Last June a couple of my good friends were driving out to Cape Breton to visit family and I they invited me to tag along. Road trip! It was a fun and scenic drive (except driving through Montreal construction and traffic, mon dieu.) Here are some of my favourite pictures from the trip.

As we crossed from Quebec into New Brunswick we were greeted with a lot of rain, and a rainbow to welcome us to the East coast.

We spent some time on the beach near Port Hood. I learned that I’ve lost my touch for skipping rocks. We did go for a swim in the Altlantic. As you can probably expect, it was a mite nippy.

Toes in the sand.

One day we drove all along the Cabot Trail. This is the view shortly after passing into Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The sun did not want to come out.

Looks just like all the postcards.

Everything is so gorgeous and green.

Riley and Brian!

Riley and I, posing next to some awesome alliteration (and a nice view).

More nice ocean views.

It had been overcast most of the day and the sun finally came out as we reached the Northern part of the trail. I wish I got to see amazing views like this more often.

This is the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck. We didn’t get to see much there as it was closing, but we did catch a tall ship coming into the harbour.

What’s a trip out East (or a post on a food blog) without vast amounts of deep fried seafood? Shrimp, haddock and scallops, yum!

I really liked Cape Breton. Everyone is so laid back and welcoming, the food is delicious (except I ate waaay too much poutine and things that were deep fried) and the scenery is beautiful.

Ingredients

The quantities on the ingredients for the salad are really up to you. If you want to be healthier, use less bacon and cheese. For each dinner sized portion, I use:

2 big handfuls of baby spinach
3 strawberries
12-15 baby scallops
2 slices of bacon
1-2 oz goat cheese

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
2-3 strawberries (depending on size)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp grainy mustard
2 leaves of fresh basil
Pinch of salt, pepper and sugar

You should make the dressing ahead of time to give all the flavours a chance to meld together. Cut up your strawberries into small pieces and have the other ingredients ready.

Put the strawberries into a food processor and chop for 5-10 seconds. The pieces don’t need to be too small. Throw in the vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and sugar.

Start to puree and slowly add in the oil until everything is combined.

Slice the basil leaves. Stack the leaves, roll them tightly, then cut into thin pieces.

Add the basil to the dressing. This will make about 1 cup of dressing. Keep it in the fridge in a sealed container.

On to the salad!

Slice the bacon into short strips.

Get your scallops ready. Check them all for bits of sand and rinse if needed. Put them on a piece of paper towel and pat them dry – if they’re wet they won’t sear as nicely.

Slice strawberries and crumble goat cheese.

Put all the baby spinach in a big bowl and toss with the strawberry vinaigrette. This will make sure the leaves all get evenly coated, as opposed to just adding the dressing on top. Portion out the spinach onto plates (or into bowls).

Fry the bacon on medium heat until it’s as cooked as you like it. Once it’s done, remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the scallops to the pan (you can’t waste that bacon grease). Sear the scallops on both sides. They won’t take long, 1-2 minutes per side tops.

The scallops should be a lovely golden colour when they’re done.

Add the strawberries and goat cheese to the spinach. This looks pretty damn good already, and it’s only going to get better.

Add the bacon and scallops. Admire. Doesn’t it look beautiful? I love the colours.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Linguine
20-24 uncooked white shrimp (either fresh or frozen)
1 shallot
2 cloves of garlic (or 2 tsp of minced garlic)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine
Parmesan cheese
Creole seasoning
Salt
Pepper

This will make a meal for two, just double (triple? quadruple?) the recipe if you need to feed more.

Defrost (if needed) your shrimp by putting them in a colander under cold running water. Once they are thawed, remove the shells and veins. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with seasoning. Tony Chachere’s is best, but if you don’t have that you can use seasoning salt or a combination of salt and chilli powder. Keep in the fridge until you need them.

Start boiling salted water for the pasta.

Dice up the shallot and mince the garlic if you’re not a cheater like me who buys it pre-minced.

Grate some Parmesan.

Add butter, olive oil, and lemon juice to a pan over medium heat until everything is combined, then add the white wine.

Start cooking your pasta. Don’t look at my dirty stove top.

Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and cook.

Cook until the shallots are translucent.

Add the shrimp to the pan and turn the heat to low. Add another dash of seasoning and some pepper. Maybe a sprinkling of parmesan too.

Cook until the bottom sides of the shrimp turn pink (about 2 minutes) and then turn them over and cook for about another minute.

By this time your pasta should be cooked. Drain it and add it back to the pasta pot. Take a few spoonfuls of the lovely sauce the shrimp has been cooking in and mix it into the pasta until it is coated.

Serve out the pasta and top with shrimp and sauce.

Top with parmesan.

Enjoy!

Picture taken from Canoe website.

I usually like to go with the tasting menu if one is offered but in this case, it didn’t really appeal to me. The meat course was chicken (why would they do that?) and two of the courses featured ingredients I was allergic to. Instead I just ordered off the menu. On the topic of allergies though, the kitchen and the wait staff were all very accommodating when I told them I was allergic to certain nuts. They let me know I could get anything without them and advised me of any item where there could be cross-contamination.

To start off I had a Canoe champagne cocktail – orange vodka, grand marnier, champagne, bitters and dried cranberries. It was great, and I loved watching the bubbles play with the cranberries (simple joys).

For my appetizer I had the Clover Roads duck “tongue to tail”. This was delightful. It was plated on a charcuterie board and featured many different parts and preparations of duck. The duck breast was wonderful and cooked to a perfect rare. There were thin slivers of duck heart, fried duck tongue, rilettes, and a great foie gras pate served on a pumpkin muffin. The pickled accompaniments and dots of reduced balsamic enhanced each bite.

This is the pan-seared Quebec Foie Gras, which was also very nice (I’ve rarely met a seared foie gras I didn’t enjoy). It was served with brioche, as is the norm. The special touch on this dish were the peanuts and blueberry compote, which combined together for a PB&J experience.

For my main I did something I rarely do and ordered fish instead of red meat. I got the Blue Arctic Char, served with zucchini, sweet corn, wild rice and pickled bitter melon. Everything was great. The fish had a nice, crispy sear on it. The sweet corn really enhanced the wild rice and the pickled melon added a nice sourness that balanced everything.

This is the 45-day aged Rib Eye. It came with roasted carrots, portobello pickles, layered potatoes and smoked mustard aioli. The steak was delicious, but my favourite part of this dish was the layered potatoes. A really easy way to win me over is to give me a fancy potato preparation and let me soak it in steak jus.

For dessert I had the butter tart (the picture is taken from a funny angle to try to hide the fact that I dug right in before remembering to take a pic). I had to go without the chocolate covered pecans. I love a good butter tart. This was a great one. Very sweet but so perfectly textured and rich, with amazing, crumbly crust. This was served with smoked vanilla ice cream and a coffee cream mousse.

Someone else also dug into his dessert before taking a picture. This is the freshly churned ice creams. The flavors were watermelon, blueberry, and … I don’t remember. Toffee, maybe? They were good, but ice cream isn’t a particularly exciting dessert to me.

Overall, going to Canoe was a very good experience. The food was immaculately prepared, the flavours were great, and the atmosphere and service were very inviting. My favourite dish of the night was the duck appetizer, it had so many wonderfully different tastes, textures and presentations.

Ingredients

1 package of Pasta

Topping
4-5 slices of thick cut bacon or pancetta, cubed
3-4 slices of bread
2 tbsp butter

Sauce
2 cups milk
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp butter
2 cups of grated cheese
salt
pepper
chili powder

I like  to use a few different kinds of cheese to make this. This time I used old cheddar, gouda, parmesan and asiago. You can use any type of short cut pasta you like.

Directions

Grate all the cheese. If you can, find a helper so your arms don’t get so tired. Put the cheese out of sight so you don’t eat it all while prepping the other ingredients.

Cut your bacon/pancetta into cubes (or buy it pre-cut like I did). Cook it over medium heat until it browns. Once it’s done, transfer to a separate bowl. Do not get rid of the fat left in the pan.

Cut the bread into cubes. I’ve used everything from french bread to light rye to make these. It’s best if the bread is a day or two old, if it’s too fresh it’s harder to work with. Toss a couple of tablespoons of butter into the skillet you used for the bacon (which should still have bacon fat in it). Let it melt, then toss in the bread. Make sure the bread gets fairly evenly coated then fry until it’s a nice golden colour.

The bacon and croutons can be cooked a bit in advance if you want to do that. Let your pasta cook while you’re doing the next few steps. I generally boil it for 1 minute less than the time recommended on the packaging, since it will cook some more in the oven.

Now it’s time to make the sauce. Heat the milk in a small saucepan. In a separate, large pot or deep pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter. Heat the butter until it starts bubbling. Once it’s bubbling start adding the flour, and whisk away! After about a minute, slowly pour the hot milk into the butter/flour mixture. Keep whisking until it starts thickening, then remove the pan from the heat.

Add in 3/4 of the grated cheese and mix until smooth. Add salt, pepper and chili powder to taste.

Your pasta should be cooked and strained by now. Add it to the pot with the sauce and mix around to ensure all the pasta gets coated. (This is why you needed to use such a big pot).

Pour the pasta into a greased baking dish.

Add the bacon and croutons on top, followed by the remainder of the cheese.

Cook in the oven at 375°F for 25 minutes.

Let it cool for a few minutes, then serve. Enjoy!

Last month, for my second birthday dinner I went to Seattle and my boyfriend took me to The Herbfarm. The restaurant focuses on food and wine local to the Pacific Northwest and has a different theme for dinners every few weeks. The theme while we were there was Indian Summer, which combined the best of ingredients available in the summer and the fall.

A meal at The Herbfarm is an experience. They only have one dinner seating per night and everyone is served each of their nine courses at the same time. The entire meal takes at least 4 hours, so be prepared. When we first arrived we were given cocktails and a tour around the property. One of the proprietors showed us the herb gardens and explained how each of the herbs we were seeing (and got to taste too) would be incorporated into the night’s meal. It was informative, though it was a little chilly out and I found myself wanting to go inside and warm up before the tour was over.

When we finally got to go inside, the interior was cozy and the decor was very eclectic. I guess you could call it country charm. The place settings were all nicely made up and I loved that they had mini menus on every plate along with a sprig of herbs. I even got a little birthday souvenir. The best thing about the dining room was the big, open kitchen at the front. I like to be able to watch the chefs work.

The first course was Pacific Spot Prawn pipes with heritage tomatoes, hermiston melons, lovage droplets and mint. This was served with Treveri Cellars sparkling Gewürztraminer.

The prawn pipes were great – the prawn mixture was fresh and creamy, piped into a light and crispy shell. The acidity of the tomatoes and the sweetness of the melons were a nice accent. This definitely whet my appetite for the meal to come.

After the first course there was a bit of a break where the proprietors talked a little more about the restaurant and introduced the entire staff. The chef and sommelier gave us a rundown of the food and wines we’d be enjoying throughout the evening, which I really enjoyed. I like having the opportunity to learn more about the food I’m eating.

The second course was smoked Pacific black cod, poached and crispy leek, pickled radish and lemon thyme with wild matsutake mushroom sauce. This was served with Ponzi Vineyards Arneis.

The cod was cooked perfectly. I just had to apply light pressure with my fork and it separated into beautiful flakes. The mushroom sauce was milder than I expected it to be, but was nonetheless a great accompaniment to the fish. The crispy leeks were a great garnish.

Around the second course was the first time that bread was brought out. There were three different breads, each of which was very good. But the best thing – the butter. Housemade Holstein cow butter, churned daily. I have never tasted butter so good. Generally I don’t eat much bread in restaurants because I want to save my somewhat limited appetite for the real food, but in this case I ate 3 slices of bread just so I could eat more of this butter.

The third course was corn arancini, roasted chanterelles, marjoram-glazed zucchini, heritage pig prosciutto, shaved sheep milk cheese and pickled shallot scapes. This was served with Sparkman Cellars Chardonnay.

There was a lot going on in this plate, but it worked. The arancini was well executed – crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. It was a bit of a struggle to get a forkful with all the components of the dish, but it was worth it when I did. The flavours melded together beautifully.

The fourth course was wood rotisserie squab breast with toasted pumpkin seed granola, sage-caramelized squash and grape must sauce. This was served with Tranche Cellars Barbera.

This was my favourite course of the night. The squab was amazing – so moist and tender, perfectly cooked. At first I was a little puzzled by the granola component of the dish, but it turned out to be really tasty and added great texture. What made the dish was the grape must sauce. Must is the juice pressed from grapes before it is fermented to make wine. They turned this into an amazingly robust and complex sauce that complemented the squab so well. Taking a slice of squab, dipping it in the sauce and covering it with a little of the granola was divine. When I was done with all the food on the plate I used my bread to soak up every last bit of the sauce. I really don’t have enough words to describe how good this was.

The fifth course was a duo of Snoqualmie Valley lamb – a shoulder crepinette and a grilled loin. It was served with caramelized fennel, grilled romaine, shell bean purée, beans and onion jus with thyme oil. The wine was Darby Winery’s “Aunt Lee” Syrah.

This is the only course that I wasn’t thrilled with, which is unfortunate since lamb is one of my favourite meats. The loin was cooked and seasoned nicely, but it just didn’t have that strong lamb taste that I like. The crepinette was a bit dry, and I also found the flavour of that a little bit lacking.

The sixth course was a soft ripened cow & sheep’s milk cheese, Okanagon peach with rosemary-honey vinaigrette and toasted brioche.

Creamy cheese, juicy peaches and buttery brioche. Simple, but delicious.

The seventh course was raspberry sorbet with red pepper gelee and lemon verbena.

The use of red pepper gelee in this was unexpected, but I really liked it. I thought the hints of spiciness complemented the sweet tartness of the raspberry really well.

The eighth course was an apple bourbon cake with brandy snap tuille, salted caramel mousse and caramel cream.

This was tasty but I was expecting more caramel flavour in this. I did quite like the different layers and textures though. The ‘floating’ brandy snap tuille was especially good.

The ninth course was a selection of sweets and herbal teas. It was served with a late harvest Gewürztraminer, though I’m not a fan of sweet wines so I got another glass of the sparkling that was served with the first course.

By the time we got around to the ninth course I was rather full. I tried the rose geranium dark chocolate and the white chocolate dipped ground cherry. They were both good. The Herbfarm had a great selection of teas and infusions, and the one I had (which I can’t remember the name of) was excellent.

The Herbfarm served one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Seven of the nine courses were excellent, and the squab dish was one of the best things I’ve tasted. The service was also great. Every server was friendly and attentive. The sommelier, Joey Lopaka, stopped by our table a few times and answered any questions we had about the wines or why they chose certain glass shapes. The chef, Chris Weber, also stopped by our table at the end of the meal to make sure we had enjoyed everything (and got to listen to me gush about the grape must sauce).

The problem with The Herbfarm? They’ve got me hooked and since the meal themes change so often I want to go back every two weeks so I can experience them all.

If you’re in the area, The Herbfarm is definitely worth the trip.

Last month was my birthday. My mom and I share a birthday, and her husband took us to Pangaea to celebrate.

The interior of the restaurant is quite nice. The decor is rather simple – neutral colours with wooden chairs and pale hardwood floors. I liked the artwork, which reminded me of a trip to the cottage in the fall.

I’m not really happy with the quality of the pictures, sadly, so I don’t have a lot of them to post.

We started our meal with oysters. They had a rather extensive selection on the menu, but unfortunately, only had one East coast and one West coast type at a time. I was a little bit disappointed by this. Why list things on the menu that you aren’t going to serve? The Kusshi oysters I really wanted weren’t available, so we took a half dozen from each coast. They were quite good and very fresh. They were served with lemon, fresh grated horseradish and a red wine mignonette. I particularly liked the West coast ones with both the horseradish and the mignonette.

For my main course (I skipped appetizers) I had the lamb duo of chop and confit shoulder. It was served with farm potatos, squash and tomatos. I love lamb, and this was great. It was very moist and tender, cooked perfectly.

I was quite full after my lamb (and after all the brithday martinis and glasses of wine) so I went with sorbet for dessert. They were all fruit flavoured and they were nice and tart, just how I like my sorbet.

My mom ordered the warm citrus doughnuts for dessert, which we split among the table. These were excellent, probably my favourite part of the meal. The doughnuts were filled with ricotta and rolled in sugar. They were so warm and soft. They came with cardamom and orange shakes, served in shot glasses. Together, they were delightful.

This is the salted caramel and chocolate cake. I didn’t try it, but I wanted to post the picture because of how delectable it looks.

I really enjoyed my birthday dinner at Pangaea. The food and service were both excellent.

The restaurant was attractive and cozy, with plush red decor. The wait staff was very attentive and friendly. For our meal we went with the 5 course menu degustation, which was served with wine pairings.

The amuse bouche was a cold gazpacho. It was very refreshing, with just the right kick of spice at the end. This was blended quite smooth, while I usually prefer a chunkier texture, but I still found this very enjoyable.

The first course was a roulade of duck foie gras, served with a plum gelee. This was the best cold foie gras dish I had in Paris. It was smooth and rich. The gelee at the bottom of the plate added a touch of sweetness while the crust around the roulade added some extra texture.

The 2nd course was John Dory or, as it’s called in France, St. Pierre. Generally the fish course is not the one I’m most excited about, but this was my favourite dish of the night. The fish itself was very flavourful and buttery and I loved the crispy skin that was left on. The tomato with pesto served with it was also excellent.

The 3rd course was veal with in-season vegetables. The veal was cooked perfectly for my tastes. The vegetables very good – the carrots were especially sweet, I wish I got more of them.

The 4th course was the cheese course and I really should have written down what kind of cheeses they were as now I completely forget. They were both good, though I preferred the softer one. I mostly skipped the jam it was served with, but did appreciate the reduced balsamic that was used as a decorative flourish.

Dessert was chocolate mousse with pistachios, served in a chocolate cup. The mousse was rich and smooth, but not too sweet. I really liked the pistachios in this dish, they gave some much-needed crunch and cut the richness of the mousse. My only complaint is that I would have liked more pistachios, I seemed to go through them quickly and my last bites of the dessert didn’t have any.

The last plate served was a few pastries – madeleines and caneles. I find madeleines a bit boring, so I only had a bite of one. The canele on the other hand, I really liked. I had never had one before and I enjoyed the crisp outside and the custardy inside.

At the end of the night the chef came to our table to ask how we liked the meal and how we were enjoying Paris, which I loved. As a patron, it really makes me feel appreciated when the chef comes out of the kitchen to make sure I enjoyed their food. It ends the meal on the right note.

Overall, Le Petit Bordelais was excellent. The food and wines were great, the John Dory was exceptionally good, and the atmosphere and friendliness of the staff added to the experience. I highly recommend it and would definitely go back myself if I’m ever in Paris again.

One of my favourite things about Paris was how there was always a great market within walking distance that had an amazing variety of cheeses, breads, fruits and meats to choose from. The first day I was there we went to the outdoor market at the Bastille, which was great (I wish I had taken pictures). Picking up baguette, ham and different cheeses to eat on the balcony of the apartment with a glass of wine was just as enjoyable as going to a fancy restaurant. Above is a plate of baguette, chevre, camembert, manchego and ham from both Serrano and Parma.

Le Jules Verne

Can’t go to Paris without visiting the Eiffel Tower and while we were there we made a trip to Le Jules Verne located in the tower, 125 meters off the ground. We had a window-side table with a great view of the Seine. The food was excellent. My one complaint is that the lighting was terrible so I have no good pictures of the excellent food.

I had foie gras pate with apricots to start, veal as my main course and a beautiful fruit tart for dessert. My veal was very good, but what really made the meal was the mushrooms and the jus around the plate.

This was not my meal, but I had to talk about what came with it. See that perfect, golden puff perched atop the steak and foie gras? That is a souffled potato. It’s basically a fried wafer of potato, puffed with air. We got a whole basket of them. Dipping them in my veal jus was divine.

Au Petit Sud Ouest

Looking through the restaurant reviews on Trip Advisor, I came across a place called Au Petit Sud Ouest. It had fantastic reviews and the restaurant specialized in duck. We took a chance and went there without making reservations and were pleasantly surprised to be seated right away.

I love foie gras and I ordered it pretty much everywhere that offered it. I prefer it seared but most of the foie gras I encountered was served cold, like pate. I finally got what I really wanted at Au Petit Sud Ouest. Above is the most gigantic serving of foie gras I’ve ever seen, served with black truffle sauce. Luckily I was sharing the plate, so I didn’t have a coronary after I finished. It was so rich and melted in my mouth. It was served with bread (each of the tables had a toaster so you could toast it yourself), but I preferred it on its own. So decadent.

What’s a vacation without some indulgence? The huge amount of fried duck liver wasn’t enough for me so I followed it up with Duck Confit, which is basically duck leg poached in its own fat. I regret nothing.

Tentazioni

I find it amusing that my favourite meal in Paris wasn’t French, but Italian. I also find it amusing that my favourite meal in Paris was the least expensive one (that never happens!) Tentazioni is a cute, family run restaurant in Montmartre. It was tiny – the restaurant had only 8 2-person tables. Through some amazing stroke of luck, we got seated without a reservation, after a short wait.

To start, I had a Caprese salad. This has always been one of my favourite salads and this one was the best I’ve had. The tomatoes and basil were sweet and fresh, but the real star was the buffalo mozzarella. It was so soft, so creamy, it must have been made only a few hours before.

For my main course I had mushroom ravioli. It was great. The ravioli was filled with mushrooms and ricotta (I believe) and was tasty and perfectly cooked. I really liked that the sauce covering the pasta was sparse. The food at Tentazioni  really showed that simple preparations of excellent ingredients made for amazing food.

Before this I had never eaten a gnocchi dish I enjoyed. This gnocchi was fantastic. The texture was good and the pesto was great – really fresh and flavorful and just the right amount of saltiness.

As great as everything else was, dessert was the star of the meal. I had the best tiramisu I’ve ever eaten.

First, I love the way it was served. It was in a small terracotta dish, so it was very thin, as opposed to many of the taller tiramisus I have seen. The savoiardi were tiny, and I’m certain made fresh in the restaurant. The coffee, cocoa and  liquor flavours were perfect. The most amazing thing about it was how wonderfully creamy it was. I had never had a tiramisu quite like this before and I could have eaten a second helping. I must figure out how to reproduce this recipe.

Yum.

That’s just some of the amazing food I had in Paris. I’ve got one more Paris post coming up – a review of the tasting menu at Le Petit Bordelais.

Morning in Muskoka, Ontario on the last day of the 6th annual James Fund Retreat for families of children with neuroblastoma.