The Yum Yum Factor

Fall is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, the wind is kicking up and the nights get progressively colder. As we sadly acknowledge that BBQ season is over, our tastes start to turn to heartier fare that sticks to the ribs and fills the belly. Unlike most people I know, I didn't grow up eating mac and cheese so I was a little late to the party but I have become a bit of an expert this past year, making a number of different versions in my pressure cooker, but I know that not everyone has one so stovetop mac and cheese lets you whip up the ultimate comfort food with the ease and speed that a pressure cooker provides. One pot, baby. I am all about the one pot dinners and as we start to gear up for the hustle and bustle of the impending holiday season, we all need a few one pot show stoppers in our back pocket. When Grace hired me to come up with a recipe using a couple of their Organic coconut products , I already had a bunch of them in my pantry so I jumped at the ch...

Corn season is now upon us here in Ontario and that means bushels of the sweetest, tenderest Peaches and Cream corn imaginable and it's cheap so we are eating lots of it. Apart from eating it lightly cooked with lots of melted butter and salt, I am currently having a love affair with corn soup. Usually, I am a corn chowder gal but I have found a new corn soup spirit animal. Let me be perfectly clear - the  pressure cooker corn soup from Kenji Lopez at Serious Eats is absolutely amazing and it's perfect, as it. The tarragon and the sweet corn were made for each other, it's smooth, rich and so creamy that you would swear, on your grandmother's foot pedal sewing machine, that there was a ton of creamy in it but there isn't. It's truly perfect and I have made it a million times already. This soup is NOT at attempt to improve upon it but a way to use this fool proof technique to make another flavour profile happen. I had already eaten my weight in this sou...

I think I might start a series called "Instant Pot Diaries" where I can share my experiments and fails and not just the successes because otherwise I think it makes it seem like everything I make works like clockwork the first try. This couldn't be farther from the truth, to be honest. Some things come out perfectly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd times and other things require a bit more tinkering. From now on, when I am offering tips, lessons learned, failures and other times where I fall flat on my face, I will tag it "instant pot diaries" so you can have all of my shame in one convenient place.

I have had a no good, terrible, miserable head cold all week. Thankfully, I have my magical TCM drs who take such good care of me (Traditional Chinese Medicine, not Top Canadian Model). I went in unable to breathe through my nose and feeling like I was walking around with a giant Mitt Romney bobble head on my neck. After a nice cupping, some well placed needles and magic nose drops I drove home, breathing through my nose for the first time in days and by morning I was feeling more human again. The very last thing that was needed was a nice, spicy soup so, I present to you, a nice spicy little soup. Not so summer friendly but it works - don't ask how, it just does

Tom Kha Gai  For a Sick Young Guy Today's post will be short and sweet. Yesterday I was called to school to pick up Little Shack, who was not feeling well but had insisted on going to school. He didn't want to miss the christmas party but by the time I got there he was lying on the couch with a blanket over him while his classmates made merry all around him. Poor bugger was burning up and is even worse today so it's actually a perfect day for some nourishing, delicious soup. I was planning to make something else but I changed my mind. Today's soup is only about comfort food. Something that will tempt him to eat, something nutritious and filling enough but light at the same time.  Tom Kha Gai Soup is so simple to make. It doesn't really require a recipe, per say, just a list of ingredients: about 5 cups of chicken stock 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts lemon grass garlic kaffir lime leaves your choice of vegetables a can of coconut milk ...