Friday, December 29, 2006
the cheesecake factory
Strawberry Cheesecake
We decided to take a shopping trip down to Buffalo during the holidays. We stopped by Walden Galleria. Apparently, The Cheesecake Factory had only opened recently. Holly and I decided to try a slice of their cheesecake. It was very rich and creamy, but very very expensive. hehe
The Cheesecake Factory
various locations
Strawberry Cheesecake
We decided to take a shopping trip down to Buffalo during the holidays. We stopped by Walden Galleria. Apparently, The Cheesecake Factory had only opened recently. Holly and I decided to try a slice of their cheesecake. It was very rich and creamy, but very very expensive. hehe
The Cheesecake Factory
various locations
Labels: Cake
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
chez cora
I went to Chez Cora on two different occasions this winter break. The first time on the 27th and there was an hour wait at the door.. but because we were craving it so badly we decided to wait. The last and first time I had it was back in Quebec. The second time I went there was no wait.
L: 1990's Harvest; R: Egg in a Skillet au Gratin
Buckwheat Blessing; Eggs Ben et Dictine
Dont know what kind of omelette; Beef and Swiss Cheese Panini Crepe
Egg Salad; Surprise
unknown Omelette; Bobby Botton
Chez Cora
various locations
I went to Chez Cora on two different occasions this winter break. The first time on the 27th and there was an hour wait at the door.. but because we were craving it so badly we decided to wait. The last and first time I had it was back in Quebec. The second time I went there was no wait.
L: 1990's Harvest; R: Egg in a Skillet au Gratin
Buckwheat Blessing; Eggs Ben et Dictine
Dont know what kind of omelette; Beef and Swiss Cheese Panini Crepe
Egg Salad; Surprise
unknown Omelette; Bobby Botton
Chez Cora
various locations
Labels: Brunch, Eating Out
il fornello
** on a side note, I wasnt able to try as many new places as I had anticipated this xmas break. Jer and I went to the new STC Moxies. Their Glazed Salmon is delicious. I forgot to bring my camera and Jer still hasn't sent me the pictures and for some reason I dont think I'll ever get them. I also went to Saigon Star for my family Christmas Dinner and it was really good. Especially the viet style roasted lamb.... sooo good, but then again I like lamb. The viet style soup was really good too... again I forgot to bring my camera. =/
Penne Capri and Chicken Parmigiana
Roasted Halibut
For the Bethune Christmas dinner, we decided to head over to Il Fornello. There were around 10 of us. I was only able to get the dishes near me. Which were Adrian's, Will's and Cal's. But Cal and Will has the same dish - the Chicken Parmigiana so I was only able to get pictures of three dishes.
Il Fornello
various locations
** on a side note, I wasnt able to try as many new places as I had anticipated this xmas break. Jer and I went to the new STC Moxies. Their Glazed Salmon is delicious. I forgot to bring my camera and Jer still hasn't sent me the pictures and for some reason I dont think I'll ever get them. I also went to Saigon Star for my family Christmas Dinner and it was really good. Especially the viet style roasted lamb.... sooo good, but then again I like lamb. The viet style soup was really good too... again I forgot to bring my camera. =/
Labels: Eating Out, Italian
Monday, December 25, 2006
christmas baking 2006
My sister and I decided to bake cookies for Christmas to give away this year. We set out at 9am on the 22nd to bake.. and we finished at 4:30pm. She has previously prepared some of her dough on the weekend.. and I made my oatmeal raisin cookie and my peanut butter cookie the day before. If we hadn't it would have taken us A LOT longer. It took us and additional 1.5 hours to package and put it all together.
It was fun, but tiring. I was exhausted by the end of the day...
I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as I had enjoyed making them. I dont have the recipes for all of the cookies at the moment. I do, but I'm just too lazy to type them up.
oatmeal raisin cookies
I didnt like the oatmeal raisin cookie that I baked recently. I used this recipe a year a two ago, when I was experimenting with different oatmeal raisin recipes. I really liked this one. I found this a couple years ago in the All American Cookie Book.
peanut butter cookies
I decided to make a peanut butter cookie just for David's sake because I know how much he loves peanut butter. This actually turned out a lot tastier than I had imagined. It was nice with a tad of crunch. The peanut butter wasn't too strong either. I used the recipe from the Dorie Greenspan book.
chocolate cookies
I wanted to have a chocolate cookie, yet I didnt want to use real chocolate. I went through Martha Stewart's website and I found this chocolate cookie, which used cocoa. I found this a bit sweet, but my mom really liked this cookie. A few others also claim this one to be their favourite.
Grammy's Chocolate Cookies
ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°
1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes.
applesauce cookies
This cookie didn't turn out. My sister labelled this cookie as the 'sad cookie'. She claims it looks very sad. I wanted to bake a cookie with fruit, but I think put too much apple. I used fresh apples, which I puree and added to the mixture. When we gave my dad a plate of cookies that contained a mixtures of cookies I made and my sister made... my dad poked at the apple. It was really soft. He immediate put it back down once he held it. Poor apple. :(
chocolate chip expresso walnut cookies
This has recently become one of my favourite cookies. It was also from the Dorie Greenspan book. My sister made this cookie a month ago and I fell in love with it. Though I find it really filling, so I can only have one cookie at a time.
cranberry pistachio cookies
The following are baked by my sister. This was really good. I love how the pistachio goes with cranberry. It was delicious, but did not fit in with my batch of cookies for I was making nice round big drop cookies.
cherry icebox cookies
These were okay. I made something like this last year.
banana bread
My sister's famous banana bread. The banana bread, which she bakes for 6 consecutive weeks sometimes... I get so sick of banana bread sometimes. But nevertheless they are always good as a small snack.
chocolate crackle cookies
These crackles I believe was a Martha Stewart recipe. They turned out pretty good.. a cake like texture. Though it required lots of chilling time. She took a couple of hours to prepare this batch.
Cookies Galore
Our boxed up cookies as we prepared other batches. Our kitchen and table is a mess.
Packaging
We took another good hour and almost a half to package our cookies. We have all the boxes and different cookies laid out so we can package them. And thereee... the beautiful finished result. :)
My sister and I decided to bake cookies for Christmas to give away this year. We set out at 9am on the 22nd to bake.. and we finished at 4:30pm. She has previously prepared some of her dough on the weekend.. and I made my oatmeal raisin cookie and my peanut butter cookie the day before. If we hadn't it would have taken us A LOT longer. It took us and additional 1.5 hours to package and put it all together.
It was fun, but tiring. I was exhausted by the end of the day...
I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as I had enjoyed making them. I dont have the recipes for all of the cookies at the moment. I do, but I'm just too lazy to type them up.
oatmeal raisin cookies
I didnt like the oatmeal raisin cookie that I baked recently. I used this recipe a year a two ago, when I was experimenting with different oatmeal raisin recipes. I really liked this one. I found this a couple years ago in the All American Cookie Book.
peanut butter cookies
I decided to make a peanut butter cookie just for David's sake because I know how much he loves peanut butter. This actually turned out a lot tastier than I had imagined. It was nice with a tad of crunch. The peanut butter wasn't too strong either. I used the recipe from the Dorie Greenspan book.
chocolate cookies
I wanted to have a chocolate cookie, yet I didnt want to use real chocolate. I went through Martha Stewart's website and I found this chocolate cookie, which used cocoa. I found this a bit sweet, but my mom really liked this cookie. A few others also claim this one to be their favourite.
Grammy's Chocolate Cookies
ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°
1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes.
applesauce cookies
This cookie didn't turn out. My sister labelled this cookie as the 'sad cookie'. She claims it looks very sad. I wanted to bake a cookie with fruit, but I think put too much apple. I used fresh apples, which I puree and added to the mixture. When we gave my dad a plate of cookies that contained a mixtures of cookies I made and my sister made... my dad poked at the apple. It was really soft. He immediate put it back down once he held it. Poor apple. :(
chocolate chip expresso walnut cookies
This has recently become one of my favourite cookies. It was also from the Dorie Greenspan book. My sister made this cookie a month ago and I fell in love with it. Though I find it really filling, so I can only have one cookie at a time.
cranberry pistachio cookies
The following are baked by my sister. This was really good. I love how the pistachio goes with cranberry. It was delicious, but did not fit in with my batch of cookies for I was making nice round big drop cookies.
cherry icebox cookies
These were okay. I made something like this last year.
banana bread
My sister's famous banana bread. The banana bread, which she bakes for 6 consecutive weeks sometimes... I get so sick of banana bread sometimes. But nevertheless they are always good as a small snack.
chocolate crackle cookies
These crackles I believe was a Martha Stewart recipe. They turned out pretty good.. a cake like texture. Though it required lots of chilling time. She took a couple of hours to prepare this batch.
Cookies Galore
Our boxed up cookies as we prepared other batches. Our kitchen and table is a mess.
Packaging
We took another good hour and almost a half to package our cookies. We have all the boxes and different cookies laid out so we can package them. And thereee... the beautiful finished result. :)
Saturday, December 23, 2006
domino's pizza
My sister and I spent all morning baking cookies. We didnt get very far and we had lots more to bake, though she was starving by 1pm. We were planning to go out for lunch, but because we had so much to bake we decided to get take out and stay in. There's a Domino's Pizza close by and I heard they served pretty good pizza for a chain restaurant. We ordered a regular crust hawaiian pizza. I think I prefer their crust over Pizza Pizza's. Though I found that their cheese was a bit too chewy when it cooled, since I was busy making my last batch of cookies before tasting my pizza.
Domino's
various locations
My sister and I spent all morning baking cookies. We didnt get very far and we had lots more to bake, though she was starving by 1pm. We were planning to go out for lunch, but because we had so much to bake we decided to get take out and stay in. There's a Domino's Pizza close by and I heard they served pretty good pizza for a chain restaurant. We ordered a regular crust hawaiian pizza. I think I prefer their crust over Pizza Pizza's. Though I found that their cheese was a bit too chewy when it cooled, since I was busy making my last batch of cookies before tasting my pizza.
Domino's
various locations
Labels: Eating Out, Pizza
Thursday, December 14, 2006
oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies
I was craving for Oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies the week before finals. I needed some munchies, so I decided to try out this recipe. I have made from 3 other recipes before and I like the second one I tried from. I will post up recipe and pictures if I get around to make them again this christmas. I plan on baking some cookes, but at the moment looks like I'll be too lazy to get around to make them.
On my list I had the oatmeal raisin, peanut butter cookie, almon cookies and I was thinking maybe vanilla bean - all easy drop cookies, but I'm lazy.... so we'll see.
I love my sister's chocolate chip expresso cookies - those are sooo delicious and extremely filling.
**recipe take from Domestic Goddess
ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature (you can use lard if you want)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups oatmeal
¾ cup raisins
¾ cup semi- or bitter-sweet chocolate chips
directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
1. Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together. Add
egg and beat well with vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix
together. Add oatmeal and mix well.
3. Fold in raisins and then fold in chocolate chips.
4. Drop mixture into cookie sheet
5. Bake for 12 minutes.
I was craving for Oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies the week before finals. I needed some munchies, so I decided to try out this recipe. I have made from 3 other recipes before and I like the second one I tried from. I will post up recipe and pictures if I get around to make them again this christmas. I plan on baking some cookes, but at the moment looks like I'll be too lazy to get around to make them.
On my list I had the oatmeal raisin, peanut butter cookie, almon cookies and I was thinking maybe vanilla bean - all easy drop cookies, but I'm lazy.... so we'll see.
I love my sister's chocolate chip expresso cookies - those are sooo delicious and extremely filling.
**recipe take from Domestic Goddess
ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature (you can use lard if you want)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups oatmeal
¾ cup raisins
¾ cup semi- or bitter-sweet chocolate chips
directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
1. Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together. Add
egg and beat well with vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix
together. Add oatmeal and mix well.
3. Fold in raisins and then fold in chocolate chips.
4. Drop mixture into cookie sheet
5. Bake for 12 minutes.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
chippy's
We decided on the Halibut with tartar and Seafood Chowder. I'm not a fan of fish and chips, so I dont really have much to say about it. The fish wasn't too dry. Though the seafood chowder was very watery and there was way more vegetables than seafood. I couldn't even taste or find the seafood.
One large piece of halibut and chips. The chips were not to my liking, but very filling. I love tartar sauce. :)
Chippy's Fish and Chips
893 Queen St. West
Toronto, Ontario
416 866-7474
We decided on the Halibut with tartar and Seafood Chowder. I'm not a fan of fish and chips, so I dont really have much to say about it. The fish wasn't too dry. Though the seafood chowder was very watery and there was way more vegetables than seafood. I couldn't even taste or find the seafood.
One large piece of halibut and chips. The chips were not to my liking, but very filling. I love tartar sauce. :)
Chippy's Fish and Chips
893 Queen St. West
Toronto, Ontario
416 866-7474
Labels: Eating Out, Lunch
