welcome!

You’ve got to eat, so eat well!

Thanks for dropping by Cascadia Kitchen.

This recipe journal came about as a way to share my love of baking and cooking with people like you.

My culinary adventures started when I was very young, as my mother always let me experiment in the kitchen, pretty much unsupervised. Armed with her recipe box and my sister's "Joy of Cooking", I would come up with all sorts of kooky creations, usually sourced from the "desserts" category.

Today I subscribe to a vegetarian, Pacific Northwestern point of view, sourcing local goods and produce wherever possible (much like my mother did). My approach to food prep is to start with natural, unadulterated ingredients, then prepare them with reverence and relish.

Sometimes I crave something pure and healthy and sometimes I'm drawn to the sinful, but my hope is that all these recipes and ramblings will add to the love and fun that you bring to your kitchen, wherever you may be.

Please visit again, and in the meantime... Be well and eat well!

Note: cascadiakitchen.com is part of a group of enthusiastic food bloggers on Vancouver Island. Please go to CBC Radio's "On the Island" website for a list of islanders who love to dish about food!

spiced preserved lemons

After realizing how easy it is to make classic preserved lemons, this time I’m trying a batch based on Madhur Jaffrey's recipe in her World Vegetarian cookbook. This recipe has some added spice for a little extra “kapow” of flavour and I’m anxious to try them.

It’s fascinating how one can combine a few ingredients in a jar, then after a few weeks pass, pull out a transformed and delicious condiment that is beyond the salt, lemons (and this time a few spices) that you put into the jar. I know there is a whole science behind how salt pickles food, but I am content to keep it a mystery and marvel every time I slice and dice one of these wedges. I’m sure you will find many dishes that will benefit from adding one of these zippy little citrons, so go ahead and try them yourself. I think these will be worth waiting for.

In the meantime I’m madly chopping up last year’s batch of preserved lemons into salad dressings, pasta dishes, almost any vegetable dish - especially roasted Brussels sprouts. (Just toss a few cups of trimmed and quartered sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper and finely slivered…. You guessed it… preserved lemons and roast at 400F for 20 minutes or so … Sweet!)

Note: If you can’t wait 6 weeks to try preserved lemons, try Mark Bittman’s shortcut recipe that can bridge the gap until your own little lemon experiment is ready.