Postcards from the Mothership » Eating and thinking and thinking about eating

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that Chef Michael Smith is my food bae. I credit him for pretty much single-handedly empowering me to cook, something I’ve grown to love ...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2019/01/08/photos-of-the-day-red-hot-chili-peppers/

I found a great Shepherd’s pie recipe a couple of years ago, and it became one of my Dad’s favourites – so much so that I stopped making it for about a year after he died, just because it r...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2019/01/07/our-favourite-shepherds-pie-recipe/

We’re trying to eat more thoughtfully these days. I still like Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” My brother has been trying to follow a mostly vegan diet f...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2018/06/02/the-one-with-the-veggie-dog-fail/

I was standing in the cereal aisle at Loblaws, having a conversation with their in-house dietitian about making thoughtful, nutritious donations to local food banks during the holidays. We were c...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2017/12/20/a-few-thoughts-on-maximizing-nutrition-in-holiday-food-drive-donations/

I didn’t learn about s’mores until I was an adult. We weren’t a camping family, though toasting marshmallows was an occasional but revered treat growing up. How I survived into adulthood wi...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2017/08/31/a-taste-of-summer-all-year-long-baked-smores-dip-recipe/

It’s a weeknight and Beloved is working late, which almost never happens. I’m in charge of making school lunches, which happens as seldom as I’m able to get away with, and I realize that we...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2017/03/07/the-one-with-the-banana-bread/

We ended up with leeks in our CSA share last autumn. This is not a food I’d ordinarily eat, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them. Beloved has long had an affection for potato leek ...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2016/04/04/potato-bacon-leek-soup-my-first-from-scratch-recipe/

I have been following with interest the story of French’s versus Heinz ketchup. If you’ve missed it, the story so far goes something like this. Last year, worlds collided in the condiment ais...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2016/03/15/ketchup-wars/

It’s been nearly two years since I first wrote about stalking my culinary hero, Chef Michael Smith. Since then we’ve been to his Flavour Shack in Souris several times, and for my birthday din...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2016/02/25/in-which-i-not-only-stalk-chef-michael-smith-but-convince-him-to-facetime-with-the-boys/

You know what food I love on a cold winter weekend? A hearty beef stew. You know what else I love? Thick, salty oven fries that are crispy on the outside and perfect on the inside. In a flash of ...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2016/01/17/the-ultimate-canadian-winter-comfort-food-stew-tine/

Beloved called me at work the other day. “I feel so lost, so adrift. I’ve lost my rudder and I feel like we’re directionless.” Nope, not an existential crisis – he was upset because it ...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2016/01/11/how-a-chalkboard-saves-my-sanity-at-dinner-time-every-single-day/

It always tickles me when the various streams in my life converge and diverge. A while ago, someone on Facebook made a passing mention of avocado toast. Specifically, avocado mashed with fresh li...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/08/26/photo-of-the-day-avocado-toast/

I am pretty excited that our community supported agriculture (CSA) share will start arriving soon. We’ve signed up for a half share, which means we get a massive load of fresh, local organic ve...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/06/10/how-to-manage-your-csa-share-alternate-title-learning-to-love-the-chard/

Two months ago, on Easter Sunday, I pulled my FitBit back out of the drawer, where it had been taking a brief break from my wrist. I’ve missed my 10,000 steps per day goal only seven out of the...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/06/06/in-which-she-makes-solid-progress-in-her-health-and-weight-goals/

This is timely. I was just thinking about writing a blog post about kids and their drink choices when I came across this article in the Ottawa Citizen about how fruit juice may be dropped from Ca...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/05/19/is-fruit-juice-bad-for-kids/

From Michael Pollan to Mark Bittman to Michael Moss to Yoni Freedhoff to Michael Smith, I love being challenged to think about food in new ways. I found this Globe and Mail excerpt from a new boo...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/05/08/thoughtful-eating-the-dorito-effect/

The request was simple enough. Beloved mentioned in passing the other day how much he loves hot turkey sandwiches for dinner. No problem, I can do that. Back in the day, this would involve storeb...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2015/01/26/culinary-evolution-via-the-hot-turkey-sandwich/

Here’s a fun and easy although not entirely inexpensive little project: make yer own vanilla extract! You can thank Chef Michael Smith for this one. Beloved and I have been taping old episodes ...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2014/12/04/ingredient-of-the-week-home-made-vanilla-extract/

Did you know that if you take the regular old lentils that you find in the grocery store (the dried ones in the bag, not the canned ones) and a mason jar, you can grow them on the kitchen counter...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2014/11/05/sprout-yer-own-lentils/

So I may have mentioned (cough cough) that I’ve become something of a fangirl of Chef Michael Smith lately. But please believe me when I tell you that even if I weren’t already predisposed to...

http://danigirl.ca/blog/2014/08/08/chef-michael-smiths-new-family-meals-cookbook-a-review-and-giveaway/