Scattering of brains
When I was a kiddo the word “scatterbrained” was lobbed at those among us who couldn’t follow through with a thought or an idea. Little kids were scatterbrained because of the eight be-jillion things we wanted to be, do, have, say. Sometimes those ideas were flying around as if they were caught up in a […]
Riesling Day
You could say I grew up on riesling. There was always a bottle of Deinhard Green Label on the dinner table at family gatherings. To this day, there still is. I’m not sure when it first appeared, but I’ve known that bottle since I was far too young to drink it. When I started studying […]
Maple Madness
Maple madness is now on every Saturday and Sunday until the end of March. You can visit sugarbushes, eat some sweet stuff and buy some maple products to bring home. I didn’t have to leave my ’hood to get to my nearest sugarbush—we wanted some yummy brunch from Big Mike’s BBQ and lucky for us […]
Giant Sippy Cups
Today I woke up with a song playing in my mind. It was a song from the ’60s. I have no idea why my RAM decided to move that song forward, but there I was humming a tune I hadn’t heard since I was a teenager. Go figure. It’s happened many times, but this morning’s […]
Crispy chicken
We are just loving chili crisp and honey—it feels like every other meal at home is prepared with it. I’m using it to marinate both chicken and pork, tossed with noodles in a stir fry, or with rice. My intention here was to make a simple one-pan chicken and rice dish that I could simply […]
Heated driveways
After a couple of years of heavy snowfall paired with a few seasons of freezing rain and ice, homeowners are finally getting past the idea of shovelling the driveway and the sidewalks and moving towards heated systems. The technology has been around for a while, but for some reason, Canadians think that having a heated […]
Doom or Joy
In the face of another Middle East conflict, I’m struggling to find the peace and the love. Oh, I know I have that with my friends and family, but it’s an uncomfortable and scary world out there. Am I right? You know I am. And it’s very sad to think many of us now wake […]
Beloved dessert
was born in Sweden and came to Canada when I was six years old. As I learned to speak English, which was my third language, we stopped speaking Swedish and only spoke Serbian at home. Our culture and diet was mostly Serbian and so we didn’t keep any Swedish customs at home. I still have […]
Olympic wines
I like to say that in addition to chipotle, variety is the spice of life. For sports lovers, the last two weeks of the Olympics have been a Vegas-style buffet of variety — enough events to gorge on, dramas to drink up, and simmering rivalries to savour. The athletes have been the star attractions, but […]
Reach for the stars
This year I am celebrating sixteen years of working out with my buddy Paul. Sixteen years is a long time. Of course someone asked if I were still going to the gym—perhaps because of my “advanced years” or “at your age”. In spite of being a wise-cracker I told them I was still going but […]