About Danny

Danny Bourque is a mechanical engineer who is known at both home and work as either “the geek” or “the numbers guy”. He is very methodical and genuinely loves to analyze almost anything that piques his interest – including food.

by on November 26, 2020   •   4 Comments Gift Guides

15 Good Reads: Danny’s Book Recommendations

Here are 15 book recommendations for the year 2020, touching on topics from humour to social issues, or for just broadening your perspective.

When Aimée heard that I had read over forty-five books this year, she was completely astounded. She polled her Instagram readers to see if people wanted suggestions for what to read next (or gift ideas!).

The response was a resounding yes, so here we are. Consider this my first gift guide. Remember, Aimée has shared her favourite cookbooks of 2020 as well as 24 Food Gifts from Canadian Artisans.

Today, I’m listing 15 titles that cover everything from humour to social issues. I’m always looking for a new read or audiobook, so please share your book recommendations in the comments.

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by on September 12, 2015   •   1 Comment Fermenting

Our Beer Chronicles: Part 1

If you want to brew your own beer at home, and learn how to do it more or less “properly”, there are innumerable blogs, books, videos, podcasts and conferences that you can use to learn. This is my preferred route, as I like to know what I am doing, and why, and what will go wrong if I don’t do it.

I’ve learned, though, that for some things, it can also be good to just jump in and get some hands on experience – ideally with someone guiding you through the process.  And so that is what I have done with some of my co-workers who have brewed together in the past with reasonably good results.

Based on the “Mild Mannered Ale” we made together a few months ago, which was fantastic, I’d say the recipes and process we followed so far are pretty good, and so we had the itch to give it another go.  I’m reading up in bits an pieces along the way, and figured I’d share about my basic understanding of the process.

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by on October 30, 2014   •   9 Comments Kids in the Kitchen

Kids Cooking: How to tend to a kitchen burn

It seems like a long, long time ago that I taught first aid and CPR to pay my way through university.

I had taken all the swimming lessons possible at our local pool, up through the Red Cross system, Bronze Medallions and Cross, oxygen therapy courses, lifeguard, lifeguard trainer, CPR trainer, and then my teachers finally said:

“Dan, you’ve spent a bunch of cash on all these courses. You should be able to teach them by now – which would help you to recoup the costs!”

And so I did for four years. Although I only worked one summer as a lifeguard (by far my crappiest job ever), I’ve never worked “in the field” as a first responder or any other kind of first-aid related field.

Having kids at home, though, has brought much of my training, practice and demonstrations to point, as I have had to clean and bandage feet cut on shells from the ocean floor, faces cut from flying garden tools (yep), and a bunch of other weird stuff.

Although we strongly encourage our children to work alongside us in the kitchen, there is always the risk that someone will get cut or burned. This post was becoming waaaay too long, so today we’ll just cover burns.  Let me see if I can draw from my training and give you a quick crash course on what you should do if that happens. [Read more…]

by on April 9, 2014   •   18 Comments Sugaring Off

10 things you probably didn’t know about making maple syrup (Recipe: Maple Sausage Patties)

We’ve been waiting for the sap to start running so we can continue to make maple syrup. And waiting. And waiting some more.

The ideal conditions for sap collection is above freezing temperatures during day, and below freezing at night. Unfortunately, it’s been consistently so dang cold that nothing has really happened. Then we had one glorious day with full buckets, and now it has been consistently above freezing – so no more sap.  Sheesh.

Since we can’t elaborate further on our personal progress, I’ll share a few particulars I’ve recently gleaned about making maple syrup and then add in a killer recipe for your Easter brunch to boot. Ready?
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by on March 5, 2014   •   9 Comments Sugaring Off

How to know when it is time to tap maple trees

I recently met up with my buddy, Yannick, owner and head maple guy over at Erabliere des Anges, to catch up over coffee and discuss the upcoming sugaring off season.

He’s been running a small, family-based, organic sugarbush a few hours North of here for the past 2 years; we tapped 5 trees last year. This is all-consuming for him at this time of the year; we lose access to our stovetop in the evening for a few weeks. We both have day jobs to pay the bills. He knows much, much more about maple syrup than I ever will.

I mentioned that we think we missed much of the season last year because we tapped our trees too late, and so we began discussing (more like him teaching) about the ideal time to tap, and what to look for. [Read more…]