Christie's Corner — Real food. Real life. It ain't always pretty.

Swiss Chard with Raisins and Pine Nuts

February 18, 2010

I fall easily into a vegetable rut. If it weren’t for this blog I’d happily get my daily quota of greens from string beans, broccoli and mesclun mix salad. I once ate Basil and Walnut Green Beans every night for a week. When I stopped I swear, the stock for California walnuts plummeted.
But I have [...]

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Savory Cheese Cookies

February 16, 2010

You will see no pancakes here today. No stacks of blueberry buttermilk griddle cakes dripping with maple syrup. No golden latkes dotted with sour cream or slathered in apple sauce. Not so much as a waffle. Crepes? Forget it.
Instead, I’m offering you little disks of fat in the form of savory cheese cookies.
The biscuits above [...]

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Last Chance to order Blog Aid

February 12, 2010

I interrupt this regularly scheduled vegetable post to inform you that today is the last day to order Blog Aid: Recipes for Haiti.
The cut off is noon MST, which is 2:00 EST and a half hour later in Newfoundland.
Despite how it looks, we’re not giving Haiti the bum’s rush. It’s just a logical time to [...]

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How to Butcher or Debone a Chicken

February 11, 2010

See those pretty crystals? They’re salt. Yes, we need this essential element to live, but the average Canadian consumes three times the daily recommended dose. Spend a few minutes Googling “high-sodium diet” and you’ll likely consider tossing your fleur de sel out the window. Fortunately, this isn’t necessary.
A while ago, I was talking with Dawn [...]

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Frozen Ginger and a Garlic Peeler

February 9, 2010

My recent CTV appearance proved my career as a mind reader would be short lived. I went on expecting some reader questions about roasted vegetables. Nope. Everyone seems to have them down pat. Instead, everyone was interested in frozen ginger and “that garlic thing.”
So, here goes:
Frozen Ginger
I started freezing ginger when I got tired of [...]

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CTV and My Brush with Fame

February 8, 2010

So, I’m sitting in the green room of CTV studios in Kitchener waiting to go on. The person ushering me in tells me to take a seat and before leaving points to another guest and says, “And of course you know Alan.” I nod knowingly and look at Alan, who is chatting to another CTV [...]

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Blog Aid for Haiti

February 5, 2010

Julie Van Rosendaal is a miracle worker. In what must be the fastest turn-around in cookbook publishing history, she conceived, organized and helped deliver Blog Aid: Recipes for Haiti. In less than three weeks she got 27 food bloggers to donate 72 recipes complete with photos, one very tired designer (Cathryn Ironwood) to give the [...]

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How to Roast Vegetables

February 4, 2010

I got a bit carried away. I was experimenting with roasted vegetables for today’s CTV appearance and ended up making five variations. I just couldn’t make up my mind which version I liked best, so I made them all. Well, almost all. Having recently posted about Herb-Roasted Potatoes I felt I could skip this one [...]

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Black Forest Chocolate Cookies

February 2, 2010

Sneaking in under the wire. It’s still Groundhog Day. And all I can think of is Bill Murray sitting in a Punxsatawney diner, stuffing his face full of donuts with impunity.
According to the groundhog, we have six more weeks of winter coming, which makes me want to stuff my face with donuts, too. Only I [...]

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Seeds, Plants and Thoughts of Spring

February 1, 2010

January nearly broke me. Lots of bills. Little sun. And weather that fluctuated between skin-shrivelling rain and nostril-frosting cold.
But I think I’m going to make it after all. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail (Clarskson/Potter, 2010) arrived the other day. I will devour it from cover to cover this week. [...]