I’m not sure about you, but I’m actually mourning the loss of the abundance of fresh local blueberries that always filled my fridge on a weekly basis. Trying to find them in stores now is mostly a waste of time. However, while that fruit and other seasonal ones just like it bid adieu to us for another year, others have arrived to help us through this difficult time.
Take carrots, parsnips and beets for instance.
Some people look at me like I’m crazy when I pay a premium for carrots with their stems on at the farmers market when considerably cheaper cello-bagged ones are piled high beside them.
So why would someone do that you might ask?
Flavour.
Plain and simple.
The ones in the bag are mostly from stock pulled months ago or some times, even from a year ago.
Just try and tell me they taste the same and I’ll insist you stop reading this and tell you to place your hands on either side of your head and then give it a good shake.
I mean, there’s really no contest.
I still have purple ones growing in the garden and every time I pull a bunch out for dinner, their crispness and sweetness make the store bought varieties pale in comparison.
Same with local parsnips and beets.
Both are making their way to stores right now and just like blueberries, we need to make good use of them while they’re at their best.
So, without further ado, a lovely fall recipe for roasted carrot and parsnip coins. Stay tuned this Friday for a knock out delicious beet recipe!

Roasted Carrot & Parsnip Coins
4 carrots
4 parsnips
Olive oil
Sea salt
2 tsp (10 mL) cumin
2 tsp (10 mL) garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Peel carrots and parsnips and discard ends. Slice both into 1/4″ rounds. Combine both in a large bowl and drizzle liberally with olive oil, tossing to coat Line two baking sheets with a silicone mats. Separate the carrot mixture evenly between the two sheets. Sprinkle both with sea salt, cumin and garlic. Place in oven and bake until lightly browned and tender, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

To say I like cookbooks would be like saying Lindsay Lohan likes alcohol–I honestly can’t get enough.
I still remember at a job interview many, many years ago, the application asked for some of the books I have read in the last while.
While I love to read, I struggled to remember the last book I read as everything I had my nose into was related to food and cooking.
When I fly on a plane, I bring a cookbook. When I’m at the beach, I bring two or three. When the kids are asleep and I’m eating my dinner, I’m busy flipping though cookbooks.
It’s a sickness, I know.
Currently, three walls of my office, from top to bottom, are filled with cookbooks. I won’t even get into the amount of magazines I go through as well. From Gourmet (sigh–I still miss you) to Cooking Light, I’ve filled closets with back issues not to mention the spectacular read that ahem, a certain Western Canadian food and drink publication that I happen to work on is.
As I was flipping through a couple of new ones I got yesterday, I wondered if I was the only person who read the foreword.
Obviously, the length and quality of them varies greatly between book to book, but I always read them.
Some are just plain boring while others can make the rest of the book better by understanding the sacrifice and amount of work that went into the publication.
I can honestly say that putting together our 64 page magazine is no walk in the park.
From assignment scheduling to overseeing food photography and recipe creation, there’s a lot of effort from many people that gets put into each and every edition we do.
But while each cookbook or magazine requires hard work and skill, it’s sad to say that some are just not up to par.
For me, a good cookbook is one that I reference all the time, not just once for one particular recipe, but one that I always go back to time and time again.
So without further ado, here are a couple of my favourites that might just become some of yours too.
1. Mastering the Grill by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim
I think this is one of the best barbecue/grilling books out there. Filled with tons of great photography and even better recipes, many of the pages in here are splattered with food from constant use

2. The Best of America’s Test Kitchen
I usually try and steer away from American food focused cookbooks as I find them to be a little stuffy and sometimes over complicated and pretentious. This is the complete opposite and actually is one of the books I’ve almost made every single recipe from.

3. Slow Cooking–Not So Fast Food by Joanne Glynn
I find myself flipping through this book every time the weather gets cooler as this cookbook is stuffed with recipes that can both warm body in soul. Yes, they take time and patience, but just like Julia Child’s beef bourguignon, the payoff is worth every minute it takes to make.

Now that the weather has turned and most families are back to the regular grind of work, school and sporting activities, it’s time to look at meals that are both easy on time and your brain.
One of the easiest go-to ingredients for those with less than ample time to spend cooking in the kitchen is fish.
Be it snapper or salmon, pickerel or perch, it is by far one of the quickest cooking ingredients at your disposal, not to mention delicious too.
But I see way too many people skipping past the fresh fish section and instead trolling through the frozen section instead.
So, to help put the brakes on your cart as you approach the fresh fish area, here’s a simple and easy to make recipe that works with your poisson of choice.
Mandarin Ginger Glazed Salmon
Glaze:
1 tsp (5 mL) peanut oil
1 tbsp (15 mL) freshly grated ginger
3 mandarin oranges, juiced
2 tbsp (30 mL) orange marmalade
1 tsp (5 mL) soy sauce
1 green onion, chopped

Fish:
1, 2 lb (1 kg) skinless salmon filet
Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Glaze:
Heat oil in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat; add ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients, stirring well to combine. Bring to a boil then remove glaze from heat.

Fish:
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Place salmon on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper and brush liberally with glaze. Place salmon in oven for 10 minutes (depending on the thickness of fish, it might take an additional 2 to 3 minutes). When the fish has finished cooking, drizzle with remaining glaze and serve immediately.

Sometimes, you come across a product that makes you scratch your head and think, why hasn’t this been made before?
The new Herbal Waters from Ayala’s are just such a beverage.
While the concept of flavoured water is nothing new, the majority of the options currently on the market can make your beverage taste more like a sugary soda or even worse, like mouthwash.
Not only are these beverages far from either of the former, they actually taste, well, really good.
Part of the reason is that they aren’t filled with any kind of sweeteners and are flavoured naturally with ingredients such as orange peel, lavender or lemongrass.
The bottles themselves are quite chic too–either a plastic single serve size (OK, a little boring) and the 25 oz frosted glass variety that would be right at home on the dinner table at an elegant party.
Since they’re all natural too, pregnant women can finally get the amount of water they need to consume a day in a variety of flavours without any risk.
With zero calories to boot, this is a beverage that can be consumed anytime you want without having to worry about the amount of chemicals, sugar or soluble vitamins you’re bringing into your body.
Check them out here:
Ayala’s Herbal Water

Let’s face it, sometimes all of us hit a brick wall when it comes to making dinner.
You think, well, we just had fish last night so maybe we’ll make pork tonight–but how am I going to cook it?
You’ll most likely recall the usual recipes you’ve used in the past but for some reason, none of them seem to hit the right button.
You begin to poke around the Internet and again, nothing is jumping out of you.
Then the thought of ordering in begins to take hold but even doesn’t really satisfy your craving for something different.
The trick is not to start with an ingredient, but a cooking method or vessel.
For instance, I was suffering the same kind of culinary ennui the other night as I struggled to fit a particular meat into our meal that evening.
No matter what flavour combinations I looked at or imagined, something just wasn’t right.
That’s when I started to poke around my basement where I keep a bunch of cooking tools that can’t fit into my main floor kitchen.
As soon as I turned on the light, I knew I was onto something.
There in front of me was a wealth of inspiration from my indoor stovetop smoker to my Le Creuset tagine.
I glanced at my well-weathered wok like someone looks at a best friend they haven’t seen in a few years.
My set of bamboo steamers also called to me, just begging to be used and in the end, that’s the direction I went in.
At the beginning of this process, I was trying to shoehorn an ingredient into the menu but what really got my juices flowing was finding the item I was going to cook with.
From there, visions of dim sum and steamed pork buns was all I could think of.
In their preparation, I was actually giddy at the thought of consuming them.
That my friends, is how you stay fresh when faced with the question, what am I going to make for dinner?
Here’s a recipe for one of the pork dim sum’s from that fateful dinner.
Pork & Sesame Dim Sum
1 lb ground pork
8 shitake mushrooms, washed, stemmed and minced
1 1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
3/4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp fresh ground ginger
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
3/4 tbsp white sugar
1 egg white
1 tbsp cornstarch
Freshly ground pepper
Wonton wrappers

DIRECTIONS:
Line a bamboo steamer with parchment paper or cabbage leaves. In a bowl, combine all ingredients, except cornstarch and wrappers, and mix well. When well combined, stir in the cornstarch.
In the centre of each wonton, place roughly 1 tbsp of filling. Using a pastry brush, lightly wet the corners of the wonton; gather corners of the wonton and pinch together to seal. Repeat with remaining filing and wontons.
Place dim sum into the bamboo steamer that is set over boiling water.
Steam for five minutes and serve immediately.

This may sound odd, but I hope you’re sick and tired.
It would be great if you’ve finally gotten to the point where you can’t take any more.
Maybe you’ve reached your limit and the mere idea of it makes you woozy.
I’m talking about summer produce.
Obviously, I’m joking, but a part of me sometimes thinks that getting to that point with the harvest of the summer season wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Why?
That would mean you’ve fully immersed yourself in the plethora or fresh fruit and vegetables that fill farmer market shelves.
The idea isn’t really that strange when you think about it.
I actually know people who are already buying cellophane wrapped corn at the supermarket when the local stuff is piled in a bin right beside them.
And, I’ve witnessed people buying canned peaches when the soft, plump and highly aromatic freestone peaches are less than an aisle away.
I think the only excuse for looking at these items is that you’ve finally had enough of the really good stuff.
I mean, what else could it be?
Personally, I’m filling my plate with as many cucumbers, field tomatoes and sweet carrots as humanly possible because for one, they’re delicious and two, they’re about to disappear for another year.
Sure, we can get versions of all three in the middle of winter but you’d be kidding yourself if you thought they tasted anything like the stuff that’s picked at the peak of freshness and served that night for dinner.
So this is my humble request that you get to a market that carries local produce and take advantage of the really good stuff before it’s gone.
Maybe, just maybe, there still may be enough time for you to get sick of it after all.
To help make use of the amazing freestone peaches that are piled high everywhere, why not make a batch of this barbecue sauce that would be divine on grilled chicken or pork?
Peach, Chili and Jack Daniels Barbecue Sauce
5 lbs peaches
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, diced
1 head of garlic, peeled and minced
3 tbsp peeled and grated ginger
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup Jack Daniels
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup tomato paste

3 tbsp chili powder
Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Score the bottom of each peach with an X. Place peaches into boiling water and blanch for 30 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, remove peaches from boiling water and place into a large bowl filled with ice and water. When cool to the touch, peel peaches. Chop peaches into pieces and discard pits. Combine peaches with lemon juice.
Heat oil in a skillet set over medium-low heat; add onion and cook until soft. Add garlic and ginger to pan and cook for 1 minute. Add peach mixture to skillet along with sugar, honey, vinegar and Jack Daniels. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until peaches are very soft. Using an immersion blender, process peach mixture until smooth. Add remaining ingredients to the pan and bring to a boil; reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper. Barbecue sauce is ready for canning or can be stored in freezer bags that can be frozen for up to three months.
Enjoy!

I think that saying most of us like French fries is not a huge exaggeration, especially when it comes to ones that are both fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.
I’m not talking about those individually frozen and quick fried ones you get at a drive-through window, but the ones you get at a great steakhouse or a restaurant that actually makes them from scratch in house.
So, while being able to source them at various places around town isn’t terribly hard, it isn’t always convenient.
Knowing that cold weather is around the corner, some of our favourite chip wagons and drive-up joints are going to close for the season.
So what’s a deep-fried potato lover to do?
Well, make them at home of course.
That being said, few of us have the space or inclination to house several litres of oil and a full blown commercial fryer that is capable of cooking french fries properly.
Sure, there are plenty of smaller appliances that do a decent job, but none of them can produce the quantity of fries for say, a family of four all at the same time.
Plus, you still have to deal with either cleaning a big pot full of oil or finding the space to store said appliance.
Don’t get me wrong, you can do it in batches and produce OK fries, but the time and trouble it takes almost makes you wonder if it’s worth the effort.
So here’s a trick.
Most of us already own an appliance that can make great fries–a microwave.
No, I’m not talking about defrosting fries or cooking frozen ones. A microwave is perfect for creating amazing fries.
The way a microwave cooks potatoes is able to produce fries that have that soft, pillowy centres that can often elude fries that are fried in oil.
But, these nuked potatoes don’t have that crispy exterior that makes them either aesthetically pleasing or truly delicious.
That’s why they do need a small amount of time in oil, but we’re talking only a tablespoon or two versus a litre or two.
To get that golden brown exterior, you need to take the microwaved fries and brown them in a skillet for a minute on each side.
After that, my guess is you’d never know they weren’t deep fried and they taste like they were made by a gourmet chef.
This works best for steak fries, or more commonly known as potato wedges.
Without further ado, here is the recipe for arguably, the best tasting and healthiest fries I’ve ever tasted.
Steak Fries:
1 russet potato, scrubbed clean
1 tbsp (15 mL) canola oil
Sea salt and pepper
1 tbsp (15 mL) peanut oil

DIRECTIONS:
Cut potato into six equal wedges. Toss in canola oil and season with salt and pepper. Place into a microwave safe dish, skin side down, and cover with plastic wrap. Cook for seven to 10 minutes, depending on the power of your appliance.
During the last minute of cooking, heat peanut oil in a skillet set over medium-high heat. When potatoes have finished cooking in the microwave, carefully remove the plastic wrap avoiding any steam. Shake off any excess moisture off the wedges before transferring to the skillet or dab with a paper towel (any water on the wedges will cause the oil to spit). Place fries into pan and let cook 30 seconds or until lightly browned. Flip wedges over and repeat. Serve immediately.

No matter where you look these days, short ribs are everywhere.
But what’s funny is that even though they’re being shown on television, in magazines and on menus in restaurants, they aren’t anywhere to be found on supermarket shelves.
Even at your local butchers, they’re hard to find.
Sure, you can call in advance and place an order, but why should a person have to wait a few days before they can get their hands on one of the ingredients?
My guess is that even though their popularity has increased, people still aren’t sure what to do with them.
I can understand that as the majority of recipes you’ll find require a few hours of braising in the oven and an overnight stint in the fridge before being able to eat them–not necessary ideal for a family of four juggling ballet classes, hockey practice and home work.
It could also be because of the amount of fat on them.
Roughly seven pounds of short ribs (enough for four people) when braised and cooled, produce somewhere in the vicinity of 2 1/2 cups of fat.
Yes, 2 1/2 cups.
While good cooks know that fat equals flavour, that’s a lot of ‘flavour’ to deal with.
One of the reasons short ribs are finding themselves back in the spotlight is because they’re relatively cheap and pack a huge punch of beef flavour.
Chefs are using them more frequently because they’ve been taught (and have learned) that the more tender a cut of meat, the less actual beef flavour is found within.
That’s why beef tenderloin, while being able to melt in your mouth, doesn’t hold a candle to short ribs.
I’d be willing to wager that if a person was given a fork full of cooked tenderloin and the same amount of simmered short ribs, they’d pick the latter every single time.
But is there any way to bypass the time it takes to make them and the fat that renders as a result?
Yes.
The trick is to cut the meat off the bone and trim away some of the fat before cooking them.
Not all of it mind you, but some.
Again, seven pounds of short ribs when trimmed, will equal about 3 1/2 pounds of meat.
When cooked, that reduces the amount of fat to between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cups, far more acceptable than just slightly south of 3 cups when cooked bone-in.
This also helps in the time department as the reason for the ribs to sit in a fridge overnight was so that the fat could congeal and be easily spooned off the next morning.
When cooked without the bone, you can easily spoon off the accumulating fat with a spoon saving you half the time it takes to make them.
So now that you know what to do with them, let’s all start looking for them when we’re out grocery shopping. if we do, short ribs will soon be starring in our home kitchens instead of just on the food channel.

I hate to sound like I’m pinning this on my Mom, but I think my dislike of broccoli stems from the way she cooked it. Well, more precisely, what she covered them in after she cooked it.
It’s nothing that will send anyone screaming for the door but at the time, but a somewhat flour-tasting processed cheddar sauce was often liberally applied to said green vegetable. And by liberally, I mean inundated.
At the time, I could only describe the flavours as feet dipped in fake cheese.
Now, I think that presents a fairly good argument for the origins of my avoidance of broccoli.
Ever since then, I’ve dodged it’s appearance as a mixed vegetable on dinner plates when dining out.
But lately, the vile weed has caught my attention and once again, i can thank my Mom for it.
This time, it’s not I who have become enamoured with it–but my 2 1/2 year old daughter.
She stays at Grandma’s once a week and one time, even though I pack her lunch, and a killer one at that, she say Grandma eating these little green trees and wanted some.
When Grandma dropped her off at home, we wondered why not much of her lunch had been eaten and that’s when this leafy wonder was revealed as the culprit.
Turns out, the florets were simply steamed to perfection and served just as they had been cooked–plain.
Astounded, my wife and I looked at each other and thought, well, if she likes it, we’ll try it again and see.
The following week, I picked up a bunch at the store thinking it must’ve been a strange rift in time that caused a toddler to eat my lifelong nemesis.
That evening, I prepared it just as Mom did and served it alongside her panko-crusted mahi mahi and wild rice pilaf (yes, she loves panko).
Again, not only did she willingly eat the broccoli, she ate it first! I know, lots of people like broccoli but since my wife isn’t a huge fan and I was tainted early on, we just don’t cook with it very often so while we introduced our toddler to a very wide range of ingredients, it was never one of them.
That got my thinking that if someone that young can find them delicious, I should give them another crack too.
And so I did.
While I do not find them as nearly unappealing as I once did, I know it’s going to take some time before it’s included in our regular week rotation.
The point is, our palates and attitudes change often so if you haven’t liked olives for a long time, give them another shot.
Same goes for mushrooms, blue cheese or hot peppers.
You never know what might resonate this go-around.

As someone whose absolute first thought when I wake up in the morning is “what am I going to make for dinner tonight?” tells you food is always on my mind. Even before my first cup of coffee I’m running through what we had for dinner the previous night and what ingredients I haven’t been using lately.
This is both a blessing and a curse.
While visions of slow-smoking a roast or brining a whole chicken for hours dance through my brain, I often forget that cooking doesn’t need to be so time-consuming or complicated.
While I relish the thought of marinating a beef brisket for 48 hours in Coca-Cola (I’m not kidding about the soda pop–it is by far one of the best meat tenderizers on the market. Try it for yourself and see what it can do to a tough piece of meat), there are a bazillion other options, especially in the midst of summer harvest, that are much quicker to prepare and will just taste as good.
But while my brain works differently than most people’s, I think we’ve all been duped a little in believing that if a dish doesn’t have 10 ingredients or requires hours of prep time, it’s not going to taste as good as one that doesn’t.
Reading any of the numerous food magazines (even we’re a little guilty in that respect) you’ll find oodles of recipes for dishes that require a couple of different pans with several ingredients that need to be found and prepped before you even begin to turn on an element or start up the barbecue.
It hit me last night as I was pulling off some of the ripe tomatoes I grew in my garden. My initial thought was to blanch them to remove their skins, process them through a food mill to remove seeds, then slowly cook them with garlic and onions until they melted into a pasta sauce that would put store bought to shame.
But then I thought, what’s wrong with just eating them like they are?
Sure, they’re not like an apple you’d munch on your way to work (although I think a case could be made for it after tasting one of the ripe beefsteak tomatoes I just pulled off the vine) but when did the idea of slicing them and dusting them with some sea salt seem so unlikely?
So, we did just that with the addition of some of the fresh basil growing out my front window and a splash of 10 year old balsamic vinegar.
Pure heaven.
And it required less than five minutes of my time to prepare and eat.
So that’s the point for today–if you look at a handful of yellow beans and begin thinking how good they would taste if sauteed in a little butter and slivered almonds, perhaps with a splash of sherry vinegar and a handful of cherry tomatoes–stop.
Just east them raw.
That’s how you enjoy the simpler things in life.