Poutine.

I was just saying that I don't have enough Weight Watchers points to eat at Craftburger as often as I'd like to (which is ever), but at the end of a kick my ass Monday, nothing says good dinner like Smoke's Poutinerie.


I tried the special roast beef poutine. It was pretty good. Not great, though. The gravy was too thick and the whole thing was reallllly salty. But the fries were nice and crispy and the roast beef tasted like the boil-n-the-bag meat that my Mom used to buy D and me for lunches when we were kids. That bag of beef on wonder bread... be still my clogged artery heart!

I was kind of disappointed to be honest. I write this somewhat hesitantly (there was recently an article in Wired about food bloggers writing reviews after one visit...it made me feel bad, but then I quoted Nick Cage in Moonstruck "I ain't no paragon of virtue" and just got the hell on with it)... I wanted to love it. I wanted to be so excited to be having a big mess of fries and gravy and cheese, Weight Watchers points be damned, but I wasn't. The fries were great. The cheese was chewy and perfect. The gravy was... way to thick and kind of chickeny. If I went there again (and that would have to be in the very distant future) I would like try the mexican fries instead. Chili cheese fries were a staple of mine in my twenties...

If you've been, let me know what you thought....

Flowering Rosemary!

The rosemary in our herb garden is flowering like crazy! Here's a close-up. (Just wait until I buy my new lens... yippie!)

U2

I took this picture from our seats while we were waiting for the U2 concert to start a bit ago. This was an amazing concert. I have been a U2 fan for as long as I can remember (Under the Blood Red Sky was the first tape I ever bought with my "own" money!). I had never seen them in concert, so when I heard about this tour, I snapped up my pre-sale opportunity and two sweet spot tickets were had for not a small amount of money.

But it was worth it. The band sang one of my all time top two favorite U2 songs, "Until the End of the World" (from the movie of the same name), and I just teared up like a little girl when Bono sang, "In my dreams, I was drowning in sorrow, but my sorrows, they learned to swim". It was an amazing night. If they had also played Running to Stand Still I probably would have had cardiac arrest right there and then, so it's good that they didn't.

Back to food...

Tostada's for girls who like it to crunch. (And a sad farewell)

Yesterday, G and I went to Planet Organic up in Thornhill to do a little shopping before going to G's brother's house for lunch. We walked around and stumbled upon some baked tostadas that looked amazing. They were on sale (and only 2 points for 3 shells), we had to buy some!

So I came home, took some of our grass fed ground beef from Whole Foods, browned it up with about a third of an Old El Paso burrito mix. (Nothing but fancy at this food blogger's home, yes siree bob!) We served it with some shredded lettuce (don't gasp, I ate some too despite my hatred of hot lettuce), chopped tomato, g's fresh salsa,old cheddar, and mushed up avocado with hot sauce. Really a delicious dinner!


The tostada shells really held their own. They didn't get mushy and they had a really satisfying crunch with each bite. And I did chop up some carrot to mix with the meat and onion. Veggies were I can, you know? (I am like one of those mom's who puts "phantom" veg in everything to get the kids to eat them...in my case, I just do it to get me to eat more vegetables! G just shook her head in disbelief.)

And a sad, tearful goodbye is in order... I drank the last of my Harrod's English Breakfast tea... sad morning for this household, as this is one of my most favorite teas...


Sigh. I'll miss you delicious tea.

On the plus side, it means a trip to England is in order. STAT! (Sadly, this tea buying trip will have to wait, as for our new year holiday we have booked a cruise! I have never been on a cruise and am a bit nervous about it, but am sure it will be excellent! We are spending a couple of days in New Orleans and are interested in some good places to eat. We are thinking Nola for our "dinner out" and the Napoleon House for muffaleta's and the Joint for bbq. Thoughts? Drop me an email.)

More Cute Cat Pictures (or at least they're cute to me)

Everyone says this, but in my house it's true, we have the best cats in the entire world.


Bello sat on the edge of the table for about ten solid minutes letting me take pictures of him from all angles, trying out the new camera, focusing and moving the camera to frame the shot. He's such a calm boy, he just looks at me like "yeah, i'm good lookin'... snap away".

Beanie on the other hand...


Oh yeah, can't be bothered to even try and be presentable. She is a 100% belly to the wind kind of girl, and this is her favorite pose.

But this is probably her cutest picture ever...


She was sleeping in the giant Jacob bag (which is terrible, I know). When I moved it, not realizing she was in there, she stuck her paw out like "hey! I'm sleeping in here!" She was not pleased when I removed her and since then we have been far more careful with leaving plastic bags around.

Ahhhh, cute cats. We don't eat cats so these photos may not be the most appropriate for a food blog, but they are too cute to not share with the world. If you disagree, scroll on!

That's between me and my cardiologist... a review.

Oh yeah.

OH YEAH!

That up there is a craftburger and fries, taken with my iPhone camera. What's a girl to do when she goes to the cardiologist and is told she has old man veins and needs to drop some weight? She goes out for the best burger in Toronto... Craftburger!!!

As you can read in the Toronto Star, there are a bunch of new gourmet hamburger places springing up around the city. And no, I haven't tried them all. This little lady only has so many points on her WW plan, so there aren't many hamburgers in my days and nights right now. But, the last hurrah of good food was this lovely craft burger dinner. (Actually, on second glance, this might have been the one before the last hurrah. Regardless, it's the point of the matter not the facts of the matter, so I am sure you understand.)

Craftburger is GREAT. The meat is the perfect thickness, the buns just the right amount of give, and the toppings are fresh and tasty. It's truly the best hamburger I have had in my more than five years of living in this city, and it's the one I dream about. (Not that I am a girl who dreams about hamburgers... oh no no no no... that would be weird.... okay, maybe one dream a year...)

We did recently have a lunch and dinner (at one time) at the Gourmet Burger Company. Not nearly so good and a really unpleasant Burger King-esque repeat all night. NOT GOOD. But Craftburger.... yum.

It's All Good To Me -- or is it?

Gnocchi. Oh how I love thee. Yummy.

Another quick dinner. This one with a revolting twist that will not be repeated in our house ever ever ever again. We had gnocchi, and it's oddly okay on the points front, so we boiled it up and made a quick tomato sauce. We had some leftover sausage from Whole Foods (which was a bit vile to begin with, so we thought in sauce would be okay). G chopped it up and mixed it in the sauce. Spooned over the gnocchi we thought, how bad can it be?! It wasn't good. It was not good in the slightest. It was finish almost all of it but have it on repeat all night long not good.

But yeah, there it is.

(Still experimenting with the new camera...)

Onion Cat.

Bello loves his onions.

Steak Dinner.

Sometimes, you just want simple dinner. Some protein, some starch, and some sweetness. A while ago (I am so behind, it's not even funny) we had just that sort of day... and there was born, the easy steak dinner...

I was making oven fries, and I overcooked them in my efforts to ensure a crispy chip. Oh, they were crispy... I cut up the fries into wedges, coated them in cooking spray, and baked them in a single layer in a 425 degree oven.

The corn was the last I believe of our CSA summer stock. Delicious to the last. Our meat was a simple steak from our meat CSA, which I topped with a little sauce made of mushrooms, onions and butter. Really a good dinner, and on the table in 45 minutes.

Turkey Gets Leftover.

Thanksgiving was a day of relaxation and cookery madness. We had so much leftover turkey that really, even with all of my efforts on the left-over sandwich front, I couldn't eat it all! So turkey tetrazzini to the rescue!

Oh yeah. And yes, you will notice on this blog that I like lots of creamy and rich food. I do. I am eating it much much less these days (and lighter easier to make versions to boot... and don't get me started on the difference reduced portion sizes make...) but I still love it.

So leftover turkey got the tetrazzini treatment. And I have to confess, I still remember clearly my first turkey tetrazzini dining experience. I was at my ex's house (when the ex was not an ex) and it was the Christmas holiday. His mom was making turkey tetrazzini out of leftovers and I was in a panic that I wasn't going to like it... but oh how wrong I was. I could have eaten the entire pan myself!

I've taken up the mantle on this recipe, and have made a lighter version of it that goes something like this...

Take about 2 cups of milk and mix in 1/3 cup flour. Whisk together then pour into a saucepan. Salt and pepper and then heat until thickens (about 10 minutes or so). Mix in a bunch of frozen peas, sauteed mushrooms cooked with onion and celery (that you've cooked up separately using a bit of cooking spray and water instead of oil), and a bunch of shredded turkey breast. Mix into that a healthy portion of broken up cooked spaghetti and mix in some cheddar cheese to taste (and if you are counting points, mix in enough to taste it while watching the difference larger portions make on the WW Recipe Builder). Place in a casserole pan big enough to contain all the delicious goodness and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the top is brown (broil it up if you need to). Then sit back and try to wipe the self-satisfied smile off your face.

I don't lie, it's just that good. It made me really happy to have this meal. It always reminds me of my ex's mom, but hey, that was a great Christmas, so no bad feelings there!

Where To Start...

I think about this blog every day. I really have been torn about this post, and that's made me hesitant to write at all, which is a shame because I've got some good stuff to post. So, this is going to be my indulgent all-about-the-personal-me post...

As I've discussed here and there, I had some health scares earlier this year, and had a round of meetings with a cardiologist and lots of discussions on what could happen based on what's happening now. Let me say straight away, I am beyond blessed. Nothing's terribly wrong now. I had pericarditis, which has healed and has left no lasting damage. But the tests were concerning, and with the long history of cardiac issues in my family, I was on the alert.

The cardiologist did some carotid artery testing, and it showed more blockage than is suitable for someone my age, and my doctor said that I was going to need medication. I asked if it might be possible to control this by diet and to lose weight. He said yes, if I was willing to make the changes necessary.

So I did. Big changes. I am really proud of myself, I weigh less now than I have throughout my 30's! I think I last saw this weight in my early 20's. I haven't made any changes that have drastically altered my life and I don't plan out every single meal. So what has worked? Three things, and I am telling you in the hopes that maybe it will help you too.

#1 -- The End of Overeating by David Kessler. BRILLIANT. You must must must read this book if you have problems with your weight and overeating. I have struggled with my fast food cravings my entire life. I have convinced myself over and over that I can eat fast food, that I just need to do it in moderation. Dr. Kessler says that if you respond to food in a certain way, then there is no moderation. Moderation doesn't exist. There is do or do not, and I have decided to do not. It's become the end of my relationship with fast food, ad while I am sad to part ways with some of the most reliable friends I've ever had in mu life, I have. This issue alone was worth reading this book, but I recommend that everyone with food issues read this book.

#2 -- Wii's EA Sports Active. DOUBLY BRILLIANT! If you work without weights and stuff, this is probably not helpful to you at all, but for a girl like me, having my "trainer" make me do lunges and squats and whatnot has been amazing. I have really noticed a HUGE change in my body, more so then anything else I have ever tried, and I have done cardio all my life. I can't wait for the expansion pack later in November. I am sure there are better workouts out there, but I can do this in my living room, it's motivating, it's fun, and it kicks my butt most mornings. I am now altering doing this with some treadmill time, but it's still getting me out there and doing it, and that's golden.

#3 -- Weight Watchers Online. AMAZING! I did this before a few years ago, but now, it's just worked. I don't know if it's seeing my own arteries clogged and yucky or what, but I have really made a point to keep track of what I eat and how much I work out, and it's been great watching the weight come off. The new Momentum plan is great, and I utilize all the little aspects of doing it. I am bummed no end that I haven't gotten a Hungry plush doll since I didn't join the traditional method and I don't go to meetings, but having lost 20 pounds is a pretty good payoff. Two more to go and then we'll see. I never thought I would get to this weight again. Ain't nothin gonna break my stride.... oh no...

So there it is. We've been eating at home a ton more as a result of the diet, and it's all been great. I'm happy to share this with you (despite not wanting to make this a diet blog) because I am just really proud of myself, and for dealing with something that has been a lifelong struggle for me... And sometimes when you have good news, you just have to share it. SO GO ME!

Taking a pic of myself in order to see if the skirt looked okay. New clothes in smaller sizes are still strange... It seems the more weight I lose the more curvy I look!!!

Risotto, I love you!

Phew. It's all good. The change in eating habits (I won't say 'd-i-e-t') has been going really well. I have lost TWENTY pounds as of today. *applause and bow thank you* I have two more to go to my goal!!! Yippiee!

I've totally benefited from the world wide web and it's bevy of recipes, but none more so than Gina's Recipes, a fantastic site with amazing recipes. And it was here that I first tested her delicious and super easy risotto. I figured the points out a little differently than she did, mostly I think because of the way we calculated the wine. (For anyone doing WW, how do you calculate cooked wine in a recipe???) But the flavour was spot on, and I had it with a little baked crunchy chicken to add a protein kick to the meal...

Yummmmmmmmmy. The risotto was rich and creamy, the chicken just added that little bit extra, and I was all manner of feeling high on comfort foody goodness. I am not going to repeat the recipe here because it's hers, but I highly highly highly recommend that you go over and try it out. It's just an amazingly delicious meal.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks back, and we had the good fortune of attending three different thanksgiving dinners, saving the final dinner for the one at our house on Thanksgiving Monday. We were ready this year!

Our lovely CSA providers, Coopers Farm, had delivered the goods on a fresh gigantic turkey, as well as a CSA box full of Thanksgiving staple veg.

And like the loser I am, I completely failed to take photos while things were cooking or just being served! I was so excited to try everything and to ensure that our guests were happy and contended (which included three children who we weren't sure what types of food they liked) that I just didn't get to it until after we had started eating. But like many Thanksgiving dinners, it centered on turkey and fixings. But started with G's fantastic roasted tomato soup...


Here's the pot cooking. Tomato soup is always a bit of a crapshoot. I love it, but not everyone does, so we were a bit nervous. But we had to use up the rest of our roasted tomatoes, so it fit the bill. There was no reason to worry. The soup went down a treat! Everyone loved it, even the kids, and this entire pot of soup was finished!!!

From there, things started coming to the table.

Bread...


Not homemade, alas, but delicious.

We make our turkey in the oven bag... do you do this? Here it is out of the bag...



The bag gaves us all that juice that you see in our lovely new pan, a Demeyere saucepan that has a 7-layer InductoBase that makes it heat quickly and easily. I must confess, I was given this pan because I have the blog, and have had it for a bit. I now use it all the time. It heats so evenly, it cooks rice unbelievably, nothing stick to the stainless steel "Silvinox" bottom, and it cleans up like crazy. It's really heavy and the lid fits on seamlessly, so while you see it holding the turkey juice from the bag here, it's also made all sorts of bechamel sauces, rice, risotto, mashed potatoes, whatever else you can think of. It's not cheap, but I highly recommend this line and can't wait to try out another piece!

But back to the turkey... the bag just completely rules. We take the turkey, season it up, put it in the bag with some veg for flavour, and let it take care of itself. It cooks incredibly fast in the bag, and doesn't have to messed with at all. It's absolutely lovely and it makes clean up a breeze.

We also had a couple of stand-bys that you've seen before... the wild rice stuffing...


I shook it up by adding quite a bit of sauteed mushrooms to this mix. Really good. We also had my fresh cranberry sauce that I failed to take a photo of at all, but it was loved universally by the table.

We had mashed potatoes...


They were a hit! And some very "smokey" green beans (where smokey is nice speak for burned!)...


But otherwise, I just took fresh green beans and cooked them in a saute pan with a little bit of chicken broth. LOVELY until I burned them. *Smack on the forehead*

And then for my chanciest dish... a brussel sprout gratin.

I wasn't sure what to do. I really wanted to make something rich to have with dinner, as I always really like one kind of crazy heavy thing on the plate, but because I am trying to lose weight, I didn't want to make it crazy. So I mixed up a recipe for a brussel sprout gratin that I had found, and made the sauce with flour and milk (no butter) and added less gruyere cheese, but more parmesan, and salt and pepper with bread crumbs on top.


There it is, with people eating tons of them! I was shocked because I really dislike brussel sprouts, but I enjoyed them and everyone at them up! Good stuff.

But as with all things, the best part of the Thanksgiving dinner came with the leftover sandwich...


Oh yeah! Little leftover buns with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potato, and a little bit of mayo. I probably ate about five of these perfect sandwiches over the course of the week... They are such a lovely way to eat leftovers!

G's Mexican Journey.

G has had a long standing love affair with Rick Bayless. This love affair began long before his stint on Top Chef Masters, but that show really only solidified our love of this great chef.

At long last, and much prodding, G bought one of his cookbooks. So enthralled by the amazing things lying within the pages, she decided to invite her brother and his family (her brother had recently been to Mexico) our upstairs neighbors who are our tasting guinea friends, and prepare a full-on Mexican feast.

First came the salsas...


She made a green tomatillo salsa and two tomato salsas with home roasted tomatoes. She also made a bunch of sauces for her three dishes.

First up was the "side" dish, a vegetable tortilla pie that was like a spicy lasagna...


This pie consisted of layers of vegetables mixed with a spicy poblano tomato sauce, with mexcian cheese and fresh corn tortillas. Amazing. You'll see a shot of the insides down the post, but this was an amazing dish and one that I hope we have again.

G served this with two different chicken dishes. The first was a green saucy spinach chicken dish. It doesn't look like much, but it was very mild and delicious spooned into corn tortillas...


Much to our surprise, our 8 year old nephew loved this dish and ate two or three big servings in flour tortillas (the kids just couldn't be convinced that the corn tortillas were better than flour)... but the real star of the show was the spicy chicken potato dish... and when I say star of the show, I mean hands down major winner don't look any further I could eat it again and again...


Wowie. This is amazing. The potatoes are shredded and fried with onion then mixed with chicken and sauce and then covered in queso fresco for serving in tortillas. We initially ate them as tacos, but they are so delicious, you can just eat them up all on their own with G's homemade salsa....


Yes, because G is an overachiever, we did have both green and red salsa! The red had a little kick but was not crazy hot and the green tomatillo had a really sweet flavour that came from the roasted tomatillos. This was an amazing dinner. G outdid herself on all the fixings, and I am sure she was exhausted after spending two and a half full days in the kitchen making all this food!!!

Here's the plate of deliciousness....


I also made a quick side of black beans to share, I absolutely love black beans.

(As a note, I have a new camera, a Nikon D60 that I have absolutely no idea how to use! I took my first photography class only yesterday, and as these were taken weeks ago, we will have to see if time and teaching will improve my limited skills. I am open to any Nikon tips out there!)

Me and Mad Men.

Yeah so I've never seen even a minute of Mad Men, but this is too cool...

It's a Mad Men Me!!!

Gourmet -- RIP.

I can't believe that Gourmet magazine is ending it's brilliant run. It's been such a great magazine for me, lots of foodie news with politics and travel thrown in for good measure, good recipes and lots of solid food pictures. I am stunned that Conde Naste has thrown in the towel on it!

My only complaint with Gourmet, really, was that I felt that at some times it lost sight of what regular eaters and readers care about. (Alot like my feelings about Oprah Winfrey, but I didn't roll my eyes every time I saw Gourmet magazine!) But that being said, it's the gold standard, and I am really sad to see it go.

Tomato Day at Chez Hunger Over Thirst

G and I headed up to Coopers CSA to pick up our weekly CSA box and to show me the farm (I'd never been before). It was so nice, and such an amazing day!!!


And goats!


How cute are these freaking goats? They just walk around, stretching their legs and eating grass. They come around and let you pet them, and they are too incredibly sweet. When we got there, we decided to do a pick your own tomato thing. You got tons and tons of tomatoes for only $6, plus you get to pick yer own!

Here's me picking my own!


There were tons and tons of tomatoes...


I highly recommend the tomatoes. They were so terrific, but we had tomatoes coming out the wazoo-y! G promptly came home and made a batch of gazpacho while I devilled some eggs...



That was a great lunch! We had the eggs as a side dish, and really enjoyed the zingy taste of my devilling. The gazpacho was terrific. Really fresh tasting, zingy, and full of good for you texture.

The next day, my friend was coming for dinner so we decided to make an all tomato dinner. I had a panic at the last minute that perhaps R didn't like tomatoes! No fear, she did. We cooked up a mean dinner.

G made this Spanish Jewish delightful eggplant and tomato salad with fried potatoes thrown in the mix.


Wow. It may not look good, but it is absolutely unbelievable. The veg are all fried slightly and just dripping in flavour.

I made an amazing stuffed tomato from my French Cooking School Cookbook...


Here's the grub, with some of our Cooper's Farm corn (which is 100% awesome).


(We also had some more gazpacho, but I didn't include it because you can just scroll down to see it....)

This was a really enjoyable lunch. R brought a bottle of bubbly, which was very refreshing as it was actually still hot that day (unlike today where it was 9C at 2pm!). It matched the lightness of the meal perfectly.

Having farm tomatoes really has ruined having grocery store tomatoes for me. We've made an effort over the last few years to try and eat things in season, though we will buy tomatoes in the winter at the store when it makes sense. But it's amazing how different things taste when you pick it from the vine yourself and you know it's been grown with care and likely harvested by hand. These were harvested by my own hands, so I know it was all good!

The last of these tomatoes were used to make a great bolognese sauce and we really just enjoyed the heck out of all of these tomatoes. The CSA box has given us such a nice taste of Ontario's all too short summer.

The Best Grub in Waterloo is at D & P's!

A few weeks back, we went to Waterloo to spend a short stay with our good friends D & P. We had such a great time, I am embarrassed that I have not blogged about it before now...

We had such a good time. We went to the St. Jacob's Farmer Market and walked around having a great old time. It's really neat, with lots of veg and tasty foods to eat. I really was amazed at how much stuff they had on offer.

Especially these amazing cupcakes...


Red velvet is my absolute favorite, I really really love them! It was my first weekend away on Weight Watchers, and I was nervous that I would completely mess it up, especially when we had to buy these cupcakes (and I mean, we had too or else the cupcakes would have had hurt feelings). No such worries, Weight Watchers truly is something you can do everywhere and anywhere. (And I truly have found this to be true. We've had Jewish new year, conferences, fancy dinners out, and a gourmet cooking class throughout my four and a half weeks on WW. All that, and I have still lost almost 13 pounds.)

ANYWAY, this is not about WW (even though it will likely come up again, especially when I get to posting tonight's delish WW Cassoulet recipe). As we walked around, we immediately ditched any plans to go out to dinner and bought some goodies to have at P and D's, with some good times cooking in their excellent kitchen. We were really excited to have such a concentrated amount of time to spend with them!

So P and D wanted to get some fun treats for dinner, and D treated us to this amazing Sticky Toffee Cheese. You heard me right...

It was such a weird flavour. Sharp from the cheese, sweet from my all-time fave sticky toffee pudding. And just all around delicious, rich, and weirdly yummy!

They also got this amazing artichoke asiago dip that we had with cheese bread from the market...



Yum yum yum! We had some crackers too, but I don't seem to have taken any photos of that.

On the menu were Eggplant Parms, Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad, and Roasted Potatoes. AND P's amazingly fantastic SANGRIA!


The sangria was so nice. It was cold, fruity, juicey, winey... just like it should be. Really a nice accompaniment to our dinner...

Here's the delightful salad...


The tomatoes were farm fresh, skinned and chopped then mixed with balsamic and oil, goat cheese, and herbs. As it sat around, the cheese started to melt and it just became this amazingly cheesey gooey loveliness.

Here's the plate of delish dinner...


Really really good. It's not lookin' so hot, but it was really really good. The eggplant was so easy, you just dip the eggplant in bread crumbs, bake it was sauce and cheese, and then you put the amazing roasted potatoes in the mix, no pasta, nothing too terribly heavy.