Recipes

The holidays are the perfect time to show those you love how much you care through truly thoughtful gifts. Don’t be daunted by gluten-free or other dietary restrictions — your friends and family would almost certainly still love kitchen gadgets or other fun things that might make their culinary life easier. This Gluten Free Gift Guide is designed to help! I’ve curated 35 thoughty and nice items I’d love to receive in my stocking (hint hint) or I just went ahead and bought for myself because they’re awesome, and I think your loved ones would dig them, too.*  I’ve done...

I keep reading about the staffing shortage in Toronto, especially amongst the hospitality industry, where people have supposedly changed careers to find a role that has better hours, more stable pay, better growth prospects, etc. Vela doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem, three individuals checked in on us throughout dinner service. Their front-of-the-house and open-faced kitchen seemed stacked with individuals, no shortage here! Firstly, to quickly sum up the experience - the meal was exquisite. The albacore tuna crudo ($21) arrived in huge chunks rather than the 1/3-inch slices generally found at other restaurants… a surprisingly generous portion of...

Bushra Rehman is the author of “Roses, In the Mouth of a Lion,” a queer coming-of-age novel set in a 1980s-era Muslim American community. A native of Corona, Queens in New York, Rehman co-edited the anthology “Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism,” and her previous books include the story collection, “Corona,” and “Marianna’s Beauty Salon,” a book of poems. She responded to The Book Pages about the books and people who made an impact on her. Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you? I’ll always remember the experience of reading “A...

Happy December! Have you completed your holiday shopping yet? If not, I have some ideas. This year, my 2022 Holiday Gift Guide is filled with books and calendars. I usually go to the NY NOW Lifestyle and Gift Show each summer and cull the aisles for great jewelry, housewares, beauty treatments and more to include in my annual gift guide. Sadly in August, I was sick with Covid and wasn’t able to attend. Books and calendars for 2022 holiday gift giving That being the case, I decided to change things up for 2022 and focus on books and calendars. I’m...

The Greek philosopher Aristotle famously wrote, “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.” This is a statement that rings true when you realize the number of mind blowing facts there are that you’ve probably never heard before. Even if you’re an avid reader or love attending trivia nights, there are so many interesting and eye-opening tidbits of information that you can never stop learning or gaining knowledge.  For instance, did you know there are more cells of bacteria in your body than there are human cells? Or how about the unicorn is the national animal of...