Well, this would certainly be up for debate! Krista? Care to comment on the cherry pitter? I am very much not a single use utensil collector. At all. In fact, I only own three knives. Basta. But, I have a very very soft spot in my heart for one of the most satisfying of kitchen tools. Any guesses? It is not only incredibly satisfying to use with our most fav. treat from Montreal, but is also justified as a safety device. Thoughts? Anyone? Tah-Dah! Uh-huh. A Bagel slicer!!! I LOVE THIS THING! To begin, it slices the slightly crumbly Montreal wood fired bagels without crumbling. Also, TWO PERFECT SIDES....no wobbly edges or weak points to break when schmearing. And safety? Did you know that almost 2000 people a year are sent to the ER with a BRI, also known as a bagel-related injury? Yup. Danger! Peligro! Finally, it's just an incredibly satisfying slice. It makes me happy to guillotine my bagels; a smooth slice in one sweet push. Count the use of my bagel slicer in the book of Happiness Is... . You too can enjoy the spine tingling joy by shopping here. And keep your hands safe from lacerations. Enjoy!

Can I tell you? Really be frank? Recipes that use weird measurements for no good reason. For a long time now I have been travelling to the US for Thanksgiving in November. As my annual trip approaches I am absolutely, doubtlessly suckered into buying every food magazine that advertises the warm joy of the season, and the reunion with old friends my seasonal trip promises. Excited to bring something new to the festivities, I gobble (haha) up every dazzling recipe. And then... I. Get. Mad. WHY? Dudes. If you are going to publish recipes for, say, batch drinks, why (oh why?) would you choose to publish a recipe that uses only 2/3 of a bottle of wine? Was it so inconceivable that a bunch of party forward, festive souls at gatherings of families near and far, would drink enough punch for the recipe to start with the use of the full bottle of wine? Because I care about my friends, and their friends (and families) I am going to pull out my calculator and do a little math for you today. Because, I think this drink sounds great, festive and fun. And I don't want anyone's day ruined by the worry of having to do oddball calculations, or worse, pouring down the drain a third of a bottle of fizz. You're welcome. 9 oz. Campari 9 oz. St. Germain 9 oz. Gin 7 ml orange flower water A BOTTLE OF FIZZ. Enjoy!

Banana-rama good! That's how good! This recipe (who knew a tuna sandwich recipe could be so impactful) is so good I am having a hard time not overdosing on tuna melts!!! It is the most perfect example, of how the most wonderful perfection comes, from applying the most basic of the cooking tenements; Fat (oil tinned tuna), Salt (gorgeous briny capers and aged cheddar), & Heat (Crispy fried bread) Oyi! Balanced out with lemon juice and onion... this is not to be missed!

This is f*cking awesome! THIS IS SUMMER IN A GLASS! So if you are missing the hot hot weather, and need proof swim days are going to continue, and back to school isn't looming. THIS IS IT! Cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro and lime, banging about with some simple syrup and life sustaining gin; give your day, your seek, you life, a boost! Recipe here. You're welcome.

This weekend I am making a fruit salad with an unusual (to me) flavour - Chaat Masala. Chaat is a South Asian street snack. Masala is an Indian spice blend. Making a snack with some chopped fruit is a perfect way to add a bit of flavourful and healthful excitement into the weekend. Most commonly Chaat Masala is added to fried dough of many many kinds; flour, chickpea, potato. One culinary anthropologist claims the Chaat originated in northern India in the late 17th century. Royal doctors asked the people of Mughal capital Delhi to consume spicy and fried snacks as a countermeasure to the alkaline water of the river, and so the Chaat was invented. (I wonder if my water is alkaline? Fried food cure, you say? LOL) As a fan of sweet and spicy, as well as sweet and salty, I have always enjoyed fruit prettied up with spice; I'm thinking about pineapple with lime, salt, and chilli powder right away. Chaat has all of these flavours blended together - cumin, fennel, coriander, mint, tamarind, chilies, mango powder, ginger, are all in a great chaat. Serious Eats has a nice recipe. Or you can just buy a box of premixed chaat at the Indian Grocer on Robie St. in Halifax. Either way, it is lovely spice blend to have around, a great way to give an unusual kick to a summer fruit salad and an opportunity to pluck about the loaded shelves of the Indian Grocery to see what else one can have fun with! Happy Long Weekend!

This isn't your everyday oatmeal. In fact...it may be only a special occasion oatmeal. But its just sooooo darn good that I have to share it with you! These are Birdie's Oats from Bowls of Plenty. In fact, Granny Birdie calls them Cocktail Oats. Does anyone object to a cocktail breakfast? Nah....Me neither! Groats, steel cut oats, are slowly cooked in a warm milky bath until they are a creamy delight, and then topped with golden raisins, brown sugar, a pat of butter, crunchy salted sunflower seeds, cooling milk and fleur de sel. YUM! This a bowl of love. Of happiness & joy. This is bowl of whole grains dressed up, lipsticked and ready to make your morning the very best it can be. This is everything life should be; healthful and full of glitter, and I am giving you the recipe. Now you too can start a celebratory day, or just a grey spring morning, with joie de vivre! ENJOY! Cook 1 cup steel cut oats in 1 cup of water and 1 cup milk, 1 tsp kosher salt and a tsp of cinnamon until creamy, about 30 minutes on low. Add 1 cup of golden raisins in the last 5 minutes of cooking to plump them up. Top bowls with a pat of butter, a sprinkle of sunflower seeds, brown sugar, finishing salt and cold milk. Prepare for a perfect day!

SWEET! NOT sour.... Here's the thing; I am not sure I am a great cook. What I am is a person that cooks A LOT. And having devoted as many hours as I have to cooking, my strength lies in how many recipes I have tried, tested, worked on, worked out and adjusted. Last week I bought a cookbook devoted entirely to pies. Pies. I had, admittedly had a glass or two of wine when I made this purchase. (Grimacing Face Emoji) What is especially odd, is that I would never, have never, chosen pie as my first choice dessert. Ever. Me? I am a cake girl. (Really I am an icing girl; feeling cake is just a socially acceptable vehicle for icing.) But now that I have this book I am steeling myself to make the most of it, probably before I give it away to some perverse pie lover. To this plan, I made a pie from the book on Sunday evening, having chosen the recipe solely because I had all the ingredients at hand, and if I am going to eat a pie lemon is one of the more likely ones I'lll choose. The lemon pie had a lot to perform against. Last weekend I had made lemon squares that were perfection. PER-FEC-TION! They had a buttery shortbread bottom, a perfectly sweet, yet tart, filling, and a sugary, crunchy thin top. Sadly, the lemon pie, with many, many faffy steps, a Swiss meringue, and the bragging promises of an olympic gold medal winner, was....sour. Ugh. Pie. You let me down again. But. I am not giving up on my new book yet. Because more important than the one recipe are the lessons I have learned: 1. I liked the pastry, though it was thin...it was easy to work with. I will compare it to the other pastry I like and maybe make up a combo recipe that will be perfection. 2. Maybe my lemon square filling will be even better as a pie? It's something to try? 3. There are pie/fruit flavour combos that are intriguing in my new book that may revolutionize my feelings about pie. If only life were just as easy? Hmm... Maybe it is? After all how many times have we been told to Pie, Pie again? (Skull Emoji)

My friends and I have been trying to be a little healthier of late. We have cut back on the booze, are trying to take more exercise, and, of course, eating better. While eating better we are still insistent our food is delicious. Insert meals like the grain bowl. Grain bowls tend to follow a certain fail-proof formula: Grain, protein, bits, and sauce. Doesn't it seem sooooo simple? So why do so many taste like dust and regret? I think it's because people fail to treat EVERY element with attention and kindness. If each ingredient isn't given attention, tasting good solo, it amounts to nothing but disappointment when put together. The Mediterranean Grain Bowl pictured starts with brown rice (A dusty tasting contender if ever there was one!). Solution? Salt! Give your rice pot a good pinch of salt and the nutty flavour of the whole grain rice will be lifted up, not in need of dusting off. Ugh. Next, I've made sure to not over cook the chicken so that we aren't doubling down on dusty flavours. My favourite way to make sure chicken breasts are juicy? Dry Poaching. EVERY TIME. Dry poaching will revolutionize cooking chicken breasts for you, if you don't already know about it! And then I drizzled some balsamic syrup over the breasts for extra oomph. For the veggies I roasted the broccoli and the tomatoes, making an impromptu vinaigrette in the tomato pan by using olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And finally, the grain bowl was finished with the joyous addition of some basil pesto; bright and herb fresh. (Just before serving I also added a few walnuts I had sitting on the counter, as much to use up the walnuts as for a bit of added crunch.) For foolproof gain bowl recipes, if you aren't into making up your own, I really like Bowls of Plenty. What's your go to source for your favourite breakfast, Buddha or supper bowl?

Haha...I have! And let me tell you abut it. Scout is a North American Craft Cannery. They source regionally, have the highest standards of sustainability and they are committed to reforesting the ocean. They have an excellent blog post about why tuna should not cost $2. I was excited to find out that Scout had smoked tuna! SMOKED TUNA!!! One of my favourite NYC deli sandwiches I have spent years and years trying to find smoked tuna outside of NY. Seriously, I have scanned the shelves of every speciality store, looked on line et nauseam and EVERY TRIP to NY have hoped to bring home cans of smoked tuna to no avail. And then I found this smoked tuna on the Scout website! Sweet happiness!!! My parcel arrived quickly, and the day had come to feast upon that most elusive of sandwiches, the smoked tuna salad! I went online to find the recipe for an authentic NY deli smoked tuna. Did it automatically come with tomato? Was lettuce standard? Is there celery in the mix? Lemon? Uhhmmm....are you ready? NY deli smoked tuna salad is NOT made with smoked tuna! WTF?!? Are you kidding me? Aaaaaallllll these years of searching for smoked tuna and there is no smoked tuna in the salad mix? Again, WTF?!? LOL. (You have to have a sense of humour about these things, don't you?) Smoked Tuna Salad is made with regular 'ol tuna and smoked salmon. Hahaha. Still. The Scout tuna was delicious. I did make a sandwich, upon which I forgot to put the tomato and lettuce (have you seen the price? I took 5 minutes to decide what lettuce to buy to save money - insert eye roll) And I am very excited to try more Scout products, especially as Summer picnics and bonfire season comes on. Fingers crossed our favourite local purveyor carries Scout products this summer...

We all know beans are great for you. But sometimes they can seem a little boring. Maybe it's the tin? Tinned food can often seem less than, and maybe it's just not knowing many ways to cook them? The great thing about a tin of beans is how quickly you can make a super supper! Often in 20 minutes. Whoo-hoo! Here are a few proven winners from the NY Times. Their data base is wonderfully large, and so a quick search for "beans" yields over 1600 recipes! Get cooking! Beans are a wonderful way to eat less meat, save some money and nourish your body. Last night I made this great Pasta e Cici. And I love, love, love these - Bean and Garlic Toast in Broth. Friends were coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs over these -Lemony Shrimp and Bean Stew. And One Pot Rice and Beans are an excellent side dish. Finally, a classic Saturday night Baked Beans; satisfyingly long to cook, warming to the heart and soul! (Good for the heart too!!)

Living here? While I can't change the weather, and cold spring is de rigueur in Cape Breton, I can offer this fresh, slightly tropical, healthy and delicious salad idea..... Pineapple-Cucumber Salad is a super way to liven up the grey grey days. It's sweet, a little spicy and heart soaringly cheerful. In fact. I think it pairs very well with a lime margarita. So slip on a swimsuit, grab a pineapple and enjoy a summer staycation!

Leeks. Why do I cook with, and pay more for, leeks? Leeks are a member of the allium family. This family includes the more often, locally used onion, garlic, green onion and chives. When they are cooked they flavour a dish with an oniony taste that is much milder than onion or garlic, a bit sweet, and they become kind of buttery and creamy. Because of this creaminess they are great for keeping calories a little lower while still making a dish seem velvety, Leeks are a diuretic, so have been used for centuries for weight loss, as well as having all the health benefits of the allium family. But for me, they are a comfort food. A quiet, subtle, sweet and creamy accompaniment to other subtle foods. Recently I made a leek and white bean dish with lemon shrimp in which the leeks did some of their best work, adding body and aroma without overpowering the other ingredients and the subtle sweetness of the shrimp. But you must be careful!! Leeks are often grown in sand, and can trap sand in their layers. So the leek must be well cleaned. There are many ways to clean a leek; Google will give you dozens of suggestions. But the easiest way if you do not need them to be whole or halved lengthways, is to simply slice and swish in a lot of water. The sand will sink, and you will be guaranteed no nasty crunch in your supper. Also! The leek is one of the national emblems of Wales, and is a big player in St. David's Day celebrations. Lucky for us, St. David's Day falls on March 1. So you have one day to run out and get some leeks to usher in March, Spring, and perhaps the sunshine that we are so missing this last day of February! Vive la leek. What I know for sure: Leeks are easy to grow and love to grow with strawberries. They naturally repel many of the pesky pests that bother strawberries. (If only my garden wasn't 90 percent clay...)