In honour of Valentine's Day, I had the idea to make up a meal using foods that are considered to be aphrodisiacs. With this in mind, I did a little research on which foods get the party started, so to speak.

I don't know about you, but right now I'm at that point where I cannot remember what it was like to leave the house without donning several layers of clothing, I cannot remember what my yard looks like without two feet of snow in it, and I cannot remember what it was like to feel "too warm." Winter, it seems, has been going on forever and will go on forever, spring is never going to come, and I will be cleaning salt stains off my snow boots for the rest of my life.

Have you heard the buzz that lemon is expected to be the "flavour of the year" for 2014? Lemons add refreshing zest and flavour to recipes, like a burst of sunshine on dark winter days. Lemons are also detoxifying and naturally cleansing, which is good news to those of us who may have spent December eating and drinking like debauched Roman emperors.

We can only eat so much peppermint bark and gingersnaps before we realize that our non-elastic waisted pants are threatening to cut us in half and we are experiencing strange post-sugar-crash-lethargy, and by "we" I am referring to myself and my current outfit of stretchy yoga pants.

I confess, when it comes to gustatory pleasures, I have two major weaknesses: savoury snack food and red wine, sometimes both at the same time. Don't leave an open bag of chips near me, or a bowl of kale chips, for that matter. It is equally dangerous to leave an open bottle of wine within a five-foot radius of wherever I happen to be lounging on a Friday night.

If you have a vegetarian in your midst, planning holiday dinners can seem tricky, especially when the focal point of the meal is largely meat based; turkey or ham with lots of gravy is the usual tradition. While most of us vegetarians are used to making meals out of side dishes on such occasions, it’s nice to have a protein-rich alternative as well.

If there's one scent that screams out "festive," it's the scent of baking gingerbread cookies. And if there's one activity that screams out "festive," it's the decorating of said gingerbread cookies. Nothing makes one bask in the glow of holiday togetherness like a cozy afternoon of cookie baking with the children.

Around the holiday season, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Sometimes I make complicated recipes that have three dozen ingredients and take a whole day’s worth of steps to make, and those are good. And then sometimes I make a recipe that takes fifteen minutes to make and requires only two easily-obtained recipes. Those are REALLY good.

I’m fairly new to the world of gluten-free baking; I’m more of a gluten-ful girl, to be honest. However, I have friends with Celiac disease and friends who avoid gluten and wheat, and I like to accommodate them when making treats, especially around the holidays. Should we exclude people from holiday cookie exchanges and treat sharing, just because of the inability to eat gluten? No! We should not!

There is one cookie recipe I make without fail every year around the holidays, and that is my grandma's recipe for gingersnaps. I make these delectable cookies annually, for a few reasons: a) I love filling the house with the cozy and warm smell of ginger and molasses on a dark, wintry afternoon, b) gingersnaps seem like a cookie for the festive season, a perfect accompaniment to hot cocoa after a day of sledding or snowman making, and c) these cookies are like crack. They are so addictive that if I made them oftener, I would not be able to fit into any of my clothes.

I think we all can agree that weeknights are crazy. Whether you're trying to make dinner one-handed with a weeping toddler clinging to your leg and a baby on your hip, or if you walked in the door at 6:30 pm and need to get kids fed, homework done, bathed, and in bed at a reasonable time, or if you're just trying to get your kids off to their various activities with some semblance of nutritious food in their system, we can all unite in the fact that weeknights are hectic at the best of times, and pure chaos at the worst.

Hands up if you’ve been pilfering from your kids’ Halloween bags. Hands up if you “accidentally” bought too much candy and now you have a plethora of Rockets and Hershey’s bars in the house. Hands up if you’re feeling like all those fun-sized treats are not so fun when it comes to your pant size.

Simon and Schuster sent me a copy of the new cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, who is famous for her Deceptively Delicious cookbook, as well as for being Mrs. Jerry Seinfeld. The Can’t Cook Book is aimed at people who are inexperienced in the kitchen and are, in Seinfeld’s words “Absolutely Terrified.”.

A few weeks ago I was at the BlissDom Canada conference, and one of the lunches was sponsored by Canadian Lentils. I feel that lentils do not get the attention that they deserve. They don’t have the sexiest reputation; you say lentils and people conjure up images of macramé owls and orange wallpaper and some kind of vile concoction bubbling on the goldenrod coloured stove in the corner. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY.

Sometimes life has a way of teaching you what you need to know. The other day I had it in my mind to make caramel apples, something I had never done before but I felt that it would be an expression of autumnal love. I imagined the children coming home from school to a counter full of luscious Granny Smith apples coated in a thick caramel; I imagined wrapping the apples in Halloween-motif cellophane for the children to take to their teachers. An apple for the teacher—how idyllic.

When Simon and Schuster sent me an advance copy of Heather Bertinetti's "Bake It, Don't Fake It" to review, I was intrigued. After all, baking is something I love to do, and Bertinetti was named one of New York's "30 Under 30" in 2011 — a talented pastry chef who has found much success in a number of highly acclaimed Manhattan restaurants.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and all the meat eaters in my family are rejoicing; turkey dinner, hurrah! I, on the other hand, have never enjoyed turkey dinners, even back in my non-vegetarian days. On such occasions I would ignore the turkey and go to town on the meatless side dishes, and that is still what I do to this day.

Here's the situation: the clock has just struck five. The floor is littered with bookbags that are stuffed with forms that need to be filled out and lunchbags that need to be emptied, not to mention homework projects that need completion. The calendar on the fridge shows that tonight — and every other night — is filled with varying activities that will require chauffeuring back and forth, even though you really need to get some work done at home.

It was my younger son’s eighth birthday over the weekend, and you know what that means! Cupcakes for everyone! In my house, chocolate cupcakes are where it’s at, but when it comes to frosting, preferences are all over the map.

It’s been an unseasonably warm September where I live, and I’m desperately holding on to the last vestiges of summer. In other words, we have been barbequing a lot around here! The boys have been eating a lot of grilled steaks and pork chops; I made this eggplant dish for myself, so as to not be left out of the barbeque festivities.