Smoky Salted Sipping Caramel

 

Smoky Mountain Lemonade

Vegan Aquafaba Mayonnaise

  

We use a lot of chickpeas in our house, in everything from hummus to salads.   Up until a couple of years ago, it never occurred to me to use the leftover chickpea brine for anything, let alone as an egg substitute in both savoury recipes and desserts.   It turns out aquafaba, which is latin for “water bean”, aka bean water, makes a great replacement for recipes that call for egg whites. This past summer I tried a lemon meringue pie with aquafaba meringue, and delicate aquafaba macarons – the quality was so close to recipes made with egg whites it was hard to tell the difference.

Lobster Chowder

This is a rich chowder packed with hearty bits of lobster. It can be served in smaller bowls as a side dish, or larger bowls as the main course. 

Alberta Style Beef on a Bun

While I’ve called Western Alberta my home for most of my life, I spent a year living in Southern Alberta back in the early 2000’s. For that brief moment in time, Hanna was where I called home. 

While living there, I noticed that every single local event, fundraiser, rummage sale, rodeo, or business barbecue I attended involved a Southern Alberta staple – “Alberta Style Beef on a Bun”.  It didn’t matter if it was summer, fall, winter, or spring, if you were having an event in Hanna, this style of beef on a bun would be there.

Most beef on a bun recipes involve thinly shaved slices of roasted beef, topped with barbecue sauce, and nestled on a bun.  Alberta Style Beef on a Bun is unique in that it involves slow cooking the beef in a homemade barbecue sauce, and shredding the beef rather than slicing it. The result is a sweet, smoky, melt in your mouth beef on a bun experience.

Though it’s been several years since I lived in Hanna, and a solid few years since I’ve had a chance to visit, whenever I make this recipe I’m transported back to the year I spent there. I reminisce about all of the great memories that I made, most of them accompanying a bun or two topped with this Hanna hometown favourite.   

Turkey Leftovers Soup

  It's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, and I have zero plans.  It's been a really long time since I've had zero plans for a couple of day, let alone a 3 day weekend.  I saw that my local grocery store had a really awesome sale on turkey's, so I picked one up and threw it in the oven around 1pm yesterday.   

Alberta Open Farm Days: Wooden Shoes Dairy

Alberta Open Farm Days: Leaman Exchange

 

A replica of the family's gas station, owned by Cecil Sharman

The Sharman family has lived in the Wildwood area for nearly 100 years, on Leaman Road, located just 15 minutes West of Wildwood, Alberta. 8 years ago, Leanne Sharman, Grandaughter of Cecil Sharman, purchased a farm on Leaman Road with her husband David Scott, and together with their family created a hobby farm they named Leaman Exchange. 

Alberta Open Farm Days: Farmer's Market Tour

  One of my favourite aspects of summer is the abundance of locally grown fruits and vegetables.  It's not uncommon for me to take the 3 hour road trip simply to visit some of my favourite markets.

Jerk Chicken

  This summer I volunteered for The Wild Mountain Music Festival.  The weekend was inspiring for a lot of different reasons.  I left with new friends, new experiences, and an intense craving for jerk chicken.   

Alberta Open Farm Days: Violet Gardens & Greenhouse

Campfire Compote w/ London Fog Whipped Cream

A few weeks back Sarah and I camped out at Wildhorse Lake for a couple of nights.  Being as how we were so close to town and had vehicles to store our coolers in at night, we were able to do a little gourmet camp cooking that weekend.

On Saturday, I went back into town for a friend’s housewarming party, and at Sarah’s request, I grabbed some rhubarb from her yard on the way back.

When I got back to camp, Sarah got to work chopping up the rhubarb, and I grabbed some raspberries from my cooler.  We added some brown sugar and butter she had brought, and stewed it all over the fire.  While Sarah worked on the compote, I grabbed a mason jar, and got to work on the London Fog Whipped Cream, using ingredients I had brought for coffee, and an Earl Grey Tea bag.  The result was one of the best desserts I have had in awhile, let alone camping. 

This compote would work well on top of French toast, pancakes, toast, or as a crustless pie/crumble, which is how we ate it that night.

Edible Cookie Painting

It’s no secret that in addition to cooking, I am also a huge fan of art and creativity. This recipe is the perfect example of when two of my favourite pastimes combine. 

Mozza Stuffed Meatballs

Meatballs are quite delicious on their own, but add adding a river of cheese to the centre of them really steps them up a notch.

Bacon Dog Treats

My first recipe for homemade dog treats appeared on the blog back in 2011.  I took a photo of my dog, Raya, holding a bone shaped cookie cutter in her mouth, and the photo ended up appearing on the popular website “Post Secret”, making my senior pup famous for the week it was on the front page.  After being in our lives for nearly 14 years, Raya sadly passed away last winter.

Jiggs Dinner

This upcoming Sunday, I’ll be helping cook a traditional Newfoundland Jigg’s Dinner for the largest crowd I have ever cooked for to date - alongside my friend Allan, Newfoundlander and fellow foodie.

Sesame Ginger Japanese Eggplant Skewers

 

I just love it when you wing a recipe and it turns out perfectly on the first first try.  This recipe was exactly that.  Yesterday my husband and I purchased a new fridge, so as a result I ended up cleaning out our old fridge and getting rid some expired/freezer burnt food. The result was a gorgeously clean new fridge - with very little groceries inside.  It inspired me to go grocery shopping, and while at the store I picked up a couple of veggies I hadn't tried before -  Japanese Eggplants being one of them. 

Slow Cooker Maple Baked Beans

This recipe appeared as my column in the February 9th edition of The Hinton Voice. 

[I fell in love with Maple Baked Beans on my first trip out east.  I was staying a mere 18 km from the Montreal border and beans were a staple at every single store I walked into.  In fact, even the tiny town I was staying in had their very own bean factory that had line ups well into the afternoon, until they inevitably sold out for the day.  Every local I visited had beans in their fridge, and they came out at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Needless to say, once I was back home in Alberta, the flavour of freshly baked beans were ingrained in my memory, and I knew I had to try to re-create them at home.