LAST Giveaway: Gift Basket From Real Women of Philadelphia

This is the very last give basket I'm giving away from Kraft as per my contract with them, and you are all welcome to join in and see if you can snag it for the holidays!

Only Canadian readers can enter and one will be picked at random to win the basket below. This contest will be open until December 13 th, 2014. I'd like to know what you've been baking!






Have fun!


a Rafflecopter

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Homemade Veggie Burgers with my Blendtec Blender

For years, my family has loved veggie burgers but we've never found one that we absolutely adore and stick with. There was the one that was made with nuts, which was good but kind of expensive to make, pre-made ones from the freezer section that we found salty, and some that seemed tasteless.

A good veggie burger can be hard to find, friends. I'm not the kind of girl who seeks a veggie burger

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Peanut Butter Cookies with Nordic Ware Products!

I've never really liked peanut butter cookies. Their dry, crumbly texture has never been appealing to me and I hardly ever bake them-that is, until I discovered this recipe. Moist, chewy, and with a crunchy sugar coating, these cookies are absolutely delicious. You could skip rolling them in sugar and try drizzling or dipping them in chocolate, but whatever you do I'm sure you'll love these. We

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Win a Gift Basket From Real Women Of Philadelphia

As some of you know, I've been spending my time working with The Real Women of Philadelphia as an ambassador. I'm creating recipes using various flavours of cream cheese and writing for their site as well as creating recipes.

You may want to hop on over there and check out some of these oatmeal bacon waffles with cinnamon brown sugar cream cheese and sauteed apples.




I'm just saying.

Kevin

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Thai Steak and Noodle Salad

For years, summer was the same routine; I'd be off work and home with Kevin, where we'd spend lazy days doing everything from picking berries to picnicking at the beach, eating ice cream, and taking off for road trips.

Those days feel like a lifetime ago. Well-they are. We no longer live by the ocean. Kevin, once a small child, is now practically an adult and obviously has his own life, which

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The Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival

I love cheese. If there is something competes with my love of chocolate or coffee, it would be cheese. Creamy brie, sharp cheddar, spicy pepper jack; I love them all! Well, good cheese. I've been known to call processed cheese 'plastic' and refuse to eat it.

Yesterday I ventured into Vancouver for lunch at Forage in the Listel Hotel on Robson Street, where I got to visit with the people from BC

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Eating my Words

I owe you all an apology. Seriously. If ever you have read my blog and thought I was out of touch with reality a bit (or even a lot), by making loads of from scratch meals every single night of the week and saying if you really wanted you could too (oh dear, I cringe at this), I'm so sorry.

Really sorry.

This summer I got a new job. It's something I haven't done for a very long time and

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Lime Chili Corn

Out in Chilliwack, the fields are full of corn all in various stages of growth. Some are short, some look ready to harvest, but regardless-as a local, you get used to watching the fields being sown and later on, the little corn shacks popping up all over town as the farms sell off bags and bags of the sweet stuff.

Even before we lived here, we knew the corn grown in the Fraser Valley was the

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Raspberry Picking at Maan Farms

The very first piece I ever wrote and sent to in to a national magazine was after Kevin and I spent a day on the beach near Campbell River, BC. Walking along the sea wall, we found a huge blackberry bush and picked the juicy, sweet fruit until our fingers were purple-his more because he ate the berries instead of placing them in the bucket. It was a bittersweet moment that day, mostly because we

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Bacon Wrapped Spiced Beer Can Chicken

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't have a BBQ. This always posed a challenge when I wanted to make something like beer can chicken-and besides, trying to balance a chicken on a can just seemed like a bad idea.

A few months ago, I was invited to the premiere of the Chicken Squad trailer and was gifted a Master Chef beer chicken roaster, which makes the process so much

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Low Sugar Rhubarb Cherry Jam

It's been awhile since I wrote last. No reason, really; I'm still cooking a lot, but somehow none of it made it here. Honestly, I'm not really sure why. Let's fix that shall we?

Some time ago, my friend Alexis began posting about Pomona's pectin. I had trekked out to Alexis's house last year to teach her how to make jam and while it was gloriously fun, Alexis pointed out how much sugar my

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Blendtec Blender Cookies

I never, every thought that you could make cookies in a blender. The very idea goes against everything that I've ever known about baking, along with idea of making brownies in it. So weird, but at the same time, it works, right?

These cookies are a little healthier than what I usually make, with the addition of whole oats, flax, and whole wheat flour. It does make for a cookie that is a

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Rhubarb Cherry Crumble

Fruit crisp? Crumble? We use the names interchangeably in our house for a warm baked fruit dessert topped with an oatmeal, flour, sugar and butter mixture. The fruit combinations are endless! Rhubarb has not always been my favorite fruit, but paired with cherries, it goes from ho-hum to downright amazing. I could eat this for breakfast, but for dessert with a scoop of ice cream it's absolutely

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Scrumptious Smoothies and a Blendtec Review

I've always liked smoothies, and when the weather gets warm I often forgo my usual lunch fare and begin blending up all kinds of smoothie combinations. Smoothies are great; they're portable, I can drink them on the go, the cold drink is perfect in the summer when it's often too hot to eat much, and when fruit is in season it is a great way to take advantage.

The arrival of the Blendtec to my

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Strawberry White Chocolate Scones with Lemon Glaze

Some time ago, I was at a bakery and tried a sample of their latest offering; a blueberry lemon scone with bits of white chocolate in it. As I nibbled, I began thinking that I could make these at home. I have a tendency to do this; almost like it's some kind of challenge, to figure out how to decode what they've made and create my own.

Local strawberries are just hitting the markets right

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Eggs, Cream Cheese, and New Blenders-Oh My!

It's been a busy few weeks over here. Between creating recipes for BC Eggs and writing things up for Philadelphia Cream Cheese, I haven't been posting a whole lot here-but WOW have I been churning the stuff out in the kitchen.





Over at Philadelphia Cream Cheese, there's a whole bunch of ideas for using your spreadable Philly on anything BUT a bagel. On BC Eggs you're going to find chocolate

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Contest! $100 in Groceries, a Dinner with Me, a BBQ, and more.

I've been recruited to assist a super special, top secret (or maybe not?) squad dedicated to de-bunking some pervasive myths that keep floating around. Myths about something you probably eat.

There's a lot of misinformation floating around, you see. Information that has been put out there that is simply just not true. Did you know that 64% of British Columbians believe that hormones and steroids

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Baked Chicken with Herbs and Shallots

Roast chicken is a huge hit in my house, but honestly sometimes I don't want to wrestle with a whole bird. On busy weeknights I also don't always have the time to roast a whole bird, and this recipe has come to my rescue a few times. It's so simple-just a bit of butter in a pan, herbs, garlic, shallots, and chicken. The butter makes the chicken skin go crispy, the shallots caramelize, and the

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Create the Best Egg Hunt

Easter egg hunts are one of my favourite things about the holiday.When Kevin was little we'd have egg dying parties in the back yard (see tips for your own party over at BC Eggs), ending with a giant hunt for all the kids. As kids get older and gone are the days of bubbles, the treats may change but the thrill of the hunt doesn't. Keep reading for my best tips on creating a hunt to remember!

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Spring in the Valley

You can tell it's Spring in Chilliwack when the scent of blossoms is tinged with the sour notes of manure, as tractors plow up the wet Earth in fields around town to get ready to seed. This morning, a flock of sea gulls followed one such tractor, swooping and diving behind it; likely feasting on the worms being dug up from the rich soil.

On the playground, worms have been working their way out

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Books: Starting From Scratch

Reading has always been one of my favourite pastimes. As a kid, I could polish off a 100 + page novel in just a few days. Books were hidden under my textbooks, my pillow, and I'd even read while walking home. Once someone became so concerned that I wasn't watching where I was going that they called my parents.

Years later, I read cookbooks, magazine articles, and websites just as voraciously.

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Spicy Chicken Almond Stirfry

I have this huge jar of almond butter sitting in my fridge that I bought at Costco months ago when Kevin expressed an interest in eating the stuff, and sure enough, he's barely made his way through it. Do your kids do that? Do they ask you to buy something, and then there it sits forlornly in your pantry until you have to either eat it yourself, throw it away, or donate it? I'm not that fond

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Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

These cookies are amazing. In fact, so amazing that when I stood in the kitchen filling the buttery disks with Nutella, the smell wafting from them was so overpoweringly wonderful that I couldn't help but grab John by the hand and drag him over to the counter.

"Smell," It was more than a command. An invitation, of sorts, More like, please smell these cookies because oh my they make me want to

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Mexi Pasta Toss with Windset Farms

I love fresh, crunchy vegetables. In our house, cherry tomatoes are eaten by the handful on their own or with slices of cheese, and sweet peppers are munched on in lunches, dipped in hummus, tossed in salads, or just about any way you can imagine. In the summer, being veggi-fied (is that a word?) kicks into high gear and our fridge is always bursting with all kinds of produce. What can I say?

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Coconut Cupcakes with Dairy Free 7 Minute Frosting

I love cupcakes-more than making a whole cake, truthfully. I think it's because a large cake just feels like too much, somedays. You feel obligated to eat the whole thing eventually. With a family as small as mine, it seems like too much commitment to make a cake.

Cupcakes, on the other hand, are just little bites here and there. You can have one or four. Recipes can be halved, some can be

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Birthday Baby Vanilla Cheesecakes

Cheesecake is one of my most favourite desserts. Topped with fresh whipping cream and fruit or drizzled with chocolate sauce, if there is cheesecake in the house I'm eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's just too hard to resist it's siren call from the fridge, calling me to sample yet more of it's creamy goodness.

A whole cheesecake feels overly indulgent to make just for myself;

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Mushrooms on Toast with Bacon and Thyme

Sometimes you just need something easy that can be whipped up quickly and doesn't create a lot of dishes. Our Spring Break was that way-a bit on the lazy side but at the same time, we craved something more than cereal for dinner. I've made this a few times and we have really enjoyed the Earthy, buttery mushrooms, salty bacon, and fresh herbs. When spooned over thick pieces of good bread, it's

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Hummus and Bacon Salad Wraps with Feta

Sometimes on the weekends I may have no plans for what I'm going to make for dinner, and instead rummage through the fridge and come up with something from the bits of whatever happens to be hanging in the crisper. Often, I find leftover salad makes a great addition to wraps-not only does it help me use it up before things go bad, but it's healthy too!

I never really thought of putting feta and

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Pan Roasted Chicken with Harissa Spiced Chickpeas

I'm always on the lookout for recipes that are fast, require little clean up, and are inexpensive to make. Just because I CAN create some fantastic thing that takes hours doesn't mean I want to-usually I'm just not up for the amount of dishes it requires unless it's a weekend and I'm in the mood.

Chicken is a staple in our house more than any other meat, and a new way to eat it always

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Talking About Tomatoes: Canned, Sauce, or Passata?

Over the years I've learned a lot about cooking with tomatoes and what to use when I'm making things from scratch. Believe it or not, it makes a difference in the outcome! Are you stumped over which kind of tomatoes to buy? Do you need tomato sauce or crushed when you make chili? And what's passata, anyway? What makes it so great?

I used to watch Food Network and could never understand why

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Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

I love short ribs. The problem is when I've looked around for ideas about how to cook them, the recipes are massive. Some call for entire bottles of wine, or 5-6 lbs of meat. I don't know about you, but for me, 6 lbs of short ribs would end up costing something like $30 and make so much food I wouldn't know what to do with it. When you have a husband who doesn't eat red meat and the teenager is

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Lasagna for Two

Sometimes, you want lasagna but you don't want a giant pan of it. Whether you're a student living by yourself, or maybe a couple and the kids will eat something different anyway, it takes a little skill to take something that's normally quite large and pare down the recipe to get a nice little lasagna all your own.

With Kevin away for the week, it's taken a bit of adjusting to pare things from

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Roasted Veggie and Farro Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing

Awhile ago, my friend Maria and I made a trek to Costco for household supplies and while we wandered the aisles of giant jars of peanut butter and cases of toilet paper, we came across someone offering samples of farro. I had never seen the grain at a store before, but here and there in recipe books I had seen the name. Farro is a nutty, chewy grain that is really quite tasty. We found it

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The Candy Meister

Over the last few months when I've gone to trade shows, I've occasionally run into the wonderful folks who own Candy Meister. Honestly, I've never really loved hard candies-maybe it's all the sugar and food coloring, but Candy Meister candy is different and I had to share my love of them with all of you.

All natural, gluten free, corn free and dairy free, products by the Candy Meister are

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How To Make Homemade Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a staple in many Canadian households. Whether we're slathering it on burgers, in sandwiches, stirring it into deviled eggs, potato salads or using it as a dip for French fries, many of us can�t imagine life without it.

What is mayonnaise, anyway? Unlike salad dressing, which is usually more
runny and sweet, mayo is an emulsion of oil, lemon juice, vinegar and
seasonings whisked

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Spicy Beef Empanadas and Chimichurri

On Sunday we spent the day hunkered down by the fire, staying warm and deciding not to go anywhere. The Olympic closing ceremonies were on, heavy snow was blowing in drifts outside, the roads were bad, so why not just stay home? Even though I had spent most of Saturday cooking, there were a few things left that I could fiddle around with, right?

Turns out hot, flaky, spicy meat filled

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Squirrels Removed, Owls Return

Screech owl cam’ viewers will be pleased to know that, although there's nothing to view yet, with the removal of the squirrels, the owls are checking out the nest box with increasing frequency. (Yeah, I'll probably graph it, but not at the moment.)

I have to hope that they won't actually begin nesting until March, as has been the case most years, because I still have to integrate a

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Removing Squirrels from the Owl Box

One unpleasant chore done: I've removed three very nice fox squirrels from the owl box. It always makes me feel like a bully and a scoundrel, but if the owls are going to nest in the box, the squirrels have to go. It's likely they'll be back in about a week, but the process of making the owl box feel like a dangerous place to be a squirrel is underway. In the meantime, when the owls poke their

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