Recipes

Dad just celebrated his 84th birthday! It was a rather muted celebration because mum has Covid-19 and we couldn’t have visitors over. We ordered a special parents’ set lunch from Putien and he really enjoyed that. I’m thankful that he has an amazing appetite and really loves his food. He’s always been very adventurous food-wise, but I’ve noticed he has gone back to his roots and particularly loves Chinese food and local dishes. So it was such a pleasure watching him enjoy his lunch. It was only a day later that I remembered…it’s my 9th diaversary; it was in 2013...

Road trip!! It’s been a couple of years of little or no travel, so doesn’t hitting the Silk Road sound amazing? That network of ancient trade routes spans China and Asia, into the Middle East and southeastern Europe, and it brought us spices that are the roots of our modern cuisine … and beverages.  Long before Europeans thought of macerating herbs and spices with wine or distilled alcohol—in fact, as far back as 2500-3000 BCE, centuries before invading Moors introduced distillation to Southern Europe—archaeologists tell us the Chinese aromatized their earliest wines with local herbs, probably for medicinal purposes. Travelers...

The next time you want a light yet filling vegetarian-friendly meal, how about making turmeric rice and brown lentil stew? With the current warnings about global food access, learning how to make resourceful yet tasty meals is something to consider. Today’s recipe features 2 dry ingredients that can be stored well to last long and are each costs a few dollars per pack (at least for now.) Peas and rice. The spices in this dish are for health, flavour and added colour. Pumpkin and squash are optional but they do add a thicker consistency. I used a slice of each...

(art by Joey Hi-Fi) So, it was about ten years ago I was in Los Angeles on the day of release for my first original novel, Blackbirds. (For the sake of the pedant, this was 4/24/12.) I was there for a twofold purpose: first, to launch the book that night at Mysterious Galaxy’s Redondo Beach store — a branch that has woefully closed, though the flagship store remains (whew) — and second, to meet with various film and TV folks about the book. Both of these things were pretty weird for me. In terms of launching a book, I’d never...

I have emails from Ray to share with you today. Ray writes: “Over the weekend it turned cold for a couple of days. We had been in the upper 80s and then suddenly dropped to lows in the low 40s. I know that is not a big deal to most of the USA but it is down here. It is spring break time and should be warm and sunny every day. I am going to blame the cold front on completing this adorable Olaf quilt. A blog reader sent me some Olaf fabric and immediately knew that I needed to...