Eric Akis

It’s been a sweet year for local strawberries. Everywhere I shop, from my corner grocer to farm markets, it seems there has been an abundance of them to sell. As noted in a recent Sunday column, the abundance of strawberries has led me to incorporate them into a variety of creations, savoury and sweet. Today’s recipe, strawberry streusel muffins, is on the latter side. I would call them a bakery-style muffin because they are reasonably large and deluxe in how the batter is made and topped.

Father’s Day is coming up and a popular North American-style family dinner to serve on that occasion is hamburgers with all the fixings. My late father would have been one of those dads who would agree with that meal plan. But the shopping list of ingredients you would need for it, though, would not include buns, cheese slices and condiments such as ketchup, mustard and relish.

Give a food a French name and it can sound more gourmet, even when, in its most basic form, it’s quite ordinary. An example of that is tartine, which sounds alluring, but is simply a French term for a slice of bread with a savoury or sweet topping. Put a slice of ham or jam on that tartine and it is ordinary. But when you go fancier with the topping, as I did in today’s sardine tartine recipe, you can create something that sounds and tastes gourmet.