In April 1989, I had just finished the last exam for my undergraduate degree in English and stepping out of the exam hall into a spring snow squall, I swore that this was the last winter I’d spend on this miserable coast. A year later, I packed a large red suitcase with clothes, some cookbooks, a few back issues of Bon Appetit, and moved to Vancouver.
13 years later, I moved back – with a Master’s degree in Education, a husband, two daughters and a van load of stuff.
Now – with three girls, horses, dog and a growing menagerie of pets – I look out at winter from my yellow kitchen and am still always surprised by how it somehow manages to take me off guard. I am never really ready for it.
Still, I have so many reasons to be thankful that I returned: the smell of salt air off the marsh; the sound of loons in summer mornings, flying across the back pasture to the lake; the night sky so clear that I can see the stars right to the treeline…
Like many Maritimers, the kitchen has been the heart of my home (east coast or west), and while I often complain about the mess and chaos that seems to surround me, there is always room for one more at the table.
We don’t stand on ceremony here, and you can put your elbows on the table if that’s what suits you. Ketchup with that? Not a problem. (But please do take your shoes off.)
I hope these recipes from my Maritime kitchen will find a home in yours.