The Yum Yum Factor

Amuse Bouche - Lobster BELT on a buttery brioche bun Encore Catering has invited me to a host of blogger tasting events and for one reason or another, I am never able to go. In the spirit of full disclosure I am going to tell you that the fact that they are located at Dufferin and Steeles is usually a contributing factor and to get myself out there for an early evening tasting makes it impossible to manage if I am working in the city since I need to bring my passport and an overnight bag with me once I am going north of Lawrence and Yonge. Now, add the westerly climbs of Dufferin into the mix and you might as well invite me to come to Woodstock Ontario at that point. Because I have been following the social media of all of the other bloggers and food writers who HAVE attended, I vowed to attend this latest tasting evening. From the Beaches, it's about an hour on TTC, which isn't all that bad but I will forewarn you: If you are going to go and visit them in their cater...

There are a million recipes out there for babaganoush, a popular, Middle Eastern, smoky eggplant dip so why am I sharing one more? To me, the actual dip is just a blueprint that you can use to then dress it up as you wish. I like mine kind of thick, so it's also a spread and have found that it's as great smeared on crostini or in a wrap as it is eaten as a dip with a piece of pita bread so I replace the lemon juice with the rind of a pickled lemon. I also love the addition of pickled turnip as much for their sour crunch as for their beautiful pop of colour in what, otherwise, is a sea of grey and grey food is never appealing on it's own. The toasted walnuts might not be authentic but that's how I like it so that's how I make it. Smoky Eggplant Spread 1 large eggplant 1 clove garlic, grated on a rasp or fine grater OR chopped very finely 1 tsp kosher salt *1 preserved or pickled lemon 3 tbls tahini 1/4 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp cumin a...

Shack and his dapper hat twin at Calabria Bakery on Midland for Pizza Friday First of all, let's get this out of the way. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: I am one of the featured chefs on the long weekend at Harbourfront's Hot and Spicy Food Festival so if you are in Toronto, come down and throw peanuts at me! On Saturday, Aug 6, I will be making and serving my Blend and Extend Mini Kofta with Spicy Beet Puree and Zhug and talking about mushrooms, blend and extend and how you can make that work in your own kitchen. Hot and Spicy Yum at Harbourfront! It's summer so sometimes the Week in Yum turns into the WeekS in Yum. It's been a busy summer with lots of travelling about and dealing with life so I am just going to share my last two weeks in photos, if that is okay. If that is not okay, keep it to yourself and pour yourself a nice cup of strong coffee and look at the delicious food pictures and you will feel better about life by the end of the page. We have been eat...

Concession Road God, I love a good media dinner. My friend and fellow blogger, Vicki of Mom Who Runs , knows how to put on a good dinner. She makes sure that the kitchen plates up the food and places it up front, right by the windows (she also makes sure to hold these things nice and early so we have good light) and we all crowd around like a pack of wild animals, photographing all of the delicacies that we will soon be tasting. This way, once we sit down to eat, we can concentrate on the food instead of fiddling with smart phones and cameras, trying not to put anyone's eye out with an arrant elbow as we contort our bodies in order to get a decent shot of each dish. This week, we hit up Concession Road, the newest restaurant from  Harsh Chawla and Derek Valleau,  the people who brought us Pukka which happens to be one of my favourite restaurants in the city. This strip of St Clair, just west of Bathurst, is increasingly becoming home to tons of new restaurants, many of ...

When we were in Portugal, we ate some version of octopus salad everywhere we went. Some had tomato and onion, some were just bowls of chopped octopus, doused with copious amounts of olive oil, vinegar and herbs and others were brightened with lots of cilantro and lemon juice. I don't think I could even pick a favourite if I tried, but, if you put a gun to my head, I might say that it was the octopus salad we ate at Ponto Finale (check that meal out here  ). When I don't have the time or inclination to cook and prepare my own octopus, I buy a few chunks of cooked octopus in olive oil from my favourite little Italian grocery store and use that. This is a typical dinner for The Kid and I when we are on our own - just add some crusty bread and a green salad (and a frosty glass of rose for me) and you have got yourself the perfect summer meal and you never had to turn on a stove or do anything more strenuous than chop a tomato. Although I do love it with cilantro, for a ch...

I am ridiculously excited about the impending, inaugural Food and Wine show right here at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto this fall. For years, I have been reading about this travelling food show in Food and Wine magazine, fantasizing about flying to one of the host cities to attend. This fall, I will no longer have to fly to Chicago, NYC, Austin or LA because the circus is coming to town! Formerly known as The Delicious Food Show, the new partnership with Food and Wine magazine will now mean Toronto is added to the roster of Food and Wine festival participants and the show will be bigger and better than ever. Packed with amazing Canadian talent, there will also be international food stars like Alton Brown, Tyler Florence and Curtis Stone on hand. It will be three days of non stop food nirvana with demos, tastings, lectures and more; a foodapalooza, if you will and I will be there the whole weekend. 5 Reasons You Need to Visit Toronto FOOD & WINE...

The Kid and I accompanied Shack to Ottawa for the long weekend since it was a holiday and we have been leaving The Kid at home up until this point. Every kid, even a full time working man with facial hair, has to spend at least one long weekend suffering through his dorky parents. We didn't do anything touristy, just walked around, ate some good food and showed the manchild the city before hopping on the train with him to come home Monday night, leaving his papa there to work nights for the next few weeks out in the woods. Oh, we did go see Ant Man on Sunday night and IT WAS FUNNY. Who knew?? A movie about a superhero who fights with an army of ants didn't suck? We made return visits to Ace Mercado, Ola Cocina and Lowertown Brewery (more about those places in last week's roundup, here ) so that I could write actual reviews, which will be coming soon. We also fit in a visit to Oz Kafe  , one of Shack's favourite places to get late night snacks - okay, it is als...

Okay, this is not a review of my newest kitchen toy, the Actifry Express XL by T-Fal because I just got it and have only used it once to make french fries. This particular Actifry is brand new in Canada and it cooks food up to 30% faster than the previous machines. It is also HUGE. It looks like a big, black spaceship, which I like but, honestly, it's huge and you need to have a lot of space to store this baby. This one makes enough food to feed six though, so if you have a whack of kids, this one would be your best bet.  It's got a nice, big digital screen so it's really easy to set the time and comes totally assembled so you can basically pop it out of the box, take out the bowl and the blade, give them a quick wash, pop them back in and go.  I will say that the french fries that came out of it were crispy and tasty and that I used less than a tbls of olive oil to make 750 grams of potato/sweet potato fries, so that is a good thing. Are they as crispy a...