Advanced search

Guided by Annabel Crabb, an Aussie family goes on a time-travelling adventure to discover how the food we eat has transformed the way we live, the fabric of the nation and defined family roles over the past 60 years.

A 21st Century Canadian family, living in Northern Ontario, is going back in time. The parents and their three teenage daughters "start" the adventure in 1940, after their own house is "gutted" and retrofitted for each progressive decade. They progress by decade with each episode.

In each episode of RECIPE FOR DISASTER, three professional chefs and their cooking buddies compete to prepare spectacular dishes under absurdly adverse conditions and take the title of MASTER OF DISASTER.

Five strangers guess who lives where, they visit each other's houses and at the end they guess which house is for whom.

Frozen in Design follows a self-appointed "Preservation Society" as it tours five American homes with nostalgic decor so dated it just might be "in" again. After a comically rigorous house inspection with points awarded for authenticity and style, only one home will be victoriously declared: TO NEVER BE CHANGED. The winner also takes home a prize in honor of preservation over renovation. Host McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs, Elemental) wields her comedic prowess and infectious charm to reveal the beauty, joy and sacrifice of living in a time capsule. She's joined by HGTV experts Elizabeth Finkelstein and Ethan Finkelstein (Who's Afraid of a Cheap Old House?), Mike Jackson and Egypt Sherrod (Married To Real Estate), and Rico León (Rico to the Rescue) to form a tongue-in-cheek 'anti-remodel' team. Frozen in Design invites you inside meticulously styled homes built between the 1870s and the 1970s, a journey from mountain retreats, to grand mansions, to mid-century modern masterpieces. The featured houses will thrill and inspire viewers, especially home design and decor fanatics.

Extreme Potluck throws three pairs of amateur food fanatics together in a high stakes race to see which dish will win in an ultimate potluck showdown! When our 50 expert judges arrive, whose dish will be the star of the potluck and whose dish will grow cold in its serving pot? The premiere celebrity episode features Property Brothers Drew & Jonathan Scott, Homewrecker's Kristi Hansen, Comedian/musician/author Sean Cullen, Olympic Silver Medalist Elizabeth Manley and multiple Juno award nominee Kim Stockwood. Each celebrity will be vying to win a big cash prize for their favourite charity. Hold on to your pots, this is going to be a wild ride!

The Carlsons embark on their time traveling experiment of experiencing Canadian winters in the past starting in the 1940s, their house gutted of their 2019 conveniences. In this decade, Melanie, the "housewife", will spend most of her time in the kitchen doing domestic duties, not only cooking, but cleaning. In the early part of the decade, the meals will be affected by the war, with the prime cuts of meat sent overseas to the troops. Being winter, fresh produce is in short supply, meaning fruits and vegetables will be from cans, they often preserved in some fashion, such as dried. With Melanie stuck in the kitchen, Dave is largely forced outside to ensure his family is kept warm. Dave will also have to do his part in providing for the dinner table, and not only in being the breadwinner. Dave will also have to ensure they as a family know what the weather will be like, such knowledge which may ensure survival and which cannot be ascertained by an app on his phone. With long range forecasting a thing of the future, families were forced to stock up on supplies just in case an unexpected storm results in loss of power. The war also affected social activities, games which often had a military theme. To stay warm, activities often took place inside, but also had a practical side, such as quilting. They end the decade having some fun outside with Dave waxing the equipment before they all head down the hill on a wooden toboggan.

The Carlsons are happy to be moving from the '40s to the '50s, a more prosperous and thus comfortable time. While the gender roles of the '40s are still in place with Melanie largely tied to the kitchen while Dave attends to chores outside, they each have new - or in Dave's case repurposed - gadgets which are supposed to make their responsibilities easier. In Dave's case, his role has been expanded to beautify the outside to match that new prosperity. And for Melanie, she will be getting some new regular "human" help in the kitchen in the form of fifteen year old Lauren, who is to use this opportunity to be a housewife in training, and in the process, later in the decade, who will be handling one of the meals on her own. The females still have to look feminine and pretty no matter what they are doing, which gives Lauren the chance to experiment with a new fashion tool on Alex and Chelsey. The latter two will partake in an activity that was all the rage with the success of Barbara Ann Scott: figure skating. In the latter part of the decade, gym bunny Dave will get a chance to get back into an exercise regimen of the time designed for the Canadian military by one of their own, while Lauren and Alex learn all about knitting, a past-time which allowed young women to make things for their wardrobe, from accessories to full garments with the practical item of wool. Dave, Alex and Chelsey learn not only of the practical warmth capability of wool, but the downside of the fiber as they continue many of their activities outside in the wet snow. By the end of the decade, Dave makes an admission about the gender balance, or what he sees, imbalance of this decade.

The Carlsons are looking forward to the 1960s, a decade they believe will be more fun. While Melanie, with Lauren by her side, is still stuck in the kitchen this decade, they at least have more modern conveniences to assist them with meals. Those conveniences may not however overcome the "weirdness" factor of some of the meals they are asked to prepare. Other conveniences make Melanie do some additional housework she had never even contemplated, rug shampooing at night to allow the rug to dry overnight. Melanie is also subjected to the overnight beauty routine of setting her hair, more important in winter because of the dry weather. Dave, for the first time, gets to play Canada's "national sport", but it may take some adjustment for him to get used to 1960s equipment. With women not yet playing the sport, Lauren, Alex and Chelsey try the women's equivalent which at the time was deemed less physical than hockey, thus suitable for the fairer ***. Alex and Chelsey also try one of the decade's most trendy crafts: rug hooking. By mid decade, Melanie is for the first time out of skirts and into pants, but at a price she may not be willing to pay. Both Dave and Melanie have different winter tasks related to the whole getting back to nature culture of the decade, with Melanie finally able to get outside for some leisure activity. By the end of the decade, the girls try to newest wintertime snacks, and, to match their new mod looks, go on their first dates - at least board game style. While they end off the decade with some old (Dave still outside shoveling snow, Melanie still the the kitchen cleaning up) and some new (eating dinner in front of the television), they cap it off outside with a good old fashioned 1960s backyard winter bonfire.

As the Carlsons usher in the 70s, both Melanie and Dave are hoping that there will be a greater gender balance of responsibility in the kitchen, with reality being that they will have to wait until mid-decade for that to happen. Technological advances, greater globalization and a recession in the early part of the decade led to the want for convenience with a greater array of products, including fresh produce, but with a cost consciousness thrown in for the greater use of budget cuts of meat. This combination also saw more global flavors, especially tropical, even in the winter, less expensive activities to the norm, such as cross country skiing as opposed to downhill skiing, the advent of curling for both sexes and at home yoga with shows such as "Kareen's Yoga", and more DIY projects to make life easier in the long run, such as roof rakes to clear snow, and for the girls home French manicure kits to help them take care of their nails, especially important in the winter. By the mid to end of the decade, the word was novelty to match the outrageousness of the disco era, with toys for especially the younger generation all about wackiness with no thought of safety, or more precisely lack thereof.

The Carlsons enter the 1980s with a sense of optimism if only because it will have a sense of familiarity at least for Melanie and Dave as children of the decade, and as they perhaps will get back to roles more familiar to them especially in the kitchen. They will find that Melanie is still queen of the kitchen but will eventually get more help as diets, especially winter ones, were heavy on the carbohydrates as filling and satisfying, although the meal preps will not be totally comfortable to unadventurous Melanie. The gender roles leave Dave still largely outside, with some tools purportedly making life easier and others seemingly damaging in the never-ending quest to rid ice and snow. The melding of gender roles will also move into the realm of activities as girls started to play hockey, although had to be self taught in the focus still on the men's game. Both Dave and Melanie partake in outdoor wintertime jogging and downhill skiing, where the objective was speed and looking good in neon. The girls will also test 80s DIY fashion with puffy fabric paint to customize their looks. Speed was also the name with the GT-Racer, the fastest ever downhill sled. The end of the decade saw the *** of video cameras using VHS tapes, and more indoor lighting to combat the newly coined SAD. They finish off the decade with some Calgary Olympic inspired items, including a visit by someone who stole the show for Canada at the games.

The Carlsons enter the 1990s with Melanie and Dave looking forward to the girls experiencing their childhoods as they were actual teenagers in this decade. Among the things the girls will experience this decade in terms of wintertime activities include snowboarding, which was seen then as the activity of the rebellious, tubing, board games in this, the pre-Internet era, and the DIY project of homemade scrunchies, a fashion accessory worn by every young female. The kitchen duties are now shared by the family as women increasingly were part of the workforce, with Dave taking on his first solo meal of the experiment, using the familiar equipment the domain of the male, namely the barbecue, even in winter. The thought of the day in terms of health and food was that fat, especially saturated fat, was bad, much of that fat in processed foods being replaced by sugar. Although the lower carb trend would emerge later in the decade, other healthier options did include more fresh fruit and whole grains. Dave in the kitchen allows Melanie to partake in her own outdoor activity which became popular as the baby boomers started to age, namely power walking, seen as kinder on the joints that the 80s high impact aerobics. But as the decade comes to a close, so does the harsh winter, allowing the family to get outside for activities not necessarily associated with winter. The end of the decade also saw the issues associated with Y2K which made people reflect more on the past. The Carlsons close out the experiment with a past-time typical of Canada and which they could do in the milder end of winter.

The Carlsons have completed their time travel experiment where their lives were completely transformed for them to experience what winter life was like for a typical Canadian family chronologically for the six decades from 1940 to 1999, they to adhere to the time period they were in even when the cameras weren't rolling. Beyond the relatively minor cheats admitted to by two, the Carlson family members reflect on this experience, they talking about using the "technology" of the day, the strict gender roles especially in the earlier decades which seemed most arduous for Melanie but which ended up being psychologically just as difficult for Dave in a slightly different way, the rules for teenagers, fashion and changing fabrics, food and food trends, decor with the continual physical transformation of their house, health and beauty trends, the changing ways to remove snow, pop culture norms, and leisure activities which were not always confined to the outdoor winter variety. The work required to make these physical transformations are discussed. The Carlsons conclude by talking about the family bonding that occurred, the surprising benefits from their current days lives, and if they would do it all over again knowing what they now know.

Beyond the known changes such as no computers or most kitchen conveniences, the Campuses are still surprised by what few technological conveniences are available to them especially at the beginning of the week but how much they admire the style to look at. The other big challenges for them for the entire week will be fulfilling the stereotypical gender roles in the household - Aaron who usually does most of the household cooking - which is made all the more difficult for Tristan in having to look pretty in her high heeled shoes while doing that cooking, and eating together as a family. They will find that the beginning of the week - the war years - is more difficult with food rations, most of the higher quality food products being sent overseas to feed the troops, leaving what one in western society today would generally consider unwanted pieces of animals what is left for the home dinner table, if there was animal protein at all, and that food cannot be thrown in the garbage if an error was made on the proverbial stove. Valerie and Jessica will also have to do their part for the war effort, which brings them back to an activity they used to do before technology invaded their lives. They will also learn the concept of the victory garden and bulking up meals by cheaper, more available, and healthy food products according to the newly developed Canada Food Rules, the precursor to today's Canada Food Guide. Beyond the end of the war and the celebration associated with that, the latter half of the week - the post-war years - is arguably easier for the family as more food and more food choices, although not totally appreciated by the Campuses, are available, albeit at much higher prices with the end of government price controls on even the most basic of food staples. Throughout the week, Robert probably has it the easiest as besides not having his technological toys, he has the most carefree life, the greatest responsibility being to show up for dinner after spending his after school hours playing outside.

Going into the 1950s, the Campuses anticipate that the gender roles from the previous decade remain which means Tristan will still be alone in the kitchen much of the time, that they will still be eating dinner together as a family around the formal dining room table, but that the mood will be much lighter and happier than it was the previous decade. While all these things are true, that latter item for Tristan is tempered when she learns that there is an extra expectation on her to keep the appearance of the perfect house just in case anyone should stop by unexpectedly. Beyond the manual, Tristan is provided an extra guide to ensure she does do what the 1950s housewife was expected to do. As the decade progresses, things will arguably get easier for Tristan in the kitchen. First, middle class families would occasionally go out for dinner, often to Chinese-Canadian restaurants, which belied the racism that still existed exhibited by the middle class suburbs being predominantly white. Second, more and more electrical appliances and gadgets would become available making kitchen work easier. These included storage containers leading to the ubiquitous "Tupperware party" to allow housewives to socialize more and earn some pocket money in the process. And third, more and more convenience foods came on the market to make dinner preparation easier, from box cake mixes to frozen foods that just needed to be defrosted and reheated. Valerie and Jessica believe they receive the short end of the stick compared to Robert when it comes to their "free time" activities, although they all, closer to the end of the decade, will begin to socialize at the precursor to the fast food restaurant: the diner. The men's duties around the house took on a more serious nature associated with the geopolitical tensions of the time. Aaron's responsibilities with regard to what is ingested take their first steps with his role as bartender in the era of the cocktail party. And what resembles what they are used to in twenty-first century life may first arguably come with a big box in their living room and the food and folding miniature tables associated with it.

Walking into the house for the first time, the Campuses can immediately tell that the 1960s will be lighter and more fun, which it will be to reflect the more open attitudes that emerge. Tristan is still stuck in the kitchen - at least in the beginning of the decade - but will have a new cooking guide in the form of Julia Child, who brought gourmet French food, previously solely the domain of swanky restaurants, into the home kitchen. Tristan will also have more help in the form of what she's used to in modern day: processed foods to enable cooking short cuts, including the space aged mashed potato flakes. By mid-decade, Italian became the new food trend with the onset of what is now considered the go to dinners of pasta or pizza. The end result of these food changes is that Tristan will now have more time to spend with the family in more fun pursuits. Fashion and style of the decade is influenced by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy and The Beatles. The Campus kids move from the 1950s hangout of the diner to the 1960s hangout of the coffee house, which was the hotbed of politically charged folk music and protest. Tristan's emergence from the kitchen is in part due to the rise of feminism, with Aaron taking on this first real role in cooking, although his designated cooking appliance, the charcoal barbecue, is a different beast than the gas powered barbecue to which he is used. Celebratory themed meals are served for two milestone occasions: Canada's centennial in 1967 - which has its own emotional issues for Aaron in being part indigenous, that part which was stripped from his mother in marrying a non-indigenous person - and the Apollo 11 moonwalk in 1969.

The 1970s will be a first, at least for Aaron and Tristan, as a decade which they originally did live through, and can remember. Cool is a word they all use to describe the style at least of their house. With much uncertainty in the world, the home became a person's sanctuary, and there was the want for comfort, even in food with the rise of the slow cooker. With women starting to go to work, men started to assist in domestic duties, although under the guidance of the wife. The working wife also led to the rise of latch-key kids, who were often left with convenience foods - such as instant mac and cheese - as an easy to make after school snack. One of the most well-remembered events of the early 1970s was the 1972 Canada-Russia summit series, which turned out not only to be a measure of hockey supremacy, but a geopolitical gauge of the supremacy of democracy versus communism. The federal policy of multiculturalism led in part to great immigration, resulting in a more ethnically diverse array of restaurant choices, especially Indian (i.e. South Asian) restaurants. Such a meal hits home with part South Asian Tristan, who grew up with such food. Later in the decade, the health movement took hold, health and supposed health foods which became more popular. What made life more complicated, in addition in the kitchen, was the onset of the metric system. The latest 1970s was known specifically by one fad: disco. Disco soon was paired with roller skating to form roller disco. The Campuses end the decade with an extended family dinner with new latest food trend: the fondue. With computers and cell phones still decades away, the Campus kids are stuck with the fads of the day to keep themselves preoccupied during their free time, from macrame, to riding banana seat bicycles, to space balls, to being mesmerized by mood rings. And by the end of the decade, Tristan is arguably the happiest she has been during the whole experiment up to this point.

The Campuses enter their home for the first time this decade to find the décor is all glass, brass and lacquer to reflect the new prosperity and openness of the era, that prosperity especially by who will be coined yuppies, the more affluent of the baby boomers. For the first time in the experiment, Tristan is banished from the kitchen in the preparation of the first meal, it, iconic to females of the time, which will ironically be prepared by the males. Men in the kitchen does not mean that the women's domestic duties were usurped. The new sense of adventure, which extended to cooking gourmet at home with more and more kitchen gadgets and people getting new ideas from cooking classes, was balanced by a new health trend as baby boomers were approaching the middle age bulge, that health both in diet and exercise. The former includes meatless meals with the use of non-animal protein ingredients such as tofu. The latter saw the onset of aerobics for women, and pumping iron for men, both while adorned in spandex. The mid-80s saw the rise of Japanese food, the California roll the gateway to the more adventurous raw fish sushi. What arguably changed the family dynamic was the introduction of the tech gadgets of the home video game console, hand held electronic games, and the videocassette recorder (VCR), which revolutionized the way people watched television. The late-80s saw another revolutionary kitchen appliance hit the market, the microwave oven which led to complete meals being cooked in such. Cultural novelties include Trivial Pursuit, friendship pins (the equivalent today of friending someone on Facebook), the pogo ball, and painting à la Bob Ross style. A style icon, especially for girls Valerie and Jessica's age, was Madonna, with big curly hair and bangs, and overtly sexualized feminine items mixed with overtly masculine items. The Campuses last meal of the decade is something with which they are more familiar in present day: the home delivered meal, specifically of the Canadian invention of the Hawaiian pizza.