• The Perfect Omelette
    Recipes

    The Perfect Omelette

    Okay, the title is hyperbole – it’s a big claim to say that you can tell someone how to make the perfect omelette, and I’m still learning.  I suspect that it’s one of those things that you can work your whole life to perfect.  But this is as close to perfection as I’ve gotten it, and since I’ve reached new-to-me heights of omelette perfection, I thought I’d share. My go-to version is a fried onion and cheddar cheese omelette, but you can do any kind of fillings you like; the varieties are endless, and it’s very much about personal taste.  This one is my staple because I always have cooking…

  • Pear and Cardamom Caramel Cake
    Baking,  Recipes

    Pear and Cardamom Caramel Cake

    I love cardamom, and a couple of years ago my sister Cassie gave me a beautiful cookbook, The Cardamom Trail, by Chetna Makan.  Aside from having beautiful pictures and lots of great writing, the recipes are fantastic.  And tis weekend, I decided to try making the Pear and Cardamom Caramel Cake. I’ve never done an upside-down cake before, and it’s even been a while since I made anything in a springform pan! I had to buy a new one to make this recipe, as I made my delicious cheesecake for a friends’ birthday about a year ago, and left the springform at their place. I don’t know if it’s just me,…

  • Pickled Onions
    Canning and Preserving,  Recipes

    Pickled Onions

    Last Summer I had tacos that came with pickled onions as a topping, and something about the flavours made me slightly obsessed.  I thought about making pickled onions on and off for ages, but couldn’t find a recipe I really liked the look of, so I sort-of forgot about it.  Then a few weeks ago I was in Montreal for the Folk Alliance International conference, and I was served a dish with the most delicious pickled onions ever, and it reminded me that they are easy to make and that I ought to just give them a shot and see if I could come up with something I liked. I…

  • Lemon Cake Vegan
    Baking,  Recipes

    Lemon Cake (Vegan!)

    I’m generally pretty suspicious of vegan baking – I’ve tried a few nearly-inedible vegan sweets in the past that really turned me off. But there are a lot of great bakers out there who’ve found ways to make really wonderful vegan treats, and in looking through their recipes I found that there’s a pretty consistent formula – somehow the vinegar does the trick. This lemon cake is tasty and moist, and honestly you wouldn’t know it was vegan by taste or texture. I baked this cake last week for my sister Sammi’s birthday – she and my other sister, Cassie, were doing Vegan February, so my usual go-to birthday treats,…

  • Apple Cider Doughnuts
    Baking,  Recipes

    Apple Cider Doughnuts

    There’s a crispness in the air, the smell of woodsmoke and leaf mould fills my nose, and the trees are blazing in beautiful colours.  All I want to do is bake and make comfort food, but I have a broken wrist, so most of my favourite recipes which involve rolling out dough or chopping vegetables are out of reach for the next few weeks while my bone knits back together. So here’s a recipe that I can do one-handed, and I’m sure you can too, though if you don’t have to I wouldn’t recommend it. These doughnuts are baked, so really they’re kind-of a circular muffin, but they’re very cute…

  • Nana Cynthia's Crepes
    Recipes

    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…

  • Salted Golden Caramel Bars
    Baking,  Recipes

    Salted Golden Caramel Bars

    Salted Golden Caramel Bars are a fabulous recipe – simple, quick, and completely irresistible once it’s done.  A pan of these rarely lasts more than a day at our house; that salty, gooey, buttery deliciousness is too hard to resist. I know salted caramel is a fad from a few years ago, but it’s also a classic – one of those things that will never go out of style. The other great thing about these bars is that they’re essentially glammed-up, slightly more adult, vegetarian Rice Krispie Squares. A lot of people don’t realize that marshmallows aren’t vegetarian (they’re made with gelatin, which is made from bones), and strict vegetarians…

  • Mom's Bread
    Baking,  Recipes

    Mom’s Bread

    One of the best things about visiting home is my mom’s bread – fresh, homemade, and delicious.  She makes this recipe at least once a week, freezing two of the loaves to preserve their freshness until they’re ready to be eaten. They keep pretty well for a week or so in the freezer, probably longer. If my sisters and I are around, she has to bake a little more often – the moment that these loaves come out of the oven, we’ve often devoured half of a loaf, piping hot with loads of butter.   Great as toast or for sandwiches, this is a nice flexible recipe. Thought baking bread…

  • Chocolate Pavlova
    Baking,  Recipes,  Shaw Christmas Favourites

    Chocolate Pavlova with Fresh Fruit

    Over the holidays this year, the temperatures were frigid – sometimes as cold as -31 C, but often -20 C, so we spent a lot of time indoors. As a result, my sister Cassie and my mom and I watched a lot of the Great Canadian Baking Show and the Great British Baking Show while quilting and knitting, and it inspired us to try some new things, including this Chocolate Pavlova. Though Cassie swears we’ve made a Pavlova before, I can’t remember ever trying it, so as far as I’m concerned, this was my first one. I was initially going to go with a plain vanilla Pavlova, but Cassie was…

  • Croissants
    Baking,  Recipes,  Shaw Christmas Favourites

    Croissants

    2019 Update: I’ve cleaned up the recipe to make it easier to understand, and added new photos. 2017 Update: I first published this recipe in 2009, at which time we’d been making croissants for three years, so it looks like it’s been a family tradition for more than a decade now.  It’s nice to see things you’ve come to know and love have longevity; I remember when we began creating the traditions that we wouldn’t do without, after years of sad, stressed, miserable Christmases. Now it’s a time of year we all look forward to, which is the best thing. Original post 2009:  Croissants have started to become a Christmas…

  • Crepes
    Recipes

    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…

  • Buttermilk Pancakes
    Recipes

    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…

  • Nana Cynthia's Crepes
    Recipes

    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…