Pear and Goat Cheese Tartlets with Honey Drizzle

This is a sponsored post. I was compensated financially by California Bartlett Pears. All thoughts and opinions about these pears are my own.

My love for pears runs deep. It always has and always will. Pears whisper their flavour, rather than shout it from the rooftops like many of the fruits currently having their moment. Pears are the underdogs of the fruit world, and I kind of love them for that. Their subtle sweetness is still something I crave in this season of peaches and cherries. For a fruit lover like, me, I’m pretty much in heaven! That’s why when I saw baskets full of beautiful California Bartlett Pears at my local supermarket, my heart leapt a little. These sweet and juicy pears are only available for several weeks in July and August which means I can get my pear love in the summer and then in the fall with the pears from beautiful British Columbia. It’s a win win for me!

Rustic Fig & Honey Goat Cheese Tart

"The measure of your life is the amount of beauty and happiness 

of which you are aware." ~ Agnes Martin 

The earth is quietly opening up around here.  Today I looked at the teeny buds on the lilac bush in the front yard, and on the apple and plum trees behind the house.  Tentative first steps of the beauty that lies ahead.  It's been a warmer than usual spring.  Typically there should still be snow lingering, but it's been gone for a couple of weeks now.  Even the grass is beginning to turn green, and the cats couldn't be happier.  Their little mouths chomp down voraciously on the fresh chlorophyll until they eat too much and...we all know what happens when cats eat too much grass.  I too have the spring fever and can't wait to don a new pair of garden gloves and begin peeling back the layers of mulch in the flower beds.  I'm always pleased to see the fresh growth underneath.  I silently congratulate the perennials for surviving another bitter winter.  Like us locals, they too deserve a pat on the back for enduring another multi-month Saskatchewan deep freeze.  As the cats roamed the perimeter, I sat in one of the dusty patio chairs hauled out from the garage and turned my face towards the sun (I wasn't even wearing a jacket!) grateful for another season of fresh, happy starts. 

Start Me Up: Smoked Salmon & Goat Cheese Quiche

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice. 

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning." 

~ T.S. Eliot

Happy New Year!

I hope 2015 is off to a grand start for all of you.  It's only been six days, but I can feel it's going to be a good one - I hope you do too.  I've been in full-on reflective mode.  A new year always does that to me; thinking back to what all transpired within the last twelve months.  Plenty of good things, the jump for joy good things, but also those moments that had me do the ugly cry and curl up into a ball.  Oh the agony and the ecstasy of life.  But somehow, we dig deep, and just get through it.  No doubt with a little help from our friends.  And chunks of dark chocolate and cheese; and new seasons of favourite shows (Downton!  GIRLS!) and the odd glass of red wine.  And whiskers on kittens.  You get my drift.  It's all in the details.  The minute, seemingly mundane things that make up a life, a year.  As the year flashes back, there's no need to connect the dots right away.  Oh but we try.  The thing is, with as much gratitude as we can muster, to recognize that each new person and experience is another dot on our map.  I hope your map for 2015 is full of all things beautiful and glorious.  Cheers to beginning again.  

All About Baked Eggs

 

Recently I was asked to write a monthly recipe column in Culinaire - a lovely Calgary-based food magazine. I'm crazy excited about this new writing gig and so very happy to have my words and images in such a stellar mag.  Yay! 

Skillet Cornbread with Goat Cheese & Fig Jam

May long weekend - the unofficial start to summer - is just around the corner, and loads of happy campers are preparing to head to the wilderness for a little escapism.  But not this gal.  Call me crazy but I'm a fan ofindoor plumbing; not sleeping on the cold, hard ground; and I believe in a decent barrier between me and bears.  I get grumpy if I'm damp and cold for too long, and I like washing my hair.  Daily.  I am what would be called a comfort camper, and that's probably why I don't get invited camping a whole lot.  But if you want to invite me to your cozy cottage by the lake (you have a shower, right?), I'd be down with that and even make you dinner.  My culinary skills make me a valuable houseguest - true story.  

Roasted Mushroom Tart with Goat Cheese & Onion Jam

Wow.  Feels like I've been gone forever - okay a week - but I missed you!  My trip to Ontario was brilliant.  There's more to share about that later this week, once I unpack and do about 20 loads of laundry and settle back into life and all of the accumulation that tends to happen when one is on holiday and having fun.  But for now I have a real treat for you.  Mushrooms Canada asked me to create another recipe for their blog and I'm really, really excited to tell you about this savoury tart, using two varieties of mushrooms, goat cheese and a fabulous onion jam.