The Week in Yum June 6-11 My Garden Goes Wild, Fairmount Marker and Some Upcoming Stuff

The only thing thriving this week was my garden. The rain has transformed it into a thing of beauty

There was very little yum in my week, my friends. The Kid and I woke up last Friday, sick as dogs, infected with the plague that our own patient zero, Shack, had brought into our home earlier in the week. Before we both totally fell apart, we drove to McDonalds for french fries because the ONLY time that I eat them is when I am too sick to eat anything else. Their crispy, salty goodness is what I crave when I am sick. After polishing off our fries, The Kid and I took to our beds, where we remained for the rest of the weekend. Saturday meant another order of fries and I think that was the only time I even sat up. The kid bounced back by Monday but these things don't work that way with me and so I spent the rest of the week feeling pretty crappy. Not bad enough to stay in bed, but bad enough that I couldn't eat anything other than watermelon and I didn't venture far from the house.



Fairmount Market

By Wednesday, I thought that I was going to go insane so I walked down to my local farmer's market, to see if I could find something that would tempt me. The Fairmount Park Farm Market is still a newer market so it's smaller than others, but every year it growns and attracts more vendors. It is now my Wednesday market (Thursday is East Lynn and on the weekend I try to shop at the Leslieville market). Located on Upper Gerrard, Between Woodbine and Coxwell, it's walkable from my house so I consider it my "home" market.

I bought a Steak and Onion Mnandi hand pie, which I LOVE, but realized I couldn't actually eat it so I brought it home for The Kid. If you haven't tried one, you have to do something about that. $4.99 will score you buttery puff pastry filled with Steak and Onion, Chicken and Mushrooms, Carrot and Kale or Beef and Kale.

A tiny container of Thai Basil Lime Ice Cream from Bix Bakery  was the only thing that I could actually eat and it was delicious. Made with coconut milk, the ice creams are dairy free, gluten free, soy free and nut free. Personally, I don't care about any of those things but I do care about it being hand made with fresh ingredients and I really care about delicious.
I grabbed a jar of krautchi from Mighty Fine Brine  to enjoy later on, when I am feeling more human although everything I tasted from these lacto fermenting masters was delicious. Next time I will grab a jar of raw fermented habanero paste and maybe some garlic pickles. The krautichi is a tantalizing mashup of sourkraut and kimchi so if you find kimchi a bit too spicy and, well, kimchiish, this is for you. All of us need to make sure we are eating fermented foods and these products contain no dairy, they are gluten free, additive free and most of them are also vegan (only the fermented ketchup has some honey in it if you care about such things). I hope to see them again at the market.

Because I was suffering from a bad case of mom guilt, I forced myself to cook an actual meal for my poor kid and I think that this bowl of udon with spicy pork and green beans made up for my neglect.


I started feeling a bit more human by Thursday, just in time for a What's For Dinner class at Loblaws.





Every Thursday this summer there will be an event series called  50 Shades of Chocolate which sounds like some sort of clubbing with chocolate deal. Now, this is not for me but I don't judge, it might be up your alley.

On June 15, Ivy Knight is hosting A Taste of Greece Featuring Christine Cushing at The Drake

The Toronto Wine and Spirit show June 18-20 is being held at Sugar Beach. There will be lots of booze, lots of snacks and plenty of live music.
Thursday and Friday 6-11pm and Saturday noon -10pm
Click here to buy tickets ($25 or wait and pay $35 at the gate)

More booze on June 18th with a shindig at the Mill St BrewPub in the Distillery. The tickets are $69 and for that you will get a five course, beer paired menu so if beer's your thing, this might be worth checking out
UnTapped Brew Master's Dinner

Pin of the week: because, RHUBARB

Instagram of the week: Gorgeous food photography feed

Facebook share of the week:
Posted by The Yum Yum Factor on Wednesday, June 10, 2015
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