Comments Off on Introducing 10 year old changemaking blogger, Hannah Alper
If we had to choose who to profile for our very first featured person on this website, what better place to start than 10 year old eco-blogger, Hannah Alper. She started blogging when she was only 9 years old and has accomplished so much already. Subjects that Hannah have written about in the past year include eco-friendly living, fair trade, bullying, clean water and child labour.
As stated on her blog, “I started this blog so that I could share my passions including the environment, social action, and people and things that inspire me. I believe that the little things that we all do add up to make a big difference.”
Her list of accomplishments is long and extensive. She’s been on television on Canada AM, The Marilyn Dennis Show, App Central, CBC’s Fresh Air, The George Stromboulopoulos Show and much more. She has been featured in Chickadee Magazine and named as a “Champion of the Earth” in Owl Magazine. She also recently wrote a post for Yahoo worldwide on her advice for new-school wary kids and has a spotlight in Scholastic’s Choices Magazine.
She’s proven her talents by giving motivational speeches at local schools, leading the charge to collect 97,500 pennies for Free the Children’s clean water projects. She travelled across North America on the Free The Children’s We Day tour (founded by household names in activism, Craig and Marc Kielburger) as a featured speaker.
Watch how effective and captivating she is in this great interview with Band Aid’s Midge Ure on the importance of using your voice, power of music and community.
During this holiday season with the spirit of giving, it’s pretty inspiring to look at what this 10 year old is doing. As the interview above says, it starts with spreading awareness and getting others involved, too. Thanks for the motivation, Hannah, and keep up the great work!
Comments Off on Craft beer arrives at Jack Astor’s for a “Winter Fling” and we’re giving away a $50 gift card
UPDATE: Our $50 Jack Astor’s gift card giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Bobbi Jo P., enjoy your craft beer winter fling!
The Jack Astor’s restaurant chain is now featuring a “Winter Fling” campaign, encouraging customers to stray from their mainstream beers and have a “fling” with craft beers. With cheeky messaging like ‘let’s get hop and heavy’ and ‘are you beer-curious?’, it’s on now until January 19, 2014 at all Jack Astor’s locations. The list of beers available in Ontario locations include Mill Street Organic Lager, Tankhouse Ale, Muskoka Cream Ale, Flying Monkey Hoptical Illusion Pale Ale, Granville Island Lions Winter Ale. Don’t forget to scroll down for our contest details.
If you haven’t heard of any of these beers, then I’m sorry, we can’t be friends.
I must be honest and say that many of these are my favourite flavourful beers. Tankhouse is one of my go-to beers and I always enjoy Flying Monkey Hoptical Illusion.
Accompanying these crush-worthy craft beers, Jack Astor’s serves up its original Cluckin’ Chicken Dippers ($9.82). These tender chicken pieces are served with unique salts and sauces to sprinkle, dip, mix and match to create chicken dippers all of your own. The Winter Fling Festival menu also includes a creamy Asiago Shrimp & Smoked Mozza Ravioli ($16.74) and a hearty Holiday Brie Chicken dish served with Jack’s mashed potatoes and sweet onion gravy ($17.97). For dessert, enjoy a decadent Cherry On Top Chocolate Trifle ($3.97).
Jack Astor’s Chicken Dippers
“At Jack Astor’s, we’re all about being cheeky and playful. With this campaign, we tried to bring our guests new flavour experiences we know they’ll love tasting,” said Lauren Michell, vice president, marketing, Service Inspired Restaurants. “Our chefs have created some incredible new dishes that will quickly become old favourites and we’ve carefully selected a series of craft beers ideally suited for a ‘winter fling’ – we promise your regular beer won’t get bitter.”
I think this campaign is a good thing and I hope it sticks because the more awareness of craft beers, the less I will have to run into the unfortunate situations where bars only serve Coors Light and Molson Canadian.. in bottles (ugh!). Let that never happen again. We’re not Americans who are known for drinking watered-down beer. So do me a favour and drink beer like a real Canadian, please!
$50 JACK ASTOR’S GIFT CARD
In celebration of great craft beer, we’re giving away a $50 gift card to Jack Astor’s! We’re doing it over Twitter only, so be sure to follow us on Twitter (@BestofTorontoTV) and tweet us this: @BestofTorontoTV I want a $50 #WinterFling with Jack Astors bit.ly/1c1kWgH
Contest closes on December 23rd, 2013 at 3:00pm. Winner will be by random draw. Must be following @BestofTorontoTV on Twitter to be eligible. Ontario residents only.
Comments Off on We’re giving away a $50 gift card to Boom Breakfast
UPDATE: The $50 gift card giveaway is now closed. Congrats to our winner David R.!
By this January, it will have been 10 years since Boom Breakfast first opened, dishing up your favourite breakfast and brunch options. In those 10 years they’ve grown to 4 locations across the GTA.
The menu includes a wide variety of items such as omelettes, eggs benedict, and breakwiches that always hit the spot. I enjoyed the Benny Boom eggs benedict with Nanuk smoked salmon and freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice as well as coffee. A great combo to start any great day!
To help you celebrate Boom’s 10th anniversary, we’re giving away a $50 gift card for you to spend at any of the 4 locations. 50 bucks… that’s a lot of good breakfast!
Comments Off on Culinary showdown photos from Cook for the Cure
Featuring an all-star lineup of chefs, the KitchenAid Cook for the Cure was a culinary showdown held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto on December 7th, 2013. Chefs included the Food Network’s Lynn Crawford, Chuck Hughes, Mark McEwan, Vikram Vij and Corbin Tomaszeski hosted by actor Dean McDermott alongside Tyler Florence (host of the Great Food Truck Race and Food Court Wars).
The top 50 fundraisers for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation got to participate and compete in the Cook for the Cure culinary competition, splitting into 5 teams headed by each of the chefs.
The big day started with a “Celebrity Chef School” session where the 50 participants were coached about ingredient picking to proper plating. Trade secrets were also revealed on food preparation, knife techniques, and methodology in advance of the high-pressure competition in the evening.
Then the evening started with a cocktail reception including rubbing elbows and photo ops with the chefs, and bidding on silent auction items.
After the first course, the scores were displayed and Team Vij was in the lead with 47.2 points from the judges followed by McEwan at 44.5 points. Team Crawford was 3rd at 41.5 points.
Then after the second course, the competition was heating up with Team Vij at 90.2 points, Team Crawford at 81.5 and McEwan at 77.5 points.
It was a tight race but at the end Chef Mark McEwan‘s team was declared the winner in a shocking comeback in the dessert course. I guess Vikram Vij took some risks in the dessert that didn’t score well with the judges but you must admire him for not playing it safe just to keep his lead.
We got to hear a brave, emotional story of a breast cancer survivor and I could see more than few people were brought to tears.
The live auction featured one-of-a-kind culinary experiences up for grabs from the Chefs including the one from Chuck Hughes, who refused to allow his bid to close until he got one more thousand to much hilarity. He’s a great sport and I’m glad he got it.
It was a fun, friendly culinary competition all for the sake of creating a future without breast cancer.
“I’d like to thank all of the fundraisers, sponsors and fabulous chefs who are supporting our vision of a future without breast cancer,” said Sandra Palmaro, CEO of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), Ontario Region.
“Donations from this event allow CBCF to continue to fund relevant, innovative research and support and advocate for the breast cancer community.”
Top chefs: Vikram Vij, Mark McEwan
Team McEwan with the KitchenAid Cook for the Cure trophy
MORE PHOTOS
Three Olives
Lynn Crawford
Lynn Crawford, Jenelle Antolin
Lynn Crawford
Dean McDermott
Tyler Florence, Dean McDermott
Appetizers
The antics of Mark McEwan
Chuck Hughes showing us what’s under the apron
Mark McEwan, Chuck Hughes
Corbin heckling Vikram
Steph
Team Vikram
The judges
Dean McDermott
Dean McDermott, John Cirillo
Chuck Hughes at Cook for the Cure 2013 | Photo: Nick Lee
Chuck Hughes
Vikram Vij
The KitchenAid Cook for the Cure award
Dean McDermott, Tyler Florence
Our main course
Corbin Tomaszeski
Lynn Crawford
The dish from Team Vikram Vij
Breast cancer survivor
Donut centrepiece
Chuck Hughes asking for one more thousand from the auction bidding
Chuck Hughes asking for one more thousand from the auction bidding
Our dessert
Vikram Vij
Lyriq Bent snapping some photos
At the judges’ table
Corbin Tomaszeski cheering on his team
Team McEwan with the KitchenAid Cook for the Cure trophy
right: Anne Cayer
Three Olives
Spongetowels mascot
right: Chuck Hughes
Jenelle Antolin, Chuck Hughes
Chefs Vikram Vij, Mark McEwan
Mark McEwan
Lyriq Bent
John Cirillo
Braised short rib on mashed potatoes
Corbin Tomaszeski , Joel Hock
About the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation is the leading community–driven organization in Canada dedicated to creating a future without breast cancer. Our investments in innovative and relevant research and education have led to progress in breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. Since 1986, we have been at the forefront of a nationwide movement supporting and advocating for the breast cancer community. Join us at www.cbcf.org.
SEE ALSO
Giada de Laurentiis to headline Chefs Challenge 2014
Comments Off on How to make a difference with your holiday shopping
It’s one more weekend closer to Christmas and for many people it’s time to go holiday shopping. Here’s a few gift ideas for the philanthropically-inclined, most of which don’t even require you to leave your home and fight crowds for the latest trendy must-haves.
WWF Canada’s Adopt-a-Pet
I recommended this last year but it doesn’t get old because it’s still a meaningful gift that doesn’t go out of style: symbolically adopt a species at risk from WWF Canada with proceeds supporting conservation work. You’ll receive an adoption kit that includes a plush animal version of the adoptee (many choices including giant pandas). For those of us in the city, put your order in by December 17th for delivery before Dec. 25th. Click here for the WWF scoop.
Fred Perry 12 days of giveaways
Since many of you will be out and about shopping anyway, why not shop for a chance to win prizes and have the opportunity to give back at the same time? We’re in the midst of Fred Perry’s 12 days of giveaways. Visit the Fred Perry flagship store on 965 Queen West and bring food donations for your chance to win prizes until December 20th. Visit their Facebook page for more details. Each day a winner will be drawn from the names submitted that day. There’s many great prizes to be won including a $500 Fred Perry gift card! Proceeds go to support the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Entries are as follows:
Donate to the Daily Bread Food Bank = 2 entries
Make a purchase at the store = 1 entry
Donate & make a purchase = 3 entries
Air Miles Charities
Racking up lots of Air Miles with your shopping? Well you can donate your points to charities of your choice including the WWF, motionball for the Special Olympics, Canadian Red Cross and more. Click here for details on the Air Miles website.
SickKids Foundation’s gift giving guide
Check out the many ways you can help the SickKids FoundationSick Kids holiday gift giving guide for all the ways you can help from eating at restaurants such as Destingo and Bangkok Garden to making donations at the LCBO to their Get Better Gifts for kids.
Mount Sinai Hospital’s 2013 Constellation of Distinction
You can join the 2013 Constellation of Distinction to support high priority needs at Mount Sinai Hospital. Last year, members made a direct impact by raising funds for infant ventilators for our tiniest patients and ground-breaking cancer research that could save the life of someone you love. Click here for info on how to donate with an eligible tax receipt.
The City of Toronto’s guide to helping Toronto’s Homeless
The City of Toronto also has a long list of how to help the homeless this holiday season categorized by region. Click here to visit the toronto.ca page How to help Toronto’s homeless this holiday season.
SEE ALSO
Win VIP tickets to Kardinal Offishall’s Christmas Party with Nelly Furtado in support of Free the Children
