Meghan’s running another contest. The winner will receive a delicious assortment of teas from nourishtea as well as the box collection of e-guides from Meghan valued at over $130.
Pop on over to her blog, check out the contest and tell her your favourite herbal tea or tea blend. If you feel so inclined, tell her that I sent you.
Image via Wikipedia
This week had me picking up my usual small 6-point share + my friend’s medium 12-point share. It was a lot to keep track of. My six points went quick. I got…
…It appears I went 1 point over, as the mushrooms were 2. I’ll still need to get kale at a farmer’s market but I still have some from last week so it wasn’t priority. They were also out of salad mix by the time I got there so I’ll need to pick up more of that. Last week I took another bunch of garlic scapes and decided not to get any more this year because even if I freeze some and make pesto I’ve still got too many. Scape season appears to be over now. I also need to replenish my berries. Tomorrow is another farmer’s market… and so is Thursday. This time of year is awesome if you like fresh, local produce.
Eat well, be well.
Another link dump. Yes, been hording. Again. It’s a habit.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, Meghan’s updated her Green Smoothie Cleanse tutorial.
The next three-day challenge begins on August 6!
Read all about it here and watch her video.
Buy a copy.
This edition has recipes submitted by her blog readers. One of those recipes came from me, another from my sister. It really is new and improved.
It’s smoothilicious!
Eat well, be well.
Image credit: Sarah B. Hood*
Wednesday, July 28, 7-9pm.
Cost: $25/person (preregistration is required)
25 Bellevue Avenue.
There’s so much fresh, local, delicious fruit coming up now, wouldn’t it be great to be able to savour it all-year-long? Learn how to make and can your own jam so you can enjoy the tastes of summer goodness throughout the winter.
Go here for more information about the workshop series and for the link to register.
This workshop is part of the Jewish Urban Homesteading Workshop Series, presented by Kavanah Garden and Makom.
Open to all! You don’t have to be Jewish to attend.
Herbal Salve Making 101 (August 25)
Pickling 101 (September 15)
Seed Saving 101 (October 20)
Beer and Kombucha Brewing 101 (November 17)
*The image above is from Sarah Hood’s blog. Photo is three types of strawberry jam that Sarah made while she writes a book about canning. The one on the left was made from a recipe given to her by Risa of Kavanah Garden.
The battle for smoked meat supremacy in Toronto is heating up! Join The Stop for a fundraiser that will have chefs from Caplansky’s, Goldin’s and The Stockyards go head-to-head in a battle to produce the best smoked meat sandwich. Go, taste and vote for your favourite.
Admission is free. Food and drink available for purchase. All sandwiches $3; lemonade and iced tea $3; beer $5. All proceeds go to The Stop.
The Stop Community Food Centre strives to increase access to healthy food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds community and challenges inequality. They believe that healthy food is a basic human right and recognize that the ability to access healthy food is often related to multiple issues and not just a result of low income. Learn more.
As I’ve said here before, The Stop is close to my heart. I’ve been fortunate to not use their services, but I live one block from Wychwood Barns and community is important to me. I appreciate the work that The Stop does and support them when I can.
Because this is a duel, I want to see swords and chain mail. Maybe a cod-piece? (Er, maybe not – unless “cod piece” means “piece of cod”, and this isn’t a fish ‘n’chips duel.)
See related post at the Save the Deli blog.
[Note: I wrote most of this on Thursday but got distracted and didn't post it until a couple of days later. The post wrote itself while I was there. I love when that happens. Unfortunately it won't type and post itself too.]
Evergreen farmer’s market
Last week Evergreen Brick Works opened a satellite location of their farmer’s market, located just east of Bay Street between Adelaide and Temperance, happening weekly through September 2.
The first week (last week, July 8th) it was mostly artisans with few farmers selling produce. Executive Chef Brad Long from Veritas and My Place Pub – aka my west-end home that I don’t visit often enough – was there, playing sous chef to chef Kellen. They were making and serving two varieties of tostadas: Pulled pork and mixed mushroom, both topped with rhubarb salsa. With my fistful of change I bought the mushroom. I enjoyed the earthiness of mushrooms as well as the texture: Chewy, with bite. Mushrooms are actually one of my favourite meat “substitutes” for texture. Try it in chili.
It was great to see so many people there, most of them likely people who work in the Financial District. That first week two of my favourite women in food were there: Arlene Stein of Evergreen (formerly of Hart House), and Rebecca LeHeup from the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance.
This week there were a couple more farmers, more artisans and a bigger crowd. Veritas was gone (boo) but in its place were Buddah Dog and Hanks Wine Bar. Buddah was selling their grilled local hotdogs (it’s what they do) and Hanks was offering a pulled pork sandwich, smoked Ontario pickerel nicoise salad and a burger from Cumbrae Farms. I bought a container of peaches ($4) and a container of apricots ($5). I’m thinking that the peaches can go on the grill at the BBQ party that I’m attending this weekend, though I’m not sure if it’s a grilled fruit kind of crowd.
Suresh from Spotlight Toronto tweeted when it opened, noted the carrot beet quinoa salads, local apricots, peaches and cherries (oh my!), sweet treats, Hanks, mushrooms from Fun Guy Farm (he’s at all the markets), and prepared foods from provenance.
Joel blogged about his visit to the market this week within hours in his Market Diaries.
Tasty Thursdays
I opted not to eat at the farmer’s market this time, instead checking out the offerings at Nathan Phillip’s Square for week 1 of Tasty Thursdays, happening weekly from this week through August 26. Located two blocks from my office near University and Dundas, I’d walked through it on my way to Bay and Adelaide. Tasty Thursday is a collection of restaurants selling food at kiosks. It raises their profile and brings them a lot of lunch traffic on Thursdays. Taste TO was there around noon. Suresh was there too, an hour earlier.
I bought two veggie burger sliders ($5 for 2 or $3 for 1) from Chuck and Co. It was refreshing to see vegetarian/vegan options, as most of the offerings in the square were meat with a number of restaurants selling pulled pork. Their vegetarian burger is a blend of black beans, mixed vegetables and spices on a ciabatta bun. I had lettuce and tomato, hold the onions), mustard and ketchup and was looking forward to eating it. I really wanted to like them, which I realize a strange thing to say because who eats something wanting to not like it? They were disappointingly dry, almost like saw dust but not quite, but I won’t judge the restaurant based on Tasty Thursdays. I don’t think that temporary kiosks are the ideal conditions for food. While inner devil’s advocate says that restaurants should make what works under those conditions, I did go closer to the end of the event. Maybe things were fresher closer to 11. Chuck and Co. gets points for offering the veggie sliders even if execution lacked. When I took a look at their menu (of which they had copies available as marketing material – points for that too, every restaurant should have takeaway promo material) I was impressed by their burger offerings. I definitely want to visit the restaurant and try the burgers on their home turf.
After walking away I found that La Cocina De Dona Luz was selling ceviche. I like ceviche and will have to check it out next week if they’re there or visit the restaurant, located mere blocks from my home.
Food… yum
With the Evergreen Brick Works Bay/Adelaide Market and Tasty Thursdays the options for downtown outdoor eating have gotten more numerous. I don’t think I’ll be packing a lunch on Thursdays for the rest of the summer.
See what Tasting Toronto said about both events.
My favourite nutritionist, Meghan, is hosting a contest over at her blog. Because she’s my favourite nutritionist and I find her adorable (look at that punim! And have you seen her YouTube videos?); and because I want more chances to win something that will make me feel good or have one of you win if I don’t, I’m promoting it here at Andrea the Gastronaut.
Win A Cute As Cute Can Be Kitchen Apron From Julie’s Aprons!
Go on over to her blog to see how to enter.
My favourite aprons by Julie? Well, my first list was 9 out of her 35 styles. My top three favourites (click for more views and details):
It has tulle. TULLE!
I love the sweat heart neckline on this and others in the “Sofia” line.
and
I like the neck line, the colours and the pockets.
Looking at these aprons makes me want to be a 50s housewife and sing songs about feeling pretty. If you want a chance to win, and/or want to increase my chances, click here.
Also, When you’re on the contest web page you can’t help but notice the banner that advertises the new edition of her green smoothie cleanse tutorial. I’ll blog about it later this week, but for now I’ll say that it is bigger and better than before (I got an advance copy), and my sister and I both contributed recipes to it (hence my copy, although I’d like to think that I’m that special to Meghan). My sister and I don’t coordinate these things but I kind of indoctrinated her into Meghanism and she’s surpassed me. She contributed to Summer Sipping. It was an easy indoctrination for many reasons. We share similar interests and opinions when it comes to health. I’ve indoctrinated so many people that we could start our own camp.
(I know, I needn’t shout.)
Eat well, be well.
Intended to post one last week but forgot after I remembered. Happens all the time with stuff.
Both weeks:
Last week: Shiitake mushrooms
This week: Garlic scapes
And those are my 6 points for a small share. Raspberries are 2 points for a small container. It makes me a little sad.
This week I stopped at the Trinity Bellwoods farmer’s market first. It was my first visit. Tuesdays are CSA pick up days and getting to both by 7 requires planning, I thought, especially when I don’t usually leave the office until 6. What it requires is getting out of the office earlier (I go in late after puttering around in the morning and missing rush hour as to not be packed tightly with other bodies on public transit). I realized today that I’d been planning backwards and less efficiently anyhow. Once I realized this my transit plans came together. I left the office around 5:10, was at the farmer’s market by 5:30ish (a 15 minute streetcar ride from work after a short wait) and the CSA pick up location just before 6:30.
At the farmer’s market I picked up a pint of these:
Wild Blueberries are like crack but I rarely buy because of the sticker shock ($9!). If the first container was free they’d really have me hooked.
What else was waiting for me to buy? Cheese from Ruth of Monforte Dairy! Monforte was selling at two farmer’s markets today. Ruth had someone selling Toscano and curds at the SickKids Hospital MyMarket earlier in the day. I went, didn’t buy. Instead I chose to wait until after work and buy Toscano and feta at Trinity Bellwoods. I don’t think they even had feta at SickKids and I’ve been craving feta for two days, since I made a big wheatberry salad on Sunday. I also find myself craving salt recently, and I’m not much of a salt craver. I think it’s a result of the heat and sweating.
This weekend if I can catch a ride I’ll see if she’s got halloumi at Brick Works. Grilled halloumi makes me happy and I hear that she’s got a cool little worker bee working it.
Dinner tonight: Farmer’s market eggs (albeit, no longer fresh and the dozen is down to one) scrambled with garlic scapes. smoked salmon, Monforte feta and Toscano. One bite of the feta made my mouth happy.
Also on the topic of the CSA: The weekend before last I redid the newsletter template so that it’s easier to work with as long as it’s still being done in Word. It’s a personal little victory. Text boxes FTW.
Eat well, be well.
Been hording again…
Eat well, be well, STAY COOL AND HYDRATED!
