January 17, 2012
Time crunched but wanting to entertain, here’s the creative way one woman takes care of business.
SAVE TIME & ENERGY | If in-home entertaining is something you’d like to do more of but you don’t have the extra time or energy to put into an elaborate production, consider adopting the game plan Janie Collier uses to host twice-monthly Saturday night suppers.
Collier has developed one wonderful meal that she can serve to carnivores, vegetarians and vegans—and she repeats it—with slight variations and tweaks—in perpetuity. “If I had to come up with a new menu and source new ingredients every time I wanted to have people over, I just wouldn’t get around to it much.”
Janie Collier’s One Meal Fits All Saturday Night Supper Get the whole story »
November 28, 2011
Where you absolutely must go for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next time you visit the City by the Bay.
TRAVEL ADVISORY | With so many fabulous restaurants to choose from, San Francisco can be frustrating for tourists who travel to eat. I visit every November, and each time I go I try new places—but first I schedule a return meal at my three favourite eateries. Each one is a bone fide cult classic, and not one need be stratospherically expensive. Get the whole story »
November 23, 2011
You needn’t be an ace with a canner to find awesome ways to put gorgeous Weck jars to work.
BEAUTIFUL & EASY | “Now this is a full-circle moment,” said my friend Anne, pointing to the Weck canning jars prominently displayed in the chi-chi San Francisco kitchen shop we cruised through last week. “I was so happy to get away from these things when I moved here from Germany and to discover canning jars with screw-top lids. They’re much easier and more convenient to use.” Get the whole story »
November 3, 2011
The price for the 12-cup Cuisinart food processor at Costco makes this kitchen tool too inexpensive to resist.
A BIG DEAL | I’ve been threatening to buy a food processor for years now, eyeballing the various brands and their accessories every time I’m in a kitchen shop. I know a processor will chop, grate and purée every kind of ingredient quicker and better than I could ever do it by hand, plus turn out faultless piecrust—a skill I’ve been working on with mixed results. Still, I had stubbornly resisted purchasing a food processor until last week when I anted up for the 12-cup Cuisinart at Costco (pictured here). The price was just too good to resist. Get the whole story »
October 27, 2011
When you want eat healthy, is organic produce a must? Not necessarily, say the experts at Licious Living, who share their list of the “cleanest” and “dirtiest” fruits and veggies in your supermarket.
SPENDING SMART | “Should I buy organic or is it just a waste of my money? I get this question a lot,” says Deanna Embury, who, with co-founder Katie Rodgers, operates Licious Living, a Vancouver healthy eating company that supplies locals with super-tasty home-delivered meals plus operates two wallet-friendly cafés and a summertime food cart in downtown Vancouver. Get the whole story »
October 17, 2011
When that splash of red wine lands where it shouldn’t, this fresh, natural product will remove every trace.
Murphy’s Law should have a corollary along the lines of, Anything that stains is more likely to spill—and that especially applies to wine. Get the whole story »
September 2, 2011
The right tools make kitchen tasks easier. Here are two must-have gizmos that infinitely out perform their insignificant price.
Poke, Squeeze, Twist—You can juice a fruit by hand—or by mouth as Oprah did on her now famous televised camping trip with Gayle last October (WATCH HERE)—but a tool devised for this task will extract juice more efficiently.
Stylish low-tech juicers abound, including Philippe Starck’s iconic Juicy Salif, but unless you’re looking for countertop décor, why would you pay a hefty $100 for a Salif, a product that serves but one purpose, when an inexpensive citrus reamer will do the trick and tuck away nicely in a drawer. Get the whole story »
August 24, 2011
If this product doesn’t persuade mothers to make their own baby food, nothing will.
MONEY WELL SPENT | The number one reason for buying store-bought baby food is convenience, no small thing when you’re a newbie, have multiple offspring to attend to and/or juggle motherhood and a job. I used jar food when my kids were babies because I worked full time. I just never could get it together in the evenings to assemble the ingredients and equipment necessary to cook, purée and freeze multiple mini meals for my growing tribe, though I’m pretty sure if the Baby Bullet had been available back in my day, I’d be writing a different story now. Get the whole story »
July 7, 2011
Taking over from Julia Child, Dorie Greenspan offers contemporary French cooking for those with more taste than time.
EASY & DELISH | In a world awash in cookbooks filled with pretty pictures and recipes that come up flat, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, published last fall, reads and eats like a classic—a book that will do for contemporary French cooking what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for Cordon Bleu. Get the whole story »
June 23, 2011
Media relations maven and woman about town Carmen Ruiz y Laza shares her sources for looking good and living well without breaking the bank.
A hyper-connected media relations specialist with clients who have ranged from Cartier and Hermès to the Vancouver Opera and United Way, Carmen Ruiz y Laza knows what’s what and who’s who in Vancouver. As a producer of high-profile events like the Fashionista’s Ball (see our story here), she always needs to be well-turned out. Originally from Spain, Carmen follows the old European tradition of wearing timeless classics. She invests in a few really good quality items in neutral colours and wears them for years. Here are her five cheap, free or worth-it things to do, see or buy in Vancouver. Get the whole story »
