Happy Festa della Repubblica! Today marks the 70th Anniversary (1946) of the Italian vote to remove the monarchy (House of Savoy) and become a republic. In honour of this day, I decided to do a post of some Italian food favourites. I love shopping in grocery […]

Slow-cooked, braised lamb with Moroccan spices – is your mouth watering yet? What if I told you that this dish takes five minutes of prep time, cooks while you work, and gives you leftovers for lunches? I know, WOW! I’m not a big New Year’s […]

“What’s good on chicken?” Since 2008, the best place to get the answer to this question, if you live in Calgary (or Edmonton), is The Silk Road, Spice Merchants. Owners Colin and Kelsey started their specialized spice emporium. They carry over 100 different types of […]

Key West, Florida, is the southernmost point in the United States. If you want to prove this fact to people, you can brave the lineup (at South and Whitehead Streets) and have your photo taken with the buoy. A former home to Ernest Hemingway, Robert […]

Recently, we had a vegetarian house guest in Italy. This had me working on my meatless recipes. Pete had given me this very cool spice mix called Ras el Hanout, which he had found at “Silk Road Spice Merchant” in the Calgary Farmers Market. It […]

  One of the nicest things about having your kids go away to school is that they develop a much greater appreciation for your cooking after eating residence food. It’s  kind of nice when they look forward to dinner and make meal requests. I recently […]

Did I mention that I have a thing for hot sauces? I delicately stuck my toe in the hot sauce pool when I made Jalapenôs hot sauce three different ways – cold, hot and a combination of hot and cold. After having my neighbours and […]