Rebecca
I can't remember the last time I went to Taste of the Danforth. It was a looong time ago. Last Friday at 6pm was Taste of the Danforth 2009's official start. Since my Grandmother lives within walking distance to Greektown, my mom offered to go with me.

We left the house around 6pm, and arrived to see the festival in full swing. The weather was very nice and mild, so I think that also contributed to the huge crowd. It was actually pretty crowded. Line ups for food were bearable however, although they only got longer as the night progressed. Good thing we got there early and avoided all the giant line ups. My mom first went for the $5 rack of ribs at Gabby's, which was causing quite a stir.

Throughout the night, we bought different things to eat along the way. I bought a small cup of lima beans that were sauteed with tomato sauce and oregano. The beans were giant! And it was a pretty tasty dish too. We also shared what was called a "butterfly cake," which was basically a mini sponge cake filled with sweet custard, topped with whipped cream. The top of the cake was sliced off, cut into two, and then placed back on to resemble butterfly wings. Later on in our walk, we passed by Caffe Demetre's, which was selling $3.00 scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone! So, of course I had to get some. I know it was a Greek festival, and you must be thinking "what about the baklava?" Truth be told, I don't really like baklava and loukoumades. They're basically drenched in honey, and I find it to be tooth-achingly sweet. Way too sweet for me. And besides, if I ever have a craving for it, I can just walk over from my Grandmother's house!

I got back home around 10:45, and I was actually really surprised at how long we stayed at the Danforth. I had a good time, and it was nice to see everybody out and about supporting everything Greek!
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Rebecca
Why?
Why?!

Why have I waited so long into the summer to make these? Everyone who knows me KNOWS that I am a peanut butter freak. I can live off the stuff. I just haven't been baking much with it. I like my peanut butter straight up. Yum...

One day when I got home from work, I had this sudden urge to bake something. And I thought, of course, peanut butter cookies are delicious, really easy to whip up, and require minimal clean-up and hassle. So off I went.

I adapted a recipe from an old September 2008 Food & Wine magazine that I happened to have lying around the kitchen. The recipe was much like the one on the back of the Kraft peanut butter jar (which is a recipe that I didn't really like when I tried it out a while back). However, these cookies turned out really tasty! They're pretty addictive too. I woke up this morning to find only a couple left. When I saw the plate last night, it was still full. I guess someone in my family had the late night munchies. The cookies are nice and soft and slightly chewy. I would have like it to be more chewy though. Maybe I'll up the amount of brown sugar next time. I think I want to increase the amount of rolled oats as well.

Today I'm off downtown for the Taste of the Danforth festival. Since the festival starts at around 6pm tonight, we're probably just going to hang around the East York/Leslieville/Little India area and eat lunch, shop (for cheap produce at Chinatown!), etc.

Peanut Butter Cookies
  • 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, your choice. I used smooth because it was what I had at home)
  • 1/4 brown sugar
  • 1/4 granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking soda
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients until well blended and mixed.
3. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving some space inbetween cookies.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned and fragrant (you can really smell the peanut butter...it makes the whole house smell like it...mmmm).
Rebecca
July 26th was my sister's 20th birthday, which is just another excuse for me to bake a cake. I wanted to make a more complicated cake, but I didn't have enough time! So I settled on making a chocolate buttermilk cake with a white chocolate pastry cream filling. I knew she didn't want anything with fruit in it, so I obviously looked for something chocolatty. I made the filling and the cake one day, and then filled it and let it sit overnight (so that the pastry cream could kind of soak into the cake a bit and let the flavours meld).

So for her birthday, we went out for dinner at Memories of Japan, and then we went for some gelato at Hollywood Gelato. This was my first time there, and it was extremely busy, especially for a Sunday. I walked in and was overwhelmed by all the people and possible flavours. In the end, I chose a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of roasted marshmallow (you can get a max of two flavours for a small cone). The flavours were very strong, and it tasted exactly how it should taste. The pistachio tasted like you were eating pistachios, and the roasted marshmallow tasted like you were eating roasted marshmallows! The gelato was so creamy and light, and the portions were very generous. Make a trip down there if you can!

Back to the cake! It's not the prettiest cake, but it tasted okay. The pastry cream didn't really taste white-chocolatty enough, but it was still a good filling. The chocolate buttermilk cake was very moist and rich. Another successful receipe from Caprial's Desserts (I know, it's as if this is the only cookbook I use)! The pastry cream kind of squished out around the sides when I put on the top of the cake.

Happy (belated) birthday Jessica!
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