Simple Pancake Recipe How quickly can you make pancakes? Pancakes and flapjacks played an important role in early BC food history. Camp cooks worth their salt[i] were expected to rustle up pancakes at the drop of a hat. The right combination of ingredients will produce a fluffy, memorable pancake. Barss (2016)[ii] tells us that cowboys […]
Archive | Food for Holidays and Special Occasions
Food for Holidays and Special Occasions
Quantity cookery
Quantity cookery, or cooking for large groups of people, is an underrated skill and one that needs to be retrieved. Considering that $31billion worth of food is wasted each year in Canada, amounting to 40% of all food produced, food waste is both an economic and a social problem. Of the 40% of food currently […]
Autumn Dinners 1895
Autumn Dinners, 1895 Imagine what an Autumn Dinner might encompass in 1895. The following seven menus were published in the Vernon News which began publication in May 1891. The News was sub-titled “The Okanagan Farm and Live Stock Journal” and included articles on all aspects of agriculture and industry of the area. It included information and advice […]
Physalis
Physalis is the genus name for tomatillos, groundcherries and Chinese lanterns. They look alike, but they are not the same. Tomatillos are like tomatoes; groundcherries are sweet; and Chinese lanterns are poisonous. That’s incentive enough to make sure you can tell one from the other. These three plants are part of one of the greatest […]
Pancake Tuesday
Pancake Tuesday Pancake Tuesday is the day before Lent starts. In 2021 it’s today, February 16. Traditionally, Pancake Tuesday was a day for using up rich foods that could not be eaten during Lent. Therefore people made pancakes using leftover eggs and butter. In Britain, many towns and villages have pancake races, a tradition begun […]
Groundhog Day
February 2 is more than Groundhog Day. It is a cross-quarter day that was important for the ancient Celts who marked the days that were halfway between solstice and an equinox [i]. Halfway between December 21 and March 21 is February 2, which is called Candlemas in addition to Groundhog Day. Halfway between March 21 […]
The Lunar New Year
The Lunar New Year started January 28 this year and extends for a couple of weeks. In British Columbia it is an opportunity to discuss several topics that are critically important to BC food history. (How) can non-Asian people celebrate the Lunar New Year (often called Chinese New Year)? Can it only be properly celebrated […]
Japanese Mandarin Oranges
When I was growing up in the 1950s in north western British Columbia I can distinctly remember watching the newspaper at this time of year for an announcement that Japanese Mandarin Oranges (Satsuma) had arrived in Vancouver. The article often made front page news and was accompanied by a picture similar to this one taken […]
Fruitcake and “Christmas Cake”
It’s a bit of a mystery how fruitcake became “Christmas Cake”. Some historians trace fruitcake to cakes that were placed in the tombs of ancient Egypt as food for the afterlife. But most credit the ancient Romans who mixed together pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and barley mash into a ring-shaped dessert so prized for its […]
Pumpkins
Pumpkins have been grown on the North American continent for at least 7500 years. Only recently did they become associated with carving and pumpkin spice latte. The pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo, belongs to the squash family along with the more familiar varieties of squash such as butternut, crookneck and acorn. Its common name comes from the […]