Desserts · By Jocelyn
Shortbread, Grandma Marty's - now Joc's
Rescued from Grandma's wonderfully messy archival cookbook — the rice-flour shortbread that melts in your mouth!
La Belle Famille
A family recipe collection
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La Belle Famille
A family recipe collection
Click to open ↓
Featured this week
Three generations of recipes from one kitchen — each one with the story of where it came from and who made it first. Read, cook, share, repeat.
The collection
110 recipes and counting
Desserts · By Jocelyn
Rescued from Grandma's wonderfully messy archival cookbook — the rice-flour shortbread that melts in your mouth!
Appetizers · By James
The Sinaloa-style aguachile that left the whole family in spice-induced tears — and going back for one more shrimp.
Sauces & Jams · By James
A brilliant yellow mango-chili salsa whose seeds — literally — have spread across the whole family.
Mains · By James
"The Not-So-Heart-Smart Alfredo" — perfected on a fishing boat, unapologetically rich ever since.
Drinks · By Sharon
A taste of Europe in a glass — first sipped canal-side in Venice, perfected at home.
Desserts · By James
Free-form pie from the backyard candelabra apple tree — pronounced by Gerd the best he's ever had.
Desserts · By Sharon
Okanagan apricots pressed into caramel, baked under a buttery cake, and flipped to glory.
Sauces & Jams · By Sharon
Aunt Annie's August tradition, carried on for decades — known in winter as "sunshine jam."
Desserts · By James
Soft, sharply pepperminty ammonia cookies from an ice-cream pail that never ran empty at Aunt Annie's.
Mains · By James
The richly cheesy lasagna that demanded seconds at Aunt Jayne's table — and then the recipe.
Desserts · By James
A treasured German recipe Aunt Kathy could rattle off from memory — chewy, honeyed, and begged-for.
Appetizers · By James
A smoky, savory eggplant dip from the family's long love affair with Middle Eastern cooking.
Desserts · By James
Crustless, rustic, deeply golden — the cheesecake even the family's cheesecake queen crowned "the best."
Mains · By James
The refritos that converted a whole table, one conspicuously happy dipper at a time.
Sauces & Jams · By James
Learned at a 50th-birthday day with a Bordeaux chef — a whole bottle of red, slowly become marmalade.
Mains · By James
The unwritten Mennonite constant of Grandma's kitchen, finally written down.
Breakfast · By Sharon
Chewy soaked-oat muffins that have anchored weekend breakfasts since the kids were little.
Breakfast · By James
Nutty, tender whole-wheat pancakes that revived a family weekend tradition.
Mains · By James
Rome's two-ingredient wonder — when it hits the table, all talk ceases.
Mains · By James
A smoking-hot cast-iron sear of vibrant spice — Cajun cooking's Canadian roots, honoured on the back deck.
Mains · By James
A family relay of marinades from UVic to Cabo, culminating in Cam's "barbecutioned" best-ever.
Desserts · By Sharon
A 1980s university recipe brought into the 21st century with rum-soaked raisins and fresh ginger.
Appetizers · By James
The resort-favourite ceviche the family finally dared to make at home — with tips from a proud Peruvian in a Medicine Hat Coop.
Mains · By James
Built on a carefully rationed freezer-bag of true Hungarian paprika — proof that not all paprika is created equal.
Mains · By Jocelyn
The first vegan dish Jocelyn made her own — a smoky, spiced taco filling that tastes uncannily like the real thing.
Mains · By James
A sharp, arresting red chili built on ancho chilies carried home from Mexico.
Mains · By James
Uncle Bill's green chili from a Cabo holiday — a profusion of green things that took soft tacos to a new level.
Desserts · By Sharon
The molten classic James learned from a Bordeaux chef in a chateau kitchen on his 50th birthday.
Breakfast · By James
All the cinnamon-bun pleasure in a crunchy, layered biscuit dough — no yeast, no waiting.
Breakfast · By James
The family's quest for the ultimate cinnamon bun, ended by a pour of warm cream — a pan of these renders everyone powerless.
Mains · By James
The mid-80s go-to for guests — a French classic that let a young couple's wine budget do double duty.
Desserts · By Sharon
The classic cross-hatched peanut butter cookie — and an unresolved family debate over Crisco versus butter.
Mains · By James
The working-parents' vindaloo that once earned a Grand Cru Gewurztraminer at every cello-lesson dinner.
Mains · By James
A shamelessly doctored salsa verde recipe with succulent stewed chicken — Joc-inspired, library-staff approved.
Appetizers · By James
The 1999 Okanagan resort appetizer so beloved that the chef surrendered his recipe.
Desserts · By Sharon
Oozy rum-laced butter tarts from two mothers' recipes — Cam once ate 10 in a sitting.
Mains · By James
Two prairie fish recipes, Mexican-ized after a Vancouver Island fishing haul filled the freezer.
Mains · By Sharon
Cooked low and slow in the earthenware tajine Jocelyn carried home from Morocco.
Desserts · By Sharon
Grandma's summery sheet cake — fresh prairie fruit laid out with military precision on a vanilla base.
Desserts · By Sharon
A self-saucing chocolate island from the Company's Coming era — decadence with a scoop of ice cream.
Appetizers · By James
A dear neighbour's masterwork, refined over years — the tapenade guests hope for the moment they walk in.
Mains · By James
From rubber erasers in the '80s to Carlo Zarri's light pillows — a decades-long gnocchi redemption.
Sides · By Sharon
The holiday-table constant from Grandma's kitchen — rich, textural, and beloved across three generations.
Mains · By James
Learned at Bangkok's Blue Elephant cooking school — the curry that converts even sworn cilantro-haters.
Mains · By James
The classic, un-breaded and taken to the grill — juicy, honey-dijon bright, and stuffed with ham and Swiss.
Mains · By Cam
Chasing a legendary platter of lamb from a scruffy Santorini back road — garlic, rosemary, smoke, and lemon.
Appetizers · By James
The family guac since the '80s — chunky, garlicky, and carrying a secret ingredient: cumin.
Mains · By James
Haggis, tatties, and neeps in gourmet tower form — the centrepiece of a tartan-clad Robbie Burns tradition.
Mains · By James
"Schaubel supp" — the Mennonite mainstay of garden-bean season, always served with legendary white buns.
Desserts · By Sharon
The prairie no-bake classic from every 1950s community cookbook — little chocolate piles of hay.
Appetizers · By James
A late-80s hand-me-down that became a house staple — in three variations, all better than store-bought.
Breakfast · By Sharon
A heavy, dark, seed-flecked loaf carried home from Connemara — past a suspicious airport security.
Sides · By Jocelyn
Tangy little pearls of pasta and fresh crunch — the lockdown salad that became a meal-prep staple.
Mains · By Sharon
A whole lamb in the freezer and four unhurried hours — Phil and Brooke's ranch lamb at its most persuasive.
Mains · By James
Over 40 years of birthday lasagnas, oozing cheese over the side — a love story in layers.
Desserts · By Sharon
The humble prairie lemon square, patiently reworked into a crackly-crusted, custardy delight.
Desserts · By Sharon
An old English pudding first tasted on a windswept Scottish coast — three ingredients, pure magic.
Desserts · By Sharon
The buttery white cake Sharon started baking herself after the co-op kept burning theirs.
Breakfast · By Jocelyn
Fluffy, creamy-centred pancakes brightened with lemon zest — a lovely brunch staple.
Desserts · By Sharon
A tiramisu that trades espresso for sunshine — born of Sorrento farm limoncello and a Calgary birthday.
Desserts · By Sharon
Twice-lemoned and glazed into the side-valleys of the Bundt — "the best cake I have ever tasted," per Gerd.
Drinks · By Sharon
The family's much-researched favourite margarita — and don't forget the salt.
Sauces & Jams · By James
Transcribed with pad and paper at Mario's in 1986 — anchovy, garlic, and lemon, unapologetically.
Mains · By Megha
Megha's from-scratch butter chicken — yogurt-marinated, cashew-silky, and worth every hour of marinating.
Mains · By Megha
Megha's slow-built daal — cumin seeds popping in hot oil, and patience rewarded in every spoonful.
Mains · By Sharon
Four courses of the feast Ulrike loved best — hummus and olives, saffron chicken salad, kofta in pita, and rose-scented rice pudding.
Mains · By Sharon
A ham braised over beer and mustard — and a week of glorious leftovers to follow.
Appetizers · By Sharon
Caramelized sweetness meets bright acidity — the cellar-harvest experiment that never left the fridge rotation.
Breakfast · By Sharon
The fluffiest waffles you'll ever have, thanks to stiffly beaten egg whites folded in at the end.
Mains · By James
The Calgary restaurant favourite the family refused to leave in Calgary — Mediterranean-spiced lamb in a zesty sauce.
Breakfast · By Jocelyn
A homemade Nutella born of Piedmont hazelnuts — the perfect festive gift in small decorative jars.
Desserts · By Sharon
"Dad's Cookies" from both sides of the family — best enjoyed with the patented crumb-sucking technique.
Mains · By James
Milan's legend reproduced at home — shanks braised to falling, beside a saffron risotto Sharon swears is better.
Appetizers · By James
A baked homage to the prized oysters of Cancale, rechristened "Rempelfeller" by Sharon.
Mains · By James
Adelina's Valencian mysteries, learned in a 200-year-old Catalan farmhouse — all in pursuit of the prized socarrat.
Mains · By James
A British recipe for an Italian classic, perfected in a Valpolicella farmhouse with cheap Amarone.
Desserts · By James
Dark, crunchy, richly spiced little cookies — the best peppernuts a lifelong Mennonite has tasted.
Mains · By James
The dinner that got away in Pisa, made the very next day — and ever since.
Mains · By Sharon
The rustic coastal classic from a Portuguese spring — potatoes, piri-piri, saffron, and whatever the boats brought in.
Drinks · By Jocelyn
A dreamy rosé sangria invented in a Portuguese airbnb — in a big pot, naturally.
Desserts · By Sharon
Not all puffed wheat squares are created equal — this one came home from a grade 4 classroom and stayed.
Mains · By James
Naples' brash pantry sauce, made three or four times per family holiday — umami and acidity in perfect argument.
Sides · By James
The family's communal hearth of a dish — 25 minutes of shared stirring, obligatory whining included.
Sauces & Jams · By Jocelyn
A shortcut aioli that tastes anything but — sweet roasted garlic lifted with lemon.
Sauces & Jams · By Sharon
A big-batch salsa of oven-roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic, blitzed with fresh cilantro.
Mains · By James
Elfriede's classic, dictated in typically general fashion — and remade in her honor by three generations.
Appetizers · By Jocelyn
A happy lockdown-era melange of flavours — golden salmon cakes crowned with a spicy pickle relish.
Appetizers · By Sharon
Sicily's sweet-sour comfort food, first tasted at a Castelvetrano olive farm welcoming its first travellers in two years.
Mains · By James
The mystery fish from a Sicilian grocery run, seared and nestled in a tomato-olive stew worth mopping up.
Breakfast · By Sharon
A prairie-cookbook classic whose cinnamon aroma once kept a crew of renovation workers lingering over coffee.
Sauces & Jams · By Sharon
The all-in-one glaze behind the family's go-to stir-fry — sauce by Sharon, wok by James.
Mains · By James
Thoroughly black and beautiful — a homemade squid ink pasta that turns teeth dark and dinners Mediterranean.
Mains · By James
A recipe scribbled on the back of a music festival ticket in the hallway of Edmonton's Bistro Praha.
Sides · By Sharon
Bright, herb-packed summer in a bowl, from a recipe traded on a 1980s trip to Mexico.
Appetizers · By Jocelyn
A sun tart that refused to be a sun — twisted golden "fingers" of goat cheese, artichoke, and caramelized onion.
Desserts · By James
The result of a diligent Parisian quest — Honeycrisp apples standing on end in a caramel wheel.
Mains · By James
A festive Bangkok-cookbook curry where grapes, pineapple, and tomatoes play built-in chutney.
Mains · By Jocelyn
Jocelyn's tried-and-true holiday bird — an unconventional flipping method, a drape of bacon, and no regrets.
Drinks · By Sharon
Love at first sip in Banff — a startling ginger sharpness makes this one special.
Drinks · By Sharon
A G&T made with tequila, born of mismatched leftover bottles in Mexico — the family toast is "Kaboom!"
Sauces & Jams · By James
Also known as floor salsa — good enough to scoop up off the floor if you spill the batch.
Mains · By James
A Quebecois family recipe handwritten from memory at a New Year's party, spiced for the holidays.
Desserts · By Sharon
The sponge that drinks three milks — declared "the best" mid-bite at a Mexican-themed cooking night.
Desserts · By Sharon
Twenty years of raclette-night finales — layered, ceremonious, and worthy of a proper entrance.
Mains · By James
Dad's entry in the great family turkey debate — flattened, brined for days, and gloriously crispy-skinned.
Sides · By Sharon
Thick, garlicky tzatziki with fresh mint in the background — the family's beloved "Tzatz."
Appetizers · By James
Soft, rich white bread with glorious veins of savoury herb butter — Uncle Alex's island sensation.
Desserts · By James
Grandma's real custard — a rare childhood treat that comes together in minutes, microwave and all.
Appetizers · By Sharon
Warm, fennel-scented olives that taste cozier than any olive has a right to — gone in minutes from a tapas spread.
Appetizers · By Jocelyn
A charcuterie board's dream — creamy, light, herbaceous, and endlessly riffable.
Nothing in the tin.
No recipes match — try another ingredient, cook, or category.
The cooks
Each member of the family has their own corner of this cookbook — the things they bring to dinner, the dishes they're famous for.
About
An ongoing food blog from our family, celebrating the rich stories of shared food.
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