Adam planned his surprise date this week and took me to Cafe Belong (my all time favourite place in Toronto) for a lovely meal. He also gets props for planning a surprise birthday dinner for me back in November, but said it didn’t count since it was a birthday.
Details: Menus and information about Cafe Belong can be found here.
We’ve been wanting to go to Saving Grace for brunch for ages, and finally made it happen this week. It was really tasty, but the only thing we would wait in line for again were those pancakes. Holy yum.
Details: Address and phone number for Saving Grace can be found here.
TO’s Finest created their first food crawl over two weeks in December. The $10 passport got you a signature dish at 10 different restaurants for $5 (taxes incl). It was an amazing deal with really excellent and fun restaurants participating. We only got to 6 of the 10, but we really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again! We especially loved that while the restaurants were only offering one dish to passport holders, they were full sized, so often it was more than enough food for the three of us. We brought Henry with us to Cut the Cheese, Queen Margherita and The Big Chill; and also went to Glory Hole Doughnuts, Junked and The Bake Shoppe. The other four restaurants were offering meat dishes, so we didn’t make the trip as only Adam could indulge.
Details: More information about TO’s Finest can be found here.
We got this idea from our friends over at Our Peculiar Band of Characters (if you are doing your own lists and need some ideas, check out their 2014 and 2015 lists, they have amazing ideas and we love following their adventures!).
So I can’t even be humble about this one, because guys, I rocked this. Adam had no idea what we were doing on our multi-stage date night on Friday, and I’m pretty confident I’ve set the bar high for his turn at planning a date.
We started out at Wilbur Mexicana, a new-ish Mexican place, featuring tacos, and a salsa and hot sauce bar. Totally fun, totally delicious.
Next we walked over to the big ticket event of the evening. The TSO screened Back to the Future, with the full orchestra playing the entire score live. It was incredible. Movie scores are designed to mirror and exaggerate emotions and moods on screen, and to have it played live (upping the power, emotions, etc), was just awe inspiring. Add to that a fairly fun and rowdy crowd (encouraged by the conductor), it was a super fun evening and probably one of the cooler things we’ve done in the city in a while.
THEN we walked over to the newly opened Sweet Jesus ice cream shop for some truly obnoxiously delicious ice cream cones, showing true commitment eating them walking back to the subway in zero degree weather.
Overall, an amazing night (though super sub-par photos!) and really fun having the element of surprise through the whole evening.
Details: Information about the TSO can be found here. The next movie they are screening with live orchestra is Psycho on Halloween with full orchestra. Menu and hours for Wilbur Mexicana can be found here and for Sweet Jesus here.
Since making fresh pasta for the first time in 2013, Adam has become our resident pasta-making expert and regularly makes it. He was keen to up his game and try a coloured pasta, so along with his little sous chef, made spinach spaghetti. So delicious (though questionable plating).
I have loved making Henry food (so far!). I found a site I really like (Baby FoodE), that uses really interesting combinations and spices, my hope being that he is an adventurous eater. Below is yesterday’s batch of food, hopefully it will last a few days. Not pictured are Henry’s daily avocado (his favourite) and egg. He’s on a big fruit kick right now, and isn’t that interested in veggies, so we’re just going with it for now (and hiding spinach and kale in fruit mixes once in a while).
Details: Roasted Blueberry recipe found here. Plum, blueberries & spinach found here (I left out the cilantro since I didn’t have any). Pear, prunes and clove found here. Roasted apple and blackberry recipe found here.
Since Henry has been born, we’ve basically been shut-ins; largely due to the long, cold, crappy winter we’ve had, but also cause he’s never been a quiet, chill kind of baby, so public outings made me nervous, Other than a baby music class and our parents’ places, we haven’t ventured out much. But, last week I grabbed hold of all my courage and headed out to the passport office, sure it was going to be a disaster, Did he ever prove me wrong – just sat quietly on my lap for the whole hour and a half wait checking out the people around us. It was a total win, and in the rush of confidence I had after, we decided to try brunch as a family this weekend.
We discovered Little Fish while I was pregnant and it’s quickly become our favourite. Guys, they make a dish that is pierogis topped with poached eggs and hollandaise. It is crazy delicious, First brunch in five months and I was in heaven and so happy to get it back in the rotation.
Details: Little Fish doesn’t seem to have a website. BlogTO’s review can be found here.
Oh boy, guys, are we ever slacking. Little Henry has been on sleep strike since day one, and do I ever have a deep and real understanding why they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture. We are slowly and surely chipping away at our list, but finding a second and a half to post is another thing altogether (this post brought to you by our newly acquired exersaucer).
Cafe Belong is our favourite restaurant in the city; no secret there, we’ve managed to get it on the list every year in a different way. Ever since we discovered it, we’ve always said how much my parents would love it, but we never managed to get it organized (we took Adam’s parents there at some point).
So two weekends ago we enlisted my brother and his girlfriend to babysit (for those keeping count, that would be two baby-free outings in two weeks), and we all headed over for a lovely lunch. We wandered the farmer’s market at the Brickworks first, and then had the usual exceptional lunch; great food, great service, great company.
Details: Information about hours, location and menu can be found here.
The blog The Lean Green Bean, run by a dietician from Ohio, facilitates a foodie pen pal program every month. You sign up, get matched with someone, and once getting a grasp of their dietary restrictions and favourites, you send each other package of goodies. The rules are you send by the 15th of the month, reveal on the last day, and have a $15 limit. Fun, right?
We were matched with a woman in Nova Scotia, who is a diabetic and loves almonds and pistachios. Since we were matched with someone out of province, I really wanted to fill the box with local finds, but I couldn’t think of anything local, non-perishable and suitable for a diabetic. We sent her Evelyn’s Crackers (the only Toronto item included), raw almond butter, two packages of Gone Nuts (Rosemary and Garlic Almond and Pistachios, and Spicy Chipotle Pistachios and Pumpkin Seeds), and Crisps freeze-dried strawberries and bananas. We did go over the $15 limit (slightly), but given it’s an American program, we figured it was fair since $15 doesn’t go as far here.
We got a box of tasty goodies; dark chocolate and coconut granola (my favourite), cinnamon tea, and two local items; red pepper jelly and maple cream.
Super fun! We’ll definitely do this at least for a couple more months. Toronto folk – what non-perishable local goodies would you include if you were sending a foodie package?
Details: The Lean Green Bean blog can be found here with info about the Foodie Pen Pal program.
Our friend Scarlet introduced us to Glory Hole, and this past family day Adam went and picked up a half dozen (yes, we’re comfortable with the ratio of two people vs six doughnuts – especially on a day when it’s -30 out).
We got Toast & Butter, S’mores, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, London Fog (Earl Grey infused cream) and the daily special; a peanut butter chocolate caramel. My favourite was the London Fog, Adam’s was the daily special. We both liked the Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the Toast & Butter is deceptively delicious. We both would pass on the S’mores in the future, it was good, but we’d reach for the others first.
Details: Glory Hole is located in Parkdale and information about hours, menu and catering can be found here.
100 Things in 2016/2017 