We surprised our kids with a trip to San Francisco last March Break. This did not go over well.  Our spoiled children are well-traveled and have conflicting ideas of what makes a perfect vacation -- one wants beach, one wants ski and one wants his friends around at all times.  But my husband had work near San Francisco and having one flight paid for made it easier to contemplate taking three fretful teens away. This story has a happy ending though, as our kids loved the city -- its geography, its food, its tourist traps. It all worked. They even enjoyed a long car trip along the coas ..read more

When I signed on to help out the Air Canada Foundation at the Rally for Kids with Cancer I wasn’t expecting to be inspired by the people that I met. But that is exactly what happened. The Air Canada Foundation is a long-time sponsor of the car rally which has raised 20-million for Sick Kids cancer care over the past 10 years.  The event is similar to a scavenger hunt, where competitors get access to different parts of the city that are usually hidden from its citizens. The airline also had a car in competition with a team of incredible women including: teen Emma Neaugu, the youngest compe ..read more

Long-time readers will know that I have a soft spot for Cirque du Soleil. My husband and I were blown away by O in Vegas many lifetimes ago. I surprised my son once and took him to see an afternoon show, and last year I took the kids and my mother-in-law to her first Cirque show. We are going to see Cirque du Soleil VOLTA on Tuesday, and I have four tickets to giveaway for Wednesday night as well.  Cirque always impresses. I am jealous of the imagination that the creators have to put together such complete worlds; everything is beyond my conception -- the music, the set and the costu ..read more

*This post is sponsored by Whirlpool Canada, but all opinions are, as always, mine. There are 189 lunches left to make in the school year. Per child. If that number doesn’t scare you a little bit, then I am jealous. It doesn’t matter how many lunches you have prepared (about 3,000 in my case) it can still be daunting to think about how to creatively pack a lunch that your child will eat. For new Canadians, school lunch can be an even bigger issue. A recent survey conducted for Whirlpool Canada found half of Canadians surveyed believe for a child who is new to Canada, lunchtime at school can be ..read more

Cold brew coffee is not the same as iced coffee. It is also not the same as leaving your brewed coffee somewhere in your house and then drinking it at room temperature. And it is not the same as a coffee-blended drink. (Though, it makes a great one.) You can hear all about it in my CBC Radio segment on Here & Now.  When coffee is brewed at high temperatures, the beans release volatile oils and flavours. When a coffee is hot, those flavours are enjoyable -- they often rise to the top and are in the crema. But if that hot brewed cofee is tossed over ice, those flavours can intensify, wh ..read more

Sometimes it is the simple things in the kitchen that defeat me. Cooking rice on the stove, making coffee, creating a simple oil and vinegar salad dressing. The fact that I eat salads is a big change from when I was younger, as salads was never high up on my list of go-to items. But I realized that it’s boring lettuce that turns me off, and I experimented with salads until I found out what I like – which happens to be less acidic dressings and lots of textures. It doesn't look like much because my daughter got to this salad before I took the picture. Like most people, I try and be mindful of w ..read more

I like my rice cooker, I am okay with my slow cooker. But I would throw them all out in a hot minute to keep my Instant Pot. Instant Pots are a new take on pressure cookers. You may remember pressure cookers by the stories of them exploding and leaving spaghetti sauce stains on the ceiling, or worse. But Instant Pots, and other new pressure cookers are easier with their plugs, built-in timers and safety features.  They cut down the time it takes to cook by approximately 70 percent, which means chicken is done in 15 minutes, dried beans are tender in 35 minutes and a pork shoulder becomes ..read more

I wasn't kidding when I said that the biggest fight my mother and I ever had as adults was over slow cookers. It was also in front of our editors, so that was not at all embarrassing.  I was arguing that the convenience of the slow cooker overrides the compromises in taste. Eventually we agreed that you can coax good flavours out of the slow cooker by layering the flavour. But there will never be browning, or very much sauce reduction.  The Morroccan chicken recipe that we developed is delicious, and you can do it in a slow cooker, a Dutch oven in the oven (for two hours), or in a pr ..read more

This is a post sponsored by Loblaws. But 100% honest. I ate crickets. Billed as the next new protein, they were crunchy little bits sitting on top of a lovely paella. Bugs are an environmentally-friendly protein that could make us, and our world a little healthier. If you want to taste the #TasteTheNewNext, you can try them out. I ate them at Loblaws, the nation’s largest grocery store chain. The food industry is always looking for new trends and items like bugs, sustainable seafood and turmeric are top of the list. I’m on the Loblaws Food Council that is discussing those new trends and what ..read more

Have you seen Cirque du Soleil's LUZIA yet? Everyone who has seen this Mexican-inspired show has been raving about it. The show is leaving the Port Lands on October 16th but I have a great deal so you can catch it before it flies like a monarch butterfly heading for warmer climate. Maybe you will see me there next Wednesday night. Some of my best memories involve Cirque du Soleil. My husband and I saw "O" in Vegas just after we got married and when we decided to start trying for a family (Is that TMI?). We met a couple in Mexico who were acrobats at Cirque and I often think of them when I see ..read more