Lemon Posset
It’s almost impossible to believe that lemon posset, a silky soft dessert, shares a name with a medieval cure-all of hot curdled milk and ale. Prescribed as a cold remedy throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, the original posset was more medicine cabinet than dessert bowl. Thank the ingenuity of 19th-century British chefs for rescuing…
fresh egg pasta and italian sausage
The other day I ‘attempted’ to make fresh pasta and absolutely failed! The more I tried to rectify the situation, the worse it got. It’s in these situations I’ve learned to walk away and try again at a later date when my mind is free from the noise. I’ve been making my own pasta for…
fiddleheads and baby gnocchi
Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern and are collected in the wild before the frond has opened. A spring-time vegetable, you’ll find them in food shops and outdoor markets. They are called fiddleheads because they resemble the curled end of a stringed instrument such as a fiddle. If you’re from the Maritimes…
radish leaf pesto
Pesto derives its name from pestâ which means to pound/crush. A typical pesto consists of crushed garlic, basil, pine nuts mixed with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Pesto was originally used mostly to flavor vegetable soups. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that it was used as a sauce for pasta. Earlier versions of pesto…
Lemon Olive Oil Cake
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll see that I don’t post many desserts (the most recent was oats & cranberry bars back in March) and if I do it’s usually ones that are easy to make. My sweet tooth tends to gravitate to things such as blue cheese with fruit and a glass of…
Pasta e Patate (pasta and potato)
Pasta e Patate is a recipe from a dear friend of mine. I met Francesca in Singapore back in 2001. I had heard glowing accounts of her Italian cooking classes and was eager to meet this culinary wizard. Francesca did not disappoint. Her kitchen was light and airy and her cheery disposition made all who…
Roasted Cipollini Onion Crostini
What do you get when grilled baguette slices (crostini) and roasted cipollini onions come together? Answer: a heavenly snack that’s so easy-to-make and ridiculously delicious! Cipolini (chip-oh-LEE-nee) onions are small and flat. The word in Italian means little onion and are sweeter than the average yellow or white onion. I have seen them in food…
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
For whatever the reason, the air last night was perfumed with backyard barbeques. I love that smell. A simple sign our neighbors were venturing outside and grilling. We were connecting once again with our neighbors with a casual wave of a hand or nod. Pork tenderloin, also known as pork fillet, is one of our…
Halibut Fish Cheeks
Fish cheeks? The first time I heard this we were living in Hong Kong. The Chinese love fish and the prized part is the cheek. Why? The cheeks are the tastiest and sweetest part of the fish…I kid you not! Tender chunks of flesh that smell like the ocean and are opaque. A smaller fish…
Nova Scotia Mussels – Italian style
Even though I cook through the week, it’s our weekends that I look forward to the most. Whether we are entertaining or it’s just the two of us, I like to plan a nice meal. And when I say nice, it doesn’t mean a long time in the kitchen…just a few key quality ingredients.
Fried Eggplant with Tomato Sauce
Eggplant, also known as aubergine, has not always been popular and yet there are oodles of eggplant recipes out there making this nightshade plant shine. I’m sure if you ask your friends if they like it, you’ll receive mixed reviews. It must be a North American thing ’cause everywhere else this humble plant is consumed…
Roasted Pork Belly
When we first moved to Hong Kong, one of our all-time favorite fast foods was char siu fun (Chinese bbq pork over rice with a side of ginger sauce – yum!). This was our first introduction to pork belly and before that I hadn’t heard of it. Well, that’s not strictly accurate. Although I grew…
Marinated Olives
The olive bar at any food shop makes me stop dead in my tracks. I’m a sucker for anything that reminds me of the Mediterranean. I wasn’t always a fan until one day, a few years ago, I had ordered a cheese plate and Kalamata olives were on it. At first I scrunched up my…