I was very cleverly away from Montreal during the record snowfall just before New Year’s, but the consequences are in many ways still visible weeks afterwards. Snow has been carted away and sidewalks cleared, but there are still beautiful drifts on the mountain, gleaming distractingly outside my classroom window. The short-cut alley is still full [...]
A great joy over the past few months has been how ready everyone has been, not just to accomodate new-found food intolerances, but to help me find my feet in a gluten-free world. Before an event, whether a small gathering at a friend’s house or some larger function for the department at school, I’ll be [...]
This post was going to be a bit of a whiny one, complaining about how much trouble I’m having making gluten-free lunches, given the fact that (a) salad greens don’t survive a half-hour walk through sub-zero temperatures very easily, (b) I refuse to use a microwave, or even to allow a friend to microwave things [...]
This has been my view a good deal of the time recently. Yes, the dreary weather has finally reached Montreal. I’ve been surprised at how little I’ve minded. But there are far too many things to be happy about right now to let a little wet weather—or even the nasty cold that’s been decimating the [...]
Last weekend I visited a local farm stand. It was the first time it had been open all year, a little early thanks to an unusually warm spring. The stars of the show were unquestionably the strawberries, freshly-picked, cheerful, and two weeks ahead of schedule. But lurking at the back of the stand was one [...]
I’m not sure why, but there’s something about going to this particular store with this particular friend which exposes all the unexpected gaps in my culinary education. We’re standing in the bulk aisle at a natural foods store at Jean-Talon, marveling at all the different varieties of nuts. Not only are there about ten different [...]
When I hear the word tortilla, I think about California. I think about watching the tortilla maker shape golden dough into paper-thin disks and baking them. I think about Diego Rivera, and burritos, and the way my sister always seems to make quesadillas when it’s her turn to cook dinner. I definitely don’t think about [...]
When life gives you lemons, they say, make lemonade. When life gives you a free carton of Greek yogurt, make salmon cakes with yogurt-dill sauce. I have much to learn when it comes to fish. We never ate it much at home when I was small: fish, along with Beef Wellington, asparagus, and other such [...]
Sometimes I am lazy with guacamole, just mashing up some avocado with a bit of salsa. It’s okay, but—I’m so glad when I’m not lazy. Guacamole is one of those Good Ugly Foods, at least if you tend to leave avocados a little bit too long so they get nasty brown bits that you eat [...]
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at homemade Eggs Benedict ever since I tasted them for the first time last Easter. It was a chilly April morning—not the -30°C of six weeks earlier, but still a nippy 14° or so. Nevertheless, practical being that I am, I had declared spring with a summery dress [...]
