The House of Simon

Opa!

2012-02-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

I really like Greek food. (minus the eggplant - I'm not too keen on that). I saw these at the grocery store and thought they might come in handy some day so I tossed a box into my cart.

What follows is far from authentic, but had the flavours nonetheless.

I did make some tzatziki from scratch. There are some pretty good ones available pre-made, but they are expensive! Planning ahead a little bit and taking a small amount of actual prep time and it can be made for a fraction of the price.

Nice little plate of starters. The spanakopita were OK. A little bland, I would probably buy them again in a pinch, but they could be so much better.

The lighting is kind of wonky on this one and I'm not sure why. Anyhow, on the side we had a North American version of a Greek salad. Notice a glaring omission? No tomatoes. I cannot eat fresh, raw tomatoes. I have tried numerous times, but I just do not like them. If they're in a salsa or bruschetta, I can eat them, but just cut up and tossed into a salad, or in a sandwich, no thank you!
There is a Greek restaurant here in Burlington called Sotiris that I've been going to for years. They have the best salad dressing! I keep trying to re-create it at home, but I'm not having much luck. Anyone have a Greek salad dressing recipe that will knock my socks off?

I also grilled up a package of Yves Souvlaki Veggie Skewers and had that on a pita with some of the tzatziki. (forgot to take a picture, but it was pretty much what you imagine it to be)

Is there anything better than potatoes?! And Greek potatoes are soooooo yummy! Roasted with olive oil, lemon juice, oregano results in pure heaven. These are not a calorie-wise potato, but one bite of these and you'll be saying "Who cares?"

Full tummies left no room for dessert, so we had a liquid one. I loves me a Black Russian and Kahlua makes a limited edition flavour for Christmas time - Peppermint Mocha.

At first I thought it sounded kind of weird; peppermint mixed with mocha Kahlua? Last year we sold out of it and had people looking for it everywhere. This year, as soon as it came in, customers were snapping it up. So, curiosity got the better of me and I bought a small bottle. It's very nice. It's just a hint of peppermint and it's well balanced. It took my Black Russian to a whole new level.

CHEERS!

Celebrate Vegan (part 1)

2012-01-31T14:01:00.000-05:00

Once again, I was honoured to recipe test for Dynise Balcavage for her new cookbook Celebrate Vegan.

Here's a sampling of what I made from the book.

Lemon-Champagne-Braised Baby Bok Choy

Pan-Seared Tofu with Basil-Balsamic Glaze

Seitan with Quince, Apple and Onion

If you've never had quince, do yourself a favour and try it. It's very nice. I can usually find it in select grocery stores starting around the end of October. They don't hang around for long and usually by the end of November it's bye-bye.

Rutabaga-Fennel Clapshot

Leftover Rutabaga-Fennel Clapshot made into patties

Good Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad

Sicilian-Inspired Kale

This was one of my favourite recipes. Raisins and nuts send kale to heights like it's never known. Here I have it served over some brown rice, but I quite often make it just as a vegetable side.

Orange-Soy Seitan Tenders

Ramen Noodle Bowl
A gazillion times better than that chemically packaged stuff. And not really a whole lot of work involved in this either.

Potato Kugel

Lemon-Olive Tempeh Tagine

I've been working hard on liking tempeh, but there have only been a couple of times where the recipe has made it tasty for me. This is one of them!

Summer Squash and Applesauce Muffins

Pomegranate Cosmo

What's a celebration without some cocktails?

Italian Mojito

Another one of my favourite tests. Refreshingly delicious!

Buckeyes

The classic combo of chocolate and peanut butter make these very appealing. This was one of Jim's favourites. He polished off most of the batch.

Limoncello Cupcakes

Hands down the best lemon-y cake I've ever had.

Blueberry Pie

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Are you interested in checking out Dynise's book yet? You should be!! I've got more pictures to share with you, so stay tuned.

Soup And A Sandwich

2012-01-25T11:09:00.003-05:00

Even though we've had an unusually warm winter so far, once the sun goes down, it gets a little chilly. What better way to warm yourself up than with a hot bowl of soup. I was craving roasted red pepper and tomato, so I got to work.

First, the peppers. If you never roasted peppers before, don't be intimidated. It's easy! Just wash, remove stems, core & seeds. Place cut side down on a baking sheet. I line mine with parchment paper so it's a quick clean up. Put the peppers under the broiler and leave for 10-20 minutes or until the skins are blistered and black. You can then either put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool, or put them into a paper bag, fold the top over to close and let cool. This traps the steam and aids in removing the skins. You can also roast peppers on your barbecue and I've heard that if you have a gas stove, you can just do them over the flame. I might be wary of this method because as the peppers cook, they get soft and squishy and might fall apart. Then you've got a mess to clean up.

The tomatoes are done in the same fashion, only cut side up.

Here's my pot after it's finished simmering. The addition of onions, carrots and vegetable broth make it super yummy!

An immersion blender makes puréeing the soup a snap. If you don't have one, a blender works just fine. You may have to do it in batches though to get a nice smooth consistency.

Add some salt and pepper to taste and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese, croutons, basil sprigs, whatever you think will make a nice presentation. This soup is soooo good. Elegant, fresh and quite rich tasting.

For the sandwich portion of the meal, I used a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis. I really enjoy her show Everyday Italian and I saw her make this on an episode quite some time ago. She used regular salami, but I knew I could recreate it with Yves Veggie Salami Slices. This is a croissant panini with smoked gouda, parmesan, the salami slices and arugula.

I don't have a panini press, so I used my George Foreman grill which worked just fine. The cheese gets all melty gooey and it tastes fantastic. I've made these a few times and we always enjoy them. You can find the recipe here.

Even Simon agrees that this whole meal looks & sounds tasty!

Hopefully, A Return

2012-01-17T11:46:00.001-05:00

Hey bitches!! I had some family members over the weekend mention this blog and how I haven't posted for so long. It got me to thinking that I should pick it up again. I know, I know....how many times have we visited blogs that have been dormant for a while, then read a post saying "I'm back!" and then nothing. I've got my fingers crossed that I don't fall into that category. (BTW, it's very hard to type with crossed fingers).

Here's something I made the other night that I've been making for years - Spicy Sausage and Potatoes. I can't even remember where I picked up the recipe (which I will include at the end of the post), but it was a loooong time ago. Back then, I was a meat eater and used Italian sausages. Now I use either Tofurky Sweet Italian Sausages or Yves Spicy Italian Sausages and I find they work just perfectly.

Add peppers and onions and this dish has it goin' on! It's done all in one pan, so less dishes to wash.

Another thing I've been making for a long time and is a total comfort dessert for me is gingerbread. It might seem kind of old fashioned, but it's shouldn't! Tasty doesn't go out of style.

I use my mother's recipe and this cake always comes out moist with wonderful warming spices. I substituted blended soft tofu for the eggs and I find it makes my baked goods even more moist. Try it! This can be topped with whipped cream or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

A nice little cocktail to finish off is something called Chocolate Covered Cherry. I discovered it in an old LCBO drink mix booklet and it is divine! It's got a pretty pink hue and it does taste like a chocolate covered cherry.

This is so yummy, it can even be dessert on it's own. It's very simple to make: In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine 1 oz. clear (also known as white) crème de cacao, 1½ oz. cherry brandy, 2 oz. milk. Shake fairly vigorously and strain into a chilled martini glass. You can garnish it with cherry if you like.

SPICY SAUSAGE & POTATOES

1-2 tbsp. olive or safflower oil

1 pkg. veggie Italian sausages of your choice, cut into 1” pieces

10 small new potatoes, quartered*

½ tsp. pepper

½ tsp. dried thyme leaves

1 cup sliced red onion

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 red or green pepper, cut into 1” pieces

Heat 1 tbsp. of the oil in a large skillet and add sausage.Sauté until lightly browned. Remove from skillet and set aside. Add thepotatoes, pepper and thyme to the pan (and add more oil if needed) and cookover medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are browned(10-12 minutes). Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until potatoes aretender (8-10 minutes). Stir in theremaining ingredients, including the reserved sausage, and continue cooking,uncovered until the vegetables are tender-crisp.

*I will quite often use left over potatoes in this dish that I cut into decent sized chunks. You can then skip the step where you have to cover the potatoes and cook until tender.

Recipe Testing!

2010-10-14T15:15:00.007-04:00

I volunteered my services again for Dreena Burton to test recipes for her upcoming cookbook and am truly honoured that she accepted my offer. This will be Dreena's 4th cookbook and it's going to be terrific!

Obviously, I can't give away any of the recipes or a whole lot of detail, but what I can give you are teaser pictures.

Up first, Nutty Veggie Burgers. These are super delicious! I would say they are the best burger/patty I've ever made from scratch. This recipe didn't require a lot of ingredients, or really much work.

The burgers held their shape, didn't fall apart and were easy to flip in the pan. We had them fairly simple, on a ciabatta bun with lettuce, mayo, red onions and BBQ sauce. Leftovers were re-heated the next day and tasted just as delicious. (In a household with only 2 people, how food holds up to being re-heated on another day is a big deal. If we don't eat it for another dinner meal, I will take leftovers for my lunch.)

This is Lemon Infused Mediterranean Lentils. This savoury dish is different from other lentil dishes I've made. There is a lot going on and every bite made me want to take another one.

More lentils in Fragrant Kidney Bean Lentil Dahl. It's certainly not Dreena's prettiest dish, but with lots of spices, it really is fragrant. Delicious with basmati and naan.

Of course, Dreena has made quite a name for herself with her baked goods recipes. He legacy will continue with the new book.

Here we have Coconut Banana Muffins. These turned out beautifully!

A little sprinkling of sugar on top gave just an extra touch of sweetness.

Inside, nice and flavourful. We ate a few and I put the rest of them in the freezer for a quick grab-and-go snack and they freeze really well. Scrumptious!

Cake anyone?

This Pumpkin Spice Cake is a wonderful autumn treat. The layers are so moist and delicious. This could even be a birthday cake.

Everyone that tried it really liked the flavour and texture of this cake. I used a generic cream cheese frosting for the outside, but Dreena is offering a few tasty icing recipes that would definitely be suitable for this cake.

If you like Banana Oat Bundles and have a love of chocolate (like Dreena and I both do!), you're going to be very happy to discover Cocoa Almond Jumbles. This is a super chocolately cookie that is better for you than most cookies. But, you don't feel like you're sacrificing anything!

I don't know if you can see this picture very clearly, but I wanted to show you the chocolately, nutty goodness inside.

If this little sampling hasn't gotten you looking forward to Dreena's new book, then stay tuned. There is more to come!

Jerry, Roger & Eats

2010-09-30T14:42:00.002-04:00

Once again, there has been a long time between posts. Sorry about that (again). Time just seems to go by so fast lately. I have been busy with among other things -

going to see Jerry Seinfeld perform his live stand-up act. Totally hilarious!! We laughed for an hour and a half. He makes the silliest observations & verbalizes it so well. I still rank "Seinfeld" among my top 5 TV shows of all time. Sometimes, that show is my life.

My biggest event, BY FAR, was the Roger Waters concert.

Can you believe it's been 30 years since "The Wall"? (one of my all time favourite albums). I loved the songs, I loved the story, I loved the movie....and when I heard Roger Waters was doing an anniversary tour, opening in Toronto, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be there.

What a FABULOUS show! Roger was in terrific form.

He brought along the inflatables, wall projections, special effects, pyrotechnics, the pig - EVERYTHING! (except David Gilmour - boooo!!)

The experience was mind blowing. Roger's voice was great. During the first half of the show, the wall was constructed brick by brick across the front of the stage.

And at the end, they tore it down. It was wild! Best concert I've ever been to.

Anyhoo, as exciting as all of that was for me, probably not as exciting for you, so let's move onto a bit of food, shall we?

I really like the Podleski sisters cookbooks (Looney Spoons, Crazy Plates, Eat Shrink & Be Merry) They are quirky cookbooks filled with lower fat/calorie recipes - a bit of healthier cooking, shall we say. They are NOT vegetarian, although they do have some recipes with tofu & a meatless chapter. A lot of the other recipes can be modified to be meatless. Anyway, one that is vegetarian is Mexican Lasagna.
(Sorry the photo is a little orangey. I didn't have the proper lighting setting on my camera.)

This uses corn tortillas instead of noodles and lots of beans and veggies. It was really, really tasty! It did make a big pan and we had it for a couple of meals and I put the leftovers in the freezer. Not a good idea. It was all soggy and fell apart when defrosted. So I'll have to halve the recipe next time.

I had a bunch of dill that was starting to wilt and needed to make something so I could use it up. I found one on the Campbell's soup site. It was supposed to be with chicken, so I just used PC World's Best Meatless Chicken Breasts.

I also got to use up some sugar snap peas I had in the fridge. Combined with red pepper, cream of mushroom soup (recipe said cream of chicken, but I used mushroom) and some noodles, this was quite good. If you'd like to make it, the recipe is here.

Jim is not a big fan of cauliflower but, I found a dish that has won him over to the cauliflower side -
Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry from Veganomicon! He even had 2 servings of this. We had it with some basmati rice and Naan bread. It was sooo good. I took some leftovers for my lunch the next day and it heats up well in the microwave. 2 thumbs up on everything! (if I had an extra thumb, it would be 3 up for Roger)

Something New & "Chicken" Marsala

2010-09-07T18:14:00.001-04:00

I've been working a lot of shifts and didn't have a whole lot of cooking time available. I thought this new product by Sunrise would be great for a quick meal. It's tofu in sauce and all you have to do is add vegetables.
These were on sale at the grocery store for 99¢ and I had a coupon to save 75¢, so I got this package for a quarter! The instructions said to add carrots and broccoli. I also had 1/2 of a green pepper in the fridge, so I threw that in too. This was ready in no time.

I found it wasn't quite saucy enough for my liking, so I poured in some jarred teriyaki sauce I had. The tofu was tasty and for 25¢, I'd say I got a pretty good meal. There was enough for 2 servings and I also had some brown rice on the side. I've since seen the "tofu n' sauce" at $2.49 which I probably wouldn't pay. It would be much more economical to get a whole block of tofu and cube it myself & add sauce.

Finally, I had some time off to make a bit of a special meal for Jim & I. I started with some Naked Quorn Cutlets and did "Chicken" Marsala. Marsala is a fortified wine from Sicily and gives this dish a succulent flavour.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe and it turned out really well. Of course, I didn't have any mushrooms on mine and I like it just fine that way.

New potatoes are out now and I just had to have a feast of those. These were steamed until almost done, then I tossed them in a pan with some olive oil and fresh herbs to finish them off. I used some parsley, rosemary and a sprinkle of chives. Soooo freakin' yummy!

I found a recipe for carrot ribbons on the Bon Apetit site that sounded interesting, so I gave those a try too. They turned out quite nice. I found I had to do a bit of fussing because the ribbons kept sticking together. I wanted to make sure that each one got a good coat of the sauce, so I spent a bit of time separating them. For a unique presentation, this was nice, but next time, I will probably just cut the carrots in pieces.

Cassoulet

2010-08-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

I'm very excited about my new purchase. I have never had a proper Dutch oven, but now I do! I have yearned for one by Le Creuset, but as you may know, they are very expensive. I stopped into Canadian Tire to look at attachments for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer when low and behold, I saw this -

It was displayed on and end aisle at HALF PRICE! It was listed at $99.99 but on sale for $49.99. Needless to say, any thoughts of pasta attachments flew right out of my head. I wanted the Dutch oven.

Lovely! It's such a pretty deep red colour. I haven't used it yet, but I already know what I'm going to make first.

Leek & Bean Cassoulet from Veganomicon.

These are pictures of one I made in the winter months. I had to cook it in a large skillet on the stove then transfer to an oven safe dish to finish it in the oven. Not really much of a nuisance, but still.....Now I won't have to!

If you have not made this dish yet, I don't know what you're waiting for. This is totally worth the cost of the book. I wanted to just keep eating, it was so delicious. I don't know which I liked better, the stew part or the biscuits. Both were incredibly good. Come on colder weather. I want more cassoulet!

Easy Peasy

2010-08-11T15:18:00.003-04:00

A while ago, I bought Colleen Patrick Goudreu's newest cookbook The Vegan Table. Right near the beginning, is a recipe for Spring Vegetable Risotto. I knew I had to make it. I patiently waited until asparagus was in season, got all of the other ingredients needed and got stirring.

I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to making risotto, but once I got the first few tries under my belt, I'm no longer intimidated. Despite what one may think, in the end, it is pretty easy-peasy. Jim is always standing by the ready for when I need him to take over periodic stirring duties while I prepare other things for dinner.

Doesn't this look absolutely delicious!? It made so much that we had it for 2 nights and I still put a container in the freezer. Can you freeze risotto? I guess I'll find out.

With all the fresh local produce available, I like to make simple dishes where the flavours really shine through. This one is so ridiculously easy.

Pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil, Asiago cheese...mmmmm. There is hardly any cooking involved in this one. I found the recipe on line somewhere, but did print it out, so I'll include it at the end of this post.

Speaking of ridiculously easy, last night I made Zoe and Andy's Sesame Tofu from The Garden of Vegan.

I'm positive I've blogged about this before because it's a snap to make and it's so tasty. 5 ingredients including the tofu, probably 15 minutes of prep and cook time total and it's done!

I served it with some fresh Ontario cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini and sliced carrots that I just sauteéd/stir-fried with some olive oil, onions, garlic, salt & pepper. Delicious!

ROASTED CHERRY TOMATO PASTA WITH SPINACH

3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup balsamic vinegar*
2 tbsp. olive oil*
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. each salt & pepper (I halved this)
4 cups baby spinach leaves
1 pkg. spaghetti (or enough to serve 4-6 people)
½ cup Asiago cheese, shredded
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Toasted pine nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Toss the tomatoes with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Spread tomatoes on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast tomatoes for 20-30 minutes or until shrivelled and lightly browned.

Scrape the tomatoes and juices into a large bowl. Add the spinach. (At this point, I put a large plate over the bowl to help steam the spinach and wilt it a bit).

Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package directions. Toss pasta with the spinach, roasted tomatoes, Asiago cheese and basil. Sprinkle with pine nuts, if using. (I don’t like pine nuts, so I left them out). Serve with additional cheese on the side.

*The first time I made this, I found the pasta to be a bit too dry. The second time around I used 6 tbsp. balsamic vinegar and 3 tbsp. olive oil. I found that to be better.

My Big Operation by Simon

2010-08-04T15:40:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Simon here. I haven't posted for a while, and since Mommy's been kind of slow at getting something new up, I decided I'd tell you all about the big operation I had.

Unfortunately, I tore the cruciate ligament in my knee. Dr. Woolard said we had to go to a specialist so Mom & Dad drove me almost all the way to Mississauga to see a special doctor!

I ended up having 2 doctors look after me. Both of them we ladies and they were super nice.

Here I am eager to go in. Unlike most dogs, I really like going to the vet. They always fuss over me and give me treats. To tell you the truth, I love the attention. See how I'm holding up my leg. That's the one I got the operation on. It hurt me to stand on it, so I just hopped on 3 legs.

I had to stay overnight for 2 nights. I was glad when Mommy came to pick me up. Although I liked everyone at the hospital, I missed my own stuff.

This is my leg the day I got home. See how it's all bruised. It kind of hurt. But look! I got stitches! How cool is that?

My leg was really swollen too.

And look what they did to me at the hospital. They shaved a big chunk of my fur off! It's a good thing it isn't winter time. I'd freeze!

I also had 2 shave marks on my front legs. This is where the IV's were. What a nusiance that was. I was sure glad when they took those things out.

Look what they had to say about me in the papers they sent home with Mommy. What can I say? Even in those circumstances, I was able to charm the ladies.

After a couple of days my leg started to look a lot better. The swelling was down and the bruises were gone.
I was sent home with antibiotics and pain killers so I spent most of my time like this.

Or this. I was really able to catch up on my sleep. Mommy and Daddy had to massage my leg and do exercises with me to keep my knee joint moving. Boy, was that great! I just laid there and they did all the work!

I had to wear a cone when I couldn't be watched so I wouldn't touch my stitches. They get itchy and it's hard for me to resist the urge. Well, I'd been such a good boy & not once touched them. Mommy & Daddy felt sorry for me having to sleep in my crate with the cone on, so after 5 days, they left it off one night.
I was overcome with the freedom and chewed out almost all of the stitches. What can I say? It was that devil on my shoulder. Mommy let me out of my crate in the morning and freaked. She called the vet and we had to drive out so they could look at it. I didn't see what the big deal was. My cut was holding together just fine. This time, I got staples.

How cool is that? It garnered me quite a lot of sympathy. hehehe. But I had to wear that damned cone every night and anytime Mommy & Daddy were away from home.

Here it is a couple of days before I got the staples out. Lookin' good. We went to see Dr. Woolard who took them out. He said everything looked good and that I'd healed nicely. What a relief that was. On the way home I hear Mommy say "no more cone". Yay!!

But, I gotta tell ya....I'm a Jack Russell and that devil was back on my shoulder. My incision was a little itchy, so I chewed on it and ripped off scab and made it bigger. Mommy said I was "trying her patience". Uh-oh.

Next thing I know, she comes home with this spray that she squirted on my leg and boy, did that stuff taste awful! I didn't mess with my scab any more.

It started looking really good and I was feeling pretty good too.

And here is my leg now. The fur has grown back and practically covered up the scar. I'm mobile and get all my long walks again. I can run and am feeling fine.

Yep, things are pretty much back to normal. Now to get Mommy posting again.....

Two New Cookbooks

2010-02-23T12:39:00.001-05:00

The Olympics are well underway and I've been trying to watch as many of the events as I can. To help get in the spirit, I'm wearing my super warm Olympic mittens.

These are offically called Torchbearer mittens, and they are part of Hudson's Bay Co.'s Vancouver Olympics line. They are only $10, and the net proceeds go to support Canadian athletes. (as with all the items in the line) They are quite the hot item and are apparentley sold out! You might be able to find some still in stores. Check The Bay or Zeller's. If you can't find the mittens, there are still scarves, toques, hoodies, T-shirts, etc. so you can deck yourself out and show everyone your Canadian pride. I see people everywhere wearing Team Canada gear. WOOT!

I got a couple of new cookbooks and have made a dish from each one.

This is one of the books I got. I have 3 of Robin Robertson's other books and everything I've made out of those ones has been good. I thought this would come in handy for nights after work or days when I'm feeling lazy. The first dish I tried was this -

Roasted Winter Vegetables with Seitan Chunks and Brown Gravy. This was a snap to throw together! The cooking time was more than 30 minutes, but the prep was about 15. This was so good - comfort food at it's finest.

The recipe didn't call for sugar snap peas, but I had a couple of handfuls left over in a bag, so I threw those in near the end of the cooking time. This is one of those dishes that can be mixed up to suit what you might have in your fridge. I also had half of a rutabaga that I added & it all worked out just fine.

Another book I got was Vegan YumYum! If you've followed Lauren's blog, you know what fantastic things she whips up in her kitchen.

This is not a very good picture, but the dish is delicious. It's Marmalade Tofu with Kale and Lemon Pearl Couscous.
My tofu came out much darker than Lauren's. I used soy sauce rather than tamari and frozen tofu. I find if the tofu has been frozen, it sucks up more marinade than if it's used straight out of the package.

The recipe says this can also be made with seitan. I'd like to try that as well.
If you'd like to try this dish, the recipe can be found here along with a much better photo. :o)
For our wine choice, I picked this Grüner Vetliner.

Grüner Veltliner is the most widely grown grape in Austria and is known for being a very food friendly wine. There are a lot of simple, inexpensive bottles out there, but if you've never had this varietal, splurge a little and get a decent one.

Winter Warmer, One Dish 2 Ways

2010-02-10T22:39:00.002-05:00

Even though we were experiencing "The Winter That Wasn't", (it finally did snow last night, but not a lot) we've had a few really cold days. When coming in from the blustery weather outside, a stick-to-your-ribs dish is what's needed to warm you up. Enter Chocolate-Chipotle Chili from The Urban Vegan Cookbook.

Seriously - she had me at 'chocolate.' Even though this may sound like an odd mix of flavours, trust me - chili & chocolate make a great combo. This can be made spicy if you like it that way, or not so much so if you're a wuss like I am. The flavour is still all there.

This makes a nice, thick chili, chock full of veggies & beans (and chocolate!) I took Dynise's suggestion and served this with tortilla chips that we used to scoop up the chili. It makes a terrific super casual meal that is perfect for when you want to park yourself in front of the TV and stay inside for the night while the wind howls.

We washed it down with this Swedish pear cider. The touch of sweetness offset the heat of the chili. The addition of wild berries makes this cider super delicious.

This is interesting dish I made a couple of weeks ago that was so super easy, it's ridiculous.

I found the recipe in a Weight Watchers booklet. It's made with broccoli slaw & spinach. The recipe called for shredded chicken, but I used Quorn Chik'n Tenders. You could use any kind of faux chicken or even tofu. This was really good! I served it over brown rice.

Since this is 'The Winter That Wasn't', the barbecue has been seeing it's fair amount of action. Who am I kidding? We Canadians barbecue in the snow. It doesn't matter the weather.

PC Blue Menu Soy Burger, Potato Wedges & the broccoli slaw & spinach without the chicken that I tried as a vegetable side dish.

Oh, I loves me some spuds. I tossed these with a bit of olive oil, garlic & onion powder, then spread them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked in a hot oven. So freaking tasty!

Although the broccoli slaw was good without the Quorn, I think it's better with.

QUICK BROCCOLI SLAW STIR-FRY WITH CHICKEN

2 tsp. canola or safflower oil
4 scallions, sliced
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, minced (I used 3 'cause that's just the kind of girl I am)
1 (1-pound) bag broccoli slaw
1 (5-ounce) package baby spinach*
2 tbsp. teriyaki sauce**
1 cup meatless chicken strips/slices/chunks of your choice (sautéed until lightly browned)

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok; add the scallions, ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broccoli slaw and cook until just softened, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, a handful at a time, and the teriyaki sauce; cook, stirring, until the spinach is nearly wilted, about 2 minutes more. Add the meatless chicken, stir through the dish and heat until chik is hot.

Serve at once.

*I added more spinach than the recipe called for. You can, of course, use regular spinach that has been chopped or torn into smaller pieces.
** I added a bit more sauce just because I love teriyaki. I think the 2 tbsp. wouldn't have been enough. It was just barely enough for the chik-less side dish.

Steaklets Pepper

2010-01-30T12:27:00.005-05:00

First I want to share with you one of my Christmas gifts. It's this handy-dandy kitchen cart from IKEA. I don't have a lot of counter space, so just getting the mixer off of the counter gave me, what feels like, tons of extra room . Also, being able to put large bowls and things on the shelves also frees up some cupboard space. It's a plus-plus! And, I had the fun of a little project in putting this together.

The flowers were a surpise from Jim one day.

Gorgeous! Whenever I walked near or into the kitchen, I could smell them right away. Yea, I pretty much kept them in the kitchen. It's where I was spending most of my time & I wanted to enjoy these flowers as much as I could. I shuffled them between the kitchen and my computer desk.

While browsing the herbs in the grocery store, I saw this.

I think these must be something new to my regular store, because I've never noticed them before. They had a lot of varieties to choose from and they were the same price as the non-organic herbs!

Added bonus - they're Ontario grown! When I picked up this package, I knew I wanted a big ol' baked potato with chives

I also got some Yves Veggie Burgers and some assorted veggies, went home and got to work on dinner. This is why you aren't supposed to grocery shop while hungry.

Look at all this! I couldn't finish everything, obviously. It was all very good. The brussels sprouts are Best Brussels Sprouts from Vegan Lunchbox (you can find the recipe here). The broccoli and carrots were just steamed. There's my potato with chives! It was so freaking yummy!

The burger dish I made was from Linda McCartney's Home Cooking. This was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I bought. Quite a few of the recipes use meat analogs and when I was first changing my diet, it made the transition very easy. Some of the recipes became tried and true favorites, like this one. It's quick and you probably have all of the ingredients on hand already.

STEAKLETS PEPPER

3 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used way less oil)
4 vegetable burgers
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed (I used 3 cloves, just because we like garlic!)
2 green peppers, seeded and chopped (I used a green & a red)
1 cup vegetable stock or water
1 16oz. can chopped tomatoes (I had some leftover fire-roasted tomatoes - they work well in this)
1½ tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. soy sauce

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the burgers on both sides. Remove the burger from the pan and place in a hot oven.

Add onions and garlic to the pan and sauté until they are tender. Add the peppers and most of the vegetable stock to the sauté, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Mix the cornstarch and soy sauce with the remaining vegetable stock to make a smooth, lump-free paste. Add this to the sauce and continue to simmer.

When the sauce has thickened, return the burgers to the pan. Increase the heat for 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Maritime Brown Bread

2010-01-21T16:48:00.003-05:00

Who doesn't love homemade bread? As a confessed carb-o-holic, it's one of my favorite things. I hadn't had any "down home" style bread in years so I dug out my mom's recipe for Maritime Brown Bread and got to work.

First some yeast, warm water and sugar in a small bowl to "wake up" the yeast.

If it gets all foamy like this, the yeast is good. Excellent! We're off to a fine start.
After mixing in flour, molasses, oatmeal, salt, etc. (recipe follows) the dough gets kneaded for a good 8-10 minutes. You can do this in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment or the old fashioned way with muscle power. It's a great workout for your arms.

The ball of dough then gets put into a greased bowl. Swish it around so the entire ball is greased. Cover, place in a warm spot to rise.

After an hour or so it's really puffed up! Punch it down, let it rest then shape into loaves & place it in greased pans.

I brush some oil on the top and sprinkle with oatmeal. Cover and let it rise again in a warm spot.
Whoa! Look at it now. That's some impressive work on the yeast's part. This then gets put into the oven and baked until a nice golden. The smell of your kitchen will have you swooning and clutching the counter as your knees give out.

Remove the loaves from the pan and let it cool. Resist the urge to take a big bite out of this baby.

And there you go. Maritime brown bread baked to perfection. This is a nice hearty loaf with a touch of sweetness. I goes great with baked beans. Want to try this? You don't have to travel all the way to the East Coast of Canada. You can whip some up right in your own kitchen.

MARITIME BROWN BREAD

1 cup oatmeal

2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. shortening

2½ cups boiling water

1 heaping tbsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup molasses

7 cups unbleached flour (approx.)

Place oatmeal, salt and shortening in a large bowl. Pour in boiling water, stir and let stand until lukewarm. Meanwhile, mix sugar and 1/2 cup warm water in a small bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Once oatmeal mixture has cooled to lukewarm temperature, add in molasses and yeast mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and then add 1/2 a cup at a time. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic - approx. 8-10 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with oil. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draught free spot, until doubled in volume (about an hour).

Punch down dough, remove from bowl, cover with towel and let rest 10 minutes. Grease loaf pans and sprinkle with oatmeal flakes. Shape dough into loaves and place in pans. Brush top with oil and sprinkle with oatmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for about 35-45 minutes until doubled. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes. If top is getting too brown, cover with foil.

Remove from oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto racks and let cool completely.

*You can also add raisins into the dough when adding the flour. It makes nice raisin toast.

**Maritime blood in your veins will help with the success of this, but it is not necessary.

Big News!!

2010-01-17T10:01:00.004-05:00

How has 2010 been for you so far? Ours has been quite exciting. Jade delivered a baby girl on Jan. 11, so we are now grandparents! (albeit, young grandparents, a-hem). Can you believe it?!

This is little baby Abigail Faith. She weighed in at 6lbs. 5oz. and she is like a little doll. Jade had a smooth pregnancy and an easy delivery, for which I was relieved. You hear so many horror stories over the years, that you hope for the best, but try to prepare for more difficult times. This was one of the best!

Here she is strapped into her car seat for her first car ride, to go home, in size 0 clothes that are still too big :o) She seems like a feisty little thing, and Jade said for her first week, she's been very good. Almost a perfect baby. A whole new generation is upon us.

2 Week Old Christmas Story

2010-01-11T23:16:00.000-05:00

Christmas has been over for 2 weeks now and I'm just getting this post up now. I woke up Christmas Eve morning with a sore throat and developed a few sniffles, but nothing ever really happened past that. I've been really tired, though, so I've probably fought something off. Anyhow, I'm going to give you a post that is heavy in pictures, but hopefully, not too wordy. I do tend to run off at the mouth and my fingers suffer from the same affliction sometimes. Bear with me.
Is this just the perfect advent calendar for me or what?

A delicious little piece of chocolate was to be had each day.

Inside some of the flaps, there were little tidbits of info. For a trivia junkie like myself, this was gold!

Jim's project each year is to set up our Christmas village.

He always does an amazing job.

We invited Aunt Peggy to spend Christmas with us, much to Simon's delight.

He adores his Aunt Peggy.

Mama Rita cooked a turkey for everyone, did stuffing (and kept some out of the bird for me) and I did all the sides.

When I take pictures of Jim, he either has a fake smile or acts like a goof. Guess which look this is?
Everyone hungrily awaiting food. Jade, Aaron (taking Jim's cue) Mama Rita & Aunt Peggy.

The flowers I bought for the table were so pretty, it would be a shame not to share a few with you.
Perfect pinky, yellow, apricot alstroemeria.

Gorgeous, puffy white chrysanthemums.

Stunning pink gerbera.

My all-time favorite flower - the lily. These beautiful white ones opened to perfection on Christmas day.

Now the food - Here's my plate, with a bit of my shadow at the bottom of the plate. Excuse that would you please.

Starting at 12:00 and working clockwise we have roasted carrots, mashed turnip (or properly called, rutabaga), braised red cabbage, roasted Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, mashed potatoes and faux gravy, Dynise's kick-ass Quince-Cranberry sauce, slices of Quorn Turk'y Roast, and stuffing in the middle. Needless to say, I couldn't eat all of this.

This Quorn Turk'y Roast is quite yum; perfect for Christmas dinner. Dynise's Quince-Cranberry sauce is so delicious I think I ate most of it myself!

Here's a shot of the braised red cabbage which I got from a recipe that was printed up in the Holiday issue of LCBO's Food and Drink magazine. I do what one is never supposed to do - try a new recipe for a company dinner. They are my taste testers! I had enough other sides that if this didn't turn out, we wouldn't starve. Luckily, this was a hit! The recipe isn't up on line yet, but I'll include it at the end of this post.

In November, I picked up a copy of President's Choice Insider's Report. In it, they were introducing their new frozen profiteroles and underneath was a little blurb that said to go to their website for a recipe on how to use these cream puffs to make a croquembouche. For years now, Jim would randomly speak of a croquembouche. I think he just likes to say the word because it sounds funny. I was stoked! I was going to make this as a surprise for Christmas dessert. It was super easy to put together and voila!

Jim had a croquembouche! I also put out a tray of sweets - chocolate covered peanut butter balls, shortbread, fruitcake, macaroons...I figured there was no way we would be able to finish this. The croquembouche was clearly the favorite as it was dismantled in no time.

After a long, festive day, Simon had clearly had enough.

In the words of Tiny Tim "God Bless us. Everyone."

Have a Happy New Year!

BRAISED RED CABBAGE

2 tbsp. butter (I used margarine)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used olive)

1 cup chopped red onion

1 red cabbage, about 2 lbs (1 kg) cored & thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

3 cloves

pinch allspice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 cup grated apple

1/4 cup red currant jelly

1. Heat butter and oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until softened, about 2 minutes. Add red cabbage and sauté until coated with oil. Add bay leaf, cloves and allspice and season with salt and pepper.

2. Pour in red wine and vinegar and sprinkle in brown sugar. Toss together and bring to a boil stirring occasionally.

3. Turn heat to low, add apples, cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, or until tender. Add water if cabbage is sticking. Stir in red currant jelly and cook another 20 minutes covered. Taste for seasoning, adjusting as needed, remove bay leaf.

Serves 6-8

The Urban Vegan, part 2

2009-12-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

More from Dynise's amazing cookbook "The Urban Vegan: 250 Simple, Sumptuous Recipes from Street Cart Favorites to Haute Cuisine".

It's the cold and snowy time of year that comfort meals were made for. Nothing warms the soul like stew.
Nouveau Pot Au Feu is a slow simmered dish that will make you feel cozy and nourished.

Potato Leek Soup that isn't creamy! Yay! I don't like cream soups but love potatoes and leeks. This was a big hit with Jim. He said this was even better than what his Scottish grandmother used to make.

Sloppy Joes that will take you back to your childhood. Only these ones are meat-free and even more delicious.

Feeling a bit more grown-up? Then is one is for you.

Panko-Crusted Tofu with Raspberry-Tamarind Glaze. Serve this and your guests will think they're in a fine dining establishment. Very urban, very chic and very tasty.

Snow in the Summer. This is a nice, easy side dish when you're tired of the same ol' same ol'. Wonderful textures and flavours come together in a snap.

Seitan Steaks with Tarragon-Mustard Sauce. This will satisfy (and impress) everyone, even meat-eaters.

This is now and forever will be my go-to cranberry sauce. Quince-Cranberry Sauce will be a perfect addition to your holiday table.

Remember in the previous Urban Vegan post I mentioned desserts. Here's a tease.

Berry Tart is not only pretty to look at, it's wonderful to eat! Creamy, not too sweet & all the deliciousness of fresh fruit.

I made this for Christmas dessert last year and everyone loved it. It's not too heavy, so it's perfect after a large meal.

Def-Jam Bars. So easy. So sweet. So yummy.

Layer Cake (for special occasions). This one is a lot of fun because you get to choose what kind of booze to put in it! The possibilities & combinations are almost endless. The liquor isn't overpowering at all. It's gives the cake just a subtle hint of flavour.

The cake inside is super moist and who doesn't love chocolate frosting?

If this sampling of photos hasn't prompted you to buy Dynise's book, then what is wrong with you?

Dad & Ellen Go To The ACC

2009-12-08T12:33:00.002-05:00

Just before Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October) my dad & stepmom came for a visit. I hadn't seen them in 6 years, so I was very excited. All kinds of planning went on behind the scenes to get Leafs tickets so we could take my dad to his very first NHL game. He's lived in New Brunswick and/or Nova Scotia his whole life, been a Leafs fan his whole life and the only time he's been to Ontario has been in the summertime. No hockey being played in the summer.

He knew nothing about it and was surprised with tickets at Thanksgiving dinner. The game was the next night.

He was very excited and didn't sleep that well. He said he kept waking up. Awww.
We caught the GO train and went into the city early in the day. We got the subway up to Maple Leaf Gardens to check it out.

When we walked by the front door, there was a security guy outside having a smoke. Inside, they were practicing for Battle of the Blades. I never did watch it, but it was like a 'Dancing with the Stars' competition, only on skates. World class figure skaters were paired up with hockey players and each week, they would do a figure skating routine and the pair with the lowest score would be eliminated. We chatted with the guy for a while, but in the end, he didn't let us in.
Oh holy shrine of hockey greatness. It was at one point going to be made into a freakin' grocery store! Outrage and protests put a halt to that. It is now going to be made into an athletic centre with the exterior remaining intact.

After a poke around there, we grabbed the subway back downtown and went for dinner at Ellen's favorite restaurant, The Keg. They do have veg options and it's possible to make a delicious meal with appetizers and side dishes. There is also a portobello entree available but it's not on the menu. All you have to do is ask. The staff was very cheery and accommodating. It made for a great dinner experience.

We made our 10 minute walk to the ACC and got there early so we could take Dad & Ellen in and let them have a look around. We muscled the doorman, roughed him up a bit and he finally consented to let us in. Actually, it wasn't that dramatic. We lied and said we had dinner reservations at the restaurant.

We met up with a security guy at ice level who loved the story of Dad coming to his first game and later brought him an official Leafs puck as a souvenir. He was also kind enough to take this picture of us at ice level.

While we were there chatting, John McDermott arrived. He quite often sings the national anthem(s) before the games. He was super nice, very friendly and when the security guard told him dad's story, he asked Dad where he was from. Then said he was doing a concert in Fredericton in November and would leave them 2 tickets at the box office. And he did!! Dad & Ellen said they really enjoyed his show and Mr. McDermott saw them after and remembered exactly who they were. My friend Michelle said it was the gift that just kept on giving. HA!

Even though the Leafs lost, I think Dad & Ellen really enjoyed their special day. They even went home with 2 free fleecy Leafs blankets.

The Urban Vegan

2009-12-02T13:20:00.003-05:00

Is there anyone still checking in and reading my blog? If you are, please leave a message to let me know. It's been a long time since I've posted and I have a feeling I don't get much traffic here anymore. I have been very lax at updating, I know. It just seems like there is always so much going on. I was getting too long with my posts and it would take me hours to put one together. It got to the point that it seemed to be such a daunting task, that I just let it fall by the wayside. So, I'd like to get back at it, but keep the posts shorter and more frequent.

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a while - over a month now, YIKES! A year ago, I was lucky enough to participate in some recipe testing for my friend, Dynise Balcavage. She is an incredibly talented woman who put out a call for help for testing recipes for a new cookbook she was putting together. I was very eager to lend a helping hand. You may remember some of my previous posts showcased some of the dishes I tested. I even made guinea pigs of my friends & family last year at Christmas dinner by incorporating some of Dynise's recipes into the repitoire.

Finally, in October, after much hard work on Dynise's part and much anticipation on everyone else's part, the book was released!

Gorgeous cover! So bright, vibrant & cheery - much like Dynise herself. This cookbook is fantastic! The layout is fun & funky. Aside from traditional chapters like salads, soups, and dessert (oh my! the desserts!) Dynise has also given us chapters "All-Night Breakfast at the Diner", "Happy Hour" & "The Melting Pot". This book is hip, not the same ol' same ol'. There is a great introduction and a list of basics for an urban vegan pantry. Variations are included for a lot of the recipes, so you can make them according to what you have on hand and your own personal tastes. There are even menu ideas. Tidbits of interesting facts & wisdom are scattered throughout the book. But the best part....the end results!

Blueberry Banana Bread

Moist & delicious!

One of the recipes Jim listed as a favorite was this one -

Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Spinach

This was one of my very favorites and might even battle for top spot. Couscous Mosaic. OMG! This is sooo delicious!

Island Gumbo

Pumpkin Risotto with Sage and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Pear-Pepper Chutney which is yummy on it's own and is also used in this -

Elegant Lunch Sandwich. So fancy! Rich & delicious. This is sure to impress.

Farfalle with Fennel - different and so tasty.

This isn't the best picture, but what it's a picture of is the best - Dijon Vinaigrette. This was such a hit with Jim & I, that it is now our "house dressing".

It lifts a basic green salad to new heights! It's also good on green beans.

I have other scrumptious photos to show you, but I'm trying to keep these posts manageable for a quick-ish read. Watch this page for more! And please, if you're still keeping up with me, just a quick comment. Even a "hi" will suffice.

By the way, if you'd like to order Dynise's book, go here if you're in Canada

Go here if you're in United States.

I Haven't Forgotten

2009-10-25T01:01:00.000-04:00

Salsa, Cookies & U2

2009-09-21T14:33:00.001-04:00

Quite a few years ago, Michelle & I took a cooking class at a natural/health food store in Oakville. The store no longer exists - I think it went out of business when Whole Foods moved in which is really sad because this place was really nice and the classes were small, informative and a lot of fun and the take-home recipe sheets have been well used over the years.

One of the things made during that class was an avocado salsa. This is one of those recipes that is so simple, yet so good. I make it quite a lot and serve it with things like fajitas.

A bit of a blurry shot, but here we have a whole wheat tortilla with some sautéed seitan, onions & peppers. Add some salsa, sour cream, roll up and voilà! Yumminess.

I also made an un-authentic rice & beans dish. This is done in a casserole in the oven from a recipe I've had for so many years I don't even remember where I got it. It's full of veggies and just enough spice. I like it!

This meal gave us lots of energy for U2!

These were taken at Rogers Centre. What a great show!

The rice & beans recipe makes a lot so a few days later I used most of it as a filling for enchiladas.

Again, no where near authentic, but it was a good way to use up left overs.

A little bit of cheese and some salsa made it pretty tasty.

I haven't been baking much of anything for months and then, out of the blue, was craving oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Out came The Garden of Vegan and I whipped up a batch of "Maureen's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies".

These are amazing! The evenings have a bit of chill in the air and these are definitely comfort cookies.

Fast Food the Gordon Ramsay Way

2009-09-07T18:50:00.002-04:00

Fast food doesn't have to be greasy take-out. You can use fresh, quality ingredients and make a delicious dish in a short amount of time.

That's the idea behind Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food cookbook. Yes, we're all busy, and although these recipes do take a little bit of time, they are relatively simple and don't require a ton of ingredients or hours of slaving to make a special meal.

This salad was really good. Green Bean, Red Onion & Romano Salad took maybe 10-15 minutes to make.

Now, who doesn't have 10-15 minutes to make a delicious side dish?

For our main dish, I made this -

Tomato & Pesto Tart. OMG! This was so freakin' delicious, I made another one a few days later.

The crust is made with frozen puff pastry which is topped with pesto, cherry tomatoes, green onions, some herbs and grated Parmesan cheese. YUM!

Doesn't it look absolutely, mouth-wateringly delicious?

We pulled out this bottle of wine. I'd been saving it for a special dinner and Jim & I home together on a lazy evening seemed special enough. Brunello di Montalcino (or just called Brunello for short) is a wonderfully delicious wine from the Tuscany region in Italy. Made from a Sangiovese clone, this is considered one of the best wines that Italy produces.

Since peaches & nectarines are everywhere right now, this seemed like a logical choice.

Roasting them softens the fruit and produces a delicious flavour.

Once topped with the amaretti cream and sprinkled with crushed amaretto cookies, these went to a whole new level. Simple, yet quite gourmet.

With everything ready before I started, and a thorough read of the recipes, this kitchen adventure in fast food proved to be a resounding success!

Mom At The Airport

2009-08-27T13:38:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday, my Mom was flying from Fredericton to Vancouver and had a layover in Toronto, so we took the day off to go hang out with her.

We hadn't seen each other in a long, long time so it was so nice to get caught up in person rather than just on the phone. We had some lunch while we waited for her flight. Mom brought me some of my favorite candy from out east.

It's just not Christmas without Chicken Bones. Years ago, I think these were only really available at Christmas time, but now, you can get them year round. Lucky for me! These are sooo good! The candy part is bright pink with a spicy cinnamon flavour and in the middle is a strip of dark, dark chocolate. It might sound weird, but trust me - it is fabulous! The only problem I have with these is that I end up eating too many at once, and my mouth gets kind of numb from too much cinnamony candy.

Also made by Ganong, which is Canada's oldest candy manufacturer, and based still in New Brunswick and still family owned, are these super sweet chocolate bars. Just a bit of trivia for you...one of the Ganong brothers was the first to come up with a wrapped chocolate bar and they were the first to introduce heart-shaped boxes of chocolates to North America. These Pal-O-Mines are a sweet, brown sugary fudge with coconut, a sprinkling of peanuts on the outside, then covered in dark chocolate. Sounds sweet doesn't it? And sooooo good! So thanks to Mom, I can spend my evenings on the couch in sugar shock. And memories of home.

Our truck is too tall to fit into the airports parking garage, so we parked in the "reduced rate" lot which is blocks away and took the shuttle train back to the airport.

It just travels back and forth between the parking lots and the different airport terminals. I think the longest one has to wait is about 5 minutes.

It travels on this track which goes over the parking lot and the streets.

I think it's a great idea. For 3 hours of parking though, our "reduced rate" was $14. That is criminal!

Instant Indian

2009-08-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

You know when you're working full time hours and have other projects & activities on the go, sometimes coming home at 6:30 or 7pm and starting a dinner from scratch seems like such a daunting task. I'd rather just pick up the phone and order in, but that can become costly. So, on occasion, I turn to conveniently canned or frozen items to help with making the night-time meal.

President's Choice came out with a neat frozen product line of ethic foods. The concept is that you buy one main dish, two sides and an appetizer and there's your meal! I decided to give the Indian ones a whirl.

I got Aloo Gobi which is a favorite of mine.

Some basmati rice with onions, peas & cashews. Yum! But the mains were all meaty. Hmm....

So this can came to the rescue. Patak's cooking sauces are made with authentic Indian spices, are easy to use and so delicious! They have quite an array of products with varying heats. One of our favorites is Rogan Josh that is traditionally made as a lamb dish, but we use it for tofu, faux chick or sometimes just vegetables. This Korma curry sauce sounded interesting, so I gave that a try. I used Quorn Chik'n Tenders and it worked perfectly!

The appetizer in this line are vegetable samosas. These cook up nice and crisp and as an added bonus, it comes with it's own little tub of PC Memories of Punjab dipping sauce, which is a sweet, slightly tangy tamarind sauce.

Gotta have Naan bread! No Indian meal is complete without it. This packaged bread is quite good. All one has to do, is set it in the oven for about 2 or 3 minutes. I just put it right on the rack, flip it, then take it out. It's soft, warm and smells delicious!

Since there wasn't much in the way of vegetables really, I steamed some broccoli and added that to the plate as well. What a feast!

The Korma sauce was rich, yet mild. The samosas were lightly spiced, the cashews in the rice added a nice little crunch. I couldn't finish my plate. It was piled high and even though everything was delicious, my tummy was full. We had lots leftover for a meal the next day. This was one night when frozen food wasn't so bad.

Simon's Baby

2009-08-14T11:53:00.003-04:00

Simon has been quite the little father for the past couple of weeks. I bought him a new squeaky toy and fully expected it to be ripped apart inside of two minutes. Much to our surprise, he's been carrying it around almost all day, everyday. He even brings it to bed. At first, it was interupting our sleep because he'd randomly squeak it throughout the night. That has stopped, but still carts it around inside and out. He's always got a close eye on it and if we dare to try and take it, he's on top of us to get it back.

Below is my very amateur-ish video of Simon heading out with us to run some errands. He takes his "baby", but then almost forgot it in the grass. Being the good "dad", he retrieved it and took it with him.

(the beginning part is dark & a bit difficult to see. It's just in our hallway, waiting for the elevator)

Wine & Food, Food & Wine

2009-08-09T15:04:00.002-04:00

I always have plans of posting more often than I do, but something always seems to get in the way. Then I end up with long posts that I'm not sure anyone ever reads to the end. In any event, here we go!

First of all, my friend Michelle was in town from Calgary! Her visit coincided with Fielding Winery's wine club members get together, so we spent our Saturday afternoon snacking, drinking and catching up.

It was pouring rain all morning, but by the time we were on our way, the sun came out. It ended up being a gorgeous day. We had a great weekend & I was so pre-occupied with everything, I never did take pictures of any of the food we made. So you'll have to settle for a few other tidbits.

First off, I've found the most delicious chip-type snack.

Riceworks are Dorito-like in shape and thickness, with a delicious taste and a terrific crunch. There are half a dozen or so different flavours so far I like the sweet chili the best.

The Sweet Chili is even vegan friendly! Not all of the flavours are, so, as always, be sure to read the label.

Remember those amazing wild blueberries?

Jim was back up north to finish the job he started and he came home with some more! We ate a lot just as is, but I did use some for our Sunday breakfast.

I loves me some blueberry pancakes - with maple syrup of course.

These were so yummy and just bursting with blueberries.

I've mentioned before that the LCBO puts out this amazing magazine called Food and Drink. It's published 6 times a year and is complementary at LCBO stores across Ontario. This year's summer issue had some focus on outdoor living & entertaining and they also included a trio of meatless grilling recipes that I may try in the future. One recipe, in a section called "Fit To Be Thai", I did make. The recipe, Grilled Vegetable Peanut Noodles, is vegetarian and with one small substitute, it becomes vegan.

I chose these noodles. The recipe called for Chinese noodles or linguini but I opted for rice noodles since this was supposed to be a Thai-inspired dish and these looked to be about linguini size. I quite often have trouble with rice noodles. They always seem so sticky and hard to work with after they've been softened. Maybe I'm cooking them too long? Maybe I should rinse them to remove some of the excess starch? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I love the taste of these noodles, but they usually end up in a tangled mess.

Unfortunately, I only have this picture of my bowl topped with the garnishes. I should have mixed it around so you could see more of what's underneath. The main components are visible, noodles, snow peas, red pepper, tofu. This turned out to be really good! It was a terrific meal-in-a-bowl and after both of us eating HUGE portions for dinner, there was still enough left over for lunches and then some. It heated up in the microwave pretty well. I'll include the recipe at the end of this post since it's not yet available on-line.

Remember these sausages? We ate two off the grill so I still had two left over and they were just screaming to be added to a pasta dish of some sort. I was craving sausage and peppers, so a quick little search via Google gave me this recipe. It was so easy! I used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, and cut the amount of red pepper flakes in half just in case it would be too spicy for me.

Man, oh man was this good!! I could have easily used all of the red pepper flakes and will the next time I make this. Jim said it was a little too sweet for him, but that's easy enough to rectify. The Marsala gave the sauce such a delicious flavour. Very nice indeed.

We had a nice salad on the side of mixed greens and bocconcini with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was a light & lively contrast to the richness of the pasta.

To complement all of it, we opened this delicious California Zinfandel that came in through Vintages.

This was a terrific wine to have with this pasta. With it's little bit of spice & berry flavours, it made our meal all that more enjoyable.

Did you make it all the way to the end of this post? Great! Thanks for hanging in and reading the whole thing. Now here's that recipe I promised for the Thai noodle dish above.

GRILLED VEGETABLE PEANUT NOODLES

Dressing:
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup natural smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp. honey (I used agave syrup)
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1 tbsp. grated garlic
1 tsp. Asian chili sauce

1 pkg. Extra-firm tofu, cut into ½-inch thick slices
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 Asian eggplant, halved lengthwise (I used a zucchini)
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt
1 red pepper, halved, seeded
1 pkg. Dried Chinese noodles, 12 oz. (375g), or linguini
8 oz. (250 g) snow pea pods, stem end trimmed, halved on the bias
¼ cup sesame oil
¾ cup thinly sliced green onions
¼ cup coriander leaves (cilantro)
¼ cup chopped salted peanuts

1. Combine soy sauce, peanut butter, honey (or agave syrup), vinegar, ginger, garlic and chilli sauce in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Reserve.

2. Blot tofu with paper towels and brush with soy sauce. Brush cut side of eggplant with oil and season with salt.

3. Heat grill to medium-high. Grill tofu, eggplant and red pepper for about 4 minutes a side or until tofu is browned, eggplant is tender and red pepper is softened with charred skin. Place pepper in a paper bag to sweat for 5 minutes or until skin has loosened. Peel away charred skin and cut peppers into strips. Cut tofu into 2-inch-ling thin slices and cut eggplant on the bias. Reserve.

4. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add noodles and cook according to package directions. When noodles are about 1 minute short of their cooking time add snow pea pods and cook 1 minute or until tender and bright green. Drain and toss noodles and snow peas with sesame oil.

5. When ready to serve, toss noodles with reserved dressing, tofu and vegetables. Place on a serving platter and sprinkle with onions, coriander and peanuts.

Serves 6

New Barbeque

2009-07-22T15:00:00.004-04:00

Jim had a job about 2 hours north of Toronto and on his way home, he saw a roadside stand selling wild blueberries. He knows how much I love wild blueberries, so he paid an exorbitant amount of money and brought me home a pint.

It's random things like this that make a day like Valentine's Day seem ridiculous to me. This is more meaningful than roses on Feb. 14. I know he got me these blueberries because he was thinking of me. He knew it was something I would like and that would make me happy. No special occasion, no pressure - just because. Gifts on Valentine's Day would make me wonder if the giver wanted to or felt they had to. So when I say "everyday is Valentine's Day at our house" and people roll their eyes....I bet they're not getting wild blueberries on a Thursday in July. So there!

Earlier this month, Jim got himself something that made hime very happy. A new barbeque.

He got a ridiculously good deal on this at Canadian Tire.

The first thing he did on it was grill some vegetables. They were then transformed into this -

I used this recipe as a guideline, leaving out the eggplant and substituting red onions for the green onions. I probably could have used a bit more oil and a little less lemon rind & now know for next time. It was pretty good and super easy to make.

Of course, a big boy with a new toy equals lots of BBQ-ing.

Here we have Presdent's Choice Meatless Chicken Breast, corn-on-the-cob, both done on the 'cue. Jim cooks the chik to perfection! Corn on the BBQ is the best! It turns out so sweet and delicious. If you've never had it, try it. You'll never have boiled again. I also had some green beans on the plate and I did something new with them.

Way back in March, we went to the Food and Drink Fest in Hamilton. That was a blast in itself, but one of the exhibitors that I stopped at and actually bought some things from was Victorian Epicure. I first heard of this company a few years ago via Sarah Kramer who had a give away on her blog and I was lucky enough to win it! Anyway, Victorian Epicure is a Canadian company that sells gourmet food products, spice blends, vinegars, rubs, etc. You can buy on-line here, but I think it's mostly sold through in-home parties much like Pampered Chef or Tupperware. There were some ladies at the booth who had made up veggie dips and fruit dips to try. They were very tasty. I bought a special 3 pack of "popular" spice blends and used one of the recipes that came in the package for the beans.

Basically, I steamed the beans until they were tender-crisp, then tossed them with some olive oil, lemon juice and Lemon Dilly Dip Mix.

These turned out really yum. The lemon & dill are balanced nicely. Not one flavour was too overpowering.
I pulled out one of the bottles of wine we brought back from our most recent trip to the States.

I've never seen this bottle available at the LCBO which is why I picked it up. That and the fact that it was only $7.99. I have found from my cross border alcohol buying experiences that the prices on California wine in New York are about half of what it costs in Ontario. Using that as a guideline I figure this would be a $15 bottle if sold here.

(Click this picture to read in larger size)

This was a nice Bordeaux-type blend. Jim & I both quite liked it. Worth picking up for a weeknight meal.

New Product Alert! I was looking at Yves spicy italian sausages and noticed this package that said 'sweet'. I thought "Sweeeet!" and bought one. Barbeque Man said he'd cook them on his new grill. As we browsed around the store I noticed couscous on sale.

This would be great on the side with the sausages. I pulled out a cookbook I was given years ago by my friend, Michelle. It's by Jeanne Lemlin and it's a collection of 3 of her cookbooks in one. There is a tasty couscous recipe in the Quick Vegetarian Pleasures section of the book that is a snap to make.

So here we have sausage on a bun - with fried onions of course.

That's all I ever put on veggie dogs or sausages. Maybe sauerkraut if it's available, but usually, just onions - plain & simple.

Here's the couscous. This was delicately delicious! The recipe called for dill, but I used the Lemon Dilly Mix. It worked very well. If you're interested in this couscous recipe, here it is: -

COUSCOUS PILAF WITH PEAS

(From Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup couscous (I used whole wheat)

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

1 tbsp. minced fresh dill or 1 tsp. dried

1/4 tsp. salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1½ cups vegetable stock

1 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into bits (I didn't use this at all)

Heath the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion and garlic, stirring often, until very tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the coucous, peas, dill, salt pepper and vegetable stock. Cover, bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Let sit until all of the broth is absorbed, about 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork, then stir in the butter bits. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Finer Than Diner

2009-07-06T15:49:00.001-04:00

I was at Whole Foods the other day just browsing around and when I passed the salad bar, it called out to me. I had to answer. I scooped out a little bit of a few different kinds of ready-made salads and figured I could have those with dinner.

We both love chickpeas, so this was a no-brainer. Mixed in were peppers, onions, spinach -yum!

This one had no label, but it looked like some kind of Greek pasta salad. Crunchy peppers, cucumbers, olives and little cubes of feta cheese.

I loves me some coleslaw! This looked similar to Asian-type one I make, so I got some of this too.

I got home and didn't know what to have for dinner to go with the salads. Then I remembered someone at work talking about clubhouse sandwiches. I haven't had one of those in YEARS and had a massive craving. I set out to make a veggie version, which was really very simple.

I grilled up some Naked Quorn Cutlets just plain on my George Foreman Grill. While those were cooking, I fried some Morning Star Farms Bacon Strips until just a little crisp. Assembly was easy with some mayo & lettuce. I don't like raw tomatoes, so I skipped those. I used white bread just to make it more diner-like. Some fries on the side and I was saying "Mel, kiss my grits!"

I was very pleased with the taste too. Very authentic I thought. Jim agreed and ate his whole plate and said he'd have clubhouse sandwiches anytime. As for the salads, they were very tasty although the coleslaw one was a little flat. It needed more dressing.

Strawberries are here! You know what that means.....

Strawberry Shortcake! I made a sauce by just pureeing some berries with my hand blender. I then poured that on cake along with some whole berries and Cool Whip.

These strawberries are so sweet, no sugar needed. Delicious!

Just Add Spirit!

2009-06-26T12:30:00.003-04:00

Strike Averted! The deadline was extended and thanks to an amazing bargaining team, we got an awesome contract. No complaints whatsoever. To celebrate, let's have a cocktail party!

LCBO's last promotion was spirits & cocktails.

They published this nifty little cocktail recipe book, so I had to make some of them. It was all for work of course, so I can offer better customer service Here are some of the drinks we tried. If you'd like to try some of these, click the picture of the recipe, it should enlarge for you. (Bear in mind, these were made and tasted over the course of a few weeks, not all in one day!)

First up - Whiskey Sour. This is a simple, classic drink.

I loves me some rye, so this was the first drink we tried. Delicious!

This one sounded interesting. Blueberries were on sale, so this one was next.

This is a terrific summer drink. So refreshing!

Jamaican Mule - a twist on the famous Moscow Mule only this time using rum instead of vodka.

Quite a nice tasting cocktail.

Berry Batida

Very fruity! This tasted like juice. There was a demo in my store and the girl making this drink used frozen berries. I used fresh.

Golden Sunrise which is basically a Tequila Sunrise.

This picture isn't very good. The drink on the right is unmixed so you can see the grenadine on the bottom. The colour bleeds a bit up into the juice hence the name sunrise. The drink on the left has been mixed - cool colour!

Spiced Daiquiri. The recipe called for Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, but I used this -

I much prefer Sailor Jerry. It's one of my new favorite spirits. It is really yummy.

What a refreshing, flavourful cocktail. This was my second favourite from the book.

Tangerine Sidecar

There are many variations of the classic drink. I very much liked this one.

The Lychee Buck was my favourite of all of the drinks I made from this book.

Again, a twist on the Gin Buck, this added lychee liqueur for a fabulous flavour combination. Very delicious.

With summer's heat upon us, cocktails are a great refresher after a hard work day or to sip in the backyard while lounging on the weekend. I hope you'll try one or all of these. Cheers!

Oh, The Goodies I Got!

2009-06-18T13:30:00.003-04:00

OK. We know that the population of the US is approx. 9 times greater than that of Canada. Some research says that 2.8% of the population is veg*n, some studies say as much as 4%. Let's go middle ground & assume that vegetarians make up 3.5% of the general population, in both countries. Based on that fact, the buying power of vegetarians in the US a whopping 10.6 million. In Canada, a measly 1.1 million. Therefore, American veg*ns have many, many more products to choose from. Those of you living in the USA are so lucky to have such kick-ass veg selections. Some of which I brought back home with me.
Up first - burgers!

I can easily find Amy's Texas Style burgers, but rarely Amy's Chicago Style burgers. As for the others pictured here, not in Canada. We used to have Lightlife and Boca, but they packed up and left. :o( Gardenburger sells 3 or 4 varieties here, but not these ones.

Although I like a veggie burger that resembles a hamburger, I also like some non-hamburger-type varieties. One store I was at had a discontinuation sale on the Chik'n Grill and had them priced at $1.69 a box! Needless to say, I bought a few of those. I also searched and searched for Gardenburger's "Meat"loaf, but didn't find any.

These are new to me. The only ones I've tried so far are the Ginger Teriyaki Veggie Cakes. They were quite nice. They looked really small, so I made two, but could only eat one. They are very filling, so be warned. I'm excited to try the other two.

Yea, I'm Canadian and yea, I like bacon. Stereotypical, but it's true. (I also like donuts, maple anything & hockey. hehe! Beer, not so much) Anyway, my bacon now is cruelty free. Try to find a decent bacon replacement here. All we have are Yves strips or "Canadian style" and I don't really like either one. Smart Bacon does in a pinch, but man - Morningstar Farms is by far the best. I have these in sandwiches and on their own alongside my pancakes. I like these even better than bacon!

We are total Riblets addicts. There is NOTHING here that compares. Not even close. On this trip, we scoured all the grocery stores and couldn't find any Riblets. OH NO!!!** I did see some Morningstar Farms ones. They are NEW! so the box says, so I got those - boxes & boxes of them and prayed that they would be as good as Gardenburgers.

They are eerily similar, even the sauce. I still have some Riblets in the freezer, so maybe a taste-off is in order. I also saw a large NEW! on a box for Italian Sausage. Thankfully, Tofurky sausages are available in Canada, and I've tried Boca's version in the past. The Boca ones were OK and I usually use them as a component in a recipe rather than just grilled on a bun. We haven't tried Morningstar yet.

Most days, my work lunches consist of leftovers from dinner or something I cook up specifically for lunches. Sometimes I'm lazy and just make a sandwich. Sometimes I'm super lazy and grab a frozen dinner from the freezer. I bought some of these just for some variety.

I tried the Enchilada Pie the last trip and I thought it was pretty good for a frozen entree. Then I saw Kashi has frozen dinners. Black Bean Mango sounds amazing, doesn't it? I just hope it tastes as good as it sounds.

Mmmm-mmmm! I loves me some Quorn! This originated in the UK I believe and has spread to other countries, but not to Canada dammit! Quorn makes a terrific replacement for chicken in recipes and gives a different texture from tofu. The roast helps solve the Christmas & Thanksgiving issue, the naked cutlets are great for pretty much anything and the tenders are in chunk form. Great for Quorn salad sandwiches, stir-fries, pasta dishes, etc. It's nicely flavoured too.

For super convenience, breaded patties & cutlets. The patties are nice in a bun with lettuce & "mayo". The cutlets are perfect for those nights when I come home and don't feel like cooking at all. Throw a couple of potatoes in the oven along with the cutlets, salad or veggies on the side and dinner is served!

Of course, we like to have junky finger foods for game night.

I freakin' love those corn dogs! No condiments necessary - I like them as is. The Buffalo Wings are sometimes a little too spicy for me, but some plum sauce for dipping helps to cut the heat and they are very tasty.

On one trip I found these Smart Stuffers with the cranberry stuffing and I took them to a Christmas dinner for my "main" option. I thought they were really good. Au Naturel used to make a veggie version of Cordon Bleu and a Broccoli & Cheez, but I haven't been able to find them for a long, long time. Imagine my excitement when I saw those 2 varieties available in Smart Stuffers! My only regret....I should have bought more than just one package of each. Dammit!

Of course I had to stock up on Fire Roasted Tomatoes. I have a few cans of crushed still in my pantry cupboard, so I grabbed a few more of the diced. Why bother chopping tomatoes when it's already done for you? And these Bush's Beans...OMG! Sooooo, good! Growing up on the east coast, I had more than my fair share of beans. I love 'em! I always preferred the variety with molasses, but those ones seem to only come with pork. Boooo! Beans with Tomato sauce are meat free, but I don't like those. I like a sweet sauce. Bush's to the rescue. These remind me of the beans I used to eat as a kid. Great for "beans & wiener" cravings. I know, I know. The sophistication of my tastes is astounding.

On the advice of Karen, I bought some Cracklin' Oat Bran. I should have gotten more. This box is history. United States and Canada both have these huge, long grocery store aisles loaded top to bottom with boxes & boxes of cereal. I guess we're a couple of countries full of cereal lovers. I will confess, when I was single, there were days when I'd come home to my bachelorette pad, pooped and just not in the mood to whip up a meal for one, so I'd have cereal, a la Jerry Seinfeld. Maybe not the most nutritious meal ever, but I could have had worse.

The hempmilk I picked up because I was in an optimistic mood that day. I've heard good things about hempmilk, but the brand I tried was one of the most disgusting things ever made. Living Harvest brand is one I see showcased on blogs, so I'm hoping it's good. I've yet to see it in any stores near me. Even though I'm a little apprehensive, I'm willing to try it. As of yet, I haven't opened the carton, but one of these days I'll get brave and I'll let you know the results.

Ah, Tings. Again, another product I've heard about over & over, but have never been able to find. Even this bag took a bit of searching. I haven't opened it yet and I really don't know what to expect. It will be an exciting adventure in snacking.

I've found a couple of brands of meatless chicken-flavoured bouillon cubes at my local grocery store that are pretty good, but trying to find a decent, flavourful "beef" one has been a bit of a struggle. I've heard of this one from fellow veggies in the US so I'm going to give it a try. Once we get back into the cool weather and soups & stews are mainstays, I'll crack this puppy open.

I mentioned in another post a long time ago, about Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. When I was young, I'd go visit my grandparents in the summer. My grandfather always made cinnamon rolls for me with orange icing. These have long disappeared around these parts. The only variety available to me now is with white icing. So, whenever I'm shopping in the States, I grab one or two tins of the rolls with orange icing.

Oh how I love these! Total fat & sugar, and totally delicious. Everytime I have these, I think of my grandfather. I think Jim & I devoured all of these in a day and a half.

We also got Simon some treats which he talked about in his post here. Some other randoms that we grabbed....Jim got more cheese in a can (who knows....), some Hershey bars, Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies, I bought some Agave that I thought was a steal at $3.99. I pay $7.99 here. When I compared the bottles, the one I usually get is twice the size. Ah well, I needed it anyway. I also got some Diet Mountain Dew.* It made an appearance around here a few years ago and I was buying it for about 6 months, then it disappeared. Weird! So I got 2 cases. It doesn't really taste the same, but it's good enough. I've heard that Mountain Dew in the US contains caffeine while Mountain Dew in Canada doesn't. Why can't they just make it the same everywhere. This was a discussion going on for a while about Oreo cookies. Some places they're vegan and some places they're not. My Oreos are vegan, while Chips Ahoy! uses LARD!? That's something new, so proof that label reading is a never ending chore.

*I've been told that diet pop is bad. I know, I know, but I don't have very good teeth, so I try to keep sugars to a minimum. I drink maybe 1 pop a day or 1 every other day, so it's not excessive. Since I switched from regular pop, my check-ups have been cavity-free. I might grow 3 heads, but at least the teeth in those heads will be nice.

**Checked the Gardenburger website - RIBLETS HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED!!! NOOOOO!!!!!! I also noticed while zipping around the site that some of the addresses in the task bar say Kellogg's do I did some investigating. I found out that in 2007 Kellogg's bought Gardenburger. That explains the whole riblets thing.

It's Asparagus Season!

2009-06-02T14:34:00.002-04:00

First of all, let me show you what I saw outside when I left work the other day.

A kick-ass garbage unit!

One slot for paper....

One slot for cans & bottles.....

And one for "other stuff".

Nice, eh? I just hope that people will follow the labels and not just be lazy and throw their garbage wherever.

Anyhow, onto the asparagus. It never seems to last very long, so we eat lots of Ontario grown asparagus as soon as it hits the stores. I usually like to roast it in the oven, but since we bought a new bbq grilling basket, we did some on the barbeque.

This was a Saturday night special. Veggie burgers, roasted potatoes and asparagus with GOO (garlic & olive oil), salt, pepper and some shaved Parmesan cheese.

A simpler meal done on a weeknight - Tofurky Kielbasa sausages, asparagus with Goo; then when they came off the grill, I tossed them with some balsamic vinegar. That was really good!

I popped over to Vegan YumYum and found a killer recipe for asparagus.

Chili Almond Asparagus - this is the best! The recipe called for 2 tsp. of red pepper flakes, but I scaled that back to have less heat. Baby mouth, remember? This is so, so delicious! It's fast to whip together and livens up any plate. I highly recommend this. You can find the recipe and Lauren's much nicer photos here.

Several times a year, and I'm sorry I don't know how many, maybe 8 or 9, the LCBO puts out a magazine called Food & Drink. It's complimentary since the cost of advertising covers the cost of producing the magazine. It is available at all LCBO stores and is printed in English and French. It's a terrific magazine and many of the recipes are outstanding. There was one I came across 3 years ago and I make it every spring when asparagus is in season. The recipe calls for penne, but I found this at IKEA and wanted to add some fun to dinner.

Pasta elks!

They are also wholemeal and organic!

This is an uncooked one. Cute, eh?

Here's the finished product. This dish is amazingly good. It's got chick peas, carrots, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, basil, onions, garlic, spinach....sounds delicious, doesn't it? Want the recipe? You can find it here.

The elks held up really well. Almost all of them remained intact and cooked to perfection.

For our wine, I pulled out this. It might seem like a bit of overkill on a light pasta dish, but this particular dish has so much going on, that I thought it could pull it off.

When I pulled out the cork, I was kinda bummed to see a synthetic one. St. Francis is one of the better wineries in Sonoma so I thought they would have used a real cork. A screwcap is an even better option. This wine was still very good. I would definitely recommend it and I would definitely buy it again.

I still had one more bunch of asparagus to use up, so back to Vegan YumYum I went for this dish.
Sesame Soy Curls with Asparagus and Quinoa. I've never seen soy curls but from the descriptions I've read, they sound very similar to a product I've been using for years called So Soya. So Soya comes in small pieces like TVP or in chunks. I re-hydrated the chunks and cut them into strips so it would closer resemble soy curls. This dish is another winner!

The quinoa provided a great base for the other ingredients. I should really cook it more often. We both like it and it's a nutrition powerhouse. If you'd like to try this out for yourself, the recipe is here.

We then had ice cream! I've been dying to try this new coconut milk version from So Delicious. In the US, it's called Purely Decadent. We have Purely Decadent frozen dessert, but the coconut version is called So Delicious. *shrugs* Don't know why. Anyway, I opted for the chocolate flavour and it tasted to me like chocolate/coconut. It was very nice. I didn't tell Jim what it was, so he thought he was getting regular chocolate ice cream. He did notice a difference in the flavour and asked me what it was. He did like it and ate his whole dish.

Since I still eat dairy, this isn't an issue for me, but the container said the product may contain trace amounts of dairy protein. Is this only on the Canadian product? I know a lot of vegans are snapping this up, so I'm wondering if we just resign ourselves to the fact that one cannot be wholly vegan in this world and just do the best one can? If trace amounts of dairy protein are in the frozen dessert one eats, it it OK to buy other products that may contain traces of dairy or egg? Where does one draw the line? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Our Trip To NY

2009-05-28T13:52:00.001-04:00

My trusty driver and I set out early for our shopping trip to New York.

The day was slightly overcast but nice temperatures and no rain.

And the QEW Niagara was fairly clear outside of Hamilton with traffic moving well.

Once we got closer to St. Catharine's we ran into road construction. What a surprise (she claimed sarcastically). There always seems to be construction happening in this area.

This is the Skyway Bridge in St. Catherine's. If you look to the right, you can see the Welland Canal. I tried to get a picture of that, but it didn't turn out.

Our exit....getting closer

Almost out of Canada

Coming up to the border crossing...

Yay! We're in! Heading south on 190 towards Niagara Falls & Buffalo.

Niagara Falls in a major source of power on both sides of the border. We pass a lot of sights like this one.
One thing that is really kinda weird is this sign. It's HUGE!

We couldn't even escape Tim Horton's!

When we're in Niagara Falls, NY, I always stop here. I'm like a kid in a candy store. The place is huge and they have a pretty good California wine section. I find the prices for imported wines is not a whole lot cheaper than in Ontario, and with the exchange rate, it's not really worth it. I look for California wines that I don't see in Ontario or favorite ones that are so incredibly cheap that even with taxes and duty, I still save. I also keep my eyes open for a unique find - like the time I bought some wine from Idaho! It was very good and I haven't been able to find any since.

Another friggin' Tim Horton's. It's as bad as being in Canada. We did some grocery shopping in Niagara Falls and then headed towards Buffalo, stopping in Amherst. There's another good liquor store there, but I'd spent enough money already on wine, vodka and tequila. I didn't want to be tempted, so I just avoided the place altogether.

As soon as we crossed the border, there always seemed to be a plane flying by.

These weren't commercial flights either. Jim's a huge military/history buff and said these were military planes.

This went on all day long. No matter where we were, there was a plane. I started feeling like Henry Hill in Goodfellas.

Once we were finished all of our shopping, we were starving, so we decided to stop for dinner before heading home.

We'd passed this early in the day and knew this is where we wanted to eat. Neither one of us has ever been to a Chili's. There are a handful of locations in Canada, but they're all out west. This is the location in Niagara Falls, NY, which is fairly new. The place was really hopping and the hostess said it would be a 20 minute wait. We decided to relax at the bar. They had 2 for 1 margaritas! WOOT!

So I got myself 2 margaritas. We looked through the menu while we waited. It was pages long. They have an awful lot of things to choose from. After about 10 minutes, we got called to our table. I'm wondering if they secretly knew we were Canadian.

We were seated across from this....

and had a good view of this. HAHA!!

I was still looking through the menu, which was loaded with meat dishes, when our server first came by. We ordered up a plate of tortillas and salsa to munch on while we decided on our food.

Whoa! They certainly don't skimp on the chips!! Since I seem to have lost all of my ability to deal with overly spicy dishes, I was hoping I'd be able to enjoy the food here and not burn the crap out of my mouth. The salsa was perfect for me - lots of flavour and just a hint of heat.

Jim got himself a Coors Light for $1.99!! Around here, a beer at a bar or restaurant is on average about 5 bucks. Our waitress was great. She was very speedy & busy, but very attentive. She's obviously a pro.

I ended up ordering from the Guiltless Grill® part of the menu - a black bean burger that came with steamed veggies.

OMG! This was so freaking delicious! If all I could ever eat at Chili's, EVER, was this I wouldn't care. Even the broccoli was cooked perfectly. It still had lots of crunch. Jim got a mixed fajita dish that included beef, chicken and shrimp which he said it was very, very good.

A day spent shopping certainly gave us huge appetites. Jim & I both cleaned our plates,

And pretty much killed the chip plate. Granted, we'd only eaten breakfast, which explains our over-indulgence.
We asked for the bill and whoa - Look at the total! We ate and drank all that for $36!?? Amazingly cheap!

We had one more stop to make before heading home -

Yup! We always stop at Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee and some Munchkins for the ride home.

I don't know why we like this place so much. Maybe because it's like an American version of Tim Horton's - but better! (or perhaps the way Tim Horton's USED to be). The coffee here tastes better and since Tim Horton's has gone to par-baked (read frozen!) donuts, their donuts suck. There are some Dunkin' Donuts locations in Canada, but as far as I know, they're all in Quebec. Because this is unavailable to us, it's more of a treat.

Now, we're ready for the road!

The hot drink lids at Dunkin' Donuts are the best. Here it is closed....

And opened. Easy to reclose and they don't rip all to hell like plain, ordinary plastic lids.

We're driving out of the country and there's another effing Tim's. Sorry guys, we run on Dunkin'. HA!
As we're driving along, I'm compiling all of our receipts and figuring out how much we spent on groceries & how much we spent on booze. I always claim everything and pay the required duty and taxes. I just don't want to risk it, because if they do a search, I'm out the money I paid because they'll confiscate my liquor.

We get to the customs booth and they ask us the usual - nationality, where do you live, where were you & why, how long were you in the US, did you buy anything? When I told him we bought some vegetarian products, snacks and dog treats, he said "Do you do this often?" I said "Maybe 2 or 3 times a year. The selection of vegetarian products is amazing in the US." Customs doesn't care about this and I've never been charged any duty on that stuff. The big question is - Any tobacco or alcohol products? I told him what we bought and he looks confused...why wouldn't we buy this in Canada? Jim said "My wife works for the LCBO and she picks up wines they don't sell here." We also had some Van Gogh Vodka (Vanilla and Citroen) and Don Julio Tequila and I offered up receipts but then...the angels of heaven started singing....and the officer said "Would you be terribly disappointed if I just sent you on your way?" I said "No. In fact I'd be extremely grateful." With that he said "Have a good night guys. Drive safe." WootWoot! Awesome!
It had started to rain and drizzle a bit and the drive from the border is about 45 minutes, so we settled in with our coffee and revelled in the fact that we didn't have to pay duty or taxes on our booze.

What a long day! This is a weary shopper finally home. I'm in the lobby of our building waiting with our coolers and bags while Jim parked the truck.

Even after driving and shopping all day, he's still acting goofy & cheeky. We did in fact have a nice enjoyable time away, just the 2 of us.

Now....wait until you see what I bought!

Simon's Turn

2009-05-21T14:20:00.002-04:00

Hey Bitches!!! Mom's busy, so I'm taking over blogging duties for this entry. I was thinking long and hard about what a good post subject would be and then it hit me. Food! Mommy is always taking pictures of food, so I decided I would do the same.

This is the kibble I eat. Solid Gold. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Dr. Woolard....frigg-it I love her! She's the best doctor ever. She feeds me treats and says I'm the best patient in her whole practice. Her husband is nice, but Sarah looks after me more than Stuart does. Ooops, got off on a tangent...Dr. Woolard suggested that mommy & daddy feed me this kind of kibble and I like it well enough. It's better when mom mixes in some canned food.

I like these two kinds. Mommy buys Merrick's a lot and they have so many different flavours that I can eat. Mommy has to be careful because of my allergies. She says it doesn't matter who she's shopping for, her or me, she's got to read the labels on everything.

This is what I had for dinner last night. Actually, this is what I have for dinner almost every night. I used to have a matching set of bowls, but Mommy & Daddy had a party and one of Mommy's friends accidentally broke my food bowl. No biggie, I got a new one!

It's nice and bright. I like it. Doesn't my kibble look delicious?

When I'm a good boy - which in my mind is all of the time, but Mom & Dad just don't see things the way I do - I get a treat. Sometimes I have cookies -

Mommy buys these ones on a fairly regular basis

Sometimes I'll get these ones for a different flavour. Mommy then heard something about some people's pets in the States getting sick from Nutro pet food and she was really worried that maybe I might get sick. She checked their website and found this. There was also a report on CNN

Mom's a bit paranoid, especially after that Menu Foods fiasco, so she said that the lamb chop cookies are on hold for now "just in case." Geez! I really like those ones too. Has anyone heard anything about Nutro? I'd like to tell Mom that everything is fine so I can get my paws on some of those cookies.

These are something new Mommy bought for me. Woof! Do I like these ones!! The company that makes these, Delca Corporation, has all kinds of dog treats. And mommy's friend, my Auntie Karen, will be happy to know - these are made in a Kosher factory!! There's also a P'Nut Butter Creme cookie that I tried, but I must say, I like my carob chip ones better.

Wooof! What dog doesn't love Greenies! I get these as a treat and to also help keep my teeth clean. Especially since Dr. Woolard gave me a real good cleaning when I was in for my extraction, I want to keep my teeth sparkling. I do on occasion bury these in select spots around the house just in case I feel like one later. My favorite secret hiding places are between the couch cushions and in my crate under my blanket. Ssshhhhh! Don't tell Mom. She doesn't know.

OK, I saved the best for last. BEGGIN' STRIPS KICK ASS! If I could, I would eat the whole bag and probably make myself sick. Of course I'd throw up on the bed or on a rug, because that's just the kind of guy I am. There's a magic cupboard in the kitchen that holds all of these marvelous treats, but this one doesn't come out as much as I would like. Mom says it's "junk food for dogs" and I'm only allowed to have a little bit. Boy oh boy! These are my ultimate favorites!

When Mommy & Daddy went to the United States, they brought me back some treats too. Mommy said she read all the labels and these ones are OK for me. I have a chicken allergy, so it's hard to find good stuff sometimes. Look at the Beggin' Canadian Cuts. It's like Canadian bacon. Imagine. They have to go to USA to get Canadian Cuts. Weird. I can't wait to try all of these!

Well, typing up this post has made me sleepy. I think I'll go dig up a cookie and have a nap. Catch you bitches later.

Simon out!

April Recap

2009-05-11T12:51:00.002-04:00

This is going to be a long one. Go get your drink before you start reading. At least this post will help you pass some time.
April was great! (except for Simon's troubles - see below) For starters, I had a birthday! Jim made me dinner which was a real treat, because he very rarely cooks. BBQ-ing doesn't count, because I do all the prep and he just watches things brown on the grill. So, rather than going out to a restaurant, I wanted him to put some effort into this. He can cook, he just choses not to. He planned the menu, did the shopping and while he was in the kitchen, I just relaxed and stayed out of his way.
I love any kind of baked pasta with a tomato sauce, so he did this big pan -

Mozzarella is the best when it's all melted and chewy & just lightly browned. Underneath all this....
Spinach & Ricotta ravioli - one of my favorites. Jim used fresh pasta and it really does make all the difference. This was really tasty.

He also made a Caesar salad

and toasted garlic bread, very garlicy and crispy on the outside, but soft inside. Mmmmm!

For our wine, we had this delicious Barolo which paired wonderfully with everything. Even though Jim can cook, he's not a baker, so he didn't even attempt to make any dessert. He opted for store bought, but what a great choice he made.

This cheesecake was so freakin' good! In all the years that it's been available, I've never had it. This has no crust & no topping and it doesn't need any. It's just pure richness. Since it was a special occasion, we cracked out one of our bottles of icewine. Even though Canadian wineries are producing a lot of world class, award winning table wines, they are best known for their delicious icewines. After harvest, select varieties are left on the vines, covered with nets so the birds don't eat the fruit. The nets also help to catch any bunches of grapes that may fall off the vine when the temperatures get to below freezing. The grapes are left outside to freeze solid. Once temps are consistently below -8C, and ideally -10 to -13, harvesting begins. Picking is done at night to ensure the grapes stay completely frozen. Pressing is most often done outside as well since to minimize any chance of the grapes thawing. Because the juice that is squeezed from frozen grapes is so concentrated, it's very, very sweet. But, it also means that very little juice can be squeezed out, so icewine is very expensive. If you have never tried Canadian icewine, do yourself a favour and taste some. It is a treat that you must experience!

The most common variety of grape used in icewine production is Vidal. It's a hybrid grape, and it works well for icewine because it has a thick skin that is less likely to split as the fruit freezes. Riesling is also used quite a lot. It's a bit more difficult to work with, but I much prefer the flavour of Riesling icewines. The high acidity in the Riesling grape gives the icewine a clean, sweet taste. A real treat is Cabernet Franc icewine. These are even more expensive, but worth it! The strawberry & honey aromas that come out of the glass are amazing and the flavour of strawberries & red berries and just a titch of spice made this a perfect compliment to the plain cheesecake. Who needs topping?!

Easter also happened a couple of days later, so that meant pub crawl! Janesse that I work with has a birthday at the end of March, so we used this pub crawl as an excuse to celebrate our birthdays. Hey, we're both Aries, so that means it's all about us. ;o) Janesse's mom was gracious enough to allow us to all meet up at her place, so we started with a BBQ and some drinks.

Birthday shots are a must.

Come on Janesse! Don't be scared. You can do it!

I took some cupcakes

I made a variety to appeal to everyone and let's face it...it's more fun!

There was carrot with cream cheese frosting

Rainbow Chip cake with Rainbow Chip icing. These are from a mix and a can. They are Janesse's favorites (go figure) so I had to include some of them, but I didn't make them with eggs like it said to do on the box - I used tofu.

Chocolate with Rainbow Chip and chocolate sprinkles.

Chocolate with chocolate buttercream

Peanut Butter with peanut butter icing. This is a recipe from my childhood and is a favorite of mine.

Then I did some Rainbow Chip cakes with chocolate buttercream

And some Devil's Food with chocolate ganache (and a lopsided peace sign)

I used Isa's ganache recipe. Look how shiny these turned out. And such a deep, dark chocolate. Yum! All of these cupcakes, with the exception of rainbow bit are vegan! No one even knew. The leftovers were taken to work and everyone gobbled them up and raved about how moist & delicious they were. I didn't tell them they were eating TOFU!

The best part of the whole weekend was that my friend Michelle was in town and came out pub crawling with us! She's been living in Calgary since February and it was great to see her.

On Easter Monday, the two of us hung out for a while and did one activity that we really enjoy....cruising around IKEA. This particular day happened to be my lucky day. We stopped at the "As Is" section to see if there were any deals to be had. I immediately zeroed in on a cabinet I've been wanting for quite some time.

Hmmm....says damaged. We looked it over and found a scrape on the bottom drawer that if you didn't know it was there, would probably not even notice. There was also a nail that hadn't been driven in correctly and was sticking up, but a pair of pliers would take care of that nicely. For a savings of $92 AND it was already put together, I HAD to have it. Problem was...it had to be paid for and taken home the same day. Jim had the truck already loaded for work the next day, so I decided to leave it and come back in the morning and see if it was still there. If it was, I'd buy it, and Jim could pick it up in the evening. Michelle and I walked around, checking out the weird new stuff but mostly chatting and catching up. When we were leaving, I had to go look at the cabinet again. OMG!! There was some woman looking at it. She was touching it. She can't have it! It's MIIIINNE!! I couldn't leave this in fate's hands. I had to get it NOW! Michelle thought it might fit in the boxy-SUV type rental vehicle she had, so we measured the cabinet, went out, measured the vehicle...hmmmm....I don't know. It would be a really tight squeeze. Screw it! I bought it. It didn't fit. Luckily, IKEA has vans that can be rented for 2 hours. So we did that. $20 and us two superwomen managed to get it to my place.

You like? I used Christmas money that we had gotten to buy this. I knew this was what I wanted and I finally got it. And no assembly required! The plan was to use it as a liquor cabinet and it works perfectly

Thanks to Michelle and all her help otherwise, this wouldn't be gracing my living room right now.

Even Simon approves!

We did a very casual Easter dinner at Mama Rita's. Michelle was in town until the evening, so she joined us.

Fergus totally partied down with his cat grass and a bottle of wine.

A few days after Easter, Jim & I went into Hamilton to see the Broadway Touring production of Hairspray. I've never seen either movie, nor did I even know what the storyline was. Jim was a good sport and came with me, even though I warned him that I thought it was probably going to be "girly".

This show was FANTASTIC!! It was upbeat, bright, busy, the actors were great, the music & singing were amazing! We both really, really enjoyed this. If it comes to your town, go see it. You will not be disappointed.
A couple of days later, we were back in Hamilton, this time to Copps to see Celtic Thunder.

The show was very good, but Jim & I were kind of disappointed they didn't sing more of the traditional Celtic songs. The guys did provide an enormous amount of eye candy though. ;o)

Here's a video of Celtic Thunder singing one of my very favorite Celtic songs, Caledonia. There is an official channel on YouTube, with a clip of this song from the show, but embedding has been disabled, and this is the best I can find otherwise. If you click THIS, you will be re-directed to watch that video if you like.

Earth Day is now 3 weeks gone, but let me show you what I received that morning

I was on the bus to work and when it stopped at the downtown terminal for transfers, a girl got on and handed out a granola bar, a key chain & a thank-you card to everyone. The card said I've reduced by carbon footprint by choosing to ride low emission, low sulphur fuel buses and that one bus takes 40 cars off the road. Too bad they couldn't get their act together when it comes to being on schedule and arriving on time so I don't miss my connection.

The planet earth keychain is kinda cute though.

I think this is the longest post I've written. Some days it's hard to squeeze in the time, so this one will make up for all the days I started, but didn't get finished. I've been creeping your blogs, but don't leave messages often these days. I'm hoping that will change. I hope you all have a great week! Up next....I'll show you what I bought when we went shopping in the States.

Simon Update

2009-04-27T10:32:00.001-04:00

Some of you know that my little guy went through some big trouble recently. This explains part of my absence from blogging. First, I was busy with a few events happening, which I did start to blog about, (and will be posting soon) but then Simon wasn't well, so I was occupied with him.
A couple of weeks ago, it looked, to both Jim and I, like Simon had a bit of a swollen face on one side. We were keeping an eye on it, but it seemed to go away. Then a few days later, it looked like his face was swollen again. The second time, we called the vet and booked an appt. to take him in. They assumed from our description on the phone that it was his allergies acting up. After all, it's spring and everything is starting to sprout and he has been itchier than normal.
Jim took Simon into see Dr. Woolard while I was at work, and upon examination, she found out that Simon had a cracked molar that had abscessed. That's why his face was swollen. By us giving him a vanectyl-p for his itching, it also took the swelling in his face down. They asked if Simon was an aggressive chewer and yes, he can be. He was prescribed antibiotics, and sent home for a few days. He was not to be given any other drugs, but antibiotics were to be administered twice a day for 5-6 days until they were well into his system and doing their thing and he was booked in for an extraction. We decided that while he was under, we'd have his teeth cleaned as well. It would save him the trauma of having to be put under anesthetic again at a later date.

This is how he looked a first. There is some swelling around his eye and nose.

Then things started to get worse. We were told that he wouldn't be in pain like a human would with an abscessed tooth and in fact, he was playing and running around like normal.

Things were really getting bad. I was really concerned. The vet assured us that this may happen and it may in fact pop before he was to go in for the extraction and if that did happen, not to be alarmed. That never happened. It just kept swelling.

This was the absolute worst. I took this picture the day before he was to go in for his appt. Later in the afternoon, the swelling started to go down and by night time, it was significantly reduced. I don't know if it did pop inside, or if it had just run it's course and starting draining on it's own.

He was not to eat after 10pm and Jim dropped him off at the vet's in the morning. I called to check on him around 1:30 and they said everything had gone smoothly, and in fact, while I was on the phone, Simon was standing up in his crate looking around. I was stuck at work until 8pm, so Jim picked him up around 4pm. They gave Jim the teeth - it ended up he needed 2 of them out! Both were cracked. The one that caused all the swelling looks a mess. Just as they were leaving the office, Simon was given an shot of pain-killers to help him rest through the night. Jim said it was sort of funny. He got Simon into the truck and he was all happy to be with his Dad, then the medicine kicked in and he just went all dopey and looked really stoned.

By the time I got home, he was pretty much passed out. Poor little guy! There was no bleeding and his face didn't seem to be swollen much at all. (The pinky colour on his thigh is from him licking. It's one of the areas that tends to get really itchy for him. Once we progress into summer, it's not as bad and by winter, it's usually gone)

He was looking much better now, even if he wasn't really feeling it at this point. He's high as a kite.

The next day he was still groggy and slept a lot. He did go out for his walk in the afternoon and seemed to be coming a long pretty well. Later in the evening, I put down a bowl of watered down kibble mixed with some canned food and he ate the whole bowl! Yay! He progressed like a model patient and look at him now

He's healed up in fine fashion. So, he had pre-op blood work done, anesthetic administered, 2 extractions (but they only charged us for 1), a dental cleaning, his heartworm blood work done, we took home his heartworm meds, they didn't charge us for the pain shot and they also threw in free mani-pedi. The total bill?

Can't quite see that? Here's a closer look -

Whoa! That's some bill, eh? But you know what?

He is worth every freakin' penny!

Cabbage & Butterfly

2009-04-04T18:44:00.001-04:00

Last week Jim & I went to see Opera Hamilton's presentation of Madama Butterfly.

What a tear-jerker that is. The performances were top-notch and Ailan Zhu who played Butterfly has the voice of an angel. She gave me shivers. The whole thing was spectacular. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. If you've never been to live opera, you don't know what you're missing.
This isn't the performance I saw, but this is my favorite aria of the whole opera. Butterfly has been waiting 3 years for her beloved to return and she's singing to her maid about how she imagines their reunion will be. I find this part so sad because she's so hopeful.....

On the food front, I scored a massive cabbage at a terrific price and with those large leaves, made cabbage rolls. I had some frozen perogies that I cooked up with some onion, soy bacon bits & some Follow Your Heart mozzarella.

For the filling, I dig out my old Betty Crocker cookbook and use that recipe as a guideline. Instead of ground beef, I use Yves Veggie Ground and some extra spice to jazz it up a little. Cabbage rolls always turn out well for me, so I stick with this tried & true recipe.

Since I had a large cabbage, I also got some "little cabbages". I never used to like Brussel sprouts, but now love them! I par-boiled these, then baked them with a little olive oil, agave, salt & pepper. They turned out really yummy.
I've also been thinking about pineapple upside-down cake for weeks now and finally bit the bullet and made one.
Pineapple is another thing that, as a child, I would never eat. Now, I love it!

The top (or bottom, depending on how you look at it) it the best part of this cake. I love anything with butter & brown sugar (I use margarine with excellent results). Add nuts and I'm over the top.

This is another tried and true from a cookbook that I got from my mother years ago. It's never failed me. I used tofu instead of eggs and this cake came out so moist & delicious.

Did you happen to watch the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction? What a wide variety of musical artist they chose this year. I, of course, watched to see Jimmy Page induct Jeff Beck.

They've been life-long friends and played togther briefly in the Yardbirds...which morphed in a roundabout way into Led Zeppelin. After the speeches, they played together which is why I tuned in in the first place. Amazing guitarists, both of them.

(Quite different from Puccini, eh?)

Baja Citrus Tofu

2009-03-31T07:41:00.001-04:00

One day when I was out shopping, I came upon this little package of seasoning mix.

It seemed geared to fish, but I thought - 'Hell, I can use it for tofu!' Club House has all kinds of powdered gravy mixes, marinades, add-ins for meatloaf, chili, etc. and I think pretty much all of them are vegetarian friendly.

I mixed up the marinade according to the directions and let the tofu slices hang out in it for a while so they could soak up some of the flavour. I then cooked the tofu on my George Foreman grill.

They cooked up nice, don't you think? I had these with a Spanish flavoured rice & Dreena's Lemon-Broiled Green Beans.

The marinade was subtle, but nice. It wasn't very liquidy - more like a moist rub. I liked this well enough to buy it again. It's quick for weeknight meals.

To drink before our meal, and what was left in the bottle with our meal, was this interesting German Riesling.

This came out in the March 14 Vintages release. Priced at $16.95, I thought it was an excellent price for what I was buying.

Look at the year on the label. 1987! I was 23 when this wine was made. Now I'm....considerably older. I've had a 10 year old riesling before, but this one is 22! This is also proof that certain white wines can age quite well. This one was interesting. It had the classic petrol, elastic band sort of nose that rieslings take on as they age. It was drier in style, but with still just a hint of sweet. We enjoyed it very much.

As exciting as the wine was, it just wasn't a match for what I did yesterday. I gots me 2 tickets for U2's upcoming world tour stop in Toronto!! There are two shows at the Rogers Centre and they both sold out in no time. I was poised at my keyboard, logged into my Ticketmaster account and ready to start clicking when the tickets went on sale at 10am. It took some doing, but I managed to get 2 for the Sept. 17 show. Our wedding anniversary is on Sept. 20, so this will be a great kick-off to our Anniversary Weekend. Woot!Woot! It's been years since I saw U2 live. The last time was during their Joshua Tree tour which was in 1987 - the same year the wine above was made! Well, how's that for a funny coincidence. If I have a good a time at this upcoming concert as I did at the last one.....it'll be an anniversary to remember.

Toronto Wine & Cheese Show

2009-03-27T09:11:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, Jim & I went to the Toronto Wine & Cheese Show. Oooo-eeee did we have some good stuff. our first stop was the LCBO fine wine area. This is where they showcase a lot of the high-end stuff. We tasted quite a few and there were some surprises.

This one was no surprise. I love me some Champage and this one was really nice. (LCBO #933060 - priced at $159) The French know how to do sparkling right. There are a lot of great sprakling wines out there and many are reasonably priced, and terrific for everyday celebrations, but when you have a really good Champagne, the others pale in comparisson. This particular vintage is 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay. The final bottling process (disgorgement) was in March 2008, so it was in the cellars for quite some time. Yum!

The Chateau Pavie Macquin we tried was the 1995 vintage. It was quite full-bodied and very fruity. The tannins have mellowed almost completely and the wine has taken on a nice silky feel. This one is priced in Ontario at $149.00 (LCBO #37663), and is ready to drink now. This one kind of surprised me. As far as price and quality go, this one is a bit of a steal.

Dominus from the Napa Valley in California is owned by renowned French winemaker, Christian Moueix, who is best known for his own line of wines and his association with Chateau Petrus. The 2005 vintage (LCBO# 105890, price $127.95) is a big, bold red that is sure to impress. It is still young and quite tight with gripping tannins. It needs some serious aging - perhaps 6-10 years. When it's softened and starts to show it's stuff, it's going to be amazing.

Who doesn't love a nice Brunello? This 10 years old bottle is superb - smooth & silky with a wonderful finish. (LCBO# 105049) Priced at $84, it would be perfect for a celebratory meal of classic Italian fare. Delicious! I do love Italian wine.

Back to Napa Valley for this baby. In the past I've always been partial to Sonoma wines, but this Napa Valley red really impressed me. This is one of my favorites from the whole day. Rich fruit & a bit of spice.....This wine really had it goin' on. (LCBO# 733329, price $109.00) The vintage we tasted was 2004, so it does need some more cellaring time. I can only imagine how spectacular this will be in a few years. A winner for sure!

This was my other favorite of the day. The bottle available for tasting was from the blockbuster 2005 vintage. (LCBO# 567693, price $309.00) This one had the classic Bordeaux aromas, was full-bodied with loads of fruit and a velvety mouthfeel. What a gorgeous wine! This will age wonderfully and is good to sit and do it's thing for another 5-10 years. This one gets Best In Show.

Have you ever had a wine from Hungary? Ever heard of Tokaji? It's a region in Hungary that produces some of the most delicious dessert wines in the world. Grapes are infected with what is called Botrytis or Noble Rot. As gross as it may sound, it can be a very good thing. Careful control is needed in the vineyard and the end result is a sweet nectar of a wine that rich, complex and unlike anything else you have ever tasted.

The one we tried was 2002 Királyudvar Tokaji Aszú Lapis 6 Puttonyos. (LCBO# 82875, price $149.00) The wine was a wonderful golden colour and an absolute delight.

Then there were a couple of disappointments. One was this:

Chateau Haut-Brion is one of the 5 chateaus awarded Premiers (or 1er) Crus in the Classification of 1855. In good years, this wine can command very large prices. Unfortunately, 2004 wasn't a terrific year in France. Some chateaus have turned out very nice wines and as they have had a chance to age a bit, 2004 is turning out to be not as bad as originally thought. There have been a lot of pleasant surprises. Sadly, this one wasn't all that it could be. (LCBO#669762, price $329.00). The wines from these Premier Crus are meant to be aged for a number of years to reach their peak, so maybe in a few years this one will turn out to be one of those surprises. Don't get me wrong, the wine is still good, but I have had better.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day was Opus One.

This wine started as a joint venture between Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe De Rothschild (of Mouton Rothschild, other another premiere cru). It is a classic Bordeaux blend and commands a large price (LCBO#583203, price $359.95). I was anticipating something spectacular, but, meh, nothing super special. The vintage we tried was 2005, which was a excellent year in California wine country. I was hoping for another Leoville Barton or Duckhorn, but this one failed to deliver. The flavour was OK, not really complex like I'd expect from something of this caliber and it had a very short finish which was quite disappointing. A case of you don't get what you pay for. But the name alone will keep these bottles selling.

We also got to try some interesting tidbits of food but nothing that really knocked my socks off. I did have a horrible mango salad. It looked good, but tasted gross. I ended up pitching it in the garbage can. This upcoming weekend is Hamilton's Food & Drink Fest. Here's hoping for some more good stuff (and better food.)

Irish Stew & George Clooney

2009-03-21T11:07:00.003-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yea, I'm a little late with this post, but what else is new. I had a completely insane work week, but still managed to squeeze in a little at home St. Patrick's celebration. First off, I bought myself a new Claddagh ring.

My old one snapped right in half about 2 months ago and after looking around, I found this one that I really liked.

St. Patrick's Day calls for some sort of Irish fare. I've been dying for a good pot of stew, so Irish stew it was. I used Robin Robertson's recipe in The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook as a guideline and although very tasty, it just wasn't all it could be.

I had to do something to up the flavour.

How about some Guinness?

In the stew? Hey, why not?

WOW! What a great idea! The broth took on such a rich flavour.

Have a sip? Don't mind if I do thanks. Cooking is mighty thirsty work.

So my recommendation for adding some oomph to your stew - a good ol' Irish stout. It's not a secret ingredient by any means. One of my customers, Brian (not Adams) is and Irishman and he says his mum always put it in her stew. He was making a big mess of colcannon but I skipped that because I had loads of spuds in my stew. Wanna see the finished product?

Voila! Look at the nice dark gravy. It was chock full of carrots, kale, mushrooms (which I picked out and gave to Jim) white beans and I added some veggie burger chunks to give it extra heartiness. I bought some nice potato-scallion bread to sop up the broth and we chowed down in fine style.

Jim had the camera and was taking pictures and this is what I find when I downloaded -

What the...? No matter how old they get, they are still little boys sometimes, aren't they?

I've said before that I have a sort of love-hate thing going on for PETA. Despite all the good they do, sometimes, they're just a little off the deep end. And, they are at it again. Did you hear the latest wacky idea? CloFu - George Clooney tofu.

Now, we'll all agree that he is one fine specimen, but would I want to eat tofu with his sweat taste in it? I'll just stick with my stew for now thank you.
(I can't believe they actually wrote him a letter about this. Cuckoo!!)

Bryan Adams - LIVE!!

2009-03-15T22:31:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday, Bryan finally came to see me. Geez, he took his sweet ass time getting here let me tell you. Seriously though, it has been quite a few years since I indulged in one of his concerts and after leaving Copps Coliseum at the end of the show, I was wondering why. He always puts on a great performance and I always have a wicked time. Jim was a good husband and came with me. He expected to be the only man in a sea of middle-aged women, but he was surprised to see all ages of men & women there. Teenagers even! We had amazing seats on the floor, row 11. Woot! I'm posting a video I took of BA singing one of my favorites. Please ignore the shakiness at the beginning - I'm by no means a professional. (This Blogger video upload isn't very good quality. There are larger and better quality videos on my Facebook page. Not on my friend list? Send me a request. I'd be happy to add you!)

Thank you Bryan! You're da bomb baby!

Where's Carrie?

2009-03-02T13:09:00.001-05:00

Hellooooo! I'm still here. I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. I thought things were ready to quiet down, but that proved not to be the case. But in a good way. It's really taken me a long time to get around to typing this up.

As I mentioned in the last post, Jim & I went to see We Will Rock You.

It was pretty good. The first Act was great, but the story line got kinda cheesy in the second act. The singing was phenomenal and the music was Queen-ly awesome. We both really enjoyed it. We then went for dinner at this terrific Italian place we found in downtown Toronto. I was enjoying my "date" so much, that I completely forgot about taking pictures of my food. I even brought my camera just for that. I'm such a spazz.

Three days later, we were back to TO for a basketball game. Raptors vs. Lakers. Jim had these tickets given to him. I have never been to an NBA game and even though I'm not a basketball fan, I was looking forward to it. Baseball and football bore me to tears. They play a little bit, then stop, play a little bit, then stop. It doesn't keep my attention. Hockey & soccer are almost constantly moving and since basketball is like that, I can kind of get into it. I have also never been to the ACC for anything other than a hockey game and Whoa! did it look different.

No boards, no glass, no netting, no ice. And everything was just messed up. They had a lady sing the national anthems, but they didn't start the game right away. They kept warming up and then this little show to get us pumped up.

With the mascot (in the middle) who is really kinda cool.

Finally, they started the game. Chris Bosh (#4 there in white) is Toronto's big player.

And for LA, of course, Kobe Bryant. The fans seemed to be split half for TO, half for LA. And not nearly as rowdy and vocal as the hockey crowd. In fine Toronto fashion, they were ahead and made everyone hopeful they could pull off a win, finally! Then, lost in the end. Professional sports teams in this city are really doing horribly bad this year. Even the mighty Toronto Rock are in last place. UGH!

This sign was on the wall in the ladies washroom. What a great thing to see. If a huge facility like the Air Canada Centre can do this, what's stopping everyone else? (Click the pic to make it larger)

We went for some wine tasting this past weekend. 2007 is the best year Niagara has seen yet for wine. The whites have been released and some of the reds are trickling out slowly. Treat yourself if you can. If you haven't been over to Dynise's blog lately, you should. She has a link to Barnivore, a site that lists vegan wine, beer & spirits. I was pleasantly amazed at how many Ontario wineries are listed as vegan. Not only delicious, animal friendly too!

A couple of years ago, Dalton McGuinty was up for re-election and since he royally screwed the residents of Ontario at the beginning of his first term, he did an awful lot of sucking up to get re-elected. One of the things he decided to do was to give us a statutory holiday in February. It's a long stretch from New Year's to Easter and there were no holidays at all. Plus, it's the end of winter and sometimes it seems like it just won't end, so everyone needs a perk. I didn't vote for the man, but I'll take his holiday thankyouverymuch. The third Monday in February is now known as Family Day in the province of Ontario. So, the third Sunday night in February is known at LCBO store 566 as Pub Crawl!

Jim & I had a great time, and managed to stay sober for the most part. Some of the others weren't as "judicious".

Janesse was doing OK, Matt, not so much. In the end he was fine. Got some food, was responsible and had a ride home and was feeling good the next day. A great night was had by all of us and we're tentitively arranging and Easter crawl in combination with my birthday. WOOO!

Got strange people in your kitchen, snooping through your refrigerator looking for something to eat? Once you get your mitts on "The Urban Vegan: 250 Street-Smart, Animal-Free Recipes" there will be no shortage of tasty dishes for you to whip up for unsuspecting guests. (Thanks to Matt & JJ for this totally unstaged photo)

Pear and Pepper Chutney - delicious! Which was then used in this

Elegant Lunch Sandwich - This was so rich and yummy. Sure to impress.

Couscous Mosaic - this was one of my very favorites from the upcoming book This is on the "must make" list for everyone!

Seitan Steaks with Tarragon-Mustard Sauce - sounds delicious, right? Oh, and it is and so freakin' easy, you won't believe it. I really slathered the sauce on this; next time I'll show more restraint because it was a bit much. Serve this to your guests and they'll stay out of your refrigerator.

Winter still has a hold on us, so soup is on the menu more than usual.

Island Gumbo - is chock full of veggies and just a touch of heat. Yummy!

Potato-Leek Soup - a non-creamy version. (Thank you! I do not like cream soups) Jim loved this. He said it was better than the potato-leek his Scottish gran used to make. That is quite a statement!

Finishing up, a great little dessert - Pumpkin-Spice Baby Bundts. I didn't have miniature bundt pans so I used jumbo muffin tins. It worked fine, just not as visually appealing.

The Academy Awards were over a week ago. Did you watch? We stayed up for some of it and got to see the best acceptance speech. Here's Kunio Kato accepting his Oscar for Best Animated Short

“So heavy. Thank you very much. Thank you, my supporters,” Kato said. “Thank you, all my staff. Thank you, my producer. Thank you, Academy. Thank you, animation. Thank you my company, Robot. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. Thank you very much.”

**He's quoted as saying "producer", but I think he says pencil. He is an animator after all.

National Hero

2009-02-11T16:16:00.004-05:00

I was working on another post and starting thinking about Terry Fox.
In 2004, CBC launced a competition called The Greatest Canadian. After all was said and done, Tommy Douglas, who is called the father of Medicare, came out on top. As the premier of Saskatchewan, he was instrumental in founding Canada's universal health care system. Just a side note, Tommy Douglas has a famous grandson - Kiefer Sutherland.
#2 on the list is Terry Fox, who is COMPLETELY DESERVING of the honour. Don't know who he is? Watch this -

I was in high school at the time and I remember, every night Terry was on the news. We'd all get an update as to where he was and anything that had happened during his run that day. My high school yearbook even has a picture of some of the members of the FHS track team running with Terry as he passed through Frederiction. He really was an inspiration.
The Terry Fox Run is held every year, most places in September, which is the month that Terry was forced to stop his run. I know it's way early, but please consider signing up & participating in your area. You don't have to run, you can walk. 87 cents of every dollar goes to cancer research; a very minimal amount is spent on administrative costs. Runs take place worldwide, so check the website. If there isn't one in your area, think about starting one. Cancer touches everyone.

We Will Rock You

2009-01-28T17:07:00.003-05:00

Welcome to winter, again. It sure has snowed a lot this year. I took this photo about an hour ago while I had Simon out for a walk.

Looks pretty, doesn't it? Simon goes crazy in the snow. He just loves it.

He sticks his whole face right in the snow. He such a funny dog.

Jim & I have tickets to go see We Will Rock You on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it, having been a Queen fan for many years.

Someone else who will rock you is Dynise and her cocktails! Here's a sampling of some of the drinks that will be included in her upcoming book "The Urban Vegan: 250 Street-Smart, Animal-Free Recipes". A few of these I've already shown you.

Like John's Summer Sangria

John's Copacabana Caipirinha

And the delicious, delightful Bajan Rum Punch

Jim & I celebrated New Year's with Dynise's Prosecco Spritzer

Snobby Margarita

Opinionated Cosmo

Minty Mojitos

This looks like a glass of red wine, but it is actually Kir, an apéritif made with white wine and crème de cassis, which is a black currant liqueur.

If you substitute champagne for the white wine, it then becomes a Kir Royale.

The totally indulgent Rico Suave

These are ridiculously delish!

Sweet Gimlet which is also scrumptious.

Have a good weekend! Drink responsibly. Until I return, here's a video to watch. Queen was touted as the band that stole the show and named 'Greatest Live Gig Ever' at Live Aid in 1985.

Freddie Mercury was voted #2 for the Greatest Voice In Rock and Roll (only after the beloved Robert Plant) by Planet Radio. For those of you reading this that weren't even born yet or are too young to remember, and for us more "mature" folks who were glued to their TV's watching that incredible event take place, here's an example of what Queen did at Live Aid. Enjoy!

Rest In Peace Freddie. Your passing was a real tragedy and you certainly are missed.

Pane Fresco and a Delayed New Year

2009-01-17T00:19:00.003-05:00

Ooops! I apologize for repeating myself in the last post. I put up a couple of shots of test dishes that I'd already posted (spaghetti con salsa fresca & foccacia). They were really good though and there is certainly no harm in showcasing them again.

A little while ago, my friend Michelle and I met up for lunch at one of our favorite places, Pane Fresco.

We've been fans of this bakery for a long time. Jim did some work for the owner, Marc, before they even opened the bakery. They agreed on a bit of a trade - some of the labour would be paid off in bread. Well, I couldn't have been happier about that! During the first few months of them opening, I think we tried every kind of bread they had, some croissants, danishes, biscotti, etc. That credit got used up years ago and we're still going back for more bread.

The aroma is intoxicating! How many times when someone is asked "What is one of your favorite smells?", do they answer "fresh baked bread"? It's certainly one of my favorite smells.

They have a cafe-style set up and lunchtime is busy here. Michelle & I planned to hit it around 11:30am to get a jump on the lunch crowd. Good thing we did because just as our food was arriving at the table, the place was really filling up.
We started with soup. These are made fresh everyday and there are usually only 2 kinds available - Wild Mushroom and Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato. Every time we go Michelle gets Wild Mushroom -

and I get Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato

The soups are so rich and thick and delicious! A little bit pricey, but worth every spoonful. Quite often we'll split a sandwich, but we were both very hungry this particular day, so we opted for pizza!!

One of the best in Burlington. Again, a bit pricey, but this is how a pizza should taste. They offer up 6 different pizzas and 3 of them are vegetarian. We chose the Mediterraneo, my personal favorite. The menu says "Pizza Bianco with mozzarella cheese, oven roasted vegetables, goat cheese and sundried tomato drizzle." HOLY! Heaven on a plate.

Pane Fresco also offers homemade gelato.

The lemon is especially tasty, but I was quite full so I just got a coffee (Americana please) and a hazelnut & almond biscotti.

These are full of whole nuts. Just yummy! And just a great way to finish off lunch.

The family was supposed to get together for New Year's Day, but Mama Rita came down with a lung infection, so everything was postponed. Once she was feeling better, we had an afternoon of nibbles, chats, laughs, then dinner & a special dessert.

For some reason, everyone was in a silly mood that day and when the camera came out, it was time for silly faces.

Jade is always acting up for pictures and today was no exception.

Aaron doing.....I'm not sure what

I think I might have been doing some lame vogueing here.

Jim was called upon to mash potatoes, but he still participated in his own special way.

Even Aunt Peggy got in on the act.

Ummm....not sure what this is all about.

Mama Rita had enough of all the shenanigans. She thought we were all nuts, so she sat with her wine glass. No, seriously, she was carrying on as much as the rest of us. For some reason, she never did get caught on camera with a silly face. She's slick I tell ya!
Dinner was great and dessert was a recipe test for Dynise's "The Urban Vegan: 250 Street-Smart, Animal-Free Recipes". I present to you.....

Booze-Infused Layer Cake. The fun thing about this cake (aside from the booze in it) is that you get to choose what liquor you use. That will determine what flavour your cake will be. One cake recipe, but with many options. I love it! For this particular cake I chose Kahlua! The recipes gives liquor measurements as a guideline and not quite knowing how this would turn out, I stuck towards the middle of the measurements. Next time I'll go (as Dynise says) the full monty. There was just the tiniest hint of Kahlua and I would like more.

After I made the cake part, I was out of regular Kahlua, so I used French Vanilla Kahlua in the frosting. It was delicious! And very moist. Everyone ate big pieces. Mama Rita's friend, Gina, came by later and had a slice with her tea. She kept saying how good it was. Thumbs up all around.

The day was fun, the cake was a hit, and that is all from us for now. Peace out!

Last Week's Catch-Up

2009-01-13T00:26:00.004-05:00

**I usually upload my photos sized medium. This time I tried it on large. Let me know in the comments which you prefer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I last left you, we were gearing up for the hockey game. We took the GO Train in early and went for dinner at this really good Italian restaurant we happened to stumble upon by accident. I had the Linguine Pomodoro which was superb. All fresh vegetables and fresh made pasta. It was too dark at our table for me to take a photo. Maybe next time. Anyhow, I had my back to the entrance of the restaurant and Jim was sitting across the table from me. We were having some wine and enjoying our meal and I could see Jim intently looking at something behind me. He said "Holy shit. There's Doug Flutie." I turned around to see this nice looking guy hobbling along being escorted by the manager to the back of the restaurant. We continued eating and then Jim does it again. "Holy shit. It's Pinball Clemons." He was also being escorted by the manager, but he was smiling away like always. I swear he's one of the happiest people on this planet. Of course this whole time, my camera is in my coat pocket, so I dug it out and as luck would have it.....no one else came in. We inquired with our waitress and she said there had been some Argonauts alumni thing happening the day before or that morning. I guess they just came to hang out and have dinner.
We finished eating in good time to leisurely walk back to the ACC and wandered around the arena before the game. It turned out to be an excellent game with the Leafs beating the Senators 3-1.

He shoots, but didn't score on this one.

Tempers flare and boys are boys. This is always good for getting the crowd riled up.
Since this game was nationally televised, there were a few more commercial breaks than other times. While the TV station is doing it's thing, they show random stuff on the big screens on the time clock over center ice. During the third period, they were just showing shots of people in the crowd because we all like to be seen. Low & behold, Jim & I were up there! Wooooo! My 1.5 seconds of fame. Again, my camera was not ready, so no photo.

This is the Leafs mascot, Carlton. I love him. It was also Armed Forces night and it was great to see a lot of military men & women enjoying the game.

After, they were invited to come down onto the ice with their families and have their pictures taken. A great night all around.

A few days later, we got hit with snow. I took Simon down the the park for a walk and saw all these geese sauntering around.

As calm & blue & beautiful as it can be sometimes, Lake Ontario can also be grey, cold & dismal.

Simon has found something particularly interesting in this bush. Isn't he just so cute!

Less than a week after the hockey game, we were back on the GO Train, heading to Toronto for AC/DC!!

Another AMAZING show! We had better seats this time and were totally blown away again.

Angus delighted everyone with a KICK ASS guitar solo. If they are around your way, go! You will not be disappointed. You might have fuzzy ears for a day or so, but it's soooo worth it.
I have more pictures from the first concert and this one up on Facebook. If you use Facebook, but we haven't connected yet, look me up. I'll gladly add you as a friend.

Of course there has been recipe testing going on. Here is a sampling of what I've made.

Coco-manda muffins

Chocolate-Chipotle Chili

Bajan Rum Punch

Spaghetti Con Salsa Fresca

Focaccia

Pumpkin Risotto with Sage & Sun-dried Tomatoes

Smoky Split Pea Soup

Nouveau Pot Au Feu

Def-Jam Bars

Farfalle with Fennel

Poivrons Farcis

Sogni Dori ("Sweet Dream" Cookies) - Santa was very excited about these. Rudolph & Yukon Cornelius were just as impressed. Bumble was out of luck. He has no teeth.

Some Missed Highlights

2009-01-03T11:49:00.007-05:00

Happy 2009! I hope everyone had a good New Year. There were a couple of things that I missed posting about, only because things were so busy near the end of the year. I really like working for the LCBO, but Christmas time is nuts.

Early Dec. we had our staff Christmas party. We were supposed to wear tacky Christmas sweaters. We didn't own such a thing and when we went shopping, there was very little to be found. We even checked Goodwill & Salvation Army stores. We ended up getting matching fleece vests with snowmen & snowflakes on them. Jim found a gross tie & I wore a string of lights necklace, Christmas tree earrings, and socks. We figured dressing the same added to the tackiness factor.

My co-worker, Dave, held the party at his house. He won for having the ugliest Christmas sweater.

Pretty tacky, eh?

The day after the party we drove into Toronto to meet up with my brother, Brian. YAY!! He was here from Fredericton to write a certification exam. We met him at his hotel and hung out the whole day. It was so nice to see him.

Here is Brian & Jim walking to the ROM on one of the coldest days we've had so far this year. It was nice when we finally got inside. Brian suggested going to the museum & it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We saw suits of armour. People were certainly small in those days. Some of those wouldn't even fit me. There were lots of religious artifacts as well.

Some beautiful stained glass

This carved piece depicting Christ's Crucifixion was so intricately detailed - just stunning.

This porcelain piece with the Virgin and the babe was one of my favorites of the day. I love the cherubs all around the outside.

Brian wanted to hit the Egyptian section, so we wandered over there. This is always a popular spot.

Here's a picture of Brian taking a picture of a sarcophagus.

Mummified hawk on the left and 2 mummified cats. Probably someone's pets that they really cared about.
There were a lot of stone carvings around of different gods, kings, etc. There was one statue that was on the floor with a glass wall built around it. The wall stood maybe 2 feet high. There was a man on a cell phone, talking away, while his toddler daughter was romping around behind the glass!! I was so stunned, I couldn't speak. Imagine...an ancient Egyptian statue and he lets his toddler climb around on it. When he saw us, he picked her up and scuttled away. The ignorance of some people.

Brian then spotted in this guide that there was a bat cave! He wanted to go see that.

Here he is in the cave, looking for bats.

Found some!

They weren't real bats. It was a mock set up, modelled after a real bat cave. It was kinda cool in a creepy sort of way.

A trip to the museum isn't complete without a stop to look at dinosaur bones!

We had such a nice afternoon. The museum was closing so we decided to go for dinner before Brian's flight back home. While we were at the restaurant, he got a text message from his girlfriend, Emma, saying that there was a big snowstorm, his flight had been postponed and his car would be buried for sure. He tried to call Emma, but no luck, so he phoned Dad and got him to check flight status. Everything seemed to be on schedule so we proceeded with a relaxing dinner, grabbed a couple of pictures -
and headed to Pearson. When Brian left, I wanted to cry. Sometimes I miss my family so much. I talked to Brian a week or so later and he said his flight almost got cancelled, but in the end, was delayed for a couple of hours. When he got to Fredericton, his car was buried and he didn't get home until almost 3:30am! It's a month or so before he hears anything about the exam he wrote. Fingers crossed for a good grade!

In mid-December we went to The Oakville Centre For Performing Arts for a show by Classic Albums Live. They choose a classic album and play it from start to finish in it's entirety. Note for note. Cut for cut. Then there is a short intermission and after, they'll do "The Best Of" whichever artist they are playing that night. The show we saw was AC/DC's Back in Black. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the show was. I would definitely go again. If they happen to appear at a venue near you, check it out. You can get a little bit more information on the group here.

Tonight we're going to the hockey game! Woot!Woot!

Jim received these from a customer. Gold seats, row 13. Excellent! The Leafs have been doing pretty shitty this year, but on the plus side, Ottawa is totally sucking it. This is a huge rivalry, so should be lots of fun. We're grabbing the GO train early and going for dinner first.

Then....next Friday....SOLD OUT AC/DC!

(Fan video is from the November show at Rogers Centre)

Now that the holidays are over, I seem to have a bit more time on my hands, so I hope to visit blogs and catch up. I'm also busy testing recipes for Dynise, so I'll be blogging about some of those soon as well. Have a great weekend!

Happy Ending

2008-12-31T00:08:00.002-05:00

This will be my last post of 2008, so I wanted to end the year on a happy note. My friend, Alex, posted this on his blog.

Have a look!

I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy & prosperous New Year!

Christmas Feast

2008-12-29T10:02:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas this year. Ours was very nice and my favorite part of the day, enjoying good food with family & friends, was the best.

Michelle & Joe came to partake with us. (Look at Jim in the middle. He's got a drink in each hand! I never noticed that until now. What the heck?)

Mama Rita & Jade also joined in the fun. One of things I served as an appetizer was bruschetta from Dynise's upcoming book, "The Urban Vegan: 250 Street-Smart, Animal Free Recipes"
This earned rave reviews from everyone.

Michelle says "Yummy!"
Michelle & Joe helped with some of the dinner by making a couple of dishes at home and bringing them with them. If you notice a large cardboard box in the background of the photos (like here), it's not part of my usual decor - it's what they used to transport the food, which included a turkey that Joe roasted for the meat-eaters.

Here they are overseeing some of the preparations.

"Someone" who wasn't really in the mood to have a picture taken. HAHA!

Simon was excited to have everyone come visit, but very well behaved. Michelle & Joe both said he was the best behaved dog they had ever seen. He did his mom proud. Of course he had to have a cuddle from Jade.

And he wanted to show off one of his presents from Santa. A Leafs practice jersey. He is so ready for the next game.

Dinner was ready and everyone was anxious to eat!

The cranberry sauce on the table this year was also compliments of Dynise. Quince-Cranberry to be exact. This is a recipe I tested and it is so freakin' delicious, this will be my go-to cranberry sauce every year.

My plate, starting at 12:00 - stuffing (kept out of the bird) made by Joe, mashed potatoes with fake turkey gravy, Quorn roast, made by Michelle, quince-cranberry sauce, turnip puff made by Michelle, roasted carrots & in the middle, brussels sprouts with hazelnuts.

Everyone ate lots. Jade especially liked her dinner. Can't you tell by the look on her face. She's such a ham!
Michelle says enough is enough with the pictures already, let's just eat.

Jade's boyfriend, Aaron arrived to have dessert with us, which was yet another recipe test.

Berry Tart! Did Aaron like it?

Looks like it.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy it too. It was very easy to make and looked so elegant. It wasn't too heavy either which made it a nice ending for a big meal.

A great time was had by all and we looked forward to Boxing Day. It's so much more relaxing.

Simon spent a lot of the day chewing his new toy. "Santa" appears to be a Leafs fan. Let's hope the 2nd half of their season is better than the first. We've got tickets for the game on Jan. 3. Leafs vs. Ottawa. There's a big rivalry there so it should be wild!

I'll Be Seeing You Mr. Adams

2008-12-19T14:54:00.008-05:00

WOOT! WOOT! I got me some tickets to see Bryan Adams at Copps Coliseum in March. Floor Seats, Row 11!
NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA, (sing it) Cuts Like a Knife......

Pay It Forward

2008-12-06T06:32:00.001-05:00

I got in on the Pay It Forward Challange with Amanda at Walking the Vegan Line. The rules are very simple....I will send the first three people who leave a comment on this post a special little gift/treat with a Canadian theme within the next 365 days (that seems to be the kind of time frame everyone is using) I am willing to post anywhere in the world, so don’t let that stop you from commenting. The catch is that you have to have a blog and be willing to do the same thing....And since I can't send everyone who comments a gift, my gift to the rest of you are two recipes of your choice! Obviously these would have to be something that you've seen on my blog already. ( Dynise's test recipes are not included in this since her book hasn't even been published yet)