Hello, I’m Samantha; this site is a collection of odds and ends, such as recipes made with healthy, whole food ingredients, and a smattering of other food-related tidbits.
I, gratefully, get to spend a lot of my time exploring new (to me) recipes and techniques, the fascinating history of where our food comes from, dishes from other cultures, and indulging my love of cooking, sharing and eating delicious foods. I sometimes obsess over recreating something exquisite that we’ve enjoyed in a restaurant, or attempt to develop new recipes based on some old favourites, updated to reflect our current preferences.
My maternal grandmother ran a tea shop during the second world war in England, and worked as a confectioner at a bake shop after the war. I love this old picture of her; I can imagine her creating her sponge cakes, scones and other goodies in her shops. She used to take my mother out for tea and scones to the evocatively named “Tudor Cafe”; what a treat it would be share some freshly baked scones and a cup of tea with her at the Tudor Cafe.
Following my maternal traditions, I enjoy cooking our meals with natural, minimally processed, organic ingredients whenever possible. It seems that in recent years, many people are developing food sensitivities and gut issues, so cutting down a bit on the usual suspects, such as processed foods and refined sugar, seems like a good preventative measure. Over the years, I’ve become increasingly involved and interested in learning more about the nutritional qualities of foods, which has resulted in a desire to create more scientifically-based health conscious recipes.
We don’t count calories, but try to mainly eat foods that are purported to be good for us. I do, however, have several weaknesses…such as croissants, crepes, scones, Montreal bagels, wood-fired pizza (pretty much anything doughy, like crumpets, dumplings, chewy black sesame jian dui, kouign amann, Yorkshire pudding…). I was lucky enough to live near a Montreal-style bagel bakery at one time (Siegel’s in Vancouver), and there’s nothing like biting into a toasty, chewy bagel that’s still warm and laced with a whiff of smoke from a wood-fired oven.
Emmy, our black lab, is my constant kitchen companion. She loves to help out, especially with the clean-up. Thank you for stopping by, I hope you find something here you’d like to bake in your own kitchen.
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