canadian cooking: 2008

2008 – A Year of Culinary Types

Whether one cooks or not, the kitchen connects all of our lives. In 2008, I was drawn even more closely to the miraculous bond between people and food. The journey introduced me to an uncommon assortment of “Culinary Types.” Along the way, we encountered Bonnie Slotnick and her charming West Village shop, filled to the rafters with antiquarian cookbooks. We tasted the heirloom recipes of

The Christmas Cake

The Christmas season has sped by. There’s been snow, Bach, thin crust pizza, tapas, pear tarts, Jimmy Stewart, butter cookies and the annual office holiday party at mega decibels. And, now Christmas Eve, and lots to prepare. This Christmas Cake is indeed “the dreaded” fruitcake. I’m taking quite a gamble serving this for dessert for Christmas Eve dinner, given the sullied reputation of

Christmas Cookies – Tante Kremer’s Walnut Egg White Kisses

Some bakers are legendary within families. They create confectionary magic with love that stays with you long after the fragrant aromas have left the kitchen. In our family, that baker is my mother’s Tante Kremer. I barely remember Tante, but most holidays, my mom will manage to conjure up a sweet memory of Tante’s baking, be it her elegant Hungarian Nut Torte, or a delicate Christmas cookie.

Royal Banquet

My friend Rocky recently confirmed his title as the King of Paella. My friend Hal2008 is a culinary prognosticator, and has recently been palling around with Frank Bruni. He also says he’s the King of Risotto (this claim is still to be tested). Rocky’s lovely wife enjoys good food, follows politics obsessively and was recently a YouTube sensation.

Two Pear Tarts and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

That song has been playing constantly on satellite radio. And, it’s SO long. So many choruses. I can’t get those lyrics out of my head.Don’t they know we’re officially in a recession? Nobody can afford 12 Days of Christmas gifts, and all the multiples of the previous days.I’ve got more important things on my mind. "The King of Paella" (Rocky), his wife and Hal2008 (who has been palling

Christmas Cookies - Nana’s Sandbakkels

The Barritt’s are not from Scandinavia, although there are a couple of fair-haired blondes in the group. Regardless, every Christmas, we always looked forward to Nana’s signature treat, “sandbakkels,” a crumbly Norwegian almond cookie baked in delicate fluted tins. Nana’s ancestral roots were primarily German. So how did she end up known, among other things, for a Scandinavian Christmas cookie

Drop In & Decorate Delivers Holiday Cheer

Bake. Decorate. Donate.Free how-to guide! Cookies are such a sweet signature of the holidays. A homemade cookie – beautifully decorated – inspires good cheer, evokes memories of loved ones and restores childlike wonder. So many of us have these gifts in abundance, but there are many who aren’t as fortunate. One of my favorite food bloggers, Lydia Walshin of The Perfect Pantry, long ago

A Tennessee Thanksgiving

The early morning sun casts an ethereal, timeless glow across the taupe and buff-dappled fields of Grassland Farms in Shelbyville, Tennessee.Thanksgiving morning is a moment of serenity. There is only the distant clang of a cowbell, the soft mewing of a cat, or the flutter of a bird to be heard.The regal, white antebellum manor house sits majestically on a slight ridge. There is no actual

Happy Thanksgiving – I Swear I Didn’t Steal the Pie

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m heading to Tennessee for an old-fashioned Southern holiday meal, but before leaving, I thought I’d serve up this cautionary tale. If somebody offers you a free pie, you might want to think twice. Last week, a group in the office throws a late afternoon happy hour. On the menu – beer, cupcakes and pie. Don’t look at me. I didn’t plan the menu. Maybe the pairing of

A Small Publishing Milestone for T.W.

Somebody once said, “Good things come to those who wait” (Was it Shakespeare, or Hillary Clinton?). It has certainly tested my patience at times to wait for the publication of “Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl – An Encyclopedia,” but it has finally arrived. “Entertaining…” is a two-volume encyclopedia published by Greenwood Press which contains 120 entries that explore the

Pie for All Seasons

Pie is messy. It doesn't slice very neatly, the crust fractures easily, and the filling eventually becomes a soupy glop on the plate. Yet it is somehow comforting. Pie is familiar, flexible and always ready to adapt. Just like a big, sloppy, wet kiss, pie emanates home, hearth and love.Winter weather has arrived in New York and a frosty wind pummels me as I hurry along Lexington Avenue. The

Twilight at Sophia Garden: The CSA Experiment Concludes

The crescent moon looks like a sliver of fingernail – thumbs down – against the blackened sky as I approach Sophia Garden on foot. It is a cool night. The volunteers are huddled under the canopy and a propane lantern casts a beacon of light across the remaining bins of vegetables.It is my last pickup at Sophia Garden, the heavenly organic farm run by a group of Dominican Sisters on suburban Long

A Cocoa Kiss Meme for Freya

I swear I’m only doing this because I’m so happy Freya is back in the blogosphere as the proprietress of The Cocoa Lounge. I’m not much of a master at memes. When I first started blogging, I didn’t even know what they were. Now, the word seems to come up every other day. I’m also hyperlink-challenged so this could take all afternoon …But, Freya has tagged me and showered me with some lovely

A Tower of Cupcakes Celebrating 80 Years

We celebrated my Dad’s 80th birthday this weekend with family, friends and a tower of cupcakes. Everyone pitched in to choreograph the surprise, and of course, I was on cake duty. Cupcakes seem the appropriate chose for someone who is 80 years young, and we kind of liked the Halloween palette since Dad first arrived in this world on October 31, 1928.And, what a different world it must have been

Cast Your Vote to Bring Back Election Cake

You may not realize that cake has long-standing political connotations.Of course, there’s the infamous “Let them eat cake,” comment from Marie Antoinette. (Remember what happened to her?) Some key political figures have had pastries named in their honor, including the Washington Pie and the Abraham Lincoln Cake. There’s also the highly politicized, national debate on obesity where snack cake is

The King of Paella

Recently, I heard a rumor that my friend Rocky claims to be a member of Spanish culinary royalty.I first get the word from my colleague Hal2001, a creative thinker and epicurean. We are sampling Manchego and chorizo – with a side of red wine – at Despana Gourmet in Jackson Heights. I am admiring the gleaming paella pans perched high on a shelf.“Rocky says he’s the King of Paella,” Hal2001

The Woman Who Revived a Forgotten Food Writer

Clementine Paddleford. Her name sounds like something out of a Rogers and Hammerstein musical, but she was perhaps the most famous food writer of her day. And, when she died in 1967, Clementine Paddleford’s distinctive name and voice all but vanished from the annals of food history. Until now.I first spot Paddleford’s intriguing moniker in a recent Gourmet article about a new biography. The “

Eight-and-a-half Hours in the Sonoma Valley

We’ve dubbed the day the “First Annual Food and Wine Classic.”The conference is over, and fifteen of us have stayed on in the San Francisco Bay Area to, quite simply, wallow in all its gastronomic delights. And, we’re really good at wallowing, especially when it comes to food.Sonoma is that place I’ve never quite gotten to, but almost everyone who mentions it, says they find it even more

The Restaurant Formerly Known as KFC

What is a Spork? I must admit I was totally in the dark. Maybe I don’t get out enough, but for those of you who are as blissfully uninformed as I am, a Spork is an amalgamation of a spoon and a fork, and it allows you to pierce food and scoop food in one easy stroke. The Spork – I am told – is a utensil that originated at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain. So, why am I bringing this

Economic Remedy

Has the news got you down? Global economic woes got you in a slump? Cheer up – apple season is in full swing!Okay, maybe food can’t actually solve everything. If a glistening green Granny Smith is not enough to inoculate you against all the financial and political shenanigans going on at the moment, how about a golden apple cake drenched in bath of buttery-bourbon? The economy is tough, and

Les Dames and Daniel

It is not my typical Saturday lunch. The autumn air is crisp and clean as I stroll along East 65th Street in Manhattan, towards a cream colored building with an art deco façade. I turn left into a large set of revolving doors with burnished trim. On each glass panel is a cocoa-colored plaque embossed with the name DANIEL. Inside, elegantly dressed women are drinking ruby red sparkling

The Whisky Master of Rappahannock County

Rick Wasmund’s unassuming whisky distillery sits on the banks of the Thornton River, near the Shenandoah mountains in Virginia. Much like pioneering homesteaders of bygone days, he pursues a livelihood that is deeply rooted in the aromas, flavors and yield of the land, perfecting an American classic – a single malt whisky infused with the smoky essence of applewood, cherrywood and oak. When I

Pot Luck Night at the Foster Harris House

How does one define the word guest? It is Thursday night at the Foster Harris House in Little Washington, Virginia. Technically, the inn is “closed” for the evening, but I’ve booked an extended stay, and fortunately the MacPhersons have not yet kicked me out. John and Diane have graciously invited me to join them and several friends for a night of food and wine. It promise to be a taste of

Coming Home to Chef Patrick O’Connell’s Country Inn

The seasons have changed several times since my last visit. The Inn at Little Washington is framed with late summer flowers and the air is pleasingly warm.Although it is just 65 miles from densely-populated Washington DC, the Inn seems to exist in another time and place. Think Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, where magic, mythical figures and high adventure rule the night. Having spent the

A Wine Who’s Time Has Come

America’s third President, Thomas Jefferson was a connoisseur of good wine. He drank it every day, called it “indispensible” to his health and lived well into his eighties. Thomas Jefferson was a man after my own heart. Jefferson did much to accommodate this great love, including the creation of an extensive wine cellar at both his mountaintop home of Monticello and his secluded retreat at

Thomas Jefferson’s Vegetable Vision

It is a blistering but bright summer afternoon in Virginia, the kind that might have found Thomas Jefferson inspecting the kitchen garden at his mountaintop estate of Monticello some two centuries ago. Purple and white eggplants shimmer in the afternoon sun and the Blue Ridge Mountains are luminous against the skyline as I walk among the trellises and rows of vegetable plots and try to imagine

The Hand of Friendship, the Art of Breakfast

A framed, counted cross-stitch sampler hangs in the foyer of the Foster Harris House. It depicts a whimsical country cottage with the words, “Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.”The sampler is partially hidden by a large hat tree, but if you manage to spot it, it tells you a great deal about the owners of this bed and breakfast by the side of the road in Little

Locally-Grown Tasting Menu – Whole Wheat Pizza with Summer Squash

Here’s my version of take-out – I prepare a nutty, whole-wheat pizza crust, flavored with honey and wheat germ, and decorate it with yellow and green slices of summer squash, slivers of red pepper, rosemary and crumbled feta cheese. After baking, I take it out to the deck and enjoy with a chilled glass of white wine. It is a beautiful mosaic of summer flavors, perfect for dining al fresco!While I

Locally-Grown Tasting Menu – Marinated Cucumber Salad

The cucumbers are practically popping out of the soil at Sophia Garden these days. For this Marinated Cucumber Salad, the garden-fresh cucumbers are sliced paper-thin, tossed with slices of organic onions and diced green pepper, and dressed in a sweet-and-sour marinate that consists of 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt. Chill overnight for a refreshing

Locally-Grown Tasting Menu – Roasted Beets, Goat Cheese and Candied Walnuts

As a child, I was always suspicious of beets. Now, I’m head-over-heels in love with the bold and brazen scarlet-purple bulbs. These organic beets from Sophia Garden are roasted with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper for about an hour in a 400 degree oven. They are a perfect marriage with fresh-picked greens, goat cheese, candied walnuts and a light vinaigrette. Amore!