Recapping The Fraiche Food, Full Hearts Book Tour
Happy Friday everyone, and welcome back to the blog! It’s officially one week since I went to this – I cannot believe it. Time is flying so fast. Well, I’m sure this is so well established at this point, especially if you’ve ever taken a look through my Instagram feed, but I’m a huge Jillian Harris fan. I look up to Jillian for everything from home decor, styling, lifestyle decisions, and everything in between, and if I’m being honest, I’m not even really a big kids-person, but her children, are the most adorable tiny humans I’ve ever seen. About four weeks ago, Jillian & her cousin Tori, posted on their Instagram that they were going on a book tour for their new cook book, Fraiche Food, Full Hearts, and boy did I have a real whatever, this opportunity will never come again, just buy the tickets moment, and I was one of the lucky people who happened to score two tickets!
Jillian & Tori weren’t coming to where I lived, but they were going to Toronto, which is close enough by me, that I bought tickets for my mom and I, booked train tickets & a hotel, and off we went. I was so excited to notice too, that the ticket price included a signed copy of the cook book. The best part of all of this? This book tour stop was only four days before my birthday, so this honestly, was the optimal birthday gift for me. My family originally had planned on getting me the cook book for my birthday, but I was happy to pay for this one all on my own.
The Night of the Book Tour
Toronto, ON · October 3, 2019
The train ride for my mom and I to Toronto takes about 4 to 5 hours, depending on any delays, how many stops we make, etc. If you assumed that I spent the entire train ride anxious that something would happen and the train would break down, combined with trying to tell myself “Yes, you are actually going to be in the presence of Jillian freakin’ Harris tonight!”, then you assume this correctly. But luckily, we got there with no delays & break downs – PHEW! We got to Toronto a little after 4pm, and the event started at 7pm, with doors opening at 6:30pm. I was that annoying kid to their parents who was like “Sorry mom, we’re going right there”. Luckily I have such a cool mom, because she had no problem with this. She knew what a big deal this was for me. Once we got there, we hovered around until a line started to form around 5:30pm & that’s when we got our wristbands, jumped in line and were given a ticket saying Group 1 (which I had no idea what this meant), our signed copies of the book, and a Fraiche Food, Full Hearts tote bag! (See the photos below) I opened up my copy of the cook book to see that Jillian had accidentally dotted an L, and not the I & a little note saying “Wow. Sorry xox”, which of course, I treasured so much.
After waiting in line for about an hour, slowly watching the time go by, and watching the crew set up the stage, we were finally being allowed in! Safe to say, my heart was racing. My mom and I were 7th & 8th in line, and from my calculations, I was going to be able to get a front row seat – and I did! We were sitting front freaking row to see Jillian Harris & Tori Wesszer speak. The stars could not have aligned more perfectly this evening. After about half an hour of sitting around, we saw Jillian and Tori come in & of course, everyone in the room was freaking out a little bit, myself included. Not long after, out they came, up on stage and ready to get the party started. As Jillian sat down, she happened to look over at me, and noticed I was wearing her Jillian Harris x Etsy collection earrings from Knots & Pipes, and said something along the lines of “Hey, nice earrings!”. Hi, could I cry now? I was definitely losing it internally.
They began their discussion with the moderator, the editor-in-chief of Chatelaine magazine Maureen Halushak, and after about an hour of them speaking, and even answering some audience questions, it was over. An hour had never flown by so quickly in my life. Of course, Jillian & Tori spoke wonderfully, and I was completely engaged the whole time, and boy are they hilarious & relatable. A lot of what they said stuck with me, including about needing to be fearless, forgive more & be kinder people.
And I even got to meet them too!
Once Jillian & Tori were done speaking, the manager of the Indigo we were in (Bay & Bloor), came up on stage and told us we were going to be able to get a photo with Jill & Tori using the tickets with our group numbers on it! (Ahhhh, so that’s what those tickets were for) I was definitely freaking out. This truly was such a dream come true. The crew cleared some of the chairs, group 1 got in line, and we waited about 10 minutes, and then, it was my turn. I walked up on stage, and Jillian & Tori look over at me and Jillian notices I’m wearing her Jilly Jacket from Joe Fresh, and of course, after looking at me for about an hour, she knew I had her earrings on too, once I got closer, she even noticed the Melanie Auld Adorned necklace I had from her too. They asked my name, and I got between them for a photo, and they told me I was “the cutest”, and Jillian jokingly said she needed a photo of me so she can tag where to shop the pieces. Highlight of my whole entire life, if you ask me. My mom then came up and the four of us grabbed a photo together, I thanked them & congratulated them both, and we went on our merry way. Everything about that night, was so perfect – I couldn’t have asked for anything better (except maybe if they followed me on Instagram, haha!)
When we got to our hotel, all checked-in and bags finally put down, my mom and I went to grab something to eat, and I posted a ton of photos from the night on both my profile, and on stories. After a little while, dinner was done, we paid & went up to our room, got ready for bed, and asleep my mom went almost right away. As tired as I was, I was still on a bit of a high from meeting two people who I look up to the most. That’s when I got a DM from Tori, thanking me for coming & saying it was great to meet me. My heart was racing! Of course, I replied saying thank you for her time, and it was lovely to meet her too. Not long later, I got a DM from Jillian too! Saying, and I quote “You are awesome!!!!!!!”. I was internally freaking out again. I sent her a DM thanking her for her time as well, and telling her to keep being wonderful. All-in-all, spending the money for train tickets, a hotel & tickets to the event was worth every penny. I had the absolute best time, and it definitely won’t be an experience I’ll forget for a long time, if ever.
The Cook Book
Fraiche Food, Full Hearts
So, of course, I didn’t have a whole lot to do sitting on a train for 4 or 5 hours, so I flipped through the entire cook book on the way home, and let me tell you, there’s a few recipes I seriously cannot wait to try. I’ll get into that in a second, but first, I’ve got to say my favourite part about this cook book is the fact that Jillian & Tori took the time to label if a recipe was Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and/or Nut-Free, but also if the recipe could have a modification to make it any of the above labels, they wrote an option at the bottom of what to modify and replace to make it that way. My family is a cluster of all of these things. We’ve got vegans, vegetarians, nut allergies, celiac disease & the list goes on, so this was honestly such a perfect & smart decision for them to add.
Another thing I truly loved was when I was at the discussion in Toronto, they even mentioned that the recipes were created keeping the ingredients in mind. They said they wanted to make sure that the recipes featured ingredients that people would naturally have in their homes, and wouldn’t have to make special grocery store trips to get these weird, random ingredients that they’ll never use again. Honestly, could those two get more perfect?
Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try
Of course, because I flipped through the entire cook book, I have mentally noted some recipes I’m going to be trying first:
Granny’s Beet Rolls
Jilly’s Almost Famous Stuffing
Citrus Olive Oil Bundt Cake
Maple-Thyme Parnsips & Carrots
Mushroom Wellington
Sweetheart Oven Fries
Picnic Pasta Salad
French Onion Soup with Thyme Croutons
Garden Bolognese
Tori’s Thin Crust Pizza
Okanagan Peach Slushies
Well, there you have it – the story of me living my absolute best life, and meeting my two favourite internet people. It really was such a dream come true for me, I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.
I highly recommend picking up Fraiche Food, Full Hearts. If you check out Jillian’s blog, there’s links to everywhere you can purchase it, but off the top of my head, the easiest place to check out is Indigo & Amazon. Thanks for reading ♥︎
