I know what you’re thinking; “Post-Holiday Gift Guide” sounds like an article that took a little too long in the oven, maybe a deadline or two got missed and now it’s past time to be of any practical Christmas shopping use. Well, I assure you dear reader that I’ve got a good reason why you’re reading this now instead of a week or two prior to the holidays, just stay with me.
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Read More“Friends, let us join together here in the pits of sweltering madness where we cast our bodies and unheard voices into the void of fire and toil. Look upon the wasted works of our brother and pray that his clearly overcooked roast has a slightly pinkish interior so that bits of this beautiful and costly beast haven’t completely gone to waste. Oh Kitchen Gods! Please bless our ovens so they may produce another piece in a most timely manner… Because if that doesn’t work, I don’t know what the f@%$k we’re going to do.”
– Prayers To The Kitchen Gods 3:32
My wife and I have somehow found ourselves with a bit of time off this holiday season and have decided this is the year to indulge in our strange, shared desire to make sausage. Don’t laugh; I’ve wanted to craft tube meat since I attended the NVICA event back in April and Crystal’s been saying we pay too much for prefabs forever.
So we pooled our meager pre-Christmas funds and went in on a sausage stuffer, not knowing that it takes a wee bit more gear to actually get stuffing. A quick peek through all the charcuterie books on my shelf and a couple eleventh hour Amazon orders later we now have a complete kit for sausage making ready for a holiday sausage party. Read More
After keeping it under my toque for the last couple months, the wait is finally over and I can talk about another of my extra-curricular writing activities.
This week the inaugural issue of Edible Vancouver Island Magazine is available at fine food purveyors island-wide and features a two page article on my friend and garlic guru Brent Garstin, written by your truly. It’s my very first published bit of writing! I feel so legit!
Big thanks to Dawn, the publisher for bringing me on board and Editor Julie ‘n photographer Danika for making my words better than they have a right to be! Hopefully I’ll be able to do an article or two for them in the future.
Check out the EVI website for tons of online content and a map of where the physical magazines are distributed.
A couple months ago Ann Kask got a hold of me through the NVICA grapevine and asked me to contribute a recipe for her new berry-themed cookbook. Flattered as all get out I readily agreed and proffered my classic Blackberry Hoisin BBQ Sauce recipe to add to the already stacked list. Now just in time for Christmas the cookbook of your dreams has arrived: RIPE: Local Fruit – Use it fresh, preserve the rest features recipes from over thirty Campbell River and Comox Valley food service folk that run the gamut of restaurant-ready (lookin at your chicken recipe Ronald!) to simple home kitchen afternoon affairs. The best part is that Ann is donating all proceeds from the cookbook to Diabetes Canada!
So if your holiday shopping for that foodie freak who already has every gadget and tome, pick up a copy of RIPE, I guarantee they won’t have it in their collection yet. The book is available around the Comox Valley at various booksellers and gourmet shops and Ann has a booth at the Saturday Comox Valley Farmer’s Market. Toss some sheckles her way, it’s for a good cause and the recipes are really top-notch… Especially mine. *laughs*