Letter from Steve

These are the last days of winter. Most days the skies are grey and every time it warms up, before you know it, it’s frigid again. Cabin fever creeps up on us and we feel trapped indoors. As we wait out the next couple of months for spring, it’s the perfect time to turn “cooped up” into “cozying up” with enjoyable simple things like playing Yahtzee or cooking for others.

Or, invite a fun, creative group of people over for a potluck supper, as we did in our story “Snow Day Supper. Pot Lucky.” We invited a delicious mix of chefs, TV personalities, artists, professionals and a former politician and gave them a Lodge Dutch Oven to fill and sat back and watched a magical evening unfold.

One great thing about winter is there’s still plenty to do outdoors. Skating, snowball fights and sledding are cold weather activities many of us grew up with. Winter can bring the kid out in anyone, and in “Winter Wonderland” Geraldine Campbell reminisces about snow-filled days. Along with her story, we share cozy recipes including a kid favorite, Egg in a Basket.

Mornings with frosted windows call for a tasty stack of hot waffles drizzled with real maple syrup. To learn all about this heavenly sap, we interviewed Tim Burton of Burton’s Maplewood Farm and three top chefs share their maple syrup infused-recipes. And if you wonder how we create the frosty effects in our warm studio, special-effect guru Geoff BinnsCalvey tells us how it’s done in “Tricks of the Trade”.

Who’s Hungry?™ for something warm and toasty?

STEPHEN HAMILTON