rutabaga slaw

Each year my Mum and I are asked to provide one or two side dishes for the Christmas meal. My Grammie makes the turkey and the stuffing, and each of my Dad's siblings (or spouses) prepares a side dish or two to round out the feast. Last year my Mother and I made gingered sweet potatoes. The year before that I cooked green beans. This year we have been assigned turnips and parsnips.

We'll cook the parsnips quite traditionally: sliced and fried in butter. But there is always a little leeway for an interesting side dish, too, so I decided plain mashed turnip was out. Turnip is a vegetable I have not really liked in the past, especially on Christmas day when there are so many other tasty veggies from which to choose. But it turns out that the veg I thought I disliked are not even turnips at all.

eating healthy at Christmas

Healthy eating... is so difficult at Christmas. I want to eat healthily to respect my body, but I also want to enjoy the feasting at this time of year. There are so many tasty things on offer! Here are some of my thoughts about healthy eating in December.


To begin with, I think "all things in moderation" also applies to feasting and fasting. There are some times when it's good to feast and other times when it's good to fast. I won't deny myself the chance to indulge occasionally, as long as it is only occasional. Christmas dinner, for example, is one of three times in the year when I don't think about calories, fat, ingredients, or nutrition. (The other two are Thanksgiving and Easter dinners.) Feasting is a way of marking a special day and Christmas is a day worth celebrating. Jesus' birth means a lot to me, so I think it's a great time to feast!

poached egg for lunch

December's Daring Cooks challenge is a perfect one for me. Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. My favourite lunch is some sort of veggies accompanied by some sort of egg. And poaching the perfect egg is a skill I have relished learning. Together with some green bean and leek veggie pancakes, I had a perfect lunch.

applesauce muffins

My main reasons for eating? It tastes good! And it's healthy! That is to say, it can be healthy when I make good choices. Taste is most important for me, though. And you?

But I'm interested in whole grain baking because it is good for me and so I've been learning a lot about it lately. You can expect to read more about baking with whole wheat flour and other healthy stuff over the next few months.

But is whole grain baking tasty? If not, why bother? May I present Exhibit A, these applesauce muffins.

weekend links #10

food links:
--Beating sugar addiction (from Gwenyth Paltrow).
--"Man fights off robber with squash" (from AOL News). Veggie to the rescue!
--Why vegan cooking is actually not very scary. Actually a lot of things you already cook are vegan (from Cheap Healthy Good).
--The only food article I've read recently that mentions the Bible: about eating still live food (from The Guardian).
--Photographing ugly food (from the New York Times).
--Ideas for holiday desserts for diabetics (from The Kitchn).
--The best 25 cookbooks of 2010 to give as gifts this Christmas (from the Observer Food Monthly).

recipe links:
--Scrambled egg muffins (from Eat. Drink. Smile.). Make a batch on the weekend and keep them in the fridge for weekday breakfasts. Clever idea.
--Nova Scotian carrot bread is on my to-bake list (from Suzie the Foodie).

off-topic links:
--A website that makes sticky notes for your blog. Snazzy (if a bit kitsch)!
--I found a Hong Kong organic vegetable box program, from local farms! Wow, now I just need to do the comparison shopping.