Food & Drink Archives - Page 7 of 10

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

Look What’s Number One With A Baby Bullet

August 24, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

If this product doesn’t persuade mothers to make their own baby food, nothing will.

MONEY WELL SPENT | The number one reason for buying store-bought baby food is convenience, no small thing when you’re a newbie, have multiple offspring to attend to and/or juggle motherhood and a job. I used jar food when my kids were babies because I worked full time. I just never could get it together in the evenings to assemble the ingredients and equipment necessary to cook, purée and freeze multiple mini meals for my growing tribe, though I’m pretty sure if the Baby Bullet had been available back in my day, I’d be writing a different story now. Read more

Serious Cooks Prefer Flour Sack Towels

August 12, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Serious cooks say there is no better vehicle for hand drying dishes or mopping up spills than the humble flour sack towel.

CULT PRODUCT ALERT | Don’t you just love it when you discover a product that is beautiful, useful—and inexpensive? If you haven’t already replaced the fancy cotton or terrycloth tea towels in your kitchen with ones made of flour sack material, here a few good reasons to make the switch. Read more

Dorie Greenspan’s Apple Cake Is Easy

July 7, 2011/1 Comment/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Taking over from Julia Child, Dorie Greenspan offers contemporary French cooking for those with more taste than time.

EASY & DELISH | In a world awash in cookbooks filled with pretty pictures and recipes that come up flat, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, published last fall, reads and eats like a classic—a book that will do for contemporary French cooking what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for Cordon Bleu. Read more

Could Bosa Foods Be Our Italian Costco?

June 28, 2011/3 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Could Bosa Foods be the “Italian Costco?” In some ways it certainly is.

SHOPPING AROUND | In 1960, when my grandmother lived two blocks up from the original Bosa Foods on Victoria Drive, I remember being a curious five-year-old suburban kid standing in the store, totally in awe, wishing I had easy access to so many noodles back in Burnaby.

Bosa has been selling an unrivalled selection of imported Italian specialties since 1957, and in 2006 finally opened a spacious second store off Boundary Road near 1st Avenue. Called the “Italian Costco” by some, the new store has a very un-Costco-like Tuscan bell tower, but the description does fit the generous supply and variety of free samples—cheeses, biscotti, mini cannolis, pizza and breads—offered. Read more

Great Gifts For Grads & Starting-Out Cooks

June 14, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

These two how-to recipe books make thoughtful gifts for grads or other young starting-out cooks.

COOK THESE BOOKS | Given the frenetic lifestyle of working parents who spend every spare moment shuttling multiple kids to extra- curricular activities and almost no time sitting down with them for dinner, it’s no wonder young adults have gotten into the habit of grabbing snacks on the fly, relying on prepared meals (even good-quality ones) and watching pros whip up real food on the cooking channel rather than attempting to do it themselves.

In an effort to reverse this state of affairs and encourage twentysomethings to discover the joy of cooking, we recommend the following cookbooks, which make perfect starting-out gifts. Read more

Celebrities Pick Foods They Use In a Pinch

June 10, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Vancouver’s top chefs, cooking instructors and food writers weigh in on the tinned, packaged and frozen products they reach for in a pinch.

SAVE TIME | Much as we might like to make every dish we eat from scratch, we don’t always have the time to do it. Even top food professionals cheat with premade products on occasion, which is why we asked three top foodies—critics, writers, chefs and instructors—to reveal the tinned, packaged or frozen ingredients they reach for in a pinch. Read more

Make Bal Arneson’s Yummy Beet Salad

June 2, 2011/4 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Celebrity chef and “Spice Goddess” Bal Arneson whips up an adventurous summer salad — plus fresh cheese in under 20 minutes!

DINNER IN A MINUTE | Quick and healthy may not be the first words most of us would use to describe Indian cuisine, but “healthy, aromatic and delicious meals that are quickly and easily prepared” were the mainstay of Vancouver bestselling cookbook author Bal Arneson’s childhood diet in India, and they are the focus of her recently released second cookbook Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian. Read more

Classic Whoopie Pies With Sprinkles - Antonis Achilleos

Make Whoopie Pies

May 19, 2011/1 Comment/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

After overwrought cupcakes and posh macaroons, the next big sweet thing has just got to be humble {whoopie} pie.

SIMPLE TO MAKE | This past week, my favourite francophile foodie/writer Dorie Greenspan reported on her entertaining blog that while the cupcake craze is alive and well in Paris, “the cupcake’s American cousin, the whoopie pie, is squeezing in on its territory.” What she didn’t mention is that in North America, the whoopie pie is also squeezing in on the territory currently occupied by its French cousin, the chi-chi macaroon. Read more

Stop Drinking Bottled Water This Instant

May 6, 2011/6 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Why you need to stop drinking expensive bottled water this instant—and something amazing to do with the money you’ll save.

JUST SAY NO | Since this is Drinking Water Week (May 1-7), we’d like to point out that anyone in Vancouver who continues to drink bottled water at home or in restaurants is choosing to waste their money, simple as that. Also, there’s every reason to believe that by purchasing packaged water, which is so effectively hawked by celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, they’re actually saying yes to a seriously inferior product. Read more