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Merry Ecksmas: Yuletide traditions from the House of Shaw
Ah Christmas; it’s easy to be snarky or soppy about it, and you don’t see much else. I like Christmas, generally speaking, though I’m not religious. There are plenty of things about it that trouble me, and I get the reasons behind what some people call ‘political correctness’ – which I consider to just be ‘correct’. You can’t assume that everyone is celebrating the same thing; it’d be like assuming that everyone loves bubblegum icecream, which is clearly an insane assumption. I don’t mind people saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to me; but then, I also don’t mind someone saying ‘Happy Hanukkah’ or ‘Happy Solstice.’ I like a lot of religions; if…
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Simple Stew with Black-Eyed Peas, Collard Greens and Potatoes
For a stew that is so plain and simple and straightforward, this is really delicious. I like brothy stews with loads of fresh vegetables and very little salt or other junk, and this is perfect. A great meal for early spring, when you really need an injection of healthy greens and vitamins but it’s still cold enough for comfort food. It’s also really good for lunch the next day. Ingredients 4 cups broth (or water, which what I usually use) 8 cups collard greens, chopped 1 can diced tomatoes 2 cups red potatoes, cut into 1/2″ slices 1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained Ground black pepper to taste Directions…
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Summer Herb Vinaigrette
I often make this from a handful of herbs out of our garden – usually thyme, basil, oregano and sage – though last year my huge, beautiful purple sage died, after three years of flourishing, so this year there’s no sage in my garden. Whatever herbs you use, this salad dressing is a million times tastier than anything you’re going to get in a grocery store. Ingredients 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons vinegar 2 tablespoons (or more) of fresh chopped herbs, such as tarragon, oregano, dill, cilantro, sage, basil 2 tablespoon chopped shallot 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon honey Directions Whisk together all ingredients until thoroughly mixed.…
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Tasty Two-Bean Salad
To me, this Tasty Two-Bean Salad recipe feels like Summer - like a Summer road trip to a family reunion, or a baby shower in someone's back yard, or a picnic in the park.
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German Potato Salad
I don’t know why we call this German Potato Salad, or what in particular makes it German, or where the recipe came from in the first place, but I remember my mother making it when I was a kid and taking it in a big green tupperware bowl to potlucks and family reunions. I’m copying this from my mom’s recipe box index cards. We still make it quite often; it’s simple, and relatively low-calorie compared to a lot of recipes you see. Very flavourful; it’s always popular whenever I take it anywhere. Ingredients 6 large potatoes 1/2 cup vinegar 1/4 teaspoon celery seed 6 green onions, chopped 2 tablespoons parsley,…
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Rachel’s Oatmeal (and Chocolate Chip) Cookies
These cookies are a favourite at our house; really simple to make, and crazy-delicious. Sammi makes them often. They’re supposed to be plain oatmeal cookies, but when you add chocolate chips, something magic happens. I can’t remember ever having made these without chocolate chips. Ingredients 1 cup Flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup rolled oats dark chocolate chips (as many as you like) Directions Preheat oven to 374F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In another bowl, beat together butter, brown and…
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Caesar Salad Dressing
I started making this salad in high school, when I got the recipe from the restaurant I worked at. It’s delicious, super-garlicky, and piquant. It knocks the socks off those bland, creamy supermarket Caesar dressings, and is a lot less calorie-ish, if you’re worrying about that. The first time I made this, I mistook my handwriting and thought I was being goofy, and omitted the 1 egg it called for (‘legg’? What the heck did I mean by ‘legg’?), and I found it a million times better without the egg. You can add one if you like. Comment below to let me know how your Casar Salad turned out! Ingredients…
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Pumpkin Pie
One of the greatest pleasures of Autumn is pumpkin pie. I wasn’t converted until I was well into my twenties; the idea of vegetables in desserts didn’t sit well with me. Nowadays, as soon as the weather turns cooler I start to think of the creamy deliciousness of my own homemade pumpkin pie. I got this recipe from Terri, who took me under her wing when I was at theatre school and away from my family for the first time. Whether for Thanksgiving, Hallowe’en, or just to celebrate Fall and harvest-time, this easy pumpkin pie recipe is exactly the thing you’re looking for. As with all of my sweet recipes,…
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Music is a part of the festival, not the point of the festival.
So the Peterborough Folk Festival pulled off beautifully; The opening Gala with Ian Tamblyn was perfect, standing-room-only. The Saturday free festival was somewhat hampered by rain in the morning, and I think we had half our usual attendance (I also didn’t realize, I think, how many people come from out of town to PFF) due to the forecast sounding dire and miserable. But it turned out to be a beautiful day, with people saying ‘best PFF ever.’ And the workshops at Sadleir House were well-attended (better-attended than I anticipated by half) and really, really good. I am continuing, as I had planned, as Artistic Director, and stepping down as Executive…
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Optimism, Intelligence, and Imagination.
When I was a kid in the 80s in Ontario, the environmental movement took hold of the mainstream. By that, I mean people start talking about it over the dinner table, on the nightly news, teaching about it in public school classrooms. David Suzuki become a household name.  It became commodified; you could buy products that had slogans about saving the Earth silkscreened on them. There was a burst of enthusiasm; composters became commonplace, and a recycling program began in my little village. There were two very clear messages I took with me from that time; the first and most solid was the white men in suits who said,…
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Pie Pastry (Basic)
This recipe is from a copy of The Canadian Cookbook which my Uncle Johnny gave to my Mom for Christmas in 1975. ((In a strange coincidence, I won a copy of the exact same book at a pie-making competition where the pie I’d entered used this pastry recipe!)) I’ve copied it directly with a couple of side notes where I differ from the ladies who wrote the recipe. Trust me when I say you should not go check with Martha or any of the other gods of the food world; just trust me and the 1970s, and follow this recipe to the letter, and you will have a pretty good…
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Nana Cynthia’s Crepes
My Nana Cynthia gave this recipe to my sister Sammi when she was about 10; we wanted crepes, so Sammi called up Nana and copied down the recipe from her. We were all pretty amused to see that Sammi had spelled them ‘creaps.’ To my mind, paper-thin, hot crepes with lemon juice and icing sugar are both the only way to eat crepes, and they are the best treat in the world. But this crepe is a neutral base, and you can use it for sweet or savoury fillings. This recipe simultaneously reminds me of my Nana and my sisters as well as Paris, which I’ve visited in the Springtime…
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How Meeting Jordan Knight Changed My Life
On January 9, 2006, not long after I had put together my first rough design of Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict, I posted this sentence in my journal: Jordan Knight, of the New Kids on the Block, is playing The Red Dog in Peterborough on January 31. Tickets are $20. No, this isn’t a joke. I am so totally there. When I was 13 or so, miserable, the least-cool kid in the village where I grew up, I was a super-huge fan of Jordan Knight and the New Kids on the Block. I had the requisite t-shirt, the wall covered with photos carefully ripped from the pages of Tiger…
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Apple Pie
Easy-peasy, lovely and delicious, Apple Pie is the perfect thing for just about every day, if you feel like it. I know oldsters and orchard-owners will tell you all kinds of things about which apples make the best pie, but I’d say that MacIntoshes and Granny Smiths are the absolute best apples for pie making that are regularly available in most grocery stores (in Canada, anyway). I know other apples hold together better in the pie, but taste is my issue, not texture, and you can’t beat Macs and Grannies for perfect sweet-tartness. If you want a pie that tastes less like a straight-ahead old-fashioned version and more like candied…
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Baguettes
Baking bread can be really, really simple. Just let yourself give this recipe a shot – I never get really beautiful-looking baguettes out of this, but I do get delicious fresh bread straight from the oven. This recipe makes 4 loaves (you can freeze them and thaw them later if, like me, you don’t go through 4 loaves in a day or two – or they make really good French Toast, if they’ve gone a little stale). Ingredients 1 teaspoon dry active yeast 2 cups warm water 4-5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt Directions Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Stir with a fork. Set aside for…
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Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
This cheesecake is the most dreamy, delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten – and I’m not a cheesecake person, so it takes a lot to tempt me. The water bath is the secret to a smooth, lovely texture, as it makes sure everything bakes evenly. This recipe is so simple, a beginner could easily handle it; don’t be intimidated by springform pans and all that; it really is the simplest thing possible. Ingredients 150 g Oreo cookie crumbs 75 g butter, melted 600 g cream cheese 150 g icing sugar 3 large eggs 3 large egg yolks 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice 250 g chocolate chips…
