The holidays are busy whether you are expecting guests or plan on traveling during the season. One of the best things I can do to prepare my family for an influx of visitors in our house or even our family heading out on a road trip, is to make a batch of muffins to freeze, […]
Dublin Coddle is not a term you hear every day. Unless you are Irish or from Dublin. The first time I heard it earlier this year I couldn’t stop staying Dublin Coddle. I would even try to add my best and Irish accent and fail miserably. While channel surfing, You Gotta Eat Here, the Canadian […]
Food hacks are everywhere these days. On food shows and in my social media feeds with captions like “55 food hacks that will change your life”, or “39 food hacks that will change the way you cook”. I’ve never understood why I would need so many but captions sell right?! I came up with a […]
Chicken pot pie wasn’t something my mom made much of when we were growing up, however she did make a mean beef pie using leftover roast beef. The chicken variation was something I discovered in my Vancouver days during employee potlucks and lunches. I didn’t play with meat pies too much back then, but started […]
Entering it’s 6th year, YYC Hot Chocolate Fest returns, featuring unique, traditional and creative hot chocolate beverages at locations all over Calgary. Throughout the month of February, participating cafes, restaurants, and chocolatiers are featuring signature hot chocolate drinks at their locations, and some are even offering both alcoholic and non alcoholic versions. Calgarians are encouraged […]
A popular potluck item for decades, broken glass jello is an easy, pretty and show stopping dessert to make for your guests or with your kids. Fun for potluck gatherings, you can colour code it to your kids birthday party theme, bridal showers, picnics, or any kind of holiday celebration. Simple pick your favourite jello […]
A new year means healthier eating right? But what about the cookies? With resolutions of healthier eating it’s hard to give up snacks. So let’s talk oatmeal cookies, which come in all shapes and sizes. They really do. Soft and chewy, with ginger, chocolate chips, raisins, cinnamon and more. Everyone has a favourite and/or a favourite […]
In our cook it once, eat it 2-3 times series, we have our 3rd meal using the Slow Cooker Beer Pulled Pork we cooked earlier this week. Our first meal using the pulled pork, was pulled pork on buns with fresh toppers. We didn’t add a heavy barbecue sauce to it so as to keep […]
Back in the 90’s Robson Street was Vancouver’s outdoor shopping mall with great restaurants and cafes as well as all kinds of high end stores to tickle your fancy in. It was a seen and be seen place to be. In fact it still is. Walking up and down Robson every time I go to […]
The first time we had this baked apple pancake we were hanging out in the Okanogan in B.C. The people we were staying with made breakfast and this was one of the items they served. It was so good I immediately asked for the recipe, wrote it on a recipe card (over 10 years ago […]
We’ve upgraded the classic 7 Layer Dip that was all the rage back in the 80’s and 90’s with this simple Jalapeno Tex Mex Dip featuring Greek yogurt, to make us feel better about eating it. A regular on many tables back in the day, the 7 Layer Dip is really a North Americanized version […]
The smoothie bowl breakfast trend continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. They are still all over instagram and this trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. The best thing about a smoothie bowl or smoothie in general is almost anything goes. Your favourite fruit, pick a healthy liquid (juice, […]
Stir-fries can be many things. An easy clean out your fridge dinner, a healthy meal after an all you can eat holiday, a quick dinner on a busy evening or as simple or complicated as you choose to make it. This Chicken Noodle Stir-Fry is a quick dinner on a busy night in our house. […]
If you are like me, chicken wings are one of those things you just can’t get enough of. Then there’s my husband who would eat them every night if he could. Even the kids enjoy the non spicy wings now so there’s rarely any left when we make them as it becomes #BattleWings in our house. […]
As Fall approaches my kids remind me it’s time to make hot chocolate. I have a small but legit Starbucks habit (don’t hate) that started when I lived in Vancouver. Whenever I indulge my habit here, the kids seem to be with me and always request hot cocoa. I may or may not have turned […]
The last three years we’ve had an International Student living with us. First Germany, China and now Spain. You learn a lot about yourself and sometimes the student when you allow them into your home to share their culture and learn about yours. Of the 3 students, we’ve had two good experiences so far, 1 not […]
A sucker for roasted vegetables, I couldn’t wait to make this recipe by Olia Hercules and her Mamushka cookbook. Fall and winter has us roasting vegetables regularly. I’ve roasted cabbage before and loved it so the combination of these Armenian Roasted Vegetables was quite intriguing to me. Ensure you cut your vegetables thick as illustrated […]
There are only so many days in a month and when you have over half a cookbook flagged with recipes to try, the struggle becomes real. Plus kids, activities, events to attend, life in general! But I’m determined and so I made my way through a good handful of recipes from Olia Hercule’s cookbook Mamushka. […]
Since I was small child I have loved cookbooks. Most likely because my mom had cookbooks I could peek at (Joy of Cooking, Five Roses Cookbook) and secondly because I’d been watching PBS Cooking Shows on Saturdays since the 70’s. When I moved away from home and to Vancouver, I would always fly home for […]
Summer days can be hot, and there is honestly no desire in this house to cook a big meal. Instead we love real simple meals. Like grilling up some meat and having a nice flavourful salad with it. This meal was inspired by expiring sweet red chili sauce in our fridge (ha ha!) and the fact we […]
Like many people I have a never ending love affair going on with mac n cheese. The real mac n cheese, you make at home or order in a restaurant. Oddly enough I do not make it very often for my family. I tried when my kids were little, but they never caught on yet they […]
It’s no secret we camp frequently in the summer and road trip or travel all year round. There are many great day trips to take from Calgary, in fact I wrote about it here 10 Day Trips from Calgary. With families in BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan it’s fair to say we’ve traveled the four Western […]
My kids love to get into the kitchen and create things. More often then not they announce what they want to make without checking on ingredients first. This salad was the exception as we just so happened to have all the fruit available. Aiden’s Fruit Salad is made by my son Aiden and on this […]
Back in 2002 I used to play on a local softball slow-pitch team. I was fairly new to Calgary and looking to get out and meet people. The same year I also joined an indoor soccer team and billiards team. It was around then I met my husband, through work of all places, and life […]
Every summer we visit Kelowna and the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm. We love to wander the gardens and stop in the cafe to enjoy a lavender infused treat before we leave. We also drop into the little store they have and I always pick up some cooking lavender (or food grade culinary lavender) to […]
Lately I’ve been going through old small town cookbooks where my mom inspired myself and so many of her family members to submit recipes to the annual cookbook collaboration. I have two of them dating back to the 90’s and as I go through these books carefully page by page, I can’t help but smile […]
Stay hydrated and cool off on a hot summer day with homemade popsicles. With just a few ingredients and a little time, you can have healthy popsicles any day of the week! I’ve been making these popsicles, minus the coconut milk, since the kids were toddlers. For a new spin I added coconut milk. Popsicles, […]
About four years ago I hosted one of our annual Mom’s Who Needs Wine Evenings. One of the ladies was pregnant so for her I filled a lovely jug with spring water and added cucumber and fresh mint. She loved it so much that when we went camping together that summer it was all she […]
Every year Calgary Meals on Wheels organizes a month long hot chocolate festival. There are some amazing entries and I find myself drinking more hot chocolate in one month then I have for the past 20 years. I’m not big on sweet, but more savory or I’ll take my coffee black please. The hot chocolate […]
