Cooking After 8 - Episode 1 - Calzones

Hi again!

Our new contributor, Mysha, has created a new cooking show for all y'all.  Needless to say, we were in a silly mood this evening; but what's the point of life if we can't be a little silly, right?! We think the video speaks for itself, so we hope you enjoy!!!

P.S.  Here's the recipe we used.  The calzones were delicious!  Click here now!  Doooo iiittttt!!! :D

Guys, I'm not gonna lie... This pasta salad is amazing!!!

Today, Mysha (one of my new roommates) invited me to join her at a little bakery in Durham, NC called Daisy Cakes.  Long story short about Daisy Cakes - it was awesome!!!

I had the fennel, zucchini, and something or other sandwich, seen here.  It was so delicious.  But actually, the most memorable thing on that plate was that little scoop of pasta salad.  I don't know what was in it, but it was deeeeee-licious!!!  

Sandwich with super amazing awesome pasta salad.

I was told the dressing for the pasta salad was a balsamic vinaigrette.  Which seemed like a huge lie, but y'know, what do I know.  It also had fennel in it, but it was kinda soft and not too crunchy, which made it even better.  And it also reminded me of how I actually kinda like fennel!

So I went home... And I was committed to making this happen.  Making what happen, you ask?  Making that gosh darn delicoius pasta salad.  So Mysha was kind enough to take me to the grocery store and I bought me some fennel.  I also bought me a tomato.  and some arugula.

I got home and I started cooking.  Here's the breakdown:

- boil water, make pasta (i used whole wheat pasta)

- thinly slice fennel.

- pick basil from Mysha's garden - like 10 leaves or something.  Chop that up real thin.

- chop up that tomato into bite size pieces.

- just before i throw in that pasta, blanche the fennel.  for like 30 seconds.

- mix together some olive oil, and (wait for it...) a MIX of red wine vinegar AND balsamic vinegar.  aw yeah.  (I did like 1/3 balsamic, 2/3 red wine vinegar).  I'm usually pretty cheap when it comes to salt, but I put in a relatively generous amount of salt and some pepper.

- arugula.  wash the arugula, put it in a bowl with the fennel and tomato.  A bit of salt on the arugula seems to help too.

- once the pasta is done, wash it down with cold water.

- mix EVERYTHING together!!!!!!!!

the result: don't wanna toot my own horn or anything... but you get deliciousness.  gloriousness.  something worthy of Zeus' dinner table.

My not-so-modest pasta salad.

Something else you should also know about Daisy Cakes: they made a gingerbread cookie that had bacon in it.  Surprisingly delicious.

Bacon Gingerbread Cookie.  You can really taste the bacon!

Hope you enjoy the pasta salad as much as I do!  And if you ever find yourself in Durham, NC, get yourself to Daisy Cakes!

Love and exploding props, 

Yuna

PS - asian glow.

exciting news!

Friends... I have excellent news.

Soon, we shall have a guest contributor to our food blog.  She may even become a permanent contributor.  If we're lucky. 

Stay tuned. 

:)

- Yuna

retroactive post 2 - cafes and restaurants in TO

One summer afternoon, my parents and I were walking around "midtown" Toronto (Mount Pleasant and Eglinton) and we stumbled upon this (what I believe to be a) French cafe.  

They had a very nice visual display of their desserts... which I sadly did not try.  Cuz it was mad expensive.

My dad got a burger and salad. Tres French.

I got this baguette sandwich thing with proscuitto.  It tasted exactly like a baguette with proscuitto.

Then we drove down to Liberty Village to watch my brother play recreational soccer.  He's improved vastly since he was 4; at that age, he used to crouch down and pick clovers.  

Then we decided to have my mom redeem her mother's day gift, which was a dinner at Rodney's Oyster House in downtown Toronto.

This is allegedly a giant clam... perhaps one of the world's giant?  I don't remember, and I can't read that small print.

I had to get me some clam chowdah (sic)

This is a bunch of seafood in tomato sauce/soup.  It must've been good beacuse my mom destroyed this dish!

This is my scallop linguine thing, which was also delicious!

Danny got a lobster, also tasty.

Danny is excited to eat his lobster with his lobster bib!

My dad, of all people, got a salad.  I don't know what was up with him that evening.  Maybe he was still full from that french burger he had a few hours earlier.

There you have it, some more food shenanigans in Toronto.  Yet more reasons why y'all should visit the T-dot some day! :)  (Bring cash.  This stuff ain't always cheap...)

retroactive blog post 1 - Canada Day at the Cottage

Canada Day at the Cottage!

This one is pretty self-explanatory... beer, bbq, and other foodstuffs.  There are Webers pictures too, but that will have to be its own blog post since I don't have the pictures handy.

This fridge was filled with beer within 10 minutes of us stepping foot in the cottage.  Obviously we had our priorities straight.

Charlsie was our grillmaster for the weekend!  What an epic grillmaster!  

Here we have some grilled chicken with generous amounts of Bulls Eye BBQ sauce, and copious amounts of grilled vegetables (olive oil and salt and pepper).

Here's my cheesy pull apart bread that I found off of pinterest!  This is a sourdough loaf that I cut a grid into.  Then I sauteed mushrooms and red onion in olive oil, and seasoned it with salt and pepper.  Then I shoved all that good stuff in between the crevices of the sourdough bread, and also shoved in some cheese.  Then I baked that bad boy for a while, probably in a 325 oven or something around that.  Then we enjoyed the crap out of this thing.

And behold - our Canada Day light brite!

a random smattering of foods

This post is just an exposé of food I ate recently.  Mainly because I like taking pictures of food for the sole purpose of putting them on this blog.

Here are my fish taco's I had at this Mexican restaurant in Whitby, Ontario called Los Cabos Cantina.  Our server told us that no one leaves the restaurant hungry.  He was right.  If you ever happen to be in Whitby, check it out!  

My dad has been learning to cook this summer and he's been impressing the heck out of me and my mom!  He's quite good at Chinese cuisine.  Here is a red snapper fish he made with some sauce... hahaha I forget exactly what it is, but it tasted better than any Chinese restaurant fish!  Yay dad!

And finally, here is a tiny little Haagen-Daz that I ate.  It had chunks of peanut butter in it, which was weird, but still tasty.  And the tiny little spoon comes with the tiny little serving :)  And by "tiny little serving," I suppose I actually mean, "a properly portioned serving."

More pictures to come! :)

pappardelle or something other

Some time ago, my parents and I were watching TV.  A Chatelaine commercial came on and this lovely pasta dish flashed across the screen.  It looked so damn good, I had to find the recipe.  So here it is: roasted-tomato pappardellaliwjfeaklsdfasklle.  I can never remember how to spell this type of pasta.  I also don't know how to pronounce it.

A lot of blogs give you information about the ingredients that go into the dish.  So, in an attempt to class up my blog posts, here is some information on the pappardelawoeifasllle noodle.  It is a flat noodle.  Made of....flour, let's say.  And I suppose some egg, since that was on the front of the package.  The pappardellewhatchamacallit was presented in little nests.  I thought they wouldn't be enough.  But don't be fooled - these bad boys explode when you boil them!  Two nests was definitely enough for one person - very filling!

Okay, so here's the recipe.  You have your noodle thingy, cherry or grape tomatoes, orange juice (ya, i know, shocker - but a very key part of the recipe!), and herbed goat cheese.  And olive oil, and salt and pepper.  And I'm sure you could add other stuff like chilli Flakes.  But, I feel like this recipe is best kept simple.  

You read the recipe in the link above, you follow the instructions, and voila!  Roasted Tomato Pappapskfejioafdfnwepapernoodle!  

The dish with the noodles I cannot pronounce.  Nor spell.

I thought it was really tasty.  For a pasta-ish dish, it's actually kinda light.  But still very filling.  And it was easy, so that's a bonus!

We also grilled up some vegetables to eat on the side.  Actually, I'm not sure if we ate these grilled vegetables on the same day as the pappafwelkflle, but I had a picture of it, so I'm posting it.  Olive oil, salt, pepper, grill.  Done!

Here we have asparagus, eggplant, and zucchini.  

There we have it.  A bientot!

Yuna