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Nana Cynthia’s Crepes
My Nana Cynthia gave this recipe to my sister Sammi when she was about 10; we wanted crepes, so Sammi called up Nana and copied down the recipe from her. We were all pretty amused to see that Sammi had spelled them ‘creaps.’ To my mind, paper-thin, hot crepes with lemon juice and icing sugar are both the only way to eat crepes, and they are the best treat in the world. But this crepe is a neutral base, and you can use it for sweet or savoury fillings. This recipe simultaneously reminds me of my Nana and my sisters as well as Paris, which I’ve visited in the Springtime…
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Penuche (Brown Sugar Fudge)
In looking around online to see what other versions of Penuche call for, I’ve found that it or something very similar to it has a million names – Tablet in Scotland, Sucre à la Crème in Quebec, Russian Fudge in New Zealand and Australia, Panoche in Hawaii and the Southern USA – but the recipe that was shown to me, scribbled on a piece of paper, called it Penuche. Every year on Christmas Eve, for as long as I can remember, we’ve gone to my Aunt Wendy’s house for dinner. When I was a kid, it was a madhouse – a million kids and adults, overhead, underfoot, out on the lake playing…
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Nana’s Tea Biscuits
When I was little, we spent a lot of time at my Nana Cynthia’s house, and she involved us in making many delicious things. Several of my favourite recipes have come from her. Whether eating or hanging out, the kitchen was the centre of the home and definitely her domain – most of my memories of her are in her kitchen, a lit cigarette ((Always Player’s Plain!)) in one hand, and a glass of Papa’s home-made, sweet red wine in the other, telling me stories about her life as a teenager in and near London during WWII. She died a couple of years ago, and my mom has been…
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Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
I always associate rhubarb with Summers at my Nana and Papa’s; they’d pick a fresh stalk of rhubarb and hand it to me with a small dish of sugar to dip the end in. Nana would make what she called ‘Rubarberry,’ a sauce of strawberries, rhubarb, and sugar that she and Papa loved to have on toast. And Papa tried his hand at Rhubarb wine, along with his other wine-making experiments (his mainstay was the sweet red wine that bubbled in demijohns in his basement throughout the Autumn). Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie has always been a favourite of mine, but somehow I never did get around to making it until this Spring,…
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Nana-Approved Turkey Pot Pie
2017 Update: I posted this Turkey Pot Pie recipe in 2010, and two years later my lovely Nana died. This recipe still reminds me of her; her approval meant a lot to me. 2010 Original post: This is essentially a basic turkey pot pie recipe, but I like to think that I’ve particularly made it mine by emphasizing the thyme, salt, and pepper. This savoury pie could probably handle a little sage, too, but have a light hand – the thyme really makes it irresistible. And don’t be stingy with the salt and pepper. I find too that no matter how badly I think I’ve screwed up the homemade pastry,…
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Nana Cynthia’s Crepes
My Nana Cynthia gave this recipe to my sister Sammi when she was about 10; we wanted crepes, so Sammi called up Nana and copied down the recipe from her. We were all pretty amused to see that Sammi had spelled them ‘creaps.’ To my mind, paper-thin, hot crepes with lemon juice and icing sugar are both the only way to eat crepes, and they are the best treat in the world. But this crepe is a neutral base, and you can use it for sweet or savoury fillings. This recipe simultaneously reminds me of my Nana and my sisters as well as Paris, which I’ve visited in the Springtime…
