Weekend Update

Side note: Isn't SNL's Weekend Update with Seth Meyers the best part of SNL? Love him.

This weekend has been the perfect mix of hanging out with family and friends, and relaxed lounging

Yesterday, we finally went with Kelly to Goody's Diner. Check out our delicious lunch:

 Front: "Steakhouse" burger: 8oz beef, mushrooms, swiss cheese, onion rings, caesar salad (inside onion rings)
 Back: "Highwayman" burger: 8oz beef, fried egg, onion rings, pastrami  

Chili mac 'n cheese pizza, with side Caesar salad

To celebrate Danica's birthday, we got takeout pizza from Pizza Libretto and celebrated at Ann's place. It was great to hang out and chat with old high school chums (actually, Ann and I were even in kindergarten together!) Please excuse the blurriness of my iPhone pics

This morning I realized that it had been awhile since Jay last took a photo of my belly, so we whipped out the camera for a quick photo. At roughly 22 weeks, we had gone to New York and I had felt so big then. Apparently, compared to now that was nothing!

Here's a funny story: when I first went shopping for maternity clothes, I was about 15 weeks pregnant and just starting to get a bit of a belly. I went into the change room to try on maternity pants, and sitting on the bench was a fake belly! So I strapped it on, put my clothes over it, and giggled over how BIG I looked. I called Jay into the changeroom, and we snapped a quick photo. Oh my, I can't believe how pregnant I'll look at 9 months, I remember saying to Jay. Well, later I discovered that the fake belly bump only approximates a 6 month belly. Holy Smokes! I'll be that big at only SIX months?! I yelped.  Anyway, here's a photo comparing that fake belly with my REAL actual 7 month belly. I even put on the same T-shirt for easy comparison, haha.

Fake six-month belly                                                                                     Real seven-month belly

We've slowly been accumulating more stuff in anticipation of Baby Loftus' arrival. Jay did a lot of research (in true engineer style) and decided that we should get a Colgate Classica III mattress. Unfortunately, it's not available in Canada, so we decided to order it online from a US site. Since we were ordering it online anyway, I decided to also order a Jenny Lind crib that I had been eyeing, since it was also unavailable in Canada. Check out these awesome nurseries with that pretty crib. Shipping and duty charges were about $100 but we decided to bite the bullet and order anyway. We clicked away, but due to some kind of computer glitch, we weren't getting charged for shipping or duty.
"Hmm... should I re-try to order it, so that the correct shipping and duty shows up?" I asked Jay.
"Are you crazy? Click ORDER CONFIRMED!" Jay nearly shouted.

So due to some lucky website glitch we saved over $100 and got the exact crib and mattress we wanted. Pretty awesome, eh?

Oh Goody

Has anyone been to Goody's Diner? It's off the beaten path a bit (in a pretty industrial part of Scarborough), but the burgers get rave reviews. It's definitely on my must-try list, especially after my sister Kelly went a few weeks ago and posted the most amazing burger photos.

I know this blog makes it look like all we do is eat artery-clogging food, but I swear it's not true. Healthy food is just too boring to warrant a photo or a blog entry. However, I will admit that while I haven't had any strange cravings during this pregnancy, I have been indulging in food I wouldn't normally eat (e.g. fast food, pizza, a whole lot of ice cream). Jay is totally digging this aspect of pregnancy since he's happily eating alongside me. I know I'll pay for it post-partum, but for now I think I'll pencil in Goody's Diner into my calendar

Liquid Gold

For anyone who's been following along, you knew this post was coming. This is the third and final installment of our meat locker adventure (you can read about part 1 and part 2, if you like).

It was daunting to consider how to make this massive rack of ribs, but we sorely needed the freezer space it was taking up.  But we didn't know that type of meat it was. The label only said "side ribs, c/off". Was it beef? Was it pork? We hemmed and hawed and googled, and decided that it didn't matter. It was a really huge rack, and the raw meat was dark red (indicating beef). Except it also had an area that was a bit pink-ish too (maybe pork?).  I decided to try to braise the peef? bork? ribs, and see what would happen.

Just for the record, this was Jay's portion

Oh. My. Goodness. It was time-intensive, but it turned out to be the best ribs I've ever made. But I need to tell you about the glorious gravy that came out of it. Pure Liquid Gold. I could drink it, it was so rich and flavourful. Oh, and for the record, it was pork ribs.

Once again, thanks Graham! Best Christmas gift exchange present ever.

Here's the recipe, adapted from here:

Red Wine Braised Pork Ribs
serves 8-10

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 bottle red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 litres of stock (I used chicken)
• 2 racks of pork ribs (or 1 gigantic rack), divided into 2-3 rib portions
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped (I used 3 handfuls of baby carrots)
• 1 tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Flour (to thicken)
• salt and pepper

In a stock pot, bring 3/4 bottle of wine to a low boil and simmer.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add garlic, celery and carrots until it starts to smell really good (a few minutes). Transfer contents to the stock pot.

In the now empty skillet, heat oil until hot. While oil is heating, salt and pepper the meat. Sear each section of ribs, meaty-side down first, until browned on top but not cooked through. Transfer the seared ribs to the stock pot. When finished searing all the ribs, deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar, then immediately with the rest of the wine. Pour wine and vinegar into the stock pot.

Add the chicken stock to the stockpot - all the ribs should be completely submerged. Add herbs and simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender and about to fall off the bone.

Remove ribs from sauce and set aside. Continue to simmer the sauce for 2 hours until it is reduced. Skim the fat off the top (I used some kind of Chinese oil skimmer utensil). At this point, you can either skip to the next step, or you can cook a roux (using some of the oil you skimmed and about 3 or 4 tbsp. of flour) and thicken the sauce. Personally, I prefer gravy to thin jus, so I thickened it.

Gently cut the ribs into single-serving portions and return to the stock pot to re-heat. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or with crusty bread. Taste, then sigh with satisfaction.

Folia Grill

When Jay and I visited the Greek Islands a few years ago, we ate a lot of gyros at small fast food shops. It was so delicious - shaved meat, creamy tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onions and a few french fries in a soft pita. It's been hard to find any gyros in Toronto that can compare, but today we went to Folia Grill, and it came pretty damn close. They even stuck some french fries in there, which very few places do.

Jay ordered a bottle of Mythos beer for an extra Hellenic touch, and we added a side order of zucchini fries.

Eggy Sandwich

Mmm... I'm going to have to try this soon. Look at that gooey cheese oozing out!

The best part is how easy it is to make.

Photo & Recipe found here

Ham, Four Ways

This is part two of our meat locker adventure, this time featuring a smoked bone-in ham.

I've never made ham before, but it was super easy. The hard part was figuring out what to do with all the leftovers.

We started with an oven-roasted ham:

Jay's not a fan of creamy soups, but even he had to admit that this ham and potato soup was really tasty:

Ham and spinach omlette:

And what could a Chinese girl do with a leftover ham bone, other than make jook (congee), which was deliciously creamy and comforting on a chilly weekend

And I still have leftover ham in the freezer!

Celebrating

There's a restaurant Jay and I really really like, and it's so good in a bad-for-you kind of way that we consciously limit how often we go.

It's called Golden Star, and it's a burger joint in the Yonge/Steeles area that's been around forever. The best thing on their menu is their huge All-Star burger, which is made with a fresh homemade beef patty. You can choose any toppings you like, but trust me: get the grilled onions and the homemade barbeque sauce.

(The second best thing on their menu is their vanilla milkshake, but I've only managed to order it on two occasions because the burger is so big. Even then, I usually have to bring the milkshake home and nurse it slowly)

So what was the special occassion that merited a trip to Golden Star, you ask? Jay got a promotion at work! He's been working hard and doing well, and it's so great that he got recognition for it. So no fancy celebratory dinner for us - just some amazing burgers dripping in sauce and onions.  That's just how we do.

Gift Exchange Recipe

Every year, we have a Christmas gift exchange with Jay's extended family. Everyone brings a $10 gift, and then we open and "steal" each other's presents. It's all in great fun, and there's always a nice mix of surprisingly good gifts and surprisingly terrible ones.

This year, Aunt Jo selected a huge wrapped gift. It was heavy, and we all wondered what could $10 possibly buy that would be so big? Turns out, Graham (Jay's cousin's boyfriend) thought it was a $20 limit and brought an old cooler and filled it with meat. Yes, meat. A smoked ham. Ribs. A beef roast.  I found this hilarious. Typical past gifts have included cookbooks, DVDs, tool kits, etc. No one has ever brought a cooler full of meat.

I can't explain why, but I wanted that meat. If only so I could have this story. Anyway, I stole the meat locker from Aunt Jo, then Graham stole it from me, then I stole Jay's gift so Jay could steal it back from Graham (there's lots of rules with steal-backs and maximum number of steals in this gift exchange. One must sometimes be a bit crafty to be victorious)

Anyway, the meat was ours! We graciously gave the used cooler back to Graham (who likely took it out of his parents' garage without telling them), and we now had half our freezer full of Gift Exchange Meat.

Last night, I pulled out our Gift Exchange Beef Roast and made some delicious Italian Drip Beef sandwiches with the recipe below.  It comes from one of my favourite recipe sites. It was delicious. Thanks, Graham!

Photo from: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Italian Drip Beef

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/drip-beef-two-ways)

Ingredients

• 1 whole Beef Chuck Roast, 2.5 To 4 Pounds
• 1 can Beef Consomme Or Beef Broth
• 3 Tablespoons (heaping) Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon Salt (if the Italian Seasoning doesn't have any salt)
• 1 cup Water
• 1/2 jar (16 Oz) Pepperoncini Peppers, With Juice
• Buttered, Toasted Deli Roll
• Provolone or Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Preparation Instructions

• Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot. Stir lightly to combine seasoning with the liquid.
• Cover pot and simmer (very low heat) on the stove for 6 hours, or until beef is fork-tender and falling apart. 
• Shred meat with two forks until all large chunks are gone. Serve immediately or continue to simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Mixture can be refrigerated overnight. Remove hardened fat from top of pan before reheating.
• Serve on top of toasted, buttered deli rolls. Top with cheese and place under the broiler if desired. Serve with juices from the pot.