Happening Gourmand Vieux Montreal is currently happening held between January 16 to February 9, 2020. A handful of restaurants in Old Montreal is participating in this food event filled with special priced menus for lunch, brunch, dinner and happy hour. We had time to as a Battle of Ingredients in January replacement to go out with the group to try out a meal at Taverne Gaspar for their dinner menu.
Drinks
Blueberry Tea Cocktail
Honey Old Fashioned
Being a tavern, there is a no doubt that we were expecting some delicious cocktails. The first is one that I was recommended from the waiter as a hot cocktail called Blueberry Tea that has black tea, Grand Marnier and amaretto. Its really delicious and such a warm feeling to have a nice hot cocktail in the winter.. The second is my husband’s where Old-Fashioned is his go-to and for Happening Gourmand, the Honey Old-Fashioned which has bourbon, honey syrup and orange bitter. Its a nice taste and the husband liked it quite a bit. If we go back, he said that he’d try the other old-fashioned on the menu called MTL Old-Fashioned.
Appetizers
I realized that I didn’t take any pictures of the appetizers except for my own replacement for dairy-free option which was a green salad with balsamic vinegar. The actual options on the menu is:
Seasonal Root Vegetable Soup
Arugula Mango and Avocado Salad
Mains
Beef Mignonette
Winter Risotto
Cheeseburger
Confit Duck Leg
There was a good selection of mains and ended up with the Beef Mignonette which was the option that didn’t need to be modified except for taking out the mashed potatoes and replacing it with yet another green salad. I have to say, the beef itself was cooked very tasty. My only issue with this whole thing is that they didn’t think about how to replace mashed potatoes with fries or something instead of a second green salad. I was having a feeling that I had turned into a rabbit during this meal.
I believe that everyone did enjoy their meal pretty well. My husband took the cheeseburger (as expected) and he thought it was pretty good. The only meal that isn’t shown here is Mussel and Fries.
Desserts
Maple Creme Brulee
Sugar Pie with Chantilly Cream
Lactose-free option: Chocolate Chip Shot
Last for dessert, we had two main choices: Maple Creme Brulee & Sugar Pie with Chantilly Cream. I think that perhaps the dessert was the letdown for the main. My husband took the Maple Creme Brulee and it was a bit disappointing in his opinion. As for the sugar pie, I believe that as expected it was rather sweet, maybe overly sweet. I can’t quite remember that one. However, a really nice surprise for their lactose free option was to replace with a shot. The waiter chose to give me the chocolate chip (or I can’t remember if my friend went to follow-up and chose it for me..not too sure). Its really a great one that if you go to Taverne Gaspar should try because if you didn’t know what liquid chocolate chips taste like, this shot was like drinking a chocolate chip. It was absolutely delicious.
Overall, Taverne Gaspar was pretty alright. The ambiance was very good and it was overly loud as what you’d expect in bars. The food was delicious just probably not quite focused in the balance of structuring meals or not as well-thought through. However, if you don’t have the nuisance of lactose-intolerance then these issues shouldn’t occur. And of course, as a bar, their drinks are definitely a huge highlight and a place that we’d go back to try some other of their cocktails as they all sound very good. Despite some little disappointments, the overall experience was comfortable and nice.
Moving onto another spontaneous TV Binge. I’m starting to divert away from inital plans (as I had foresaw), however, this new Netflix series which I know nothing about before is right up my alley so I gave it a go. Plus, its pretty dark and has some bizarre creepy Halloween elements so it fit well with the half-baked Halloween marathon that I’ve been having this month.
Let’s check out The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell!
The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (Season 1, 2018)
Cast: Christine McConnell, Colleen Smith, Michael Oosterom, Mick Ignis, Adam Mayfield, Dita Von Teese
Part cooking show, part sitcom in the vein of the Addams Family and the Muppet Show set inside the enchanted home of Christine McConnell, who has attracted hundreds of thousands of social media followers with her creepy edible creations. – IMDB
I watch a lot of the cooking and/or food related shows on Netflix. I haven’t heard of Christine McConnell before this show despite her Instagram fame. Now that I have that out of the way, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell is a neat concept. She is definitely talented. Her creations are weird but detailed and definitely requires a lot of skill and artistic talent to do. The concept of using a crossover with puppets like The Muppets Show also adds a different vibe to the overall show. However, this isn’t a show for children at all. As the show moves along, it gets dark over its six episodes currently available in the first season.
With that said, I like weird but the overload of oddity and strangeness made it a little hard to find where it wanted to set its tone. I didn’t find the sitcom aspect worked for myself but it all comes down to humor being very subjective. Even with six episodes, it felt a little bit of a chore to get through. There is no doubt there is something to take away from her creations, be it a skill or two about how to assemble something with that amount of grandeur and over the top. It also has a wide variety of things to teach with some crafts and both dinner, appetizers and dessert creations. Its all about the construction which is where this falls apart a little. As pretty as it is, its not really a cooking show if I look at something and admire its craftsmanship but think to myself, for example, when will I have time to craft a chicken pastry for a chicken pot pie… With that said, the second half of the show that settles into the odd world does work better than the first half. Maybe its getting used to the humor or the tone or the characters but whatever the reason, it felt more compelling to watch with also a constrained direction for each episode which works. The 20 plus minute episode is its saving grace as it keeps things paced well.
Overall, its a hit and miss for me. I like the concept and the creativity behind each of her ideas and acknowledge the skill and appreciate being able to learn some decorating skills and craft skills, there is too much of a mixed world of weirdness that surpasses my limit. The humor sitcom part also doesn’t quite land well for myself. However, its not a long first season with 6 episodes of 20 plus minutes long which makes it a series that even if you were to try because you like the style and odd things, it won’t take up too much of your time. The creations alone (even if not a lot of people, I suppose, really has time to do about 90% of her stuff) are worth looking at, which is great because this is called The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell so it delivers on its title which is always a good thing. Plus, Christine McConnell has a fantastic wardrobe and the house its set in also is so very pretty.
Holiday season is here! That means its time for me to bake up a storm. This year, I went mostly with easy solutions ranging from festive Rice Krispies Treats to Chocolate Bark (which are both no bake recipes) and then made vanilla cupcakes with store bought icing. However, I did get a little inspired and tried a new recipe from Butter Baked Goods book called “The Gingerstamp” which are chewy ginger cookies.
Ginger Cookie Makes 24 cookies
Ingredient
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup fancy molasses
1 tsp pure vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 cups of the sugar on medium to high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat briefly after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the molasses and vanilla. Continue to mix on high until the molasses and vanilla are well combined and the mixture is pale in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
In a small bowl add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Use the ice cream scoop to drop 24 equally sized portions of dough, one at a time, into the sugar. Use your fingers to roll the dough around to coat on all the sides, then place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Use the palm of your hand to press down lightly on the top of each portion to flatten slightly.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 17 minutes or until the cookies are firm around the edges but still slightly soft in the center.
Remove fromt he oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.
As usual, there were minor omissions. This time, it was because I ran out of the ingredient. Those were the baking soda amd vanilla extract. However, I do know that these two don’t make a huge difference to the taste, but maybe the texture.
Cookies are about one of the easiest things to bake. Plus, I have those mini ice cream scoops so I actually have left over cookie batter to make another 12 cookies at least after making the 24.
With that said, these cookies were a crowd pleaser. I do find it a little bit of a debate whenever I make ginger anything for baked goods because not everyone likes it as much as I do. I am glad to see that everything worked out.
2016 is sure flying by! February is done already? My goodness, that is rather surprising especially since work feels like it really hasn’t stopped to give me time to breathe. Its surprising that I’m still catching up with everything (well, barely). March starts the month of family birthdays also. Incredible, right? I’m also going to be 30 at the end of the month and I have that blog reveal thing that I haven’t even gone back to work on in a while. Man, lots of stuff coming up but at least you know what? Blogathon is going strong for the first two weeks and working on those Oscar movies went really well which was the goal in the last Weekly Adventures.
I’m going to keep this short as this post will be focused on my weekend getaway to Toronto with one of my great friends. We had a ton of fun exploring bakeries and whatnot. We got lost a little and was frustrated at Google Maps navigating us with a lot of those Toronto forbidden left turns and overall, we had some fun adventures. Its nice to be back doing road trips with one of my best road trip buddies.
Crazy Thing on Friday Night
Friday night we started our trip in the late afternoon around 4pm. We were on the road at a good pace until we hit around Kingston area where we got stuck in stand-still traffic due to an accident that kept us sitting there, engine off for an hour. During this time, a little event happened that inspired quite a bit of conversation. A man in the car in front of us got out, was on his cell for a call and then pulls out this big bag. Not long after, a minivan pulls up on the opposite side of the highway 401 (big highway, dark and no street lights, a bit of blowing snow sporadically) and a teen boy jumps out picks up his hockey bag and equipment, climbs over the median and runs across to get in the minivan with oncoming traffic.
The car that stopped on the other side of the highway..
Question here is: Is there a hockey game so important that you would risk your life and the bigger question, what reasonable judgment for the guardian/adult with him made him think it was a good idea to do this?
We got to Markham after the Ontario Police opened up a route to go backwards onto a ramp and some very horror movie potential sort of thing could’ve happened as we tried to get back on the emergency detour route. It was an exciting night. We almost drafted out a whole horror short. 😉
With our bellies full with an okay breakfast joint and my friend pretty happy about trying out fresh coconut water, we were on our way downtown for some bakery, independent tea and/or coffee shops. We had a little tentative itinerary.
First (Surprise) Stop: Fantail Bakery-Cafe & Tealish
Vegan Avocado Chocolate Cake
I’ve been thinking of replacing butter with avocado since forever. I almost didn’t get this one until some guy comes in saying that it was the best vegan baked good they’ve ever had. So I got it for takeaway. While I was waiting for my friend explore a coffee shop, I started eating it and OMG! Its only been the only thing on my mind since then!
This was really a stop we made because we were waiting for the tea shop Tealish to open. We also made a stop at The Art of Cookery where I got a lovely little kitchen accessory which I will showcase later.
Spring Longjin Green Tea
Intermission on the way to Second Stop
Karma Cluster
Cookies N Creme Donut
Third Stop: Cock-a-Doodle-Doo Gluten Free Bakery
Gluten-free Apple Tart
Fourth Stop: Almond Butterfly
Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookie
Dairy Free Snickerdoodle Cupcake
Fifth Stop: Vaughan Mills & Shopping
At this point, we’re suffering from some mega sugar rush followed by a crash on my end. I got a ton of liquids to make it better. However, there was some awesome finds here!
Baymax & Thumper: Completing my Disney Plush collection (for now)
Aside from this, I managed to finally get a pair of shoes for Zumba (In Studio Training). In one of the previous stops, we also stopped at an LCBO to get some wine. They didn’t have the one I wanted but I did pick up some good stuff over the two days so might as well get my purchases over in this section.
Crazy Beard & White Wine
Angry Orchard
My friend had told me about Angry Orchard before and since I saw it, I had to get myself a pack to see how it is. Plus, its gluten free and Apple cider. Two things I love to bits 😉
Sixth Stop: Asian Legend in Markham
Onion Pancakes
Soup-filled Steamed Pork Dumpllings
Ribs with Shanghai Bok Choy
Green Beans
Fried Pork buns
Asian Legend is our go-to spot. Unfortunately, it felt like everything wasn’t quite as good. The soup-filled dumplings were still pretty good and it was the first time trying the ribs but overall, it didn’t quite live up to the delicious taste it had. Maybe its the bad economy and the inflation causing things changing. Who knows…
We went back to our hotel after dinner. Well, after a quick stop at T&T Supermarket to pick up liquids for the night.
Next morning, we had a brunch before making some quick stops to buy some snacks and supplies before heading back to Montreal.
Sunday Brunch/Chinese Early Lunch: Ding Tai Fung Restaurant
Soup-filled Steamed Pork Dumplings
Sticky Rice Roll
Pork Rolls (I think…can’t remember the exact name)
Fried Donut Sticks
Dim sum
Pot Stickers
Ding Tai Fung is always a surefire. As usual, this place made some delicious food. I was pleased with such a delightful meal. Their soup-filled steamed pork dumplings are absolutely scrumptious. We went home safe and sound.
Game Night
The weekend after (the past one)..we got together again with one of my best friends and had a game night. It was a last minute thing so not a lot of people made it to my friend’s event but we had some food, chatted a little. The games of that night:
Cards Against Humanity
Saboteur
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
It was my first time playing Scotland Yard and man, was it fun! If you don’t know what it is, one player is Mr. X and they have hidden moves and unlimited resources while everyone else are detectives that need to trace them down. Obviously, we were just two detectives but if we had more people, it would be a different story. As we were strategizing our next moves, I thought it would be hilarious to make a podcast or vlog of it. That would be incredible. What do you think?
In case you don’t know what Saboteur is, its kind of a card game where you are dwarves mining to gold. There are three cards faced down, two is rocks and one gold. You can have cards to see which is the gold. Depending how many people, there are people to be the Saboteur whose goal is to sabotage your path. You have cards that build the path to the gold and other special cards that will block and unblock other players. The more players, the more interesting it gets.
It was a ton of fun! We were all really tired and somehow we ended playing super strategic games. Oh yeah, Mr. X got away…
That’s it for the last two weeks! Very fun two weekends despite work going batshit crazy and absolutely out of control!
Upcoming:
Last 2 weeks of Ultimate 80s Blogathon
Book reviews
Review: The VVitch
Before we go…a little music!
What games do you like to play with friends (board or video)? Do you like road trips (even if its just a weekend getaway)?
We’re stepping into the Year of the Monkey today in Chinese tradition. Spring has arrived in the lunar calendar and we welcome it with a lot of traditions. We spent most of the weekend tidying the house and making sure that we’re all set for a fresh start in the New Year! This is the first year I’m spending Chinese New Year living at my new house away from my mom. We had to put together a bit of decorations to hopefully bring some good luck.
Here’s a bit of the decorations around our house and some of the Chinese New Year celebrations and we’ll end with a 2016 New Year video. Its in Cantonese and its a ton of good luck wishes but yeah, its fun to watch even if you don’t know what its saying. And well, Hoi-Pang Lo is one that you’ll recognize if you watch Hong Kong movies. 😉
I know its more flowers than anything but its really lively and I love having them there. We have a few of those hanging decorations. I just didn’t want to bore you with how they are everywhere as well as those lucky slogans. We have 3 of those around the house. As for the orchids, they opened just in time for the New Year. The timing couldn’t be any better! 🙂
Dinner
Year Cake
Dessert
Heading over to my mom’s for dinner is always awesome! I think my mom makes the best food ever so what more can I say? Plus, we had the Superbowl playing in the background which I talked more than I watched but the halftime show was fun. I thought it did the 50 years justice. Bruno Mars was a great special guest and its great that they had him because well, he got judged so harshly back when he did it a few years ago that having him back gives him justice that he is definitely a great performer. Plus, Coldplay is always great! 🙂
Happy Chinese New Year from my family! 🙂
And now for the song! 🙂
Have a great day, my lovelies! 🙂 It may be Chinese New Year but expect another post this afternoon!
We’re at the last weekend before Christmas everyone! Panic mode is setting in!
Star Wars Weekend, grocery runs to prep for the holidays, Zumba, getting posts drafted and ready, freaking out about how to make a turkey. This all takes time away from the fact that we’re hosting Christmas this year and the house is a giant mess with storage to put away, kitchens and dining rooms to clean and the endless amount of cat hair (and mostly my hair) to vacuum. Suddenly all those little chores we span out and do sporadically becomes magnified in importance. Regardless, these are my problems. Point is: Stress! On top of that, I just got news that there’s a pretty big hiccup with the piano practice exam preparation which could mean some change in plans for next year. Its never good to procrastinate, yet I never learn…
So yes, a pinterest therapy session is much needed and you know it, its all about Christmas! 🙂 Last time we did a full day meal and what better way than to make an epic food day out of Christmas!
Breakfast
Bacon and Egg Puff Pastry
I’ve always wanted to do something with puff pastry. I actually even have some in my freezer and I never used it. This recipe looks relatively easy and that’s the most important point of any breakfast recipe for me. I used to be a morning person but these days, I go through difficulty in catching those Zzzs. So, in the morning, when its gloomy and rainy (where is the snow?!?), I just sit in bed and my eyes refuse to open. Forget complicated, I go with omelets or anything that takes really little preparation.
Lunch
Mini Frittata Brunch Bar
Christmas dinner usually is extravagant or Christmas Eve dinner was crazy heavy so the following day, I take it easy. These ones are super easy. I remember making one of these with zucchini and eggs and turned out really good. This looks absolutely scrumptious 🙂
Afternoon Refreshments
Christmas Lemonade
I rarely make lemonade in summers but this past one I’ve fallen in love with this. Christmas one looks cool. It’ll be a boost of vitamin C to help.
Dinner
Turkey
This is an actual worry. My dish this year is turkey. The first year I will be attempting the actual turkey. I’ve done turkey drumsticks and wings and breast but the entire turkey. This is stressing me out. At least, its comforting to know Betty Crocker always has a simple solution to everything 😉 Wish me luck that it turns out good.
Dinner Drinks
Blackberry Ombre Sparkler
Blackberry Ombre Sparkler looks so classy. I doubt we’ll be giving this a go since I don’t usually have champagne in the house but thats because we’re into white wine and I always have some ice winer/cider.
Dessert
Snowflake Peppermint Bark
Yule Log (Gluten-free)
Let’s double it up! I’ve made bark before and I remember it being kind of time consuming. This one looks fabulous. I always wanted to do it again. Although, between us, I plan on making some snowflake cupcakes for this year along with the second choice here. Same with the turkey, I want to do a test run for a swiss roll to just get an idea of how to get that log done. I want to make a beautiful Christmas log for this year. I just hope that it turns out good. If you check back, you’ll see if I actually go through with it (which I will) and how it turns out 😉
Talking about that! That’s a full day of meals on a dream Christmas day I’d have with some realistic choices! And time for that swiss roll test run! 🙂
What do you have for Christmas? Any tricks for making turkey or Christmas yule logs? What have you been pinning lately?
Update Vlog! I’ve been meaning to do one of these for a long long time! I just never felt up to it.
I cut the video really roughly this time because I was under a time crunch between sleeping, waking up and going to work and the transfer taking longer to go onto my drive. Still, its here! I have some little updates and an announcements. In case you can’t watch YouTube, I’ll do a general point form update under the video and a little extra something that I cut out of the video but finally decided that I’d like to add it on anyways.
Here we go! Excuse the really bad cut at the beginning. I had a lot of “ahs” and “ums” and “so”, making me try to cut it down as much as I could plus it was almost 10 minutes long and who has time for that. Its a little over 7 minutes now 😉 Please give it a chance. I really tried to be quick and concise, apparently I’m not too good at it.
Recap at the bottom and here’s the little extra!
The first two weeks I’ll be heading to the west coast to board a cruise to Alaska. Vacation time booked makes me happy. I’m not sure who is situated in Seattle, if you’d like to meet up, just drop me an email and we’ll see if we can figure something out! 🙂 I’m also working on getting more stuff done so that I can have posts up to at least cover a week of material so that it’s not all radio silence.
Overview:
This coming week/end: Official moving date to my new place. Its a little hectic so my posts might be a little all over the place.
Slowing down the pace of posts: Aim is 7 posts a week but with weekends off and here and there 2 posts a day
Official Launch of Baking Through Disney for April! Baking is a loose term for any sort of dessert inspired by the movie. Also, a little side project to go through live action adaptations for certain Disney princesses or fairy tales if they are accessible to me.
2015 has been a great year full of indie books and my first screener for Park City! I’m super motivated!
Film Review, Book Review and Recipes Index available in menu! Updated weekly!
While I’m adding monthly segments, I’m still putting thought into finding the right time to get Crush of the Week/Month together.
FINALLY! HUGE THANKS TO ALL YOU LOVELY PEOPLE! I couldn’t ask for a better way to spend turning 29! 🙂
I’m sappy! I know, I know! I tried to keep that toned down but you all deserve it so much! Virtual hugs for everyone!!!
Have an awesome day, my lovelies!
Thoughts? Suggestions? What are you looking forward to?
A little later today I have a little treat going up! Hopefully it’ll turn out to be a fun post 🙂
Tranquil Dreams 