Reading: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Title: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Author: Mindy Kaling

Style: Honest and silly

Let’s just be clear that this book isn’t an intellectual read or very deep and insightful. I got the e-book because I’d followed Mindy’s blog for a while, but shortly after finding it, lost track of the bookmark and stopped reading online blogs in general (ironic.). A similar story follows from my experience with The Mindy Project, which also has a number of hilarious and relatable moments, but inevitably carries a joke on for too long and soon loses my interest. I generally enjoyed the informal whimsical narrative; the placement of “Oh my god.” at the end of a sentence made me feel like I could hear Mindy reciting passages from the book - I liked that. It made for a casual read that was easily picked up while on transit or trying to fall asleep. The book was segmented into unrelated chunks and stories which made it easy to start and stop as needed.

Content: Mindy’s anecdotes on family life, dating and career struggles

Just like the Mindy Project, I found the same pattern with this book. Extremely relatable content, however somewhat tiresome in the areas that were too serious or what I considered “not interesting”. I was less interested in the details of Mindy’s career, hoping to hear about her traumatic (and funny) experiences, social observation and random lists. She herself acknowledges her penchant for making lists, which I also share…perhaps we are more alike than I had thought!

Desire to finish: 100%

The fact that I finished this one so quickly means that despite my commentary, I did really enjoy the book. It kept me smiling and wanting to get to the next disparaging comment. What else do you think about, Mindy?

Other comments: Tell us more about how a one-night stand could murder you at your own apartment.

Overall recommendation: Read it.

Dealicious: Vittorio's on Avenue

The offer: $20 for $50 Worth of Lobster, Seafood and Fine Italian Cuisine from Vittorio's on Avenue in Yorkville

What I value in a good restaurant experience: convenient location, good service, pleasant atmosphere, reasonable prices and deliciousness (in no particular order - although tastiness is pretty key).

Location: Avenue and Davenport

This was a bit of a hike north of Bloor, but in normal weather conditions this isn't out of the way at all. The restaurant has recently relocated to Yorkville and is just a short walk north of Hazelton Lanes.

Service: Great service; very attentive staff

After switching tables twice, I was sure they were going to ignore us. But who puts armchairs (like office furniture) at a high table? We had to switch! Anyway, the waiters were all great, and various people kept coming by to fill up our water (rare!), pour the wine and clear plates regularly.

Atmosphere: Warm ambiance 

Upon arrival at 7pm, the dining room was dark with lots of candles around. The tables were quite close together, but it didn't seem to affect the overall dining experience - although it was somewhat difficult to fit everything onto the table. By mid-meal, a musician had begun serenading various tables with spanish-flamenco (??) type music.  Isn't this an Italian restaurant? Oh well. It was quite pleasant, although another patron seemed to be giving the guy a hard time about his performance. She was a cranky old bird, because we sang along when he came by our table and sang Brown Eyed Girl and various Enrique Iglesius (??) songs...

Prices: On the high side

The prices are typical of Yorkville, however quite reasonable given the quality and presentation of the food. I would certainly return for the prix-fixe menu in the future, and maybe even a full meal on another day if I didn't have a voucher; the vouchers make the prices a bit more tolerable.

Deliciousness: Exceeded my expectations.

Sometimes seafood is a bad choice, however I took a chance because this place seems to talk about seafood a lot on their website and in their specials menu. The appetizer included three amazing scallops, and my main was a half lobster stuffed with wild mushroom risotto. Yay! All selections were fantastic and very pretty! I should also mention that the rosemary and sea salt (I think?) bread was so amazing that we ordered a second one. The tiramisu was good, but not as amazing as the one at Grazie! :)

Overall value: Excellent! The deal came up again on Dealicious and I purchased three more vouchers. I'm also interested in the non-voucher deals, such as Date Night Tuesday - This looks like a tasty menu, so I'm excited to try it!

Recipe: Zucchini Fries

Who doesn't like cheese fries? Well they're bad for you, so it's best to avoid them. Alternatively, you may consider substituting zucchini. Yes, this is a certifiable cheat that I saw on Dr. Oz. 

Ingredients

Zucchini

Eggs

Finely grated parmesan

Spelt bread crumbs

General Method

• Cut zucchini into strips and blot dry
• Whisk egg and set aside
• Combine parmesan and bread crumbs 
• Dip zucchini in egg and quickly roll in cheese-crumb mixture
• Place strips onto a grease cookie sheet 
• Bake 10 mins at 425F; flip strips and bake for another 10 mins until crisp (not burnt)

Adapted from Dr.Oz

Comments:

• I forgot to blot the zucchini at first, so the egg wasn't sticking to it very well; this caused some of the crumb-mix to fall off rather quickly. Lesson learned.
• The egg mixture made the crumb-mix clumpy and quite difficult to work with towards the end of the process. I suggest dividing the parmesan-breadcrumb mixture into 2 portions to avoid having to use a lumpy mixture at the end. I simply added breadcrumbs to the mixture to dry up some of the egg batter.

Overall Recommendation:

• Generally good tasting, with a fun crunchy texture
• The baked zucchini doesn't keep well, so try to eat the whole batch at once. Use 1 zucchini instead of 2 for a more reasonable batch size.
• I liked this recipe, but not sure if I'd make it again in a hurry...it's a lot of work for a cheat, but distracting, time consuming activities may be part of the solution when avoiding a craving!

Recipe: Baked (not fried!) Meatballs

We've been talking about spaghetti and meatballs for some time. It just seemed like too much work. The problem is that most pre-packaged meatballs are disgusting. Yeah - disgusting! Random particles and rubbery bits...and overall poor flavour. Note: Even the Longo's brand meatballs aren't good - how is that possible?

Little known fact: I don't really know how to fry any food other than bacon. I burn that too. It became important to find a recipe that didn't involve any crisping, searing or initial frying. Who knew you could bake meatballs? Best idea ever.

After reviewing a few different recipes, including one from Chef at Home and some no-name Pasta book, it became apparent that there wasn't a perfect recipe available, so a few needed to be combined. Here are the results - these are not scientific.

Ingredients

Beef

Pork

EVOO

Leek

Parmesan Cheese

Egg

Garlic

Basil

Thyme

Oregano

Salt

Chili Powder

Spelt Bread Crumbs

General Method

• Combine all ingredients with 1/4 of the breadcrumbs
• Form the meatballs and roll in remaining breadcrumbs
• Place on a baking sheet
• Bake 20 mins at 400 F

Adapted from 3 other recipes

Comments:

• Try rolling some meatballs in breadcrumbs before baking and leave the rest plain - try them before deciding which you prefer
• The 1/2 pound of beef and pork yielded approximately 14 meatballs and quite a bit of wasted meat - will double up the recipe next time and freeze the extra meatballs
• Whisk the egg before adding it to the mixture 
• Using leeks instead of onion was a last minute sub, since there weren't any onions around (oops!) - it created a milder flavour considering the large volume of leeks that were used (you can see them!)
• My favourite herb right now - fresh thyme. Delicious...use it! All of the other herbs listed above were dried

with pasta, sauce and cheese

Overall Recommendation:

• Pretty quick if you've got everything you need
• The most time consuming part of this method is preparing all of the ingredients
• I served this up with the marinara sauce I posted previously. Note that for 14 meatballs a double batch of sauce would have been preferable!
• Since this recipe usually goes with spaghetti, I'm opting to defer making these again for a while... carby goodness.

Theatre: Live Action Shorts @ the TIFF Bell Lightbox

I was never really interested in film until a friend took me to TIFF last summer. We had tickets for a couple of international films, since the major premieres were either American or had weird ticket selling practices. Apparently it's not worth it to attend a North American premiere, because the films come to the theatres shortly after TIFF. The only bonus is to catch a glimpse of the red carpet and maybe see some celebrities... uhh I think it's worth it! I did try to get tickets for a couple of American premieres including one featuring Jennifer Garner, and another with Cory Monteith. hee! Anyway, I failed at both, because the tickets kept going "off-sale" when I was online so I eventually gave up. One of my friends did see James Franco at a film though... fun!

In more recent news, I attended the TIFF Lightbox screening of the Live Action Shorts nominated for Academy Awards. There was an option to see the animated shorts as well, but I wasn't as interested in those. Cartoons make me sleepy.

Well, of course we arrived late (blame the wine!), so didn't get the greatest seats which impacted my ability to read subtitles! Anyway, here's a brief review:

Pentecost (Ireland)

Synopsis

• Damian is forced to serve as an altar boy at an important mass in his local parish, and faces a difficult choice: conform to the status quo, or serve an extended ban from his life's passion - football. 

Rating in a few words

• 4 out of 5 
• Short, clever, hilarious and held my attention. Only somewhat visually appealing. 

Recommendation

• See it. 

Raju (Germany/India)

Synopsis

• A German couple travel to Kolkata to adopt an orphan boy and realize they are involved in child trafficking. 

Rating in a few words

• 3 out of 5 
• Long, serious and slightly shocking. Dull cinematography. I couldn't read the subtitles most of the time. 

Recommendation

• You may not enjoy it, but you should see it. 

The Shore (Ireland)

Synopsis

• A tale about an Irish immigrant who brings his daughter to Ireland to show her his place of birth where he ends up reunited with his former best friend. 

Rating in a few words

• 2 out of 5 
• Seemed funny and had beautiful scenery. Unfortunately it took too long to get going and I fell asleep. I heard is was a good one - I can't say. 

Recommendation

• Check it out at your own risk!

Time Freak (United States)

Synopsis

• A neurotic inventor creates a time machine and gets caught up travelling around yesterday 

Rating in a few words

• 2 out of 5 
• Mostly a reenactment of what a guy did as he repeated the previous days events over and over. Think Groundhog Day. Nothing groundbreaking here, yet mildly amusing. 

Recommendation

• It's short enough to spend time on it.

Tuba Atlantic (Norway)

Synopsis

• An elderly man has a week to live. A young girl keeps him company as he kills seagulls with various whacky inventions and blows on a giant horn. 

Rating in a few words

• 1 out of 5 
• Too long and mostly annoying. The dead seagulls were hilarious at first, however the dreary setting and unattractive actors make for a long look at the 7 stages of grief. 

Recommendation

• I probably missed the whole point of this film, but I hated it so much that I don't care. Skip it. 

Food: Tortilla Flats

Walking along Queen West, there was a delicious deep fried smell in the air... it was Tortilla Flats. Now, before you judge or read any (bad) online reviews, pause for a moment and read on. 

I don't generally guess my way through Toronto restaurants - I like to do some research before settling on a place. I'd never heard of Tortilla Flats before, and I don't remember ever having good tex-mex anywhere in Toronto.

Date visited: February 18th, 2011

There seemed to be a few groups inside, and they told us we could sit anywhere. A server quickly came by and asked us about drinks. He took a while to come back, but when he did, he apologized for the wait. Were we waiting? I didn't really even really think about it, but appreciated the apology anyway.

After a number of questions and requests for recommendations, I had a few thoughts...  I like reinforcement that I've made a good menu selection. I've ordered a lot of disgusting things from restaurants and been disappointed, and I wish someone had been honest enough to tell me I'd made a bad choice! For example, I really wanted the "Kitchen Sink Dip", because it seemed to have everything I could ever want in a tex-mex layered dip - refried beans, guacamole, salsa, chili, cheeses...the guy didn't really offer any feedback.

Tasty: Kitchen Sink Dip & Tortilla Chips

But when I asked for an entree suggestion because I was torn between Flautas and the Enchilada, he said the Flautas were horrible and to not order them! Okay...perfect. The enchilada was very fresh tasting and had acceptable chicken chunks. No objectionable chicken bits here... I could have done without the side of yellow rice though. I meant to omit that, but forgot. It wasn't bad, there was just too much food.

I also enjoyed a good margarita with crushed ice - not too sweet/sour and just the right amount of tequila. I wish it had been Margarita Thursday.

So, I must say the prices were reasonable, and the service was great. Again, I will say that most of the time I'm unimpressed with restaurant service in the city, and don't usually expect anything. When the experience is good, I'm pleasantly surprised and offer a good tip.

The food, tasty beverage and relaxed atmosphere all contributed to a lovely adventure in food...I would definitely return to this place, despite what you may read on Urban Spoon. It had a lot of bad reviews, but I'd give it another go. Until my next visit is a total bust, I stand by my recommendation!

Final thought: Eat there!

Recipe: Apple Pie

I like pie. People like pies. Especially apple pies.

I was pretty nervous about making my own pie crust at home for the first time. I was super paranoid about "tough" pastry, so I was really careful to not overwork it.

Ingredients

Pastry

Flour

Butter or shortening

Salt 

Brown Sugar

Water

Filling

Apples

Lemon

Sugar

Spices 

Butter

Corn Starch

General Method (Pie Crust - top and bottom) 

• Mix fat and flour
• Mix salt and sugar in water
• Combine and knead until dough comes together
• Allow dough to rest and divide
• Roll out bottom crust, fit into pie plate and egg wash 

General Method (Pie Filling)

• Core and peel apples 
• Coat with sugar, starch, spices and lemon
• Cover filling with top crust and cut a hole to release steam
• Water wash and sprinkle with sugar (or cinnamon sugar!)

Adapted from some other recipe

Comments:

• I prefer using butter over shortening in my dough, because it's generally more flavourful and not gross!
• I was worried about the crust thickness - too thick and it won't cook; too thin and it will rip apart during assembly. I didn't really have either of these problems
• Ideally, I would have liked to use Spartan apples, but couldn't find any. I used a combination of granny smith and honey crisp...
• Use modified corn starch (Clear Jel), not corn starch! They are not created equal. I ended up with a significant amount of liquid in the pie from the apples which didn't thicken adequately with regular corn starch. This changes the consistency of the bottom crust, which should be crisp and only slightly wet on the inside of the pie. 

Overall Recommendation:

• It was easier than I thought
• Try it! Next time I'll try strawberry and rhubarb... well, when it's summer and rhubarb is around again.