Signe's Kitchen

I’ve been busy; so much going on…mostly good, some of it fan-freakin’-tastic, and well, there’s been some sadness too.

First, let’s just get the sad stuff out of the way, so we can move on to happier things. My beloved old Blanche died.

Here's Blanche making her small sc...

Cooking has always been easy for me, I come to it naturally and I was exposed to it from a very early age. We didn't eat out often and Mother cooked every day, and sometimes Father made his specialties: blue steak with a knob of butter slathered on top; conch fritters...

Professor Ferguson warned the students of Food Writing I: “It’s a lonely profession, being a freelance writer.” She wasn’t kidding.

Ever been driving on the highway, doing 120 then all of a sudden, there’s your exit? You peel off and hit the street and for a second or...

I’m giving it away. My mother’s secret. The one she held close; a few scribbles on a greasy, dog-eared page. I know she had others. Sad secrets, mortifying ones. As we all do. But this one made her a special sort of genius. A star. It gave her powers. Kitchen witchcraf...

If I failed to ask nicely for something, Mother always reminded me that I would attract more flies with honey than vinegar. It was a long time before I understood that one; longer still until I discovered that you could make a delicious sweet pie with the stuff too! Be...

Mother was not the mothering sort. She had babies. Plenty of ‘em – five – but after they graduated from wriggling, cooing helplessness, she checked out. She always said she loved infants. Kids, not so much.

Spring melt in Como, Quebec. Mother taking my brother Donny fo...

This is spring: a tiny oven bird biddeling along a fallen branch in Thickson's Woods...

 ...and in my garden, this is spring: the first bumble bee feasting on the early blooming clematis...and...

 ...out before its leaves, the sweet and edible blossoms of the eastern red...

The maple tree is so deeply rooted in Quebec and Ontario culture that we hold parties to celebrate its sweet gifts. It’s well-rooted in my life - past and present - too.

The sugaring off parties of my childhood were some of the best times and best eating of my life. Si...

"Waste not, want not." I heard that constantly when I was a kid. I never understood it, mind you. I thought, if I didn't want it why couldn't I waste it? Seriously, I was an adult before I got it. But I must have soaked it up, along with: "Who left the light on in the...

I love a ball of pizza dough; homemade or store-bought. Though, in all honesty, I rarely make my own. For around two bucks I can get a perfectly decent version from the bakery section of the grocery store, and it does the trick. It’s a damn good habit to get into. One...