The Yum Yum Factor

If you are not lucky enough to have a nonna of your very own, you can soothe your inner Italian soul with Per La Famiglia, Memories and Recipes of Southern Italian Home Kitchen, the newest cookbook by Emily Richards. Part cookbook, part scrapbook, the book is full of photos, memories and family stories and as soon as my complimentary copy showed up on my doorstep, I read the whole thing, cover to cover. I remember Emily Richards from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen back when I was a new mom and spent hours on end watching the food network. Alongside Elizabeth Baird, she injected a youthful enthusiasm for food that helped to inspire me to get out of bed and back into the kitchen again. Fast forward to today and Emily is still inspiring Canadians to get into the kitchen and cook delicious, whole foods as part of the Canadian Living Test Kitchen, regular daytime tv guest spots, cooking classes and cookbooks. The stories reflect the immigrant story for many, ma...

I love the way the crispy black beluga lentils mimic caviar  This is it. This is my final entry for the  Lentil Recipe Revelations Challenge  and I think it's a doozer. I had made some of this beluga lentil za'atar at the beginning of my recipe development phase and although I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, I knew they would make an appearance. They are perfect when you want to add a bit of crunch to something and the addition of the za'atar turns the lentils into an actual condiment. I have been sprinkling them on food and eating them straight out of the container for weeks now while I munch and I think. I munch and I think. What to do with these brilliant little black pearls? I found a beet dip in the cookbook, Jerusalem and fell madly in love with it, making variations of it all the time. How you can not fall in love with anything this delicious that is also so bright and colourful? For this appetizer, I used less yogurt so that it is thicker-...

 There is a Family Bites Baby on the way! Jan, from Family Bites is having a boy - her third, so here's a little something blue for the festivities. As a group of bloggers, we are scattered across the country so the reality of throwing a proper baby shower where we all sit in a circle on wooden, folding chairs, drink too much white wine and wrap the expectant mommy up in toilet paper are slim to none but that can't stop us from throwing a virtual shower, can it? When I looked over the list of treats that the other 16 bloggers were making, I realized that it was almost entirely a sugar fest and although I understand that most people would be thrilled with nothing but desserts, I am the weirdo who doesn't really have a big sweet tooth. Where other people go nuts over chocolate, I get all fired up about tiny, crustless tuna sandwiches on white bread and Aunt June's famous devilled eggs. It's not a shower until there is a fancy, little savoury something some...

When I got home from Jordan, there was a big box waiting for me and inside that box I found four bags of beautiful potatoes from The Little Potato Company . As you might have guessed, they sell a variety of little potatoes in the class called "creamers". Commercial potatoes are divided into 4 categories : Large, medium, small and creamers, all based on size and this company only grows creamers, which means that every potato is is between 3/4" and 1 5/8" and they are as adorable as they are delicious. To work with, I had some pink skinned, Blushing Belles that were first bred in Germany and two bags of Something Blues in there. My job was to play around with these little babies and come up with a recipe or two that would showcase their considerable attribute. The Little Potato Company has two facilities, one in Edmonton and one in PEI and they work with potato breeders from Holland to South America to produce real their various types of tater. WHAT? ...