Reminder
Please go through your digi pics and send me what fall means to you and your family. I’ll be posting them Monday, so you’ve got Saturday and Sunday! Use jacquelyn.momblog@yahoo.com
Our American neighbours are in the midst of Black Friday right now—Macy’s opened at 4 a.m.; some stores opened at midnight (that’s far more civil than 4 a.m.). Black Friday? What’s black about getting deals and making sales? Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929: worst day ever on Wall Street. Black Monday, October 19, 1987: largest percentage loss in the American stock market. But Black Friday? It refers to the colour of the ledger ink that this day’s shopping will cause—big sales, stores are in the black, poor sales and stores are in the red. Those Americans—thought-provoking names for everything!

And now, on with the review
My film-reviewing crew and I hit the theatre in the middle of a rainstorm Wednesday evening for opening night of Disney’s latest, Enchanted. All I knew going in was what I saw on the trailers on TV: a revisionist fairy tale (more…)

I attended the tourism Vancouver event at the Gladstone Hotel and was treated by Glowbal Foods to a delicious appetizer of sweet potato ravioli with a whole beautifully fresh seared scallop on top, it was so sweet and delicious. I went back for more, which the chefs gladly fed me all night because I was asking them about the fish out west and they recognized a fellow foodie. (more…)

P.S. (this is a prescript, as opposed to a postscript) Since I couldn’t actually post this posting until the afternoon yesterday, I’m leaving it up today, and will post anew tomorrow. If you can’t wait, the movie Enchanted was 5 stars out of 5, details tomorrow, and send your fall photos, which you now have all weekend to work on, since I will be posting them on Monday, to jacquelyn.momblog@yahoo.com!

Being the proud and terrified owner of two teenagers, I have been awaiting the release of the 2007 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, released yesterday by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. It is in its 30th year of surveying high schoolers, and this year 6,323 students from Grade 7 to 12 took part.

The good news
• Crystal meth and methamphetamine use seems not to be enjoying the rampant popularity it has in the States: (more…)

Q. What part of the pomegranate do you eat?
A.
You eat the arils. These are the little ruby red pods with a nutty seed in the centre. Eat the whole aril including the seed.

Q. How do I open a pomegranate?
A.
Method1
To get at the fruit some people like to score the outside, submerge the fruit into bowl big of water, break apart the sections and pop out the arils. They will drop to the bottom and the pith (the white part) will float at the top to be easily scooped up and discarded. Then drain the whole thing and ta da - pomegranate arils. (more…)

I have seen my first Pomegranates, the season has begun! I remember when the pomegranate was an odd foreign creature to the apple and orange palette of the western world predominantly used as a festive centrepiece. In 2004 I threw a very fancy re-launch party for a Persian carpet company in their elegant loft showroom where we served pomegranate champagne cocktails with specks of gold-leaf floating on the bubbles. (more…)

I was watching CNN Saturday morning (or listening, actually, while washing all the dang dishes because of that stupid, sulky dishwasher that refuses to work). Thanksgiving week has started for our American buds, and I was wondering, when did it become Thanksgiving week instead of weekend, or has italways been referred to as Thanksgiving week? We took down the Halloween decos last week, and bought LED lights for the front yesterday. Gads! Time moves quickly.

We had a fleeting Martha moment on the weekend (and it’s a sad thing: Martha’s mum passed away this weekend). One child was raking a quarter of all of Toronto’s leaves—they all fall on our lawn—another played in the leaves and (more…)

The Gourmet Food and Wine Show has come and gone and was memorable and delicious. We had a great tasting menu cooked by the chefs at The Boiler House in the Distillery District in TO paired with Concha y Toro selection of Chilean Wines.

Here is the Menu: (more…)

Here is the recipe for the Seelbach Cocktail I had Thursday night. I decided to share so you can have it as your holiday cocktail as well but if it becomes a hit trend of the season I’m taking credit! (more…)

It’s no secret my son Graydon had leukemia, diagnosed at 8, chemotherapy until he was 11, off-treatment and a survivor for three years now. It’s no secret that it changed his life and our family’s life forever. We all carry the aftermath, him most of all (don’t get me started!). (more…)

Today is the first day of the 13th annual Gourmet Food and Wine Expo in Toronto. Purveyors from all over the world are here for the next four days to wine and dine and get as much exposure as they can for their products.

My agenda is full - I cannot pack one more event in and I am sure to need a detox by Monday. (more…)