Start cooking bacon and a crowd will gather. Everything is better with bacon is one of the universal truths in cooking. It is hard to resist the salty, smoky flavour, the crisp texture and the aroma. Even my vegetarian daughter salivates at the smell of bacon. If you don’t like the mess of frying bacon […] Read more
Tag Archives Country Kitchen — page 2
Add zing with mustard
Mustard in all its forms from whole seed to powdered to prepared is a pantry staple that adds zip and zing to what you are eating. Prepared mustards range from yellow mustard to Dijon-style to coarse hardy mustards. Each has its own flavour, heat level and texture and add its own unique flair to what […] Read more
Make your own vinaigrette
Choose an Oil Choose an Acid Add Seasoning
A great salad starts with a fabulous vinaigrette. A basic vinaigrette blends an acid, usually vinegar or lemon juice, with a vegetable oil, salt, pepper and other seasonings. Preparing your own vinaigrette allows you to control the flavour as well as the fat content. Traditional proportions are three parts oil to one part vinegar. For […] Read more
Quinoa: versatile and easy to cook
Not many years ago, quinoa was thought of as a specialty grain that only vegetarians and people on gluten-free diets ate. I remember watching a young couple in the grocery store discussing what to do with it and how to pronounce it. Today quinoa (keen–wah) is much more mainstream and most people recognize it and […] Read more
The more you know about food safety, the safer you are
Ground meats
More than four million Canadians get some form of food poisoning annually. Most recover quickly with no lasting complications but sometimes the effects can be serious, even deadly. Food poisoning is caused by eating food that is contaminated with unsafe microbes, mostly bacteria, but can also be caused by viruses, moulds, parasites and chemicals. Although, […] Read more
Tantalizing meals at the turn of a page
Cookbooks make a great gift for almost anyone on your list. Here are a few recent titles that are favourites of mine and make perfect gifts. Canada’s Favourite Recipes. 2012 by Rose Murray and Elizabeth Baird. Published by Whitecap Books. This book won the 2013 Taste Canada Cookbook of the Year. It is a collection […] Read more
Coffee time
“Behind every successful person is a substantial amount of coffee,” reads a plaque in my office. Coffee has seen me through late nights spent studying and writing papers at university and the blurry, lack of sleep days of early motherhood. Now it is the kick start I need each morning. New research indicates that coffee, […] Read more
Canadian grown super food: barley
Wild forms of the super food barley may have been harvested as early as 17000 BC. The fourth largest crop grown in Canada today was also used in beer making as far back as 3200 BC. Why is barley a super food? Barley has two health claims to make: one from Health Canada and one […] Read more
Flax: super food packed with health benefits
Flaxseed Can Replace Eggs in Baking
Health Canada approved a health claim linking ground whole flaxseed with lowering blood cholesterol. The claim states that eating five tablespoons (75 mL) of ground milled flaxseed each day over three meals can help reduce cholesterol. Why is flaxseed a super food? Flaxseed is high in fibre. Like other Canadian grown super foods such as […] Read more
Frittata frenzy: brunch for the family
It all started with trying to find an easy way to host a large family brunch and it turned into a frittata frenzy. It was more fun then frenzy with several family members coming early to help chop vegetables and whisk eggs. We got creative with the ingredients and suddenly three frittatas turned into five, […] Read more
