Nothing Smells Better Than Fresh Baked Cookies

I definitely wouldn't call myself a baker but sometimes I get a craving for fresh-baked cookies and I finally found an easy recipe to satisfy my cravings. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe by Averie Cooks is so simple and I love how few ingredients there are. It's also gluten-free! I've made it twice now: once for Michener's Respiratory Week Bake Sale (it was a hit!) and again yesterday. For some reason, mine always end up flat (even when I follow the instructions and leave it in the fridge overnight) but I don't mind. It's got the perfect amount of chewiness for me and I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, mmmm. Be right back; gotta grab one from the kitchen now :)

Delicious Food and Adorable Nephews

I've been a terrible blogger. I have all these blog post ideas but when it comes down to it, I've been too lazy to write. To make up for the lack of updates, here's some pictures of food and babies. Everyone loves food and babies!

Braised Beef Cheek Banh Mi

Nicole and I went downtown to check out Banh Mi Boys and I have to say, it's worth all the hype. We lined up for a quite a while (one line up to pay, another one to get food) but the wait was worth it. The two of us shared the Braised Beef Cheek Banh Mi ($5.99), the Pulled Pork Banh Mi ($5.49), and a Fried Chicken Steamed Bao ($3.49). We were stuffed but it tasted too good to stop eating. My favourite was the braised beef cheek, followed closely by the fried chicken. In a surprise shock, the pulled pork was my least favourite! Still pretty tasty though.

Danette and I celebrated our 23rd birthday with dinner at Mercatto. The York girls bought one of my favourite cakes: Dufflet's Lemon Raspberry Cakelet. I don't think I've ever been dissatisfied with a Dufflet cake. The girls also bought me new Toms for my birthday. Yay! My big toe was starting to peek out from my old ones.

Last Tuesday, I celebrated my birthday with my closest high school buddies at Joey Don Mills. Love those girls! Finally got around to trying the lobster grilled cheese and it was just as good as I was hoping. I also thought it was a nice touch that they offer complimentary wine and appetizers while you're waiting for a table.

Now on to what everyone is waiting for: pictures of my adorable nephew, Nathan! I think I may have visited my sister almost every day last week. Nathan's too cute to resist! He's just over 3 months now and getting so big. His smiles are the best :)

Dinner at Fraticelli's

Last Friday, my parents decided to go out for a joint 30th Anniversary and Father's Day dinner and asked me to pick a restaurant. I did a little research on Urbanspoon for nice restaurants in the Richmond Hill area and settled on Fraticelli's near Leslie/16th Ave. I had never been and was worried since the more reviews I read, the worse the service was sounding but it was ranked in the Top 10 for the area so I decided to just take the risk.

I wish I took more pictures but the lighting in there was too dark.

I made a reservation the day of and we got our table really quickly. Our waitress was really nice and suggested we order appetizers since the kitchen was busy. Even with the warning, I didn't think the service was slow at all. We got our food at a nice pace and all my worrying was for nothing. I really wish I remembered to take more pictures because the food was delicious and the portions were pretty big.
For our appetizers, we got:

• Fritto Misto ($13) - lightly dusted crispy fried calamari, shrimp, fennel and zucchini. Served with grilled lemon and garlic basil aioli.
• There were so many calamari and the shrimp was juicy and delicious. The lemon and aioli went with them perfectly. 
• Small Antipasti Board ($11) - a selection of Italian cheeses, cured meats, marinated vegetables and olives. Served on a wood board with grilled crostini.
• There's nothing fancy (like the meats and cheese you would find at Buca) but for $11, it was a good mix of foods. I also learned that I really like figs.

They also had complimentary bread that's warm and crusty on the outside and comes with a spicy oil for dipping.  By this point, we were already full but we still had our mains to eat!

• Mom ordered Veal Parmigiana ($24) - Romano crusted and topped with tomoato pomodoro sauce, melted provolone, mozzarella and friulano cheeses. Served with pappardelle noodles in sundried tomato pesto cream sauce. 
• Dad ordered  Spaghetti del Pescatore ($22) - fresh spaghetti, mussels, calamari, clams and tiger shrimps all tossed in a spicy tomato white wine sauce. Garnished with a lemon wedge and oregano. 
• I ordered the Contadina Pizza ($16) - Italian plum tomato sauce, provolone and friulano cheese, fiore di latte mozzarella, basil, crumbled Italian sausage, sauteed onions and rapini. 

My pizza was way bigger than expected. We saw some pizzas coming out of the kitchen and they were all circular and mine was this huge oblong shape, not that I'm complaining. The sausage was spicier than I expected but still delicious and  obviously the sauteed onions were a big reason I ordered the dish. Mom and I couldn't finish and ended up bringing half our dinners home for lunch the next day. Overall, I really liked Fraticelli's. The portion sizes were big, the prices were decent, the food tasted good, and the service was better than I expected. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke.

Oh yeah, I also finished a glass of wine for the first time! Jules and the Cul de Sac Crew would be so proud! Well, it was really half a glass...I'm trying to like wine but my palette is clearly not refined enough. My parents pretty much drank a whole bottle of wine together and got drunk, haha. Happy Anniversary!

Making Lunch at Home

My favourite kind of meal to make is one where I don't have to follow a recipe. It's really more of a "what can I find in the fridge and throw together?"

My mom had some leftover romaine lettuce in the fridge one day so I scrounged up everything I could find in the fridge and threw it in the bowl to make a hodgepodge salad. In went some tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, flaked chicken, feta cheese, and red onion. I added some walnuts for crunch and drizzled a mango chipotle dressing. Oh my gosh, it was SO good! It took me by surprise. It was a mix of sweet and salty and different textures. Yum! Who knew I would start craving salads?

Salad #2 was pretty tasty but it didn't live up to my first magical salad. This time around I threw in some blackberries and grapes along with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, and walnuts. It's a strange combination but it works. I like having different colours on my salad; it makes it look so pretty! Also, I recommend Kraft's Mango Chipotle dressing - it's perfect for bringing together a sweet summer salad.

My homemade pizza! I always go overboard with the toppings but it sure does taste good. I sauteed some onions until they turned a golden brown (you don't know how much I love caramelized onions, ugh so good!) and tossed in some leftover knackwurst from our barbecue the night before. Then I grabbed a naan, spread some pesto over it and placed my onions and sausage on top. Then I chopped some cherry tomatoes and fresh basil and threw those on top and baked the whole thing for 5 minutes. Not bad for an "emptying the fridge" meal.

Come And Get It!

This blog is slowly becoming food-centric. Before watching The Hunger Games with Alexandra and Nicole, we decided to grab a bite to eat at the pop-up restaurant, Come and Get It!, since it's been getting rave reviews and they could pack up and go at any time.

In a shocking turn of events, I went with the Chipotle Beef Short Rib sandwich instead of the Hawaiian Pork Belly. We all know how much I love pork but I don't regret the decision at all; the beef short ribs were delicious. You know it's good when you save some for the last bite of your meal.

Braised beef short rib with chipotle aioli,
ancho chili bbq sauce, crispy onions and
a sweet and sour coleslaw on a milk bun

I shared half of my sandwich with Alexandra and had half of her Special of the Day sandwich: duck confit with maple poached pear, pommery, and frisee. I'm so glad we shared because both sandwiches were equally good. It was nice to have something slightly spicy and something sweet. The sandwiches tasted a tad greasy but the coleslaw and frisee helped cut down some of the oily taste in my mouth.

Nicole's Pork Belly Poutine - Yum!

I love that the retro-hipster decorated Come and Get It! has a simple 4-item menu with 3 options each: sandwich, salad, or poutine. I get the feeling that they make everything with a lot of love. 

Come and Get It! menu
Source: Food With Legs

Happy Belly & Terrible Hockey

I've been wanting to try Goody's Diner for a while now and with a rare Tuesday off, I dragged my parents to come with me. It's a small space in an industrial area but there are some cute knick knacks that give it a diner feel.

I wasn't feeling particularly hungry but there was no way I was going to Goody's Diner and not ordering one of their off-menu specialty hamburgers. There's a few pictures of their specialty hamburgers hidden on a wall but I already knew what I wanted (even though it wasn't advertised anywhere) - the Figgy Piggy. Big thanks to the chef for making it for me!

Figgy Piggy ($12) up front. Goody's Burger ($9) behind.

Layers of the Figgy Piggy

It. Was. Glorious. It was way too big to fit in my mouth but I made it work. The Figgy Piggy had a layer of pulled pork, grilled apples, peameal bacon, cheddar cheese, zucchini-corn relish, and your usual burger toppings. The fig BBQ sauce was just the right amount of sweetness and the apples added a really nice crunch and tartness. The beef was also really juicy and flavourful. I can't say enough good things about it!

Mom went with the Goody's Burger and Dad went for the Steak Sandwich. They both seemed really satisfied with their choices and were amazed that it only cost $9 each. The sides they came with were huge! I'm not a big fan of sweet potato fries but they are delicious at Goody's Diner and I kept stealing some from my mom. If you still haven't gotten the point of this post - I left very satisfied :)

That same night, my dad and I had box seats for the Leafs vs Hurricanes game thanks to TD Waterhouse. We were both still full from lunch but I can't turn down free food and drinks, especially when there's Smirnoff Mojitos! The Leafs played terribly and lost 3-0 but it was still a fun night with the pops.

Dad and I at the Leafs game
Scarf = totally necessary. It's chilly in there!

View from the box, munching on popcorn

Making Mom jealous with our
Caramel Almond Crunch Haagen Dazs

Girls' Night In

Last Friday, I wanted a manicure and had a craving for pizza. There was only one logical place to go for both: Michelle's house! I'm not sure if I was just really hungry but we created the best pizza I've ever had from Pizza Pizza. We nixed the classic tomato sauce and went for BBQ sauce with chipotle steak, chipotle pork, and pineapples on top. So good! We devoured half of it before remembering to take a picture.

After browsing Michelle's extensive nail polish collection, I decided on OPI's Tickle My France-y. It's a gorgeous nude colour with a hint of lavender. Michelle did a great job filing, buffing, and painting my nails but for whatever reason, it took forever to dry, which is especially torturous when a girl really wants to eat a chicken nugget! I ended up smudging my thumb twice but Michelle fixed it and I was good to go. Or so I thought. When I got home, I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch. Apparently, my thumb wasn't completely dry yet and the leather couch left a textured imprint on my nail. After a brief, "Nooooooo!!", I figured it was only noticeable if you looked at it really closely and there was nothing I could do about it now so the imprint stayed. Now I've got a little reminder on my thumb that not everything goes perfectly but you can't sweat the small stuff.