Winter Vegetable Chili

by Helen Kain | Dec 7, 2020 | Holiday, Mains, Recent, Vegetables, Winter Recipes

The weeks leading up to Christmas are fraught with opportunities for overindulgence. This vegetable-packed chili is a healthful antidote to a surfeit of sweets. Our family loves it, even the die-hard meat eaters and small children. It’s warmly spiced, without...

To Grandma’s Gingerbread House We Go

by Helen Kain | Dec 4, 2020 | Blue, Christmas, Green, Pink and Red, Recent, Winter Tablescapes, Yellow

Nostalgic and colourful, these sturdy ironstone salad plates inspired a delightful few days of baking. I toyed with the idea of making a gingerbread house and even went so far as to bake a gingerbread bundt cake. Nice, but somehow lacked panache. The houses make you...

Gingerbread Village Spice Cake

by Helen Kain | Dec 4, 2020 | Christmas, Sweets, Winter Recipes, Winter Tablescapes

When I was little, a crisp, spicy gingerbread cookie adorned with crunchy icing was the tantalizing reward to encourage exemplary behaviour while Christmas shopping with my Mum. Trailing around after her, scarf dragging and winter boots clumping, my thoughts would run...

Free Author-Signed Bookplate for Entertablement – The Four Seasons

by Helen Kain | Dec 2, 2020 | Books, By Season

Three weeks to Christmas and Santa’s elves are busy, including the ever-creative Mary Plumstead, my partner-in-crime at Entertablement. Mary has been whipping up a bookplate for the hardcover version of  Entertablement – The Four Seasons. Doesn’t it...

The Answer is Tea

by Helen Kain | Nov 23, 2020 | Brown, Fall Tablescapes, Green, Grey and Pewter, Tea, Vintage china

Have a cuppa? It’s the British cure for whatever ails you and seems particularly apropos in this hustle-bustle week. Whether navigating Thanksgiving preparations, Christmas arrangements, Zooming or Google meeting, it seems everyone is a bit … ahem, testy....