With my company Alberta Food Tours, Inc. I used to develop a different holiday shopping for food lovers tour every year for about seven years. One year we decided to celebrate Canada’s diversity and enjoy learning about how other cultural groups celebrate the winter season. Here’s a few recipes inspired by the deeply fun deep dive we took that season including some fun recipes for Chinese New Year. Continue reading
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A Cowboy Christmas is an excellent theme for Alberta food lovers and I’ve rounded up some of my favourite cowboy cuisine recipes to help that idea along. Whether you find the time to enjoy them over the holidays or you corral them to enjoy later, it’s all good.
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I’ve had this recipe since 1983. I had just finished my nursing degree at Dalhousie University and was working at the IWK Sick Children’s Hospital and living with my dear friend Diane Bliss in Halifax. Diane grew up in Florenceville, New Brunswick and the recipe came from her Aunt Margie. This “Aunt” was not a blood relative but rather a term of endearment for her beloved neighbour Margaret McCain, a woman known for her good taste and devotion to children and family.
The McCain clan did rather well with frozen French fried potatoes. They are rather big in orange juice. And Diane had a fun summer job testing those yummy (addictive) Deep’n Delicious frozen sheet cakes in their corporate kitchens in Flo’ville. As wildly successful as Wallace and Harrison McCain made their company, I can only imagine how ever more exponential their success would have been if they’d added these chewy delicious chocolate chip cookies to their roster of offerings. It would have been a big poke in the belly to that little Pillsbury dough boy. I’m sure of it.
Anyway, I’m very grateful to Diane for making them for me all those years ago and for sharing the recipe. Thirty-five years later, they’re still my favourite. I hope you love them like I do. I truly think they are the best ever. Continue reading
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The crisp, cool days of fall have arrived in Alberta. Yesterday, instead of making salad, I got out my stock pot and made a big pot of soup for our dinner guests and we were all the warmer and cozier for it. The good people at Apple magazine anticipate the shifts in cook’s seasons so, back in June, they asked me for a “how-to” make soup stock column for the fall issue.
This assignment was easy and a pleasure because soup stock is one thing I always have on hand. I add it to my favourite linguini with clam sauce recipe, use it to add flavour to mashed potatoes and of course, I make a variety of great soups with it. Soup means a lot to me. I’m a volunteer for Soup Sisters and have even contributed to three of their best-selling cookbooks. Click the link below to read my column, stock up and have a happy fall making soup to your heart’s content.
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Fall is the time to make soup. Check out my latest column for Alberta Health’s Apple Magazine and > |
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| Stock up | |
Maple apple-stuffed cinnamon buckwheat crepes – photo by Karen Anderson
I actually love winter. And, this one has been fantastic for me as I’ve been able to walk to the end of my driveway, step into my cross-country skis and break my own trail through a blanket of light and fluffy snow more than any other year I can remember.
March came in like a lion (with another foot of snow here in Calgary) so it should go out like a lamb but, in between, I’m going to tuck into more of these Maple apple-stuffed cinnamon buckwheat crepes. It’s a recipe that I developed for Alberta Health Services’ Apple magazine. Click on the link below to find my recipe and the lovely food styling by Sylvia Kong and Shallon Cunningham of Savory Palate and Salt Food Photography respectively. I hope you’ll enjoy this gluten-free apple-filled delight.
We’ll take a bite of these apples and spring will take a bite out of winter. Just relax and savour it all.
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check out my article > |
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| The enjoyable fruit | |
We bond with friends for different reasons. With my friend Lisa Neiles, we have several ties that bind us.
We are both Maritimers and we both love to cook. Add in that we have children the same age and husbands that work long hours, and you’ve got a solid friendship – even if we don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like. When we do get together, it is relaxing and fun. We chat about “home”, kids, hubbies, travel and we share recipes and a good meal.
This post brings you along for some corn chowder and biscuit making in the kitchen with two friends. Continue reading
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I was a nurse for over 20 years. I was a Masters-prepared Nurse Practitioner for 10 of those years. I left that profession because, though I loved working with people, I wanted find ways to help people stay healthy instead of caring for them once they’d become very ill. I saw that the further we got from food as a society the sicker we were getting. I thought writing about food and starting up food tours would be fun ways to engage and connect people with the source of food and all the health and joy it can bring to our lives.
I’m very pleased that after 11 years in my new career I have the opportunity to go full circle and to write for Alberta Health Services’ health magazine (applemag.ca) on the topic of healthy food. It’s a dream come true to write for a magazine whose credo is “Be healthy. Be Well. Be informed.”
In my regular “Food Sight” column I’ll be writing about a different great ingredient each issue. For the food issue I also got to write about five ways to build a healthy plate. Here are the first two pieces. Grab a carrot to munch on and have a read.
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click on the photo to expand to the article > |
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| A carrot close-up | |
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Look inside > |
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| Build a healthy plate | |
