Lunch

My school workload has increased significantly in the past week and only gets worst in the next. Eek! However, today I did take some time to make myself a hearty sandwich while I should have been finishing an essay. A girl has got to eat! Fillings include: harvarti cheese, oven roasted turkey breast deli slices, tomatoes, avocado, spring mix greens, honey mustard and a bit of S/P. Avocados are definitely my favourite sandwich toppers.

Lately I've been eating really delicious sandwiches now that I think about it. There's this place called The Fat Olive (on Dundas near Bond) that I went to twice this week. One time I got a grilled veggie sandwich and the other time I got a roasted chicken breat + veggies sandwich and a side of potatoes. The make it on ciabatta bread and have really delicious toppings. Perhaps I'll do a post on them in the future. What's even better than their food, is the service, it's such a cute mom & pop atmosphere.

Hope everyone's having a good March so far! I can't believe how quickly this month is going.

Winter Tea

Like I mentioned in my last post, it was my Spring break last week. One of the finer moments was a tea party my friend S's house. I LOVE tea parties! S and her sister P looked lovely and provided such a nice spread for everyone. I wanted to make something excitingly delectable but I only made rice crispy squares due to time constraints, maybe next time! Enjoy the photos!

The Full Spread Fresh Fruits Pastries, including S's homemade blueberry scones =) My friend T baked some mini apple pies, delicious! There was also an assortment of mini crustless sandwiches including egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber and cream cheese (a tea party staple!). I liked the cucumber ones best. It all went down nicely with lemonade and of course, a few cups of tea. I think green tea is my favourite.

Winterlicious at Archeo

Right now I'm on my reading week so I have the time to go out for nice three course lunches with my friends! Actually, lunch aside, it seems that my week is hardly a holiday since I've actually been going to school the last couple of days and probably doing more work than I would if I had classes! Anyhoo, back to the lunch, I went to Archeo in the Distillery District for a three course prix fixe ($15 + Taxes & Gratuity) lunch that was part of Toronto's Winterlicious. Sometimes I'm a bit hesitant to go to Winterlicious because it seems that some restaurants aren't really worthwhile if the food might not be as on par as usual or the service might really be lacking. However, I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed my time at Archeo even with a few minor disappointments. I was able to sample most of the options between mine and my friends' orders.

First Course I almost couldn't decide between the French Onion Soup or the Seafood Risotto. Luckily I opted for the rissoto. The consistency of the risotto was spot on and was laced with generous pieces of salmon.
My friends' tried the French onion soup but didn't quite like it as much as they thought they would. I tried a spoon of theirs and thought it tasted slighty vinegary but perhaps that was just me. I am no soup expert. One friend ordered the salad which was delicious. The portion for the salad seemed quite big to me.

Main Course I was even more indecisive with the mains than the starters. Chicken or fish? I went with the Lemoncello & thyme roasted chicken surpreme. I thought this was super delicious. The chicken was relly moist (I am always afraid of dry chicken) and the skin was nice and crispy. The skin seemed a pinch too salty at times, but that was only when I ate it on its own. With the meat it was perfect. It was served with a dark au jus type sauce that was very flavourful. The buttermilk potatoes that it sat on was the best! I could easily eat that on its on for a week. I'm a really big fan of potatoes. It was buttery and lush.
My friend's salmon tasted a tad dry to me and the beans it came with were nice although a bit lack luster after eating my amazing mashed potatoes. The orechiette pasta with root vegetables was quite nice too. The broth was light and the pasta perfect al dente.

Dessert Initially I planned on ordering the apple crumble but changed my mind after I saw the chocolate cake wisked to another table. I wish I didn't see it because I found the cake to be a bit disappointing. It wasn't bad by any means, but just didnt meet my standards. It was a warm dark chocolate cake so it wasn't very sweet and it was served with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. I found the cake to be too dry, sort of like an overbaked brownie. Thank goodness for the ice cream or else it would have been much sadder than it was. The chocolate flavour was really nice and deep though.
I tried a bite of my friend's apple crumble and it was really delicious. It looked more like a mini apple crumble tart than a tradition apple crumble bake. The crust was nice and buttery and eating the apple after my dark cake was refreshingly delicious. I wish I had ordered that instead. No one at my table tried the tiramisu so can't comment on that one.

Overall Experience
The ambience of the restaurant was very nice, which is to be expected since it is in a historic building in the Distillery. There are brick walls and artistic panes of glass. We sat against a wall and found it to be quite drafty. After the ice cream I was pretty cold actually. The service was nice, however they kept serving our meals staggered which I found to be a bit annoying since we'd have to wait for some time before everyone's arrived. It wasn't like they were packed either. The wait between each meal seemed quite long, but since we were having a nice leisurely lunch we didn't mind. We were asked when we arrived if we were going to a show later or anything so they'd know if we were in a bit of a hurry. That was nice. However, our server was a little too friendly in my opinion, what he thought was charming was a bit over the top. He called us "baby", "doll" and "girlfriend" during our time there. I am personally not into that. He was still nice though and my water was refilled frequently. So I enjoyed it there and would definitely return. I'd like to go for dinner sometime, perhaps before a show at the theatre there.

P.S. In my photo for the main, I cut a piece of the chicken to try it before I took a photo. Oops! Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone notices and thinks it was served like that.

Cakes of prosperity

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Chinese New Year was last week and my mom was making all the traditional foods. One in particular that she was rather proud of this year was her "fa gao" which is cake that represents prosperity for the new year. I like to think of it as the Asian cupcake.The cake is made with rice flour and is steamed instead of baked. I think with most rice flour desserts it gives it a chewier texture. The cake is light and moist and not too sweet. The more the top splits and rises the better luck it's suppose to be. Some years my mom has made some sad muffin top looking ones but this year they turned out great! She makes it by eye so I couldn't really get a recipe down since I only saw the finished product. However, I did find this recipe for those of you who'd like to give it a 'gao'. ;)

"Fa Gao" Prosperity Cake
http://www.knowingfood.com/dessert/chinese_fortune_cake_fa_gao.html

2 cups rice flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

Bring the water in the steamer to a boil.
Sieve the flour and baking powder together.

Add the sugar into the water and boil it till the sugar is all dissolved, stir constantly. Put the syrup aside to cool down.

Mix the syrup with the rice flour, stir and mix well. Add in the flour and baking powder mixture, stir and mix well.

Pour the mixture into moulds. Place moulds into the steamer with boiling water and steam on high heat for 25 minutes.

Do not open the steamer during the cooking period because it'll affect the shape of your cakes.

*Some of the recipes used coconut milk instead of water which I thought was a nice variation. Also, my family likes the sprinkle sesame seeds on top too.

Hope everyone's Lunar New Year/beginning of February is fantastic so far!

Same recipe, different cookies

Remember my favourite oatmeal cookies? Well I used the same recipe but tweaked it for oatmeal raisin instead. So hearty! I just replaced the chocolate chips for raisins and added about two teaspoons of cinnamon and one teaspoon of all spice. The spice in these smell so warm and inviting, perfect for Winter (or any time!)! I think that the raisins make this cookie taste a lot more floury if that makes sense. I think next time I'll try experimenting with less flours so it'll be more oaty instead. Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Lunch

One of my favourite sandwiches - egg salad! I've been buying fresh eggs from my friend G's farm. You can actually see and taste the difference from store bought eggs. When you crack the egg the yolk is such a bright beautiful yellow. The egg is very firm and tastes so much richer when cooked. I love eggs!

Egg Salad
(one to two servings)

2 eggs
1 tablespoon of mayonaise
green onions, chopped (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

Boil two eggs in the shell on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.

Rinse with cold water to cool them down before peeling and chopping to small pieces.

Mix the eggs, green onions and mayo in a bowl until creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread on to your favourite bread and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crepes!

I needed to put my delicious dulce de leche on something so I thought I'd make up some crepes. So simple and so delectable!

Crepes
(serves 3-4)

1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 water
2 tablespoons of melted butter
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly until there are no lumps. You can also pour this through a sieve to make it really smooth.

Heat a good non-stick pan on medium heat, add a bit of butter to grease it, if you think it is nessary.

Pour a small amount of the mixture in o the pan and swirl the pan around to spread it out thinly.

Cook the crepe on one side until it holds its structure before flipping on to the other. Cook until it is lightly golden on both sides.

Serve with your favourite toppings like fresh fruits, cinnamon sugar, sugar and lemon juice, jams, apple sauce, chocolate or of course, dulce de leche!

I like to spread half he crepe with the dulce de leche and then fold it half and then in to quarters so there's a few layers when I bite in to it. This is such an easy recipe and is practically no fail. If you're like me, your first crepe might not look as beautifully round as you'd like, but after that it's smooth sailing!

Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!