home cooked food

Reading Time: 3 minutes After the renovations a few years ago, the Emerald Plaza library on Merivale Rd has become a really nice place to be where retirees, students, and parents with toddlers all hang out during the long winters. When our home internet was down for a few days, I would just go there and work from the library. The only thing missing is an espresso bar though, else I’d probably move in permanently. It is on the Nepean Trail and only a 7 minute bike ride from home or a 25 minute walk. Mennonite cooking While browsing the cookbook shelves, I found [Read more…]

Reading Time: 5 minutes As December 5 approaches, children in the Netherlands are getting all excited about the visit of Sinterklaas, that 3rd century bishop who visits the Netherlands on a steamboat from Spain every year. He brings goodies and gifts for the kids. Some gifts are accompanied with a tongue-in-cheek rhyme, often referring to something the kids (and adults) did wrong, with the purpose of good humoured embarrassment. Speculaas and Marzipan Closely associate with Sinterklaas (or Saint Nicolaas) is marzipan, speculaas, pepernoten and hot chocolate. Marzipan comes in all kinds of shapes and as a kid I never really liked it. It is [Read more…]

Reading Time: 4 minutes I am always on the lookout for easy recipes. I don’t mind cooking, but I am more of an all-in-one-pan type of person than four pots on the fire at the same time. As we are only with the two of us, I generally cook for two nights at once. Minimum. A really easy dish that covers at least two evenings is de deep dish pie. It is just one step past the meat and potatoes stuff so that is OK for me. Today, we are going to make a vegetable ham deep dish pie. You can replace the ham [Read more…]