A preview DVD of a new food show landed on my desk this week. The Chef’s Domain is an eight-part culinary documentary series that follows a Canadian chef every episode. Each chef showcases their local suppliers and ingredients and ends the episode by cooking a special meal. (more…)

We have recently upgraded our blogs and you can now have The Foodie-file delivered to your mailbox whenever I post something new. I have had many people ask that this function be available and it’s great that I am able to offer this feature to my foodie community.

To celebrate and expand our community, I’m doing one of my favourite things - I’m giving stuff away! (more…)

Success! Here is the finished oven with all of the layers built. In the end the whole thing was probably two or three days worth of work spaced over four weekends. I hear it gets really hot but I haven’t had the opportunity to cook in it yet. Luckily (more…)

Another find from our roving food editor Gabi Bright. She came back from Cape Breton raving about the oysters. Born in Cape Breton, Alex Dunphy has lived on South Harbour his entire life. He and his wife Susan hold a processor and exporter license and ensure the oysters go directly to market while fresh and in excellent condition. Alex and Susan select, gather and grade the oysters by hand. (more…)

Thank you to everyone who offered advice on building a mud oven. The recommended book proved helpful, but unfortunately needs a good editor. Buried three quarters of the way through, the book offers the sage advice to build in good weather…realizing our folly too late, we went ahead with the project. We had a cave in and needed to do a rebuild, but overall phase 3 turned out pretty well.

Here is what I learned that I could share with fellow oven builders: (more…)

My friends sent me some pictures of phase two of the outdoor oven project. A lot of progress has been made and it looks like we’re off to a smashing start! (more…)

This past weekend,  Toronto hosted the fifth annual drink show at the Exhibition Place. There was a lot of promo going on in the city so Canadian Living took advantage and had Plymouth Gin give us a private seminar in the test kitchen. Plymouth is the oldest working distillery in England, in operation since 1793, and in that time they have only ever had 4 head distillers. We were lucky enough (more…)

Adell Shneer in our test kitchen brought this foodie find to my attention. She was shopping at a local farmers market and came across these Saskatoon berries. They brought back great memories for her, growing up in Edmonton and picking them on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. (more…)

OK, I can no longer keep up the farce – I’m actually not in Italy and haven’t been for a week or so. The thing is, I still have lots of good foodie stuff to share so expect a few more Italy tidbits. I just didn’t feel good running away from my colleagues in the hallways of Canadian Living with dark shades and a baseball cap to keep up my façade of being abroad. (more…)

That Dutchmans Farm in Upper Economy, Nova Scotia is making this fine blue cheese. Canadian Living Food Editor Gabrielle Bright brought back this treat for the test kitchen to sample after a recent excursion down east. (more…)