dineNdabble

Everything FOOD

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Sometimes the Best Food is not found in Toronto Restaurants…

As much as I LOVE finding the best places to eat out in the city, sometimes a favourite meal at home is the way to go:

Can you guess what one of my favourite meals to make at home is? – Check out the photo below 

YES, PIZZA. I have to tell you the story behind the pizza oven. First of all, GET ONE! It is amazing and worth every penny. I promise.  

Long story short, one of my family friends discovered this Breville pizza oven at Williams Sonoma and now every single person in my parent’s friend group has one. They also make a great gift so now many of the Nobleton crew’s kids or relatives are owners of this amazing pizza maker - they are the rage up in Nobleton. Many of us actually have more than one now… #pizza #addiction.  I decided to bring the rage to Toronto and gifted one to my boyfriend’s parents. It has been quite a hit… I think.

On the weekend we decided to have a pizza party with a twist with my boyfriend Dave’s family. We added in some competition to see who could make the most creative and tasty pizza. We all put our ingredients out but kept our creations secret and picked numbers to see who would get to make their pizza first – fair is fair and no one wanted to serve their pizza last when everyone is too full to enjoy. Unfortunately, I picked last…

To prepare for the competition and gather some ideas for my pizza, I made a trip to the St. Lawrence Market – it worked and I may have bought a few unnecessary things on my outing. It’s hard to resist at the market. I have a little bit of a competitive side so naturally, this pizza competition was on my mind the entire week before. I HAD TO WIN…and I did by the way!!!

Now to take you through our pizza adventure – be warned, you may be hungry after this.

1)      A tomato based pizza with goat cheese, ricotta, mushroom, peppers, jalapenos, and onions:

2)      A tomato based pizza with old cheddar (delicious), pepperoni, red onions, mushrooms, pickled hot peppers, and olives:

3)      A homemade truffle mushroom spread with fresh ricotta, shitake mushrooms, and smoked white fish topped with a drizzle of white truffle oil. – I have never had a pizza with fish on it but I have to say I REALLY enjoyed this:

4)      A spicy arrabbiata tomato sauce base with spicy pepperoni, jalapenos, oyster mushrooms and old cheddar and pecorino topped with spicy chili oil: 

5)      An olive oil base with roasted tomatoes, bocconcini and parmesan cheese, topped with two eggs and garnished with finely chopped chives and parsley:

6)      My creation and the WINNER: olive oil base, fresh prosciutto, fresh figs, goat cheese topped with arugula and drizzled with truffle balsamic & truffle honey:

I think next time a dessert pizza competition would be fun – especially since my no dessert, candy or chocolate bet is done IN LESS THAN A MONTH - serious count down happening right now.

Check out my Instagram post for a quick and simple step-by-step guide for making homemade pizzas!

Since we are on the topic of pizza I’ll share my favourite Toronto restaurant for takeout and dine-in:

North of Brooklyn Pizzeria for their Pepperoni Pizza (Sauce, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, and Oregano)

&

Trattoria Nervosa for the Funghi pizza (Roasted Mushrooms, Fior di latte, Fontina, Taleggio, Thyme)

...and maybe a Negroni or an Aperol Spritz (click here for recipe).

Comment & let me know your favourite pizza creations and Toronto restaurants. I love to hear where to eat and your favourite meal!

Cheers,

The Newly Crowned ZAA Queen

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I Make Wine Disappear. What’s Your Superpower?

As I approached the legal drinking age of 19 I started to enjoy wine more because of my parents. My mom drinks sauvignon blanc from New Zealand or Australia, preferably New Zealand though. My father loves a good cabernet sauvignon usually from California. ‘Sauv blanc’ and ‘Cab sauv’ were prominent words in my household.

Red wine was a little bit strong for my young pallet so I started my wine drinking journey as a white wine drinker. And like my mother, I ONLY drank Sauv blanc’s from New Zealand. I’m sure every waitress was slightly confused by my young age and my specific requests for Kim Crawford or Oyster Bay – but that was all I knew. Kim was our best friend…and we found out a few years ago she is actually a he. Anyways, my pallet has since widened over the last few years…

As promised, here is my day at Norman Hardie in Prince Edward County. I could have stayed the entire week drinking wine… and not only Sauv blanc. It was amazing! I picked up my two girlfriends, Michaela and Kristen, and we headed to Prince Edward County for the day. It rained the entire car ride, even though AccuWeather told us it was going to clear in Prince Edward County by the time we got there. They lied, it wasn’t clear, it was pouring rain. But that didn’t stop us, we headed up to the tasting bar to wait out the rain and wait for our table to enjoy the amazing pizza served at Norman Hardie.

My first bottle of Norman Hardie was at Branca, an Argentinian inspired restaurant in Toronto. This was the day I fell in love with their Pinot Noir and decided that I needed to visit their winery. I thought about this bottle of wine on a regular basis. Every time I would go to a restaurant I would scan the wine list for this bottle. I finally found it again at Rhubarb (read last blog post).

Norman Hardie was extremely busy when we arrived but we finally made it to the front of the tasting bar. I told Michaela and Kristen they had to try the Pinot Noir…I think they only agreed so that I would stop talking about it (I did not stop talking about it all day and still have not – they should hire me as their sales rep – FREE WINE FOR LIFE). The girls LOVED the wine…duh. I tried the Cabernet Franc Sans Soufre. It was delicious but not as good as the Pinot Noir. Then I decided to try some white other than sauv blanc (see widening my pallet). I tried the Chardonnay Sans Soufre and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess I am no longer a Sauv blanc gal.

After the wine started flowing I decided that a few bottles of my favourite Pinot Noir would not be enough. So the only smart thing to do was to buy a case. Norman Hardie Pinot Noir for all!

The girls and I took our glasses of wine outside and hid under the umbrella until the rain stopped. AND IT DID. The rain stopped and the skies cleared and it ended up being a beautiful sunny day. The host messaged us to let us know our table was ready and by this time we definitely needed some pizza to counteract the wine.

The pizzas are inspired by top chefs from Toronto restaurants: Pizzeria Libretto, Terroni, and Ortolan. We shared warm olives and three pizzas:

1)      Marinara – tomato, basil, garlic, oregano, and olive oil

2)      Salsiccia – sausage, for di latte, garlic, hot pepper, caramelized onions

3)      Artigiano – tomato, local mozzarella di bufala, local chorizo sausage, fennel seed

I highly recommend trying the Salsiccia – the caramelized onions were an amazing touch. OH and of course, pairing you meal with the Pinot Noir.

I think I need to revisit Prince Edward County for a weekend and would love some recommendations and insights of where else to go and where to stay! We stopped by the Drake Devonshire and it was absolutely stunning with great atmosphere. I also heard ‘Glamping’ is the new thing to do…I could be into ‘Glamping’. Leave me some comments; I have a mini vacay to plan for the end of August/ September!

I am back in Toronto next weekend, so stay tuned for some Instagram stories - I have a few reservations lined up!  

FOLLOW & POST YOUR FOODIE EXPERIENCES - I’m always looking for new ideas:

Click here for:

Instagram & Twitter

Cheers,

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WEBER you like it or not, you must try RHUBARB.

I think it is pretty clear that food falls under my list of favourite things in the world. It makes me happy when I eat it, look at it, and think about it. BUT I have another favourite thing – my cottage. My parents have a cottage in Haliburton on Kennisis Lake and I have been going up to the cottage every summer for as long as I can remember.

So you must be thinking, how does Julia last an entire summer without eating out in Toronto? (side note – now that I am an ‘adult’ I don’t actually spend the entire summer up north anymore but I do go up almost every weekend in the summer and now that I am in school they usually turn into long weekends – ah the life! I am considering being a student as a career). Anyways, I have two favourite food places up north that get me through the summer:

         1) Webers

Webers is located in Orillia on the East side of Hwy 11 and is easily identified by a large orange coloured bridge installed over the highway so you can access Webers if you are going either north or south – whoever thought of that was a GENIUS…or they were worried about their customer’s safety. Actually the story goes: 

June 1981 – The ministry of transportation put up a chain-link fence above the barrier to prevent thousands of customers from crossing the highway barrier.

June 1983 – Webers acquires a portion of the CN Tower pedestrian bridge to provide their customers with a safe way to Webers when travelling southbound and to prevent them from dropping their delicious burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes while attempting to run and jump across the highway.

Webers has been charcoal barbequing burgers since 1963. I have only being going since 1992 but my parents both went to Webers on the way to the cottage growing up.

If you haven’t heard of Webers or don’t like Webers, I don’t like you. I have had a long lasting love for Webers since I was a kid. As a kid I would beg my parents to wait in the long line up for a burger – I never mind waiting. Actually even to this day I will still wait in the long, long line for my Webers burger. I get excited thinking about Webers – I’ll most likely have one this weekend – I can’t wait, even though I just had one on Tuesday…

For the most part, I strategy pick who I will drive up with to the cottage to ensure we can go to Webers. After my first year of university I gained the freshmen 15-30 and my mother was trying to “help me” on our way up north. I fell asleep in the car and instead of waking me up and stopping at Webers my mom kept on driving. This was one of the few times I yelled at my Mother. And to back up my reason for yelling - I hadn’t been to Webers since the previous summer. Not cool mom. She now knows to never pass Webers if I am in the car whether I am coherent or not.

Anyways, I LOVE Webers and you should definitely stop next time you are driving by. They have great grounds to enjoy your meal with picnic benches and a water station for your dog. If it is raining or too hot outside there is a CN railway car you can eat your meal – one of the cool parts of going as a kid! 

       1) Rhubarb

Rhubarb is an upscale casual dining restaurant located in Carnarvon, which is 35 minutes away from my cottage. It is an awesome restaurant that has a craft Brewery, Boshkung Brewing Co., in the basement. Rhubarb has amazing food, a great atmosphere and looks onto Mirror Lake, providing quite the picturesque view. Rhubarb uses local seasonal food as well as a wine list that features many Ontario wines. 

My family and I frequent Rhubarb all year round. My mom and I popped in after golfing earlier in the week and split a few appetizers. We started with one of the specials, the French Farmers Plate. It was awesome and quite interesting. There was wild boar apricot terrine, chilled duck breast, aged goat cheese, and delicious chutney. To be honest, I was a little bit worried about the wild boar terrine but it was unbelievable - It pays off to be an adventurous eater.

Now for my favourite dish:  The Duck Confit Poutine:

This falls in the top 3 poutines, maybe even the BEST poutine I have ever had and I recommend visiting Rhubarb solely for the purpose of trying it. Even my dad, the pickiest eater in the world, loves this poutine – although, I don’t think he realizes that it is not topped with your standard gravy but instead a grainy Dijon mustard gravy (which is to die for). Also, instead of cheese curds they use old cheddar. I am drooling thinking about this. AND if you are not up for the full size poutine or don’t have anyone to share it with you can ‘duck confit poutine’ your side fries on any other dish!! We paired our meal with a bottle of Norman Hardie Unfiltered Pinot Noir – ALSO RECOMMEND TRYING THIS. It is delicious but hard to find at the LCBO so use their website location inventory details. I am going to visit the Norman Hardie Winery in Prince Edward County next week and will have the all the details for you! 

I think it is safe to say I have a food addiction.

Check out my Twitter & Instagram account for my cottage eats this weekend!

See you next week! #foreverandalwaysfood

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Let's TACO 'Bout it Check out my newest blog post --> link in BIO ❤️🌮🌶 #tacofest (at Taco Fest)

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Let’s TACO ‘Bout it

About two months ago, my cousin Maggie asked if my boyfriend Dave and I wanted to go to Taco Fest at Ontario Place. Naturally, I responded within one minute of her texting saying, “send me the info and I’ll purchase our tickets!” I didn’t have to think twice about going. How could we pass up tacos, beer, and margaritas? There is truly no better way to spend a Sunday.

Taco Fest is hosted by TASTETORONTO to showcase some of Toronto’s best chefs that cook with a Mexican twist. There was live music, an authentic Mariachi band and 25 vendors on the grounds. They served a variety of tacos, nachos and salsa, churros, Mexican street corn, and sangria, plus tons of hot sauces. If you enjoy Mexican food, this was definitely the place to be. Here is a great after video from 2016 that TASTETORONTO put together: click here.

Here is a little recap of my first Taco Fest experience:

To start, I have few tips if you ever plan on attending a TASTETORONTO event:

1)      Do NOT eat before! You surprisingly fill up much quicker than expected;

2)      SHARE everything. Sharing is caring  – the more food items you get to try, the better; and

3)      Do NOT over indulge at the bar the night before – I previously went to Brunch Fest and struggled to enjoy myself due to a few too many beverages the night before

We followed my advice and went bright and early. We did not eat breakfast beforehand and therefore did not ruin our appetites – HIGHLY recommend this tactic. We arrived starving, hit all of the stations we wanted, and missed all of the lines, which started to form as we were too full to eat anything else.

It was a little bit overwhelming at first because everything looked delicious and the smells were heavenly. We decided a drink to start may be the best idea. We headed over and ordered Margaritas and Coronas.

Our first food stop was at Busters Sea Cove:

I tried the Jerk Shrimp Taco, which was amazing and one of my favourites. It included jerk fried shrimp, roja, creamy coleslaw, pico de gallo, and jerk aioli on a corn tortilla. Next we headed to the Kathi Roll Express to try The Legendary Butter Chicken Taco. This one is pretty self-explanatory – the taco shell was naan bread. It was my second favourite of the day.

Then we headed to The Citizen to try their Beet & Avocado taco. This was an interesting one and probably my least favourite, BUT it was a beautiful looking taco (see below). This taco consisted of guacamole, coconut queso, beet crema, and puffed quinoa.

Next we tried the Pulled Yam Taco from Rancho Relaxo, which was seasoned shredded yam and carrot topped with vegan apple slaw in a flour tortilla (I wish it was in a corn tortilla but still delish) and the Buffalo Cauliflower Taco from Fidel Gastro’s. This consisted of fried cauliflower tossed in a buffalo sauce with creamy slaw, radish coins, celery, and chopped chives. These two tacos tied for third place.

We ended the day with a Mexican street corn called the Taco Sweet Corn Parfait from The Mighty Cob and Ice Cream Tacos from Booyah Inc.  I thought it was quite unfair since I can’t eat dessert due to my bet… WHICH IS ALMOST OVER! T-minus 54 days… not that I am counting or beyond excited at all.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Taco Fest and will 100% attend again next year. It was a great way to try multiple restaurants in one sitting and figure out where I may want to go back for a full sit down meal. The live music and Mariachi band was a great addition and provided the perfect pit stop to enjoy a beverage and digest before food rounds 4, 5, and 6!

Enjoying every last bite....

TASTETORONTO is hosting an event similar to Taco Fest and Brunch at the end of the summer called Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ. If you are looking for some great craft beers, bourbon cocktails, grill master lessons, and bull rides I would definitely consider going!

Check out my Instagram page : @dineNdabbleTO

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WHO am I?

I am Julia Ranson, a 25 year old post graduate Student at George Brown College. I am studying Digital Media Marketing… although sometimes I wish I was in the Chef program BUT only for the cooking portion (assuming you get to taste everything you eat)! 

As soon as my metabolism slowed down I discovered my love for food…convenient, right? I am one of those people who wakes up thinking about the meals I am going to have during the day or where I may be going out for dinner. To be honest, I am not sure where I came from because my mom eats out of necessity, not because she loooooves food, my dad is probably the pickiest eater on the planet, and my brother is one of those people who is content eating pizza & chicken fingers out of the oven. I can also out eat any of my family members, which leads me to conclude love for food is not genetic. I try to explain my love for food to them and they just can’t relate, although they do tolerate my excitement for trying new restaurants and food photo shoots. Now my Dad will even hold his phone flash on the dish in a dark restaurant while I am trying to capture the best photo, which is actually quite cute. Currently, I have 5,000 photos in my camera roll. Can you guess how many are of food or have food in them? About 4,000 – and I recently went through and deleted doubles and poor quality photos.

Anyways, about a year ago I started an Instagram account called @dineNdabbleTO to document my food adventures, and now I have decided to expand my food blogging and challenge myself to write about my experiences, give recommendations, share my favourite places to eat in Toronto, share some ‘How To’s’, and create a small, fun, food community.

In case you were wondering – I love pizza, peanut butter, wine, candy, ice cream, and all desserts. FUN FACT though: I haven’t eaten candy, chocolate, or dessert since September 1, 2016… I am in a bet and determined to win. OH the bet is over September 1, 2017 and I am having a dessert potluck and you are all invited!

Stay tuned! #forever&alwaysfood