The Yum Yum Factor

I am back from a ten day trip to Barcelona and man, am I fired up! I just spent 10 days eating and drinking and exploring, I lugged home three sizes of paella pans, cazuelas, spices, dried peppers, black sea salt and a brain overloaded with ideas.  Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming posts about my trip, about what we ate, what we saw and where we went, but, for now, here is what is happening in the upcoming month: For our March Supper Club, I am going to do a bit of a Mexican/Greek mash up. There will be tasty cocktails, great food and great dining companions, as always, so go reserve your seat now Get your tickets for our March 18 Supper Club Opaaa! Upcoming Cooking Classes for March For the cheap and cheerful crowd, I have two What's For Dinner Classes at the Musgrave Loblaws in March. You pay $15 and get a $15 dollar gift card for your trouble. March 8 March 22 Also, my next series of Instant Pot classes this month will be taking place ...

Hurry up, get off your butt and get down to Fort York for the annual Taste of Toronto festival, on until tomorrow, Sunday June 18. This is one of the first outdoor food extravaganza's in Toronto and it's always packed with vendors offering old favourites as well as the odd new discovery.  The skinny: general online admission tickets are $21/session for adults, $10 for 12-17 and under 12 is free but it's $26 at the gate so make sure to use  this link  to buy them online before you get there There are premium VIP tickets that get you all kinds of extra stuff so you can see if those are sold out or not In the past, they used a "crown" system where you had to keep reloading a card with crowns (worth a buck each) but this year, the only way you can pay is with a debit or credit card. To be honest, I think it's a good thing because it's easier to budget when you are spending actual dollars and it means no more lining up to refill your...

Taste of Toronto So, the weekend of June 23-26 was the annual Taste of Toronto at Fort York here in Toronto and it was bigger and badder than ever, with a giant roster of guest chefs doing cooking demos, presentations, wine tastings and food to try from a veritable who's who of Toronto restaurants. This year, due to construction inside the Fort, it was held on the grounds surrounding the actual interior area of Fort York and everyone I spoke to preferred it. There was a ton of shade and it felt more spread out and less crowded than in previous year. Tickets to the three day event were $29 online and you purchased your food and drink using a "crown" system. You loaded up a card with "crowns" with the word crown really meaning $1, probably in an attempt to take the sting off paying $10 for a small plate of food. This is not a cheap event and it's best to go in a small group that so you can not only divide and conquer to avoid lots of line ups but so ...

From June 23-26, at Fort York,  Taste of Toronto  is coming to the city for the third year in a row. Bigger and better than ever this year, there are more chefs, more restaurants represented and that means, more tasty things for you to eat and drink.

I feel like I am back in the saddle again with two media events in one week under my belt. After a bit of a break from eating and drinking all the damned time, I am back to eating and drinking all the damned time, which isn't the worst thing in the world. This week, the discovery of the summer was, without a doubt, Mill St Brewery's Distiller Root Beer. You heard me people, BOOZED UP ROOT BEER and it is really, really good. It's not too sweet and none of us could detect a trace of alcohol taste which is either a really good thing or a really bad thing. It was suggested that a scoop of ice cream would make for an amazing grown ass adult root beer float. I will be reporting back on that as soon as I can get my hands on a six pack to bring home (I was told that the LCBO will be stocking this sugary ambrosia by the May 24 weekend).

Thanks to Gastropost and Maple Leaf foods, I finally got to attend a Terroir Symposium. In the past, Gastropost has treated me to some of the dinners and events leading up to the symposium but this was my first time at the actual event. It was 12 solid hours of culinary porn - wall to wall chefs, food writers, food photographers, food security warriors mingled with culinary obsessed super fans for a day of talks, workshops, presentations and lots and lots to eat and drink. At $300 a ticket, its only for the truly hard core, but if you have cash to burn and you want to rub shoulders with the tattooed, trucker hatted and bearded who's who in the culinary world, this is the place to be.

the calm before the storm, admiring the beautiful crystal chandeliers installed just for the evening I can get really passionate about the subject of food education and because of that, I am a huge fan of Food Share. This Toronto based, non profit organization works with our communities and schools to provide them delicious, healthy food and give them with the education and tools needed to empower those communities to start taking over themselves. The catch phrase for all of this activism is "food security" so if you haven't heard that term yet, it's only a matter of time until you do. Food Share has helped to revolutionize school cafeterias and has pioneered ideas like rooftop school gardens and urban agriculture across the city. They teach people how to grow, cook and eat with hands on training, community kitchens and a wealth of other amazing programs. The bottom line is that the people of Food Share believe that everyone deserves access to affor...

You might think that BBQ season is on the way out, but now is the perfect time to haul out your smoker. To celebrate smoking season, Ontario Gas BBQ is giving away 5 Grill Pro Traditional Horizontal Offset Smokers. You heard that right, 5 Free Smokers are up for grabs. If you have never been out to the Ontario Gas BBQ store, you are in for a treat because it is truly BBQ heaven. With over 150 different kinds of barbecues from propane and gas to charcoal and electric, smokers and more, it's impossible to not find what you are looking for. They are also home of the Charcoal Room featuring Charcoals of the World with over 10 brands of premium hardwood free of chemicals and additives. They regularly stock charcoal from as far away as Africa and Indonesia so if you think all there is to buying charcoal is running up to the corner store, think again.