Google / Social Description

These cookie sandwiches are a delicious combination of salty and sweet and hold a dear place in our hearts.

Introduction

There’s something for everyone in a monster cookie. This is our mom’s recipe, and it’s one of the first cookies we learned to bake when we were kids. Filled with oats, chocolate chips, creamy peanut butter, raisins, Smarties, and peanuts, these cookie sandwiches are a delicious combination of salty and sweet and hold a dear place in our hearts.

Google / Social Description

Toppeed with a brown butter variation of the classic cream cheese frosting, this cake is rich, tender, and full of flavour!

Introduction

When I was growing up, my mom made a carrot cake out of Bach’s Lunch, the Junior Committee of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Community Cookbook, published in 1971. Like a lot of recipes we often eat in childhood, it became the benchmark against which all carrot cakes were forever judged. This is a very different recipe—with lots of toasted pecans, buttermilk, and fresh ginger—but the spirit is the same. It’s a rich, tender, moderately spiced cake loaded with carrots. Don’t make it without the brown butter variation of the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Google / Social Description

Both rustic and elegant, this pavlova roulade recipe is simple to make but makes a huge impression.

Introduction

This recipe is simple to make, but it creates a huge impression when served. It is both rustic and elegant, perfect for a picnic in the park or that formal dinner you have twice a year in the otherwise unused dining room. Or is that just me? No matter where, it is always met with amazed glee. The meringue bakes up crisp on the outside and delicately soft on the inside. I like to pair it with barely sweetened cream and rhubarb, because the tartness is a match made in heaven for the sweet pavlova. When it is all rolled up, the textures, flavors, and beauty of this gluten-free cake make it a total winner.

This pavlova can go in so many tasty directions. You can toss in some berries, layer it with Coconut Pastry Cream (Page 232) and Dark Chocolate Ganache (page 221), or replace the cooked rhubarb with two fresh sliced peaches or substitute the Perfect Whipped Cream with Caramel Whipped Cream (page 229) and top with Crushed Praline (page 244) before serving.

Google / Social Description

When you taste this chicken, you'll have a hard time going back to making "barbecue" chicken in the oven.

Introduction

We raised chickens for their eggs when I was a boy. The difference between fresh-laid eggs and store-bought eggs is huge. Yard eggs are richer in flavor, and when you beat them, they even seem thicker in texture. We would buy chicken at the market to eat, rather than slaughter our laying hens. My mother used to make what we called “barbecue chicken” in the oven. It was basically baked chicken with commercial barbecue sauce. I don’t want to knock it. I enjoyed that baked chicken, but I wouldn’t call it barbecue. It wasn’t until later, when we added chicken to the menu at the family restaurant that I got into true smoked chicken. The oven and the pit are very different, obviously. When you taste this chicken, you’ll have a hard time going back to your oven.

Google / Social Description

Better than a pie dish, a sheet pan lets you use whole asparagus. Pretty. . . and delicious!

Introduction

Better than a pie dish, a sheet pan lets you use whole asparagus. Pretty. . . and delicious!

Google / Social Description

Try this delicious side of green beans with a flavourful vinaigrette.

Google / Social Description

Don't be fooled by the short list of ingredients! This basic dish is filled with flavour, that both kids and adults will love.

Introduction

As soon as Luna was old enough to chew solid food, I was making her this very basic but very delicious stir-fry, which delivers a shocking amount of rich beefy flavor despite its short ingredient list. The secret is the oyster sauce, which adds serious umami, so much so that you won’t even miss the beef if you leave it out. Sometimes I’ll make stir-fried broccoli for the kids and it disappears just as fast.

I call this Luna’s Broccoli Beef because it’s one of her favorite foods, but that is a gene she obviously inherited from John, who might love broccoli more than she does. No matter what age you are, there’s a lesson here. Boiled broccoli? Nobody wants seconds. Stir-fried broccoli? You can’t make enough of it. A little garlic, oyster sauce, and a hot wok go a long way.
 

Google / Social Description

You'll fall in love with these fresh rolls! Pair them with a delicious green curry dipping sauce to complete the meal.

Introduction

I fell in love with the simplicity of fresh rolls since traveling to Bali. They’re on every menu and they all taste amazing! It might just be the tropical heat that makes them taste so good, but I ate my weight in them. It was on my agenda to master making them at home and I decided that filling them with lots of crunchy green stuff would be the game plan. I love that these are all green because, let’s face it, most of my best recipes are brown so it’s nice to change things up! Even if you can’t quite get the hang of rolling them on your first go, it all tastes the same in the end. And just wait until you get that creamy green curry dipping sauce in your mouth. It’s fantastic!