Category: Food / drink

Is 36,000 BTUs enough to cook eggplant?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s been a busy weekend. Yesterday we got up early, went to St. Lawrence Market to pick up some shrimp and scallops and fruit, ran a few errands, picked up some shirts we ordered from American Apparel, did some work (schoolwork, in my case) and went over to CBGB’s place for a barbeque. The barbeque fun didn’t stop there; we zipped around the corner to Home Depot and ordered a barbeque of our own: this one by Vermont Castings [pictured at right].

.:.

The party at CBGB’s (in belated honor of GB’s birthday) was a lot of fun…a packed front porch followed by a packed backyard patio, great food, cold beer, many laughs, and a slight overindulgence in the desserts. What’s better than that?

.:.

Today’s been great so far too: I slept in until 9:00 (the cats practically kicked me off the bed after that), got up, read the paper, went out to find some breakfast and came back raving about the perfect weather: it was warm but not hot, and breezy enough to keep the smog off. I collected Nellie and we headed off on a stroll to the Distillery District. We had a peek in a few galleries, stopped at the Mill Street Brew Pub for some brunch, got some amazing chocolate at Soma and wandered home along the Esplanade, popping up to Front Street so that we could see all the dogs at Woofstock. Now, sadly, it’s back to reality as Nellie has to work all day and I’m catching up on a bunch of stuff. It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning though…

.:.

My comment spam problem is getting worse and worse. Most of you never see it (unless you subscribe to my comment feed) because the comments are buried in old posts, and the vast majority of it gets caught, but when you get 1300/day a few are bound to slip past my spam filter. What does slip past is often very nasty too, so if you’re reading the comments and you see unpleasantness, I apoligize.

[tags]st. lawrence market, american apparel, home depot, vermont castings, distillery district, mill street brew pub, soma chocolate, woofstock, comment spam, akismet[/tags]

Stoopid WordPress

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Gar. I had a long post all written up but WordPress (or possibly my host?) decided to cack and it disappeared. I can’t be bothered to remember it all or write it all again, so here’s the summary version:

  • We had dinner last night at Fieramosca with CBGB. That was great.
  • I got my hair cut today and ate some gelato. That was great.
  • I realized today that I have a paper due next week, and I haven’t even started it. That sucked.
  • Darth Vader’s a jackass.

Blargh.

[tags]fieramosca, gelato, darth vader[/tags]

Conundrum

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Do I continue to go to Hero Burger because their veggie burgers are so good? Or do I stop going forever because they’re so goddamn disorganized and incompetent?

I’m sick. All I want to do is go home and eat lunch and lie down. And they keep forgetting my order or giving my food to other people.

[tags]hero burger[/tags]

Working for the weekend

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

OK…just barely awake at this point. Got up at 6, got to work by 7, had hectic-ass day, and left work at 8…didn’t feel tired until I got to the Auld Spot, where Nellie & CBGB were waiting for me, and around 1/4 of the way through my second beer (and following a very good veggie burger) I hit the wall. Sleeeeeeeeepy. I finished my drink (I’m not dead, after all), got the bill and then got a cab. I wouldn’t have stayed awake for the subway ride home.

Now…must try to stay awake long enough to watch the end of the Spurs-Suns game 6…Icandoit…

Note to self: remember to write paper (which is due Tuesday) this weekend.

[tags]auld spot[/tags]

PeanutAllergy Inc.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

If the Globe and Mail weren’t such dicks about their online content, you could read this interesting article by Russell Smith about the recent spate of anti-religion books, Christopher Hitchens’ (which I talked about here) being the latest. Smith made the point that, even if it’s not dressed up as a cult/religion, slavish devotion is still hard to take. He even comments about how allergies that never used to exist suddenly afflict half the population: his example was half the population of Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood claiming to be allergic to wheat gluten; I’d suggest that the current generation of children all seemingly being allergic to peanuts is another good one.

Update from the comments: Joe dropped this great quote from the recent Lou Dobbs interview with Hitchens: “Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.”

.:.

Google Analytics has revamped their reporting engine. Holy crap. Magnifique. I’ll never use StatCounter again.

.:.

Walking home from the grocery store tonight we noticed that a bakery is going in on the ground floor. Sweet. Dangerous, but sweet.

[tags]globe and mail, russell smith, christopher hitchens, google analytics, bakery[/tags]

One host serving music, another serving veggie burgers

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Another busy day: we read newspapers, got a snack at Starbucks, went back to Canadian Tire to pick up a Roomba (which, upon opening, we found had already been used and was all scratched up and dirty…so that’ll be going back) and some other condo-y stuff, cleaned up, finally cleaned out my suitcase from last week, did some laundry, did some work, put together the other desk in the den and crossed a bunch of stuff of the to-do list.

.:.

Last night we went over to CBGB’s place, where GB cooked up some of his famous veggie burgers. These are the type that aren’t trying to simulate meat, but rather have a flavour all their own and just happen to sit between a bun. They were spicy and thick and I had three of them. Yum.

.:.

I just ordered one of these. I’m very excited. Not only does it do pictures & video and give me more room for music, but it also has a USB host feature, so I can download pictures to it directly from our camera without having to carry a laptop around or buy a gigantic memory card.

[tags]roomba, canadian tire, veggie burgers, creative zen vision m[/tags]

Line 'em up, knock 'em down

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

So tired. Once again Michael kept us up from about 4:30, but at least he seems to be better today. Less scared, emerging to hang out with us, climbing on furniture, etc. Now if we could just get him to sleep through the night…

After work today we popped down the street to C’est What; the Amsterdam spring bock was tasty, as was the food (falafel, yam frites and antijitos), and it was nice to just chill for an hour outside of the apartment.  When we got back we unpacked a few boxes; once we have the bookcases in place I can start unpacking all the books, which would free up enough space to unpack the desk, and I could set up the computer. Likewise, once the kitchen boxes are unpacked we can move the table, and I can set up the TV & stereo. Like dominos, wrapped in packing tape.

[tags]moving, unpacking, c’est what, amsterdam beer, spring bock[/tags]

We have no room to stand, but we have a plan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The apartment is now a disaster zone. It’s pretty small to begin with, so with all our possesions get crammed into piles of boxes — empty, unsorted, ready to go — it doesn’t leave much room for moving around. Duarte came by to get the printer tonight and I think he felt he’d stepped into early-90s Sarajevo. I’ve taken half the desk apart, all the bookcases have been emptied, the bathroom is all but cleaned out and the storage locker is bare, save for the electronics boxes. Tomorrow is the kitchen, Friday is clothing, Saturday is everything else, and Sunday is the electronics.

.:.

Torontoist says: Happy Birthday, Camros (the organic food place across the street from me). If you live in the neighbourhood and vegan/organic is your cup of tea, you should give it a try. If it’s not but you like sweets, you should stop in and grab a brownie or a piece of carrot cake, courtesy of Sweets From The Earth. So good it hurts (eventually).

[tags]packing, moving, camros, sweets from the earth[/tags]