DIGEST: The Toronto Star

[TPO]

Toronto Star – May 17, 2006

The art and style of food

Gastroporn, dolling up food so you want it badly, is big business

By Pamela Steel

Food is sexy. Really hot pictures of food are enticing. A flat image, created by a skilled photographer, becomes visceral. Advertisers and editors seek to conjure a magical transformation from visual medium to sensual desire. If the picture is good enough, they hope we can almost sniff the heady aroma of freshly baked brownies or salivate in anticipation of a succulent chicken breast.

---------------

She's not all talk

By Susan Sampson

We haven't been keeping up with Jenny Jones. So it's surprising to encounter her latest incarnation: cookbook author/health guru.

---------------

Screwcaps soar

By Gordon Stimmell

But what's wrong with corks? Cork taint, which afflicts anywhere from 5 to 15 per cent of bottled wines. What other product do you know that is bad (as in musty) up to 15 per cent of the time? What manufacturer of other products do you know who would allow this to exist? Of course, winemakers have had no choice but to endure.

---------------

Getting creative with boring old tuna

By Jennifer Bain

This tuna sandwich has been adapted from Gourmet. The magazine uses Italian tuna (such as Progresso, Genova or Ortiz Bonito del Norte brands) packed in olive oil, but it is hard to find. Any water- or vegetable oil-packed tuna will work nicely.

Recipe:

* Glam Tuna & White Bean Sandwiches

---------------

Mayo clinic

By Amy Pataki

Anybody with a food processor, a handheld blender or even a whisk and a strong arm can make mayonnaise. It's a simple emulsion of egg yolks and oil, personalized with a dollop of mustard here, a hint of lemon there.

Recipe:

* Sundried Tomato Aioli

[TPO]

Toronto Star – May 24, 2006

Sure signs of spring

It's asparagus and fiddlehead time, but growers are furious that American imports have flooded the market

By Jennifer Bain

It's asparagus — but it's American, not Canadian. Its rigid stalks are held together by purple, brown, even pinkish-red elastics instead of the milky white ones that signify its local pedigree.

Recipes:

* Ginger Asparagus Salad

* Asparagus Bacon Quiche

* Fiddlehead Omelette

* Fiddlehead Chowder

---------------

Sipping by the dock of the bay

By Gordon Stimmell

Today we've selected three reds you can lug to your cottage — or waltz with on your urban patio — at three price points.

---------------

Get ready for real Mexican

By Jennifer Bain

The food gods have granted us one miracle with room for 136. It is Milagro Restaurante Mexicano y Cantina. Milagro, appropriately, is Spanish for miracle.

---------------

It's all in the umami

By Jon Filson

Whatever you call it, the origins of this drink are vaguely Albertan. Today, it is known as a "Red Eye" at places like Mott's corporate headquarters and in Cocktail. However, it is better known as "beer with clam" in Saskatchewan. Things really are more simple there, you know.

---------------

A meeting of veg-minded souls

By Nettie Cronish

Vegetarians awaken to idea of promoting the taste of their food instead of the politics

Let's stop labelling food vegan, vegetarian and meat-free. Instead, let's describe the ingredients that make a dish exciting and flavourful. Let's be open-minded and curious, and use our senses to figure out whether the smell, appearance and ingredient lists of different dishes satisfy our needs.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – May 31, 2006

Treasure-hunting in tiny wineries

By Gordon Stimmell

For the doubters (and unbelievably, a few still remain) I will again confirm that Ontario makes world-class wines. Not all make it to the LCBO's 600 stores. The best (at some very high prices) often come in limited quantities and quickly sell out to devoted fans streaming through the winery door.

---------------

Fashionable fiddleheads

By Jennifer Bain

Here in Ontario, the Port Colborne-based NorCliff Farms has been selling fresh, frozen and marinated fiddleheads since 1974 and owns packing/processing facilities in Canada and the United States. Its wild fiddleheads are harvested by hand in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

---------------

Forests a forager's delight

Collingwood chef goes hunting for exotic edibles to spruce up his menu

By Roberta Avery

Porter, 42, is a Swiss-trained chef whose 35-seat Simcoe County Restaurant here is one of about 20 new eating spots that have opened in the area in the seven years since Vancouver-based Intrawest announced its new village at nearby Blue Mountain.

---------------

Free yourself from dinner oppression

Jennifer Bain reviews Real Simple Meals Made Easy: Quick and Delicious Recipes for Every Night of the Week by the staff at Real Simple magazine.

---------------

Sausage quandary

By Jennifer Bain

For 28 years, Superior Sausage and Meat Products has quietly been going about its business on a residential strip of Dundas St. W. near Ossington Ave.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – June 7, 2006

Salts of the earth and sea

Thought this spice of life was plain and purely practical?

Look again and join the gourmet salt revival

By Susan Sampson

Allison Johnston taps out a few grains of precious salt — to be sniffed, licked and appreciated. To carry on exploring, a bottle of water comes in handy. There are 17 varieties of salt at her shop, The Spice Trader. All are organic, unprocessed, exotic.

---------------

The top of the general list

By Gordon Stimmell

We tasted through more than 60 general list bottles in the last few days, and while most were not impressive, several stood out.

---------------

Dishes for salt lovers

By Susan Sampson

Salt makes everything taste better. Here are some unusual, salty creations that will make you lick your lips and fingers.

Recipes:

* Edamame With Tea-Smoked Salt

* Sizzling Salt & Chili Shrimp

* Planked Marrow Bones With Salt & Pepper

* Fleur de Sel & Pepper Cookies

---------------

Do the mashed potato

By Susan Sampson

Memories of his mother's corn fritters and fish cakes, made with leftover mashed potatoes, fill Paul Leduc with nostalgia. Readers came to his rescue with recipes dating back to the 1950s.

Recipes:

* Salmon Cakes

* Corn Fritters

[TPO]

Toronto Star – June 14, 2006

Hot new houseware

Green is the hottest colour in the kitchen this year, Cynthia David reports from a top trade show

BY CYNTHIA DAVID

Kitchen stores are aglow with colour, from baby blue cast-iron casseroles to fuchsia coffeemakers. But the biggest news in housewares is green. "Green is the hottest colour of the year," says Laurie O'Halloran, editor of Home Style, the magazine for Canada's housewares industry.

For more information:

* Shopping guide

---------------

Making Father's Day barbecue heaven

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

A review of The Art of Plank Grilling: Licked by Fire, Kissed by Smoke.

Recipes:

* Planked Mashed Potatoes With Barbecue Gravy

* Championship Barbecue Chicken

---------------

When weisse is nice

BY JON FILSON

If chewy, decadent, thick, creamy stouts can be compared to the wine world's shiraz (best in winter and with appropriately hearty meals), then the crisp, fruity taste of weisse beer, like a tasty chardonnay, is the answer for summer.

---------------

Say `I do' to this pair of June soups

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Here come the bride soups. Sure, it's June, the wedding month, but you can say "I do" to these two easy soups any time.

Recipes:

* Turkish Bride's Soup

* Italian Wedding Soup

---------------

A Eurocentric quest for espresso

BY JUDY GERSTEL

With Toronto's status as a cosmopolitan, world-class city being put to the bean and barista test, with our culinary and café reputation at stake, we set out, like J. Alfred Prufrock of T.S. Eliot's poem, to measure life with coffee spoons — and to find evidence that our great metropolis is not, even for a Europhile, an espresso wasteland.

---------------

Labels snare masses, but are wines good?

BY GORDON STIMMELL

It is a testament to how truly worried the French are about fruit-friendly, New World wines when a noted Frenchman jumps into our market with Arrogant Frog Ribet Red and Ribet White.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – June 21, 2006

The brewer's tour

Visit Ontario's craft breweries now while they're still humble, then visit them again in a year or so when they shine themselves up for tourists

BY JON FILSON, BEER WRITER

Instead of "production breweries," look for more "showcase breweries" that will offer a view of what one owner calls "the full brewing experience."

For more information:

* On the trail of Ontario ale

---------------

Reds at home in the backyard

BY GORDON STIMMELL, GORD ON GRAPES

We're shooting for really fab backyard reds this week — the kind that naturally cluster around the barbecue. You know, reds that mate splendidly with smoky, char-grilled kebabs and burgers and steaks.

---------------

A salute to steak

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Recipe:

* Cowboy Skillet Steaks

---------------

The zen of selling meat

BY JENNIFER BAIN

A day in the life of door-to-door salesman John Prowse starts like this: Pack the freezer strapped into his truck with frozen meat and fish. Pick a location, any location. Drive to it. Pound the pavement.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – June 28, 2006

To market we go

Ontario boasts 125 farmers' markets and there are a million reasons we should do more shopping at them. Check out the ones nearest you. They're a great place to buy real food from real people.

For more information:

* St. Lawrence Farmers' Market

* Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers' Market

* Weston Farmers' Market

* Guelph Farmers' Market

---------------

Market-based meals

Jennifer Bain reviews The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Impeccable Produce Plus 130 Seasonal Recipes.

---------------

The sommelier challenge

BY GORDON STIMMELL

All this was part of the challenge facing three finalist sommeliers at a competition I judged recently. The finalists were expected to know that pré-salé lamb comes from Quebec (and New Brunswick), that whispering heaven tea is black tea mixed with flowers, and that piquillo is a small, sweetish red pepper from Spain with more flavour but less acidity than bell peppers.

---------------

Ready or not?

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Home meal replacements are changing the nature of the grocery business. Today's supermarket looks a lot different than it did even a decade ago — and it's still evolving as consumers evolve.

---------------

Star food writers win top awards

Toronto Star food editors Jennifer Bain and Susan Sampson have won awards from the Association of Food Journalists for outstanding column writing.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – July 5, 2006

Supermarketing

A crusading nutritionist helps confused consumers decide what to eat and how to get the most out of a trip to the grocery store

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

New York University professor, scientist, nutritionist and crusader, Nestle is famous for chewing out the food industry. She chastises corporations for encouraging gluttony and running ads that prompt kids to pester their folks for junk food.

---------------

Patio sipping is easy

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Today our choices are friendly wines. Not the kind that can say hello, but ones that are easy to sip and fit seamlessly into the dog days of summer.

---------------

Cookbook keeps summer simple

Recipe:

* Chipotle White Bean Salad

From Southwest Flavors: Santa Fe School of Cooking by Susan Curtis and Nicole Curtis Ammerman

---------------

Fresh ricotta deserves the odd starring role

BY AMY PATAKI

Ricotta is made from the whey left over in cheesemaking. There's lots of that liquid sloshing about once the curds separate, and the clever Italians figured out how to "recook" (ricotta in Italian) the whey to produce a second batch of cheese.

Recipe:

* Lemon Ricotta Gnocchi

---------------

A side order of frustration

Judy Gerstel reviews Bluestone Bistro in Unionville.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – July 12, 2006

Napa North

Niagara is booming as trademark wineries pair up with restaurants, food shops and tourist transport

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Niagara has become Napa North.

In California's Napa Valley, there was an awesome symbiosis of wine and food in the 1980s and '90s. We're catching up at last.

---------------

A malodorous market night

BY JENNIFER BAIN

We're assaulted by the unmistakable and unforgettable odor of smelly tofu, an Asian hawker dish fondly likened to sewage, garbage — or worse.

---------------

Summer quartet

BY JENNIFER BAIN

We've got two simple (and vegetarian) pastas, a sausage and kale dish that ensures you get your leafy greens, plus a salsa that tastes fab with grilled steak.

Recipes:

* Spaghetti al Chili Ancho

* Simple Rigatoni With Tomato Sauce and Ricotta Cheese

* Sausages With Kale

* Spanish Olive Salsa

---------------

Pilsner on stage

BY JON FILSON

Over the past year, such was the case when it came to Stratford Pilsner. The beer is now a mainstay in the classy town. "We're pretty much in every bar or restaurant in Stratford we want to be in," says Stratford Brewing Co. owner Joe Tuer.

---------------

Kheer is India's gift to dessert lovers

BY AMY PATAKI

But one dessert always thrills me and it's the simplest: rice pudding.

Recipe:

* Kheer

[TPO]

Toronto Star – July 19, 2006

Chowtour 2006

New Yorker Jim Leff finds edible treasure during his third tour of Toronto

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Is doi in your food lexicon yet? It enters mine during Chowhound.com co-founder Jim Leff's third tour of Toronto.

For more information:

* Highlights of Chowtour 2006

* From Hound with love

---------------

The price is right for trio

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Viognier is a white grape that achieved fame decades ago in the Northern Rhône, in the town of Condrieu.

---------------

'The Filipino's Dufflet'

Bakery is busy making traditional desserts, snacks

BY MARITES SISON

In the kitchen, two bakers are kneading dough and forming it into small balls for the pan de monay (sweet bread). One tops ensaymada (a brioche-like pastry with butter and sugar) with grated cheese. Another removes bibingka (sweet rice cakes) from tin pans to help them cool. Another packs dozens of kutsinta (brown rice cakes).

Recipe:

* Cassava Cake

---------------

Fun to ridicule potted pork

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

The SPAM skit takes us to the Green Midget café, where every dish includes the canned meat. A shrill waitress (Terry Jones) rhymes off a menu ranging from SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, eggs and SPAM, to lobster thermidor aux crevettes with mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg, and SPAM.

Recipes:

* SPAM Salad Sandwiches

* SPAM & Lentil Stew

---------------

Hit of pure cacao tempts chocoholics

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Here's a way to separate the diehards from the dilettantes in the chocolate world: offer a taste of Slitti's GranCacao 100% Cacao bar.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – July 26, 2006

Praise be to our patties

BY LINDA NGUYEN

Jamaican beef patties, a snack food once sold only in specialty Caribbean bakeries in Little Jamaica, have come along way.

Includes information on:

* Caribbean Queen of Patties

* Krazy Krust Patties

* Bakery on the Go

* Patty Palace

* Brendan Roti Corner

---------------

LCBO thinking inside the box

BY GORDON STIMMELL

The mass conversion by the LCBO from bottles to Tetra Pak wine is hitting high gear. The idea is that this is environmentally friendly. In fact, these complex cartons are the toughest thing in your Blue Box to recycle and one of the most expensive to process.

---------------

Lunch with consul who cooks

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Peruvians love their seafood, but if anyone can showcase a country's cuisine without the help of sea creatures, it's Daly, who's the consul general of Peru in Toronto.

Recipe:

* Papa a la Huancaina

---------------

Salmon or burgers ?

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Recipes:

* Roast Salmon, Fennel and Onion

* Horseradish Burgers

---------------

There's a Brotherhood of rice pudding lovers

BY AMY PATAKI

In my last Dining In column, I wrote about how — with the reliably delicious exception of kheer — it's hard to find rice pudding on restaurant menus. In a throwaway line, I pined for the old-school diner version once served at The Brothers Restaurant, now closed.

Recipe:

* Brothers Rice Pudding

[TPO]

Toronto Star – August 2, 2006

Gracias, Tifco

A Mississauga company imports more than 800 products from Latin America and gets them into grocery stores across Greater Toronto

BY PATRICK EVANS

These newborn tortillas are hypnotic, evenly spaced as they roll on the conveyor belt, one at a time, out of the oven, their white skin scorched black in spots. The rhythm of production is somehow restful. You could count tortillas at night instead of sheep.

---------------

Wine for drop-in guests

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Every summer, readers look to me for an easy sipping white for all those spontaneous gatherings on front porches, backyards and up in cottage country when you don't really want to uncork that $12 bottle you've been saving, but still want something tasty.

---------------

The foulness is funny

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

There are few of these fanatics in Canada. Marmite is a British Isles phenomenon — Elton John being its most famous consumer. (He wouldn't tour without it.) In Canada, it is appreciated almost entirely by expats. And supermarkets are so confused by this oddity, they tend to stock it in the baking aisle.

---------------

Try giving your rubs a hearty pounding

BY RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

There are many misconceptions about the rub. Some people think it's exclusively designed for use in outdoor grilling, while others are convinced you have to purchase some high-priced, pre-packaged selection of mysterious powders to get results.

---------------

Signs that all is not well in America

Just back from America, the land of extra-large people and portions. Is it any wonder so many people are overweight with items like this new french fry holder for the car? From K-Enterprises of Indiana, it sells for about $2.99 (U.S.).

---------------

Take stalk of neglected veg

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

But celery is worth celebrating. The flavour is distinctive and refreshing, and one stalk has a measly six calories. 

Recipe:

* Chilled Celery Soup

[TPO]

Toronto Star – August 9, 2006

A gastronomer and her soup

BY JENNIFER BAIN

This is the soup that Anita Stewart cooked on a recent rainy summer day on her cherished gas stove in the sturdy red brick home with a generous garden where she raised her four boys into men.

Recipe:

* Green & Yellow String Bean Soup with Fresh Dill

---------------

Culture of yogurt

BY HABEEB SALLOUM

The ancient yogis of India mixed yogurt with honey and called it the "food of the gods." Most eastern civilizations appreciated its culinary and medical properties. Cleopatra bathed in this milk product to give herself a clear and soft complexion. Genghis Khan fed it to his soldiers to give them courage.

Recipes:

* Yogurt

* Yogurt And Eggplant Appetizer

* Yogurt-Potato Salad

* Chickpea & Yogurt Platter

* Yogurt Cake

* Yogurt Drink

---------------

An oh-so-Canadian treat

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Beaver Tails are so Canadian. These pastries are like paddle-shaped yeast doughnuts.

Recipe:

* Beaver Tails

---------------

Soil makes world of difference

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Terroir has nothing to do with George Bush making war on various parts of the world and everything to do with what nurtures a grape — the climate, location and soils. Terroir is what can make one pinot noir or chardonnay taste different from another bottle sourced from vines just rows away.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – August 23, 2006

City meets country

Hotel uses fresh farm produce in culinary series

BY KATE ROBERTSON

The farm-fresh connection is a pet project of the hotel and a vision of the hotel's owner, Christina Zeidler. She wants to bring the experience of eating in-season produce to hotel guests, all the while keeping it accessible and affordable.

---------------

The waiting game

BY CAITRIONA CANTILLON

Here, "seeing" is meant in the heightened sense — as in overseeing, directing, not being side-swiped. Although there are a lot of details to absorb beforehand and, even with years of experience, every new restaurant I go to has a period of weediness and waiter nightmares before I'm cool enough to observe the sum of its parts.

---------------

Tops in taste and value

BY GORDON STIMMELL

A few weeks ago, I joined other top wine tasters for two days of judging entries in this country's first major competition to find the best value in under-$25 wines for sale in Canada.

---------------

Tub makes salad days better

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

This product is not new, but its profile is low. We like to spread the word, so here's how it works: Put salad in the 750-millilitre round tub. Seal the dressing in the little dispenser under the domed blue lid. At lunchtime, press the big white button on top of the lid to release dressing on to the greens. Shake to mix. Open and eat.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – September 6, 2006

School's back in for cooks

BY RUTH VALANCIUS

Check out this annual list of Ontario cooking classes.

---------------

Ontarians enjoy an earful

BY JENNIFER BAIN

A sure sign that it's September? We're still madly feasting on freshly harvested, boiled or grilled, insanely inexpensive corn.

Recipes:

* Cumin Salted Cobs

* Mexican Street Corn

* Minted Quinoa With Corn & Green Onions

---------------

Ontario's abuzz with Bees

BY GORDON STIMMELL

The official launch of the four Niagara wines last week at Fort York attracted lots of attention.

---------------

100 sweet years at Cadbury Adams Canada

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

"It's the kind of place where you never tire of being here," says Stephanie Minna, one of the 650 people who work at the historic factory on Gladstone Ave. "It's literally like being a kid in a candy store."

For more information:

* Tidbits from the chocolate factory

---------------

Apropos of nothing, a nutritious lentil dish

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Recipe:

* Curried Lentil Purée

[TPO]

Toronto Star – September 13, 2006

Home canning 101

Want to preserve summer?

A chef tells you how

BY ERIC VELLEND

Two years ago, I spent the weekend at chef Jamie Kennedy's rustic farm in Prince Edward County. Leisure, however, was not on the menu. Forty bushels of ripe, organic tomatoes were ready for canning, and Kennedy needed an extra pair of hands.

---------------

The Trailer Perk Boy

He transports gourmet coffee to a wasteland of boring brews

BY PAUL DALBY

Marzinski is the man who brought gourmet cappuccino and espresso in an Airstream trailer to a wasteland of boring coffee. No wonder they call him the Trailer Perk Boy.

---------------

Viva Italia vinos with value

BY GORDON STIMMELL

But there are thousands of more modest whites and reds just waiting for that plate of pasta, stirred-in-the soul risotto or pizza you whipped up from freshly made dough and decorated with freshly sliced veggies and smoked meats. These are the unsung heroes in today's wine markets, made by using traditional but lesser-known native grape varieties.

---------------

Tiny, sweet fruit will satisfy

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

There are thousands of grape varieties, few more ancient and none more charming than the champagne grape. I first discovered this little treasure amongst the exotica in the fruit bowl in a San Francisco hotel room.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – September 20, 2006

Women cook to own beat

New wave of top female chefs commanding their kitchens with daring and dignity

BY JOANNA SMITH

Of the 31,355 chefs counted in Statistics Canada's 2001 census, only 6,420 were female. When you contrast that with the number of cooks, where the gender split was nearly 50-50, it becomes clear there are plenty of women in professional kitchens. They just aren't the ones in charge.

---------------

Eating to the beat

BY SUSAN SAMPSON & JENNIFER BAIN

Recipes:

* Monsoon Crab Cakes With Miso Aioli

* Four Seasons Spaghettini With Truffle Foam

* Toba Fig & Onion Jam

---------------

A bottle of joe?

BY JOSH RUBIN

Open a bottle of Mill Street Brewery's Coffee Porter and the scent of dark-roasted coffee beans hits you right away. Pour it, and it's the colour of a good cup of joe, albeit with a thin, light-brown head on top.

---------------

A taste of honey

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Rosh Hashanah recipe:

* Honeyed Applesauce

---------------

Cheating allowed

BY AMY PATAKI

This column is as much about shopping for food as cooking it.

Recipe:

* Cheater's Cassoulet

---------------

Tale of two tastings

BY GORDON STIMMELL

And the Aussies have been on the cutting edge of innovations, from screwcaps to zork stopper caps. The latest is two Wolf Blass wines in a special, totally recyclable, hard plastic bottle (called PET packaging, short for polyethylene terephthalate).

[TPO]

Toronto Star – October 4, 2006

Be wise in your seafood choices

BY STUART LAIDLAW

SeaChoice is a joint project of several activist groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, the Sierra Club of Canada and the Living Oceans Society. They pooled their resources and came up with a wallet-sized reference card consumers can use when buying fish in a restaurant or grocery store.

---------------

Sweet on sweet potatoes

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Why single out sweet potatoes? Because they're trendy, tasty and "nutritional all-stars" packed with vitamin A (beta carotene), vitamin C, potassium and fibre.

Recipes:

* Gingered Ontario Sweet Potatoes & Apple Cider

* Ontario Sweet Potato Oat Bran Muffins

* Curried Ontario Sweet Potato Soup

---------------

In the market for inspiration

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

With legendary line-ups and international attention, Vij's restaurant in Vancouver has come far from its beginnings as a 14-seat hole in the wall.

Recipes:

* Lamb Popsicles With Fenugreek Cream Sauce

* Tamarind Beef Tenderloin With Black Cumin Gravy

---------------

Bird likes big chill

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Roasting a frozen turkey can bring out the food scientist in you. For most of the cooking time, the colour looks wrong and you won't want to think about that unappetizing bag of giblets sitting in the cavity. Plus, there's no stuffing to perfume the air. But it's sensible and it works.

Instructions:

* Turkey Cooked From Frozen

---------------

The taste of autumn

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Turkey, beets, sweet potatoes and cranberries — the perfect quartet to help us usher in fall.

Recipes:

* Molasses-Glazed Turkey Breast & Squash

* Horseradish-Spiked Beet Salad With Fried Capers

* Ontario Sweet Potato & Corn Soup

* Cranberry-Oat Cereal Bars

[TPO]

Toronto Star – October 11, 2006

The crying gam

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Everything seems to start with a chopped onion — soups, stews, sauces, whatever you fancy. Battered and fried in rings, the onion is the glory of fast food establishments. Raw, it bites back in salads and sandwiches. Long, slow cooking dissolves its crunch into sweet, satiny, melting softness. It comes in a variety of shapes and guises, from pearl to leek, and in a colour palette from white to purple.

For more information:

* Solutions available for smelly problems

* How to chop an onion

* Getting to know the onion family (PDF)

* Read it and weep

* Onion soup's on

Onion recipes:

* Charred Red Onion Salad With Prosciutto and Parmesan

* Herbed Vidalia Tea Sandwiches

* Spaghetti With Green Onion Sauce

---------------

Rookie farmers get herbal

BY PAUL DALBY

Tea has always been so much more than just a refreshing cuppa. The world's second-most popular beverage (after water), tea moved author George Orwell to write an essay declaring that it was "one of the mainstays of civilization."

---------------

Trash talkin' wines

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Producer Paul Boutinot in Chanes, France, has gone into mock mode. His first label features a cat sitting on a huge egg. Yes, Chat-en-Oeuf makes fun of the very seriously classic Chateauneuf-du-Pape reds. Self-deprecation seems the new wave for French producers, joining the likes of Arrogant Frog on our shelves.

---------------

Pot pie gets a tastelift

BY JENNIFER BAIN

If you've got 3 cups of Thanksgiving turkey kicking around, shred it instead of roast chicken for this modern potpie.

Recipe:

* Ancho Chicken Pot Pie With Cornbread Topping

[TPO]

Toronto Star – October 18, 2006

Demystifying the wine list

BY GORDON STIMMELL

This is where a sommelier comes in handy as a translator. The best are down-to-earth, dedicated to making your dining and wining experience joyful, and ready to guide you to the best values lurking on their lists. As well, they can match the dishes you select exactly to wines they tasted and purchased for the restaurant.

For more information:

* A deconstructed wine list (PDF)

--------------

A kitchen that really works

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Jamal Nasser, known officially as the "facility cook," proudly shows off his spiffed-up space last Friday during the restaurant's reopening party.

Recipes:

* Egg Noodles With Brown Butter and Feta

* Chicken Livers With Onions + Grapes

* Mexican Chicken + Rice

---------------

The strong stuff

BY JOSH RUBIN

As the weather starts to turn nippy, some folks warm up with a snifter of brandy.

---------------

Loving liver

BY AMY PATAKI

On the menu at Amadeus is a signature Mitteleuropean dish: beef broth with liver dumplings. The clear soup holds coins of parsnip and batons of celery and carrot. Bobbing in the broth are three dumplings of various colours. Two are made from semolina dough, the white one boiled and the golden one fried.

Recipe:

* Green Pea Soup With Liver Dumplings

[TPO]

Toronto Star – October 25, 2006

New crop of farmers

What happens when a chef from Toronto marries and starts pursuing a rural passion?

BY AMY BROWN-BOWERS

From the kitchens of Canoe and Scaramouche to the fields of Northumberland County, chef Elaina Asselin is pursuing two new passions: farming and married life.

---------------

Grocers plan for crisis

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Canadian grocers are being urged to brace themselves for a flu pandemic, complete with public panic, absent employees and failing businesses.

---------------

Cask days were here once again

BY JOSH RUBIN

Heaven is warm, flat and bitter — at least it was this past Saturday for cask beer lovers.

---------------

A symphony of wine flavours

BY GORDON STIMMELL

The German Divinum Riesling was harvested from grapes grown on slippery, steep, slate slopes flanking the Mosel River. Spatlese is a rung up on the sweetness ladder from normal riesling, but not as intensely sugary as Auslese. This white has lovely acidity balancing the natural sugars that stems from grapes harvested late into the autumn. In a word, it's delicious.

[TPO]

Toronto Star – November 8, 2006

Suburban smorg

BY KIM HONEY

Instead of stores or houses, there are restaurants painted various shades of pastel and primary colours, with contrasting awnings.

---------------

Oakville guy has a nutty idea

BY JOSH RUBIN

Woods uses several different kinds of malt and roasted, unmalted barley to make this beer. The result is a chestnut-coloured ale with distinct hints of dark coffee and chocolate.

---------------

The allure of quirky gadgets

BY JENNIFER BAIN

This is the story of a quirky plantain peeler, a singing Japanese rice cooker and a ridiculously expensive lunchbox. Three gratuitous gadgets that were bought to change my life.

---------------

Virgin Vines and mature reds

BY GORDON STIMMELL

His Virgin Vines Chardonnay, while meant to woo the 20-something crowd, has a wider appeal. It's really very tasty stuff. Meanwhile, his Virgin Vines Shiraz is too candied for my palate, but I can see wine newcomers liking its soft plush jammy textures.

---------------

Don't stop cooking with cheese

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Experimenting with cheese (and breadcrumbs) is the theme of today's recipes.

Recipes:

* Spicy Roasted Broccoli

* Spaghetti With Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto

* Banana Katsu

[TPO]

Toronto Star – November 15, 2006

Cuisiner avec Ricardo

In Quebec, he's a household name with a television cooking show, magazine and cookbook. Now Ricardo is translating everything into English so he can meet the rest of Canada

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Ricardo is dazzled to the point of giddiness.

He lopes around T&T supermarket at Milliken Crossing in Scarborough, eyeballing, sniffing, fondling and gawking at Asian goodies like baby ginger, fresh ginseng, cherimoyas, king oyster mushrooms, myriad greens (Shanghai bok choy, gailan junior, gai choy) and geoduck clams.

Recipes:

* Spare Ribs in White Beer Sauce

* Boiled Eggs, Revisited

* Choco-Espresso Risotto

---------------

The tomato is prince's domain

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

His family tree includes a prime minister and a Nobel prize winner, but Prince Louis Albert de Broglie is cultivating fame of another sort. He is the Tomato Prince.

---------------

Reality intrudes on winery's dream

BY GORDON STIMMELL

The route to making the first ultra-premium, Burgundy-styled wines at Les Clos Jordanne winery in Ontario was a long and winding road.

---------------

A beer fit for an empress

BY JOSH RUBIN

Perhaps you'd recognize the name she used on the Russian throne during the late 1700s — Catherine the Great. Odds are that you also might not have heard of the beer style created by English brewers largely in response to demand from Russian customers, including her imperial highness.

---------------

Chef shakes up flavour

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

I accidentally concocted something yummy while testing the Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker. I was randomly tossing in everything from garlic to star anise. But that's the idea. The instruction book encourages cooks with the motto: "Don't be shy — give it a bash!"

[TPO]

Toronto Star – November 22, 2006

Stuffing your face

Competitive eaters bust a gut for cash, glory and kicks

BY JON FILSON

NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.—Tom "The Goose" Gilbert put 80 cookies into his belly in five minutes, but was denied victory. He would not be denied a second time.

---------------

Get these while they last

BY GORDON STIMMELL

Supplying a wine in sufficient quantity for the LCBO's 600-store system has long been a problem for tiny Ontario wineries. For years, these wines had to be sold only at the winery or restaurants. Then the LCBO came up with the Craft Winery Program, which allowed boutique wineries some exposure in a few stores.

---------------

The magic of modern science

BY SUSAN SAMPSON

Here's the science behind it: The unit includes a spray bottle and a bowl to fill with, say, fruit. Add water. A cartridge zaps the water with a wee electrical discharge. This infuses it with ozone, or O3. (Yes, the water smells like the air after a thunderstorm.) This "super-oxygenated" water is touted to destroy 99.9 per cent of germs and pesticide residues.

---------------

A stockpile of soup

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Soup exchanges are just like cookie exchanges — but without the sugar rush. Recruit a few friends. Get everyone to make one litre of soup per guest. Meet. Snack. Yak. Swap soups. Go home with nourishing, freezable meals.

Recipe:

* Roasted Parsnip & Roasted Garlic Bisque

[TPO]

Toronto Star – November 29, 2006

Feeding the folks

BY CYNTHIA DAVID

But how do you make sure your mom (and dad) eat properly when you're not around? You're certainly not alone. In Toronto, seniors represent the fastest-growing age group, according to the 2001 census.

Recipes:

* Vegetable Barley Soup

* Betty's Gingersnaps

* Jam Swirl Muffins

---------------

A bitter Pils to swallow

BY JOSH RUBIN

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, Josef Groll must be looking down at the beer world and smiling from the great beyond.

---------------

It's quince season

BY AMY PATAKI

Related to the apple, pear and rose families, quince contains the best qualities of all of its cousins — versatility, texture and exotic perfume. It swings both sweet and savoury, whether grated into buttermilk pancakes or stewed in a grappa-spiked barbecue sauce. 

---------------

Wines suitable for soirees

BY GORDON STIMMELL

With holiday parties and family gatherings looming, I've rounded up a few stellar selections to enhance your special event.

---------------

This book really is one of the best

Susan Sampson reviews The 150 Best American Recipes: Indispensable Dishes From Legendary Chefs and Undiscovered Cooks.

---------------

Chickpea soup warms the soul

BY JENNIFER BAIN

Red lentils break down to a creamy orange purée that thickens this chunky soup.

Recipe:

* Red Lentil-Chickpea Soup