You’ll have to forgive me if this entry is a touch distracted. I’m currently residing on cloud nine and I guess the air is thin up here because it’s hard to think straight. And why have I relocated to a such a lofty height? Well, on Monday night I received the gold award for General (English-Language) Food Blogs at the Taste Canada Awards Gala and my feet haven’t touched the ground since. I was *very* surprised and no, I don’t remember what I said in my speech but I’m sure it made very little sense. But enough about my insane 48 hours, that’s not why you’re here. Let’s talk about this Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Radish Pickled Eggs & Garlic Tahini Dressing.
This Pesto Barley Salad looks really healthy, right? Balanced, vibrant, and potentially packed with a good stack of vitamins. It looks that way because it is! I know this is a shock, especially after 
Some of my earliest memories are centered around meat and potatoes. Every Sunday my family would pile into the car and head over to my grandmother’s house for dinner. Without fail she’d always serve a roast alongside a mountain of mashed potatoes. My sister was a roast beef kind of girl, but I was in it for the roast pork. I loved that roast pork not because it was brined or smoked to rosy pink perfection. My grandmother wasn’t that kind of cook. She grew up on a farm, fussing was not in her DNA. No, what I loved about her roast pork was the applesauce that accompanied it. It was one of the first times fruit and meat crossed paths on my dinner plate and it was certainly not the last. Today’s Apricot Stuffed Pork Chops are just another by-product of a food obsession hatched in my formative years.
