A Canadian Food Experience Project A Regional Canadian Food: Simcoe County and Waterloo Region in Ontario This month’s challenge for the Canadian Food Experience Project, which began on June 7th, is to share our collective stories through our regional food experiences. By sharing our stories we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. I’ve been thinking a lot about what regional dishes I’m familiar with. There are a lot of dishes that I make that harken back to my English heritage. I now live in Waterloo Region and if you visit here, you will notice that a common […]
Rhubarb Custard Tart with Buckwheat and Nut Crust (Gluten Free)
Five Reasons Why My Husband Cannot Plan for Dinner Guests On His Own He does not confirm with the person cooking the meal that guests will be coming until the night before. He does not confirm what time people will be arriving. He does not ask if their are any food sensitivity issues. On the day of the dinner he still isn’t sure how many people are coming to dinner. He forgets to serve the dessert when he is left to entertain his guest on his own. Who doesn’t love it when your husband reminds you at 9pm about dinner […]
Simple Gluten-free Buttermilk Buckwheat Waffles
I hate breakfast in bed. I will happily get out of bed, eat breakfast and then go back to bed but I do not want the challenge of balancing a tray on my bed full of sticky food and hot coffee. If it spills I know I will have to do at least some clean up and that is just not worth it. If you like feeling like an invalid and want to eat in bed, then have at it, but I am firmly on #TeamBreakfastAtTables. I wouldn’t say I’m a waffle aficionado, but I really love waffles. I tolerate pancakes, […]
Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Sandwiches with Dulce De Leche
I love how beautifully decorated sugar cookies look, but I don’t eating the Royal Icing. To me it is just sweet with no real flavour. When I made the GF gingerbread cookies at Christmas I only ate the cookies plain. The picky eater in me is alive and well. When I made these sugar cookies I opted to make them into dulce de leche sandwiches. I confess that I have stood in my kitchen and eaten dulce de leche our of the jar with a spoon. Mind you, I’m not the only one in my house that does this. You […]
Gluten Free Caramel Macchiato Cookies
As I was sitting waiting for an appointment all I could think of were these cookies I saw posted on Wanna Be a Country Cleaver. It was a crazy morning with absolutely rotten weather, so I had to rush out of the house without a coffee or breakfast. I thought that I would have time to drive to Starbucks after dropping Timothy off at preschool but it was pretty rough driving so I had to drive straight to my appointment. Twitter was my saving grace that morning. It kept me occupied and I had a little chat with Megan over […]
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
With this gluten-free gingerbread recipe, I think a new family tradition has been born. I always do some baking at Christmas, but not always cookie decorating. When Timothy was just over one-year old, his second Christmas, I bought a gingerbread cookie mix from the grocery store and did some feeble decorating. Timothy loved the cookies and ended up having them for dinner on Christmas Eve. I was too busy to do anything last year with being back to work full-time and George having surgery to remove a mass on his bladder. Thankfully it wasn’t cancer but we have been to […]
Pavlova with Peaches Plus a Few Tips and Tricks
Pavlova is not an overly common dessert here in Canada. I discovered it by way of the glorious Nigella Lawson and her show ‘Nigella Bites’. That show was a revelation to me and I will be forever grateful that Food Network Canada used to actually have cooking shows on their station. Now it is cupcake battles, and Top Chef Thunderdome Extreme Cook-off, reality-show crap. I live in hope that the American station, Cooking Channel will eventually make its way up here. I make this dessert quite frequently since it is naturally gluten-free and definitely little boy approved. I almost always […]
Pasta with Pesto, Peas, Pancetta and Grilled Chicken
This is a meal I crave in the early weeks of summer but is great any time of year if you have had the forethought to freeze pesto or just use store-bought. The thought of the flavour packed pesto combined with the hit of fresh sweet peas, salty bite of pancetta and little bits of mellow mozzarella are making my mouth water as I write this. I make the pesto in a fairly typical way – lots of basil. a clove of garlic, toasted pine nuts, fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, pinch of salt and pepper and lots of olive oil. No great […]
Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Strawberry season is in full swing here in Ontario. I was finally able to get out strawberry picking on Canada Day this past Sunday at Barrie Hill Farms and picked about 20 pounds of berries in a hour. I admit, I had help. Simon picked a few and Timothy was there in a purely supervisory role and to keep my mom in line. I was too tired to make jam on Monday since we had just returned from an extra long weekend away in Niagara Falls and then to visit family in Barrie. The dogs enjoyed their holiday at Nana […]
Carrot Cake with Honey and Cream Cheese Icing with a Gluten-Free Option
I have been planning on posting a carrot cake recipe for quite some time. I make carrot cakes twice a year, one cake for each of my dogs’ birthdays. Don’t run away from reading this recipe – this is a human cake and I give a small piece to my dogs as a treat. Every time I would pull out the Canadian Living recipe that I used to make I would cringe at the disgusting amount of sugar and oil that the recipe calls for. I just felt that it was all really unnecessary so I was determined to do […]