I’ll give you everything I am, all my broken heartbeats, until I know you’ll understand.And I will make sure to keep my distance, say I love you when you’re not listening. -Christina Perri
I was recently reminded of a beautiful friend. It’s strange that I would need to be reminded of him because there was once a time when it was only him.
Continue reading “recipe from a friend: cherry tomato tart with pesto and ricotta”
Great food knows no borders.
I was three years old when, on an otherwise ordinary November day, we made our journey from our tiny ancestral village in Gujarat, India to Canada. Although, we wore our best clothing, I am sure, by Western standards, we did not purport to anyone of great status, nor were we. But unknown to even ourselves, we carried great treasures with us that day.
Continue reading “treasures from our homeland & gujarati dhokla”
As the name implies, this sauce goes with everything. I make it with a combination of coriander, mint and parsley and each time, the amount of each herb varies depending on what I have available. Sometimes it is only two of the three; it still turns out delicious. I thin it out with a good amount of olive oil if I want to use it as a salad dressing. Otherwise, I only add just enough to have a sauce like composition.
I’ll paint my mood in shades of blue, paint my soul to be with you. -Céline Dion
Years ago, when we were but newlyweds, while hiking in the Charlevoix region of Québec, we noticed blueberry shrubs growing all along the side of the trail. They were the famous bleuets sauvages, the wild blueberries of Québec. They have been thriving here for thousands of years, native to the glacial soils of our boreal forests. It was early in the season and the berries were young and green. But how ever young and green they were, they were waiting; waiting for eager hands to seek them when the time was right, when they would be ripened to shades of blue.
Continue reading “shades of blue – part 3: blueberry lemon cake with cinnamon”
I could go crazy on a night like tonight when summer’s beginning to give up her fight and every thought’s a possibility and voices are heard but nothing is seen. -Indigo Girls
When the days get cooler and shorter and summer begins to give up her fight, we all do the same. We put on sweaters, gather our harvest, and nourish ourselves with luxurious soups. Soups such as this cream of carrot soup, rich in colour, flavour and texture.
Continue reading “classic cream of carrot soup”
The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food -it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on. -George Eliot
Bitter melon, otherwise known as bitter gourd or bitter squash is a vegetable that is amazingly good for you. However, it comes with a small caveat. It’s also an acquired taste. As you can imagine, there is good reason for the word ‘bitter’ in its name. But there are also plenty of good reasons to make this vegetable a part of your diet. It’s a source of many beneficial antioxidants and vitamins and helps combat a number of illnesses.
Everyone grieves in different ways. For some, it could take longer or shorter. I do know it never disappears. An ember still smolders inside me. Most days, I don’t notice it, but, out of the blue, it’ll flare to life. -Maria V. Synder
Over a decade ago, I lost my first pregnancy, my first baby, and with it, everything else it seemed. Death is so final, and I guess that is what makes it so hard. However, I think any other sort, I could have learned to accept. But to have to mourn for a child was and still is beyond my capability to handle, to reason, to understand. I cried, I yelled, I died. And I still cry. But such is life, not every flower blooms, not every blossom becomes a fruit and not every child is born. There are no reasons, no explanations. It just is. Continue reading “shades of blue – part 2: blueberry almond tartlets”
Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World. -Christopher Columbus
Pesto is a sauce of the Old World. It’s also simplicity at its best. Its name comes from the method used to prepare it: by pounding using a mortar and pestle. Okay, so perhaps the use of a mortar and pestle does not exactly conjure up the notion of simplicity when we can use a blender instead. Which ever method you use, 4 ingredients later, you end up with Italy’s most prized sauce.
Continue reading “basil pesto”
After about 3 weeks of no rain, the skies turned grey this weekend and the rain came down much to the delight of parched lawns here in Montréal. Unfortunately, this meant not going on a picnic, or a good hike, or bicycling. Fortunatley, weather such as this calls for staying indoors and making soup. Not a brightly coloured autumn soup or hearty winter soup, but a soup that makes good use of summer’s bounty. A broccoli soup! Whereas my husband and our eldest son can’t get enough of it, my two daughters will gladly exchange their soup for a roasted version of broccoli! I won’t argue with that. In the end, broccoli is good food.
Continue reading “the pleasures of summer’s bounty: broccoli soup and roasted broccoli”
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