New Year’s Eve in Toronto: Fressen

Ever since hearing about Fressen, a “slow food” vegan restaurant in Toronto a few years ago, I’ve wanted to try it.  For one reason or another I never did – Fresh was casual; Vegetarian Haven was cheaper.  But this New Year’s Eve was different.  I was looking for a multi-course vegetarian meal that would take at least 2 hours to enjoy, in a romantic setting.  It didn’t take long to realize that Fressen fit the bill perfectly, and vegan to boot.

Penne with creamy white wine celeriac sauce. Photo credit: www.fressenrestaurant.com.

Breakfast in Puerto Rico: Pina Colada Loaf

Just because winter’s here (hello, first and second snow!), it doesn’t mean I can’t dream of reclining on a stretch of hot white sand looking towards the sparkling blue ocean, sipping a delicious pina colada, right?  And it just so happened that at my local grocery store, whole pineapples were on sale for $2 each.   So I proceeded to the Asian food aisle to pick up a can of premium coconut milk – none of that reduced-fat watery goop.

Loaf of awesome.

This summer to celebrate my birthday, I made a layered pina colada cake.  It was fantastic.  But that was an intense and had a very thorough process involving over two days of prep, and anyway it wasn’t a layer cake that I was craving – I needed something grab-and-go for breakfast at work.  So I decided to concoct a breakfast pina colada loaf, to get me going with full cheer in the morning.  What came out of the oven was a moist, fragrant loaf, with a beautiful golden crust and a nice balance of coconut and pineapple flavours.  Waking up this week is going to be a breeze.

This year's birthday cake - coconut cake layers with pineapple curd and coconut icing, dairy free!

Peanut Butter Science: Ms. Momo with Guest M. Crouton

As we sat in one of Ottawa’s premiere burger joints, The Works, where one can easily spend half an hour deciding what to put on your burger, we contemplated our upcoming candy-less Halloween weekend. How was it possible that we managed to plan a whole Halloween weekend without candy? We had thought about costumes. We had thought about pumpkins. But no candy.
We kept browsing the menu, sifting through a seemingly endless list of toppings, from avocado to Kraft dinner. And then there it was, as if calling to us: a burger topped with peanut butter. Now, neither one of us was ready to abandon our initial picks for lunch – sundried tomatoes? roasted red peppers? yes please – but the peanut butter stuck in our minds.

The conversation naturally turned to the different ways we loved to eat it.  On toast, on celery, on apples, even on pancakes. But we both agreed that the best way was with chocolate, bien sûr. Our mouths started to salivate.

A trip to Wikipedia told us that there are actually a lot more chocolate bar brands than expected out there that feature peanut butter.  We made a list.  Then, we made a plan. Yes, a plan.

In the name of Science!

Locavores make the case for good food

On CBC’s Q today, Jian Ghomeshi started the show with Jackson Lander, who advocates for the hunting and eating of animals commonly considered pests – namely Canadian geese and White tailed deer.  The main topic of the short discussion today surrounded the controversial culling of Canadian geese in New York’s Prospect Park and Central Park.  Lander agrees that these animals are grossly overpopulated, no thanks to human action in providing high density food sources (large yards and parks) and the elimination of their natural enemies.  Aside from the nuisance factor – many a time did I have to dodge their dropppings like landmines on the UWaterloo campus – the overpopulation of these geese is also an ecological threat as well as a threat to the aviation industry.  But Lander is against disposing of the geese in landfills – it is a waste of perfectly good meat.

Canada geese on the Ottawa River (July 15 2005 Jonathan Hayward THE CANADIAN PRESS) Click on the photo to go to the CTV news article on the NYC cull.

Apparently, Canadian geese taste more like beef than chicken, and it could be quite good.  In fact, in the early 20th century, they were feared extinct because they were so widely hunted.  We’ve forgotten that these animals can be hunted and eaten!  But why should we start now?

Lander is considered a “locavore”, who teaches urban people how to hunt and dress animals.  The term Locavore is a play on the terms herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore – locavores prefer to eat food that is locally produced or grown.  Lander recently published a book on how to hunt and cook deer.   On Q, Lander explained that the students that he took hunting, ended up being fitter, better, happier.  Being outdoors and being active helped improve mood and prevent depression.  People also became more compassionate – hunters have to confront their prey and acknowledge that its death was indeed a sacrifice.  An interesting point that he brought up was that even in the production of tofu, lots of animals are sacrificed – animals routinely get sucked into the combine as soybeans are harvested.

Listen to the full interview here - Lander does a goose call, which when done properly can call in a flock of flying geese to land.  Also check out his blog over at The Locavore Hunter.

In local news, October 13th is World Food Day.  In Ottawa, USC Canada is hosting a forum titled Building a Better Food System at  St Paul’s University.  The speakers are: Sarah Elton (author of Locavore), Susan Jessup (owner of 42 Fine Foods and Cordon Bleu trained), and Colleen Ross (a local organic farmer).

I’m also going to check out the REEL Food Film Festival, October 20-27.  Check out the full list of events here.

HMC Day 23: Tofu Wontons & Meal Planning Freebies!

Number ONE thing that I’ve learned: Prep, prep, prep. Every weekend Adam and I head to the grocers down the street, or my personal fav: The Sweet Potato, and get all the groceries on the LIST. The LIST (it’s in CAPS because it’s UBER-important) has everything that we need on it so that 1) we don’t go over board and waste too much, and 2) we don’t miss anything and end up having to hit the grocery store again during the week.

HMC Day 22: Spicy Butternut Squash Stew

It’s been consistently dark and cold these past few days, and even though I think about food a lot all year round, I think about food most of all when the weather’s like this.  I think it might be because I’m just sitting around staring at the sky, and then I would immediately want to eat something warm.  Last night, I craved something stewy – something warm and spicy and orange, and a bit tart, served over a bed of quinoa.  I had a taste in mind, and so I just worked backwards from there with a little inspiration from the green curry recipe in Jamie at Home.

This dish is exotic Autumn in a pot – I ate it on top of quinoa, but you can eat it with any kind of rice, or even pita bread because it is not a watery stew.  It is spicy, sweet, savoury, mushy, creamy, and hearty, all in one.  Mission: accomplished.

HMC Day 19 (late post): Spinaquicha!

Another unexpected side effect of making everything at home is the lack of time to do other things like blogging!  Last Tuesday, I randomly wanted to make quiche.  I already had dinner, so it was 8pm and I would be making it for lunch the next day.  I scoured the internet for something quick, and ended up making my own version, using a tarte crust from David Lebovitz’s Tarte aux tomates (which I had for brunch last weekend, more on that later) and I got to utilize left over crumbled feta and shredded gruyere and parmesan mix from other meals.

This quiche is more spinach than egg, and to me, it’s more like a spanakopita in pie form.  That’s why I jokingly called it spinaquicha.

I ended up eating this for breakfast (with siracha), lunch (with salad) and dinner (with soup) over the next few days.

HMC Day 14: My new favourite lunchbox

My new favourite lunchbox, or today more appropriately called breaky-box, is awesome! I first discovered this beautiful box on one of my favourite design sites. I thought it was a great idea, but didn’t think much of it after that. I think something about shipping and handling or not shipping to Canada, or perhaps just plain forgetting about it, snagged my dreams of owning such a functional and pretty lunchbox.

HMC Day 13: Nut Meal and Baking

My weekend was packed full of baking and produce prepping! I’ve never really been a baker, so I was really interested to see how my goods would turn out!

The ONE major hurdle that I’ve had to overcome is finding time to prepare snacks for my work day. Bringing lunch to work has also been difficult, but around two o’clock every day I get the munchies! And before September if there was nothing in my backpack, I would head to the local coffee shop. Therefore, this past weekend I spent my time wisely and made my favourite granola, as well as two batches of yummy muffins!

HMC Day 8: Week 1 Reflection and Smitten Kitchen

It’s been a full seven days since Home Made Challenge began.  The first half of the week was great – I was energetic, I baked a lot, and cooked a lot.  But what I didn’t anticipate was that my lifestyle would become less spontaneous.  Already I’ve had to turn down spur-of-the-moment snack outings and postpone lunch/dinner dates.  My friends and colleagues have been super supportive though, bringing me their home made apple pie and nanaimo bars, which was a boon.