In My World

When my kids were little I often made hot chocolate using a homemade mix.  As the kids got older and life got busier it was just one of the lovely things that went by the wayside, replaced by the convenient. The other day I had a craving for chocolate but it was really humid out and I just didn't crave it bad enough to make me want to walk to the store.  Then I remembered the tin of cocoa in the cupboard. I had forgotten just how delicious homemade hot chocolate is.  Here's the recipe I used . . . Serves 2 2 tbsp and 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp white sugar 1/2 pinch salt 2 tbsp and 2 tsp boiling water 1-3/4 cups milk 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup half-and-half cream Combine the cocoa, sugar and salt in a saucepan.  Blend in the boiling water.  Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir.  Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes.  Watch that it doesn't scorch.  Stir in milk and heat until very hot, but do n...

  Kingston author Armand Garnet Ruffo's staggeringly powerful poetry collection,  The Dialogues: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow.   brings to life not only the story of the famed WWI Indigenous sniper, but also the complexities of telling Indigenous stories.  From Wasauksing (Parry Island) to the trenches of WWI to the stage, Ruffo moves seamlessly through time in these poems, taking the reader on a captivating journey through Pegahmagabow’s story and onto the creation of  Sounding Thunder , the opera based on his life. Throughout, Ruffo uses the Ojibwe concept of two-eyed seeing, which combines the strengths of western and Indigenous ways of knowing, and invites the reader to do the same, particularly through the inclusion of the Anishinaabemowin language within the collection.  These are poems that challenge western conventions of thinking, that celebrate hope and that show us a new way to see the world. Request a review copy  here . More ...

Makes 2 servings Prep 10 minutes / Cooking 20 minutes 280 calories per serving 1 leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1/2 tsp dried oregano salt to taste ground pepper to taste 2 slices country bread, lightly toasted 45 g brie cheese, thinly sliced 1 tomato, Roma type, thinly sliced Prepare the leeks. Cut off the dark green tops then thinly slice the white and pale-green parts crosswise. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and oregano, then season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the leeks are very tender and just beginning to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Arrange the toasted bread slices on a baking sheet. Distributing the ingredients equally, layer the bread slices with the cheese, cooked leeks, and sliced tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, then add salt and pepper to taste. Broil at 10 cm from the heat until the cheese has melted and the tomatoes st...

1/2 cup pure maple syrup 2 tbsp butter Place both ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5-7 minutes until mixture reaches 225-230 degrees. Place snow in pan or bowl, and drizzle hot syrup over the snow.  The snow cools the candy pretty quickly.  As soon as the candy is cool enough to eat, it's ready.

Sunset Lake Resort, is an equally captivating narrative full of thrilling twists, exciting reveals, and gorgeously drawn women characters. When Ruby’s father passes away, but fails to leave her the millions some expected, Steve, her husband of 35 years, moves out. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the condition of the property and rumours it is haunted, Ruby decides to move to Sunset Lake Resort, determined to find out why her father bought it, and why he left it to her. Sunset Lake Resort is now available wherever books are sold. @joannejacksonauthor @river_street_writes @stonehousepublishing #canlit #canadianbooks #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada...

  Borrowed Memories is an absorbing story that explores the life of Ivan Pyefinch, a freelance translator, who is the self-appointed custodian of family memory. He is faced with the challenges of caregiving for elderly parents and grapples with the question of how much of his life is too much to give up to this end, and for how long. Ivan Pyefinch moves home to the Thousand Islands for the summer to care for his aging parents and escape the sting of his failed marriage. His father Horace, a former World War II pilot, is fighting now to regain his driver’s license, while his mother Aida wages a losing battle against Alzheimer’s. They are living on borrowed time, and Ivan is there to lend them some more. Enter Mia Hakim, a Jewish filmmaker in Quebec who has always preferred the memories of others, even as she dreams of her Sephardic roots. She plans a research trip to Tunisia in search of her lost childhood and enlists Ivan to translate her scenario. When Mia arrives unannounced at ...

  Renée M. Sgroi has a collection of poetry forthcoming released by Guernica Editions,  In a Tension of Leaves and Binding,  but you won’t find this poem shared below in that book. This is a new, unpublished poem, that Renée has shared with us expressly for this issue of the  River Street Review. chilled all Christmas week, rain— rain on the highways splashing back at windshields so that water a hazard and the clouds, so low they became the grey of our hair.  winter paused to greet us New Year’s Day, as if this annual herald wished to freeze beginnings, to silver fresh starts with snow. in Japan,  tsunami warnings issued after earthquakes and here at home, four bodies fished from a frozen river today’s news which, like yesterday, in the year before, was not happy. the squirrel that had dashed all week across the road in rain huddles now chilled, as at midnight, after the Tiffany ball dropped glittered flakes of light for a splintered moment  on this pa...