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Dill Pickled Beets

I’m pretty good at keeping our fermentation crock full and busy so that we never run out of probiotic-rich veggies. But sometimes I just crave pickles, the old school kind that, if you remembered they were there, could bring a really nice acidic balance to rich meals.

I like sweet pickled beets, in fact one of my Grandmothers used to make them and bring them over for Sunday night dinner when we were growing up. It’s the only way we really ate beets, and I remember I could probably eat an entire jar myself (impressive, I know).

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Millet & Butternut Squash Polenta with Roasted Beets

I was picking up my husband from work one of those very icy nights in January when you wonder why you’re anywhere but home. I left early (because Vancouver + snow = unpredictable everything) and got there a bit early. I was parked and listening to the CBC and they had one of those calm-voiced announcers on talking about a Danish word/concept called ‘Hygge’.

I had never heard of it before, but sitting in my chilly car, around dinnertime at about 40 weeks pregnant, they had my full attention. As it turns out I want to live in Denmark. Hygge is something that we don’t have a direct translation for let alone a word for in the English language. Roughly, it means ‘cozy’ but it’s more than that.

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Red & Black Velvet Brownies

I’ve never thought of Valentine’s Day as a particularly romantic holiday. Thanks to TV and Archie comics, I knew that it was supposed to be, but that’s not ever how it’s seemed to me. I think it’s because we celebrated it as a family my whole life, even back when boys were gross.

It represented love for sure, we all loved each other and had a special dinner together that night (fondue, most likely) (have I mentioned how much my Mom ruled?) and my Stepdad would bring us all home chocolate and cinnamon hearts. So it has always meant love and chocolate, not too far off what Hallmark is telling us, but I kind of love it.

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Massaman Thai Curry

I still don’t know how we got this lucky, but the first time I tried Massaman curry was in Thailand, on a beach, made especially for us by a Thai woman who was too modest to call herself a Chef but too passionate not to offer to cook for us once we started talking about food.

We had been frequenting her tiny bar that had only three tables setup on the beach, every night around sunset. Slowly we got to know her and her husband and learned that they had just given up their restaurant in another part of the country and were running this tiny bar until they could figure out where to open up a new one.

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