Sneak Peak: Mexico

I've been itching to visit Mexico for ages and I finally made it happen this year. I had such an amazing time that I wonder why more people don't visit (all-inclusive resorts not included).

Unfortunately I succumbed to a really bad cold near the end of my trip and I'm still recovering from it. Photographic evidence of my adventures to come.

Maple Roasted Delicata Squash with Quinoa

Move over, peaches and tomatoes, we're deep into apples and squash season.

I'm a huge fan of delicata squash because the skin is edible, hence no peeling required for people who are lazy like me. I wish they were more readily available at grocery stores.

Roasting squash is my go-to technique, as the squash gets caramelized in the oven. I love tossing grains right onto the baking sheet of the roasted vegetable because it takes on the flavour of the caramelized squash.

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Pasta with Eggplant Puree

I've spent the last month or two doing very little cooking and have mostly been gorging myself on grilled corn and caprese salad. Is there anything better then tomatoes and corn at the height of summer?

However, this means that other in-season vegetables are woefully being ignored. In attempt to add more variety to my diet, I picked up an eggplant at the market.

I'm still a novice when it comes to cooking eggplant but it always turns out lovely when roasted. This particular eggplant was roasted with cherry tomatoes, then blended together to make a sauce. Because there's a high ratio of eggplant to tomato, the eggplant is the star of the dish.

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Peach Shortbread

'Tis peach season. Is there anything better than a ripe peach, so fragrant and juicy that you have to eat it over the kitchen sink?

I purchased a 10 litre basket of peaches to make jars of jam. Fortunately, I had leftover peaches: some were eaten as is, others stirred into yoghurt, and I even made a peach caprese salad.

As I'm often inspired to make dessert with in-season fruits (I made a killer strawberry ice cream last month), I started searching and came across this peach shortbread recipe.

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Classic Strawberry Preserves

My first foray into canning began many summers ago. I used to make huge batches of applesauce to freeze but received complaints that I was hogging up the limited space in the freezer.

The initial research into canning was overwhelming: so many equipments to use! The fear of botulism if everything is not heated and sealed properly!

Most of the recipes I encountered used large quantities of sugar (i.e. a 1:1 cup ratio of fruit to sugar), which, no thank you. I want to be able to distinguish the fruits that I'm preserving rather than eating spoonfuls of sugar.

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