Archive for March, 2011

Mar
31


Here’s three things to do this weekend:

a) Visit Maple Towne at Mountsberg Conservation. Hint: go as early as you can. I’ve been going for years and it’s one of my fav. activities. Spring wouldnt be the same without pancakes and maple syrup at a conservation area. If you don’t have a chance to go – I hear from @hypnoflair that Bisquick makes a mean pancake.

b) Visit the One of A Kind Spring Show and Sale at the Direct Energy Centre (March 30 to April 3rd). I went yesterday to the show and discovered a new food product. Does this surprise  you?  It looks like a candy apple but it’s not…it’s gourmet cheesecake on a stick and then rolled in a topping (over 15 different types). YUM. Hot Lollies are located in aisle C – Booth 38.

c) Visit Yorkdale. Thomas Sabo is opening his Ontario Flagship Store at Yorkdale on April 1st and this is amazing news. I own a little red heart necklace and everytime I wear it, I get tons of compliments.

d) Organize your cupboards..Just Kidding.

Enjoy your weekend. It’s going to be nice and sunny in Toronto …so celebrate.

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Mar
29


I’ve organized a few tweet ups in Ottawa over the year so that I could enjoy new restaurants with other foodies. We have enjoyed tweet ups at Ceylonta, at Coconut Lagoon, and at Blue Nile too.  I was kinda having a hard time finding the right restaurant for  the next tweet up but FoodiePrints came to the rescue. While reading their blog entry on Serious Cheese, I said to myself  “aha – a cheese tweet up”.

I immediately picked up the phone to speak to the owner of Serious Cheese and asked him if he would be interested in doing this. He agreed over the phone. I then set up the twtvite and tweeted out the invitation a few times on twitter.

Here’s how it worked: On Sat Night, over 20 people came to the store to enjoy CHEESE – talk about cheese, mingle, eat cheese and eat some more cheese.

It was a perfect tweet up. Lots of mingling and lots of eating.

Many of us enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches:

Many of us also enjoyed their asweome goo-ey macaroni and cheese.

Cheese-y Goodness...

Jamie put out some lovely samples of cheese along with Dolces’ Gourmet Jam – and everyone was clearly happy.

Tweet Ups are a great way to meet other people with similar interests. Infact the group on Saturday nite, included a foodie from Boston (@GeekBoston).

I can’t wait to organize the next tweet up for my next visit. I’m thinking about a Jam tweet up. What do you think?

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Mar
27


Another trip to Ottawa means another opportunity to eat!!  I ate my way thru the following restaurants and my stomach couldn’t be happier.

I started off at Town. It was listed as one of top ten restaurants for 2010 in Ottawa magazine and I can see why. The restaurant was packed but I was lucky and found a spot at the bar. When presented with the menu, it was tough to make a decision what to order.  But I was super happy with my decision.  I inhaled the ricotta gnudi that was served with a walnut pesto and browned sage butter.

Ricotta Gnudi

The next restaurant to make my stomach happy was Chez Edgar. I asked the waiter what was popular and he replied “a lot of people order the heuvos rancheros”. I replied “ok – that’s what I will have”. I was not disappointed. It was perfect. The restaurant is situated in a house – so there’s a few tables and an open kitchen.  This means that I got to watch the chef make my meal. Total entertainment.

On the way out I grabbed some photos of some baked goods. OMG.!!

Next: The Scone Witch. This restaurant has been around for over 20 years and clearly has a following. It’s a clever concept as you don’t find too many places serving sweet or savory scones along with devon cream and jam. Again, my stomach was happy.

Here’s the details about the restaurants:

Chez Edgar: 60 Rue Begin, Gatineau, QC

Town: 296 Elgin St. Ottawa

The Scone Witch: 388 Albert St. or 35 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa

The highlight of the weekend, was the Cheese Tweet Up but that will be a separate posting on Tuesday. Stay Tuned.

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Mar
24


Tracy Moore and momwhoruns!!

OK everyone, set your PVR’s and tape CityLine on Tuesday March 29th at 9:00 a.m or at 2p.m. Why? Coz CityLine is airing a segment on “bloggers” and you might even see me in the audience clapping and smiling!!  They invited  beauty bloggers, food bloggers, mommy bloggers and decor bloggers to be part of the studio audience and then did a segment on each topic. I truly love when companies “get” social media..

The beauty blogger: talked about her favorite beauty products. I used one of the products already for the last 20 years (Voluminous mascara by L’Oreal”) and now Im in love with the lipstick she recommended.

The food blogger: made an amazing banana bread with a secret ingredient that I would have never guessed in a million years.

The decor blogger: talked about Canadian furniture, and demonstrated a DIY project.

The mommy blogger; talked about why mommys have embraced twitter and blogging.

It was lots of fun to be part of the audience and lots of fun to meet other bloggers.  Infact, I sat beside a food blogger (foodjunkiechronicles) that I have been following on twitter (@foodieyu) for the past year so it was great to meet her IRL (in real life).

I loved how they told the audience NOT to put away their iPhones and Blackberries as they knew we would want to be tweeting and taking photos. I wish my mom would be so understanding. (she hates when I tweet).

Everyone was Tweeting.

After the taping, we were all treated to a lovely lunch at the new Ritz Carlton. A perfect ending to a perfect event.

Congratulations to Kate Moore (the producer for CityLine) for putting this Bloggers Segment together and for embracing the blogging community.

ps. thank you to @foodieyu and @YYZdesign for the photos.

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Mar
22


Entertaining Made Easy…According to momwhoruns:

a) select a date and then invite the guests

b) decide on the menu. I generally do one main course, 3 sides, one dessert. The internet saves me. You can find all the recipes by clicking on the item. I’m pretty sure I found all of them on tastespotting.

c) buy groceries and begin to cook. (often I do this in stages vs. doing it all at once).

d) buy flowers and set the table.

e) ENJOY the good food and the great company.

Here’s what I served to guests a few weeks ago:

Roasted Carrot Cumin Dip

Quinoa and Smashed Herb Salad (sorry no photo – had a senior moment)

Barefoot Contessa’s Basil Mashed Potatotes

Baked Salmon with Kale and Dill with Harissa

www.tastefoodblog.com

Strawberry Raspberry Crisp. (recipe to follow in another blog post)

Another fav. part of having company over is to set the table and buy the right flowers. What do you think?

I cant wait to entertain next month.

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Mar
20


Posterjack to the rescue!!

There are projects I love doing and there are  projects I hate doing. We all have this problem (I think).

Projects I love: cooking, entertaining, shopping (lol), researching recipes, etc.

Projects I hate doing: putting away the laundry, cleaning my car and PUTTING ART ON THE WALL.

My problems are now solved. All I did was upload a photo, click, click, click and a lovely tube arrived in the mail ready for me to simply PEEL and STICK to a wall. It took just a few minutes and now I don’t have a white wall anymore. WOOT.

The biggest issue was simply deciding which photo I wanted to upload. But once I decided it was a simple process.

I love technology!!

Please visit Posterjack for further information about this great service and this great product.

Now my daughers’ room is looking a bit more complete. Dont you think?

p.s that’s Snuffles on the pillow. He is from the Gund Collection and his tag says 1980!! He was my fav. stuffed animal and now he sits proudly on my daughters bed. But thats another blog post!!

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Mar
17


You might be shaking your head (sideways), saying “molecular WHAT”? but when I received an invitation to attend a molecular gastronomy demonstration – I shook my head up and down to indicate YES.

I’m not sure when I was first introduced to molecular gastronomy but I’m pretty sure it was at Charlie Trotters’ restaurant in Chicago many years ago. Or perhaps it was at Joel Robuchons’ restaurant in Las Vegas. All I know is that I think it’s spectacular!

So what is it? Its a method of cooking that I WILL NEVER master. LOL.

However there are some great chefs out there who do an awesome job…including John Placko who is teaching a series of hands-on molecular gastronomy workshops at Humber College.

I was tweeting about the demonstration throughout the evening and received some tweets back that said “I would kill for that machine”. (special machines and ingredients are often used in molecular gastronomy – so I found out). The tweet was in reference to a $4,000 pacojet!

The evening demonstrated a few special techniques including: spherification, reverse spherification, emulsification and more. It was a 3 hour demonstration and I loved every minute.

The photo at the beginning of the blog post is one of the many items that were demonstrated that evening. It’s cereal milk ice cream (made in a pacojet) in a frozen bowl made of coconut milk with raspberry niblets (with the help of liquid nitrogen) on a bed of white chocolate powder, topped with gold flakes. IMPRESSIVE.

There’s a series of workshops taking place each Saturday from March to June at Humber College. For further information,visit the Humber College website or call 416-675-5005.

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Mar
15


A friend wrote me an email that said “why arent you blogging about food” I wrote back “you know me well!!”.

To be honest, I was saving the best for last.

Sadly my mom and I were sick for 3 days with bad colds so we didn’t venture out for 3 evenings but we made up for lost meals!! Here’s a few highlights.

Cimboco…A Caribbean Cafe.

We loved the airy caribbean decor and once we saw the menu we knew that we hit a winner of a restaurant.

I had the plantain wrapped callaloo – local callaloo seasoned with caribbean flavors, wrapped in ripe golden fried plantains and accompanied with a spicy cayman style sauce.

Would love to find this in Toronto!

My taste buds (and tummy) also enjoyed the caribbean roti. – an island style sandwich on their fire roasted flat bread filled with traditional caribbean curried vegetables.

The Sunshine Grill

Another casual caribbean style restaurant known for the best fish tacos on the island. Guess what we ordered? (did you guess?) There was a 30 minute wait for a seat but it was SO worth it.

I had the coconut snapper tacos- snapper in a mild curry/coconut sauce with green onions and cilantro.

Perfect Fish Tacos

Michaels Genuine Food and Drink

This restaurant has a location in Miami (for those who like to go to Florida in the winter) and he opened up a restaurant in Cayman not long ago. We loved this restaurant. The atmosphere was hip, and the service was perfect but it was the food that had us oo-w-ing and aawing. (is that the correct spelling)?

We had lots of little dishes to fully experience the menu.  Our fav. dish was probably the crispy hominy. OH YUM.

Anyone know how to make this?

Roasted Breadfruit salad with heirloom tomatoes, avocado, shaved red onion in a lemon meyer vinagrette.

B

Homemade organic ricotta with jam on crostini

Sauteed local thai eggplants with raisins and almonds

Each meal was fantastic. I was thrilled that we were able to enjoy some local flavors and can’t wait to return next year to enjoy these three restaurants again.

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Mar
13


I swear I am using #55 sunscreen...

A while ago I blogged about movies I had seen. Now I’m going to blog about the books I have been reading on my Kobo for the past 5 days on the beach.  I have really enjoyed these books, to the point where I felt I needed to apologize to my mom for not talking to her. So here’s what I have read:

1. Sh*T My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

This book is positively HYSTERICAL. Thats all you need to know. I love when books make me giggle out loud. Infact I giggled more than once. My only complaint would be that it’s a quick read and I honestly didn’t want it to end. It was TOO funny. I hope this become a movie or I hope this guy writes another book (are you listening out there Justin?)

2. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

This book is about an affair that Frank Lloyd Wright had in the early 1900’s. It’s historical fiction and I kinda like those types of books. The characters were captivating and the story line too. Not to mention that it’s inspired me to return to Chicago and see more architecture.

3.  Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

I love these types of books as it tell’s a personal journey that is so inpirational.  Conor Grennan is a great story teller and I hope there will be a sequel to this book one day soon.

4. Don’t be Afraid by Steven Hayward

I won this book recently by following @mountie9. She writes a a great blog – raymentsreadingsrantsandramblings . She told me I would like it and I did. It’s written thru the voice of a 17 year old boy and it’s about loss, grieving, and family dynamics. A great read for the beach.

5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skoot

This book was selected by our book club and sadly I missed the book club meeting when they reviewed it. I had been struggling with this book before I left on vacation and I’m still struggling with it. It’s an important story but I’m not sure I’m ever going to finish it.

Part Two – Books I read while NOT on vacation

1. ROOM by Emily Donahue. This book is brilliant and I’m sure it will become a movie in the next few years. It’s written in the voice of a 5 year old who is raised in a ROOM with his mom. I know it sounds eery, sad, etc…but it’s brilliant.

2. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. I enjoyed this book too. Great characters, well written and and easy read

3. Ape House by Sara Gruen Again, I enjoyed this book. Again, great characters and a good story. Not as good as her first book Water for Elephants but perhaps that’s not fair for me to compare.

4. I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. I laughed out loud more than once which means I loved this book. There is nothing like laughing out loud. Read. This. Book. Too.

OK..I need more books to read. Please send suggestions!!

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Mar
10


I have friends who use to tell me that every time they went on vacation, they went to a different spa. I honestly didn’t “get it”. Well guess what? I’ve changed my mind. I get it now.

It’s been the YEAR OF THE SPA. Let’s review:

April 2010.  Mandarin Oriental Hotel – Las Vegas

The atmosphere is very “zen like” with Japanese inspirations  everywhere. I liked how all your treatments faced the strip so you could enjoy spactacular views while getting your treatments, relaxing, sitting in the jacuzzi etc.

See what I mean? everything faces the strip...

November 2010 – Ritz Carlton Palm Beach

This spa was truly gorgeous. I loved the color schemes, the furniture, the wishing well…even the little cupcakes. They thought of everything and I was SO glad the weather was lousy that day and I chose to go to the spa instead of the mall (I’m so smart). LOL

Ritz Carlton Spa - Palm Beach

March 2011 – Ritz Carlton Cayman Islands

This spa is one of the few spas in the world that is a La Prairie Spa…so I was intrigued. I had also hear that the caviar massage was well worth it but sadly my budget would only allow for a manicure. It was the first time I have ever had a manicure in a spa and indeed it was worth it. I took full advantage of the wet sauna, dry sauna and jacuzzi plus there were a few extra steps in the manicure that I really enjoyed.

A great spot to relax....

Next on my list: The Russian Turkish Bathhouse in New York City. I know I know..its not a spa but you know what I mean.

Now I need to discover Spas in Toronto. I’ve only been to one!!

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