McNeill - Cooking with Glo: from Recipe to Riches winner come the recipes of a life time spent in kitchens

Get it et!

My father was the ultimate food grumbler. In a restaurant in Blackpool, England, he complained and sent back his plate again and again. Finally a fed-up waitress slammed the revised dish down in front of him, placed her hands on her hips, and snarled Get it et

Copyright 2012 Glo McNeill

All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 379 Adelaide Street, West, Suite M1, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1S5.

MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.

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Cover design: Channel Communications

Inside layout design: Channel Communications

Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

McNeill, Glo

Cooking with Glo : from Recipe to Riches winner come the recipes of a life time spent in kitchens / Glo McNeill.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-927097-22-9

1. Cooking. 2. Cookbooks. I. Title.

TX714.M357 2012 641.5 C2012-904341-9

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Book Fund) and the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage in the development of writing and publishing in Canada.

This is not the kind of cookbook where you will find currently fashionable exotica (bacon jam, goats cheese foam, bird droppings of colour around the plate), because I dont think of food as fashion. To me its a necessity of life and one of the things that make life worth living.

Well known foodie, food critic and fellow contestant Mijune Pak weighs in on Glo and, of course, food.

A very short history of me. Not the boring stuff, but why Cooking With Glo is special. To love food is to love life.

Soup or salad can be the start of a meal, or the whole meal. Soup alone, full bodied and flavourful, with homemade bread, can be a filling supper or lunch. What could be better than coming home on a cold day to a pot of steaming fragrant homemade soup? And if you can boil water, you can make soup! Salads have come a long way since my father pushed his aside, muttering Dont serve me rabbit food! In my book, any form of protein or vegetation can be considered a salad. Grains, fruits, greenery, all can be combined, with or without protein, as a side dish or a main course. You will find ideas and inspiration in this chapter.

Made again and again these family favourites are easy to prepare, call for no exotic ingredients, and lend themselves to individual touches. Many suggest variations so you can develop your own specialties. Dishes for family meals, romantic twosomes, or elegant occasions.

The part of the meal which always brings the oohs and aahs - creamy, fluffy, simple or ornate, dessert is for many the highlight of the meal. Some of these desserts may be new to you but all are loved by my family and friends. All the recipes are easy to create and delicious. And every kitchen needs a cookie jar!

The fast morning muffin, luscious Blueberry Coffeecake, warm toasted Cinnamon Bread. fresh baked Stollen on Christmas morning - all are made simple in these well tried recipes.

Recipes range from a nourishing pick-me-up for a fretful child to a range of exotic but simple mustards. Recipes and ideas for a variety of occasions and menus.

Baked goods are the essence of home - a memory of the fragrance of fresh bread baking can carry one through difficult moments in later life. And if you can read, you can bake. The mysteries of bread baking are made simple in this chapter.

I knew GLO would win Recipe to Riches (which aired on Food Network Canada) contest before I even met her. I said to myself and my friends that Im never going to stand a chance against this sweet little grandmother who has a tried, tested and true recipe that has withstood the test of time.

And I was right! Well almost. She did have a tried, tested and true recipe, but this was no granny. She has the heart of a teenager, the wit of a British comedian, and the sass of a well-accomplished woman. I couldnt be more proud about the release of her new cookbook.

Just as I expected, her new recipe book is full of tried, tested and true recipes. The recipes are family favourites and traditional classics that are easy to follow, even for a beginner cook.

Theyre low maintenance and approachable and combine British favourites with Canadian tastes. Theyre honest and fun and come with Glos helpful tips. Most importantly is that there is a level of trust that comes from knowing that she still makes these dishes for her family to enjoy.

Mijune Pak

Mijune Pakwas a finalist on Food Network Canadas Recipe to Riches. She also has regular segments on the radio about food, and her writing has appeared in national and international magazines. Pak is also the creator of the food blog Follow Me Foodie.

At the age of 82, I won $275,000. It wasnt at a casino or a racetrack, but in a recipe contest on Food Network Canada. The first season of the reality show Recipe to Riches offered the largest cash prize in Canadian reality television history. And I won it. Me, 82 years-old, 51 on a good day (one without back scrunchies), overweight by at least 30 lbs, applauded only by the family for any cooking success.

Success as anybody who has lived as long as I have knows is not won alone. I have no formal training in culinary arts. I started to cook in my maternal grandmothers kitchen and then my mothers. Mother was an enterprising cook, which was essential during WW II, when rationing limited our food supply. It was only with imagination and creativity that edible meals could be produced. When my mother became ill, I assumed the responsibility to provide family meals for my younger brothers and my father who was a dreadfully fussy eater.

In the early part of 2011, my youngest daughter (who lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) visited my kitchen and announced, I found this cooking competition and it has your name all over it! As it turns out, she was right.

The website provided more information about Food Network Canadas competition called Recipe to Riches in which home cooks were invited to send in a recipe that would be judged by a panel of experts. If successful in its food category (there were 7 categories), the winner was awarded $25,000. Furthermore, the category winning recipe would be made into a Presidents Choice product and sold across Canada. Finalists would compete for the grand prize of $250,000.

Was my lemon pudding recipe interesting enough for this competition? It wasnt an exotic or even unusual dessert. The recipe was not even in my collection of written recipes because I knew it so well and had made it so often for friends and family. I also had never seen it in a cookbook, and no one had ever served it to me at a restaurant.