Random.

Life has been a bit hectic of late. My assistant at work gave her notice (and her last day was yesterday), so there's been an enormous amount of stress at work that has led to me being quite headachey and really fairly immobile when not at the office. Which doesn't lend well to keeping up with a blog, a relationship, fitness, or life.

But, we've spent a lovely day playing with our new Wii Fit (which rules!), reading magazines, watching soccer, and going to the St. Lawrence market this morning. Last weekend, we had friends over, and I was sick the entire time AND it rained. Double krap.

Anyway, here's a few things I have been meaning to post about, just lying around in their "post me" folders on my desktop.

Late nights have led to quickie dinners. The other night, a pasta with chili and oil... really a favorite of mine.

How can you not want to eat that big ol' lovely bowl of pasta. (This was a gluten-free, for those keeping track. Since I mentioned it, my tests are in a week, so hopefully we will have some decisions made on the stomach at that point... of course, I will let you know!)

I don't know if you have food cravings like this, but I knew that the only thing I really wanted to have for dinner was tzatziki I mean, that was the taste I wanted, with some sort of red meat and rice. So on my way home from work, I stopped in at Cumbrae's and bought some beautiful kabobs and tzatziki!



Yum yum yum. Simple but satisfying.  No sauce in that pic, but it was truly the reason for the season.

I had been told that Hair of the Dog had a lovely brunch, and looking for something rich and satisfying on a cool Sunday morning, G and I wandered in for a taste. 

I had this 'thing'. I don't know how else to describe it, though I am sure it was described differently on the menu. It was a scalloped potato, ham, veg, cheese, eggs, hollandaise, all dumped in a bowl.

Don't believe me?



See? I told you so! It wasn't bad, it just... well, it just tasted like a big ass bowl of too many different types of food. I wouldn't order it again. But I left full and geared for our long walk up to the Cookbook Store to spend my raise.

Good times. I love the Cookbook Store.

So yeah, just a bunch of random stuff.

Italian Gluten-Free Pasta.

We went to the Grande Cheese Factory and had a quick whirl through the pasta section.

They had some Italian brands of gluten-free pasta, so we picked up a bag of Farabella Sapori Della Majella Pasta. It's corn and rice based, and really had a different nature from the regular rice pasta that we can buy at the grocery store. The pasta cooked up very nicely, really tender, really delicious. Even G liked it, so good times on that front.

We cooked the pasta, stirred in a little vodka sauce, grilled chicken breast, freshly grated parmesan...

I highly recommend it. It's definitely more expensive than the stuff at the store, it cost $4.50 or something, but it didn't give me heartburn, which most rice pastas seem to. It's a keeper save for one strange thing...

It made a ton, and it's very filling, so we had leftovers for lunch. Always good because it's so hard to eat non-gluten things when I am at work... Anyway, I heated up the leftovers and sat down to eat. It has a very familiar taste... corn tortillas! The flavour was very similar to the corn tortillas taste in enchiladas. It wasn't unpleasant, it just really would have benefited from more sauce in the leftovers.

All in all though, really good. We bought a few different sorts of gluten-free pasta and will be trying them out over the next couple of weeks... lots to report as each item is tried and tested. I'll keep you posted!!!

One Pot, Many Plates.

I made a great dinner tonight. No. Seriously. Really good. Don't believe me? See this weird shot for yourself...


I found this recipe in Food & Wine magazine (March 2008) for Chicken Goulash with Biscuit Dumplings. The recipe seemed really straightforward, and we had almost everything required to make it, so I thought, why not?

Wow.

It was really rich, and one of the first times I have ever made anything from a magazine that had a sauce that looked as rich as the picture!



The sauce was really rich, the chicken was soft and tender, and the biscuits, well, were my first ever and pretty darn good. Now I know this probably doesn't seem like the most springtime meal, but I do think that this might constitute a do-over.

I halved the recipe and made a few changes... see below:

1 pound skinless boneless chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch pieces
salt/pepper
3/4 cup flour, plus more for dredging the chicken
2.5 tbspns cold butter
olive oil
1 tspn baking powder
1.25 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup sour cream
1 onion diced mid-sized1/2 red bell pepper diced mid-sized
1 garlic glove, minced
1 tbspn Hungarian paprika
.5 tspn thyme

Preheat oven to 425. Season chicken and dredge in flour. Get a large skillet that can go in the oven and fry the chicken, turning only once so it gets good and brown. Put on a plate.

In a food processor (we have an amazing Braun hand-mixer and food processor), you mix the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper, then add the butter a little at a time, pulsing. Then you add in 1/4 cup of stock with 1/4 cup of sour cream that you've mixed in a little bowl.

You add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic to a skillet and the cook until soft. Return the chicken to the pan, stir in the paprika, war, then add remaining stock, 1/4 sour cream and stir until smooth. Add the thyme and bring to a boil.

Scoop the biscuit batter into little mounds on top of the chicken. Put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Put under broiler for 2 minutes and let them brown up. ENJOY!!!!

Honestly, this was absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it no end. And it's pretty fast, an easy clean-up, and so tasty, everyone will love you for it!!!

Stomach -- How's Yours?

I have received a few comments asking about my stomach... well... we're in a holding pattern. The doctor said the blood-work was inconclusive and we needed to move forward with the GI Scope and colonoscopy. Blech. I don't want to and haven't quite decided if I am going to. In order to do these tests, I have to be eating gluten, so I am eating it here and there. I want the tests to be accurate. Blech. Did I already say that?

I am really not sure what to do. The doctor says we need to go through all the channels and rule everything serious out, but since I have had these problems since I was a kid, I would think that I would be dead if it was something serious.


But whatever. The tests are the first of June, if I do them, and until then, it's a mix of gluten-free and gluten-heavy, and we'll just sort it out at that point. Blech. Did I mention that?

Delicious Homemade Italian Food.

Discovering a new restaurant in your own (expanded) neighborhood is a wonderful thing. Discovering that it has wonderful handmade Italian food while your in the midst of a gluten-free trial? Murder. But exceptions are made for everything, so we invited G's parents there for a pre-Passover dinner. Where's there? Ohhhhh... it's here. It's called Romagna Mia, and it's near Jarvis and Front. The menu is amazing, the pastas are home-made, and the servers are good fun. But the food... oh! The food! Our main courses were fantastic... G ordered the risotto in pheasant broth.
It was so rich, and creamy. The parsley/tomato is resting on a parmesan crisp bowl. To be honest, and I know this is a bit sacrilege coming from me, but it was almost too rich. But really really nice.

G's mom ordered a very nice lamb chops with mashed potato. It seemed an odd choice, really, but the stomach wants what it wants, eh?

The sauce it was in was really lovely, deep and lamb-y. The meat was slightly underdone for my taste, but the mash was super creamy and lovely. It's hard to go wrong with well seasoned grilled meat and creamy mashed potato.

Now I know what you are thinking, I raved about the pasta and no one's ordered the pasta... well no worries. I ordered pasta. And G's Dad ordered pasta. See?

This pasta is called strozapretti, or Strangle the Priest, and is a fresh made pasta with sausage ragu, swiss chard and parmesan. G had raved about this from her lunch there a few days ago, and she was not exaggerating. The pasta was amazing. The greens just add a little bit of peppery flavour, and they weren't overpowering at all. Lovely.

G's dad ordered the lasagna...we are always a little anxious when we go out for dinner with G's dad. He's very picky, but he seemed to really enjoy dinner.

Look at that good looking lasagna! The waiter said that it's one of their most popular dishes. It has a rich bechamel, and the meat was really soft and delicious. G's dad said it needed more cheese, was given a whack of parmesan, and was a happy man.

Which made for a happy table of diners.

I highly recommend Romagna Mia. Go there, but on Friday nights, make a reservation!!!

Engage!

That's me on the Enterprise. And it totally ruled.

This is a picture of a picture, so forgive the quality.

My Little Dumplin's.

Oh ho ho. Dumplings. Pot stickers. Just call them 'My Precious'...

We went to Mother's Dumplings in Chinatown for a lovely dumpling lunch.
The restaurant is cute. Small small small, but cozy and clean. If you know me, you may know that when it comes to my meals, I enjoy having a variety, and since we had never eaten at Mother's, variety was on order.

However, it appears that there may have been a little too much variety! You can only order dumplings in minimum orders of 10, and it was just G and I, but we ordered a few different things to try anyway. When the waitress came to take our order card, she said, "No, this is too much!" We laughed and said we'd take it home if there were leftovers (and despite my best efforts, there were leftovers!!!)!

The table had these cute little sauce bottles. Gotta love it.

Our first dumpling to arrive was the boiled chicken and mushroom. Oh. My. Goodness. Oh. My. Goodness. Yeah.


Normally, I am not a huge fan of the boiled dumpling, but these were absolutely amazing. The wrapper was really tender and light, and the filling was just the right amount of chicken-y mushroomy flavoury yumminess. (or something).

We also ordered a Green Onion Pancake.



A hoy hoy, you sexy thing! Really oniony and crispy. The dough was solid, but not tough. Really a nice thing all on it's own.

We also ordered kim chee and potato salad.



The kim chee was frozen, and the potato was cold and spicy. Really tasty, but I wouldn't order them again. The waitress came over and told us our steamed rice was unavailable, but we wouldn't need it! (And she was right!!!)

Our next dumpling was the beef and green onion steamed dumpling.

These were probably the least favorite, but still really nice. The beef was a mince, which wasn't what I expected. In fairness, I don't now what I did expect, but I really did enjoy it.

Our final (!) dumpling was the pan fried pork dumplings. Now, pan fried are my favorite. And these really lived up to the reputation of the restaurant...

WOW. Pan fried indeed. These were absolutely delicious, but I think the boiled chicken were the ones I would come back for again and again. It was really an experience that I greatly enjoyed. I highly recommend it.

(Scroll down for another post...)

Chew Chew 'Burger.

Hello. Posts about the stomach will be saved for another day. Instead, let me post about a new diner that has opened in the 'hood, called the Chew Chew Diner.


G and I just had to give it a try. I mean, look at that mural. It's beautiful, and a real improvement over the craptastic building that was there before. (And, so you see, I didn't get the name wrong!)

And if it's a diner, it can only mean one thing... CHEESEBURGER.


So of course, if there's a cheeseburger on the menu, I am going to give it a go. And if it's a day ending in 'y', I gotta try it.



As Gregg Wallace (or Greg with two g's, as he's known around here) would say on MasterChef, "Oh yeahhhhh, right on...that's a good 'burger!" And it was. Oh it was. And coleslaw! Well smack my you-know-what and call me chuckles because that coleslaw was delightful. And the cheeseburger in it's proper format does come with lettuce, but as the smell of heated lettuce makes me wanna hurl, I forgo the same.

I could go on and on. The fries were lovely. Really crisp, homemade feeling. The bun was really good, would have been better if toasted. The cheese was totally melted, the mushrooms were cooked gorgeously, adding just the right amount of brown flavour.

G ordered the open face roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes.



Look at those veg!!! OLD SKOOL! I love it. The roast beef was lovely, the potatoes were really good, and the whole thing just tasted like food when I was a kid. Really fun. We had such a good meal and were full for the whole day!!!

It's on Carlton between Sherbourne and Parliament, and I believe that everyone should go there. Really nice for a good lovely meal. (And they have beer and wine.)

LCBO Dinner -- SLOW FOOD

A couple of weeks back, G and I, (and a friend from work) attended a dinner at the LCBO about the Slow Food movement, with star chef Tobey Nemeth from Jamie Kennedy's restaurant. Now, I have to confess. She totally rules. Totally. She walks the talk about good food, and I really admire her ability to do so. The dinner was three hours of deliciousness...

First, we started off with Tobey's housemade head cheese.

I know I know. This is something that I can honestly say that I never really thought I would try, but was lured by Tobey saying, "it's not such a big deal, we make it at the restaurant, eat it up." So I ate most of it up. As long as it was on bread. And I am pretty much done with that then.

We then watched Tobey cook compile a lovely panzanella salad. This salad wasn't anything super fancy.

But it was super good. It had these amazing sun cured tomatoes in them, that were not dry and tart like sun dried tomatoes... The best part was that Tobey walked around with the big bowl of salad after we'd been served, bringing us more! That's right! Feed us!

From there, we moved on to an amazing chorizo, cheddar and olive risotto.



Wow. That picture is washed out. While I could fix it... I am not gonna. I thought the risotto was really nice BUT the olives were really overpowering. The chef was saying that the chorizo was the dominant flavour, but I really didn't think so. The olives were a bit too strong. But the combination was lovely.

We moved from there to an excellent explanation of how to make duck confit, along with a course of duck confit with polenta. The polenta was made with cream and it was unbelievably rich. I think the duck confit was the reason why my coat (and bag, and shirt, and hair) smelled so FOOD-LIKE when I left the LCBO. But whatever the reason, my bag was so stinky the next day, I was embarrassed on the subway!



The duck was amazing. Really tender, the skin was crispy, the polenta was a lovely dish to have with it, but really rich. Tobey said she would not serve these together normally, but wanted to showcase both dishes.

Honestly, the food just kept coming. We moved from there to a local cheese plate.



Lovely. The one in ash is called "Don Cherry's Puck" or something. And a dessert cake that tasted like a truffle.


As I have said before... the LCBO's dinners are really fun. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to have a nice dinner out and learn a thing or two.

While I am not ready to go total Slow Food, I do like the idea of eating better. Fresher, cleaner, and more humanely.

As a result, I urge EVERYONE to make a donation to the World Food Programme. They are running dangerously low on food, and with the many food riots in the world, and escalating cost of staple foods such as rice, I can't see it getting any better

In fact, we were just chatting with G's mom about this crisis, and she was saying how short-sighted people were in the "East" (China, India, etc) for moving away from farming to living in cities, and selling their lands to developers. I pointed out that this is a huge problem RIGHT HERE AT HOME, and really, the nice new subdivision she lives in out in Richmond Hill was once all farmland.

It's an enormous problem. I am reading a very interesting book regarding this issue, titled, "Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System". I am not sure that the author, Raj Patel, is pro- WFP, but at the same time, at least someone is out there trying.

I don't know. Haiti and their food riots are frightening. The rice prices in Asia are going to effect millions and millions of people. And here at home, we're seeing the cost of our cheap and easy lifestyle. I want to make it better, I just don't know where and how.

SPRING!

Spotted on a walk last weekend. Not that you'd know it this weekend. It's grim outside.

Wishin' and Hopin'

It's been a weird couple of weeks.

For those who know me, you may know that I have had problems with my stomach for my entire life. Literally. My mom has them, both my maternal grandmother and grandfather had them, stomach pains were just a fact of life.

I have spoken with countless doctors over my 35 years who have chalked up my stomach woes to stress, genetics, and whinging.

Since arriving in Canada, I have had the same family doctor that G has, and she's always been of the school that my stomach pains = stress. Full. Stop. Here's some anti-depressants and be gone with you.

Then I became fascinated with a UK lifestyle show called, "You Are What You Eat" with Dr. Gillian McKeith. Many of the people featured on her show had similar stomach problems to mine, and she frequently discussed the no wheat no processed sugar approach to living. I was intrigued.

I visited an acupuncturist a couple of years ago who also suggested that I give up all wheat.

Which I did for awhile, ate lots of spelt breads, but didn't feel tons better, so as often happens, I crept back into my old habits. I love bread and pasta, and I moved to whole grains feeling quite virtuous and smug in my healthiness.

Then my stomach took a turn. A major turn. For the worse.

And then there was no denying it. Something was going on.

My family doctor suggested that I had an ulcer. After all, I had had ulcers as a kid (pre-treatment with anti-biotics, if that tells you anything), so logically, these new and increased stomach problems were obviously a result of h.pylori.

So my good friend to the right, h.pylori came up a positive in blood work and I went on this massively crazy dose of antibiotics. Problem solved, my doctor smugly said and I was sent along to kill the little buggers living in my stomach.

And kill them I did. This anti-biotic was unbelievably strong, so I am sure nothing much survived in my stomach during this time. But I pushed my doctor, please oh please can't I have allergy testing and a visit to the GI doctor???

She finally agreed, and I went to the allergist who said I had no food allergies (hooray!) and an allergy to dust mites and a mild allergy to pet dander.

But it was the Gastroenterologist that I was most keen to see. I was so excited to talk to a professional about my issues.

The day of my appointment came and I vowed to tell the truth and work to come to some sort of an understanding about my stomach. It's either stress/anxiety or something's wrong and I need to fix it.

The GI doctor was fantastic. Really thorough, feeling my stomach, talking to me about my family history, the problems I have had with my stomach, what things help, etc. Then, he had me lie down and he pressed on my stomach and asked me more questions. When I sat back in the chair he turned to me and said, "Well, I am pretty positive that you have celiac."

Celiac! It was like music to my ears! On the one hand, I do not like the idea of giving up all of my favourites for the rest of my life. No sir, I don't. On the other hand, we were facing the idea of a LEGITIMATE DIAGNOSIS! And that would be a lovely thing.

So he scheduled me for a colonoscopy and GI scope down the road, a whack of blood tests, and said we'd talk in three weeks.

I have researched enough about celiac to know that you can't go gluten-free until you have the blood work done because you need the gluten in your body to show up. Fine. I had the blood work. And then I pondered. My stomach in knots, I ate my way through pizza, scones, french fries, all the while thinking "May be the last time... may be the last time" like some crazy death row inmate trying to have all the faves before the end.

But then it clicked. I am going gluten-free. I am going to try it out. It's going to be hard, but I am going to give it a go. And so I did.

Today is officially day 7 of Gluten-Free Me. No gluten. Not one kernel. And the effect? No headache in three days. THREE DAYS IN A ROW! Stomach is not nearly so gassy and other than a bit of queasiness yesterday, not a worry otherwise.

So what does this mean? I don't know. I am still at least two weeks away from talking to my doctor about the results, and I am going to a dinner Tuesday night that will have gluten but was booked long ago and is with friends, so I am going to give it a try and see what happens, a bit of a gluten trial by fire. It may be that this thing going on with me isn't celiac at all. It may be IBS, though the doctor felt that whatever it is, there is a definite food intolerance involved.

We'll see. Right now, I am rocking the gluten-free cupcakes for my nephews birthday, and trying to stay focused on the goal of feeling better and having a normal stomach. Oh yeah.

Back to food in the next post.