Black Bean & Sweet Potato Cakes

Recently I've been in a Friday night slump, of ordering pizza and wings with mango habanero sauce. We're not even talking food from the nice little artisan restaurant down the street. These wings came from the worst of the worst, greasy of the greasiest fast food joint. Finally I dragged my lazy but to the kitchen and decided it was time I make my own version of takeout wings. These are baked and served up with a finger lickin' good sweet and spicy sauce! Mango Habanero Wings Yields 4

All of a sudden the weather took a turn for the worst and dropped to sweater mandatory temperatures. Not cool mother nature. I'm basically allergic to the cold. The only silver lining is that now was a good time to make some hearty stews. And so I started the fall season off with a massive pot of chili and my stuffed skillet corn bread to go along with it. One thing I love about this chili is the assortment of vegetables I can add to it. You can sneak boat loads in there making it a guilt free

Have I mentioned how happy I am it's pomegranate season? (insert grin with teeth) I love the taste and crunch of those lil suckas! Cracking them open is one of my least favourite things to do but the arols are worth the effort. I find that the sweet and tart flavour of the pomegranate juice in this sauce compliments the hearty taste of the lamb perfectly.  For a long time New Zealand lamb was my go to. That is until I discovered grass fed Colorado lamb chops. Ugh, so much goodness I doubt I'll

Chocolate is my thing. We're basically best buds. Bff's if you will. When I lived close to my family I used to spend most of my weekends baking cakes and pastries for family events. This chocolate cake recipe is my go to. Has been for well over a decade now. It's moist, rich, decadent and fluffy. The best part is that it doesn't use the creaming method, where in the butter and sugar must be perfectly whipped before slowly adding everything else. I don't even bother to bust out my mixer for this

This is my holy grail for cooking. I make a batch of this twice per week and I literally put this in everything and eat it by the forkful! Ok, ok, perhaps I exaggerate about the forkfuls. Seriously though, this seasoning mixture makes cooking much simpler, particularly on those days where you're tired after work and struggling to get a delicious meal on the table. It's excellent for marinating meats, poultry, fish or chucking spoonfuls into whatever pot is bubbling away on your stove. Most West

Just in case you haven't noticed, I like to cook and I cook a lot. In fact I went to school for cooking and I am a working chef. I'm not too shabby either, if I do say so myself. I'm not saying any of this to brag, in the least. This is just a little back ground information so you'll understand how ironic my next statement is. My husband's favourite dish is shrimp baigan (shrimp and eggplant choka) with paratha roti, made by his dear friend and neighbor in Trinidad. (insert crying, angry,

I've had a bit of difficulty writing up this post. The recipe has been in my head for years - having combined my mother's traditional method with my own little touches. The pictures were taken and ready to post but there was just so much to say about dhal I couldn't figure out where to begin much less end. I generally like to keep these intros short (and hopefully sweet) but my beloved dhal needed a little more sweet talking before I could get to the recipe. Dhal describes very traditional

One of the few pleasures I find during winter is warming up with a big ole bowl of this Trinidadian corn soup. Then again this is also quite perfect even in the summer heat. While I generally make this soup for lunch on weekends, it always reminds me of going to a good soca fete. The first time I tasted this soup was in the wee hours of the morning when leaving a club in Toronto. Before you see the soup cart, you can smell the aroma calling you closer to come and buy a piping hot styrofoam cup

While I love my stew chicken, curry, roti and all other West Indian dishes, it's nice to switch once in a while. When I'm feeling to make something out of the ordinary, Korean bbq short ribs is one of my dearest dishes to make. Of course my Korean style "galbi" ribs (recipe found here) are not complete without a variety of little side dishes to accompany. Along with some steamed plain white rice, these three sides will impress everyone at the table: Daikon slaw or "musaengchae," cucumber salad