The Yum Yum Factor

Okay, I will be straight with you. I don't give a rat's ass about football and I have no interest in eating three quarters of the traditional SuperBowl food that I see all all over the internet and on television. If you want to eat 30 layer bean dip and giant casseroles of melted Velveeta you probably won't want to hear my ideas about what I think makes a great game day spread and I am okay with that. I won't take it personally when you tell me I am nuts to recommend middle eastern inspired crashed potatoes instead of nachos covered in queso if you promise to not take it personally when I refuse to taste your delicious dip made with a package of dried onion soup, uncooked ramen noodles and nutella mixed and sour cream. Deal? So, just because I don't care about football doesn't mean I don't care about a good party with great food, drinks and friends and with that in mind, I always accept an invitation to watch the game and, more importantly, eat w...

The only thing more Canadian than clamato juice is maybe beaver tails, Molson Canadian and maple syrup even though up until now, Clamato juice automatically has meant  US based Mott's Clamato Juice. When you go to the States and try to order a bloody Caesar, you tell them it's basically a bloody mary but with clamato juice instead of tomato. Then, you have to explain what clamato juice is and then the groans and gags start. CLAM JUICE???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If you sat one of those naysayers down and served them a proper bloody caesar without revealing the wonders of clamato to them, I am positive that they would drink their glass dry without a second thought. I can understand that it's hard to get past the clam juice in a cocktail thing but I grew up drinking clamato juice and I love it, straight up on ice, in a cocktail or as a virgin caesar. I am more about the clamato than the vodka, frankly. Now, as a person who cares about what they eat and tries to avoid pre...

The Neighbour has something like 321 siblings and out of that big group of family there are three sisters who have become known in our world as The Sisters.  Every year The Sisters come down from The Miramichi in New Brunswick to spend a week with The Neighbours and this is always a very busy, festive week full of belly laughs, lobster rolls, chips dipped in hot fudge and long island iced tea. This year, not only did they bring us a couple of HUGE clumps of rhubarb to plant in our garden, but a bag of chopped rhubarb to cook with as well. I have not been buying rhubarb this year because it has been kind of hard to find and when I do find it, it is ridiculously expensive and not even particularly nice. Come on, it's a damned weed and the grocery store wants to charge me $4 a stalk? What's next, hormone free dandelions for $9 a pound with a side of $20 organic poison ivy? Anyway, if that weren't enough good luck, another friend sent me a message that she had a big b...

This week's Gastropost mission was to explore food on a stick. Everybody loves food on a stick and we have enjoyed some awesome examples of this in the last couple of weeks. They do deep fried breaded things like quail and pork at Gushi at Market 707   in Scadding Court - in fact, the word gushi means skewer in Japanese so if you want to try a bunch of deep fried things on a stick, get over there. pork on a stick from Gushi I also had an incredible grilled skewer of niagara peaches with scallops and a honey drizzle at the Supper Market  at Niagara on the Lake a couple of weeks ago. What I hadn't had all summer was a cocktail on a stick, one of my favourite things of all. Last week I made Shack some boozey watermelon lemonade with gin and recall thinking that they would make great booze pops at the time. I was out of lemons but lime goes even better with gin so I switched it up a bit and added some rosemary to the simple syrup - I figured the smell of rosema...

Shack really is the chick in this relationship - in a great way, of course. He is the one who LOVES to talk on the phone, loves to shop, loves to buy shoes and absolutely loves lady drinks. Give that guy a blender, some fruit and assorted bottles of booze and look out. He is a true blender artist. Last winter we went to a wedding in Montreal and our hotel was right down the street from a great bar, The Dominion Square Tavern . These are real bartender mixologist magicians, complete with old timey mustaches, white tuxedo shirts and long, white half aprons. For some reason, known only to him, Shack decided to order a Pimm's Cup despite the fact that he had never had one and had no idea what was in one. Even though it was the first Pimm's Cup either of us had ever had, I know that it was probably the best Pimm's Cup on earth. It was a bit tart, a bit sweet, had almost a bitter edge to it and it was full of cucumber flavour. It instantly became his favourite drink and we v...

We are very close with The Neighbours and spend most warm summer nights sitting together on the front porch, drinking wine and eating and enjoying each other's company. Sometimes we like to make girly drinks or a pitcher of sangria when it's too hot for wine so it makes sense to try to turn some of our favourite cocktails into frozen treats. The upside is that it doesn't look like all we do is sit out there and drink because people will walk by and think "look at all of those lovely wholesome people enjoying a fruit popsicle on this balmy summer evening!" As long as I make sure that I colour code the sticks so the kids don't grab a frozen bloody caesar by mistake, I think we are good to go.