The Yum Yum Factor

Kwaf  is offering two great Xmas wine packages for the holidays and it was my job to pair each package with a recipe. The  Quintessential Christmas Dinner  package was a no brainer since I had just posted my recipe for Portuguese Corn Bread stuffing and those wines are all about turkey dinner but the  Three Brilliant Reds  pack was more of a challenge. At the breakfast tasting last week, I decided that although beef is the obvious meat to serve with bold reds, it would be nicer to do some lamb. Now, The Kid and I love lamb but Shack doesn't so I rarely cook it and I didn't have anything in the archives at all. That meant that I was going to have to come up with something on the fly. I bought some really nice lamb stew meat and sat and stared at it for a while, trying to think of something tasty, simple but nice enough to serve to guests over the holidays but not so involved that it would make entertaining a pain. I couldn't get a shepherd's pie out o...

Oh my god, what a week of eating! I didn't cook much, apart from this delicious Korean Pulled Pork  which I have happily eaten for three days running,  but I certainly feel like I ate out often and well. As things go the way they often do around here, the kitchen is still without cupboard doors and all of the contents of my cupboards are in bags and boxes in my dining room so, frankly, I am impressed that I even managed the pork. It all started off with lunch with my friend, Kate, at Jatujak again. Loving this place. Nothing new to report here since I had the green curry chicken again except to say that it was just as good as the other few times so I am happy to report that it appears to be very consistent. We followed a late lunch/early dinner which I like to call Linner or Dunch (take your pick) with a trip next door to the Dollarama and on to Pier 1 where we blew our brains out on glitter xmas decorations. It was out of control people. this terrifying xmas hedgeho...

Last Friday, we couldn't agree on a place to eat dinner and found ourselves driving around aimlessly when it hit me -  Aprile Bambina Cucina  ! Shack will never say no their grilled caesar salad so when we can't figure out what we want to eat, this is one of those places that always solves our dilemma. It was almost full when we got there so it was lively enough to give it a nice, festive atmosphere but not so packed that we couldn't get in without a wait. Shack had the grilled caesar salad, as always, and it was just as delicious as ever. I think I have talked about it before but it really is so tasty. I love the smokiness that you get from the slight char on the wedge of romaine, then comes the saltiness of the crisp disc of pancetta, follwed by the creaminess tartness of the salad dressing and finished off with the crunch of the toasted slice of bread. LOVE I almost didn't order the tomato basil soup because it sounded kind of boring but I really wan...