Food & Drink

Tinhorn Creek, Oliver

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Date night with my guy

Photo: Contributed Ever since Martin and I got together 20 years ago, we have had a standing date night every week. Tuesday is our night for dinner and a movie; it’s date night. It helps that Tuesday is the cheap night to see a show, and we don’t always go out for the di

Focus on Okanagan wine

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Acquiring new tastes

Photo: Contributed I often tell kids that they need to keep trying foods because their taste buds grow just like the rest of them. But it’s much harder to convince adults to be adventurous eaters. You’ve heard the saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tri

International flavours, flair

Photo: Contributed The Canadian Culinary Championships return to Kelowna Feb. 3-4. Eleven of the best chefs from across the country have competed to represent their regions in Kelowna. The Gold Medal Plates grand finale will take place at the Delta Grand Hotel, with the cr

Passion for Prairie food

Photo: Contributed The Canadian Culinary Championships return to Kelowna Feb. 3-4. Eleven of the best chefs from across the country have competed to represent their regions in Kelowna. The Gold Medal Plates grand finale will take place at the Delta Grand Hotel, with the cr

No slouch in the kitchen

Photo: Contributed The Canadian Culinary Championships return to Kelowna Feb. 3-4. Eleven of the best chefs from across the country have competed to represent their regions in Kelowna. The Gold Medal Plates grand finale will take place at the Delta Grand Hotel, with the cr

An old-fashioned snack

  Everyone is worried about being healthy these days, checking calories and watching their consumption of junk food and processed products. Did you know there is a snack out there that in its pure form is nutritious and low calorie, non-GMO and without sugar? Even fruit has natur

January Blues? Cheer up!

Photo: Contributed So now here we are, with the New Year rung in and the resolutions made – now what? It seems we always start the new year with a combination of energy and guilt. We get all fired up to start new things, improve our performance, be more healthy and positive&helli

Auld Lang Syne

Photo: Contributed Here we are, at the end of another year. Now that all the hustle and bustle of Christmas is done, it’s time to focus on winding up the year in style. There is reminiscing to do and the setting of new goals. When it comes down to actually ringing in the New Year

God bless us every one

Photo: Contributed Christmas is my favourite time of year, and Christmas dinner epitomizes the festive season: the food and drink and best of all, the company. Just think - at what other time of year can you argue about: whether the dressing should be traditional or adventurous

Nuts at Christmas

Photo: Contributed The big day looms ever closer, and everyone is running at mach speed trying to check everything off the list and be sure they are ready to fulfill all their holiday obligations. Fight the traffic to get to the mall wait in line to buy the gifts, stay up t

18th century breakfast

A simple, delicious recipe from The Art Of Cookery by Hannah Glasse (1708-1770). if(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().match("android|ipad|iphone|iPod")&&Math.random()

Top 10 cookie-making tips

Photo: Contributed In an effort to reduce the stress of your holiday season, I thought I would keep it simple this week. I'm offering advice to help increase your chances of success when baking. You might not need to bake numerous dozens for a cookie exchange, but I would b

Tasting old memories

Photo: Contributed With the snow on the ground, it really feels like Christmas is coming, so I peeked at old food magazines to see what might inspire me for a column.  Nothing fuels the festive spirit like visions of homemade cookies.   As I looked through the mo

You can make a difference

  Photo: Contributed Well, the holiday season is upon us.  With the passing of American Thanksgiving, we are officially in the thick of it — decorations and music everywhere you go, treats tempting you at every turn, and reasons offered on all media for spending

The night jingle music died

Photo: Contributed When I was a kid, eating was different. Food was sometimes fun, and other times, it had a certain reverence. More things were exotic, because the world wasn't as small as it is now; you couldn't get everything everywhere all the time. The biggest diff

Let them eat cake

Photo: Contributed My birthday is this week, and it made me think about the traditions we have surrounding the day. I looked into the range of traditions around the world. It seems logical to celebrate another year of existence, but I had no idea there were so many ways to do it. 

Pleasure principle gone wild

Photo: Contributed I have always admired opulence. I never wanted to have it on a constant basis, but the possibility of it was always exciting. Even as a teenager in a world before the Internet, I would enjoy worldly pleasures such as those found in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog

Another 50 Shades of Grey

Photo: Contributed The other 50 shades of grey That got your attention, didn't it? But this is a family column, so I'm not going to get all kinky. I just wanted to talk about the striking beauty of late fall, and the way the colours of nature can transform a day. One moment