Kong: Skull Island reveals origin of the species
Movie Review: Kong - Skull Island
The oversized ape makes a spectacular return in this big-budget B-movie that tries to plumb the depths of the American psyche but ends up playing in a muddy puddle
Chicken for the transition season
Recipe: Parmesan Roast Chicken with Cauliflower & Thyme
Fill a roasting pan with chicken, cauliflower and some select savoury goodies and say goodbye to the bleak midwinter blues
By Louise Crosby
This is a tricky time of year. Some days are so balmy you don’t need a coat, the snow evaporates before your very eyes, and you feel giddy at the thought of spring. Other days it’s back to the deep freeze, the long johns, and those heavy, awful boots. Yup, last week I was re-potting house plants on my back deck while the cat basked, belly-up, in the sun. This week, with daytime highs averaging -10 degrees C, I’ve lost interest in doing much of anything, especially outdoors. Such is life at the end of a long winter in Canada. But even as the mood swings from euphoric to resigned, I have managed to cook, since mucking around in the kitchen usually results in something good to eat, and we need to eat no matter what the season. And this Parmesan Roast Chicken with Cauliflower ...
Arthritis and Adamantium: Logan senses an ending
Movie Review: Logan movie review
James Mangold's latest instalment in the X-Men franchise takes a heroic look at mortality via Hugh Jackman's aging Wolverine and Patrick Stewart's supernaturally demented Professor Xavier
The wide river of Gordon Pinsent’s dreams
Movie Review: The River of My Dreams
Documentary about the Canadian actor captures much of his impish charm, but it leaves many questions unanswered about what really makes him tick
Paterson finds poetry in the everyday
Movie Review: Paterson
In Jim Jarmusch's new film, a bus driver named Paterson who lives in Paterson, N.J. — hometown of William Carlos Williams and Alan Ginsberg — sees life as gentle verse
Go with the grain on Valentine’s Day
Recipe: Whole Wheat Orange Shortbread Hearts If you're looking for a healthy alternative to a box of heart-shaped bonbons for your true love, we've got just the right solution with whole wheat orange shortbread
By Louise Crosby
There’s a movement gaining steam to make baking more nutritious by using less white flour and refined sugar and more whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruit, good fats, and natural sweeteners. No doubt there have always been bakers who leaned in this direction, but Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours, published in 2010, may have been that groundbreaking book that brought healthy baking into the mainstream. Alice Medrich’s 2014 Flavor Flours built on that trend, and today there’s a profusion of specialty cookbooks focusing on everything from coconut flour to agave nectar. In my little world, Genevieve Ko’s 2016 Better Baking: Wholesome Ingredients, Delicious Desserts, picks up where Boyce and Medrich left off. ...
Peanut Butter Crispy Brown Rice Bars Trump Hate and Hunger
Recipe: Peanut Butter Crispy Brown Rice Bars
When events in the U.S. makes you woozy, satisfy your hunger for something healthy, real and honestly nostalgic with a crispy rice peanut butter square.
By Louise Crosby
(January 29, 2017) OTTAWA, ON -- If you’re a person who aspires to making the world a better place, doing good, not harm, then you’ll be having a hard time stomaching what’s going on south of the border right now. It sinks you soooooo low, makes you feel angry, astounded, outraged, depressed, and, as a Canadian, powerless to do anything about it apart from wearing a pink pussy hat and marching on the street. Which, in Ottawa, was fantastic, by the way. So for mental health purposes, what do you do? You take a Donald Trump-free day, hop in the car, pick up Mom and sister Doritt, and head for the country, Mom with her sketch pad because she painted watercolours all her life and, at almost 91, isn’t about to stop, and you with your camera, because taking ...
Move over Pinocchio, this new Daddy’s got strings
Daddy Diary #8: The Puppetry of Parenting
What does a puppet parent looks like? Imagine a new form of entertainment if choreographed by a drunk, one-legged Danny Kaye and a zombie cheerleader.
By Chris Lackner
“I've got no strings so I have fun, I'm not tied to anyone. How I love my liberty, there are no strings on me!” Sure, Pinocchio made those words famous. But they also describe my motto before becoming a first-time, 37-year-old father.
For the last 10 years, I have enjoyed a rare combination: disposable income and disposable time. With apologies to Walt Disney, I’d add an extra verse or two to my own song (e.g. “I’ve got no strings, so I drink beer. If I sleep in, I’m in the clear. How I love my drinks sudsy, there are no strings on me!”)
As the father of a five-month old, I now have a different kind of fun… but the puppet strings are both many and unbreakable. Mommy and Daddy often feel like puppets – our daughter a mad-cap, unpredictable puppeteer...
Split never comes together
Movie review: Split
James McAvoy's over-the-top performance as a man with multiple personalities lends M. Night Shyamalan's tediously self-conscious thriller a hint of fun
