Recipes

I used to eat at the Red Devil Barbeque and Grill all the time. There was one fairly close to where I lived in Etobicoke and there was one in the Entertainment District of downtown Toronto as well, where I would often eat between matinees and evening shows.  Side note: It was at one of … Read more

I’ve eaten those fancy 900 degree brick oven virgin buffalo pepperoni pizzas, and they’re good, but with a couple of machines and not a lot of time, I think I make a pretty darn good pizza – without the brick oven. THE MACHINERY Breadmaker Any bread machine will work for mixing the dough. I suppose … Read more

OK, let’s face it.  It’s hard to screw up Hummus.  Basically, throwing some garlic, a can of chick peas, tahini, salt, a bit of lemon juice and oil into a food processor and shmooshing it up is going to taste pretty good.  But this recipe is partially the result of a happy accident.  Having a … Read more

My search for the perfect recipes to stuff I like to eat has also extended to the humble pecan pie.  I found this recipe in the early 1980s out of a local newspaper’s column that focused on different chefs around Toronto.  This came from a trendy Queen Street West establishment (sadly, now closed).  What I … Read more

  If I have friends up to the house and they stay over, (I have lots of extra bedrooms and 3 couches!) sometimes the last thing I’ll want to do the following morning is even think about breakfast, let alone make it.  The following recipe is perfect for those debaucherous occasions.  You make it the … Read more

OK, it’s Summer and this is a fabulous recipe for using up all of those zucchinis that have taken over your vegetable patch, or perhaps that your friendly neighbourhood gardener very kindly dumped on your doorstep.  This dish is great summertime fare with a tossed salad and a nice medium-dry white wine!  Consider making a … Read more

Doug Purvis was a fellow tuba player in Toronto, and was quite the bon vivant himself.  He played for over thirty years in the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, and we performed together in the tuba section of the Hannaford Street Silver Band for around twenty years.  This recipe is the result of hanging out … Read more

Before making this, you must say the following in a sotto voce Homer Simpson voice: “Ummmmmm.  Linguine-with-white-clam-sauce. Aaghgahgahghgagh.”  Yes, there’s nothing quite like it.  I’ve had it in many, many establishments.  My recipe search has taken me from the Toronto Star’s Chef Showcase, to an old Philadelphia Orchestra cookbook, and to places on the internet … Read more

Caesar Salad I’ve made this quite a lot over the years, and I now find that I’ve upped the garlic content quite a bit from the early days, but, from experience, I can say this; “Know your dinner guests before going nuts with the garlic!”  By the way, my favourite Caesar salad that I have … Read more

After years and years of making Gazpacho, from myriad recipes, I think I have come up with “the ultimate”. It combines the best from several recipes, plus a few of my own things thrown in for good measure. The “herbs and spices” tomatoes add a nice touch of seasoning not found in plain tomatoes. As … Read more

This is definitely survival/comfort food, and the recipe has sentimental value, as it’s the first main course that I learned to make as a kid. (It’s also WAY better for you than that Crap-in-a-Box!) I love it with a couple of boiled hotdog wieners and some Keene’s hot mustard (and a really cheap Italian red … Read more