The Yum Yum Factor

Yup, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. We are all spending way more time in our homes than usual and for some of us who are not working, that means ALL of our time in our homes. While I have watched all these people teach themselves how to knit, learn Mandarin, choreograph family dance routines and bake sourdough bread four times a day, I have been allowing myself to do nothing. Doing nothing is an option, by the way. Doing nothing has been my way of coping, of keeping myself calm and hold the zombie apocalypse fears at bay. We can't all be A type git' er done people and we all do what we need to do to stay sane. We are eating well but my guys really miss pizza and I am not super comfortable ordering it out. I am not at the full on paranoid, pressure washing my mail stage, but I do feel more comfortable ordering food that I can pour into my own pots and reheat, like Thai or Indian food. We have also had a couple of great meal kits from some of our favourite local r...

Use all of our great tech, facetime, video chats, take up an old hobby photo Bruce Mars So, I have not been blogging all that much as of late because I have been busy cooking, teaching other people to cook, travelling and writing about cooking and travelling. In fact, I was all packed and ready to go on a 2 week adventure to Northern Italy on Feb 24 when everything changed. By 8pm, the night before our flight to Paris (we were going to spend two days in Paris before catching a train to Turin where we would pick up a car so we could road trip), all of our hotels, the car rental and train tickets were cancelled an refunded - we did incur a small cancellation fee for the flights and the only hotel to refuse to refund, ironically, was our hotel in Venice, which was in the epicentre of the outbreak in Northern Italy. Our biggest fear, at that point, was getting stuck overseas in a quarantine or not being allowed back into Canada and we were leaving our 20 yr old son at home. Instead...

the open air restaurant,  Azul Historico  is one of the prettiest places to spend an evening New Year, new Week in Yum: Our first getaway of 2019 was a four day trip to Mexico City. Although I had been a few times a decade or three ago, it was Shack's first time. It took a couple of years to get him there but after that first, short trip, he loved it so much that when an opportunity to take another four day adventure came up a few weeks later, guess who chose Mexico City? the view of this sprawling mega city from the Hilton Reforma read my recommendations on what to do and see here   here  and here So, it seemed fitting that we started off 2019 in Mexico City so we might as well end it there too. We flew out of Toronto on Christmas morning, coming home on New Year's Day. Flying on Christmas Day is generally a pretty low key time as most people prefer to travel before or after Dec 25. After reading a ton of travel blogs, I came to the conclusi...

Makes 2 loaves As I mourn the impending end of my beloved summer weather, my thoughts start to turn to homemade bread, stews and other cold weather dishes. I do love fall though so I am not quite ready for stew but I couldn't resist turning on my oven to make some soda bread. Browning the butter gives the bread a nice, nutty flavour and it really is the easiest thing to whip up. No yeast, no resting, no rising, just dense, chewy, delicious bread that is best on the day you bake it but it makes great toast for the next day or two, not that you will have anything left to test that out. Brown Butter Soda Bread 1/4 cup of unsalted butter 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats 1 tbls sugar 1 tbls chopped fresh rosemary and more whole rosemary leaves for topping 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp kosher salt 3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper plus a few more grinds for topping *1 3/4 cup buttermilk 1 egg white, beaten with a sp...

July has come and gone, life has been hectic, some terrible, no good things happened and now, it's on to August and, I hope, an okay end to a difficult summer so far. So, I will just highlight some of the fun stuff I didn't get to share for July and then tell you about some of the shenanigans I have been up to this week in Westport Ontario. Sand and Pearl Oyster Bar One a rare day off, Shack took me for lunch at Sand and Pearl in Prince Edward County. If you don't think a drive out to a spot just a skip hop and a jump from the Sandbanks isn't a worthy endeavour, we can't be friends. It's about 200km from Toronto so you are looking at a 2.5 hour drive but once you get off of the 401, it's a pretty drive and that is what lazy summer days are for anyway. the screened in porch will remind you of the cottages of your childhood but with waaaay better food This is, in my humble opinion, one the hidden gems located in this super trendy region where yo...

a rite of passage has occurred - a lightly hungover KID had his first Waffle House Experince Busy, busy work week but it all started out with a road trip to Columbus Ohio to attend the nuptials of a dear friend. Lovely wedding, lovely brides, lots of pink We arrived in Columbus around 8:45pm, changed and got ready to go to a restaurant that I had picked out weeks ago. Imagine my disappointment that said restaurant closes at 10pm. On a Friday night. Why does this always happen to us? On our way TO Columbus, every place I had mapped out along the way as a potential lunch spot closed at 3pm. EVERY SINGLE PLACE. The only place that was opened was called Wing City Grill in Fredonia  NY. When we paid at the toll booth we asked the woman taking our money if that is where we should go. She said "sure" I said "Is there anywhere better?" She shrugged and said "not really" Wing City Grill it is! Wing City Grill over delivers - look at those waffle...

After my day exploring the bench, I was a bit more excited than normal to drive Shack back to Hamilton to work and spend the weekend there with him because it meant I was going to be able to spend another day, driving around the Beamsville area on my own. Sure, I couldn't do any wine tasting BUT it also meant that I got to have lunch at Westcott Vineyard. Toronto duo, Ricky + Olivia, have taken up residence on the patio at Westcott for the summer and they were closed last week so I took my sister and my friend, Kate, back to Bench Brewing instead.  This time, I dropped Shack off on set, I dropped our bags off at the hotel and set off for the short drive to Beamsville. I returned to a couple of wineries to take more pictures, discovered some new spots like Calamus and their drool worthy rooftop patio and dropped in to visit some old favourites like Flat Rock.  Ricky + Olivia at Westcott Vineyard Right up until I pulled into the driveway at Westcott, I w...