Wanda Beaver in front of her bakery-cum-café Wanda’s Pie in the Sky at the corner of Augusta Ave. and Oxford St. in Kensington Market
It’s a beautiful fall day 10 days before Thanksgiving.
The sun is streaming through the open windows at Wanda’s Pie in the Sky in downtown Toronto’s Kensington Market. I’m chatting with Wanda Beaver, the co-owner of the bakery with her husband David, sitting on a tall stool at a small, tall table. Read more…
Tomato Tart from ‘Au Pied de Cochon’ Cookbook by Martin Picard Read more…
When a reader of this blog e-mailed me with a question about my recipe for Jewish Chicken Soup – the best medicine I know for whatever ails body or soul – we had an exchange about the source of that recipe: my esteemed colleague and longtime restaurant critic for the Globe & Mail, Joanne Kates.
I have long been grateful to her for that soup, especially her tip about adding the mandatory parsnip. It gives delicate sweetness that elevates that winter mainstay from good to simply sublime.
That young male reader of my blog, after discussing the merits of adding chicken feet to the actual chicken (feet give thickness and a luscious, glutinous texture along with extra flavour), told me he was about to make a delicious dessert from The Joanne Kates Cookbook (my source for the soup and a vintage tome published in 1984) called Ginger Pear Pie. Read more…
When I get obsessed with a recipe, it pervades my waking and sleeping hours.
Of late, it’s been peach galette, how much ground almonds to use in the layer below the peaches, what oven temperature, how long to bake – the list goes on. Then comes the testing and re-testing until Ross and I are eating the dessert daily and the freezer is full of various renditions, all clearly labelled. Read more…
