The Week In Yum August 14 - August 27 Two Weeks of Eating, Teaching and Cooking

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 eating at our local pub, The Grover, far too often lately but with a kid working full time and a husband who has been out of town most of the summer working, this is just how it goes. It's a two minute walk away, the pour a generous glass of wine and the food is solid pub fare. That, up there, is the Southwood burger but The Kid refers to it as a "Sanguicho" and it's all he orders lately. You can't try to make sense of these things.

My garden bounty on an empty fridge day hash with a fried egg turned out to be something I will make again and again
My garden has been pretty successful after a bout of blossom rot on my San Marzano tomatoes. I have cured that problem with lots of eggshells in the soil and thankfully, the yellow tomatoes did not suffer so that means I now have a daily supply of tomatoes, kale, sweet and hot peppers and a mountain of fresh herbs.

This has resulted in lots of meals like that pasta up there. This week I whipped up that hash from two leftover potatoes, two sous vide italian sausages and vegetables from my garden. An empty pantry can't stop me now.


I did a dinner party/cooking lesson early in the month and one of the dishes I made was a crostini topped with cannellini beans, cured olives and lots of bomba. I also made this at my last What's For Dinner Cooking Class at Loblaws to applause and accolade.  At home I have been making a big bowl of this topping and using it for all kinds of quick, no cooking required meals. One night I added feta, tomato and cucumber, another time I threw in some cold, cooked rotini and bocconcini.  For that dinner you see up there, I added tomato, fresh mint and topped it with my last can of Portuguese octopus. Throw in a couple chunks of crusty bread and everyone is happy. There will be a recipe coming this week.




We managed to leave the neighbourhood at least once and joined friends at Local 1794 on The Danforth for a great dinner over the weekend. I hadn't eaten all day and was stuck with an intense desire for a steak, which almost never happens, so I had the striploin and Shack ordered the special, a ribeye with mashed potatoes and other good stuff. Everyone was happy with their food and that gin, muddled pink grapefruit and mint cocktail made my night.




After an appointment downtown, I dragged a reluctant Shack to the Creton Centre for a taco from the cute bus at Richtree in the food court. He was glad I did.



Mid week, I attended a really fun media event celebrating South St. Burger's tenth anniversary. I will be writing about that in detail in the coming days, so keep an eye out for that.


The week ended on a high note with a blogger tasting event at Encore Catering, way up in the wastelands of Dufferin and Steeles. Beautiful presentation, delicious food and great hospitality was the order of the day - more to come about my night with Encore.




Pin of the week: Plugging my own, new Salad Yum board

Instagram of the week: Follow this guy if you want to feel like you spent the summer in Greece

Facebook share of the week: 



Come check me and these other great people out!
Posted by The Yum Yum Factor on Thursday, August 27, 2015

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