Househomekits

Call me naive but I did not understand the full extent of the pumpkin spice invasion. Until a recent trip to the city and Trader Joe's brought me face to face with an avalange of pumpkin flavoured items: pumpkin waffles, pumpkin corn chips, pumpkin beer, pumpkin iced tea, pumpkin cheese. I'm all about seasonal eating but the pumpkin thing does seem to get taken to a whole other level. So I feel that this post needs to come with an apology for contributing to the pumpkin madness. It seems you either jump on the pumpkin wagon or you curse it. I'm somewhere between the two, though after the mildly traumatic Trader Joe's experience and the above pumpkin horror spoof, I think I'll steer clear of pumpkin anything for a while. (Except for these healthy pumpkin caramels , which I am completely addicted to). Besides, pumpkin is wonderful, but isn't it somewhat overrated? I find most pumpkin recipes out there to be much tastier, moist, and flavourful when some variety of...

These little hand pies came about earlier this fall, when I was looking for a new way to use up zucchini from the garden. Aren't we all always looking for a new zucchini recipe?  Ok, I realize we ALL  probably aren't and really, this one's a bit of a stretch, veering more on the butter and cheddar side of things than on the zuke side. But some days, that is just what you need. And for some people, a camo manoeuvre involving lots of cheese is the only way zucchini will go down pleasantly. So this recipe is dedicated to the  world's  zucchini haters.  Now I would normally be the last person to tuck zucchini away, incognito, into pockets of melted cheese and flaky pie pastry. I'm of the "nobody puts zucchini in the corner" clan of people and I could eat the stuff every day of my life, loud and proud, fried in a little garlic and olive oil til it's soft. But I realize not everyone feels the way I do, and I made this recipe specifically for my sister, to s...

I've had no internet access at home for the past month and guess what? Not only did I survive it, I relished the social media break (though I did miss you all, and also my 'Call the Midwife' addiction on Netflix). But I'm back to full web capacity now and I'm ready to rock some fall recipes with you. Pray tell, w hat marvellous things have  been cooking in your kitchens lately?? My recent highlights include a Concord grape olive oil pound cake with grapes found at an old homestead site, a  Tarte Tatin  (which is this week's blog video!), putting up a ton of tomato sauce for the winter, and various soups and stews (none of which are very noteworthy I'm afraid). But by far, the most amazing thing that happened during this long blogging hiatus was that... I became an auntie!!  After spending first part of August helping my sweetheart to harvest his wheat crop (as you'll see in the video below), I headed back home to hang out with my sister and her big bea...