Pork Dumpling Squash Blossoms

Pork Dumpling Squash Blossoms on a platter with dipping sauce on the side.
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Today’s Pork Dumpling Squash Blossoms swap the dumpling skin for a squash blossom sheath. The filling is a classic combo of minced pork, scallions, soy sauce, and water chestnuts. The dipping sauce is an ode to the small bowls that accompany steaming baskets of dim sum. But simply swapping the dumplings’ usual flour-based dough coating for an actual flower transforms them into something that, I don’t know, just makes me giddy. It’s like tucking into fairy food, I swear. So without further ado, let’s make these fanciful, floral parcels. 

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Peach Melba Float

Peach Melba Float
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Where have all the floats gone? And no, I’m not talking about flamboyant parade fodder. I’m talking about the ice cream float. When I was a kid in the 90s, I feel like I encountered them far more often. Every diner, dessert counter, or kid-friendly restaurant listed them as an option. But somewhere between the oughts and the 2010s, we lost them. Maybe the thought of ice cream floating in soda was more sugar than the modern stomach could, well, stomach. Or maybe people simply lost interest; the ice cream float has been around since the 1870s, after all. But despite that, here I am with my Peach Melba Float trying to make ice cream floats cool again. And this is going to be a trick considering I don’t have a cool bone in my body. It’s all on you, float!

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Pork Tenderloin Tomato Salad

Pork Tenderloin Tomato Salad
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This Pork Tenderloin Tomato Salad is the perfect example of how I like to eat in the summertime. Well, when I actually eat a meal. Random intervals of slightly rapid snacking are usually where I’m at in 30+ weather: The power of a well-timed bag of chips on a patio cannot be overstated. But when I’m not in sun-soaked raccoon mode, a simple protein seasoned with a punchy marinade, paired with the season’s freshest and finest, is all I need. And that’s exactly what this salad is. A piece of lean protein flavoured with an aromatic heavy caramel marinade spiked with fish sauce, cooked, sliced, and tossed with juicy summer tomatoes. What could be better?

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Lobster Roll Panzanella

Lobster Roll Panzanella
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When I was growing up, lobster was the food of the summer. Every Canada Day, my family would set up picnic tables lined with newspaper and tear into freshly cooked lobsters with wild abandon. With varying levels of dexterity, we’d all wrestle the meat out of their shells and immediately dunk the morsels in melted butter. We were never more ambitious than that. Just simple fresh lobster and hot butter. But now that I have the annoying responsibility of buying my own food, I’ve been searching for ways to make this admittedly pricey treat stretch further. This Lobster Roll Panzanella is my current favourite solution.

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