Are you drooling from that first photo? Me, too. I didn’t take it, though. I still have plenty to learn about making drool worthy photographs, but right now my focus is on my family (hello new baby!) and work. Yes, work. I returned to work this week. I barely have time to cook, let alone blog, and as I perused my draft posts, I knew I had to share this recipe pronto. Read the rest of this entry »
My mom had a (self-imposed) daunting task: use up all the poppy seeds. How many poppy seeds could she possibly have? A cup or two? No, more like 10 cups of poppy seeds. As such, Rob and I were the recipients of many, many poppy seed infused desserts this summer. In particular, everyone enjoyed these vegan lemon poppy seed cupcakes. Read the rest of this entry »
I was hoping to do a mid-season garden update but it took too long for me to share my July photos. I will try to photograph my current August jungle because it is quite impressive now that it is finally time for harvest. Read the rest of this entry »
Want to know what I would consider a lot of spinach? 2 pounds.
It can take me a week to finish a clamshell of baby spinach but I I figured 2 bunches of regular spinach would be 2 lbs. After prepping and removing the stems from both bunches, I barely had a pound of spinach.
Still eager to make this dish, I added our emergency package of frozen spinach (the convenience of it being de-stemmed was not lost on me) and while I still didn’t have enough spinach for the recipe, it was certainly plenty of spinach! Read the rest of this entry »
One of my favourite and easiest vegetables to freeze are red bell peppers. Last year, we bought a huge bucket of red peppers at the Farmer’s Market and I diligently cut, cored and seeded them before popping them in the deep freezer. Many months later and we are still chomping through them. I purposely baked a bunch of them here.
Even though Lick Your Plate is not a vegan cookbook (you can see my review here), I was intrigued by some of the simple fish recipes. Swapping tofu would be very, very easy and would also benefit from flavourful marinades. While this was a bit more involved than most of my tofu recipes, the marinade and glaze were both excellent. Read the rest of this entry »
So, I must admit I got talked out of planting anything last weekend and it was probably for the best. We had a few chilly nights which might not have been great. Otherwise, the garden is ready (we added some top soil and coconut coir to the lasagna garden) and just waiting for plants. I am waiting for my order of asparagus rootlets which I am super excited about. Mostly excited about the possibility of endless years of homegrown asparagus, even though I know I won’t be able to harvest anything at all this year.
Rob and I went to New York City (and Brooklyn) last week. When we left Toronto, it was snowing and cold (definitely felt like winter). We were happy to drive a bit further south for even a minor relief. After a week of walking all over Manhattan, we returned to even warmer temperatures in Toronto! Our friend’s toddler was playing in a kiddie pool, it was that warm and summer-like. Read the rest of this entry »
You have probably noticed I have been struggling with the blog lately. I am barely eking out a post per week. It is a combination of a few things: less time spent cooking and less time to blog about it. It certainly isn’t that I have stopped eating (HA!) but I found myself nodding when I read Ginny’s latest post about Vegan Food for People Who Don’t Cook. Combined with quite a few batches of my Easy Vegan Lasagna, and incessant snacking on hummus and crackers, it feels like I have been eating hummus non-stop. And no, I wasn’t even making it myself, the bulk of it came from store-bought varieties. Not sorry. Read the rest of this entry »
Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. We ended up at my in-laws over the long weekend and I felt like I was on an episode of Iron Chef. I was tasked with making something to eat with the ingredients from the kitchen. My ingredients included cooked lentils, cooked mixed grains, kale, tomato, cucumber, radish, capers, oranges and lemons. I quickly thought about putting them all into the same one-dish meal, but ended up making a veg-heavy kale salad as a side and used the lentils and grains separately (to be shared later).
It has been a while since I flipped through Terry’s Salad Samurai. I know salads are not just for the summer, but I smiled pleasantly as I looked through the chapters aimed at the colder months. I bookmarked the Beet Balls and Fries Salad after reading Nicole’s raving review, and felt now, during the winter, was a perfect time to whip up a salad featuring root vegetables. Read the rest of this entry »
I remember someone told me they didn’t like curry because it always tastes like curry powder. Well, if you always use the same curry powder, of course they will be similar. Most of the time, I don’t use curry powder and try to use the individual spices to create new concoctions each time.
Examples: Martinique Sweet Potato Coconut Curry, A Riff on Massaman Curry, Cauliflower and Chickpea Balti, Cauliflower Dal with Panch Poran, and our favourite Nepalese Dal Bhat. Read the rest of this entry »
This post is a two-fer.
First, I made the most awesome pear butter this weekend. Salted caramel pear butter. Oh yeah. Read the rest of this entry »
My lunches do not normally look like this. But it was so pretty, I had to snap a picture of my lunch to-go earlier this month.
One of the first things I moved into my office was a mini-fridge so I could easily store leftovers. I might bring a big batch of beans and a large salad and keep them in the fridge all week until nothing is left, replenishing through the week and supplementing with a fresh apple each day. By the end of the week, I might cobble together all the remnants for a take-away lunch. Read the rest of this entry »
It is much more obvious in these photos that I like to overstuff my wraps.
With so many different parts, I wouldn’t want each bite to miss out. Read the rest of this entry »
Rob and I have been fine tuning our hosting skills this summer. Rob tends to the grill and I make the sides and dessert. If I am lucky, I also try to make an appetizer. Sometimes we don’t realize how long it will take to grill everything and we don’t want hangry guests, so we always try to have something to nibble on.
Hummus and carrots usually work very well. Complete honesty here, we have been purchasing hummus this summer even though it only takes 5 minutes to whip up delicious dips like our favourite hummus, this Hummus-Tzatziki Fusion or this Spinach Miso Dip.
Bite-size veg filled treats for the win. Although a bit labour intensive, these rice paper rolls are perfect as a light appetizer. They keep well although should not be made too far in advance (the rice paper will get gummy).
I liked this version with just cooked carrots with ginger-sesame flavours and combined with fresh and colourful vegetables and cilantro. The Thai inspired flavours paired well with the peanut sauce spiked with orange zest, garlic and ginger.
I hope to share some delicious desserts next. 🙂
the taste space 