Check out these beauties! I am currently working on developing a mushroom story for Canadian Living Magazine and couldn’t resist taking a picture before I transformed these woodsy wonders into delectable dishes.

If you love mushrooms this is the time of year to find exciting varieties that are not usually available like the orange-y chanetrelles pictured here: (more…)

Boo!!

I know it’s Halloween because yesterday I got a special advance invitation to sign up for a visit to SANTA, but hurry up! because they’re going fast!

Good grief, Charlie Brown.

We did a driving tour of the coolest decorated houses within 10 minutes of our house last night. I got to tell my six-year-old all about The Great Pumpkin, (more…)

I had my niece and nephew staying with me on the weekend. I made these Mini Banana Bundt Cakes, covered them with orange-coloured peanut butter icing and let them go to town making Jack-o-Lantern faces on them. The stems are store-bought chocolate covered wafer cookies. (more…)

It’s cold this morning. I’m struggling through getting a sweatshirt over the head of the 6-year-old son, then the vest, a GAP vest, fleecy, woolly warm and fashionable in grey and orange.

“No, I don’t need the vest!”

“Of course you need the vest, it’s freezing out there.”

“Mummy, people only wear vests to protect them from missiles!”

Pause in struggle.

“Really? To protect them from missiles?”

“Yes. EVERYbody knows that, Mum.”

“Oh, I see. So you mean every time I wear my Camp Ooch vest, I’m protected from missiles?”

He looks at me very seriously, and slightly cocks his head.

“Have you been hit?”

“Noooooo…”

He nods his head very slowly toward me and jumps off the bed. “Let’s go!”

I will be having a follow-up conversation on this subject, but it’ll have to wait until after some coffee.

More fun in the test kitchen. Since we have been preserving all season it came time to test out the fruits of our labour. Andrew, the food editor for Homemakers Magazine, brought in link wieners from a Mennonite farm to test out our house made pickles and relishes.

For best results, the Test Kitchen staff agree that dogs must be boiled not grilled, buns must be soft and warm and toppings, well…. there was no consensus there. (more…)

Hi!

I wish I had to patience to write some poetry today, because I would like to write an ode to the parents who threw a family Halloween party on Friday night. It was a blast, and it was a testament to what imaginative, (more…)

There are a few food meccas in the world where trends tend to emerge from, currently we are seeing Spanish chefs and Italian slow-food movement making a real impact on our culinary cultural map. While trends come and go - New York is still the place where cutting edge innovation takes place. This is where the rest of the world is interpreted and sold back to us repackaged for easy consumption – and why I make sure to be there a couple of times a year. I spotted two pervasive trends on a recent journey south of the border that you can watch for in your local venues.

Fat, Fat and more Fat:
It seems that food trends always appear like two faces of the same coin. Diet and health gurus (more…)

THIS FRIDAY
I have a fully decorated Halloween yard. My two youngest have their costumes down cold. I have set aside time for making halloween cookies over the weekend. I even have two rolls of dimes for Unicef. (more…)

I recently returned from vacationing on the Adriatic coast of Italy. My first day back in Canada and I was struck with the realization that I would not be able to wake up with the exquisite lattes and espressos that greeted me every morning for the past three weeks.

Back at work that morning, speaking with my editor Donna, I regaled her with the earthly delights of the Italian culinary scene (more…)

I’m sure you heard about the wonder in child-tracking devices for those of us in the frozen north—the BladeRunner GPS children’s jacket. The U.K.-based company BladeRunner announced it was coming out with the jacket in late September, and released it October 20.

It looks like the typical GAP-style fluff-filled parka, but (more…)