Why The Prairibbean Cookbook? A History.

I grew up in various Prairie cities including Calgary, Regina, and (mostly) Winnipeg, Manitoba. I lived with my white dad (born and raised in a Northern Manitoba mining town) and my black mom (born in San Fernando, Trinidad and raised in Montreal, Quebec).
At home, the variety of foods that my brother and I grew up on was astronomical. Pelau and pierogies both appeared on the dinner table regularly - sometimes together. Christmas Day essentials included Angostora bitters and buljol at breakfast, then local wild rice, brussels sprouts, and a bird from the Mennonites at dinner. Cold bottles of ginger beer and Labatts (or, more often, my dad's sketchy home-brew) chilled side-by-side in the fridge. For treats, us kids sometimes got a sarsaparilla and sometimes got a Pic-a-Pop - my favourite flavour at the locally owned pop outfit was Blue-Bomber blue. Birthday dinners out often went down at Deen's Caribbean Restaurant and Patio where we'd devour curry goat (bone in); contrast that to Schwandt family gatherings where we noshed on Old Dutch chips with ranch dip, cheese cubes (mild cheddar only), sliced kielbasa, and dainties. Ohhh, Dainties - the ubiquitous matrimonial squares, peanut-butter marshmallow treats, and frosted cupcakes found at almost any Prairie event. For the other side of my family, dessert meant black cake and cooked puddings - dense, heavy creations containing copious amounts of sugar, butter, and booze. I grew up equally acquainted with "white people food" as with Island flavours, and I came to love my doubles and roti just as much as my holobtsi and pierogi.
Fast-forward 20 years. I am a grown-ass woman with my own kitchen. I have a man to feed, friends to cook for, and an appetite for the North as much as for the South.
Over the years, I have added the following to my kitchen bookshelf: Tropical Cuisine Caribbean Style; the Naparima Girls' High School Diamond Jubilee Recipe Book (a class project from my Auntie's alma mater in San Fernando); Homegrown Favorites Cook Book by the Manitoba Genealogical Society (with submissions from people with names like "Ostrowski"); Nothing More Comforting: Canada's Heritage Food; and a recipe card for Auntie Carol's Coconut Bake.
I have learned to prepare foods that connect me to all sides of heritage, and may be the only black woman in the world who makes a mean cabbage roll. I am also likely one of very few people who eat their cabbage rolls with NuPak Barbados Hot Pepper Sauce...the very quandary which has led me to the creation of this cookblog. Why do I have to choose? Why can't I enjoy the tastes, textures, spices, meats, and produce that represent all of my mixed blood - all at once? Think about it. Cabbage rolls stuffed with rice & peas. Classic date squares made with mango and coconut. Pieroti? YES! Bring it on! As an experienced cook in both styles with a taste for the unknown and a willing tester, I am in the ideal position to get this experiment started. Check in with me as I attempt to marry the comfort foods of the Prairies with those of the Islands - and I'm not talking about Hecla Island. Recipes will be tested, tasted, reviewed, photographed, and posted for your enjoyment. Please enjoy, and be inspired! Food is a beautiful thing. And this is gonna be fun.