Homemade
We regularly publish recipe features that highlight the communities, traditions and flavours of this wonderfully diverse province. Submit your recipe to have your dish considered for a future story — recipes can be beloved family favourites or everyday staples.
Submit a Recipe Eva Wasney 8 minute read 5:05 PM CDT
Homemade is a series that celebrates home cooking in Manitoba. Find more stories, ideas and share your recipes at wfp.to/homemade
In today's Homemade Cooking School lesson, chef Mandy Wingert walks us through the basics of stocks and sauces — essential culinary components designed to enhance the flavour, moisture and texture of a dish.
'It's like the foundation of your house. If you don't have a good stock, you're going to be playing catch-up trying to make things taste better,' says Wingert, a culinary and baking instructor at Red River College Polytechnic.
Originally from Saskatchewan, she grew up in a family of cooks and knew from an early age she wanted to pursue a career in food. We try reader-submitted Jell-O recipes Eva Wasney 8 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 8 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2025
Saturday is Eat Your Jell-O Day. In honour of this gelatinous holiday, we've done just that. Read Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2025
EVA WASNEY / FREE PRESS
Clockwise from top left: Broken glass torte, spring parfait salad, orange jellied salad, tomato aspic. Salads add colour, texture, freshness and acidity to any dinner table Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025
Unlike most of The Simpsons clan, I'm of the opinion that you can, in fact, win friends with salad. And not because of their purported 'health benefits.' Read Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Alison's Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Mango Chutney recipe in Winnipeg on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. For Eva Wasney cookbook.
Winnipeg Free Press 2022. Cutting edge tips: Learn kitchen knife skills in our new monthly cooking feature Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 7 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025
Welcome to the first class of Homemade: Cooking School, a new Free Press series featuring in-depth cooking tutorials from professional local chefs. Read Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Terry Gereta demonstrates knife skills at RRC Polytech on Monday. He says a sharp knife is a safe knife, as a dull knife may move while cutting. Turn on that barbecue and get grilling: Barbecue Lean Pork, Gale's Barbecue Trout and Auntie Shirley Potatoes Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 27, 2025
Make the most of grilling season with reader recipes for Barbecue Lean Pork from Anita Lee, Gale's Barbecue Trout from Gale Petreny and Auntie Shirley Potatoes from Patti Mersereau-LeBlanc. Read Tuesday, May. 27, 2025
Freepik
Adding lemon to barbecued trout is never a bad idea. Spring flings: Use seasonal produce in go-to faves asparagus soup, spinach salad, rhubarb pie Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 13, 2025
This week, Homemade features cream of asparagus soup from Rae Carpenter, spinach salad from Vi Scherbak and rhubarb crunch pie from Velma Scott. Read Tuesday, May. 13, 2025
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files
Rae Carpenter makes cream of asparagus soup every year when the snow is finally gone. Expand those Easter baskets Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 7 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2025
Add some home-baked Easter treats to this weekend's cache of chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks.
This week, we have some sweet, sentimental reader recipes for Dolly's Easiest and Yummiest Sugar Cookies from Dolly Kuzyk, Babka from Shirley Kalyniuk and Daffodil Cake from Karen Stepaniuk.
Want to share a recipe? Visit Homemade to fill out the submission form.
eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com Read Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2025
EVA WASNEY PHOTO
Dolly Kuzyk's sugar cookie recipe can be decorated to suit the occasion. Stir things up with these creamy crowd-pleasers: Cowboy Caviar, Cucumber Chip Dip, Hot Hamburger/Bean Dip Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2025
Due to the recent 'dip' in temperature, this week's Homemade is an homage to, you guessed it, dips. Read Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2025
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS files
Leslie Pitchford's Cowboy Caviar recipe is home on the range.
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Conventions shift in shadow of wildfires
Thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses were to gather at the RBC Convention Centre this weekend. Instead, groups will meet in their home congregations, live-streaming event programming — an adjustment they learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Temporary shelter for wildfire evacuees has taken the place of their annual three-day convention. Since the latest provincewide state of emergency, declared July 10, Tourism Winnipeg has assisted four conferences that have postponed, cancelled or switched to virtual settings. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS files An international soils research gathering and an annual Jehovah's Witnesses convention are two of the recent events the RBC Convention Centre has had to adjust its initial plans for. An uncounted number of hotel-based conferences have followed the same trend. Meanwhile, urban tourism businesses and restaurateurs have altered operations — and seen fewer patio-goers — as cities receive wildfire smoke-related air quality alerts. 'Whether we're able to do it at RBC Convention Centre or remotely, we're happy to understand this year's theme about pure worship on another level,' said Chad Bower, a Jehovah's Witnesses spokesperson. Members trek from Manitoba's corners, and other provinces, for the event's Bible-based talks and videos. The RBC Convention Centre has housed the weekend-long gathering for the past two years. One room has a helpful dividing wall: it separates the roughly 3,100 English- and 1,000 Tagalog-speaking attendees during programming, Bower relayed. 'We're very supportive of the government helping out the evacuees,' he underscored. 'You want to make sure that people are taken care of.' Beds dot the convention centre's third floor; 143 were being used Thursday morning. The shelter setup began July 13. An international soils conference slated for the RBC Convention Centre on July 20-25 was shifted to the Delta Hotels Winnipeg, said David Chizda, the convention centre's director of sales and business development. A career fair slated for July 30 has been pushed to August. Third-floor maintenance work is postponed for the time being, Chizda added. 'There's no loss to the economy with the soils conference,' he said. 'The partnerships that we have with the other downtown hotels and with Tourism Winnipeg … it was very quick and very easy to help accommodate the conventions.' Chizda didn't divulge the expected monetary loss to the convention centre but said the site will be compensated for housing evacuees. The Manitoba Hotel Association doesn't yet know the breadth or economic impact of wildfire-related conference changes this summer. Seventy-eight hotels have a collective 2,532 rooms booked for evacuees, a provincial spokesperson said Thursday. As a result, several conferences — 'important revenue generators' — have been rescheduled, said Michael Juce, Manitoba Hotel Association president. 'I think just about any conference is having those conversations with their venue,' he added. 'It's tough … there's only so many event spaces.' Tourism Winnipeg, in its 2024 annual report, estimated the 76 future events and conferences it attracted would generate at least $53.3 million in direct spending. The statistic doesn't cover smaller events hotels host, Juce noted. The Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association is also waiting on the full economic impact of the wildfires. 'We've seen a monumental decline in the amount of patio business this year,' said Shaun Jeffrey, executive director of the MRFA. Generally, sales are down year-over-year, Jeffrey said. He attributed the dip to bouts of poor air quality. Winnipeg has logged 23 days' worth of air quality alerts since May 31, per Environment and Climate Change Canada. Brandon sits at 18 days. The air quality health index has reached or exceeded 10 — a high to very high health risk warning — at least 18 days in Winnipeg. Thomas Schneider nearly closed Tommy's Pizzeria's patio one smoky day. With the haze, people are opting to sit inside during the usually busy patio season, Schneider relayed. 'I just want to give our customers the best dining experience possible,' he said. 'When it's smoky, it's a little difficult to do.' The Corydon Avenue eatery's sales appear lower this July compared to last, Schneider said. He's frequently checking the weather — and the air quality index — to see if he needs to reduce staffing. Anecdotally, fewer tourists are stopping by, Schneider added. In contrast, Pasquale's Italian Ristorante has clocked more customers than last summer, said owner Joe Loschiavo. Still, some patrons have avoided the Marion Street rooftop patio because of the smoke, he added. 'We know it's been difficult for … Manitobans,' Loschiavo said. (He joined every person the Free Press interviewed in expressing their support and condolences for wildfire evacuees.) Winnipeg Waterways, a boat tour operator stationed at The Forks, is giving discounts to evacuees showing their Red Cross cards — as long as the boats are running. Air quality has caused Winnipeg Waterways to halt operations for two or three full days and a handful of partial days this summer, said co-owner Griffin Hewitt. 'We're always monitoring,' Hewitt stated, adding the decision to close comes from a mix of weather apps, government websites, staff comfort and conditions on the river. More than 100 tourism operations have been affected by wildfires, per Travel Manitoba tracking. The total impact won't be known for a while, especially as wildfire season continues, Travel Manitoba's president said. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'We're very concerned about all of the issues that we're dealing with,' Colin Ferguson said. 'First of all, very concerned with all of the evacuees … Hopefully, we will see them returning to their homes soon.' Some northern tourism operators have been 'devastated,' Ferguson noted. Fishing and hunting lodges in emergency zones have been forced to shutter during their busiest months; at least two have burned. Upwards of 45 commercial lodges have been affected. However, much of Manitoba is still open for tourism and the province's current state of emergency doesn't ban non-essential travel, Ferguson stressed. He highlighted free entry to provincial parks. Approximately 7,050 evacuees were staying in Manitoba hotels on Thursday morning. Another 659 people resided in congregate sites in Winnipeg. Gabrielle PichéReporter Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle. Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Homemade
Welcome to Homemade, a Winnipeg Free Press project celebrating home cooking in Manitoba. We regularly publish recipe features that highlight the communities, traditions and flavours of this wonderfully diverse province. Submit your recipe to have your dish considered for a future story — recipes can be beloved family favourites or everyday staples. Submit a Recipe Eva Wasney 8 minute read 5:05 PM CDT Homemade is a series that celebrates home cooking in Manitoba. Find more stories, ideas and share your recipes at In today's Homemade Cooking School lesson, chef Mandy Wingert walks us through the basics of stocks and sauces — essential culinary components designed to enhance the flavour, moisture and texture of a dish. 'It's like the foundation of your house. If you don't have a good stock, you're going to be playing catch-up trying to make things taste better,' says Wingert, a culinary and baking instructor at Red River College Polytechnic. Originally from Saskatchewan, she grew up in a family of cooks and knew from an early age she wanted to pursue a career in food. We try reader-submitted Jell-O recipes Eva Wasney 8 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 8 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2025 Saturday is Eat Your Jell-O Day. In honour of this gelatinous holiday, we've done just that. Read Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2025 EVA WASNEY / FREE PRESS Clockwise from top left: Broken glass torte, spring parfait salad, orange jellied salad, tomato aspic. Salads add colour, texture, freshness and acidity to any dinner table Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025 Unlike most of The Simpsons clan, I'm of the opinion that you can, in fact, win friends with salad. And not because of their purported 'health benefits.' Read Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Alison's Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Mango Chutney recipe in Winnipeg on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. For Eva Wasney cookbook. Winnipeg Free Press 2022. Cutting edge tips: Learn kitchen knife skills in our new monthly cooking feature Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 7 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025 Welcome to the first class of Homemade: Cooking School, a new Free Press series featuring in-depth cooking tutorials from professional local chefs. Read Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Terry Gereta demonstrates knife skills at RRC Polytech on Monday. He says a sharp knife is a safe knife, as a dull knife may move while cutting. Turn on that barbecue and get grilling: Barbecue Lean Pork, Gale's Barbecue Trout and Auntie Shirley Potatoes Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 27, 2025 Make the most of grilling season with reader recipes for Barbecue Lean Pork from Anita Lee, Gale's Barbecue Trout from Gale Petreny and Auntie Shirley Potatoes from Patti Mersereau-LeBlanc. Read Tuesday, May. 27, 2025 Freepik Adding lemon to barbecued trout is never a bad idea. Spring flings: Use seasonal produce in go-to faves asparagus soup, spinach salad, rhubarb pie Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 13, 2025 This week, Homemade features cream of asparagus soup from Rae Carpenter, spinach salad from Vi Scherbak and rhubarb crunch pie from Velma Scott. Read Tuesday, May. 13, 2025 RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Rae Carpenter makes cream of asparagus soup every year when the snow is finally gone. Expand those Easter baskets Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 7 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2025 Add some home-baked Easter treats to this weekend's cache of chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks. This week, we have some sweet, sentimental reader recipes for Dolly's Easiest and Yummiest Sugar Cookies from Dolly Kuzyk, Babka from Shirley Kalyniuk and Daffodil Cake from Karen Stepaniuk. Want to share a recipe? Visit Homemade to fill out the submission form. Read Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2025 EVA WASNEY PHOTO Dolly Kuzyk's sugar cookie recipe can be decorated to suit the occasion. Stir things up with these creamy crowd-pleasers: Cowboy Caviar, Cucumber Chip Dip, Hot Hamburger/Bean Dip Eva Wasney 4 minute read Preview Eva Wasney 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2025 Due to the recent 'dip' in temperature, this week's Homemade is an homage to, you guessed it, dips. Read Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2025 RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS files Leslie Pitchford's Cowboy Caviar recipe is home on the range.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Stocking up
In today's Homemade Cooking School lesson, chef Mandy Wingert walks us through the basics of stocks and sauces — essential culinary components designed to enhance the flavour, moisture and texture of a dish. 'It's like the foundation of your house. If you don't have a good stock, you're going to be playing catch-up trying to make things taste better,' says Wingert, a culinary and baking instructor at Red River College Polytechnic. Originally from Saskatchewan, she grew up in a family of cooks and knew from an early age she wanted to pursue a career in food. Wingert moved to Prince Edward Island to complete her Red Seal training in cooking and baking at the Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College, where she competed in the Culinary Olympics. She worked at the Fat Duck, a three-Michelin Star restaurant in England, and elsewhere in the Maritimes before joining RRC Polytech's faculty in January 2024. It's been a varied and flavourful career — just like a good sauce. Stocks and broths MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Chef and Red River College Polytech instructor Mandy Wingert. While stock and broth are both made from a long-simmered combination of water, vegetables and, often, animal products, these foundational liquids are siblings not synonyms. Stock: Liquid made from bones and vegetables Broth: Liquid made from meat and vegetables Both liquids can be used interchangeably as the base for soups and sauces, but broth tends to be a more expensive ingredient owing to the meat component. Making broth or stock is a good way to reduce food waste in the kitchen. Keep bones and vegetable scraps in the freezer for later use. 'You're taking a leftover or something you wouldn't otherwise use and making a usable product out of it, but stock is also not a compost bin,' Wingert says. Avoid using vegetables that will make your stock cloudy, such as peppers, or bitter, such as leafy greens. Carrots, celery and onions (a mixture that, when diced, is also known as mirepoix) are standard additions, along with herbs and other aromatics. Tip: Roast the bones in the oven first for a darker stock with a richer flavour — a great base for gravy. Add everything to a large pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and let it simmer for three to four hours. Skim frequently to remove the impurities released by the bones during cooking, which will make for a nice clear stock. The final result should be thick and jiggly when cooled. 'A good stock will set up like Jell-O,' Wingert says. Stock and broth can be frozen in small containers or ice cube trays and added to dishes or sauces as needed. Sauces MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Different thickening agents used in sauces include (counter-clockwise from left) white roux, blond roux, brown roux and beurre manié. In classical French cooking, there are five 'Mother Sauces' on which all other sauces are based. Most start with a roux, a thickening agent made with equal parts flour and fat (butter, oil or animal fat) cooked until the desired colour is achieved. Béchamel: A thick cream sauce made from white roux and milk Velouté: A light creamy sauce made from blond roux and light stock Espagnole: A rich, dark brown sauce made from brown roux and dark stock Tomato: A tomato sauce made from roux and stock Hollandaise: A creamy sauce made from emulsified butter and egg yolks To make a white roux, heat the fat in a saucepan over medium-low heat and add flour, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth, pale and beginning to smell nutty. Continue cooking (and stirring) for a blond or brown roux, each of which has progressively more colour and flavour. Liquid is then slowly added to the roux to form a sauce. 'If I add it all at once, it's going to lump together, so I have to build it in steps so that it slowly heats up,' Wingert says. Cornstarch is a gluten-free option for thickening sauces, but it must be added correctly. First, make a slurry by stirring cold water into cornstarch. Then, add the slurry to a hot, simmering sauce towards the end of cooking. A beurre manié — a paste made of equal parts soft butter and flour — can make sauces thick and glossy. Stick the paste in the middle of a whisk and stir it into a nearly finished sauce or soup, Wingert says. Liquid ingredients can also be reduced by simmering until most of the water has evaporated to create a sauce with a more concentrated flavour. Sauces are generally made separately and added to a dish before serving, but can also be made from braising liquids or pan drippings, as is often the case with gravy. Just add a thickening agent, such as flour, stock and desired seasonings. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Egg yolks act as an emulsifier in mayonnaise. Mayonnaise 2 egg yolks 7.5 ml (1 1/2 tsp) white vinegar 7.5 ml (1 1/2 tsp) water 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) salt 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) dry mustard Pinch cayenne 425 ml (1 3/4 cups) neutral oil 5 ml (1 tsp) lemon juice Whisk the egg yolks and dry mustard for 1 to 2 minutes. Mix vinegar and water together and add 5 ml (1 tsp) to the egg yolks. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking as the mixture begins to emulsify and thicken. Continue to whisk while adding the remaining vinegar and water, cayenne, lemon juice and salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. — Mandy Wingert More on emulsification Many sauces rely on emulsification: the near-magical process of combining two ingredients that don't naturally mix, such as oil and water, to create a stable solution. Emulsifications need emulsifying ingredients to form a bond. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Add oil slowly while whisking to make an emulsion. Common emulsifiers include egg yolks, butter, mustard and honey — all of which contain particles with an equal attraction to fat and water, thus helping hold everything in suspension together. Most salad dressings and vinaigrettes are temporary emulsions that separate over time, but can be reconstituted by shaking or mixing. Thicker sauces, such as mayonnaise, are more permanent emulsions. 'Mayonnaise is basically like a cold hollandaise sauce,' Wingert says. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Mayonnaise is an example of a permanent emulsion. To make mayonnaise, oil is slowly added to egg yolks and other ingredients while whisking vigorously (visit to watch a video of Wingert demonstrating the process). 'If I dumped all the oil in at the same time, it's just going to split. With all emulsifications, salad dressings, anything, you have to very slowly add your oil,' she says. If your mayo or hollandaise does split, add another egg yolk and continue whisking. Mayonnaise can be used on its own or as an emulsifier for other dressings and dips. It's also the base for aioli, which is made from mayo, garlic, lemon juice and whatever other ingredients strike your fancy. Tools and tips To make stock or broth, you'll need a large pot, a spoon for skimming and a strainer to separate the cooked liquid from the bones and veg. Use a shallow pan or pot, depending on the quantity of sauce you're making. Whisks or whips, as they're sometimes called, come in many shapes and sizes. Piano whisks with thin wires and a bulbous head are the most versatile; while French whisks have thicker wires and a narrower profile, making them useful for thicker sauces. Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Dish Every Second Friday The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. If hand-whisking, wrap a damp towel around the bottom of your bowl to keep it steady on the counter. A food processor can be used to create emulsions; drizzle oil slowly through the opening in the lid while the machine is running. Working slowly and steadily is the key to making top-notch stocks and sauces, as is building in flavour. 'Don't rush your sauce. If you want a good sauce, use a stock — and there's nothing wrong with using stock from the grocery store,' Wingert says. In next month's Homemade Cooking School, we discuss everything eggs. Eva Wasney Reporter Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva. Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
