A new summer of eats!

I was in Iona yesterday! I love this place.

Over the weekend, I received a message from Walt, telling me we need to pick up where we left off in our quest to Eat All of Sydney. He's right! It'll be great to have a partner-in-crime again, especially one who doesn't seem to be horribly put-off by my incredible awkwardness.

So, keep an eye on this spot. I have three or four restaurants I need to write about, and, well, I miss this blog. It's been a rough few months, but this is the summer to get things sorted. Sorted with deliciousness!

dinner ditty ~ In This Life - The Strumbellas

More food on the road!

Wild mushroom risotto. 

I had a pretty important chef meeting today. I'm pretty excited about the future of my job. After the meeting, we went out for dinner at Ryan Duffy's in Truro. We had some appetizers which weren't on the proper menu. Prime rib crostinis! Calamari! Shrimp! Fabulousness!

The risotto was very tasty, too... I'm hoping it tastes even better for breakfast. I took half of it home. 

I'm looking forward to some eating adventures this weekend. Stay toooooooooned!

dinner ditty ~ Going Back to Cali - LL Cool J

Programming note

I'll be on the road for the next few days. I have a meeting on the mainland on Thursday, and I'll be heading to Halifax that night. Can't wait! I'll be eating delicious food and writing about it, so stay tuned!

dinner ditty ~ Paloma Blanca - George Baker 

For the love of peanut butter and Mom

Behold the humble peanut butter sandwich.

I love sandwiches. I love grilled cheese sandwiches. I love ham sandwiches. I love BLTs. I even love the sixty zillion breakfast sandwiches I ate at my last job. I am an equal-opportunity sandwich lover. 

Alas, if I had to pick a favourite sandwich, it would be the peanut butter sandwich. Crunchy peanut butter on whole wheat or multigrain bread. Not toasted. No jam or jelly. No banana. The only thing I like with it is a glass of milk. 

When I was in high school, I had to bring my lunch to school. I had the same thing almost every day; a peanut butter sandwich, a granola bar, and an apple juice. My mom would make it for me (these were the days before I could cook), and she always offered to make something else. Why bother? To me, that lunch was perfection! (That said, sometimes, Mom would make me an egg salad sandwich, which was almost as delicious. She makes the best egg salad). 

I've been out of school and on my own for a long time. I can make my own sandwiches, and they taste pretty good. I still love the peanut butter sandwich; in fact, I just ate one. Sure, it took a little while to eat it, thanks to my little drama queen toof, but it was still delicious. And, yes, my mom still makes me the odd sandwich. When I moved down to Sydney earlier this year, my mom packed lunches for me, my dad, and my uncle. We tore into them once we had the truck packed up. We were so hungry and those sandwiches tasted SO GOOD that I'm sure any of us would have caused serious damage to anyone foolish enough to stand in our way of said sandwiches.

I hope she packs a lunch for me next week...

dinner ditty ~ What Ever Happened - The Strokes

The waiting is the hurtiest part...

So, I'm still off my food. I just ate a piece of black forest ham rolled up with some Monterey Jack. It hurt. 

I went to see Skyfall tonight because I'm a big geeky Bond fan and I couldn't wait any longer. The only disappointing thing about the movie was my inability to eat popcorn. I went alone, which ensured I would not inappropriately laugh out loud during the Kids Help Phone ads when someone whispered something in my ear. Ahem. 

Anyhow, it was a movie without treats. What are your favourite movie treats? 

dinner ditty ~ A View to a Kill - Duran Duran

ps... I loved the movie. Loved. Loved! Anyone who knows me well and has seen the movie can pick out two things (aside from Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem) I would love to get for Christmas.

Mrwoaf

I had a root canal today. It didn't hurt at the time, not even a little. It was just uncomfortable. Right now, my jaw is achy and I'm feeling a bit raw.

I don't really feel like talking about food right now. I had a peanut butter sandwich for supper. It was about all I could handle.

But, tomorrow... tomorrow, I shall have soup!

  Mmm. I love me some soup!

dinner ditty ~ Funky Kingston - Toots and the Maytals with Bootsy Collins and the Roots

Can't type... following election

The political junkie in me is hooked on election results! Be back tomorrow...

dinner ditty ~ Rock the Boat - Hues Corporation

One of my favourite ingredients!

I love truffle salt. Love. I air-pop popcorn, and top it with grated Asiago, melted butter, and truffle salt. It is DELICIOUS. You need to try it now.

This little jar of happiness is on its way to me (or will be, at some point) from one Mr. Bear. I use it sparingly, because I never know when I'm going to run out and not be able to find some (like I just did). The last few times I bought it, I lucked out and got it at Winners. I check every time I'm there, but no luck. 

I also put it on vegetables before I roast them. So. Good.

What are some of your favourite ingredients? How do you cook them?

dinner ditty ~ Girl - Beck

Non-foody knitty stuff

I don't only eat and cook and eat... I also knit! I'm getting my knitty stuff together for product assessment at the local centre for craft and design. i just finished this cowl. It'll be a while before I am ready to sell any of my work, but it's good to get the process started. I think it's important to have my work assessed as I am an instructor at the centre... I want to be able to put my money where my mouth is. 

Wish me luck! 

dinner ditty ~ How'd We Ever Get This Way - Andy Kim (it's cheesy, but it's been in my head all week!) 

Flavor (of Love!), redux

Hello, my lovely readers! I haven't forgotten about you. I've been busy at work, and I've also been working on my knitting. I'm submitting my work for product assessment with the local craft and design centre. I'm also teaching knitting! It's heaps of fun and I have some really eager students... really eager. Like go home and knit twelve dishcloths eager. I can't wait for the next session!

And, November is coming up, which means I'll be taking part in NaBloPoMo and posting every day. I won't be eating in restaurants every day, but I'll be cooking and talking about food. Just wait until you see what I've got planned. I have lots of plans and plots. And knitting.

Aside from the plotting and knitting, I have been eating. Eating deliciousness, might I add. 

A few weeks ago, I went out for lunch with my dear friend, Sheila. Sheila and I have been crossing paths for years, both in Canada and Japan, but we only met for the first time two years ago at another dear friend's wedding. Sheila spends her time in Canada, Australia, and Japan, and is at home in all three countries. She came up to Sydney for the Celtic Colours event. We had a great time. I wanted to take her somewhere delicious, so we headed down to Flavor; I wanted to go back for a proper lunch. It. Was. Fabulous.

We both had the soup and sandwich combo (oh, how I love this combo and all its variations!). I had the Signature Seafood Chowder and the Joe's Flavor Bomb, which has chicken breast, smoked bacon, onion frites, jalapenos, fresh guacamole, mozzarella & mayo.

Here's a close-up of the sandwichy goodness.

Sheila had the Roasted Red Pepper Bisque and the Smoked Pulled Pork Pita, with homemade coleslaw, applewood smoked Cheddar, and sriracha dill sour cream.

A close-up of the tastiness.

We split the sandwiches, so we could share the tasty bits of awesome. So fresh! So tasty! So colourful! I am a big fan of colourful, fresh, tasty food. In fact, I'm a big fan of colourful, fresh, tasty anything. How can I not be? Sheila was just as happy as with her meal. The chowder was fabulous, smooth and full of seafood. The bisque was equally as nom-nommynous, and I will get it the next time I eat there. I plan on having a three-course meal there. I'm certain the dinner entrees and desserts are as incredible as the soups, chowders, and sandwiches.

You should join me! I promise I will not eat like someone is about to take it away from me, and I will try my hardest to get through the appetizer without swearing. I will keep my giggling under control, so people won't stare at us and wonder if I've been kicked in the head by a donkey. How could you not want to be my dinner date?

dinner ditty ~ Moving - Supergrass

A belated introduction

One of my earliest memories with one of my greatest loves.

A gingerbread woman from McFadgen Bakery in Glace Bay and a coffee.

I love gingerbread people. The taste of gingerbread is one of my earliest memories. I was born in Glace Bay,  but my family moved to Dartmouth when I was three. My dad used to pick up these cookies for us when I was a little girl. It's one of the only things I vaguely remember about living in Cape Breton. The coffee shop (more about that later) behind my apartment building sells these cookies, much to my happiness. 

So. I realized I'm more than a month into this blog and I haven't properly introduced myself. It's somewhat presumptuous of me to assume all my readers know who I am and what I'm about, especially when it comes to food.

My family is pretty adventurous when it comes to food. My mom is an incredible baker and my father is an amazing cook. We were always eating something different; I had my first boeuf bourguignon when I was eight. It took my dad two days to make it and he swore he'd never do it again. Which is too bad, because it's one of the best things I've ever eaten. My mom makes the best chocolate cake in the entire universe; my sisters and I always preferred them to the fancy bakery cakes.

You'd think with this kind of upbringing, I would have developed some baking and/or cooking chops of my own. Not so. In fact, I could barely pass home ec. I set off fire alarms boiling water. I couldn't even master Kraft Dinner. It made me the butt of many jokes in school and university. 

I got tired of people making fun of me, so I decided to learn how to cook. How hard could it be, I thought... I can read a recipe! I can follow directions! 

I started small, and just kept working through all the mistakes and disasters (ooh! I'm going to add even more cayenne to this!). I had dinner parties and brave friends. I had a great support system.

I found myself in Japan. I ate everything. I came back to Canada, worked at an Italian grocery/deli (where I met my best friend, DeeDee), went back to Japan for a year and stayed for just over six. I traveled throughout Asia and the Middle East. I ate everything there, too. 

I came back to Canada, went to culinary school for four years with my other best friend, Molly. I lived with a bear (hello, Mr. Bear). I worked in kitchens and product development. I designed meals with some fabulous people. I got laid off, which made me sad. I found a new job... and moved back to the homeland, Cape Breton.

So, here I am. Eating and cooking and eating and ranting about margarine (don't use it!) and eating and finding my feet here in Sydney. 

I'm pretty happy to be here... I feel like, for the first time in years, I'm home. 

So, enough about me. I'll get back to the food tomorrow. 

dinner ditty ~ Heroes and Villains - Brian Wilson

Full of warm fuzzies, the epilogue...

I had bit of drama today. Yup, a trip to the ER! It wasn't for a severed hand or a fifth degree burn from hot soup or anything like that. After a routine eye exam a few years ago, I got diagnosed with ocular hypertension. I had to have a procedure to relieve the pressure in my eyes so I wouldn't, well, go blind. Mr. Bear had the honour of making sure I didn't wander into traffic after my eyes got zapped. He also had the honour of putting the wretched eye drops in my eyes so  I could, well, heal. 

For the most part, I haven't had any problems. However, I was told if I ever get a certain type of headache, I had to go to the emergency room to make sure I wasn't having an angle-closure glaucoma attack. I've had a headache kicking around for the past week. Today, it was full-blown. I felt pretty awful, and I apparently looked it. My coworker took me up to the ER. Imminent eye explosion seems to open many doors in the ER, so I didn't have much of a wait. 

My pressure was fine, but I'm going to have to see a specialist. I'm going to be going through some eye poking and prodding over the next little while to make sure they don't explode. Stupid bargain basement eyes. 

Anyhow, enough of that. I'm going to be fine. No use worrying about something that probably won't happen, right? Besides, I blame all of you lovelies. If you weren't such a good looking lot, I wouldn't have raised eye pressure. 

On a food note, look at what was sitting on my prep table at work when I returned from lunch!

My very own Fuzzy's Fries hat! Yup, I know the right people. Now, I just need to score me an apron!

dinner ditty ~ Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie