My Favorite Kind of Sunday

The Twitterverse is all atwitter {insert slow clap} about the Super Bowl and Madonna's upcoming halftime show, but I will be missing every last bit of it. Why? Because Ken and I recently rearranged our living room and now the television is located in a spot where its chord can no longer reach the cable-plug. It's an admittedly stupid arrangement, but getting it there was a lot of work and, you know, we're kinda-sorta lazy. 

But! All is not lost on this lovely Sunday. It's been a pretty darn good day so far and I'm positive its goodness will carry-on into the evening, while everyone else is watching the Super Bowl and rooting for...er... who's playing again? (Pathetically, I'm not even joking.) 

Here is a rundown of our little Sunday so far:

Brunch at Sadie's Diner...

(Their buckwheat pancakes are amazing!)

A leisurely stroll to the pet store to stock-up on Bubba-supplies...

(See him licking his chops in anticipation? He's a pig disguised as an unfriendly dog.)

 ...followed by a not-so-leisurely stroll to the dog park...

 (A year of consistent obedience training and he still tries to hang himself on the leash when he gets excited.)

Falling asleep in front of the window after "boofing" at all the people passing by, nine stories below us...

(I should note that Ken had nothing to do with the "boofing".) 

And now Ken is making his specialty-dinner (spaghetti, sans sausage this time... thank God) and I'm pretty sure we're going to enjoy eating it in front of a blank television screen. (The imagination does wonders.)

Who needs the Super Bowl on Sundays like these? Not me, I tell you. 

(Although I may try to stream the halftime show....)

Food Failure

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to cook more and eat out less. (Why do I even bother?) So, here we are, well into winter in Toronto-land and we're getting a little bored of being cooped-up inside all the time due to the cold.  In order to remedy our bored-ness and winter-blues, we're doing what we did last year: We're eating. A lot. And--wouldn't you know--the food we're eating is usually of the nearby-restaurant variety. 

And just like that: my resolution of cooking all of our meals at home has flown right out the window. 

Usually the weekend is the most tempting time for us to go out for a bite, as laziness is just what we do on weekends. This past weekend was, of course, no exception. On Saturday, we went to Kensington Market to grab some of the best Korean food the city has to offer (in our opinion) at Ka Chi. 

Ken had his usual bibimbap and I had the doenjang jjigae. It was worth every bite and penny. (I've been away from Korea long enough to start enjoying the food again and not feeling the urge to gag whenever I lay eyes on a bowl of kimchi.)

 After we had Korean, we decided that now we would take our resolution seriously. Since we were already in Kensington, we thought it would be a good idea to do some grocery shopping so we wouldn't be tempted to go out to eat again the next day.

 We were successful in our grocery shopping, but we failed miserably in our resolution yet again on Sunday...

...when we decided to try the new gourmet grilled cheese place that just opened up the street from us a couple of weeks ago. Yes. Gourmet grilled cheese. And, in case you were wondering, I had the "Toronto" grilled cheese (which included two "sliders" from neighborhoods of my choice) and Ken had the "Beijing" grilled cheese. Both were amazing and I really hate (love) that this place is so close to our building. 

Number of restaurant outings this weekend? Two. Number of grocery shopping sprees? One. Number of meals cooked at home? Zero. (Unless you count breakfasts, but throwing bread in the toaster doesn't really count, does it?)

We're weak, weak people.

Apple Pie (and other things)

I have an insane sweet tooth and I love to bake. (Juuust in case you were wondering.)

I especially love pie and I'm always looking for an excuse to bake one, but rarely have such an occasion. As it turns out, I chose a wonderful husband who doesn't have a sweet tooth whatsoever (the horror), so if I bake a pie I'm solely responsible for its consumption. (That's not to say I haven't baked loads of goodies without rhyme or reason since we've been married; I just try not to make a habit out of it... unless of course you count oatmeal chocolate chip cookies which are a regular part of my unbalanced diet.) 

Anyway, Canadian Thanksgiving was last Monday and what better excuse could I have to make a pie? None, I tell you. Since we stocked up on apples at a farmer's market the previous week, apple was the pie of choice. I enthusiastically went about throwing the whole thing together the morning of Thanksgiving and pulled it out of the oven just before leaving to have Thanksgiving dinner with Ken's family. 

One word described that pie:

Ugly. 

Lumpy, oozy and slightly burnt around the edges. And see my lovely attempt at pie design? 

(It was supposed to be a palm tree.)

On the bright side, it tasted pretty good so I think I have future potential in the pie-baking department. I just need a little more practice and maybe a new husband who likes sugar. 

On an entirely different note, the above picture is in black and white because I was trying to disguise half of my face. Yes, half of it. I had a couple of moles (literally) burned off of my right cheek only days before by a dermatologist, and the procedure left my face in a sore mess. I don't have much in the line of photoshop skills, so when I tried to erase my big ol' wounds in color, this is what I ended up with: 

(Don't mind the crazy eyes.)

It was a slight improvement from what my cheek actually looked like last week, but not by much. (I'll spare you the unedited photos, as the majority of the right side of my face was pretty icky looking.)

Sometimes Life Calls For Really Good Food...

...even if it's a bit on the pricey side.

Both Ken and I had a pretty long and stressful week last week, so when we woke up on Saturday morning to overcast skies and a pressure in the air that proceeds a storm--making it almost unbearable to be outside, we were thrown into the mental pit of despair.

To make matters worse, our air-conditioning stopped working in the middle of the night on Friday and it wasn't up and running again until much later in the day yesterday. Air-conditioning (or the lack thereof) ain't-no-thang if you have at least one fan in your possession.... But we don't. So we were both hot and miserable, and given yesterday's hot, headache-inducing weather, going outside provided little to no relief.

We were sad and uncomfortable, and we needed some comfort food and an escape from our warm, sticky apartment (and from our puppy who was completely unaffected by the weather and positively bouncing off the walls).

So we went for Italian food at CaFfinO in Liberty Village. It was the best mistake we've ever made.

The first reason I say it was a "mistake" is because we were both feeling melancholy and felt like we deserved an appetizer and a bottle of pinot noir to go with our comfort dinner. Hey, when in Rome, right? (The prices at CaFfinO are fairly reasonable, but we went a little overboard.... And it was so worth it.) 

The bruschetta was the best we've had. Ever. 

I don't know what Ken ordered (I was too focused on my own menu-decision to notice) and Ken doesn't remember what it was called. He declared on a number of occasions, however, that it was the best pasta dish he ever had. Side note: His pose in the above picture was intentional, although I don't know exactly what he was going for. (He doesn't know, either.)

I've been on a gnocchi kick lately (even though my pronunciation of the word is always horribly incorrect), so I ordered the homemade gnocchi. And guess what? It was the best I ever had! (Noticing a trend here?)

The second reason I said going to this place was a "mistake" is, not only is the food amazing, but the atmosphere is very Italian, very quaint and, yes, a bit on the romantic side. Ooh-la-la.

We learned after chatting with our friendly server that CaFfinO has been around for over 15 years, but it's a new and extremely dangerous discovery for us. Why? Because we're kind of in love with this place and it's only a twenty-minute stroll from where we live.

Dear Bank Account: Get ready to take a couple of hits before the summer is over.

Summer Randomness

I noticed the other day as I was uploading our Muskoka pictures into iPhoto that I have loads of unpublished, uneventful pictures I've taken over the summer. Since I don't have a Facebook account on which to dump all of them, I figured, hey, why not throw them up on the ol' blog? The internet is all about shameless self-indulgence anyway, right? Of course.

So, here it is: A load of picture-vomit from my summer, along with commentary. (Let the randomness from my camera begin....)

One.

One of the greatest things about owning a dog in this city is the excuse it gives you to hang out in the dog park. I realize that statement makes me sound like a creepy dog-stalker, but I'm not talking about just any old dog park here. I'm talking about the Lakeshore dog park. We've racked up countless hours there this summer. This lovely little park is a perfect place in the city to find some peace and quiet (if you don't count the dogs howling), to bring a book along, to get some sun, and to let Bubba go wild. (He does.) We even had a front row seat to see the Canada Day fireworks over Lake Ontario, thanks to this park. (A lot of people didn't think to bring their dogs along for the show, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and Bubba was our ticket. Happy Canada Day, indeed.)

Two.

Playing Scrabble is fun, but not as fun as it is when you're sitting on the cute little patio of your favorite little cafe (Tequila Bookworm, which I once mentioned in a previous post). It's a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon... which is pretty much every Sunday afternoon around here.

Three.

Avocados are not cheap, right? So you can imagine my disgust when I cut into one about a month ago only to discover an avocado pit the size of a baseball lodged inside of it. (In case you aren't all too familiar with avocado pits, the second picture shows you what an avocado pit should look like. Uhhh, yeah.) I actually contemplated taking it back to the market simply to say, "Are you kidding me?" but decided against it, as such an action would make me one of "those customers" who everyone loves to hate. So I sadly made do with the tablespoon of avocado I managed to scrape out of the pathetic thing and had a very small batch of guacamole to show for it.

Four.

We've spent a few too many lunches this summer eating at The One That Got Away, a super yummy fish and chips place that opened up way too close to our condo building a few months ago. (I'm partially blaming this place for the 8 pounds I've gained in the past year.... I hate you, you stupid, delicious place.)

Five.

Random pictures we apparently took right after our outing to the fish and chips place. Yeah, no reason.

Six.

I discovered heirloom tomatoes this summer and I've decided they are simply the best. I mean, really, can you tell me this isn't the most beautiful tomato you've ever seen? Plus, these babies taste far better than the hybrid tomatoes we usually find in stores. Maybe it's all in my head, but whatever makes the old taste buds (and extra pounds) happy.

Seven.

These are just a couple of random Muskoka leftovers. (No, I didn't eat the berries, but I wish I had.)

Eight.

Bubba has been intent upon ruining any picture we try to take with him lately. These are some lovely examples.  

Yes, I'm really starting to believe it's intentional. 

And since we're on the topic of Bubba, do you remember this sad, sad day? I just found it in my photo album and it made me laugh a little bit (which no doubt makes me an evil person). 

Oohhh February...

2011 thus far has been filled with lots of snowy, freezing-your-face-off kinds of days and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a hardcore case of February Blues at the moment. (February is my most dreaded month of the year because I'm so, so over winter by this point.... If I see one more snowflake I might throw up in disgust.)

In order to keep our spirits up during this time of brutal weather, Ken and I resolved to bundle up and venture out to visit a new restaurant and/or coffee shop at least once a week, just to give us something to look forward to every now and then and to help us enjoy life in Toronto (in spite of it being an icier version of hell on earth). We've found a number of gems during our new weekly assignment, and most of them are a stone's throw away from our living room window (which is dangerous for our wallets during those lazy, I-don't-feel-like-cooking days... which are frequent). Here are a few of our recent discoveries:

Korean Food. Wha--?

It's been almost a year since we left Korea and I hadn't the slightest craving for anything even remotely Korean... until a few weeks ago.

Thankfully, we only had to walk a few blocks to Korea Town where we were met with Kimbop-Chungoos galore to satisfy such random cravings. (Although the mounds of snow piled on the sidewalk made the walk long and treacherous and perhaps not totally worth it.)

It was a yummy dinner that made my little heart miss Korea a teensy bit. I was also pleasantly reminded that Korean makes for really great winter food (the red pepper paste is particularly... warming, if nothing else). Would you believe we actually devoured four bowls of kimchi? I never thought I'd live to see the day.... Suffice it to say, we've now had our Korean-food-fill for the next year.

Burgers.  Not just any burgers, mind you. Craft Burgers. 

Organic, fancy-shmancy deliciousness. (I tried my burger with avocado, gorgonzola cheese, and rosemary-garlic mayonnaise... aaaand my mouth is watering at the very memory.) 

This place is amazing and I'm pretty sure it's the best burger I've ever had. What's even more amazing? It's literally a two-minute walk from our apartment. (Dangerously convenient.)

Coffee. I'd been moaning and groaning about the lack of good coffee shops in our area for the past nine months of living here only to discover there's a great place five minutes up the street (and I won't be winning any awards for my observation skills).  

Tiny, artsy and maybe the best macchiato I've ever had. They also have a stack of magazines and board games available for their patrons, which I thought was a nice little touch. (I'm going to make this place my Saturday morning ritual.) 

We've been to a few more mentionable places over the past couple of weeks but we forgot to haul our camera along for those excursions, and because a picture is worth a thousand words (and because we now have a camera worth using) I'll provide more on the subject another time. 

As for the rest of our free time during these awful winter months: It's been spent watching lots of movies and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (me, not Ken), wasting time on the computer, and playing lots of card games and board games.

 Some a little more thought-provoking than others....

As you can see, I'm running low on subject matter, so I shall also re-mention this little guy who is now occupying the rest of our free time:

We are in serious danger of becoming weird dog people, but it can't be helped. (To prove my point, here's a little Flickr album I created just for Bubba.)

He's had a number of naughty-as-heck moments this week, but he's really sweet most of the time.

Of course, it helps that he's really cute. (If he were ugly, he would have been thrown out the window days ago.)

That's all I've got, people. It's been a slow winter, but things are good... and boy am I ever looking forward to spring. 

Last Night...

After sundown last night, we spent a few hours wandering around the streets of Toronto, checking out art exhibits scattered throughout the city for Nuit Blanche. I've been looking forward to Nuit Blanche for a few weeks now, and although we saw a few interesting exhibits last night (fire torches activated by movement, interpretive dancers in interpretive costumes, light shows, etc.) and had a good time out and about in the city with good friends, I was a little disappointed in the overall event. I heard that last year's Nuit Blanche was far more entertaining with far more exhibitions and that this year's seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm, so I guess we just hit it at a bad time. But! I'm already feeling hopeful for next year's event. (Come on, Toronto!)

Sadly, the one "exhibit" we were most excited about seeing--the ghost subway station that has been closed to the public for over 40 years (with the exception of last night)--had a line of a few thousand people trailing out of its entrance by the time we found it. 

We had already walked a full 15 kilometers by this point (not even exaggerating), so the prospect of waiting in line on our feet in the icky, wet cold didn't seem like the most logical option at the time. So we opted to head home on the TTC, which in hindsight wasn't entirely logical either, as everyone in the city was feeling particularly festive last night and the number of overly intoxicated individuals on the subway far outweighed the number of non-intoxicated individuals (which isn't even remotely fun to deal with when you're stone cold sober).

Anyway, after bidding the Nuit Blanche madness adieu and upon returning safely to our cozy little abode, I flipped on my computer to search for some durable winter garb. That might seem entirely random, but I had my reasons: According to a digital thermometer on the sign of one of the banks we passed last night, it was 5 degrees celsius while we were traipsing around the city, and my flimsy Korean winter coat held up to its first weather challenge of the year like a champ.  But it occurred to me somewhere between Spadina and Yonge streets that as soon as real winter strikes, I'll probably end up freezing to death if I don't do a winter-wardrobe-upgrade (because--hey--5 degrees celsius isn't that cold and Lord knows come January, 5 degrees is going to feel like August). So, naturally, I turned to Urban Outfitters' website as soon as I got home and instantly fell in love with this coat:

It's cute, eh? But after oohing and ahhing over it, I realized it probably has the same kind of lining as my current coat and will therefore be just as useless for my daily walks to and from work in the midst of a Canadian winter. I then came to the sad realization that something like this one might be more practical:

But I don't want this one. *sigh* Why can't cute and practical work together to keep me alive this winter? I'm open to coat suggestions from those who know rough winters, by the by, so please share your tips if you have them....

And now moving on to salsa (the condiment). We had a few friends over for dinner last night prior to the Nuit Blanche festivities, and since Ken was feeling ill and I was feeling lazy, we opted for an easy-to-prepare menu: chicken tacos and chips and salsa. I decided to make my own salsa, sans a recipe, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm feeling so confident about it, in fact, that I've decided to share it here!

Green Salsa Recipe 

(the color was a bit of a surprise...)

• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• one small yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• one jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced (if you prefer milder salsa, don't throw in the whole jalapeno)
• one or two handfuls of fresh chopped cilantro (depending on your taste for cilantro)
• the juice of half a lemon
• three large tomatoes, quartered
• salt to taste

Put garlic, onion, and jalapeno pepper into a food processor and pulse it a few times until everything is chopped up. Add the cilantro and lemon juice and pulse again until cilantro leaves are itty bitty. Add the tomatoes and pulse until you're satisfied with the texture (I prefer it a little chunky, but I overdid it and it came out a little runny.... Noted for next time!) Add salt to taste and eat that business! (With tortilla chips, preferably.)

And there you have it. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but--as you can see above--I took a picture of a few of the ingredients prior to making the salsa for whatever reason. (I just don't have the mind of a photographer... or even of someone who likes to take pictures, because clearly I don't.)

And that's all I've got! Enjoy this overcast (in Toronto) Sunday afternoon. 

A full fridge and a new TV!

I overdid it. 

When we had people over for Friday night's birthday gathering, I thought it would be fun to make some snacks to go along with the pizza and cupcakes. After some consideration, I finally decided on guacamole and hummus served with veggies and chips. It should be noted, however, that I've never been a good judge of how much food to make for how many people, so we ended up with a lot of guacamole and hummus. We only had seven people over for the party, but I made enough to feed about a hundred. Of course, quite a bit of it was consumed at the party, but we still have enough guacamole/hummus/cupcake leftovers to feed an army.

In addition to Friday's haps, Ken's brothers, Craig and Dan, came over last night for dinner. We decided to order Indian food and, in our seemingly desperate hunger, ordered way, way, way too much. We had only made a tiny dent when all of us decided we were too stuffed to even look at the copious amounts of curries and samosas spread out in front of us. Naturally, it all ended up in the fridge. 

When I opened the fridge this morning to fetch some cream for my coffee, this is what I was met with:

These are all leftovers from this weekend alone. (Except the Omega 3 tablets.... Those have been in there for awhile, completely untouched.) I'm pretty sure most of this stuff has an expiry date that will be arriving long before we can even consider consuming any of it. Sweet Moses. What to do? 

To go along with our overflowing fridge, we now have an overflowing living room (in a totally good way). Ken's family generously gave him a new TV for his birthday, and its 32" fits our living room beautifully. 

(I'm pretty sure this is the model we ended up with.)

I haven't had a TV in nearly two years, so this is definitely noteworthy news. I'm excited to start watching movies on a proper screen, instead of our little 13" computer screens (even though they did their jobs well). 

And that's all. Have a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Tidbits

I stealthily threw a birthday party for Ken last night. It was small, fun, and there was hardly any mention of 30 being the new 20.

We started the night at our apartment with a pizza party (courtesy of Domino's), followed by an intense game of Catchphrase, and, of course, it all ended at the noraebang where three hours of some serious tune-belting transpired. T'was a great night and I think Ken enjoyed it thoroughly, in spite of himself. Of course, I forgot to take any pictures, so the night went completely undocumented.

I did, however, follow through with my plan to make cupcakes for Ken's party and I remembered to take a picture of the finished product before tossing my camera back to its forgotten corner.

Here's the recipe:

Here's the outcome:

They aren't the most beautiful cupcakes in the world, but they just might be the tastiest! They're definitely the best cupcakes I've ever made and I plan on making them again for any occasion I deem worthy of cupcakes. (Mondays? Fridays? Two-month anniversary of living in Toronto?)

In today's news, I've decided I want to start learning to play the guitar again (I've been learning off and on for about 16 years and sure haven't accomplished much). Of course, I totally forgot to bring my guitar to Toronto with me and it's currently sitting in a closet in my parents' house... in Michigan. But thank goodness for friends who have guitars to spare! My friend, Jared, lent me his little blue guitar that he got for only $20 in Beijing a few years back. (Why didn't I see any $20 guitars when I was there?) It's a cute little thing, but it was in desperate need of a string-change, so I took it upon myself to do the job today. It's now leaning against the bookshelf in our living room with all new strings, two of which I put on backwards and another one I strung too tight (I'm waiting for it to go boinging off the guitar any second now).

Needless to say, I won't be playing it any time soon. And, yes, I'm incredibly annoyed with myself. At least it looks artsy sitting in our living room, right? *groan*

That's all for now. Ken will be arriving shortly with his brothers and a new TV in tow! Here's to more time-wasting!

Ken's Birthday is on Monday...

...and I've been strictly forbidden to do anything too birthday-ish for him. Whereas I've always basked in any limelight that may be given to me on my birthday, Ken just doesn't enjoy birthday shenanigans of any kind. Which I'm slowly learning to accept (even though I love planning birthday surprises).

It should be noted, however, that Ken's anti-birthday sentiment does not mean some noraebang madness won't ensue on or around his birthday this year. No, no. The noraebang is a must for anyone's birthday. (I think Ken agrees... deep down in his heart.)

I figured a birthday cake would be completely out of the question, as it likely falls under the "birthday-ish" category, but I'm thinking maybe birthday cupcakes could be an exception? They're a little more subtle, right? He's reluctantly agreed to indulge me there (but I don't think he will approve of me hauling them to the noraebang--candles and all--for his not birthday-ish outing). So, I'm going with it.

In pursuit of the perfect birthday cupcake recipe, I stumbled upon this gem of a website. I don't know who Ming is, but I think her cupcake ideas might be brilliant (I haven't tried them yet, so I can't say for sure). This is the one I think I've decided on:

But I really can't make up my mind. There are just too many to choose from, and my sweet tooth is telling me I should try all of them. You know... because it is Ken's birthday, after all. 

Pictures of the final outcome will follow (if they aren't too hideous), and maybe I can sneak some birthday noraebang pictures in while I'm at it. And happy, early birthday to Ken! 

The Results of Boredom

Being unemployed is great on so many levels, but it can be pretty awful on just as many other levels. I waste a whole lot of time sleeping (my alarm is set for 10a.m.), poking around on the internet (hence the reason Facebook had to go), totally disregarding calories and/or food allergies (i.e. I'm eating a lot of crap), and overhauling blog layouts that were perfectly functional before I started changing pictures, fonts, and colors. But let's talk about how much fun I'm having in the meantime!

I've been cooking and baking up a storm over the past couple of weeks and I daresay domesticity is growing on me (you'll be able to see it in my waistline all too soon). I've yielded some repulsive results, some good results, and some amazing results--hence the above I'm-eating-a-lot-of-crap statement. My favorite kitchen adventures thus far? I'm glad you asked! Let's start with these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I've made twice already:

These cookies have been a smash hit at parties (or, should I say, a party), and I've proudly taken credit for their deliciousness... even though I didn't take any part in inventing them.

Number two on the favorite-kitchen-adventure list is this salsa fresca recipe that accompanies a pretty yummy huevos rancheros recipe (not pictured because it was too ugly):

We had the above-mentioned combo in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, along with Ken's homemade margaritas that would have been tasty had part of the faulty-tequila cork not fallen into the blender and into the mix.... 

Other favorite goods of late include this coconut red lentil soup we made tonight for dinner (highly recommended):

And, finally, this banana bread recipe that I forgot to take a picture of before demolishing it.

Ken has enjoyed cooking lately, too, and it appears he's finally warming up to my apron that he so hated when I first modeled it for him a few weeks ago:

In other news, Toronto has noraebangs! Remember the private karaoke rooms in Korea I was always raving about? Well, Toronto boasts a fairly large selection of noraebangs in Korea Town. Of course, Ken and I have already paid one of these fine establishments a visit (twice). We went last Friday night with our good friends, Kevin and Meaghan--who also just returned from Korea, and sang our hearts out to the tunes of Mika, Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga, The Beatles, and just about any other artist we recognized in the song books (actually recognizing the songs was of little importance). 

 (We were really excited to be there.)

When we were finished singing and could no longer speak, we headed out and noticed a sign on the noraebang's door that read: "Unlimited singing time for the price of one hour, Monday--Wednesday before 9p.m." Seriously? To an unemployed Ken and Liz, there couldn't be better news! (Unless they actually offered us jobs.) I think it goes without saying that, from here on out, we'll be living at the noraebang.