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Lemon Winter Warmer
This Lemon Winter Warmer recipe is based on a drink that I’d been making for a while, but then altered once I tried the ‘Citrus Booster’ that they serve at Balzac’s Coffee. There’s a Balzac’s near my office in the Distillery District, and when I feel a cold coming on, I sometimes pop over to the cafe to get one, or mix it up myself at home. I’m not sure whether or not it makes a difference to the cold, but it’s delicious and soothing and it makes me feel like I’m doing something about it, which is half the battle. I originally made it with honey, but I…
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Crepes
Crepes are such a simple recipe, but the real work is in the frying, which is a sort of alchemy of heat and timing. Crepes in the pan aren’t something you can walk away from; they need your complete attention, something I’m not always very good at. When we were kids, Nana Cynthia ((You can read her diaries from her teenage years in/around London during the Blitz in WWII here.)) used to make us crepes; always the same delicious topping, lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar. I’m a little taken aback by the weird combos that you can get on crepes – fruit, whipped cream, whatever – when in my opinion, they are always…
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Sweet Potato Salad with Orange-Maple Dressing
Sweet Potato Salad with Orange-Maple Dressing - delicious, flavourful, and great energy food that kept me going when all I wanted to do was lie down in the grass and sleep.
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Guacamole
Making Avocados are kind-of a major staple of my diet these days; I don’t eat a lot of meat, ((though I’m not a vegetarian.)) and they make a good stand-in for the hearty part of a meal. Though they are annoyingly finicky, ((Not ripe, not ripe not ripe Ripe! Too late)) I usually have them around for sandwiches and things. Lately, I’ve been really craving salty, savoury things, and discovered Los Cantores Tortilla Chips at our local deli, St. James Town Steak and Chops. Normally I don’t shill for companies, but these are freaking delicious, and I totally recommend them. I’ll also note that if you’re in the market for…
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Fried Halloumi with Tomato Sauce
Halloumi is one of those cheeses that holds shape when it heats, going gorgeously soft inside and crisping up a little on the outside rather than going gooey-melty. Fried Halloumi with Tomato Sauce is a nice, simple dish that works best in the Summer, when all of the fresh ingredients are at their peak flavour. Halloumi is a soft, brined cheese that can be found in many Canadian grocery stores – it’s a salty cheese that holds its shape well when heated. I like to eat it fried, on its own as a snack, or raw, but the sweetness of the tomatoes helps vary the flavours on your tongue, and cuts…
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Not too shabby, 2014!
Not a bad year, not an amazing year. A good, solid year without major setbacks, 2014 has been pretty good to me. The biggest achievement of my year, without a doubt, was achieving my long-held goal of paying off my student loans. It happened in October. After a decade of confusion, ((To this day, I’m not quite certain what my total amount loaned was – the system changed several times during my undergrad, leading to Federal and Provincial loans all over the place.)) getting the run-around from various banks and student loan services, and low-paying contract work in Peterborough, I finally had the kind of dependable income that allowed me…
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Pina Colada Popsicles
I found this recipe online and altered it slightly; it’s super-easy and super-delicious. They really do taste like Pina Colada Popsicles, even if you leave out the rum. If you are using rum, I totally recommend Sailor Jerry’s, which is my favourite – it’s very vanilla-y and super-delicious. The only annoying part about these popsicles is waiting for the popsicles to freeze, but then, is you get impatient, they’re pretty good as slush, too. And they’re a creamy treat for vegans! How nice! Ingredients 1 can pineapple chunks, in juice 1 banana 1 can coconut milk Rum (Optional) Directions Combine ingredients in a blender, then pour into popsicle moulds. Freeze (approx. 5…
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Nana’s Tea Biscuits
When I was little, we spent a lot of time at my Nana Cynthia’s house, and she involved us in making many delicious things. Several of my favourite recipes have come from her. Whether eating or hanging out, the kitchen was the centre of the home and definitely her domain – most of my memories of her are in her kitchen, a lit cigarette ((Always Player’s Plain!)) in one hand, and a glass of Papa’s home-made, sweet red wine in the other, telling me stories about her life as a teenager in and near London during WWII. She died a couple of years ago, and my mom has been…
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Simple Spaghetti with Sausage
Sometimes I just crave tomato sauce; not fresh tomatoes, or even cooked ones, but that hyper-sweet, almost candy-like tomato sauce that was a staple of my childhood spaghettis. I’m still working on this one – maybe more wine, some thyme, some balsamic vinegar? I feel like it needs a little more umph. But when I’m just straight-up craving tomato sauce, this will more than do the trick. I guess it doesn’t matter that’s it’s not complex – it’s easy to make, and good to eat! I’ve been using Yellow Tail Shiraz to make this dish, because you end up with a lot of leftover wine, and it might as well…
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Solo in Morocco
I spent a month Solo in Morocco in November, 2010, and prior to travelling, I did a fair amount of research on the country. So many people were so helpful in answering my questions; I owe a lot to the Thorn Tree Travel forum, my Rough Guide, and WikiTravel, as well as individual bloggers. Here I’ve brought together some of my experiences and observations, in the hope that they’ll be as helpful to other travellers. I wrote it right after I returned, to give back to the community on Thorntree that had been so helpful to me, but recently a lot of people have been talking to me about Morocco, so I thought…
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White Pizza: Caramelized onions, mushrooms, and roasted garlic
One night, I was feeling adventurous and decided to try making pizza crust. Out of that batch, there was enough crust for two pizzas; one with a tomato base, and one white pizza. The tomato-based pizza was pretty good, and has become a staple of my pizza repertoire. But the white pizza was delicious, and after a pizza night, my sides are usually aching from having eaten too much of it. So here’s the recipe! This was the first time I’ve tried making my own pizza crusts from scratch, and while I always find it a bit frustrating, the results are usually pretty good. I’m going to experiment a bit more before…
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Jalapeno-Cheese Dip
A delicious, spicy, cheesy indulgence! My sisters and I made this Jalapeno-Cheese Dip for the first time last February, when I’d just moved to Toronto for a new job and was feeling quite lonely in the big city. They came up to visit, and we made and ate this while mostly-ignoring the Super Bowl in my big, weird empty condo sublet. It’s definitely comfort food, definitely not an everyday dish, but a good warming appetizer for special occasions (like sister nights!). 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese 1 cup of mayonnaise 4-6 jalapenos, chopped and deseeded 1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded 1/4 cup diced green…
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2014: Shining like a National Guitar
In my year-end wrap-up for 2012, I wrote the following: I’ve cut my commitments down to almost nothing in preparation for – well, I don’t know exactly. But if something comes along and I need to leap, I’ve got nothing tying me to where I am. I could go tomorrow. And I want to. Less than a month later, I was scrambling to find somewhere to live in Toronto, and scrambling to wrap up my remaining commitments in Peterborough, as I leapt into a new job and a new life in a new city. Despite my belief that I was ready to go, I wasn’t – it was hard. Leaving…
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Mini Doughnuts
A co-worker ((Shout-out to Georgia! Thanks for the recipe!)) brought these baked mini doughnuts to a potluck back in the Spring, and I ate about a dozen of them because they were so good, and I pestered her for the recipe until she surrendered it. But it’s been a busy year, and my dreams of mini doughnuts were put on hold. Last week I finally got myself over to good ol’ Tap Phong to buy some mini doughnut tins, and yesterday I found an unexpected gap in my schedule (I’m part of the team running the Toronto Christmas Market this year, and it’s been a fun, busy time), so I whipped up a…
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Buttermilk Pancakes
When I bake my favourite Chocolate Cupcake recipe, I’m always left with a huge amount of leftover buttermilk and no real idea what to do with it. Often enough, it would end up going to waste, until I started making this recipe. I always think of pancakes as being heavy, boring, and a bit of a hassle to make, but these Buttermilk Pancakes are quick, easy, and fluffy, and pretty good even without maple syrup. I bet they’d be great with honey, too, or with a little lemon juice and icing sugar, like Nana’s Crepes. Ingredients 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1…
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Chocolate Cupcakes
I swear, these chocolate cupcakes are the easiest thing in the whole world. You mix it all in one bowl. Â It takes less than 15 minutes, and then you pop them in the oven. Â Easy-peasy. Like many a child of the 80s, I grew up with cupcakes and cakes made from boxed cake mixes. Â Once I started baking and realized that making cakes from scratch required very little extra work, and resulted in a vastly superior flavour, I was kind-of confused as to why anyone thought that those boxed cake mixes were a good idea. To me, they always end up tasting like stale vegetable oil and sugar, even more…
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Ugly Soup
This is a recipe from my good friend and longtime co-conspirator Ashley, who is a great cook and sometimes posts recipes here. Some years ago when I was feeling pretty under-the-weather, she shared with me this recipe for a soup that she created. This is totally comfort food, for me, when the cold weather hits; it’s essentially a Chicken Noodle Soup, if Chicken Noodle Soup wasn’t salty, bland, and disgusting and was instead somewhat heavenly and delicious. Anyway, now you know where I stand on Chicken Noodle Soup. This recipe will do all of the things you want from said grotty soup, but will do them with vim, vigour, and…
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Three Big Ideas for Peterborough
I’ve had three big ideas for Peterborough for a while – industries that I think could & should be pursued by my hometown, the city with the highest unemployment rate in Canada. Below, I briefly outline why I think they’d fit our town, and what one issue I think needs to be overcome before they can move forward. Film With the film industry a powerful part of Toronto’s economy, Peterborough has already been host to several film crews, and has lots to offer: friendly, cheap, and close to Toronto, we’ve got well-preserved heritage neighbourhoods which could fairly easily be dressed to look like many different eras. We’ve got all the…
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Lentils with Fennel and Sausage
My sister Cassie and I visited Paris last Spring, and by the time we’d gotten from Charles de Gaulle to our hotel in Montmartre and thrown our bags in our room, we were starving. We struck out looking for someplace that would satisfy both me and my vegetarian sister, and found this little corner restaurant with arborite tables and a friendly atmosphere and some vegetarian options on the menu. The waiters were super-nice (as was almost everyone in Paris), complimenting my pathetic attempts at speaking French, and my meal of lentils with fennel and sausage completely floored me. I love lentils in just about every way they can be served,…
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How I got into this mess in the first place
As a kid growing up in a village of about 500 people, pre-Internet, I was a dedicated patriot with a great faith in Canada but almost no exposure to Canadian ideas. Sure, there was CBC, and maybe TVO, but when you’re 13, you want to watch The Fresh Prince of Bell Air, not Adrienne Clarkson Presents. ((I applaud the CBC’s attempt, at the time, to give us more Canadian arts, but I’m sorry to say that they went about it the wrong way, in my opinion.)) I wished that there were Canadian artists to like, but as far as I knew, there weren’t. We, as a nation, had a smattering…
