MAY 2-4

It's not quite here yet but Victoria Day is fast approaching. I'm currently slurping up some Egg Thread Soup with Asparagus but more on that later.

Last night's dinner was a leftover and an experiment. While making food suggestions to Sean over the phone, I decided to whip up my own batch of French toast but making them completely vegan. I had all the necessary ingredients including the key one, the flax egg--consisting of 1 Tbsp of ground flax + 2 Tbsp of water. I let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and got on with the rest of my ingredients.

French Toast Sticks
adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner?

- two slices of whole grain bread (we have some weird prebiotic brand in the pantry that I used)
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flax + 2 Tbsp water, let sit for 5 minutes)
- healthy dash of cinnamon
- roughly 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a little more than 1/2 tsp. Who doesn't like vanilla?)
- Earth Balance to grease pan (I'm not supposed to consume soy but I wanted to keep these vegan)

Directions:

1. Slice bread into vertical stick-like pieces.
2. Mix last four ingredients together.
3. Heat up a pan and add Earth Balance.
4. Dip bread sticks into the wet mixture and then place onto pan. Cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes on each side. (Note: I get squiky about sogging "middles" so I like my French toast well done.)
5. Continue with remaining sticks.
6. Serve with maple syrup and fruit.

After all your hard work you can sit down to a pretty platter of vegan French toast sticks with pure organic maple syrup, pear and blackberries:
I enjoyed my French toast sticks with a side of leftover congee:
But after a couple of spoonfuls I realized it was missing something green and crispy. Kale chips to the rescue of course:So far this combo of congee and other "regular" foods is keeping my stomach in check. My stomach didn't get mad at me after this meal so I'd call it a winner!

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Today's eats started with lunch. I know, I know...not a good idea to skip breakfast but I woke up at 10:30 (have you ever noticed that you get the best sleep when you're sick?) and then did some cleaning in the kitchen and before I knew it, it was lunchtime! I wanted something quick, simple and refreshing and this is what I came up with:

A spring salad of spring mix, 1/8 watermelon, 2 strawberries, one slice of prosciutto and seared halloumi. I had a little bit leftover (what amounted to one slice about 1/2 cm thick) so I seared that in a pan until it was very brown--well, practically black. It ends up having the best "crisp" when you eat it; I think so anyway. I dressed everything with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice of half a lemon. This salad was amazing! Definitely a winner. I'm just insanely sad that I don't have anymore halloumi left. This calls for a trip to Metro.

Along with the salad I had the other 1/8 of watermelon:
and called that a late lunch. Of course, knowing me, I got hungry again. This blog ain't called "I'm Hungry, Feed Me!" for nothing! After seeing the potato wedges on Heather's blog a couple of times now, I wanted some of my own but while talking to Sean on the phone, I absent-mindedly cut mine into cubes and accidentally poured in 1/3 of a jar of dried thyme. Along with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and pepper, this is what my potatoes looked like, served up with a side of kale chips:Three hours later, the stomach was calling once again and I quickly whipped up a batch of this Egg Thread Soup with Asparagus following this recipe from Fitness Magazine. My tiny pasta of choice was orzo (of course!) and I used 3 eggs instead of 4 because I only used about 7 cups of organic reduced-sodium chicken broth. A word to the wise, it's a good idea to add more water to the reduced-sodium chicken broth. I find it still, way too salty.

I'd say that my soup looks just like the one on Fitness Magazine's website except that I don't have as many asparagus tips--them being high in insoluble fibre and all.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: HOOF CAFE (PART TWO)

So if you're born on a leap year, when do you celebrate your birthday? Would you have celebrated on the 28th or do you celebrate on the 1st? If I were a leap year baby, I would celebrate on the 28th...a day early. Who doesn't like early birthday presents? I sure do! Especially when they come in giant boxes all the way from Vancouver!

I'm not gonna lie...I was kind of bummed that I didn't have any mega-awesome-out-of-this-world birthday plans like last year (it was a two-parter!) but Sunday's plans included birthday brunch at Hoof Cafe (*swoon*) with Sean, which was good enough for me! His parents were going to join us but my birthday was in the middle of lent so they decided to stay away, which meant more food for the two of us!

We managed to get a table for two despite arriving after 10am. Could it be...has the hype died down? Or is it because they've increased the prices?...more on that later.

Sean and I were seated directly under the menu, which was great for Sean--not so great for me. I neglected to take a photo of the outside of the restaurant--again--so just re-read my previous review for the exterior description.

A few changes to the Hoof Cafe...they were advertising the bone marrow beignets (donut holes) as a special and now charging $5 for 6 donut holes. Not terribly cool, though they did taste better than the last time Sean and I enjoyed them. This could possibly be due to the fact that we let them cool down after they were served to us and therefore, the tip of my tongue was not burned. Also, I think we only received 5 beignets in our order, otherwise Sean ate one without me noticing.

After a brief break, our "mains" arrived. I ordered the tongue grilled cheese...
My tongue sandwich was super tender. The cheese was seasoned with something that I can't remember anymore. Sean was asking me about it and I think I said dill. It was a very distinct herb.

Sean ordered the French toast with a slab of foie gras and julienned apple:
Sean prepared the perfect bite of French toast and foie gras for me--along with julienne strips of apple and sugar.
This was my first time eating foie gras. I ate it so I knew what it would taste like, which was buttery and smooth but to be honest, it didn't blow my socks off. Would I order it again? Probably not. Sean and I decided to do "splitsies" so I gave Sean the other half of my sandwich and he gave me the other slice of his French toaste plus half of his foie but I found it to be too sweet. I ended up sprinkling some coarse sea salt onto my bites before consuming.

We also got a bone on the side ($8):
I'm not crazy about the new presentation of the bone marrow. Yes it is easier to eat but I prefer the shorter cuts and cheaper price. This was definitely not worth $8 considering that the entire right side of the marrow was almost as thin as paper. There was hardly any marrow on the bone. We didn't even have enough to cover all four toasts which was really disappointing. (Note: this ended up being gratuit due to "receipt failure" so I can't really complain that much.)

Sean...satiated. Our server with his t-shirt and cardigan in the background. I didn't feel like a re-do.

After our meal we headed to Nadege (which is just about one street south) so that I could pick up a dozen macarons. Whenever we're in the area--which just happens to be whenever we eat at Hoof Cafe--I always ask Sean if we can stop by Nadege.

I always feel a little bit apprehensive because spending $25 and change on a dozen cookies does seem ridiculous but Sean said that he understood why they were so expensive after he spent an afternoon making them with me last summer. I'm not sure if he was taking about the process of making macarons or the process of making them with me specifically but I'll take whatever justifies $25 cookies.

My box 'o precious:
Contents: salted caramel (yellow), olive oil (light green) x 2, mojito (green) x 3, cassis (blackberry, purple), mojito (again!), poppyseed (pink with poppyseeds), blackberry chocolate (light magenta), chocolate (light brown/beige) and salted caramel (again). Sean and I tasted a mojito macaron on the drive home to watch the mens' gold medal hockey game and holy mother f, was it good. A mint macaron--GENIUS!! I'm glad I got four.

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Anyway, I felt a little so-so about our second visit to Hoof Cafe. It wasn't nearly as exciting and pleasurable as the first time. I'm not thinking about our meal days later like I was the first time and not anticipating our next visit. I was really excited about the idea of bringing Janice to Hoof Cafe but I think I might let a couple of months pass before I go back there again.

Maybe Sean's right...maybe when something is so good the first time, you should never try to re-create that experience. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't try to re-create my 26th birthday celebration then.