I want to thank you all for giving me such sound advice about starting my little garden. You all obviously know a great deal about gardening - far more than I do. What I would give to walk around your vegetable patch, selecting things for a fresh summer salad! Without further ado, the winner of Marjorie Hariss' Ecological Gardening is (more...)

You can truly go green in every aspect of your life, if you so desire. My sister sent me her Christmas list the other day, and low and behold, she asked for an eco pan! I knew that such things existed, but I'm quite happy with my kitchen hand me downs that I've never thought about eco-friendly cookware for more than a minute. My new bible, Ecoholic, applauds my sister's desire to go green with her cookware, and has even got me second guessing mine. Apparently, many-a-non-stick pans are pretty dangerous to our health. If you overheat your non-stick pan, toxic fumes are released right under your nose ... literally. In fact, it's such a concern that the Environmental Protection Agency has asked that manufacturers totally phase out non-stick pans by 2015.

Never fear! As always, there are options. Safe cooking options include: Stainless steel; cast iron; light-weight titanium; copper and aluminum; and glass. I also just discovered that if you make a trip to any kitchen supply store (like The Bay or Home Sense), you will find plenty of eco-friendly pot and pan options there!

Want more info? Check out our article on safe cookware.

Don't forget to enter my contest to win a copy of Jill Lambert's A Good Catch. I'm picking the last winner tomorrow. I'm still waiting to hear back from last Friday's winner, luken. If luken doesn't get back to me tomorrow, I'll put the book back in and pull another name on the 19th!

I made a trip to the St. Lawrence market in Toronto on Saturday morning. My culinary muscles were certainly twitching this weekend, and I felt like making a feast out of the beautiful produce that's literally at our finger tips this time of year.

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