In his voice you’ll often hear people say things like, “In Russia, bus drives yooou.” We laugh but to be completely honest, depending on where you are, or perhaps when you were, travelling by bus can be a nightmare.

On my trip in Pakistan last month with Anum and her beautiful, almost sisterishly young looking mother Samina, I travelled on the most luxurious bus I’ve ever been on in my life.

She was a Daewoo and she took breath away. The moment I saw her gleaming tinted windows, with passionate red curtains which are only meant to protect onlookers from witnessing the delectable bliss of her enraptured passengers inside, I knew my trip from Lahore to Rawalpindi would be perfect.

An easy ride isn’t an ample description, it was like floating on a djinni’s carpet, but that djinni had 1,000 horse power, leather reclining seats, flat screen TVs, water, drinks, sandwiches, cookies and was half full. All of that for about 1,000 rupees or a$10 CAD . It was a 4-hour ride from Lahore to Pindi, we had an attendant serve us food and drinks  and they had the movie Crash playing. The headphones that were provided were of exceptional quality. If someone used the washroom, the attendant would go to the back of the bus, inspect it, and spray air freshener just in case. The level of service and care that was provided, the organization of the lines prior to boarding, the security check before boarding all of it was well orchestrated there were no inequities or sore points.

Seriously, the experience on the Daewoo bus from Lahore to Pindi is something world travellers should try out, just as a control group to improve overarching perception that busing is a lower form of transportation, but maybe I’m was just culture-shocked, here I am sitting in a coach bus in Pakistan with an empty seat beside me, a can of Diet Pepsi in my hand and not a care in the world. In Canada, riding the coach bus is about as enjoyable as going to the emergency room.

Pakistan’s buses are better than Greyhound Canada

I actually prefer Ontario’s emergency rooms to riding Ontario’s Greyhound buses. First off, riding on a packed one to the rafters bus is never fun. Doing so for more than $120, from Ottawa to Toronto round trip is a staggering cost for what is supposed to be the cost-effective solution to interprovincial travel. Neigh says Greyhound Canada, who’ve reduced the number of buses, trips and their frequency to the point where now when they board passengers, they do it by the order in which the tickets were bought.

Let me map this out for you. You need to travel to Toronto to Ottawa on the cheap and you need to do it fast, so you go to Greyhound and buy a ticket online a couple days beforehand. Your order is put into sequence in their system and your space is allotted like it would be on a plane. You’re given a number, but not a seat.

Back to the boarding number issues.That number is your boarding number, somewhere between 1 and 54. If you bought your ticket first, you get to board the bus first. No questions asked.

I bought my ticket for my recent round trip and the day before busing out. There was no indication or way for me to know my seat priority or the capacity of the bus, just that I had a ticket, it wasn’t exchangeable or refundable and that the bus was leaving at 6:30 p.m..

Not knowing about the boarding number system Greyhound has recently instituted, I arrived an hour early. I had two bags and a carry-on, it is the holidays I had some gifts, shoot me for being a good uncle. I get to the bus station and I’m told to take a seat in a set of red seats, literally a set of seats that are red. Red, the colour of anger, passion and fury. I’m also told that I need to pay for my second piece of luggage (a gym bag with candy in it), so I coughed up $16 for the privilege and stowed it below.

My boarding number was 51, I was the third last on the bus even though I was the first to arrive at the terminal, having now paid $136 for my round trip ticket to carry 9 shirts, one pair of jeans and some candy in a gym bag to Ottawa and back.

Of course when you travel on a bus, it is the people around you who make the journey great or intolerable. However, on my my trip back home from Ottawa, the couple to my left apparently learned their manners watching Family Guy. The two played manga from their laptop on full volume for all to hear, in its screaming Japanese glory for four hours.

Crowded, smelly, loud, screaming, crunchy, hot, whiny, awful bus. Thanks, Greyhound Canada.

Now lets get back to Pakistan

I’ve told a great number of people about my trip on the Daewoo, and they’ve all been surprised. Even the notion that bus travel can be enjoyable and safe is lost on them.

I had a cab driver named Abdul recently, who told me of a trip he’d taken in Pakistan in the 1980s. On that trip he was travelling to Karachi, from a city I couldn’t recognize, and by bus. He said the bus was so crowded, that when he paid to get on he had to bribe someone to let him rent a seat for a period of time.

There was a hierarchy of who was able to sit where. There were military and police on the bus, they were on the top. Below them were women, and further below them were thugs. Everyone else may have well been cattle. The cops and the soldiers mostly stood on the bus and collected bribes for seats. The women were in most part left alone, especially those who had children. Men who could pay to sit, who were accosted more often than not, the cabbie told me.

One man had paid to get on the bus and he had a bag of mangoes with him. On the second day of the trip he didn’t have any more money to pay the bribes to sit, so he was standing in the aisle with a large number of men. It was a rainy time of year, so there weren’t many people on the outside of the bus. At one point a thug took one of the man’s mangos. The man protested briefly and a fight broke out. The soldiers intervened and the bus was stopped. The man without money was thrown off the bus and they took his mangos, the bus went on without him.

How representative of the travel woes of Pakistan’s underclass in the 1980’s is this, I’m not sure, but it paints a terrifying picture.

The Daewoo bus I had the pleasure of traveling on was comfortable, safe, uncrowded and clean. Like many things, our opinions are shaped by the stories we hear, however, innocuous or benign negative impressions have a drastic impact on the way we think about the people and places we know.

Think about that the next time you are travelling on a bus in any country. It isn’t always the quality of the cab, the volume of the music or the size of the seats but little things can change people’s perspective on a region and at this point, I feel more safe and comfortable travelling by bus in Pakistan than I do in Ontario. Take that, Greyhound Canada.

Have you read my first piece on Pakistan? It is truly a beautiful country. 

Pakistan is a paradox, it is one of the most beautiful places you could ever visit, but you don’t hear about that on the news. It is full of bright, educated, exciting people, but you won’t read about them in the newspaper. It has a storied history full of kings, battles, and innovations that you won’t learn about in schools.

I recently visited Pakistan with my longtime girlfriend, Anum, to meet her extended family and take part in a formal engagement ceremony in the city of Jhelum, about an hour and half outside Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad.

I’m a white, 26-year-old Canadian man, who until recently was a religiously unaffiliated. Anum’s family is large, Pakistani and Muslim, made up of wonderful learned people who have lived extraordinary lives. When I told my friends and family that I was going to travel to Pakistan for two weeks, to the outskirts of the capital and take part in a traditional ceremony for an engagement, I received a lot of questions and concerns. To allay those fears, I want everyone to know that Pakistan is a beautiful, peaceful and thriving nation where the most dangerous aspect of the culture is found in driving habits and public policy on the country’s “mixed use” roadways – which are a hellish mixture of donkey carts, ubiquitous Honda motorcycles and drivers in sedans who are more suited to rally-car races than urban transportation.

You see, kite flying in Pakistan is one of many things that albeit more precarious and more interesting  than it is in the west.

Every year groups pay for large ornate bamboo kites to be built to have them battle in the sky. They plan incessantly, spending fortunes on these kites. The strings they use to float them in the air are coated with powdered glass called door (sic) and is known elsewhere as cerol. People fly their massive kites in an effort to cut other kite flyers’ strings.

The reason it is banned in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, is because having children and men racing through the city  on roof tops with their eyes in the sky is inherently dangerous. When a kite is cut the string covered in glass floating through the streets can pass by the throat of a motorcyclist, which are numerous, and largely unprotected, helmet-less and often burdened with two children and a few bags of groceries. A cut kite string becomes a flying sword. Kite wars in a busy metropolis is a public safety hazard, people were hurt, or even killed in the yearly kite flying festival. The kites themselves are prized trophies, which makes them valuable. People will run after them on roof tops tracking them as they descend deeper into the city. Imagine a child running atop roofs of brick homes and ledges, only to misjudge a long distance and land halfway through a window or stuck on a rod iron gate, another four or five boys will make the jump safely but a tragedy has occurred.

The city of Lahore looked at the issue and came to the conclusion that while kite flying and the traditions around it are, while exciting, a public safety nightmare. The tradition known as Basant has been banned since 2007.

For anyone who is scared of Pakistan, I want to get this across to you before I write about this nation’s beauty. This is a country with deep pride and an insatiable thirst for freedom. Despite anything you may have watched on CNN or read in the Washington Post, the economy of Pakistan is thriving, girls are being educated, people live safely leading admirable lives as writers, doctors, lawyers and businessmen.

You can walk the streets without fear of being shot, robbed or hectored in any way.  Women own businesses, teach in schools, drive cars and live free. You can shop openly, eat in marketplaces and restaurants in peace, walk the foothills of the Himalayas comfortably in the midday sun and pray to whatever God you wish to.

In little more than 10 days I saw girls and boys playing cricket together on school trip in a 15th century Mogul Kingdom era fort. I spoke with people who grew up walking the foothills of the Swat Valley hand-in-hand with Muslims, Hindus and Christians. I met men who’ve fought in wars, led armies and healed people. Nothing has meant more to me than when they welcomed me into their homes and arms with love and peace as easily as they’d welcome a newborn brother or sister. I’ll be friend and son to hundreds of them and that’s in the face of prejudice and aspersions espoused on a people by the power politics at play in a region that has been under constant foreign occupation, covertly supported armed struggle and now a drone and propaganda war since at the very least 1971.

Imagine for a moment that the United States was located in the centre of Europe instead of on a giant island off alone as it almost is today, and that just after the Revolutionary War, when the country was bleeding hungry and tired, the military depleted, the farmland burned and cities crumbled by canon, that 4-million starving refugees, some of whom who have never left their villages in the mountain before walked across America’s boarders and set up shop for life because of an armed struggle that was threatening their lives. It isn’t as easy as, “let’s stop sectarian violence and get all these peoples in line so they aren’t a threat to the world (which they are not)”. These are people who have been displaced by two brutal wars and have been dropped into a country that isn’t even 100 years old. That country happens to be a nuclear power with one of the largest standing armies in the world – which not surprisingly and perhaps because of this, is surrounded on all sides by countries that are unstable themselves. Pakistan isn’t perfect but it’s wonderful.

The city of Lahore can manage to ban a tradition of kite flying because it is a danger to the public. I think it is time for the world’s powers to do the same but with Pakistan. They should stop trying to control populations through fear by funding insurgencies, propping up tribal factions or amplifying the voice of  well-intentioned but deeply flawed perceptions of regions, religions or peoples and places.

Three facts to learn about Pakistan:

1. Women and girls live freely in this society. They go to school, they go to work, and lead successful lives.
2. The most dangerous thing in the country is its roadways. The nation hasn’t had cars for all that long, they are still working out the kinks when it comes to public transportation and the rules of the road. If you’re not a local, take a cab or get a driver.
3. Radical Islam doesn’t exist, and certainly not in Pakistan. That term is bigoted crap invented by ignorant policy makers and lazy journalists who don’t look much farther than the press releases burped out of the offices of said ignorant policy makers. Murderers and terrorists are not true Muslims, no matter how they identify themselves or how the media reports their goals and intentions. It is high time we stop denigrating the second most populous religion in the world because we are too damn lazy to understand what’s really going on. If you’re blowing up markets with bicycle bombs, you don’t represent Islam.

Ask me if I’m going to return to Pakistan, and I’ll tell you I will and as often as I can. I’ll bring my mother here. I’m going to eat Falooda with my dad in a Lahorian marketplace and get some Chicken Karahi for my sister with fresh roti and a Sprite with lime for her children. I’m going to bring my kids here, climb mountains and hunt goats. I can’t wait.

I had my mind blown and I think I understand makeup now. 

When you spend the weekend embedded with Toronto’s fashion and beauty blogger community you’re going to learn a lot. I just helped out at the inaugural SPARK Sessions, a fashion and beauty blogger conference and it was great. It was the first of its kind in Canada and was held by more wonderful people than I can mention (although I did right here).

I had a tough job on my hands… spending a weekend surrounded by amazing women and do what they told me. It was a blast I’d do it again in a minute! The whole event had me thinking, why do women care so much about fashion and beauty that they’d build expansive blogs and an engaged community around both? Because women are awesome, duh? But really, I was confused about beauty – not beauty by definition, but the industry.

First off, I didn’t really know anything about beauty until this weekend. Sure, I had the idea that women like looking their best and one way that some women feel that they can do that is through the application of products but that’s missing a deeper more nuanced message.

Makeup and the act of applying it, is a deep and meaningful form of non-verbal communication. For some it is a hell of a lot of fun. Listening to women who are passionate about beauty speak together about it, is similar listening to a group of men who are passionate about restoring beautiful vehicles. Not to compare a woman’s face to a 1975 Jaguar Rohnart, but the tone and passion expressed by these engaged communities is similar. It is just that one group likes the engineering of a V6 and the other  the shade of one’s lipstick. The wheels of my analogy fall off quickly, but what I’m getting at is this: beauty is as deep and as relevant a culture as cars or automotive. 

Wearing makeup is a way to share yourself with the world. In applying it with finesse (and as I learned this weekend, in ever greater detail as technology improves) you are telling people that you are capable of refined intricate tasks and importantly that you are willing to undertake them. For me I get about as far as undertaking a tie around my neck and floss between my teeth; I might have to reconsider my morning routine.

So what is beauty about? Definition (of character and eyebrow), awareness (self and cultural), storytelling and homogeny in the sense that your make up can make you, one of many and that’s a good thing. There are identities and histories found within the styles of make up women choose to wear just as there are identities and histories found within the vehicles people choose to drive. Neither beauty or cars is vain, nor are they fleeting.

You don’t drive beauty down the highway, you wear it at work, on the subway and in line at the bank.

My mom calls it, “Putting her face on”.

With a little makeup any woman can smoothen a few fine lines but it is character of self that shines through any foundation, blush or liquid gloss. The culture of beauty is the reverence of that fact. It is not a glorification of the vain, or the needless. It is an amelioration of spirit and identity.

This brings me back to the fashion and beauty bloggers I met this weekend; each has their own style and tone but they are all confident and intriguing individuals, their blogs are no less so of either.

Now if someone could just help me understand glamour…

Anum’s blog, SummerxSkin, has had one of its first brand activations, the event #SparkSessions,Canada’s first Fashion & Beauty Blogger Conference held in Toronto.

She and her compatriots, Marissa Anwar(@Chicdarling), Anjali Handa (@Anjali_Handa), Nicole Wilson (@DaintyGirl_TO), Jenny Jovanovic (@CrazyStyleLove), Melissa Grosser (@MelGrosser), Deanne Castro (@MyFashAvenue) and Elaine Atkins (@TOBeautyReviews) have put a ton of work into this weekend’s event and I’m stunned.

They’ve got title sponsors like Almay and Smart Set, speakers like Jeanne Beker… and there are croissants.

With over 150 attendees, the 2-day event was pulled together over the past three months. Held at Toronto’s CSI Coffee Pub (Bathurst location), the discussions on marketing, community building and the role of independent bloggers brought the industry’s challenges and opportunities to light.

Good going everyone, I hope you’re able to do this again soon.

You can see more photos from this exciting event by following the hashtag #SparkSessions or following me @JamesRRubec.

The County General

Everyday of the week, the restaurant offers libations and good eats… including Mondays. To most, the first day is typically perceived as the black sheep and the least favourite child in the working-weekday family. However, at The County General (936 Queen Street West, Toronto), they’ve showered neglected ol’ Monday with love and affection. For $20, you can feast on a Bourbon-inspired brunch to chase away the work-week blues.

We start off with a Wild Turkey BBQ Bloody Caesar. Crafted by “Colonel” (Manager/Beverage Developer) Jeff Carroll, the addictive, spiced rim contains garlic salt, cayenne, and black peppers. The drink itself contains a medley of goodies: curry, cinnamon, pepper, lemon juice, horseradish, scotch bonnet peppers, onions, and garlic. Along with an ample swig of bourbon, the drink is completed with a dash of hoisin and BBQ sauces; the ruddy coloured concoction is strong enough to wake you up, render you wild-eyed with delight, and kick you into next Monday.

To follow is ‘the grub’: the first plate was a Wild Turkey cured pork belly with molasses baked beans; it was finished with nutmeg salted caramel, topped with crackling, and toast.

While it wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at on the plate, I still enjoyed this dish; there were heavy undertones of chicken stock and it had body–thanks to the use of duck fat. I liked the texture of the beans; it was hearty but not mealy or mushy. With hints of sweetness from the salted caramel, bites of heat from the flecks of black pepper, and homey warmth from the spices, it was a rich and tasty dish.

For the main, my dish was a classic eggs benny, County General style.

Housemade peameal bacon slices were draped over a quivering egg. Ladled over it was a brown butter hollandaise. The protein sat atop of a griddled, house made english muffin. The light, pastel pink meat was luscious and silky textured, something I’ve never tasted before with peameal. In fact, I fully expected a springy texture. Here, it had a soft, melting-moment quality. When I inquired about its preparation, I discovered that our friend, Mr. Sous-vide, lent a hand in cooking the meat. To finish the peameal, it was simply put on the flattop to impart some char, crispiness, and more flavour. I also adored the hollandaise sauce. Typically, a classic hollandaise includes white wine, shallots, and vinegar: making it overall more tangy in taste. Thanks to the browning of the butter, the nutty sweetness of the sauce was the perfect compliment to the meat. I’m pleased they make their breads in-house and content I got to eat one in the form of an english muffin. With a medium woven crumb, the bread was weighty enough to stand up to the moisture from the egg and peameal but contained enough volume to make it fluffy tasting–not the squat dense bricks I have in my nightmares about eating. The only technical flaw was the egg itself; it was not runny and instead, was more of a fudgy texture.

I was spoiled during dessert. I was given a strawberry shortcake and dessert 2.0 in the form of a panna cotta. Let’s get another technical error out of the way. I get the ‘rustic’ charm and theme they’re trying to impart, but when the juices from the strawberries land in my lap rather than stay on the cutting board they chose to serve dessert on,  well that’s quite a large error. Aside from that, the strawberries in this dish were given a lofty treatment; they cozied up to a sliced tea biscuit- style shortcake. When I asked Sous-Chef Adam Alguire why they opted for a coarse crumb cake rather than a finer, tender one (which I usually choose when I make shortcake at home), he stated that the biscuit was more characteristic of the southern flair they were aiming for. Placed on top of a creamy, floral vanilla creme anglaise, the ruby red strawberries awaited their fate. Simple but beautiful to behold.

The panna cotta would be classified as more ‘camera-ready’ and ‘fancier’. It was a creamy, full-bodied dessert; made lovingly with copious amounts of cream. The kicker here was the use of goat’s yoghurt; so as you lap it up, you get the sweetness, but a bit of tang and sharp notes from the yoghurt. It’s the perfect dessert if you are not looking for something overly sweet. As if to worship the gleaming white idol in the middle, a trail of nectarines and orange segments came from both sides of the tasty path.

Would I eat here again?  Yes!.. and moreover, in a heartbeat, if they started making cornbread and considered making sinful Mississippi Mud pies.

Which brunch place do you recommend? Tweet @LeighTiffany!

The lead single, “Ambition,” outlines TROVE’s plan for success, and it doesn’t sound like they’re going anywhere until they succeed. The opening tracks, along with, “Ignite,” are high energy, and a great way to start of the album. They’re anthems, letting their audience know they aren’t about to back down.

A definite stand out is “All I’ve Ever Known,” whose melody is infectious and will be stuck in your head for days.  Another standout  is “Run Away With Me,” as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Aryn Powell, begs “ Hold on girl/ get ready to run/ forget about tomorrow/ run away with me tonight.”

For a debut album, it is diverse from song to song, including the instrumental track, “Aontacht,” which translates to unity in Gaelic. It includes a guest performance by Crystal Lee who rocks the viola over the drums and guitars. The strings don’t’ get lost in the rock sound; it accompanies it well creating one of the most unique tracks on the album.

With 10 tracks in total, the album was self-produced by Powell and was mastered by Rueben Ghose who has worked with bands like Tokyo Police Club and Death Cab for Cutie.

The only thing lacking is Powell’s vocals, at times they seem mundane with him staying in his comfort zone, it would be great to see some more vocal range. The album has a 90s rock feel, with high-energy instrumental arrangements from Matt “Chewy” Chaitram (lead guitar), Alexa Pavao (bass guitar), and Matt Bellissimo (drums).

TROVE’s debut album is a great start to their career. Their songs are diverse, fast-paced, and will be on repeat on your iPod. There is room to grow, and there are only better things to come from this Canadian four-piece rock band.

I refuse to change anything about my night-time routine since it works well for me but I knew my morning ritual needed to change. To soothe my skin in the morning I decided to add the Nivea Aqua Effect Gentle Foaming Cleanser for Dry to Sensitive Skin to my routine. I’m not a big fan of foam cleansers and typically opt for cream-based cleansers, so I was wear to try this out.

With only one pump, it gave me enough foam mousse to cleanse my entire face. As you gently massage it on your face and neck, it feels so soft and the light scent is not overpowering at all. It’s a cleanser free of alcohol and perfume. I rinsed my face with water and was surprised that I had to splash my face only a couple of times. Since I wear an acne spot treatment on my face daily, it usually takes me a long time to rinse off all the gunk.

Your skin may feel a little tighter after drying your face, but that feeling doesn’t last long. My face started to feel soft and supple again after 5-10 minutes. My favourite part about this product is that it’s enriched with natural Almond Oil and Nivea’s Hydra IQ technology, which is created by Nivea Visage and consists of glucose and glycerin that helps attract and bind water to the skin. This allows the skin to maintain hydration and its natural moisture balance for over 24 hours!

I give the Nivea Aqua Effect Gentle Foaming Cleanser an A+. My skin is being nourished and moisturized while I cleanse, leaving it soft, smooth and healthy. Best of all, there is no additional need for moisturizers and my face doesn’t itch anymore.

If your skin is anything like mine, where hydration and moisture changes with the extreme Canadian climate, I would recommend at least giving the Nivea Aqua Effect Gentle Foaming Cleanser a try.

As a full-time working professional in one of the busiest cities in the world, I sometimes forget to relax. It happens to the most of us; we are too caught up with work or socializing that we don’t really give time to enjoying nature and life.

Viamede Resort offers just that. It’s only a 2-hour drive from the city, in between Toronto and Ottawa, and provides comfort and luxury at the same time. Think of it like camping, except cleaner.

The first thing to admire about this resort are the cottage-style rooms. Comfy bed, kitchenette, bathroom, lots of windows, a big deck for lounging and BBQing, and a wood stove!

As I mentioned before, Viamede Resort reminded me a lot of camping because it was surrounded by greenery and nature trails.

I was ecstatic when I heard it was a dog-friendly resort! It meant that I could also spend quality time with my dog, Frenzi. He really enjoyed his time and despite the rain, got to go on plenty of walks throughout the weekend.

Doesn’t that look like one happy, satisfied pup?

The lakeside view is also something not to miss. Viamede Resort sits right on Stoney Lake, making it easy to indulge in water-based activities. It’s too bad that the weekend passed by so quickly, otherwise I would have loved to go fishing or just on a boat ride.

I’m looking forward to visiting Viamede Resort again soon. Plans are already in the works with family and possibly even on New Years!

In the summer Cha told me about their new monthly tea subscription box that they were about to launch and asked me if I wanted to try it. I was delighted to see the package arrive at my door; lucky for me, it came around the time I was really sick with strep throat and drank most of it that entire week.

How It Works

Cha has set up a process on the website where the consumer fills out a quick survey that determines the types of tea that they would enjoy. They get to pick the tea category based on descriptions and a personalized package gets delivered to their home! It’s a great way to always make sure you have tea in the house (I have definitely forgotten to add it to my grocery list in the past) and a fun way to try new types of tea flavours.

Contents Inside The Subscription Package

• One 30g glass vial from your primary tea category
• Two 20g kraft pouches from your second and third tea category
• Tea filters
• Tasting notes
• Tea ritual and steeping guide

All of this for just $25 a month (shipping included)!

My favourite tea from the collection I got is Peppermint Dream. It is the perfect blend of peppermint and spearmint leaves and is really smooth. It made me feel better instantly when I was sick and doesn’t really require any sugar.

GIVEAWAY!

The lovely folks over at Cha are offering FIVE lucky readers the chance to win their very own personalized tea box. Each box is a value of $25 and includes everything mentioned above.

To be eligible for this giveaway, you must fill out the Rafflecopter widget below and comment on this blog post telling us how often you drink tea.

For extra entries, you can do the following and indicate you did them in the Rafflecopter widget:

• Become a fan of PBJMag on Facebook
• Become a fan of TasteCha on Facebook
• Follow @PBJMag on Twitter
• Follow @TasteCha on Twitter
• Tweet: “Hey @PBJMag – I love tea and want to win a @TasteCha monthly tea subscription. http://bit.ly/16QBvfn #PBJCha” You can tweet this once a day, every day
• Contest is open to Canadian residents only and ends on October 22 @ 11:59 p.m. EST

Everyone has a dinner tradition and for my family, it is sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s one of the most easiest yet delightful things to make and eat, so I thought I’d share my recipe with you.

If you’re looking to help out in the kitchen this weekend for Thanksgiving dinner, I highly suggest you take charge of making sweet potato pie. Of course I’m assuming the oven may be pre-occupied with the turkey, but you can always prepare this ahead of time or get it ready and bake it right before the meal is served. It tastes best when it’s warm but I also enjoy it chilled too.

Check out this video Anum shot and edited while I made sweet potato pie. It will also reinforce how easy this recipe is!

What you’ll need:

6-8 medium sized sweet potatoes, or about 10 cups of sweet potatoes
1/8 of a pound of butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of table salt
1 cup of pecans

Steps:

1. Peel your sweet potatoes
2. Cut your sweet potatoes into big chunks
3. Put your sweet potatoes into a pot, add water
4. Bring to a boil for 20 minutes
5. Drain water
6. Place sweet potatoes into roasting pan
7. Chop half of your butter, mix with sweet potatoes
8. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder
9. Mash together until smooth and even them out, making the surface flat
10. Add a layer of brown sugar
11. Place pecans on sweet potatoes
12. Add more sugar, spice and butter on top of pecans
13. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes, and broil until pecans have browned

Enjoy sweet potato pie and Happy Thanksgiving!