10 Kitchen Gadgets Moms Can’t Live Without

I am a self-proclaimed kitchen avoider. While I’m pretty confident in my cooking skills, I’m no lover of ending my day by cooking a big meal for the family. By the time dinner rolls around, I’m lucky if I actually have something defrosted enough to cook and I’m much more likely to pawn the job [...]

Cook Up Some Magic (Hubba Hubba) This Valentine’s Day & Win

Good Morning. Oh do I have a treat for you today. When my pal Kim first phoned me up and told me I had to check out the new book by Shannon Loeber and Mary Edwards I figured it had to be fun – because Kim doesn’t live in a world minus sassy fun. But, [...]

Bitchin’ Kitchen – Spice Agent, Cumin

Editor’s Note: If you missed this morning’s post, we had a great interview with the Comox Valley’s newest specialty baker Christa Herrling. Check it out HERE. Meanwhile, the Bitchin’ Kitchen crew are back today with a Spice Agent special report. Enjoy:

Bitchin’ Kitchen – Single-Life Salmon

Ah, crazy rainy day…we are busy concocting some spooky decorations and reading spooky stories while Ken plots some time in Vancouver to finish up a project he’s been working on for a while. I had a freakishly early morning…which led me to Sarah’s yummy post on happy family pumpkin recipes…which led me to a batch [...]

Bitchin’ Kitchen – Deflate Your Mate

Happy downpour. If you missed our morning post, check out all the details on the new location for the Comox Valley Farmer’s Market Winter Market HERE.
In honor of the OBE HQ weight loss extravaganza, the chilly weather and my uncontrollable urge to make a giant pan of baklava that no one else will be allowed [...]

Bitchin’ Kitchen – Coffee Wars

Bitchin’ Kitchen Episode 1

Green-e-ology – Mis-Adventures In Canning

Editor’s Note: Good Morning! Thinking local grains today? Check out the Brambles Demo with True Grains Bakery at 11 a.m.
But, really, the big event of the week is tomorrow when Royston’s ASH Berry Farm hosts the final Farm Event of the 30-Day Challenge. It’s going to be hot. So, what better way to cool down [...]

Cookbooks That Renew Traditions

Editor’s Note: This afternoon is going to be AWESOME as Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge Featured Producer DeeKayTee Ranch hosts a fantastic farm tour event.
There will be some wagon riding, some animal checking out, a tour of their guest houses and gorgeous farm, demonstrations and more from 1 to 3 p.m. out [...]

Get Bitchin’ in Your Kitchen (giveaway)

Good Morning!
So, Toronto was INSANE (in the best of ways). We ate until the cows refused to come home for fear that they would be course #6 at dinner, talked shop about food. But, best of all, I met some of the coolest Canadian food bloggers out there.
Everyone was amazing (seriously), and I’m hoping to [...]

Family Eats – Kitchen Tools 4 Family Cooking Fun

My kiddos each have a preference for certain tasks in the kitchen. Wearing their aprons and standing on their designated stools, they have mastered many duties and discovered their kitchen karma.
My youngest, E, loves to peel, cut and stir literally everything.
My oldest, K, is a precise measurer and is the self-professed best recipe finder. She [...]

Family Eats – Getting Your Kids In The Kitchen

Editor’s Note: Good Morning and welcome to our first installment of Family Eats – a journey in getting kids back into the kitchen – with lovely local mama Sarah Stromquist and her family.
Sarah lets us peek inside the food-friendly evolution of her family and the family-friendly evolution of her kitchen, offering insight, tips, recipes and [...]

Best Family Food of 2008

I love to eat great food. My mother, brother and father all duked it out over time in the kitchen when I was a kid. So, I enjoyed being out of the mix, eating rather than creating.
(there’s a pattern surfacing here. My parents suspected I came out of the womb a career girl)
But, as usual, [...]

Holiday Gems for the Heart (& The Kitchen)

I like to think of our family as a crew of non-traditional traditionalists.
We love Christmas and birthdays, presents and sweets. But, in ways that present the age-old traditions of those times with a classic sense of heart, not necessarily a classic point of view.
After falling hard for Eve Bunting’s holiday gem The Night Tree this [...]

Homemade Holiday Treats – Baklava

It was my childhood Winter wonderland – this magical place where all things flour and powdered sugar, pecan tart and almond brittle converged and I knew I had caught a glimpse of perfection.
To the average person, that place looked like my grandmother’s basement. But, to me, with it packed – literally – from floor to [...]

Veggie Puff Pillows

Good morning.
As we wind down here on Comox Valley Kids and gear up for the launch of Our Big Earth-Comox Valley (next Wednesday, Wow!) it is my honour that our final Food & Your Family entry comes from one of my favourite food bloggers, Mohini from Mango Power Girl.
Her wonderful, delicious treats make this bitter [...]

Bacon & Egg Cups

Editor’s Note: Since the chilly weather set in the last couple of days I have been in serious comfort-food craving mode.
Whipping out the homemade pastas, soups and snagging warm loaves of fresh bread from the bakery keeps us all feeling cozy and centered as we move away from the sunshine and into Fall.
Bacon ranks right [...]

Homemade Butter/Buttermilk

Today we have with us, all the way from Wisconsin, the delicious family-focused food adventures of Mom In Madison’s Denise Cusack who also writes up her foodie ways over at Cook.Eat.Think
I really dig Denise for so many reasons and absolutely L-O-V-E her take on getting her little people involved in every aspect of food, from [...]

Double Shot of Zucchini

Editor’s Note: Tree Haverner from Tiny Morsels is back with us today giving us the inside scoop on how to use up those overflowing mounds of zucchini that are either overcrowding our gardens or showing up on our doorsteps in the middle of the night.
Tree offers up an original recipe exclusive to CVK and the [...]

Coconut Cocoa Date Balls

Ken is a chocolate junkie.
From goo to gourmet, if it looks like chocolate and smells like chocolate, the rest of us aren’t going to be getting much of it.
That would be just fine for me. In the sweets universe, chocolate rates well below sour candies and rides at the back of the bus when in [...]

Activity Books that Connect Hands and Heads

I know you’ll all be really shocked to learn this:). But, I love activity books.
In fact, it is one of my major missions in the parenting universe to try out every activity book I can get my hands on. If there is a childhood project to be test-driven, I’d like to at least know about [...]

Summer Kanten

Editor’s note: Christa and I work tandem on the food column these days. She writes the stories and I take the photos.
I love Christa’s yummy un-jello Jello recipe this week. But, my family is totally not down with melon – of any kind. So, you’ll see that the photo doesn’t really look like an apple [...]

Shaker Salad Dressing

I don’t have to tell you that I’m a big proponent of getting kids involved in the kitchen.
Kneading dough, scrambling eggs, flipping pancakes- some of my best childhood memories are of learning basic kitchen skills from my parents.
It’s with a love for nostalgia and good food that I find myself encouraging my little person along [...]

Raspberry Yogurt Ice Pops

Everyone keeps telling me it’s still only spring- that summer hasn’t truly arrived yet, and that we may see many more weeks of inconsistent weather yet.
The boots may come out of the closet again.
The SPF 45 might sit on the shelf for a week or more.
The barbeque cover might be put back on.
I’ve had no [...]

Freezer Muffins that Rock

Moving to the North Island has turned my family in to a trio of frequent road trippers.
There are piles of friends and hot spots we’ve left behind in our former cities of Vancouver and Victoria, and we make a point of visiting often to soak up a bit of the good stuff we’ve left behind.
Our [...]

Do-It-Yourself Snail Shells

Tis’ the season of gooey creatures.
Spring rains are heaven in the universe of snails, slugs and other varieties of slimy forest friends. We are personally working on attaining “groupie” status in terms of L-O-V-I-N-G banana slugs and our daughter’s newest discovery – the forest snail.
She totally digs beach snails. A day on the tidal flats [...]

Spinach Pesto Fettuccine

On this, the week before Mother’s Day, I’d like to offer up a recipe that I have come to love for its simplicity- or in other words- I have come to love this recipe because it is easy enough for my husband to prepare, and is downright delicious.
I know there are many husbands and partners [...]

Banana Walnut French Toast

Good Morning
When you read on and check out Christa’s yummy breakfast recipe today, you’ll notice that her column has a gorgeous new banner. As a part of our ongoing redesign, all of our regular columnists now have customized banners designed by Ken Henderson Design with photos courtesy of Karen McKinnon.
This is one of the many [...]

Kid-Friendly Power Balls

In our house, forgetting to pack sufficient snacks for a day away from home constitutes a moderate role of the dice where our little person’s diet is concerned.
My son has a small-ish repertoire of healthy foods he deigns acceptable for consumption. It’s definitely enough to meet his basic dietary needs – the boy baffles me [...]

Cream Cheese Penguins

If spring break is seeming as endless at your house as it is in ours, you’re likely looking for some inspiration to keep the kiddos occupied.
The kitchen is always a great spot for enthusiastic little people, with lots of opportunities for mixing ingredients, getting a little messy, and watching their efforts materialize while sitting cross-legged [...]

The Babka Kitchen Adventure

Before I get started, here’s more farm fun from Day 2 at the Hands-On Farm. The place is hopping with tiny people (and tiny lambs, two that are just one-week old):

Christa and I have teamed up today to offer up a Spring Break Adventure in the form of a family day in the kitchen.
The [...]

Pear with Honey & Pecans

Today’s comment challenge: What are your favourite snack foods to take on a day trip. Recipes welcome but not required:)

Daylight savings has really put a spring in my step this week. All of a sudden, summer feels within arm’s reach.
I bought Capri pants.
I rolled the car windows down once or twice.
I realized the Farmer’s [...]

Creamy Vegetable Spread

Every so often there comes along an easy, healthy, delicious recipe that becomes an instant household classic. A few weeks ago, I sampled a recipe for Creamy Vegetable Spread from the November 2007 issue of Everyday Food Magazine from Martha Stewart that I had that gut feeling about.
“We will make this forever!” I declared.
We’ve long [...]

Salad People

The dining toddler is quite an enigma.
As the parent of one who will be 3 in April, I have shared in discussion after discussion with fellow parents of toddlers, and it seems there is quite the spectrum of eating habits from one child to the next.
My son in particular has a handful of staple foods [...]

Spelt Pancakes

Mmmmmm, pancakes.
Years ago during a short stint in Seattle, my husband and I would wake up every Sunday morning and wander the few blocks down Capitol Hill streets to an amazing soul food restaurant where the most lip-smacking delicious buttermilk pancakes in the history of pancakes lived.
Just the thought takes me back to childhood, warm, [...]

Tahini Candy

I’m going to have to vote Christa most popular for this really amazing recipe. Besides being a smart candy alternative for your kiddos, it’s also a super healthy, energy-packed treat for pregnant moms or parents in need of a pick-me-up. This one is going to live around our house for a long, long time. [...]

Holiday Family Cooking with Kids

I am NOT the queen of the kitchen.
Growing up in a family of pretty darn great cooks, I never bothered doing much of it myself. It was something so much more beloved to other people. I happily watched while they created.
What I discovered years later, when I finally felt confident that our daughter could safely [...]