marble cheesecake

This is a picture of the delicious marble cheesecake my friend gave me in addition to the strawberry shortcake keychain. I brought it in to work to share on our last day before Christmas and it was a huge hit. Honestly - what a freaking awesome gift! She really hits me where my weak spot is! my stomach! Honestly, I have the most amazing thoughtful friends ever. I am truly a blessed little foodie.

chrstmas

Merry Christmas once again. I hope everyone is relaxing and enjoying their day off. It's nice to see the sun out and oddly enough I just looked out of the window and saw a squirrel scampering by. This weather is so crazy.


Last night was our family Christmas dinner, and what a dinner it was. My grandma and cousin came over to join us in the festivities and it was a great night. We had so much food! There was beef tenderloin (i think? it was just a lot of meat) that my brother-in-law prepared. And we each got our own boiled lobster that my mom made!Surf and turf at it's best! I'm actually salivating just writing about the meal.

fake food

It's official! I have my first fake food items!!!! My good friend gave me a cute strawberry shortcake keychain! When I first held it in my hands I thought it was a stress toy of some sort, but when I opened it I was even more delighted to find fake food! =) It's so cute!

My sister also gave me a couple of cute pin-cushions she got from etsy and 1 of them is shaped like a giant maki! hahahahah! how awesome is that? It's really awesome, because I don't have a nice pin cushion yet.

merry christmas

Merry Christmas to all our readers out there!

lobsters (before the big boil)

When I came home from my haircut I was happy to see my mom bought some fresh lobsters for Christmas eve dinner (we celebrate Christmas on the eve day)! Yummy!

The below is a picture of my brother-in-law trying to get them riled up to show me how fiesty they are after I commented that they looked kinda sleepy.

christmas cookies

Every Christmas my neighbour brings over a plate of homemade Christmas cookies. They are all very delicious and I'm always impressed with the time and work she puts in to them. =) It's one of the Christmas presents I look forward to every year.

restaurant review: sakai

Restaurant: Sakai Japanese & Korean Cuisine
Location: 4155 Fairview Street, Burlington, ON L7L 2A4
Telephone: 905-333-6585
Website: sakai-restaurant.com

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $26-$60

What I ordered:
- Sushi Starter Appetizer
- Shrimp Tempura Appetizer
- Black Dragon Maki (BBQ Eeal and avacado wrapped around California maki)
- Green tea

Ratings:











Comments:
I had dinner with my friend at Sakai in Burlington. I've never been there, but I was hankering for some a la carte sushi and always like to try new places!

We nibbled on tempura and sushi appetizers which were very tasty.

For the main I had the Black Dragon Maki. It was very tasty & I really enjoyed it.

My friend had a Korean rice dish called Bee Bim Bap (pictured above). I don't know too much about Korean food, so I was quite intrigued. The menu describes the Dol Shot Bee Bim Bap as an "assortment of blanched vegetables, marinated beef and fried egg served in a sizzling stone bowl, served with a spicy mixing sauce". Unfortunately the rice and other ingredients were not cooked in the stone bowl, thus it wasn't entirely authentic.

I definitely enjoyed Sakai. It is very cute restaurant and the service was very good. I wouldn't say it was the best sushi place I've been there, but definitely another place I'd visit again.

turkey

I am stuffed from our company Christmas lunch.
And the tryptophan is slowly setting in….getting sleepy…

lobster

Last Thanksgiving my mother made lobster for dinner. And when I say lobster – I mean – we EACH got a lobster. How insane is that?

I talked to her again this morning and she told me that she was making a pot roast for Christmas dinner. ANNNNNND individual lobsters. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Okay, no eating from now until Christmas dinner (tomorrow). Haha. Oh, except the company Christmas lunch.

Omigosh – I honestly have gained like 5 – 10 pounds since December started. +P

Pictures are sure to follow.

robert irvine

Ever watched the Food Network's show Dinner Impossible? I catch it here and there, and lately was wondering what happened to the original chef - Robert Irvine, as the chef featured is now Michael Symon (which is also on Iron Chef Amarica).

According to a msn online article I JUST read, his contract with the Food Network was terminated due to the fact that he embellished and fabricated a lot of his credentials.

I looked in to it a bit more and according to wiki:

"Dinner Impossible was hosted by Chef Robert Irvine for four seasons. A scandal erupted in 2008 regarding 'embellishments and inaccuracies in Irvine's resume' which came to light in the media. These included claims that Irvine helped design Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding cake, worked at the White House, and graduated from the University of Leeds. Food Network subsequently released Irvine from his contract and replaced him with Chef Michael Symon, who hosted the show for ten episodes beginning in mid-2008. However, on November 20, 2008, Food Network announced that it would reinstate Irvine as host for six additional episodes to begin airing in March 2009."

I cannot wait to have my own television and Food Network. I'll be so completely addicted.

restaurant review: earls

Restaurant: earls (located in Square One Shopping Centre)
Location: Unit 1-101 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, Ontario L5B 2C9
Telephone: 905.897.2925
Website: earls.ca

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $26-$60

What I ordered:
- Viva Diva Martini (smirnoff vodka, mango passion liqueur, peach liqueur, pineapple juice, orange juice, bellini slush)
- Grilled Chicken and Baked Brie on Ciabatta (grilled chicken breast, melted brie, roasted apples and spinach with sweet fig jam and garlic mayonnaise on toasted ciabatta)

Ratings:










Comments:
I went to earls in Calgary with Dave once and liked it, so I wanted to try how it was now that they have opened their very first Ontario location, located right in Square One shopping mall in Mississauga. I'm happy all these new chain restaurants are finally making it to Ontario (like Panera), although I do still like to go to independently owned places just as much. Chain restaurants are always dependable though - their food is almost always the same and you know what to expect, so it's always a good fallback.

The decor is pretty standard - the new dark, chic modern look. And the service is what I expected from a restaurants like this. I was pretty happy with my drink (which the waitress recommended) and my sandwich and fries. The sandwich was really different from what I usually have and it was so good and so big! I could only finish 1/2 of it! I had the other 1/2 today for lunch and it was just as yummy! I think one day I'll have to try to recreate this sandwich at home!

All-in-all a good first impression.

rasberry cheese fudge

I picked me up some Rasberry cheese fudge on the weekend at Longo's. I had a thin slice to snack on and it had a very strong rasberry and fudge taste. Not much of a cheese taste though. I think the more I eat the more the taste will evolve. It's definitely interesting and worth a try. I'm hoping and assuming that it's much healthier for me than eating straight-up fudge. I'll just keep telling myself that.

ann's shortbread cookies - part 2

This morning before we ran around Mississauga running errands we baked shortbread cookies! We used thre recipe from my good friend Yen's sister, but this time instead of using the cookie gun (which I gave up on) we hand shaped them.

I got the idea of the look from the package of shortbread cookies my sister bought at the holiday trunk show. Of course my cookies were NOWHERE as good as those, but they were so much easier to make than using that cookie gun.

Because they turned out so much thicker than those the cookie-gun resulted in, they were a little too rich and decadent. So next time I'm making them thinner. They were still super tasty. I love this recipe! It's so simple, but so good!


To read the original post (which lists the ingredients), click here.

ann's shortbread cookies

My good friend Yen gave me her sister's shortbread cookie recipe, so I decided with the holiday season around the corner that it would be a great time to try it for the first time.

I ran out to Michael's (the craft store) and bought the Wilton Cookie Press that's shown on the picture on the left (image from: wilton.com). I was so excited to use it. Let me just note that using this thing is so not easy. Comfort-grip my ass! My cookies came out all weird looking and trying to squeeze the cookies out was so painful! Maybe I should have spludged for the more expensive cookie press. *sigh*

Anywho, back to the cookies.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of cornstarch
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 1.5 cups of softened (not melted) butter

The recipe was easy to follow and lots of fun to make. =) And the end result was yummy, but not so pretty, cookies. I finished them off by dipping them in some melted chocolate because....you know....i'm a chocoholic.


I would say it was a pretty succesful first attempt. So much better than that time in university that I tried to make those peanut butter cookies. Ewwwwww.

restaurant review: rice paper

Restaurant: Rice Paper
Location: 101 Ravel Rd., North York, Ontario
Telephone: 416-498-9800

Meal type: Lunch

Average price per person: $0-$10

What I ordered:
- Lunch Special: Beef brisket currey with roti and tea/coffee

Ratings:










Comments:
I wanted to try something new for lunch (like we did last weekend), so my mom suggested Rice Paper which describes itself as VieThai Cuisine (Vietnamese & Thai). I didn't even know there were so many restaurants in the Leslie and Finch area.

The lunch specials are a really good deal - They ranged from about $5 to $8 and came with your choice of coffee, tea, or coffee/tea (my favourite).

I ordered the Beef Brisket curry with Roti, which was pretty good (although I prefer nan to roti any day). I also tried my mom's Malaysian style fried rice which was really different and tasty with a bit of a kick. All in all it wasn't bad, but not the best. The portions were very generous and the restaurant was very modern and slick looking so probably somewhere I wouldnt' mind visiting again, but not somewhere I'd go out of my way to visit.

gingersnap latte

I was about to pick up my routine Vivanno when I decided to get into the spirit of the holiday season & picked up a Gingersnap Latte. Very yummy & perfect for the cold weather.

And for every Espresso truffle, gingernsnap latte, or peppermind mocha twist sold, Starbucks donates 5cents to the Global Fund. For more details check out: red.starbucks.com

I believe I've found my Starbucks drink-of-choice until the holiday seasons ends! =)

chef abroad

I was watching the news the other day while they were talking about the crisis happening in Thailand right now, when they started talking (via telephone) to celebrity chef Michael Smith. He was stuck with his crew at the Thai airport that was besieged by protesters, after filming an episode for his TV serices Chef Abroad.

I was happy to read today that him & his crew are now safely out of Thailand. After waiting for hours at the airport they ended up travelling 15 hours to a functioning airpot in Phuket.

I'm glad they're all safe, and I hope that all the other Canadians and travellers that are there can return home safe and sound soon. I also hope that Thailand's crises can be resolved soon.

p.s. I miss Chef At Large.

december

It’s officially December! Let the countdown to Christmas commence with lots of Christmas inspired goodies and treats! =)

Things I'm looking forward to:
- My very first attempt at making shortbread cookies
- Trying egg nog for the very first time
- Christmas inspired coffees at Starbucks
- Possibly making Chocolate truffles
- Making those yummy Kraft graham/chocolate/walnut treats