So it goes

I made my second batch of jam-on-the-hob today. Last time was strawberries, this time plums. I can’t recommend it enough. Here’s three reasons:

• it’s super easy (three ingredients)
• it’s at least as cheap as buying jam from the store
• unless you’re buying Fraser Doherty’s SuperJam, your homemade jam will be ten times better than anything else. continue reading »

It’s an unconvincing cover for a food superhero: crunchy brown granules of soy, resembling nothing so much as Grape Nuts. It’s name—textured vegetable protein, or TVP—is all Communist-style function, not superhero-style glamour. But TVP is still a hero to me.

Here’s why: TVP makes some of my favourite meat-centred meals vegetarian, which means that I can eat them again. As a (mostly) vegetarian, I don’t miss meat, but I do miss spaghetti, pasta casseroles, and my Mom’s turkey chili. continue reading »

I recently stayed at the Stirling Highland Hotel. Stirling is a small, quaint town built around a castle-topped hill with houses and farmland stretching out below. I was there for team-building with the other SIE interns.

We had the benefit of hot, sunny weather all weekend long, and the hotel was snazzy enough to host a wedding on Saturday afternoon. But that did not stop the food from being terrible. The worst offence was the oatmeal.

Though the staff made a game effort to provide appropriate food for a group with two vegetarians, a vegan and a celiac, they failed completely when it came to breakfast grains. I eat oatmeal nearly every morning for breakfast, so I know something about the subject. Here’s my two cents about how it should be properly made: continue reading »