These MERINGUE NEST COOKIES WITH MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM topped with mini chocolate eggs are absolutely necessary for Easter! These darling treats are definitely not just for the kids 😉

I love rice and I love kimchi. Like, looooooove. Today I’m sharing this EASY KIMCHI FRIED RICE recipe that’s become a weeknight staple ever since my two girls finally learned to enjoy kimchi! This is one of the quickest dinners you can pull together using fairly basic fridge and pantry staples. You can use homemade kimchi or store-bought kimchi. As easy as this recipe is, there is one thing I want you to pay attention to: perfect fried rice starts with perfectly prepared rice!

What happens when you cross-breed a Belgian waffle, with Japanese mochi, with a Canadian doughnut aka a ‘Beaver Tail’? The result is like culinary eugenic whereby the best qualities of each are leveraged to create a superior breakfast or anytime treat – these addictively delicious Mochi Waffles with Cinnamon Sugar and Lemon. Don’t be misled by their unpretentious appearance. The texture of the waffles with the cinnamon-sugar-lemon combination is so amazing they need no further adornment. What’s more is, after researching other mochi waffle recipes and testing a handful myself, I streamlined the method so that the batter involves merely whisking dry ingredients and wet ingredients, then combining the two with a spatula. No stand mixer, and no need to first microwave a portion of flour and water separately. Because I’m lazy. And mostly because I didn’t feel the extra step was justified based on the outcome in this particular application. Awesome, right? Wait til you read what’s next!!

A light and airy dessert featuring a spongy meringue rolled around whipped cream kissed with honey and orange blossom water, dribbles of luscious mandarin curd, and fresh juicy mandarin segments. The only word to describe it is sublime.

May I interest you in an epic recipe perfect for the holidays? Actually, it is ideal for any dinner party at any time of the year, for that matter. Yes? I’m so glad! Because today I’m sharing this recipe — the second of my six-recipe collaboration with All-Clad Canada — a succulent Whole Roasted Duck with Plum Butter Glaze + Slaw made with All-Clad Canada’s Large Roaster with Rack. This was such a fabulous meal that everyone loved. I highly recommend this recipe if you’re into impressive, delicious, and NOT the same-old-same-old!

Is it just me or are people pretty divisive when it comes to crab versus lobster? I feel like they’re usually in one camp or the other, with few who like them equally. It may be the more pedestrian choice but I’ve always been team lobster since I was a child. My husband, on the other hand, is all about the crab. My lobster bias is due in no small part to sheer laziness and my desire to get large juicy morsels of seafood into my mouth with a minimal amount of work. Large lobster tails = chunks of seafood in my mouth with minimal work. There is no equivalent body part on a crab! Eating crab requires patience and finesse to extract the meat from the claws, legs and body. But ahhhhh…enter: LUMP CRAP MEAT. Fresh picked and already cooked, juicy crab meat can be purchased from any seafood monger or the seafood counter of a well-stocked grocery store. This magical food item is ready to be tossed with a shortlist of simple ingredients to create this decadent yet totally approachable recipe, Crab Cakes with Peach Salsa and Tarragon Aioli. Imagine the warm and juicy crab cakes together with the cool creaminess of tarragon aioli and zippy freshness of the peach salsa! This meal will awaken your taste buds, guaranteed.

To say the recent arrival of Teri Turner’s wonderful new cookbook No Crumbs Left, Recipes for Everyday Food Made Marvelous was highly anticipated by her legion of loyal fans (she calls her “crumbles”) would be a massive understatement. I have been following Teri’s instagram for years. She approaches cooking with the ease and confidence that inspires so many of us. “Don’t be afraid to fail; it’s just food” is what Teri frequently says. Don’t those words alone empower you to tackle almost anything in your kitchen?

You may have noticed my love affair with cake. I’m not too selective when it comes to flavour. I have no prejudices and have enough love (and sweet tooth) in me to love them all! Unless they are excessively sweet. If you’ve baked any of my cake or loaf recipes, you may have noticed that my palate prefers just-sweet-enough desserts that don’t ache my teeth or leaves me feeling ill after eating it. Carrot cakes, in particular, seem to be guilty of being cloyingly sweet. Is it the sweetness of the carrots? The cream cheese frosting? Perhaps both. In any case, if you love carrot cakes, you will love this perfectly sweet, perfectly moist, slightly better-for-you Gluten Free Carrot Cake with an amazing tangy, “no-cream-cheese” frosting that might blow your mind like it did mine.

Here’s an easy, healthy, minimal-cook meal idea for weeknight dinner, not-a-sad-desk-lunch or kid school lunch. This recipe for TUNA AND KIMCHI ONIGIRAZU is a must try…they are simple to make and so, sooo delicious.

I’ve baked enough gluten-free cakes to confidently say that despite its bad rap, gluten-free cakes need not to be dry or dense or sandy in texture. They can be moist, light and often times in my opinion, more flavourful than wheat flour cakes depending on the ingredients used. In this case, I use a mix of almond flour (see - flavour boost right there) and gluten-free flour blend. Egg yolks provide richness and egg whites (whipped) provide airiness to lighten the denser nature of gluten-free flours.

All it took was a delicious cookie. The kind that is hearty and chunky with all my favourite things like seeds and cacao nibs and cranberries and goji berries and tahini (aka my favourite butter of all time until infinity). The kind that promises to be hearty, healthy AND delicious, and actually delivers on that promise. It’s no wonder that I fell in love with it and have made the recipe more than half a dozen times. And in falling in love with the cookie, I discovered and also fell a little bit in love (not in a creepy stalker way … in a respectful admiration type of way) with its creators, Sarah Grossman and Tamara Green, the duo behind Living Kitchen Wellness blog and now their debut cookbook, The Living Kitchen Cookbook, Healing Recipes to Support Your During Cancer Treatment and Recovery.

Do you like the sound of juicy chicken with crispy skin, slathered in a zippy sauce? If so, I have this fantastic 6-ingredient, 30 minutes recipe for you. This easy and flavor-packed GINGER APRICOT CHICKEN recipe came about when I craved a tasty dish to appease my bored taste buds shortly after starting my first Whole30 so this recipe provides options for regular preparation or soy-free / gluten-free versions. This recipe has since become one of our family weeknight favourites!

Slurp-worthy rice noodles in a creamy, flavourful broth, this easy THAI RED CURRY NOODLE SOUP WITH SHRIMP BALLS is the kind of tasty and nutritious meal to put into your recipe rotation immediately.

Any morel lovers out there?! I am so pleased to partner with Green Peace Canada on this blog post to raise awareness about the Boreal forest by way of this wildly delicious Cauliflower Gnocchi with Morel Mushrooms recipe! Easy to make two-ingredient cauliflower gnocchi are tossed simply with sauteed morels, shallots and garlic, and finished with chives and a wee drizzle of nice balsamic vinegar to brighten everything up. This is an elevated dish fit for royalty! Or at least your most favorite dinner guests. The ones who bring very nice wine! ;)

SPOILER ALERT: This dairy-free and vegan chocolate mousse involves NO tofu, NO avocado, NO aquafaba and NO praying that the coconut cream will whip up properly. It is luxuriously rich with that dreamy fluffiness of traditional mousse. It is SUBLIME.

When I set out to make a dairy-free and vegan chocolate mousse, I deep-dived Google and Pinterest and came across a multitude of recipes using one of the four aforementioned ingredients: avocado, silken tofu, aquafaba (brine from canned chickpeas) and whipped up coconut cream. But I really, really wanted to create a version that steered clear of all of them. I wanted a recipe that uses more conventional dessert ingredients AND a fool-proof method, while still achieving a mousse that delivers the same intense chocolate flavor with a billowy texture that slightly melts on the tongue. No compromise.

When talented baker, mama, and fellow Canadian blogger Fanny sent me a copy of her new debut cookbook Oh Sweet Day! A Celebration Cookbook of Edible Gifts, Party Treats and Festive Desserts to review, I could not have been more delighted! Fanny and I have been following each other on Instagram for a few years. Her IG posts torture me (in the best way hehe) with elegantly executed desserts that inevitably awaken the dessert monster inside me! So much so, I have already made two of Fanny’s recipes, not including this delectable meringue treat (which we will get to in a beat, I promise). One such recipe was her Pecan Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies which was published in the 2017 Holiday issue of the Bake From Scratch Cookie Magazine, an issue full of featured recipes from a handful of the most elite baking bloggers. I made the Pecan Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies to include in my annual holiday cookie boxes for giving away, and hers turned out to be my personal favorite (by far) of the season. I was tempted to keep them all for myself.

This cake is studded throughout with bits of soft apples and flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and allspice - aka all the distinctive notes of Fall. Moreover, it has such a wonderfully light and tender crumb! As someone who bakes gluten-free regularly, texture is a major measure of success. And everyone who had a piece of this cake said it didn’t taste like a gluten-free cake at all. Woot! It always feels like a bit of wizardry to get results as good as, or even better, than conventional cakes made with all-purpose flour. Even for people who are not gluten-sensitive, this cake is a win-win because it is lower in carbs and higher in nutrition (especially protein) than cakes made with all-purpose flour. I think everyone will enjoy it. Let me know if you agree!

A pavlova always makes a grand impression. This PEACH + PASSIONFRUIT PAVLOVA is probably my all time favourite version of the dessert! The sublime combination of juicy peaches and tart-sweet passionfruit, billowy whipped cream and chewy-crisp meringue, is certain to make you swoon.

It's mid August which means Toronto is bursting with summer produce. Our local farmer's market is, to me, almost like a candy store to a child. Tables are piled high with an abundance of fresh and colorful fruits and vegetables hitting their peak. I am in heaven!  In particular, tomatoes are having their long-awaited moment in the sun, literally and figuratively. :)