Crissie's Corner

I am a 30-something Stay at Home Mother to my trouble making toddler Emma (AKA Dilemma) and a wife to my wonderful husband Bohdan. I am an artist, writer, and the queen of multi-tasking. Family is the most important thing for me and mine is truly the reason I wake up everyday. I was born and raised in Toronto into my boisterous Italian family and I continue to this day in the traditions I was taught, homemade wine, cured sausages, jarred tomatoes and so many others. I have embraced my husband and his Ukrainian roots as my own. (I must say I have learned to make a mean patychky and a delectable borsht.) I want to beat my infertility a second time, maybe even a third. I think life is precious, and aim to enjoy every single moment of it, even on my worst days of Dilemma supernova meltdown, tantrums, cold and projectile vomit I remember what a blessing it is to have her as my daughter.

Some of my favorite baking comes at Easter. My mom, sister and I all like to get together and recreate some of the decadent recipes that were handed down throughout the generations. This year Emma will be helping me bake, decorate AND eat the cookies. I love my Italian heritage and family and I am so glad I can pass this on to my daughter. Here are just two of my Easter Recipes. Pupa di Pasqua (Dolls of Easter...

We all know that Christmas Eve is a busy day and between preparing meals, playing Santa Claus, and catering to my boisterous Italian family I find there is not enough time in the day to prepare and labor over a traditional Italian feast. I’ve narrowed down the Feast of Seven Fishes (Festa dei sette pesci), also known as The Vigil (La Vigilia) to three simple, yet yummy fish recipes to make life easier. Brodetto di pesce (fish...

Halloween is upon us and as a parent I know our little boils and ghouls will be filled with sticky sweets to the max. So to counter all that sugariness why not throw in some fun, healthier, kid friendly treats that will make the little monsters happy as well as their mommies? These are also great for parties and kids of all ages! Enjoy! Mummy Fingers Ingredients: ½ package of cocktail weenies ( or regular hotdogs cut in half) 1...

Yesterday, after bathing and getting Dilemma ready for bed, I snuggled with her on the sofa and told her, "Mommy is going to tuck you in and put you to bed." Her reply was a whiny, "No Mommy! I want Tato (Daddy) to do it!" I asked her why and she told me, "I love Tato more!" I asked Bob to please put her to bed, my heart kind of broken. While Bob is tucking Dilemma in and he asks her, "Why do you love Tato more?" She looks at him, like he...

I made this for a friend's birthday and some of the party-goers were looking for the recipe so I thought I'd share it...       Ingredients: 1 small can of summer sweet corn (drained) 1/2 can sliced black olives (drained) 1 medium red bell pepper finely chopped 2 jalopeno peppers finely chopped 1 small red onion finely chopped 5 cloves of garlic minced 3 tablespoons of minced fresh cilantro (if you...

Okay so here's the deal, I LOVE to cook and inventing my own recipes so I thought why not use my blog as a place to share some cooking ideas and recipes? And seeing as the weather has been so nice lately and I'm itching for a BBQ party on the backyard deck with great friends and good food, I thought I would share my "Foodspirations" with you all! So here are some of my recipes... Pineapple Rum Chicken Legs For 18-24 chicken...

Potty training can be daunting, especially for a first time mom like me, so in anticipation to the great potty training war of 2012; I have been looking over some online info from Pull-Ups to come up with the best strategies and tactics to assist Dilemma and myself in making the transition from diapers to potty. In reviewing their webpage I learned how to prepare Dilemma and myself for potty training success, they had many insightful...

Last Sunday I took my daughter out to see a pre-screening of the movie Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, courtesy of Seventh Generation.  I well remember the book and my constant nagging to my parents and sibling about littering and how I wanted to save this world for my children and my children’s children’s children. I would even sprout lines from the story at them when I saw them doing a “no-no to nature”. Now that the book has gotten the...

I have found a new product that I am currently in love with. For those of you who don’t know, I have always tried to be an activist for locally grown and made products. This year I’ve again made a pledge to buy more from small independent artists, designers, crafters and farmers. Being a crafter myself, I understand the love and dedication that goes into these products, and in buying them I feel like I am giving something back to my fellow...

So we have come to that time in every toddlers life where using the potty has become the next big step… We are just trying to see if Emma is ready for Mission Poop in Potty. She’s been showing some signs, and some interest in it, but I don’t want to start too soon and delay the process even more. So after asking round and taking the Potty Training Readiness Quiz we have decided to give it a go! See Emma falls in-between the two...

Emma has been jibber-jabbing something all afternoon. It was the same thing over and over. "Cest Belle, my Belle, oui, I love Juice. Something, something, something." She is singing it. It's cute but it is getting a bit annoying... I just about said, "You sound like a broken record." Until I realized that she wouldn't have the faintest idea what that meant. Then I thought, "…like a scratched CD", but quickly nixed that for being...

SEX… it’s a big part of getting pregnant naturally. I am not going to go into the details of it, but trust me when I say; you need to have sex to have a baby. So of course when I was diagnosed with infertility it took a huge toll on the quality of sex I was having in my marriage. Then I got pregnant, and had a baby and the lack of sex in our relationship became more due to lack of sleep which we gladly traded in for our little bundle of...