Healing Herbs

Healing foods hold keys to healthIndeed, our pace of living and the commercialization of food seems to have masked what is perhaps the most important key to good health, that of diet. Long before modern medicine, cultures were eating healing foods to both prevent and heal illness. The ancient Chinese document, the Niejing (circa 500 BC) illustrates the importance of using medicinal herbs in everyday food as a fundamental tool in preventing and treating disease. It is likely that both Hippocrates and The Yellow Emperor would have enjoyed healing broth, soup or other long-simmering dishes. Read my article in Canadian Health and Lifestyle to discover the healing secrets of ginger, turmeric, thyme, cinnamon, and more kitchen herbs for health.

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.

Taste Canada Announces Book Awards

Taste Canada Nominees for Food Writing Awards 2012

The long list of nominees for Taste Canada's Food Writing Awards in the Single-Subject Cookbooks category have been announced and three (!!) books by Pat Crocker including one co-authored by Nettie Cronish are among the fifteen nominations.

Some information about the Taste Canada Awards:

Taste Canada — The Food Writing Awards is an evolution of the former Canadian Culinary Book Awards.

These newly branded annual Awards will continue to recognize and celebrate superior writing and publishing throughout Canada’s culinary world, both English and French, while acknowledging and respecting the authority and history of the original Awards.

Winning authors and their publishers will receive recognition through:

• media outreach
• marketing partnerships with Canadian publishers
• a paid Awards event in November 2012
• a trophy to commemorate winning a Gold Award
• our ongoing partnerships with Canadian media outlets, retailers, and sponsors, along with Taste Canada sticker templates for the winning books

To view all of the nominees in the Single-Subject Cookbooks category, click here.

The short list of books for the Awards will be announced on August 1, 2012, so stay connected right to this blog and I will bring you all the news.

Meanwhile, if you are are a culinary professional and interested in joining Cuisine Canada, go here.

Uptown 21 Preserves

Pat's Recipes and Nick Benninger at Uptown 21

If you wanted to go to the dinner at Uptown 21 last week but couldn't, Andrew Coppolino was there and he covers the whole thing in his blog, Waterloo Region Eats.

Go here for the menu and photographs of each course. It was a grand tour de force.

I had a blast!