Dom's Hungry

COMING SOON...

2011-11-11T23:52:00.004-05:00

I moved two weeks ago and we* still don't have the internet. As a result, my blog posts have been rather sporadic. Ah, who am I kidding? I gave up on this things ages ago--just kidding!

I will be back to semi-regular posting once we have regular access to the internet and I can post to my heart's content. There have been quite a few changes though, ones that I will definitely share upon my return next week. One thing that hasn't changed? My migraines. They're back with a vengeance. Boo.

See you all soon!

*I'm referring to my boyfriend, Sean, and I. After 10 years together, we finally thought it would be a good time to start living together, in a lovely condo near the city.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!

2011-06-28T19:52:00.005-04:00

I've known her since grade 5. She became my best friend and partner-in-crime when it came to big summer music festivals. We grew apart in the latter years of high school and university, but Facebook brought us back together. We became baking buddies, later allowing Sean to join our baking club. I can't believe I've known her since I was 10.
I wanted to make something super fantastic for Jessie's birthday. I thought about cupcakes but then remembered a cake I had seen online a few weeks ago. Immediately I knew it would be epic enough for Jessie's golden (or champagne) birthday. I debated whether I should turn the cake into cupcakes since a) they're easier to transport and make (in theory anyway). The cake itself would be a surprise since Jessie had no idea I was baking for her birthday. Here's the unveiling:

My favourite layer and therefore my favourite layer, green:And here's the inside of the rainbow cake:Happy birthday Jessie. I hope your golden (or champagne) birthday is your best ever!

PS: I hope you liked your rainbow cake; the only rainbow cake I will ever make. I wouldn't even make another one for Sean--unless he asked REALLY nicely.

NEW PLAY THING

2011-05-28T22:50:00.005-04:00

I got me a new toy and it's pretty darn fantastic. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know that my enthusiasm for my new toy started a couple of weeks ago. I had a random photo shoot to do and it was the perfect opportunity for me to use my dad's Nikon D7000. I had a week to figure it all out (the manual is thick and thorough) and when the day came, I was a little nervous. Everything turned out great though--especially this random shot of Sean. If you enlarge this photo you'll see the little fibers along the edges of his sweater. It was a complete out-of-the-blue shot and is probably one of my faves using the D7000. It's incredible, absolutely incredible and I never thought I'd say that about a digital SLR.

I've always been a hardcore fan of film photography, even being reluctant to switch to digital during my last couple of years of photography study, but this camera has me thinking otherwise. Since then I've taken a bunch of random photos and the best part? My dad hasn't asked for his camera back. SCORE!

MISSION BROWNIES: COMPLETE

2011-05-21T23:16:00.013-04:00

It took me a while to settle on my third brownie recipe. I wasn't content to "give it a go" with just any brownie recipe so I let Google do the work for me. I wanted a brownie that reminded me of my childhood. I wanted a brownie that tasted like the one you make from a box; with that perfect crusty top (and edges) but chewy and fudgy in the center and dotted with walnuts. After an hour or two of deliberation, I finally decided to give Brown Eyed Baker a chance. Titled "Chewy Brownies" with a recipe from Cook's Illustrated (the publication of America's Test Kitchen), how could I go wrong?

I immediately dove into brownie-making mode. I started with the chocolate and was then halfway through step #2 when I realized we only had three eggs in the house when the recipe called for four (two whole eggs and two yolks). With only three eggs, what was I to do? I wasn't about to go and ask the neighbours (I haven't spoken to one side in oh, a decade and the other side I've never spoken to since they moved in). It's not that I'm not friendly, I'm just usually rushing to work or rushing into the house when I see them. I decided to hope for the best and go ahead with my version using two whole eggs and one egg yolk. I was a little bit apprehensive; was this going to ruin the chewy, "from a box-mix" texture I had been searching for?

I motored along and after 30 minutes, my brownies were done. A toothpick had yielded moist crumbs and now it was time to wait. Hmph. Time to wait? I wanted my chewy brownies now!

I think eating 5 squares in a day is proof enough that they're amazing. Still not convinced? Check out this photo:A crusty, crackled top reveals the most chewiest, fudgiest, walnut-filled brownies I have had since the box mix kind. I suggest cutting the 9x13" rectangle into 24 squares so you can ration your brownies but since I had five the first day, these brownies aren't going to last very long.The addition of chopped walnuts was a superb addition on my part. It's fudgy and chewy and crunchy when you get a bite of those nuts. I'll leave you with this one photo and if that doesn't convince you to make these brownies, you must be blind.

ON A MISSION FOR BROWNIES

2011-05-09T21:41:00.006-04:00

I've been craving brownies for weeks now. Chocolatey, chewy, gooey brownies. About a week ago I made Coconut Swirl Brownies courtesy of Martha, but they were more cakey than chewy and despite being a hardcore fan of anything-coconut, I just wasn't feeling it. The chewy chocolate brownie craving had not been fulfilled and so this evening, I tried my hand at Martha's Double Chocolate Brownies. Her headnote made promises of fudgy brownies on the basis that so many other people had raved about them. I followed the recipe to a tee and patiently waited for the brownies to bake. (I ate a Fuji apple with almond butter to bide my time.)After 25 minutes my brownies were done. In fact, despite the 35 minutes suggested in Martha's Cookies book, I thought my brownies were overdone; a toothpick came out totally clean--not a good sign for a fudgy brownie. I waited the 15 minutes before I took them out of the pan and then another 30 minutes before I cut them into squares. Okay so it was really more like five minutes but didn't I tell you I'd been craving brownies for three weeks?!

The result? Not a fudgy brownie. My brownies were overdone :( They were more cakey than fudgy and I still have not conquered my brownie craving. Don't get me wrong, they taste great--especially with the addition of chopped walnuts--but they're just not chewy. (I didn't include the recipe in the above link because the recipe on the website and the recipe in the Cookies book differ in quantities and ingredients.)

I want a brownie that reminds me of those infamous Two-Bite Brownies. I want a brownie that results in a texture reminiscent of the ones you make from a box--except I want to bake them from scratch.

Is a recipe for the ultimate chewy brownie really that hard to come by nowadays? In order to make my brownies more palatable, I ate it with a couple of small scoops of honey lavender ice cream and extra chopped walnuts. I don't know what it is about lavender, but I just can't get enough--even when it's scooped on top of a brownie square.Even though the combination of chocolate, lavender and honey sounded a little weird in my head, I'll tell you this: it was incredible. Plate-licking good in fact but you'd really have to like lavender in order to do that. I stopped myself just a little short to show you to devoured evidence:
And I'll end with that, continuing my search for the ultimate chewy brownie recipe. I'll see if Google can help me out on this one.

IF LIFE WERE PERFECT...

2011-05-04T20:25:00.006-04:00

I'd wake up to a cup of Starbucks' Awake tea latte--grande and half sweet, of course.

I'd never have another migraine.

I'd be living in a cool apartment downtown with the Mr.--though that's his unofficial title.

I'd own a bakery somewhere in the 'burbs.

I'd have a dog...ah heck, three dogs: a Shiba Inu, a Chow Chow and a whatever-Sean-wants, which changes weekly. Right now we're thinking Tibetan Mastiff.

I wouldn't eat mini Reese's peanut butter cups with the lining still on.

I wouldn't crave chocolate as much as I do now.

Someone would make me brownies instead of me having to make them for myself.

Sigh...since life is not perfect, I am now off to make coconut swirl brownies (recipe courtesy of Martha).

*an hour later*

Here's my chocolate craving come to life:Excuse the lighting as I typically bake at night, usually starting around 8 or 9. Anyway, these brownies weren't all that great. Yes, they contained copious amounts of chocolate and yes, they included coconut too (which I am all "balls to the wall" about, but they just weren't chewy! They're your classic cakey brownies, which, if I were a fan of cakes, I'd be all over. But I'm not so I wasn't.

The search for chocolate brownies continues...

CONFESSIONS...

2011-04-07T20:45:00.011-04:00

I still haven't blogged about the scallop and leek dish I made about a month ago. The scallops which cost me a whopping $8 each! I won't get into the nitty gritty except to say that the Whole Foods seafood guy did a good job of distracting me ;)

I'm three halos away from completing my Nine Inch Nails collection. I just need Halo 4, 15 and 27, the latter of which I'm pretty sure I already owned but somehow lost--along with my Justin Timberlake self-titled CD. Why I have the case and not the CD, I have no idea.

One of my goals for 2011 has been achieved:I finally made a balloon animal! After a VERY failed attempt--before, during and after which Sean probably thought I was completely certifiable--I decided that I was going to try again with balloons purchased at a grocery store instead of a dollar store. An extra 75 cents should do the trick, right? Well they did! Do not underestimate good quality balloons. I made that balloon dog all by myself and yes, I was quite pleased with myself. In fact, so much so that my high-pitched squealing was a bit too much for my dad's old-man ears.

Jenna's recipes are probably the only ones I'll make more than one a week. They really are that good. Just check out her recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies and more recently, these double banana chocolate chip breakfast bars:Sometimes it's dangerous to have a fully-stocked baking pantry. Seriously.

Out of our four cats, we have one who totally acts like a baby (wants to be cradled, meows until you pick him up, etc) and I kinda like it.

It absolutely melts my heart when he gets up on my desk when I'm sitting in front of my laptop and gives me eskimo kisses with his wet nose.

TIME TO DOWNSIZE...

2011-03-31T09:29:00.003-04:00

Just a couple weeks ago, my purse contained:

Practically empty bottle of water
Makeup case
Anna Sui mascara
Tylenol Extra Strength
Mail polish (from the Beiber collection--oi vey!)
Pouch full of essentials (meds, lip balm, subway tokens (??), glasses cleaner, tea bags, Tide Pen, etc)
Hand cream
Apple
Loose foundation
Receipt
Hand balm
Pen
Banana
Coin purse
Prescription meds
Wallet
Starbucks coupons (that didn't work at the Starbucks I went to, WTF?!)
Face primer
Dark chocolate with bergamot (best $5 I ever spent)
Lip gloss
Microwaveable popcorn
Face cream
iPhone
Pack of tissues

DEAR HAIR...

2011-03-28T18:49:00.003-04:00

Thanks for growing out faster than I had anticipated after I got all antsy and decided to get some bangs earlier than I should have. I regretted the decision very shortly after it was made (read: a couple of days) and started growing "them things above" and now the rest of you below are a lot longer than before.

However, I'd really appreciate it if you could grow about, oh, eight more inches overnight so I can rock this totally awesome look:
(Taken from this month's Loulou Magazine, the hair--done by John Donato of Donato Salon & Spa--is a look I've been coveting for years but never had the guts to attempt. Now that I'm 28, I figure I only have my late 20s to rock this look so it's kind of now or never.)

Kthxbai,
Dom

HELLO AGAIN

2011-03-28T00:16:00.007-04:00

This is what I've been up to...

Sean and I went to a Toronto Raptors game a couple weeks back. It was my first ever basketball game and I had so much fun! We got tickets from a family friend and boy am I glad we did because we're poor and would never have been able to afford those awesome seats! I could even see everything on the court because there were two much shorter kids in front of me. Score! Or "winning" as some people are now saying. Oh, but the best part of the game, is this:Despite the fact that I don't look crazy excited, I've been wanting a foam finger for just about forever! I picked one up after the game. It was pretty fun poking Sean in the nose, in the cheek, in the bum...just about everywhere possible--until he got mad and threatened to take it away :(

I fell asleep twice while attempting to watch this:You're right if you guessed The NeverEnding Story. Unfortunately I started coming down with a cold during the first attempt and the cold was in full force during the second attempt. Sean decided to go ahead and watch the rest of the movie during our second attempt. He realized another attempt with me was futile. (I told Sean that we are totally naming our cream Chow Chow Falcor. He said we could only if I watched the movie without falling asleep.)

Little known fact: I bake when I'm stressed out. This past week has been really stressful so not only did I bake Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins from How Sweet It is, I also baked Torie's Cherry Chocolate-Chunk cookies from Martha's website. They both turned out fab:It was a relaxing afternoon baking muffins and cookies. And because I was then stress-free (sort of), I decided to eat two muffins and four (or so) cookies. I lost count after the fourth one.

Tylenol Cold is my best friend. I'm pretty sure I blogged about this a year or so ago but really, this is my one go-to when I have a cold. I tried the Echinacea tea and the whole "feed a cold" thing but it didn't work. Absolutely nothing worked until I popped the magic, blue nighttime pill and then another yellow daytime pill in the morning. I don't even get colds that often--I usually contract them from co-workers--but nothing works like Tylenol Cold. Tylenol should make me their spokesperson.

Dinner earlier tonight was roast organic chicken leg with spicy green beans and white rice. My stomach didn't like something about it and decided to expel it. After my stomach settled itself, I decided to make Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil--but with fettuccine. It wasn't pretty but it sure was tasty:
I don't know if I ever mentioned that Sean and I went to Corey and Bree's house to make caramel apples back in October, a couple weeks before Halloween. This is Sean attempting to eat his caramel apple and it makes me smile:
This is me when I was oh....two and a half, I think? My parents loved to dress me up in pink and red. Like LOVED! I think their morning conversations were like this (but in French): Mom: What should we dress Dominique in today? Dad: Pink dress and red tights? Mom: What about red dress and pink tights? Dad: Nah, we did that yesterday. Mom: Oh yeah, let's switch it up today.
They'll still tell you that pink and red are a match made in heaven.

THANK GOODNESS FOR NO BANANAS

2011-03-27T13:28:00.007-04:00

Someone ate the two really ripe bananas that I was going to use to make muffins earlier this afternoon. A little stumped, I walked right back up to my room, sat in front of my laptop and contemplated my next step. I browsed through my bookmarked "muffins" folder and nixed all the ones involved healthy ingredients like ripe bananas and applesauce, and then came across these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins from How Sweet It Is. Could it have been a sign? Did someone eat my ripe naners on purpose; so that I could fulfill my life-long dream of baking these muffins that taste like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? I scanned the ingredients list, knew that I had all of them on hand and got to work. (Seriously, what good baker doesn't have 2lbs of butter lying around at room temperature on a Sunday afternoon?)

I quickly got to work, mixing all my ingredients together:Less than 30 minutes later (including baking time!), I had 16 muffins that smelled like something my grandma would have made me. Or, maybe. Actually, I'm pretty sure my grandma baked no such thing as it was my grandfather who did the cooking in that household and I don't actually ever recall him making anything other than savory food, but whatever. I digress. Check out my muffins:Complete with a delicious, crunchy layer of turbinado sugar. There's nothing butter than a baked good with a hefty, I mean, healthy layer of turbinado sugar:I ate two or three before deciding it was time to leave the kitchen and immerse myself in other activities in fear of devouring every single one of those muffins. The next day I decided it was time to take Jessica's advice and enjoy said muffin with a pat of butter:
I am so glad I did. Reheated in the microwave for 15 minutes and with a pat of butter, it was the most delicious thing I've probably eaten in a week. Maybe since that seared scallop and leek dish I have yet to blog about.

OBSESSIONS...

2011-03-06T18:57:00.003-05:00

+ Stassen Jasmine Green Tea. After searching high and low for over a year (possibly two years) for Stassen Jasmine Green Tea, I finally found it at Foody Mart when I totally wasn't looking. I had even checked Foody Mart for Stassen's tea before but couldn't find it. Anyway, I totally bought a box (of 100 bags) and then went and bought another box the next day (just in case). This tea is anything but subtle and I love it, despite having a major hate-on for anything jasmine-scented--especially perfume. The trick is to brew it for a short period of time and the tea bag can be used twice, which means it's only half the cost (I paid $5 for my entire 100 bag box, not the insane price on Amazon).

+ Deflated double chocolate meringue cookies. I made meringues and decreased the amount of sugar that was mentioned in the recipe with the intention of decreasing the sweetness. What resulted was this:But it turns out that these meringue cookies taste just like chewy chocolate chip cookies and they're gluten-free! It's "winner, winner, chicken dinner" for anyone who follows a gluten-free diet. The trick is to pull them straight from the oven after 18 minutes. Plus, at 30 calories a pop, you won't feel guilty after you shove the fourth one into your mouth. The giraffes totally approve. I really need to post that recipe.

+ OPI's Teenage Dream nail polish from the Katy Perry collection. This came out in...ummm...early-January, I think? Anyway, I got my hands on it a week after that and then it was sold out for ages! I recently got a back-up bottle and managed to snag a couple extra bottles for some co-workers and I absolutely love this crazy sparkly, pink polish. It's totally work-appropriate--at my workplace anyway.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: WINDSOR ARMS (HIGH TEA)

2011-02-25T18:48:00.017-05:00

Happy birthday to me! Earlier this afternoon, I celebrated my birthday with an afternoon high tea at the Windsor Arms hotel. I was accompanied by none other than Jessie and Sean, two of my funniest dining companions. Our reservation was not until 1pm, but of course, we were 30 minutes early so we sat in the car opening four birthday cards from Sean and some presents: tickets to the Sleigh Bells concert in May (wahoo!) and money (for a future camera purchase, double wahoo).

Upon entering the Windsor Arms tea room, we were given a choice of tables and I chose to sit at a table near the windows (better for photo-taking). Jessie and I chose to sit on the booth seats which were plush but a little too low; Sean sat in one the chairs which looked really comfy. Our room was bright and airy, with gold-framed paintings on the wall (none of which I remembered to take a photo of). In the corner there was a display of hats which Jessie and I found quite amusing:

Along with our individual tea, we each opted for the full tea which includes scones:sandwiches:
and petit fours:
Our meal began with a mini goat cheese and caramelized shallot quiche:

This was a really great way to start the meal. The caramelized shallot really made the quiche and I'm not even a fan of quiches (from an overload of them back in Switzerland with Jessie in 2001).

Scones included raisin and plain, served alongside devon cream and strawberry and raspberry jam. Check out the mini jams:

Our assorted of finger sandwiches included cucumber with sundried tomato paste and dill cream cheese:

smoked salmon and wasabi sour cream with salmon caviar:

and grilled chicken, grany smith apples, citrus mayonnaise and greek yogurt and chives which I don't have a close-up photo of because I never ate of them (non-organic chicken). I'll try and snag one from Jessie's iPhone.

Here's another shot of our assortment of petits fours (courtesy of Sean):Individually, they were (as described to us by our server) a dark chocolate fudge (for Jessie):

a raspberry or strawberry mousse in a dark chocolate tea cup (it was raspberry and delightful, obvi mine):

an Opera cake ("they just call it Opera cake" for Sean)

a blood orange mousse with sponge at the bottom and blueberries (mine):

a lemon meringue tart (check out that awesome toasted meringue for Sean):

and a white chocolate something (that's pretty much all our server said; Jessie had a hard time figuring it out but it came with a cherry with gold leaf and had a hard, crisp texture on the bottom.):

The presentation on this one was amazing. I wish I liked white chocolate so I could have tasted it but I find white chocolate too sweet. I even find milk chocolate too sweet sometimes. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Then we also had strawberries and cream:At first glance, it didn't seem like a lot of food but it was. I didn't finish one of my scones and by the time I got around to eating my strawberries and cream, I felt like someone was forcing me to eat it. It was a little bit sad. I had the face that I always have when I can't eat but feel like I have to finish it. I ended up just having a taste of the cream (it looked like ice cream, I had to try it) and finishing off my berries.

Oh yeah, about the tea. Jessie chose the Black Velvet which includes ginseng, peppermint, licorice and black tea while Sean chose the Chai Arms which includes ceylon, cardamom, cinnamon, glove, ginger and black pepper. I chose the Tibetan Tiger which includes black tea with vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch and caramel (though I don't remember reading the description of the last two). Our teas came in fancy tea pots:

===

High tea at the Windsor Arms was definitely a memorable experience. At $30 per person it wasn't terribly expensive but it is cheaper Monday-Friday. During the weekend it's $8 extra and higher during the holidays, I believe. There's also a sherry or sparkling wine option for an added $5. I'm not partial to either (sulphites = migraines) but it would have been a fun option, especially during a celebration of sorts. There was two other parties celebrating birthdays and the server brought out other chocolate petit fours for each party to enjoy along with a candle while singing "Happy Birthday." I would have enjoyed it but honestly, I had consumed so much food already that the thought of more wasn't going to leave me with the most pleasant of birthday memories.

Here are some fun photos throughout our afternoon lunch...
Sipping our tea:

Sean being the server:

Sean and Jessie enjoying their scones:

Before and after scone-eating:

RESTAURANT REVIEW: LAI TOH HEEN

2011-02-24T13:40:00.010-05:00

Groupon's are a wonderful thing. If you're not familiar with the Groupon system, or one of the many similar systems (such as LivingSocial or DealFind), this is how it works: you sign up to receive a daily deal for restaurants, spas, manis and pedis, car detailing packages and more. When Groupon became first available in Toronto, I immediately signed up and was offered a whole slew of amazing restaurants. I also signed up for LivingSocial shortly thereafter.

Sean and I have been able to eat at some pretty awesome places including Chippy's Fish & Chips (which we enjoyed at a theatre while watching Black Swan, no joke), and Lai Toh Heen, which we've now visisted twice.

A sister restaurant to the very famous Lai Wah Heen, Lai Toh Heen offers the same elegant, upscale dim sum fare, as well as innovative Chinese food that Sean and I were very excited to try out upon our second visit. We perused the menu quite meticulously--a Chef's Tasting Menu? Oh we're coming back for that, when our wallets aren't so thin--but from the appetizer section we knew exactly what we were getting: the pan-seared foie-gras glazed with ice wine plum sauce, on a bed of shredded duckling in sesame and peanut dressing ($18):Now my only other foie-gras experience was from The Hoof Cafe (the French toasted with a slab of foie gras that Sean ordered and I had a bite of) and to be honest, it wasn't a taste I thought I'd let my tongue experience ever again. I kind of thought to myself, this is what we force-feed ducks for? I'm not a vegan, not even a vegetarian, nor do I ever preach about the benefits of eating grass-fed, organic and/or local, but I just didn't really get it. What was there to like about foie gras? Lai Toh Heen made me bite my tongue. This foie gras, however small it was (and believe me, that $26 appetizer really could have been meant for one), was amazing. It melted in my mouth and the combination of ingredients made it really tasty.

Next, we decided to order the oolong tea smoked duck breast slices with pickled turnip and seaweed ($20):I was surprised to see that this dish also came with pickled carrot slices which, along with turnip, are two of my favourite pickled vegetables. If your only experience with duck is the roasted kind you get at those Chinese take-out places--the ones full of grease and fat--I definitely urge you to try the duck from Lai Toh Heen. This duck was not fatty or greasy at all and had the pleasant aroma of the oolong tea. The pickled vegetables gave each bite a nice crunchy texture and the seaweed salad alongside the dish had a wonderful taste as well. Mmm...seaweed.

Our third course was stir-fried french green bean & fresh lily bulbs with Chinese wine and ginger ($16):The beans were not covered in oil as you find in many regular, cheaper Chinese restaurants. The fresh lily bulbs were also very interesting. They had a very mild onion-y taste that lingered for just a second before vanishing.
My date:Me:The reason I look so yellow:

A strip of translucent yellow surrounding the bar where we were seated.

Sean and I don't typically have dessert at restaurants because the options usually include the usual fare, but Sean was delighted at the thought of one particular dessert at Lai Toh Heen. I present to you the double-boiled papaya bowl with snow fungus and almond cream ($12):Our waiter told us that the dessert takes 20 minutes to prepare but Sean was quite excited and I didn't mind waiting. (We're not sure if he told us to warn us or to make us choose something else on the dessert menu, har har har.) The almond cream is actually more like a soup and the taste is very reminiscent of almond jelly. I have no idea what the papaya tasted like after being double-boiled but since papayas usually make me want to "upchuck," I'm going to hazard a guess that Sean really liked it and I would not have. For my dessert, I settled on the chilled mango pudding ($5):Sean eating his dessert reminded me of a person eating a soft-boiled egg in the morning:Served alongside some fragrant white rice, our main dishes were plentiful and delicious. Though they seemed very simple in description, they were complex upon both our palates in taste and texture. Sean said that Lai Toh Heen is probably his favourite upscale Chinese restaurant because though the description of their food might seem simple, the flavours are so complex, you just want to let them marinate in your mouth. Okay, okay so he didn't exactly say that last part but it was something along those lines. I would definitely recommend Lai Toh Heen to anyone seeking out a new innovative Chinese restaurant. It's even worth the price to try out at least once. Sean and I are quite excited to be able to go back someday for their Chef's Tasting Menu. Our dinner was just lovely.

CONFESSIONS...

2011-02-24T11:29:00.004-05:00

I got bangs about a week and a half ago and ever since then, I've regretted it. The rest of my hair isn't long enough for the look I was going for. Now I'm waiting (impatiently) for my bangs to grow out.

Today is the last day of my entire life that I'll be 27 and I'm spending it at home with a migraine. I guess it beats working but I'm in my bedroom with the windows completely covered with my curtains and it's dark and kind of depressing. I wish I could enjoy the sunlight--if there is any.

I'm craving cookies like crazy and I almost never crave sweets. I can't figure out whether or not I want a crunchy cookie (like some biscotti) or a chewy cookie (like a chewy chocolate chip).

I know I'm not getting a puppy for my birthday and deep down, it kind of saddens me.

I had a dream about one of my co-workers finishing off a large-size Vita Coco coconut water and throwing it in the garbage. My first thought was "where the heck did he get that from?!" (since they don't carry the large size at McEwan and no longer carry Vita Coco at Whole Foods in Toronto) and not "hey, you can recycle that packaging." To say I'm obsessed with Vita Coco is something of an understatement.

Moral of this post: wait for the rest of your hair to grow out before you get bangs cut.

EPIC CAKE: 6-LAYER CHOCOLATE AND PB

2011-02-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

There's a cake I had been wanting to make forever. I first saw it on the blog, Christopher and Tia. It was gluten-free and vegan and since Corey's girlfriend follows a gluten-free diet, I figured "hey, I could make this cake for Bryanne!" But of course, I was always waiting for the perfect time to make this cake and that day finally arrived, the weekend after Halloween. Sean offered to help me make this epic six-layer chocolate and peanut butter cake.

Here's the recipe and process, it all its photo-glory:
Layer #1 - Brownie
I cheated and used a gluten-free brownie mix from Bulk Barn since I'm a gluten-free baking novice:Sean mixed all the ingredients together:
He's really big compared to that little tiny hand mixer:Next, spread brownie batter into a springform pan:Here I go:The gluten-free brownie mix was really "springy":
Bake for 20-25 minutes and the brownie layer should come out looking like this:If you use your leftover brownie mix to make regular brownies and add chocolate chips and mini marshmallows to the mix before making, this is what they'll look like:(though they tasted pretty darn good)

Layer #2 - Chocolate and peanut butter rice crispies
Get out your mise en place! This was a rare mise en place baking adventure. Here I have rice crispies, creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips:Start by melting the PB and chocolate chips together in the microwave in 30-second intervals:
Photo glitch:
Stir until melted and well combined:Next pour the melted chocolate and PB mixture over the rice crispies:
Stir!
Then spread onto the cooled brownie layer:
Ta-da! Then stick this in the freezer
Layer #3 - Chocolate Mousse
Gather your ingredients for the chocolate "mousse" (tofu, chocolate chips, vanilla extract):Begin by melting the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second intervals:Then beat in the vanilla and entire block of tofu. Whip until smooth and thick:
Then spread on top of cooled chocolate and PB rice crispie layer. Stick in freezer to cool:Layer #4 - Peanut butter mousse
Repeat chocolate mousse steps but with peanut butter instead of chocolate chips. You may be covered in melted chocolate and PB at this point. It's okay...there are worse things to be covered in. Spread on top of cooled chocolate mousse layer:
Start chopping some roasted salted peanuts:
Look at the concentration on my face:
Chopping brought to you by Farberware:
Here is your five-layer cake out of the freezer:Layer #5 & #6 - Chocolate ganache and peanut sprinkles
Make chocolate ganache by melting more chocolate chips with soy creamer. Sean and I couldn't find soy creamer in his town so we had to use heavy cream (making our cake no longer vegan). Heat the cream and then pour on top of chocolate. Let sit for a minute or so and then stir to combine. Set cake on top of something (we used an upside-down cake pan) and then pour chocolate ganache on top and all over sides. NOTE: It is KEY that your cake is set at this point, especially your peanut butter mousse layer, otherwise everything will kind of slide around like ours did a bit. I had to salvage everything with a spatula. Immediately sprinkle chopped peanuts on top:
Transport to friend's house and serve:
Six layers of gluten-free cake:Chocolate and peanut butter smorgasbord:If you want to make this cake, which I highly recommend if you're a chocolate or peanut butter fanatic, here's the linky to check it out. And if you're serving it to a crowd who isn't gluten intolerant or vegan, don't even bother telling them because they won't notice a thing!

Oh and don't forget to take silly pictures of you and your "helper" and your cake before you cut into it! Our first attempt:Second attempt:Can I offer you a piece?

GOOD FOOD + GOOD FRIENDS = GOOD FUN

2011-02-10T23:31:00.010-05:00

Jessie, Sean and I had reservations last night at Trevor Kitchen and Bar during Winterlicious. Your town must have something similar, a week or two when restaurants in the city offer a prix fixe menu of their tastiest selections. Toronto has a Summerlicious and a Winterlicious.
Earlier in the month Sean and I had had brunch at Frank Restaurant (at the AGO). I didn't take any photos that day because I had an appointment with a neurologist later that day and was more concerned with my daily migraines than carrying around a camera (ie: I forgot to bring a camera). To start, Sean had the tamarind glazed beef brochette with coconut chilli chutney while I had the gingered beet and carrot soup with (crisp) heirloom carrot ribbons. Bread, butter and rock salt was a plenty. Sean's appetizer was the winner. Sean's main was the grilled cheese with spiced apple-cranberry chutney on raisin egg bread, along with fries and lemon mayonnaise while mine was the lamb meat loaf with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed rapini. Again, I deemed Sean the winner. Dessert was our last option and I opted for the chai-spiced rice pudding brulee (along with a couple of pistachio biscotti) while Sean had an apple berry crumble (or something like that). I was finally a winner! But the best part of my meal wasn't just the dessert because I had the most fabulous cocktail: the Midsummer Night's Dream, a cocktail consisting of a mint gin and honey lavender lemonade concoction. It isn't listed on the Frank menu and I'm pretty sure it's a special in collaboration with their Maharaja exhibit, but it was amazing. All my favourite flavours in one cocktail and they complimented each other so well. Immediately after having a sip, I told Sean that we could come back any time and just have a "liquid lunch."

But of course, back to Trevor Kitchen and Bar. First off, the atmosphere is really nice. It wasn't too dark or loud and for a Wednesday night, albeit during Winterlicious, it was busy! The three of us arrived terribly early (traffic was light) but we didn't have to wait long before we were seated. Like! I started the night off with a cocktail (of course!) and Sean decided to have a couple wines with his plates. The menu options at TK&B were quite extensive. Typically most restaurants offer three options for each course (appetizer, entree and dessert) but Trevor gave us a plethora of options. I had a hard time choosing:

Appetizer photo fail:Entree:Dessert:
For our appetizers Jessie ordered the mac & cheese while Sean ordered the corned beef tongue reuben, which was like a deconstructed reuben. I ordered the sea diver scallop and pork belly. It was a toss up between Sean and I. I equally liked his appetizer as well as mine. I don't have any photos because my camera decided to be fussy. I will ask Jessie for hers and upload them here eventually.

For our mains, I chose the cavatelli in parsnip and sage cream with wild mushrooms (also came with spinach and grape tomatoes): I was going to get the pork shank but this is where to number of options was too overwhelming and I just chose the first thing I remembered when our waitress came back to our table. I should have asked for the pork shank but I was still happy with my meal. It was a huge portion. Actually, all of our portions were huge.
Sean chose the port braised beef cheeks with sunchoke risotto and horseradish cream:
And Jessie chose the cripsy chicken confit with cheddar pierogi, sweet potato and buttermilk gravy:Everyone's main looked ridiculous good. Sean's was ridiculously delicious. He used our remaining bread to wipe his plate clean. I had a good laugh but that bread was to die for; there's really nothing better than fresh bread and salted butter. Or butter and rock salt. Mmm...rock salt.

Photos of us...
Jessie's sad because her boyfriend was too far away to make it for dinner:Sean and I attempt to take a proper photo:

Jessie picture-taking fail:Fourth attempt = good enough:For dessert I chose the classic creme brulee, which came with 3 small cookies on the side (chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate chunk):While Jessie and Sean both chose the cookies and cream tiramisu:
Everything at TK&B was great. The service was attentive and informative. The food was delicious and the plates were more than generous (I couldn't finish my main) and really, who doesn't love cotton candy when their bill arrives!? Granted, a lot of diners didn't finish their cotton candy so I gave them evil stares as they walked out the restaurant. I implore you to check out their menu and drop by for some fabulous eats. Oh, my only gripe with the restaurant is that their washrooms are freezing (!!!) and they need to fix their washroom doors. I almost got stuck in two separate "stalls" twice. Thank goodness Jessie was there to kick the door in for me to get out.

RECIPE: NUTELLA & BANANA OATMEAL

2011-02-06T11:03:00.007-05:00

I had a post all ready about my epic six-layer chocolate and peanut butter cake, but then yesterday was National Nutella Day (as well as Sean's half-birthday) and I just had to celebrate. I've missed every other NND in the past so being home all day (mainly because I was feeling lazy), I felt like yesterday was a NND not to be missed!

Nutella and I have quite the history. When I was really young, I would make myself Nutella sandwiches (Nutella spread inbetween slices of sliced white bread) but every single time I ate those sandwiches, I would get a nose bleed soon after. I knew I wasn't allergic to chocolate and I wasn't allergic to nuts either, so I had no clue why Nutella had this affect on me. I could no longer eat Nutella. I'd watch and sigh as my brothers ate Nutella sandwiches. I'd think about having one and sometimes make one for myself as an afternoon snack, but the same thing always happened, that darned nose bleed. I've ungrown that stage, thank goodness, but it did last a pretty long time.

For 2011's NND, I immediately knew what I was going to make: Nutella hot chocolate from Eat, Live, Run. Two ingredients were all I needed and what I had on hand. I waited until the perfect moment to make it (right after the sun had set) and enjoyed my cup while waiting for my fondant flowers to dry:But then this morning I woke up and decided that Nutella shouldn't just be celebrated on one day and that I would in fact, make this National Nutella weekend by making Nutella & Banana Oatmeal! Sounds good, right? Well it tasted even better!
NUTELLA & BANANA OATMEAL Ingredients:
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 recipe of Nutella hot chocolate, cooled (see first link above for recipe, the recipe makes 1 cup)
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon psyllium husks
1 ripe banana, chopped
Toppings: sliced strawberries, choped hazelnuts, drizzled Nutella, etc

Directions:

Place rolled oats and Nutella hot chocolate in a small pot. Cook on medium-high. (I always start my stove at high and then reduce the heat when it starts to boil.)
Add chia seeds and psyllium husks and continue to stir.
The seeds and husks will thicken the oatmeal. At this point, add your bananas and stir some more until your desired consistency is reached. I like my oatmeal is a little on the thinner, rather than thicker side. If it gets too thick and gloopy, I just tend to stir it around in my bowl and not eat it. If yours gets too thick when you're stirring, just add more milk.
Serve in bowl and top with your favourite toppings.

My parents had just bought some strawberries the day before and I was dying to dig into 'em. I have no clue where these berries are coming from--probably California, because they are pretty sweet for February.Now if that doesn't sound like the most enticing oatmeal for a Nutella fanatic, I don't know what is. I, myself, thought it was pretty darn tasty:
Breakfast? Check.

CONFESSIONS...

2011-02-05T12:57:00.003-05:00

I convinced my dad in the summer of 2009 that we needed (yes, needed) a juicer. I also convinced him that we needed the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. I used the juicer a lot that summer. I used it zero times last year.

I'm your typical Type-A personality except for my bedroom: it's a sty. Clothes are in neatly folded piles all over the place (waiting to be put into drawers or hung in the closet), countless magazines sit in piles on my desk and under my bedside table. There are bags and bags and bags of clothes and misc. items to donate--I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Everything seems to be in its place, there's just a lot of everything. After 27 (almost 28) years, I've seemed to accumulate a lot of stuff that I really need to get rid of.

I'm sentimental. It's hard for me to get rid of anything. I usually wait until I'm "in a mood" and then I get rid of everything.

I'm too scared to shower at night because I have to blowdry my hair at night (it's a flat-mess in the morning if I don't) but I'm too scared to do so because I'm afraid that the creatures from The Descent are coming to get me. There, I said it! I've become a morning shower-er become of this insane phobia.

I wish I could be a stay-at-home mom except that Sean and I are not having kids. I really like the idea of cooking and baking and cleaning. In a way, I find it therapeutic. Instead, he's going to be a teacher and I'm going to use his earnings to start up my bakery. Score!

I recently re-watched every single episode of Gilmore Girls on DVD (even the boring episodes where Rory decides to take time off from Yale) and was sad when I was finished watching the last episode. Oh, but then I was also mad because I remembered the stupid ending.

Ever since that pistachio biscotti from Frank Restaurant on Thursday, cookies are all I've been thinking about.

This week is our annual Valentine's Day bake sale and I can't figure out what to bake. Do I go with double chocolate fudge cupcakes filled with dulce de leche, topped with Baileys dark chocolate ganache? Or do I make something new like heart-shaped red velvet whoopie pies or red velvet cheesecake brownies? Or make a co-worker favourite like chocolate crinkle cookies? Ugh, decisions, decisions...

(double chocolate fudge cupcake with rosewater buttercream)
OR
(co-worker fave: chocolate crinkle cookie)

CURRENTLY

2011-02-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

1. Obsessed with Sleigh Bells' Treats album. If you haven't heard it, you absolutely have it. It's listed under alternative in iTunes but considered "noise pop" by some critics. Whatevs, it's awesome. Must be listened to at maximum volume. MUST.

2. Obsessed with earl grey tea. The stronger the bergamot, the better. I can't believe I used to hate earl grey. I wouldn't drink it even if someone else made it/offered it to me. Now I just can't get enough. I'm in the middle of making my own lavender earl grey. I hope it works.

3. Wishing for my hair to grow out faster so that I can get some blunt bangs cut in. I miss my bangs from the summer of 2007, despite having several customers (back in my part-time retail days) think I was in high school. I was a year out of university by then, yeesh!4. Wanting to cut my own bangs but stopping myself just short of doing so.

5. Wishing it was warmer in my bedroom. The space heater has been on full blast for the past five and a half hours and the thermometer only reads 14C. Sacre bleu!

6. Anticipating Winterlicious 2011. Already went to Frank at the AGO and Trevor Kitchen and Bar is this Wednesday with Jessie and Sean. (The Midsummer Night's Dream cocktail at Frank is to-die-for and addictive. I could have had a liquid lunch with those.)

8. Obsessing over scone recipes from Alice's Tea Cup. The amount of times I've made scones from the cookbook should probably be embarrassing but I'm going to admit it anyway: 8. Not including the 2 that Sean and Jessie made a few Tuesdays ago when I was attempting gluten-free lavender earl grey scones. So far I've made the Turtle scones, Mixed Berry scones, Lavender Earl Grey scones x (once gluten-free) and two variations: blueberry banana and blueberry peach. I should probably be somewhat ashamed since this has all happened in less than two weeks but I'm not. These scones are perfection:
9. Trying to figure out how to access the photos from my memory card. My laptop refuses to read my memory card at the moment. They're incompatible. It is making me frustrated.

FUNNY STORY ALERT!

2010-12-03T21:41:00.003-05:00

I spend most of my day logging samples for microbiological and chemical testing--sometimes, but rarely for quality control (there's someone else for that). The majority of the samples we receive are food-related though there are the occasional pharmaceutical samples.

Most of the time I find it faster and easier to log by samples by grabbing a whole slew of sample request sheets, logging them all at once and then stickering the samples and sending them down to the micro or chem lab.

One day we received samples for milk chocolate chips. I had to log them for a nutritional analysis--you know, the label you see on back of a package, that's what my company is responsible for. Anyway, I logged them under the "snacks" category because obviously they were milk chocolate-covered potato chips. Right, right?

Not so much.

They were actually milk chocolate chips...the ones you find in milk chocolate chip cookies. Duh! I had to cancel the sample I logged and re-log the sample under the correct category--clearly not "snacks" though some would consume them as snacks. I don't know what the hell I was thinking but I found it hysterical and I knew it would only be funny to me, Sean and my foodie friends. I knew that no one at work would have any idea what I was talking about--and think I was totally crazy.

Anyway, that's the funny story of the month. Actually, last month since I totally missed out on November. Now I'm off to have a taste of Asher's Milk Chocolate Smothered Potato Chips. I'll report back when I can.

I'M NOT DEAD...YET

2010-11-18T23:57:00.003-05:00

I'm still here. I know it's been more than a month since my last post. To tell you that so much has happened is beyond an understatement. There was Halloween, my dad's birthday, a trip to the ER, four separate attempts at rush tickets for Wicked (the results to come) and lots of baking* and cooking. Most of it was documented--the baking and cooking aspects, not the trip to the ER--although I suppose it would have wasted some more time but my thoughts weren't on that while I sat in the waiting area contemplating my high blood pressure. Crikey, I'm only 27!

Several posts are forthcoming...during the weekend. Thank goodness I didn't enter the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog. I probably would have had to quit my job just to keep up with the weekly challenges.

*The baking involved cupcakes, cookies and a fantastic six-layer chocolate and peanut butter cake that was gluten-free and almost vegan. Where the hell is one supposed to purchase soy creamer in the Markham-Stouffville area?!

RECIPE: ANGELA'S PUMPKIN CHIA SPELT SCUFFINS

2010-10-24T13:27:00.008-04:00

One of my closest friend's dog died a little less than a month ago and Sean and I decided to go over and cheer her up. Not wanting to go over empty-handed, Sean and I opted to make her cookies but since she's on the Weight Watchers diet (and doing a mighty good job), I had to find a recipe that would suit the WW points scale but also be delicious.

Enter Pumpkin Chia Spelt Scuffins by Angela from Oh She Glows. What the heck is a scuffin? Well, I kind of wondered the same thing but then continued reading and found out that it's a mix between a scone and a muffin. I followed Angela's recipe with my substitutions in italics below:
PUMPKIN CHIA SPELT SCUFFINS
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour (I used whole wheat as I didn't have any spelt on-hand)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar (I used white granulated since I didn't have any cane sugar)
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water, mixed)
1 t vanilla

Directions: (straight from Angela's website)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients (spelt, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves). Set aside. In a different bowl mix the butter, sugar and agave until smooth. I melted my butter a bit in the microwave for 15 seconds first as I find the Earth Balance is easier to work with when melted slightly. Now add pumpkin, flax egg, and vanilla. Beat well. Carefully mix in dry ingredients being sure not to overmix. Spelt is broken down very quickly when mixed and you can end up with a tough batter if you overmix it. But relax it will turn out regardless! The batter will be very moist and sticky, but don’t worry. Drop the batter onto the baking sheet. I wet my fingers to slightly shape the scuffins. Pop a stick in the end if preferred to have your scuffin on a stick! I got my sticks at Bulk Barn. Sprinkle with chia seeds for a spooky, yet nutritious, effect for Halloween! You can also have fun decorating little pumpkin faces on them (great for kids!). Bake for 17 minutes or until the scuffins slightly bounce back when touched. Handle the scuffins on a stick very carefully because they are delicate. I found that I improved this by making smaller scuffins on a stick- then they weren’t as heavy!
Believe it or not, these cookies are only 1 point on the WW point scale. My friend was not only really happy to have some company to cheer her up and not only happy to receive cookies (Sean made a cookie containing coconut and white chocolate), but really happy to find out that these cookies were only 1 WW point. Score!

I've made these once again since that first time and made the following substitutions according to what I had on-hand:

2 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour (I used whole wheat as I didn't have any spelt on-hand)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread (I used butter as I was out of EB and the calorie count actually turns out to be very similar)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water, mixed)
1 t vanilla

The second round of baking these cookies turned out to be better than the first. I don't know if it was the use of cane sugar or butter but the cookies were less dense than the first batch. They were addictive, crazy addictive.

MONTREAL: SMOKE MEAT PETE'S

2010-10-11T14:12:00.006-04:00

I think I'll spend October recapping most of September. Why the heck not? I don't have any upcoming cupcake orders so it seems like my October will be free to post as I wish.

My trip to Montreal with Sean was more than a month ago but the memories are still there. The food memories, of course. What else would I be talking about? Our first food stop was none other than Smoke Meat Pete's, which Sean and I both consider to be better than Schwartz's Deli in terms of food, service and environment.For the first time ever, Sean and I checked out the menu though I somehow neglected to take a photo of it. Though there were a plethora of things to munch on, Sean and I stuck to the Pete's Special which included a smoked meat sandwich with fries, coleslaw, a pickle and a drink. Here's what that looks like in photo form:And here's the sandwich up close:Yum!! Unfortunately I couldn't finish the entire thing. As much as my tastebuds wanted me too, I decided to play it safe and let Sean finish off the last bit of my sandwich and fries. It was hard to do so but I knew that my stomach would thank me later. Plus, being in a city I wasn't too familiar with, I didn't want to have to do any last-minute washroom hunts.

This is the Dairy Queen across the street from SMP: It's a small jaunt to the DQ and had I not been so full of smoked meat and Montreal French fry goodness, I totally would have jumped at the chance to venture into this terribly old DQ and order up something cold and creamy. I love this DQ. It's just so ghetto-fabulous! (This is actually the view from the road. You can see SMP in the background...with the green awning.)

Then we hit the road for our hotel--Novotel Downtown Montreal, here we come!

RECIPE: ANGELA'S HOCKEY NUTS IN CANADA

2010-10-10T18:28:00.005-04:00

You have to make Angela's nuts. You'll fall in love with Angela's nuts. It's actually a recipe adapted from Union Square Cafe. You can find the original recipe here but you can find Angela's version.Here's a recap of Angela's version:

Ingredients:

- 2 1/4 cups mixed unsalted nuts (I used 1/2 cup peanuts, 1/2 cup cashews, 1/2 cup walnuts, and 3/4 cup almonds) (I used this ratio of nuts)
- 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves (I used dried since that's all I had on-hand)
- small pinch cayenne pepper
- 1-2 Tbsp Sucanat (or brown sugar) (I used 2 Tbsp brown sugar)
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup, to taste (optional) (I totally used maple syrup...I love it)
- 1.5 tsp sea salt (I used pink Himalayan salt since it was nearby)
- 2 Tbsp Earth Balance butter

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread nuts onto the baking sheet and toast for about 10-12 minutes. Remove nuts and let cool for about 5 mins. or so. While cooling, mix the sauce ingredients (rosemary, cayenne, Sucanat, maple syrup, sea salt, 1 tbsp of Earth Balance butter). Now, dump nuts into a large bowl and stir in 1 tbsp of melted Earth Balance butter. Add sauce and mix well. Pour nuts back onto baking sheet and bake for another 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool for about 20 minutes and serve warm. Makes 2 1/4- 2 1/2 cups.

===

This IS a highly addictive snack. In fact, I didn't even bother waiting for the nuts to cool and did a little quality control on some hot-out-of-the-oven almonds. Yum, yum! It was some really good stuff and then I proceeded to sit on my hands for the remaining 19 minutes until the nuts had cooled down.
Then I proceeded to eat almost every single nut in the little glass above. It was a little bit of insanity but I managed to stop myself and then had to transfer the nuts into a Bernadin 500mL mason jar with the remaining placed into a tightly shut container. I'm sure how long they'll in their containers but I don't think it'll really matter. They're great snacking items.

A WEEK-LONG UPDATE

2010-10-10T13:09:00.006-04:00

So I kind of fell off the bandwagon with my whole "will post every other day" thing. This week was really manic, beginning with Monday. And I'm not even talking about the infamous Marie Claire article about the "Big Six." I do think the article is a bunch of hooey considering that I've been reading Caitlin's blog for close to two years now. (Honestly, I can't even remember when I first started reading her blog but it would take me a heckuva long time to figure it out.) I won't bother commenting too much over the whole thing (it has been a week since the debate exploded) but my initial reaction when I read the Big Six was, "who the hell calls them that?!" And that was pretty much my reaction throughout the entire article.

But enough of that. How was the rest of my week? Well Tuesday involved Glee, a hockey draft with Jessie, Sean and Jessie's BF, Adam. I opted out because I don't really care for hockey. We were supposed to make cookies after Glee but ended up watching more TV and then totally forgot. We're hoping to make pumpkin cookies this week though.

Wednesday was supposed to be jam-packed (picking up alterations, a trip to Bulk Barn, cutting Sean's hair and etc) but Sean and I just got the middle thing done. We picked up some major Halloween necessities at Bulk Barn including a Halloween-themed cookie pan (which I will be using for Halloween-themed Madeleine cookies and cupcake liners and fall-themed mini cookie cutters. I also had a Quarter Pounder meal for dinner from McDonalds and let's just say it wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had. My stomach was kind of in knots the entire evening. I had indigestion and my stomach was making noises so loud that Sean and I both wondered if an alien was going to burst out of my stomach at any moment. It was kind of crazy. Suffice it to say, it's probably going to be a VERY long time before I have McDonalds again.

Thursday was a relaxing night at home involving Baking Life and FarmVille. It was good to get caught up and just chill at home for a bit. To be honest, I hadn't been home in a few days and the cats knew it. I also spent Thursday freaking out about a dress I had altered specifically for a wedding last night. The straps were too long but the altered dress made the dress too uncomfortable under my armpits and all the other dresses I had were either too long, needed to be dry cleaned or were too big. Even a dress my mom had only bought me about a month and a half ago was too big. I've only lost about 2lbs (maybe) since then but still, could it really have made that much of a difference? Well apparently so! I wasn't totally chuffed since the dress only cost $10 and getting it altered will probably cost around $20-25 so the dress (including alterations) will still be a steal.

As a result Friday after work was spent scouring the mall for a new dress and low and behold, the best dress was found at Le Chateau. It's the ultimate little black dress though totally not my usual style. First of all, it was tight and fitted. Sean said I looked like a model (and I kind of agreed). Unfortunately I totally forgot to take any photos of Sean and I at the wedding and when I mentioned this to him, as we were sitting in a Chinese restaurant in clothes that we had brought to change into, he said it was okay because we could just re-create the whole look and take pictures then. *snort* Who the heck is he kidding?! I had to get a last-minute hair cut, dye my hair (a last-minute trip to Coupe Bizzaare wasn't in the cards so I didn't have time to re-dye my pink hair), do a mani/pedi on myself, plus shower, get dressed and get my make up done. I mean, maybe, just maybe for the sake of photo preservation we'll do it. We did look smokin' hot last night.

There's been other drama going on in my life but the one constant has been Sean. Good times all around on that front. And a good man he is. This is Thanksgiving weekend and I guess you could say I'm really thankful for Sean. And our relationship and I guess it's taken me a full 9 years to truly and utterly appreciate it. I mean, I know I appreciated it before and I always told Sean that, but never has our relationship meant more to me and been more meaningful than it is now. And I think he knows that too.

There's another post coming today...I promise!

PUMPKIN OATMEAL!

2010-10-02T17:24:00.009-04:00

Yep, I finally jumped onto the pumpkin oats bandwagon! I mean really, who wouldn't want to partake in a delicious meal of this:
I know I would want too, and now you can too! Here's my recipe for success:

DOM's FIRST PUMPKIN-Y OATMEAL:
- 1/4 cup of rolled oats
- 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup of 2% organic milk (or any liquid)
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- 2 heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin (next time I would probably increase this quantity to 3)- 1 ripe banana sliced and halvedToppings:
- sprinkling of roasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of pure maple sugar
- drizzle of clover honey, about one teaspoon's worth
Directions:

In a small saucepan, combine the oats and 1/2 cup of milk over high heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-high and add the chia seeds and 1/4 cup of milk. Stir well.
Once the chia seeds have begun to congeal, add the pumpkin and stir well. The mixture will turn a lovely shade of orange. Turn off the heat and add the banana. Mix well.
Now add your toppings, mix well and enjoy!

The toppings were the best part. I used 1/2 teaspoon of maple sugar and a couple drizzles of clover honey and overall. I'm normally used to instant oats (which contains sugar) and dark Lindt chocolate in my oatmeal so this concoction wasn't very sweet at all. Currently enjoying this at half past 5 so we'll see when I feel like digging into dinner. Even though it was only a 1/4 cup of rolled oats, I have a feeling this is going to keep me satiated for a while.
PS: Might I also add that I realize that September was the worst for blog posts. There was a LOT of stuff going on...trips to Montreal and a record amount of cupcake-making and baking in general. That means lots of good material for future posts. I'm hoping to bang out a post every other day. We'll see how it goes.

MY LAPTOP IS DISEASED

2010-09-19T21:34:00.004-04:00

My laptop is on the fritz--again! It's what I get for trying to stream Bethenny Getting Married. But I also blame the Apple for not letting me purchase the episode from their iTunes store because I'm not an American user.

I'm currently using my dad's laptop which just happens to have a French keyboard which means that nothing is where it's supposed to be. The letters are in their usual spots but the apostrophe, 'at' sign, quotation marks, slash and backslash and just about everything else are everywhere but where they should be. It's confusing. There's also an Alt+Car button which is what I have to use to access the @ sign. This is kind of chronicles except that I'm quickly getting used to it. It reminds me of the month Jessie and I spent in Europe (3 weeks in Geneva and one week in Paris).

Ah, Paris. Don't even get me started on Paris. I love that city. I have plans for Sean and I and that city. First I need to finish our trip to Montreal and our 9th anniversary celebration at kaiseki-Sakura.

Unfortunately all my photos are on my laptop and not on my dad's so I'm waiting for my brother, who just happens to do IT for law firms in TO for a living, to fix my laptop before I can post about all those wonderful things.

Until then, this photo-less post will have to do. But you can still find me on Twitter. Yep, I've joined that. We'll discuss it later.

MONTREAL, DAY 1

2010-09-09T23:26:00.012-04:00

The morning started off earlier than normal:But breakfast was as usual (instant oatmeal, ground flax, chia seeds, grapes and strawberries):to be eaten in the car. We left 18 minutes later than planned:but it was all good. What was not all good was my stomach! The oatmeal was not eaten because after two spoonfuls my stomach started feeling queasy. Even before getting onto the highway, I had to ask stop off at a McDonalds so that I could use the washroom.

The ride along the 401 westbound was pretty uneventful. I even managed to fall asleep for about 15 minutes but I suppose that shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone. Eventually we happened upon the Big Apple in Colborne and decided to pay it a visit. Actually, what really happened was that I got so excited about the Big Apple that Sean obliged when I told him we had to stop to check it out. We were making pretty good timing so I don't think he cared too much. Also, when you squeal with delight, you are more apt to getting your way.

Tons of photos ensued:We never saw any of these animals...Just a couple of llamas and a couple hidden sheep:
Check out the bakery:
Pie and crumble production! Some kind of machinery:
Cutting out pie crusts/shells or something of that sort (no one was really around to give us a tour or more info):
A giant mixer! This is my dream come true--although I'd like a more stable one:And what visit is complete without food?
Savory bites available at the Big Apple cafeteria:Along with some shockingly glowing candy apples:apple butter:and a slice of apple crumble that Sean and I split:
It wasn't totally horrible. I was actually a little hesitant to eat anything, in fear of having an IBS-related attack so I had about 1/3 of it and left the rest for Sean. It was a little too sweet but that's normal of outside desserts.

Of course, what visit to the Big Apple would be complete without a picture with the Big Apple:

Then we continued along our merry way.

The best part of the ride into Quebec was eating our prosciutto and basil sandwiches that I had made the night before. Mmm, mmm, good. (Does Campbell's have a copyright on that saying? I sure hope not as I think I've mentioned that quite a few times on this blog). Anyway, it was a grande plan as I wasn't fond of stopping at some fast food joint only to stop at the next fast food joint to get re-acquainted with the porcelain. So I made some sandwiches on ciabatta bread. The goat cheese I planned on using had gotten moldy so I nixed that and used some gooseberry jam from Sean's fridge. Sean's sandwiches had the jam, prosciutto and tons of basil while mine just had prosciutto and basil. They were great sandwiches to go with my coconut water. Whole Foods was all out of Vita Coco so I had to stock up (I only got 4) of the Zico brand. It's okay; I still prefer Vita Coco.

The rest of the ride was uneventful--until this came along:The best thing about being in Quebec (not just Montreal) is that my name is everywhere! No longer is my name unique or interesting or related to a song sung by a nun, it's just a French name, like any other name in Quebec--awesome!

More stuff to come...I figured that Smoke Meat Pete deserves its own post!

MONTREAL, JE T'AIME.

2010-09-08T19:41:00.004-04:00

Montreal was a blast! The vacation was over way too soon. There was biking and cupcakes and cake and so much good food. Absolutely nothing and I mean, not one food item was a miss. Terrific, just terrific! The company wasn't bad either:Just kidding!

Sean and I both had a fantastic time. Food adventures included stapes such as Smoke Meat Pete and Lafleurs and poutine at (new to us) La Banquise. We even hit up a cupcake shop, Cocoa Locale with really high expectations and it matched (almost) every one of them. Also had room service our first night in town (good stuff!) and had our first taste of wild boar prosciutto at Bottega. Hmmm..what else am I missing? Ah yes, Sunday morning mimosas at Holder Restaurant and I cannot forget Sean's soft-boiled eggs with truffle tapenade at the same restaurant. To.die.for. We even had the courage to (finally) try Ethiopian food and the experience was all together fantastic. The taste of the injera was not as horrifying as others (on the internet) were making it out to be and our chosen dishes were great; the alcohol beverages we chose as accompaniments weren't bad either ;)

Did I forget anything? Oh wait, there was a squirrel that attacked me in Parc La Fontaine. But I'll get to that and all of the above in detail in the following days. Good food like this deserves its own post.

BASIL PLANTING

2010-08-28T15:59:00.007-04:00

I planted my basil cutting today. It's currently hot as F out today and I'm not a happy camper but being practically home alone (my parents are at a soccer tournament, bro is at work and Sean is at a friend's wedding that I wasn't invited to :| ), I thought it would be a good day to get down and dirty with the dirt. Mind you, I'm not really a fan of dirt and all that jazz. The idea of discovering a worm kind of wigs me out.

But I braved the outdoors elements and planted my Loblaws basil cutting:I actually just used some all-purpose soil from a bag I found outside in the makeshift garden center. Our backyard is still a huge mess. I keep meaning to post photos of the "construction" going out outdoors but keep forgetting. It's a miracle I even remembered to replant the basil frankly. Too much has been going on this month but I'm hoping September settles down.

Anyway, back to the basil. Here's the root system:
And the entire cutting:And here it is in the pot:
I'm very proud of my basil plant. I don't know the exact variety but it is different than the one I purchased from Longo's. Speaking of which, check one that one:It's totally thriving now! It still has the white fly issue but I think that's because I was ignoring it for a while and it was totally dying. I mean, COMPLETELY dying. Its leaves were wilting and I didn't think I was going to be able to revive it, but I stuck it outside and watered it like crazy and after 24 hours it bounced back. See, what I mean? I'm good with plants outdoors but indoors, not so much. So for the past few days the Longo's basil has lived outdoors and the same fate will fall upon my Loblaws basil. After all this hard work, I don't want to replant it only to have it die.

WEDDING REHEARSAL CUPCAKE EPIC, EPIC, FAIL

2010-08-28T13:40:00.004-04:00

The Plan: 65 cupcakes for a wedding rehearsal dinner.
- 25 double chocolate fudge cupcakes filled with dulce de leche topped with Kahlua whipped chocolate ganache frosting
- 20 triple vanilla cupcakes filled with blueberry mousse cream topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting
- 20 triple vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry mousse cream topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting And each cupcake would be topped with a heart-shaped fondant topper embossed with the bride and groom's first initial's and sprinkled with edible glitter.

Sounds simple, right? In reality, not so much.

On the day of, everything that could have gone wrong, did.

The day started out rather well. I woke up really early, giving myself five hours to complete The Plan and arrive at the rehearsal site by 3:30. Everything was looking good. The fondant hearts were already done and by 10:00 the double chocolate fudge cupcakes had been baked, the fillings had been made and were cooling in the freezer. I was just about to start on the vanilla cupcakes and everything from there on out went straight downhill.

The recipe for the vanilla cupcakes did not yield the 20 that I was expecting. Fail #1. This I knew, was attainable, as I had attained 20 cupcakes at Jessie's house when we first baked the triple vanilla cupcakes. Whatever, moving on. As soon as the first batch were in the oven I began making the second batch. The second batch baked as the first batch were cooling and low and behold, the cupcake liners were slowly but surely peeling away from the cupcakes! Fail #2. These were cupcake liners that I had purchased online in the colours of the bride and groom's wedding because I couldn't find them in-store at Michael's or Walmart or Bulk Barn. I chose the same brand as the black ones that I had purchased for a previous wedding but for some reason, these ones were peeling away! And I knew it couldn't have been the recipe I chose because I had fantastic results with the same recipe with the same liner in a different colour. At this point I was completely freaking out as I couldn't serve cupcakes that had no liner and I only had enough butter for one more batch of cupcakes. So I made the last batch of vanilla cupcakes in regular white cupcake liners and hoped that these liners would be okay. As I was getting the flour and baking powder mixed together I realized I was on the last dregs on my 10kg bag of flour! How could that be? How could I be out of flour? I tried to get out as much flour out of that bag as I could but I still short about half a 1/3 of a cup of flour and subbed it with cake flour. Fail #3. I hoped that the 1/6 of a cup of cake flour out of the entire 2-2/3 cup of AP flour wouldn't make that much of a difference.

At this point I gave myself two options: go to Michael's and purchase ribbon to tie around the bottom of the cupcakes to make up for lack of liner and up the presentation factor OR go out and buy more butter and flour. The latter wasn't really an option since the butter wouldn't have been room temperature anyway. The former it was! I spent 40 minutes round-trip purchasing four different types of purple and yellow ribbon only to have Sean show up and help me tie the ribbon but then realize that I hadn't purchased enough. Clearly, 18m of ribbon is only enough to wrap like...8 cupcakes, not 20! Fail #4! At this point I had no choice but to go with the unlined cupcakes. It was devastating. Being a perfectionist, I cringed at the thought of presenting less than stellar cupcakes but I didn't really have any other option. I was already running incredibly late as I'm the type of person who likes to arrive early at these sorts of things.

Finally, an hour later than intended, Sean and I left for the wedding rehearsal site. When all was said and done, the cupcakes looked amazing even despite the missing liners and I know that they tasted amazing so I'm hoping that the bride and groom are happy with the results. It was all very rush, rush so I set-up as quickly as I could without making it look like a rush job but didn't have a chance to make contact with the bride-to-be.

So after four major failures, it was what I would consider a true cupcake failure but I managed to pull myself together and get the job done. Why life likes to play such cruel jokes on me, I don't know, but the cupcakes still looked good and the double chocolate fudge cupcakes tasted better than ever. My dad even sampled one and complimented me on how "fin" it tasted. That's a winner in my books as my dad's comments usually begin with "next time..."

Here's a little teaser...More photos to come...

FOOD RECAP (SORTA)

2010-08-24T23:49:00.002-04:00

Here's a really random food recap because I'm missing a lot of meals. Like I mentioned on my previous post, I've missed out on a lot of morning photo ops due to Baking Life--oops!

3rd...Tuesday
Lunch was a mild Italian sausage with navy beans and cucumber sticks:along with mangoes, peaches, strawberries and golden kiwi for fruit:Sean picked me up after work and we headed off to the mall. We were at the mall for a while because when we got out everything was closed, including the diner where Sean wanted to grab a burger so instead we decided to make our own burgers:I also wanted some chicken wings so Sean kindly obliged and cooked those on the grill for me as well :)
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6th...Friday
Lunch was a leftover burger that Sean and I had made together on Tuesday night (I had a whole slew of food to eat between then):and fruit included blackberries from the garden and mango:Dinner was leftovers from Sean's birthday dinner the night before. His parents took us out to Mevame and I had the two lamb skewers with garlic mashed potatoes:
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10th...Tuesday
Lunch inspired by Freshii:And it didn't cost me $7.99 plus tax. When in Toronto with time to kill and a meal to eat for, I typically head to Freshii when at the Eaton's Centre where I order a Bliss Bowl. It contains brown rice, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, double avocado, diced tomatoes, goat cheese and your choice of dressing (typically extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar). My Bliss Bowl contained brown rice, avocado, corn, portabella mushrooms, goat cheese and three types of heirloom tomatoes...these ones actually:It was a totally filling lunch and definitely hit the spot. I love the items offered at Freshii (customizable also) but do not love the $8 price tag.
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11th...Wednesday
So apparently all I've got from the 11th is an iPhone photo of my breakfast. It's better than nothing, right? This breakfast is actually organic vanilla yogurt with organic instant oats on top along with chia seeds and a bunch of fruit: I wanted a little bit of variation from my usual hot oatmeal and this did the trick. The only problem is that I over estimated how much I'd be able to eat during my morning break. Oops.
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13th...Friday
Dinner on Friday was a sandwich but not just any sandwich...it was a delicious prosciutto sandwich on baguette bread:Baguette + prosciutto + goat cheese + fresh basil = HOLY CRAP YUM!
I'm not gonna lie...sandwiches on baguette bread totally remind me of the summer I spent with Jessie in Europe. We stayed in Geneva, Switzerland for two weeks, then spent one week in Paris and then another week in Geneva before heading back home. It was the summer before our last year of high school and it was glorious. We were a couple of gals spending our summer touring Europe and the best part about Paris were the ham and cheese baguettes we would pick up for $3. I will never forget those sandwiches. Or the fact that I gorged myself on cheese and all kinds of dairy while there and then came home and became lactose-intolerant. Does North American cheese really suck that much? (Note: I am lactose-intolerant but my tolerance level varies with different types of dairy. I can do ice cream, organic milk and hard cheeses but things like cream, sour cream, thick yogurts and soft cheese like goat brie set me off in large amounts.)
===
19th...Thursday
Who has dinner at IKEA? Well Sean and I. Actually, we almost didn't. Sean arrived at my house Thursday night and after I told him about the Swedish meatball deal at IKEA Monday-Thursday ($2.99 for their regular 15 meatballs and mashed potatoes deal), he insisted we go. So off we went and as soon as we approached the Market Hall (more like the IKEA cafeteria), it was madness! There were two huge lineups and I suggested that we walk around a bit so that the lines die down. Sean agreed and we spent a good amount of time oogling our future kitchen (the word "dude" was repeated back and forth in one conversation far too many times for a convo in the years 2010). But then I caught sight of the Market Hall hours and realized we had 12 minutes to get there before it closed. Panic spread across Sean's face and inside my head as I knew Sean would have been really crushed if he missed out on the meatballs. We made the longest mad dash to the Market Hall possible--why is it impossible to find your way around IKEA's showroom?--but made it to the back of the line just in time. And it was still busy. And we were the third to last group of people in line. Yep, that's right, I spotted the woman standing by the closed sign just two people after us. Whew, we made it in time. I didn't even want to think of what would have happened should we have missed the line. But we made it and then waited 20 minutes before we could order our food. They were out of mashed potatoes so we subbed with veggies. Sean got some kind of smoothie and I got a ligonberry drink. Here's my complete meal:
It doesn't look like much but I couldn't finish it all. Sean had to finish off about three meatballs and in hindsight I told Sean that I should have let him finish off some more. The veggies weren't really anything to write home about but it was a healthier choice than the french fries.
===
20th...Friday
Hung out with Sean in the evening. I can't really remember what we did but I wanted a sandwich for dinner. We ended up at Longo's so I could make my dinner at his place instead. I picked up a bunch of stuff from the hot/salad bar including roast veggies, bocconcini cheese balls, prosciutto and a ciabatta baguette. Also picked up some lacklustre grapes and some more Ontario peaches. They are so good this summer...mmm. Here's the dinner I put together:My sandwich contained the cheese, roast zucchini and yellow pepper along with a couple slices of prosciutto. Fruit included cantaloupe, grapes and a peach.

Sean's dinner:A bunch of concord grapes, gooseberry jam from IKEA, a Knackerbrod Rag rye cracker from IKEA with cod roe spread on top (doesn't it look delicious :| ), a strip of sesame teriyaki steak from the Longo's hot bar, bocconcini cheese and a bowl of this:
Organic plain yogurt with rye crispies (rye bread baked with brown sugar, I think), red currants and gooseberry jam. Our separate dinners always entertain me.
===
21st...Saturday
I spent the day at the CNE with my parents and had a jolly good time. We spent more time there this year than the last but didn't get to do two things that we do every year: see the Superdogs and visit the Barnyard building. I missed seeing the cows and pregnant sow. It's probably just as well since seeing her makes me a little depressed. Back to the food! I decided to take the safe route this year and stuck to fish and chips for lunch. My parents had their usual roti at Island Foods, which had the longest line I've ever seen since I've been visiting the CNE. They do have the best roti there and the line just keeps getting longer every year. I ate half my fish and chips and brought the rest home. Other eats included peaches, Ruffles less-sodium chips, an ice cream waffle that I split with my parents and then we opted to head to Mevame for dinner, where we waited 45 minutes before actually being seated. It wasn't until a little after 8:30 until we were seated but funny enough, neither one of us were all that hungry. My mom and I ordered our usual two lamb skewers, mine with rice and hers with fries. My dad ordered the lamb chops with rice. No photos because I've reviewed Mevame at least three times now. The service was impeccable though. I can't remember the name of the waitress we had but the five guys seated beside us remarked that she looked like Anne Hathaway and she kind of did.
===
22nd...Sunday
Sundays are great because they're lazy. When I was at the post office I used to work every Sunday. I didn't really mind since it wasn't busy on a Sunday and I could get all or most of my paperwork done. Now that I have my Sundays off, I know I should be using them for more productive things like getting my work pants hemmed but most the time, I spend them chillin' in front of my laptop. This Sunday was no exception.

Lunch was mom's stir-fried vermicelli:All kinds of veggies are in the mix. Excuse the iPhone photos for Sunday as well...I couldn't find my camera. Just as lazy at this Saturday started though, I got to doing stuff! My parents and I headed out to IKEA on a whim. I had a prosciutto sandwich in the car:Once back at home and $50 poorer (how did I get suckered into buying a more expensive CD shelf? Aren't parents supposed to help you save money?), I made myself an afternoon snack:
Vanilla earl grey tea and three small slices of raisin bread. Yep, that's the same raisin bread from Longo's that I featured a while back. That same $5 loaf of bread. I couldn't get it out of my mind after I had finished it and subsequent trips to Longo's failed me because they were constantly out of stock. Who else is rich enough to afford a $5 loaf of bread? Well apparently lots of people but eventually it was my lucky day. Promptly after taking that photo I decided to indulge even further (can I change my middle name to Indulge already?) and added Nutella to one piece of bread and PB & Co.'s Dark Chocolate Dreams (chocolate PB) to the other two. It's a toss-up as to which I like best:===
23rd...Monday
Lunch was leftovers from Mevame along with some stir-fried watercress from dinner the night before:along with a lot of mango:Notice the blue at the bottom right of the container? Well that would be a smaller lid inside my container. I was putting this together the night before and was completely obviously to the fact that I was dumping my mango in a container that contained a lid. I should have realized something was up when I couldn't fit all of my mango inside but I figured it was due to the fact that it was an apple mango and not the smaller altufo mangoes.

Anyway, that's enough food recapping for one post. Whew! More to come.

MONTREAL SUGGESTIONS

2010-08-22T23:21:00.003-04:00

Sean and I are going to Montreal for the Labour Day long weekend and I'm looking for food suggestions. I don't know how many of you read this but the internet has provided slim pickings as I'm a little weary of the legitimacy of websites like about.com.

Typically when travelling to Montreal Sean and I hit all the normal spots like Fairmount Bagels and Smoked Meat Pete's but since it's been almost 3 years since my last visit, I'd like to a healthier tour this time around.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers! (Regular posting will resume tomorrow. I spent this evening putting together my first bookshelf from IKEA.)

BAKING LIFE, LOST AND BASIL

2010-08-17T21:52:00.006-04:00

Um...have I been away that long? I guess so eh? I guess I have a LOT of catching up to do. Sadly there will not be an awesome food recap because I've been missing out on morning food photos. I blame Baking Life. It is the most addictive game for bakers. It falls under the same category as Cafe World and all those other games I can't remember the title of right now on Facebook. You basically do follow a bunch of steps in order to "level up" and you can customize your avatar and such. I never really played any of those games, not even FarmVille, up until a few weeks ago when I was home one weekend and bored out of my mind. Now I'm addicted to both and I don't know what to do about it. Or rather, I go through phases where I must bake my cakes and pies and plant my wheat and strawberries and pumpkins. And then there are other days where I don't give a damn because I'm too busy finishing up the last season of Lost with Sean.

He pre-ordered season six online and it arrived a couple of weeks early from the actual release date so we spent most of the weekend catching up. There were a few "snoozy" episodes but I've been reeled back in. We have less than five episodes left--eeps!

Did I ever mention that I have a basil plant? I picked it up at Longo's one evening when Sean and I were shopping for...oh, I was looking to get some fake crab from the salad bar. About 45 minutes later and $50 down the drain, I came out of the store with a basil plant and the Angostura Bitters I had been looking around for, for just about forever. (More on that later.) My basil plant is having is ups and downs. I suppose you could say it's going through its teenage years and does not want to listen to me. Or rather, the real problem is that white flies mysteriously took over and now I'm having a heck of a time getting rid of them. I'm watering regularly but hoping that some hot blistering sun will kill them off but not kill my basil plant. Note: I'm really good with outdoor plants but indoor plants in a pot, not so much. I don't really know how to care for them. I know you're supposed to water them regularly and keep them in sunlight but in a house without air conditioning, I have no idea how the humidity affects the plant. I suppose it should be better for them but for some reason it never works.

The only thing I haven't managed to kill is a basil cutting. A basil cutting, can you believe it? I actually managed to get roots to grow from one of those basil packages you buy at the grocery store. This was bought shortly before the basil plant was purchased. I actually bought the basil plant because I was tired of buying those $2-3 packages of herbs at Longo's and/or Loblaws only to use 1/4 of the entire thing and have the rest of it go to waste (ie: the compost bin). So I stuck a couple of sturdy stems in a small mug of water and changed the water on a daily basis and ta-da, before I knew roots appeared! Check 'em out:Awesome, isn't it? I'm going to plant this stem in a pot of soil really soon. I'm really excited as this seems to be a different type of basil than the pot I purchased at Longo's.

So that's what I've been up to in a nut shell.

RECIPE: BLUEBERRY BANANA MUFFINS

2010-08-07T10:33:00.010-04:00

I'm not really a fan of muffins. Their nutritional stats aren't that great and when compared with a cupcake, who wouldn't want a sugary treat topped with icing instead? Actually, I'm not a craver of sweets either but whatevs. Anyway, with a bunch of blueberries and bananas in the kitchen to use up, I got to what I do best: baking! Of course, this recipe was done almost three full weeks ago but whatevs (yet again).

The recipe is quick and easy if you have all the necessary items (if you're a healthy eater you'll probably have them all on-hand). I pulled these together in no-time. The hardest part was waiting for them to bake!

The recipe calls for buttermilk but I didn't have any (I never use buttermilk in recipes) so I subbed milk and vinegar) but then read the buttermilk alternative wrong so I poured that out and started again with milk and lemon juice but then I ran out of milk and used plain yogurt instead. The result was a super moist muffin with a little bit of texture from the cornmeal and plenty of taste from the blueberries and raspberries (frozen from the raspberry picking trip on Canada Day at Whittamore's).

Here are my muffins ready for the oven:And after 28 minutes in the oven, here are the raspberry ones:and the blueberry ones:
Aren't they delicious?
I opted not to top them with sugar as I would have liked since I wanted to share these with my dad who is watching his sugar intake. He's not full-blown diabetic but his life-long passion of seriously indulging his sweet tooth made him borderline diabetic, words from his doctor last fall. Since then, he's seriously curbed his sweet tooth, no longer indulging in any form of sweets (no sugar in his tea/coffee) and anything sweet he now thinks is sugar-overkill. It's kind of a hassle to bake for him but these muffins were a perfect treat. The tablespoon of honey and ripe bananas provided just the right amount of sweetness. They were also great as a breakfast treat, which I ended up enjoying them as for days to follow. They didn't keep in the fridge for very long so sharing is a must--even if you don't want to.
Berry-Banana Muffins
(adapted from Whole Living.com)

Ingredients:
- vegetable-oil cooking spray
- 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone ground
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup + 2 tsp AP flour, feel free to use whole wheat
- 1 1/2 cups ripe bananas, mashed (approx. 3 large bananas)
- 1/4 cup yogurt + 1/4 milk and 2 Tbsp lemon juice)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp sanding or turbinado sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper liners; coat liners with cooking spray.
Whisk together cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 cup flour. In a large bowl, stir together bananas, buttermilk, rice syrup or honey, lemon juice, egg, and vanilla. Fold cornmeal mixture into banana mixture just until combined. Toss blueberries with remaining 2 teaspoons flour, and gently fold into batter.
Spoon batter into prepared tin, filling to the brims. Sprinkle each muffin with sugar (optional). Bake until a toothpick inserted into center of 1 comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. (Muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

FOOD RECAP

2010-07-31T15:13:00.014-04:00

It's going to be a post-o-rama today! I'm at Sean's house and while he's sleeping, I've got a whole bunch of posts lined up for you to enjoy today, beginning with a food recap. You've got to get through the boring stuff before you get to the good stuff, alright?

23rd...Friday
I only have one photo from Friday...a pic from dinner that Sean and I made at his place using the BBQ. Or really, I prepped the veg and Sean did all the meat and grilling. This is what we had to eat:Grilled pineapple rings, veggie kebabs (mushrooms, red/yellow pepper and red onion), chicken wings and pork ribs. There was also fresh corn and salad. I skipped on the salad and ate my corn while Sean chose vice-versa. It was fantastic Friday food but too much food. I clearly have issues with cooking for two. The other problem is pre-packaged meat at grocery stores. In fact, that's what I'm going to blame my problem on: the grocery store.
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24th...Saturday
I spent Saturday making cupcakes and prosciutto and grape crostinis with Sean for our mutual friend's condo-warming party. She and her common-law husband had bought their condo six months ago but were finally ready to celebrate these weekend. After a mass email and one person who decided to up the ante, I told Sean we had to go "balls to the wall" and knock everyone's socks off. So after browsing a whole lotta websites, we settled on prosciutto and grape crostinis. Here they are in all their iPhone glory (ugh!):
The making of said crostini involves slicing white bread baguette into 1/4" slices, brushing with olive oil and toasting in the oven for 5 minutes. In the meanwhile, saute some grapes in olive oil and after a five or so minutes, take off heat and add balsamic. (Sean and I forgot to pick some up from the grocery store so we used some kind of wine vinegar instead.) Once the toast has cooled, you then place a basil leaf on top, spread on some goat cheese, layer on a half slice of prosciutto and then place some grapes on top. It was delicious and addictive and the favourite of some of the guests in attendance.

Here are the two dozen triple vanilla cupcakes I also made:Operation Cook To Impress: Complete!

Once back home, Sean and I had leftovers for dinner while we wached The Yes Men Fix The World and then half of My Neighbor Totoro. Leftover ribs and wings (Sean had the ribs while I had the wings):My salad (store-bought mix with Ontario peach):
Sean also had a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough bread:I can't remember what kind of cheese he used but there were at least two types. One was a Danish cream cheese. We spent the evening finishing off My Neighbor Totoro (Japanese version with English subs)
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25th...Sunday
The day's eats began with a late breakfast/lunch:Two eggs sunnyside-up, three leftover crostinis, a peach and two slices of sourdough bread. Yummy and filling!

Sean and I then headed downtown to Ed's Real Scoop for some ice cream. They didn't have the flavour I really wanted (mojito) so I rolled with the Macaroon flavour (finely shredded coconut and finely grated flakes of chocolate) while Sean had the Stout, which was flavoured with Guinness. I really liked mine (which had a lot of taste but Sean's was really good and smooth). Afterwards we decided to try our luck at BBQ ribs from The Stockyards only to arrive there shortly after 5:30 with their kitchen closed. Thank goodness ribs were still being served! We ended up getting a rack of ribs:a fried chicken (which I think was actually a half of a whole):potato salad (herbed, non-dairy):and a buttermilk biscuit:All together now (with half an ear of leftover corn):Unfortunately the woman behind the counter couldn't guarantee the free-range-ness of the chicken (and she seemed so unwilling to find out, bummer) so Sean only let me have a small bite. It was really good (but a little cold so the skin was no longer crispy). This was after I asked Sean how it was was and his response was "sorry, but it's really good." The potato salad was to-die-for. Seriously. I was kind of obsessed. It had mustard seed, lemon, mint and something else (maybe) and it was just so darn good. Oh and the ribs? I wasn't totally crazy about them. They were a little too peppery for my tastes. Like there was a bit of a peppery aftertaste that I wasn't crazy about. Sean and I did drive all the way back to Stouffville so they were a little cold but still, they were good, just not totally awesome.

We had our meal with local beer:That would be Mill St. Lemon Tea Beer. It was really smooth and I mean really, really smooth. Any beer that is really, really smooth is considered dangerous by me. But I still drink beer really, really slowly--especially when I eat. Blueberry vodka and lemonade is still my drink of choice.
===
26th...
Lunch was rib and potato salad leftovers from The Stockyards. No photo as I was in a rush in the morning and it ain't nothing you ain't seen before. See above. After work I went blackberry picking in our backyard. We have tons of these beauties popping up all over two huge bushes:And this was my haul after picking from one bush:That's a little under 1.5lbs of berries! This is THE best summer for blackberries I've ever experienced. Of course, it just had to be the worst summer for me yet, and the summer that Sean declared that he officially hates summer but the apricots and blackberries have been amazing!

Sean had made me some homemade burgers (beef seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme) that I was supposed to take to Clarissa's condo-warming party but with everything going on, we forgot. So instead my dad cooked 'em up for me and I enjoyed one for dinner. I started out with a sandwich thin that I spread with goat cheese and basil:and then topped with my homemade burger patty:with the addition of fresh blackberries and grapes from Ontario, it was a delicious meal:===
27th...Tuesday

No food photos but lots of strawberry picking photos! Sean and I went strawberry picking at Whittamore's for the second time this year in hopes of getting some awesome autumn strawberries. We also *had* to go on this particular day because it was the last day they'd be open late (until 8pm). Starting the next day they'd only be open from 9am to 5pm. Seriously, who decreases the hours of a pick-your-own so early in the summer? I suppose it has something to do with our ridiculously hot summer and the ridiculously good and early crop of produce, but still. Some people work until 5:30pm!

Anyway, here's a plethora of photos from the event. Sean with the ultimate strawberry:The fields:
A berry close-up:Flowers waiting to become berries:These strawberries were amazing and totally made up for the disaster that was strawberry picking on Canada Day. Back then, Sean and I only picked a $1.90 worth of strawberries. This day, we managed to pick a little bit shy of $19. Happy doesn't even begin to explain my reaction.

===
28th...Wednesday
All I've got is dinner, which was kind of indulgent and therefore spectacular:Roasted organic chicken quarter with roast potatoes and Chinese broccoli. Awesome! Any time I get to eat roast chicken is truly an indulgent meal. (You know it must be awesome when I post a large version of a truly horrendous photo. Do not click to see a large version, it's not in focus!)
===
29th...Thursday
Lunch was leftovers from the previous night's dinner:
Thigh part of the roast organic chicken with roast potatoes. Fruit included everything local:Blackberries from the garden, strawberries from Whittamore's and peaches from Ontario. A+ meal.
===
30th...it was a No Photo Friday
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31st...Saturday
Just had lunch which was...check it out:
Kraft Dinner with a salad! Yep, that's right, sometimes this girl gets down and dirty with the blue box. But to keep things "healthy" (or just to make myself feel better), I decided to serve it alongside a salad of mixed greens, cucumbers and an Ontario peach (buried at the bottom).

That's it...stay tuned for more!

BREAD-O-RAMA!

2010-07-26T20:10:00.006-04:00

It probably comes as no surprise that I don't eat a lot of bread. For one thing, I'd rather consume my carbs in the form of noodles. Secondly, white bread just doesn't do it for me. Thirdly, I can only eat nitrite/nitrate-free deli meat. So yeah, unless I'm having some high-end gourmet deli sandwich (that costs around $9 and I've made it myself), the chances of me showing you sliced bread on this blog is slim to none.

But now I take that all back because look at all the bread I bought in the span of less than 72 hours. I present to you Stonemill Cranberry Pumpkin Seed:Longo's Artisan White Baguette:and finally, Longo's Semolina Raisin:The latter ended up being my fave and the most costly. Le sigh. I totally picked up that bread without knowing the cost. You just ask for it from behind the counter and the Longo's employee can slice it for you and then places it within the priced bag. Oops!

My favourite way to indulge in these three breads is as follows:

Stonemill Cranberry Pumpkin seed - with Earth Balance (preferably soy-free but I haven't been able to find it so I'm slowly using up the Buttery flavour) or with Dark Chocolate Dreams (mmm....chocolate peanut butter)
Artisan Baguette - basically the same as above or with fresh basil, goat cheese, prosciutto and sauteed grapes. It sounds weird but is SO good. Plus, it was a hit at a condo-warming party Sean and I attended this past weekend.
Semolina Raisin - plain, with Earth Balance or with DCD. Seriously this raisin bread rocks my world but I think I just love raisin bread in general.

Anyway, I should probably go update the rest o' this blog (ie: food recaps and what I did this weekend) rather than go stuff my face with two more slices of Cranberry Pumpkin Seed bread with Dark Chocolate Dreams. It probably wasn't the smartest idea to buy another jar of that crack. Er, I mean peanut buttery goodness.

FOOD RECAP

2010-07-22T21:31:00.014-04:00

It's been a week since the last food recap but certainly not since the last post--thank goodness! Can you believe that the past few posts have all featured recipes--what a miracle! Anyway, let's get down to business!

15th...Thursday
I had that awesome avocado-cucumber soup I blogged about separately. It truly was awesome. Sadly I have not had the opportunity to re-create since then because avocados do not feature prominently in my household. For shame! That will definitely change when Sean and I move in together. Pears and apples will go the way of the Dodo bird to make room for avocados.
===
16th...Friday
I already blogged about this lunch but here's the reasoning behind it. I wanted to keep lunch super healthy because I knew I would hanging out with Sean after work and hanging out with Sean *typically* involves unhealthy eating. Sean's not unhealthy per se, it's just that his fridge is not always stocked (at all or with foods that I can eat, read: yogurt that contains migraine-inducing ingredients, caffeine-free, diet Coke, etc) so I made a conscious effort to keep one meal super healthy. As a result, lunch was the following, leftover avocado-cucumber soup:Red kidney beans:Fruit:Sean and I grabbed burgers at Johnny's Burger and then rushed to the theatre to watch Inception. It is definitely worth the current 9.3 rating on IMDB. Seriously. I'm sorry to say that I didn't have high hopes for this movie. I kept seeing a terrible commercial for it on TV (the practically 30-second spot with 3 phrases featuring Leo and Ellen was hardly a draw-in) but Sean was all ga-ga about it when he found out what the movie was all about and we just HAD to see it opening night. We grabbed popcorn and Coke and grabbed our seats (the theatre was packed!) and 2.5 hours later, I was a happy camper! That movie was awesome! I totally want to see it again.
===
17th...Saturday
There was a lot of bread eaten on Saturday. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that's not the norm. Saturday just ended up being one of those "bready" kind of days. It all started with a grilled portobello mushroom and zucchini "sandwich." That's a huge bun, I know. I ended up having to smush the bun down with my hand before actually eating it. It was so good! It's been ages since I've had bread! I opted to wash my bread down with watermelon lime juice:Refreshing, ain't it?Well if would be if you could drink from your computer screen. Trust me, it was. I blended about 2 cups of ripe watermelon, a whole lotta lime (I'm kind of obsessed with lime) and some ice cubes together to make it really cold. Delish!

Then a couple hours later I thought it was pertinent to consume more bread:So I had breakfast after lunch. Oops! Half a bread bun with an egg with salt and pepper. Good but I'm really not a fan of pepper. I try to like it but I just don't. Later in the afternoon I had me some fresh apricots from our very own apricot tree! Check it out:
And of course, what Saturday wouldn't be complete without blackberries from our very own blackberries bushes:That's just blackberry and look at how huge it is! The blackberries are thriving this year and they're gigantic. They're so good. Sean and I already went blackberry picking once. I'm going about once every couple of days now. I think soon I'm going to have to go every day.
===
18th...Sunday
Unfortunately all I've got from Sunday are two photos. Exhibit A: watermelon chunks for a hot summer day:Exhibit B: apricots from the backyard and blueberries:I'm certain that more food was consumed, I just can't remember what any of it was. Oops!
===
19th...Monday
Breakfast on Monday was half a blueberry banana muffin and one raspberry banana muffin:The half was actually leftover from the night before (ha! there's another thing I ate on Sunday). Lunch was a case of "that looks gross but tastes good." I made whole wheat linguine with beef sausage cooked in blueberries and maple syrup. Along with that I have zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms and some onion:Sides included cucumber slices and bleached carrot sticks:Fruits included cherries and strawberries:It wasn't too busy at work but I was famished by the time I got home so I quickly made a snack while I got dinner ready. I had half a whole grain sandwich thin with almond butter and sliced strawberries:Dinner was ready an hour later and I had a luxurious meal to enjoy:Roasted organic chicken leg and thigh with roast potatoes and broccoli. I ended up seasoning the chicken with extra virgin olive oil and garlic salt. I seasoned the potatoes with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and lots of dried thyme. It was delicious!! After dinner I had a couple slices of watermelon:And then went blackberry pickin' in the backyard:

===
20th...Tuesday
Home from work with a very severe migraine. No photos. At all.
===
21st...Wednesday
Sometimes recipes seem like a good idea. Case in point: panzanella salad. Bread in a salad? Awesome. Except that I don't really like bread or tomatoes, which typically feature prominently in panzanella salads. What was a girl to do? Improvise? Why of course! So here I present to you, Dominique's Panzanella Flop:Canellini beans, cucumber, sliced black olives and baked bread chunks. Um yeah, not so good. In theory it was a good idea but the bread were pretty much huge croutons, which were awesome but the black olives (from a can) gave me a migraine or so I think. I had actually made this meal on Monday evening and had a massive migraine the next day. I couldn't even get out of bed. I'm not 100% sure if it was the olives but I wasn't willing to eat this salad again so I ate the croutons and most of the cucumber and that was it. Thank goodness for the following: Roasted potatoes that I had made the night before! Whew, nothing like a bunch of carbs to save the day. Along with that I had some backyard fruit, apricots and blackberries:===
22nd...Thursday
First breakfast on Thursday was...interesting. Hahaha, just kidding. It was delicious! Two slices of raisin bread with a smashed apricot on top. Check it out:Who needs jam when your apricots are so ripe and sweet already? Second breakfast was just as good and featuring more apricots:Instant oats with Lindt Sea Salt, apricots and blackberries. Delicious! That bowl is my favourite way to eat my oats. For some reason it tricks my brain into actually finishing off my oatmeal. Lunch featured even more apricots. First off, I had dad's leftovers: basmati with beef curry:
There's a piece of beef in there somewhere. Mostly it's chayote with peas and carrots. Fruits: backyard blackberries and apricots:
And a homemade quinoa and oats power bar:
I made these from fANNEtastic food's recipe for Cranberry Quinoa Peanut Butter Power Bars. I highly adapted the recipe by using almond butter instead of PB and omitting the cranberries for dried cherries as well as forgetting the flaxseed and cinnamon and adding some organic toasted shredded coconut.
Dinner for the day was dad's beef and tomato sauce but I served mine with elbow macaroni:And that's it--for now!

HONEY LAVENDER ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!

2010-07-17T01:57:00.002-04:00

Now if this If that doesn't get your mouth-watering, then I don't know what will:That right there is a homemade honey lavender ice cream sandwich and I could not be more proud of it. That's what you do with your chewy lavender cookies. Of course, let's see a few more photos, shall we?Yum!Yes, it tastes even better than it looks. And even though I hate Blogger for not letting me rotate my own photos, it was just this good:Well I guess that's enough.

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING 'BOUT...

2010-07-16T09:18:00.003-04:00

Normally I don't blog about one lunch in particular, especially when it comes to work lunches, but this one takes the cake, especially on a day when it's going to be 30C, 35C with the humidity.

Leftover avocado-cucumber soup with cucumber, corn and olive oil garnish:Kidney beans that my dad cooked in the pressure cooker, finished off with some onions:And a whole lotta leftover fruit from yesterday, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes and cherries:It's the perfect work lunch. Now let's just hope I can eat all that in 30 minutes without looking like a pig at a buffet!

Cheers everybody, I'm off to work. TGIF!*

RECIPE: AVOCADO-CUCUMBER SOUP

2010-07-15T19:18:00.007-04:00

Summertime is a time for soups. No, really it is. Chilled soups are a great option for summer but a) who the hell wants to cook when you can just chop and blend and b) they're the perfect light meal for any hot, sticky evening.

This evening in particular, I had all the ingredients (well, most of them), necessary to make Martha Stewart's Avocado-Cucumber Soup. Of course, since Martha's soup included shrimp (to which I am allergic), I made a few adaptations, but look at the outcome:
I think it was well worth it, don't you?

Dom's Avocado Cucumber Soup (serves 2)
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
- 3/4 of an English cucumber
- 1 ripe avocado, pitted and coarsely chopped
- 2 1/2 Tbsp lime juice (this is a lot but I REALLY like lime)
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 green onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup ice water
- 1/4 tsp - salt
- pepper, to taste
- 2 Tbsp - corn kernels (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

Divide the cucumber in thirds and coarsely chop two-thirds. Finely dice the remaining third and set aside.
Combine coarsely chopped cucumber, avocado, yogurt, lime juice, green onion, ice water, salt and pepper in your blender or food processor of choice. (Note: I chose the Magic Bullet. It's also the only blender/food processor I have.)
Taste. Season some more if necessary.
To serve: Ladle soup into two separate bowls. Sprinkle corn kernels and reserved diced cucumber on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, if desired and crack over some fresh pepper.

Now go make it and enjoy!

RECIPE: LAVENDER COOKIES!

2010-07-12T23:28:00.001-04:00

I almost never crave cookies. It's true. As much as I never crave chocolate, I just don't crave cookies. I just don't crave sweets, period. I'd rather snack on a bag of chips or my beloved Cheetos which I have not tasted in at least half a decade. (Excuse me while I go shed a tear or two.) One morning Sean and I were walking around downtown and we started talking about ice cream sandwiches. I started talking about the cookie part of the ice cream sandwich and that was it. For the rest of the day, subconsciously, that's all I could think about. Even in the evening, as I sat in front of the TV with my mother, I actually found myself saying out loud "I want a cookie. Do we have any cookies?" and of course, we don't have any cookies in this house. Even if we did, they probably wouldn't be cookies I could eat unless they were homemade by myself and I hardly ever make cookies. Cupcakes or muffins yes, cookies no.

But the desire for a cookie was growing more and more with each passing hour until the very next day, I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed all the ingredients from the pantry and took the butter out of from the fridge. (I had actually just stuck it back into the fridge 30 minutes earlier from having let it set to room-temperature, doh!). 30 minutes did the trick though; it was soft enough that the KitchenAid could do all the work for me. Of course, I didn't want just any cookies, I wanted lavender cookies. And not just the typical lavender lemon shortbread cookies you see all over the internet but a chewy lavender cookies, reminiscent of a chewy chocolate chip cookie. I scoured the internet for a chewy lavender cookie recipe but came up short and that's when I decided to improvise...
DOM'S CHEWY LAVENDER COOKIES (makes 10 big cookies)
Ingredients:
- 1 1/-8 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp dried lavender buds

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. (I use the convection bake button on my oven.)
Whisk together flour and baking soda and set aside.
Using a stand-up mixer or electric mixer, beat butter and both sugar until pale and fluffy on medium speed, about three minutes.
Reduce speed and add salt, vanilla and eggs. Beat until mixed, about one minute.
Add flour mixture and mix until combined, about one minute. Stir in lavender buds with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Divide cookie batter into 10 balls using the 'two spoon' method onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes, edges will be golden but center will still be soft.
Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container or...
Spread honey lavender ice cream on one cookie and place another cookie on top.

Say what with that last step? Yeah, that's right...stay tuned!
===
Note: I also made chocolate chip cookies for Sean and those are the ones you see above the lavender ones in photo of the mass cookies. They were good too. I just added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips and 40g of Lindt chocolate with Sea Salt broken into small chunks into the dough. The Sea Salt chunks were so good. Next time I'm making them with no chocolate chips and just the Sea Salt chunks. I'm quite obsessed with that chocolate. It's the ONLY chocolate I actually sometimes crave. Sometimes. Like maybe once every....4 months?

RECIPE: HONEY LAVENDER ICE CREAM

2010-07-12T18:36:00.010-04:00

So here's the deal...if you're not a fan of lavender, you're not going to be a fan of this post. It's lavender-swoon-crazy as I'm crazy for lavender. I'm a bit of a fanatic actually. Lavender in its purest form (the bud of course) does something to me that only rivals the neroli blossom. It makes me calm. It makes me happy. Inhaling those lavender vapours just makes me peaceful. It really is true, lavender does have all kinds of medical uses. From headaches/migraines, insomnia, bug bites and even disinfecting walls/floor in World War II, lavender has a multitude of uses. I have many uses for lavender myself. I tend to use lavender for its medical purposes (as a migraine reliever) and also in culinary uses.

Enter honey lavender ice cream. Say what?! Yes, you read that right, honey lavender ice cream and it's more delicious than you think.

Taken from a recipe from Martha Stewart, I spent three hours on Saturday afternoon, making ice cream. It was the first day back to cooking since the heat wave started.

Mise en place:Individual ingredients beginning with 2 cups of whole milk:1/4 cup of dried lavender buds:1/3 cup of honey:5 egg yolks (save the whites for a huge egg-white omelette): 1/4 cup of white sugar:and 1 cup of heavy cream:Simple right? Okay, here go!

Directions: (these are my directions, not taken from the MS website. If you want her directions, check out the website)

Place milk, dried lavender and honey in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover saucepan with a lid and let steep at least 5 minutes. (I went with 10. I like my lavender a LOT.) Strain mixture, reserving flavoured milk and discard dried lavender. Set aside.
Beat egg yolks and sugar with the paddle attachment of a stand-up mixer (or whatever you've got) until thick and pale (about 3-5 minutes).
Add half the milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture and whisk until blended. (You're doing this so that the egg doesn't scramble from the hot milk.) Stir the egg-milk mixture into the remaining milk and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick (coats the back of a wooden spoon). (Note: I was really confused about this part. Like how thick should it be really? But it has to get pretty thick. You'll notice the difference when it happens. But stir constantly. Not a desperate, vigorous stir, just a lazy stir is fine. You just don't want to cook the egg-milk mixture.)
Once thick, remove from heat and immediately stir in cream. Strain into a medium bowl set over an ice bath. Let sit until well-chilled stirring mixture occasionally, about 30 minutes. (There's definitely no harm in letting it sit longer--if you're patient.)
Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. For my Cusinart Transfer to air-tight container and store for up to 2 weeks.

That last sentence is from Martha's website. You'll see if your ice cream lasts that long...it probably won't--especially if you make yours into ice cream sandwiches. Stay tuned!

BLUEBERRY-BANANA YOGURT POPS!

2010-07-10T13:06:00.009-04:00

Hot, humid days call for cold treats but because I try to refrain from as much artificial fructose-glucose as possible (ie: anything not in fresh fruit form), I can't consume copious amounts of popsicles and freezies as I used to.

Confession time: I did consume 1/2 a No Name freeze pop with Sean when he picked me up from work on Thursday as we had some in our work freezer. I also consumed a whole one on Friday after work because my dad didn't want to split one with me. I figured that splitting a whole one wouldn't result in a fructose-glucose migraine attack and I was right. So far-so good with the whole freeze pop consumption but the day is still young.

In an effort to make healthy, all-natural popsicles, here's my recipe for blueberry-banana yogurt pops, which are high fructose corn syrup-free, yay!

BLUEBERRY-BANANA YOGURT POPSICLES
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup blueberries (I prefer firm blueberries)
- 3/4 cup of yogurt
- juice of 1/4 of a lemon
- maple syrup (optional, if your bananas are not ripe)

Directions:

Blend bananas in Magic Bullet (or your blender/food processor/Vita Mix).
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into 8 ice-pop molds, pop on the lids and carefully transfer to freezer.
Wait. At least 8 hours. Ugh! It's best to leave the house if your house is not air-conditioned like mine, because it's unwise to open the freezer to cool yourself off as the popsicles would take even longer to freeze.

Okay so yeah, that isn't really a recipe per se but there are ingredients and proper measurements, which is a more than I can say for most of the food I post on here. Honestly, this popsicle recipe is dead simple. I took a small taste of my yogurt mixture before pouring into the popsicle molds and cannot wait for them to set. Mmmm...fruity, yogurty goodness.

I'll report back with the results.

===

I'm back as promised. A little bit late, I'll admit...but I've been busy; I've watched the FIFA World Cup, gone to Caplansky's again, seen Despicable Me, cooled down at Sean's air-conditioned house and more.

Here are the finished results of the frozen yogurt pops:As you can see (or maybe not), a non-air-conditioned house on a hot day means that your frozen pop will melt pretty darn quickly. You're going to have to eat this fast. Pretty fast. It's okay though because there will be 7 more waiting for you in the freezer. Yum.

FOOD RECAP

2010-07-09T23:23:00.013-04:00

6th...Tuesday
Lunch on Tuesday was epic! It featured a bunch of stuff from Longo's' (is that one too many apostrophes? Where do I put that last one?) salad bar plus a bunch of fruit:and some more fruit, including frozen grapes at the bottom:Let's take a close-up of that cold salad bar container:
You can't really see what's going on in there but there's a couscous salad (with corn, red peppers, red onions and some other stuff), fake crabmeat salad (that I mixed with plain crabmeat since it was dressing overload), romaine lettuce with some croutons, a few strawberries, a mango, some pasta salad (penne, feta, red peppers, some other stuff) and a chopped up beef burger from a local farmer that I picked up at the Stouffville farmer's market. The burger is hormone- and antibiotic-free and grass-fed. Yay for healthy beef!

Tuesday night I headed off to Sean's but not before stopping off at a new-to-us restaurant for dinner. Suggested by Janice during our brunch on Saturday morning at Cora's, we stopped by Xin Jiang Restaurant for their western Chinese food. Sean and I scanned the large menu and went with a couple of Janice's suggestions and a handmade noodle with beef dish ($7.99). Unfortunately no photos because I left my camera at home and I knew my iPhone wasn't going to cut it. We ended up ordering a lamb skewer for each of us ($1.60 each) plus a lamb dish that came with these fried naan (crouton-like) things and veg (onions and red/green peppers, $9.99). The dish was seasoned with lots of cumin and was really delicious. There was even enough for me to take leftovers of each of our larger dishes home.
===
7th...Wednesday (day 3 of dreaded heat wave; I had had enough already)
Lunch was a mixture of leftovers and whatever cold produce I could find in the fridge. In the fruit container I had pineapple slices, blueberries (used for second breakfast oatmeal consumption), grapes and cherries). In the veg container was cucumber sticks, baby carrots (yeah, we're back with those again) and red/orange pepper strips. At the very bottom left is leftovers from last night's dinner with Sean. It tasted just as good or even better than the night of.Delish!
===
10th....Saturday
Moving right into lunch on Saturday, I had a small bowl of vermicelli noodles with pork and veggies:Followed by a half an apricot a couple hours later:What's so special about this apricot you ask? Well it's from my backyard! Yep, apricots are ready early this year. I remember almost a decade ago they weren't ready until August! This season's produce has been super early...I should have known that with the early fiddleheads back in April. A few hours later I consumed a bowl of cherries, sadly, not from my backyard:And I have no clue what dinner was. I do remember eating this blueberry-banana yogurt pop because I have evidence of it:Yay for photos!
===
12th...Monday
Lunch was pasta salad. It contained Catelli Smart macaroni, cucumber, garlic scapes, romano beans (because I didn't have black or navy beans), canned corn kernels and canned salmon.I also had more veggies on the side including baby carrots and red pepper strips, along with green grapes and cherries:
and strawberries:===
13th...Tuesday
Lunch on Tuesday was more pasta salad but this time, I had variety! It was rotini pasta with king oyster mushrooms, red peppers, cucumbers, garlic scapes and that's about it. Along with the strawberries that I had for second breakfast with my oatmeal and the grapes and cherries that I had with my lunch, it would have been a perfect vegan morning had it not been for the small container of honey lavender ice cream you see in the bottom right corner: Hehehe, I brought my own ice cream to cook. That's the best perk of working 5 minutes away from home. Now do I really have to move out? Uh, yes.

I had some leftover pizza at Sean's house (pepperoni, mushrooms, garlic from the Pizza "Nazi") since we spent the early part of the evening at the mall getting summer-ready clothes. The pizza was totally awesome. It was thinly-sliced mushrooms galore! And with minced garlic! I could not have been happier. Well, actually...it would have been awesome-r if I could have heated my slice in a toaster oven instead of the microwave but Sean doesn't have one. Boo-urns to that. His family really needs to get with the program.
===
14th...Wednesday
Lunch was a lot of food. I brought it all along just in case I needed it all but I didn't. In the left container I had last night's dinner (from my house) which was baked salmon with veggie stir-fry (zucchini, portobello mushrooms, red/orange peppers). At the top I have more pasta salad and for fruit I had strawberries, cherries and green grapes hiding at the bottom:===
15th...Thursday
I'm not going to be ashamed...I had half a honey lavender ice cream sandwich for first breakfast. It was hot outside and I felt like it! Second breakfast was the usual oatmeal. Lunch was more pasta salad (no need for another photo) along with more grapes, cherries, strawberries and cantaloupe--the latter of which I forgot to take a pic of. Nothing new but at least I didn't have to cook anything for three days. Score!

A LITTLE DISTRACTION

2010-07-09T22:22:00.007-04:00

Sean and I, being the fun-loving couple that we are, decided to test my luck at eharmony.ca. For those of you not in the know, eHarmony is an online dating service for singles wanting to find singles for long-term relationships--or something like that. The advertisements boast about being able to find you your long-term partner and show couples who met on a specific date and then got married just a year or two later.

A little background info though: a while back, Sean was at his friend, Corey's house, when they saw an advertisement on TV for eHarmony's online dating services. Sean and I were at a good place in our relationship but eHarmony guaranteed being able to find you a compatible match based on a number of factors, so Sean and Corey decided to put eHarmony to work. I have no idea what happened to Corey but Sean had no luck. According to Sean's answers, eHarmony could not find any suitable matches. I would have been furious at the idea of Sean looking for potential mates but was actually rather amused by the fact that eHarmony couldn't find anyone compatible for him. To be honest, it didn't really surprise me; Sean's a fickle person.

And so, this past week, with the AC running and the eHarmony ad once again plastered across the TV, Sean suggested I try filling out the survey. So off we went onto the good ol' internetz and filled out what ended up being a ridiculously long survey. I answered that thing as honestly as I could (with Sean's help at parts I wasn't sure about) and lo and behold, this is what eHarmony told me:Can you believe it? eHarmony couldn't find any matches for me either! I was actually really shocked! I thought there would be at least one person who would someday take Sean's place when either a) I got tired of him or b) he croaked early. (I kid, I kid.) Seriously though, not one match? C'est impossible!

My time was at least somewhat well-spent because they did hook me up with a free Personality Profile, which was highly contradictory and amused Sean and I for quite some time. The only thing they got right was that I am an introvert. Big whoop!

Anyway, I guess that since Sean and I both couldn't find any matches on eHarmony.ca, we're positively made for each other. WAHOO!

A MEAL WORTH BLOGGING ABOUT

2010-07-09T20:23:00.008-04:00

Currently having second dinner which consists of this...Catelli Smart spaghetti with local honey garlic beef sausage, local garlic scapes, tomatoes (non-local) in a sauce of cream, an egg and parmesan reggiano.

Yes, if you guessed that what started out as a lame non-meat version of spaghetti carbonara ended up being the meal you see above, you'd be right. It's because I forgot all about the pre-cut lardons I have in the freezer from Sean's homemade bacon. But it's probably also a good thing because I've had the sausage and the garlic scapes since Canada Day, which I picked up from the Farmer's Market in Stouffville.

There's a lot to recap actually but the weather has been so hot, so humid and so sticky that it's put me in quite the funk (I am NOT a fan of the heat) and I've been away from home a lot. Aside from being from at work, Sean's picked me up either immediately from work or shortly thereafter coming home and headed back to his house where there's air conditioning. Oh yeah, PS: I have no air conditioning. So yeah, in this 40+C weather (it was 112.5F one day with the humidity), I just haven't been in the mood to do anything.

My body just doesn't function in the heat. I get heat rashes, I get migraines, I get mosquito bites like crazy (and they swell to the size of twoonies) and this list could go on and on. I really just can't function in the heat. So when Sean offered to cart me back and forth to his place to cool down with some AC, I jumped at the opportunity.

Just to give you an idea of how hot a room is without air conditioning, at night my house was hotter than it was outside. The candy thermometer in my room would read 32C and even with a fan running, it would only go down a degree or two. It was hot, oppressively hot. There were two nights when I slept on the ceramic floor in the kitchen because with the patio door and the opposite facing window open, there was a slight breeze coming in. Without that sleep on the kitchen floor, I don't know what I would have done. I actually shed a few nights one night because I was so frustrated, depressed and felt really pathetic about my situation. Nothing makes you feel more pathetic than crying about the heat, trust me.

Anyway, it finally rained last night and for part of today and the temperature is currently 22C. The relatively humidity is 78% but there's a cool breeze blowing and it makes it feel downright lovely! I am in love. Seriously. IN LOVE! In love like I've never been before!! I swear that I will never, EVER complain about being cold again! I will finally get a good night's sleep and will not have to take two showers a day or leave bowls of ice out in a lame attempt to cool down my room.

So getting back to that meal...it was good. A little weird but good. Nothing really went all that well together. Heavy cream sauces don't bode well for garlic scapes or honey garlic sausages and tomatoes. If I were to make this dish again, and I know I will because I have more sausages and scapes in the fridge, I'd just make a loose tomato sauce with some extra roma tomatoes. Still, it was good and I'm glad I finally got a taste of garlic scapes. They definitely were garlicky. I think next time I might try them in a different manner, something similar to beet greens and garlic scape bruschetta featured on Love and Olive Oil. I think I might sub the beet greens for roma tomatoes and add some red onions for extra flavour. Perhaps this weekend I'll get to cooking.

Oh yeah, just in case you're wondering what the hell garlic scapes are, check 'em out:They're the stems that grow from the tops of garlic bulbs. Most of them they're trimmed so that the bulbs of garlic (a gathering of cloves) will grow larger, faster. (This happens because the nutrients are no longer being carried to the stem of the plant once it has been cut off.) They look pretty wild and crazy and are solid in the center, unlike chives or green onions. They remind me of some Chinese veg that I can't remember the name of but it tastes a little bit similar. I'll have to ask one of my parents to find out.

Anyway, there's yours vegetable lesson for the day. Plus, there's a whole whackload of photos and posts I need to get working on so this weekend should feature a bunch more posts. Happy reading!

MEAL ADAPTATION

2010-07-04T12:58:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it's hard to eat food served by other people. Sometimes I don't know what it is a dish made by someone else or sometimes it's just downright boring. I know that sounds kind of cruel but look at the evidence:The lack of colours (ie: veggies) was rather dismal and very disconcerting to me so I spent about 5 minutes chopping up just about every veggie in the fridge and stir-frying them up. Five minutes later I had a giant bowl of this:
Noodles and beef + veggies =
What an improvement, don't you think? I used mushrooms, cucumber, tomatoes and an orange bell pepper. The addition of veggies with the penne and sliced beef made the meal so much better. Now I had some veggies in my life and we all know, I enjoy my veggies!

FOOD RECAP!

2010-06-30T18:16:00.000-04:00

Let's get to it, shall we?

26th...Saturday
Can you believe that I actually got up at 6:45 on a Saturday morning to go check out interlocking? Ugh, what a morning. But at least I had oatmeal in a mug to eat on the ride to Pickering:And check out my awesome mug:

These mugs were a steal at $18 for a pair. Sean and I thought it was actually a steal at $18 for one but then the cashier tried to explain to us that it was $18 for a pair of mugs. It was kind of difficult since she barely spoke English and I know zero Cantonese/Mandarin.

I tried to go back to bed once my parents and I came back home from interlock shopping (no dice, the light-coloured interlock we want apparently does not exist), but I couldn't so I puttered about the internetz and then had second breakfast:Two eggs sunnyside-up with sauteed mushrooms, tomato slices and a whole wheat sandwich thin. It was delish! And kept me full all afternoon...but that's mainly because I took a nap, a 3.5 hour nap! It was pretty crazy!! After my nap, I made myself a snack:strawberries and an Altufo mango and then had dinner a few hours later:roast asparagus and mushrooms with pasta salad containing Catelli macaroni, kidney beans, red and yellow pepper and canned salmon. It was just what I was craving--yum!
===
27th...Sunday
Not too many photos from Sunday...just two worth showing. Afternoon snackage of mango, blueberries and strawberries:Dinner was mom's turnip and pork "meatballs" drizzled with soy sauce and garlic with basmati rice:This is one of my mom's favourite dishes. It's a LOT of prep work but so delicious in the end. You first have to peel the turnips, then grate them, then steam them, then squeeze all the liquid out (or strain it over cheesecloth), then mix it with minced pork (along with cornstarch and other things) and then form into little balls and steam. A lot of work but totally yum in the end.
===
28th...Happy Birthday Jessie!
Check out first breakfast, in a bowl:There must be some weird psychological thing going on where I am compelled to finish eating my oatmeal when consumed in a bowl. Or maybe it's because the co-worker I normally chat with during my first break wasn't there. Yknow, come to think of it, that could really have something to do with it. Normally if there is any kind of talk during my second breakfast break, I won't have enough time to finish my breakfast. She's going to be there tomorrow and if we end up on break at the same time, I guess I'll be able to solve the mystery!

Lunch was pasta salad (Catelli elbow macaroni, red kidney beans, red/orange bell pepper and canned salmon) and I "beefed" it up with a hard-boiled egg:along with a few hasselback potatoes that I had made the night before:and for fruit I had an Altufo mango and blueberries:Dinner was dad's beef curry with carrots, peas and chayote. I ate that with a whole wheat English muffin instead of the basmati rice that it was originally paired with. I'm not really crazy with the basmati rice currently stocked in our house as it's a less fine-grain than the one reserved for my brother's biryani. This rougher grain one helps my dad's blood sugar though he doesn't actually have diabetes; he's just checking up on his blood sugar so it doesn't get out of whack. That's kind of what happens when you have a MASSIVE sweet tooth.

Almost immediately after dinner, I indulged in a serving (1/2 cup) of Cold Stone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream. It's coffee ice cream with pieces of Skor, roasted almonds and caramel. I'm not crazy about caramel or fudge or any sort of liquidy, ripply type thing in my ice cream so I kind of wish it wasn't there. Oh well, it's still amazing! The American version comes with Heath bar pieces, not Skor bar but we don't have Heath in Canada. It was also a good and bad thing that Sean convinced me to get the 32oz. container to-go. It is a WAY better deal at $8.99, however now I have 32oz. worth of rich and delicious ice cream in my freezer. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to eat it ;)

I'm now stuffed to the brim! And waiting for my homemade whole wheat pizza dough to rise. The options in the fridge are really slim so I have no clue what I'm going to top my pizza with. All we've got are cloves of pre-peeled garlic, carrots, a few sweet potatoes and a couple of avocados.
===
29th...Tuesday
Lunch was homemade pizza (with a homemade crust!) with mozzarella, tomatoes, Sean's homemade bacon and mushroom:along with a whole lotta fruit:I spent the evening with Sean. We went to the mall after work to do some shopping and then grabbed some dumplings for dinner. No photos of the dumplings (pork and chive ones) but Sean also made me an egg and cheese sandwich:I also had a chocolate chip muffin from Tim Horton's that was 430 calories! Can you believe it?! Holy crap!!!! I almost had a hard attack when I checked it out. Sean told me later on that it was almost the same as eating a Big Mac but still, holy crap!
===
30th...Wednesday
Lunch was more homemade pizza, this time with Sean's homemade bacon, mozz and mushrooms:along with leftover pasta salad:and tons of fruit. You see blueberries and kiwis on top:
but I've also got layers of mango and strawberries:Delicious way to end off June's lunches.

RECIPE: TRIPLE VANILLA CUPCAKES

2010-06-27T15:21:00.011-04:00

Go ahead, take a bite:Or do you want to take a bite out of this one:Vanilla bean, vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. All three types of vanilla are the stars of the triple vanilla cupcakes. If you don't have vanilla sugar available at your local store, or you want to save some cash and make your own, just use the bean shell/pod from an already-scraped vanilla bean and stick it in a 2L jar with white sugar. Leave it alone for at least a week, shaking the jar every couple of days. After that, open your jar and sniff. You'll inhale the wonderful scent of vanilla sugar. Ta-da, vanilla sugar!

I made these cupcakes at Jessie's house with her and Sean. It was a very hilarious evening involving the KitchenAid stand mixer, a Dollarama spatula and batter going everywhere but those photos aren't as lovely as the ones pictured here.

Triple Vanilla Cupcakes
(adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop*)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (1-1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup of vanilla sugar (down from 1 2/3 cups)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 2/3 cups flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract (upped from 1 tsp)
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (upped from 1/2 vanilla bean)

Directions:

Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.
Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine.
Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Vanilla Bean Frosting
(adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 package (8 ounces) philly cream cheese
- 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar*

Directions:

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy.
Add the cream cheese and beat until combined.
Add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy.
Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like. (Our frosting was really "runny" so I kept adding more and more powdered sugar. In fact, I nearly ran out and Jessie was worrying about all the sugar I was adding. Next time, I would decrease the amount of butter used to maybe 1/4 of a cup or none at all.)

The next time I decided to sprinkle some homemade vanilla salt (vanilla bean seeds and sea salt) on top of the icing. It was a match made in heaven. If you're a fiend of the sweet and savory combo like I am (think maple syrup on your bacon or Vosges bacon chocolate bar), you'll love this combo. *Jessie and I are pretty much Vanilla Monsters so we upped the vanilla any time we could. She also suggested we cut down the amount of sugar anytime we could and also wanted to reduce the amount of butter (she's currently on WW) but while I was okay with decreasing the amount of sugar, I wasn't keen on the butter reduction. Cupcakes are my one indulgence and I don't indulge in cake (in any form) very often anyway.

THEY NAMED ME AFTER WHAT??

2010-06-27T15:21:00.008-04:00

A recent search on Etsy with my name came up with some really intriguing results. I usually do a "Dominique" search every once in a while to see what people decide to bestow my name upon. Eventually I started noticing a pattern with chickens and so I Googled "Dominique chickens" and can you believe my parents named me after a variety of chicken?I have to admit, I'm kind of pretty. Check out the Wiki entry to learn all about my chicken cousins and to see where the above photo came from. There's even a club dedicated to my feathered friends. You can check out the Dominique Club of America, here. Sweet!

Or perhaps my parents named me after that song 'Dominique' by Soeur Sourire, also known as the 'Singing Nun.' You really don't know how many times I've heard that song when I introduce myself or get introduced to someone new. Recently I had the pleasure of someone asking me if I was named after "that nun song" and flippantly said no and almost began rolling my eyes and telling the FedEx driver about how many times I've been asked that or sang that song to, but then he stopped me and told me that he asked because his sister in a nun. That's when my eyes stopped their pre-rolling. Good timing too. Funny enough, when Sean and I were in the early stages of our relationship, he picked up a vinyl copy of Soeur Sourire with Dominique on it. I still have it. I'll take a pic of the record and post it here. It's pretty funny. What's also funny is the use of my name in the movie Mermaids featuring Cher, as well as an episode of The Simpsons.

Maybe my parents named me after this band. Or, no wait. These people clearly named themselves after me. So obviously I am a band, cool! You can find me here. My band consists of six members, both male and female, one of whom is named Dominic. I've even got three albums released that I didn't even know about--crazy! Check out what I look like (photos courtesy of their website):

Interesting, right? I think I'm from Germany but I'm not entirely sure. I missed checking myself perform at the end of June in Berlin, shucks.

So whaddaya think? What did my parents name me after? I'm going with the chicken. Well, I believe this has been a fair amount of wasted time on the internet. What about you? What did your parents name you after?

BEHIND AGAIN...

2010-06-25T22:04:00.009-04:00

OMG, Sean had another three consecutive days off? Yeah, that's right.

21st...Monday
Monday's lunch was leftovers from Father's Day dinner. We went out to Mevame and it was the first time our water had been refilled without having to ask for it--SCORE! Anyway, I ordered the lamb skewers (medium) with rice. My family also got the fried calamari as an app and I took the seafood sauce to go:I also had watermelon:and strawberries and blueberries:
Monday was kind of a heinous day. I had a massive migraine. I have no idea what it was due to because I had been eating fairly clean and healthy and all-natural for weeks and besides this one incident, have been migraine-free for nearly 5 weeks. It was an all-time record for this year. I think it was the marinade that they used for the lamb or it could have been the seafood sauce that I'm pretty contained MSG (I did think it was ridiculously tasty--something I haven't eaten in years). I tried to make dinner as natural as possible. I ended up having baked salmon with millet and a little bit of Chinese veg:I then turned my millet into a salad for the next day's lunch:Millet featuring white kidney beans, asparagus, button bushrooms, portebello mushrooms and my dad threw in some roasted plain peanuts to his late-night snack portion you see above.
===
22nd...Tuesday
First breakfast was instant oats with the usual fixin's but this time in a paper bowl:Surprisingly, I ate my oatmeal a lot faster in a bowl than in my usual mug. For some reason down the hatch it went. Usually it takes almost my full 30-minute morning break to finish off my oatmeal or sometimes I don't have enough time at all but this bowl of oatmeal was gone in about 15 minutes. I didn't even feel more hungry than usual once 10:30 rolled around. I don't know if it was the bowl or what, but I ate it all! I was a happy camper.

Lunch was millet salad:along with two hard-boiled eggs:
and mulberries and strawberries for fruit:Sean picked me up after work and we went out for dumplings and rice cakes. After that we walked around the plaza and came across a cute new bakery, Ruelo Patisserie, where we picked up a couple of macarons each. Sean got the blueberry lemon:and praline:
while fleur de sel caramel:
and pistachio raspberry:

They were a little bit pricey for non-Nadege macarons. The filled ones were $3 and while they were good but I don't know if they were quite worth $3. Maybe, considering the amount of time that probably went into them. The fleur de sel caramel was actually a little bit bitter so I think they might have cooked the caramel for just a tad too long but it was nice to be able to pick up macarons without having to drive all the way to the city. The shop itself is also really cute, with a lot of tasty-sounding cakes. The Green Apple Caramel is calling my name and I'll have to try it out next time.

===
23rd...Wednesday
Lunch was more millet salad, this time with the remainder of the white kidney beans that I just plopped on top. I also had a couple hard-boiled eggs (unpictured). Fruits included more mulberries and strawberries:along with watermelon:
Sean picked me up after work and we went out with another couple to watch Toy Story 3. We had dinner at Sun's Kitchen, our favourite place for noodle soup, featuring hand-pulled noodles in soup made fresh to order.

Toy Story 3 was totally awesome. I only saw the first two just about a year ago when I was home for a week because I'm pretty sure I had swine flu. I had to go to the emergency room and everything but the doctor didn't actually confirm it. She just told me that I couldn't leave my bedroom for a week--boo!
===
24th...Thursday
Sean and I spent Thursday evening at Jessie's house making cupcakes. Before that though, Sean picked me up from work and we had dinner at my house. Here's Sean's dinner:
And here's mine:They vary quite a bit, don't they? Sean had the dinner my dad cooked for everyone (fish and tomato sauce with basmati rice along with soybean soup, salad and water), while I had dinner that my dad cooked for myself: 6 organic chicken drumettes and salad. I also had some watermelon along with that.

Earlier in the week, Jessie and I had settled on a recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop for 3 vanilla cupcakes, found here. We tweaked the recipe a tiny bit by reducing the amount of sugar and increasing the amount of vanilla used. Jessie and I are vanilla freaks; there's no such thing as too much vanilla. I'm not even sure we used the right amount of milk. To be honest, there was a time when I wasn't paying attention to the recipe as Sean was reading things aloud and Jessie was doing the measuring. I was busy using the stand-up mixer (yes, I brought the Kitchenaid to Jessie's) and not paying any attention to the two of them. There were a LOT of photos from the evening but here are a few highlights. Sean's purpose for the evening was to grab anything that Jessie and I couldn't reach:Here are our cupcakes ready for the oven:Raspberries I snacked on:Here's Jessie putting the frosting into the piping bag for me:Here I am piping the vanilla cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes:===
25th...Friday
First breakfast of champions...triple vanilla cupcake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and vanilla sea salt garnish:Second breakfast was oatmeal and lunch was Catelli Smart macaroni with dad's leftover fish and tomato sauce:Fruits included strawberries and golden kiwi:I'm staying in this evening, obviously to catch up on my blog and to get some other stuff done...mostly chores like laundry. Fun times for a Friday night!

THE DINO CAKE!

2010-06-25T21:14:00.006-04:00

I realized I never recapped Sean's thank you cake--oops! So, earlier in the week, wedding cupcake week that is, I had decided that I would try to make a two-layered, fondant-covered cake. I kind of just wanted to see whether or not I could do it sans a cake decorating cake. I took on the challenge on a Monday night simply because my parents usually have dance class on Mondays (ballroom dance) and it's best to bake with an empty kitchen.

So I began by baking the cake...a strawberry and toasted coconut cake baked in two 6" round cake tins. I let the layers cool and then evened out the top with a knife. I tasted the discarded pieces to make sure the cake was good. Thumbs up!

Between the two layers of cake was a layer of organic strawberry preserves and then a layer of vanilla bean coconut rum buttercream on top of that. Mmmm. I then placed the second cake round on top and crumb-coated the cake with buttercream. I then stuck the whole thing in the freezer to solidify a little bit. (I read that tip in a cake decorating book.)

At this point it was kind of late and I had to work the next day so my cake wasn't covered in fondant until 48 hours later. Yep, that's right...I left it alone for two days in my cake stand. Cake neglect, how shameful! Wednesday was pretty much the only day I had available to cover my cake in fondant and I only had a 90-minute window after work. It kind of resulted in disaster. I was rushing and stressed out and though you can't see it from the photos, there's a minor disaster in the back.

I finished decorating the cake and completed the little dino detail almost a full week after the cake was made. Phew, it's a good thing the cake still tasted fresh when Sean and I ate it. To make the dino, I loosely followed the instructions from A Baked Creation.

The star of the cake (check out his scary teeth!):Flower piping around the cake:Ruffly border to keep the dino from falling off the edge:Aerial view:Sean let me cut the cake:Here we go:The first slice (it's always a little ugly):
Sean's prettier slice:It looks like Pac-Man:A look inside:Dino guarding his cake:
Look for more cakes in the future...maybe. I have to find more people willing to eat more cake!

A CHOCOLATE MINT TEASER...

2010-06-20T23:33:00.004-04:00

What do you do with a carton and a half of heavy cream, two bars of Lindt dark mint chocolate that is about to expire and a pint of strawberries?

Well if you're me, you make mint chocolate graduation cupcakes with strawberry mousse frosting:More to come tomorrow...goodnight folks!

FOOD RECAP

2010-06-19T22:07:00.001-04:00

Wow, so behind! Let's begin...

4th...Friday (I can't believe I'm more than two weeks behind!)
Lunch was leftover shaved asparagus pizza:along with watermelonand blueberries, cherries and pineapple:===
5th...Saturday
No food photos from Saturday because I spent all evening making sugar flowers.
===
6th...Sunday
No photo Sunday, continued making sugar flowers
===
7th...Monday
Lunch was homemade pizza with shaved asparagus, lardons and mushrooms. So freakin' good! Along with salad from the garden:
and blueberries and cherries:Dinner was 'You're So Cheezy' Savoury Oats, recipe courtesy of Angela from Oh She Glows. I made a few tweaks, excluding the bouillon cube (I never have those in my house) and using organic vegetable stock instead of water. I also didn't have the "little black dress of seasonings" so I used dried thyme, oregano and something else I can't remember now. As you can see, I topped mine off with Mary's Crackers and sauteed broccoli.

It was delicious but I couldn't finish it all:
I also had a big salad and a couple slices of pizza four hours later:

===
8th...Tuesday
Lunch was a couple leftover fried organic drumsticks:along with Catelli Smart macaroni with dad's tomato sauce and broccoli:Fruit consisted of blueberries, cherries and strawberries, aka Trifecta of Antioxidants.===
9th...Wednesday
No photo Wednesday. Actually, I forgot to take photos of my lunch because I was running late for work but never fear, because lunch the next day was the exact same.
===
10th...Thursday
Lunch was a sandwich thin with goat cheese, TONS of dried dill and a slice of smoked salmon:along with watermelon:
and the Trifecta again:===
11th...Friday
Friday was wedding cupcake day. Food was consumed, I just don't have any photos of it. Consumed was a subpar Montreal smoked meat sandwich from Montreal Steames in Oshawa along with fries (that were shared with Sean) and a Coke. I also had some watermelon, several tastings of buttercream and whipped chocolate ganache, cupcake bits here and there. Later in the evening, at Sean's house, Sean attempted to make this Irish eel dish consisting of fresh eel, lardons and onions:It was way too fishy for my taste so I let Sean eat it. I grabbed a Caesar salad at the local grocery store and we headed to Corey and Bryanne's house and watched The Road.
===
12th...Saturday
No photo Saturday. I wanted to relax after the wedding cupcake aftermath.
===
13th...Sunday
I only have two photos, showing the same thing but they're worth it. Check out my new bowl:

If you guessed that that's Barbamama from Barbapapa, you're right! But no prize for you, sorry. You can only imagine how excited I was to see a bunch of Barbapapa bowls and mugs (plus a placemat and scale) at Magic Pony in Toronto. Way too excited and way too expensive to buy everything so I settled on a bowl and a mug (Barbapapa himself).

I spent the rest of the day with Sean. We headed into the city to grab a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches from The Grilled Cheese in Kensington Market (I can't remember what I had but it came with roasted red peppers, red onions and mushrooms and Sean had the Dill-Licious) and then dumplings from Mother's Dumplings nearby. Sean and I split an order of boiled pork and chive dumplings as well as an order of steamed pork and pickled cabbage (whole wheat wrappers). We both preferred the pork and chive ones more. Both meals were good but eating only half my sandwich would have been a better option since I left Mother's Dumplings feeling totally and utterly stuffed!
===
14th...Monday
Lunch was quickly made in the morning: scrambled eggs with lardons and mushrooms and a sandwich thin (unpictured):along with watermelon:and cherries and blueberries:Dinner was steamed chicken with basmati and green beans:Can I just say that I hate my dad's green beans? He uses so much oil to cook them. It's extra virgin olive oil but still! We go through so many bottles of that stuff, it's ridiculous!
After dinner I made pretzels. Check 'em out:

===
15th...Tuesday
First breakfast was who-knows-what but second breakfast was instant oatmeal, as per usual, but I thought I'd include a photo since I haven't done so in a while:Hahhaa, all done! Lunch was the same egg scramble from the previous day but with two pretzels instead of the sandwich thin:The same fruit came along for the ride, watermelon:and blueberries and cherries:Dinner was egg thread and asparagus soup with broken up pieces of Catelli Smart spaghetti:along with a couple of baked free-range chicken wings from The Meat Market in Stouffville that Sean picked up for me the night before:===
16th...Wednesday
The day started off with a pretzel:And then lunch came along and I had a whole lotta leftovers! First up was leftover egg thread and asparagus soup with a couple of pretzels:

along with leftover wings:
Fruits included cherries and blueberries:And of course, what you've all been patiently waiting for--my Barbapapa mug...Ain't he cute? I think it's great that he's pink and the dad, while Barbamama is black and the mom. That's Starbucks' Refresh tea inside my mug. I was drinking the tea because I had a major migraine (the first in almost four weeks) and I thought it would help. Shortly after that mug o' tea, I went to bed and fell asleep for 11.5 hours.
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17th...Thursday
The day started off with another pretzel, this time one coated with dried dill:Second breakfast was my best oatmeal combination yet, instant oats (with ground flax, chia seeds and Lindt sea salt) but also with strawberries and fresh mint:Seriously, best combo ever! There's a woman who brings fresh mint to work sometimes and I broke up several springs, wrung them together a bit and then tore them into small pieces.
Lunch was mushroom and Catelli Smart broken spaghetti soup (we were out of eggs) along with more leftover wings:
and watermelon:and strawberries and cherries:===
18th...Friday
No photo Friday! I can't really remember a lot about Friday except that pre-dinner at my house involved some watermelon and a couple golden kiwis. Real dinner was pho with Sean.
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19th...Saturday
Get ready for lots of pics! I took photos of everything I consumed today except for one pretzel and a carton of Vita Coco pineapple. Here's my breakfast...get ready for awesomeness. I braved the 31C temperature to bust out some oatmeal just so that I could use this:

That's right...it's a panda mug! And guess what...

the little panda peeking out is actually a spoon! So ZOMG cute! I couldn't stand it and neither could Sean because he's the one who bought it for me at Magic Pony last weekend. Lunch was courtesy of my mom: rice noodles with shredded carrots and pork:

After lunch, my parents and I checked out the pavement at Shops at Don Mills (we want similar pavement for our driveway and back patio and want to see how it is in real life) and I went on a small shopping spree at Anthropologie. All kitchenware of course, including two aprons which will be showcased in the future.

Dinner features most of the stuff I bought at Anthro: Strongbow (hard cider), chicken in red rice soup, basmati and chinese broccoli:

Close-up of the bowl I bought:

Plus the drinking glass. I really like it because it's opaque at the top and transparent at the bottom:

About an hour later I decided to indulge for dessert and had a small serving of Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only in my new mug (another Anthro purchase):

I got Sean a similar mug with his initial but in a larger and less feminine version.
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And that's it. Phew! I can't believe I just went through more than two weeks' worth of food. Well almost. I know there were quite a few dinner shots missing. Let's hope a back-up like that doesn't happen anytime soon.

WEDDING CUPCAKE PHOTO SHOOT

2010-06-19T21:04:00.001-04:00

And just because they took forever to make, here's way more shots than you probably ever expected.

The casualties that never made it to the wedding (there were more but these ones made it out for the shoot):I kind of love the aerial shots (if you haven't noticed already).

And a shoot with flowers...the strawberry and toasted coconut with vanilla bean and coconut rum buttercream:
The double fudge chocolate filled with dulce de leche with whipped dark chocolate Kahlua ganache:
And a couple sans flowers. The double chocolate fudge:and strawberry and toasted coconut:I have to admit that I totally stole the two best cupcakes from the cupcakes boxes as I was piping them. As I was piping, I pointed and told Sean that I wanted to keep those ones but he was all "keep piping!" Then when he wasn't looking, I swiped the two best-looking piped ones and kept them to photograph later, mwuahaha.

WEDDING CUPCAKE RECAP

2010-06-14T19:04:00.019-04:00

It was a long 12 hours. Yep, that's right, 12 freakin' hours. There weren't many meltdowns--maybe just one and a minor one at that. It was really just a lot of waiting around for cupcakes to bake and then washing dishes.

The setbacks? There were a few. The first was running out of strawberries and then vanilla extract. Luckily Sean was around to lend some moral support and make a late-night run to the grocery store to pick up said items, as well as extra heavy cream, which came in handy. Another setback? Forgetting to measure out the right amount of chocolate for the whipped chocolate ganache frosting and then doing it midway while the heavy cream was cooling down. My initial ganache recipe was therefore f'ed so I had to improvise and am happy to say that it turned out marvelously, despite the clumps of chocolate stuck in the frosting tip. Thanks to Sean and his days at the Sobey's bakery, he was able to let me in on his "frosting tip under running hot water" trick.

Let's back up to the process a bit though. I was kind of given free reign with the wedding cupcakes, which initially made me really nervous. The bride's comments were something along the lines of "whatever they are, I know they're be great" which made me feel good that she had so much faith in me, but also made me nervous because I knew the cupcakes had to be spectacular. I think that's why I pulled out all the stops. The cupcakes chosen (or suggested by me and approved by her) were a strawberry and toasted coconut cupcake with vanilla bean and coconut rum buttercream as well as a double chocolate fudge cupcake filled with dulce de leche and topped with a whipped dark chocolate Kahlua ganache. Initially the toppers were supposed to be chocolate shortbread cookies with embossed initials of the newly married couple. I did a test run about a month back but in all honesty, the photographed cupcakes didn't look spectacular. They tasted great but they didn't look very awesome. Who really wants a miniature cookie sticking out of a cupcake? I decided to go with dainty little sugar flowers instead and I'm glad I did because it really suited the classy black and white theme of the wedding. I made the sugar flowers a week in advance and am really glad that I did. Putting on the silver dragees took three hours alone because it involved piping the royal icing with my left hand while placing the dragee with my right hand with a pair of tweezers. Insane work, I tell ya! It is not for the faint of heart. It was tedious and time consuming and certainly fiddly. But the flowers looked so cute and perfect afterwards.

The majority of the cupcakes were made the night before, finishing up the last batch 12 hours before they were due. I then woke up five hours later and made the last batch of cupcakes--making extras for any mishaps--and then began frosting. Surprisingly, I didn't feel tired, but there was a LOT of yawning later in the day and perhaps a little bit of a nap at Corey and Bryanne's place. In total there were 144 cupcakes. I planned on making extras as "back-ups" for the car ride to Oshawa. I wanted to be able to swap out the "casualties" that didn't make the car ride over for the "good" ones. I didn't really plan on making THAT many but because of the two different recipes I was using, it just happened to make that many. It was okay; I didn't hear my co-workers complaining.

Piping the cupcakes wasn't too hard. I had piped cupcakes several dozen times before and have pretty much perfected my piping skills. There were a few that didn't look so hot and those are the ones I asked Sean to scrape the frosting off so I could re-pipe them. Thank goodness for the extra set of hands because I really needed them. As I piped, Sean placed the sugar flowers on top of the cupcakes. (FYI: I used my trusty 1M tip for the piping.)

I was done at 12:58pm, two minutes before my self-imposed 1pm deadline. Sean and I packed the car in about 30 minutes and made our way to Oshawa. The traffic, for the most part, was non-existent, so the car ride took about 45 minutes and the entire way there I was internally fretting about what would happen should we get into a fender bender. How would I salvage the cupcakes? Could they even be salvaged? What if the accident was so bad that Sean and I couldn't make it out right away? What if the "jaws of life" had to come get us out? All kinds of crazy thoughts were running through my head and at one point, when we hit a blip of traffic, I'm pretty sure I was about to have a panic attack. my heart started racing and my palms were getting sweaty and I was worried that we wouldn't make it to the reception hall in time for our 3pm deadline; I still needed time to set up the cupcakes! But we made it there in time, accident free, with plenty of time for me to van-vaner with the cupcakes on the cupcake stands made by the bride and her bridesmaids. It took about 30 minutes to set up the cupcakes (deciding whether to alternate the cupcakes on the same tier or whether to separate them was a bit of a pickle that Sean didn't understand) but afterwards, they looked marvelous. And I have to admit, I was a proud Cupcake Mama.

I set up all 102 cupcakes, took a few pics for the memories and then sadly, said goodbye to my babies:Stay tuned for part two...featuring more photos!

SUBURBAN SWEETS IS OFFICIALLY HERE

2010-06-13T14:34:00.004-04:00

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been up to for the past week. Two of 100 cupcakes for a wedding:

And a thank you to Sean for helping me out with the 100 wedding cupcakes:

I'll be back with a full recap later.