AxelPollert

I'm sitting here wondering... is there a limit to how much butter a person can handle? I walked into the kitchen yesterday armed with 2 pounds of butter which somehow instantly disappeared into the parade of my usual holiday concoctions (I tend to think of it as my own little trifecta of holiday doughs... rich and unrestrained): Tourte Milanaise for breakfast (this year I managed to tackle my very own puff pastry thanks to a tattered copy of The Joy of Cooking which expertly guided me through the process), Tourtière for dinner (with an all-butter spelt crust), and of course my mom's boozy, eggy, yeasty, buttery  Baba au Rhum ...  (my belly is already all warmed up from the most recent one). It would all be fine and dandy but the thing is, this year I'm spending a quiet, snowy, secluded Christmas with my love... which means... there are only two of us... which means... we're well on our way to chowing down, unaided , 2 pounds of butters worth of Christmas baking. Yeesh...

Ahoy friends! This is my longest absence yet from this wee corner of the ever-expanding universe of the interwebs. And since I last wrote in August, so much has happened in the world, a reminder that the one thing that's always constant is change, that nothing is certain, and that the world can become a very different place in a very short time. These trying political times certainly call on us for greater engagement in our communities, deeper compassion and understanding, action, vigilance, and resistance! How are you all holding up? It's been quiet on this little blog because as many of you know, I've been finishing my very first feature film, and it's taken much longer than I ever anticipated. I arrived in Toronto last April, rough cut of the film in hand, the promise of spring in the air, thinking it would take oh, give or take 3 or 4 months to bring the film to completion. Ha, that was a funny little joke I played on myself. Almost a full year later, after countles...

I know things have been a little quiet over here lately, especially on the recipe front. The truth is, there's not much cooking going on in my kitchen these days. Yesterday, I ate a tub of coffee ice cream for dinner while scrambling to finish last-minute notes for my film editor. The day before, it was a cucumber and a bag of tortilla chips, while sitting in my underwear (it's very, very hot in Toronto). Let's just say, things have not been too glamorous or wholesome around here as of late. Between the heat, and my superhuman attempt to complete  my documentary , things have been downright crazy. Like pulling all-nighters and eating whole tubs of ice cream for dinner crazy. And not being able to maintain coherent conversations with other human beings crazy. (Though I did miraculously manage to (sort of) pull off this 45-minute radio interview  about GMOs with the one and only Zane Caplansky). But I'm just going with it. Whatever needs to happen to get this thing done. ...

Not to a baby. To a film. (I made you look though right?) There might be a few similarities: there's a lot of nurturing and care going on, a bit of anxiety, trepidation, ups and downs, exhaustion... It's painful, it's scary, it's a heck of a lot of work, but it's so exciting. By my best estimate, I'd say I'm in early labour right about now, things are starting to happen, the film is taking shape! I've been working on this film for nine years and part of the reason it's taken me so long is that I've funded and produced it entirely on my own up until now. Crazy? Yup, quite probably. But it's been an all-out labour of love at every step. It's a film I'm dedicating to my mom, and to everyone who believes we have a right to know what's in the food we eat, that we need an agriculture that doesn't harm our planet, and that food tastes better when you know the story behind it. After years of researching, shooting, travelling, intervie...

I am generally a bit of a hermit blogger, tucked away in my rural corner of the east coast doing my thing. So it’s not too often that I get to meet other food bloggers. But I’m in Toronto for a few months this summer and I decided it was time to get to know some fellow bloggers whose mouth-watering blogs I follow with a big appetite. My first “blind blogging date” was with Alanna of One Tough Cookie . Meeting up reminded me a bit of online dating... Would we recognize each other? Would she like me? But put two food lovers in front of each other and there’s no shortage of things to talk about. I instantly felt a kinship with Alanna and we slipped into easy banter about food photography, and wwoofing, and Italy... and cake. We also talked about more intimate things too, like losing our moms, and how profoundly that impacts your life, in ways you sometimes don't even realize. My next blogging date was with Sofia of From The Land We Live On and since she is a fellow gardener, I though...

For those of us in the great white north, it's still a little early for lilacs, but they really are just around the corner.  My latest video recipe for Lilac Coconut Cream Tarts is truly an unabashed lilac fiesta, and if you want to go all out with it, then I'm afraid you'll need to make some candied lilacs to plop on top for a fancy flourish!  But first, here's the video of the tart-making in its full spring glory (I filmed it last year so I could release it just a little ahead of lilac season this year): For the Coconut Lilac Cream Tart recipe, go to my post on PBS Food . As for the candied lilac, they're really quite simple to make and there are two main techniques I'd like to share with you. One age-old method involves dipping the blooms in an egg white wash and then then dipping the flowers in sugar. But I know some people feel a bit squeamish about raw egg whites, so the other option is to make a basic sugar syrup instead of using egg whites. (Alternately...