I went to a cooking class recently and at the end of the class there was a small discussion about the instructors favorite gadgets: Out came a  Paderno Vegetable Spiralizer . Naturally when I got home, I did some research.

Sure enough, I found one on Amazon for $29.75. I ordered it (without hesitating)  and it arrived the next day. Yay for online shopping.

I went out to the grocery store to buy a cucumber, carrot, apple and a zucchini, so that I could use it right away. I was pumped to use it…can you tell?

The ribbons that you get are INSANELY long. Here’s proof.

I sprinkled some lemon flavoured oil on it, as well as another product (mixed nuts that I picked up in Israel). Bingo – I had an interesting salad in no time at all.

Can you say; Happy?

Trust me, I will be making more salads with my new BFF. Stay tuned.

Are you looking for a “unique” gift? Well, Samba Days might be the answer!! Samba Days is all about giving a unique “Gift Experience”. Infact there are over 70 different experiences to choose from. There’s Body and Soul experiences, Golf experiences, Adventure Experiences and more.

Naturally I selected the  Gourmet Getaway Experience. I simply activated my gift card, picked the location for my Gourmet Get away and booked the date when I wanted to go.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

We chose to go to the Westover Inn which is located in St. Mary’s, Ontario.(about 2 hours away from Toronto). We could have selected from over 14 different properties throughout Ontario but this one caught our attention.

We weren’t disappointed with our Samba Day Gourmet Getaway experience at all! We were impressed with the property, the accommodations and the food!!

My dinner consisted of a beautiful 4 course dinner – Spinach Salad, Walnuts, Blue Cheese and Pancetta with a Roasted Pear Vinaigrette, an amuse bouche, Grilled Beef Striploin with Dark Ale and Madagascar Peppercorns with Roasted Fingerlings Potatoes and a warm apple tart for dessert! Could not complain.

My breakfast was equally as delicious. It was difficult to chose from the menu as there were so many delicious sounding options!

Seriously…if you are looking for a unique gift….please consider Samba Days!

For more information:

Samba Days: 1 888 95 SAMBA

Disclosure: I was approached by Samba Days to experience one of their gift cards. However all opinions in this blog post are my own.

1. Goat Cheese Infused Chocolates: I sampled one of these chocolates from a vendor at Wychwood Barns. If you like savoury more than sweet – then this chocolate is for you!! What a combo.

1. The Macallan Breakfast Orange Marmalade:  I purchased this unique sounding product from the Milky Whey in Stratford, Ontario. Silly me, I only bought ONE jar. What on earth was I thinking?

3. A Pistachio Muffin from Coffee Culture in St. Mary’s Ontario. Never saw this flavour before and was totally surprised when I saw how green it was on the inside.

Did you eat anything amazing this past weekend? Please do share…

 

I’ve been going to the One of A Kind Show show for years. In fact I purchased this piece in the early 1990’s and it’s still proudly displayed in the front entrance of my apartment.

On Thursday night there was free parking PLUS late night shopping and decided to take advantage of these two perks. SMART MOVE. I wandered thru the aisles with ease and found all sorts of items that caught my attention! Namely….gifts related to food.

1. STATIONARY – by Carolyn Draws. 

2. ART – by Erin Rothstein

I walked by and couldn’t help but smile when I saw this acrylic painting of a piece of toast. She tells me that both the piece of toast AND the avocado are really popular. What a great piece of art for a kitchen. Don’t you think?

3. SIGNS  like this made me smile too. Congratulations to www.hannavart.com  for creating unique food art!

There’s over 800 artisans at this unique show so there’s truly something for everyone!

For more information:

One of A Kind Show: Nov 28 to Dec 8th, 2013, Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place

Facebook: www.facebook.com/oneofakindshow
Twitter: @ooak_toronto

Show Hours: Weekdays and Saturdays 10 am to 9 pm, Sunday 10 am to 6 pm

 

At this time of year, I love any recipe that involves only 4 ingredients!! Not to mention I love chocolate and cheese. Therefore this recipe really appeals to me!!

Here’s a quick story about my love for these two ingredients:  A few years ago, I came across a blue cheese chocolate chip cookie and blogged about it. Click here in case you are curious about the cookie.

The store where I purchased that cookie is now closed but this recipe is a close replacement! I think that the combination of cheese and dark chocolate is sure to catch everyone’s attention! It certainly did catch mine.

Infact, this recipe features the 2013 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix winner in the Blue cheese and Organic cheese categories. Did you know that their  is a Canadian Cheese competition? Well there is!!

Here’s the recipe for Bleu D’Elizabeth, Dark Chocolate and Date Bites

I’ve been following the burger scene for the past few years, so I was eager to check out the latest burger restaurant to open, which is called “P&L Burger” . This is the latest venture of the owners behind Parts & Labour and from what I have read online, they know a thing or two about hamburgers which is why they opened “P&L Burger”.

When you walk in, you immediately notice that the space is narrow and long! You order from the counter and then pick up your food at the back. As for the seating – only 14 seats are available

Here’s the menu….

I ordered the tempeh burger, kale salad and onion rings. I’m in love with the Kale Salad . I actually ate two portions of it – that’s how much I loved it. I also enjoyed the tempeh burger as it was a nice change from the usual veggie burgers.

However on my next visit Im ordering “the hamburger”, french fries and a milkshake…so that I can have another experience. Don’t you worry, I will be updating this blog post.

For more information:

P & L Burger: 507 Queen St. W, Toronto, Ontario

Twitter: @partsnlabour

Instagram: thepnlburger

#eatpnlburger

Many years ago, I was making pancakes and realized that I didn’t have any maple syrup in the fridge. I then had a “MacGyver Moment” and pulled out three ingredients that would replace the need for maple syrup: a banana, some brown sugar and butter.

Not only did it work, but I swear this sauce has totally replaced the need to have Maple Syrup in my fridge.

Ingredients:

one banana

1/4 cup brown sugar

2-3 tablespoons butter

cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter and the brown sugar.

2. Add the sliced banana. *the hotter the pan…..the better, so take your time to ensure that everything will caramelize  (this is a good thing!!)

FINAL PRODUCT

Sprinkle with cinnamon if you want!!

I serve this sauce with french toast or pancakes and without fail it’s always a hit.

Happy Cooking.

Here’s a quick round of up things that I’ve been thinking about this week:

1. I can’t stop thinking of the winter wonderland that I experienced last weekend at my boyfriends’ cottage. It was truly a beautiful time of year to be up north.

2. I had a wonderful meal this week at Linda Modern Thai with great service and flavourful authentic Thai food. I really need to eat Thai food more often, that’s for sure.

3. I also went to the AGO (327 Dundas St. W)  to visit the David Bowie exhibit. I not only need to visit the musem more often but the gift shop captured my attention too. See the item on the bottom left – well guess who bought it? ME. It was my Chanuka gift to myself. If you are looking for unique gifts – this gift shop is the place to be.

4. My week also included celebrating Chanuka..which is one of my favorite Jewish Holidays. For the first time in a long time – I’m using a white table cloth. Let’s see how long it stays white.

7. I actually bought something online on Black Friday. This is a first for me!!

8. I am still loving my Blendtec and made apple sauce in a nano second.

I also had the chance to attend a media dinner at The Guild restaurant (1442 Dundas St. W) to try some contemporary  Canadian food. They have recently introduced some a few new menu items which I inhaled….for example…Aged Balsamic Marinated Tomato Salad, Curvy Rigatoni, Seard Omega Pork Belly and more!!

I had a pretty productive week. Next week is going to rock too!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Chanuka has arrived very early this year (Nov 27-Dec 4) but I’m not complaining. It just means that I’m able to eat my favourite foods a little earlier. p.s. I’m referring to potato latkes and sufganyiot.

This year I decided to do a sufganiyot crawl. But before I began, here’s the definition of soufganiot (according to Wikipedia)

A sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה‎ or סופגניה; plural, sufganiyot: סופגניות) is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel on theJewish festival of Hanukkah. The doughnut is deep-fried, filled with jelly or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar.^[1] At Hanukkah, Jews observe the custom of eating fried foods in commemoration of the miracle associated with the Temple oil.

Here’s a photo of a pretty nice lookin’ sufganiyah.

My crawl led me to five places in my neighborhood: Dr. Laffa, What a Bagel, Richmond Bakery, Tastes Like More, and Kosher City Plus.

Three of us, sat down and sampled each and every one of the above sufganiyot. It was a tough job but someone had to do it!!

We discussed:

• The Jelly: was it sweet? too sweet? was there enough jelly?
• The dough: was it tangy? fresh? yeasty?
• The appearance: too much icing sugar? not enough icing sugar

 

 

All of them were devoured within 5 minutes which meant that we loved each and every one of them!

I had so much fun doing the “research” for this blog post that next year I’m going to do a potato latke crawl.

Happy Chanuka – to all my Jewish readers.

A while ago, (Oct 24th to be exact)  I received an invite to attend an event called the Strut Tour.  Here’s what the invite said.

Join us at the inaugural STRUT TOUR driven by BUICK; a unique professional event for leading influencers.

This interactive holiday extravaganza will hit the streets of Toronto on:

Tuesday, November 26th from 1:30pm-5pm

At each stop we promise you access to industry experts and leading brands in the social space.

Cocktail reception, 5-7pm

I checked my schedule and RSVP’ed right away.

Several weeks later I received another email with more details about the event. I was even more excited. Here’s a recap of the Strut Tour.

At 130 pm: I checked in and was super impressed that all sorts of info was on the back my name tag! I was also pretty happy that I was going to be driven around in a RED Buick with 5 other bloggers!!

The first workshop was held at the Jazz Cellar and the topic was: How Well Do You Know Your Brand. The panel included:

Duri Alajrami – VP Social Strategy North America, BlastRadius Andrea Dart – VP Weber Shandwick / GoldinHarris, Rachael Faucett – Founder, Handmade Charlotte Michele Bosc, Director of Marketing, Chateau des Charmes, Jennifer Cruxton – Manager, Business Development, Media Relations Rating Point (MRP)

Sadly we arrived late and missed most of the discussion however I did enjoy 2 glasses of amazing wine!

Workshop #2. Was held on the set of the Marilyn Dennis show. The topic was:

Think you’ve got what it takes to pitch a leading producer or be a spokesperson? 

The panel included Michelle Crespi – Executive Producer, The Social & Marilyn Denis Show , Lis Travers – Executive Producer, Canada AM. Mary Ann Zoellner – Producer, TODAY Show, Alicia Ybaro – Producer, TODAY Show,Sandra Martin – Editor-in-Chief, Walmart Live Better Magazine

P.S. I was pretty proud of myself and pitched a story. Stay tuned. LOL.

Workshop #3: We proceeded to HomeSense for yet one last interesting panel discussion. The topic: How Creative is Your Content. The panel of experts included –

Jen Reynolds – Canadian Living Editor-in-Chief  Nadine Silverthorne – Today’s Parent Managing Editor Tamara Robbins – PR Manager, HomeSense

I had to dash at 5 pm and missed the cocktail reception, but I know I would have enjoyed it! Nothing beats chatting one on one with other bloggers and brand representatives.

Many thanks to ImpressionsPR and WeeWelcome for the invitation!! It was a wonderful day that included a lot of learning and networking. Looking forward to Strut 2014.