I had a birthday BBQ on Sunday, so I decided to make a new side dish that I hadn’t attempted before. Something vegetarian-friendly that wasn’t a salad that would go well with barbecue. Behold, stuffed mushroom caps.

As per usual, I used an online recipe and threw in something different and improvised measurements. I don’t know what it is with me that when it comes to cooking I treat recipes as mere suggestions, unlike baking which is chemistry and I follow measurements pretty closely.

In this case, I didn’t feel like buying a bag of onion powder just for this recipe and used chopped green onions instead. I also upped the cayenne pepper and subbed romano cheese for parmesan (I prefer the sharper flavour of romano).

I forgot to take photos yesterday, but I kept a tray of stuffed mushrooms and ate them for dinner today. I used extra cayenne pepper on most of the mushrooms yesterday, sprinkling it on top the way you would paprika plus more romano cheese so it was spicier than my home version. Too spicy for the kids, which meant more for the adults…

I was going to bake them in the oven upstairs, but I was persuaded to grill them on the barbecue in the backyard instead. It made an unholy cheesy mess once the mushroom filling bubbled, so next time I’m going to foil-wrap them to save the spillage!

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That’s right, I went back to Ding Tai Fung in Markham, where you can watch them make dumplings through a glass window. After the first trip last month, I knew what I wanted to order. Food coma, coming right up!

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Wellington Street blossoms

I’m probably due to switch up my walking home route, but the scenery is still photo-worthy along this one I’ve been taking since the late fall. It rained cats and dogs last night and today it was sunny and freshly green. And humid, too, which is a reminder of how humid this city gets, lest everyone forgets while grumbling about the temperatures before today. No use grumbling about weather, folks. There are plenty of other places to live where the sun shines year ’round, but you probably won’t want to live there.

One of my favourite trees is this big one at the edge of Liberty Village on King Street. Today when I was walking home the sun made it glow, casting a perfect green against the dark brick of the warehouse buildings. It was urban nature at its best.

Liberty Village

Liberty Village

And speaking of the change in season, it’s only been a few days since the company ice cream freezer arrived (Monday), but I’ve already made my second dip into it while performing a task nearby. Last year it was weeks between ice cream, now it’s mere days. Willpower, where ARE you??

second dip in the company ice cream freezer

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tiptoe through the tulips

Colour amidst the concrete and glass.

TIFF Bell Lightbox

the ice cream freezer is back at The Firm!

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pork and beans meets tikka misala

scenes from a rare subway ride

my carbonation of choice

two eyes and a tail

creme brulee at Saturday's wedding

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I <3 this cake topper. Perfectly simple but simply perfect!

Post-wedding days are Recovery Sundays at the House of Fielding. These are the days when the cat is glad to have company after being “abandoned” for an eternity (Saturday), and I eat wedding favours for breakfast.

I’m supposed to finish filing my taxes right now, but I’m editing photos instead. That should tell you something.

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three musketeers

Guess what I’m doing right now? If you guessed lying on a beach listening to the surf, adjacent to a sangria and an assistant who’s editing all my photos, *BINGO* you just read my wishful thinking. Delete all but the last four words, is more like it. I’m on my third editing project this week and I have a wedding on Saturday, so I doubt I’ll come up for air until next week month. In the meantime, I’m going to post an album that’s 99% finished and set aside for now, with lots of photos to look at (currently 105 if you have the guest pass, 61 if you don’t).

I’ve included some of my favourite pics here, starting with the one up top, which includes Marin’s oldest friend in Toronto — a momentous occasion since it’s going back something like 20 years, from the university days.

this is what surprised looks like

you can never have too much cake!

Buying these number balloons was one of the best ideas I had for decorating the party room, along with splurging for helium. Did you know that helium prices are *pun alert* on the rise? Despite the cost, the number balloons made such great props, and they’re reusable! Can you believe my original plan to make the pinata was to papier-mache these? I had to completely give up that idea since they were just TOO BIG.

There was, however, one partygoer who wasn’t particularly impressed with the balloons:

I give it another six months and he’ll be chasing after them.

As per usual, the album is best viewed as a full-screen slideshow (the only way to see all the photos; you’ll need a guest pass if you’re not in my Flickr list), or as thumbnails, or view a selection in the smaller slideshow below:

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tofu, or as my friend calls it, "edible plastic"

Let’s face it, fat tastes good. This is a problem, because if you take the fat out of your food, it just doesn’t taste the same. Take butter, for example. Is there any real substitute? I think not.

I’m a fan of tofu, but I forget most of the time that it exists. It’s usually tucked away somewhere in a corner of the grocery fridge so I walk right by it. But it pays to enjoy tofu, not just for economic reasons (how can you beat $1.49 for about half a kilo?). Tofu is also a decent meat substitute if you want to pad your dish with protein that’s low in calories, high in calcium, low in fat and has zero cholesterol.

“Tofu tastes like plastic,” my friend opines. But I cooked him up a tofu stir fry one night with red thai curry paste and he actually liked it. “See? You just need to experiment.”

I can't seem to cook without onions. Sorry, Helma!

spice up your life

Well, I tried an experiment with some tikka masala spices I’d bought, but this experiment fell a little flat. The spices were good, but I ran out of tomatoes, I had to sub the lemon juice for some leftover calamansi powder from my cookie-making spree, I had no cilantro, I’m out of cream, and my natural yoghurt is from skim milk, not full fat. It’s not really tikka masala without tomatoes, but the one thing I feel makes a huge difference is cilantro. If you’re a cilantro person (there are only two kinds of people in this world, people who love cilantro and people who hate it), you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Can’t blame the tofu this time. Next time: cilantro, tomatoes, ultra-natural yoghurt.

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Little Trinity Anglican Church

Who’s afraid of Friday the 13th? Not me! I’m not just un-superstitious, I think any day can be a good one if you want it to be.

I had to run a bunch of errands in the morning, which included scoping tomorrow’s wedding reception venue, which is conveniently located near Vistek, where I dropped off my camera to have the sensor cleaned. I arranged to pick it up when I came by at 5:30 to pick up equipment for the wedding, then scooted over to High Park for a very quick 10 minutes of photographing the lower grove of trees in High Park. You can tell I’m in the lower grove because the blossoms are a darker shade of pink. Up on the hill by Grenadier Cafe, the blossoms are a lighter pink.

Since I dropped off the DSLR and didn’t have it with me, I used my phone and ran some of the photos through Instagram. I love the square format, although it takes some getting used to when you want to frame subject matter. I’ve already had to do some arbitrary chopping because my eyes are accustomed to a rectangle rather than a square. Round eyes –> rectangular viewfinder –> square photo. Confusing.

Anyway, this next batch of photos is topped off with a couple of food pics — to break up the cherry blossom bonanaza of late — taken at Biago Ristorante on King Street.

lobster bisque @ Biago Ristorante

I’ve had my fair share of chocolate mousse, but I have to say this was my favourite! It was much denser than regular mousse, and being a big fan of nuts, I was pleasantly surprised (nay, enthused) over the topping of crushed hazelnuts and pistachios and accompaniment of berries.

Seriously, the whole meal was divine but I’d return just to have this mousse again.

chocolate mousse @ Biago Ristorante

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I’m in a food coma which is competing with delirium from too many hours with my eyes open. I will let the (Instagram) photos speak for themselves so I can drift into dreamland.

The photos were taken at Ding Tai Fung in Markham. These dumplings were worth driving 71kms roundtrip for.

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