Cheese Dinner

In celebration of my finishing my final stats exam i spent the day wandering the city. We must have walked 7 km, but got to see a bunch of different neighbourhoods, plus we picked up things as we wandered. Bread from St. John's bakery - where we got the very last stuff (other than the olive bread). We went to the epicure shop on Parliament and got crackers, some sliced meats and these amazing spiced black olives.

It knew it was a special occasion so i also broke out a bottle of wine i had been saving that i purchased when we went to the Foreign Affairs/Treadwell wine/food tasting.

The cheeses came from a new spot in the Junction really close to me called Junction Fromagerie. I love cheese, and really enjoy supporting stores in my neighbourhood. We got a great blue cheese, a brie and a old cheddar that i found a little bland.

I also had some Branksome pickle and sundried tomato pesto, cheddar crackers and spinach dip.

Ribs dinner

It was my bf's bday, and i thought as a treat i would make him ribs since recently he had been talking about them. It was a weekday, so i started the ribs before i left in the morning for work. Because of that i thought i would make some simpler sides and keep myself from slaving over the stove when i got home. I thought i would make coleslaw (since i always like it with pork) and asparagus (his fav).

Unfortunately things do not always go quite as planned, and he ended up having drinks after work, so by the time we got to the ribs they were almost beyond fall off the bone. (if that's possible)

I made a hollandiase for the asparagus.

Birthday Dinner at Fat Cat

I was really spoiled this weekend by all of my friends and family. The cap of "birthday week" was a meal with my family at Fat Cat on Roncesvalles, a great small plates/ tapas place. They have a really lovely back patio and it was a perfect night for it.

We simply decided which things we didn't want to have (three things) and had them come as they were ready. Everything was quite good, in particular the shrimp dish which we ordered two of, and got extra bread to dip in the sauce.

For dessert i had an almond brownie - which was lovely, with whipped cream and cherries. (yum). The rest of the table had a rhubarb and strawberry couli with vanilla ice cream.

Above: spicy chorizo

Flank steak, potato salad with corn and asparagus

The delicious shrimp in cast iron
(piri piri garlic sauce)

My plate round one
(veggie curry, shrimp, rapini, chorizo and scallops)

A cute little veggie curry with sliced cucumbers and rice

The table

Rapini and potatoes

Another of my plates
(mushroom bruschetta, crostini, two salads)

Warm quinoa salad with asparagus

Poached pear sald with walnuts and extra old cheddar

A couple oysters to start

The wine
(Organic & VQA)

The menu

Tredwell - The Foreign Affair Winery Tour

Way back in July my family and i were invited by the Armstrong's on a winery tour in Niagara along with a wine-food pairing done by Treadwell. As i love both food and wine, this was an amazing trip. The started off by taking us to the fields to see where the grapes were, there were a few nice whites for tasting along with cheese and fruit. After a visit to the town, we went to the Foreign Affair Winery for dinner.

As we mingled around the table there was a Riesling served along with a few appetizers. there was a pea foam which i did not enjoy, an amazing roasted beet salad served on individual spoons, and prosciutto fresh shaved served on bread sticks. The first course was a pea and fava bean risotto with butter seared sea scallops and preserved lemon. This was served with their 2007 Chardonnay


The Second course was beef, i'm still new to beef, but i decided to try it and i'm glad i did. It was a Slow cooked "Cumbrea Farms" beef short rib with cauliflower puree, and "Koslick's" Mustard. I had never heard of Kolicks and its now my favorite mustard. This was served with two wines!! A 2007 Merlot and the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon.


The fruit dish was Whitty farms summer berries with chiffon cake, spiced basil sabayon and black olive caramel. I'm not really a desert person, and i enjoyed the berries and sauce, but the cake was made of Cabernet flour and i found it pretty dry. It was served with a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine. I had never had red icewine, and i don't really enjoy the white, but this was really good - almost a raspberry flavour to it.


Surprise, surprise, the cheese course was my favorite. This was 5th town Operetta with wild honey comb. Such a unique combo. The most interesting part about this course was that it was served with a barrel tasting of their 2007 Cabernet Franc which was exceptional.