What was gonna be a 3-hour visit turned into a 3 day stay-over.
I was at James’s house not quite paying attention to the TV just before 11 PM when he called me and asked me if I had anything to do on Saturday, because they had just announced that the TTC would be on strike and I would have no way to go home on Saturday, especially bad if I had to go to the hospital. Luckily enough, my only plans for the weekend were to go shopping and clean up my apartment (not something I mind postponing, let me tell you).
We also had tickets for two HotDocs screenings, Blast! on Saturday and The Beetle on Sunday. Unfortunately we could not attend due to lack of transportation. Walking was not an option so we had to miss them. I tried to give out the tickets, but no one could attend on Saturday on such a short notice, a friend took the tickets for Sunday. At least someone used them, I’m glad about that.
So I was stranded at James’s house until this morning, when I took the streetcar early in the morning in order to attend work. All our weekend plans were screwed, but at least it wasn’t anything major.

I’m starting ballet classes this week. OMG, I took ballet for like 4 years when I was a kid. I was never good (I am really not good at dancing at all, haha). But now I’m excited to be re-starting. My first class is on Friday. And I am gonna have a nice outfit. This is so cool!

Because of Garlicster, I recently got a shipment of garlic products. This is the entry I just posted there:

Last week I got a batch of Derlea garlic products, including Minced Garlic, Garlic & Ginger Puree, Roasted Garlic “Crunch” and Roasted Garlic Puree.

I have to admit that I didn’t know what to expect, although I had seen some of the jars at Sobey’s on Front St., I had never got them always preferring fresh garlic. But as loyal readers know, I’ve had problems keeping the garlic, mainly I think my apartment is too humid or something, and it sometimes sprouts or gets soft.
These jarred garlic products came to solve the problem. The minced garlic is just your regular minced garlic but in a quite convenient format. It retails for approximately $2.25 and is worth it if you have the “sprouting garlic” problems I’ve talked about.

The garlic and ginger puree is good, and convenient for cooking soups or oriental foods. But the roasted garlic….. oh my god, it is fenomenal. The roasted garlic puree was delicious over baked potato wedges (sorry I couldn’t take a picture because I accidentally left my camera, and my lunchbag! at work). I just cut the potatoes in wedges (without peeling them), put them in the oven, sprinkled them with a bit of olive oil and roasted garlic puree. They were delicious. I really recommend it.

The roasted garlic crunch was a bit of a mystery, with the name “crunch” I didn’t quite understand what it meant. Well, it is basically dehydrated garlic, great to toss over salads, pasta or pizza. I had it over pasta in lieu of parmesan cheese (since as my loyal readers know, I can’t have any dairy products), and it added an extra delicious flavour to it. All in all, delicious garlic goodness.

Also, some readers asked me recently how to substitute jarred garlic products for fresh garlic in recipes. Well, The Derlea Foods website actually shows conversion measurements for those interested, for example, 1/2 teaspoon of chopped or minced garlic is equivalent to 1 clove of fresh garlic (more info here).

I still think I’ll like to try the garlic with jalapeno product, I’ve seen it at Sobey’s.
(Picture shamefully borrowed from Derlea Foods website).

By Sam Calagione and Marnie Old.

I’ve been super busy lately and haven’t had much time to blog at all. But I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to talk about a great book I got recently: He said beer, she said wine, by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old.
I was really looking forward to this book, especially because it’s published by DK which is one of my favourite publishers. I recently wrote about another book that they published, Morimoto. Well, they did not disappoint this time. The book has great pictures and a good amount of text as well, and is a great fun read.
Sam Calagione is the beer guy and Marnie Old is the wine woman. At the beginning of the book they explain who they are and why they are defending beer/wine. Then follows a short history of wine and beer, how they started to be part of culture, and who were the peoples drinking them. They also defend their choice of drink.
I particularly liked the story of wine, how it is produced, the difference between red and white. since I’ve been trying to learn a bit more about all of it (I am getting there, my readers may remember that I rate Educating Peter by Lettie Teague. Well, I can now distinguish some types of wines, and I now go beyond only knowing that there’s red and white). It is very useful to have a reference about wine flavours and what it all means. I especially like the “travel guide” approach, which is not surprising since DK makes so many travel guides. The same approach comes a bit later with an explanation and “guide” to beer.
Later the Food Debate section comes, which explains food pairing for both wine and beer. There are sections for pairings with cheese, veggies, sandwiches, pizza and pasta, spicy food, shellfish, fish, poultry, meat and desserts. Quite interesting to learn about how beer can be paired with some food that are usually associated with wine, and viceversa. The only problem is that I believe it may be difficult to get half of the beers and wines in the book here in Ontario. We are at the mercy of the LCBO, and if they do not bring those wines, I believe we have little choice. Now I know how to do substitutions with yarns, so a similar approach may be useful for the beers and wines presented in the book. Nevertheless it is super interesting and worth a read.
At the end of the book there are a few recipes with suggested pairings of both beer and wine, the idea is to have a few friends or family over and see which drink is preferred with the foods. Lots of fun, indeed.
All in all, this is a great book that I totally enjoyed reading and having. It is a great reference and includes user-friendly and fun information for learning about both beer and wine.

Oh, one extra thing, the retail price for Canada is $28.

Out of Order Use Other Doors

Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto

Out of order. Use other Doors. (The “Better” Way).
Bay Station. April 7, 2008.
I don’t know if the same person who put up the sign put up the comment, but I couldn’t let it go by.