stocked with lunch and leftovers before the chao of the week descends upon us. Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of making a giant bowl of salad of some sort, which, in addition to making a quick and easily transportable lunch, gets *more* flavorful as the week wears on and the ingredients blend together. Sunday Salad This Sunday, the salad…

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Easy Italian Pt. 2: Basil + Vinegar + Tomatoes = Love

Easy Italian Pt. 2: Basil + Vinegar + Tomatoes = Love

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As promised, the dish that taught me to cook: Chez Piggy Pasta This dish came originally from Chez Piggy (hence the name), an upscale restaurant in Kingston, Ontario. The pasta itself is very low key though, and has evolved over time to be considerably different from the original recipe. It was the first thing I ever cooked and it remains one of my favorite go-to dishes of all time. Ingredients: 1/4 c Balsamic vinegar1/4 c Red wine vinegar1/3 c Extra…

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Easy Italian Pt. 1: Simple Seasoning

Easy Italian Pt. 1: Simple Seasoning

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We north Americans, as a culture, approach Italian cuisine all wrong. We eat it in the ritziest restaurants we can find, decorated ornately with white table cloths and multiple forks per place-setting and we match the food we order to the decor: fettucini Alfredo with an insanely rich sauce, ravioli each filled individually with the latest fad vegetable, etc. etc. And if that weren’t enough, we add a romantic connotation to the whole experience, just to add a little more…

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Vancouver: The Foodie Way

Vancouver: The Foodie Way

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I have not been cooking much lately. Mostly because the past two weekends (weekends are my primary cooking time) have been spent north of the boarder, bird-watching on Vancouver island and watching the paralympics in Vancouver. So, in the spirit of my all-time favorite food-blog An Endless Banquet, I thought I would give the foodie’s summary of our adventures in Vancouver. Sadly, the camera decided to eat half of my pics from the trip, so this post will be rather…

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Victory over Whole Foods (sort of)

Victory over Whole Foods (sort of)

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There are few premade items in the grocery store that still tempt me. I’m pretty much turned off by the entire frozen section these days, and am getting increasingly less enthused about the baked goods. And ever since hearing horror stories about chickens injected with salt-water solution, marinaded meat seems suspect too. Indeed, these days, the mantra has been: buy the raw ingredients, assemble it yourself. That said, there is one aisle that still tempts me: the salad bar. Not…

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This is why I cook: Culinary Nirvana

This is why I cook: Culinary Nirvana

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Once in a blue moon, everything just falls into place. You have all the ingredients you need idling in the fridge, waiting to be put to good use, you have time to cook them, nothing explodes, burns or befalls any other ill fate in the cooking process, and suddenly, just like that, you have a meal on the table that would you suspect might garner a nod of approval from even the culinary god Nigel Slater himself. Tonight was one…

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Q: What beats homemade marmalade?

Q: What beats homemade marmalade?

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A: Homemade marmalade on homemade bread. Its not impossible to find good bread here, but when it comes to bread, I’ve been totally spoiled (mostly by Le Fromentier). Le Fromentier tops my list for two reasons. First they have the technical aspects of bread-baking nailed (things like crumb, texture, moisture etc). I have never bought a loaf there crumbled when I cut it, or was too dry, or had a hard, leathery crust, or suffered from any other unforgivable bread…

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Marmalade-Making in Gruesome Detail

Marmalade-Making in Gruesome Detail

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“It wasn’t, on reflection, the wisest of days to make marmalade. I had pruned the roses, the temperature was a degree or two below freezing, and the skin around my thumbnail had cracked open in the cold. It seemed as if each drop of bitter orange juice, each squirt of lemon zest sent shots of stinging pain through my thumb. But the Seville orange season is over in the blink of an eye and sometimes you just have to shut…

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