dessert & pies archive

january citrus break: lime tart

My husband’s birthday is January 2nd and while I love my husband dearly, I’m not so keen on celebrating the day of his birth so close to the holidays. After a month of chocolates and sweets, I’m eager to get…

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holiday baking ideas (part 2) + cute printable gift tags!

This year I took the slow boat towards Christmas and only started really thinking about holiday baking and decorating this past weekend. Friday night we put up our shiny little tinsel tree, drank a few amaretto sours and basked in…

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get ready, thanksgiving is coming up this weekend!

Thanksgiving in Canada is early and it tends to sneak up on you before you know it. This year is no exception. Before panic sets in, take a deep breath and peek at some of my tried & true Thanksgiving…

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blackberry & peach shortbread bars

Blackberry and peaches have a short life span. They appear in local markets and entangled in bushes wanting to be seen, heard and tasted and then just before you’ve had your fill, they seem to vanish. I have a tendency…

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me on the radio & other tasty bits

A couple weeks ago, I received a phone call from someone at CBC radio. The “On the Coast” program hosted by Stephen Quinn was doing a short segment about blackberries and had a few questions for me. A google search…

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blueberry sorbet with riesling & rosemary

A couple of years ago, I had great luck making a cherry buttermilk sherbet. The only ice cream maker I had at the time was a large and clunky (but beautiful) turquoise vintage hand-crank one. I didn’t pull it out…

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brown butter rhubarb ginger bars – spring, finally.

Spring came to a slow start here in Vancouver. April and May were cold and rainy with only a couple sunny days to spare. The sad thing is that the past few months have been so busy that I haven’t made it out to our local farmer’s markets and so I felt that all the bounty of spring produce: asparagus, ramps and rhubarb were passing me by. Luckily, I found some gorgeous stalks of rhubarb in my local Chinatown market and remembered a recipe…

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3 of my favorite words: bourbon ice cream

I made this ice cream a while ago and I think its time for a repeat double scoop. This ice cream is actually low in fat and is adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe called “cornstarch ice cream”. When you…

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