classic apple crisp

Driving home across rural Ontario last week, I drove past a picturesque farm nestled into the rolling hills. As I sailed on by, I noticed a sweet little shed at the side of the driveway with a crooked, hand-painted sign saying, “Apples for Sale.” Inside the shed were a few baskets of apples and a cash box. 

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French apple cake

I have a bit of a habit of getting a new favourite song and listening to it so often that I wear it out. But in this case, this is a favourite song revisited. Since I heard it at dinner at a friend’s house last week, I can’t stop listening to Joan Baez’s song, Diamonds and Rust. It’s such a classic and so powerful and incredibly, hauntingly beautiful. 

perfect pumpkin scones

The love of place is as real, as strong, and as important as any love. I felt it on the wild remote coast of Tasmania. I’ve felt it over and over on visits to Yorkshire – my ancestral home and the place I spent my formative years. I’ve felt in the south of France – the north of France – the middle of France. The sunshine coast of Australia. Salt Spring Island off the coast of Vancouver. I’ve felt it in the rugged, wilderness of Northern Canada. In Killarney Provincial Park as I watched a blue moon rise over the lakes and listened to the loons call to each other. I’ve felt it the Rocky Mountains, in Mexico. And absolutely in Newfoundland. Definitely there. That was love at first sight.

Lemon gelato with vodka

To compensate for last week’s excessively long post – I’m doing an excessively short one here. With an equally short recipe. Hardly a recipe at all. Just two ingredients. And I didn’t even think of them myself. The ‘recipe’ for lemon gelato with vodka comes from Elizabeth Bard’s charming book, Lunch in Paris. It’s probably the best dessert I’ve had all summer. So good I’m having it again tonight.

chickpea and gin-soaked raisin salad

It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. In this case at least, necessity was the mother of these gin-soaked raisins. The original recipe was a pasta recipe that called for various things including farfalle, Swiss chard, and raisins soaked in vermouth. Somehow, the vermouth had disappeared, but the beautiful blue bottle of Bombay Sapphire was beckoning….

how to date a supermodel and a Monet Pizza

This headline, “How to date a supermodel,” caught my eye in a recent issue of The Economist . There’s not much danger of my even sighting a supermodel but….

on ego, ideals, and a batch of slow-cooker granola

I’ve been thinking about this brilliant passage on the subject of ego and ideals:

a well-worn classic – self-saucing baked chocolate pudding

 

When I was very young, I had a book in which somebody had inscribed the following: 

beans, bacon, whisky, lard – and New Year’s resolutions

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

a way of being in the world and a matcha green tea cake

Recently I stumbled across the work of the German existential philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976), who explored the subject of being  – that is, our way of being in the world –  our human ability to confront issues such as our personhood and mortality; and the paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.

I’ve never studied philosophy. But I do find the paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself, immensely interesting and relevant. And complicated.