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

Food I ate in May and probably in June

It's been faaaaaaaar too long since I last wrote something.  Sorry :(  But here's why:  it's because I'm lazy.


So here's a quick update of some food things I've eaten in the past few weeks.


After my brother's eye got better (his retina detached, poor guy - he's all better now!), we went to celebrate at a new Korean restaurant in Richmond Hill.  It... suuuuccckkkeeed.  Hence, the restaurant will not be named, because I don't want to get sued for something I write on the Internet.  Okay, it didn't suck that badly, but it definitely wasn't as good as other Korean BBQ places I've been.  In any case, the food presentation was nice, and is sure to make Evan jealous of my whereabouts.


We had bulgogi (korean bbq of some sort) on the grill and in a soup-y kind of thing.  

On the grill.  Note how small these pieces are.  So sad.

This is my cool before and after picture.  The top portion is raw; when cooked, it turns in to this soupy thing with mushrooms and green onion and peppers and other good stuff.

Kay, moving on to another point in the past.  There's this really good breakfast restaurant chain called Cora's that started in Quebec.  They make really good food, though it is kinda pricey.  In any case, I got this french toast with fruit on it and it was pretty dece!

French toast with fruit thing from Cora's.

While my brother was still recovering from his eye injury, my friend and I saw this recipe on Pinterest to make popsicles with fresh fruit.  So we bought a cheap popsicle set and some fruit and boom!  Popsicles.

Popsicles.  Well, I guess it's just a popsicle.

June 1 weekend is the best weekend in Pickering.  For the past few years, we've had ribfest roll into town, and it's the one event I get most excited for in our little suburban town.  There really isn't much that goes on, or at least not much that I get way excited for.  And if ribs and other fried food are gonna set up shop at City Hall, then yes, I will be there.

My friend and I have made this an annual tradition.  We usually get a half rack of ribs each and share to see who made the better purchase.  I also usually get a bloomin' onion too.  Mmmmmm :)

Ever since I moved to C-dot Hill, I've missed the frozen yogurt from Yogen Fruz.  From what I understand, Yogen Fruz is a company from Toronto that makes frozen yogurt (duh).  They have these yogurt bars that they mash together with fresh fruit of your choosing.  So it's not quite as tart as the fro yo I like in Chapel Hill, but it tastes just like the fruits you put in it!  ...because they put fruit in it... yeah.  anyways.  It's good.    

Yogen Fruz.  Hooray! :)

That's about it from me.  I have more things to post about.  But I shall have to do that later because my poor doggies haven't had dinner yet. :(  Poor guys.  I'm a bad sister.  

Byeeeeeeeeee! :)

CSA Week 1 - Kristen's Dinner #2

Classic Pesto with Whole Grain Fussili


3 cups basil leaves - stemmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic - roughly chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts (you can toast them or just use plain... I used plain)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
some red pepper flakes, duh
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh shredded Parmesan (or Romano) cheese

Put everything in food processor and purée until smooth. Toss with cooked pasta. Maybe add some bread or tomatoes. 

Enjoy - so much better than the fancy canned sauce or paste. Appreciate the silence and opportunity for seconds in Evan's absence.

CSA Week 1 - Kristen's Dinner #1

On Tuesday (yesterday) Lil' Evan and I got our first CSA box (2012 Mid Chatham Farmers Alliance CSA)! We got green beans, a head of garlic, red and golden beets, kohlrabi, basil, and braising greens. 


Tonight for dinner I made roasted beets, sauteed greens, and spicy Italian sausage. MMMMM!

Roasted Beets:

1. Beetroots, washed and quartered (or smaller if the beetroot is HUGE)
2. Olive oil
3. Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 deg. F. In glass baking dish, mix ingredients, and spread evenly. Cover with foil. Bake for 35 minutes (or until almost fork-tender), then uncover and bake for another 10 minutes (if you want them to be a little burnt/crunchy). 

Sauteed Greens:

1. Braising greens - this week we had a mixture of rainbow chard, kale, and beetroot greens. Wash, spin dry, and chop
2. Sesame oil
3. Sesame seeds
4. Soy sauce (~ 1 tablespoon)
5. Apple cider vinegar (~1  tablespoon)
6. 3 garlic cloves, minced
7. Fresh ginger - shredded (best to use a ceramic ginger grater), about a tablespoon (and use the juices too!)
8. Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Use a LARGE skillet. Put it on stove just under medium high - while you wait for it to heat, add the sesame seeds and stir continuously until slightly browned; remove seeds. Add 3 tablespoons sesame oil, get hot (but don't burn the oil!). Add garlic and ginger, stir constantly until just before the garlic browns. Add soy sauce and vinegar, stir, add the greens. Use tongs to toss and coat, add toasted sesame seeds, toss to coat, and cook until greens just begin to wilt (the beetroot will cook down, the chard will still be pretty green). Turn off heat, cover skillet, and let rest for about 5 minutes. 

Delicious! I separated half out in tupperware for lunch tomorrow.... and wanted more of the greens, which were under everything else, so I just ate the whole thing. Now I feel sick... and SATISFIED!

Ok, off to MCH trivia! 

nooooooodles thai style

Bonjourrrrrr (that's French for "Hellooooooo")

Ok, so this dish could've been way better had I added hot sauce.  This is stir-fried noodles with some crap in it.  Well, not literally crap, but crap as in "stuff," as in "food ingredients."  Although it was really bland without any hot sauce, it still had some nice Vietnamese flavours (namely, mint and basil...God I hope those are Vietnamese flavours!)

Here are some pictures!!

String beans, because the recipe called for them.

All the other ingredients.  We made it vegan by taking out chicken and replacing it with tofu.  And instead of regular mushrooms (whatever those are), we used enoki mushrooms (the skinny white ones). And instead of sugar, we used agave syrup, and instead of minced ginger, we used ginger juice that my mom happened to have.  Oh and vegetable broth instead of any other meat-type broth.  

So here's the first mistake I made... I should've fried the tofu separately first, so that it wouldn't break apart while I mixed it up with all the other ingredients.  Oh well... better luck next time.  It still tasted okay.

Magically, the dish is done!  How the hell did that happen??  

I have to go walk my dog now, so hopefully this blog post was sufficient to help you in making your own noodle-y dish.  I know... detail is my forte.

Byeeeeeeeee! :)

  

Stuff you should not eat

This is a list of things you should not eat, aka, things you can find in Pickering and Toronto.

Don't eat house centipedes, those ugly jerkfaces.  I hate them so much.  At least they're slightly smaller up here... but not by much.  They're pretty gigantic in NC.

Don't eat my dog Pado, looking like a lunatic.  This was after a 4.5 km jog.  For you Americans, 1 kilometer = 0.621371192 miles (according to Google).

Don't eat my dog Buddy, chillin' in my backyard.

Don't eat my dog Pado, who collapsed in the bathroom after the 4.5 km jog.

Don't eat my dog Pado, who is hiding in the bathtub, because he is afraid of life.

Don't eat my dog Buddy, peering into the bathroom, wondering why Pado is such a fool.

Don't eat the CN Tower and the Sky Dome.

Don't eat Pado, who is very bored.