Michael Stadtländer is a German chef who set up an eccentric farm-restaurant in rural Ontario. On Stadtländer’s sprawling property, Eigensinn Farm, his team grows the organic produce and raises the free-range pigs, sheep, rabbit, goat, and poultry for his restaurant at the farmhouse. He also has beehives for honey, a stand of sugar maples for maple syrup, and he combs […]
Food
Furikake on Everything!
When I was a kid, we had a goldfish. Even though I wanted a cuddly, furry pet, our parents started us off with a goldfish. And of course, we would have to feed fish food to our goldfish. Fish food, in case you haven’t seen it before, is generally a can of flat fish […]
DIY: How To Make Vanilla Sugar
Once you have a vanilla bean, it is really simple to make your own vanilla sugar. When we lived in Saudi Arabia, it was impossible to buy vanilla extract since it was made with alcohol – and alcohol was illegal. Instead, I would bring Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar from Germany every summer to use in my […]
DIY: How to Make Lavender Sugar
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 […]
First Time Baker: Almond Blondies
Donatello is a great cook, but he doesn’t know how to bake. This would not be a problem, except that he is also a cookie monster. He quickly devours every batch of cookies I, Meinhilde, and Ryan bake and none of us can keep up. I decided to show him how to bake his own treats. To make it easier […]