Hang all the mistle toe

In the midst of all the papers, exams, presentations and with all the fall classes wrapping up, it can often get really crazy during these weeks, and everything gets a little gloomy. What keeps me optimistic during these times is the thought of weeks after it is all done..the Christmas festivities!! December has and will always be my favorite month of the year for a number of reasons MY BIRTHDAY (dec 11), Christmas, and boxing day! Although this month is panned for consumerism at an all time high I get pretty caught up in the spectacle. I love it all, the atmosphere during these weeks brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. The hot coco nights, all the baking I tend to do, the buzz in the malls, the christmas music and movies playing all day everyday, the candy canes, the rich colours, the santa pictures, skating at nathan phillips square, the lights on yorkville and everywhere, but most importantly cooking with my mother on christmas day and my family coming together. I come from a Filipino background and during these times the following traditional dishes are brought to the table:

For breakfast: Tapsilog

This consists of fried rice, eggs sunny side up, tomatoes, and tapa meat
aka cured meat

Palabok: a noodle dish, jam packed with greatness

and lastly for dessert Halo-halo this dish usually comes out during the summer time
but in my household its a year round dish. It consists of crushed ice, cream, sugar,
red beans, mangos and many other things, with a scoop of ube(taro) ice cream.

Photocredits: off_wut post (cochina)

Local Love: Smoke's Poutinerie

So who loves poutine? Poutine in my opinion is one of Canada's well kept secrets. I remember when my cousin's came from California in December 2004 and they had never even heard/tasted/seen poutine before, and when they first tried it, they were in complete awe. Every time I go back to California they ask me to bring poutine..of course the border would/will  never allow it. Anyways so Michelle and I recently went to Smoke's poutinerie on 218 Adelaide St W to simmer down the poutine craving we both coincidently had at the time. The journey was well worth it, they sell pop shoppe drinks which brings in a little vintage diner feel to the place and have free stickers which I took advantage of. Smoke's is a cute little place, with a pretty cool aesthetic , the atmosphere is pretty darn chill, and the menu ranges in all kinds of poutines I didn't even know existed. Check it out, and the prices range depending on the kind of poutine you get. Very well worth every dime and it doesn't dent the wallet either. 

On a lighter note

I recently went to a wedding the food was amazing I got too

 busy to take pics of the full menu

so I took pics of some of the desserts instead :) 

This right here is a filipino dessert called puto it is a steamed 

little rice cake and often made in various colours it looks really 

plain but its amazing with coffee or tea

Just a bit of the desserts offered there was more

including the most delicious strawberry short cake

 I have ever tasted ever!

Morbid

My friend Jose recently tweeted this youtube clip, no words are even needed on how morbid this is. Although I usually am not one to criticize food this is to some cultures a delicacy. Personally not fa me, after seeing this I don't think I could eat/look at fish the same.

poor fish :( 

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Fall/Winter is the best time of the year for a number of reasons. All the best holidays in my opinion happen during the fall/winter period. There's Thanksgiving, Halloween, MY BIRTHDAY, Christmas and New Years. So my good friends Nikki and Periwig Peter have already jump started to the festivities by making a gingerbread house. These pics will surely get you giddy for the coming weeks ahead. From now on until the end of the year this blog will be filled with TONS and I mean TONS of scrumptious holiday recipes, from my home to hopefully yours. 

Photo credits: Peter!

A pattern

frozen yogurt

mashed potatoes

rice pudding

Everything I've been eating since my wisdom teeth extraction has been

colourless and not very substantial...help me out am I allowed to eat at

least mac n cheese? anything?

Wisdom teeth removal menu

Some of you may know I had my wisdom teeth extracted. Many of you probably know the feeling, if you haven't gotten your wisdom teeth out yet I salute and wish you luck. Anyways as your gums heal from the operation, the specialist often times gives you a do and don't list, well my whole week will consist of soup, juice, liquids, and ice cream, jello, basically soft baby food...I am very hungry :(  does anyone have any healthy SOFT wisdom teeth friendly suggestions? Here is my first meal of the day:

Mom's homemade congee soup and for dessert my pain medications

and falling asleep in front of t.v watching marathon episodes of the 

barefoot contessa (food network)..yay!

expensive food = dent in wallet but good in quality? maybe?

I recently bought a starbucks meal for $11 it consisted of a strawberry banana smoothie, some wheat crackers, brie cheese and few cuts of fruit  it tasted good, but it was such a hefty price and made me think about where did my $11 go? and why was it soo expensive later on that evening my mom and I went to Costco and I got hungry once again and purchased a hot dog and pop for $2. I felt filled up with the hotdog but I also felt gross at the same time, where as the healthier food choice made me feel pretty satisfied, but sad because of the cost also the fact that I bought it from Starbucks..a little indulgence I suppose. I need to find a food medium any thoughts? Especially living in a highly suburban area there are very FEW places that meet at the middle in terms of quality of food and cost. I wanna hear your food comparisons in terms of cost and quality, guilts? and fraustrations? 

the secret to green guacamole

Not a very flattering picture, but the secret to evergreen guacamole, you have to keep the seed in the middle of the guac! 

if you want the recipe to the guacamole...that might be a little harder to get ahaha but with enough convincing I will definitely reconsider.

Food fair

I know this is very late, but better late than never and these pics are pretty solid on all the hard work that each group did for their poster presentations. Onto the pics :)

and Rob for the win