So you can’t change the world. You can whip up a colourful winter menu and that, my friends, is where the love is. Right in your kitchens, in your alcoves, your hubs wherever you find them. Remember the threads that connect you (I’m still waiting for your stories! annehome1@rogers.com)
And eat your greens. Some oranges on the side. It’s a good start.
Soups and salads are winter survival. Kale hogs the crisper so let’s make some room for another favourite. This one is an excellent mix from Lucy Waverman’s gorgeous cookbook A Matter of Taste, given to me years ago and still one of our kitchen favourites. Pair it with a smooth butternut squash soup or sexy tomato orzo and you’re done. A nice ending would be a citrus blend, served alone, or with mint sugar if you require a fancy touch. Aren’t you going crazy for citrus right about now? I’m planning on the orange crush all the way through the midwinter stretch with a planned chocolate pitstop sometime around the 14th. Mark your maps to stop in, bakers.
Now that I’ve got you worked up into a lather… let’s get back to the colour of the moment.
Winter greens with bacon
What you need:
For greens:
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1 small head escarole or romaine
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1 small head radicchio
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1 Belgian endive
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1 cup packed watercress leaves
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4 oz bacon, diced and cooked until crisp
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½ cup toasted pecans
For dressing:
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1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
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2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
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2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
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1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
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½ cup olive oil
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pinch salt
What you do:
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Tear escarole and radicchio into bite-size pieces and throw in salad bowl.
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Slice endive into rounds and add it, followed by watercress, bacon, pecans. Toss it all together.
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Whisk mustard, vinegar, lemon juice and pepper together then add oil slowly, whisking until thickened. Season with salt.
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Just before serving, toss salad with dressing.
This salad is awesome with grilled cheese on rye. Just saying.
Bon Mots for weekend reads:
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Democracy is about meetings. Going to your member of parliament’s town hall is more productive than joining a street throng. In other words, the PTA is better than the placard. Just ask Canadian journalist David Frum in this frightening piece in The Atlantic (Frum is a senior editor). Read it and weep, but read it too for the best sense of where we are all headed: How to build an autocracy
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What will happen when they arrive? Can we continue our goodwill? Read on to discover: The new underground railroad
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J. K Rowling has more than 9 million followers on Twitter and most of them are fans. Then there are the haters. She’s got them covered too including a tweeter calling her a “buttsniffing welfare queen LOSER” — to which she replied, “I think he’s got a crush on me.” Wit is alive. Hurrah Hurrah! Rowling’s Twitter Feud with Trump Fans
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What Canadians should watch after the Super Bowl The Real TV Event
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Are you a fan or foe of political speeches at award shows? Here’s one of my favourite arts writers, Johanna Schneller and her take: Why Hollywood’s unified Liberal elite is just a myth
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Sundance 2017 is a wrap and this film nerd is agog (as usual) about some of the fare we will see at theatres in the months ahead. Here’s Cate Blanchett in a feature film adaptation of an acclaimed multimedia art installation. Look out world. Cate is coming at you.
Happy Friday. Go figure out your own new handshake. This one will make you feel a little lighter.
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