The Yum Yum Factor

After my day exploring the bench, I was a bit more excited than normal to drive Shack back to Hamilton to work and spend the weekend there with him because it meant I was going to be able to spend another day, driving around the Beamsville area on my own. Sure, I couldn't do any wine tasting BUT it also meant that I got to have lunch at Westcott Vineyard. Toronto duo, Ricky + Olivia, have taken up residence on the patio at Westcott for the summer and they were closed last week so I took my sister and my friend, Kate, back to Bench Brewing instead.  This time, I dropped Shack off on set, I dropped our bags off at the hotel and set off for the short drive to Beamsville. I returned to a couple of wineries to take more pictures, discovered some new spots like Calamus and their drool worthy rooftop patio and dropped in to visit some old favourites like Flat Rock.  Ricky + Olivia at Westcott Vineyard Right up until I pulled into the driveway at Westcott, I w...

Fresh, modern Mexican food from El Bosco Wow, this past week was the polar opposite of the previous one where I struggled to share ANYTHING food related. I feel like I ate, drank or experienced something awesome every day and since I spent last Friday driving to Hamilton to drop Shack off to work and then continuing on for my second day exploring The Bench before returning to The Hammer for a wonderful evening of dinner, drinks and enjoying Hamilton's Art Crawl , I barely had time to think, much less write all of this down. Because the week was so jammed packed already, I am going to cheat and add my Friday night dinner and adventures in Hamilton to next week's post, so stay tuned. My sister came to visit me on Sunday and so every day after that, we were on the move - I will share the highlights. Bodega Henriette Rainbow Trout, crispy, dehydrated carrot, sprouts I went to this lovely little corner bistro after they first opened and had a great meal and ever since...

It's June guys, so that means we have about 4 more weeks to enjoy Ontario asparagus. These delicious spears are always the first vegetable of the season so when I see these fat bundles of joy in the market, I know that spring has sprung. There is a thing called the Asparabus - the Aparagus Farmers of Ontario pair up with The Foodies Group to take a bunch of food bloggers, writers and influencers on a tour of an asparagus farm and then treat us to a delicious lunch, showcasing the vegetable in as many forms as possible so that we can, in turn, get the word out that everyone should be eating local asparagus. This year is the first year I have been able to join the fun and as expected, I had a great day, got see some old friends, meet some farmers, discover a new spot to visit again when I have more time and enjoy a delicious lunch. We started our day at Welsh Bros Farms  where were were brought out to the field to see how asparagus grows. I am not going to lie- I had ...

Ice Cask Whiskey from Gretzky was on the menu What a week in yum people. We grabbed Absinthe for The Kid and a few bottles of their Negroni for me from Dillon's It all started with a day trip to Niagara that got sidetracked in Beamsville after a stop at Dillon's Distillery to grab some Absinthe for The Kid. I asked the lovely young man who was helping us with our tasting where we should go eat. He sent us to Bench Brewing, which meant that we were going to be driving right by Malivoire so that sounded like a plan, even though I don't really associate The Bench with beer, but I like good food. Kew specializes in sparkling wines and is the winery equivalent of a chick flick and I mean that in the best way We drove past Kew, which is one of the prettiest little vineyards that I wrote about for Auburn Lane  , past Malivoire (we decided we would double back after a quick lunch) and found Bench Brewing  Bench Brewing Bench Brewing Wow, the parking lot w...

Always on the lookout for for great things to do in and around Toronto, I was happy to attend a media preview of Temperance and Temptation, the newest joint venture between York/Durham/Headwaters, Central Counties Tourism and ShortTrips.ca  this past September. Adamo Estate Winery The Temperance and Temptation tours take you on a guided, all inclusive two day exploration of the history of prohibition in the York, Durham or Headwaters Regions. I bet you didn't even know that was a thing, right? We only hear about the adventures in bootlegging and home stills that took place in the States with shows like Boardwalk Empire but this was an important time right here in the wild and wooly Ontario frontier. The tours take two forms - you can either download the Temperance and Temptation app that allows you to take a self guided adventure with stories to listen to between each stop (get a designated driver though because it IS all about the booze) OR you can pay to hop on a...

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.