It will make you less. Stop you in your tracks. Keep you from reaching your potential. Make you sad and frustrated and unhappy, and keep you small. Diminish anything good that happens to you. Guaranteed.
You’ll have to bear with me here as I try to make my point. Read on through to the end, and you’ll see where I’m going.
I have always been a big traveller. I have been to all kinds of beautiful places – Paris, Rome, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Fiji, etc. etc. In the old days, I did the backpacking thing, sleeping in flea-infested guest houses for $10 a day or less. These days, thanks to my husband, it’s gone way upscale. You see, he’s Mr. Million Miles, and if you hang around him you’re treated like gold. Or diamond.
If you’re not married to Mr. Super Elite, you might not know that the more miles you have, the more perks get thrown at you. We have been escorted past mile-long security lineups. I’ve had people waiting for me at the end of a flight to walk me through the airport to make sure I make my connecting flight. And no matter what kind of great freebies we earn with points, they always add crazy upgrades. Rick has had my entire Italian family bumped into first class. Travelling with him is a bit like being a Continue reading “The One Emotion That Will Always Bring You Down. Guaranteed.” »
I am a big fan of using beer in my cooking so when my friends at Sam Adams asked me to develop a beer based condiment, I jumped to the challenge. I was tasked with using Samuel Adams Boston Lager, which is a full bodied, rich tasting brew with bitter notes; a big personality beer that was well matched with bold, strong flavors. After mulling it over for awhile I came up with this recipe and I must say it is spectacular and one that I will be making again and again. It didn’t last long in our house, paired with some strong, aged cheddar, pears and a loaf of crusty bread. You may want to double the recipe, it will be gone in a snap.
Beer Braised Maple, Prosciutto and Bermuda Onion Jam
makes about 1 1/2 cups
2 bottles Samuel Adams Boston Lager Beer
1 small size Prosciuttino (about 350 gr)
7 medium sized Bermuda onions
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
This recipe is very versatile, impressive and super easy to put together but requires a lot of 1 main ingredient – time! The dish sits on the stove on a low low simmer for about 2-3 hours but the end result is fantastic and well worth the wait. I love to serve it on Continue reading “Beer Braised Maple, Prosciutto and Bermuda Onion Jam” »
Holidays are usually few and far between in life, and so I always like to try and make the most of them. Vacations away are great for family bonding, but with a little bit of creativity even “staycations” can be special. My philosophy is that it’s not what you do, but how you do it. I’ve learned over the years that we can have a great time together anywhere if we’re in the right frame of mind.
This is a quick and easy project that I pulled together in no time. The hardest part actually was convincing the hubby to drop everything and meet me at Value Village to haul yet another piece of furniture home in the van. Once I got past that hurdle, the rest was easy.
You might have spotted the finished piece in this post that showed the basket shelving wall we put together for my oldest girl’s room.
I was looking for a cute way to store my daughter’s collection of LPs. She’s a real music fan, and is making great use of the old vintage albums I kept from the musically misguided days of my youth. Have a look at some of the beauties I held on to:
It’s still snowing out there. There seems to be endless conversations about snow, cold and how long this weather is meant to continue. Enough already.
I, on the other hand am focused on other things. I’m still a little giddy from my visit to the HomeSense Spring preview. In the midst of all this grey and gloom, they have a ton of great inspiration and accents already trickling into stores, ready for you to Continue reading “Color Trends at the HomeSense Spring Preview” »
These brutally cold winter nights sometime leave me aching for a bit of tasty comfort. This is the perfect dish for this weekend, pure hearty, soul food. The other bonus? This cut of meat is super inexpensive – you could feed a family of four for under $15 bux when this cut is on sale. This may actually make my Oscar night menu – pure comfort food, made in advance, super cheap price, hearty, tasty and delish with a glass of red. Cozy dinner awesomeness! Get the recipe details here… Continue reading “Swiss Steak Rules – Perfect Cold Weather Comfort Food” »
This winter has been brutally cold. It has tested our Canadian mettle.
Canadian mettle apparently can be fairly easily tested, as I found out during last spring’s trip to Europe. Paris in the spring last year happened to be very cold, and even snowy. My family was there for a stopover on a ski trip to Austria, so we were able to make good use of the warm gear we had packed in our ski bags. The nicer clothes we chose for Paris were tossed aside, and we put on our Canadian woolies.
These weren’t even enough when we got to the Austrian Alps and the sub-zero temperatures hit us hard. We loaded up on more merino wool base layers in the local town. So much for being hardy Canadians.
How did that happen? Weren’t we supposed to be used to the cold weather? We’re Canadian. Our country includes the North Pole. And those well-dressed, stylish Europeans put us to shame.
We’ve put together some more highlights from our visit to the HomeSense spring preview last week. In the midst of this dreary weather, their line up screamed of spring trends and tons of ways to update your own spaces. Filled with gorgeous graphics, bold colors and trendy prints, there was a ton of inspiration all around. Check out a couple of the highlights here and stay tuned for more to come… Continue reading “More Spring Trends from HomeSense” »
The Artist Project hits Toronto this weekend and as usual, it is jam packed with incredible examples of expressions of creativity and artwork. Amazing as always.
Happening at The Better Living Centre at the Ex this weekend. Get inspired and buy some incredible artwork pieces. Check out my sneak peek here:
