This category covers groceries, restaurants, bars, alcohol, entertaining and recipes.

How To Decorate Cakes With Real Flowers

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Make me a simple, unaffected cake (or three) decorated with nature’s own ornamentation.

Purevege.com

 

EASY & AWESOME | In food TV land, cake decorating has been out of control since 2006 when “Ace of Cakes” débuted on the Food Network. The runaway success of this reality program inspired legions of pastry chefs and bakers across North America to seek TV fame by constructing crazy, teetering cakes—the more outrageous the better—on shows such as “Cake Boss,” “Wedding Cake Wars” and “Ultimate Cake Off.”

All of this excess is enough to make anyone pine for plain cake, simply iced and decorated naturally with real wildflowers and herbs. Here are three of our favourite cakes topped in this beautiful, natural way. Read more

It’s Easy To Make Crispy Krispy Chips

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Why would you ever buy prepared kale chips when you can easily bake up a batch of this tasty snack in your own kitchen?

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EASY & DELISH | Kale chips are the currently cool snack among the super health conscious (kale is a seriously high in beta carotene and vitamins A and K). Snack manufacturers such as Rhythm Superfoods and Kaia Foods (both sold at Whole Foods) have jumped on board to churn out very small packages of very pricey dehydrated kale chips that are, in my estimation, so overseasoned with flavours like mustard, cheese and chocolate that you’d think their producers were trying to disguise the true taste of this big leafy green.

The best kale chips are only lightly seasoned so the subtle yet distinct flavour of the vegetable is equally present as any seasoning. The best kale chips are the ones you bake yourself, which you can easily do in fewer than 15 minutes.

Here’s how. Read more

one-click-butter-cutter

Pat Down: We Love The One Click Butter Cutter

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This handy kitchen gadget measures out perfect pats of butter that are easy to spread.

one-click-butter-cutter

 

MONEY WELL SPENT | Yes, I know butter is healthier for you than margarine is (CLICK HERE for an excellent Globe and Mail article on the subject), but tell that to my knife in the morning when I’m trying to have my way with toast.

My biggest beef with butter is that it’s always cold and hard when it comes out of the fridge when I need it to be soft and ready to spread like margarine. For this reason, until recently, I always chose a schmeer of oleo rather than a chunk of butter when it was time to slather warm buns. Read more

Bacon Candy in a Cone - C. Rule

Pig Heaven: How To Make Bacon Candy

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Nothing is quicker than makin’ bacon candy, and nothing tastes as smoky and sweet. (RECIPE)

Bacon Candy in a Cone - C. RuleEASY & DELISH | Over the holidays, I had the good fortune to enjoy handcrafted confections from our top local candy makers—Thomas Haas, Chocolate Arts and Beta 5 included—and while all of this candy was a pleasure for my buds, none of it was remotely as memorable or addictive as the sweet bacon treats made by my dear friend Teresa Syrnyk. Read more

Spiral Ham shutterstock

Why Not Do Spiral Ham This Holiday Season

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One alternative to the turkey is “going spiral” this holiday season.

Spiral Ham shutterstock

 

EASY & DELISH | So many people I know are casting around for an alternative to turkey for Christmas dinner this year. Turkey for Thanksgiving is immutable, but for Christmas people are experimenting with goose, duck, pork or beef to get away from the same-old gobble-gobble. Read more

Gingerbread Men Ice Cream Sandwiches - C. Rule

Make Gingerbread Man Ice Cream Sandwiches

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How to make yummy ice cream sandwiches using gingerbread men—both scratch and cheater versions.

Gingerbread Men Ice Cream Sandwiches - C. RuleHOLIDAY 2012 | Forget lettuce, tomato and leftover turkey stuffed between toasted ciabatta. The sweetest, most memorable holiday sandwich—the one that screams You Need to Eat Me for Christmas—is pictured at the top of this story and is made from a layer of chilly ice cream and chewy gingerbread men. Read more

Affogato - Wikipedia Commons

How to Make The Perfect Affogato

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If you love coffee-flavoured desserts, the make-it-in-minutes affogato is hands down as good as it gets.

Affogato - Chef Master ClassEASY & DELISH | The best coffee-flavoured dessert in the world? Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel think it’s the affogato, and I would have to agree. According to the celebrity press, the Timberlakes served this simple Italian treat made with a shot of espresso and a scoop of Italian gelato to go along with the almond and coconut wedding cake at their nuptials in southern Italy. Read more

Pump and Grind Pepper

Pump & Grind Mills Are the Perfect Little Gift

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Who doesn’t use salt and pepper, and who wouldn’t prefer them fresh ground? Here is an inexpensive little Christmas gift everyone will use.

Pump and Grind Pepper

 

ALL WE WANT FOR CHRISTMAS | Looking for the perfect little something to give someone you don’t know very well, or someone you do know well who loves to cook or entertain? These mini thumb-pumping stainless steel salt and pepper mills are practical and perfect. I received one for Christmas two years ago and loved it so much I recently bought a second one. Read more

My Spice Files - C. Rule

How To Make An Easy Herb & Spice File

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How to devise a storage system for herbs and spices and forever do away with novelty spice racks and their special containers—or purchasing extra spice packets you don’t really need.

My Spice Files - C. Rule

 

PROBLEM SOLVED | Has this ever happened to you? You’re ready to whip up a dish from scratch when you realize your recipe calls for a dried herb that, after rummaging among your cache of spice bottles and bags, you appear to be out of.  So you rush out and pick some up only to discover later that you already had a bottle on hand—three, actually, stashed away in the dark recesses of the various places you store this stuff. Read more

Easy Chocolate Souffle

Make Easy Breezy Chocolate Soufflé

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Contrary to popular belief, soufflés are a breeze to make. (VIDEO)

Easy Chocolate Souffle

 

EASY & DELISH | In the annals of dinner party desserts that look so impressive everyone assumes they must be horribly complicated to make, the chocolate soufflé is right up there. To begin with, it’s a soufflé for gawd sakes, and everyone knows that making any sort of soufflé can be a recipe for disaster. Read more