Etcetera

Summer Fresh Hummus

We’ve been adding a little spice to our snacks with two new flavours of hummus from family-owned, Toronto salad and dip producers, Summer Fresh. Vegan, gluten-free, and kosher, and made from Canadian chickpeas, Spicy Buffalo is creamy and tangy, and BBQ is lightly smoky – both perfect to jazz up your burgers and other dishes. We really enjoy the new Spicy Dill Pickle Dip too: cream cheese, sour cream, dill pickle, and a hit of chili! 227g $4 at Save On Foods, IGA, and good grocery stores.

The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook

Lisa Steele is a fifth-generation chicken keeper and coop-to-kitchen cook, and her new book, “Over 100 Fabulous Recipes to Use Eggs in Unexpected Ways,” comes just in time as southern Alberta opens the doors for urban hens. You probably think you don’t need a cookbook to cook eggs, but cooking perfect eggs is a different matter. With a clever recipe index by number of eggs required, and helpful tips such as determining freshness and deciphering labels on egg cartons, this book could soon become a kitchen staple. Harper Horizon, $35

Malbec Mon Amour

The Catena name is indelibly linked to wine in Argentina, and wine in Argentina is synonymous with its most famous grape - malbec. Focused entirely on this grape with plenty of insight, background, and passion, this is a love letter for one of the world’s favourite grapes from two authors uniquely positioned to tell the tale. Remarkably easy to digest, brilliantly illustrated, and wonderfully informative. Using plenty of the Catena family’s research, this is a deep dive into the terroir of the vineyards and what makes malbec in Argentina unique. By Laura Catena and Alejandro Vigil, Catapulta Editores, $32.

eat2explore

We’ve all seen all manner of subscription boxes, and they can get a little tiresome, but this is one of the coolest we’ve seen in a long time: a themed box centred around the food from a different culture or country around the world. Inside each box are a few recipes, some of the dry goods or ingredients that might be hard to find, and you simply get the fresh ingredients, and get cooking. Suitable for kids and adults, with vegan and gluten-free options too. $25 to $30 at eat2explore.com, Amazon, williams-sonoma.com.

Air Fryer Cookbook

The hottest appliance of the decade has to be an air fryer – as revolutionary as the microwave back in the day - but what do you cook in them? We know they’re great at reheating pizza and cooking fries, but this book has 99 more recipes to spark your imagination - from soft-boiled eggs (in the shell - who knew?) to chicken tikka and satay chicken skewers, baba ganoush, roasted Brussels sprouts, muffins, flapjacks, and shortbread – a must-have for air fryer novices! By Jenny Tschiesche, Ryland Peters & Small, $30.

Zwilling Enfinigy Electric Kettle

Developed in Germany and designed in Milan, this is one very classy kettle, and for tea drinkers like us, it doubles as a super-sophisticated teapot that has a tea insert to hold your leaves or bags and heats the water to exactly the temperature you want for the type of tea you’re steeping. Then it keeps it at that temperature for 30 minutes. And… there’s an an insert for preparing baby food and keeping it warm that can also be used to sterilise the bottles! $200-$275 in stores and at zwiilling.com.