Cooking From My Makeshift Recipe Binder II - Eggs Benedict

Homemade Salmon Eggs Benedict

D-e-l-i-cious!!! So Hollandaise sauce is actually not hard to make at all...after my first failed attempt of course (clearly, I don't know how to measure blocks of butter - really, who does?)
Wanna know what's in the sauce? No secret, lots of egg yolks, lemon juice and of course, butter. So fattening but yet soooo good :)
In my homemade version, I used a piece of whole wheat toast from a pack of sliced whole wheat breat from T&T, some frozen smoked salmon I had in my freezer, and the egg whites that I wouldn't let go to waste. All in all, it turned out fantastic the second time around.

Now i'm completely out of eggs, more than half a block of butter less and entirely satisfied.

A Stroll Down Queen St West

Last month, two friends and I decided to take a stroll down Queen St West.

I think we spent over 5 hours just on one street, going into every store we thought was cute, captivating, neat or just plain cool.

I didn't have my SLR that day, but the iphone did just fine. Here is a picturesque description of our great day.

Some of the products they sell at the back.

This is La Merceria. It's located on Adelaide and Portland. Very cute little boutique cafe with cushion seats near the back of the store, in the front foyer and a very cute table just outside on the sidewalk.

Outside view of La Merceria

View from the back to the front.

Its very cute in here. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, definitely drop in and have a coffee if its nice outside or take a look at the amazing cute finds they carry.

We strolled into quite a few antique and furniture stores along the way on Queen Street. There were a lot of things in the stores that intriqued me, like these glass jars that had 'made in canada' engraved onto them. Thought about buying a few to hold some of my card making supplies but decided it would be too heavy for me to carry around. I should have sold my parent's 80's lighting structures and such to these stores. Oh well.

10 stores and 2 1/2 hours later, we needed to rest our feet and have a drink so we ended up at Nadege. It is right beside Trinity Park on Queen Street and it stands out because the whole store is completely white. The sell delicate pastries and special teas and treats for the go. Limited seating but it wasn't busy when we were there.

Can't remember what this was called but it was super tasty with
mousse and chocolate inside. Pin leopard print edible.

Marie Antoinette. Mini macaroons glued to this
whipped cream like mousse center.

After our statisfying our sweet tooths, we went across the street to this store that sold everything paper. I remember the last time I went to that store was almost five years ago. Time flies.
By this time, we were all getting tired and hungry, so our friend suggested we have dinner in Kensington Market at a vegetarian restaurant.

It's pretty big inside with a little section for you to
purchase specialty teas and such.

The place filled up pretty quickly. Here is a sample of the meal boxes we ordered:

Each meal comes with a soup, salad, wild rice and a spring roll. My friend ordered tofu.
I ordered the vege curry. It was pretty good. I'm the type that can eat meat and can go without meat. I do miss the Lotus Tea House more though in Waterloo. Maybe one day I can go back and have a nice lunch meal there with a pinch of nostalgia.

Baking Frenzy I

I'm not sure what it is, the new kitchen, the free time, or the new oven but I've started to learn how to bake. From scratch. I know, I know, its not really called baking if its not from mixing your own flour and baking soda but for me, I use to fail miserably at making desserts. Just mixing pre-made powder with eggs and milk gave me a hard time. But, I decided I would try again, of course with the help of my pro baker friends. Little did I know, that baking had so many tricks to it.

A few things I learned:

- Everything needs to be at room temperature! The egg, the milk, the butter. Or else, as my lovely friend put it, the baked goods will not rise properly.

- Make sure you have precise measuring cups and spoons. Eye-balling not allowed.

- Spatula. Spatula. Spatula. Gotta have one.

- A smaller mixing bowl. If you use a larger one, your mixer will end up hitting the bowl more than than batter.

Ok, I'm sorry if most of you are going, 'that's commen sense! How could she not know!'. Well, I really didn't and this all goes to show that you can never stop learning.

Real Baking #1: Peanut Butter Cookies (minus the Hersey Kiss)

The first batch turned out to be a bit brittle and when we squished it down with a knife, some of them fell apart. The second batch however seem to hold it together and turned a light golden brown. Bravo to us!

Real Baking #2: Strawberry & Blueberry Muffins

Seeing that I have all these baking ingredients in my kitchen now, I can't help but want to bake more. So I made strawberry and blueberry muffins. Take a peak. They turned out amazing and super soft.

The picture on the left is all the good stuff jumbled together, ready to go into its little wax paper holders on the right. And ta da!

I am actually not afraid to bake anymore.

There's Nothing like a Sky full of Nothingness

There's nothing that beats 'working' at 4:00am in the morning, when you past that stage of sleepiness and the zombiness kicks in.

I'm working on a few different blogs now as I diligently gather my information and visuals.

This post, will be a photo-less one. Just feel like writing in this one.

I gaze outside my window tonight and realize that I can't see any stars, any moons or any other planets out there in the galazy. The sky is this dark opaque grey, full of nothingness yet electrically charged and ready to thunder down the storm we have long awaited.

If we knew how much damage this storm would cause, would we better prepare ourselves? Brace ourselves for the hardship of having to rebuild everything after the storm has past?

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night skies are like shooting stars...I could really use a wish right now, wish right now..." Airplane Part II by B.O.B feat. Eminem and Paramore's Hayley Williams

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Back in the days I use to write religiously in a 'journal' and recently I pulled it back out and started reading through it. Here are some old pieces of work I somehow came up with then:

"Dark dark night. Stars shine bright.
Work is in progress. There is no stress.
Weight has been lifted. Everything has shifted."

"I listen hard and I hear silence.
I reach out my hand and I grasp air.
I focus my vision and I see nothing.
I still have...insomnia."

"Changes/One after the other/I cry, I fall/No light, just me/Alone/A light shines through my eyes/A hand, a face/I take a step/One after the other/Never end, never stop"

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Some things don't make sense. Some things happen that aren't logical. Some things are unfair. But such is life.

Good night.