Saucy Spring

It is officially spring and here in Bruce County, it has arrived with both warmth and a chill. I want to clean the herb beds and yet I keep looking over my shoulder for the blast of snow that always seems to sneak in before May 24th, our magic (read 'safe') planting date.
Has spring arrived where you are?
How do you define spring?

Once the warm weather hits and stays, I will be cooking lighter and looking for light ways to flavour my meals and one of the best ways to do that is to add herbed sauces to vegetable and plant-based dishes.

And, of course, one of the finest herb sauces is Pesto. I make pesto from all of the herbs in my herb garden, but most people think only of basil when they think of pesto. The word for the green, nutmeg-spiked paste that I make so often actually comes from the word pestle, which is the tool used along with a mortar to grind the nuts, garlic, Parmesan cheese and of course, the herbs and oil into the coarse or smooth paste we love on pasta, in soups and to slide under tomatoes.

For more fresh, vegan sauce recipes, go here.

I do use a food processor, but every now and then, I use my porcelain, hand-made mortar and it is so satisfying.

Project Food Blog, Challenge #1 Chiffonade**

It's a Chiffonade** of a Contest

The Biggest contest to hit the food blogging community is Project Food Buzz, a deliciously interesting competition designed to sift through the hundreds of cyber food wordsmiths for the quintessential food blogger.

OK. I'm in...along with 1,818 other eager, food-slinging, photo-snapping entrants. There I am, way down at the bottom, around 1,400 profiles down.

So my job is to submit a blog and yours is to vote for the best of the best. Not hard, a bit like counting the shards of basil in my Mediterranean Herb Paste. Here we go: Challenge Number 1, from the fingers of the folks that think of these things, "..we're asking you to create a blog post that defines you as a food blogger and makes it clear why you think you have what it takes to be the next food blog star."

My name is Pat Crocker. No Kidding. Patricia Crocker: mother, daughter of British immigrants to Canada and father, son of robust Newfoundlander fisher-folk.

Nothing extraordinary there, but wait. While researching saffron for my cookbook, Tastes of the Kasbah, I happened to find a reference to the origins of my surname (I knew it had nothing to do with cakes from a box!).. In fact, it was a direct quote by the Reverend William Harrison, who in 1587 wrote that English saffron farmers "were known as Crockers", that gave me food for thought.

Hm. Pat Crocker, a.k.a. Patrius Crocus, descendent of English saffron farmers researches, grows, cooks, photographs and writes about herbs and their extraordinary relationship with food: Food Weds Herbs.

Stay tuned right here, because on Monday, September 20th I will be announcing that voting is open and I will give you the complete information about how you can vote your favourite food blogger to fame and frolic at the second annual Foodbuzz Festival.

**Oh, and Chiffonade?

That's where you take the finest of basil leaves and stack them up against one another.

Roll the whole lot into one big, fat cigar and cut them into finely shredded strips for flavoring melting-pot dishes.