Pi(es), Glorious Pi(es)

Happy Pi Day! And what better way to celebrate Pi Day than with pie? That's what a group of friends and I did this past weekend as we celebrated the occasion with a potluck Pi(e) Day, hosted by my friend and superstar hostess Jen. The rule of the game? Everyone bakes a pie, sweet or savoury, and brings it to the party to share.

Chocolate pecan rum "pi"

If I thought Cookie Day was overwhelming, I'm not quite sure what to call Pie Day—epic, that's for sure. There were fourteen bakers expected at the gathering, and when all the pies were assembled at the table, we were faced with 23 pies. Twenty-three glorious pies. Tourtière du shack. Curry beef. Chocolate pecan rum. Strawberry rhubarb. Banoffee with candied bacon. Tarte d'érable. Yuzu meringue. The list of pies goes on!

Tourtière du shack

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Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Day in and day out, we're faced with so many choices and decisions. What makes one thing better than the other? What's right? What's wrong? Don't you just wish that you didn't need to make a decision, and you could have it all?

That is what happened to me one day, and it resulted in this Peanut Butter Cheesecake. I was left in a dilemma of whether to bake something with peanut butter or bake a cheesecake before I thought, "Hey, let's just put the two together and beautiful things will happen."

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The Winner of the $150 Gift Certificate to Fabbrica is...

Grace Yeung
Congratulations Grace! I'll be in touch with you shortly via email to gather your contact information so that Polaris Public Relations can mail you your gift certificate.

The winner was selected at random using Random.org. Entries were tracked in chronological order as they arrived in my inbox and tweeted on Twitter.

A big thank you to everyone who participated (36 entries in all) in the giveaway. And thanks to the S.Pellegrino® Almost Famous Chef® Competition and Polaris Public Relations for sponsoring this giveaway.

Looks like NOMA, Alinea, and The Fat Duck were the most popular votes amongst the top three S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants you most wanted to dine at!

Getting "Fresh" with Tyler Florence

Every few months, my friend Suzanne and I get together for a Cooking Day. We pick a book (or a theme), come up with a menu, gather in her kitchen to cook said menu, and hope we’ll have a delicious meal to reward ourselves at the end. We've cooked from the relatively easy (Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table; various Jamie Oliver books) to the more complicated (Mourad Lahlou's Mourad: New Moroccan), and we're always looking through both of our rather large cookbook collections to see what will inspire our next cooking day.

So I was über excited when we both eagerly agreed on cooking from Tyler Florence's new cookbook, Fresh. Both of us being Tyler Florence fans, our cooking day was a great excuse to test out some recipes from his latest book. I first came to know Tyler Florence through his Food Network show Tyler's Ultimate, and was instantly drawn to his easy, no-fuss cooking style that focused on fresh, real food to feed the family. Fresh, however, is unlike some of his previous books he's published. It's a little gutsier and fancier, and challenges the home cook a little more, but by no means is it daunting or impossible to do. No, you won't find yourself slaving away for days in the kitchen. And you certainly won't need to run out and buy a sous-vide machine! It still retains Tyler Florence's signature cooking style, but brought out of the family home and into a high-class restaurant.  

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Wordless Wednesday #100: SLURP Noodlefest

Mie Udang--shrimp and pork noodle soup, caramelized pork belly,
celery, crisp shallots (Babi & Co.)

Tom Yum Soup--rice noodles, chicken, cherry tomatoes, kaffir lime,
fried shallots, thai basil, coriander (El Gastronomo)

A-OK Foods

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Coconut Quinoa Granola

I'm always on the lookout for a new granola recipe in order to jazz up my morning yogurt. And I find that it's the perfect kitchen project on a lazy Sunday when I'm trying to get other chores done around the apartment. It comes together so quickly, and soon enough, my place is filled with the enticing smells of spices and nuts.

My latest muse this past Sunday was this fantastic Coconut Quinoa Granola. Along with the old-fashioned rolled oats, raw quinoa and wheat germ were added to the mixture. The quinoa added some incredible nutty flavours to the granola, as well as a super crunchy texture.

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