Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Definitely butter tarts. Hard to get more Canadian than that.

My husband and I were having dinner in a small vegetarian restaurant and at the table beside us, a women was telling her companion of the evils of white bread and how someone had buried a loaf of white bread for 30 years and when they dug it up, it was still perfect. I almost choked on my nut loaf!

I love all my kitchen gadgets and equipment and agree that rice cookers and Kitchen Aid mixers are critical. And I don't know what I would do without a set of good knives and my wood rasp that I mince garlic, great cheese and zest citrus fruit on. I should really just post a picture of my gadget drawer in all its messy wonderfulness!

Oh my -- I think I need to get to the St. Lawrence Market this weekend and get one of these. Thanks so much for reminding me how fabulous they are.

When I was 14 our neighbour asked me to cater a dinner party for 8 people. It turned out really good...which probably surprised me more than it did her!

Memories of food are often much stronger than reality. Do I remember this food as being good because it was good, or because I was with certain people, doing certain things that became precious memories. I know looking at a cookbook of recipes my grandmother handwrote for me, there are things in there that I remember eating and loving, but I couldn't eat them now if my life depended on it. I always feel a twinge when I tweek her recipes, but I know she would understand. And, if my husband's mother's boiled raisin cake is his favourite, I'm only gonna make it with raisins....just not very often!

Most orange vegetables -- squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips are just brutal.

I made this for dinner for a girl's weekend at the cottage and it was absolutely mind numbingly delicious. The food I cook for these girls is usually well received but this beat everything I've made them to date. And so, so easy. Thank you very much. I will make this many, many times.

EEEWWWW!!!!

We always make two gravies, one traditional and a vegetarian from a packet as my husband and sons are vegetarians. My niece, who is not a vegetarian, always prefers my vegetarian gravy made from the packet to the homemade. Go figure.

We are crazy for stuffing in my family -- but my husband and sons are vegetarians so for the first few years for the big family Christmas I did two stuffings, one went in the bird and one in a 9 x 13 pan. Well there were lots of mix ups with veg versus non veg and the meat eaters seemed to like the one outside the bird just as well because it was crunchy and full of buttery goodness (no broth, please) so now we just do it outside the bird in the pan, start with the foil, then off for the last 15 minutes and it's perfect. My grandmother always used stale white hot dog buns for the bread, cut up real fine, and I have always followed suit. Odd but good.

I love lots of celery in my vegetable stock too. I also always chunk up the whole onion with the skin on. This add some real nice colour to the stock and saves having to peel it. Bay leaves, thyme and peppercorns also impart lots of flavour, but I avoid rosemary in stock as it can overpower things.

I forgot about animals. All my chickens had food names -- Noodle, Kung-pao, Extra Crispy, Curry and Nugget.