Homemade lemonade concentrate

lovely glass of lemonade, pull up a seat outside, find a place in the shade if you can. Put your feet up, and put the sunglasses on, flip through the pages of a magazine… yes, it’s summertime. And as the weather gets warmer in this part of the world, my little family of two can go through a lot of cold drinks in a day. If you’ve got a few kids, or want to go on a picnic, or take a daytrip to the beach – well, before you know it, you’ve spent a fortune on artificially flavoured, coloured water.

OK. So this week I’ve been working on the cure for Kool-Aid. (Or, does anybody remember Tang? Do they still make it? It was an astronaut-inspired ‘orange’ drink that was around a lot when I was a kid.)

 

I thought it was going to be easy. But do you know how many different recipes there are in the world for lemonade? Hard to believe it’s so complicated when there’s really only three ingredients: sugar, water, and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

First things first. The lemons. Sometimes they’re on sale for ridiculously cheap prices. So I thought I should create a recipe that makes frozen lemonade concentrate rather than lemonade, so that you can make the concentrate when lemons are on sale.

 

Recipe:

In a saucepan, stir together 1½ cups of white sugar (375 mL) and 1 cup (250 mL) of water. Heat until the mixture boils and the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Meanwhile, juice 8 medium-sized lemons until you get 1½ cups (375 mL) of juice. You may need to strain your juice if you have pits or too much pulp. Once the sugar syrup has cooled a bit, add the juice, stir, and then put in a plastic container with a lid in the freezer. This is about 3 cups (750 mL) worth of concentrate. Freeze solid. Can be stored for up to 6 months.

On a hot sunny day when you feel like a lovely drink, defrost the concentrate. To make a big jug, mix the entire 3 cups (750 mL) of concentrate with 3 cups (750 mL) of water. Fill glasses 3/4 full, and top with ice cubes or fizzy soda water. To make only one glass, combine equal parts concentrate with water, and keep the rest of the concentrate in the fridge for later.

You can freeze raspberries, blueberries or cherries in ice cube trays to add colour. Fill the trays halfway with water, put in the fruit (which will float), and freeze. Once solid, you can top up with additional water to cover the fruit, and freeze again.

Variations: Mix lemonade with cranberry juice and soda water … mix equal parts iced tea with lemonade … float a bit of rosemary in your lemonade … mix lemon and orange juice to make the concentrate … grate a bit of the peel into the concentrate to intensify the lemon-y flavour, and strain before serving … add a shot of your favourite alcohol (tequila, vodka , or white rum)…

And congratulate yourself. You’re not drinking a lemon-lime mix that is “10% real juice”. You’re drinking the real thing 🙂

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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“Successful Home Cooking”
is selling like mad!

T. Williamson (in Georgia) says:

“I love the pictures! I made the roast chicken and had a friend over for dinner, and it was totally successful and delicious!”

OneRoastChicken’s new publication, “Successful Home Cooking” is now available. This is not just another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Apple Pie for One for $1.23 per serving? Or Hammy Cheesy Pasta for $2.35?

Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

 

Easy family dinners

Yes, it’s finished, yeah hooray. The collection of recipes that I’ve been working on for you, for over 6 months, was completed Friday June 8th. And everyone who pre-ordered a copy has already received their volume of “Successful Home Cooking.” Have you received yours?

I thought it was only going to be 95 pages, but it kept growing and growing –– there was so much great stuff to include — that the document grew, and grew to 122 pages long!

It’s been quite an adventure putting this together. With suggestions from all over the globe (chicken tandoori), and readers sending me their wish lists for perfect lasagne, for a great spaghetti sauce recipe, for a fish recipe that is cooked perfectly, for apple pie that is sweet and sour and has a rich crumbly top, and for easy meals that come together with regular grocery store ingredients…

Well, you don’t have to listen to me 🙂

You can read what Dawn wrote:

“Dearest Shelley,

Thank you so much for sending me the pdf version of your book. Was I ever pleased when I came across your site two weeks ago. I immediately signed up for your newsletter and what excellent candor! It is so wonderful to have an email from a real person in my inbox every week.

I agree with you about your last email. I have been pulling my hair out in the kitchen because once I had settled on a free recipe [out of thousands] from the internet, it almost always turned out badly.

All I want are some down-to-earth recipes from somebody who has tried them and say they work.

Yours is the first cookbook I have ever bought — mine have all been passed down — and I don’t find my current recipes very practical because they are for six to eight [my Grandmother had a big family] and I am only cooking for three.

I am the kind of person that usually cooks meals that include all the food groups already [fajitas, stir-fries etc.] because I am panic-stricken about side-dishes. I will panic no more, however, because you have saved me the grief and simply told me what to include as a compliment to the meat dishes.

The book is comprehensive, the recipes interesting, mouth watering, the ingredients are available. To boot, you have included a price list of each recipe.

You have taken all the major kitchen concerns into consideration, yet kept it simple without making me feel stupid. What this cookbook is, really, is a cooking class with enough good solid recipes for me to keep busy for some time. The kitchen is no longer a place to fear, but a place to rejoice. I am all praise, Shelley — my only complaint is not finding you earlier!

With gratitude, Dawn (in Calgary, Alberta)”

 

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new publication, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not just another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

“I won’t pay for recipes!”

Lise in England writes: “There are a lot of cheap people out there. And there are so many free recipes online that people won’t want to pay for them.”

I understand Lise’s point. There are in fact billions of recipes online. Let’s take meatloaf as an example. If I go to epicurious.com, and search for meatloaf, there are 48 recipes. Yikes, how could I pick one? I start reading through the first two or three. The first recipe uses oatmeal (yuck), the second one has a list of ingredients as long as my left arm including white wine, and the third recipe also uses oatmeal (what’s the matter with these people?) and calls for something called ‘meatloaf mix’. Now, I don’t know about you, but without a definition, I’m not exactly sure what meatloaf mix is …

Now pretend you’re my ex-boyfriend for a minute, you can picture him – he’s the one with lots of disposable income but for whom cooking wasn’t one of his greatest strengths, although eating in restaurants was. Imagine you’re him, this guy with cash, who finds cooking to be a chore, who says “let’s just order in.” His favourite at-home meal? Meatloaf. But he can’t cook it himself. Never learned how. So, if you’re him, and you go to epicurious.com, and you start looking for a meatloaf recipe, you’d be overwhelmed in about 2.5 seconds.

OK, so to get back to Lise’s email. What she sees as a downside, I see as a problem to be solved. Indeed, the problem is that there are soooo many recipes online, but are any of them any good?

Are these recipes fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions, foolproof, with full colour photography? Do these millions of online recipes come with the email address of a breathing human where you can send your questions if you get into trouble?

Try to imagine if Martha Stewart actually cared if someone could follow her recipes and successfully get dinner on the table night after night. Imagine if Martha Stewart created recipes that used only regular grocery store ingredients. Imagine if every recipe included how much it cost to make per person.

And what if LOTS of the recipes included a mini-recipe version… how to adapt the ingredients and timing to make the same meal for one (or 2 people) (instead of the 4-8 people most recipes feed).

The new book by http://www.OneRoastChicken.com isn’t a cookbook. It’s a cooking school. It isn’t even called a cookbook. It’s called “Successful Home Cooking.” Because I actually want you to be successful, and I’ve done everything in my power to design and create the best product for you so that you can be successful.

Here’s what Priscilla said after she made the meatloaf recipe in “Successful Home Cooking”:

“I really should enter therapy because of my meatloaf and grisly bologna experiences as a child.

I made your meatloaf tonight, Shelley. It tasted unlike any other meatloaf I have ever eaten in my life …… GOOD ! It was more like paté than the chunky dry square hamburger I usually concoct …

I got a little worried when I started your recipe – it started off really smooshy and then all of a sudden it all glued together like really light bread dough. Must have been a combination of some sort of chemical reaction, patience, and following the recipe. I have always balked at the idea of smothering meatloaf in ketchup – but your “spicy” ketchup has a little more class. And it worked for the potatoes too.

I like the details you give: the REASONS for doing things and EXPLANATION of why you do something. (Like don’t reheat in the microwave unless you want to eat sponge.)

I can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow and for more recipes.”

To make this recipe and more…

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new cookbook, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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Why does food taste better outside?

It’s Spring where I live, and Spring is the perfect time to break out of our regular food routines. Away with the heavy table cloths, the dark napkins, the dimmer switch in the dining room. Now is the time for long evenings, picnics, lighter meals, and candles outside. In fact, eating outside is one of the things I love most about this time of year.

Breakfast: Starting as soon as humanly possible (and this year that was at the beginning of May), I start eating breakfast on my apartment balcony every day it’s even remotely possible. My favourite breakfast is toast with butter and a layer of smoky cheese (Applewood cheddar if I can find it), topped with one lightly egg fried in a non-stick pan. And a side of green veggie (beans or spinach or bok choy). And decaf coffee. I set myself up on the wooden patio table, with a place mat, napkin, and a magazine. I sit, facing east, reading Food Illustrated or Cook’s Country until it gets too warm and I have to go inside and get to work. If you don’t have a balcony, maybe you have a porch (veranda?), the front steps to your apartment, or a nearby park bench. I find that eating breakfast outside is a quiet, peaceful way to begin your day.

Lunch: If you work in an office, you can take your packed lunch away from your desk and head to the nearest playground. Your tuna sandwich and pickles taste magical when eaten outdoors. Use any excuse to escape your florescent environment. If you work right downtown, you might have to hunt for a restaurant with a patio where you can order a cup of coffee and eat your homemade lunch. Some places are more friendly about you bringing in ‘outside’ food than others… search a bit until you find someplace near you.

Dinner: Plan a picnic supper, leftover Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Three Bean Salad go well together. Cold roast chicken is divine, and goes well with the vinegary bean salad. Add extra chick peas (garbanzo beans) to the salad for extra protein. Take a blanket, a good book, and settle yourself near the best view – whatever kind of view you can find: beach, mountains, prairie, duck pond.

And since it’s nearly a scientific fact that food tastes better outside, now is the time to find the door ‘out’ of your usual routine. This afternoon I proposed to André that we could make margaritas in glass jars with lids, pack a picnic, and head off the park for supper. Then I thought I’d sweeten the deal by saying we could take the new laptop computer, pop in a DVD, and watch a movie outside under the stars with our mason jar drinks. He looked at me like I had a watermelon where my head should be. OK, maybe we’ll leave the movie at home.

Welcome this week to all of our new subscribers. And, of course, welcome to those of you who’ve been here awhile … come on, everybody wave ‘hi’ to Lida in Sweden, Khadija in Mauritius, and Eva in Kenya 🙂 I’m glad you’re all here.

To make these recipes and more…

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new cookbook, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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Four things I always have in my freezer

I live in an apartment with a small freezer that is part of my fridge. So without the luxury or expense of a big deep freeze, I still use my in-fridge freezer all the time to make my cooking life easier. Here are four things that I always have:

1. When I’m making Chicken Tandoori which calls for 1.5 teaspoons of lemon juice, I take my lemon, remove the zest with a microplaner or box grater, and then wrap the zest in plastic and stick it in the freezer. This comes in handy for Apple Pie for One, which calls for just a bit of lemon zest. OK, so then I cut the lemon in half, and juice both halves, and this produces about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. I use what I need for Chicken Tandoori, then I put the rest in a small jar in the freezer. I save tiny jars for lemon juice, like the kind that capers come in.

2. I make a Roast Chicken dinner about every two weeks or so. In my house, a small chicken makes enough for the two of us for dinner (we eat the white meat), and then when the chicken has cooled off, I remove the leftover chicken and freeze it in a plastic container. Now I’m fully equipped for my favourite Friday night one-bowl dinner (Thai Curried Chicken). I just pull out the frozen chicken and add it to the pot of bubbling coconut milk and vegetables while the meat is still frozen.

3. I buy lean ground beef from the grocery store in a jumbo family pack, and then I freeze it in half-pound packages. When I want to make hamburgers, I pull out one half-pound package and a couple of sausages and I’m ready to cook. If we’re feeling more like Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup, then I defrost three half-pound packages.

 

4. I make chicken broth from the leftover bones every time I roast a chicken. And once the broth is made, I freeze it in one-cup jars that might otherwise be used for jam, or I reuse pickle jars (or others) which hold about 4 cups. We go through a lot of chicken broth on a weekly basis so it’s definitely cheaper and easier to have homemade on hand. I use chicken broth instead of water to cook rice. I use it to make Instant Beef Soup (which uses a combination of beef and chicken broths to get the best flavour). And my favourite Thai Curried Chicken recipe needs 1/3 cup of broth in the sauce, and then more broth to cook the rice.

To make these recipes and more…

Check out OneRoastChicken’s new cookbook, “Successful Home Cooking” which is now available for order. This is not another cookbook. This is a cooking school in full-colour delivered right to your kitchen. All recipes include pages of colour photography and step-by-step instructions. And to keep you on budget, every recipe includes the price per serving. How about Meatloaf with Spicy Ketchup for $1.32 per serving? Or Chicken Tandoori for $1.81? Order your copy of “Successful Home Cooking” now…

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

More cooking disasters

Thanks for all of the hilarious feedback from last week’s letter. Some of you asked to hear more of my disaster stories. Here are three more stories, all (unfortunately) from this past year …

On New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d try out the new pasta machine I got for Christmas. The first batch of dough I made turned into a giant thick glue in the food processor and nearly burned out the motor in the machine. André washed it all out, dried and wiped, and I started again with a different recipe.

On Valentine’s Day, also this year, A. worked all day and then went to school in the evening until 9 pm. The tiramisu that I slaved over turned out great, but the shrimp stirfry I tried to prepare for Valentine’s Day dinner was completely inedible. The shrimp were old and frozen and smelly, although the fish boutique had definitely charged me otherwise. Dumped into the garbage. So, there I was, staring into the freezer at 9 pm wondering: what are we going to have for dinner when I have no groceries? I defrosted a half-pound of ground beef (we had neither sausage meat, nor buns) and I made two hamburger patties to serve with the rice and veggies from the failed shrimp dish. Truth be told, A. would have picked meatloaf if I had asked him what he wanted for Valentine’s dinner, it’s his all-time favourite meal. I was just trying to show off with the shrimp thing…

OK. One more. I’ve got a ham cooking in the oven, the house smells great. I was making the pineapple juice glaze to go on top. I put the pot on to boil, then leave the kitchen to go and check my email. And really, no more than 8 minutes later, the smoke alarm is going off, the kitchen is filled with thick black smoke, and the security company is phoning to verify if it’s a real fire before they send the fire trucks. I am forced to open the windows. Was it snowing? It was darn cold. I flapped a dish towel around the kitchen, in front of the smoke detector, wind and snow blowing in, dancing around frantically trying to get rid of the smell …Worst of all, the burnt juice glaze had magically transformed into cement that could not be separated from my favourite, lovely, no-stick pot. While André did later try to clean it with oven cleaner (!), we finally had to put my favourite pot in the garbage. (Oh there’s a whole story here about trying to buy the replacement pot… have you tried to buy one item from a set? It almost can’t be done. The stores can’t help you. I had to finally go online and special order just the one pot from the manufacturer. And it’s lovely. It’s my curried chicken pot. Can’t live without it.)

 

Do you have a kitchen disaster story? Just post a comment or drop me a line 🙂 I might use your story in an upcoming cooking letter. Got pictures? Send those, too.
You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.
Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

Cooking disasters and cooking success

Everyone has a great cooking disaster story. And they happen from time to time. Double a cookie recipe but forget to double the sugar. Results are inedible and end up in the garbage.

I used to be really sad when this happened. Think of the waste, the cost, why am I such an idiot? I remember once when I was about 20 years old, and not a very experienced cook, I attempted to make a pork stew using my aunt’s recipe. The whole thing was a giant disaster — pork too tough to eat (she must have used pork tenderloin, where I had picked something tough and cheap). I remember shedding tears as I threw the entire meal in the trash. Waste. Cost. Idiot.

Since then, I’ve discovered a few secrets to successful cooking.

1. A great recipe with step-by-step instructions.

Don’t you love recipes that help you succeed? How about recipes that let you follow along with pictures so you can see if you’re in the right place, getting the right results. Recipe 1.5 > Dutch Apple Pie is a perfect example.

2. A real person who can explain the tricks to making the recipe successfully.

This could be your mom or your neighbour.

Or it can be me! Send me an email, I’d be happy to answer your questions.

I believe that every recipe has a “recipe gremlin” — a little trick that if you don’t know about, the recipe won’t turn out as well as it could. And most people don’t tell you about the recipe gremlins… They say peel and core the apples, but do they remind you check the insides of each apple section for that plastic-like piece of apple core that you DO NOT want to find in your pie? (In the photos above for Recipe 1.5 > Dutch Apple Pie, this recipe gremlin is explained in step #4).

3. A great cheering section who’ll support your attempts, and who’ll eat your recipes, no matter what!

This can be your husband, wife, grandkids – anyone who’ll say “that’s great” even when it isn’t. And when you burn the potatoes he’ll say “I like them that way” when probably he doesn’t.

 

And while I still sometimes have kitchen disasters, I’m more matter-of-fact about it now. If you cook often enough, sometimes it’s not going to work out as planned. I try to have a sense of humour about it.

My cheering section says “ce n’est pas grave” (literally: it’s not grave, but really what he’s saying is “it doesn’t matter.”) And finally, I’m starting to believe him.

Do you have a kitchen disaster story?

Just post a comment. Got pictures? Send those, too.
You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu,
Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

These are a few of my favourite things … Potato peeler

Right there in the kitchen. In a prominent place on the wall. Next to my measuring spoons. Ready for me to grab at any second. My bright fluorescent green potato peeler.

When André and I started dating, he took one look at my old rusty potato peeler and went straight out and bought me a shiny new Henckels peeler. Didn’t like it. Hard on the hands. Wasn’t sharp enough.

This new one, this green one, I found at a huge kitchen store while on vacation in Seattle. It cost about $3. I occasionally do volunteer work in a restaurant kitchen, and this kind of wide blade peeler is the only kind we use. It’s good for right and left handers, and it’s really, really sharp.

Of course, it’s not only a potato peeler. I think it’s called a vegetable peeler. Carrots. Stalks on tough broccoli.

It has earned its own place on the wall in the kitchen. Right underneath the art.

Subscribers write in >

My last article about “favourite things” was about a bamboo stick [if you want to read this or any cooking letter again, you can get your collection of the first 20 cooking letters here…]. I invited you to tell me about your favourite kitchen gadgets.

Here’s what Roberta (Vancouver, BC) had to say:

“I have the most glorious tool. It is a jar opener my mother bought for me in Hawaii many years ago and I am lost without it. It is basically a bar of wood with a heavy duty plastic loop attached. You fit the loop over the jar lid, then use one end of the bar as a lever against the jar lid which the loop is holding. I have round rubber things that call themselves jar openers, but they only open SOME jars. My little loopy thing opens all jars – have never met a jar yet it would not open. I have not tried those pliers-looking jar openers – but then I don’t need to.

What I also love about my jar opener (and why I never leave home without it when I go out photographing), is that I can use it remove the ball head off my tripod if I need to, and I can use it in reverse to tighten the ball head onto the tripod good and secure as well. There are no metal bits to damage the tripod head and it gets things on much tighter than I could by hand – very important when you are carrying big lenses on a tripod over your shoulder in rough terrain.”

Now, how many of us have a bottle opener that works as a photographer’s tool? How cool is that!

In this series of articles, to mix in with the recipe adventures and the meal planning and the research on the BEST ham and cheese pasta … well, in this series called “These are a few of my favourite things…” I’ll share some of the things that make my life as a cook just that little bit easier. Future articles will include the story of my special Dorothy-goes-to-Kansas chef shoes, and my potato ricer.

OK, what do you think?

Do you have a tool that you think everyone should know about? As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Just post a response here or you can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

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The first 20 cooking letters from OneRoastChicken.com > I have created a little booklet of the first 20 emails you’ve received … although I can’t really call it ‘little’ because it’s a whopping 48 pages long. And I can’t call it a ‘booklet’, either, it’s too comprehensive. Think of it more as a reference manual, a time capsule, a perfect snapshot, a collection of ideas and recipes and feedback and full-colour photos. A present from me to you. Visit this page to read all about it…

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Subscriber feedback > A packed lunch is like a jigsaw puzzle…

Several months ago I wrote a weekly cooking letter about how making a packed lunch was like a jigsaw puzzle made up of 5 parts: drink + meal + veggie/fruit + sweet + salty. https://oneroastchicken.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/a-packed-lunch-is-like-a-jigsaw-puzzle/

My musings about making lunches and how to get yourself organized sparked a couple of great letters from One Roast Chicken subscribers.

Jennifer (Maple Ridge, BC) writes:

“I make lunch for Brendan every Monday and Wednesday night for preschool, so I love your 5-step jigsaw puzzle idea. I have to avoid nuts, so PB&J is unfortunately out, so I often struggle to find something that he will eat, and not the same thing each time. Cheese sticks are a common part of the puzzle for us… I like your suggestion to buy small milk containers rather than the juice boxes, although I usually give him a juice box (preferably with 25% less sugar) PLUS a sippy cup with milk in it. I’d love to see André take a sippy cup to work!

I usually make up a container of low-fat veggie dip (sometimes it goes well with chips, too J ) and I put some in a small plastic container along with the left-over cut-up veggies I served with dinner.

Philly makes light cream cheese dips like “Light Garden Vegetable” which is good as a sandwich spread instead of mayo (and surprisingly less fattening). That also takes care of the cheese part of a meat sandwich (one less step to worry about). Or sometimes I buy pre-sliced cheese at the deli counter when I’m buying lunch meats. I buy the big bags of sugar snap peas ($9.99 for a family pack, but I think it’s worth it), which is a very easy and healthy crunchy snack, with or without dip.

Now I’m going to go and see what to make for Brendan’s lunch tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration!”

Irm (Victoria, BC) writes:

“I like your contemplations on lunch. I hesitate to mention, but think you might find it interesting to hear about making lunch for four different people each morning. One refuses to eat mayonnaise, will eat almost any kind of fruit or vegetable, but is picky about cookies (they’d better not be the least bit stale!); another loves loads of mayo but won’t eat liversausage, any kind of whole grain bread, or fruit that has gone the least bit brown or mushy; another likes mayo, but not with liversausage, is the only one who will eat fig newtons, and likes apples but not oranges; then there’s the one who likes sandwiches as long as they contain at least two condiments and three other toppings, but doesn’t fuss about much else. I won’t mention myself, although I do pack my own lunch, too.”

OK, what do you think?

Do you have any lunch tips you’d like to share with us? Any particular challenges? Need help? As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Just post a comment or drop me a line 🙂 You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.

Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com

Sneak Preview: Collection 1 > The first 20 cooking letters

Dear Subscriber,

I’m thrilled to share with you that the Collected cooking letters booklet is back from the printer and I have to tell you, I’m impressed!

OK, I know. I wrote the letters, one by one each week, sending them off to you. Topics from cinnamon ice cream to cooking for one…

But when the book came back from the printers, I was truly surprised.

IT’S BIG!

I knew it was 48-pages, full colour, with a nice card stock for the cover.

But I didn’t think it would feel so SUBSTANTIAL.

Have you ordered your copy yet? Some have already gone out in the mail this week. Was one of them yours?

This collection is only available to senior subscribers — and based on how quickly the orders are coming in, I’m not sure how long this limited print run is going to last me 🙂 Yikes, I’m going to have to order more!

If you don’t want the print version (although if you could see it, you’d change your mind), you can always download the PDF version for $3.99 (Cdn).

But I know my subscribers pretty well. When surveyed, more than 50% of you want things sent in a PAPER version so that you can hold it in your hands. The print collection is full-colour and will be shipped to you by mail no matter where you live. I’ve created three postal categories (Canada, US, and International). You just have to figure out where you live (I know you can do it), and then you just order your copy which includes shipping.

To see a preview copy of the entire 48-page collection, click here [PDF file].

And once you’ve seen how fabulous it looks, you’ll want to order your copy by clicking here.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.
You can always reach me at shelley@oneroastchicken.com.
Thanks and bon appetit!

Shelley MacDonald Beaulieu, Owner & Head Chef
www.oneroastchicken.com