EASY & 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
HOLIDAY 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
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS | While place cards can seem a little silly for intimate dinner parties, they make perfect sense when you’re hosting a long-table meal and want to deliberately mix and match up your guests, or you’re doing a sit-down meal with multiple tables and desire a semblance of order.
Here are our three current favourite easy-to-make place card holders, all suited perfectly to this holiday season. Read more
WHAT TO GIVE | There is something so cool about cooking with equipment that can trace its beginnings back to the days when Christopher Columbus and John Cabot first discovered North America—and if you stew, bake or simmer with the voluptuous clay cookware from the Andean region in Columbia, you will be doing just that. Read more
EASY & 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
CREATIVE SOLUTION | Eco-friendly Marmoleum is a fashionable finishing material that doesn’t end up only on the floor. I’ve seen innovative applications on kitchen countertops and work surfaces such as desks and coffee tables. It’s extremely durable, non allergenic and comes in every colour imaginable. Here I’ve used it for placemats in simple patterns. Read more
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
CREATIVE SOLUTION | I first spotted brilliant orange Chinese lanterns fitted over mini-lights on an organically decorated Christmas tree. This is one way to use them for sure, though I like them better when they are used to create an original Thanksgiving or Halloween display. I love them threaded through a tangle of branches on the front porch or on top of the mantel or on a dinner table. I also love mini-lanterns strung around doorways for a punch of spot-on seasonal colour. Read more
FREE & EASY | Whether it’s branches in vases or individual leaves strewn along a dining table or on top of a napkin or plate, nothing looks more striking than nature brought indoors and left in its beautiful, natural state. Around here, we subscribe to a natural, casual approach when it comes to arranging botanical materials, and a less is more strategy for tabletop décor. Read more
QUICK & DELISH | Though no one seems to know exactly where the American phrase “easy as pie” originated, it appears to have nothing to do with actually making pie—unless you’re making a rustic pie like the one pictured here, which, with minimal practice, really can be oven ready in minutes. Read more