This. Looks. Delicious.

THIS!

And equally delicious...:

...NYC hotel...

...surprise birthday snail mail idea...

...cupcake food blog with huge visuals...

Is my conscience required to stay?

So I scheduled the whole weekend to tackle my assignments, knowing it'd be time consuming (resume revamping, writing about strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, a bio, character sketch, and an elevator pitch!) and naturally, I decided cooking and baking was a more pressing matter. Honestly, the best times to invite yourself over is when I'm avoiding something (which is often. and most likely assignments).

So what churned out of my kitchen over the weekend? Roasted sweet potato wedges,banana bread with cream cheese icing (my favourite so far), and some comfort food. No, not cut up hotdogs with ketchup! Much more sophisticated than that, thank you very much. Good ol' hamburger beef chunks marinated in Diana bbq and hot wing sauce. The sophisticated part being the caramelized onions. Heehee- And don't you dare judge me! I know you'll bring up my previous post about eating healthy, but clearly, you can see the huge bowl of salad that accompanied the beef! Clearly. I think I'm being extra beastly with my meat intake these days because I suspect major changes to come after reading Foer's Eating Animals. It honestly scares me to think that I will potentially quit not just meat, but also dairy products. But we'll see; I might be giving myself more credit and willpower than I'll actually be able to exercise. But back to the banana bread. The recipe I tried in the past was good but very dense. This one is more of a coffee/tea type of bread and it's round and shorter so there's more crunchy crusts to go around!

We've also had Korean lettuce-meat-wrap two nights in a row. This restaurant at Warden and Lawrence called Makkal Chon is affordable, the portions are generous, and just look at the vegetable variety! I love soft cabbage.

Went on a second mini antique road trip with Jules and it sucked! Since I know that nobody from Hamilton reads this blog, I'll just come out and say it—I didn't much like it there! However, we drove through a neighbourhood that's similar to our fancy schmancy Bridlepath 'hood, but with more character and beauty. Will post photos up another time...along with the promised pictures from the first trip.

The dogre and I also had a heated argument (one sided...me) when we got back. Basically, the property manager of this unit finally (I lost count of the number of viewings, mostly because they started doing open house!) scored a future tenant but then emailed the dogre late at night to tell us that they would be coming in the next morning to take measurements of the place. Well, I'm almost certain this is illegal. They had the right to do showings to acquire tenants and they have access to enter for maintenance/fix-ups; but they definitely can't just stroll in during our time, for which we paid for, to allow the upcoming tenant to take measurements! So I took issue with how it was legally wrong, and at the very least inconsiderately last minute, but I also took issue with the fact that the dogre was quick to bend over and take it. Especially when it was inconveniencing me as he wouldn't be home. I got into a whole schpew about principles and him not considering my viewpoints and our general lack of assertiveness with these kinds of things. It all boiled down to selecting the road with the least hiccups and ass-paining, as well as not wanting to add another item on his plate (which I wholeheartedly admitted was large and I've been trying to ease). Why am I telling you this? No clue...Just making conversation, you know? Geez. Maybe I'm documenting this to remind ourselves to be better to our own tenants, should we decide to go down that route. Or, maybe it's because I'm such a gossip that I've even resorted to airing out our own "dirty laundry" to friends and strangers alike. But most likely, it's to use as ammunition for a future spat! Hehe. Who knows. In any case, you're here reading it, so you're no better!

Oh, and I wasn't completely unproductive over the weekend—my resume now (barely) fits onto one page! Hoorah- It's actually very intimidating to draft a resume as an aspiring Graphic Designer...Have you seen samples!? Look here. And here.

By the by, most of my titles are pulled from songs. This one, which I really like, is from Baby Now by Nichole Alden, used here:

"Why is this happening to me!?"

So I may become the next Youtube sensation, found under the search "girl craps her pants at major intersection of Yonge and Bloor". Backtrack; I'm having the root canal procedure (along with prep work and temporary crowning on two teeth. costing about $3500) on Friday morning. This means I'll be heavily sedated from Thursday night onwards to ease my anxiety—I'll even be wheelchaired home (I'm a dentophobe so we're going all out and sparing no expenses, as I've opted for the fancifully titled "conscious sedation". believe-you-me, I need this! I've experienced multiple wisdom teeth/root canal procedures gone wrong while fully alert. I clenched my fists, crossed my legs and toes, and had to control myself from shrieking or crying). Enter, potential Youtube fame. I've never been on mood altering medication before and fear the worst behaviour possible...Maybe I'll call the dogre by the name of an old flame, or maybe I'll crap my pants. Or, maybe I'll crap my pants and then ask the dogre, addressing him by the wrong name, to clean me up. Of course, he wouldn't be so cruel to post that up on the internet...But, we're definitely interested in videotaping the aftereffects, as we predict it'll be memorable (and also? we've only used our fancy camcorder three times and we're feeling guilty)! Onto happier things. Like, looking at a photo of the new place!

We had to wear hard hats and steel toed boots for the inspection. Unfortunately, I wore mocs that day and had to stick my bare feet into foreign boots...Disgusting.

The dogre's eldest sister, who was a shopaholic and worked at Aritzia (a dangerous combination), moved to Vancouver last year and returned for a week to attend a wedding. Why do you care? Because, mon friend, after she packed up to return, she then let finn and I raid her leftovers! I'm the happy owner of pre-loved Aritzia pieces (including beautifully gray $200+ jeans), belts, and jewelry. Le sigh. What else, what else...

We changed vets. Our previous vet was incompetent. Example: Rocky chews and licks his paws a lot, which can indicate allergies. We took him and paid $80 for them to do some allergy test but never received a followup. Later, we asked what the results were and the jerk claimed we had never done such a test! Our first impression of the new vet was all sorts of positive. All staff members were professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. They were straightforward with costs and concerns, addressing all of our questions and showing a genuine interest in Rocky. It was very apparent that they were animal lovers! We'll be taking Mia in for a checkup after the move. Oh, and Rocky is a healthy, healthy boy! Next, food.

Miga, a Korean BBQ house, is fairly new and on the pricier side (targeted towards non-Koreans, we think). But, the quality makes up for the the higher price! My belly sang a sweet, sweet love song to my tastebuds all night long. New recipe of the week:

My first attempt at a lemon poppy seed loaf. A success story, really! Recipe here.

For Mother's Day festivities, we had burgers with the cousins, sans the dogre's mom. We had Greek with my mom but it was less impressive so no photo proof here.

This is what happens when the dogre works an evening shift. Random, lonesome dinners consisting of leftovers straight out of the tupperware or a bowl of cubed apples and feta cheese, drizzled in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. In bed. In front of the laptop or book. Tasty, but sad.

As revenge, the dogre has been appointed the role of Box Hunter. Where there are poo-stinky cardboard boxes, there is the dogre! Seastar and Mr. L play x-rated Monopoly.

Looking forward to a mini road trip with my cousin. We'll be checking out antique shops in the countryside. Will post any good finds we score. Hopefully, will not post while medicated and write regrettable things. I've already asked the dogre to hide away phones and computers. Side note, Vampire Diaries is juicier than ever! Cannot wait for the season finale (this Thursday). No more shame! Just pure enjoyment.

I shall leave you with something that made the inner typography lover in me giggle, years before I had chosen such a path. The Font Conference:

Lightning don't strike twice / Unless the topic is dentist and the dogress' oral health.

Ahh, pistachio gelato! An indication of summer to come. The weather's been unfriendly these past few days. Maybe it's a reflection of my miserable physical state. More on that later. Because I know you care. You do care, right? Good, so tonight it'll be a sandwich-style post: fluffy happy carbs around rotten, disgusting, despicable meat. So, let's begin.

Happy carbs—a beautiful wooden cake stand, as seen on ohjoy.blogs.com...

Happy carbs—we finally "cashed in" our large plastic bag full of coins at a nearby Canadian Tire. Sure, they took a nine percent cut, but we still skipped away with about fifty buckaroos!

Happy carbs—in all likelihood, we'll be sleeping in the new casa come May 29! Yep! The contractors didn't go on strike, home inspection is next week (so nervous and excited), money, paper work, and key(!) exchanges on the 28th, and move in by the 29th. We just need to book the elevator at our current building and hire movers. Feels surreal. I know I was all ambitious about re-painting our walls gray, putting up a chalkboard wall in the bedroom, and personalizing hardware pieces (switch plates, knobs, hooks, hangers, you name it!) but we'll likely delay all of that and just enjoy the bare skin and bones of our first home. Heehee. Looking forward to having the stipple ceiling removed and shopping around for a dining table, chairs, coffee table, office furniture (inspirational desk diy here), and lighting fixtures! Oh, and an electric stove heater, of course.

     {canadiantire.ca}

Happy carbs—a little ditty that the dogre is obsessed with. She'll be performing at some cafe on the west end, come May, and we're going to take a gander.

Happy carbs—a friend and I will soon be starting our very own Toronto picnic club! We'll take turns picking the park, date, and time, and attendees will bring their own blankets and food to share. It'll be an open invite to friends and friends of friends as well! Interested? 

Rotten meat—I've been dealing with persistent toothaches since January, after I got a filling in one of my top right molars. I went back before but my dentist attributed the pain to minor sensitivity exacerbated by my clenching+grinding. She merely shaved down the filling to fix my bite and refitted my nightguard (yes, I wear one. so does the dogre. we make a very sexy couple, you know). She was wrong. In fact, what I had thought were pesky allergy symptoms may actually be the consequences of nerve damage when the filling was put in. Why else would only the right side of my face (nose, eyes, head, ears) hurt? After today's visit, she's now 95% sure I've got an infection and sent me on my way with a prescription to penicillin and pain killers, requesting a followup in two days. They shuffled me around the whole visit, and unsurprisingly, totally changed the followup date and time without even consulting me. Oh, and now they've assigned me to the head dentist, who I find eerie and fake. And scary. I'll need the dogre to escort me again because I turn into a wide-eyed trembling doe (but cuter, of course) whenever I visit the dentist. Seriously, I have a phobia of dental offices and always leave nauseated and drowsy due to exhaustion, even if it's a ten minute consultation where they adjusted my nightguard! So anyhow, the dogre hates the place. He thinks they lack general courtesy and professionalism and calls it the fast food restaurant of dental clinics. I think he's right—they rushed me, all of them in a terrible hurry and showed a serious lack of patient care. I'm likely to change dentists, but after they resolve this issue because why should I pay elsewhere for their mistakes! They've yet to charge me for any followup visits I made since January because they know it's their misstep. And now, after a google search on the dangers of an untreated abscessed tooth, I'm freaking out over jaw bone and facial tissue damage, eyes, nose, ears, and brain infection! I'm wondering how worried I should be that my jaw feels weird, that my right nose and eye have been painfully dry and sore, and that I've been dealing with severe headaches! I'm the dogre is going to give the head dentist some serious drilling because I need to be assured that the infection hasn't dangerously spread elsewhere. On a related note, here's my word of the day for you: iatrogenic—a malady induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon, or by a medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

Happy carbs—mr. L alerted my seastar, who informed me, that we had missed our seastar anniversaire this year! So, we had a late celebration, doing what we do best; we ate. And then ate some more. We also nursed three cider beers each for five hours. My alcohol tolerance has become laughable.

Happy carbs—our home is super clean out of necessity and courtesy to the unit owners, who are struggling to rent this place out. Actually, we can call this one happy carbs/rotten meat because we've been inconvenienced with twenty six viewings thus far. 26! On one evening, they showed the place to six different individuals at six separate times. I don't think the manager has a good grasp of efficiency, as her ad sucked and she isn't even screening the inquirers. She's also getting the condo concierge to do her legwork, even though it isn't part of his job description and he doesn't receive monetary compensation! It's really annoying for us because it affects when we can cook, eat, and relax. But, times are tough and I suppose people are less inclined to spend x amount of money on a shoebox we've been calling home.

Happy carbs—these awesome titanium aviators by Ray-Ban.

Happy carbs—an adorable anchor necklace purchased at UO over the weekend. $20!

Happy carbs—food visuals! We ate at voglie ristorante & lounge,  just north of Church and Wellesley, for a friend's birthday dinner.

Clockwise: spaghettini al pomodoro with chicken, grilled new york strip, penne alla vodka, roasted chicken supreme. I'd return! Gawd, how I love spaghettini. It's my favourite! So thin and plentiful, and easily coated with sauce...Dreamy.

Some new recipes we tried last week...

Roasted maple chicken and sweet potatoes, turkey and bacon sandwich with avocado and pesto, toasted prosciutto, apple, and cheddar sandwich with honey mustard sauce, and chocolate chip oreo cookies. All recipes here, on my online recipe box. Looking forward to baking a lemon poppy seed loaf sometime this week.

Mama's Pizza had a special event and we got deliciously thin medium pepperoni pies for $4.99 each.

Really, are you even surprised to see pizza again? I forgot to eat dinner...Oops! How about another word before I leave: sesquipedalianism—given to using long words (I can think of a couple of people who intentionally and unnecessarily use long or fancy words...heh). Bye now!

Camel Toe & DT Bistro / A week(end) in food

Sunday night's dinner, in all its glory. Dogre, send a link of this post to your parents! (the dogre's mum often asks us what we eat and how we can possibly cook in such a small space and now we can show her that there's more to our diet than pizza—um, maybe you shouldn't send her the link to this post...just the photos). Dumpling soup, braised tofu, chilli dressing salad, and a little bit of meat on the side (find recipes on my online recipe box here), all haphazardly lovingly cooked by this dogress. Voila! 

We went on two dates this weekend. That's more than the last few weeks combined, me thinks! Firstly, we drove over to DT Bistro, our special spot for dessert and coffee (my favourite is the chocolate flourless cake but everything we've tried thus far has been good—mousse, tarts, cheesecakes...), for a light dinner.

Braised beef short ribs with mashed potatoes, house mixed green salad, passion fruit iced tea and mint orange iced tea. All delicious, especially the orange iced tea!

Secondly, we went on an impromptu date to the waters on Saturday afternoon—dogre style. Meaning: it was chilly and windy, he picked up sushi but forgot napkins and chopsticks, we ended up eating the food awkwardly in the car and took a brief walk before we had to flee because of all the insects. Plus, his eyes were caked with sand (Rocky's, not the dogre's...). All in all, it was fun. I love egg tarts!

Very different compared to the same trip we made last year, when we stopped over for some coffee and pastries at Pain Perdu, picked up deliciously fat burritos, and picnicked on a fallen tree. On that excursion, we had napkins and neither wind nor pesky insects were present. I even made a friend (only to be saddened when he injured a foot and his spirits fell...and other seagulls picked on him) and snapped photos of a family of swans (I almost wrote "sweens")! By the way, no Wrangler for us; used Kia Sportage instead. I find it endearing in an cute-ugly-dog way. The dogre vows to one day get a proper jeep though...

Oh, and he got me fresh flowers! What a beautiful lifestyle it would be to always have freshly cut flowers around the house. But how expensive! The dogre and I have agreed to my reasonable request for a monthly bouquet (that costs no more than $10).

What we don't want the dogre's mum to see: multiple pizza fests, mall food (calzones, greek, terriyaki), pasta, Korean, 7west carrot cake, fresh bagels, soup, DQ blizzards, and more tofu. Clearly, we're not very strict with recent goal towards better eating and health.

By the by, if you haven't tried the canned butternut squash soup by Wolfgang Puck, we can't be friends. I have high standards, you know. Bye.

And lastly, Jeudi and I walked over to Black Camel (the dogre has forever ruined the shop name for me by implanting 'camel toe' in its place...) and I got the roasted veggie sandwich again while she had the slow roasted beef brisket (five days to prepare! dry rubbed and marinated for three, slow cooked for half a day, and then left to "rest" for the remainder of the time). We were stuffed! Don't get the pulled pork though; it's very stringy and tough.

The long weekend in a snapshot. Or two...or three...or a few.

A bit of food...

Recipe for the braised tofu here.

Lin Garden in Scarborough. Really good Chinese-Indian Hakka food.

The in-laws are trying to sell off some pieces so I spent a few minutes snapping photos around their house.

Rocky had the most fun this weekend, tagging along on for the bike rides, enjoying some drive-by barking,* and rolling over dead bugs. Ahh, how lovely! And now we return to the typical Toronto spring weather full of gloom, wind, and rain. At least we have Monopoly!

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*Rocky used to love all dogs. But, when he was about two or three years old, we took him to a park and some random dogs ganged up on him. Since then, he's only been friendly to doggy friends of the past (though it's a one-sided love. one-sided on Rocky's part) and animals of different species. When he encounters unfamiliar dogs, he freaks out about 98% of the time. Le sigh. In any case, biking is heaven on wheels for him—he gets to sit leisurely in the basket while efficiently terrorizing dogs. Drive bike-by barking at its finest, really.

Scrotation marks! / Zara photoburst. And then some.

I think my fashion style screams clean basics with the occasional whimsy/quirk. It's also been called a cross between granny and French style (according to my seastar and the dogre). Comfort is essential to me. Along with not standing out...Which is why I gravitate towards cardigans, loose tees, and skinny jeans in grays, blacks, whites, and navy blues. When I'm feeling playful, I'll bust out floral prints and pops of colour. I've never really cared what the current trend was, picking up pieces that I liked and disregarding the rest, combining things that maybe would lift eyebrows, but mostly be ignored as uninteresting! When I picked up my new pair of high waisted, pleated trousers, I hemmed and hawed, foreseeing all the intense teasing I'd receive from friends and family. But, they looked so classic and fitted my ill proportioned legs to hip ratio of a body. Yes, I'm wearing two different shoes up there! I try on new purchases with the old because if it doesn't match at least a handful of things in my closet, it goes back to the shop. I had almost given up on Zara, actually. Everything on the racks looked fantastic but 'twas a different story on me body. More from Zara (such amazing prices—like twelve buckaroos for the skirt and tee). Sco-ore for me!:

The dogre and I have big news. We're going vegan. No, that's a lie. We're going strictly organic. That's not true either...What we've actually decided on is a conscious effort to go as organic and local as possible. Hoping to minimize consumption of preservatives and place an emphasis on fresh ingredients. And most importantly, we're watching our portions. Sort of. Over the weekend and for the father-in-law's birthday celebrations, we checked out Glow Grill at Don Mills and Lawrence. I was hesitant since the restaurant focuses on health and well being but everything was super delicious! Not that any of the fish dishes were sampled by moi... But I hear they were good too. Yumm—one step forward for us!

And five steps back because we also gorged on endless Korean table cooking of jumuluk meat, ssamjang, and sangchew on Monday evening with my mum. At least we had just as much greens? As for tonight, 'twas taco night in our casa. So good! So fresh! I wish every Wednesday was taco night but alas, it's probably too high in salt for such a dream to come true.

Random food photoburst. Including When Panda Mugs Attack (no, but that is the very mug that cut my toesies! tui, tui.)

I like my grilled cheese sandwiches lightly coated in unsalted butter, sprinkled with onion and chili powder, and oozing with sharp cheddar cheese! And, of course, a squirt of ketchup on the side. Try it! I sound especially frivolous and self-important tonight. Oh well, this will come in handy when I become a super fancy personal fashion advisor/food artist-photographer/book cover designer/interior decorator. Eh? And you're still planning on getting me that Leica you promised? Please and thank you!

NOTE: the beautiful trousers were returned. I was too consumed with financial guilt. Should have returned the sunglasses too but forgot. And now I don't want to go back because seeing on the receipt that I had already made one return may raise eyebrows and I don't want to be "that person." Le sigh.