We don’t have a barbeque. It’s something I lament on the days I crave something grilled – steak, fish, or burgers especially – but until I get my act together and buy one, our stove and oven will have to do. Two burgers I made recently didn’t require a grill, or (the usual) ground beef, [...]

This year, I made a conscious effort to incorporate more vegetarian meals into our diet – it was a decision partly made so we could be more aware of the meat that we consume (instead of it being a given come every supper, it is a deliberate addition), but also partly for variety’s sake. It’s [...]

When we visited Mary Ellen and Andreas in the spring, they introduced us to quick-cook barley, a product by Progressive Foods (it is available from Mo Na Foods at the City Market). Mary Ellen said the barley, developed so it could be prepared in a short amount of time, could be used in place of [...]

Though I know that one of the next cookbooks I’d like to conquer is Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, given that I’m still working through Food Matters, it might be a while.
We tried a few more recipes from Food Matters this week, mostly unplanned. While I mostly shop at the farmers’ market having [...]

Mo Na has been a welcome addition to the City Market this year, and three months in, I am still giddy over the fact that I can get my mushroom fix from the farmers’ market.
I’d been eyeing their Portobello mushroom caps for some time (they are the size of dessert plates!), and though I have [...]

Most of the spinach I buy inevitably ends up in a salad. I have gone so far as to wilt spinach, but those instances are few and far between.
So, with the markets bursting with spinach, I thought I should change it up a bit, and be a little more creative. Two recipes featuring these greens [...]

Salads are definitely one of those things I know I should be eating more often – instead of being relegated to a side, and in place of some worse-for-me things like white rice. I’ve only made the recent discovery that salads don’t have to involve greens (read: lettuce, arugula, spinach) of any kind, and moreover, [...]

Donna Hay’s a bit misleading in her section on “one pot meals” in No Time To Cook. In actuality, some of the dishes require two pots – the first for the main and the second for the accompanying starch – whether it be a rice cooker or a pot to boil pasta. I know it’s [...]

While morels don’t quite have the rock star reputation of truffles, wild origins lend morels a mysterious, elusive quality. After learning about how fickle they are in terms of where they grow, and the related excitement that ripples through the mycological community at the start of spring (aka morel season), I had to wonder if [...]

Though I enjoy baking, it’s not something I do very often. My baking accoutrements are limited to a cookie sheet and a muffin pan, and I don’t even own an electric mixer. Moreover, knowing that the two of us will be on the hook to finish the entire dessert ourselves is often a deterrent enough. [...]