Measuring tips:

At chef school I learned a bit about measuring but we were encouraged to make adjustments to ingredients according to our taste buds. Adding a pinch of this and a smattering of that was considered a sign of confidence. The problem with this approach to cooking was that my written recipes only worked for me. It wasn't until I joined the Canadian Living Test Kitchen team that I really learned how to measure ingredients accurately. What a difference exact measurements made to the success of my written recipes! Finally, I could give a recipe to a friend and hear back that it had turned out perfectly.

So that you can have test kitchen perfect results when you cook, follow these tips. If you do, your cooking will measure up every time!

• Use proper measuring spoons -- not cutlery.
• For small amounts of dry foods, scoop out the ingredient using the proper measuring spoon, then level it off with the back of a knife.
• For liquid ingredients, pour into the spoon until it is just full.
• Do all of your measuring and chopping before you start to cook or combine ingredients.
• Measure liquids, such as oil and milk, in glass or plastic measuring cups with spouts.
• Measure dry ingredients, such as flour and sugar, into spoutless cups by scooping the ingredient into the cup and then leveling it off with a knife. Don't shake the measure to even it out.
• Measure frying pans and baking pans across the bottom.


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I recently moved into my very own “Barbie Dream House”. (If I can't have her body, at least I can have her house!) Not surprisingly, the kitchen is my favorite room. I chose a gorgeous Wolf gas range with a convection oven and a professional quality hood fan so I that can cook over high heat and make as much steam and as many fumes as I like. I also added a second under counter refrigerator so that I have lots of room in the main refrigerator for actual food (at my old house, juice and wine and beer were always in the way when I wanted to thaw a turkey or chill rolled pastry).

What's been surprising for me is that having a great, truly functional kitchen has made cooking so much more appealing! I wouldn't have chosen the career I have if I didn't love to cook; however, I love it even more now that I have equipment that does exactly what I want it to do and the space to spread out a little while I develop recipes.

Although it's not practical for everyone to move into a new house or re-do their entire kitchen, there are a some things you can do to make cooking easier in any kitchen:

1. Get organized. If you know where the muffin tin is, you can use it.

2. Check your oven thermostat using a reliable thermometer. If it's out of whack get it calibrated by a professional.

3. Organize your refrigerator so that you have at least one shelf reserved for ingredients to be cooked. Move the condiments, leftovers, milk and cheese to other shelves. That way you can easily see what ingredients you have to work with.

Throw stuff out. That's right. If you have three vegetable peelers, choose the one you like and get rid of the rest. Clutter is not your friend.


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I love when you meet someone new and they instantly become your friend. When I met cookbook author Norene Gilletz several years ago we immediately hit it off. I suspect this experience is a normal one for Norene; she's truly one of the most approachable people I've ever met! This quality and her well-developed cooking skills are the winning combination that has helped her to become a Canadian cooking icon.

Norene had lunch a few weeks ago and I asked her a few questions about her new book Norene's Healthy Kitchen.

DM: Your new book has more than 30 pages of tips plus many more scattered throughout the book. Why did you include all of this information in Norene's Healthy Kitchen?

NG: I get oodles of email and letters from people who have questions about cooking so I decided to address the questions I get asked most often in a place where even people who don't have my email address can find the answers.

DM: This reminds me that you mention in many recipe leads that the original idea for the recipe came from a friend or a reader.

NG: My book is about sharing as well as about eating. Including ideas I get from other people adds character to all of my books and helps my fellow cooks live on forever.

DM: With over 600 recipes and a price tag of only $34.95 you realize that each of your recipes costs less than 6 cents? Are you trying to put the rest of us food writers out of business?

NG: (laughing) Certainly not! I kept developing more great recipes and couldn't choose what to exclude. I handed in the manuscript expecting my editor to cut down the book but she couldn't choose between the recipes either.


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For years food companies and entrepreneurs have tried to find the perfect diet hook to entice dissatisfied chubby people to give their companies lots of money. During the heyday of the low carb craze literally thousands of products were launched to appeal to these dieters. And then, just as quickly as it became popular, it was no longer fashionable.

The Atkins Diet debacle taught many companies and business people that putting their extra large, high protein eggs all in one diet basket could be both expensive and disastrous.

Now, several years later a new weight loss gimmick has emerged. 100 Calorie packs of all kinds of snacks from Kit Kat bars (try the dark chocolate ones – they're my fav!) to Cheetos and Special K snacks are growing into a bonafide grocery store category. A Boston Globe article noted that Americans could find 92 different 100-calorie products on the market in July 2007, up from 51 in 2006 and only 13 in 2004. While Canadian numbers aren't easy to find, a trip through the grocery store reveals that 100-calorie packs are now common in our stores, too.

I love the neatness and sensibility these round numbered portion control products. It allows people to fit indulgent foods into almost any diet plan. And, as my muffin top has recently expanded into a full blown tea loaf, it seems that 100 calorie packs have arrived just in the nick of time to save me from having to buy new clothes!


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Before I start this blog post let me admit that I'm an enthusiastic carnivore who has no qualms about eating game meats or buying leather jackets, shoes, belts and furniture. In fact, one of my favorite treats is the caribou that my husband Martin Kouprie makes at Pangaea Restaurant (it's pictured below – yum!). Heck, I recently tucked into a plate of horse and found it delicious!

In almost every instance of my life long love affair with meat eating, I've consumed meats that were raised to be food and sold at the store or by a restaurant. Shopping for food I love. Hunting? Not so much.

As a result, I had a lot to think about after I heard a CBC Radio One segment about how the Alberta government designated September 22nd a provincial hunting day. Apparently the woods in that province are over populated so the province decided to encourage more people to hunt.

A day or so after learning about this Alberta initiative, I met a friend at Grains All Day Eatery, a stylish café in Concord (no, I'm not lying. Concord is evolving!) that attracts a predominantly male clientele. While I waited for my pal, I overheard the men at the next table discussing a moose hunting trip several of them had taken the pervious week and their plans to go deep sea marlin fishing in Bermuda the following week. For them hunting and fishing were truly pleasurable pastimes.

I'm not sure if it's a chick thing (sorry Gloria Steinman) or an urban thing (sorry city slickers), but I just don't get how hunting is fun. I would absolutely do it if I had no other way to feed my family or myself but the idea of willingly killing another creature really bugs me out. I once killed a mouse with the broom and I was physically upset for hours afterwards. Am I just hardwired to be a gatherer? It's hard to say. I'm just glad that there's a Sobeys around the corner so that I can buy my meat cold and pre-portioned just the way I like it.


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