Food and Drink

Dense, nicely spiced cake is packed with bits of apple and walnuts

Many cooks, including me, have long thought that Rock Cornish game hens were something to serve on a special occasion. And we can thank the late American chicken baron Donald John Tyson for instilling that notion.

I was driving in rural Saskatchewan in the summer a few years ago and pulled into a rest stop to stretch my legs.

I sometimes wonder if the club sandwich was invented after Thanksgiving. When someone somewhere had leftover meat from a plump roast chicken or turkey sitting in their fridge and found a tasty way to use it up.

If you need a splendid dessert for Thanksgiving or other autumn occasion pumpkin cheesecake is crowd-pleasing option.

When I was growing up every once in while my father would enjoy a can of oxtail soup. As a kid it sounded exotic to me and later on in life, while attending chef school, I learned why busy guys like him choose this no-fuss version of it.

Although hearty and comforting, tuna casserole is not exactly “gourmet.” But it can get there that if you dress it up, Italian-style. I know, because that’s what I did when recently making a batch of it.

Sausages are a versatile ingredient that, for example, can be fried up and served as a side dish for breakfast, or be cooked, sliced and added to soups, pastas, pizza and myriad other dishes.

The pelting rain late last week got me in the mood to make a pot of hearty, comforting soup. I had B.C.-grown savoy cabbage and corn on hand and decided to build a soup around them, Asian in style.

Wild B.C. chanterelle mushrooms are in-season and, if you’ve not harvested them yourself from a nearby forest, you’ll find them available at farm markets and some grocery stores.