Andrea the Gastronaut's other home

VegeGreens® Vegan Protein

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:34:44 -0400

Just had my first run since fall, 8km. Followed it up with a green smoothie and then a great green smoothie made with Progressive Nutritional Therapies VegeGreens Protein, frozen fruit mix (strawberries, peaches, red grapes, pineapple, honeydew), frozen cherries cherries, frozen spinach, raw cacao powder, vanilla bean powder, goji berries, maca & marine phytoplankton. I always have at least one - sometimes more - Progressive product. Their VegeGreens are one of my favourite products & I like their protein powders. This product combines my favourite products.

The table is set for Family Day weekend dinner. Is anyone else...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:42:20 -0500

The table is set for Family Day weekend dinner. Is anyone else dining with their family? If so, what’s for dinner?

It's Lunch Money Day and You're Invited!

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:26:37 -0500

It's Lunch Money Day and You're Invited!

Loblaw chief Galen Weston says farmers’ markets pose health risk

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:23:50 -0500

Loblaw chief Galen Weston says farmers’ markets pose health risk

Glenfiddich Starts Cross-Canada Barrel Roll With Cask of Dreams

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:18:36 -0500

Glenfiddich Starts Cross-Canada Barrel Roll With Cask of Dreams

I went to their new studio’s official opening party this...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:26:51 -0500

I went to their new studio’s official opening party this evening. Full post to follow on my other blog, after it’s back to looking as I want it to.

Success, sort of. Website down.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:08:15 -0500

Domain name has been successfully transferred but nothing’s working.

Stay tuned.

There’s a party at Black Oak Brewery. Everyone welcome....

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:32:06 -0500

There’s a party at Black Oak Brewery. Everyone welcome. It’s on until 9. Google their website for more info.
(I’m posting this from my phone.)

S. Pellegrino® Almost Famous Chef Canada Regional Competition

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:37:24 -0500

The 2012 S. Pellegrino® Almost Famous Chef Canada Regional Competition takes place at Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto this Monday, January 30. Top culinary students will compete for a chance to become the next star of the gastronomic world.

Eight students from four participating culinary schools across Canada will be given just two hours to create their unique signature dish. A panel of judges critiques them on every meticulous detail from taste, texture and aroma of the dish, to presentation. The assembled judging panel, local media, chefs and invited guests, like you, will have the opportunity to sample all of these dishes during the tasting reception. The winner will go on to compete at the 10th annual Finals Competition in Napa Valley in March, with competitors from 73 schools across North America.

This year’s judges:

Chef Jonas, Lee Restaurant, Toronto
Annabelle Waugh, Food Director, Canadian Living Magazine
Emily Richards, Food Columnist, Metro Newspapers
Alexa Clark of Cheap Eats Toronto and Unsweetened.ca

The following culinary students were selected from the top of their class to participate in the Canada Regional Competition:

Cole Nicholson and Deaille (Yee Man) Tam from The George Brown Chefs School (Toronto)
Hans Berg from The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver
Charles Gignac and Anne-Marie Plourde from École hôtelière de la Capitale (Québec City)
Daniela Molettieri from Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (Montréal)

Competitors were selected on criteria including grade point average, the requirement to be at least a second-year student in a culinary degree or certificate program and the requirement of a a minimum of two and maximum of four years of industry experience.

Competitors will be evaluated on creativity; plate appearance, taste, texture, and aroma; and sanitation at their work station; as well as on their personality while being questioned by judges and media, and on their ability to perform under pressure.

Want to follow the action?

Become a fan of the competition on Facebook.
Follow along on Twitter.

After the competition I’ll be posting an interview with one of the competitors. I’ll also be giving away a sweet prize. I expect my blog to be back home by then, as Easy DNS told me 1-3 days earlier today. Stay tuned for all of that!

Eat well, be well.

Where I'll be dining this evening

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:22:18 -0500

The Depanneur/Rusholme Park Supper Club for their Dinner in Black and White.

All guests must wear black and white.

The menu:

“Black olives. Black onion seed. Black radish. Black beans. Black garlic. Black pasta. Black pepper. Black trumpet mushrooms. Black sesame ice cream. Black cookies.

White cheeses. White beans. White pasta. Alfredo sauce. White truffle. Vanilla ice cream. White chocolate ganache.”

More specifically (as posted on Facebook):

Black and White seeded flatbreads
Feta with blackseed, olives with black radish
White and Black bean soup, with fresh cheese & black garlic
Black pasta with White sauce (squid-ink fettuccini with white-truffle Alfredo sauce & pepper)
White pasta with Black sauce (long linguini with black trumpet mushrooms & percorino)
Black and White ice creams (black sesame & vanilla) with white & black sesame seeds
Homemade “Oreos” with white chocolate ganache infused with espresso & cacao nibs

BYO wine. I bought a white wine for the occasion, an Australian Savignon Blanc Semillion blend that I’ve never tried. I considered a white port.

There won’t, to my knowledge, be black and white cookies.

I’ll send some tweets from the dinner and do a full write up when my website is back up.

Sign up for the Rusholme Park Supper Club newsletter from The Depanneur’s website to learn what other dinners are coming up. Dinners cost $40.

Looking for my blog? Here’s the explanation of why...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:17:33 -0500

Looking for my blog? Here’s the explanation of why I’m here.

Yesterday was Robbie Burns Day. I did not eat haggis, although I never had and have always wanted to and we did stumble across a Scottish deli in Port Credit that previously had some in stock. Instead, I ate duck breast from the local butcher shop.

I didn’t take a photo of the finished product (too hungry, must eat), but the fresh canard (“magret de canard”?) was barbecued over coconut husk charcoal and served with acorn squash- also cooked in fire, in aluminum foil and bok choy that I steamed and tossed with Meyer lemon juice and pepper. A new Robbie Burns day tradition?

As for haggis, there’s always next year.

Israel meets Italy and France with this avatiach frizzante...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:42:40 -0500

Israel meets Italy and France with this avatiach frizzante (translation: watermelon fizz at Mideastro Yorkville: A ball of watermelon sorbet in Prosecco and Chambord. And why not? Toronto is a multicultural city.

Moving week for website, welcome to my temporary digs

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:33:22 -0500

I seem to be updating this post every few days….

So you wanted to go to my website and got here instead. If you’ve been to my website before you know that this isn’t it. If you haven’t, well, it’s not.

I’m in the process of transferring my domain name after I changed web hosts (goodbye GoDaddy, hello Dreamhost and easyDNS) and so I’ve redirected canadianfoodiegirl.com to this space.

The migration of host and domain registrar is partly SOPA related, though I still have 7 domain names registered with GoDaddy.

I made a backup of my blog before I canceled hosting. I hope I can restore it.

I also hope this isn’t more trouble than it’s worth. It seems like every time it’s in progress another obstacle appears - like I have to unlock the domain name, and I have to cancel private registration. Will I be denied again? We’ll see. But it’s a learning experience.

If you need to contact me, email andrea@andreawrites.ca or leave a comment here if that doesn’t work.

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience. Renovation is like that. I look forward to having my blog restored. I have things to write about.

And, just so you know that “celebrities are just like us!” (I freakin’ hate that feature in celebrity gossip magazines), something similar happened to Wil Wheaton six years ago when he attempted to upgrade his Moveable Type blog platform. His blog, moved to Typepad, has been called “WWDN: In Exile” (“WWDN” stands for “Wil Wheaton Dot Net”) ever since with the URL “http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/”. Yeah, it’s really not like that, but kind of a little.