Food Wine Sleep

Ah the humble crumble, in season sweet apples stewed with cinnamon and brown sugar, golden baked buttery topping and vanilla ice cream on the side! Is there a more appropriate thing to serve as dessert in the colder months? I think not.

Ah! Don't you love winter, the season of indulgent deserts. The one time of year no one really feels too guilty about too many sweets, must be the fact that beach season is well behind us.....or in front (depends whether you are a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" kind of person). The nice thing about this recipe is that even if you only have 4 dinner guests you can still enjoy the 6 puddings this recipe makes (they make a wonderful decadent muffin in the morning).

Coloring easter eggs is one of the traditions I have the fondest memories of from when I was a kid. I am a strong believer in the upkeep of traditions and just a few days ago did the process with my own kids. Perhaps in terms of cooking and culinary delight not necessarily the most challenging recipe, but I feel that we need to honor traditions such as the coloring of easter eggs and besides that it makes a great spring table decoration for your Easter brunch or a nice gift to give away to your friends.

I was on the phone to my friend Trevor the other day back in Canada, and as well as the usual catching up on each others distant lives, we talked food for a bit. During this conversation Trevor asked me how to make fettuccine Carbonara, as he had attempted it the night before and ended up with as is often the case, fettuccine a'la scrambled eggs. I explained to him the trick was to toss the warmed pasta through the egg mix away from the stove and by doing so the heat of the pasta will warm the egg sauce enough to cook it but not actually scramble it. I was thankful for that conversation because it is a classic dish I hadn't made in ages and since that phone call I have re...

Guacamole is one of those items that everyone and their dog has a recipe for. This of course is the best version (haha), it is my version. I find avocado and lime have very distinct flavours so I tend to keep mine very simple and not overwhelm the guacamole with a 1001 ingredients. You'll also notice that some people make their guacamoles chunky and others smooth. Depending on the dish I am serving it with I may make it chunky but overall I prefer to make it smooth as a ripe avocado really lends itself really well to that silky smooth texture.

This recipe is actually from my mother. Throughout the year, but especially around Christmas time, she used to borrow the 'wafer iron' from my grandmother and produced those thin, sweet crisp wafers. After they wafers have cooled on a rack, they were stored in airtight containers for up to a month. In dry, relative humidity free, Switzerland, they stayed crisp and fresh. Problem was, it was never really proven, that the wafers could be stored that long, as my brother, my sister and my dad usually ensured the wafers were eaten while fresh and crisp.

I know what you're thinking, didn't we see enough of this dessert in the 90's. Well yes I think we did, but no we don't see enough of it now. It went from hip to passe overnight, and I am usually the first to bid good riddance to a dish that is eaten simply because it is in fashion, but the sticky date should never have been fashionable. It is a humble dessert, a dessert that was never suited to being trendy, it's old, and it's a classic and should be treated accordingly. You don't dress your grandmother in the latest hipster jeans, off the shoulder top, Gucci sunglasses and hang with her at the latest clubs every weekend for the entire summer, no of course not. You love...