This story category covers quick, easy, healthy recipes; it also covers entertaining plus tools and techniques that make cooking easier.

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton Hussey

Easy Appie #2: Lesley Stowe’s Big City Bar Nuts

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Before treating the world to her signature Raincoast Crisps, Vancouver chef Lesley Stowe served this sinfully simple—and quick—appetizer to her catering clients.

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton HusseyENTERTAIN SMART | Long before Lesley Stowe began producing Raincoast Crisps, the one-of-a-kind, gourmet cracker-alternative she manufactures locally and distributes throughout North America, she owned and operated the most celebrated catering and specialty food emporium in Vancouver. From her charming (now closed) shop off Burrard Street, she and her team offered prepared dishes and imported food products from around the world and treated Vancouverites to a taste of delicacies previously unavailable in the city.

Known for her inventive mix of ingredients (to which Raincoast Crisps are a testament), Stowe says that Big City Bar Nuts were a favourite on her catering menu. “There are quite a few sweet and salty things out there, but our recipe added something on the savoury side. It’s the hint of rosemary that makes them stand out.”

This nut mixture, made in under 10 minutes, was a show-stopper then—and now! Read more

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani

One Of These Masalas Is Not Like The Others . . .

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Which of these masalas has chef Glenys Morgan planning a Bollywood night: Patak’s, The Curry Queen or Asian Home Gourmet?

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani Read more

Lacy Cheddar Crisps

Easy Appie #1: Pamela Anderson’s Yummy Cheddar Crisps

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With fall parties on the horizon, here’s Pamela Anderson’s slam-dunk one-ingredient appetizer made in less than 10 minutes. Flat.

Lacy Cheddar CrispsENTERTAIN SMART | Fall is easily the appie (est) time of the year. With house parties and holiday mixers to attend and/or throw, who isn’t on the lookout for easy hors d’oeuvres for hostess gifts or to serve to guests? My rule for homemade appetizers is that they need to be seriously tasty, gorgeous to look at and made in 10 minutes or less. Pamela Anderson’s (not that Pamela Anderson) lacy cheddar crisps will not disappoint. Read more

Dijon style mustards

One Of These Mustards Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these Dijons cuts the mustard with chef Glenys Morgan: French’s, President’s Choice or Western Family?

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Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef

It’s Hip To Cook Retro With Vintage Cookbooks

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It’s fashionable to cook retro right now, and to do it using old recipes from outdated cookbooks.

 

Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star ChefFOOD FOR THOUGHT Blame it on Julie & Julia (both the book and the movie) if you want to, but it’s fashionable to cook retro right now. Who could have guessed that when New Yorker Julie Powell spent 365 days in the early oughties cooking every dish from Julia Child’s 1961 classic, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (volume one), that both her book and Child’s classic would reach the top ranks of The New York Times bestsellers list—and that curious cooks across North America would take a new interest in making old dishes from recipes found in outdated cookbooks? Read more

One Of These Pickles Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these baby dill brands has chef Glenys Morgan in a pickle: Safeway, Western Family or Bicks?

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Why Buy Perrier? Fizzy Water Is Easy To Make

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If tapwater leaves you flat, home carbonation devices will add fizz to your drink and loonies to your pocket.

Bottled Tapwater - C. PhaisalakaniWASTE NOT | Last summer I had dinner at the home of a stylish and gracious friend whose table setting included a tall glass pitcher filled with tapwater, ice cubes and slices of lime. It was refreshing in every way: simple, elegant and thirst-quenching. For a more casual presentation, another friend recycles the rubber-stoppered bottles from French lemonade, filling them with tapwater that she keeps chilled in the fridge. You can buy similar stoppered bottles without the lemonade (Bella Vita in Park Royal has attractive ones in green or blue from Maxwell & Williams for $5.95).

The advantages of tapwater are well known—better regulated and better for you than bottled water, better for the environment, really really local—yet having imported bottled water on the table has become almost as essential as knowing what wine to serve. Perhaps it’s the bubbles. I’m not a fan of fizz myself, but many of those who are have been turning to home carbonation devices. Read more

One Of These Tunas Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these tuna brands sends chef Glenys Morgan fishin’ in the back of the cupboard: Rio Mare, Western Family Solid Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil, Cloverleaf Flaked Light Tuna in Vegetable Broth and Oil?

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What’s The Deal With Spices Prices?

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Exploring the (better-priced) outer reaches of the spice aisles.

SpicesCHEAP + GOOD | Shopping for spices recently at the Superstore at Main and Marine Drive in Vancouver, I felt like the victim of a bait and switch con game. Little identical glass jars of McCormick Gourmet spices were being sold for identical prices even though the weight of their contents was vastly different—a 7-gram jar of bay leaves cost the same as a 43-gram jar of ground cumin—$6.69. A few feet away, Club House was selling a 13-gram bottle of bay leaves for $3.49.

On closer inspection, I was surprised to learn that McCormick Gourmet and Club House are owned by McCormick Canada, which means if you buy their “gourmet” product, you are paying almost twice as much buck for half as much bay, or, put another way, you are paying a whopping $4.87 for that little glass jar. Read more

One Of These Peanut Butters Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these organic peanut butter brands made chef Glenys Morgan feel like a nut: MaraNatha Natural No-Stir, O Organics, Kirkland Organic, Nuts To You Organic?

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