Positively pickled

I think my house smelled like dill pickles for a week after this. It started with garlic dills and dilly beans. And then I bought more cucumbers for making relish. But I had way, way too many. So they became sliced garlic dills, with some added chili to kick them up a notch. I made…

A little something for me

Last week my iPad arrived. It’s taken me some time to get it set up and figure out what apps are good for what and what I want to put on it, but today I really put it to the test, taking it with me to the PSEWeb conference. I had to find an app…

Beautiful Bread

I’ve now made three batches of bread using the methods of Chad Robertson, outlined in his book Tartine Bread, and I’ve finally gotten the hang of it. The first attempt came out quite dense, with all the air distributed in one giant hole located around the centre-top of the loaf. It was so dense it…

Converting to the Church of Chad Robertson

On Monday I went to Kensington Market for my every three-month trip to the dentist, and took the opportunity to visit my favourite butcher in the city, Sanagan’s, as well as my favourite cook book store, Good Egg. Specifically I was on the hunt for a good bread book. I’ve been working with my sourdough…

Two years later, attempting sourdough again

Over the last couple of Christmases I’ve been gifted a couple books by Peter Reinhart, artisanal bread guru, that I had on my wish list on Amazon.ca. I finally got my act together this spring to try my hand once again at sourdough. I’ve had some success — and some fail — this time around….

Macaron mastery

Last Christmas I came across Tartelette’s Eggnog and Candy Cane French Macaron recipe, and thought I ought to try making this delicate, pretty cookie myself. While it the results were edible, they certainly were not the pretty meringue pastries I had been aiming for. I also made the embarrassing mistake of accidentally doubling the butter…

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Cheese

Well, there is no mistaking it. There is definitely a chill in the air and the weather has turned positively frosty. I’m on the hunt for a better coat. Every third farm you drive by has pumpkins for sale. It’s a week until November. That means that brussels sprouts are in season in Ontario! A…

Welcome Ecoholic readers!

Thanks to NOW magazine’s Ecoholic, Adria Vasil, and her story this week about canning foods using BPA-free products. At the end of Adria’s article she mentions my Pear Butter recipe. I hope to make some this week actually, if this cold I’ve gotten doesn’t keep me down for too long. I picked up some pears…

Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes

I have tomatoes coming out of my ears. Goldies, Black Zebras, Purple Calabashes, Aunt Ruby’s Yellow Cherries, Yellow Pears, San Marzanos, Wonder Lights, Sweet 100s, Des Andes, etc., etc. I’ve been giving the cherries away like mad because I just cannot keep up with them, until this week when I found a really fabulous recipe…

Canning quickie

I know after all those posts last week I’ve kind of disappeared again this week, but it’s because I bit off a bit more than I could chew with the canning and the sewing this week. Bought a bushel of roma tomatoes on Monday and set to work making tomato sauce, and holy cow was…