toss & turn

pancakes?! i made pancakes?! and ate them?! i love breakfast but i rarely ever eat pancakes or waffles. maybe a crepe or 2 but i’m not a bread or pastry lover. i bought a bunch of blueberries (i’ve been going fruit crazy with clementines, pineapple, and recently bought a “melorange”? that i’ve yet to try).

i still need a solid pancake recipe. everytime i’ve made them its been out of a “best pancake recipe” google search, which you can imagine probably comes up with some pretty awful ones. i went with a martha stewart recipe, and i’ve found her recipes to be really hit or miss. i’m not posting the recipe because i don’t suggest anyone uses it…

if anyone out there has an easy, beautiful pancake recipe please pass it on! i’ve been thinking i probably need to whip the egg whites separately and fold it into the batter for super fluffy pancakes, it just seems like one step too much in terms of kitchen work.

these blueberry pancakes were topped with a square of butter and some lovely maple syrup.

lazy huevos

this was a quickie breakfast a while ago, my version of a fridge huevos rancheros… there are no black beans (that would’ve required work), but there is a crispy but yolky duck egg, avocado, cherry tomato and roasted poblano salsa, cilantro, manchego cheese and lime on a crispy tortilla. if i didn’t crisp up the avo this could’ve been some kinda breakfast taco!

yum.

to soothe or not to soothe

so i’ve been mildly sick for weeks, and the only thing that’ll make me feel better has been bowls upon bowls of delicious home made soup. pork ribs were on sale, which turned into a pork rib soup, with a broth made of pork broth, star anise, cinnamon, parsley, ginger, garlic, onion, soy sauce, black peppercorns, and thai chili. beautiful. if i happened to have lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves they definitely would’ve made it in. as amazing as this is, it never ever even compared to the soups my mom and my grandma made. they have not-so-secret ingredients like dried orange peel, dried scallop and other dried mysterious things.

this was enjoyed with rice noodles and some bok choi. the pork ribs do look a dry, but i assure you, a couple hours braised in that deep broth revealed tender and delicious pork ribs.

one and only

i’ve been off school for about a month and the cooking bug hasn’t hit me the entire time. but of course, breakfast will always be the one and only meal i want to make.

above is potato cakes cooked in duck fat, with a poached duck egg, roasted asparagus and smoked salmon. in the picture below you can see the size difference of the 4 duck eggs, compared to the chicken eggs on the right. they’re firmer and deliciously rich – soooo good with a gooey yolk.

hopefully more cooking to come.

rise & shine

holy breakfast!

my schedule only really leaves me the mornings to make food – night times are either full of work, school or squeezing in social time when i’m not sleeping. that means A LOT of eating out or beer for dinner.

i bought a fair sized loaf of brioche, which has been the theme for most of my breakfasts (oh, and pig or course). brioche french toast, and toasted brioche for sandwiches! made my own breakfast pork patty. amen.

blue uniform

“lost wallet?”

i got this message friday night from a number i didn’t recognize, in the middle of service. turns out 3 of us got robbed. that sucks. but what sucks more, is the immediate realization that my camera was in my purse, and oh my, it’s long gone. i was more than pissed, obviously. a couple found my wallet and all my cards scattered just a block away. i would’ve much rather him taken all my cards than my camera, and that was my only clue this guy wasn’t a fucked up crackhead. at least i have my cards? another girl lost her phone and wallet completely, the other hundreds of dollars in cash.

what made this worse, is i promised i’d take photos for a fashion show the next day! rushed out the next morning and got a new one + lens. not gonna lie. as much fun as everything was, i’m still pissed off completely!

i filed a police report with rye breathe, and i don’t expect anything to come of it. has anything ever come from a B&E police report?

oh yeah. weekend turned out not-so-bad.

just a little

made these guys a little while ago, amazingly delicate zucchini flowers! most people like to stuff them, but i think their flavour is so subtle and delicious, i love eating them as is, fried in a light batter.

also put these guys in omelettes with some parm and chili – SO GOOD. made a perfect breakfast.

last night went to a friends housewarming, and a good-bye at the boat. should’ve gone home when i could’ve because i had the worst hangover ever in ages! i had to pull myself out of bed, yak, and get thrown in a car to take some pictures of my friends new band (still need to edit them), got home at 4 and wanted to die a little.

in my heels

mushrooms. delicious, delicious mushrooms. i’ve never met one i didn’t like. decided to try these beauties in a very simple dish.

above are hen of the woods mushrooms, and the lobster mushroom (called that for obvious reasons).

sauteed these babies at a high heat, and plopped them ontop of a beautiful, and flavourful polenta. cornmeal was slowly poured and whisked into some stock that was brought up to a rolling boil. then occasionally stirred for a good hour until its turned into a quiet yellow. added butter and a healthy dose of parm at the very end.

a lot of people don’t like polenta, i think these are some of the most important things to make it tasty: adding flavour where you can (with stock, parm, butter); cornmeal thickens quite a bit, so add a lot of stock/water to keep it creamy and loose; cook for quite a while to avoid any graininess.

i miss the food hugs of comfort food in the cold months, and i’m gearing up for it! soothing stews and concoctions that have been sitting on the stove for a healthy amount of time, bring a smile to my face.

this weekend was pretty solid, a bunch of people came back into town for thanksgiving, as well as a couple birthdays, AND pulled an essential muscle that now makes it extremely painful to sneeze and even laugh!

now its time to play catch up…

kisses over

this is the reason why my eating out has exponentially decreased… no matter how tired, hungry and lazy i am… a sandwich always satisfies.

this particular sammich has roasted turkey, prosciutto, tomato, sprouts, arugula, boston lettuce, and a healthy slathering of mayo.

also made some red sauce this past monday morning that’s kept my stomach happy and my wallet semi-full this week.

copy cat

contemplating going on a healthy kick, but knowing me, that kick would only last a couple days before i give into a drink or some damn heavy but delicious and free food from the best thai resto in TO (or popeyes). the other day i went to fetch my bike that i had to leave there, and of course 4 hours later i was full and tipsy.

i know a lot of healthy eaters/vegetarians in montreal, so when we go, we go to aux vivres. which is. amazing. their sauces, salad dressings, and salsas are TO DIE FOR. i’ve only had a couple dishes there (the dragon bowl and the la polenta), but i hear their vegan BLT is amazing. not sure how that works, but apparently it does.

i had a quiet night one day last week, and searched searched searched for the dragon bowl sauce recipe. i found a few versions, mostly with the same basic ingredients and made a franken-version. whirred up a batch that tastes kinda fucking delicious. the dragon sauce makes the dragon bowl.

its a little rich, creamy, sesame seed-y, slighty salty and sweet… its killaaah.

in the dragon bowl is brown rice on the bottom, topped with not-so-healthy fried tofu, shredded beets, cabbage, carrots, daikon, arugula, and sprouts. super fresh, super filling, super tasty and a damn pretty bowl to look at.

i normally don’t praise vegan/vegetarian food, but this is done right.

Dragon Sauce
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/8 cup tahini
3 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. tamari soy sauce
2 tbsp. filtered water
1 large or 2 medium cloves garlic