September 2011 - Page 2 of 2

Chef Michael Smith Shares A Hot Fish Dish

September 9, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

In Chef Michael Smith’s new cookbook, the recipes are full of memorable flavours and the prep work’s a piece of cake.

EASY & DELISH | Michael Smith had us at easy. The celebrated Canadian chef who, among his many other accomplishments has a James Beard award-winning television series to his credit, has just released a new cookbook with the “E” word in the title—Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen: 100 of My Favourite Easy Recipes—and that’s music to our ears. Read more

It’s Hip To Strip Metal Furniture: Here’s How

September 8, 2011/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Stripped bare and pummelled with walnut shells, vintage metal furniture takes on a cool, contemporary look.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | Metal home or office furnishings dating from the 1950s are hot accent pieces for contemporary interiors, but painted items must be stripped entirely to the raw metal to bring them right up to date.

There are three ways to strip metal furniture. People with the space, time and muscle can use a biodegradable chemical paint remover such as Heirloom Furniture Stripper. Another method is to sand the paint off with an electric sander using a sanding pad specific to metal. Sanding leaves painty skid marks and a distinct pattern, giving the piece a timeworn look. Read more

When Nature Calls Big Sur Is The Place To Be

September 7, 2011/2 Comments/in Go Here Now, Travel, TRAVEL, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

Jump into the wild by cruising Big Sur, one of the all-time great North American road trips.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | Want to drop off the planet for a few days, ditch the cellphone, skip the Starbucks, take a break from recreational shopping? One of California’s most beautiful and elemental places to get away from everything urban in the fall is Big Sur on the central coast. Big Sur isn’t an exact spot on the map, it’s a road trip: 90 miles of two-lane blacktop that zigzag around the edge of the wind-wracked headlands of the Santa Lucia Mountains mere yards, it seems, before they nose-dive into the Pacific Ocean. Cruising along this jagged, Amalfi-like coastline is—to borrow words from hippie vernacular—a mind-blowing head-trip. It’s impossible not to feel spiritual or to reflect on your place in the cosmos when a natural setting this powerful is shoving itself in your face. Read more

Ooh La La: How To Dress Like The French

September 6, 2011/1 Comment/in Classics & Trends, FASHION, Fashion & Beauty, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, Styling Tips, View All Fashion Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

With a message that’s right for the times, Parisian icon Inès de la Fressange is the new muse for North American fashionistas.

STYLE GUIDE | Who’s the chicest woman in France? Not Bruni, Gainsbourg or Deneuve. It’s Inès de la Fressange by a landslide, if French newspaper polls are the gauge. Fressange, a French blueblood and former model, returned to the runway this past spring at age 53 to walk the Chanel 2011 show in Paris. Now she’s fashion muse to the masses in North America with the recent English translation of her popular style guide Parisian Chic, a handbook filled with her own whimsical illustrations, lovely how-to-dress-French photos of her daughter, Nine, and amusing single-paragraph fashion pronouncements.

Nonchalant Fressange, a high-low shopper if ever there was one, has great advice on how to think and dress like a style-savvy Parisian without selling the farm (plus insider tips about where to shop in Paree, should you go). Here are five of her myriad useful ideas on how to get “The Look.” Read more

2 Gizmos Good Cooks Could Use Right Now

September 2, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

The right tools make kitchen tasks easier. Here are two must-have gizmos that infinitely out perform their insignificant price.

Poke, Squeeze, Twist—You can juice a fruit by hand—or by mouth as Oprah did on her now famous televised camping trip with Gayle last October (WATCH HERE)—but a tool devised for this task will extract juice more efficiently.

Stylish low-tech juicers abound, including Philippe Starck’s iconic Juicy Salif, but unless you’re looking for countertop décor, why would you pay a hefty $100 for a Salif, a product that serves but one purpose, when an inexpensive citrus reamer will do the trick and tuck away nicely in a drawer. Read more

It’s Time To Give Undecorating A Shot

September 1, 2011/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Today’s most fashionable interiors reflect the quirks and passions of the people who live in them. Welcome to the world of undecorating.

DÉCOR TREND ALERT | In the world of interior design, undecorating is enjoying a moment. Undecorating, for the uninitiated, is what happens when stylish people forgo convention in favour of fearlessness, expressing their own eclectic, eccentric, creative, adventurous sides in the way they beautify their homes. The bible for the movement, published this past March, is Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design by Christiane Lemieux, a Canadian expat living in Manhattan. She is also the creative force behind DwellStudio, an immensely successful online emporium for modern décor that includes Lemieux’s own covetable textiles and bedding. Read more