Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 2, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WEDNESDAY APRIL 2, 2025 ● ARTS & LIFE EDITOR: JILL WILSON 204-697-7018 ● ARTS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ARTS ● LIFE SECTION C CONNECT WITH THE BEST ARTS AND LIFE COVERAGE IN MANITOBA ▼ Stir things up with these creamy crowd-pleasers IT almost felt like it was going to last, didn’t it? In typical Winnipeg fashion, last month’s momentary spring was rudely interrupted by a late-season snow- storm and a return to wintry condi- tions. Lousy Smarch weather. Due to the recent “dip” in tempera- ture, this week’s Homemade is an homage to, you guessed it, dips. Unlike certain seasonal dishes, dips are a year-round affair stirred up for parties, raw vegetable tolerance and, for followers of the Oliver Putnam Diet, full meals. (Martin Short’s char- acter in Only Murders in the Building harbours an “unhealthy relationship with dips” and exclusively eats dips for dinner, often with a spoon.) While I’ve never spooned hummus straight into my mouth, I’ve definitely treated it as a main on days I don’t feel like cooking. And most of the hot and cold dips below could easily make for a standalone meal. Enjoy recipes for Cowboy Caviar from Leslie Pitchford, Cucumber Chip Dip from Julie Leefe and Hot Hamburger or Bean Dip from Helen Goerzen. For the next instalment of Home- made, I’m looking for Easter recipes. Visit winnipegfreepress.com/home- made to fill out the submission form. eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com EVA WASNEY Cowboy Caviar 1 can (540 ml) black-eyed peas 1 can (341 ml) corn kernels 1 avocado, cubed 160 ml (2⁄3 cup) green onions, chopped 160 ml (2⁄3 cup) cilantro, chopped 60 ml (¾ cup) Roma tomatoes, chopped 30 ml (2 tbsp) red wine vinegar 7.5 to 10 ml (1½ to 2 tsp) hot sauce 7.5 ml (1½ tsp) olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced Salt and pepper, to taste Drain canned ingredients. Add everything to a bowl and mix until combined. Let chill or serve immedi- ately with tortilla chips. “A favourite of mine, always a hit, fresh and delicious.” — Leslie Pitchford RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Leslie Pitchford’s Cowboy Caviar recipe is at home on the range. Cucumber Chip Dip 1 field cucumber or ½ English cucumber, washed 1 250-g pkg cream cheese 45 ml (3 tbsp) mayonnaise or Miracle Whip 1 green onion, chopped 10 ml (2 tsp) sugar Salt and pepper, to taste IF using a field cucumber, peel, cut lengthwise and remove seeds with a spoon. No need to peel or de-seed if using an English cucumber. Dice into 1/2-inch pieces. Dice cream cheese into 12 cubes. In the bowl of a food processor, layer ingredients as follows: half of the cucumber, half of the cream cheese, remainder of the cucumber, remainder of the cream cheese. Add mayonnaise, green onion, sugar, salt and pepper. Pulse until combined, stopping to scrape down the sides once or twice. Don’t over-process; this dip will have some body to it. Refrigerate before serv- ing (can be made a day ahead). Serve with plain ripple, tortilla or pita chips. “My mom, Marge Parks-Woloshyn (Flin Flon, 1925-2017), used to make this for family gatherings and the tradition has been carried down the generations. It seems like everyone who tries this dip loves it. Double the recipe if hosting more than 10 guests. It disappears in a flash with our crew.” — Julie Leefe Go for a dip Leslie Pitchford Playwright shares lessons learned growing up in house full of women Mother knows best I N his new autobiographical play Raised by Women — which closes Prairie Theatre Exchange’s 2024-25 season — Keith Barker worked hard to avoid patting himself on the back, so he was compelled to include the only time his mother slapped him right across the face. He was 11, and in retrospect, the playwright-actor says younger Keith deserved it. Asked to clean his room before earn- ing outside play privileges on a Satur- day afternoon in London, Ont., “Young Keith, naive Keith, guilty Keith, not yet wise to the world,” instead shoved his plastic bricks and army men into his closet as a half-measure. But his 911 operator mother saw right through the ruse long before the toys spilled out onto the bedroom floor, asking her son yet again to do as she asked and tidy up. That rather innocent childhood fib isn’t why Barker was punished; it was what he said next that made him red in the face then, and pink in the cheeks today with embarrassment: “You’re the woman. You do it.” “(Standup comic) Mike Birbiglia says that the most uncomfortable truths are the ones we find most compelling, and in The Moth, they say that if you’re the hero of all your stories, they’re boring. It’s when you make mistakes that people find the most connection,” says Barker, who heard his mother’s message loud and clear. For his first foray into solo perfor- mance theatre, Barker, the former artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, wasn’t interested in airbrushing his personal history, which began with the heartache of an invisible father who abdicated any parental duty. In his earlier works, including The Hours That Remain and This Is How We Got Here, Barker dealt with the weighty drama of imaginary families; it took him until he reached his 40s to consider opening the vault to his own. “I think younger Keith would have a hard time (with a show) like this, but older Keith? He’s locked and loaded and feeling good about exploring it,” he says. But reapproaching his upbringing — which includes sub-characters such as stoic Keith and stubborn Keith — wasn’t a solo trek. “When I was a boy, I’d be hanging out with other boys and when I came home, my mom and my sisters would correct me,” he says. That pattern of editing continued during the writing of Raised by Wom- en, a process that lasted four years and nearly 100 drafts, he estimates. “The first people I always thought about when writing it were my sisters and my mom,” says Barker. B UT while those influential figures in Barker’s circle were on hand to help keep the work honest, Bark- er looked to another circle of women to ensure the story remained engaging, including playwrights Yvette Nolan, Micheline Chevrier, Donna Michele St. Bernard and Colleen Murphy, whose The December Man inspired Barker to write his first play. He also worked closely with former PTE artistic director Thomas Morgan Jones as his dramaturge. “I told them I don’t want to preach anything, I don’t want to teach any- body and I don’t want to humblebrag or pat myself on the back, and they called me out on everything. Colleen Murphy sent me a whole draft just covered in yellow highlighter — little changes that helped me tell the story in a way that’s authentic, open and also honours the women’s voices I’m talking about,” he says. Barker says he was raised around a dinner table where storytellers ruled. “As a kid I’d watch the volley go around, and I was and am always trying to entertain that family, to be worthy of the storytellers,” he says. That means leaving in both the slap and what made the hand move. All performances of Raised By Women at PTE will be followed by an audience talk-back session. ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com BEN WALDMAN THEATRE PREVIEW RAISED BY WOMEN by Keith Barker ● Prairie Theatre Exchange, 3rd floor, Portage Place ● Opens tonight, runs to April 13 ● Tickets $10-$63 at pte.mb.ca MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Métis playwright-actor Keith Barker says he was raised around a dinner table filled with storytellers. ● MORE RECIPES ON C2 ;