Oh man! I know that the best way to cure winter dryness is to moisturize from within—hydrate, hydrate, hydrate—but the six to eight bottles of water a day seems insurmountable. And impossible to keep track of, since I don’t grab a fresh bottle of H2O each time. I just fill up the last bottle from the water filter jug or the tap. After two or three bottles, who can remember how many refills you’ve done? (more…)

The test kitchen recently hosted a luncheon for visiting guests of one of our American counterparts to swap ideas and talk about current trends. We decide to use the occasion to showcase the biggest trends we see on the food horizon and as well as recipes from the Canadian Living, Homemakers magazine and the web. We wanted to incorporate artisan products, locally produced products, and seasonal foods - a nod to the 100 mile trend and a bit of a challenge since we are in the dead of winter in Canada. The starter was a (more…)

Saturday night was oyster-fest at my house. Every once and while a group of my friends get together with a box (or two) of oysters and have a shucking-fest. Really little else is served at these shindigs - this time I made a salad, got some great breads from Stonemill bakery, a couple pieces of cheese and for dessert custard tarts from my local Portuguese bakery and fresh raspberries. We had caesars to start, lots of Champagne, Chablis and one bottle of a fantastic 2001 Barolo that Marni and Dave brought which was the perfect foil for the cheese and raspberries.

OK back to the oysters. So I headed to Oyster Boy, my usually purveyor of choice for the best bivalves, (more…)

I was shopping in China town and came across fresh dates. You don’t often see them fresh so I picked some up. This is a picture of them, I had some friends over for dinner so I served them with cheese – a truffle laced sheep’s milk cheese and a creamy piece of morbier. Dates are grown on palm trees from late summer through December depending on where they are being grown. Dates are generally coming from California, the Middle East, and North Africa. The two major varieties of dates - the Medjools and Deglet Noors - are full of tannins and are not eaten fresh; these are the varieties we most often see dried. The Barhi variety are eaten fresh, (more…)

Can I spell MIA? Where have I been? Hiding under a large rock, that’s where. You know how it is, you leave the dinner dishes in the sink because you just don’t have time to face them. The next day you rinse them with really hot water, but you have enough clean ones to get by without washing them, so you turn a blind eye. Day Three you make dinner and tell one of the kids it’s their turn to do the washing up, and by Day Four it’s time to take homework to Tim and Wendy’s house (er, restaurant) and eat and work everyone’s way through dinner. Then if you’re lucky, Day Five is actually Friday and you can drive to your family’s ancestral home 90 minutes away and visit and eat there.

It isn’t a Hallmark card, but what is?

So, over the last five days I have let the dishes/taxes/life/laundry/appointments/blog postings pile up. But we’re all well-fed, the heat is on and I’m getting work done like gangbusters at the office (and good thing, that). So, get ready for catch-up postings, beginning with Valentine’s Day.

Colleen and I had so much fun reading your replies I thought I should post the highlights.

OVERALL BEST HANGOVER BETS:

WATER comes out on top. It seems all agree before during and after, water is the best way to keep the headache at bay, although many have warned of the impending full bladder that will wake you from the all important second best solution…

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Wow! How fun reading your responses – thanks for everyone who wrote in and participated, especially those who aren’t even able to pick up tickets in TO! Ok – we had way too many responses to actually try out the hangover cures (and if we had we would probably need to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning at this point) therefore Colleen and I have based our winning cure on your creativity and our past libation experience.

Although all of you had excellent and creative comments, the tickets are going to (more…)

Melissa Craig of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler was crowned top chef over seven competitors from across Canada. The lead up to the final involves iron chef type competitions in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Halifax. The winners from every city come together in Toronto for three days of competition and foodie events. I attended Friday evening’s Mystery Wine Pairing, where chefs prepared a dish to match the mystery bottle of wine they had received the evening before. Closson Chase Winery in Niagara supplied the Chardonnay the chefs were pairing. The chefs were given four hundred dollars to shop for ingredients to feed the over one hundred and fifty people who cast ballots choosing their favourites. Each night of the weekend is ticketed separately or packages are available that group various culinary events together, Gold Medal Plates is a fundraiser to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes; on Friday night, my old friend from university and Gold Medal Olympian Marni McBean spoke eloquently on behalf of the athletes.

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The iconic image of Valentine’s day is a male suitor with a huge satin bowed box of chocolate under one arm off to woo his true love. Do you actually know anyone who has ever received or bought a heart shaped box of chocolates? They must be out there because they make them every year and you see them for sale. I personally think they have gone the way of “wooing” and male suitors with “true love’s.” I imagine that if you ever did buy one it would be filled with old crumbly chocolate with a grey bloom coming off of it. Maybe I’m being too hard on this romantic tradition, maybe there are husbands who bring their wives two pound satin lined velvet boxes of the best quality fresh ganache filled 70 % fine textured chocolate bonbons year after year to great appreciation. This is how I imagine it but it is more likely to be a faded cardboard heart box of six questionably flavoured chocolate “candy” pieces purchased at the local pharmacy. (more…)

Hope you’re feeling the love on this buy-a-card-buy-a-gift-buy-some-candy special day, Valentine’s Day. I got hugs and kisses from my littlest guy even before breakfast, so the day is off to an excellent start!

These are the cards that Tessa made, and Luka is giving out today to his Grade 2 girl classmates. The boys will be getting very masculine American Chopper cards complete with a tattoo—Luka is currently sporting tattoos on his neck, collarbone, hand, forearm and shin, and he sees it as a form of self-expression that can’t be beat. I know, very stereotypical sexist stuff, but he took such a major fit at the prospect of giving hearts to his guy friends that I gave in.

And what did I buy myself for Valentine’s Day? (more…)