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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TIFF.

What do celebrities and food have in common?

I am sure something -- celebrity restaurants, films about food... whatever.

For the purpose of this post, they have NOTHING in common.... but ME!

This is a selection of the not fantastic pics of celebs that I took at TIFF this past year...

Five Guys...

I had heard of Five Guys Burgers and Fries, but had never eaten there as there wasn't one anywhere near me.  But all that has changed.  There is a Five Guys in Scarborough by all of the home improvement stores, so on a blustery fall day, we decided to try it out.  

Who knew it was going to come double patty?  Apparently everyone but G and I.  It explains the price... but was a bit much to eat.  I had the cheeseburger (gooey cheese) with tomato, pickle, mayo, and grilled onions.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  It was really decent and unlike the Burger's Priest, was not overly wet (or greasy).  

Orders of fries are HUGE!  Gracious, I am not a fan of sharing these sorts of things, but could have easily shared an order of fries with G.  The cajun fries were FANTASTIC and reminiscent of the fries from the Diner in Norman, which I miss.  Really really good. 

Overall, it was totally decent.  A nice taste of the USA right here in the Big Smoke.  Wouldn't eat there all the time, but ever so often, it will be a nice treat!

Sweet treat with a zing

I bought some new popsicle molds recently and was excited to put them to use. J is not a big fan of the popsicle-type dessert and it's not like there's lots of traffic through the old homestead just hankering for a cool snack, so it took me a while to try something out. But I'd had a hankering to put together some mango-chile paletas (Mexican popsicles) and I happened upon a tin of mango puree on sale so thought, now's the time.

They are quite easy to do because the mango was ready to rock, no peeling or monkey around with hard-to-handle bits of fruit. So all I did was take the mango puree, add juice of 1 lime, and sugar to taste - if your puree is really sweet, you likely don't need much - and mixed them up. If it's a bit too thick add a bit of water to make it a little runnier. In terms of chile, I used a combo of regular chile powder and ground ancho chiles, which give the little flecks of colour and a bit of texture to it all. Obviously if you want to feel the afterburn put lots of chile but if you just want a little zing of heat, use less. It's hard to say how much because every chile powder packs a different punch and you need to know what you're using.

I liked it. Lipsmacking.

Dinner Rules.

We've been attending TIFF so our dinner eating has been a bit sporadic at best.  We tried out the new food court, er, Urban Eatery, at the Eaton Centre last night.  Totally awesome set-up but I think G is going to cover that...

So tonight is a TIFF free night due to a scheduling conflict, so dinner was Chez Moi for the first time in a bit.  I wasn't sure what to make, but I came up with a BANG-UP dish that I totally, totally loved!

And there it is!!!  Pasta with some browned out of the skin italian sausage, with a diced tomato, peas, and some pasta water cooked for a bit.  Mix in the cooked pasta and top with lots of fresh parm reg and chow down.

I gav myself a heaping bowl full...

Really really really good.  Honestly, I have a whole tupperware of it in the fridge for tomorrow, and I could go in and eat it right this second.  Yay for me.

So try it, super easy and super good.  Dinnah is served.

Tomatoes on toast, it's a beautiful thing

When I was a kid, my father always grew tomatos in the backyard. One of the things I most looked forward to during the "harvest" was tomatoes on toast. Sounds mundane but it really is a beautiful thing. Well this past weekend, we went to visit our friends P&D at their place near Cambridge. D cultivates the most fantastic heirloom tomatoes and the night we stayed over we took great pleasure in the turkey-platter sized tomato salad with chevre and tomatoes in green, yellow, orange, red, and cherry black. Both a feast for the eyes and a feast for the tummy.

They were kind enough to share their bounty and we came home with about a nice box of their tomatoes and all I could think about all the way home was having tomatoes on toast the next morning for breakfast. Which I did.

It's so simple but so fantastic. Get yourself a sharp knife and then sharpen it. You don't want anything getting in the way of the perfectly thin slices. Once you're sure the knife is good and sharp, slice your tomato into the thinnest slices you can. Toast some nice bread up and then dribble some good extra virgin olive oil on there. Add a thin layer of tomato, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil and repeat until you have a few layers on there. Then just enjoy. It may be a bit messy but it's worth it. Importantly: slices need to be paper thin and go easy on the olive oil, you want to taste it but not drown everything in it. 

Lameness Rules.

So I have never claimed not to be entirely lame.

Wait, is that right?

I admit I am totally lame.

I want this...

And there's this....

And I got really excited about this...

LOOK AT THAT CRAZY GIANT PACK OF KETCHUP!!!!  Yeah, it came with my veggie Hero burger the other day at lunch and I had to take some photos with my phone.  LOVE IT!  

And the Han Solo in Carbonite ice tray?  

Get yours here...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e845/

Ride in Dalek?

http://www.scificollector.co.uk/

Happy shopping!!!

Gail picked a peck of peppers

So it's the first year with my own outdoor garden. Didn't do a whole lot because, well, I don't know much about either gardening or the ins and outs of light etc on the garden in our new house. But we did put a few things in the ground and mostly, it's giving me joy to pick the few things that are growing.


We got a banana pepper plant that is going full tilt and giving us tons of peppers. Also got and planted a bit late a couple of red pepper plants. Not doing quite as well as the bananas! So far only one real pepper and I had to cut it off today even before it turned red because the slugs are snacking on it. But I'm sure it'll be delicious!

The Best Fish Sandwich Ever.

I just got back from a short but enjoyable trip to Nova Scotia. Towards the end of the trip, while driving back to Halifax, we eye-spied a fish truck and made a quick pit stop to refuel. And the, my friends and family, was the most wonderful fish sandwich ever.




Oh yeah! That is awesome! So I ordered, you guessed it, the fish sandwich and G ordered the fish and chips. Mine was total money, as Guy Fieri would say. See it glisten...





Yeah, it had a big ol' slice of American cheese on it and tartar sauce. With handcut fries that were the best fries in NS hands freaking down. The fish was absolutely delicious and I could not believe our good fortune.

G's fish and chips also glistened in the sun....





Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Honestly, one of my favourite food moments of the whole weekend.

You gotta try it!

Tagine in a tagine

Our friends Joanna and Gary bought us a tagine as a housewarming gift. I have not used one although I'm very intrigued. As it required a bit of beyond the ordinary, the gift ended up sitting on the shelf for a few months. So Friday, I decided I would give it a go and found a recipe online that actually cooked it in a tagine -- versus a slow cooker -- so I was ready to rock.

So you can actually use certain tagines to cook in, rather than just serve in, and the one we were given was a cooker. But that didn't make me any less nervous about putting the clay bottom right on the gas. I was somewhat buoyed by the memory of seeing big clay pots sitting over gas and coal cookers in Mexico recently so I off I went. There were a few weird things, and I'm not sure if once it's been cured and used a few times that it will be different. But the main thing was that putting oil in the bottom, it got hot but wehn I put the chicken in to brown I didn't get much sizzle. There seemed to be quite a lot of liquid. So the chicken didn't brown but it didn't matter much. The whole event was quite fun and I must say that I deboned that chicken with quite some skill!!

Anyway everything gets chucked in there and then it boils way for a bit with the lid on and steam escaping through a little vent in the top.


The final product was very delicious although I will likely mess around with the spice mixture becaxuse that's what I do. It's got preserved lemon in it, which is classic, but I'm not so sure about it. Regular lemon may just do the job. The recipe I used also doesn't include any fruit, which is also classic, but I don't really like fruit in my food, so I was happy about that.


Served over some lovely couscous. It's a meal worthy of a king! Or at least two happy-go-lucky gals on a Friday night.

Lavash pizza on the bbq

J loves pizza and we've discovered the great joy of making it on the BBQ. We've done it a few times now using lavash as the pizza crust. It's ultra-thin, which I love, and very low point, which J loves, so everybody wins. And they take no time at all to cook. We whipped up a few for a quick lunch today. Max 8 minutes cooking time on the pizza stone on the grill.

Here's mine. It was light bocconcini cheese, a few really thin slices of hot genoa salami, black olives, some thinly sliced onion, tomato and hot banana peppers from the yard. Dee-licicous.

Time to blog about it....

Sigh.

Double sigh.

It's been such a weird year.  So fresh on the high of having lost weight, I promptly forgot everything I learned, got ridiculously stressed out and depressed, and gained a bit back.  And by a bit I mean an entire stone.  I say a stone because I can't face the fact that I let myself gain 14 pounds back.

Ridiculous.

But I've learned, right?  I know what to do.  Weight Watchers works.  Exercise works.  When I work, it works.  And so slowly, I am getting back in the swing.

I've lost 4 pounds, I've run a 5K and an 8K race, and tried to stick to running 3 times a week and doing at least one Wii strength workout.  I can already see the difference in my body, and I feel better too, so I know it's working.

But for f-ck's sake, does it ever freaking end?  Is it ever just, "oh yes, there you are, normal weight, normal girl" life?

So while I relished the positives of it all...

Look at me, back in the swing!

And the post race amazing turkey sandwich, tomato and cheese salad, and potato salad...

I still feel like a giant tub o' lard.

So yeah, there's a million positives, but I still feel like a giant fatty who's kidding herself into thinking that she had ever made this whole weight loss thing work.  I mean, never mind the fact that I haven't been this weight (even THIS weight) for more than a decade.  Never mind the fact that as of my WW weigh-in this morning I am only 10 pounds over goal.  Never mind any of it.  I am just so freaking tired.

I read the book "The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl"... have you read her blog?  So basically she lost half her body weight.  She looks amazing and has certainly had her share of ups and downs.  Parts of her story I completely related to and other parts just made me angry.  She dismisses doing Weight Watchers for the same reasons that I would never ever go to meetings, but also talks about how it is a crutch and she should be able to do it herself.  (And to her credit, she has done, so well done, mate!) but I find that I need that accountability.  I need to see those points moving along and tallying up.  I need that in order to know that I am on the right track.

One major change of the last almost two years on WW?  I love shrimp now.  I mean, this is a food that I literally would gag on and I absolutely love it now!  So score one for losing weight (while not 2 stones 2 pounds, I still can say I have lost 1 stone 2 pounds, which is pretty impressive)!

A little garden bounty

In our first garden in the new house, I planted just a few things and tonight's dinner includes a bunch. I made a potato and golden beet salad with veg from our neighbourhood farmers' market. But I dressed it with parsley and onions from our yard. Yay! Also along with our delicious hamburgers, we will have hot peppers also from our gardoonie.

Yay for Italian Food!

As mentioned in my last post on San Diego, G and I ate at Bencotto Italian Kichen twice.  It was amazing and while not cheap, it was worth every single penny and would have likely cost double had we had this same meal in Toronto.

Anyway, we read about this restaurant and decided that we absolutely had to eat there.  And we fell in absolute love.  So much so that when we were leaving, we made another reservation to return for our last dinner in California!

And what a dinner it was.

Sheesh man.

I started with stuffed squash blossoms.

Delicious blossoms stuffed with ricotta cheese.  They were then lightly battered and fried.  Served on a parmesan cream sauce that I would pay to just dip my fingers in it and lick off, it was amazing. The sauce had some sun-dried tomatoes scattered over the top.  Heaven!!!  Absolute heaven.

I was really excited about my second course.  Asparagus gnocchi with cream sauce, bacon and more asparagus.  Fan-freaking-tastic.

Oh yeah.  Every single bite of gnocchi was beyond amazing.  Seriously, it could not have been better had it been even much better.  Even thought it was a huge plate of food, I still cut each gnocchi into threes just to make it last longer.  I didn't realize that I was ordering two creamy dishes, but it happens.  And it was amazing...

If you are in San Diego, I highly recommend this place.  Our first time there, I ordered two appetizers, a glass of bubbly red (which I love), and a HUGE plate of baked pasta.  With another appetizer and G's main, our bill was still only about $70 or so.  Which is a lot, I understand that, but the quality is just out of control.

San Diego.

I went to a conference in San Diego recently and took an extra few days to spend vacationing with G.

What an amazing city!  First up, we knew we had to try fish tacos.  Staying in La Jolla, we were THISCLOSE to the beach, so off we went to a little beachside taco place to have the first round...

Tooooo yummy!  Lightly fried fish, avocado, fresh salsa and shredded cabbage wrapped in two corn tortillas.  Fantastico!

But this was not the only memorable meal in San Diego...

We also ate at this fabulous place called the Whisk N' Ladle in La Jolla...

I didn't take a photo of the food, but I had an amazing charcuterie platter followed by fish taquito's that were absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD.  And this place has the same quote on their menu that I have on my blog, so they are obviously cool like me.  (As cool as I am, I thought you'd know this already...)

We also went to the famous Fish Market, which was really pretty decent, but the Bob Hope and Life Magazine photo tributes were better....

Super neat... we enjoyed the view while sipping some local brews...

I also had to try the local favorite, Hodad's for a good ol' fashioned American hamburger!  OMG what an amazing hamburger and fries it was...

We ate at the bar and just took it all in.  Really a great place but super small inside and we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes outside before we got a table!  But it's not too expensive (especially compared to the #1 ranked 'burger place in San Diego, the Burger Lounge), lots of fun, and a really nice vibe.  I enjoyed every bit of that burger.  (And didn't have to think to hard to figure out how I gained back a few pounds while in California!)

The conference hotel was near Little Italy, and so off we went to the farmer's market.  This is an AMAZING market and if you live there and haven't been, you really should sort it out and get there ASAP.  It's beyond fantastic.

We had some amazing tastes of local food, and bought a few treats.  I bought a vanilla macaroon that was the size of a person's head!  Only in America!

And the most amazing spicy green chile pork tamale...

Gracious, I could eat a few more of those right now!

I also almost got eaten by a shark...

But I survived.

And good thing to, because we discovered what could be my most favourite restaurant ever... Bencotto in Little Italy.  I am going to devote a whole post just to that big smackin' bunch of delicious Italian food like never ever in my life previously... Stay tuned!

Happy Canada Day!

Ahhhh, beach day.  We spent Canada Day hanging out with our fellow Canadians at the beach.  This is the end of our main street.  That's right.  10 minutes and this is at our feet.

We're too lucky by half.

Happy Canada Day and Happy July 4th!