July 20, 2007
Found Noodles
This dish was made solely with ingredients that my mom dropped off:
Some rice noodles that my father bought by accident (they usually buy chow mein noodles)
Celery and Carrots (Mom split them with me)
Leftover roast pork
Mushrooms that were on sale
Herbs from the garden
It was pretty good. I still have 3 more packs of the noodles, though!
July 15, 2007
Restaurant: Solo Sushi-ya (by Jen)
[Hee. Jen reports back from Solo Sushi-ya in a comment. Happy Birthday, Jen!]
"We went last night. It was great.
Such a tasty experience. We had the Omakase, which was $50 each, but each thing tasted so good. We didn't ask what each thing was, so I can't really tell you what exactly things were called, but everything tasted great. After the first dish I would have eaten anything the guy put in front of me it was so good. I'll try to summarize what we had.
1. Raw tuna(?) chopped up really finely with spices and assorted fish eggs in a cute little bowl.
2. A plate with assorted things on it:
- A shell with salmon and mushroom(?)/mussels(?) with onion and something that seemed like melted cheese but what my dad thinks maybe was sea urchin on top. This was baked, and tasted SO GOOD.
- grilled mackeral
- Gobo some sort of root vegetable
3. an egg custard type soup with salmon, scallops, salmon, mushroom, green onions (Chawanmushi)
4. Sashimi plate with tuna, seared tuna, salmon, red snapper, shrimp.
5. Sushi - tuna, salmon, white snapper(a guess), 2 spicy tuna rolls.
6. tempura fried fish balls - some sort of white fish, these were so light.
7. Ginger ice cream
It was really really good. We showed up at 5 (when it opened) and didn't leave until 7:30. The place was packed about an hour after it opened. I'd like to go back and just order assorted sushi from the sushi bar. The fish was very good - the best sushi I have eaten for sure."
July 14, 2007
Big Ticket Items
Updated with new stuff AGAIN! (sigh)
Got a good set of KitchenAid clad pans, so the All-Clad pans are off the list.
These are the "big ticket" items that I'm saving up for. Any excess "fun budget" will go towards these items:
Thermapen
I've got one of these, but I want the fast one instead of the one I have now. Mom'll probably get my current one.
MyWeigh Kitchen Scale
I haven't decided which model, but this brand is very highly reviewed. Thing is, the pro version is about the same price but it's kind of bulky. Kitchen scales will make baking a lot easier and more accurate. Hmm, there's some debate going on on some sites on both the manufacturer and the retailer - so more research needed on this one!
1kg of Chuao
My favorite chocolate. Considering that buying a kilogram block is about 1/3 the cost of 1000g of chocolate bars, it's a good price! Heck, for that price, I'll mold it into wafers myself! Gotta find a local source, though.
Kitchenaid Pasta Attachments
I've been toying with the idea of making my own pasta for a while. This is actually cheaper than a pasta machine with a motor, so hey... Also, it got better reviews than the other machines as well. The thing is, I do like dried pasta just fine. So it's not higher on the list.
Aerogarden
This looks like sooo much fun. Don't know, though, if I keep my house warm enough to use this. Also, it looks like you have to buy consumables (ick), such as seed pods. But there's no dirt! It also got good reviews from Fine Cooking.
So yeah, going into "saving mode"! Gotta have goals, right?
Not on the list anymore:
All Clad Stainless Cookware
Ok, this one is over-the-top expensive. But it should last a lifetime, right? If I can find some Gourmet Standard (a cheaper brand that is reputed to be the same quality) then maybe I'll settle for that. Cuz the cost of this? Is a few mortgage payments! Got some good KitchenAid clad pans for just $300.
July 12, 2007
Good Fences
I was helping build a neighbor's (Steve and Melissa) fence today. I didn't really do much and I learned a bunch. Their friend, Brad, runs a company that'll do fences. He gave me a quote for $27/foot which is a bit more than others charge but at least I know him and met his wife and children. He seemed to be doing a really good job too (mnd you, it was his friend's house).
He also said that if the homeowners were helping, he could just charge an hourly rate and it would likely end up being around $300. But frankly, after slinging bags of concrete this evening (and not very far, either! I left the heavy lifting to him and Steve), I'd rather just pay to have it done. Doing it ourselves, we'd have to arrange materials, post holes and neighbour labour (heh) and payment - I'd just rather not. The other thing is, there's not that much fence to be done - 25 feet and only 2 sides (the third is already fenced). So that's about $700 per neighbour and I think I'd rather pay an extra couple hundred and avoid the manual labour.
Now I just have to get the neighbours to agree on what kind of fence. Mike and Bo on my right will probably want bare bones, whereas Peter and Maggie on my left want lattice. Sigh. I don't even want a fence, but I do want my fences to match!
July 07, 2007
Kitchenaid Clad Pans
Yeah, okay. Budget? What budget? Again, more deals! These will take the place of the All-Clad pans in my Big Ticket Items wishlist. These were an awesome deal in the clearance warehouse sale at Sears - just $300CAN (regular price, $500USD from the Kitchenaid online store), so approximately half price. So technically, they're saving me money, right?
They're Kitchenaid's top-of-line pans, as they're clad metal - which means the aluminum interior extends to the top of the sides of the pans, sandwiched between stainless steel. I don't know if they're as good as the All-Clad, though. These pans make 2 of my Paderno sauce pans (aluminium base) obsolete since they don't do as well on my gas burners as they did on my electric apartment stove.
July 06, 2007
Aluminium Easel
My budget this month is not kind - I'm already in the hole because of a whole lot of bills coming in all at the same time (taxes, car insurance, house insurance). So of COURSE fate is sending me deals to spend money on! A mysterious flyer appeared in the passenger seat of my car (I don't get papers and my mom says she didn't put it there). It was for Michaels and included a couple of coupons for 40% off a single item. Forty percent! So of course I went browsing. I found this easel which was $99, so I got it for $60. I'd been searching for my parents' easel but couldn't find all of it in their basement. This one is much nicer, though. I don't know if I'm actually going to be painting yet... we'll see. Till then, it makes a good display stand for some art in my living room.
July 04, 2007
Solo Sushi-ya
Hmm, Jen says that Solo Sushi-ya in Newmarket is reputed to be one of the best sushi restaurants in the GTA! I go by there every day on the way to work - it looks like a little dive and I always wondered how well it was doing - though it's been there for a long time now. The online reviews seem to bear her out...
Chowhound.com
Toronto.com (search Solo)
Chefmoz.org
Restaurantica 1
Restaurantica 2 (search Solo)
Google turned up a lot of terse, but positive reviews. I'll have to try the omakase sometime!
Jen's going to go there with her family for her birthday - her father is Japanese so they have a translator in the family!
July 03, 2007
Dinner with Stephen and Jen
Stephen, Jen and I went to Moxie's for dinner tonight. It's the first time I've seen Stephen in about 4 years! We started with crab cakes and bruschetta. Stephen got some chicken pasta. Jen and I ordered steak and lobster. It was all very yummy (except the chef didn't take the strings off the string beans - minor really). Stephen treated us - Thanks Stephen!
Earlier, I showed Stephen around my house (he hadn't seen it yet) and later we went to Jen's place, met up with Dan and played Ra, my newly favorite game, I think, taking over from St. Petersburg. (Won one, lost one...) Also took a ride in Stephen's Porsche Carrera convertible (uh, not that year model... an older one that he's fixing up).
So yeah, lotsa fun!