Month: November 2018

2018 cookbooks

What’s on My Cookbook Shelf

Published by Kathy Hunt

In keeping with tradition I have another list of best cookbooks and food narratives for the food lovers on your holiday shopping list. Some choices reflect recent travels. Others are influenced by current events. All showcase the diversity of cuisines and cultures around the globe and in the U.S. The list begins with cookbooks. You’ll find a short review of the standouts, followed by a few honorable mentions. After that it’s all about food writing. For past years’ best cookbooks reviews, check out Kitchen Kat’s Cookbook Reviews. Best Cookbooks: Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip by Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller (Random House, 2017) Anderson and VanVeller traveled 37,000 kilometers/roughly 23,000 miles across Canada to collect recipes and stories about Canadian cuisine. The result of their journey is Feast. Part cookbook, part travel narrative, it features such Canadian specialties as Spicy Haddock and Snow Crab Cakes (Cape Breton Island), Beaton’s Mac & Cheese (NW Territories), Elk Burgers (Ontario) and Okanagan Cherry Buttermilk Chess Pie (Vancouver). Substitutions for exotic ingredients accompany each dish. …

cat and mouse cookies

Let’s Bake Maple Sugar Cookies!

Published by Kathy Hunt

As promised in the previous post, I have the perfect treat in which to feature your homemade maple sugar, maple sugar cookies! Inspired by a recent visit to Montreal, where I spied a wide range of maple-themed sweets and saw that, as rumored, Canadians adore pure maple syrup-infused foods, Canadian Maple Sugar Cookies are a delicious way to bring that sweet, earthy taste to your baking. For this recipe don’t skimp on the maple sugar or syrup. Stay away from those mass-marketed mixtures of corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors and ingredients. Don’t get fooled by tiny bottles of “maple extract” or “maple essence,” either. Thinking that I could punch up a traditional poundcake, I tried one of these flavorings once. Consisting of alcohol, water and “natural flavors,” the so-called extract smelled like soy sauce and tasted nothing like maple. It did not end up in my cake. If you own a maple leaf-shaped cutter, you can make your cookies even more “maple-licious” by using that. Since I have a surplus of …