Dessert Fourplay

This book is probably my hands down favorite dessert book. It is the one I go to for inspiration on a pretty much Daily basis. Johnny Iuzzini has a way with ingredients and making flavor combinations that are so bizarre but work and pop in your mouth!

The book tell the story of his journey to becoming a pastry chef and shows the passion he has for the final course!

Check it out if you can...this book is one that doesnt leave my back pack...and my back pack doesn't leave me!

GO GREEN- CULTIVATE TORONTO!

                                                        Cultivate Toronto

   On my commute to work today, I noticed a sign, CultivateTO. Naturally, as a gardener I was interested. On further investigation, I found out it’s a community food share program.
   To be more specific; Say I, as a gardener, volunteer my back yard (or front) to growing vegetables. Cultivate Toronto, comes and checks my soil and property to see if it fits the natural guidelines. Then plants what is needed, and helps keep up with the maintenance. Then harvests, and give the product to, let’s say you, the buyer.
   You, as the buyer, pay a certain charge, to have fresh local produce delivered to your door daily. Prices and specifics are yet to come, but I will do the dirty work, and find out more. I am thinking if I could volunteer my yard, in exchange for different vegetables and I would be all in.
   Now a quote from the website;
   “Studies have shown that vegetable gardens improve the natural environment we live in by lowering our carbon footprint, lessening the heat-island effect in cities, improving air quality and reducing rainwater runoff. When you invest in CultivateTO, you are investing in the community and strengthening the local economy. Rather than lining the pockets of supermarket shareholders, you are providing youth with an opportunity to put your land to good use and teach others how to grow food. You are inspiring your family and neighbors to start their own veggie gardens and to use the money they save on other local food sources such as farmers’ markets.”

   If you are that interested and can’t wait for me, please check out their website:
cultivatetoronto.com

Lemon and Basil Sorbet

3 lemons zested and the rinds cut off

2 big bunches of basil
500ml water
500ml lemon juice
200 ml invert sugar
250g sugar
200ml light corn syrup

throw it all in a pot,steep till infused, wizz it up with a hand blender, strain and cool for a few hours, put through an ice cream maker and bam...awesome sorbet to finish a meal or use as a palate cleanser! Made this one today...felt like playing around and it turned out awesome! try it out!

St Lawrence Merket - Sweet Sweet Nectar

Meet our north market honey experts Paul and Amber!!

Paul is the owner of Meadowview Honey and along with Amber and a couple bunches of wonderful honey bees, he puts out some of the best sweet stuff you can get in the city! They have been in business for over 25 years and are also apart of the Ontario Bee Keepers Association! They offer jars, pails, liquid, raw, honey comb and bee pollen. My favorite so far is the Blueberry Flower honey!

Along with the honey and bee pollen you can also get some awesome bees wax table and ear candles!

You can find them in the south west corner of the North building, come visit Paul and tell him I sent ya :)

Check Paul Out!

Meadowview Honey

Address

• 4276 Bethesda Road
• Stouffville, L4A 7Z5, ON

Phone and Fax

• Phone: 905-640-1564
• Fax: 905-640-7479

Go Green Thursday....(friday morning ) :):)

Antiperspirants 

So basically the way antiperspirants work is they stop us from sweating. I think that is common knowledge...but what is not so common knowledge is that the companies add aluminum and/or zirconian to their recipe...that's what fills up your little pores and stops you from sweating.

The Government of Canada and Health Canada both say there is nothing to worry about and the amounts of metal they are putting into the armpit spread are to minuscule to do any harm. But if you think about it you generally apply it once a day for 70+ years...that's got to add up! There are studies going to see if this could be contributing to the higher volume of people with Alzheimer considering that they always seems to have a higher concentration of aluminum in their brain tissue.

There is also the argument of it only absorbing on freshly shaved underarms, when the pores are open.

I wasn't too sure how I felt about the topic so I went to check it out....there I was in shoppers drug mart for about 30 minutes reading the ingredients on every single antiperspirant they had in stock, the employees were watching me like I was a lunatic. But  you know...I couldn't find a single one with out some form of metal in it...I don't know why but this really shocked me.

When I think more about it i remember that we line our pots and pans to keep our food from coming into contact with this metal but we freely spread it on our skin everyday? Not to mention the environmental impact. Any sort of metal extraction from the earth has such a great energy impact in their mining and processing of the metal!

So with that in mind tomorrow i am heading to a local natural product store to see what I can find and if not...well i guess i will start to smell :)

Happy reading earthlings

love Kristen

Grow your own....Bean Sprouts!

 Grow Your Own

   I meant Bean Sprouts!!! So yes, you can grow anything, but did you know you can grow your own Bean sprouts? You can!
   Now you can buy some fancy bean sprouter contraption, which I admit I don’t know much about. But there is an easier, cheaper way. All you need is a Litre size mason jar, a mesh screen or cheese cloth, and an elastic band. Most of these things you’ll already find in your kitchen. It’s really that simple. You can use any seeds you want, although I wouldn’t suggest using something big like cucumber seeds. So here’s the process;
Put about a table spoon of seeds in your jar, cover with your mesh screen, and wrap the elastic around the mouth, securing the mesh in place.
Cover the seeds with cold water, and leave for 12 hours, or overnight.
Drain the seeds, and leave the jar on its side to insure air can move through it. Don’t leave it in the sun though; they will dry out to quickly.
Rinse and drain every 12 hours, until you have your desired sprouts.
   Within 2 days you’ll start to see your sprouts coming up, actually it’s a fun process to watch the whole way through. Within 7-10 days, you have yourself some sprouts. So what do you do with them? Garnish for meals perhaps, maybe some fancy sandwiches? My favorite is cucumber, and cream cheese, with sprouts, and a bit of French loaf.

   Good luck, and have fun!!
Sarah

A Taste of the Danforth

 A Taste of the Danforth

   Aw, that wonderful time of year, a time that we Torontonians look forward to all summer, and come ready to EAT! Taste of the Danforth. Classically a celebration of Greek food and Culture in our great city, has transformed over it last 19 years into a great multicultural event. Greek, Mexican, Indian, even Canadian food can be had.
   This year the festival ran from August 10-12th, , stretching from Broadview to Donlands. Unfortunately the weekend didn’t start off with a bang due to rain and over cast skies. But that won’t stop us will it Toronto?
   I headed down myself, on the Sunday, which was the best of the days that weekend, although the sky did become slightly menacing towards the end. I went around 4, and was STARVING, not having eaten all day to save room. I was waiting on friends to go, but decided I just couldn’t wait any longer.
  Now it’s not just about the food, although it is the only reason I go. There are several stages set up along the way, featuring many performances of all types. They have games, photo ops, a giant Foosball table, and so much more. Stores put out their merchandise just as readily as restaurants show off their food. There really is something for everyone.
   So I started with Calamari from Mambo, then a pork souvlaki, unfortunately I forget from where. At this point I was mesmerized by the man with the giant knife, cutting holes in people’s coconuts for them to drink from. I decided I would get one of these later, but later I was way too stuffed.
   I had gyros, scooped off of a giant flat top, Sliders from Burger Stomper, Quail from Louis Meat Market, Moroccan Olives from Healthy Planet. Oh boy, it’s about at this point I decide to slow down a bit. I’m starting to get full, and I’m not even to Pape yet! Ok but I HAVE to try the vegetable Pakora from Aravind, with coriander dipping sauce. Oh and some Poutine with real cheese curds, with an Orange Italian Soda, from Threes Company. Oh, ya and the Roasted Corn on the Cob. Well I must say it’s a good thing Kristen met me at this point. So many more things to try and I just couldn’t fit anymore in.

Finally I find Sarah at Taste of the danforth! I was so hungry, and to be honest I didnt really care how full Sarah already was...she was going to try everything I got if she wanted to or not!
We wandered around for a bit grabbing some fried calamari first from "Silk Road". I am not sure if it was the heat lamps it was stored under or just the plate we got but the larger peices were so over cooked, impossible to chew...however the smaller peices were wonderful with a spicy vinagrette to accompany them I was a happy camper!
Next stop was some seriously awesome bacon wrapped shrimp from "Mocha Mocha". It was shrimp....wrapped in bacon....nothing more needs to be said!
We sauntered around for about a half an hour munching on fish and chicken tacos, and some pork soulvaki, until we found it....the mother of all things wonderful!
SPIT ROASTED QUAIL (from Athens Restaurant)
Tiny, crispy and moist, perfectly seasoned little bundles of birdly goodness! A++ to Athens restaurant for their luscious quail!

Okay so we are done eating now...and what is the best idea that comes into our heads....riding the Farriswheel...I never said Sarah and I were the smartest people! So we go around this Farriswheel being jerked and prodded back and forth and laughing so hard every time we lean forward and scare ourselves to the point of pale faces! Just when we think its time to get off...we have to stay on for the loading of the entire thing again! The worst part...slowly going to the top...at least we were able to get some good shots from the top :)

If you are in Toronto next year you should definitely check out taste of the danforth. Its a lot of fun, with awesome people like you who just want to eat good food!

take care ladies and gents!

Love Kristen and Sarah

St Lawrence Market Series

 Market series

National Geographic has recently (April 2012) rated the st Lawrence market here in Toronto "the best food market in the WORLD". what an amazing thing to have right here in our city! So I thought in honour of that I would do a post every weekend about some of the awesome vendors that inhabit the market.

A little history about the St Lawrence Market

There are two major markets in Toronto, Kensington market and St Lawrence market. The SLM  has two buildings the north and south. The South Building is host to the main market that is open 5 days a week. The North is the home of the Southern Ontario farmers market on Saturdays and a one of a kind antique market on Sundays. The SLM started out as just the Saturday farmers market in 1803 and today is has become a daily event that the lucky visitors and torontonians get to enjoy! 
I am going to focus on the north buildings farmers market for my market series because its very important to Sarah,myself and planet earth to shop and support local farmers!

Next weekend you can look forward to a post about local honey bee farmer Paul from Medowview Honey :)

Love Kristen

GO GREEN THURSDAYS - NHARO

                                                                      Nharo!

   In honor of our Go Green Thursdays(Friday morning this week because Kristen sucks :-)), I thought I share this store I visited recently. Nharo, located at 543 Danforth Avenue. It’s direct trade store, offering African Art and jewelry. But that’s not what caught my eye.
   They had quite a few pieces made for recycled material, something I always enjoy. Bracelets made from old water pipes, necklaces from pop tops and recycled paper, and picture frames made from old food product boxes. My favorite hands down though was animal sculptures made from old pop cans, and aerosol cans. All these pieces were affordably priced, so check it out next time you’re on Danforth!

Nharo
543 Danforth Ave.
(416)828-6884
NHARO WEBSITE

Welcome to the BIG TOP

 Under the Big Top
    Have you ever been to the Circus? Until last week Kristen and I hadn’t either. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but these days most claimed circuses are all acrobatics. Not animals and clowns like the old style Circus that I dream of seeing. Well luck would have it, as Kristen and I were driving back from St. Jacobs, there was a giant billboard, advertising just that.
    Now excuse me for being a bit sceptical, but we Googled it when we got in, and it was exactly what we were thinking. The 2012 Shrine Circus, animals and all. For 20 dollars a ticket, 30 for ringside. Um yes please, ringside!
   So off we drive to First Markham Place, driving around a very packed street and then plaza, until we see it, The Big Top. We walk up to see the elephants, and then that glorious smell of cotton candy, peanuts, and other carnival food hits us. I know you all know that smell.
   We got our fancy V.I.P. ringside tickets, and we’re ushered in along with our fellow circus goers, with all the excitement that you would expect for you first time. So we settle into our seats, and wait patiently, while watching children getting elephant rides around the ring. I desperately wanted one, but I felt a little silly, being, you know, 30 something. As promised, at 7:30 sharp, the Ring Master enters, and the show begins!
   First the Freestyle Motor Show; 3 wonderfully decorated Daredevils, showing off their skills on motorcycles, and 3 wheelers
  Next Guillermina; an expert Hula Hoop artist, accompanies by several miniature clowns, throwing hoops at her from all sides. Beautiful, and graceful, and holy cow she can handle a lot of hoops!
  After that, Equestrianism; A stunning display, six beautiful white horses, dancing together around the ring. It was almost caught my breath in my throat, watching them gallop by, so close, we could almost touch them.
   Then, my favorite, Neecha Braun; an elegant display of strength, she twists and turn, and flips on “The Lyra” or Arial hoop.
   On to Piolita; a little clown style comedy relief.
   The Nexus Troupe; Bright colors, a giant bicycle with balloon wheels, and of course, a dog. All I can say about this really, is I want one, the bike not the dog, honest.
   Back on stage Neecha, this time with her Amazing Dobermans; a tri color of Dobermans, performing such amazing tricks. Jumping through hoops, rings, and even fire, these 3 even drove in on their own sinister looking side car.
   Veronica and Natalia; much like Neecha, their act is Arial Artistry, but now there are 2 of them. At one point, one of them, I have no idea which, spun round and round on a strap attaching her neck, and the others foot. This had the entire crowd in awe.
   It was around this time that the intermission happened, so I ran off to get very stale nachos, and slushies, which were cleverly held in elephant cups, or so I thought. When I returned to my seat, Kristen laughed, and turned the cup so I could see the face, of my alien slushy cup. I’m only mentioning this because I still find it strange that there was an alien cup even at the circus.
   Now before we get back to the show, I must mention the most exciting part. There we are under The Big Top, when “BANG”, thunder and lightning erupt, the sky opens up, and pours down on us. It was an awesome sight, and an eerie feeling, to be sitting there. Not to worry, we were all safe and dry, and only minor leaks broke through, not managing to get anyone but the poor people on the back of the elephant in the ring. Good thing I didn’t opt for that ride eh? But back to the show!
   The second act starts with Titto Rock; highly entertaining, hilarious even. The silent clown has been told not to touch the bells, so he gets members of the audience to do it for him. Such good sports they were too, Titto teased them the whole way through.
  The Nexus Troupe; they grace us again, but this time with less make up. We can now see that all those people we thought were stage hands, were actually performers, helping move and set up the stage.
   Finally, the Elephants,   “The All New Tarzan Zerbini Performing Elephants”; giant beasts being lead around the ring, by their trainer, Erika Zerbini
                                                    How could you not enjoy the show?

Sarahs Salt Spring Island Adventure - Part 4

 One Fish, Two Fish..........

  Ok all you Dr. Seuss enthusiast, I am talking about Red Fish Blue Fish, a popular sea side take out restaurant, on the docks of downtown Victoria, BC. My friend Erin and I took a day off island, for a little shopping, and sightseeing, and of course food.
  So we took the ferry, to Swartz Bay, the grabbed the Double Decker bus, right into the heart of Victoria. We did some consignment shopping, and stopped at the famous Fan Tan Alley, in Victoria’s China town. Had coffee at the cutest coffee shop I have ever seen, and then went for lunch. Our destination was already picked, so we just had to find it.
  So by suggestion of the Hastings House Pastry Chef Rosemary, we went to check out Red Fish Blue Fish, a 100% sustainable outdoor waterfront eatery. It was only slightly hard to find, we walked up and down Warf St. A few times, before we got smart and walked down to the docks, and there it was! Right on the dock, in a converted cargo container, this trendy and fresh restaurant, offers Fish and Chips, plus more. The line up was 20 people deep, so it gave us ample time to decide what we wanted, but it still wasn’t easy.
  Erin got the classic Fish and Chips, but with Salmon. I had more of a problem; I ended up with 2 Tacones, a Grill Seared Albacore Tuna, and a BBQ Fanny Bay Oyster, an order of Spicy Pacific Fish Poutine, and an order of Deep Fried Pickles. After you order there is a 10-20 minute wait for your food, but bench seat have been set up to sit and eat on the water. Everything was incredible, but I’ll be more specific.
   Erin’s Salmon Fish and Chips was my favorite, cooked perfectly, crispy but not to greasy. The Tacones, which I guess I should explain, are flour tortillas, filled with slaw, pea shoots, and lemon pickled onions, then of course your choice of meat or vegetables. Made fresh while you wait, these tasty and creative rolls are way bigger than you think they are, trust me. The Spicy Seafood Poutine, was delicious, and probably my second favorite. It wasn’t too spicy, and juicy, without being soggy. Then there was the pickles, again perfectly cooked and crispy, but the best part was the Dill’d Dijonaisse, one of their many homemade sauces.
  So for around 20 bucks, I got a ton of good food, and a drink. We sat on the dock, in Victoria Harbour, and enjoyed a beautiful September day, and even had a new friend join us for lunch. A great day, that I will always remember.