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Enjoy A Little Hope This Easter

Easter just wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate eggs. But it wasn’t always this way. Chocolate confectionery, after all, is less than 200 years old, whereas Easter has been around for at least 2000 years. Eggs are a different story, though. They have much to do with the arrival of Spring and are associated with new life, and so it’s not much of a stretch to see their connection with Easter as symbolic of the resurrection of Christ.

Peek a Boo ... & Lou

Boo & Lou, a new brand of baby clothing and accessories, is the brain-child of Mary Warnest and Jane Cox, two sisters originally from Adelaide, which is where the brand name was unwittingly created when they were only knee-high. In an “aw shucks, ain’t that sweet” moment, their fun-loving grandfather dubbed Jane Ginny-Boo and Mary Mimmy-Lou.

From Garden to Table: An Interview with Stephanie Alexander

For Stephanie Alexander, food is more than food. It’s about pleasure, health, and making connections — to family, the environment, to life itself. Hence the Kitchen Garden Foundation, which Alexander piloted 15 years ago, is a schools-based program dedicated to teaching children the skills to grow and cook their own seasonal produce, and the rewards that come with it. The Hamper Store talked to Alexander about the genesis of the Foundation, the philosophy behind it and its achievements to date.

This interview was conducted by Raffaele Caputo at Alexander’s Abbotsford residence in July 2016.

Food, Wine, the Arts ... and Alexandre Dumas

When I first saw Tiepolo’s The Banquet of Cleopatra in my late teens I took no interest in the value of Cleopatra’s ill-fated pearl, but instead wondered about what manner of banquet had Antony concocted to try to impress a queen and rival her wealth. Every time I watch The Godfather I am certain I can smell the aroma of a tomato sauce with pork sausages and meatballs when cooked by “Fat” Clemenza (which, incidentally, is a sauce very similar to those in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Italianamerican). On reading Remembrance of Things Past I had wanted to taste not so much the famous ‘petites madeleines’, than rather a roast duck over which is ‘spilled numerous libations of red wine’, or a dish suggested by the scent of ‘a great chestnut tree, of baskets of raspberries, and of a sprig of tarragon.’ When I enter an Irish-styled pub I sometimes wonder if I will hear ‘the light music of whiskey falling into glasses,’ as wrote Joyce in his short story “Grace” (included in the collection Dubliners). I nowadays cannot buy a slice of capocollo, wafer-thin, without the slight trepidation that I might be overcome by anxiety and blackout (as did Tony Soprano in an early episode of The Sopranos).

Sparkling Combinations for Mother’s Day

When the late Madame Lily Bollinger was once asked on which occasions she drank champagne, she replied, “I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. In company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty!”

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