The Yum Yum Factor

If you live in Toronto, you have probably had shortbread from Mary Macleod's at some point. Unlike most other self named companies, there really is a Mary Macleod and she started baking her famous chocolate crunch shortbread in 1981. Even after 30 years in the business, Mary, herself, still spends time in the kitchen coming up with new treats like the Butterscotch Shortbread Crumbs I used to make the crust for this cheesecake. I was more than happy to accept a free bag of cookie crumbs to experiment with because I would happily buy them anyway. I used to live right across the street from Mary's shop on Queen St East for a few years and so I was very familiar with the product. It's not like I had ever run over there in my pjs and grabbed a few cookies to go with my morning coffee or anything.....

I have been using my Yonanas machine constantly since it got here and I have to tell you, I love it. My only regret is that I didn't have this thing when the kid was little because, if I did, I would have made him this stuff every day of his little life. I used to try to make "ice cream" from frozen bananas with a blender and a food processor but it would get over whipped and gummy and I just gave up and kept buying the Haagen Daz. I do have a soft serve ice cream machine as well as the attachment for my kitchen aid but the main drawback to those machines, apart from all the cream and sugar, is the fact that I have to make room for the big drum in my freezer and I have to know I want to make ice cream 24 hours in advance to make sure the drum spends that time chilling in the freezer, where I have had to remove a turkey to make room for it so every time we make ice cream, we eat turkey dinner. With this thing, you just plug it in. That's it. You make sure to al...

Could someone please tell me why have I spent my entire life NOT making trifles? I think I had trifle once about a hundred years ago when I was 18 or 19. My own mother never made anything like it. She was more of a jello 1-2-3 kind of gal when she wasn't making pies, but I do have a fuzzy memory of eating it at a boyfriend's house. It must not have left much of an impression since I waited another hundred years to actually make one myself, although I do have very fond memories of jello 1-2-3.          I have a friend who makes all of these little desserts in jars whenever she hosts a party and there is almost always some sort of trifle along with something cheesecakey and something chocolately and this must be what sparked my interest. My Christmas  Rum and Eggnog Tres Leches Trifle  was everything I love about a dessert. It was delicious, although time consuming it was easy to make and, most important of all, it looked super impressive. I h...

I know what you are thinking. Nothing says the harvest, fall and Canadian Thanksgiving like a berry pavlova! Whatever. You eat your pumpkin pie and leave me to my meringue for the love of god. Okay, I actually LOVE pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin creme brulee and every other, more traditional, thanksgiving type dessert. I did make an apple pecan upside down cake   too but I just really love pavlova and although I flirted with the idea of incorporating some pumpkin into it, I couldn't get the skor bar thing out of my mind and I wanted to keep it tasty but simple. There is enough work going on when you are making a big turkey dinner and two desserts and I love that you can make the meringue a day or two in advance and just throw it all together right before dinner.  As it happens, the MVP (most valuable Peruvians) family came for dinner and they devoured the pavlova in record time while the more white bread branch of the family (Shack and MIL specifically) s...

We went to the farmer's market on Sunday and the season's very first organic raspberries were there! Coincidentally, I had made a flourless chocolate cake to take to a bbq that evening and was planning to just make plain old, boring whipped cream to serve with it but the berries changed everything. Suddenly I was whipping out the Chambord and making Chambord Whipped Cream and nice, boozy berries. This is not an earth shattering idea but it is one I wanted to share with you because it was so delicious and not everything that is delicious has to also be earth shattering, right? 1 flourless chocolate cake 500ml whipping cream 1/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tbls chambord put the cream, the sugar and the chambord in your stand mixer and mix on high for three minutes. 1 pint raspberries 2 tbls chambord 3 tbls sugar juice of half of a lemon mix all the ingredients together and leave to macerate for at least a couple of hours. Cut a piece of cake and serve with a dollop of the ...