hellomelissa.net » food

I love a good magazine

melissa — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:22:27 +0000

I love magazines. I’ve loved them for nearly as long as I could read.

When I was a kid, I stealth-read my mother’s magazines – she didn’t like me reading them even though the titles she read were pretty tame. My tween years were filled with pinup mags despite the fact I didn’t recognize half of the non-threatening teen boys they covered (we didn’t have cable till I was past the pinup mag stage). I spent my teens and twenties reading music, teen, and fashion mags by the armful.

Now that I’m in my thirties and a parent, my choice of magazines is changing again, but I’m struggling to find the perfect read. I feel like I’m straddling two demographics: woman and Mom. Of course, women can’t possibly be both of those things at the same time, so never shall the two demographics meet in one magazine. This makes me crazy. When will there be an article about how to clean kid’s snack residue out of your killer purse?

Recently I’ve felt like I’ve grown out of some magazines. I’ve decided not to renew my ten-year subscription to BUST because I think their niche is too small – hipster feminists who like to craft – I’m just not cool enough for that magazine anymore (not that I ever was, but I’m really feeling it now). I still read Glamour, but it’s a little fluffier (with a couple Serious Articles thrown in), and usually a bigger read.

I’ve subscribed to Chatelaine since their big redesign in 2008 and I enjoy it. I appreciate that they cover a bit of everything, but I wish they’d do more longer articles on Serious Subjects, as I think they do that very well. I’ve used several of their recipes and they have always turned out successfully.

I tried Canadian Family this month because I love their blog: Family Jewels, and their Twitter feed. I wasn’t disappointed, and will likely get a subscription soon. I love their down-to-earth tone. Parenting is Serious Business, but it’s also full of funny stuff, and I appreciate a magazine that gets that.

I saw an interesting ad in the May 2010 issue of Glamour magazine about “The Power of Print”. As a magazine-lover, the lead-in: “We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines.” really Has this ad come up in your monthly reads? Did you notice it? I think this is an American-0nly campaign, so it won’t show up in your Canadian reads.

If you know of any magazines that straddle the woman/Mom demographic, or are just good reads, let me know what they are in the comments. I would love to read them. Bonus points if they have a great online presence. Extra bonus points if that online presence works well in a mobile environment.

often

I love a good magazine © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Slacker Recipe: Spinach Soup

melissa — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:35:41 +0000

I like to cook, but I don’t tend to follow recipes to the letter. I love to read cookbooks but I never seem to have the exact ingredients on hand. Unless it’s something I’m making for a special occasion, I usually wing it or bastardize the recipe to accommodate the ingredients I have around.

This spinach soup was actually inspired by a post I saw on Vox shortly after I joined. Despite marking the post a favourite back then, I’ve never actually made it. Now, it may become a regular in my repertoire – it was easy, fast and very tasty. And more importantly, it’s very customizable.

I took a package of frozen spinach and plopped it into a medium saucepan. I cooked it on medium heat until it had defrosted and warmed. Then I threw in a box of ready-to-use chicken broth, a couple handfuls of penne pasta, a bunch of fresh ground pepper and two spoonfuls of Indian tikka paste. I stirred everything up and let the whole thing come to a boil, then simmer until the pasta was cooked through. When that was done, I stirred a tiny bit of feta cheese into it for a little bit of creaminess.

It turned out light and flavourful, and nutritious to boot! And the items are so easy to substitute to get a soup that you want. Vegetarian? Use vegetable broth! Don’t like Indian food? Use Thai curry paste, Jamaican jerk seasoning or some other sort of spice combo! Change the cheese! Don’t add cheese! Use rice! Add more vegetables! Add chicken! Add some more exclamation points! I hear they’re the next big food fad.

I had some leftovers and it was still tasty today, although some of the broth got sucked up into the spinach. No pictures because I ate it all up!

Not quite the Thanksgiving turkey we hoped for

melissa — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:22:19 +0000

I hope that everyone’s Thanksgiving weekend was good, or for all you Americans, will be good.

Not quite the Thanksgiving turkey we hoped for © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Cooking question

melissa — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:16:21 +0000

Why is it that whenever I find recipes I want to try, it’s always after I’ve just come home from grocery shopping and none of the required ingredients were on my list?