A Warm Kitchen

No need to visit the Arctic. It has come to see us instead. If yesterday was cold, today is a block of ice. The temperature at the moment is -25C with a wind chill factor of -37C. I did take Meeko out for his walk yesterday, wrapped (me that is) in a ski jacket, snow pants, hat, gloves and two infinity scarves. We'll see if we venture out today. Meeko doesn't seem to mind the cold at all and, as I've mentioned several times here, he adores the snow.

Days like this are best spent indoors sipping hot coffee or tea and making or at least dreaming about warm creations coming out of the oven.  Our ever-expanding cookbook collection grew a little over the holidays. Pictured at the top are the books that were under our tree, plus a couple I ordered in early January. I bought the book 'I love cinnamon rolls!' because I couldn't get the cinnamon rolls my sister-in-law made for our family out of my head. What to do when plagued by thoughts of cinnamon rolls? Make more!

We own every Jamie Oliver recipe book that has been published. We love Jamie and his recipes. They always work and taste so good. We own most of the Barefoot Contessa collection too, also wonderfully reliable although I've learned to reduce the salt a little and use evaporated milk in many of her recipes calling for cream.

On the very top of the pile are two books published by Love Food (aka Parragon Books)--one owned by Chloé and the other by Emma. We now have three of their books. I posted last summer about a fabulous 'sheepscape' that Emma made, inspired by a cookie recipe in one of their books. I contacted Parragon at the time and asked if they would give me permission to print the recipe on my blog. They were lovely about it and said 'yes'.

Some family recipe cards and a photo of Emma at three decorating a cake

A few months later, they contacted me and asked if they could feature my blog as their first 'blog of the month' on their website. They asked me about my art and garden but were particularly interested in how Emma and Chloé got to be such wonderful bakers.

It is pretty exciting to have my blog featured somewhere and it was fun to talk about all of the baking that has gone on in our kitchen over the years.

My interview with Parragon

Keep warm, my friends!

New Paintings and Mother's Day Wishes

Here is a little nature collection composed of three paintings I've been working on in the past week.  The shell painting was already included in a previous post, but you're seeing this particular feather study and the painting of a forget-me-not stem for the first time.  I'm sending out warm Mother's Day wishes to my own mom and all of the other lovely moms who come to read these pages.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

On this Mother's Day, I woke up to the smell of delicious waffles being prepared for me by Emma. My gifts were memoirs by Rosanne Cash and Diane Keaton and recipe books (no, I don't have enough yet) by Béatrice Peltre and Heidi Swanson.  Chloé has also said she wants me to pick out a fish for my studio and she will pay for it. I'm going to get a betta.  Meeko gave me Norah Jones' latest CD (very thoughtful of him).

On Mother's Day, it's nice to spend a little time on favourite activities.  I worked on my forget-me-not painting this morning and plan to work in my vegetable garden this afternoon. I'll take some photos of my progress and post them later this week.

For your Mother's Day enjoyment, here are some photos I took yesterday in the garden. I wish I could transfer their fragrance along with the images. The lilacs in particular smell so beautiful this week.

"Um, wait a minute. Meeko, have you been in my garden?"
"No, and I really hate being blamed for what the other kids do."

A Confession

A year or so ago, my husband and I were invited to have dinner with my brother and a couple of his work associates from Toronto. Because we hadn't met his colleagues, my brother Bob wrote a little introduction for each of us. Knowing that your younger brother is going to write a description of you could be quite nerve wracking (especially if we were still 12 and 10) but he did a pretty good job of summing me up I think. I actually kind of like what he wrote.

Kathleen Maunder (Kathy to some) is an artist, in the painting sense. She once wrote speeches and such like for corporate folk and now is a tamer of flowers and wild dogs. She has an entire bookcase of well used recipe books, a standing invitation at a cool bistro in Paris and knows the difference between Sarah Harmer, Sarah Slean and Serena Ryder. 

Which bring me to that confession. Those cookbooks. I counted them. I now own (get ready for it) over 300 cookbooks.  Oh my.

I remember telling a friend about how many cookbooks I owned (and this was a long time ago when the number was much smaller). She said she didn't need that many books to be a good cook.  Good heavens. NOBODY needs that many cookbooks!  

It is a collection that has grown over the years. The first cookbooks I owned when I moved away from home were the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and The Joy of Cooking. Both are reliable and are now falling apart from use, although I don't dip into them very often these days. There are maybe a few books on our shelf that haven't been used, but most fall open on their own to stained pages containing favourite recipes. 

I particularly love the cookbooks where you have a strong sense of the author. Jamie Oliver's books (we own all of them) fit into this category. Nigella Lawson too. A new acquisition, Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, would fit here as would The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.  I have some that are close to my heart. Novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin's books would be there. Whenever our organic basket contains beets, you can be certain that I will make Laurie's Beets with Pasta for dinner (from More Home Cooking).  Some are fun to use such as The Flavor Bible. It's really just a booklong list of food with flavour affinities.  My daughter Emma has Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours out on the kitchen counter most weeks.  Friday night dinners? It's probably Joie Warner's No-Cook Pasta Sauces that has been used most often.

We've tried to slow down our collecting in past years, but I can't think of  a birthday or Christmas when my husband and I didn't exchange cookbooks.  Well, because they are interesting and fun.  Maybe it's a little obsessive. But that's what a collection should be.

Cookbook links:  Fannie Farmer, Fannie Farmer Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Plenty, The Art of Simple Food, Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking:  A Writer in the Kitchen, More Home Cooking, The Flavor Bible, Baking:  From My Home to Yours, No-Cook Pasta Sauces

P.S. I bought the tulips. I'm still waiting for mine to open in the garden. :)