What's On My Plate » Reviews

Bacon Cream Cheese

Tonya — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:24:25 +0000

A little while ago the folks at The Siren Group invited me to an event featuring a new product called Skillet Bacon Spread. Given my love for bacon I was intrigued but unable to attend, so the folks at The Siren Group were kind enough to send some of the product over to me to try.

The product was created by Chef Josh Henderson from Seattle and features Niman Ranch bacon that has been rendered down and mixed with onion, spices, brown sugar and some balsamic. According to the press release it works well in grilled cheese, mixed into mashed potatoes, on top of a burgers and many other uses.

While the above uses all sounded great I wanted to try something a bit different. The jar arrived at my office on precisely the same day that I was explaining to some new employees how much I love bacon. Oddly enough, prior to this discussion they hadn’t pegged me as a bacon girl. I was shocked. As if on cue the bacon spread was delivered and all was right in the world again.

The first thing I realized with this spread is that it doesn’t so much work on its own. I grabbed a spoonful and the whole thing was interesting but definitely needed a vehicle to carry it. While there is that bacony taste I found that I got more of a sweet, smoky taste from it. I don’t think this would work on toast but is probably butter in applications where you want a hint or kick of bacon or smoke.

The other day found myself with a loaf of bread and some cream cheese in my fridge. That’s when I got the brilliant idea to make bacon cream cheese. I softened some of the cream cheese on the counter and then mixed in 1 part bacon spread to 3 parts cream cheese. I have to admit, this stuff was kind of addictive. I already love flavoured cream cheese. Some of my favourites are olive, chive, veggie, lox… and the list goes on and on. The bacon spread added the right amount of porky goodness and smokiness. After the cream cheese success I could see the bacon spread being added to an onion dip. Doesn’t that sound fab?

Bacon Cream Cheese

1 part Skillet Bacon Spread
3 parts cream cheese, room temperature

Mix the spread into the cream cheese. Spread as desired.

On The Town: Coco & Lowe’s Social Register at Nyood

Tonya — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:35:20 +0000

The lovely ladies over at Coco & Lowe started a monthly dinner/dance party at Nyood a few months ago and this month I finally decided to check it out. Now those who know me know that I don’t go out a lot. I hate the crowds/scene on Saturdays, Fridays I’m often tuckered out and Monday through Thursday I feel the need to be responsible as I have the 9-to-5 thing to think about. But this past Thursday I decided to come out to support Coco & Lowe because frankly, a girl’s gotta eat.

Nyood has been on my radar for a while but I never think of checking the place out. Not sure why, it just never comes up when I’m picking a dinner place. When I saw the posted menu for the evening I thought it sounded yummy enough to give it a try. I also trusted the hosts because if Coco & Lowe are playing a part in the menu selection the chances are that it will be pretty delicious. Check out the menu below…

Overall I was very impressed with the meal. Beets are pretty much one of my favourite foods every so starting with a beet salad with all sorts of yummy things in it is just asking me to fall in love. Seriously, they could have brought out a giant bowl of this and called it dinner and I would have eaten and said thanks! The lamb fougasse flatbread was also enjoyable. I meant to ask the waiter what type of lamb they served because it was delicious and oh so mild. My guess is that it might be an Ontario lamb and not New Zealand but whatever it was it was pretty good. I didn’t necessarily taste the curry oil but the flavours I picked up from the lamb, tomato and goat cheese were good enough.

The Fire Roasted Linguini truth be told was not my fave course, which is fine because with 6 courses something has to come in last. Maybe my taste buds were muddled from such flavourful dishes before but I wasn’t really picking up much flavour from the linguini other than the tomatoes. I could have used a bit more garlic and scallion.

The surprise hit for me was the Panko Crusted Chicken. I don’t care for chicken but can tolerate it while breaded and fried… or at least baked to simulate fried. I loved the pear, radicchio and lime salad that went with it, it could have been a course on its own. The Vegetable Antipasto was a nice accompaniment to the dishes served.

Now the dessert. OH THE DESSERT. I knew it was going to be delicious when my friend Adjoa of prettysweet Custom Cake Creations tweeted that it was pretty amazing. She knows her pastries. It was amazing. It was dense chocolaty goodness with a great hit of hazelnut flavour throughout. It was served with vanilla ice cream but really should have been served with another slice of the tart. Seriously, can I have some Chocolate Hazelnut Tart with my Chocolate Hazelnut Tart next time?

I had a great time at Nyood and look forward to coming out for future evenings. The place was packed when we were there, not uncomfortably packed but more in a “clearly this is the right place to be” kind of packed. A nice vibe with great music courtesy of DJ Lissa Monet and a lovely group of people. Oh, and shouts to our FAB waiter Anofrio or possibly Arturo. Seriously, the best.

The Social Register happens the last Thursday of the month. Keep your eye on Coco & Lowe for more details.

Product Review: Das Lolli – Maple Bacon Lollipop

Tonya — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:50:06 +0000

(Photo from ZOMG, Candy!)

It’s no secret that I love all things bacon. If it contains bacon I’m usually sold. So I was walking through Whole Foods the other day when I stumbled upon DAS Lollis. They had about 4 flavours of the lollipops on hand in really bright coloured packaging so my eyes were immediately drawn to them. I scanned the flavours and were intrigued I mean salty caramel, orange pomegranate, lemon ginger and maple bacon…

MAPLE BACON? In a lollipop? Yuppers! I grabbed one maple bacon (actually named MAN BAIT) and a lemon ginger (called Naughty Ginger).

First and foremost the mpale bacon tasted like maple. That works. I’m Canadian, I love maple syrup! But then the smokiness of the bacon kicks in and then you realize that there are actual pieces of bacon in the lollipop. HEAVEN.

Turns out the lollipops are “all natural” which is generally nice to see (whatever “all natural”) means.

I did some quick digging and DAS Foods sounds like a neat company. It was started by Katie Das in Chicago in 2006. The original idea was that the company would sell salts from around the world. She then began making caramels and now also makes lollipops. 10% of the profits goes to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Not bad. To find out more about the company click here.

I have yet to try the Naughty Ginger but will do so soon. I’m also curious to see if Whole Foods carries the caramels as well… I’m a sucker for salted caramel.

But seriously, if you love bacon these lollipops will let you easily carry the taste that you love so much without leaving grease stains on your pants.

Movie Review: Food Inc.

Tonya — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:00:19 +0000

As I’ve posted about before, I’m really into books about food issues. Everything from food marketing to organic to how messed up the food supply is… bring it on. I read this stuff to make me more aware, I don’t necessarily change my ways but I like to be informed about what I’m consuming and what it’s doing to my body.

When I heard about Food, Inc. I put that on my list of must sees. Food Inc., is a documentary that explores various issues with today’s food supply. We’re talking everything from the crazy cramped conditions under which animals are raised, to how chickens have been engineered to grow bigger faster, the higher incidences of E.coli, reasons as to why corn is in EVERYTHING etc. Really happy stuff.

The movie features interview with some interesting experts in the field include Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) whose books I’ve all loved. For me, the issue was I felt like I’d heard it all before. Chickens with ginormous breasts? Check. Cows standing knee deep in manure? Check. HFCS in about everything in the supermarket? Check. So for me it was a bit like preaching to the converted.

If you haven’t read a lot of books about the food industry I would definitely recommend that you check Food Inc. out. It summarizes and in a way humanizes what I’ve been reading in these books for years. It’s one thing to read about the conditions under which chickens are raised but it’s entirely different to actually WATCH it. Sure, in the books you can read the interviews with the farmers who have contracts with these large food companies but to actually see the pained looks on their faces? It’s pretty intense.

The movie as a whole felt like a series of mini-documentaries that only give you a taste of the larger issues. Sort of a Cliff Notes version of the issues. There are some sections that I would have loved to know more about like the section on Monsanto and the responsible pig farmer but at least it but the two on my radar for further research.

Overall, go see Food Inc. whether or not you are familiar with the issues. Spread the word.

The film is in limited release (playing at The Cumerbland in Toronto) so visit the website for more details and check out the trailer below…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0]

Product Review: MixMyGranola

Tonya — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:23:09 +0000

Every once in a while I’ll get an e-mail from a company pitching their products. I’m rarely enticed enough because as you can probably tell I eat very few packaged goods and try to avoid foods with too many ingredients.

The other day I heard from Raoul at MixMyGranola. It’s a web-based start-up company based out of Florida that does custom granola mixes.

It’s a really fun idea! You basically go to their website and choose one of three granola bases (organic, vanilla or low-fat) and then you can choose amongst 50 or so add-ins. Add-ins include traditional granola fare such as dried fruits, nuts, seeds, and coconut as well as some non-traditional add-ins such as wasabi peas, yogurt pretzels, gummi bears, candy corn and some other interesting things. The granola bases range in price from $3.99 to $4.99 and the add-ins range from $0.49 to $1.99. Many of the ingredients are organic and they are all “all-natural”… not bad! You also get to name your mix.

I didn’t specifically request a certain mix and relied on the MixMyGranola gods to put something together that didn’t involve raisins. When I got home from work the fashionable tube was waiting for me. I love getting mail so having this adorable package waiting for me was definitely a highlight.

I flipped over the vessel and noticed the nutrition facts and saw that my mix contained cranberries, goji berries, almonds and lots of LOVE. I’ve been low on the loving for… about forever so if I’ll get some love out of my granola I’ll take it. Not bad!

After opening the package I noticed a good add-in to granola ratio which was nice.

This product is pretty good stuff! It’s better than your average supermarket granola for sure. It’s not too sweet which I love and doesn’t have any wacky flavours (I hate apple cinnamon granola and things like that). The add-ins were super fresh as well. No rock-hard cranberries or chewy almonds. The customization aspect is what really makes this granola stand apart from others. I make my own granola because I can never find the right combination of ingredients in store-bought granola – this is a good alternative for sure. The one downside about this granola is the lack of clusters. I love large clusters in my granola! Maybe they get lost in shipping or maybe this is cluster-less granola. If the lack of clusters doesn’t phase you then MixMyGranola is definitely worth checking out.

VisitMixMyGranola to place your order!

New Feature: Cookbook Reviews – Molto Italiano by Mario Batali

Tonya — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:44:06 +0000

I have a pretty solid cook book collection with approximately 50 cookbooks sitting on my shelves. I have a core rotation of about 10 that I use regularly but every once in a while I will crack open a new one just for fun. I’m always on the lookout for a new cookbook, although I need a new cookbook like I need a hole in my head, and I know other people are too so why not spread my knowledge.
First Up…

Molto Italiano by Mario Batali

I figured why not start with my food crush Mario? I’m not sure where my love for Mario began. I’ve never been an Iron Chef chef fan and only started watching his show on the Food Network when I got TiVo a few years ago. I think my interest probably began by going to his restaurants. Otto was often in my rotation of restaurants when I lived in NYC and then discovered my love for Lupa, Esca, Del Posto and Pizzeria Mozza (yum!).

Molto Italiano is the only Batali cookbook that I own and has left me pretty fulfilled. It gives a good mix of recipes that are too ambitious for me (read: recipes that require me to source super specific things that my regular Italian market doesn’t carry OR things that are cost prohibitive) and recipes that are simple and delicious. One of my favourite things about this cookbook is that Mario is pretty good about substitutions. He often has very specific types of alcohol that he cooks with (say, Vin Santo) but then he’ll tell you that you can substitute something more accessible like Dry Sherry. I love tips like this because I don’t want to buy a new bottle of alcohol every time I cook and if I have something like Dry Sherry around already I’d much rather just use that.

This cookbook is more Italian rather than Italian-American so the alfredo sauce isn’t a thick and creamy mess and the lasagne isn’t a bajillion layers of cheeses and meats – it’s a lot more simple. This could be frustrating for some people who are out to find a recipe for lasagne like you’d find at Olive Garden or Maggiano’s or something – this is definitely not the place for that.

Batali does a great job of categorizing the recipes and organizing the various sections of the cookbook. In the table of contents there is a heading for Antipasto, however once you get to the section you see that it’s broken down by vegetable, seafood and meat antipasto. Similarly, the pasta section is broken down into dried and fresh pasta dishes.

I tend to draw from the starchy areas of this cookbook. I’ve made great risottos, pastas, and polentas. I don’t tend to cook a lot of meat or poultry so I haven’t really touched on those areas although there are a bunch of recipes that sound delicious.

Interestingly enough I haven’t really blogged on here about any Batali recipes but there are many that are near and dear to my heart. Such as…

Risotto with Mushrooms and Vin Santo

Polenta with Salt Cod

Baked Ziti

Baked Penne with Eggplant

Tagliatelle with Mushroom Ragu

Definitely a great addition to my collection!