Medellin, Colombia in 1970 was a city of one million people and no drug trade. Or at least not one that dominated anyone’s agenda. The city on most days was filled with two marvelous aromas—coffee and chocolate. The Antioqueñan hillsides surrounding the city were planted with small coffee farms. A regular site was a campesino [...]

Cold weather sharpens the appetite for carbs and also the craving and need for fruits that ward off colds and flu. Cranberries, a fruit native to North America (others are blueberries, pumpkins ands squash, some grapes), contains flavenoids that according to many studies help fight infection. Apricots, featured in the Morning Glory Muffin recipe, contain [...]

• Chunky Veggie Soup • Winter Minestrone • Bloody Mary Borscht What ARE your cockles, anyway? Not sure, but here are three soups from one base to keep you toasty as you trek around on Revelstoke’s icy road surfaces and sidewalks. Soup is an inexpensive and elegant way to create a one-dish dinner, particularly when [...]

Slow cooking has become popular again—think of pulled pork — perhaps as the carnivores of the gastronomic world search for the big earthy flavours of old fashioned stewpots that leave the kitchen steamy with soul satisfying aromas. Here is an easy pot roast—to simmer in a slow cooker or in a slow oven, about 300° [...]

Roast Turkey with Mushroom Red Wine Gravy and Cranberry Sausage Stuffing OR Roulades of Chicken Breast with Sausage Cranberry Stuffing and Cider Sauce Creamed Leeks Oven Roasted Butternut Squash and Turnip I love Christmas in Revelstoke. The lights on our street are spectacular, carolers actually come round singing, and people smile at one another on [...]

Thirty years ago, several things prevented me from buying kitchen equipment. Rationalizing a lack of cash with reverse snobbery, I developed a philosophy that had me convinced that if my grandmother did without it, so could I. As well, it seemed the kitchen design elves of yesteryear were frozen by the White Queen. For years, [...]

30-MINUTE SUPPERS Porcini mushroom and parmesan ravioli* with alfredo and sun-dried tomato pesto sauce Beetroot fettuccine with shrimp in white wine reduction Spinach ravioli with bacon bits in alfredo sauce and shards of gruyere * Watch for gluten-free pastas coming to La Baguette in the New year. While you check your gear for the ski [...]

Wok vegetarian chili Yan Jaio Coconut curry vegetarian or with chicken Summers in Beijing are hot and steamy. The rain teemed down until we were knee deep in street water. It was so humid (about 98 % humidity lots of days) that a T-shirt took four days to dry, on our little balcony beside the [...]

Chocolate Cupcakes Decorating with Real Butter Frosting I did try cake decoration on my own, once. Bought a bunch of tips and a book. I was frustratingly iincompetent in my first attempts to forge a concoction of sugar and fat and colour into those clever little rosebuds that cake decorators create by the perfectly consistent [...]

By Leslie Savage Colleen’s next class at Chantilly will be in November, Level Two , and in late January, Level One. Cost: $90 including the kit for Level One.  Register at Chantilly, 215 MacKenzie Avenue. At the College, Colleen is doing a cookie decorating class from 1 to 4 pm on December 4th . The [...]

I like stove-top cooking in the summer as the oven heats the kitchen up and toasty is not what I want to beat 6 pm on a July evening. This dinner is fast and easy, and you could do it on the outdoor barbecue or over a camp stove. If you can get fresh peas, [...]

Raving about rhubarb isn’t hard to do when it grows wild in your back lane. Honest. Well, maybe Jamie put it there, sometime in the past few years but there it was, with elephant-like leaves and stalks as thick as a hoe handle. We quickly picked some… free food! Rhubarb grows around the world, having [...]