30

Last week I woke up to the white stuff ...

But not today.  Today, it was gorgeous out.  Also, I had a pretty fantastic day ... even for a Monday.

Lunch was bee bim bop at Wasabi.

I grabbed a pumpkin caramel latte (half sweet) before making my way back to work for the afternoon.  It's funny how a little treat like this can make the work day so much sweeter :-)

Since we went out to celebrate on the weekend, tonight, for my real birthday, we had a cozy dinner inside.  It was perfect.

Bulgogi lettuce wraps (marinated meat, rice and mushrooms in lettuce) served with kimchi on the side.

The rest of the week looks like it is shaping up to be just as great as today was ...

If this is what 30 is like, it's growing on me ;-)

Thanks to all of those who left birthday wishes for me today - you're pretty groovy.

Last Weekend of my 20s ...

I tried something new this weekend.

Soft boiled eggs!

These are soooo good.  I can't believe it basically took me 30 years to try these.  I thought about them many times in the past, and always thought they looked so cool, but never got around to enjoying them until this weekend.

Tomorrow morning (Monday) I will wake up to the beginning of my 30s.  My 20s were full of so much adventure, learning, and growing; I can only imagine what this next decade will bring.

What food have you never tried but have always wanted to?  What are you waiting for!?

Early Birthday Celebrations

Friday night I was treated to an early birthday dinner at The Willow.  

The amouse bouche was a duck confit toast.

For an appetizer we shared the tacos, which were much larger than expected.

My entree was the trout, which was really good, but again, a huge helping.  

 

It doesn't look that big in the picture, but there were two pretty decent sized pieces of fish, along with potatoes and salad.  I took half of it home.

Saturday evening we had a Korean-themed celebration with family as an early celebration for both mine and Chris' birthdays.  We started with dinner at Korea House, followed by karaoke in a small, private room.

The seafood pancake was superb (I did not expect it to be as good as it was).

 

My entree was a kimchi soup.  Mmmmmm!

After dinner we headed to Sake for karaoke in a private room, and it was a blast!  

 

Have you ever done karaoke in a private room?

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Sweet Genius

A week or so ago I was contacted by The Food Network to see if I was interested in interviewing Chef Ron (from the hit show Sweet Genius) for a blog post.  I jumped at this wonderful opportunity!

I absolutely love this show, and have watched it for the past two seasons.  If you haven't seen it, it is show in which four pastry chefs battle each other in three rounds of challenges - chocolate, candy and cake.  Each round has surprise ingredients that must be used in the creations, as well as some kind of inspiration to guide the chefs.  Chef Ron Ben-Israel judges each round based on creativity, originality and taste.

The 3rd season of Sweet Genius premieres on Thursday, October 18th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Yesterday I received a phone call from NYC and was lucky enough to get to chat with Chef Ron for a while. 

When asked if there were any ingredients that he hasn't given his contestants yet, but wants to in the future, he explained that they must remain surprises, but he did mention that there would be traditional/ seasonal ingredients for the holiday shows.

He told me that his favourite round of the show is the cake round.  He "love[s] cake" and thinks it has the potential to be "the most creative part."

I asked him how he comes up with inspiration for the show ideas, and he explained that there is a lot of experimenting and research that goes into it, and that the process is started a long time in advance.  He also explained that he likes to figure out what he would do with the ingredients.  Also, suggestions are often given by viewers on Facebook.

Chef Ron's job on the show involves sending home contestants each round.  I asked him if he ever felt bad sending people home, and he replied, "I really do ... most of the time I feel horrible about sending people home ... I try to be encouraging ... sometimes I don't want to send anyone home."

I asked Chef Ron if he has ever liked a contestant's recipe so much that he has made it himself, and he replied that he has and commented that he often visits the bake shops and restaurants of former contestants.

When asked what we should expect for the 3rd season, Ron said to "Expect the unexpected."  He said that there will be many "twists and turns and unusual things."  Inspiration will come from things such as art, pop culture, sports, theatre, American classics, etc..  He said that there is "something for everyone" and that this season will be "mind blowing".

I really enjoyed talking with Chef Ron and I thought that he was really nice and quite charming!  I can't wait to see what season 3 of Sweet Genius has in store!

Tune in to the following upcoming (and some holiday-themed) episodes:

Thursday, October 18^th at 10:00pm ET/PT - SEASON PREMIERE!

"Cuckoo Genius"

Thursday, October 25^th at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Halloween Genius"

Thursday, November 1^st at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Heated Genius"

Thursday, November 8^th at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Wicked Genius"

Thursday, November 15^th at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Turkey Genius"

Thursday, November 22^nd at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Squeaky Genius"

Thursday, December 6^th at 10:00pm ET/PT

"Holiday Genius"

 Do you watch Sweet Genius?

If you had to give people 3 mystery ingredients to use in a dessert (as strange as you want), what would they be?  What would you give them for "inspiration"?

 (I would choose cilantro, coffee beans, and goat cheese with "unicorn" as the inspiration).

Long-Weekend Snapshots

Saturday morning breakfast:

Fudge Factory in Moose Jaw for gelato:

Stir Fry Saturday:

Cheers to Thanksgiving, an anniversary, and birthdays!

 

Turkey dinner:

I can't believe it's already Wednesday and another weekend is just around the corner.  I have a fun weekend coming up, with an early birthday dinner on Friday evening, followed by two of my favourite bands playing in the same venue, and then a small get-together on Saturday.

Did you have a long weekend this past weekend?  What did you do?

Do you have anything fun coming up this weekend? 

Lobster Hot Tub

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I had a fabulous weekend, which started with a delicious Friday evening.  

After a trip to the local fresh fish shop, Christopher and I cooked up some live lobsters for the first time.

 

 

They were 1/5 lbs a piece, both males.  The guy at the shop directed us to bring a pot of water to a boil, salt it quite heavily (so that a raw egg would float), toss the lobsters in and bring it back to a boil.  Once the water was at a boil again we set the timer for 14 minutes.

Lobster Hot Tub

 (32 sec.)

For your viewing pleasure (they didn't squeal or scream as we expected):

We enjoyed baked potatoes, salad and bread with our lobstas.

 

I used a small fondue pot to keep the garlic butter melty and delicious for dipping purposes - mmmmm!

This was just the beginning of a tasty, tasty weekend.

Have you ever cooked lobster?

How was your Thanksgiving?

Life Changes: Living Alone

This is probably news to a lot of my readers, but I have been living alone for months.  Please email me at everydayfoodie@hotmail.com and ask "what's up" for more details.

This is the first time in my life I have ever lived alone, and these are some of my realizations (both negative and positive):

1)  Cooking for one sucks
It is no fun to make a new recipe or really nice meal if there is no one else to enjoy it with or to give you feedback on the recipe.  I much prefer to have someone to eat with, and am glad that I do have someone to enjoy at least some meals with each week.

My meals for one include a lot more sandwiches that I used to eat, individual chicken breasts (which I buy in a large bag from Costco) with rice or potatoes, eggs and toast, etc..

On a related note (and for similar reasons) watching TV alone is not as good.

2)  Grocery shopping has changed
Buying lettuce or spinach in bulk is a waste, because I can't finish it all on my own.  Most bags or packages of fruit are too big for me to eat up before they go bad.  I have to buy smaller packages of things, which tends to be more expensive.

3) The house/yard work never ends
I never realized how much work having a house was when I was only doing half of the work.  I used to do most of the cleaning and cooking, but never did the laundry or yard work.  It keeps me quite busy, and I am dreading winter shoveling.

4)  It's not as scary as I expected it to be
I don't freak out at every sound, and have been able to sleep quite well most nights.  I have become a lot more brave, and have even become a bit of a spider killer.  Eeep, I still hate spiders though.  I haven't missed a garbage day either ... I have always been very independent, but I am becoming more so as times goes on.

5)  Besides a bit of boredom and the above, it's not much different from living with someone
I had never lived alone and always wondered what it was like.  I had these day dreams and fantasies that it would be "so cool" to live alone and that I'd order pizza at 3:00 a.m. and do all sorts of things I didn't do often while living with someone.  Well, honestly, my routines haven't really changed at all.  Living alone is pretty much the same as living with someone, except without the company. 

I traveled alone for the first time a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed it.  This is kind of like an extended version of that.  I have found out that I can live alone, that it is not as luxurious as I expected it to be, but I don't mind it.  I definitely don't want to live alone forever though - company is always better!

Have you ever lived alone?  With someone?  

How do they compare for you?

I'm tossing around the idea of a solo trip to NY at the beginning of January ... unless one of my favourite ladies (bloggy friends included) want to join me!  I like to be alone, but don't want to dine alone!  Anyone interested?