home improvements and another night in tunisia

the window in the bathroom at lil' ugmo is basically at boob/crotch height for me, and torso/dangler height for the dotytron - and we don't have blinds in there, so basically, for the past 7 months, we've been either acknowledging the fact that when it's night out, and the bathroom light is on, we're putting on a show for the neighbs, or going to pee in the middle of the night with the lights off and skulking around trying to duck under the window, or resigning ourselves to flashing some skin before the shower steam fogs up the window.

i had seen emma jeffs' window film sold for exorbitant prices ($76 for a 37" x 52" roll!) for sale here: http://www.2jane.com/emma-jeffs-adhesive-window-film-otto click on the other options to see her lovely designs...but we didn't have the scrilla for that so i was holding out until we could fit it into our budget (keep in mind, we still don't have light fixtures)

then we were at pacific mall and i saw lovely window film in a dandelion pattern available for $4.99/foot (they're at least 52" wide, too) so i bought 2 feet and did up our bathroom windows - it was so easy! just measuring, cutting with a straight edge and an exacto knife, clean the window with windex, spray it with water, apply, and then push out any air bubbles with a bench scraper (or you could use a sponge). here's the finished product:


isn't it lovely? it was one of those projects where you're like, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE WAITED SO LONG. it was SO NICE to be able to go to the bathroom and not be worried that skeevy neighbs are running a peeping tom site and not crediting you (or sending you residuals).

djerba la douce was INCREDIBLE last night, as it was last time. it's so good, guys. really - you should go. we were the only people in the restaurant the whole night. everything is cooked by the chef-owner, who came and checked on us as we lingered in a sated haze after consuming the delicious, delicately blended, intensely flavourful dishes.

this is the calamari djerbieno:

tender squid pieces cooked in a spiced tomato sauce - chili infused, but not "hot" - it was so good and unlike any calamari i'd ever had before.

the salad grill mushwa:

a blend of tomatoes and garlic, onion, and peppers, topped with capers, olives, egg, and tuna. it's good that everything comes with warm pita - you want to sop up every delicious morsel of sauce on your plate - i will never understand the balance of flavours but it's unlike anything you've had before.

i split the merguese lamb platter and the trout with coriander with the roomie. this is the trout with coriander:

a generous slab of trout in a coriander-infused sauce that didn't have any of the soapiness that i usually associate with cilantro - instead, you get a rich, creamy sauce shot through with the grassy green notes of coriander, over your choice of vegetables or couscous (we chose vegetables: peppers, onions, zucchini, all browned and sizzling, and pan-fried potatoes, crispy on the outside, soft and starchy inside - a perfect foil for sauce consumption.)

the merguese lamb platter:

4 plump merguese lamb sausages piled around a heap of vegetables and more of those delectable potatoes, in a pureed sauce of eggplant and tomato with egg that's so asdj#$!@!! GOOD!!! i can't even TELL you how good it is. you're just instantly addicted to it. i want to take everyone i know there and get them hooked on it - because even though this place gets mad press, i was a little concerned that we were the only diners there last night. dinner for the four of us, with 2 shared apps and 4 mains and us being totally stuffed to the gills, cost $90 including tip.

go go go go go!



tonight for dinner i made us a spring risotto of leeks, favas, lemon and pecorino with a poached egg on top and a quick take on my beloved "olive garden" salad.

i also made orange cupcakes with bittersweet chocolate buttercream for my academic book club tomorrow - i've been craving a delicate orange cake for ages now - and this way we don't have the whole cake in the house for me to demolish. i'm also bringing the pea, mint, and pecorino dip and the flatbreads to the book club. i wavered on whether or not to bang out the buttercream - i was going to take the easy way out and either do a powdered sugar dusting or just a straight dip in ganache. i'm glad i did the buttercream in the end - there's something about the airy, cloud-like ethereal richness of buttercream that can't be beat. i snuck a taste of some of the cake bits that stuck to the pan - this cake is DIVINE!!! so good! a very sturdy, plain, delicately flavoured cake - it'd be a great tea cake. you get the orange more in the nose than in the taste - but it's got a lovely golden cake crumb and a toasty sweetness in between the floral notes of the citrus. i will definitely be adding this one to the "for keeps" binder.

i'll post the recipe tomorrow.

fin.

i won! i won!

and by that i mean, i got into the MPPAL program at york! woohoo! it's nice to know that i have enough qualifications to get into a fake grad school program for working executive n00bs. YES, GUY!

i received the email acceptance today, telling me that the paper acceptance is coming shortly. so unless this is a particularly malicious and random bot/virus, i'm going to accept the email at face value and assume that i'm in. woohoo!

so...do you guys think i can bang this out during my mat leave? it's only 1 day a week and one saturday a month...i'm kind of thinking that i can probably do it. my poor sis had to go back to work after like, 3 months. and some poorer ladies get no mat leave at all and have to go right back to work! it would be kind of awesome to get 'er done while i'm off anyway. i'll have to talk it over with the program admins and see how feasible they think it is. at the very least...i could probably do the term that starts in january or something?

i don't think there's any expectation that i'll be anything LESS than captain neglect-o-mater. case in point: last week we shelled out $5 for the first ultrasound of the fatburger. this is AFTER we agonized over whether to even shell out the coin at all, based on me having heard from somewhere ("somewhere" being "madeupsville, usa") that they cost $12 a photo. us being the thrifty parkers that we are, i kinda thought that we should use our camera to take a shot of the ultrasound machine screen and kind of cheap out that way. we are also the same people who, when i had the first inklings that i might be knocked up, waffled on whether or not to buy a pregnancy test because they cost 20 bucks a pop, and we didn't want to shell out again if the first one was too early. upon finding out that one photo only cost five bones, we shelled out, and i stuck the photo in an envelope provided by the ultrasound place and stuck it in my purse.

cut to 4 hours later, at dodgeball, when i realized that we didn't have anything to keep score on, i grabbed the envelope and a pen out of my purse and thrust it at our buddy L, who was sidelined with a bum knee. it wasn't until 6 games later that i remembered what was actually IN the envelope and thought to tell L that maybe i should take the photo out so it doesn't get all scratched up (first i asked him to "be a little careful" cuz spumante's ultrasound was in there, and then realized it was probably better to just take the photo out entirely.)

here is a photo of the o.g. hot pot crew repping 100 degrees last night (and the charnel house remains of our decimation of the place):

we call ourselves the o.g. crew because s-dawg isn't super into boiled meat, so from back in they day, it's been me, the dotytron, my mum, and chova repping the hot pot. awwwww...i love chova - he's such a good kid (i'm a chova apologist in my family - i can't help it! he's such a good kid!)


tonight for dinner i made us a kind of mezes meal of roasted garlic and eggplant dip, hummous with chili oil, and that green pea and pecorino dip - which we had with warm pitas and these flatbread crackers. i also made a quick cucumber salad with chopped mint in a lemony vinaigrette. i love mezes meals and i REALLY REALLY REALLY love my roasted garlic and eggplant dip - it's heavenly.

fin.

wow...what a hypocrite

as i re-read friday's post, i realized that saying "i don't like talking about myself" ON A BLOG was pretty redonkulous. apologies for the blatant hypocrisy! i LOVE writing about myself - just don't like being the centre of attention in face to face scenarios, i guess.

dinner on friday was amazing! M's parents restaurant does sichuan and cantonese cuisine so we had peking duck and hot and sour soup, and potstickers, and spicy sichuan green beans, and this sweet, stir fried crispy beef that was absolutely delicious. so good - the two kids couldn't be more different - M's son is a totally slippery fish, who doesn't like to sit down and is always wriggling around and totally animated, whereas G's son is very serious, calm, reflective, and has an adorable, concerned expression on his face a lot of the time.

yesterday was all errands, all day. no fun for us. well, i got to have fun as i went yard sale trawling with H and sweet baby D - some sweet, sweet finds! i got a $1 t-shirt (long enough to hide my growing gunt), a $1 steel serving tray, a $1 steel bucket, and best of all, i got these 2 little wall hangings for 50 cents each:

aren't they the cutest? what a find! i'm going to put them up in the dining room once we've re-painted it. the dotytron is very much not a fan of re-painting the dining room and keeps pretending not to hear me every time i mention it. or, he says, "have fun doing that by yourself" heh.

then i met up with the dotytron for our usual saturday grocery shopping. we wandered into this new garden centre on the danforth, reeve's garden centre, to "check things out" and ended up buying a crapload of stuff for our front yard. we got a dwarf japanese maple, which was on sale because it was last year's stock, we got a japanese andromeda), and 2 goldflame spireas - all this will be up against the house. we also got some lamb's ears and cheddar pinks "firewitch" which i'd never heard of, but i liked the foliage. here's what the front yard looks like now:

it's kind of sad, i know. but keep in mind this is very, very early in the gardening season - we haven't even laid mulch yet - a layer of cedar mulch will make everything look a lot spiffier. i think i'm going to put a fire ember hydrangea next to the gas meter there, and definitely some peonies. once the perennials show up at our local juice store, we'll just buy $20 worth every week and we'll have a dazzling show in no time. gardens are ever-changing works in progress.

we also have to pick up some flagstones to make a walkway cutting across the top of the garden to the car - and the dotytron wants to pick up a small bench so that eventually, someday he could play gujin out there (don't ask.)

the rest of the day was spent throwing that stuff in the garden...we did a LOT of work - it was a lot of driving around and hauling stuff and driving to stone and landscape suppliers...a bit of a gongshow. we were pooped last night and ended up watching "food inc." which is basically a reiteration of stuff i already know - kind of a basic intro to industrial agriculture. nothing all that shocking, just enough to make me thankful that our exposure to that stuff is a lot more limited than most. ammonia in meat? bleached chickens? so gross.

last night for dinner i made us chicken katsu oyako don:

because i'm totally preg-tarded right now i'm not on my A-game (seriously, i lost $100 in the house recently) and even though i could've sworn we had panko, i was wrong. so i ended up making the chicken katsu (basically breaded, fried, chicken thighs) with matzo meal. it was still good. i'll post the recipe at the bottom here.

this morning for breakkie i made us english bacon, fried egg, lettuce and tomato sammies on whole wheat kaiser:

now i feel totally disgusting like i might barf because i'm too full. yay.

tonight we're going for AYCE hotpot with my mum and bro chova, who has finished year 3 of undergrad, in mind-blowing, make-me-feel-old/gee-time-passes-fast news. insane. i'm probably not going to get my money's worth. other than that, it's a bit of a fail of a day - the contractor who was supposed to come by isn't returning my calls, we didn't buy enough of this window film to put up over the bathroom window so that you can't see us doing our private business, so i can't do that, it's cold and threatening to rain and i'm feeling supremely unmotivated. ugh.

fin.


----------------------------------------------

chicken katsu oyako don
serves 4

for the chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or small breasts)
1 c. of flour (season liberally with salt and pepper)
2 eggs, beaten with a whisk until frothy
1 c. (or more) of panko or breadcrumbs

for the sauce:
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 package enoki mushrooms
some button mushrooms, sliced
2 c. of dashi (i used instant dashi broth mix from chinatown)
6 T. mirin
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. soy (you can use reduced sodium soy - i did)
4 eggs, beaten well
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

cooked brown or white rice (i used brown)

- sauté the onion in a little bit of oil in a wide, deep skillet (with a lid) until it's softened, but doesn't color (over medium to medium-low heat)...this takes 10 minutes or more. add the sliced button mushrooms and cut the bottom, connected stem bits of the enoki mushrooms off so that you can loosen them up, and add those to the pan, cook an additional 4-5 minutes.
- add the dashi, the mirin the sugar and the soy, and let this mixture come to a simmer (you can turn the heat up a bit)
- stir in the beaten eggs, turn the heat to low, and put the lid on and let the eggs steam and cook.

- meanwhile, fry your breaded chicken pieces in 1" of canola oil until done, season with salt and drain on paper towels.

- to assemble, scoop some rice into bowls, top with the dashi-egg mixture, top with the sliced up chicken katsu, and sprinkle with chopped scallion.

introducing...

my new recreational dodgeball team, the admiral akbars, who acquitted themselves admirably yesterday in their first TWO games (we got scheduled with a double-header.) we got spanked the first game and doled out some spankings in game two. amazing!!! it was so much fun to play with people who are all kind of good friends/grown-ups/adults/good sports. it's the best when the only poor sport you have to worry about is me trash-talking my little keister off on the sidelines.

our first game was a rough one as no one except for me and the dotytron had played before...some of our skater high school crew were totally taken off guard by how much of a cardio workout it is when you're hustling. our buddy gaz turned to me at one point, sweating and huffing, and asked, "ummm...isn't this game played in quarters?!? when do we get a break?" and i had to inform him that we play straight through. we were down a few people so we didn't have enough subs, which would have helped. the first team totally docked us spirit points too, which was hella annoying and totally a beginner's pettiness - considering they won like 16 to 4 - really? you're going to be giant babies about the spirit points?

the second team was a total team of n00bs, which is fine, but they were classic n00bs who LOVE LOVE LOVE to know selective rules of the game and call you on the ones that they know. SO ANNOYING. i talked it over with their team captain in the beginning who agreed that all headshots would be an out (the thrower is out if it hits you in the head.) normally, more experienced teams just call head shots a wash, because when someone is ducking and gets hit in the head, then it turns into an argument about whether or not it was an actual headshot, etc. i offered them the headshots is a wash option during the pre-game captain parlay, and they declined. so at one point, our buddy gets hit in the head when he was ducking and we called the thrower off the court and the other team is all like, "ummmm, he was ducking!" and i'm like, "UMMMMM...YOU GUYS ASKED FOR THIS!" lol!!! i hate n00b teams. like, know the rules...and don't get upset when WE know the rules.

the other best thing about my new team is that they're all gainfully employed and pay you right away for the dball registration. SO ACES.

also introducing, MY NAME IN A ROUTLEDGE BOOK:

this is the book that our friends (and my former profs) J & S wrote - the book launch was a huge deal! i'm so proud of them! even though i did barely any work they were so sweet and wrote my name in the acknowledgements, which means that MY NAME IS IN A BOOK PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE and IN A SERIES EDITED BY A PRETTY EFFIN' BIG HEAVY-HITTER IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE WORLD. whaa whaa!

the book launch was swinging cuz it was at the munk centre for international studies and apparently they have a zillion dollars at their disposal, so free wines and drinks and good canapes and a lot of them. J & S were also totally adorable and gave me a shout out in their thank yous at the book launch which was ever-so-lovely but made me feel like crap because it was so completely unwarranted...seriously...i barely did A THING. but they were so gracious about it.

i'm so glad i know those guys! we had dinner with L and J & S at tacos al asador (i know, my second time in as many nights) where i stuffed myself with FOUR items, before the game (chorizo tostada, chorizo soft taco, al pastor soft taco, and pork crispy taco - yum yum!)

the dotytron had met me in the afternoon because i took the afternoon off to go to an appointment and he wanted to go with me...which brings me to the last introduction of today...

INTRODUCING...

THE FATBURGER AKA SPUMANTE BAMBINO:





CRAZY, EH?!??? i'm not going to be one of those crazies who posts all this shiz non-stop about being knocked up and loving my midwife on facebook, but since my readership here only consists of good friends and family (and strangers) - i figured it be good to have a centralized place for this ish. i'm way more comfortable with people close to me, or strangers, knowing my business than acquaintances and facebook friends-types...like the people you kinda know but don't want knowing too much about your ish, 'naw mean?

so yeah, i'm knocked up...passed the 12 week milestone yesterday, but we've still got to go through genetic testing to make sure it's not a centaur or a unicorn (or a seedy samurai, or omarion) in there. incubating a bambino is enough to make you lose your mind if you're a hypochondriac. seriously...i've been obsessing over the photo trying to see if i can detect any weirdness, and since the fatburger looks like a giant blobby shrimp (but NOT a b.c. spot prawn, which was the associative metaphor i was trying to use because it's really b.c. spot prawn size and not shrimp sized, that is until i realized that i REALLY LOVE EATING b.c. spot prawns and therefore associating the fatburger with things i love to eat wasn't the best idea), it's really easy to find abnormalities.

whatever will happen will happen. it's a goddamn miracle that the dotytron has got it. it'll be a goddamn miracle when and if this thing comes out okay. and it'll be a goddamn miracle if it makes it to my age. seriously. life is a confluence of miracles and accidents narrowly averted to get you to wherever you happen to be at. an endless string of potential hazards (physiological, mental, environmental, emotional) that you want to be protected from and that you DEFINITELY want to protect your potential progeny from. so fraught. it's a wonder people do this crazy business of parenting and child-rearing at all.

the only way i can manage is to not think about it and not try to come to terms with the fact that i'm going to be responsible for something FOR LIFE and focus on the stuff i know i can control, like list-making, and conceptualizing the fatburger's room decor and thinking about linens. ha! that i can do.

i also find it hard to match people's enthusiasm. i think it's cuz i process stuff super-quickly. so whereas i can revel in the details of everyone else's momentous life events (marriage, home ownership, relationships, parenthood) when it comes to my own stuff, i'm like, "i've processed this...carry on...next." like i find talking about myself extremely boring. i love any forum to sound off on OTHER STUFF (ie. offer unsolicited advice/opinions on/to all and sundry) but when it comes to this stuff (getting hitched, having a bambino) i don't super love talking about it non-stop other than to touch on it (and my specific experience) briefly.

all part of me hating to be defined, i guess. the roomie and the dotytron are calling it me "being at war with the pregnancy" cuz i hate being defined by something that feels like it's happening TO ME kind of against my will. so far i've been pretty lucky, no sickness, no nausea, food aversions, headaches **knock wood x 100000000000000** just tiredness. but i already hate the way that people treat you like you're going to break at any second and i also feel like this is an INCREDIBLY raw deal for women and women's bodies. i don't want to be a ginormous whale criss-crossed with a network of varicose veins and swollen bits (even if dr. rei's sage advice is: at a certain point/age, it's best not to look too closely at other people in general, and women's legs in particular.) i don't want to be not able to run and play dodgeball into the summer. don't want it!

also, the idea of being at home with a BABY for a full year is giving me chills. nothing but baby talk? no workplace gossip? nothing to research? oy oy oy.

anyway, so that's what it looks like at 12 weeks. crazy, eh? we'll see what the results of the genetic screening are. wish us good health and send good vibes our way!

tonight we're having dinner with the work girls, G, M, K, their respective menfolk and G and M's adorable sons at M's parents' chinese restaurant in markham, which is known for their peking duck. i'm THRILLED and super-excited for the eats and the hangs.

fin.

movie and al asador?

a near perfect evening, as far as i'm concerned. last night K and i went and grabbed tacos al asador (el salvadorean tacos) and then headed to her adorable new house in the annex (more technically, seaton village) which is perfectly lovely and has a gorgeous, huge yard and is about twice as wide as lil' ugmo on a perfectly situated street. K suffers from a bit of "homebuyer's glasses" where you only see the negative things about your new home (and the accompanying dollar signs) but her house is so cute! K & J did so well for themselves.

i got a veggie burrito and an order of nachos that i tried valiantly to finish...but didn't succeed. isn't tacos al asador the best? i love the nachos there - corn chips piled high with chunks of avocado, crema, queso fresco, black beans, cilantro, and melted, velveeta/cheez whiz cheese. so good.

the burritos are hefty little rice, beans, and lettuce bombs that are super-filling - that place will never get old for me. i love it there.




we saw "the runaways" which, somewhat strangely, despite really decent reviews none of the menfolk in our lives wanted to see. it was actually, surprisingly good - i think i had low expectations (favorable reviews aside) - i just pictured it going really cheesy and low budget and appealing to a teen fan base (i think i was conflating it with kristin stewart's OTHER film endeavors.) it's directed by floria sigismondi (most well known as a photographer/artist and director of several outré videos for the likes of marilyn manson) - which i thought was a rather fitting match-up - the material is all about glam and feminine power and rock'n'roll sexuality and she does a fantastic job of conveying the textures and feel of the time and that glammy/punk-rock aesthetic. the texture and tones of the film and the scenes were all individually well shot and were composed in a way that made your eye want to linger - beautiful, washed out, hazy california 70s tones.

the focus is on dakota fanning's character, cherie currie's rise to fame, plucked from disaffected, small-town california ennui to be the frontwoman and lead singer of the runaways, a band that also featured joan jett (she wrote or co-wrote a lot of the runaways' songs), played by kristin stewart. the narrative arc of cherie's story is more predictable - small-town kid seduced by bowie and hollywood glam/decay, wanting to get out, corrupted by drugs, fading into obscurity - and therefore less interesting than jett's subsequent rise to fame. both of the lead performances are quite good, with fanning's glassy, doe-eyed and plump lipped flaxen lolita stylings playing off well against stewart's dark haired, slouched, mannish punk aesthetic. i always forget that kristin stewart is a decent actress - her ham-fisted turns in the "twilight" series can do that to you - it just goes to show you how much she must HATE that franchise - it comes through in her limp performance in the vampire flicks.

i thought the pacing of the film was a little off - K agreed that she wanted more of the initial set-up - fleshing out jett and curie's background a bit more and less montage-y, lingering scenes of their decline as they get eaten up by drugs, excess, and the rock'n'roll factory and the machinations of their manager and svengali, kim fowley, an exploitive, flamboyant, glittering puppetmaster, somewhat overplayed by michael shannon, who does a lot of scenery chewing.

there's a subtext about female empowerment and the dirtying up of female sexuality in the androgynous hedonism of the 70s that i wish could have been teased out more. the impact of the runaways and of girls rocking is touched on, but i wish it was a little more developed.

overall, i quite liked this flick - the set design, music choices, and costumes are fantastic and it's really entertaining. i'd give it a 7-7.5/10.

today is a busy day. a 1/2 day at work, followed by a doctor's appointment that the dotytron is meeting me for, and then we're going to our friends J & S's book launch for this book on foodies that they published through routledge and that i did a teeny tiny bit of research for.

then we're going to grab dinner either at mexitaco or la tortilleria and then a double header of dodgeball. this season we've gone back to playing in the rec league (instead of intermediate) with some friends of ours. i think it'll be a lot more fun...i got tired of playing with the death metal boozing babies.

busy busy busy!

i'll take pics of mexitaco or la tortilleria and review.

fin.

giant pictures yesterday aside

...not much happening around these parts, lately.

oh, except we might be squandering some of our tax return on a new couch. because our existing couch, whilst lovely, is rather narrow and it's difficult for the both of us to be comfortably prone while watching the tube of the boob variety. and we LOVE BEING PRONE while watching the boob tube. also, we only have the one couch in the living room, which means that whenever we have people over (which is often), we all have to sit in a row...not good!

plus this store on the danforth is having a 20% off sale on custom couches so i think we're going to hit that up. the problem is...our living room is quite narrow so it's going to require some rejigging - mostly involving condensing down our bookshelves. i'm always in favour of getting rid of books anyway - but the dotytron is a known and recalcitrant pack rat who likes holding onto EVERYTHING in the universe. it's super annoying. i mean, really...how often do we re-read books? barely ever, that's how often.

therefore, for the next little while, our living room might be a bit of a cramped pen...but that's just the way it'll have to be until we get our basement dug out and finished and can turn that into the rumpus room/den. if we're finding that it's ridiculous, we can always sell the now old, formerly new couch and just stick with the new new one.

i also want to repaint the dining room cuz it's driving me crazy and has been driving me crazy for nigh on 7 months. it's a small job, really - more inconvenient than anything else - but once it's done, it'll be done - now it's just a matter of finding the right colour. we also have to do the switcheroo on all the doorknobs in the house and work on the garden. those are the immediate concerns that don't cost an awful lot of money.

in other news...i've got the travel bug, bad. specifically, i've got the travel to hawaii bug, bad. we both want to go back, like yesterday. that's a tough bug to scratch (mixed metaphors, much?) here's the thing - i was looking up vacations on red flag deals and at all inclusive resorts in the caribbean and it seems to me, that when you're at that kind of a place, where ALL YOU DO is sit at the resort, then you kind of want to be at least 4 star and up, because anything else is kind of skeevy looking and suspect. once you get into the 4 star and up range in countries that are actually remotely interesting (ie. not cuba or the dominican or cancun) then you're looking at spending a good chunk of change, once taxes and all the rest are factored in.

and if it's the difference of a grand, total, i'd rather go to hawaii. it's PERFECT there - it really, really is. there are places to explore (ie. you're not trapped at your hotel), breathtaking vistas, sights, and the food! the food!!! i was thinking that next year we might go to oahu, stay at a B&B (why anyone would ever stay at a hotel when you can stay at a B&B that's nicer, comfier, way more chill and less expensive, is beyond me), rent a cheap car (because we're not on the big island, we wouldn't need a jeep wrangler) and probably have a very nice vacation for under $1500 each. i love hawaiian food - we both do - i found a place in oahu that has a make your own poke bar (poke is basically chunks of raw fish mixed with ponzu, soy, and tobiko) and thinking about eating moco loco in a greasy diner somewhere is enough to make me hop on a plane right now. plus, i love hawaii because you feel less bad about exploiting the peoples (they're american!) and you have the regular, north american amenities and because everyone is so active outdoors, the place shuts down at 9pm. love it. love it love it love it.

b&bing it up in hawaii is basically me and the dotytron's perfect vacation. we love staying at places where your exposure to randoms is minimized. if i close my eyes, i can totally recall the feeling of driving through the big island with the windows down, smelling the insanely fresh air and listening to classic rock. i can totally picture it now - the two of us, zipping along in a little compact, the windows down, with some poke and a fresh fruit shake in our belly, going to watch surfers on the north shore. so perfect.

alas, it's but a pipe dream currently. we won't be doing anything about it until next year this time, at the earliest. we gotta save some monies and pour some more monies into the house and our debt first...but a gyal can dream, right?



tonight for dinner we had spaghetti, tossed with a long-simmered tomato sauce made from canned san marzano tomatoes with a big handful of basil thrown in at the last minute. the pasta was topped with a spoonful of homemade ricotta, which in turn was drizzled with chili oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel and pepper. so good! we also had a fake caesar salad with croutons.

homemade ricotta is dead-easy to make and it tastes amazing - your yield sucks though...1L of whole organic milk and a 1/2 cup of cream makes approximately 1 c. of ricotta.

fin.


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homemade ricotta
yields approximately 1 cup ricotta

1 L whole milk
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 T. lemon juice

- combine the milk, cream, and salt in a heavy saucepan.
- line a colander (i just used a fine-mesh strainer) with cheesecloth and set it in a large bowl. measure out the lemon juice and set it aside.
- bring the milk mixture to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring occasionally with a spatula to prevent scalding. once the mixture is simmering, add the lemon juice and stir gently with the spatula.
- let the mixture sit for about 1 minute, turning down the heat slightly so it stays at a simmer but doesn’t reach a boil.
- stir with the spatula after about 1 minute, then let it sit another minute until it looks like most of the liquid has separated into curds and whey.
- drain the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined colander set over a bowl, and let it drain at room temperature until you get the desired consistency.
- transfer the ricotta to an airtight container and refrigerate.

notes: i felt that you could have upped the salt in this recipe, at least double. i'm going to try that next time. we drained ours for about 30 minutes and it was very firm (you can see that it almost quenelles in the picture above - if you wanted it creamier, i'd check it and stir it after 15 minutes of draining - it's up to you what your desired consistency is.

zomg - so intense

this weekend was crazygonuts. so busy! so many meals out! so much fun!

friday was this insane adventure that involved me hopping on my bike to go meet my new family doctor only to get a flat tire less than a 1/4 of the way there. so i had to drop my bike off, was late for my appointment, and had to pay $20 for the tire change. but somehow, in the midst of getting my tire changed, freaking scammers at cyclepath ALSO f**ked with my rear back breaks so that they were baby soft (incredibly unresponsive). what jerks. i'm thinking it might be time to invest in a new bike...maybe i'll hold off for one more season and wait til next spring...i think i'm going to get one of those city hybrid cruisers - not as heavy as a mountain bike, thinner tires, but not like, velodrome/tour de france thin.

anyway, then i got a massage and met up with the dotytron and accompanied him to his after school program, where predictably the kids went a little nuts at my presence and while i quietly did paperwork in the corner during his guitar lesson, i overheard gems like, "you know what i want right now more than anything? besides subway, i want spray-on shoes." lol! kids are hilarious.

before the goosetang hang at bwong's we passed by johnny's hamburgers in scarborough, which has been on my to-try list for forevers. i'm OBSESSED with burgers right now, for whatever reason.





the place is tiny - with only a sliver of stainless counter top for you to eat there - almost everyone is taking their food to go. the prices are dirt, dirt cheap - $3.99 for a banquet burger - you can't beat that. the patties are frozen, but the bun! the bun! so soft, so yielding, so accommodating to the melting cheese-whiz goo of american cheese - this is your classic, greasy spoon, burger joint, burger. good flavour, soft, tender, so good!





for dinner near bwong's we went to jetsun's juicyburger. (yes, i double-burgered in one day, nay! in the space of an hour.) the dotytron got onion rings and i got chili cheese fries and a cheeseburger. i ate it all really fast, but i gotta say, i'm not a fan of this place. everything was strangely tasteless - with the burger being the most tasteless of all. all i could taste was pickles, mustard, and ketchup - the patty itself had no discernible flavour or seasoning of even texture to recommend it. the chili cheese fries were pretty good, but they had beans in the chili which i'm not a fan of when it comes to chili cheese fries and the chili again was very bland. i think overall, my verdict of this place is that everything was bland and unmemorable.

then we went back to bwong's. funny stuff that happened:

- right when we got there, just as we're sitting down and laughing about something, bwong mysteriously shredded something that we're guessing he REALLY didn't want us to see. it was so funny! like, literally, bwong's like, "HAHAHAHA-" *shrrrreeedddd* - hand under the table. lol!
- i passed out on bwong's super comfy sectional while those guys watched blue planet on his giant tv on blue ray and woke up to some random channel (the w network, i think) showing something like "top ten lame a** movies for women") and they showed a clip from "love, actually" with hugh grant being interviewed which for some reason made dr. rei INCENSED and had her pointing at the tv, barking, "HUGH...ARE NOT!" which makes no sense but made me laugh like a mofo.

saturday morning i met H, sweet baby D and H's mom jeans to attend this annual vintage clothing sale around the corner from my house. it's put on by 3 vintage clothing retailers that i like individually, and there were tonnes of great pieces there, but everything was quite expensive (say, $150 for a dress) and i didn't have the money for it. tucked way back in the corner, i did see a pile of fabric remnants in great, 1970s bold prints and colours, on heavy linen/cotton blends...i bought these three:



they're going to look AMAZING! i'm so pumped. i'm going to stretch them onto wooden frames that artists use to stretch canvas and hang them on the walls - aren't they unique? what a find! they were priced at $20 each but i went in on them with another woman who was buying 4 and we haggled the seller down to $15 each, which i think is really fair for unique wall art.

saturday night we had plans to meet up with heinz and amy (cleveland cru) at pizzeria libretto, only to show up at 8 and be told that there was a TWO HOUR WAIT for a party of four. that's freakin' insane. people on ossington (and the city of toronto at large) are morons. i mean, pizzeria libretto is good, but it's not TRANSCENDENT. it's not a bollito sandwich at mercato centrale, or deep dish chicago, or well, a night at guu izakaya or even fish'n'chips at harbord fish'n'chips. the food is really good at libretto, but the EXPERIENCE doesn't add up to more than the sum of its parts. i'm never going back there again! i'm telling you, if the pizza at that new place at the bottom of our street is even midway decent, i'm swearing off libretto until you only have to wait an hour. 2 hours?!? ridiculous.

anyway, we ended up at burger shoppe quality meats...which would be my third burger meal in a row, i know.

the burgers there are really good though - i got one with bacon and a fried egg, and we split an order of the pulled pork poutine and sweet potato fries and baked mac'n'cheese:





the next day we met up for dim sum brunch at chili secrets in markham - here are some shots of the crew:

and then we headed down to guu izakaya four hours later for DINNER. so crazy! we definitely wanted to take cleveland down there because they own a japanese restaurant in cleveland and guu is so g-d fun, how could you lose?

we showed up at 4:45pm and easily got a table for 8 when they opened at 5, even though there were around 30 people ahead of us. cleveland freakin loved it - we pretty much ordered the whole menu:

this was kabocha squash wrapped around a hard boiled egg, and then panko and fried. super tasty.

this is a dish we love...cold spinach sauced in a toasty, cool black sesame dressing. the dotytron LOVES black sesame more than any gweilo should, really.


deep fried octopus balls

okonomiyaki

this is one of my favorite dishes at guu, hands down. the grilled oysters with spinach (in the form of a creamy, pureed spinach-cheese sauce) with chunks of broiled mushrooms is a revelation. the mushrooms and oyster chunks match each other in umami and texture so perfectly.

spot prawn sashimi.

fried calamari with matchstick potatoes, in a sauce which heinz surmised was a mix of ketchup and sriracha.

grilled ox tongue.

pork intestines! these were a revelation - i'm used to the chinese bbq style where they're kind of rubbery and chewy. these were so tender and giving - almost like pork stomach - and they were sauced in a highly addictive sweet black bean sauce.

braised pork belly with egg. so effin' good. but i'm trying to get the dotytron to start saving me from myself, in the sense that i probably eat too many chunks of pork fat, per capita.

fried brie with the mango, blueberry sauce.

kimchi udon. we know how i feel about fat, chubby, slurpy udon noodles.

grilled pork cheeks! so good! the texture of the meat is a little firmer than you might expect (equivalent to pork loin) but very, very meaty and flavourful, with a good hit of fat, without any gobs of noticeable fat (like in pork belly). it was tender, even though you'd expect it to be chewier. we loved this dish.


oh hai, salmon belly carpaccio! so refreshing - we went a little lighter on the raw/cold stuff this time around, for whatever reason - but the cold stuff is super-refreshing so i would highly recommend it.

this is a special, almond tofu they were offering that day that was a giant version of their usual almond tofu - that they said was for 4-5 people but that totally served the 8 of us, quite happily. so awesome!

this is sakura (cherry blossom) cheesecake, their flavour of the day. it was so light! and not too sweet - i liked that.

some shots of the crew:

this is a shot of me and my guu boyfriend (aka my backup doty) - masa. SO FREAKIN' HOT. heinz totally pulled the tourist card so that i could get a photo with him - lol!

on the left you have my mum at the top, and across from her is her childhood friend B, B's partner P, heinz's mom, heinz, and amy. so cute!!!

i love those guys. i can't even imagine that a year ago, i didn't even know we HAD cleveland crew! and now look! best cleveland crew of life! (seriously...those guys are the funnest AND our exact double. heinz had a "heinz turns 10!" 30th birthday party where everyone wore like, 80s clothes and l.a. gear high tops and they went go-carting - SO BEST.)

onward and upward.


tonight for dinner i'm trying to resume sensible, non-burger/restaurant eating by making us spinach, mushroom, roasted pepper and mozzarella & ricotta calzones - hearty little veggie-packed mothers, which i brushed with chili oil and sprinkled with salt before baking on my trusty stone.

fin.