Tips for holding a Tapas Dinner Party

A few of my lovely readers have commented that they would love to have a tapas dinner party but it seems like a lot of work, so I’ve put together a few words of advice as I have hosted tapas dinner parties for over a year now and have experienced successes and failures. I hope these tricks alleviate the mystery and inspire you to have a tapas dinner party.

1. Planning is everything. Think of a theme you wish to follow and create a menu around it; break it out into steps for timing and serving (I’ll give an example of this). Decide how many groups of coarses you will serve (i.e., 4 coarses of sets of 1-2 dishes are 4 x 1 (0r 2)). If this is your first tapas dinner party and you don’t have a stock up of quick hors d’œuvres in the freezer then start the cooking about 1 week in advance and make 1 to 2 things for the freezer. Don’t worry, you will use them up eventually!
2. Mise en place is key. Chop, cut, slice, grate anything you can do ahead of time, DO IT. Prepare similar items all at once (as in chop ALL the onions you will need and separate it out into each coarse). Store meats and fishes in the fridge. I always put ingredients that need to be together in one place in the fridge.
3. It’s on ‘the list’. There are many components to a tapas dinner party, so even the best of us will struggle to remember everything you need to add, pinch, and sauce so MAKE A LIST and REFER to it throughout the evening.
4. Distribute the labour. I have found including your partner in helping with preparation and serving the coarses allows each of you to alternate kitchen duty and spend time with your guests.
5. Make it Simple. Choose a combination of freshly made coarses and previously made and frozen coarses.
6. Keep it small. Remember that you are having a lot of food over a long period of time so portions should be small (for example, 1-2 medium shrimp per person is one coarse. Do you have frozen soup in the fridge? Serve it in shooters instead of bowls—it’s an instant serving!
7. Timing is everything. Make sure you serve the coarses spread out over time, this dinner party is about conversation and food…all night. Our tapas usually last 3-4 hours with some breathers in between.
8. Relax. Fortunately Tapas make a very casual dinner party so you needn’t worry when one coarse is 15 minutes later than expected. Keep the wine flowing and the conversation going and you will have a wonderful evening.

To illustrate how easy this type of dinner party is, below I am posting a sample menu. I may use this for a future dinner party.

Our 21012 European Adventure through Tapas (4 x 1):

Coarse 1: Budapest

• Áginéni’s Cheese Sticks (I usually have these in the freezer, but if I don’t I just make a fresh batch and freeze the leftovers for another party!)

Coarse 2: Spain

• Bacon wrapped scallops and bacon wrapped dates (Devil on horseback) – I have these in the freezer too, ready to go!
• Chorizo with tomatoes and balsamic (this is very easy to put together the night of)

Coarse 3: France

• Escargot en Profiteroles (I always have the cheese puffs, canned escargot, and frozen butter, garlic and parsley balls ready for action)

Coarse 4: Austria

• Austrian Sachertorte three ways. Make one beautiful dessert and serve it three different ways in very small portions. (off the top of my head, I’m thinking 1) a traditional slice, 2) roughly cut into a small trifle, 3) and twice baked into a small biscotti and served with a cappuccino!)

Think ahead when you’re cooking weekday meals, if you’re making a large batch of chili, put aside a full serving for a future tapas dinner and serve it in mini pitas. If you’ve made soup, set aside enough for shooters and serve in espresso cups. A dip and bread may be considered as a coarse. A simple coarse might be Saganaki. I try to alternate previously prepared or easy coarses with something a bit more complex. Involving your partner to help with alternate coarses also breaks up the time spent in the kitchen…don’t you think your partner might love to light the Saganaki and serve this fiery treat?

Desserts, I find are relatively easy too. If you’ve made brownies, cut the edges and freeze. Then for a small tapas dessert, whip some cream or make a quick custard and assemble a trifle with the left-over edges, serve with a shot for extra effect!

Example for timing the menu above (note: the times are just guidelines)
7:30 guests arrive, start with libations and Aunte Ági’s cheese sticks. Pit the oven on and move into the living room and have lovely conversation. Perhaps put on a fire, and definitely play some music (we like jazz).
7:45: put the scallops into the oven, they will take longer than the bacon wrapped dates. Depending on the size of scallops, turn about 5-7 minutes, now add the bacon wrapped dates. Bake for another 5-7 minutes.
8:10 serve the bacon wrapped scallops and dates. Keep the oven on.
Around 8:30-8:45 your partner should pop into the lichen to start the chorizo coarse, meanwhile fill the glasses.
Warm the serving dish and prepare the dish.
9:00 Serve chorizo dish with bread.
9:45 You’ll likely want a bit of a break, but you can ready the escargot for the oven, bake for 10 minutes until butter has melted and the Chou is crispy. Serve hot at 10ish.
The dessert should already be made and plated with some last minute garnished to attend to. Serve with coffee/tea when your guest say they are ready.

Tapas need not be stressful, after all, it’s about getting together with friends in a casual setting. Cheers! I hope to read about your tapas dinner party soon.

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Part I: Vienna and Budapest

Hello friends, hope you’ve all been very well over the last few weeks I’ve been away. We had sporadic internet service over our holidays and I did try to stop by and leave a comment or two, but alas on going back I did notice some did not ‘stick’ and I do apologize. I’ll try to make it up over the following weeks.

Our holidays did get off to a rocky start, with our seats unable to recline on the ancient aircraft Austrian Air employ but that just meant everything else can be so much better, or not, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
In order not to bore you with a million-word post, I’ll condense our trip into three sections: Part I will be Vienna and Budapest; Part II Barcelona; Part III will be Lyon and Paris.

I’ll let you know from the get-go that our weather pretty much sucked! If it wasn’t dark gloomy skies and chilly temperatures then it was dark gloomy skies with chilly temperatures teaming with rain. But that didn’t slow us down as much as … oops! There I go getting ahead of myself again. We did have a few nice days, and you’ll see which one’s in the photos. Those of you on my Facebook have had glimpses of our holiday already…so now I hope you enjoy the narrative!

As you know, we landed in Vienna pretty much unscathed, even though beauty sleep avoided us; we had anticipation and adrenaline pretty much on our side, so we were ready for the experience. JT booked us into the Radisson Blu which is in the inner circle in Vienna; the cab from the airport was rather pricey, so if you don’t over-packed (like I did) you may want to take the commuter train which is much less expensive. Quite surprisingly our room was ready at the bright and early arrival time of 10:30am and we were quite pleased because we like to unpack and freshen up after such a long flight (8 hours from Toronto). We set out on a mission to find a lunch place and look around the city. We’ve been many times before (it’s a perfect spot to pick up a rental car and drive the 2-3 hours to Budapest, and it has many intercontinental connector flights to facilitate our adventures) so we were just walking around to air our heads and check out the new/renovated shops.

One of my favourite stops is the Julius Meinl specialty grocer right in the Graben. It’s a feast for the eyes and stomach. The chocolate section is unparalleled!

This is just one of the aisles for the chocolate section. It spans about 1/4 of the entire store.

I just couldn’t resist a chocolate bunny box, image by Andy Warhol. This one is for my friend Genie all the way down under in New Zealand, a fellow bunny lover.

As you can see, Austria is not cheap. In fact, breakfast in our hotel was a lofty 28 Euros (about 35 Canadian dollars) per person. We decided to order one and share, and it’s a good thing we did, even one was more food than we both could eat.

We chose Danieli for lunch and Huth for dinner (which I’ve talked about in my first post about Vienna).

Here is a lovely picture of Danieli and my delicious salad.

A very nice Italian Restaurant in the Graben

I just can’t get enough of this delicious salad. They just call this cheese Bufala Mozzarella

Budapest was a trip to visit family. My dear uncle passed away over a year ago and I haven’t been back since so it was a rather emotionally stressful time for me. I am pleased to say that all went well, and although there were a few moments of water works, it went rather smoothly. My family lives on Rosa Domb (Rose Hill) in Buda, which is the quieter side of Budapest. They used to live in the heart of it all in Pest, but about 30 years ago decided to move in preparation for their retirement. They have a lovely four-story town-house. We packed 22kg (about 50lbs) into each of our cases, and the guest room is…you guessed it, on the fourth floor! Now these were likely the most luxurious steps of all the steps we encountered on our trip, there were worse. And I was very lucky that my cousin and JT carried my over-packed case all the way up (I’m re-thinking this packing business in the future!).
We ate like kings for the four days in Budapest!

This was our welcome lunch. The Hungarians eat their main meal at noon on weekends. It’s stuffed pork tenderloin with prunes, cooked beets, carrots, mashed potatoes and white asparagus.

A typical “dinner” served anywhere between 6-9pm. Cold cuts, cheeses, tomatoes, Hungarian peppers, radishes and fresh bread

My cousin treated the entire family to a evening cruise on the Danube. It was a lovely evening and the lights sparkled like diamonds. It was such a beautiful sight, I would recommend this cruise to everyone, although the dinner cruise is not recommended (we just cruised with a cocktail!).

The Szabadsági Bridge (Freedom Bridge) with an interesting light my camera caught

The very beautiful shoreline with the Independence Monument in the background

The beautiful Parliament Buildings

Our last full day in Budapest, we visited the Castle District (Vár) and Margit Island (Margit Sziget).

Matthias Coronation Church newly restored and sparkling clean

The Fisherman’s Bastion. The story goes that during one of the many Turkish invasions (over several hundred years), the city was divided into different sections to be protected by each trade. This section was protected by the fisherman.

Dancing Fountain on Margit Island

Yes, we did get a lovely day or two in Budapest.

It was nice enough to eat outside. JT took this picture from the back which is a reverse ravine. That’s my cousin Rudi on the far left, my Aunt Ági, my cousin’s wife, Éva and me!

We left early the next morning to drive back to Vienna to catch a flight to Barcelona but not without issues. JT tried to carry too much luggage down and slipped and twisted his ankle (OK it may have been the precarious little rug at the foot of the stairs). We realized in Barcelona that it was indeed a sprain, but after some quick first aid and the purchase of a cane we were back on our way!
The other issue was that we had left 4.5 hours for a 2-3 hour drive and we ended up just barely catching our flight due to some really bad back up just outside of Vienna on the A4 (M1 in Hungary). It was a very anxious trip but we made it.

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The Garden in Bloom

Spring is my favourite time of year. It’s a time of rebirth and renewal. It’s a time to shed the heavy coats and gloves and socks and boots and dawn lighter, airier garments. It’s a time to enjoy the greenery and the burst of colour the garden has to offer.

The beautiful crab apple tree in full bloom. She is just so happy we got rid of that towering shady elm!

We live in the city, and so our lot is not huge, but it’s a decent size for some interesting landscaping. Last fall, as many of you already know, we hard-scaped the back yard and removed all the grass. It never really grew well anyway. Our big huge Elm made sure of that. We also had a smaller elm removed from in front of the kitchen window. We knew the crab apple would be very happy because we did.

The Azalea in full bloom.

My friend Norma has beautiful Azaleas in her rural garden. She is even lucky enough to get deer from time to time! Our back yard faces east, so we really only get the morning sun. It’s still a little cool to sit outside, but I’m hoping that by next weekend we will be able to.

The hostas and ferns are shooting up like crazy beside my little ‘thinker’

I’m finding that the garden takes turns on allowing a different variety to flourish each year; the periwinkle is flowering so much this year, more than I can recall in the past. The violets are not doing as well. Perhaps next year it will be their time again. Or the Lily of the Valley.

A surprise in the back 40!

And so, I’ll leave you with a little surprise down by the back shed: our very own Trillium. The Trillium is Ontario’s official flower and it is illegal to pick them, or even uproot them; you can get fined if you are caught. They supposedly flower every seven years! We noticed this little gem about 5 years ago, when it flowered last (OK, so maybe Trilliums weren’t good at math). We don’t know how it got here, but we sure feel lucky that it is here! And flowering so beautifully. See you Miss Trillium, hopefully in another 5 years!

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The Titanic Dinner Party, a recap

The dinner party was an enormous success, THANK YOU Angela, Gordon and the Stewards, Evan and David. It went off without a hitch (not that we could see anyway, and that is what counts!). The boys did an amazing job with serving and cleaning up the table. Conversation was lively and we all had a great time!

The food was great and we couldn’t stop from finishing everything on our plates. My contribution of three (for recipes click here, here and here) of the ten courses were also well received. The table was beautifully set with the hand made branded napkins, the branded chargers and Angela’s wedding china and Silverware. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I certainly felt like I was on an opulent vessel being served a Michelin Five-Star meal! And we didn’t sink, which was a real bonus.

We dined for 5 hours, enjoying every last morsel and libation. The party went on until one o’clock in the morning, at which time, we thanked our hosts and drove silently home, pondering the forthcoming events of that fateful evening one hundred years ago.

Here is a quick recap of the evening, and that is likely the last you’ll have to endure Titanic mania at least until next year (there is talk to have this event yearly! )

A quick recap of the invitations.

It looks real, doesn’t it?

I blurred out the names for privacy reasons!

I suppose this was directed toward the Gentlemen, as the Ladies were likely not invited into the casino!

I created memento booklets for the event. It had our menu, the guest list and some titillating trivia about the grand vessel.

Here is the entire booklet: MomentoBooklet_BlogNew

The welcome flags of the Titanic First Class Passengers

Our charming and generous hosts

Our fastidious Stewards, Evan and David, who kept the dinner moving efficiently and gracefully

The setting: First Class Dining Room

Hand made Napkin by Angela

The Cast of ladies (from left to right): Denise, Éva, Renata, Angela and Ginger

The cast of gentlemen (from left to right): Eric, Gordon, Richard, Philip and John

The party was certainly a hit!

Please ask for permission if you wish to download any of these photos as not all of them belong to me!

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Please don’t buy a real bunny at Easter

Reposted from last year.
Make mine chocolate
Please don’t buy a real bunny as a gift at Easter. A bunny will live to about 12 years; this is a real commitment. A bunny needs as much attention as a dog; they have delicate digestive systems that upset easily and not every vet knows how to deal with them (I know of 1 in Toronto) $$$. This is not a decision to be made lightly while you are caught up in the Easter festivities.

This post is dedicated to all the bunnies that end up at the humane society after Easter is over.

Just a few links to demonstrate how ridiculously rampant this idiotic tradition is:

http://www.rabbit.org/easter/2012release.html

http://animalrights.about.com/od/companionanimalspets/a/EasterBunny.htm

http://www.annarbor.com/pets/local-animal-welfare-agencies-urge-people-to-forgo-buying-live-bunnies-for-easter-with-the-make-mine/

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Titanic Dinner Party Invitations and Awards (yup, you read that right ‘plural’)

The Invitations were mailed last week. I wanted to help my friend Angela out by creating her invitations in the original format of the Boarding Pass for the Titanic. I found a low res print here and recreated it in Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop, it’s something I love to do and I was happy to help out. Plus, it’s not like there are a thousand going out, just three (not counting our’s and Angela’s)!

It looks real, doesn't it?

I created it like a four page booklet, with the cover being the boarding pass, the inside front is the actual invitation, the facing page is an actual ticket and then the outside back cover was a note from White Star Lines Angela found that talks about the danger of professional gamblers on board. I just love the language used.

I blurred out the names for privacy reasons!

I also made up little stories about why each person is travelling on the Titanic and some very specific preferences to be considered by the Titanic staff.

I suppose this was directed toward the Gentlemen, as the Ladies were likely not invited into the casino!

I am rather excited about the evening, everyone will be coming in period clothing and Angela has already bought a CD of music of that time. My friend Monica loaned me a gorgeous lace dress that seems to be of the period (it was her sister’s MILs), now I am scouring ebay for long black gloves to go with the dress. JT needs to get some tails and we’re all done (lots to be found on ebay!)! We’re preparing some trivia for the evening that will also be loads of fun.

Now onto something as exciting, my friend Betsy over at Bits and Breadcrumbs has bestowed the honour of four awards and I am excited to tell you about them, but first a little bit about Betsy. Betsy is a graphic designer by day in the Atlanta/Decatur, Georgia area. She lives on a lovely country lot with a gorgeous garden; she can have bon fires in her back yard, how cool is THAT?! You should check out her blog, she cooks up wonderful comforting but healthy meals for herself and her hubby. Thank you Betsy, I am very flattered.

Thank you Betsy for this wonderful honour

1. Favourite color? Red
2. Favourite animal? Bunny Rabbit
3. Favourite number? I’ve never really thought about it.
4. Favourite drink? Non alcoholic: a good cup of coffee. Alcoholic: vodka martini (I really don’t care if it’s shaken or stirred, just get it to me, chop, chop!)
5. Facebook or Twitter? Both, but I am slowly losing interest in both.
6. Your passion? Cooking and travelling (we’ve got three trips planned: May NYC, June Chicago and September Europe (Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona, Lyon and Paris!) ! I’m hoping to bring you along on all three!)
7. Giving or getting presents? Giving, for sure.
8. Favourite day? Friday
9. Favourite flowers? Hydrangea and Lilacs. No wait, Lilly of the Valley.

Now, it is customary to pass along the love (as Betsy put it) and I therefore nominate the following blogs. As usual, your participation is entirely up to you, if it’s a busy week and you just can’t deal with it, just put it aside or don’t even think about it. They are lovely awards and it’s a way for me to tell you how much I enjoy reading your blog. In no particular order:

• Promanade Plantings lives in St Leonards On Sea. Her plot of land offers a gorgeous views on a southerly slope facing towards the sea. She gardens like a pro; the most beautiful pumpkins that are not just for Halloween!
• Generation Y Foodie I came across Dara after she had asked Ann to review her cookbook. Dara is a lawyer by day and enthusiastic foodie by night. She has healthy recipes with a lot of appetite appeal!
• Charlie Louie of Hotly Spiced is one of my favourite reads. Charlie has a wonderful knack to entertain and weave in a recipe; her family is a rich source of most of her entertaining stories. And she’s a great cook!
• My friend Barb, Profiteroles and Ponytails, just because. And I’m dying to have a slice of that Moose Tracks Ice Cream Pie!
• My other friend Pamela who runs Downton Abbey Cooks a blog about the British show Downton Abbey. Pamela has the skill to weave the storyline of the show into her blog along with a poignant recipe. The show has only recently caught my interest because of the Titanic Party we are going to — the show begins with the dreadful sinking of the Titanic. Pamela also enlightens me on words such as Entail!
• Karen over at Back Road Journal, much like Oliver Wendell Douglas and Lisa Douglas, Karen and hubby gave up their urban life for a 1730′s home with an apple orchard in a small town in New Hampshire. Karen generously takes us along when she and her husband travel and it’s a wonderful experience of lovely country inns and delicious food.

So there you have it. A few more facts about moi, 6 more bloggers to add to your reading list. Thank you Betsy for the lovely nomination!

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10 Questions from my friend Charles at Five Euro Food

My friend Charles from Five Euro Food tagged me in a recent post. Thank you Charles, I am so flattered.

1. Describe yourself in seven words

   Perfectionist, Project Manager, Aspiring Chef, Dependable, Logical, Artistic, did I mention perfectionist?

2. What keeps you up at night?

   I’m a pretty good sleeper.

3. Who would you like to be?

   I am reasonably happy with the way I am, except maybe I’d like to be 10lb lighter!

4. What are you wearing right now?

   Brown top with a bright pink camisole, Brown suede skirt, Brown and black tights and my cowboy boots that I bought in Calgary.

5. What scares you?

   Identity theft.

6. What are the best and worst things about blogging?

   Best: As so many others have said, it’s my new age pen pals. Worst: the overwhelming, all consuming time it requires.

7. What was the last website you visited?

   Trip Advisor; we are planning a trip to New York or Chicago in the spring and Europe in the fall.

8. What is the one thing you would like to change about yourself?

   Lose 10lbs, maybe 15!

9. Slankets – yes or no?

   From the many other blogs I’ve had the pleasure of reading, I sadly now know what this aborition of synthetic nature is, and my answer is definitely, decidedly NO!

10. Tell us something about the person who tagged you.

    Charles was one of my first blogging commentors last year; he lives with his lovely Swedish wife just outside of Paris, is likely some kind of programmer (just a guess), has a cat named Sammy and he has a wonderful blog about his recipes and the occasional day trip that is creative, informative and mostly quite affordable.

…And 5 tags of your choice…

Oh my, it’s a little difficult to tag someone, since I’ve only just met most of you and have no idea whether you have been tagged before, but here goes, participate as you wish…

1. Flavour Fiesta – Divya is a fellow Torontian who has a wonderful blog and on line magazine!
2. Bunny, Eats, Design is a designer from Australia who has the most adorable bunny name Tofu.
3. Back Road Journal belongs to Karen who has moved out to the country and is experiencing a slower way of life.
4. A bloke who can cook, posts recipes infrequently and they are usually comforting and tasty looking.

Oops! That’s only four…

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Food Bloggers Unplugged Award

My blogger friend Sharyn of Kale Chronicles recently bestowed the Food Bloggers Unplugged award to me; I am quite flattered and very touched that she has now given me two awards! Thank you, Sharyn. The Food Bloggers Unplugged is designed to allow the blogger to divulge a few personal details about their blogging motivation.

Awarded by Sharyn at Kale Chronicles

What or who inspired you to start your blog?

I started blogging in early 2007 as a chronicle of our renovation. It ended up being a bit of a venting place for me; we had issues with our renovator. But I enjoyed blogging so much that when the reno was complete and the party was had I decided to continue with Kitcheninspirations and document cooking in my new kitchen. I enjoyed blogging but I never really understood the value of commenting until I started to gain a bit of a following and in turn, get to know a lot of great people.

Who is your foodie inspiration?

I would have to say that my foodie inspiration were my parents. My Father had a very refined palate and my mother was a home cook, undaunted and unafraid of any recipe or ingredient. My father used to say, “why should I go out and pay for a restaurant meal when your mother can make it so much better.”

Your greasiest most batter splattered cook book is?

Five Roses Flour Cookbook. For $1 I sent away for this basic cookbook in the late 1970′s and it’s been my Go To cookbook for basics. That and the Fanny Farmer Cookbook which I was given as a wedding present 25 years ago!

The best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it and what was it?

Bouillabaisse in Marseille, France. I had never had the real bouillabaisse before but had read that it was invented in Marseille so I had to give it a try. I have never really been fond of fish soup, but I can tell you, that soup with the rouille and the crostini, sitting on a patio on a gorgeous fall day overlooking the harbour was breathtaking and unbelievably delicious. JT ordered the steak frites but had wished almost instantaneously that he had ordered the bouillabaisse instead. Fading into to dreamy land….

Another Food Blogger’s table you would like to eat at?

So many and so little time; but to name a few: Sawsan at Chef in Disguise, Ann at Cooking Healthy for Me, Kristy and Mike at Eat, Play, Love, John at from the Bartolini kitchens, Charles at Five Euro Food and Lorraine’s at Not quite Nigella (I would add Barb’s at Profiterols and Ponytails, but I have actually eaten at her table and enjoyed it immensely!) and many more.

What one kitchen gadget would you like Santa to bring you? (money no object)

A warming drawer; I wish I had worked it into my kitchen reno but alas it was not so.

Who taught you how to cook?

My dear mother taught me the basics of cooking. She also taught me not to be afraid of trying something new, if it doesn’t work out, start again. Years of watching Food Network and early TV cooks, I have honed my skills.

I’m coming to you for dinner, what is your signature dish?

Barley Risotto. I always have dried woodland mushrooms on hand, barley, stock and parmesan cheese. Flourless Molten chocolate cake for dessert.

What is your guilty food pleasure?

Escargot in garlic butter with lots of crusty bread. Or steak tartar.

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

My favourite pet in the whole world was my gorgeous little brown bunny rabbit named Dustie. She passed away almost six years ago and I have been able to bring myself to get another.

Tag five other Food Bloggers to answer these questions:

1. Hotly Spiced, Charlie Louie is a beautiful Mom with some very sophisticated recipes and a lovely way she weaves a story about her family into her posts.
2. GenYFoodie, Dara puts together healthy, local ingredients into comforting meals. And she wrote a cookbook.
3. Ichigo Shortcake, interesting food and travel adventures.
4. Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, good down to earth recipes.
5. The Big Fat Noodle, recipes and anecdotes.

Thanks again, Sharyn, I really appreciate the award. Now, I must contemplate some requirements for an upcoming giveaway! Very exciting…indeed.

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My lovely tidy spice drawer, finally. Thank you T!

As you may know, we renovated our kitchen about four years ago, adding about 100 square feet to our modest little 10′ x10′ craftsman-style kitchen and basement. Most renovations don’t go exactly to plan, and our’s was no different. I had hoped to gain an olive oil and vinegar drawer beside the stove and a great spice pullout on the other side, but because we have some angles on our main wall with most of the cabinets, we were limited (it makes for an interesting layout, but awkward functionality). I did manage both of my wishes, but we had to be creative on where we put them.
For years I managed with my spices being in small labelled tins, but a tablespoon of this or that would deplete my tin, so I was constantly refilling. Last fall, we were visiting our good friends Paul and T in Yorkville Illinois and I noticed that she had some lovely little jars of spices she had picked up in Target (we Canadians say Tarjé, as in French!). Much to my surprise, she generously picked up an entire set for me! What a dear, dear friend.
They didn’t have some of the unique spices I like to have on hand (such as garam masala, meat masala or five Chinese spice) so I relabeled some duplicates, which worked out perfectly! Now my spice drawer is complete! I’m wondering what my next project should be?

Yes, I may have ‘type-A’ tendencies! The spices are organized alphabetically! It’s not crazy, just super organized! No, really!

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Happy Thanksgiving! I’ve been tagged in a game! Thanks Ann!

First I want to say how sad I am that Steve Jobs has passed away; not withstanding that he was so very young, his future contributions will be sadly missed. I have been using his products almost exclusively for near 25 years (maybe longer). My first real job, was the beginning of the apple hype; we had just started getting Macs on every desk. I was in the Graphic Department of a professional services firm (think Accounting and Consulting), so we were one of the first. My very first Mac was Macintosh 128K, it didn’t have enough memory to hold graphic software — some being as large as two little 3.5 inch floppy disks! I remember coining the term “disk-drive aerobics”, standing by as the Mac accessed disk one, pop it out, I’d then have to pop in disk two, and repeat, over and over and over, every time I saved! One of the first projects I did was a detailed map of our rail system on Cricket Draw – it took days! I finally finished it and IT WOULD NOT PRINT! Good grief! All that work? Really? That was my rude awakening to Postscript! Fortunately, Cricket was able to convert the graphic to Postscript, so I bought a couple of books on it, read them from cover to cover and changed a comma to a period and lo and behold, IT PRINTED!!! Fortunately software has matured with the leaps and bounds of Mac technology. Lucky for me, I was born to use a Mac! My wonderful career in design and design management was launched and the rest is history. Thank you, Steve Jobs! May you Rest In Peace.

Now to the task at hand, my good friend Ann, over at Cooking Healthy For Me tagged me in a game to list your three favourite posts, and then to name five bloggers to do the same. Well, I am happy to report, that I have new bloggers in my follow repertoire, so stay tuned!

Listing my favourite dishes is not as easy as it sounds; I might like the photo, or the recipe, but not both! Decisions, decisions! Ok, here goes:

All Butter French Croissants

The all butter croissants. I really like the photo, but to have made actual, real life, French croissants? I must say, I am loving this post (thank you Sawsan, I wouldn’t have done it without your kind words of encouragement!).

Harira, a traditional Moroccan Soup

My second choice has to be Harira, a traditional Moroccan Soup. Not withstanding the wonderful flavours in this soup, I really like the photo (I know it’s a bit blown out in the front, but I like it. I’m finally getting the hang of my Canon Rebel. I’ve never used an SLR before this blog!

Mini Paris Cupcakes

My Final choice are the mini Paris Cupcakes, mainly because they are so bright and I smile every time I look at them. I would have loved to say a number of other from 2007, 8 and 9, but sadly the photos suck, so I won’t bring them up…but if your are curious, I really loved the following:

Leak and Potato Capuccino with Gruyére Créme

Retro Olive Nuggets

Cottage Paella

Cheddar and Onion Scones

Flourless Molten Chocolate Cake

OK, that’s it. Really. Thank you Ann, for a lovely trip down memory lane…it was a nice journey! I would like to mention that if I have missed you on this round, I am trying to expand the blog-o-sphere and bring on some new bloggers I’ve come across. I still ADORE reading all of the blogs I have grown so attached to. It’s like a cyber family!

Now for my next nominations:

1. Dulce Delight A Brazilian young woman living in NYC. I’m not sure if she reads my blog, but I read her’s and it is lovely. She very candidly presents cooking videos from her little apartment in New York. Plus I love her adorable little pocket dog.
2. Jed at Sports-Glutton is a new reader, but I like his rawness, typical guy recipes. I don’t really read his sports entries, sorry Jed, but I am a girly girl, and have no interest. But I will savor your food posts with vigor!
3. the Big Fat Noodle is new to my repetoire, but I’m TOTALLY lovin’ her latest halloween posts.
4. Another new one for me is Cravings of a Lunatic. I find this lady interesting because her “about” claims she doesn’t eat many things, yet her blog is filled with interesting and diverse foods.
5. And last but not least, Anna at Banana Wonder. She is a very tall Greek woman (see her about). She has tasty recipes and stories to go with them!

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving (yay, long weekend!) I would like to wish everyone a very safe and happy Thanksgiving. I know I have a lot to give thanks for this year, including my new found friends. Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Eva

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