How to Make Smores

I was slightly disturbed this past weekend to discover that smore making is not common knowledge. So here's how you do it!

1. Get out two graham wafer crackers. On one side, place a piece of chocolate. I recommend a square of milk chocolate from some sort of bar.

2. Toast two large marshmallows. Try not to light on fire.

3. Place marshmallows between cookies and enjoy!

That's it!!!

If you want to go really fancy, you can place the crackers with chocolate on a tray near the fire to better melt the chocolate.

Lone Star

To cheer ourselves up after the EQ3 fiasco, we headed over to Lone star. The free tortilla chips and salsa at the start are fun and they seem to have moderately improved the salsa from last time.

We shared an order of steak and chicken fajitas for $19. It was more food than two people really should eat. Came with fixins - some veggies, rice, beans, guac, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream etc. The best part is the home-made tortilla machine! Ian said that if we get a house, he is going to buy a tortilla machine. We'll see....

Shame on EQ3

We normally don't comment about furniture stores on here but today EQ3 was supposed to have an anniversary party with food, drink and 20% off. They sent me something in the mail as well as calling me which seemed a little excessive. Anyway we make the long trek over to the wrong side of Yonge and get to EQ3 only to find a disappointing anniversary party. We walked all through the store before we found one table with a few picked over veggies and dip and some "sketchy" (Janice's word obviously) salad. It looked like something that might have just been picked up at the corner store. Seems ridiculous that they advertised an event that was this bed. While we were there they found some more wine of which we got a drop-sized serving. Janice with her fancy expense account wine drinking habits couldn't even finish her drop. With my grad school palate I finished mine and hers without any complaints.

This is a controversial post, Janice thinks we should forgive EQ3 and shop there again in the future. I think with this big a disappointment one strike and you're done! So onto the wall of shame.

North 44

Ian and I went all-out last night and went to North 44 for dinner. The chef at this place, Mark McKewan, also has a food network Canada TV show!! How exciting (mocking tone)! Of course, Ian worried that this would inflate the price due to a horde of TV lovers converging on the place. It certainly not cheap, but I think the high prices were more due to the tasty food aspect of it.

Ian started with the halibut and scallop cakes with some lime avocado stuff on the side. Was extremely yummy, but certainly not great value at about $10 per toonie sized cake. Our waiter was actually pretty good and helpful, but the person they had actually bringing out some of the food seemed to be kind of a dolt - she actually called them crab cakes! Ha ha!

We had a bottle of some type of white Italian recommended by our waiter - it was pretty tasty and went well with the fish cakes. The real highlight was the wine cooler - it appeared to be a two compartment steel bottle holder - where you put the bottle of wine on one side and ice on the other! If only Ian and I were more into welding, we could whip it up!

For the main course, Ian went meaty and had bison tenderloin placed on top of soy flavored spinach and a piece of ravoili. Was also some squash on the side. Ian ordered medium rare. The bison was pretty tasty and surprisingly not tough at all.

I had the snapper special with fingerling potato with some random veggies on the side. Ian called the fish "exquisite". Ha ha!

To end the night, we ordered the desert sampler. It was all very good, but they put a bit too much fruit stuff and not enough chocolate related items on there. They listed a couple chocolate/caramel related things on the desert menu, but they were nowhere to be seen on the sampler plate. A bit of a disapointment and next time I would just order one thing.

Overall, the tasty factor was very high, service was good, decor was good, but the price makes this a once a year event at most!

The Long Road Home

This is a post by Ian - not Janice as the tag on the bottom seems to suggest!

Normally a trip east of Toronto isn't complete without a stop at our favorite tacky 401 roadside attraction - The Big Apple. This trip was no different and here's me on a bridge over grass with the infamous apple.



Now the big apple makes apple pies, lots of them in fact and they sell these pies both in slices and full pies. The catch, the slices are 3.50 but the pie is only 10 bucks. Not a tough decision but much to our annoyance they won't let us eat the pie in the restaurant area. We've been asked to leave on prior trips so this time we skipped the confrontation and took our mumble crumble outside to tailgate it up with our pie as you can see below (note how I'm standing underneath the hatch protecting the precision pie - this will be important later)










While tailgating is maybe cool before NFL games, it isn't particularly awesome for pie eating. I got over it and was enjoying the pie until a sea gull flew over and dropped off a present for Janice. Not good.











It gets worse, the present was large and we thought it splashed onto the pie. Initially, I had a brilliant plan to salvage the pie innards and remove the soiled crust but we thought better of it and ended up having to toss the remaining pie. A sad sad day at the Big Apple

Given this awful traumatic experience (for Janice getting hit, for me having to toss out over half a pie), we have to report that the Big Apple is on the No Visit List of Shame (NVLS). We do not plan to go back for a few reasons
1) If they had let us eat our pie inside this whole incident could have been avoided
2) If they're making us eat outside, at least control the sea gull population as there were quite a few circling (which we only noticed after the incident)
3) The mini golf course never seems to be open

We Eat Toronto - Campfire Edition

Ian and I went camping this weekend to Bon Echo Provincial Park. It looks like a pretty popular place in the summer time, but it was pretty quiet this weekend.

We started off with a hike to Essens lake on Saturday. Was alright and sufficiently "lake-y" to satisfy Ian.



















Juice box connoisseur (SunRype strawberry kiwi).






Ian whipped up some pan fried bracket fungi for dinner.









The always challenging fire starting...I have to admit, we used more than our fair share of "fire starting" sticks I purchased at the Tire! No gas though...that's good right?








Ian monitoring our PC Wild Pacific Salmon burgers.









Smore on face troubles!








Ian goes a little crazy and makes 6 smores at once!










Was a pretty tasty shiraz (French Cross, $11/1L, made by someplace in Niagara) that was actually rather well suited to the melted marshmallows.






Ian wakes up!!!




























He cheered up slightly with my usual "Hearty Breakfast" - bacon, eggs and hashbrowns over the parents ancient coleman stove! Had a little fire incident due to spilled fuel, but no injuries! Good old oven-mitt saved the day!





The canoeing scenery. The park is mainly based on a rather long and deep lake (Mazinaw). Don't quote me on it, but it could be 1.5 km down there - so the deepest lake in Southern Ontario (barring the great lakes of course).








Ian in action!

Big Bowl (Mississauga)

Some co-workers and I went for my very belated birthday lunch. I picked Big Bowl Vietnamese on Dundas between Churchill and Erin Mills. I have been once before and had a veggie tofu type stir-fry and it was ok.

I thought that I would stray away from that and went with bbq chicken + spring roll vermicelli. They have some sprouts and greens in there too (mainly cilantro). Comes with a side of fish sauce that I didn't really use. Vicki pretty much scared me off of it due to how it is made. I mixed it all up, and threw on some sauce from a ketchup type bottle. It may have been "seafood" or "hoison". Hard to say if it was any less sketchy than the fish sauce, but regardless, the tasty factor was high.

For $6.50 (I think, thanks AK for the b-day treat), it was a horrendous amount of food. Pretty much a whole chicken on there + a rather large spring roll. I didn't really get around to eating the noodles, but they were tasty too.

The place was absolutely packed, even on the Thursday!

Free Pizza Pizza

Ian and I went to the Jay's game on Friday night and since AJ Burnett struck out 7+ batters, we got a free slice at Pizza Pizza on Monday.

I partook at lunchtime in Mississauga and was a little disappointed. I went with cheese, and it was moderately untasty - not like my delicious veggie square I used to eat in Hamilton when I was out there.

They also seemed to have some head office types standing around in the dining room and they were blocking the seasoning shakers that I like to use. Not so cool!!! In the end, it was too much food and I was feeling kinda queasy for the afternoon.

Ian went for lunch downtown and had the pepperoni - he felt extremely tasty but not enough food.

Ian the cooking superstar!

Ian peels squash with the new peeler Ian's mom bought us from Williams Sonoma. It looks tiny and weak compared to the big squash but actually works pretty well.












A close up of the action.








Then, Ian cuts the over-ripe pineapple!











He will even clean up at the end!













The chickpea-squash curry with green beans and rice/lentil tastiness!







Some cookie action Ian's dad brought back from Ian's aunt in Peru...mmmm...

Janice Makes a Waffle Comeback!!!

Some oil + cooking till crispy = winning waffles by me this weekend!!

Boston Pizza

Tonight after softball we went for a "patio party" at BP's. Was a pretty good deal. For 5 of us, we got a free platter with french fry thingys, cheese bread, wings and dry ribs with two dips! For free!!!

None of the stuff was all that great, but the price was certainly right.

Peruvian Showdown

This past weekend (well if you include Thursday as the start of the weekend) we hit up the Peruvian restaurants at St Claire and Bathurst.

In the blue corner, El Plebeyo an unknown in the contest challenging for dominance of the Peruvian scen from the St. Claire and Bathurst area. And in the red corner, El Fogon, the defending champion.

El Plebeyo started off strong - it was open, while El Fogon was on vacation. But after that opening salvo things went downhill quickly. They had a massive menu and things were expensive. Lomo Saltado was 16 bucks! Janice had the slightly cheaper Tacu Tacu We got over the price and ordered but things continued to get worse. It took a while and it wasn't all that great. Bottom line, not a strong showing.

El Fogon on the other hand fought viciously for the title. Their lomo saltado was 12 and it was tasty and served quickly. At least the time sure passed quickly thanks to the tasty Papas a la Huancaina I had as an appetizer.

Bottom line, El Fogon is still the champ so it keeps the title of best Peruvian restaurant in the TO.

Rivoli

Tonight I went with Ian and Ian's Mom (Mary) to the Rivoli. We were initially thinking the Queen Mother Cafe, but Ian noticed that they were the recent recipient of some health violations.

I had the halibut special with squash polenta and mixed veggie. Was pretty tasty all around. Ian had the pork and shrimp thai stir-fry. I thought it was pretty good (from the cauliflower that I ate), but probably too peanut-y for Ian. Mary had a chicken roti with some salad. A rather gigantic item and well flavored - I tasted a hint of cardomon in there.

Two thumbs up in the taste department, and unlike last time, the stella pint glasses were not chipped!

Peanut Butter and Syrup

For those people out there, namely in Sarnia, who are against the PB+Syrup idea on waffles and pancakes, please refer to this link. Here, you will see a recipe that specifically combines them into a tasty concoction.

The worst deal ever

I generally do most of the grocery shopping, menu planning and cooking around the house with Ian taking care of dishes and periodic scrubbing of the oven. I felt that I was kinda getting scammed in the chore department, so I made Ian switch with me. Now that I am stuck with horrendous amounts of dishes, I am regretting the whole thing and will have to devise a scheme to get Ian to trade with me.

Ian actually seems to know what he is doing and cooked some pretty tasty home-made pad thai for dinner tonight. It was all pretty impressive.

Ottawa River Road Trip

Sorry, but this post has nothing to do with waffles.

This weekend, I went to the Ottawa River for some kayaking action. At 4.5 hours, it is certainly not the closest destination, but with extreme low water in Ontario, there's nowhere else to go :(

Usually we make food on these kayaking/camping trips, but for a few reasons we decided to make it an eating out adventure.

-We only got organized on Saturday afternoon for a trip leaving 5 am Sunday morning

-Three of us, three boats, three sets of kayak gear, 2 tents and numerous sleeping bags etc meant that we had very little food/stove room in Milton's civic

-What I like to call the "L" factor - for those that don't know, this stands for laziness

Anywho, we went to the "Schnitzel Haus" in Enganville on Sunday night. I was expecting the worst, but it was reasonably classy, tasty and surprisingly packed. I had some tasty fish and chip - came with potato, coleslaw and veggie instead of chip by special request. $12 all together including a gigantic glass of german beer. Others said the schnitzel was super tasty and very hearty for about $12 per main course (including potato and veggie).

Then it was off to the local eatery for breakfast this morning (sorta near Cobden - just down from River Run). I had the breakfast special (3 eggs, 3 slices bacon, 2 slices toast and home-fries) all for $4.00!!! How can you go wrong with that??? There was a rather crusty local dude that we started to chat with and then he professed a real hate for Westerners, in particular Albertans. He didn't seem to have much back-up upon further questioning, so I said that I knew quite a few rude Ontarians...

Waffle #2 by Popular Request

So the second waffle wasn't "perfect" but it was definitely still terrific. No chocolate chips on this one. Instead it's PB + Syrup. Gross I know but to each his/her own.






Some people are claiming pancakes can be as tasty as waffles. Those people are mistaken.

Waffle Update

Some people seem to doubt my waffle abilities and require further explanations.

The "objects in the waffle" are PC Decadent Chocolate Chips of course. Waffles like any breakfast food (pita, oatmeal, muffin) require chocolate chips to complete the meal. Placing them on the waffle immediately after the waffle is removed from the waffle iron is key to ensuring they melt.

Not shown in the picture is the final step in waffle preparation which is the pouring of syrup on top of the waffle + chocolate chip item. Only maple syrup will do.

A Post for Jackie - Boston Pizza, Dundas Valley, Waffles

Jackie likes posts that have a story. This post doesn't.

Boston Pizza. I signed up for the mailing list to get a coupon for a free starter. We went last weekend. Janice had potato skins and I had ribs and spaghetti.

Waffles. I rose to the waffle challenge and made two terrific waffles.










It looks like this concludes the waffle war.


The Dundas Valley trail centre sells some random food. I had an ice cream sandwich. Janice stepped up the spending a notch and had a drumstick. Both were tasty. I wouldn't recommend getting much else there because the "warm" food looked a little sketchy. I haven't had any street meat hotdogs since 2002 but I will definitely eat one of those dogs before I hit the DVTC for a hot dog.

Bonus - Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies - look for news about these once I eat one today.

St Andrew's Club

Thursday I hit up an almuni event at the St Andrew's club. Having to dress up is a little annoying but free food makes it worth it for me. The food was pretty good. There were two stations: an italian and an asian. For the dinner part, the Italian station was the weaker one - a pork thing, some gnocci and some random meat. The asian one was terrific - sushi nigri and maki, pad thai (chicken or shrimp) in the fun little boxes that these fancy places seem to like to use, salad rolls, spring rolls and a few other things I don't recall. It was great particularly the sushi. It would have nice to see the sushi chef there instead of a pad thai attendant but that's me just being picky. For the dessert portion, the stations reverse. The asian consisted of chocolate dipped fortune cookies (I'm supposed to stick with my passion according to the cookie). To make up for this weakness, I had some more maki. Tasty as well. The Italian station had little cake like squares. They were fairly tasty although they seemed a little oily (of course that didn't stop me from having quite a few).

In terms of entertainment, there was the formal program which is interesting. But the humour portion came from some of the alumni who inhabit a different non-engineering or science plane of existence. This one person was excited to talk to engineers as she felt she had this brilliant idea that instead of emergency vehicles using sirens they should vibrate the seat in your car.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong but I don't think that idea will be taking off anytime soon.