India!

Dear blog readers (or Mom and Gail), we have been on holiday in India.  And it was amazing.

The food was amazing. Every meal was amazing. Every morsel was something delicious and different. (And we did not suffer from Delhi Belly, so high fives all around.)

On our last day in India, we went to a restaurant called East Indies at the 8th Bastion Hotel in Kochi. Kochi is in Kerala and is tropical and fantastic. The food was amazing.  See for yourself:

We had to start with a trio of dosa.  So apparently the dosa we know and love from here in Toronto is most often served at breakfast in the great south of India.  But this little starter was fantastic!  There was shrimp, beef (water buffalo), and potato all on top of a dosa round.  

G ordered a mutton something.  Or lamb something.  I really don't remember, but it was really good (and not on it's side).  It was really rich and dark like a mole. It came with puttu, which is a steamed rice patty sort of thing.  It was very dense, and a bit heavy, but it actually held up well to the really rich and delicious sauce.

I ordered this little bit of heaven....

It was stuffed mushrooms and green chile with a saffron sauce, lemon rice and some salad-y thing that I didn't eat because it was too sharp.  I have to confess that the Indians eat a lot of their meat on the bone, which I just can't get behind.  However, I learned that if I was ever going to be vegetarian, I would be so in India. There are just so many wonderful veg dishes you can have, and prompted me to order this deliciousness.

It was really unusual, and I confess that I ate all of the sauce.

The Indians, they know their sauces.  All good all the time.

Anyway, I didn't take tons of food pics, I just was so busy taking pics of the Taj and such (ha ha)... but trust me when I say you can eat your way happily through India without getting sick.

Albondigas with a twist

For the many Sephardim that read this blog (and there are so many of you I can hardly count you all on my fingers), you'll be familiar with the traditional version of albondigas that we've been eating (and loving!) since we were all tiny. They're red, it's all about the tomato. Well tonight I went off the beaten path, well onto the somewhat beaten path of Mexican flavours that I've embraced and turned the blessed albondiga of my youth on its ear! Tonight's were green, that's verde, yes!

I had some tomatillos sitting in the fridge that I had picked up at a farmers' market a while ago. I needed to use them. I was not willing to let those beauties go to waste but I needed something one step up from salsa verde, because that does not a dinner make. So a little searching and a little cobbling together and here's what I came up with.

Albondigas verde

• 1-2 pounds of ground beef
• 10 or so tomatillos
• 2 poblano peppers or a couple of jalapenos
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 big white onion (1/2 cut into chunks, 1/4 chopped super finely)
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp of uncooked rice
• few tablespoons of oil
• salt 
• 1 or 2 eggs

Clean and remove the husks from the tomatillos and put them in a pot of water to boil for about 15 min until they turn a little yellowish. If using jalepenos, boil with the tomatillos and remove seeds etc once cooked.. Once ready, drain the water from the pot.

Roast the poblano peppers (either under the broiler or over the flame of a gas stove) until they are fairly charred. Put in a plastic bag and let sweat for about 10 minutes so the skin will be easy to get off. Clean the skin off, remove the seeds and rinse the pepper to get all the black bits and seeds off.  

Chuck the cooked tomatillos, poblano peppers/jalapenos, chunks of onions, cilantro, garlic, and about a cup of water into a blender and blend until it is a very nice green colour.

To make the meatballs, mix the eggs, ground beef, finely chopped onion, rice and a couple of pinches of salt into a bowl and then form into walnut sized balls. Not too tiny but not big either.

In a pot large enough to fit the balls essentially in one layer, add the oil and let it get hot. Pour the tomatillo mixture in (and enjoy the sizzle). Mix and let it come to the boil. You should add a bit of water to thin it out now (I used the blender and got all the rest of the tomatillo mixture out with the water). 

Once the sauce comes back to the boil, add the balls, turn down the heat, and let it simmer partially covered for 30 minutes. Add salt etc as required to taste.

I served this over pink rice and a little Mexican style salad with chopped onion, a few of the last stragglers from my tomato crop, chopped lettuce, and some chunks of avocado dressed simply wiht some lime juice, olive oil and a bit of salt.  They don't look all that fantastic in pictures but we're about flavour here, not looks!

Oh tomato, how I love you

Pretty much the end of the summer vines. I will miss my daily tomato meal. Nothing is more satisfying and simpler than the thinly sliced tomato layered with salt, pepper, and olive oil on a piece of super crunchy toast.

Goodbye summer ....

We are smokin'

I have a great desire for a smoker. But the reality is that it involves quite a bit of time and there is limited real estate in the backyard. So at this juncture, no smoker. That doesn't mean that I am not keen to  try smoking at home and we have bought a few things and I have read a lot about smoking in the oven etc. but not yet tried. 

Well in the spring I found these smoking bags at Lowe's. Emeril Lagasse promises from the packaging that I can make fabulous smoked foods with no hassle. As we have barely eaten at home in the last month, there's not been much time for experimentation. This weekend we spent mostly at home and with groceries in the fridge so I figured let's give the smoking bag a go. 

I grabbed a chicken breast from the freezer but sadly there was no dark meat, which I prefer. No worries- there was a cornish hen. Let's just ratchet up this experiment. I cut the little bird in half, seasoned it all with some thyme, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper and then just opened the foil envelope, popped the poultry in, and sealed it up. 

Apparently the bag has wood chips and stuff embedded into it. I heated up the bbq and stuck it in there on high for about 15 min and then medium for another 30. As the bag is sealed there's no way to know if there's magic or chaos going on inside. The backyard smelled like a smokehouse so I took that as a good sign. Took the bag off the heat and let it rest for 10 min or so then cut her open. Inside...some pretty freaking perfectly cooked and well smoked bird!!!

J made an awesome potato salad (and kindly used some parsley from the garden) and I made some green beans. All in all an very delicious experiment and a thrill to have a meal at home.

Rick Bayless and the Chicago Heatwave

After 10+ years together, it can be challenging to come up with good ideas for birthday presents, so this year, I surprised G with a trip to Chicago so that we could eat at Rick Bayless' restaurant Topolobampo.

This past weekend was the date.  After a very early morning flight to Chicago, we hoofed it on the subway to our hotel where we dropped our bags and headed out into the city.

We stopped at Panera Bread for a quick bite (nothing special but fast and close by) and then wandered to see about getting tix for one of the Architecture Cruises.

(In a blaze of America is weird, we also got to have new Twinkies on the street.  They were being given as a promotion along with a button that said "I saved the Twinkie"  -- the guy laughed when I said we were Canadian and had never not had the Twinkie.... but I digress.

Chicago was H-O-T.  And we were out in it, soaking up the sun and dehydrating ourselves into seeming oblivion.  We went to Millenium Park and spent some time marvelling at the amazing public art.  It's really magnificent.

I had such a great time!  Then we went on the boat tour.  The tour was interesting, but really hot and we didn't have the most dynamic guide.  But the sun did G in and she got pretty sick and spent a few hours in our cool dark hotel room trying to rest up for Topolobampo.

And we did make it!

Rick Bayless did not seem to be in the restaurant, but after our leisurely walk, we were ready to sit down and tuck in.

We knew that we would likely order from the Tasting Menu because why not get the maximum amount to try since we don't live in Chicago and may never get there again... and they were willing to do substitutes for me since I did not want the ceviche course.  (Note: The menu we had was the last day this particular tasting menu was offered.  It was amazing.... see below for photographic proof!)

We were given an amuse bouche of some sort of pea soupy thing... Delicious, indeed!

It was really green tasting, and the pea flavour was certainly there.  It had a kick at the end from the chill that made it very tasty indeed!  (I had this with a Limonata type drink that was ridiculously refreshing.  I would say here, too, that the restaurant was beyond nice about the fact that we didn't order alcohol.  No guilt trips, no repeat questions, no attitude.  G explained that she had had a rough day and wasn't feeling her best, and they went out of their way to accommodate us!)

We both chose the Topolo Classics menu.  I did not want the ceviche, which I was able to substitute with the Farmers Market Mole Verde.  Described as a 'Chilled, herby green mole (thickened with hazelnuts, infused with hoja santa), local baby beets, green soy beans, green garlic', I was intrigued.

Bad picture, I know.  It looks like something the baby left behind, but the mole had such a nice fresh flavour to it that went beautifully with the beets.  The soy beans were fine, but the mole was just exceptional and unlike anything I've ever had.  

G had the ceviche or Ipswich Razor Clam and Baja Bay Scallop with an amazing Tamazula hot sauce jelly.  

 She really enjoyed it.  The fish was delicate and the flavour was incredibly bright.  The green sauce was fresh and tasty.  It was a good start!

We moved from this course to the Three Bites of Oaxaca course, mini tacos with aged beef tenderloin tasajo, classic chorizo was quails egg, and red chile pork loin cecina.  Oh my.

My egg had taken a tumble off the taco and looks like a globby bunch of scallop, but when reassembled, this dish was delightful.  The meat on all three of these was just ridiculously tasty and something I may try to recreate at home!

Our next course was Halibut and Lobster with Squash Blossoms.  One of my greatest realizations of the last few years is the love I have developed for halibut.  Never having been a huge fish eater, Jamie Oliver turned me on to the pleasures of Halibut and I have never looked back (nor forgiven him for making me love a fish that is so dang expensive in Canada!).  I was excited to see this on the menu, and I was not disappointed.

The meal came with delightful homemade tortillas, and the squash blossom was like a soup made with pumpkin seeds, poblano chile, white wine, and saffron.  It was delicious.  The halibut had a perfect crust, the lobster was cool, fresh, and bright tasting.  The squash sauce was just an absolute revelation of deliciousness.  Ridiculously good, and probably my favourite course of the night.

The meat course was up next and featured Rick's famous mole sauce.  (I believe this is the sauce that won him the Tp Chef Master's title.)  I have to say straight up, I have never been a fan of mole.  As a supertaster, I just find that many flavours in one place to be too much for me to handle, and it's often incredibly bitter.  But this, gosh, this was a substance I have never tasted anything like.  Smooth, rich, deep, complex, silky, and delicious.  (As an aside, I learned in my Coursera class that supertasters often do not like fatty foods (which I don't) and many green vegetables!  Playing to type again!)

This was wood-grilled 28 day aged prime roc with seared foie gras.  I asked for no foie.  It was served with classic Oaxacan black mole, corn husk steamed chipil tamal, black beans, and green beans.  It was really wonderful.  Served again with housemade tortillas, I ate up as much of the sauce as I could fit.  The steak looks really rare in this photo, but it was G's and much rarer than mine, but wonderfully meaty and delicious.

Feeling full, but never ones to turn down the final dessert course, we happily tucked into Warm chocolate mesquite cakes served with Mexican vanilla bean ice cream and sweet masa pudding.

Yep.  Those turnipy looking things were the masa pudding slivers, which were amazing.  The chocolate cake was deep and rich, hitting a super lovely spicy/sweet/bitter Mexican chocolate undertone.  The ice cream was so vanilla-y that this vanilla ice cream fan was in heaven.

The meal was wonderful.  The restaurant is nice but still casual, and there are literally platoons of servers there to help with every single things you could ever want.  To get to the bathroom, you have to walk through the kitchen, which is awesome because you get a birds eye view of what's going on!

At $105, the tasting menu was worth every single penny we paid.  The food was unique, flavourful, colourful, and highly evocative.  I loved being in Mexico City and tasting the clean lines of the more authentic Mexican food and Rick Bayless has captured that brilliantly.  I can't recommend this restaurant highly enough.  It was definitely worth a 1.5 hour plane ride.

Next up on our Chicago adventure.... Fabio Vivani's resturant Siena Tavern.

Well that's just crazy.

It's a bit shameful, really, that we've let the blog sit.  Not because our thousands of readers are disappointed, but because it's really fun to do and I miss it!  Further, I have to say that I've stopped reading a lot of the blogs I used to read because they became all about book deals and fancy restaurants, which is great for them (and shows that I had good taste in food blogs).  But I really missed the fun home food mixed with trips to restaurants to try new things.  So I stopped reading and I stopped writing.  But like I said, I missed it.  

So without further ado.... a new post!

I worked from home today, which reminded me of one of the many things I like about myself... I am not afraid to cook just for me!  And in fact, when it's just me, I can make the miss-mash of things I most love. 

As I sat at the table, feeling the first pangs of hunger after a breakfast of leftover cold gluten free pizza (more on that in a minute), I started to have thoughts.  Ideas.  Concoctions.  And before I knew it, I was  whipping up a storm of good food!  And it looked like this...

Sadly for you, my photog skills have not changed in the slightest!  I have realized that I like food served in a bowl that you can eat with a fork.  The above, mac n cheese, spaghetti bolognese, etc.  It's probably my favourite thing.  

But back to that bowl of beauty!  Chorizo Hash with Scrambled Eggs and Sriracha Mayo!  I know!  Brilliantly delicious and super easy. 

I pierced one potato and cooked it in the microwave for a few minutes.  After it was done, I cut it into large-ish chunks and fried it for a bit in a skillet.  I then added some chopped chorizo (PC brand) and fried it up.  Once the potatoes were cooked through, I took the potato and chorizo mix and put it in a bowl.  I then scrambled two eggs and laid on top.  For the piece de resistance, I mixed some low-fat mayo with sriracha and drizzled dolloped it over the top.  It was really amazing.  And by really amazing, I do mean, really super-good-would-pay-to-eat-it-in-a-restaurant good. I started to say that it was meat free, but that's silly. 

I had some leftover sriracha mayo so my mind strayed to things that would be a natural pairing.  The answer was obvious.  HAMBURGERS!  I had one Udi gluten-free hamburger bun left in the freezer, so out it came along with x-lean ground beef.  

Lovely dinner with some bbq'ed corn on the cob.  Super good and well worth the time it took G to cook it on the bbq (hee hee).  

Seriously, there was no way I could stand the thought of turning our oven on during this heat.  The humidex was something like 113 F or something ridiculous.  I am sitting outside now, but there's a lovely breeze and it's not so blazingly awful.  

I like working from home.  We had to have some service repair on our house, so I needed to be here, but it also gave me time to charge my new solar charger and play with my cats.  Not so bad, really!

Oh, and the gluten-free pizza I mentioned above?  Wonderful, let me tell ya!  Udi's gluten-free pizza crust is amazing and I would eat it even if I were eating gluten (which I sometimes do).  For dinner recently, I used the crust, topped with pizza sauce, goat mozzarella (my absolute fave cow dairy sub), some chopped rotisserie chicken, and thinly sliced onion.  Plopped on the pizza stone in the oven and cooked to perfection.  Due to the aforementioned heat, I didn't want to turn on the oven to reheat the pizza (and I hate microwaved pizza), so despite my apprehension about cold gluten-free crust, it was DELICIOUS!

I really loved it and ate every bite.  Highly recommended.  So a pretty good food day.  I can't work from home full-time or I would weigh a thousand pounds.  

Anyway, it's good to be back!  

Pickled jalepenos

My friend Jennifer gave me a whack of jalepeno peppers and since there was no chance of eating them all anytime soon, I decided to give the pickling a go.

I used a very basic pickling recipe and from a pound got two small and three medium-sized jars. More than enough to get anyone throught the winter.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 pound jalepenos
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 tbsp pickling salt.

Slice the jalepenos into rounds and pack them into hot, cleaned jars.  Put the other ingredients together in a pot on the stove and simmer for about five minutes. Pour the hot brine over the peppers, clean the rims, and seal the jars.

Process in a canner or huge pot of boiling water for 10 minutes.

You're done.

I am smokin' hot

I planted my first real vegetable garden this year. Started slow with just a few things but one of the most vibrant producers has been the cayenne pepper plants. And what is there to do with dozens of bright red peppers other than brew up some hot sauce? So I did.

The recipe is quite simple:

1 dozen cayenne peppers
2 heads of garlic
3/4 cup of vinegar
salt (which I just realized I forgot)

I had a lot of cayenne peppers and some little loco peppers that I also grew, so threw a few of those in the mix, and made 4x the recipe.

First cut off the stem, slit, and remove the seeds of each pepper. Please do this with gloves. And don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth while you're doing the deed. The burn is fierce.

The traditional Tobasco Sauce has "aged" peppers but who's got time for that. So I figured I'd deepen the flavour by roasting the peppers a bit. I used my favourite Mexican style of dry roasting on the comal, but you can do it by broiling them in the oven until the skin turns a bit black. Some people suggest taking the skins off after the roasting but seriously, that's a bunch of fiddling around that takes up time I'll never get back. So I just tossed them, the garlic (which I also roasted but there's no need to), and the vinegar into the blender and wazzed it all up.

Once it's all lovely and liquidized, simmer the mix on the stove for about 20 minutes. At this point, the whole kitchen, if not house, will start smelling like hot sauce. There may be some burning eyes. It's all for a good cause.

Once the simmering of the flavours is done, run the whole thing through a sieve to clear out the pulp, seeds, and skin.

This, I would say is the time to add the salt, if you're not too busy forgetting to do it like I was.

You need to prepare some jars to put this lovely concotion in. I didn't have any traditional style bottles so I used small jam jars (125 ml each). They need to be washed out with boiling water and new lids prepared in boiling water. Once that's all ready, pour the sauce in, seal and you're ready to go with some smokin' hot sauce!

Back in the saddle

Work has been busy. Life has been busy. What hasn't been busy is the kitchen. Well I had a day off today and had wanted to make this recipe that had been sitting on my desk for weeks, months even.  It really couldn't be easier: make some guacamole, pan fry a few scallops. I added the sauteed fiddleheads because it's the end of fiddlehead season and I hadn't had any yet. Yumm.

Fish and chips and mushy peas

It is without question the cheats version of this meal, but after a tiring day at the office, it was just what the doctor ordered!  Here, I baked PC Blue Menu Haddock fillets on a foil lined tray with a bit of cooking spray on the foil and a bit on the fish, at a high heat for 13 or so minutes.  I then flipped it over, sprayed a bit more spray and cooked for another 13 or so minutes.  CRISPY!  The fries are McCain's brand low-fat fries, which are delightful in the oven when cooked for a bit.  They get super crispy and make an awesome base for chili fries, if you are ever in the mood.  And some peas mushed up with a fork with half a wedge of laughing cow light for creaminess.

Delightful, fast, virtually no clean up, and decent on the WW points.  I think you could complain, but I am not listening for all the crunching!

Meringues with a kick

The pasilla chile softening on the comal is a traditional start to a Mexican meal. And next the next step, perhaps, would be grilling tomatoes, onions, and garlic to make the perfect base for a savoury sauce. Well not in this case. This was the start of dessert for last night's dinner. Part 1 of the pudding was to be chocolate-chile ice cream.

Next step is creating a chile and cream infusion as the base to the ice cream. Just steep the softened chile in the cream.  Then you waz it up in a blender, then strain out the bits of chile (which if  you've blended it well, there shouldn't be much of).

While that's all going on, there was chocolate being chopped. Using the good stuff makes a big difference. Then the chile infusion gets mixed together with this lovely chocolate and is well on its way to becoming the custard base for the ice cream.

Add the chile-chocolate-cream mixture to a bowl full of egg yolks and sugar. Now you're ready for cooking the custard.

The custard has to thicken over a double boiler so there's a bit of arm-building whisking action involved. Although it's a lot less arduous than say, making mayonnaise.  And because there's no shortage of steps in this ice cream making process, once it's all up to the right temperature and thickened up, then the custard has to be cooled. So stick it in an ice bath and whisk some more.

At this point, I was wondering if this whole process was ever going to end, but having an array of delicious ingredients, I cracked on with it. A little vanilla, some heavy cream, and a bit of chocolate liquer. Then into the ice cream maker it all goes.

Once this final step is complete, it can go into the freezer for a few hours or overnight to harden up and for the flavours to really marry together.

And since the ice cream only used the egg yolks, and I don't like to waste, I thought I'd try my hand at making some meringues. Last weekend I made a pavlova, which was very delicious but the meringue base was not quite right. So this time, I used the basic recipe for the Joy of Cooking. The trick to the nice stiff peaks: cream of tartar. Conveniently I had some in the pantry, so stiff ones all around.

My initial dessert plan had been to have the chocolate-chile ice cream with grilled pineapple, which I still made, but with the meringues (which I have to say came out pretty freaking perfectly), it was perhaps one of the best desserts I've ever put together. I gave myself quite a few pats on the back.

And, I'm also happy to report, J and our dinner guests enjoyed it. And that's reallly what all the time and effort is about, seeing the clean plates in front of everyone.

Cheesy cakes

It was my brother's birthday recently and his wife threw a party for him tonight and asked my mom to make the birthday cake. Well with 18 people on the guest list, my mother felt one cake wasn't going to be enough so called and asked if I'd make a second one. Sure, I said.

But cakes are not my forte. Not to mention, we don't really have a decent cake tin in the house to bake one in. But I do have a springform pan, that I essentially bought to make one of my favourites:  chipotle chocolate chili cake. But apparently said pans are also good for cheesecake. I've never made one but thought now might be the time.

Luckily our cat Bean was diligent in waking us up this morning because for reasons unknown, there was actually sleeping in (a change from the usual wake-up-at-dawn-whether-you-want-to-or-not situation that generally occurs on the weekends.). As this whole proceeding would take a bit of time, Bean's insistence on our waking up was actually quite helpful as I had a noon curling game.

I used the classic cheesecake recipe from Canadian Living. Not too many complicated ingredients but really, no shortage of dairy items. So I put it all together, nestled it in its bain marie to cook and shuffled off to curling. J was good enough to finish watching it and take it out the oven. And when I returned, I chopped up some strawberries and mixed in a little sugar and white balsamic vinegar for some maceration action and headed out to the birthday party.

My niece Nikki says it's the best cheesecake she'd ever had in her life. 'Nuff said. A good day!

New York adventures

I was recently in New York for a legal technology conference and took the opportunity to visit for a day or so with my friend Chris, who is a man about town with the foodstuffs on offer in the Big Apple. He lives in Brooklyn and picked me up at the airport (making me feel like a movie star), because he is awesome. Soon after dropping off my gear at his place, we headed for the subway for a wild ride to our first stop on my New York food adventure: Bark Hot Dogs in Park Slope. Delicious dogs accompanied by disco fries and white birch beer (which I'm going to describe as a cross between wintergreen Life Savers and root beer - so not sure I'll ever order it again).

Very delicious, all natural etc. I had the classic NYC dog with sweet and sour onions and mustard. In the back is Chris' pickle dog. The food was great and I was particularly amused by the nine-year-old-going-on-25 little girl who sat beside me. She was interested in my opinions regarding the food and the beverages. Obviously I'm so very pretty and smart that everything I said to her needed to be repeated with great gravitas to her father. There is no doubt that I am a role model on the hot dog eating front, send your children.

 After hot dogs, we ambled around a bit to the Ample Hills Creamery for some of the best ice cream I've ever had. And I have had a lot of ice cream. I was tempted by the Mexican hot chocolate because I'm that way but in the end chose the salted crack caramel. Fantastic. The best part is that you get to make a very informed decision on what you're going to order because they let you try everything in the place, especially on a late January day when it's not exactly lineups around the corner in there. Not to mention, the store is crazy cute.

Now there are few things I enjoy more than street food and in Toronto, we do not have a good variety, so non-stationary food vendors were on the agenda as well. For dinner (before contra dancing!), Chris hunted down the Kimchi Taco Truck, which combined my love of food on the go with Mexican flair. Now in Manhattan, we grabbed our bags of deliciousness and walked up to Union Square to eat on a park bench on a very warm January night. I had a combo of the grilled Korean bbq short rib taco and the pulled chicken taco. Woah! Those short rib tacos were out of this world!!

The next day Chris invited me to join him and a group of friends for dim sum at a local Brooklyn restaurant (which I can't remember the name of) and it too was spectacular. We arrived early in order to get a table, which when we left through a horde of waiting and hungry diners, I understood. There were about eight of us, so we ordered many delicious things to share. It's a good number of people because it lets you try many things but you don't have to have a lot of anything. So a couple of dishes stood out, one was chicken feet, which was the only thing I was not brave enough to eat but was the choice of the birthday boy for whom we were gathered to celebrate. While the feet were not my favourite dish of the weekend, they did come out as the best photo.

I did however take a chance on the jellyfish dish as I'd never eaten it and all the rest of the food was pretty excellent so I figured this was as good a time as any. It was tasty although the texture was a bit more rubbery than I enjoy. There was also some octopus mixed in with the dish and it was all good.

So overall, probably my best-ever dim sum experience. And it was followed by a bit of Chinese new year celebrations on the street, which were enjoyable and left me with glittery bits in my hair until well into the following morning when I finally got to bed!

I left Chris on Sunday afternoon and headed to Midtown to check into the hotel and get into a work state of mind. That night I met a lawyer friend and some of her colleagues and ended up having a really fun time dancing the entire night away. Her flight was delayed and my plans for a swishy Mexican place in Chelsea didn't work out but my favourite Times Square-area standby Virgil's barbecue was called up to the plate and didn't disappoint. From the gang who had never eaten bbq before, there were smiles all around. That's the way they roll at Virgil's. Good, solid bbq that you just can't get in Toronto.

After dinner there was much dancing and carousing and when we finally got back to our hotel in the 3:30 a.m. range, my companions were hungry. So off to Ray's Pizza for some pie. Not the greatest but it hit the spot and allowed us the chance to have a meaningful conversation about health care policy with a lovely man from Seattle.

On the Monday night, I went out with one of my fellow editors and her sisters who had come down for a little r&r. We ended up at a tapas restaurant near 42nd and 8th. Nothing spectacular but a big selection of tapas and a very enjoyable variety of sangrias. A fun night out with new people, can't beat that! (bad pic taken with ye olde BlackBerry). The hit of the evening, I would hazard, were the dates wrapped in bacon. They just work.

Over the course of the next few days, ate quite a bit just around the hotel. The usual oatemeal for breakfast at the Astro Diner at 55th and 6th, which I always try to do when I'm at this conference. Had an excellent Chipotle burrito bowl (fast and convenient) and tried this odd French restaurant/sushi bar mashup Rue 57 again and had a fairly spectacular chicken pot pie.

Now all over Manhattan are these halal food carts that serve up gyros and chicken and the like. Apparently the one that is at the corner of 53rd and 6th is the most awesome. There is always a line up there, particularly late at night on the weekends after the bars close. It's quite a sight. So as I was wrapping up the trip, I decided to have my final lunch at the cart. It is a giant plate of happiness (with a Diet Coke) for $7. Underneath all that delicious white sauce there's a mouthwatering blend of lamb gyros, chicken, rice and salad. Enough food to keep you going for the whole day. Just bring breath mints because there's a big garlic punch.

So long and thanks for all the eats!

BBQ Beef Sandwiches.

I have finally gotten a slow cooker to add to my kitchen and have had some mixed results. But tonight was a home run!

I made BBQ beef sandwiches from the Americas Test Kitchen slow cooker magazine. The recipe was great. You just cook off some onion, add some spices, mix in some ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar, and cook until thick. Put a bit in the bottom of the slow cooker, top with the meat, and cook for hours until tender. It was good and something I haven't had in ages. (So of course I overindulged!!)





Yum! Since G cannot eat cabbage, we made a carrot slaw that was really nice, though a bit too cuminy. I put mine on top of my sandwich, and it was fantastic.

It's been a great year so far and I am following WW and exercising regularly. I even have started meditating! It's important to me to find some peace this year. It's a big birthday year and I am feeling some pressure, I am not going to lie. So it's all in my hands!

And the pressure cooker is pretty cool. I got a cheapie small one that doesn't have an auto turn off. It's a little bit of a downer not to have the auto turnoff, but at the same time, it's a great little cooker and most everything we have made in it has been good.

And as an aside, we bought some duck confit at Sausage Partners this weekend and are going to make a pasta with it this week! Yummy! I love love love duck confit so can't wait! (How many points are in confit?!)



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Ahhhh... My roots are showing!

When you miss your family and you can't hop a flight home, cooking a family favourite is the best way to reconnect with your peeps...

So it was with a twinge of homesickness but an ocean of happiness that I embarked on my all-time most favourite meal, chicken fried steak with french fries and gravy.  Oh yeah, it's not healthy, but not everything needs to be.  It is delicious, and I have to say that it was probably the best I've ever made!  

Chicken fried steak may be a bit better known now (I mean, it made it's way into a joke on the Big Bang Theory), but it's not something that I make very often.  I would say in my entire life, I've probably only made it half a dozen times.  You take tenderized meat (if you can buy it tenderized, all the better) and you flour, milk/egg, flour and then cook it in a little bit of oil.  The coating gets flaky and delicious.  You take the remaining oil and make gravy.  You then add some french fries and a little bit of yummy corn, and then there you go.

It was really fantastic.  I took my time with it, which made a big difference, and I made oven fries which cut down a little bit on the overall messiness.  But as I stood in front of my stove in my new kitchen/dining room stirring the gravy to make it thick, I really felt a connection to my roots.  I thought of my mom and grandma, both of whom I can see in my minds eye standing in front of the stove, stirring the gravy, feeding their family and it made me really happy to be making this for my family.  

15 days into 2012 and I have no complaints... it's been a really different year, but it's quite fun and I look forward to seeing what else rolls this way!

Feel good food

I realized tonight that making a good meal, or at least one that I enjoy eating, makes me feel good about myself. So tonight's dinner was feel good food. I wll say that there's nothing bad about a meal that starts with this:

That is a bowl of delicious spices and chopped parsley that got turned into some beautiful beef kebabs that we had with a bit of rice, some Bick's pickles and some pickled beets that I whipped together just before Christmas. Here's the recipe. The flavours really hit the spot with me.

Ground beef kebabs

• 1 pound of ground beef (or lamb if you're feeling so inclined)
• 2/3 cup of chopped parsley
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp chili powder

Get 6 to 8 skewers. If you're using bamboo ones, soak them in water. Basically put all the ingredients together in bowl and mix them up making sure the parsley and onion is all evenly distributed.  Then make 6 to 8 evenly sized balls. Go fire up the bbq. Take each ball roll it into a bit of a cylinder then put a skewer through it. Mold the meat onto the skewer by squeezing it a bit. Pop them on a med-heat bbq and cook for about 12 minutes turning them occasionally.

Take 'em off and serve right away with rice, pickles, and even some yogurt dip if you like.

New Local Spot!

A new cafe opened up the street from our house, and we were thrilled to have such a cute cafe within walking distance from our new digs. We decided to check it out yesterday morning while our kitchen is out of order. I walked into the bright space and made my way over to a table for two. The gentleman next to me was tucking into a Full English and I honestly think my heart skipped a beat!!!

So I ordered the same and waited excitedly!! And then it came and I tucked right in before I remembered to stop and take a photo!!





Yum! Egg, beans, toast,bacon,sausage, shrooms, and tomato with a cup of tea!! Bring it Lazy Daisy Cafe!! It was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend it if you're in the Little India area of town. http://www.yelp.ca/biz/lazy-daisys-cafe-toronto

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Christmas Time!!

Our first holiday season in our new house and I have Christmas lights!




And little reindeer!!!

Our new ornament commemorating our first tree in our new neighborhood!





It's a drawing of the life guard station down the street!!

Happy Holidays!!!


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