Summer Pesto

It’s the first week of June and I’m happy to report that my garden looks spectacular this year.  My usual rule for planting, like many others, is to wait until after May long weekend before putting anything in the soil.  This year I was a rebel and planted everything a full week in advance. Already, beautiful herbs adorn the boxes in the greenhouse, strawberries are about to turn hints of red, and the onions planted 2 weeks ago are ready to be sampled. 

Lobster Ravioli & Cream Sauce

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.