The Yum Yum Factor

granola with greek yogurt and honey- prison food at it's finest In another few weeks, I am going to start work on TIFF - The Toronto Film Festival. Usually, I work pretty much every day doing makeup on actors who are here to promote their films and although it is a ton of fun, it turns my household into a tail spin every year. It's the only time of year that I work every single day for 10 days straight and as much as I try to plan for it, it is always really stressful for all of us. This year, Shack is working on a film and since he has not had a day off in about five weeks, I am going to assume that he will not have any time off during TIFF either. That leaves the 12 year old on his own for mornings. The Kid is a bit spoiled when it comes to breakfast - it's always some type of egg, pancakes, french toast or porridge. Breakfast = hot, delicious and nourishing around here. Once, when our stove was not working, he had to have toast and yogurt and told his ...

I bought a bag of key limes this week because one of my all time favourite desserts on earth is key lime pie. The problem is that with only two of us around,  if I make a key lime pie I will most likely eat most of that pie myself. That's not going to make a better person. Then I thought I would make a key lime creme brulee but that leaves me in the same predicament with another dessert that doesn't really keep for long and so it must be consumed asap and, let's be honest,  I don't need to be eating 4 or 5 servings of either of those desserts. After searching around I found a recipe for a frozen key lime pie and I realized that I was getting closer to something that I could make and enjoy in small amounts over a longer period of time but who am I kidding. A frozen pie is still a pie and I will eat the whole damned thing. I keep seeing these recipes for ice cream using whipping cream, condensed milk and whatever add ins you like that doesn't require any ...

Sarah at the stove, working her voodoo Okay, I think I have admitted that I have always had a bit of a hang up about the whole canning/jam making thing. I have harboured an irrational fear of killing my loved ones with my botulism filled jars of sugary confections so, until this past year, I have refused to even try to can. I have made freezer jams but the whole canning process was too terrifying for me to consider. When I was first getting to know Jen, at Piccante Dolce , she was planning her wedding and was in a jam making frenzy. She made tiny jars of jams to give as her gift to her wedding guests and I was lucky enough to get to try a bunch of the contenders while she experimented. She told me that canning was really easy and once I got the hang of it, I would be jamming like a champ. Because I felt kind of foolish for being so canphobic, I decided to bite the bullet and I researched and read all that I could, settled on a couple of delish sounding recipes, went to Canadi...

I have one of those weird kids who adores salad. He especially loves the salad dressing that they serve at one of our favourite local sushi restaurants. It is really light and sweet, has grated apple, carrot and ginger, doesn't appear to have much oil and, unfortunately, I have never been able to replicate it. Over the years he has come to love the various Japanese dressings we are served in the japanese restaurants we frequent - the weird beige dressing that I think is a sesame seed dressing, the weird orange one that I think is the sesame seed dressing with some ketchup added to it and pretty much any other variation of an asian tasting vinaigrette. This makes my quest a bit easier because I no longer  have to replicate the original beloved dressing to get him to eat a dressed salad. (He used to eat his salads dry in protest) I have read a million versions of dressings that have ketchup in them and even if I think he will love it, I am not emotionally prepared to go that ro...

I haven't made popsicles for a while and we finally ate our way through all the non boozy popsicles in the freezer so it was time for a new batch. I wasn't in the mood to get all fancy pants, so no layers, no fancy ingredients, just tasty, wholesome breakfast treats. I had some super ripe cantaloupe in the fridge and was going to make a breakfast smoothie with it but since we apparently live at the gates of hell this summer, why not freeze our morning meal for the week instead? Am I right? These were quite good and not too sweet so if you are looking for a really sweet taste, you better add a squirt of honey or maple syrup or something but for a frozen brekky on a stick, you can't beat it. Your kids think they are getting away with something sneaky, you can sleep well at night with the knowledge that your kid ate some fruit with yogurt for breakfast and everybody is happy. Melon Banana Pops (makes 7 small 2oz popsicles) 1/4 of a ripe cantaloupe, cubed 1/2 banan...