HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Nutmeg sat up when she received an email from her girlfriend, Wild Rice, who had trained in the kitchen at cooking school in London. It was not the cheery note that grabbed Nutmeg’s attention, but rather the new recipe that was contained in the text, a warm blend of pumpkin and Thai flavours. This recipe is not from the famous cooking school, there is no need to be chef material, read on, anyone can make this simple soup.
With the Internet, email and social media – does anyone get real mail these days? Needless to say, Nutmeg was thrilled to find a copy of Judith Finlayson’s The Complete Gluten-Free Whole Grains Cookbook, buried under the innumerable junk-mail fliers for duct cleaning, roof repair and debt consolidation. Judith took some time one spring afternoon to talk about this book, and how her career path (from keyboard to slow cooker) got her to where she is today – working on her 15th cookbook! Her professional life began in book publishing, in her words as a “glorified secretary.” Judith moved into editing and then to well known Canadian magazines such as MacLean’s. Her career stops included freelance work, recipe development and a long running Globe & Mail column. She was always interested in food related journalism, although her articles also covered a broad range of women’s and social issues. Even while juggling a busy career and editorial deadlines over a twenty-year period her…
Don’t let your mother tell you that the Internet is a scary place! Nutmeg has met so many interesting people via Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest that she has decided to start a Guest Blog Thursdays, so they can share their stories. Volia: Aidan Larson is an American mom of three navigating her way through life in France and writing about it on her blog: Conjugating Irregular Verbs. She writes from her dining room table in the south of France in between motherhood, French lessons and perfecting her oeuf en croute. If you want to read more from Aidan she can be found on her blog site Conjugating Irregular Verbs (letters from my dining table in the south of France).
For Nutmeg this is a terrifying blog post, so it is fitting that it arrives just in time for Halloween. Ginger and Nutmeg left Calgary on September 30, 2010. Nutmeg has quite happily not set foot on Canadian soil for 13 months. What is so scary? They are headed back to Calgary in the darkest, coldest month of the year! Here are some fun statistics from their time abroad:
35,000 Kilometers driven in the trusty car by Ginger
15,000 Roundabouts
8,000 Photos documenting the year
5,000 Toll booths
395 Number of days since Nutmeg has been in Canada
395 Wine bottles consumed more or less
150 Number of times Nutmeg went to a market
150+ Bike rides
50+ Churches visited
35+ Hikes
18 Ski days at new resorts
15 Gap T-shirts
13 Provencal deserts at Christmas time
8+ Concerts
4 Ferry rides: to Corsica and Sardinia
4 Pairs of runners
3 Masks from the Venice Carnival
5 Cooking lessons
5 Countries Visited:France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, UK
Nutmeg has a very dear friend Sassafras. They have been friends for several decades and even though they live quite far apart, they usually manage, to get in a ski or bike or hike weekend here and there. So a bit about Sassafras (besides the great name). She is so smart she has two university degrees because engineering was not hard enough. She loves the open water, craves mountain vistas, has a great laugh and generally embraces live. Sassafras also loves to cook and has decided that she will help Nutmeg out and provide a few of her favorite recipes for all of you to try. So as Nutmeg is digging out her puffy down jacket, the rest of the country is still experiencing summer, so Sassafras’s first recipe is a cool summer soup: North African Spiced Tomato Soup.
Nutmeg is a “greeniac” (just ask Ginger)… she turns out lights before she leaves a room, recycles everything, uses the rain barrel to water her plant pots, faithfully composts greens and browns, buys eco-friendly cleaning products – but she does NOT believe in global warming! On August 29th, Ginger and Nutmeg awoke to slightly above freezing temperatures and a very clear view of snow a third of the way down the nearby mountain peaks. Yes it is true, the rest of the country, and possibly the world is suffering with heat stroke, water restrictions and cool blended drinks. Al Gore be damned according to Nutmeg, there is no global warming in Southern Alberta, it is soup time! So out comes the Corn and Crab Chowder (check out the recipe below). (more…)
Nutmeg loves this idea for an open house – invite people over for a bowl of soup and a drink on New Year’s day. It is a great way to hear all the stories from the night before and toast the New Year with your friends. One additional bonus, is there is a very good chance no one will stay late as they were up the night before…
Nutmeg has a bit of time on her hands this fall and this soup one of her new favorites:
Print Pear, Fennel and Acorn Squash Soup Recipe type: Soup Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 45 mins Serves: 4 This is an easy soup to celebrate the best of fall produce. Note: mild curry can be added as well (optional). Enjoy! Ingredients 1 Small Fennel bulb, diced 3 Shallots or ½ onion, diced 1.5 Tbsp. Olive oil 2 Pears cored and cubed 5 cups Vegetable or chicken stock ½ Tsp. cinnamon 1 Tsp. Fresh ginger, crushed 2 Medium Acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes ½ Cup Coconut milk Salt and Pepper, to taste Instructions Saute fennel and shallots in pan with 1 Tbsp oil until lightly…
