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This Cookbook Is All About Pretty & Sweet

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Rosie Daykin’s new cookbook, Butter Baked Goods, offers treat lovers 100 sweet ways to say yum. (SNEAK PEEK)

Butter Baked Goods - Janis Nicolay

NEW NOW NEXT | It maybe be a little early to be thinking about what to get your foodie friends for Christmas, but I’m pretty sure mine will be receiving copies of Rosie Daykin’s Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes from a Little Neighborhood Bakery. Not that I’ve thumbed through an actual copy of the cookbook yet—it won’t be available to purchase until mid October. What I have had is a sneak peek at a few of the pages, and I can tell you that they’re every bit as visually enticing as everything else this talented Vancouver interior designer/ successful baker turns her hand to. Read more

Kraft paper tablecloth - Vicky Tang

Make A Great Kraft Paper Tablecloth

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In the right hands, cheap Kraft paper can be the thing that turns a dinner table from plain to poetic.
2 plate

 

DO IT YOURSELF | If you want to host a long table dinner this summer but don’t have enough matching tablecloths (or matching tables for that matter) to create an attractive, cohesive setting, Kraft paper can be a lifesaver. Read more

Stack Of Cloth Napkins shutte

Why You Need To Use Cloth Napkins Daily

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Here’s why you should use cloth napkins every day—and how (and where) to sew beautiful mitered-corner ones for yourself. (VIDEO)

Stack Of Cloth Napkins shutte

 

MONEY WELL SPENT | You should be using cloth napkins every day not only because doing so will save you money by cutting down on paper waste but also because you deserve nice things, and cloth napkins are nice all around: better next to the skin than paper ones, generally larger and more absorbent. Read more

Make The Berry Best Dessert In Under 5

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Clafoutis is unquestionably the most delicious and fruity dessert you can make in less than five minutes.

Fresh berries (plate clipping path)

 

EASY & DELISH | Some people call French clafoutis (pronounced cla-FOU-tee) a pancake-like dessert, while others say it’s more flanlike. No matter how you describe it, if it’s made with any fruit besides black cherries, it’s technically not a clafoutis but a flaugnarde—though no one we know, including superstar cookbook author Donna Hay, whose recipe we’ve adapted here, uses that term. So we’ll continue to call our favourite summer dessert—the easiest/sweetest thing you’ll ever make—a mixed berry clafoutis too. Read more

Sophia Vartanian - Modern Farmer magazine

A New Magazine For Modern Farmer Types

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This new international magazine with a Vancouver connection is for anyone interested in where their food comes from.

Sophia Vartanian - Modern Farmer magazine

 

NEW NOW NEXT | While magazine publishers everywhere are getting out of print, Vancouver billionaire philanthropist Frank Guistra is jumping in. Last month, Modern Farmer, a new quarterly magazine on farming, which comes in both print and digital versions, launched in the U.S. with Guistra’s name listed prominently on the masthead as equity partner. Guistra is betting on the public growing ever more inquisitive about where their food comes from, how it’s produced, and how they can participate in the modern farmer movement. And he is counting on the talent and international connections of editor-in-chief Ann Marie Gardner, who made a name for herself as a writer and producer at Monocle and New York Times T: Travel, two stylish magazines known for nailing the zeitgeist. Read more

Gaby Dalkin's muffin-tin frittata

How To Make Muffin-Tin Frittatas

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Super easy muffin-tin frittatas let you socialize with brunch guests instead of slaving in the kitchen. (RECIPE)

Gaby Dalkin's muffin-tin frittata

 

QUICK & EASY | In a few weeks, I’ll be hosting a post-wedding brunch. I want to serve something eggy, but I don’t want to hang around in my kitchen cooking eggs when I could be kibitzing with our guests. My friend Kerry suggested that to save time and whole lot of stress I might want to make muffin-tin frittatas, either baking them in advance (and rewarming them before serving) or mixing the ingredients ahead of time, plopping them into tins and popping these into the oven when we start to lay out our spread. Read more

Plastic Eggs - iStock

How to Organize An Easter Egg Hunt

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This clever spin on the traditional Easter egg hunt is participant specific.

Easter Egg Hunting-shutterstock

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | At first it felt unnatural to hide plastic eggs instead of real ones because we didn’t grow up hunting for plastic on Easter so having our kids do so felt not only anti-Martha but like some kind of cheesy cop-out. But at some point it stopped being okay to sacrifice three dozen perfectly good hard-boiled eggs to the springtime muck in our backyard just so our kids and their friends could charge around Easter morning and ideally find them—yet never eat them.

So we have changed our tune and completely switched over to plastic, keeping the hand-decorated chicken eggs in the fridge for snacks or sandwiches. The plastic eggs have proved fantastic because we can hunt for them outdoors in all weather conditions and recycle them year after year.

Here’s how our hunt works: Read more

Orchid - iStock

Consider The Orchid

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The long-lasting orchid, in myriad colours, is gaining ground on the traditional Easter lily.

Orchids

 

SHOPPING AROUND | Since it was first introduced in North America in the early 1900s, the stick-straight Easter lily, with its scraggly leaves and showy flowers that look like trumpets growing sideways out of its stalk, has been a mainstay on Easter morn altars across this continent and a top hostess gift for Easter dinner. But now orchids of all types and sizes challenge Easter lilies for pride of place—on the home front, at least—because they have qualities lilies can’t match. Read more

Popcron in a wooden bowl.

Make 100% Healthy Microwave Popcorn

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How to make 100% healthy microwave popcorn in minutes for pennies a pop.

Popcorn - iStock

 

EASY & DELISH | While I love the convenience of microwave popcorn, I stopped buying this product several years ago because of worrisome news about the potential health risks to humans posed by exposure to chemicals found both in the fake butter flavoring on microwave popcorn kernels and on the lining of microwave popping bags.

I also stopped buying commercial brand microwave popcorn because a friend showed me how to make a cheaper, healthier, equally quick alternative. Read more

Sheffield Heirloom Silver-Plated Flatware - Pottery Barn

Now Is The Time To Replate Silver Flatware

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To replate, or not to replate your worn out silver-plated flatware: that is the question. Acme Electro-Plating & Silversmiths’ semiannual resurfacing sale may help you address this conundrum. (SALE ALERT)

Sheffield Heirloom Silver-Plated Flatware - Pottery Barn

 

DARE TO REPAIR | As interesting as it looks and as cool as they make it sound, Pottery Barn’s Sheffield heirloom mixed-pattern silver-plated flatware (pictured here) feels like a waste of money to me. But then, buying any new silver-plated flatware doesn’t seem like a good investment unless it’s from a rarified manufacturer like Christofle or one of the few ornate patterns that for whatever fickle reason retains its collectability. Read more