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Archive for the ‘Good Eats’ Category

bananas foster

Friday, June 29th, 2007

A few months ago when we went to Disney, we had the pleasure of eating at Ohana. Good stuff there, but the best was the dessert. It was bread pudding with ice cream and bananas Foster sauce. TO DIE FOR! I don’t even like bananas. I don’t eat them, I don’t like banana flavored anything, and I barely tolerate anything containing banana, even treats and banana bread recipes that friends swear by!

So you can imagine my surprise when I lapped up the sauce and asked for seconds. We tried to go back to the restaurant the next time we were at Disney, but it was booked. Now I’ve got a wicked craving for the dessert, and I’ve used Google to track down a recipe for the Disney version, but I’m a little dubious about trying to make it myself. A chef, I am not.

Posted in Good Eats | 3 Comments »

poutine

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

It’s 11:30, and we haven’t done much of anything this morning. I didn’t even get up til 10:30, after being up late with my laundry mishap last night, I needed the rest. Jim went out to the coin laundry 5 blocks away this morning so that we could have some clean clothing (but he forgot to take my jeans – grr!)

Anyway, we’re here waiting for his return, so that we can go out and see Montreal. The view is nice from our window, but it’s not the same as walking the streets. We did go out for dinner last night to a local place I read about on Wiki Travel, and it was fabulous. I’m definitely not an adventurous eater, but I had poutine (a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds and covered with hot gravy, or another similar sauce) for the first time, and loved it!

Posted in Going Places, Good Eats | 6 Comments »

crepes

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

We ended up walking around the Eaton Centre tonight (a HUGE indoor mall) and then walking down to St. Lawrence Marketplace. By then, the kids were hungry, and sick of walking, so we headed for dinner. After looking at the menu at a few pubs, we found Le Papillon. Oh. My. God. GOOD! Matthew had some pasta off the children’s menu (my little picky eater), Catherine had Fench onion soup and a salad, and the rest of us had dinner crepes. In fact, we all picked the same thing – Crêpe Bourguignonne (Classic French vineyard beef and mushroom stew). I am stuffed, and it was so good. I had an Amsterdam Blonde beer with it, and the whole thing was just….ah….after a day of sightseeing. And the bartender was a hot French guy. Jim may get lucky tonight!

Posted in Going Places, Good Eats | 1 Comment »

elephant & castle

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

We had a great dinner tonight at The Elephant & Castle, located on Yonge Steet in downtown Toronto. Our server recommended some good beer, and I enjoyed it so much I had two He was also a pleasant guy and spent a lot of time talking with us and our plans for vacation. I said I was going to come here and stiff all of the Canadian servers as punishment for all of the cheap Canadians I waited on in my waitress days, but he got a 20% tip from me.

(I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I would never punish the innocent for the mistakes of a few.)

I had bangers and mash, Jim had shepherd’s pie, and the kids had fish and chips. Yum!

Posted in Good Eats | No Comments »

no green thumb

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

I can usually kill a plant within a matter of days. I just don’t “get” plants. I get dogs and kids, because they whine or cry when they’re hungry, or thirsty, or sick. Plants just…wilt. Or turn brown. They don’t talk to me to let me know why they’re not thriving!

That’s why I’m amazed that our plants ARE thriving. Everything we planted a few months ago when we did our landscape curbing is alive and doing well. Especially Gracie’s tomato plant! (It’s technically hers, but I seem to be the one watering it these days.) It went from having two teeny tiny little green tomatoes (it always bother me that the plural of tomato has an “E” added to it) to having blooms and more tomatoes all over it!

Here’s the whole plant:

A close up of the reddest tomatoes:

A ton of greenies (it’s a bit like playing Where’s Waldo!):

You couldn’t find them? Try this:

At this rate, we’ll have fresh tomatoes all summer long. Good thing we all love salad! In fact, cucumber and tomato salad is one of my quick summer favorites. Just slice up some cucumbers and tomatoes and toss with Italian dressing, sprinkle on a bit of oregano and basil, and you can even top it with feta or bleu cheese crumbles.

Posted in Good Eats, Home Sweet Home | 2 Comments »

chipotle vs moes

Friday, May 25th, 2007

I’ve been going to Chipotle for a while now, and I’ve recently started going to Moe’s almost as often for a burrito fix. Initially, I didn’t see a big difference between the two. Same concept, same type of food, same, same, same, right? Now I’m seeing the differences…much like McDonalds and Burger King have the same TYPES of food, but are totally NOT the same. After dining at Chipotle 2 days ago for lunch, and Moe’s tonight for dinner, I’ve decided that I prefer Chipotle. I like the rice better, I like the meat better, and I like the salsa better. I’m not going to stop going to Moe’s (especially since there’s one right around the corner from hockey), but it’s now on par with Burger King in my eyes. Not as good as McDonalds, but not so bad that I won’t eat there ever again.

Which do you prefer?

Posted in Good Eats | 6 Comments »

discount medieval times tickets

Monday, May 7th, 2007

We’ve been stuck in the Disney rut on our past few trips to Orlando. We’ve stayed on property and rarely ventured off in search of new experiences and other excitement. When we go again in 2 weeks for our son’s 8th birthday, we’d like to do something new and exciting, but also it needs to be affordable for a family of 5 on a budget. I think I’ve found something we’ll all enjoy – the Medieval Times dinner show in Kissimmee! And of course, being an online addict, I found out that I can buy discount tickets online for Medieval Times in advance, and save quite a bit of cash. I’ve been to the show twice before, once with Jim, and the kids have never been. I know Matthew would be really into the horses and knights, and the girls would love the costumes and the theming. Me and Jim – well, we love the food. Medieval Times is one of the few places that encourages you to eat with your fingers! The prices online at Maple Leaf Tickets include tax also – most discount ticket brokers don’t!

The Kissimmee location was the first location Medieval Times opened in North America, and remains the premier destination for the chain. The site just completed a $6 million renovation with a new moat and drawbridge – how cool is that? If you arrive early, you can explore the Medieval Life Village, which is an small area on the grounds that gives you a true picture of what life was like during the Middle Ages. Educational AND fun…I love it!

This is a sponsored review.

Posted in Entertainment, Going Places, Good Eats | 1 Comment »

tea in bloom

Friday, May 4th, 2007

I was raised to be a tea drinker (coffee, bleh!) but despite my knowledge of tea (iced, Earl Grey, and green!) I’ve never heard of anything called Full Bloom Tea, until now. If you want to try the most unique tea on the market, you’ve got to try this! The tea blooms are beautiful AND drinkable, and are each hand tied when they’re created in China. Steep the bloom in hot water, and it will twist and turn and “bloom” and grow before your eyes into a one of a kind floral bouquet. You can drink the tea and enjoy the bloom for a few days, or re-steep the blooms up to 2 more times. The tea is loaded with antioxidants and real dehydrated flowers like Marigold and Jasmine. (It must smell divine!)

Full Bloom Tea has some neat packages put together for Mother’s Day, and they start at only $29 – that includes 6 tea blooms to try and a large glass teapot to use to steep your blooms so you can see what happens once they start to grow. I want to buy a tea bloom just to see how it works – it sounds pretty neat, like those little washcloths folded into squares that expand when you get them wet, or those little foam pellets that turn into bath toys for the kids. I’d image the tea is way prettier to look at when it’s done blooming though!

This is a sponsored review.

Posted in Buy Me!, Good Eats | 1 Comment »

no rules, just slow.

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

We went out for dinner tonight at Outback. My mom had given us giftcards for our anniversary, and they were burning a whole in my pocket! I figured a Monday evening would be our best chance of eating there without a wait, so off we went. The food and all was great, but I think our server was having an off night. (Bad waitstaff are attached to me like flies on uhh…pooh.)

We sat down and ordered drinks and a bloomin’ onion. Drinks took forever to arrive. I wasn’t that thirsty when we got down, but I think it’s some sort of Pavlovian instinct that takes over. If I order a drink and it’s not there within 5 minutes, I get very thirsty. The girls and I got sweet tea, and we got regular by mistake, so that went back. Our appetizer came and we still hadn’t put our regular orders in…so our waiter took those, and the food took forever. And when it came, some of it was wrong (side items and such).

After 2 hours, I was done. We asked for boxes for the leftovers and wet wipes (one of the girls had ribs) and THAT took forever. When the server finally came back to the table we practically threw the giftcards and some extra cash at him and left. He was pleasant enough, but sheesh, he was slower than molasses! We didn’t complain, but I was SO ready to leave by the time that bill came. It ended up being a much later night than expected.

Posted in Bitchy-Poo, Good Eats | 6 Comments »

dinner issues

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Hmm. It’s 5:30, and I’ve done nothing about dinner. I fear that tonight’s meal will pale in comparison to the gourmet chicken dish created last night. That’s the problem with making something like that – the family starts to expect that you’ll be cooking on a regular basis, when all you really want to do is order a pizza.

Posted in Good Eats | 1 Comment »

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