Last Thursday's dinner

Homemade, home-cooked comfort food by Carlo's mother: butternut squash + ricotta gnocchi with butter, sage and lemon zest. Followed by salmon trout (I didn't know there was such a thing!) perfectly cooked with a breadcrumb parmigiano topping and for the vegetable component, broccoli. And next day's lunch? A salmon trout sandwich, of course!

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Bacon re-incarnated

This is the first I've ever heard, seen or tasted bacon… in a pretzel. Stopping into a Polish grocery store on Roncesvalles to pick up some perogies, my pal Tomi spotted these and gave me the nudge to buy them, not that she had to nudge that hard. She's a vegetarian so bacon pretzels aren't exactly on her to-eat list.

I ripped open the package when I got home and settled in to watch some Olympics (men's speed skating 1500m) with a fresh gin and tonic in hand. Smoky, salty, dry and crispy… bacon pretzels are pretty addictive. I wrapped up the remainder of the package with elastic bands and hid it away, in fear I'd down the entire thing in one sitting.

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The $9 tuna melt

Talk about disappointment. Tomi gets a tuna melt for lunch from (the post-changeover) Hank's and gets taken for a $9 ride. Here's what it consisted of: a thin slice of brown bread about the size of an iPhone with a smear of tuna, topped with cheese and a forest of arugula. Seriously?

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Orange Crush

This past Sunday I met up with Nidhi and Martina at Orange at Grand & Milwaukee for a noon-ish brunch. Orange has a few locations around the city, but this one was a good halfway point for all of us and our respective neighborhoods of: West Loop, West Town and the Gold Coast.

We ordered a round of Frushi to share. Frushi is fresh fruit, in-season, made into sushi rolls or pieces. YUM. I chose for my entree, the not pictured, Omelet #4. For me it was a nod to Kauai; with roasted ham, pineapple and swiss cheese and toasted coconut flakes sprinkled on top. Martina had the Chai Tea French Toast and Nidhi had the pancake flight.

The theme to the pancake flights changes weekly. This week's theme was honey and included these four (descriptions taken from their table menu): Lemon Thyme (blueberry buttermilk pancakes with lemon-thyme honey and whipped cream, garnished with ground pecans), Granola (almond buttermilk pancakes topped with mango-honey mousse and home made granola, Bacon (honey butter on buttermilk bacon pancakes drizzled with pecan syrup and garnished with powdered sugar) and Strawberry Banana (strawberries inside buttermilk cakes, topped with slices of banana honey-cottage cheese whipped cream and oven toasted walnuts).

My next visit to Orange I will try either the pancake flight of the week or the French Toast Kabob! What will you have?!

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Bacon and eggs

Who says bacon and eggs are only for breakfast? How about a little cast iron skillet pizza with the easiest pizza dough ever, topped with tomato sauce, chopped bacon from the farmer's market and a dusting of parmigiano? When it's cooked, crack an egg on top. I stuck mine back in the oven for a bit, but don't let that yoke get hard! You want it to ooze out when you slice up the pizza so you can soak up all that sunny yellow goodness.

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Homemade Ramen in toronto!

Kenzo on Dundas, West of Bay. Homemade Ramen noodles, broth, this is a Ramen chicken soup.

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Lori and jims

Perfect dinner party to relieve a hangover : viewing of lori's Bird Poop Madonna, with a delicious dinner featured below of LCBO 2008 recipe sirloin chili rub (complemented with jims description of Dwaynes rub n tug), with peppers avocado, tomato, red onion salad and cornbread. Totally delicious, sibling rivalry wine was perfect for the hangover. Tit biting.

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Dinner tonight

Eggs poached in homemade tomato sauce, crusty bread to mop up all that lovely sauce and runny yolks, and a fantastic value ($6.75!) Montepulciano d'Abruzzo to drink. For more egg ideas, check out this post on Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn.

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