On November 30th, the fully renovated space for Outpatient Care is opening in The Barbara Cook and Dan Greenberg Mental Health Centre, signalling the completion of the multi-year expansion project of mental health care services at Queensway Carleton Hospital.
In honour of this special occasion, November’s Cooking with the Q is shared by Paula Archambault, the Clinical Director for Critical Care, Emergency and Mental Health at Queensway Carleton Hospital.
For the Archambault family, chocolate chip cookies are serious business.
Paula made it a tradition to pack homemade chocolate chip cookies in her kids’ lunches every day all the way through from elementary school to high school.
“When the kids were young their friends would ask when cookie baking day was and they would all come over. Those were two batch days, because one batch of cookies would disappear as soon as they were out of the oven!”
Along with spending time with her children, Paula loved the idea of making the cookies from scratch as she knew exactly what was going into their little bodies and a way to avoid preservatives and other processed foods.
“Little did I know, but my son sold or traded his cookies at school for Joe Louis pastries or Tic Tacs,” laughs Paula. “I sleuthed this when I picked him up after ski club and he got into the car emitting a cloud of minty freshness…apparently my cookies could buy him a lot of Tic Tacs!”
With her kids all grown up, Paula is now a grandma to little Meredith and she finds herself back in the kitchen for cookie baking days (when she is not training for a marathon or mountain climbing adventure) creating some cherished family moments for her loved one.
Paula and her family share their famous chocolate chip recipe for our November Cooking with the Q.
Happy Baking!