FOOD RECAP!

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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.

SHAVED ASPARAGUS PIZZA

When someone tells you that they're going to make you shaved asparagus pizza, you better believe that they like you, because shaving asparagus is kind of awkward. I even considered using a mandolin like Smitten Kitchen suggested, but then she also mentioned it being more difficult than a vegetable peeler. Luckily, I had a Y-shaped peeler like the one suggested because using the other type at Sean's house on Monday night proved extremely difficult.

But however long it takes you to figure out how exactly to shave your asparagus (follow her instructions, they're quite useful), it is SO worth it. I cannot even begin to describe just how wonderful this pizza is. Yes, I'm already a sucker for roast asparagus but add a homemade thin crust pizza to the mix and it's golden. To let you in on a little secret, I'm a sucker for a really good thin crust pizza. I like my crust thin and I mean really thin. But not cardboard thin like Casa de Mama. As creepy and weird and funny as that commercial is, that pizza is crap and I'm a little ashamed to even admit that I ate it. *shudder* That day brings back bad memories.

Anyway, here I am making my shaved asparagus pizza, recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Asparagus all shaved:Parmesan grated and fresh mozzarella cubed:
Dough (half whole wheat/half AP flour) after rising for nearly two hours:Punching it down:
Rolled out and ready with the cheese:Asparagus piled on top. Note: the asparagus was dressed with salt, pepper and EVOO.After 10 minutes in the oven at 500F:My two slices:
There was a tad too much mozzarella for my liking. I probably should have grated it and not cubed it as suggested. I probably should have realized that not being a crazy cheese fan to begin with, I should have used less than the 1/2 pound as directed by Deb at SK. Ah well. The asparagus more than made up for it.

After devouring my two slices of pizza, I still had plenty of dough leftover (I made a double batch) so I used my remaining dough (that I actually halved to make a REALLY thin crust) for Deb's Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese pizza. I knew it just had to be made when I had all the ingredients on hand.

Here's the dough with the lemon goat cheese already spread and me placing the zucchini rounds on the pizza:
All done:
Ready for the oven:Yum:Let's take a closer look:
Yummy! This one was just as nice as the shaved asparagus pizza with the lemony goat cheese giving the pizza a really fresh taste. You have got to be a lemon lover in order to eat this. My mom is not so I didn't even bother offering her a slice. I decided to be greedy and save it all for myself.

FRIDAY NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

Watermelon, ice cream, cupcake, beer, pizza and a tea latte.

That's all the food I consumed within a four-hour period, so it probably comes as no surprise that my stomach is no fan of me this morning. Add to that combination a Tylenol Extra Strength, because I had a mondo headache after work, and well, someone was a little "funny" after dinner last night.

I always forget that you cannot combine Tylenol with alcohol. The thing is that I rarely drink because a) I don't drink wine--ever and b) I'm picky about my beer. So the chances that you'll find me drinking are pretty slim-to-none but Sean and I found ourselves in a quaint part of town and when the restaurant we chose (based solely on their thin crust pizzas with awesome sounding toppings) had beer selections including those from Mill Street Brewery, I had to go for it! But alas, I'm hoping the two or three times I've accidentally mixed these two ingredients together does not lead to serious liver damage or failure.

Let's back up a bit though. Sean waited for me for 30 minutes while I had to work late and after that we headed back to my house so I could change. I grabbed some watermelon for me and my dad's beef curry with rice for Sean. I don't do curries in the wintertime with no air conditioning. It's just plain wrong. Yes, I'm VERY tempermental in the summertime, springtime, whatever.

After that we headed to the mall to find shorts that I actually fit me but stopped by Coldstone Creamery where I got the Banana Caramel Crunch and Sean got the Cookie Minster. We decided to get the "Like It" (small) size this time around but at only 50 cents less, I felt like it was kind of a rip off. We should have gotten the larger size but I know it would have been too much ice cream.

An hour later I came out of the mall with a top and three pairs of shorts. Go me! I was actually previously wearing shorts that were two sizes too big--oops! After that we headed to one part of town's Main St. and came across the Unionville Pizza Co. and it looked promising. Sean suggested we check out the menu but before we did, I couldn't take my eyes off the store front of the Old Firehall Confectionery. Against the dark sky, the old firehall was radiating with light and people buzzing in and out of the shop. I told Sean we had to check it out.

We stepped inside part of my dream-come-true. The shop has everything a die-hard sweet tooth could dream of: ice cream (from Kawartha Dairy), fudge, chocolate-covered anything (pretzels, strawberries, cookies), cakes, cookies, cupcakes and the most artistic and interesting truffles I've seen in-person (chocolate lavender anyone?). After a look around, Sean and I settled on a single cupcake: vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. What better way to test a shop's worthy-ness than to review the most basic of cupcakes. It's pretty much my MO for any cupcake shop I enter. At $2.89 plus tax for a small (and $3.99 for a large with ganache filling), these were the priciest cupcakes I've ever purchased. They weren't even advertised as all-natural (a la Dufflet) or the best I've ever seen. They were square however. Yep, that's right, square cupcakes and this is what they look like:

Excuse the shite photo. You'll notice the lack of photos from this post because I didn't have my camera with me (blogger nightmare) and the iPhone's abilities to take photos at night are horrid at best.

Our first bites were not pleasant ones. There was something a little bit "off" about the consistency of both the buttercream icing and the cupcake itself. I found the cake to taste artificial; like that of cake mix but as light and fluffy. Sean said it tasted artificial and mealy and he was right. It was definitely mealy. There was a really weird consistency to the cake. We then cleaned out our palettes with water (thanks to the refilled Evian bottle I carry with me everywhere) and tasted the icing and cake by themselves. The icing. Ugh. Where do I even begin. It was hot, almost melting and do I dare say that it tasted like nothing? It was just butter that was a few degrees past room temperature iced onto a cake. It had the slightest taste of vanilla but certainly not one that was pure. It was nice to eat a cupcake that wasn't too sweet but this icing could have used more powdered sugar. It was literally like eating a cake with piped butter and sprinkles on top. At $3 for one small square cupcake, this is definitely not a re-purchase.

After declaring that they may have stole the property for my cupcake shop, I still make better cupcakes and Sean agreed with me. We then headed back across the street for dinner and with hopes that it would turn out to be better than the cupcake. It turns out that the Unionville Pizza Company has been around for three years, though previously known as the Harvest Wine Bar. I remember Harvest Wine Bar. I remember never venturing inside for a very specific reason, though now that reason escapes me. Sean and I opted to sit inside (everyone else was out on the dimly lit patio) and I took a quick glance at the drink menu. My eyes opened wide when I saw Mill St. on tap and in bottles. Seriously, really? Organic beer offerings in a restaurant in my town!? Oh I was giddy with excitement. And not only Mill. St but another option too! I couldn't choose. Faced with so many beer offerings, I asked Sean about the difference between pilsners and ales and whatnot and finally settled on a Nickel Brook cream ale. It's brewed in Burlington (not too far from here) and entirely organic, even carbonated naturally. I was super amped to try Mill St. for the first "real" time (I had previously only had a sip but this completely organic beer got to me. Sean got a German beer that I can't remember the name of but I love it when Sean talks with a German accent so I made him say it three times. His beer was served with a lemon wedge and he was the beer winner of the night. I loved my beer (I finished it all and it's actually rare for me to finish a beer by myself--again, I'm picky) but Sean's was totally awesome. I have to find out what the name of it was from him.

Sean and I opted to split the roast duck pizza and it was great. Not as awesome as the anchovy pizza in New York City (that pizza was to-die-for) but this was good for my town. The dough was made from organic flour and thin as thin could be--just the way I like my crust! Our toppings include roast duck, tomato sauce, mushrooms, goat cheese and arugula piled on top. I thought that there was a little bit too much cheese but Sean didn't seem to mind ;)

Unfortunately the menu on the UPC's website isn't quite up-to-date (items have been updated, prices increased) but if you're in the area, it's definitely worth it to stop by for a meal. They also have some great appetizers including arancini, beet root carpaccio salad and corn chips with fresh guacamole. They also have some great burger options include a turkey, lamb, buffalo, veggie and kobe burger.

After dinner we decided to walk along Main St. and I grabbed a tall black tea latte from Starbucks. I was a little shocked when the barista told me the price: $3.57. Seriously? That's how much I've paid in the past for tea and hot milk with foam on top? I couldn't believe it. I had to borrow a dollar from Sean to pay for my latte. Suffice it to say, there will not be a lot of tea lattes in my future but oh, it was kind of worth it. That's probably the best tea latte I've had in a long time. Sometimes they don't put the sugar syrup (which is fine by me) or sometimes they put too much (blech!) but this one was perfect. Kudos to the barista who made that one. So eventually it got cold and I needed to use the washroom and when I came back from the washroom Sean mentioned that my eyes were red ("you look baked") and I couldn't stop laughing. But eventually I became really sleepy and could barely keep my eyes open so Sean suggested I go lie down in his car while he listened to Bowie. That's when the trouble started. I couldn't walk down the stairs properly and that's when Sean mentioned something and when it hit me, I had a Tylenol earlier (!!) and then I had alcohol. Oops! Anyway, lesson learned; it's never a good idea to mix medication with alcohol.

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Just to make sure that I was not being completely biased, I made my dad eat the cupcake as well and give me his thoughts on it. After his first taste (I wish I had videotaped it, he was tasting it like a person tasting wine), he asked if it contained cornmeal. See, my thoughts exactly...a mealy consistency. I asked him if it was stale or just plain bad and he said it was a combination of both; that it was just sugar with no flavour. After dad's taste-testing, this is what's left of the cupcake:

I'm now at a loss as to what to do with the cupcake. Do I toss it or do I finish it? I'd hate to toss any baked item but I also try to follow my diet of "if I'm not in love with the taste, I won't eat it." According to my rules, I should toss it but I also hate to waste food--though I'll happily throw out all kinds of pre-packaged and processed crap that I find in my house.

GO CANADA GO!

Holy crap! I can't believe it's been almost an entire week since a new post! What the heck is happening with February!? A lot has been going on. Since my return home I haven't really been able to catch up on my blog posts because I've been sick. Ever since Sunday morning, I've had a sore throat and my cold symptoms now include a slight cough, runny nose, body aches, headaches, bloody mucus, etc. It's not fun. I was paranoid that I had caught the E. Coli, Salmonella or Listeria bacteria but no diarrhea so I'm in the clear for now. I've just been feeling pretty awful and the worst part is that I look fine so when I tell people I'm sick, they probably don't believe me--though my cough, raspy voice and constant sniffling at work are probably turning a few people off by now.

Anyway, Here's an attempt at a quick recap of a week's worth of food:

Monday...the 8th

First breakfast was a slice of wheat and oat bread with peanut butter and banana slices. I also had a pear.Second breakfast was organic instant oatmeal with ground flaxseeds, chia seeds and a whole bunch of blueberries.
Lunch was fresh and light, exactly what I needed after the mega binging during the Super Bowl the night before: Romaine lettuce with mini carrots, radish slices and a can of flaked tuna in water. I also had some sweet potato balls on the side. I dressed it with a tiny bit of Kraft Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette, mostly letting the remainder of the tuna can water act as the dressing.
Snack bento consisted of grapes and blueberries (most of which I used in my oatmeal):Dinner was pretty boring:Rice with eggplant, two kinds of mushrooms and peas. I don't normally eat eggplant (I don't really like the texture and it gave me hives when I was 8) but I really wanted the mushrooms and peas and thought eating rice with just mushrooms and peas would be weird. Since my bowl of rice was pretty small, I ended up having this as some "extra" dinner:A whole wheat pita pizza with zucchini, king oyster mushrooms, red peppers, tomatoes and pear. It was basically a leftover pizza from the pizzas I was making for lunch the next day. Here's a closer look:===

Tuesday the 9th

First breakfast was a slice of toast with peanut butter and banana slices and second breakfast was the same as yesterday:Lunch was my whole wheat pita pizzas prepared the night before. Here it is on the cutting board:And here it is all packed in my bento:My snack bento container grapes, a couple clementines and blueberries, which again, I used for my second breakfast oatmeal:I wasn't really looking forward to dinner that night, my sore throat was getting the better of me, but we were having asparagus and I can't say no to asparagus:Rice with asparagus, tomatoes and beef, along with a side of brussel sprouts.
I also had an orange about four hours later for some extra vitamin C:Lastly, look at this bag of evil:But it turns out that two cups is only 140 calories so I no longer feel bad about my massive kettlecorn consumption!===

Wednesday the 10th

First breakfast was a PB&J sandwich with a small glass of orange juice. My jam this time around is special because I went to the "fancy" grocery store the night before and while looking for something I can't remember right now, I came across Crofter's Super fruit spread which everyone food blogger has been raving about lately. I checked out the Europe version that everyone seems to love but settled on the Asia since I'm not a huge fan of cranberries.Second breakfast was instant organic oatmeal with chia seeds, ground flaxseeds, peaches and strawberries that I buy frozen and are defrosted by the time I get to work and have second breakfast around 10:30.
Lunch was butternut squash ravioli in a homemade tomato sauce of mushrooms. I bought the ravioli in the fresh pre-made pasta section of the grocery store and these aren't bad!I also had my version of Laura Calder's warm goat cheese and bacon salad but mine wasn't very successful. In fact, it's not a recipe I would make again, or maybe my version was crappy because I tried to take the easy route and used the toaster oven instead. Anyway, here it is:Romaine lettuce with goat cheese wrapped in bacon.
Snack bento was what remained of my thawed-out strawberries and peaches:I also packed myself this small container of kettlecorn but never got around to eating it :)Once I came home I immediately ate this orange along with a banana and peanut butter and Crofter's Asia spread:I can't remember what the heck was really for dinner but I must have eaten a little bit of it.
I spent the rest of the evening making cake pops which I will post about later. It was a long night; I was up until 3am.

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Thursday the 11th

Breakfast and lunch from the 11th were the exact same as the day before so I didn't bother taking photos of any of it. I also still felt pretty crappy because of my sore throat and taking photos of food was the last thing on my mind--especially after only five hours of sleep. The only thing I do have a photo of is half a slice of sour cherry cheesecake that I bought from the Valentine's Day bake sale at work to benefit the Hospital for Sick Kids:I normally really dislike cheesecake but this one was really light and the cherry topping was a great contrast to the cream cheese.

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Friday the 12th--let the Games begin!

Yay to the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics; boo to being totally sick and miserable and having to stay an extra hour at work on a Friday night. Sean ended up having to wait for me in the lobby for 30 minutes too. Boo-urns to that.

Friday's first breakfast was a sunnyside-up egg with two slices of bacon and wheat 'n oat toast. Second breakfast was organic instant oatmeal with the usual defrosted strawberry and peaches.
Lunch was quite dismal because I ended up eating most of this:Yep, that's right...Kraft Mac 'n Cheese, which I realized, just because of the night before (because I had snuck in a taste), tastes disgusting. Seriously!! I can't eat this crap anymore. It was so gross. I can't imagine how I managed to palate that orange gunk all these years. That was definitely my last box of the blue stuff. I finally understand what the heck Sean has been talking about all these years.

Along with my Mac 'n Crap, I had sweet potato balls (unpictured) and the remainder of my strawberries and peaches:To the right of my sweet potato balls are two chocolate meringue cookies with chocolate chips. They are ridiculous light and airy and really, really addictive. Despite not having an addiction to chocolate, I ended up eating six of these the night I baked them. Good thing to recipe makes a whole bunch of them. You can check out the recipe here. I modified the recipe by splitting the batter in half and adding chopped-up dried cherries to one half and chocolate chips to the other. They were both great but I prefer the cookies with the dried cherries.
Sean and I picked me up after work and after running an errand or two, we headed to Famous Sam's for a couple of homemade burgers and fries. I forgot to take photos. I was really, really hungry and the pre-Olympics opening ceremonies were on TV in the restaurant. Sean and I headed back to his place and watched almost two hours of the opening ceremonies with his mom until we all gave up and then Sean and I watched the first two episodes of Weeds season five. I sipped on a mug of tea and ate two out of three of the following:
There was also a chocolate pretzel stick that was eating but I'll leave that up to your imagination.

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Now it's time for me to get back to watching the Olympics coverage! Oh by the way, what the hell is up with the coverage on CTV?? BRING BACK THE OLYMPICS ON CBC!! And where the heck are the mascots?!