close up photography of wine glasses

We Made Our Own Wine

We had fun making a batch of “home made” wine at our local make your own wine store!

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Bowl of lamb stew

Lamb Stew

A delicious recipe for Lamb Stew – perfect for a spring or Easter dinner.

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Free wheat bread toasted with peanut

As Canadian as Peanut Butter

The history of peanut butter – A delicious and healthy Canadian food!

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Cheesecake Tiramisu

Tiramisu Cheesecake

We prepared this easy Tiramisu Cheesecake for a birthday celebration. It’s a seemingly fancy dessert but we made it no-bake and without eggs or mascarpone cheese.

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woman gardening

Spring Head Start – Seed Starting

Get a jump on spring gardening with simple seed starting tips. Learn how to choose the right seeds, create the perfect environment, and care for your seedlings for a bountiful harvest.

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vegan roasted butternut squash soup

Vegan Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

A very easy recipe for a delicious roasted butternut squash soup that just happens to be vegan!

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Hot Dogs, Pogos and a Twist

A little bit of history and trivia about hot dogs, pogos and corn dogs and a recipe for corn dogs.

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Pasta with Bolognese Sauce

What’s in a Sauce? A Bolognese Recipe

Our family favourite recipe for Bolognese Sauce. Printable recipe card included.

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Vegan Buttermilk Cinnamon Holiday Cake

Vegan Cinnamon Buttermilk Holiday Cake

An easy recipe for a holiday style cake with cinnamon and raisins, made with vegan buttermilk. It’s perfect as a coffee cake, as a snack or as a dessert. Did I mention it’s a vegan recipe?

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Chicken Thighs with Spinach

One Pan Chicken Thighs and Spinach

Jacques Pepin’s recipe for chicken thighs and spinach is easy to prepare, requires very few ingredients, only one pan – and is sensational.

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One pan lemon chicken and potatoes

One Pan Lemon Chicken and Potatoes from our test kitchen

We make Lemon Chicken and Potatoes in one pan – and place it in the centre of the table so that everyone can ladle their own food.

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fusilli with tomato sauce

Everyday Tomato Pasta Sauce

An easy recipe for tomato pasta sauce, prepared with fresh garden tomatoes – no peeling or huge quantities required!

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Flapper pie

Flapper Pie – A Canadian Classic

Flapper Pie is a unique Canadian dessert. This creamy and tangy pie, made with a graham cracker crust, custard filling, and meringue topping, is easy to make and always a crowd-pleaser. How to make flapper pie at home – a few facts, and a printable recipe.

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Bread pudding

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a traditional and humble dessert made with everyday ingredients. A little about its’ history and two recipes for bread pudding. Banana Raisin Bread Pudding and Blueberry Bread Pudding (vegan).

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Make Pasta Great Again – The Authentic Carbonara

A recipe and post about how to prepare an Authentic Pasta Carbonara with a printable recipe card.

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It seems like one of the first conversations we have almost every morning is “what are we having for dinner?” – and I know we’re not alone. Even in the best of times we like spending time in the kitchen entertaining and cooking over a good glass of wine – in fact I would say it is one of our favorite activities.

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Sometimes we share the kitchen doings and sometimes we go it alone, but the dragon lady and I approach the events from opposite ends of the spectrum. We just have different auras about us. She, much more easy-going and a go with the flow type is capable of making anything from scratch and happy to use what is available in the house. Scouring the fridge and cupboard to make terrific out of this world soups, stews and casseroles, never making the exact same dish twice – a real talent. This approach also transcends into wine selections with preference given to selecting a vintage generating the most Airmiles – which I consider to be sinful. My brothers say I am a tad snooty …Nooooooo.

An everyday wine collection.
Lillie’s stash of Airmiles generating wines for quarantine

I on the other hand am cursed with a perfectionist attitude which requires me to follow recipes to a tee and creates anxiety when going through the process. And truth be told I’m just not in the same league as the dragon lady. But having said that, I absolutely will bask in the glory when I get something right. OK so I digress.


During the very recent pandemic isolation period, I decided to explore dishes I have never made before focusing on simple but tasty dishes that do not require perfect measurements – ah old habits die hard.

Spaghetti Carbonara fits the bill and is a wonderful plate deeply rooted in old school Italian culture, and if you mention using cream in the same breath as Carbonara, the kitchen gods will frown upon you.

Authentic pasta carbonara
Authentic Carbonara

Here’s all you will need for a dinner for four (two of our university kids are home isolating with us). Prep and cook time of 20 minutes.

Authentic Carbonara Ingredients

  • 450g package of your favorite spaghetti
  • 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk for extra creamy sauce
  • 7 thick sliced strips of bacon cut into small chunks – FYI Authentic Carbonara is made with Guanciale (cured pork cheek). You can substitute with Pancetta (salami made from pork belly meat – salt cured) or thick cut bacon as I did
  • Pecorino and Parmigiana cheese, about 1 ¼ cup, half and half or more if you like. I like the Parmigiana as it adds an additional kick of salt
  • Olive oil
  • About 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper – more if desired (yes, I cannot believe I said that)

THAT’S IT, NOTHING ELSE

Authentic Pasta Carbonara Preparation

Salted water
Boil the spaghetti in salted water

Boil the spaghetti about 8 minutes in salted water – kosher salt. While spaghetti is cooking, chop bacon and cook on medium heat in lightly oiled large pan. Bacon is done when crisp on outside but still has chew. Tip – put the bacon in the pan before it is hot as it will help render the bacon better.

cook bacon at medium heat
Cook bacon in lightly oiled pan at medium heat

While bacon and spaghetti are cooking whisk 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk in a bowl and add grated cheese and freshly ground pepper – use a lot of pepper. This dish is all about timing – ideally you want the bacon and spaghetti to be done at the same time. When bacon is done, turn off the heat. If there is an excess of grease you can use a spoon to take some out, but you want there to be grease. Let the pan cool for about 1 minute or so. Add the spaghetti and stir around the pan – the pan should sill be warm/hot but not sizzling as you do not want to scramble the eggs. Stir in the cheese and egg mixture. I also add about a half cup or so of the hot spaghetti water.  Stir the pan for about 30 seconds – Fini.

Portion onto plates, top with grated parmigiana and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Carbonara ready to eat
Portion Carbonara onto plates

This is a wonderful dish, ready in 20 minutes.  If we were sharing with guests – I would serve with a Barolo Cannubi – no Airmiles here!

red wine
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com

Below is a printable recipe card from RecipesGenerator. Please give it a try!

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BBQ Ribs and Mashed Potatoes

Barbecued Back Ribs in Foil

My husband is cooking his specialty tonight – barbequed pork back ribs! They used to take a long time to make, but now he uses foil to shorten the process, and they taste just as wonderful, if not better than the original.

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