I thought I’d share this wee exerpt from my cookbook, Recipes of a Dumb Housewife. This is a recipe that evolved over several Christmas marathon baking sessions. At first the cookies were plain shortbread with cherries on top. Then I thought it would be neat to have the cherry buried inside the cookie. And then I thought of decadence and dipped the cookie in chocolate, whereupon my daughter said the cookies looked like heavenly, seductive…

After you’ve indulged over the Holiday Season and are seeking something simple, quick, nutritious and most of all still delicious, try Lorina’s Green Goo Pasta from Recipes of a Dumb Housewife, printed here as her holiday gift to all of you. Lorina’s cookbook, Recipes of a Dumb Housewife, is available through Five Rivers Chapmanry (at 25% discount until December 31) and online booksellers everywhere. I’m always putting my own twist on things, always adapting, playing….

In the Stephens household mushrooms are a staple. Any kind of mushroom. For us the scene in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic novel, The Lord of the Rings, in which Merry and Pippin are involved in adding stolen mushrooms to their pilfered, edible booty, is one with which we can empathize. Mushrooms are treasure, glorious, edible treasure. We love them so much I came up with a series of mushroom tart variations inspired from some medieval recipes,…

A sneak peak at just one of the great recipes in my book Recipes of a Dumb Housewife, available through our secure, online catalogue, online booksellers (except Chapters), BookLore in Orangeville, Ontario, and Millennia Books in Hanover, Ontario. Golden beets are a bit difficult to find in your average grocery store, I will admit; however, if you are near a specialty market such as Ottawa’s Byward, or Toronto’s St. Lawrence, or any of a myriad…