Hintonburg Foodies Walking Tour

If you don't know I live in Mechanicsville ... but we don't like to call it Mechanicsville because of the bad rap historically this neighbourhood had.  When I bought my house, there was a crack house on my block, a drug dealer right across the street and it was a frequent stroll for working women!  I've heard my neighbourhood called the 'white ghetto' (WTF??  as if there is a ghetto in Ottawa, let alone a white one ... but whatever dude!).  Anyway, thanks to a very solid neighbourhood watch, some neighbourhood gentrification, some really great neighbours who watch out for one another and our properties we really have cleaned up the LeBreton/Arlington/Booth/Louisa quarter.  But we still don't call ourselves Mechanicsville.  I usually say LeBreton Flats but since I'm literally right on the borderline of Hintonburg, when the desire suits, I easily slide between one or the other.

This weekend in Ottawa, "Jane's Walks" were taking place through the city.  My sister, Bonnie and I went on the "Hintonburg Foodies" walking tour which was organized and hosted by volunteers from "Apt613" (a whats happening/events guide/what's good in the City blog).  What could be a better way to spend a couple of hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon walking around this great neighbourhood that has so much to offer, finding out about some new restaurants that I've not yet been to, one that I had not even heard of, and reinforcing some really good superstar favourites?  Sounds good to me.  Just a note for what to expect:  this tour was designed as a 'get out and find out where to eat' in your neighbourhood as opposed to 'lets go out and eat at these places right now' tour.

We began at one of, if not the best, bakeries in this City ... or possibly any City:  Art-Is-In. 

Art-Is-In is located in the City Centre industrial strip mall (near Preston/Somerset/Albert).  I really don't even want to talk about Art-Is-In because if you don't already know about it ... I think you're a lost cause!  There is so much news coverage, blogs, internet traffic on this place and its owner.  If you don't know, you must be hiding under a rock or (gasp) living in suburbia, never venturing into the "CITY" gasp!  Seriously ... if that describes you just stop reading right now.  Get outta my blog!

Anyway ... back to Art-Is-In.  Even before they had their own space, they supplied bread to restaurants and shops across the city.  Now that they have the store and cafe space, to call Art-Is-In a "bakery" is really a misnomer.  They are doing lunches, brunches, pastries, bread, bread oh so much delicious bread.  It is a great experience but if you are going on the weekend, be prepared to stand in line and if you are not there early, be prepared for some things to be sold out!

This is Kevin Mathleson, the brainchild behind Art-Is-In.  I love you Kevin!  He was watching the crowd assemble outside his shop before the tour even began.  As if Art-Is-In wasn't busy enough before, the assembling crowd of 75-100 people will undoubtedly produce some new customers who had never been there before.  You just have to eat ANYTHING Art-Is-In once, and you will be a convert/die hard regular!

Even though the crowd was growing, Bonnie and I arrived early enough to have time to get some sustenance for our (anticipated 1.5 hour) walk. I chose the chocolate, toasted almond cookie and a chocolate croissant.  Bonnie chose the same cookie and a raspberry berliner.  NOOOO, I don't have photos.  WE ATE THEM, we didn't pose them!!!!  LOL.  Actually, halfway through the walking tour, I was noshing on my cookie (gotta keep the strength up!) and two people on the tour actually asked me where I got the cookie from.  Uhhh, duh!  Art-Is-In!!!!  If you start your tour at the best bakery in the city ... you have to take advantage!!  There is no way I could be standing outside Art-Is-In and not think to get myself a little something yummy yum yum!

Anyway, finally ready to begin the tour, our host from Apt613 introduced us to the head of bread production (I think her name was Ashley but sadly I didn't also have a note pad with me).  Flour on her pants, clearly she gets right into her job!  I didn't actually notice, but Bonnie pointed out that she had noticeable burns on her forearms ... a definite hazard of the job.  Having worked in a kitchen for a few years in my younger days, I can totally sympathize.

She was enthusiastic and informative.  She described their Dynamite bread (trust me its dynamite).  I love the potato, caramelized onion and fresh dill.  Its my favourite, but I wouldn't throw any Art-Is-In loaf of bread outta bed for making crumbs!  Ahahahahahaha!

Time to go.  We trudged up the hill and onto Wellington Street.  As I mentioned, this was a big group but everyone was considerate and we waited till everyone arrived till the next presentation started.
We were told that we were on our way to a 'taco truck'.  And I have no idea where we could possibly be going; I could not think of a taco truck along the nearby stretch of Wellington.

Sure enough, Taco Lot was right there on Wellington ... right next to the former "Hintonburger' location and, last time I was there ... it was still a used car lot!

And guess what they serve at Taco Lot?  Tacos!!!  And if you ask the owner what else they make, he'll tell you tacos!  You can place your order here for beef, pork, chicken, fish and/or seafood and vegetarian tacos.

Jon, the owner is telling us that the Taco Lot has been open for a month now.  And he believes that their 'grand opening' was taking place right at that moment with 100 people standing in their lot!  Certainly a whole lot more people who didn't know about this place, now do ... and if the Taco Lot was not busy enough before (I heard rumours of them running out of certain flavours) they sure will be now.

As I said before, Taco Lot is right next door to the former location of Hintonburger (which moved down the street in January to the old, closed down KFC location.  More on that later).  But the old Hintonburger is not abandoned.  Not at all.  The old Hintonburger location is now called SuzyQ Doughnuts.  Bonnie and I added a couple of stops of our own and this was the first unscheduled location that we added to our walking tour.

You'll notice there is a line up out the door and it seems it stayed this way the entire day.  We popped in, just to check it out when we were on our way home, and even though they were almost completely sold out and only minutes from closing for the day ... you would not believe the mammoth size of these donuts and the flavours ... out of this world.  Just as an example:  Pomegranate/White Chocolate, Raspberry Sugar, Maple Bacon, Spicy Chocolate.  This ain't Tim Hortons!  We will be back to pick up one, or two or half a dozen ... soon.

Ok.  Onward.  But because our group is so big, we decide to split into two groups so that there is space for everyone to be able to hear the chef/owner/speaker at all locations.  For our group, the next stop is the Hintoburg Public House.  Since I saw this place, about 2 months ago I've been wanting to check it out.  But I have a serious mental deficiency when it comes to choosing a place to eat.  I am CONSTANTLY seeing and/or hearing about new, hip, cool, different places ... but then when I actually want to go out to eat, I can NEVER think of any of these places and I always end up going to the same old places.  Not that there is anything wrong with tried and true; where you know what you like and what you are going to get ... but you'll miss out on so much by not getting out there to something new ... something which could turn out to be my new favourite thing to eat or my new favourite place to go!

The Hintonburg Public House has been open since last December.  We met with the owner, Summer who informed us that the menu changes monthly and she now is able to update it on the website so you can check it out before going.  She described her menu as comfort food not just regular pub fare.

Directly to the left of the Hintonburg Public House you will see Isobel's Cupcakes & Cookies.  They have recently relocated from their former location in Beechwood.  If you choose well at Isobel's you will LOVE their cupcakes but if you choose badly you will be sadly disappointed, feeling like there is a film of grease coating your mouth.  Even though they claim to use all butter and no lard in their butter cream frosting it just doesn't seem like it.  And then, to the left of Isobel's you will see another new restaurant 10fourteen.  They don't seem to have a website yet but the foodie blogs indicate that it  is a Tapas restaurant.

An interesting point of note, Summer told us that prior to opening the Hintonburg Public House, she owned the Urban Pear in the Glebe.  Last summer, David, the chef from Urban Pear moved into one of the apartment's upstairs from Bonnie.  He has, from time to time, dropped off a little treat for Bonnie ... a little something that he has made.  Although this was not a 'tasting' tour, we were provided with grilled cheese sandwiches courtesy of Hintonburg Public House.  This was the only place that actually brought out little treats.  And they were grabbed up and gobbled up FAST!

I didn't get a chance to get one, but they looked very good and some of the other tour-goers, said they were indeed quite tasty. Besides, I still had my cookie to munch on, so I was OK.  The Hintonburg Public House features many craft brewed beers, and it has received great feedback a nice neighbourhood place to relax and enjoy these craft beers.

Ok.  Ready to move on.  Our group assembles for the next location

We are headed to Tennessy Willems a wood fired oven pizza joint that gets rave reviews.

We met with the chef who has been with the restaurant since it opened.  He stressed their use of local seasonal ingredients.  For example, they are currently featuring a fiddlehead pie.  They only make thin crust 'neopolitan' style pizzas.  The wood burning oven heats to about 600*F.  If you are planning on coming for dinner, he suggests making a reservation.

A fun fact that we learned:  The restaurant is named after the owner's two children:  Tennessy and Willem.  Many of the tour-goers in our group have been to Tennessy Willems before and everyone loves the relaxed casual atmosphere, the family atmosphere, oh and the really great food.

Our next location was Back Lane Cafe, just across the street a bit west of Tennessy Willems.  I had never heard of this place before.  We met with the owner at, where else the back lane beside the restaurant! 

The owner spoke more about the neighbourhood and the importance of the location and the people.  They cook by wood oven which is so hot that the next morning they are able to bake their bread in the still hot oven, the following morning. Apparently this place is known for its bread, and if you come here to eat, you will have baskets of it on the table.

We were off.  On our way to the next location, Bonnie and I made our second unscheduled stop and took a peak into Burnt Butter Italian Kitchen, which is almost directly across the street from Back Lane Cafe.  Interestingly, Bonnie just won a gift certificate to Burnt Butter so she'll be heading over there to check it out soon. Her friend absolutely loves it.  The menu changes frequently and they have weekly specials which are posted on their website.

Next, we head across the street to Hintonburger at the new location, the old KFC.  Oneof the owners that met with us, told us about the community debate going on about what to do with the bucket.  The choices are to leave it up, as is ... supporters of this point of view say its a neighbourhood icon and everyone knows and recognizes it.  Others would like to see it taken down, its an eyesore and doesn't fit in with the new, hip, vibrant neighbourhood rejuvenation.  Or, thirdly, to change it into a bucket of poutine.  I vote for this option.

When asked how many burgers they are making, the owner told us it was probably about 1500 a month but this seemed remarkably low to us.  They are closed Mondays so based on 26 days a month serving burgers that is less than 60 burgers a day.  It just doesn't seem high enough for how busy they are, ALL the time!  I think he maybe wasn't prepared for this question and just guessed but wasn't really in the ballpark!

The new location allows for more seating indoors and outside and also allows some appropriate space for ordering ... not like the old trailer where you could only fit about 8 people in the whole place.  It also provides some later opening hours.  There will be a new sign but the remainder of the outside of the building will pretty much stay the same.

Oh the food?  You wanna know about the burgers?  GO THERE!  SERIOUSLY!  These burgers are great!  And burgers really are all they really do.  With or without cheese/bacon.  Vegetarian burgers.  Hot dogs, onion rings.  And oh yeah:  FRIES.  Hand cut and absolutely delicious.  Here is a picture I took a year ago but never got around to blogging.  ENJOY this view:

We let the owner know how much we love their food.  They certainly appreciate their repeat customers and regulars and the owner that we talked to could not have been a nicer guy.

One last stop on our walking tour ... all the way over to the Foolish Chicken on Holland Avenue.  Its a decent walk over to Holland from where we were on Wellington but a beautiful day.  We walked past some other Hintonburg landmark restaurants, and some new ones, on our way ... there is Absinthe, The Cake Shop (relocated from the suburbs) the Table (vegetarian) and Allium (soooo good).  Bonnie and I peeked into both The Cake Shop (very large and beautiful but frankly a little too picture perfect for me, if you know what I mean, but not based on tasting anything ... yet!) and The Table (smelled delicious but I actually wanted to check out the price of a beautiful stained glass Celtic knot art piece that was for sale).  Actually it was when I was having dinner about a year ago at Allium when I first noticed the Foolish Chicken, it is just a couple of doors down.

The Foolish Chicken is all about chicken and ribs.  They prepare the ribs using a dry rub then slowly braise them.  Prior to serving they are heated and sauced on the grill.  The owner talked more about their desserts than their mains.  His wife is the pastry chef and she has won competitions for her cheesecake.  It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at Foolish Chicken and there were several customers entering for both a sit down dinner and take-out.

It was a busy but interesting and informative day.  I am definitely going to use this page to remind myself of places to eat next time I want to go.   Thanks to the volunteers from Jane's Walk and Apt613 for organizing and leading this great tour!

Mill Street Brew Pub

So I  FINALLY got to the Mill Street Brew Pub with my good friend Marlene the other night.  I've been dying to go here since I heard they opened at the beginning of this year.  I'm familiar with Mill Street beer from Toronto ... but now, here in Ottawa we too can enjoy the fruits of this brewery and with a pub attached too!  How can you beat that?  Everyone knows how much I LUV LUV LUV pubs!  The restaurant is located in the former grist mill (and also former home to The Mill Restaurant). It is beautiful.  Funky and warm; of course there is a gorgeous sun room over looking the Ottawa River.  It was busy but we arrived early enough that we did not have to wait for a table, as some guests who arrived a short time after us did.  Unfortunately we didn't get a table in the sun room but we had a nice central table close to the fire place where we could see and be seen!

We shared a small 'flight' sampler of four beers.  We had the ginger tea, organic lager, coffee porter and Belgian wit.  We both sampled all four; the ginger tea (special seasonal brew) was Marlene's favourite and mine was the Organic lager, followed closely by second place finisher the Belgian Wit.  I do love wheat beer (... those of you who knew me back in the old Al Frisco's days can attest to that ...!).  And we both agreed, Coffee Porter is probably a great way to end your meal (or start your day).  Mmmmm coffee beer.  It really did have a strong coffee taste.  Here is Marlene bogarting all the mini samplers.  But she's so damn cute, how could I resist that smile? 

At least she left me one (its just for the photo ... she didn't actually let me drink it! LOL!)

It was wing night when we were there so we agreed to start with sharing 10 hot wings.  Pretty much everyone in our vicinty was having wings and I noticed some tables nearby ordered several additional plates of different flavours while we were there ... a very good sign.  We were both thrilled when the plate arrived; and even happier when we tasted the wings.  These are some of the best wings I've had in a long time (and you know how often I order wings ... pretty much every pub I'm at!).  They were perfectly crispy and well cooked (a pet peeve of mine is undercooked wings and I often order them "well done").  They were spicy and tasty but not too hot to be enjoyable.  Very very good ... and they went perfectly with pints of Organic lager that we ordered after our samples.

Marlene decided to go with the fish & chips for her main.  I had heard from another friend that they are really good and when they arrived at our table, I was pretty sure this would be a good meal.

I might have snuck a french fry or two, and I can definitely confirm they are yummy.  Hand cut and crispy.  The fish looked amazing.  The beer batter was dark and I could tell it would be crispy.  Marlene said the fish was very tasty.  And she loved modelling for her foodie photos!  :-)

I easily could have stuck with wings and eaten several more, but I wanted to try something new. After reading about the 'Piggy Delight' flatbread in the Ottawa Citizen food review, I knew I really wanted to check it out.

Piggy Delight Flatbread Extreme Close Up:

And what's better than one kind of piggy meat? Three kinds of course!  This is a crispy (very crispy) flatbread with pulled pork, smoked pork belly and chorizo sausage, mozzarella cheese and bar-b-que sauce. It is remarkable, but you could actually get three distinct tastes of the pork. The pulled pork was excellent and the smoked pork belly was like the most crispy smoky bacon you can imagine. However, I wasn't thrilled with the chorizo. Chorizo that I have had before is a dried, smoky and spicy sausage ... I found this chorizo like salty balogna. I picked it off the flatbread, but not to worry ... I still imensely enjoyed my two little piggies! Here, I can't wait to dig in!

We were both stuffed and had a great meal.  The atmosphere of Mill Street is fun and vibrant.  At no point did I ever see more than one empty table, and it was quickly cleared and wiped and new customers seated.  Its very loud, so if you are thinking about having an intimate conversation this is not the place for it.  We did find it a bit odd that there were lots of OLD (I mean OLD) folks which, for a Tuesday night in Ottawa is strange in itself.  But that they were at this hip, funky pub was even more weird to us.  We came up with a theory:  the oldsters got confused by the name of the new restaurant:  Mill Street Brew Pub and actually thought it is the old Mill Restaurant re-opened!  Old, young ... or old under cover ... check out the Mill Street Brew Pub.  A fun night out and outstanding pub food.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Blueberry Butter Cream Icing

Ok ... this post could also be called:  "Lesson Learned" or "What I Hope No One Finds Out About!"  Read on ** to get the deets of that.
As you know I'm on this cupcake mission these days.  After discussing with some work colleagues what kind of cupcakes they'd like me to bring in to work (the overwhelming consensus was chocolate ... any kind of chocolate), so I decided to make Vanilla Cupcakes with Blueberry Butter Cream Icing.  I mean, really.  I just made chocolate the week before; I've got to try new things.

Vanilla Cupcakes

2-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g unsalted butter
1-3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
seeds from1/2 a vanilla bean

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.  Set aside.
Cream the butter for 2 minutes.  Add the sugar one-third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition.  After the last addition beat mixture until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. (** ok ... here's the 'lesson learned' or 'what I hope nobody figures out!).  Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Add the flour mixture one-third at a time and beat on low speed until combined (you may want to retain the last bit of flour until after all the milk has been added to judge the consistency of the mixture).
Add the milk half at a time and beat till incorporated.  Add the vanilla seeds.  Do not overbeat as the batter will be tough.)  Spoon the mixture into lined muffin tins; about 2/3 full. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350*F, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

** Well, you all know how I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Kitchen Aid mixer (in Boysenberry colour) you can see the edge of it in this picture.  The thing is, if you are continuing to beat things, while adding eggs and you ACCIDENTALLY drop half of an egg shell into the mixture WHILE the mixer is mixing ... well, the egg shell gets smashed up pretty damn quickly!  I shut the machine down right away, but then spent a good 10 minutes (at least) sifting through the wet batter trying to extract little pieces of egg shell.  And I did get LOTS of it; I thought it was possible that I even got all of it out!  The very LAST one that I ate was slightly crunchy.  But I hoped that I was the only one that got any shells.  The next day my sister told me that she had shells in all the ones she ate!!!  Well no one at work said that they found any shells so maybe it was just the bottom few cupcakes that got the extra protein.  And, hey ... I learned a valuable lesson about shutting off the Kitchen Aid when cracking eggs directly into batter!

Anyway:  here they are all baked and cooling, waiting for their icing.  Not an egg shell in sight here.  Don't they look pretty?  This is the first dozen; the second dozen are still baking.

Blueberry Butter Cream Icing

250g unsalted butter
4 cups sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup blueberry puree (I used frozen blueberries and pureed them with the immersion blender; I added about 1 tablespoon corn starch to thicken them up.  I also warmed them slightly in a hot water bath.)

Cream the butter for 2 minutes.  Add about half of the icing sugar and mix slowly at first.  Add the milk and vanilla and continue beating.  Add half of the remaining icing sugar and the blueberries.  Add the remaining sugar, as needed to attain the proper consistency for icing.  Beat continuously for several minutes until blueberries are fully combined, the icing is a consistent colour and fluffy.  Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

The cupcakes had excellent flavour.  The cake is more like a pound cake; it is dense (four eggs ... yeah, its dense) but not dry and its a nice white colour.  Here are the little babies all packed up for their car ride to the office.

I'm getting some good practice at piping so I tried two designs, which both turned out pretty good I think.  Here is a closer-up view of one of each of the patterns to compare.  And that is the colour the icing turned out just with the blueberries - no added colour required.

And I think they are  W-A-Y better looking than the picture that Caitlin drew before I made them to give me an idea of what they should look like!

Schnitzel Works

So after a few more than a few beers (mmmm beers!) at the Mess the other night, I woke up the following morning with a GIANT craving for schnitzel.  All I could think about was this schnitzel and sauerkraut that I had at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich in 2007.  But that is not going to help me with my current craving here in Ottawa.  About a year and a half (or so) ago, I noticed a small restaurant in the industrial area of Cyrville Road, called Schnitzel Works.  I had never been there before but I thought this might be a good substitution for a trip to Germany.
Schnitzel Works is a small restaurant ... maybe 8 or 10 tables with what seemed like a self-serve coffee bar; newspapers and magazines available for browsing.   Oh, and desserts.  To eat in or packaged up to take home.  I was greeted with a friendly "hello" by the one server and being right at noon when I arrived she seemed busy but attentive to the three or four tables already there.
The menu is schnitzel sandwiches and each of the approximately twelve 'country' versions is topped with their unique specialties.  I chose the "Austrian" which is straight up, pure and simple:  schnitzel with dill pickle.  I added sauerkraut to mine (gotta have sauerkraut) which is on the "Polish" version, but which also comes with melted cheese.  I just didn't see schnitz, cheese & kraut going well together.  At least not in my frame of mind at the time.  All country schnitzel sandwiches are $8.99; I got mine to go.
As I was driving home, it was all I could do to keep myself from breaking open the take-out container and starting in on my schnitzel.  Man, did it smell good.  Finally home, I was sooooooo HAPPY when I opened up the container to see this:

Fantastic!  Eating with your eyes first:  I was very very satisfied.

But now to dig in.  The schnitzel is h-u-g-e!  There is as much hanging off the bun as there is on it.  The schnitzel is perfectly juicy - not at all dried out and not the least bit greasy.  The breading is light and delicate.  I am sure the sauerkraut is homemade; it was crispy and very fresh.  This is not sauerkraut that has been canned.  It is still bright yellowish-green and not overly salty.  It was well drained before being added to my sandwich to avoid making the bun soggy.  There was mayo, lettuce, tomato and the pickle on the bun.  I ditched the tomato, and ate the pickle on the side.  I'm pretty sure the pickle was also homemade and pickled with something besides cucumbers:  I'm thinking some kind of pepper.  Its not spicy but had a slightly different flavour than just cucumber.  A bit more ... ummm perhaps zesty than a usual dill pickle.  It was different, not bad but had a unique flavour.  It was also very nice and crunchy.  A perfect side accompaniment.  The large kaiser bun is soft and fresh -- in fact I could only eat half of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole sandwich and it fully satisfied my schnitzel craving.  I will definitely be back to Schnitzel Works ... probably sooner rather than later.  You have to really appreciate a great restaurant that knows how to do something so right and they are not trying to overcomplicate their food.  They've got a good thing going.  If you go to Schnitzel Works you know exactly what you are going to get:  some good schnitzel.  The German Girl in me says "ja, lecker!"

The Cupcake Files

Ok. I'm obsessed with cupcakes. Everywhere I go, I'm always checking out cupcake shops. But recently I've been thinking so much about just baking my own. The Flour Shoppe in Ottawa makes a strawberry butter cream icing which is to die for.   It is the palest shade of pink, the butter is smooth and creamy (and none of that greasy-lard like film left in your mouth that you sometimes get: i.e. Isobel's) and they have just the perfect hint of sweetness from the strawberry flavour.

Now I'm thinking ... I can make that. It can't be that hard. So I decided to give it a try on my own. I googled a number of different recipes for both butter cream and strawberry butter cream. They run the gamut from uber-complicated (Martha Stewart I'm looking at you) to uber-simple (adding a dollup of strawberry preserves to butter cream resulting in a revolting Pepto Bismol colour). Mine was somewhere in between. Here is my attempt.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Butter Cream Icing

Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup boiling water
1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix cocoa and boiling water in a small bowl. Let cool to room temperature.
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat until smooth. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated. Add cocoa mixture and stir till smooth.
Line muffin cups with papers or grease. Fill to 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes at 375°F until springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Do not overbake.

I found the cake somewhat dry but it had really good chocolate flavour. I used salted butter so did not add the additional salt called for in the recipe. I made mini and medium sized cupcakes and only cooked them for 16 minutes; they probably could have been taken out of the oven after 14 or 15 minutes, which is probably why they were kind of dry.

Strawberry Butter Cream Icing

3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1-1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons cream or milk
4-5 fresh strawberries, pureed

Beat butter until fluffy and add sugar and vanilla. Continue to beat; slowly add cream/milk until desired consistency is reached.
Add the strawberries and adjust taste with additional butter/sugar as needed. Beat till smooth.

My mistake in making the icing was that the strawberry puree was cold and when I added it to the basic butter cream, it congealed the butter somewhat. The strawberries should be at least at room temperature if not slightly warmer. In the end, I had to use the immersion blender to smooth out the icing but as you can see, it was still an inconsistent colour. Because the strawberry puree was liquidy (ya, its a word! look it up!), it made the icing very soft. It was best to be kept refrigerated. The strawberry flavour was really really good, though. Just like fresh sweet strawberries.

Everyone liked them and thought they were good despite the slightly off-putting colour. Also, I'm only just learning to using the piping bag, so between my inexerience and the extremely soft icing they were a bit odd looking. But taste is the most important -- and that was a definite success!

My 45th Birthday

Hello friends.  Well I know its been a crazy long time since I've posted anything.  As most of you know I was on a very limited diet for a good part of last year and really ... what's the point of blogging about grilled chicken and salad with low-cal dressing?  Its not worthwhile eating and certainly not worth reading about.  But now I'm off the strict diet ... and back to eating some yummy-yum-yums its time to get back to blogging.

This first post is actually 6-months old ... I just didn't get around to writing it till now.  Last October I turned 45 and for my birthday weekend I got my best girlfriends together for a long weekend at a BEAUTIFUL cottage on Georgian Bay in Parry Sound. 

My wonderful friends planned various surprises for me, including an amazing massage and pedicure, as well as organizing amazing food for us to eat.  They decorated the cottage while I was having my massage and I came down stairs to find the dining room all decked out for our big dinner later that night.

Molly made some incredible nutella/peanut butter/banana french toast for breakfast.  Man ... did I stuff myself with that!  It was delicious.  Unfortunately I wasn't on the ball enough to get the recipe or to take any photos of it.  Everyone loved it though, that's for sure.

As evening approached, everyone went to work contributing to their portion of the birthday dinner.  They at least let me be in charge of the Signature Cocktail of the birthday party evening.  That is the purple concoction in the foreground of this picture.  We went through quite a few pitchers of these Signature Cocktails and there were many dead wine and vodka soldiers by the time we were packing up to leave at the end of the weekend!  Main course was grilled chicken and ribs (my request) with roasted potatoes and salad.  Here is Karen, slaving away at the bar-b-que.

The recipe is from LCBO's Food and Drink magazine and it is fantastic.  Just look at that meat.

I can't even wait for it to make it to the table!

We ate (and drank) like royalty that night and I owe all the work, planning, cooking to my wonderful friends.  Thank you so much to each of you!  You made this birthday and entire weekend so special for me.  I will remember this forever and trust me, it will be hard to top this weekend in the future.

This party was my first experience with "Cupcake" wine and we also had cupcakes for dessert.  But by the time we got through the main course there was little room for any of us to be able to eat cupcakes ... and you all know how much I love cupcakes! (hint for future posts ... stay tuned).  I had a special thanks for each of my girls who were able to spend the weekend with me.  It wasn't easy for some of you to pick up and leave your families and responsibilities for me and I truly appreciate that you were all there.

 

 

There were also a few other friends, who although they were not able to make it to the cottage for the weekend they still contributed to my on-going birthday celebrations and treated me to a day at Bleu Spa and an AMAZING meal there. We won't talk about how drunk I got ... and how I really was spinning out of control! But I send a special thanks to each of you too.

Not Everything Goes As Planned!

I know its been a while since I've posted anything new.  Its not that I haven't been eating ... come on now!  Its just that not everything goes the way you planned.  At the end of March my best friend, Emma, came to visit.  I figured I would be posting on practically every meal we ate.  But in reality, we were too busy pouring drinks down our throats for me to capture much of the food that we consumed!
The night she arrived I made a beautiful pork roast in the crock pot using a new recipe.  It looked really good and the marinade was really simple.  It was balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, dijon mustard, fresh thyme, salt and pepper.  Here it is after being rubbed with the marinate before hitting the crock pot.

Unfortunately the pork was very dry and very sweet.  Way too much brown sugar ... but it LOOKED really good. After cooking for about 8 hours I served it with couscous and a fresh salad.   Too bad about the taste! 

You should take note of my cute little pottery pitcher in the picture.  Sooo cute ... and I got it for free when I bought some bowls directly from the potter (a fellow out near Mount Forest, ON).  It goes nicely with the pottery butter dish that I bought one year at the Potter's Guild sale here in Ottawa.  It is actually made to hold a wine bottle to keep any drips from the table but I like it for a butter dish and it works really well and looks great.
You might also notice a loaf of bread in this picture too.  This is bread that I bought from the Italian bakery in my neighbourhood.  This one is 'spicy' Italian bread and it has an AWESOME kick.  Emma and I both love spicy things and this definitely delivered.  The red chilies are baked right into the loaf.  You are not going to want this bread toasted with peanut butter lets say, but for a savoury spicy bread, I don't think you can beat it.  Flavour in every bite.  We also had tomato focaccia from this bakery later in the week.  Normally focaccia is not one of my favourites - I often find it kind of dry and tough but this tomato focaccia was outstanding.  The bread was soft and fresh, the tomatoes are fresh (not sun dried) and it has a beautiful olive oil drizzled on top (which accumulates in pockets in the dough) and sprinkled with basil and a little bit of salt.  Delicious.  Also good toasted.  We really enjoyed it.  I guess in this case, the bread actually turned out better than planned!

So ... we might as well continue on the bread theme for the moment.  I took Emma to the new 'Art-is-in' shop down under the Somerset bridge.  You are probably familiar with the Art-is-in bread as they sell it all over the city (although apparently not in Kanata according to Dannette) including at Nicastros, Grace in the Kitchen (one of my favourite stores) and other fine food shops.  The bread is soooo yummy.  The baguette loaves are long and flat and soft (no hard crust that cuts the roof of your mouth on this bread).  My favourite is the potato, onion and dill.  YUMMY!   But the bread aside, the chef has opened a little storefront where he sells bread, pastries and has a fresh lunch counter with soups and sammys.  The pastries are fantastic.  I had the pain au chocolat and the apple turnover.  OMG.  So delicious.  The pastry on both was so light an flaky (yes I had a circle of pastry flakes surrounding me when I ate them ... but Jake & Gwenny vacuumed that up in no time).  I was very happy that the pain au chocolat was not covered in powered sugar so that it was not overly sweet and the apple puree in the apple turnover was smooth, fresh and the flavour was perfect.  Emma chose an almond croissant, almond brioche and a raspberry scone.  She has a thing for almond paste.  All were very good, the raspberry scone was very soft and delicate and not at all dry as scones can sometimes be.  I also got a butter tart for Bonnie - one of her favourite things.  She said it was very good with lots of caramel flavour which she enjoys.  She said heated up for a few seconds in the microwave would make the tart perfect.

And now I have one more bread story to share - which definitely falls into the 'Not Everything Goes as Planned' category.  Last Thursday I decided to make these buns which, in my family, we call "Elton's Buns" - Elton being my great uncle and this being a recipe that came from him at some point a long time ago.  I have made this recipe with my mom and it is a super simple recipe.  Unfortunately, my dough didn't rise as much as they are supposed to.  The dough should double in volume - mine hardly rose at all.  I have no idea what happened.  Anyway, I went ahead and baked them and hoped for the best.  While they were not nearly as light and fluffy as I know they are supposed to be, they still tasted OK.  At least they were not heavy, dough rocks or anything.  And, if my work colleagues are to be believed, if you didn't know that is not how they were supposed to be you would never know there was anything wrong with them.

Yes, I took them to work to share with my colleagues during our Friday morning eating ritual.  I also brought in a jar of my mom's homemade elderberry jelly.  Not one person knew what elderberries are.  Not surprising to me, because outside of my own family, I never see these small dark purple very mild flavoured berries at any market or fruit store.
You might want to check our my sterling silver butter knife in this picture.  This is from my Granparents' set of 'good' flatware which I inherited and I love.  In order to keep the silver from tarnishing, I use the flatware regularly - I don't save it for good.
There was, of course, lots more eating and drinking when Emma was here.  We went to Hintonbuger, which will have its own separate post, we turned up at the Heart and Crown pretty much every night, and we went to the Empire Grill for Stacey's birthday dinner where a drink and appies were comp'ed for us ... which was definitely not planned but most welcomed!