Missing our Northern Neighbour

In Canada, it is possible for one to purchase a bag of Ketchup chips.

They are not sold in the United States of America.

I know this because I called the Frito-Lay company my freshmen year at Weston H.S. during a study hall, on a whim. I was not prepared for the wave of disappointment that would follow.

Oh Canada.

-Steph

Cupcakes...and my Sunday morning.

Dear Super Sunny Cupcake,

Please, never share your secrets. And by secret, I mean how you came to be on this Earth. You know how some parents tell their children that a Stork brought them home, because they don't want to explain the human reproductive process to their 5 year olds?

Yeah. I really don't want to know how many sticks of butter went into your creamy chocolate icing. Or how many scoops of Crisco. God forbid if I get stretch marks at the tender age of 17.

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know you're really yummy and very happy looking.

By making me happy, you're steering me away from a marathon session of back-to-back LOTR movies and a order of butter chicken and samosas.

'Tis my pity fest.

That is what I will be doing on Wednesday night, December 15th.

:'(

But I'm really cheesin' right now!!!

I got my senior portraits done today, and part of it was taken at Rosie's Bakery in Wellesley (55 Central St.)

The shoot was SO MUCH FUN. The photographer, the ever wonderful Maura Moore brought some vintage half-aprons for me to wear. They had crazy floral and gingham patterns on them.

Drool.

And the girl who worked there prepared me a plate of cookies to pose with, and a freshly baked tray of blueberry muffins!

Maura bought me a few cupcakes to pose with (and eat) and they were sweet and dense and sparkly and colorful and beautiful; you know, what the ideal best friend would look like.

Check out some of Maura's work at http://irmalou.com/ :)

And drop by Rosie's when you get the chance!

Lots of Love (and rainbow sprinkles,)

Steph

Breakfast #2

A long time ago, man created the DSLR camera. Some time later, Steve Jobs came along and created the iPhone 4G, which comes equipped with a reasonably high-pixel camera with flash.

So today (like all other days), I choose to forgo the 4-pound glass and metal contraption that takes stunning photos, and make do with my phone.

I woke up reasonably early today, at 10:14 a.m. The first thing that crossed my mind was "2nd block just ended, and now it's lunch time".

Oh Weston High School, you never escape my thoughts.

I cut some left over steak from dinner into strips, diced half an onion, and whisked two eggs together.

Then I browned the onions, added the steak, and put them aside, while I placed the pita on the pan for about a minute...

And I added a generous serving of butter to the pan and made quasi-runny scrambled eggs...

Which I put on the pita with the steak and onions with some mozzarella shreds...

And it looked like this:

And I ate it with some thick and creamy yogurt:

I was totally craving this Stonewall Kitchen salsa that someone brought to my World Lit. class for a culture presentation, but I forgot it's name and it made me very sad.

I had to make do with Tobasco sauce.

But hey, there is nothing wrong with that!

Oh, and I am quite sorry for the lack of artistic ability in these photos.

I keep telling myself to pick up the Nikon that is gathering dust in my mandarin orange/lime green painted room.

And then I kind of forget about it...and you, my dear 1.4 readers, are left with this!

Love you all,

Steph

TONIGHT.

I'm having swordfish!!!!!

Quite a short post, I know, and I am still due to post the results of the survey;

OOPSAY DAISAY!

I realize that is a plate of oozing cheese , nachos, jalapeno slices, and a dollop of sour cream; not swordfish.

I told my Canadian friends about it, and they sent me this picture.

They know me so well.

Well, off to the kitchen!

Happy long weekend,

Steph

Survey Results

I'm a really horrible person and I didn't post the results seven days ago like I promised.

:'(

Here are some highlights:

1. So in this club, we have celiacs, vegetarians, pescaterians, and some weird kid with mango skin allergies....

2. People LOVE baking and "just eating food", though "eating foods from different cultures" was also a popular answer.

We have two club members that are using this club as a résumé padder for college. Ouch.

3. We're going to have some Thai this October!

So keep your eyes peeled gastros, or you'll miss out on some great food and great company, and the you'll end up crying yourself to sleep late at night because of the overwhelming sadness that inevitably accompanies missing out on a Gastronome Guild outing...

Keep eating,

Steph

P.S. Whoever this is, I like you. A lot.

Eritrean: Asmara

Yesterday, nine of us broke all the rules and went out on a homework night.

Gasp.

We headed to Asmara (739 Massachusetts Ave.), and ordered two of these:

From center clockwise:

Beef, lamb, shrimp, chicken, carrots, lentils, and spinach. I would love to elaborate, but I can't, as I the menu online is not an extensive list, and I can't find the dishes that were served to us. Also, "beef, lamb, shrimp, etc." is how the meal was described to us during dinner, so it should suffice.

We ate all this with injera, a yeast-risen flat bread with a spongy texture. Injera is also gluten-free, so celiac gastros should head over to Asmara in the near future :)

After dinner, we headed across the street for some baklava, which was absolutely delicious. Honey, nuts, and butter are a few of my favorite things in the world, and baklava had them all.

I didn't look at the name of the restaurant that sold it, but they had Greek food to go and had hookahs lined up by the window, with a sign reading "shisha for rent". That's like saying "water for rent" or "food for rent", but to each his own.

I digress.

Anyways, BIG thank you to everyone that came out: Molly, Laura, Lauren, Sarah, Stephanie, Margaret, Kristi and Margo.

I'll be sending out an email soon with a poll of where to go next; I want to switch up continents every month, so Africa will be tabled until after October, but feel free to roam around Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Europe (or the Caribbean islands!) and let me know where/what you want to eat next!

Keep eating,

Steph

PAD THAI

Posts like this will usually be accompanied with a recipe.

But not this one!

This is because this particular pad thai is a TOP SECRET recipe of Margo's uncle.

It looks so delicious, especially with all those lime slices!

I love lime. It's so acidic.

Have you ever wondered the pH level of lime juice?

If you know, will you let me know?

Because I want to know.

Thanks.