Which fermented foods are in your pantry? Just about every serious cook or foodie has one or more fermented foods in their pantry. Whether it be kombucha, sourdough bread or a mason jar filled with sauerkraut burbling on top of the fridge. Fermented foods could not be more in the spotlight, inspiring today’s cooks to […]
The Extraordinary Italian Taste
The extraordinary Italian taste Have you ever returned home from the grocer only to discovered that the expensive bottle of what you thought was Italian olive oil is actually not Italian at all? The label sure looks Italian and the name sounds Italian, but what’s in the bottle has never set foot in Italy. It’s not […]
Tagliatelle con Zucchine e i Loro Fiori
West End farmers market The farmers market has finally started in the West End of Vancouver and we had our first walk through of the season a few weekends ago. It was a perfect day with the sun shining. A nice spread of veggies (organic and conventional), honey, preserves, farm fresh meat, even some tasty artisanal potato chips were […]
Sustainable Living: A Year of Practiculture
Food manipulated for your convenience Having worked in many kitchens, I’ve heard tons of infuriating stories of cheap food being transformed with an overwhelming degree of manipulation and over-packaging. To a point that when you finally do get the product unwrapped it often has the nutritional value of a newspaper. Masked with a label written by a magician, […]
The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning: a review
The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning The landscape of our cookbook collection has changed a little lately and we like it. The idea of living off the grid and being self-sufficient has never been so appealing and, in light of the looming US election, we are definitely not alone in yearning to escape society […]
Water kefir, the wonder drink
What the hell is that? Most people’s reaction when they hear I am brewing water kefir is “what the hell is that?” And that’s when I launch into a kind of (but not really) complicated explanation of what kefir is and the benefits of its consumption slowly lulling them to sleep. It is when the […]
SLOW BRAISED CHICKEN IN A PORCINI SAUCE
Chicken and porcini On our whirlwind day trip up to Florence we took in the Mercato Centrale with tons of tasty treats to choose from, beautifully displayed to attract customers. One thing that was plentiful were dried porcini mushrooms. A tip for anyone looking to buy top quality dried porcinis is to make sure they […]
LUMACHELLE
Lumachelle Orvieto has become our go to town for the weekly market, dinners out and meeting up with friends. The town is best known for its incredible white wine, Orvieto Classico, but also has had an amazing history since Etruscan times. If you’re nearby and your itinerary does not include Orvieto you are definitely missing […]