What do you call baked fruit with an oat/flour/butter topping? Crisp? Crumble? Cobbler? I usually say crisp, though the usual oat and butter topping is more crumbly than crispy. A cobbler is more cakey, no?
Well, whatever you call it, I’ve got a new take that has become one of my favourites.
It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s delicious. It’s healthy. Can you ask for anything more in a recipe? It only has three, yes, three ingredients. Click to continue reading
The classic combination of bacon and eggs combine to make a light summer meal salad. Topped off with an avocado dressing, it could be for breakfast or any other meal. The kids polished this off quickly!
Is any woman, young or old, immune to a negative perception of their own body at some point? I exclude men, not because they don’t have issues with body image, but because I know little of their body-self relationship; not only have I not talked to many men about this subject, I’m inclined to think they speak less of it in general.
There is, of course, always the question of weight, but body image involves issues like uneven ears, large foreheads, or knobby knees. As a teenager I would have had nose surgery in a second, now the idea is abhorrent to me (although I am convinced it did grow before the rest of me).
But our views about ourselves are not always based on reality. For example, as a teen I always considered myself chubby, even though I was quite active in sports. I don’t really know if I was or not, to be honest, I haven’t looked at pictures from that age in an eon. I was rather laid back about it though and contented myself with dabbing fat off of pizza. Fortunately, I was never tempted to throw up or starve myself. After my first child, I could fit into a pair of shorts from high school and considered myself a skinny minny. Same size, different perspective. Click to continue reading
Any fruit can be used to make this juice concentrate. Keep in the fridge and pull out to make an instant glass of cold apricot nectar to drink on hot summer days.
It’s apricot season right now, trees are laden with orange spheres of tart flesh. It’s rather decorative, orange set against green. When tree fruits are in season, however, they come in a deluge but are soon over, gone for another year.
When we had the first basket of apricots, my husband buried his face in them and inhaled. “Ah,” he sighed, “the smell of summer.” When he was a child, his family would pick boxes of apricots and take them to sell in a spa town. Click to continue reading
Eggplant, or aubergine, forms the creamy base for this dairy free pasta sauce but you’d never guess it! Paired with chicken and topped with zucchini noodles, or zoodles, this makes a filling and delicious meal.
Living with four children in an apartment, as is our current situation, is far from my ideal. I eagerly look forward to having a yard someday. There are, however, positives to most circumstances.
The other day I was in the kitchen and the shouts of children outside brought a smile to my face. It reminded me of the good ol’ days before technology, you know, the ones when kids walked barefoot to school uphill both ways after milking cows in the morning. Click to continue reading
Sometimes accidents are happy.
I went into a bio shop (health food store) the other day looking for carob, which I happen to actually like. The package I bought was opaque and when I opened it at home I realized that the powder was much lighter than normal. It was only then that I noticed that on the package was written “raw carob”.
Most carob powder, made from the pod of the carob tree, is dark brown. Roasting the pod creates a strong, very distinct flavour. I like it, some hate it. Raw carob, on the other hand, is a light brown and has a much more subtle flavour.
I apologize in advance – this is the third fruit/herb mix that I’ve posted in a row. But on the other hand, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Fruit and herbs are delectable together, and I’m here to make sure more people get to experience their complementary awesomeness.
When I came to Europe, one difference that took me by surprise was the water. Europeans buy water more than I remember in North America, and there are so many options to choose from. Most people buy sparkling water, which I still haven’t really gotten used to. There are three types of water: no fizz, lightly fizzy, and regularly fizzy. Click to continue reading
My sister Kazuko visited me in Slovakia a few years ago. It was hot and we bought a large watermelon for the kids to slurp on the balcony, juice dripping down their chins. She started to cut into it.
“It has seeds!” she exclaimed. “I haven’t seen seeds in a watermelon for ages!”
The problem with foraging wild flowers is that they are rather finicky.
If it rains, it washes away the pollen and reduces the taste of the flowers. This year it started to rain heavily just when the lilacs came into bloom. Last year I made an amazing lilac ice cream; this year it had no taste.
Some flowers all bloom in one shot, so that they are available only for a short time. Behind my inlaws’ village is an avenue lined with black locust trees; when in bloom the fragrance in the air is intoxicating. The trees look like they are covered in snow and white blossoms drift to the ground like large perfumed snowflakes. But if you’re a little late, too bad. I missed the peak of the black locusts and, while I managed to gather a handful of late blossoms, the recipe didn’t turn out the first time. Click to continue reading
If you’ve continued to read on after the title, congratulations – it means that you haven’t keeled over from the thought of eating a heart, as in, the organ. If you’ve only risen from keeling over, you might want to skip this post, although nutritionally speaking you’ll be sorry if you do.
If you’re actually interested in eating a beef heart, I heartily toast you as being an adventurous eater, at least if you are from North America. To most of the rest of the world, I think, eating organs is no big deal. Click to continue reading