The Yum Yum Factor

Ridiculously excited about my newest cookbook, written by the chef from Contramar, my favourite Mexico City Restaurant I am sad to say that there was not much going on this week. NOTHING GOING ON APART FROM THE RAPTORS OF COURSE!! My garden is my happy place and it's starting to really come to life! It was a week full of getting up , going to work, dragging my ass home and going to bed after a big glass of wine. I do have a wedding on Saturday and then my sister is coming on Sunday for a visit so that is going to mean lots of great eating and exploring. I plan to take her to Niagara to check out some wineries, maybe a trip to Buffalo to hit up Trader Joe, I have an exciting restaurant opening on Thursday and in between, there will lots of eating so next week will be much fuller. In the meantime, I will share a couple of cool finds one food related, one not food related: YES I HAVE A TV STREAMING PROBLEM: So, I never watched much tv, once I left my teens....

So, on Monday, November 14, 2016, I will be at the Taste Canada Awards as a Taste Ambassador to see which Canadians will win recognition for their work - cookbook writers, bloggers and culinary writers compete in the Oscars of the Canadian culinary world! Out of all of these 55 incredible nominees, 22 will be awarded a Gold or Silver award in categories that span both English and French language publications. You can join me there for lots of great food, wine and rub shoulders with the who's who's of the Canadian Food Scene! If you can't join me, follow online on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook while I cover all of the excitement. Check out  www.tastecanada.org/tickets/  for tickets! Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada

If you are not lucky enough to have a nonna of your very own, you can soothe your inner Italian soul with Per La Famiglia, Memories and Recipes of Southern Italian Home Kitchen, the newest cookbook by Emily Richards. Part cookbook, part scrapbook, the book is full of photos, memories and family stories and as soon as my complimentary copy showed up on my doorstep, I read the whole thing, cover to cover. I remember Emily Richards from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen back when I was a new mom and spent hours on end watching the food network. Alongside Elizabeth Baird, she injected a youthful enthusiasm for food that helped to inspire me to get out of bed and back into the kitchen again. Fast forward to today and Emily is still inspiring Canadians to get into the kitchen and cook delicious, whole foods as part of the Canadian Living Test Kitchen, regular daytime tv guest spots, cooking classes and cookbooks. The stories reflect the immigrant story for many, ma...

Grace Massa Langlois might have been born in Belgium but she grew up in London, Ontario where she remains with her family. I was born and raised in London, Ontario so we have a connection in that regard but when it comes to baking, our paths diverge. I am a decent, simple baker and dessert maker and I make a few things quite well but Grace is a real dessert master. I was already familiar with her food blog, Grace's Sweet Life  , and loved to peruse all of the delicious looking desserts while daydreaming that someone else would make these things for me. When I was offered a copy of her new cookbook, I jumped at the chance.  I read the entire thing, cover to cover and was incredibly impressed with the huge array of Italian sweets. Cannoli , Tiramisu and Panna Cotta are all fairly familiar but there were other things like Italian Peach Cookies , Boccanotti  and Celletti which were all new to me. I have to admit, that as a lazy baker, many of these recipes ar...