Our Urban Tree House

Nestled between the trees, on the uppermost floor of our building, our urban apartment is the setting of many lively culinary adventures. My daughter and I spend countless hours in our tiny kitchen, creating, eating, and sharing delicious food. We are often covered in flour or chocolate (her more often than me), and we probably taste as many of the ingredients as we put into our dishes.

In the spring, summer, and autumn months, our kitchen extends outdoors onto our large patio, where we grow sprawling pots of fresh herbs, enjoy meals together, and entertain family and friends.

For me, each delicious food experience is like a song, linking me to the people and places that I love. So many of my childhood memories are connected to the foods that my mom made while I was growing up. Family dinners, birthday cakes, carefully made school lunches, picnics, after school snacks, weekend breakfasts, … all made with love by my mom. It’s no wonder that my brother and I have grown up with such an appreciation for family and great food.

I have countless childhood memories of watching my mom cook, taste testing her icing for cakes, and rolling out my great grandmother’s Scottish shortbread dough with her at Christmastime. Every meal growing up was one to be enjoyed. Even now, and even especially now, I savor each delicious morsel that my mom creates. It doesn’t matter how old I get, or how proficient I become in the kitchen, nothing tastes quite as good as something made with love from my mom.

My own journey as a cook really took off much later on. As a kid, I loved to bake with my mom. As a teenager, the kitchen was often where my mom and I talked… I sat on a stool at the counter while she prepared dinner. We would chat and I would watch her cook. It was home. Like a sponge, I soaked up all my mom’s culinary expertise and stored it away.

In my twenties, I brought out all that I had learned growing up in my mom’s kitchen. My best friend got her own apartment and that’s when we began cooking together. Weekends were spent sleeping at her place, experimenting with recipes, eating out at local restaurants and pubs, and enjoying life.

The following year, we shared an apartment in the same trendy, eclectic area of the city. We cooked a lot and we also ate out a lot, appreciating and savouring all of the different type of cuisines available in our neighbourhood.

It has been twelve years since that year that we lived together… we have our own families now, our own busy schedules, … but we still make time for each other every week to share a drink or a meal, and our much needed weekly chat.

Now, I share my life and my kitchen with my little girl. We cook together, we snuggle and look through cookbooks, and we watch cooking shows. She is my best friend and my biggest inspiration. She is always full of ideas for our next recipe adventure. In fact, the recipe that will be featured in my first recipe post was inspired by her favourite summer flavors.

For me, the most important part about cooking is the people that you cook with, the people that you cook for, and the memories that you make together. So many special moments are centered around great food. It is where people gather, relax, laugh, love, and live.

Welcome to Our Urban Tree House…