The Yum Yum Factor

What to do with a couple of leftover, cooked chorizo, two potatoes and some leeks? MAKE SOUP!

Earlier this month I was invited to the Toronto Flavour Your Live Blending Event hosted by Aria Restaurant, here in Toronto.  I LOVE extra virgin olive oil and was intrigued by the whole blending thing, I made my way down to the venue to check it out because I am not missing out on a chance to have some science fun. Taking home my personal blend The owner and blend master himself, Giovanni Zucchi, led us through a tasting, showing us the proper tasting technique (very similar to wine tasting where you take a sip, coat your mouth with the oil then noisily suck air in through pursed lips and then spit it out) and helped us to identify different flavours and how they reacted on the palate. If you think all olive oil is essentially the same, think again. Some show clear notes of pepper, some are kind of sweet, some are more acidic and others are fruity. Professional olive oil tasters sip from blue glasses so that they can focus on the taste and the texture and not get hu...

I have a confession to make: I really like the texture of canned fruit, especially peaches.

I am always looking for something fun to do during the summer. Look, as much as I love driving to Niagara to hit a few wineries and grab a bite, you can only do that so many times before you start to get bored of doing the same thing every weekend. On a beautiful summer weekend, heavy tourist traffic can turn a 45 minute drive into a 2 hour excursion and I just don't always want to taste wine, if you can imagine.