The Year in Books: February with the Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

The Year in Books February Flavor Bible

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, 2008. I first heard about this book at a pediatric nutrition conference. It’s not really a cookbook, but rather a comprehensive list of complementary ingredients. Don’t like the taste of radishes? Well you […]

DIY: How To Make Vanilla Extract

DIY: Homemade Vanilla Extract

While we were living in Saudi Arabia, it was almost impossible to buy vanilla extract, since the authorities assumed the little bottles contained alcohol (a no-no in Saudi Arabia). Instead, I would pick up packets of vanilla sugar when we visited our Oma in Germany every summer. Now that we are living back in Canada, […]

DIY: Cinnamon Sugar

DIY: Cinnamon Sugar, recipe and uses

Cinnamon sugar is great way to add a festive flavour to any recipe. stir into coffee, tea, or hot chocolate sprinkle onto pancakes sprinkle onto waffles sprinkle onto yogurt sprinkle onto crème brûlée before caramelizing sprinkle on top of muffins before baking (like these tea cakes) roll donuts in cinnamon sugar sprinkle onto oatmeal or […]

DIY: How to Make Lavender Sugar

DIY Lavender Sugar, Kiku Corner

This is a lovely way to lightly scent sugar with the floral essence of lavender. I like to use it in place of regular white sugar in some baking (excellent in shortbreads), sprinkled on some sugar cookies, or even as a sweetener in a cup of tea. It takes a few days to ‘steep,’ but […]

Flavoured Waters: Cucumber Mint Water

If you ever get tired of plain water (ooh how fancy you are, that fresh clean water is too boring!), try flavouring it with cut up fruits, vegetables and herbs. In this case, we added sliced cucumbers and fresh mint.