Sunday, January 24, 2010

St. John's Bakery





This is one of my favourite stalls to visit at the Green Barn Farmer's Market. C usually buys the Red Fife and has a chocolate brioche. I just like to sip my coffee and admire the bounty of bread.

I discovered that the St. John's Bakery is a social enterprise business owned and operated by St. John's The Compassionate Mission and that bakery workers have included refugees, people struggling with addictions, people with emotional troubles or mental illness, and single parents struggling with poverty.

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Tortillitas!


A quick and healthy, crispy, tasty dinner : Mark Bittman, Andalucian Tortillitas - chickpea flour, water, shrimps, parsley and salt and pepper cooked in a pan like a pancake. Use any fish or herbs on hand. Una comida mue buena.

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Sweet fluffy clouds





I made marshmallows! It was my first attempt and I almost gave up. The recipes I read said to whisk the mixture for about 15 minutes to get it thick and stiff. Um, it took me FORTY minutes, people. Whatevs, it all worked out in the end as you can see by the little cloud floating in a mug of homemade Callebaut hot chocolate. I like this recipe from Orangette although it's a tad too sweet for my taste, especially if you'll be adding a fat marshmallow on top, so I cut the sugar by half. And about the marshmallow? You'll never go back to store-bought. These babies are delicate, fluffy, and totally gourmet. A bit messy to make but definitely worth it. Hopefully it doesn't take you 40 minutes of high-speed whisking!

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Spicy shrimp


More home cooking : Anchovy, garlic, oil, pepper flake, parsley pasta with garlic, oil, parsley, lemon shrimp. Tasty.

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Friday, January 15, 2010

Home cooking finally


This pic didn't come through last post, I hope it did this time, I'm emailing via blackberry. Poached halibut on Gios tomato sauce. Gios tomato sauce made by thick slicing tomatoes and covering them in minced garlic on one side and frying them in a pan w olive oil on each side until they turn to mush (about 8 min per side on med). Drop the halibut on top after the tomatoes are done and cover c and after another 5 to 8 min, voila healthy tasty french restaurant erasing meal that makes you feel happy. The wine was awesome, ontario small winery, foreign affairs that I found in lcbo vintages - expensive but worth a try its great. I just remembered I left a full bottle of vodka in my hotel room dangggg!

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Monday, January 11, 2010

Second brunch of 2010



For our second brunch of 2010, we were feeling adventurous and headed on over to the Hoof Café. It was highly recommended, and rightfully so. I've barely begun to tell you about what we ate and I'm just so excited to go back!

Not only is the room tiny and charmingly decorated, the food is delicious and special. Like things I couldn't get anywhere else for brunch, like tongue grilled cheese or marrow donuts? My gut was to go for the tongue grilled cheese, but since I'd never had tongue before, I ordered the hash which had tongue in it, but also potatoes, caramelized shallots and soft poached eggs on top. I also had the toast which came with goat butter and blueberry jam (oh so delicious!). Turns out, I like tongue! Although I'm not sure if it was cow or pig. I'm going to say pig, since their sign has a picture of a pig on it. C decided on the sweet and ordered the brioche french toast with a side of spicy sausage that came on a bed of baked beans. Hey, that's two for two now with C ordering french toast at both 2010 brunch spots! C felt like he still needed something when he was done but turned down the marrow donuts when our server made the suggestion, thinking they'd be too heavy. Instead, he ordered the house granola with goat yogurt. He liked the yogurt, but thought my homemade granola was better! Yayaya! Oh, I should also mention that we both ordered tea (Earl Grey for me, green tea for C) which were freshly brewed from leaves, not bags.

All in all, there is something for everyone here: traditionalists, adventurers, meat-lovers, vegetarians, coffee-drinkers, tea-drinkers, booze-drinkers. But definitely more geared toward adventurous carnivores. Check out the slideshow of our brunch here.

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Sunday, January 3, 2010

First brunch of 2010

Happy New Year! What better way to start off the new year than with brunch, and on a Friday to boot. Circumstances somehow landed us in the Junction and at Cool Hand of a Girl, a charming café C and I would pass by many times but never had a chance to stop in. I'm so glad we did because we're definitely going back.

I had the all-day breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and toast, to which I also requested a side of spicy chicken sausage. C had the French toast special which tasted like it had lemon poppyseed cheesecake melting between the layers of bread. Delicious and decadent. The food is organic and locally produced, which was a great bonus for us, and what we really liked was the vibe of the place. Very mellow but cool. Maybe I'm just biased because they were playing the Cure, but that in combo with a good coffee and cozy breakfast while it snowed outside put me in good spirits for the first day of the year.




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Sunday Scones



My whole apartment smells like a buttery bakery right now. I just made Apricot and Sour Cream scones from the King Arthur Flour scone mix (A Christmas gift!). Y-U-M. I've been running all over Chicago since returning from Omaha last week, on the hunt for a mini-scone pan. My Mom got this same pan couple of years ago for only $10.95 at the Crate and Barrel outlet. She's the smart one...I bought mine FULL PRICE yesterday...but damn...it makes the best looking scones! And the size is small enough you don't feel guilty eating 2 or 10? Right? The box says, "serve warm"...which is why half of a scone is missing above. A warm scone or two and good coffee on a v. cold Chicago Sunday. Happy New Year!

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Dinner and desert at le petit portoise

Rabbit, monkfish, duck breast, tarte tatin.

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Le Petit Portoise

Apetizers from last night. One with crab, one with creyfish and beans, one camembert crusted almond and honey.

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

King crab

Had to post another teaser, behold delicious cold king crab pre cracked with special mayonnaise. Found again at l ecume st honore. Caw!

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Bistro d'henri

Forgot to post dinner two nights ago. In the 6th, french, fall aparty lamb was the best, and the sardine salad, then way too many drinks. Julie is still drinking 3 days later.

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Normandie oysters

Paris introduced me to oysters with salted butter, rye bread, lemon and mignonette and today we had that and enhanced with a soundtrack of seagulls and surrounded in super fresh looking fish. Number 3 oysters are small, getting larger as the number goes down we had 4 types of oysters split and currently ordering a followup of king crab and saumon fumee and marinade de langoustine of course all with a bottle or two of sancerre.

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L ecume st honore

Forgot the name of the oyster place. Its on rue marche st honore.

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

First tango in paris

Rencontre with fusilli and broccoli at the coude fou in paris. Delicious 'lotte' (monkfish) with veggie pate and fall aparty steamed veggies and skewer fare. Broccoli's soup in a pumpkin trick, ginger, coconut and pumpkin. And I missed the shot of fusillis virginal feast but shot her here with backdrop of vagine and wine.

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Parisian Meat surfboard

dinner at karens in paris, featuring a meat surfboard - the creamiest fois gras ever, country french cured ham and other treats. I failed to take the shots of 4 amazing cheeses, my favorite 'l'epoisse'. Then killer reds, one of which was a gevfrey chambertin 2006. Broccoli to post more on the night.

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Not Turkey

This year's Christmas dinner marks the beginning of a new holiday tradition. A Christmas without Turkey... without stuffing, without mashed potatoes and best of all... without driving for hours on end on Christmas eve.

Instead, a chance to relax and enjoy the perfect holiday meal... beef tenderloin with a green peppercorn sauce. On the side—sautéed savoy cabbage with pancetta and rosti potato.

Happy Ho Ho

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sweetwater


Back in October, some friends and I went to the After Dark event in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. After exploring the new and very beautiful inside-and-out Modern Wing, we walked north on Michigan Avenue past Millennium Park to a not-so-new-now spot called Sweetwater. It's a large, open space with huge windows and roomy booths with a fantastic and tasty (and from a graphic design point of view, well-designed) menu. It was a rainy and cold night in Chicago so I opted for comfort food: the "Homestyle Meatloaf" with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus, coleslaw and honey butter corn bread. Makes me hungry just writing about it. Hmmm....what to have next time?!

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What I've been eating & tweeting

I found someone else (other than Broccoli) who tweets what they eat! And better yet, they actually put their data to good use by analyzing it. So I decided to plug in my data, and this is the tweet cloud that was spit out:


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Mom's Hot Chocolate


Hello Blog. Sorry it's been so long since the foreign correspondent checked in. Many weddings and other fun times this fall have kept me away from blogging. But I have many images from the archives to share. I was just in Omaha for Thanksgiving. Family, fun and delicious food. One of the many culinary highlights...Mom's hot chocolate. It really doesn't taste the same without the sprinkles. What I wouldn't give for some of this hot chocolate in this "blizzie blizzardo" weather outside my window tonight!

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Sunday, December 6, 2009

Bar food at home





You know how on every episode of  a Nigella (Lawson, like you needed to ask!) show, she sneaks down in the middle of the night to have a bite of some delectable leftover in her fridge? This calamari could be that midnight snack for me; I guess I over-estimated how much two people could eat. Crispy, light, and so easy to make, the batter is just cornstarch, semolina and Old Bay seasoning (paprika, if you can't find Old Bay) sizzled to perfection in grapeseed oil but peanut oil's also a good option. Tonight we had it with garlic mayo for dipping, edamame and Beau's, an organic local beer I picked up while visiting friends in Ottawa last weekend. Happy hour at home!

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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Attack of the giant strawberry




This doesn't seem right: a giant siamese strawberry that's *practically* the size of a 6 year old's head? Okay, a slight exaggeration, but still.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A San Frantastic Workcation

Sometimes work can be fun. In particular, when work takes you to San Francisco!

First on the list—a visit to the Ferry Building where each Saturday they have an incredible farmer's market. The highlight was definitely this strange fruit called Buddah's hand.



The beautiful hallways at The Clift. So Starck.


One night I was lucky enough to get a tour of Palo Alto, attend a lecture at the offices of IDEO and tour the campus of Standford.


Around the corner from the hotel is an incredible breakfast place called Dottie's True Blue Cafe. The routine—line up at 7am so you can get in the door when it opens at 7:30. Don't forget to bring your own coffee, all their creative energy went into the food.


By Saturday morning, I'd had enough of Dottie's coffee so I searched for breakfast options on Yelp. I found The Butler & The Chef, an awesome French bistro


The smolked salmon eggs benedict, fresh squeezed o.j. and a delicious latte. It was so good, I went back the next day so I could line up for 45 minutes to have a breakfast crepe.


Heading to the farmer's market, I walked along the Embarcadaro and right under the Oakland Bay Bridge. Beautiful.


I love my macchiato from Bluebottle Coffee. The only problem... you have to line up for 20 minutes to get one. It's worth the wait.


They have food too! Hello Mr. Waffle.


Random chocolate fountain!


An outdoor indie music fest in the Mission.

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