done well: May 2011

Chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling

>> Sunday, May 29, 2011 – food, Out and About, restaurants

Although my sewing projects are moving along too slowly to be an interesting blog post, I seem to have plenty of food experiences to share.

Today we celebrated a friend's birthday at her favourite Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Ju. Described as a "Japanese bar and grill", it is similar to the better-known Guu Restaurant. (That's darling Caleb eating shredded nori with his hands.)

Different than the typical sushi-Japanese restaurant, the menu had things like soba noodles, grilled meats on rice, grilled skewers of pork belly, black cod, pork cheek, etc. The most amazing of all: chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling.

At first, we thought it was a typo. "Chicken wing" was on the first line and "stuffed with pork dumpling" was on the second. Perhaps these were two separate menu items?

Nope. It was actually a chicken wing where the bones were removed from the middle wing and then stuffed with a pork and chive dumpling. It was fantastic.

I also ordered a hot soba noodle dish with grilled duck breast and leek...

... which I split with Jess who ordered a garlic soy marinated tuna sashimi on rice. Both were fantastic.

Sometimes it's nice to get some authentic Japanese cuisine and to try something different than sushi. Even the wasabi was a real grating of fresh japanese horseradish, not the stuff in a powder or tube!

I will have to work up the motivation this summer to brave the long lines for Guu so I can compare Japanese Izakaya food!

Cake pops and eclairs

>> Monday, May 23, 2011 – food, holidays

I hope everyone enjoyed the May long weekend, sunshine-rain-thunder-lightning and all!

Before the start of the weekend, my coworker, Jelena, baked the most delicious goodies for the office as it was her last day with the department. She spent her Thursday night baking up a storm, and I canNOT believe how amazing the hazelnut eclairs were. That's right: HAZELNUT eclairs. If I manage to get her mom's recipe, I'll share. Maybe.

Saturday was spent in Hamilton with the usual group of friends plus 4 babies and 3 dogs.

A couple changes this year: instead of an entire cottage weekend, an afternoon bbq. Instead of the usual gloomy, damp weather, gorgeous sunshine with just the right amount of cloud cover.

Things that stayed the same: great company, and a spectacular Frisbeer Tournament.

Our version of frisbeer involves a frisbee, some beer cups on sticks, and a drink in hand. Our friend, Katie, designs amazing cake pops. She crafted some beer cups on sticks just for the event. Super cute and super delicious.

Thank you long weekend! May you come again soon!

Racer-back tunic

>> Thursday, May 19, 2011 – sewing, vacation

About a month before my trip to Mexico, I had big sewing plans. I was going to sew myself a new dress for the wedding I was attending; I wanted to sew a new toiletry bag; I dreamed about how great Amy Butler's Blue Sky Hat would be for the trip. Perhaps a tunic to double as a bathing suit cover up?

I started and ended with the tunic.

But: I created my first original pattern! I knew I wanted a racer-back design, so I used some skills that I learned from the "knock it off" class at the workroom to shape the back of the tunic.

As with my last "dress b", I used fabric from a bolt sale put on by Textile Museum of Canada (there's another sale happening on May 27th!) I made sure to match up the horizontal lines, and by sheer luck, the zigzags lined up to be exactly in the front-center and back-center.

The tunic was great for a beach cover-up in Mexico. For every-day wear, I can pair it with some leggings, or wear it like a blouse.

Now that I'm back and well rested, maybe I'll try and tackle some of those other projects...