The Yum Yum Factor

Snacking with fellow bloggers at Travel Massive  Local 1974 I'm pretty excited by what I see happening up on the Danforth right now and even though it's not exactly in my neighbourhood, it's a hop, skip and a jump from the wings and fries of the Upper Beach, so I'll take it. One of the newest restaurants to open up this year is Local 1794 at... you guessed it, 1794 Danforth, between Coxwell and Woodbine. It's billed as a Gastropub and although I am kind of hating that term, I guess it describes it pretty well. The food is much nicer than you would expect at a pub and much better than most of the restaurants you will find this far east. The local, in Local 1794, is a nod to the kitchen's promise to keep ingredients sourced locally as much as possible and the owner's desire to create a real local hangout where the people who live in the neighbourhood will start treating as "their" spot. I can tell you that if we lived wi...

Heatherlea Farm Landman Garden and Bakery I loved almost everything we experienced on our tour of the Headwaters but the things that always stick out, for me anyway, are the people I meet. I love getting to meet the people who dedicate their lives to growing and producing the food that we eat and if I can't kind of fall in love with the people, I can't fall for the place. Two of the farms that that really stuck out, for me, were Landman Gardens and Bakery and Heatherlea Farm Market . The best part is that both of these farms are an easy drive from Toronto - an hour, at most- making them great places to haul an ice packed cooler to, if you know what I'm saying. Landman Gardens and Bakery Calling this place "gardens and bakery" is a bit misleading because although there are, in fact, gardens and a bakery, there are also a bazillion goats, chickens, sheep and a couple of cows. Milking the bazillion goats is a big part of their revenu...

Toronto Halal Food Festival - May 30-31 International Centre, entrance 5, Mississauga, Saturday 10am-10pm, Sunday 10am-8pm You know what I love best about Toronto? I love the cultural diversity, the celebration of food and family and tradition that are enjoyed by the entire city, regardless of where we all come from, how we worship and what we grew up eating. The Toronto Halal Food Festival will be packed to the rafters with delicious food from the best halal restaurants, manufacturers, bakeries and specialty stores representing cuisine from all around the world. You know I will be there, wearing stretchy pants with my eating bib firmly secured around my neck. There will be Sample City, where you can try all kind of food sample from dozens of vendors Redpath stage will have non stop demos, competitions and performances The Shop sections where you can pick up some stuff to take home The outdoor Street Fest where all the tasty grilled stuff will be found...

My first vegetable garden in almost 20 years! This was a very low key week, spent gardening, finishing up a recipe for the #GrillWithGrace campaign and just staying close to home. Although, as a makeup artist, I often get to work with celebrities and all that stuff, I rarely get starstruck and when I do, it's often someone who other people don't know. I am a serious director geek and often get more excited over meeting a movie director than the star of the film. With that in mind, I got to work with Stewart Copeland this week, drummer and co founder of a little band called The Police. He also wrote the score for the film, Rumblefish, one of my favourites. The other members of the ensemble were lovely - the beautiful violinist, Yoon Kwon, is not only a ridiculously gifted musician, but I found out she is a blogger too, so you have to go and look at her blog  Yoon Kwon  because it's not everyday that you encounter a true musical master who also writes eloquently ab...