Happy New Bread!

Where to even begin? There was the whole panettone debacle (see last post, also turns out I did not bother following the tip I had found out the previous year, so much for the whole “note to self”: I am going to try chilling the dough for 12 hours before shaping and proofing. HAH. Didn’t happen).

We spent Christmas apart. Boxing Day I woke up at 8am, ordered from LUSH (from bed, ah luxury) and went right back to sleep. I felt an illness coming on. I struggled that day. My grand Christmas dinner plans were put on the back burner. I just barely managed to cook the turkey breast and potatoes. Elaborate gingerbread cake would have to wait. German potato salad? Doubtful. Bonus sugar cookies? Nope. By Wednesday I was all consumed by some horrid virus. I lost my voice and felt awful, Brent stayed an extra night in Newmarket, far far away from me. At this point my brain was mush, I had resorted to watching animated movies like Shrek and Madagascar, I couldn’t handle anything beyond that. Brent came home and the next day mentioned he thought he might be getting sick, had I really gotten him? I suggested a COVID test. Mine had been negative but still best to check. It was. He had COVID. Everyone from Newmarket, one by one they all replied yes. Days later, and I am still: sicker than Brent and don’t have COVID. ♫ I’m still standing, yeah yeah yeah ♫

2023: did I succeed (other than the panettone)? The goal was flavour-city. I’d say, it was a resounding yes! (See: epic baseball cake and epic Easter cake, and strawberry nanaimo bars). Not everything was a success (Bailey’s is best left for drinking, or maybe a last minute no-bake mix-in) but I had fun. Yes, so my macarons were kind of enormous. Not my fault: I was going to use the Wilton mat until I read about how awful it was. I used it for size guidance when tracing on parchment and OOPS. I learned the hardway: macarons do not scale well. For eating. It’s just too much. But they’re not actually that scary to make!! Much less intimidating (I had taken a class years ago and then avoided them, too scary). And now I know for next time: make them smaller. And yes, there WILL be macarons in 2024, I have so many egg whites in the freezer from that (should this be a game? take a shot every time I say it?) PANETTONE. My sourdough starter is still going, I think? I have switched over to cold storage and am waiting for two days off in a row (when I’m not fighting for my life, every sentence or laughter sending me into a coughing fit wherein I legitimately wonder if I have torn something in my throat, is it possible to choke and die on coughing up congestion?! can vertigo make you fall down?!) to attempt a sourdough boule. (Thanks secret santa for the banneton, how did you know?). New year, new bag of flour. New year, new classes: I’m going over to the dark side! I start Culinary 1 and open up a whole new set of classes for my one day off. Will Pies get cancelled again? Probably.

So what’s in store for 2024? <– haha, it rhymes. BREAD. BREAD. BREAD. More Bread. I will get better at bread. Or at least try. Late last autumn, after pizza school, I bought a small portable wood-fired oven. Perfect for a Canadian winter. I had just enough time to test bake pita (it was ok) before it was too cold for anything else. I also got on sale an automatic proofing box. Goodbye inexactitude, hello precision! I was supposed to bake a roasted garlic boule for New Years with my family. I got as far as roasting the garlic (yay! finally got to use my cocotte!) and had to give up. My poor body, my poor brain, this fucking virus fucked me up and then some. I could not handle baking a loaf of bread, especially with such high stakes (garlic kills yeast!!! HOW WILL THIS EVEN WORK????). So for now I am eating the last dregs of bread from the freezer (I finally got a Too Good to Go order from Eataly and got a LOT of bread, some stale, now chopped up in my freezer in a bag just ~waiting~ to get turned into bread pudding, there may be a LOT of bread pudding in 2024 depending on how things go, *fingers crossed* that is not the case).

Great cookie showdown? On pause until we are both feeling better and can be in the same room together.

A go-to holiday recipe collection? I got a notebook from Dollarama, now I just have to review what makes the final cut. Then print a bunch of labels and shit using the Cricut I bought on impulse. IS THIS ALSO GOING TO BE THE YEAR OF THE PANTRY & RECIPE COLLECTION MAKEOVER?!?! WILL I EVER FEEL 100% BETTER?!? CAN I LAUGH AGAIN?!?! (without hacking up a lung?).

Aprons on! Rudy sous chef at the ready!

 

Ottawa Winterlude: Day 3

Mon. Feb. 15, 2016:
Train back to Toronto

We lucked out, it was family Day and that meant that the National Gallery of Canada would actually be open unlike on a regular Monday. On our walk back to the hotel yesterday we had passed a place near Byward Market called Planet Coffee, what better place to get my morning coffee fix from? Checking their Facebook page I discovered that they were going to participate in a hot chocolate competition at the market! I was way too excited about these prospects.

It was still cold out, a cool -21C but the weather report promised it would warm up as the day wore on. I caved into temptation at Planet Coffee and got a mocha with whipped cream, they were after all entering a hot chocolate contest therefore it must be good. Right? It was delicious and if it was any indication of the quality of their hot chocolate, they had the contest in the bag.

Byward Market was very small and not at all what I had expected. There were only a few vendors and it was just two rows of them. We peered down at them from the walkway above and decided that the wood-fired oven Montreal-style bagel place down below seemed like a good place to grab breakfast. It was fun to watch the bagels cooling near the oven, and it raised my hopes for breakfast. It was a really popular place and there were no free seats. The hot chocolate contest was only being set up, we decided if we had time we could pop by later.

The herb and cheese bagel was amazing and it was crammed full of smoked meat, egg and cheddar cheese. My only regret was not having a drink on the side. By the time we were done breakfast and packed up the temperature had risen to -19C, a cause for celebration- even though we were walking one block. Still that one block was a cold walk, I only had on one pair of tights and one pair of socks and I did not double up my long sleeve shirts. We would be walking around a gallery for a few hours and it would be way too hot.

We had double lucked out at the Gallery, it was the last day of the Monet show. After having been to many art galleries I still do not understand contemporary art or colour block painting or any of the other weird stuff. We did get to see some gorgeous Inuit art pieces, the most miniscule carvings imaginable and it boggles the mind. This was the first time in a gallery or museum where I did not end up freezing cold. We managed to finish the Gallery in three hours, earlier than we had expected.

We went to Dunn’s for smoked meat sandwiches. But we had so much time that Brent suggested we get the sandwiches for later and go elsewhere for lunch. Hooch Restaurant did not open until 5pm. There had been an Irish pub on my list and as Brent was about to look up the address to the Aulde PoorHouse I saw it across the street. The hot chocolate contest across the street was well under way and we figured it would make a good dessert option afterwards. We were in an Irish pub so of course I had to get the BBQ Guinness chicken wings. It was too early in the day for drinks, instead I opted for a green tea with lemon which was perfect after all the cold weather. The spicy curry chicken with fries was also delicious.

They had managed to take down the event tent and everyone had cleared out. As we left the pub it was as if the hot chocolate contest had never even happened. They had vanished without a trace. Instead we stopped in at Sugar Mountain where I went a little overboard. It was a long slow walk back to the train station, my legs were dead. The stupid highway made our route quite inefficient as we had to make a giant detour to get around it. It made me mad because I could see the hotel near the train station yet we had to go all the way around, adding on an extra 15 minutes that felt like eternity.

In the train station Brent opened his smoked meat sandwich from Dunn’s and the pickle smelled so good I had to open mine and eat it, after all the pickle might make the sandwich soggy. I could not resist a bite of the sandwich. It was underwhelming to say the least, which is too bad as thus far all of our fooding had been quite good. The WiFi in the train station was lackluster and I was getting antsy. It did feel good to sit though. It turns out that being really cold really does a number on one’s body and is exhausting.

 

Ottawa Winterlude: Day 2

Sun. Feb. 14, 2016:

As soon as I had climbed out from underneath the covers I was freezing cold. It was going to be another freezing cold day with the temperature hovering around the -30C mark (without the windchill). This time I put on regular leggings and fleece-lined leggings overtop. I also doubled up on socks. I thought I was a brilliant genius, how could I possibly end up cold with so many layers?! The outdoors was barely tolerable, I was glad that my breakfast choice was just the down the street. After about 10 minutes outside I was ready to warm up. Bluebird Café was wonderful, the coffee was amazing and the chocolate chip muffin hit the spot. We sat in the window, but there was not much going on for people watching save some people moving in across the street. The lady ran outside in a t-shirt and we both cringed and yelled at her (through the window, quietly) to run back inside.

We walked to Rideau Falls, passing a few embassies along the way and trying to guess the countries based on the flags. I did poorly. As we walked by the Canada Research Council Brent joked that the place was now empty thanks to Stephen Harper. The first half of the falls was unimpressive as the view was obstructed by the power generation station. It was cool to see that the mist from the falls had landed on nearby trees as a layer of fine snow. It was that cold outside. The second half was much more impressive and it looked so cool because it was frozen and misshapen. My hand froze as I desperately tried to take pictures with my cellphone. I had deemed it too cold to even bring my DSLR as I would never get a chance to use it. Seeing as we had already walked all this way, we continued on Sussex drive to the Prime Minister’s house. 24 Sussex Ave was well guarded and very uninviting, from what I could see, which was barely anything. It even had a wooden barricade, which somehow made it quaintly Canadian.

Walking by the Royal Canadian Mint there was not much going on. Once we got to Majors Hill Park we were greeted with a strong and super cold gust of wind- and no Winterlude festivities. We had a good look at the canal and we could see Quebec across the river. We walked up to Parliament Hill but again, other than the increased police presence, there was nothing really going on. Except for renovations, there were a lot of renovations going on. The East Block was really pretty to look at. Even though I still have no idea what it is or what goes on there. On our way back to our hotel we passed by the Fairmont Chateau Laurier and made note of how to get back, for we were switching to that hotel in the afternoon.

I could not resist stopping at the Nestle Tollhouse Café for a small snack. We hung out in the hotel as I attempted to warm up while eating cookies. It was an easy walk to our next hotel as we had just come from that direction. We got there just after noon and thankfully they already had a room ready for us.

It was a 5 minute walk down to the canal from our new (and better and warmer) hotel. It was really scary walking on the ice on the Rideau Canal as we slowly made our way over to the skate rental place. We made a pit stop for beaver tails and hot chocolate. I downed the hot chocolate in one big warm gulp. The warmth did not last.

I did not last very long on skates, it had been years since I’d skated and I was really nervous. Add to that my foot cramping and the freezing cold. Yeah it was a poor show on my part. I skated a little way down the canal, at least I got past the people filming an A&W commercial. There’s my future cameo appearance in the background awkwardly and slowly skating to look forward to. Brent skated on ahead, I skated back to the rental place having been defeated. I walked up and down the canal looking down on the skaters below. It was getting really, really cold. I had resorted to taking photos with my nose (the joys of a touch screen).

Near the canal was Confederation Park. They had lots of ice sculptures and a demonstration and even an ice sculpture fire pit. Some of the ice sculptures had seen better days, we were there for the last few days of Winterlude, and they were falling apart. I was starting to get really cold. My double-socked feet were starting to go numb. As we circled the park I got free samples of cookies and tea. This was not enough to entice me to stay and watch any more demonstrations. I was freezing cold and I needed to go back to the hotel to warm up.

During our warm-up break I turned the heater to maximum and turned off the auto function. I brewed a cup of tea, grabbed my cookies and a bathrobe and headed to the heater. I pulled up a chair and wrapped the bathrobe around my legs and feet and over the heater. The tea was good, the sample had worked and now I am a fan of Four O’Clock’s almond biscotti tea. I was finally warm enough and before heading out I added one more layer, an extra long sleeve shirt. I was ready to go to the final location on our Winterlude tour.

We crossed the bridge over the Ottawa River. The river was mostly frozen but had broken in some parts. Yet people were still walking out across it. It made me uneasy to watch.  Looking back we had a gorgeous view of Parliament Hill overlooking the river. Gatineau Park was where the fun was. They had made ice slides, however I was not going to risk getting my jeans wet and thus being uncomfortably cold again. Instead I watched Brent slide down. We did go down another slide in a two-person tube. It was dizzyingly fun, as we had requested being sent off with a spin. The last activity they had was the chance to go around a track with a dog sled. You could hear the dogs in the pen down below all howling, it was sad. And I was too cold to stand in line.

It was Valentine’s Day and we did not have reservations anywhere. The plan was to walk past the Murray Street Kitchen and peer in, if it did not seem busy we would have dinner there. The backup was to keep walking to Dunn’s for sandwiches instead. Murray’s didn’t seem too busy so we went in and asked about a table. They had one, however we would have to clear out by 7:30pm. It was just past 5pm, we looked at each other and at once understood we would be out of there way before then.

We decided to order the charcuterie as nothing else on the menu really caught our fancy. Again we got to choose which meats and cheeses (gouda, raw cow’s milk cheese, smoked duck, kiełbasa and headcheese). Once again the charcuterie was outstanding, I am beginning to think that Ottawa is a great place for charcuterie but I have no idea why. The nachos with beef heart were also delicious, especially because they were made with kettle chips. And the feta cheese was minimal. We had overheard from a nearby table that the poutine had been featured on a TV show (it was on You Gotta Eat Here) and we wondered if we had made a mistake? When the server came back with our second round of drinks we ordered it- without really knowing what we were getting. Poutine would obviously have fries, right? Not here it doesn’t, it was some weird doughy noodle-shaped things. It was a small serving but even still it was difficult to get through. Who does that? Who messes with poutine like that?

On our way back we passed some kids that were booing every dinner option their parents presented and every business they passed. One of which was a cupcake shop, The Cupcake Lounge. We had not ordered dessert and it was Valentine’s Day, why not? I got the last maple cinnamon cupcake and Brent had the Oreo one which was way better.

I snuggled up under the covers and brushed all the cupcake crumbs off the bed. It was time for my all-time favourite vacation activity: mindless stupid TV! We watched Bob’s Burgers followed by an SNL Valentine’s Day special that was truly terrible. I flipped back and forth through channels, having lost my patience for commercials a long time ago. I kept switching between Family Guy and a comedy festival. I thought for sure John Cleese would be funny- he was not. And then there was nothing on which was fine by me, being freezing cold all day is exhausting.

 

 

Ottawa Winterlude: Day 1

Sat. Feb. 13, 2016:
Toronto train to Ottawa

For Valentine’s Day Brent surprised me with a weekend getaway to Ottawa for the Winterlude Festival- which just so happened to coincide with the start of my reading week, so I was all in. Our VIA train was set to leave Toronto at 2 in the afternoon, but there was no way we were walking to Union station. It was about -35C with the windchill. The train ride itself was about 5 hours long. The Wi-Fi was weedy and I ended up doing all of the readings I had loaded to the iPad and I was unable to load any more. I resorted to getting mad at the browser on the iPad and constantly refreshing web pages for the last 40 minutes of the train ride.

It was a freezing cold walk to the hotel from the train station once we got to Ottawa. It was unbelievable how cold it was. Under a minute of bare hands as I tried to put my earmuffs on over my hat and it hurt. Even with fleece-lined leggings under my jeans I was still cold. It was indescribable how cold it was, but in the air it was at least -30C and that is not even counting the windchill. We kept getting lost as the Google maps print out was not exactly clear. Then Brent’s phone started malfunctioning and restarting, it did not like the cold either. In fact only the 100+ crows we saw in the trees did not seem to mind. Eventually we had to resort to using my phone. Thankfully it had a touch screen and voice commands so my hand did not have to freeze. We stopped in at an LCBO just to warm up. However I had not turned off the turn by turn GPS on my phone and the nice lady was trying to give us directions from my pocket.

In hotel I cranked the heater to the maximum which was 26.5C and turned it off auto. I crawled under the blankets and snuggled in for some really crappy TV. Border Security was on and it fit the bill perfectly. I never managed to fully warm up and was shivering as I was getting dressed to go back out. I left the heater on in the hopes of returning to a warm and toasty room.

We had reservations at Brother’s Beer Bistro, I had not mapped it out beforehand and we lucked out. It was across the street from our hotel. Any further and we may have had to turn back. Despite an awkward wait with no service when we first entered, the restaurant soon won my heart. They had my all-time favourite beer, Mort Subite. I was overjoyed. We ordered a charcuterie plate because it had the option of picking and choosing the meats and cheeses. We settled on: chorizo, a smoked meat with a weird name and a soft cow’s milk cheese. The written description of the cheese reminded me of camembert- and it was even better. I was in heaven. The charcuterie board was amazing, possibly the second best one we’ve ever had. One of our choices for mains was sold out so we decided to order the beef short ribs (our other choice for a main) and see how we felt afterwards. The beef short rib was not impressive at all, the French fry underneath (yes, there were literally only two giant fries underneath) it was better than the rib. Having only split one main instead of two, we had room for dessert. We decided to change it up and not get the crème brulee (I know!) and got the beer brownie instead. It was topped with cinnamon honey ice cream and underneath there were strawberry preserves. I was worried about the banana cream on the side but it was delicious. I may be wrong about mild banana flavour, it might not be the worst thing on the planet after all. The brownie was delicious, it was still warm and just perfect. At the end of dinner I was still not fully warmed up, even though I had kept my scarf on.

As we walked back to the hotel, a guy in the crosswalk yelled “stop right now… thank you very much” which was confusing, because if this was a reference to the Spice Girls song the next line is rather inappropriate to shout at a stranger.

After a hot shower and with the heater still going full blast I was finally starting to warm up. This was helped by the extra blanket I found in the closet.

 

Crown Princess

After a few years, we finally found our way back to Crown Princess for best dim sum. We had to go on a Saturday because dim sum is in the afternoon (i.e.: during regular work hours). We were going to get there right when it opened at 11am, alas I was still asleep then. Someone, had not woken me up. It was a quick panicked rush of getting ready and out the door, hoping that there would still be a table available. We got lucky, there was still a free table (as we were leaving that was when the lunch rush arrived).

We ordered 5 dishes: scallop & shrimp dumplings, shrimp dumplings, pork buns, duck dumplings and chicken feet. We were served mystery buns with what we can only assume were veggies inside, they were not that good and it was confusing. One bite of chicken feet and I was very confused. I assumed you were supposed to eat the bones, they were not that hard- but they were not gelatinous, as they should be when prepared for eating. Brent googled it on his phone: turns out you are supposed to spit the bones out, very politely and discreetly. Oops. It was a weird dish, you were basically eating saucy, messy chicken skin. I was not a fan, but still glad I had tried it. Towards the end the food got to be too much. We had ordered too much seafood-y stuff and did not have a good enough spread. Some beef and/or noodles would have balanced it out a little better, the pork buns helped a little bit (they were good, but I prefer more meat and less bun).

It’s not very cravable food, wherein I will go back over and over again. It was good to try, just not my cup of tea. Although I did like the ever-flowing tea at the table.

 

Kupfert & Kim Made Me (Almost) Like Veggies

On our way down to a Jays game last week we stopped at Kupfert & Kim’s for the best wheat+gluten-free meal. I was super psyched about this, I just loved the idea of eating veggies, mm mm. That is sarcasm. There is nothing I despise more than veggies. Thankfully they also had some desserts on offer, I was a little hesitant but my chocolate/sweets craving was overpowering me. We got a brownie and a chocolate walnut ball to split. I took one bite of the chocolate ball, looked at Brent and grinned, he would be very lucky if he got more than one bite. It was amazing!! The ingredients listed on the label made this seem like an easy thing I can make at home- I have yet to, but it is on my list. The brownie was also surprisingly good, thankfully Brent was leaving room for his salad and I got most of it. The fact that it was wheat and gluten free made me think it just had to be healthy, no way was I eating unhealthy right??

All I can say about the salad is this: way to go Kupfert & Kim! You actually made me eat (rather happily I might add) veggies!! Free-willingly! I went back for second, third and fourth bites!!!! The only downside was the construction of the salad, everything was layered and compartmentalized. I ended up mixing it all up with my fork so I would not get a bite that was just carrot or just quinoa (which had sadly been relegated to the bottom).

Any healthy eating that may have happened before the game was undone during the game. I had initially wanted to get BBQ chicken nachos, but they appear to no longer exist. My anger faded when I saw that they had Quaker Steak & Lube wings! No sooner had I gotten an order of wings, Brent spotted another wacky nacho offering: this time with beef brisket. I was intrigued but ultimately disappointed: what kind of nachos are served WITHOUT cheese?! Non-nachos.

Amazingly I was still hungry after all this and demanded a stop at Marble Slab. I had been having an ice cream craving all day since seeing a commercial for DQ’s new Blizzard in A Waffle Cone. I was sad to see that apparently we don’t have that here in Canada and I was left the rest of the day with an insatiable ice cream craving.

 

The Best Soup Ever

I recently came across a recipe for butternut squash soup and I could not resist. I had to make it that day. There was no waiting, it is gourd season!! I was a little weary after my last foray into autumn-themed cooking with the apple cider turned out to be a bit of a bust.

I was afraid I would break the bank with this one. Butternut squash sounds decadent and expensive, what rich people use in place of pumpkins. I could not have been more wrong. I had no idea butternut squashes were so cheap, I paid $2 for a rather large one. The recipe from the Foodnetwork, is very simple and straightforward. The only other ingredients were chicken stock, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

The recipe is rated as intermediate level of difficulty, quickly glancing over I had no idea why this was so. I only understood once I got to the peel & chop part. Butternut squashes are hard, therefore cutting them is less than fun (unless of course you have a super crazy sharp knife). After a bit of a struggle I was done, and the counter-top was only slightly covered in squash innards and seeds.

My batch took a while longer to boil seeing as I have only one functioning burner on my stovetop, one of the small burners. I checked if the squash had been cooking long enough by smushing it with a spoon. I had to use a sieve to fish out the squash pieces, for some reason I had completely forgotten that I had a slotted spoon (in my defense I had never used it once). I also was worried that my blender might die, I had to blend the squash pieces in smaller batches. Then all I had to do was mix the puree back in with the stock, and voila! Soup!

I didn’t even wait for it to cool. As soon as I had seasoned it, I had a giant bowlful. It was heavenly, this has to be my favourite recipe of all time. So much so, that a week later now, I am down to one bowlful, and I have sitting on my counter another butternut squash. I will be eating butternut squash soup until the season ends. Maybe even later… can you freeze butternut squash?

 

Waffles & Smoothies, Booze Before Noon

With patio season winding down, we weren’t sure if we would manage to squeeze in any more. Thankfully the weather was cooperative and the patio at Only was empty. Walking there it was rather cold, but we got a nice sunny spot on the patio, it even got a little bit too warm. The wasps were out & about, trying to steal my cider as usual. I was surprised that Only had more than one cider on top, and neither was a regular run-of-the-mill cider you find anywhere. Unfortunately, it being 11am, I was not too keen on having more than one. Even one seemed like too much at times. Even more-so given that I had basically rolled out of bed, grabbed coffee on the way, and not eaten anything yet. The wasps were thrilled that I was taking so long to finish it.

 

We had looked at the menu beforehand, which was a good thing as we were not handed menus and had to place our order at the bar as there was no waitress on duty, just a bartender. I went with my default go-to breakfast item: waffles piled high with fruit and whipped cream, they rarely disappoint. I could see plastic fruit containers on the counter, I knew I was in for a good breakfast. Brent had the huevos rancheros of which I am not a huge fan given that I hate beans and egg yolks. The huevos rancheros was surprisingly good, the beans were more of a mush making them actually palatable and not gross. Plus it was fun to eat as it was all served a top nachos! The waffle was light & fluffy but it caused some mild confusion: the maple syrup was in a pop-top beer bottle. At first we thought the bartender had brought us another beer. I quickly put two and two together, managing not to make an ass of myself… that is until I tried to open it. It would be an understatement to say it was a struggle. Plus I got all sticky, more wasps appeared. For some reason they were more interested in the huevos rancheros, despite the growing puddle of maple syrup on my plate (they eventually wised up, thankfully this was when Brent & I had swapped for the last few bits- I mostly just had guacamole).

 

On our way back we stopped at The Big Carrot, voted best health food store. I was expecting astronomical prices for organic foods as well as things I had never heard of: and that is exactly what we found. I did find a section of cookies though and could not resist the ginger molasses cookie. The sticker on the back informed me that it was 81% organic. I did not care, so long as it was 100% delicious. To finish off, we stopped at The Big Carrot juice bar for smoothies. Only two of them really appealed to me, and then only one as I saw that the other had grapefruit in it (Brent got it, it was gross). A whole list of smoothies and juices and only one appealed to me: it was a steamed drink of lemon juice and ginger. It was delicious, they were generous with ginger, hence the name Lemon Zinger.

It was only 1pm, I had been awake for maybe 3 hours and I was exhausted. A nap ensued.

 

CraftDogs

As I was walking to St. Lawrence Market I spotted a new hotdog place: Craft Dogs. I was immediately transfixed, I madly texted Brent and in a flurry of misspellings announced my need to visit this fine hot dog dispensing establishment. I had to go, there was no way around it.

After a quick tour of the market, my friend and I headed over there. We were starving, wandering about the Market really builds an appetite. I was not fazed by the price tag, as I had experienced similiar price points at other fancy hotdog places. The menu offerings reminded me of Hot Doug’s in Chicago, I was thrilled that I did not have to wait in line this time. I was tempted to get a beer (yes, you read that right- a beer, there was one taht had caught my eye: Mort Subite*) but the $11 price tag put me off. Somehow $11 for a venison hot dog was a-ok, but for a beer?! The wonders of the human mind.

We waited for a while before our food was ready, the place was not busy therefore it gave an air of high-quality to the food. One bite and I knew it was true- these were craft dogs indeed. I wish I lived closer or had a bigger stomach. I had been debating getting the Dogfather (a pizza hotdog!) or the kobe beef hotdog, until the guy behind the counter pointed out the specials board: venison, that settled it. The buns were unusual, in that it really seemed like a piece of bread configured to hold a hot dog: the bottom was crust and around the edge was crust, but the sides where you hold it were crustless. The toppings on the hotdog were spot-on perfect, which is a lot to say given I generally despise onions. And yet there I sat, happily munching a mouthful of venison, arugula (another veggie I thought for sure I would hate and yet I love) and onions. I am proud to say I did not pick out a single onion. The only other time this has happened was when I had burgers from In N Out in the animal-style.

This place blows Fancy Frank’s out of the water, higher quality and more different meat options available. I did not have the fries made in duck+beef fat though. Maybe next time. Needless to say I was not hungry the rest of the day (if you know me, you will know that that is quite the feat to accomplish).

 

*I spent the rest of the walk home stopping at every LCBO I passed to see if they had it. I still have not found it. As I sit here I am contemplating walking to the only downtown location that has it in stock: King & Spadina.

 

Rosemary’s Chicken

At St. Lawrence Market I found an awesome deal on a giant bone-in chicken breast: the enormous thing only cost me $9 and it put everything in the grocery store to shame. I had this amazing plan to throw it in the slow-cooker with some white wine and herbs (hence the original title of Drunk Chicken).

All well and good, however the chicken did not fit in my slow-cooker and yet again I had to carve a raw chicken. I have done it so many times it does not gross me out at all. It is just time-consuming and messy. I had forgotten to buy an onion and had run out of garlic, but thankfully Brent had honoured my request and picked them up for me. Up until now I have avoided onions in the kitchen, I hate them and they make me cry easily. It never occurred to me that I could chop one up and freeze it! No more ignoring onions in recipes.

After a couple of hours the apple cider smell in the house was replaced with a chicken smell, causing a mild panic as I had forgotten completely about the chicken and thought that somehow burnt apple cider smelled like chicken maybe? I don’t know, I was very confused.

The chicken is good albeit too heavy on the rosemary and I would put half the amount called for next time. There will be a next time, it is still so delicious.