Pasta & Peaches

Summer is the busiest time for us workwise, but Jim & I had a rare day off together, so I wanted to have a nice dinner for just the two of us. I hadn't made this for quite a while so I dug out the recipe and got started. It's from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry and it's basically Tofu Parmigiana. Slices of tofu are dipped into a savory bread crumb mixture, baked, then baked again in pasta sauce & are smothered with cheese. I like to serve this on a bed of pasta. Tonight we had whole wheat fettuccine and I tossed some sauteed vegetables into the sauce.

This dish has never failed me and I've made it at least half a dozen times. There is a bit of prep involved, but it is really simple to put together and the baking time all totalled is 1/2 an hour.

We also had a lovely garden salad with Sweet Red Wine Vinaigrette from La Dolce Vegan. Mmmm! So yummy!

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For our wine selection of the evening, I chose this -

I bought this a long time ago and kind of forgot about it. I got it for two reasons - the vineyard is under conversion to be organic and the wine comes from Moldova. I've never had wine from Moldova, so I was curious to give it a try. I remember it wasn't very pricey either, so if it was crappy, then I wouldn't be out a lot of money. What a surprise! This was a really good wine! It was flavourful & smooth - very delicious.

***Just a side note here....strangely enough, after we had this, the new bi-weekly Vintages catalogue arrived at the store and when I was looking through it, the 2004 vintage of this wine was due to be released Sept. 1. The 2004 offering is fully organic & a great value at $10.95. There's no tasting notes in the blurb written, but our Product Consultant, Terry, said he'd tried it and it was a pretty good wine. So, if you're in Ontario, (or anywhere else) pick up a bottle.

I'd gotten a sweet deal on a basket of peaches & wanted to use them in a dessert dish of some kind.

I ended up making Peach Crisp from this recipe.

It tasted delicious, but I wasn't keen on the amount of flour added in with the fruit. But I figured Martha Stewart knew what she was doing. I know the flour was to keep the bottom of the crisp from becoming a soup, but the filling ended up being kind of thick & a bit glue-like. Hmmmm.....I think next time I will just add a couple of tablespoons.

It tasted heavenly with Cool Whip on top. Of course!

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I found this article by way of Sarah Kramer's blog. The dog mentioned at the beginning of the piece ended up being OK. Last I heard the owner was trying to get him back saying he'd rescued Cyrus (that's the dog) from a shelter and he really loves his dog. Uh-huh. Maybe the man is just clueless. How can you leave a dog in your car in sweltering temps for hours? When Tre Smith found the dog, it was unconcious and foaming at the mouth. It was originally though it would have brain damage. Would you leave your child or another human being in a locked car like this? Of course not. The article also mentions a book called 'Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call to Mercy', by Matthew Scully. Has anyone read this book? If so, thoughts?

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4:46pm - I just logged on the internet again and saw this. What the fuck is wrong with people??!! I'm sick of this "where he comes from" cop out. He's from United States and it's ILLEGAL!! Maybe I just don't understand, but considering I'm with the majority.......

I just don't get how anyone can defend him.

Toronto FC

We decided it would be easiest to take the GO Train into Toronto for the game because there is a stop right at BMO Field.

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Before we got to the station, it started raining and we got caught in a gigantic downpour running from the parking lot into the station to get our tickets. Jim & I were both soaked. I could have taken my pants off and wrung them out and probably gotten over a cup of water out of them. My shoes and socks were swimming and were squishy even after we got home. I wasn't going to let the bad weather put a damper on our day because I had been looking forward to it for weeks. Once we got onto the train and got past Oakville, the sun came out and it stayed nice for the rest of the day. Figures. There were a lot of Toronto FC fans on the train & there were some hard core fans sitting near us, so we got talking and it got us even more pumped for the night ahead.
Once we hit our stop at the exhibiton grounds, we showed our soccer tickets and got free admission to the CNE. Since we had a couple of hours to kill, we decided to walk around and check things out. We were greeted by a little Oom-pah band.

There were a lot of people milling around.

We checked out some of the games, vendors & exhibits. One that was particularly interesting was a look at the CNE from years past. We were getting a little hungry, so we headed to the food building. Our first stop?

Had to get me a beavertail! Beavertails are a delicious Canadian treat. It's a piece of fried dough, shaped like a beaver's tail that is served warm, usually with cinnamon & sugar or maple. You can get all kinds of funky, weird toppings now like Reese's Pieces or cream cheese frosting, but I like mine plain & simple.

Jim & I both got cinnamon sugar. Mmmmmm! These are so freakin' delicious. They are not greasy or heavy at all. When made properly, they are light, crispy and heavenly.

We wanted to get into the stadium early so off we went.


When we got in, some of the players from DC United were practicing on the field. We walked around for a bit and found our seats then watched the teams as they came out to do a warm up. We had a great view. We sat in the lower section, row 9, just right of midfield.

At this point the stands were pretty empty.

Now it's getting better.

By the time the game was underway, the place was packed with loud, rowdy fans. It made for a very electric atmosphere.

Final score - DC United 1, Toronto FC 0. Didn't matter, we had a blast. We're now hoping to get to another game. There are only 4 home games left and the tickets are sold out, but there's always Ebay!

Recipe & Secrets

One of Jim's regular customers is Chuck Swirsky, voice of The Raptors. He called Jim a couple of weeks ago and asked him to to stop by for a service call. Since he just lives in Burlington, Jim was able to get over there right away. As a thank you, he gave Jim & his partner, Ron these -

Tickets for Toronto FC, Toronto's team in the Major Soccer League! I am so pumped for this! Dave that I work with at the LCBO went to a game last month & said the atmosphere is unbelievable. Woot!!











I found a recipe in a Weight Watchers cookbook that sounded interesting, so I gave it a whirl. The recipe called for chicken, so I substituted with Quorn.


This was very easy to make and had a delicious sauce. I've included the recipe at the end if you'd like to try it.

I also made little tiny roasted potatoes with rosemary and some garlic sauteed kale. Mmmmm!


Crystal over at Cafe Cyan blogged about a barley dish she'd made and was nice enough to post the recipe. I really wanted to try it and made it the next night as a side for the left over Quorn & kale. The recipe called for quick-cooking barley. I'd heard about quick-cooking barley, but have never been able to find it. On our last cross-border shopping trip I bought some, but as of yet, hadn't tried it. Now was my chance.

This is weird stuff. It's not round like barley, but flat. And the bits were big. It's like they cooked barley, sliced the pieces thin, then dried it. It cooked up really fast, but didn't have much of a taste. Once I use up what I have, don't think I'd buy any more. But - Crystal's recipe was very nice. The day I went shopping, there were no snap peas to be had -very strange - so I used snow peas instead. I also didn't include the tofu this time, but would like to try it with.

The Quorn and kale reheated nicely, and round two of this dish was almost as good as the first.

The barley pilaf was still on my mind so I decided to try it with regular barley. I just added the vegetables near the end of the cooking time so everything would be done at the same time. I also really lazed about this time and used frozen peas.

This turned out just as good! Barley is so delicious and I'd like to have it more often. It's not just for soup.



So here's the recipe for the "chicken" with a few simple modifications.



"Chicken" Braised in Red Wine


2 veggie bacon strips
2-3 pounds "chicken" (quorn, seitan, even tofu, cut, if necessary, into serving sized pieces)
2½ cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1¾ cups veggie chicken broth
1 cup dry red wine
2 tbsp. tomato paste
½-¾ tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf


Spray a large non-stick saucepan or soup pot with non-stick spray and heat over medium-high heat; add the veggie bacon and cook until crisped. Remove and set aside to cool, then dice. Add some oil to cover the bottom of the pot and add the quorn. Cook until browned on both sides. Remove from pot & set aside.

Add mushrooms, onions and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their juices, 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle with the flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute more. Add the broth, wine, tomato paste, thyme & bay leaf; bring to a boil. Add the quorn & bacon and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 30-40 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the quorn and vegetables to a bowl.

Discard bay leaf, then bring the sauce to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling, stirring, until it has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. Return the quorn & vegetables to the pot & heat through.


Serves 4-6


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One blog that I very much enjoy and that I'm sure most of you have heard about is Post Secret. People mail in their "secrets" on a post card and the blog owner, Frank, posts new "secrets" every Sunday. He's been the subject of newspaper articles, published books, done tours, and been interviewed on television by none other than former Much Music VJ, Kim Clarke Champniss. (You more "mature" Canadians will remember him). ;o)
Anyhow, this week is a special installment of Postsecret - it's a mini-movie. Check it out here. Once you start visiting this blog, you'll be hooked.

New Discoveries

Thank you to Simon for taking over blogging duties for me for a bit. Things have been a little busy. Last week, I logged in 73 hours of work. Whew! This week will be less hectic with only 65.5 hours. Anyhow, onto food.

I had heard about this Gardein brand of vegan mock meat products. I don't remember where, but it was a while ago. Then one day, just as easy as you please, there they were on the grocery store shelf. A bonus - they're Canadian!

I picked up a package of the Chick'n Filets in a Mediterranean herb & spice rub for $4.99. It was only 200g. Ouch! There were about 6 or 8 "fillets" in the package, but they were small fillets. The first try, I just heated them up and ate "as is." Umph. Nothing special. I used the other half of the package making a chick'n salad sandwich with some Stonemill multi-grain bread, lettuce & vegenaise That was better. There are other flavours in the line-up, but I haven't given them a try yet.

A couple of weeks later, I was at Fortino's and I spotted this -

I picked it up to look at it and read the ingredient list and I saw it was made by the Gardein company for President's Choice. I found a much better website for them listed on the package. I figured I'd give them another try. I decided on fajitas with rice & beans.

I had this package of Vigo Red Beans & Rice I found at Ultra Mart. It was also something we hadn't tried before. There were 4 or 5 different kinds of Vigo products on the shelf, but this was the only one I found that didn't contain some sort of chicken.


There was also a special on peppers, so I was able to get a variety of colours to make things all pretty.

The strips were a much bigger hit in this dish, than the plain fillets were. I had whole wheat tortillas, some delicious Neal Brothers Salsa and sour 'creme'.

The fajitas were delicious! I think I ate one too many.

I very much liked the rice & beans too. I will definitely buy this again. It had a very nice flavour. Too much nice flavour I think. We were both too full for dessert. :o)

On another note - one that is sad, disgusting and downright horrific - Michael Vick & the dogfighting case. I am not a football fan of any sort, so I didn't even know who this guy was until I heard about the dogfighting. I am sickened beyond belief. You can sign an on-line petition HERE and another one HERE.

To lighten things up a bit after you've signed the petitions, head over to Sarah Kramer's blog and check out this post for her hubby. I think you have great taste Sarah!!

For TK

Tanya Kristine from Are You My Mother? (or TK to her pals) asked where I was. Isn't she a darling inquiring about moi? I'm always here, but I lead a very busy life. From running around like freak, rubbing my face on the carpet, patrolling the grounds, etc. to terrorizing Pete, a jack-a-poo that lives downstairs who used to rule this building, until I moved in. I showed him who was boss. I bit his bum in the elevator & now he bows down to me - as he should. I hardly have time for my other favorite activites of going for walks or to the dog park, let alone blogging much. But since Mom is working ridiculous hours, I decided to take over the duties for this post and show you all yet ANOTHER of my favorite activites. Destroying toys I'm given.

This is what happens when I get a squeaky stuffed toy. First, I head for the bed and proceed to mess it up as I attack the toy.

Now I've gotten the tag off. My quest is to get the squeaker. If Mommy is in the other room and hears me squeaking it, it always makes her laugh.

Still working hard! The more I chew and fling it around, the messier the bed gets.

What?

Now I'm getting pissed.

Finally! Success!


I'll pull all the fluff out. I take chunks in my mouth, pull it out, spit it aside and dig in for more. This is awesome fun!

Now I've got that damn squeaker. I'll puncture it so it won't squeak anymore.



I'll just dig around for a while longer & pull the last remnants of fluff out. Now I'll rip at the carcass for a while. Then, exhausted.....



It's time for another one of my favorite activities, sleeps!