One of my favorite lazy weekend activities is making bread. After mixing the ingredients and kneading any stresses away, you get to sit back, relax, bake and then enjoy. The smell of fresh baked bread wafting through the home brings back memories of childhood or of fabulous vacations past. This simple bread uses herbs, either fresh or dried and the easy technique of baking in the oven with...

    There is a rather unique heritage to Caribbean cuisine, which has Indian and African influences that can be traced back to the earliest inhabitants. The spicy, hearty meals found on these beautiful islands are also internationally renowned due to the waves of immigrants that moved overseas from Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s, importing their cooking traditions with them. Such fascination...

It’s fast approaching. That infamous holiday that honors all mothers…including yours.  For many of us who are fortunate to still have our mothers here with us, this is a great time to celebrate them, honor them and even treat them to a day in a way that says, ” We love you and we thank you for all that you do.” If you are like me and your mother does not live within a close...

  The ongoing popularity of champagne is undeniable – the sparkling wine remains a first choice for many people when celebrating and has associations with luxury and some of the finest wine making techniques. The question remains, why did champagne become so famous? Like many developments in wine production, champagne came about by a happy accident of sorts. The Champagne region of France...

Anna Bini and Cristina Pagliarini both work as private chefs for the luxury villa company Tuscany Now. Here is one of their favorite recipes to start you off exploring authentic Tuscan flavors, ingredients and cooking methods.   Braised Beef in Apple Sauce Serves 6 1.2 kg of beef (choose a cut with some fat, the meat shouldn’t be too lean for this dish) 3 red onions 3 green apples 50 grams...