After that earlier pie post, you knew this was coming, right? And you were excited, right?

There’s been some discussion in the blog-o-sphere that macarons might be the new cupcakes. This is wrong headed. Macarons are simply not nostalgic, comfy, heartwarming treats. Macarons are light and indulgent and fancy. Macarons are maybe the new truffles – but pies are totally the new cupcakes.

1. The Kitchn’s Best Pie Bakeoff

   Just like it sounds, a pie bake-off, but internet based. I like the sounds of the prize winner for “Best Looking Pie”: Candy Apple Pie. Yum.

2. The Piehole

   Did you know Olive, Chuck and Ned had their own little recipe site? Well, They do. Or they, er, rather… did. You too can learn how to make cute little tiny cup pies, or bake with cheese. And then you can sob into your home baked slice about our dearly departed (canceled) friends…
   Fingers crossed for a movie or comic book, people.

3. Pie crafts!

   If you’re handy with felt (or a paypal account, as the case may be), my cats would really appreciate one of these Organic Catnip Pies. Cats should not get left out of the fun of pies.

   Or if you’re handy with knitting needles, I would really appreciate one of these Pie Berets. I would look silly, sure, but I would totally wear it if you made it for me.

4. Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

   This cookbook has been getting raves from all the foodie types on the net, and well deserved ones, it seems. They actually have a recipe for a Root Beer Chocolate cake. Yeah, I know, right?

   But… Pies? You say. Of course. How does a Pumpkin whoopie pie sound? Warm and cosy, just like a pie should? Well then, this book has you covered. It’s fresh, but nostalgic, take on flavours and easy to follow recipes will win you over.

   And the pictures are really, really, really pretty. Which doesn’t hurt either.

5. Apple Pie

   No really.

   Apple. Pie.

   Ummmm… You should probably click on that link and see for yourself.

To be fair, this is only Greek in the sense that Frito pie is Mexican – not very. It’s a sort of fifties style ode to Grecian food that includes pretty much every ingredient associated with the cuisine.

I was actually inspired by something my University cafeteria used to serve, back in ancient history when I lived in a dorm. Not much there was edible, but I have fond memories of the days when they served this.

It’s warm, comforting and filling like a retro casserole – but unlike most cafeteria food, it’s low in fat and packed with veggies. So you get all of the fun of a guilty pleasure dish, with none of the actual guilt.

The best part though, is that the orzo cooks right in the casserole, so this is truly a one pot dish – perfect for a weeknight supper – or maybe even a last minute pot luck. Omit the cheese, and it’s even vegan. Or make protein seekers happy by adding some ground lamb sausage (going along with the greek theme) or shredded chicken. It’s super versatile!

I’ve made this twice so far, and I loved it both times. It’s my new favourite go-to meal, actually. So go to it!

Greek Orzo Bake.

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh spinach (chopped) or 1 cup cooked or frozen (apx 1 package – defrosted, of course)
• 1 1/2 cups orzo (uncooked)
• 1 pepper (red or green – finely chopped)
• 1 red onion (finely chopped)
• 2 cups water or stock
• 1/2 cup black olives (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (finely diced)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta (tossed with 1 tsp olive oil)

1. Combine all ingredients (except for feta and oil) in large, lidded casserole dish, and bake for 20 minutes covered @ 450 f – or until pasta is tender and cooked.
2. Remove cover, stir and return to oven for 10 minutes, or until “sauce” is thick and creamy.
3. Add feta (season with cracked black pepper if desired) and broil for 5 minutes.

(serves 4-6)

I have developed a thing for pies.

I don’t, entirely, know where it came from, (and asking if it was flavoured by a certain favourite TV show, and a certain favourite movie both of which happen to be centred around pies, and pie diners is probably a chicken and egg kinda question for me, frankly).

The pies of my youth were not anything special. I do remember my grandmother’s raspberry rhubarb pie being particularly good (although that certainly had something to do with the raspberries and rhubarb freshly gathered from my grandparents back yard). My grandmother also had a little to do with my undying belief that apple pie is best accompanied by a slice of sharp cheddar cheese (making Chuck’s family on Pushing Daisies my kinda people).

But somewhere along the way, I got bogged down with the unnatural flavour and colour of commercial cherry pie filling, (not to mention it’s inevitable pits and stems), the occasional too-sour cranberry pie, and most of all soggy, torpid, unappealing crusts. I avoided pie, at all costs.

I think it was upon a visit to a pie diner in the outskirts of Seattle where my love for pies first emerged. I have no idea what the place was called, all I know is that they served a mean chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles, and a couple dozen delicious varieties of pie. I wish I could go back there, just to hear the pacific north-western waitress rhyme off the unending list of varieties of heaven-by-the-slice.

Things, recently having come to a head as they have, with visions of pies served in lieu of cake at my own wedding swimming in my head, I decided it was probably time to actually cook up my own pie (a seasonally appropriate butternut squash pie, to be specific).

So, I’m going to recommend if you want to do the same, to immediately go to Smitten Kitchen and read pie crust’s 101, 102 and 103 (but especially 102). Although my recipe veered away from her’s a little, in that I used pastry flour and salted butter in my crust – omitting the added salt. However, through the Smitten Kitchen’s intervention, I think I’ve realised that my problem with most pie crusts is solely related to their inclusion of things that aren’t butter.

Butter is better. End of story.

It makes your crust taste like the nummiest shortbread, crumble and flake like it should, and your kitchen smell like butterscotch. Shortening tastes like oil and chemicals. Lard tastes like pigs. Go for the butter, instead.

So. I make pie now.

It’s a brave new world.

Butternut Squash Pie

(This will probably make enough filling for 2 shallow pies, or 1 deep dish pie, or in my case 1 overfilled pie and a half dozen tartlets.)

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 teaspoon butter or oil

1. Cut squash in half, remove seeds, rub with butter (or oil) roast in oven on sheetpan (cut side down) at 400(f) for 45 minutes.
2. Remove from oven, remove skin and puree meat using blender, food processor, or (like me) your grandma’s awesome old potato ricer.

• 2 cups butternut squash (roasted and pureed)
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 teaspoons chai masala spice (or pumpkin spice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients
2. Pour into pie crust (I used Smitten Kitchens pie 102) and bake for 40 minutes, or until filling is set.
3. Serve when cool, smothered in cinnamon whipped cream.

I’ve been… distracted. I apologize. Lot’s of things in the works, lot’s of things in the air – is it Christmas soon or something?

WHAT?

Less than a month? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

Oh, right, the leaves turned, fell, then it snowed, then they started playing carols in the malls, and today is American thanksgiving, and next it’s Christmas. Right. Well, all I’m saying is nobody told me, and – dude… presents! I don’t have ANYTHING yet. Sigh. I don’t think this is the year I get all creative and make everything ahead of time… *sigh*

Oh well. On the upside, this week has been good.

On Friday we went to the ballet. I dragged Liam along (he went surprisingly willingly – probably because he’s supposed to take me to the opera sometime and has yet to actually do so – and because he was seeing a Raptors game on the weekend). It was alright. Not as good as the nutcracker. The dancing was kinda meh, and the sets were boring, although there were some cute costumes (bohemian, Imperialist Russia – good era for outfits). The ending was definitely anti-climactic, although I didn’t really expect anything less from ballet based on a Russian Drama.

On Sunday I had my sister over while Liam and my little brother went to the basketball game (his birthday was last week).

We gorged on wine and Qubecois cheese while they were gone…..mmmmmmmmmm cheese….

Anyways, when they came back I made pulled pork burritos and for desert we had banana gelato with home-made mars bar sauce. Yeah, I’m a pretty awesome sister.

Then, this week, a friend called inquiring about a burger place we had told him about called the Yellow Griffin so we decided to pay a visit. They have over THIRTY FIVE themed burger toppings to choose from, on EIGHT different kinds of meat burgers (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, vegetable, bison and salmon). AMAZING, right?

I decided to go for something really different this time, so I had the “New Mexican.” It involved some of my very favourite things – salsa, avocado, sweet potatoes, peanut butter – all smothering a nummy hand formed patty. I know what you’re saying – you’re saying “Peanut butter! On a burger! Sacrilege!” And you would be right. It was sacridelicious. In fact, I’ve decided peanut butter with a hint of cilantro is my new favourite hamburger topping.

Don’t get that look on your face.

Don’t pretend to yak.

That’s what you did the first time you heard about poutine*, and then you tried it, and it was heaven, so don’t knock beef smothered in peanuty goodness til you try it, ok?

*(note to self, must try new Poutine restaurant ASAP!)

1. Pumpkin Tortilla Soup @ the Kitchn

   If you’ve still got pumpkin kicking around, (and I’m betting you do – it’s a proving to be a pretty ubiquitous/trendy ingredient this fall) this is a great recipe to try out – especially if you’re not in the mood for something sweet. The pumpkin makes the soup super velvety, and combined with avocados it just drove me crazy with it’s deliciousness.

2. What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver

   Umm, so Jamie Oliver put out a video game for the Nintendo DS. Weird, right? As much as cooking and video games are two of my greatest loves, I’m not sure they mix all that well, even if Jamie does put his rather awesome stamp on it. As a very good friend once put it (although I think he was talking about Nu Metal at the time) it’s like mixing soup with ice cream. I love both, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat them together.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Pie

   Now this is an odd combination I can totally get behind: an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind themed pie, inspired by the movie Waitress. Yes, it’s tangerine flavoured. What’s not to love about that?

4. milk eggs chocolate

   Just a new little blog that I stumbled on that combines adorable illustrations with a strong design sense and vegan comfort foods. Sounds pretty nice and cosy right? BTW The girl who writes it is from Portland. You know how I feel about Portland.

5. Cooks County Cookbook

   I love the home-spun graphic design of Cooks Country Magazine, and of course recipes don’t get any better than those of the editors, (also of America’s Test Kitchen, and Cook’s Illustrated). Even more than all that though, I looooooooove regional and traditional American food. It’s one of my little obsessions. So, fingers crossed that Santa sends me this one for Christmas.

Typography + Midcentury Design + Food= One of my favourite things ever.

Also, gastrotypographicalassemblage is a pretty awesome word.

More info here.

A few more things I’d like to share:

1. Small Magazine

   I tend to swoon over adorable, high-end childrens magazines. This one is free and on the internet, so I don’t have to feel weird about paying money for a magazine about something I don’t have (yet).

   And really, I would wear every last outfit in there if they made it adult sizes. There is some gorgeous, swoon-worthy stuff. Check it out.

2. Pumpkin Recipes

   It’s a pumpkiny season, and there is a bumper crop of squashes out there to be scooped up at discounted prices, so a New York Times collection of pumpkin based recipes is pretty timely. Plus, pumpkins are delicous.

3. Ombre Crafts

   Ombre is pretty. Crafts are fun. These pretty and fun ombre crafts live in that unique Martha Stewart universe where crafty projects end up looking high end, and elegant. You know, as opposed our own dimension where the words “Crafty” and “Elegant” are often mutually exclusive.

4. Typocalypse

   Diagnose your font use. Figure out what your typography choices say about you (I like to dance on the ceiling, it turns out).

5. the candi factory

   Karen over at Say It With Pie has long sung the praises of these hand made, artisinal undies. They went on sale, so I finally broke down and bought a set – a days of the weeks set, to be specific – because who doesn’t love an adorable days of the weeks set of underwear? And they’re typographic underwear, no less! Monday is Cooper Black!

   Karen says, on top of being really cute, they last forever, and are super comfy. So far I’ve already found the latter to be inordinately true. These things are heaven. Plus, I am strongly behind any operation that simply does not believe in thongs. Sing it, sister.

We’ve been celebrating fall pretty hard-core around here. We even tried to go apple picking this weekend, but it turned out the harvest is over, so we went hiking instead. We also attended a squash sampling party (I liked the turban squash, and the butternut pie the best – yum!). For the party, we brought a little squash-based creation of my own – pumpkin pie squares.

The recipe came about from trying to perfect a recipe for pumpkin bread. The first recipe I tried was dry and flavourless. So I played around until I came up with this recipe – more of a dense, moist square then a bread really.

I also felt the dark chocolate most pumpkin based recipes (which seem to be very trendy these days) call for would be so overwhelming and heavy for the delicate, spicy pumpkin flavour. So I switched dark chocolate chips for white chocolate ones – which was really a genius move, if I do say so myself. The little gooey bits of creamy white chocolate tasted just like tiny bites of whipped cream, mixed into pumpkin pie.

It’s all the flavours of pumpkin pie, in a much more portable square form!

So portable, you could take these squares on a picnic (like we did on our hike), or pack them with your lunch. Just try doing that with a slice of pie!

pumpkin pie squares

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tbsp masala chai spice, or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups canned pumpkin (puree – apx 1 large can)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices, salt).
2. Add wet (pumpkin, sugars, butter, eggs, vanilla) to dry, then add chocolate chips.
3. Bake for 40 minutes – 1 hour @ 350 in large, greased pan (9×13 pan would be a good choice).

This might just become a thing.

1. A friendly little tutorial for shooting “Through The Viewfinder”

   Which is a method of getting really neat, old-fashioned, artfully flawed images using a digital camera – along with a old twin lens reflex cameras’ viewfinder. I’ve always loved the way these shots looked, I had no idea producing them was so easy. If this works with my little Canon point and shoot (which it should – it has a pretty awesome macro setting), I’m totally gonna start searching for an old twin lens camera when I thrift.

2. Booty Juggler

   I may or may not have wasted a good half an hour on this cute little game.

3. Black Eiffel

   Just a new blog find filled with pretty-pretty things of all varieties. The kind of pretty that inspires rampant and uncontrollable urges to be materialist. But so do many of the pretty-pretty blogs I read. Sigh. It might be time take a break from reading those for a little while. Just until I stop hemorrhaging money.

4. Carnivale Lune Bleue

   A retro-revival nineteen-thirties-style carnival – complete with concessions, candy apples, carousel, ferris wheel, and circus show. I was very sad when I found out I missed this entirely this summer. There’s always next summer though.

5. Buddha Dogs

   We had some on the weekend. They were delicious – totally the best hot-dogs I’ve ever had (although, it should be said that they don’t really resemble traditional hot dogs all that closely, so consider yourself forewarned). They are little artisinal sausages (that taste a bit like teensy fresh salamis) accompanied by one of four (locally sourced) cheeses and a one of a dozen sauces (cooked up individually by the best chefs in the city using fresh, local ingredients). A lot of internet types seem to be upset that portions are small, and the concept pretentious. I would tell them that if they want street meat, it’s readily available. This is not street meat, it’s a culinary novelty (and a cheap one at that – certainly the cheapest way to have lunch made by Jamie Kennedy – via his 25 cent sauce offering). If you’re a foodie, you’ll love it. If you’re more of a steak and potatoes kinda person, feel free to steer clear. I, for one, found it delicious and delightful.

The other day I was in the market, and was in awe of all the beautiful, brightly coloured autumnal produce. This season is wondrous.

In particular, I found some lanky Japanese eggplant, along with some long and pointy red sweet peppers, and thought immediately of my pile of yellow zucchini from the garden sitting on my credenza at home.

“Ratatouille!” I thought to myself.

So it came to pass, and it was delicious, and beautiful – as you can see – just as the little chef intended.

It was a good respite from all my friends who have been making visits to Paris. It’ll be a while yet before I’m able to go myself, so baking this in my little french Le Creuset casserole dish soothed my jealousy a little, and brought a little of France to me.

Blame my meat and potatoes upbringing (where all but the frozen vegetable was variation on a monochromatic theme), but food that looks likes like this, with that pinwheel of gorgeous saturated colour, it just kills me.

(BTW I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe, in case you were wondering – just used ony 1 colour of zucchini, since that was all I had, and sprinkled some julienned purple basil over the top – for an even bigger punch of colour. It was plenty delicious, like most of her recipes).

It was our anniversary on the weekend, and we had a splendid day.

Rather than unnecessarily blow a wad of cash on fancy dinners and shows and things (as we sometimes do) we decided to have the nicest day around the neighborhood for under 100 dollars, and save up for a vacation later on instead. And as a result, I think we had one of the nicest days we’ve ever had.

For lunch we wandered around the Distillery.

We bought a coronation chicken sandwich and a tarragon chicken pot pie from the Brick Street Bakery. Both were astoundingly (astoundingly!) good. I am quickly becoming very fond of the rather retro combo of apricots, curry, cream and poultry that is Coronation Chicken. My royalty loving grandmother would no doubt approve, heartily. The pie was stuffed with juicy, spicy meat, and surrounded by pretty much the best crust I’ve ever had on a savoury pie. I am not a huge crust fan, but this crust made the pie. Perfectly flaky and crumbly and moist.

After some gallery browsing, we made our way to Soma where we had some gelato (a scoop each of: sour cream and lemon; raspberry, lemon and black pepper; and pistachio – all were dreamy) and some mayan hot chocolate. Soma has the best gelato and chocolate in town. It just does.

Then for dinner we went to a little restaurant down the street called Batifole. I had heard nothing but good things about it, namely that it is the best approximation of French bistro cooking in the whole city, and that it was astoundingly reasonably priced. Both were true. It was some of the best food I’ve ever had.

When we sat down we got bread accompanied by a little pat of butter sprinkled with grey salt – and it was some of the best bread I’ve ever had. I asked if they baked it themselves, and they said they had it made for them by the Brick Bakery. Of course they did. It’s the best bakery in town, it seems.

We started off with a brule of pate. Yep, that’s right, like a creme brule, in a little pot topped with a layer of crunchy caramel – but inside was chicken livers. For a creme brule addict like me it was a revelation.

For our mains, Liam had a blanchette de veau – a little rare veal steak covered in a calvados, apples and cream sauce. It was as wonderful as it sounds. I had a cassoulet. It was 3 kinds of meat (duck confit, sausage and gorgeous thick hunks of bacon) swimming in gorgeous melted pools of fat. I have never willingly ingested so much cholesterol in my life, but it was wonderful.

With our mains we got a little basket of frites with tarragon mayonnaise. They were perfection – I can not emphasize this enough – the best fries I’ve ever had, hands down. A rough crispiness on the outside, perfectly salted, meltingly soft on the inside. Perfection.

We didn’t get to desert. We would have liked to, but I was much too full of wonderful fats.

So yeah. Pretty much the best food day ever.

Best part is, since none of it was prohibitively expensive we can do it all again sometime.

So, it some patience and some waiting, but my heirloom tomato ship finally came in. We’ve been enjoying these babies pretty thoroughly the last few weeks. They’re just so gorgeous, they make every meal a little more special – sliced up with some olive oil and sea salt – or chopped into a spinach curry – or gently sauteed and tumbled over pasta.

Every few days when I have a new pileup of them on the counter I slice ‘em up and stick them into the oven (at a really low temp – like 100-200 degrees F). Half a day later, I have my very own oven dried heirloom tomatoes to use all year long!

Yeah, these babies are pretty much as hardcore as food porn gets.

Last week my friend Christine kept talking about banana bread on her blog, and if there’s one thing I can get on board with, it’s a delicious baked good. Luckily I had some bananas that were just about ready to rot sitting on my microwave, so I whipped up a batch.

I used this recipe (called Aunt Holly’s Banana Bread) because, who doesn’t love a baked good that invokes somebody’s beloved auntie? Also, it came from Cookie Magazine, also known as the number one reason I want to have children (to have a legitimate reason to get a subscription).

It turned out delicious. As you can see.

It was also really, really easy. I recommend it, highly.

I also recommend not skimping on the chocolate chips.

Little known fact about me: I used to hate the zucchini more than any other food on the face of the planet, except for possibly sweet pickles and liver.

I haven’t changed my mind about yum-yums, and beef liver still disgusts me (though I might occasionally snack on pate) but I have completely changed my tune when it comes to zuchini.

I like to call them courgette now though, and I think using that substantially more sophisticated, frenchified word calls to mind the softer, gentler, more indulgent vegetable a tender young zuchini can be. Sauted in butter and garlic? Delicious. Deep fried in tempura batter, dipped into ponzu? Yum.

The trick is to pick them when they’re young (the younger the better) and try out the sweeter yellow varieties instead of the traditional (and often bitter) green. Pattypan squashes are also pretty delightful and mild, and have that awesome spaceship shape.

Right now I have a basket full of the things, grown from my own garden, and I’m trying to decide what to turn them into. We are having a party on Saturday, and I’m thinking I can borrow a friends idea and use little rounds of them as the bases for canapes (in lieu of bread or crackers). Perhaps some courgette bruschetta? Could be pretty delicious.

Other than pondering zuchini, this week I’ve been crafting and watching the new fall shows. My verdict on the new 90210? That main Grimey girl is pretty annoying, but seeing Jessica Walters basically reprise her role as cocktail swilling, smack talking, matriarch of the Bluth clan is pretty worth it. Gossip Girl gets a similar pass for continuing to up the amazing outfits ante, and for giving me my sorely missed weekly dose of Chuck Bass. They both may or may not get watched depending on how I feel from week to week. They’re entertaining, but I’m not married to them or anything.

Now if only somebody would make a sitcom where Alia Shawcat runs a movie studio despite being a teenager (hilarity, of course, ensuing), we wouldn’t even need a Arrested Development movie…

In case you were wondering, Mr. Liam’s birthday at the cottage went well.

We swam, and ate delicious meaty pasta that had been simmering all day, and attempted to play Catan (although we ended up too carbohydrate drunk/tired to get the rules right).

This is his present. It’s a t-shirt. With a little drawing on it by me. It’s a squirrel. Wearing a sweater vest and a bowtie. Holding an acorn. With a Wodehousian name (Mr. S. Q. Nutterson Esq. to be precise).

He loved it, of course.

I think Mark Bittman lives inside of my brain, scribbling down all my ideas, codifying them and then turning them into concise New York times article.

How else could you explain this great little article about eating healthy by cutting back on meat consumption that pretty much surmises all of my feelings on food, and all of the tricks I use to eat healthier.

It’s obviously because he’s got some sort of portal into my soul, like in that Spike Jonze movie.

Well, anyways, I’m not sure how I missed it (it’s a few months old at this point) but I approve of it. Eating less meat has been wonderful for our health, and especially our pocket book (meat has always been expensive, but with food prices the way the are right now, it’s even more so). It’s kinda a common sense approach to things that in no way approaches a diet, but functions pretty effectively as one anyways.

I think my favorite two tips are to use meat as a condiment, and to pig out on the bad stuff every once in a while. By using meat as a condiment, we get the delicious hearty umame flavour of meat that we enjoy, without the high cost to our waistlines and pocket books. By giving in to our cravings when we feel them, we don’t feel like we’re being denied anything by choosing to eat healthier. So except for those few exceptional moments when we go for fast-food poutine, or bake a frozen mac and cheese (yeah, I’m kinda addicted to cheese, what of it?) we do it all the time, every day, without fail.

Everyones doing these new food and manga face memes over on LJ, so I figured I’d participate for once, since they’re actually kinda neat.

So to start off, here’s my cute little manga avatar:

Here’s the link to where you can get your own

And here’s that food meme:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (I don’t really get how you could have NOT eaten this – it’s sooooo yummy!)
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (Seriously guys. One of the best meats I’ve ever had!)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (I may have had this, but I can’t remember for sure – this is what you get when you have gourmets for grandparents – a faulty memory of things you may or may not have tried when you were four)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (there should be a separate way to indicate things I make really good at home – this is one)
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Gah. I’m missing out on all the good stuff. Somebody rectify this!)
24. Rice and beans (One of my favourites, actually – all though I prefer to call it rice and peas)
25. Brawn, or head cheese (This grosses me out. I will not eat it. It’s almost more the gelatinous consistency than the actually head-meatiness though. And the fact that I once saw a whole pigs head encased in one once. *shudder*)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (not that bad if you stay away from the seeds)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (This is a recent one, thanks Vivian!)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I’ve had lassi – just not salted)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I love cognac – but I have never, nor will I ever, smoke)
37. Clotted cream tea (I fell in love with clotted cream in England)
38. Vodka jelly (Jello shots. We were all teenagers once.)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (One of my favourite childhood memories is delicious Jamaican curried goat at a friends house)
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (Too much risk involved. Read too many horror stories. No thank you.)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (it is the main ingredient in Kaopectate guys. We’ve all probably had it).
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs (I feel like I have had this, and that it tasted like chicken – I can’t be sure though)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (I’ve had wild boar sausage, in natural casing – that’s intestines – which is very similar, so I’m going to count this one).
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I’m kinda sad about this one. I’ve had roe, of course, in sushi and tarmosolata but not caviar, and no blini – anybody know a good Russian place in Toronto?)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (It’s not so much the concept, as the possibility for nasty parasites. No thank you.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (I wish! – although I have been to a 5 diamond AAA restaurant – which is actually almost the same thing)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I want to change my status on this one ASAP! – anyone know where to get it?)
94. Catfish (not that great. Kinda fishy)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (I’ve had Lobster, and I’ve had Thermidor, just not both at the same time)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (I would actually love to try this!)

I got 67 or 70/100 – depending on how many points you give me for things that I have only half tried. Yeah, that’s right. I rock.

Other than the four I crossed out, I’m planning on trying all of these, at least before I die. Probably (hopefully) way before then.

UPDATE! Liam reminded me that we had Lapsang Souchong at a Tibetan restaurant a couple years ago. I am up to 71. Liam says we probably also had sea urchin in sushi, which is possible. So it’s a tentative 72.

My first little garden harvest has come in, and I’ve found a couple of collections of recipes in the last couple of days that are going to be indispensable for cooking up my fresh and (very) local produce.

They are both by the New York Times’ Mark Bittman who first came to my attention when he proclaimed that the best chefs don’t need a fancy kitchen filled with pricey gadgets to cook great food – a thesis me and Alton Brown can totally get behind (I’ve actually given away bread makers, George Foreman grills and food processors – they just take up too much space).

The first is this handy compilation of 101 quick and easy picnic recipes. Each recipe is about 2 sentences long and they all sound either deliciously unconventional, or at least, painless in their simplicity.

I think I might just start making my way through them – they sound perfect for avoiding actually ‘cooking’ in this heat that’s finally decided to come and stay.

Then there’s the smaller collection of recipes attacthed to this review of a delightful sounding vegetarian restaurant in the south of France. Good, hearty veggie recipes are so hard to find, but these sound incredibly comforting and satisfying.

In particular, the recipe for swiss chard stuffed with risotto is going to get some use, I think, what with my bumper crop of beautiful, neon-tinged bright-lights chard.

We’re alive and well in Northern Ontario. Here’s some proof:

I think every person in Canada should drive up the spectacular Trans Canada Highway once in their life (it’s our version of Route 66 or, even California’s famous #1). We’re lucky enough to have taken the Toronto to Thunder Bay stretch multiple times at this point.

That, my friends, is a persian. Regional Canadian cuisine at it’s finest (and reason # 1 why I laugh when editorials try to claim we have no – culture here in this country).

I’m pretty sure there’s nothing better on the face of the planet than finding finely crafted brews and burgers, at a local roadhouse – after a long day spent floating down a crystal-clear, clean, northern river on a raft made of inner tubes. Did I mention there was not a cloud in the sky? No? Well, there wasn’t. Um, yeah, perfection.

More proof of us in our natural state to be found on Flickr.

Well that was a pretty good weekend.

One of those spur of the moment collections of days that just comes together perfectly.

What made it so good?

1. Seeing Wall-E. So good. Soooooo good! I am actually going to go ahead and say: best Pixar film ever. Ever!

   Why so good? The characterizations, I think, mainly. The gifted animators managed to squeeze emotions out of very limited creatures (simplistic robots with incredibly small vocabularies).

   And what emotions! These simple little characters with big personalities made it easy to tell a very small, simple story – with an epic, intergalactic, post-apocalyptic scale – and that gave the movie a huge emotional impact. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy robots in the kiddie cartoon: the movie is intense.

2. Shopping! Yes, I’m a girl… But this has more to do with some rather male-like efficiency in procuring what I needed (an outfit for an upcoming summer wedding) in a minimum amount of time, for a minimum amount of money.

   It’s sale time, pretty much everywhere, which meant after only an hour or two that mission was accomplished, which is especially impressive given that I needed a new bra to go under a new dress. Bra shopping is probably the single most depressing regularly occurring event in a girls life (with the possible exception of swimsuit shopping), so getting it over and done with in record time was pretty satisfying.

3. Impromptu dinner party! We threw one at the last minute (we gave people like, 18 hours facebook notice) and: People! Actually! Showed! Up!

   Liam made vast quantities of sushi, we all drank plum wine and sake, hundreds of edamame were popped out of their pods, I got to make new friends and catch up with some old ones I hadn’t seen in too, too long, and a good time was had by all.

4. We finally met our neighbors. Meeting new people is always hard, especially for us (me and Liam are both kinda shy – Liam especially).

   We were the only childless couple, which was a little odd, and meeting and befriending all those hip, young Torontonian parents I’ve read so much about in Toronto Life was a little surreal, but cute toddlers and frisky dogs are the best icebreakers, as is a good cheeseburger, and friendly people. Plus, I’ve learned that a love of good food is universal, so my knowledge of the 100 mile diet, organic food boxes, and my own little organic vegetable patch came in handy.

   Really, I think we came to the realization that we had more in common with these new people (minus the many, many, babes-in-arms) than we do with many of our friends right now. We love our friends, but we’re kinda on a different life path than many of them are right now.

   We are building a home, and a life together, where most people we know are still focusing on the next concert, the next party, the next new toy. It’s kinda nice to be around people who don’t think it’s crazy to be looking inward, instead of out; to throwing dinner parties at home, instead of getting drunk at a club. It’s no judgment call on the people who like that sort of thing, but I know that I get so much more enjoyment out of sitting at home in front of a good movie, piled next to loving kitties and boy, tummy filled with a home cooked meal. I can’t imagine wanting anything else.