The other night I was in a particularly crave-y mood. I wanted meat and potatoes meets spice. I happened to remember these Wholly Wholesome pie crusts I picked up from Whole Foods and the samosa pie was born. When I was preparing it it felt totally wrong, like a terrible bastardization of traditional cuisine. It was going to be a dirty little secret. No one needed to know. Then we…
Last week Bogdan and I went to Town Tavern in Royal Oak because Four Square told us the lobster mac and cheese was “to die for.” It was not.…
I recently saw a very interesting Vox video on food waste aptly called Food waste is the world’s dumbest problem. Food waste is a really big problem. According…
Pasta is one of those fundamental “from scratch” things that can seriously impress your dinner guests and also totally change the game on what you thought you knew. Once you’ve had fresh homemade pasta, it’s really hard to even call that stuff you buy in boxes pasta anymore. I learned to make pasta the way I learned to make bread, which is to say with a few bumps in the…
We just got back from a 10 day trip to Toronto. It’s been almost 5 years since I left for law school. I miss Toronto intensely. I miss…
I followed the NY Times Butter Chicken recipe by Tom Sifton, which can be found here. I tried not to deviate from the recipe too much. Making it was…
I spent a lot of my formative years in Toronto, where I gained an appreciation for diversity that’s had an enduring impact on me. Toronto is a mecca of multiculturalism. You can find food from all over the world in various parts of the city: Greek town on Danforth, Korean in K-town, Little Italy and Corso Italia on College and St. Clair, Portugal Village at Dundas West, Japanese & Hungarian in the…
Back in May we ordered four thai bird chili seedlings on Amazon. A few weeks later we received a USPS box stuffed with styrofoam squiggles and four tiny plants…
We were at the farmers market asking around everywhere for chorizo. A few weeks earlier we attended a dinner to celebrate the engagement of two of our friends.…
Around this time last year I made a few different kinds of cookies that Bogdan took to work. Honestly, these chill-chocolate cookies were included as sort of a last minute afterthought. Now, a year later, I had to really dig deep to remember the other types because the chocolate-chili Mexican cookies were by far the crowd favourite. You see those ones on the end? They’re cream cheese frosted pumpkin spice cookies. The ones…
I have a confession to make. This is my third time trying to make this tart. The first time it sort of fell apart. The second time it…
Mmmmm this was so SO good. It was Friday evening. We got in late after another rousing round of house hunting. We were really tired and just wanted…
It was such a pleasure making this tart. Bogdan and I met up with some friends at Eastern Market on Saturday and there were beautiful heirloom tomatoes everywhere. I didn’t have any plans for them but I had to have some. Just look how beautiful they are. Slicing them for this tart was almost as good as eating the finished product. The smell of sweet fresh tomatoes filled my kitchen and I…
soft. chewy. crunchy. sweet. salty. spicy. chocolatey. warm. mouthwatering. totally perfect. These cookies are ah-mazing. Think of a cross between a ginger snap and a white chocolate macadamia…
Red vermouth martinis used to be my thing. I think I got a lot of satisfaction out of asking for something a little more obscure. I still do.…
Earlier this week I wrote about cooking with Fall flavours beyond pumpkin spice. There’s literally a world of flavours out there that we don’t associate with Fall nearly enough. Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines perfectly represent the richness and abundance of Fall. After all, what says Fall more than spices and long slow cooking methods? This harvest biryani really brings out the tastes of the season. It’s rich and aromatic,…
Wow. That name is a mouthful. I wasn’t sure what to call this. I’ve seen recipes for all kinds of brûléed things: oatmeal on the view from great…
It’s the first day of fall. I woke up earlier than usual this morning. The sun was just coming up as I sat down to write this post.…
Ok, I have to be honest: this isn’t really a recipe. I feel sort of bad even posting it because it’s really simple and normally wouldn’t be worth posting but the pictures are so beautiful I had to share it at least for the sake of sharing presentation inspiration. I had been planning on making a sweet potato and parsnip purée to go with a lemon and herb roasted chicken. When it…
Usually whenever I want cornbread I just toss a few things in a blender and it’s done in about five minutes. This particular iteration of my many five minute cornbreads…
I don’t know how else to describe it other than to say that this is simply a beautiful cake. Start to finish it was an experience. Eating it was…
Pâté. A small word with many accents and assumptions. I think just the word makes most people think of something fussy. Pâté is not a fancy word in Romania. In fact, pâté is considered to be a quite rustic food. This is the case throughout Europe, where pâté finds it’s origins in humble peasants’ ingenuity and creativity. In North America pâté finds it’s origins in Europe. Probably has something to do with all…
I’m just going to warn you before we go any further that if you make this you won’t be able to eat regular omelettes anymore. The first time…
A few months ago when we were doing whole30 I started reading up on a lot of different health foods. As it turns out gelatin has a really…
Have you ever noticed the taste of your own cooking becoming too familiar? It happens to me often. I first noticed it when Bogdan made butter chicken one night in late winter this year. We were in the middle of our first whole30 and experimenting with making different recipes compliant. One of our favourites was butter chicken with coconut milk instead of dairy and riced cauliflower instead of basmati. I made it quite often.…