NEAROF

Is there anything they won’t milk? In the past couple years, I’ve sipped cow milk, almond milk, rice milk, soy milk … and those are just the milks I remember. But quinoa milk? This was new to me. If you read much about food, you’ll know there’s currently a love-in surrounding quinoa – the latest [...]

Bread is cheap. For a little more than a buck, I can buy a sale-priced loaf of basic white bread at my local grocery store. If I boost my budget to a couple of bucks, my choices increase. And for a bit more than $5 per loaf, I can get some pretty fantastic bread from [...]

Near as our calendar app can tell us, it’s Christmas Eve. That means it’s time to hunker down in front of the fireplace, snuggle up with your special someone, and enjoy a warm mug of spiced apple cider. This recipe, from the lovely Aline, is easy to make, and the aroma fills a house with [...]

In honour of the American election happening tomorrow, I thought I’d do my neighbourly best by marking the occasion with that most relevant of British treats, Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake. The Pitch: There’s a back story on the wrapper that puts all other “X-TREEM!” snack treat marketing to shame. “Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake was carried [...]

Until moving to Calgary, the closest I came to balcony gardening was the flower bed in front of our old apartment in Edmonton’s Belgravia neighbourhood, which the owners actively encouraged us to plant with veggies and herbs. Try as we might, the soil was kind of grotty, and the local rabbits trashed much of the [...]

If you’ve travelled the roads of West Africa, you’ve no doubt seen the vendors streetside, at bus stations and at the markets, all selling little tied-shut plastic baggies full of deep-red-purple juice. In Burkina Faso, it’s called bissap, and it’s delicious. If you bought a baggie of cool, refreshing bissap from a vendor, you know [...]

I’m a pretty half-hearted carnivore. Sure, I like the occasional steak (cooked to well done), and I quite like kebabs, satay, souvlaki, shawarma, donair, gyro, and all manner of marinated chicken breasts, especially cooked on a grill. And chicken tikka? Don’t even get me started. But I don’t need meat every day of my life. [...]

When toasting the new year, the easy choice is a sparkling wine. It’s traditional, it’s a zazzy crowd-pleaser and it’s the simple thing to pick. But maybe others don’t like the whole champagne at midnight thing? Maybe they’d like another form of bubbly goodness? If you’re going to toast with beer, you’d might as well [...]