The Yum Yum Factor

First things first: On October 3 I am going to host my first in a series of cooking classes called "Not Your Grandmother's Rutabaga" at The Kingston Social in the east end of the city. I have spent years listening to friends complain that they don't know what to do with half of the produce they find in their CSA boxes come late fall and they end up throwing half of it out. Look, I get it. I grew up eating turnip twice a year, boiled and mashed with butter and brown sugar as part of our turkey dinner and hated it. It never occurred to me that what I was eating was actually a rutabaga and that there is so much life beyond boiling and mashing. Let me help you. I will continue this series over the winter and strive to wow and delight and turn you into a root vegetable lover by the end of it all. Click here to register and come learn how to teach some old dogs some new tricks The highlight of my week was the first ever Food and Wine Show right here...

The minute I saw this recipe for Rock 'N' Rye Peach Jam , I knew I would make either this recipe or a variation of it as soon as we hit peach season. Once we brought back our delicious Niagara peaches, I kept thinking that the cardamom was screaming ARAK to me and not rye. Only a Canadian will remember using the purple, velvet Crown Royal bag as a pencil case in grade school, but suffice it to say, Rye is as Canadian as it gets. Cardamom, on the other hand, reminds me of the flavours of the Middle East while rye bellows East Coast Canada at 2am on a Saturday after gorging on smores made with a stale Aero bar and the marshmallows that I found in the back of a cupboard in my aunt's trailer. Then I thought that cardamom required an alcohol that comes from the same part of the world and I just happen to have a bottle of Arak that I brought back from Jordan. This Levantine booze is an anise flavoured, colourless alcohol similar to Greece's Ouzo, France'...

Seeds of Persephone featuring Dillon's White Rye and their Absinthe created by Chantelle Gabino at Parts and Labour The week was almost entirely about TIFF for me. The Toronto Film Festival is always a busy time for me and it usually means that I don't eat much since dinner usually means a couple of glasses of wine when I finally get home before I crash following a steady diet of coffee and candy during the day. Thank god I don't smoke or else I would need to be put on a respirator at the end of the festival instead of just needing to dry out and sleep for a week. my week in shoes So, this week was actually a treat since, apart from a couple of quick little jobs on my down days, I spent the entire week taking care of one actor. When that one actor happens to be a charming and handsome man who is surrounded by lovely people, that means that I am having a great time. Add to that, getting photos like this out of the gig - makes me ALMOST want to hashtag #bl...

Chef Shawn Murphy and Quiet Acres Okay, things have gotten off to a a late start this year, what with the wonky long weekend dates, but here we are. The Kid is back in school (GRADE 11 FOR THE LOVE OF PEARL AND SPORTING VIABLE FACIAL HAIR) and TIFF started last night. These two events have been intertwined since the kid started going to school. Every year I felt like I was the only mom who missed the welcome picnic, who didn't get to walk her kid to school or even say hello to her child until the film festival finally ended. Now, he doesn't need me for much more than making his lunch and I no longer work the entire festival and life has settled down. Okay, enough of that. I had a great week in Yum, starting with my food demo at The Hot and Spicy Festival as part of the "Ten for the Next Gen" program. Ten chefs shared something that they would like to pass on to the next generation, something that was passed on to them. For my presentation, I chose to make my...

As one of the ten chefs participating in the Ten for the Next Gen Series at Harbourfront's Hot and Spicy Food Festival   I was tasked with coming up with something that would fit the themes of sustainability and passing traditions on to the next generation. Since I can't really draw on my own family traditions, unless I wanted to pass along my mom's delicious Sherif's lemon meringue pie and, don't get me wrong, she made a mean Sherif's lemon meringue pie, I was going to think outside the box and come up with something of my very own. photo: Shack Shackleton Some of my Blend and Extend Recipes: Blend and Extend Beef Patty Pops Shroomy Beef Keftedes Spicy Mushrooms with Pork Chicken Mushroom Salsa Verde Besides coming up with recipes for Mushrooms Canada and their Blend and Extend program, I have totally embraced the philosophy in my own kitchen and you will almost never find me using any sort of ground meat without adding in a huge whack of grou...

I have a cooking demo coming up this weekend at Harbourfront for the Hot and Spicy Festival where will talk about Blend and Extend while serving up my Mushroom Beef Kofta . To freshen your memory, Blend and Extend is a marriage between Mushrooms Canada and Ontario Beef where you replace a portion of ground beef with ground mushrooms in your recipes. This makes your meat go farther, cuts out lots of saturated fat, adds a portion of vegetable to the dish and really just lightens up whatever you are making. Because of this, my brain is on a full on blend and extend, mushroom trajectory. Now, The Kid has been gainfully employed all summer long at Harbourfront as a nerd camp counsellor but because his bento doesn't fit in his Murse (ManPurse) that he takes to work, he has been taking a smaller lunch bag with only cold items. It has been the summer of sandwiches for the poor, young soul who has had to learn to love sandwiches in a hurry. School starts next week and school mean...