Category: Recipes

Potato and Leek Soup

Shawn Leave a comment

Potato Leek Soup 1When I was a kid I would run outside every New Year’s Eve just as the ball was dropping and the whole neighbourhood was shrieking “Ten! Nine! Eight…” to stare up into the sky and feel the changing of the old year into the new.

I’d stare and stare listen and wonder what made the last year different, and squidge my eyes shut and search in my guts to feel something new and grown up inside.

Every year was the same. No change… No difference between one year and the next. Not until this year… 2014 is the year everything changed! Read More

Chicken In A Pot

Shawn Leave a comment

Chicken in A Pot 1A very special chicken deserves very special care, and I can think of no better technique to accentuate all the wild, bug-fed chickeny goodness of a farm chicken than en cocotte.

I got turned on to this old-school French method of cooking chicken from an old issue of Cook’s Illustrated, which touted it as one of the “Discoveries that will change the way I cook”! Well, it wasn’t quite as revolutionary as all that, but it is a great way to cook chicken.

Read More

Halloween “Severed Hand” Punch

Shawn 2 Comments

Halloween Punch 1Two Halloween memories from my formative years:

First – Walking into my elementary school dressed in a full-body black cloak, gloves, and intricately painted skull mask (seriously, it took days. Do you have any idea how many pits and cracks line the surface of a skull?) and a demon-topped walking stick that lit up when I tapped it against the ground. I stalked the halls like a boss, scattering kindergarteners and even freaking out some of the teachers. Won first place at the costume competition and the principal had to ask who I was under all that freakish awesomeness before handing me the award.

Second – Every year my mom made a Halloween treat for my class. Or wait, maybe it was just elementary school, or maybe she skipped a year or two. My memories are all messed up… For sure, she made a couple of Halloweens extra special by either baking a large, domed sponge cake with black icing and licorice sticks shaped like a spider, or serving a severed hand punch to my mostly horrified classmates.

My mom, by the way is awesome. Read More

Ultimate Steak, Part 2 : The Steakening!!!

Shawn 2 Comments

Ultimate SteakAs the berries rot and the leaves spiral in the wind, there’s no denying it… Summer is giving way to fall. Sure, it’s still balmy every weekend (perhaps a St. Matrin’s Summer?) and I can still get from the door to the car without pants, but only just barely.

It is therefore essential to soak in as much of this gorgeous, late summer-corncobs ‘n beachfires- groaning as mom calls you in for dinner- sunshine as possible! One last big BBQ weekend!

I’m ‘gonna bring out those big-gun steaks we got from Gunter Bros, season those beasts well, grill ‘em fast and furious and then bang out a quick sauce to take it over the top. Heat ye coals, fill the flagons and gird thy loins; The Steakening is at hand! Read More