Blackout Anniversary Street Party – Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Last night we ventured out to Ossington between Queen and Dundas for the Blackout Anniversary Street Party. This party is held every year in a different hood in Toronto. I guess we should have stayed later, because for us it was a bust. We had reservations at Delux at 7:30 and the party was to [...]

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My Roof Top Tomato Garden

This is my last attempt at growing vegetables. Let me reminisce for a moment.
The first summer in this house, I turned the garden into a vegetable garden  (which later became our cocktail lounge and then the addition) and planted tomatoes, peppers and zuchinni. No sun, no success.
The following year, during the winter, I bought a [...]

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A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

My Pantry Storage Dilemma
The kitchen is about 2 year’s old now (that is unbelievable) and I’ve been struggling with dry goods storage in my pantry and my baking drawers. I hate irregular packaging that make things look messy and unkept; I really like things squared and ordered.
This past weekend, I found the greatest glass jars [...]

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Toronto Yorkville Ice Fest

Friday night JT and I rode the Bullet (that’s our subway) to the Bloor-Yorkville Icefest. An easy 15 minute ride. We immerged at Cumberland and spent about 4 minutes looking at the sculptures. Now maybe there was more, but 4 mintues? They were indeed lovely, and apparently 25,000lbs of ice! That’s some ice. But 4 [...]

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Countdown to Doran Weekend December 2008

Countdown Clock
The Doran’s are coming, the Doran’s are coming! It won’t be for New Year’s but then again, it’s better than nothing! Our crazy world-travelling friends are travelling to the big smoke, whirl-wind style as usual, arriving Friday around lunch-time and leaving Sunday around 7pm! We’re really looking forward to our ‘Doran Fix’
The menu:
Friday [...]

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Christmas Baking 2008 revised

I have now baked about 11 items, and am officially announcing that I am tired of baking!

Bargain Basement Barb’s Chocolate Chip Cookie
Peanut Butter Bars (new)
Lauren’s Spice Cookies (new)
Donkey Ears
Chocolate Mint Hershey Kiss Cookies
Peppermint Bark
2-Bite Chewy Chocolate Brownies (new)
2-Bite Butterscotch Blondies (new)
Namaimo Bars (new) – I may not make this

Anzac Biscuits
Butterscotchy Almond Bars (new)

I will be [...]

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We survived another Doran weekend!

Thankfully, we survived with much celebration, laughter and camaraderie with our very best friends, the Dorans! JT and Paul played golf twice (the weather was amazing 20+ everyday!!!) and T and I shopped and shopped and shopped!
On Saturday, the boys piled into a van and drove to Soldiers Field in Chicago to watch a Bears [...]

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Nuit Blanche in Toronto

JT and I decided to head downtown to Nuit Blanche on Saturday night. It was wild! Apparently a million people showed up! The sidewalks were packed – it was so cool! We planned out trip to take in Zone A – too bad it’s on for only one night, it would have been fun to [...]

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Empty Nest 2008 TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival)

My good friend Pam, kindly invited me to TIFF 2008 again – a bit of a brush with fame this time (last year we saw James McAvoy and Keira Knightley – this film had the director and an actor playing a secondary role) but it was an interesting movie (Empty Nest) and we [...]

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My Pantry

I thought it would be fun to write about what I generally have in my pantry – that way I am able to come up with something for any occasion.
Baking:

Unbleached all purpose flour
Whole wheat flour
Cake and pastry flour
12-grain (or multi grain) cereal
Bran cereal
Flax seed
Wheat bran
Rice flour (for my gluten free friend)
Custard powder
Baking powder
Yeast (kept in [...]

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