(via NYTimes.com)

I’ve never had a proper shaved ice before, but this New York Times article makes them sound amazing! I’m not a fan of the unitasker, but it makes me want a shaved ice machine.

All the crazy flavours sound like my kinda heaven heaven!

They’d be so good for summer barbeques – those beautiful, vivid syrups poured over sparkling ice are so pretty and impressive looking – but really, the whole process sounds quite easy – make a syrup, shave some ice. Easy and impressive, perfect for summer entertaining!

I made this toad-a-hole with Japanese taro bread I got from my local Asian supermarket, so if the bread looks purple, it’s because it was! Naturally purple bread!

Toad-in-a-hole is pretty much my favourite breakfast. It’s even more delicious with taro bread.

Lady Marmalade

(via thimble)

Lauren @thimble just reminded me of how much I LOVE Lady Marmalade here in Leslieville. It’s perfect for when you want a laid back brunch, that’s a little more indie rock than oldies rock.

They actually have something called: Breakfast Poutine on the menu. Breakfast. Poutine. Yeah!

It seems there’s even another location way out west in Victoria, so all you West Coasters can give it a try too!

10 Hot Dogs You Can Hang On Your Wall | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn

I am the hugest fan of regional and street foods. I have gone out of my way to try Beef on Wecks, deep fried Twinkies, and Persians. So it’s lovely to see our very own regional variation on the hot dog enshrined in illustration.

Photo of the Day: 28-Layer Rainbow Cake | Serious Eats

Gore. Geous.

My favourite birthday cake growing up was definitively: Rainbow. With Rainbow chip icing of course! Yeah, it came out of a box. But it was transcendent.

Tommorow is my birthday.

For it, I want the following:

1. To visit the museum.
2. To eat oysters.
3. To go ice skating.
4. To have red velvet cake.

Thank goodness January is almost over. It’s my least favourite month next to… Oh. February. Ick. There’s that to look forward to…

This January, I planned ahead a little and decided to not let it get me down. Or at least, less down, anyways.

Here are the things that have been getting me through:

1. Frye engineer boots.

   They were a big Christmas/Birthday present from my mom (my Birthday is in Early Feb.) They are warm and cosy, but also tough, resiliant and kick ass. With a warm pair of socks, they pretty much stomp on the heads of those (admittedly practical, but sorta fugly) sorels that everyone’s been wearing this year. And they’re going to last forever and look more and more amazing as they get broken in. As a bonus I feel like a superhero in the things.

2. Columbia Dietrich Trench.

   It was also a Christmas present (we found it for mega sale at Winners!). It is exactly what I wanted and I was surprised to stumble across it for such a reasonable price. It is a warm little wrapper of a coat that looks like sophisticated trench on the outside, but is actually kinda sporty and functional on the inside. Best of both worlds! It’s even pretty aptly named – If you enjoy swanning about in a moody, foggy, pre-war, noir-ish fashion. And I do.

3. EA Sports Active for the Wii, with a little of Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout thrown in for good measure.

   After a summer spent walking and swimming whenever possible, I pretty much lazed around all fall, and I felt icky for it. When both my sister and my brother’s girlfriend got Wii fitness games for Christmas, I started seriously considering the possibilities of using that cute little white box as a legitimate fitness tool. So I did a little research and decided to make Liam take me out and buy me my Birthday present early – in the form of these two games.

   So, are they a real workout?

   Yes, Definitely.

   I am sore in all the right places after playing them, especially the EA game. While the resistance band that comes with the game is a little wimpy, as are the warmups, I am definitely feeling the burn, as it were. You don’t get too bored, as there’s a different balanced workout everyday. You can set it to whatever level of activity you feel you’re able to handle, and it’s not judgey (unlike the Wii Fit), just encouraging. Which is really the best part. It makes it really easy to set up a schedule, and follow through with working out everyday.

   It is, however, still working out. You will sweat. You will get sore. You will not forget that you’re working out. It’s fun, yeah, but not as much fun as playing a traditional video game. Although you do get to do it from the comfort of your own home.

   Gold’s Gym is just a fun cardio boxing game that’s a good addition to Sports Active when you’re getting bored with the more traditional workout it offers. Punching stuff is fun. Period.

4. A slowcooker.

   My mom got this slowcooker magazine/cookbook for Christmas in her stocking and I drooled all over it. We didn’t have a slowcooker, but thankfully they are cheap things to own. We found a cute one for 25 bucks, bought our own copy of the cookbook and have cooked our way through the thing, and every dish has been delish. Seriously, I have seldom used a cookbook so thoroughly, and I have a HUGE cookbook collection. Highly, highly recommended. Plus, I am totally won over by this whole “slowcooker” thing. It’s so cozy to have yumminess stewing in the house all day during these long, cold days.

5. Nivea Smooth Replenishing lotion.

   Yeah, this is just a cheap drugstore lotion. But it is also MAGIC. My skin went insane this winter with this crazy eczema thing, and nothing, NOTHING made it feel better. It was literally like wearing tight leather gloves made of my own skin on top of my hands and it was peely and bumpy, and euuuuuuuuughhhhh sooooooo gross and uncomfortable. I tried EVERYTHING. Mostly organic and natural remedies.

   I finally got a sample of this stuff in a magazine, and thought why not? Things couldn’t possibly get any worse. Things didn’t get worse. They got better. My ouchies magically went away. Poof!

   So I ran out and got a bottle and things have been hunky dory and super soft ever since.

So it’s been a while. And I have so much to share!

But I’m trying to get this (likely) pandemic flu out of me first. It’s set up shop in my respitory system, and it’s taking it’s sweet time moving on.

In the meantime, we bought a PS3 with some of our wedding funds, so I’ve been playing a lot of Fat Princess.

I also bought myself a copy of Julia Child’s mastering the art of French cooking so I can replicate some of the French food I had on my honeymoon – so much butter and cream, I hope I don’t myself become a fat princess!!! I get to use the beautiful Staub cocette I brought back from Paris, which makes everything a little yummier and a little easier.

Last night I recreated that scene from Julie and Julia where Amy Adams makes Beouf Bourguignon and pretty green gimlets. Except for I didn’t get drunk and burn it, of course!

This weekend, my mom and sister threw me a wedding shower, and it’s lovliness cannot be overstated.

The food was super amazing!!! Pink and green tea sanwiches, broccoli slaw, spinach and strawberry salad, devilled eggs, crab puffs, and a chicken-pesto sanwiches cake (yes, a sanwich shaped like a cake, iced in cream cheese!).

And desert… Tea! In my grandmothers mismatched tea cups, with scones and clotted cream, berry trifle, and the teensy-tiniest doll sized eclairs you’ve ever seen!

On top of that, there was raspberry lemonade, passion iced tea, and a house full of pink, green and white flowers and decorations.

They really went above and beyond.

Despite some minor mishaps (a lot of cancellations, a car accident and localized torrential downpours) it was a pretty perfect afternoon, and even better that I got to share it with my nearest and dearest!

Finally working on the invites. Actually the bulk of the work is done. I’ve been slow and sluggish working on things, but I want to get it right.

Other than that, I’m enjoying the summer, in a variety of ways. We went to my familys cottage last week, and yesterday we took a stroll down the street through little India looking for shawls for me and my bridesmaids. I dreamed of dressing like an extra in the Darjeeling Limited – and was nearly convinced to by a lady in a shop who told me: “everyone should wear sari!”

Then we got a snack from a street vendor – fresh grilled corn on the cob smothered in butter, lime juices and spices – amazing!

I would apologise for for the lack of reading material, but what are you doing inside reading this? Get out there, enjoy it too!

We love pie. You know that. It’s a major theme for our wedding, for goodness sake!

So when we heard there was a new pie shop open in our neck of the woods, we had to swing by and check it out.

The place is calledthe Pie Shack, and it’s a cosy little beachy spot with lovely communal harvest tables, and a doghouse outside for the requisite, resident puppy.

But more importantly, the pies! Oh the pies!

They are indescribably good – buttery and impossibly flakey – I have a sneaking suspicion that the pie dough is not exactly regulation. A sign mentions that those with nut allergies might be wary, as there is almond in the crust, but I feel the secret is that it is more akin to puff pastry, or a croissant. Imagine: layer, after buttery layer of flakey delight!

I got a slice of apple pie, and there was an option for cheddar, so I took it. Because if there’s one thing I love more than pie it’s cheese, and if there’s one thing I love more than cheese, it’s pie served with a side of cheese, and the only thing better than that, is when the cheese is MELTED ON TOP OF THE PIE… DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL…

Yeah. It was good stuff.

We have been making beer at a local u-brew in preparation for the wedding. Not only does this save us money, but it is a whole lot of fun to experiment with!

We’ve found a spot that can make pretty much any kind of beer you can dream up – so far we’ve made an easy-on-the-corriander belgian white beer, and next up is oatmeal stout with a whisper of coffee!

Despite the rather cool weather we’ve been having we managed to find a sunny afternoon to enjoy our beer in our new lawn chairs (they were Ikeas’s last two in the whole province. I love their bright red colour – it really pops against the grass, and makes them feel funky and retro and maybe a little european to me).

We had a great long weekend. An especially nice day was had on Saturday, as we took a trip to Kensington Market and popped into my favorite little Mexican grocer to pick up some exotic, fun ingredients. This is part of my vow to make this summer the Summer of the Burrito, in this house.

I always get stuck in a rut come the hot months, cooking my house into a humid, hot mess (soup? in August? What was I thinking!) when I should be eating foods that require little to no cooking! So the Summer of the Burrito is my way of combating that. They can be stuffed with lots of fresh ingredients, grilled meats, and if I want to make rice and beans ahead of time in the cooler parts of the day, they’re pretty self contained in a pot, and they re-heat super easy! And all I need to have around to make it happen is lots of tortillas, which keep much longer than bread does (which is an an issue in house of only two people – you can never finish the whole loaf before it goes stale).

It’s a pretty ideal plan, actually.

What did I get in the market? Wonderful fresh tomatillos, a poblano pepper, 4 ridiculously cheap limes, a few delicious sodas (made with cane sugar!) and a bar of mexican hot chocolate – man is that stuff good! I’m actually wondering if it would taste good chilled over ice, but I also enjoy a little hot chocolate in the summer sometimes too. It reminds me of my grandparents, who used to let me run through the sprinkler in their backyard, but then would wrap me in towels and give me hot chocolate afterwards.

The tomatillios found their way into a salsa verde, of course. I’ve been making a lot of my own condiments recently because, well, I kinda have this thing for them. My fridge is crammed full of condiments. So I’ve vowed, rather than let the fridge burst at the seams I’m making more of my own. And salsa is a great place to start it’s so easy, and – with a little salt and citric acid to preserve it, it will last for a couple weeks (in the fridge of course). Best of all fresh homemade salsa is soooooooo much better than the bottled stuff!

Salsa Verde

• 1 pound tomatillos
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1-3 dried chilis (or preferred hot sauce to taste)
• 1 tbsp lime juice (+ zest if you like!)
• 1 tbsp cilantro paste (or a small handful of the fresh stuff)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp citric acid (available in the spice aisle)

1. Put everything into a blender or food processor and blend!
2. Done! Serve!

I have been searching for old fireking mugs, for pretty much as long as I’ve been thrifting – and I’ve been hitting the sally annes and charity shops for a very long time (I did grow up in the nineties, after all). I only ever find ugly orange and brown seventies ones, or McDonald’s branded eighties one. Ideally, I’d like the pretty primary coloured fifties and sixties ones.

There is a beautiful diamond patterned set my family shares up at our cottage, in all 4 colours (red, yellow, turquoise and dark green) still in great condition… But of course I can’t just take those. They belong to the cottage.

Finally, a few weeks ago, while thrifting, I ran across this old beaut! He’s not in perfect condition, but he’s charming nevertheless.

Most mornings now, I fill him up (rather triumphantly) with some good South African rooiboos.

My friend (and bridesmaid) Amy’s doing the hundred mile diet, and it’s sorta my fault (long story).

It was Friday afternoon and we had invited her over to dinner that night, when we realised this. Ooops. We couldn’t just show up at the grocery store and grab whatever’s there…

Thankfully, we live in a delightful little neighborhood that happens to have little local and organic butchers, bakers, cheesemongers and green-grocers – all within a 1 block radius of each other.

We picked up some local sourced pizza dough from the Brick Street Bakery, some organic local sheeps-milk gouda from the Leslieville Cheese Shop, some asparagus from my parents backyard, and took it all home where we made it into a pizza blanco with some butter and my home-grown, sun-dried heirloom tomatoes (from last fall’s garden).

It was, hands down, the best pizza I’ve ever had.

There may be something to this whole hundred mile diet thing…

I feel good today. Which is a change, because I have felt sick for the past week.

Which is probably only fair, as my life has been a little whirlwindy for the past month or so. Really, since we announced our engagement – things just haven’t stopped!

There have been Wedding Registries,
And operas about water nymphs,
And fancy birthday dinners at french restaurants,
And homey birthday dinners with the family,
And Engagement parties,
And Ben Kweller concerts,
And iPhones,
And Baseball games,
And Tweetups,
And various parties,
And assorted dinners out,
And sundry meetings…

Payback had to come sometime.

This is a roundabouts way of saying: I’m sorry. I promised Engagement Party recipes, and did not deliver. I hope this makes up for it:

With this menu, I was trying to save me and Liam as much work as possible during the party, so we could enjoy it to the utmost (since we were throwing it for ourselves). That meant things that could be largely pre-prepared, and as much finger food as possible. I knew that I wanted some kind of Chinese barbeque (or char siu) at my Chinese themed party but wasn’t sure how I would serve it to 30 (yes 30!) people.

Then my mother had a brainstorm: Pulled pork can be made in large quantity early in the day, and kept warm in the oven ’til the party. I could make southern Barbecue style, slow cooked, pulled pork sandwiches – but with Chinese flavourings.

Fusion! Genius!

So I made Char Siu pulled pork, and served it with napa cabbage slaw in a creamy ginger-sesame dressing and bought a mountain of little Chinese bakery sweet buns (they look sorta like Pullman rolls, but taste more like eggy brioche – so nummy) with a side of fried rice.

To drink there were pitchers of Singapore slings, ice cold Tsing Taos on the deck.

There were also dumplings to start (frozen ones I got Liam to fry till crispy) and for desert: a mountain of teensy tiny little mandarin oranges, fortune cookies and a tower of cherry chip cupcakes (thank goodness for Betty Crocker) with homemade cream cheese icing, and a shiny chocolate cherry on top.

It was a huge spread, and other than the frying of the fried rice and dumplings, everything pretty much got done before the party! We were able to mostly just sit back and relax, as all our closest friends poured in. In other words: it was ideal, in more ways than one.

my version of char siu (Chinese barbeque)

• 2 tbsp five spice powder
• 2 tbsp apricot jam
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (a good Chinese soy sauce, preferably)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar – or honey
• 1 tsp chili-garlic sauce
• 5 pounds trimmed, deboned pork shoulder or butt

1. Mix well, rub onto pork shoulder or butt (marinate overnight, if desired).
2. Bake in roasting pan at 250 for 5-8 hours – until meat starts to fall apart (flipping meat every hour or so).
3. Remove meat from marinade/juices/sauce and shred. Add sauce back in and serve (meat may be refrigerated and served the next day, or kept warm, covered, in the oven for an hour or two).

PS: if your cut of meat turns out to be particularly lean, and ends up a tad dry, you can make more of the marinade to serve as a sauce in liu of the juices from the pork. I would omit the five spice and add a little oil. This is especially good if your are making it ahead of time, and reheating it later.

slaw with ginger sesame dressing

• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 scallions (chopped)
• 1 head napa cabbage (chopped into slaw)

1. Blend all but scallions in a blender or food processor til’ thick and creamy.
2. Mix in scallions, and dress napa cabbage slaw. Serve on fluffy buns piled high with pulled pork!

fried rice

• 4 cups cooked, leftover rice
• 1 carrot (grated)
• 1 red pepper (diced)
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp oil (vegetable)
• 2 scallions chopped

1. Pre-heat pot (or wok) with 1 tbsp oil.
2. Saute vegetables in frying pan with sesame oil, and garlic until peas are de-frosted.
3. Fry rice in hot oil in pot, until rice is warmed through – scraping bottom of pot continuously to keep it from sticking.
4. Add vegetables to rice, remove pot from heat.
5. Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to frying pan, add eggs and 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, and scramble.
6. Add scallions, soy sauce and scrambled egg to rice, and serve.

We did it!

We threw ourselves a fabulous engagement party! Everything turned out amazingly well – the food was delicious, the apartment looked great, all our friends showed up, everyone had enough space to hang out, and I think we all had a great time (I know I did!).

I’ll be posting all the recipes from the night shortly (by overwhelming request, actually – totally the sign of a good spread!).

In the meantime, you can take a look at our pictures from the big night.

Just for fun, you can also take a look at this Flickr set of an amazing kids birthday party by Andrea of Hula Seventy – which was totally the inspiration for this party (adults should get to have that much fun too!). I, of course, added a lot of my own interpretation, and made things a little more grown-up (singapore slings and Tsingtao beer for example), but we wouldn’t have had impetus to go all out – like we did – without her inspiration.

Thanks to everyone who came – and to everyone who couldn’t, but wished us well anyways, too!

I originally made this over Christmas for my family – but it’s so pretty, and pink, I think it’s equally appropriate for a Valentines day treat, if you’re so inclined.

And since I’m on my wedding kick, I should mention that I think it’s pretty and special enough that it could even make a wonderful wedding favour!

The secret ingredient here, that makes this really special is the pink peppercorns. If you’ve never had them before, they’re only very mildly peppery, and not really spicy at all. In fact, they have a sort of floral flavour. I think they’re so pretty, and lovely – I need to find more ways to integrate them into my cooking!

Of course, the addition of salt to a chocolate recipe is pretty special too, and adds a unexpected punch. If you wanted to make these even more special – and, more importantly, pink – you could hunt down some pink Himalayan salt. You should be able to find it at most health food stores.

I wouldn’t swap out the dark chocolate for pink or white chocolate though. While it would certainly look pretty, I think the strong flavours of this combination – nutty almonds, sweet and tangy crasins, peppery and floral peppercorns – work best with the rich, earthy flavour of dark chocolate.

pink chocolate bark

• 1 1/4 cups dark chocolate disks
• 3/4 cup crasins
• 3/4 cup almonds (toasted and chopped – I used raw almonds and did both myself)
• 1 tsp pink peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp sea (or pink) salt

1. Melt chocolate in double boiler. Line 9×13 pan with tin foil.
2. Pour chocolate into pan, spread with spatula, shake and gently tap to evenly distribute chocolate.
3. Mix almonds, crasins and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle mix evenly over chocolate. Shake and tap again to evenly distribute nuts and fruit (you can press down any stray bits if necessary). Sprinkle with peppercorns and salt. Let cool at room temperature.
4. Break into bite size pieces, and enjoy!

1. Braved the Snowpocalypse (Snowmaggedon?) to go to my cousins wedding all the way in Welland.

   It was beautiful. Or I assume it was. It took 4 hours to do a 1 hour drive, so we kinda missed the ceremony. We totally rocked the reception though.

2. Avoided the malls like the plague

   Bought or made homemade presents instead.

3. Finished Gears of War II on co-op.

   Sometimes, I like to shoot stuff. This is going to come in handy this year, I think. As stress reliever, I mean.

4. Received my favourite Christmas Present ever: unpasteurized CHEESE!

   Seriously.

   I like cheese. Plus the unpasturized stuff is not really legal here in Ontario. So there’s the added sexy-danger element.

5. Had a nervous breakdown in William Ashely.

   Registries are stressful.

   Bone china? A thousand dollars a place setting? Really? And I need 16 place settings? What?

6. Had an epiphany in Crate and Barrel.

   Registries are wonderful!

   As are stores with beautiful, well designed, edited, reasonably priced house wares (including gorgeous bone china – which is the sturdiest thing you can get, so you should use it for your everyday dishes).

7. Bought Liam new shoes.

   They’re grey checkered high top Vans. They’re pretty cute.

8. Tested out champagne cocktails with friends over New Years.

   Verdict: cheaper is better. Win-win!

9. Built a wedding website.

   Wedsite?

   I dunno. A place on the interweebz to put weddingy crap. It turned out pretty nice. It will launch soon (as soon as Liam puts his copy writing skillz to work and fills in all the blanks).

10. Had poutine.

    Mine was Montreal style with smoked meat, mustard and a pickle. I thought it was pretty good, but I see what people are getting at with the gravy. It had a strong sage flavour, but I like that in a gravy, so I was cool with it.

11. Bought flannel sheets.

    This is a bigger deal than it sounds: Good quality flannel sheets in the winter are one of the best investments you will can make: seriously, they will change, and simultaneously rock your world. Just make sure they aren’t the cheap stiff ones. The soft ones: they are where it’s at.

12. Were taken (for a wonderful engagement present from my sister and her boy) to Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.

    It was amazing, and not as expensive as you’d think There were four of us, and we had 8 entrees (shared tapas style), 5 deserts, a bottle of wine and it came in under two hundred dollars.

    You can’t do that at the keg – and this was much more special.

    The black cod in particular was awesome – really fresh and wonderful, like it had just come out of the ocean. I was in love with the cheese plate – beautiful local Ontario and Quebec cheeses served with honey comb and these amazing little spiced walnuts. The fries are as good as people say they are – although actually, I think Batifole’s are just a little bit better. Just a little though.

13. Bought two wedding dresses.

    Long story.

14. Decided on a venue.

    A very nice venue indeed.

15. Made it through season one of Dexter.

    Not bad.

    Never thought I’d find a Serial Killer adorable, but, I do, I do.

(Boy, was I busy).

In honor of my chocolate diamond ring, here are some unexpected and original uses for chocolate.

1. Root Beer Bundt Cake

   Root Beer has always been my favourite soda flavour, since I was a wee girl, and my parents have the photos to prove my adoration for chocolate cake (everybody has one of those cake-smeared first birthday pictures somewhere, right?). This recipe has me salivating at the very concept of combining the two, and does what the Baked boys do best – capture the joy of childhood in cake form.

2. Chocolate Beer Cupcakes

   Beer. Chocolate.

   Chocolate. Beer.

   Nuff said, am I right?

   Actually, this whole Superbowl menu sounds pretty awesome. I might just find an excuse to have a Superbowl party, even though I can’t stand sports.

3. Chocolate Truffle Tart with Creme Brule

   I am Amelie when it comes to Creme Brule. A meal out just isn’t complete without it – and shame on those fancy chefs out there screwing with the classic and adding all manner of flavoring to overpower it’s simple, sweet, creamy, custardy, caramely glory.

   But this? Placing a classic creme brule on top of a truffle tart? Keeping both flavors distinct, but delightfully paired? I approve. Carry on.

4. Guinness Chocolate Ice Cream

   More beer. More chocolate. This time involving Guinness and ice cream. There is no no. There is only YES!

5. New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie

   This is the one recipe on this list I have tried and loved – and boy did I love. This recipe has been thoroughly making the rounds on the ol’ blogosphere – and for good reason. It’s a revolutionary way of making and old favourite that just might turn your world a little tipsy turvy. Although one needn’t buy into the hype of using special flour, and fancy chips. Just use whatever you have around, the real important part is to let the dough sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours, and to salt the tops before you pop them in the oven. Then prepare for heaven on earth, inside of your mouth.