401 Artisans Marketplace

If you're thinking of giving one-of-a-kind gifts this year

but that's about as far as you got, 

come support local artisans at the 401 Artisans Marketplace 

Thursday Dec. 8th to Sunday Dec. 11th.

Preview of good things to come! - click image to enlarge

You'll find a bevy of gifts for everyone, even those hard-to-please people - you know who you are.... Edibles and jewelry, housewares and apparel, accessories and artwork. There are literally hundreds or gift ideas to fit your budget.

As the OOAK Toronto Show comes to a close this weekend, 401 Richmond West opens it's doors, to the craft-hunrgy public, for their 19th annual Holiday Marketplace.

Free admission for everyone! We want you to spend those dolla dollas on the artisans!

About/Vendors/ Times - click image to enlarge

We're open for business Dec 8th through to Sunday Dec. 11th. Join us on Saturday especially because we're holding a raffle hosted by 100 Mile Finds to win an amazing gift basket filled with handmade goodies from artisans participating in the show! The lucky winner will receive one of my Fox Stuffies along with many many other fancy treats!

Also happening on Dec. 10th & 11th is City of Craft at the Theatre Centre on Queen West.
So if you're in the city for either show, make sure you hit up both to find that special gift or unique piece for yourself.

Hurry up and get your indie-holiday shopping on!

Cottage

It's been so nice out these last few days, it's making me miss the cottage. 

A friend of ours has a cottage just two hours out of the city, situated perfectly on a little lake. 

Here are just some happy shots from our last trip up, a few weeks ago, with our new lens. 

Lemon!

In my quest to become a domestic savant,  
I'm collecting recipes and tips to avoid malnutrition from 
all the toast I eat...

There are several reasons for my new found interest in cooking:
1. I'd like to be more self sufficient and I'm currently equipped to only make small loaves of bread and fry bacon to varying stages of crispy-ness. which leads us into my next point.
2. I don't want to get stuck in a rut cooking the same old things everyday. I mean, bacon sandwiches are GREAT, but I like my current, friendly relationship with bacon.
3. I'm worried I might expire or unintentionally damage someone else from the amount of peanut butter I consume on a daily basis.

Helping me in my culinary quest is the ever so kind and wise internet and sites like Bakerella.com. 
If you know cake pops, you probably know about Bakerella, the one-woman, baking super mom who made cake pops famous. (even starbuck has cake pops now!)

Well she's not just a one trick pony, she bakes other goodies too. The month of October's "featured sweet" is lemon bars. 

go make these!

They're really easy to make and they're addictive. No crazy fancy ingredients either, just regular pantry staples. A nice simple treat, that tastes like a little lemon pie.  I made 2 pans of these Saturday and they didn't even last the weekend...and no I didn't eat them all myself. I wanted to though.
Enjoy!

Montreal, with a full belly

Montreal was lovely. The people, places, weather but especially the food. 

Everybody's got their favourites, but these are mine. This post is a collection of my favourite eateries and my favourite menu items. Along with a site link to each place, I've included a map link, incase you're planning a trip.

Tiny Drinks Day!

When it came to food, we were spoiled for choice.
There are many different places to eat and enjoy yourself in Montreal no matter the size of your wallet.

Top left to right clockwise:

1. Apple cinnimon crepe - Faberge Resto

2. Smoked meat sandwich - Schwartz

3. Alfajore (Chilean Pastry) - Barros Luco

4. Homemade Ratatouile - Famers market

5. Passion fruit macarons - Fabrique de Cornet (middle)

6. Fairmont Bagel's New York Style Prezel + homemade butter + contraban mustard from Macaroni Bar

7. Chilean custard doughnut - Barros Luco

We went out for most meals. Most of the places were delicious, but these are the ones we wanted to mention.
Favourite places to eat:

Breakfast: 

Fairmont Bagels - Fairmont St. 

Open 24hrs!
A hole in the wall, local gem tried and true. There were line-ups here all the time.

I highly recommend the pumpernickel, onion, sesame and the incredible garlic bagels. The New York style prezles were great with melted butter & mustard. 

Fabrege - Fairmont St. 
Cozy restaurant with eat-in and cafe lounge area. And they play retro cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Transformers and TMNT on the flat screens. 

They really know how to poach an egg perfectly. Try the mushroom eggs benedict or even their simple eggs in a nest on homemade cheese bread. And above all, their breakfast potatoes are so good!

Lunch:

Barros Luco - Fairmont St. 

A Chilean restaurant that makes everything from scratch. Delicious breads and desserts. I recommend their signature sandwich - the Barros Luco and their delectable aifajore sandwich cookies. 

Rumi - St. Laurent

Nice Mediterranean menu restaurant with a patio.
We had a pretty quick dinner here one night. I was pretty busy and I think they were understaffed, but the food was really good!

Recommend the falafel wrap with dill pickle, mint leaves and their homemade greek yogurt. Unexpected and super delicious.

Dinner:

Big in Japan - St. Laurent

Hope you're hungry. This place describes its menu as Japanese comfort food. The place is a dive and seems very underestimated but well loved - the kind of place that seems like a well kept secret or something. The food and atmosphere was like stepping in the 50's - 60's when Japan became obsessed with American culture  - complete with beach boy and buddy holly music. 

With chop sticks in a milkshake glass at the end of the diner table, we tried their special tataki tuna, seared with a blowtorch. I tired the Sweet and Sour Chicken on rice, with homemade tartar and pickles beet fries. 

It sounds strange, but strange is tasty and filling!

Dessert:

Kem Coba -  Fairmont St. 

Homemade sorbets, ice cream, soft serve and gelato. 

Incredibly flavourful and smooth, they'll even recommend combo-flavours and let you sample the menu until you're happy! I recommend everything really, but my favourites were...

the lime mint sorbet, passion fruit and vanille, and their chai and chocolate combonation.

After writing this out, I noticed a trend in the places I favoured. We traveled all over and ate at restaurants all over the city but my favourite places were the ones just down the street from our homestead. So if you're visiting Montreal, St. Laurent and Fairmont is the place to eat. 

Will have more pictures up next. 

Still to come - Jean Paul Gaultier, Buckminster Fuller & the Rialto Theatre.

Butter

When I was younger, my Aunt and Uncle had a dairy cow named Claire on their farm up in Marmora, about 20mins from Peterborough. Claire is a very good cow, she is the matriarch of the herd and is a pretty reliable alarm clock in the mornings. She's still around these days, but no longer works in the dairy industry.

As well as raising live stock and growing food, we do a lot of baking at the farm. Usually because there is a lot of food and fresh ingredients at our disposal. One of my fondest memories is when we used to pour the fresh milk in jars and shake them around the kitchen and the yard until they magically churned into butter. It seemed like magic at the time, now it's still kind of magical - but it's just nice to make my own fresh butter.

For anyone interested in making your own, here are some very easy/no-brainer instructions to make jar butter. If you have kids to entertain, this can be a fun activity they can do to help you in the kitchen. 

Supplies/Ingredients

heavy cream 

(I've used regular whipping cream - anything with a high milk fat content, say 35% M.F. or higher, will work perfectly)

jar or container with very secure lid

parchment to wrap butter in

energetic youth or strong arm 

(you can also use a food processor or stand mixer instead)

Time

10-15 mins

Shelf Life

Fresh homemade butter is best consumed in 7 days refrigerated or 5 days on the table. 

If you rinse it with ice water it will store longer, but I usually use it all before then.

Step1:

- Pour cream into jar, secure lid and shake

-1cup of cream will yield about 1/2 cup of butter + 1/2 cup of butter milk 

I leave about 1-2inches of space from the lid so the cream has room to move. 

Step2:

- After about 5 minutes you'll notice the mixture has separated into curds and liquid.  

Pour out the liquid into a cup/container -You just made buttermilk! 

- Close the lid and continue to shake, pouring out the liquid as it accumulates. 

Keep shaking the jar until liquid stops separating from the butter. 

Step3:

- After the buttermilk is all drained out, wrap the butter in the parchment 

and allow to firm up in the refrigerator.

Before refrigerating the butter I like to shape the it into a log. 

Enjoy your fresh homemade butter and buttermilk!

For anyone in the Toronto area this week. There is a movie @ TIFF called "Butter" staring Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Hugh Jackman, Alicia Silverstone and Ashley Greene. It's about the "hostile, high-stakes world of competitive butter carving." Pretty sure it's going to be hilarious. 

Check here for movie times and details!

We went to the The Christie Conservation Antique Show in Hamilton this past weekend and I noticed there were tons of vendors selling old butter making tools like molds, presses, and churns. 

They can be pretty valuable if you find authentic antiques. 

Here are just a few listings I found on Etsy

- Dazey Butter Churn

- Wooden Sunflower Butter Stamp

- Wooden Butter Mold Collection

Links

Here are some links I came across when making this post. They have some good suggestions and alternative methods in making your own butter. 

- Stand mixer instructions

- Using ice water and food processor

- Detailed instructions + adding flavours
- All about butter

French Macarons!

So I started this list. A list of things I want to make. Rather than having these ideas just sit on my desktop screen, in a lonely file folder, never to see the light of day, I decided to publish it online as motivation.
I hope to finish the list and add new things as we go along, but most important, I'll be making posts featuring the finished projects!

Here for your viewing pleasure is the first off the list - French Macarons.

As soon as I found out what these little morsels were, I knew I would love them. I literally had dreams about them and how good they might taste. So I started experimenting with different recipes, just so I could eat them and have my dreams come true!
I've had some varied success, but this is the best batch so far.
I used this recipe for the meringue "cookie" part
and this recipe for the "cream" centre.

I am not a baker or at all savvy to the art of pastry making, so I found this recipe particularly great!

With helpful tips and a handy troubleshooting guide, you're likely to make a better batch and both recipes produce delicious treats. 

My search for the perfect local macarons have taken me to several patisseries in the GTA, and hands down Nadège on Queen West wins every time. They have a great and unique selection, including your staples like chocolate, pistachio and rose water. But they also have specialty flavours - I recommend the olive oil and mojito - but no flavour will disappoint. 


If you're cruising around for more recipes, My Food Geek also has a "Almost Foolproof Macarons" recipe you can try out. Or you can also try the macaron mix you can get from the bulk store. But, in my experience - from scratch or from market is better than the ready-mix variety.


Let me know if you have any tips, or where you've had the best macarons.
Thanks for reading!

wonderful things..

(foto by Jenny Bundock) Little Fluff Stuff Kate Spade Little Fluff Stuff AppleTree all other images from fffound