S'mores, a speakeasy, Rge Rd and sharp knives.

Whoo. Four items, one post.

I've been making quite a few s'mores lately. Funny, I never really considered them something easy to make in the oven, but Rachel made them one evening and I was hooked. Most recently I made Kim Boyce's graham wafers, picked up some marshmallows from work and utilized some smoky chocolate from Mast Brothers to create a pretty delicious version.

On Thursday, Richard and I stopped in at Three Boars for the third version of their 'speakeasy'. Each Thursday starting at 8PM, the new upstairs portion of the restaurant is turned into a lounge of sorts (just drinks, no food). There's a one off cocktail menu each Thursday. Richard enjoyed spiked eggnog, whilst I sipped tea with ginger and gin. Looking forward to more of these evenings throughout the winter. Drinks were priced from $7-10, with one $20 drink that served two. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for weekly details.

After a crazy day at the shop, and a couple hours at All is Bright, Charles and I headed over to Rge Rd (10643 123 St) and lucked out with a couple seats available at the bar. We enjoyed the 'Questionable Bits' (Tempura battered pig's heart and the best beef tartare ever; $15), Potato and Leek soup ($10), chicken breast with spicy Brussel sprouts ($29) and seared pickerel ($27). We finished the evening with their version of... a s'more ($10). Yeah. We're pretty predictable.

French 75 with Victoria Gin

Chicken breast with braised chicken galette and habanero Brussel sprouts

Seared pickerel with dill, ricotta and beet perogies, cabbage and white onion cream

Last night we stopped by the Knifewear pop up (10816 82 Ave) to buy our Christmas presents. Ta da!

I can't even find the post, but back in 2009/10 I posted about our new Mac santoku knife. Well, a couple weeks later someone tried to cut through a rabbit bone and needless to say, the knife didn't survive. Four years later, we now have two very sharp, beautiful knives, and can't wait to neatly cut many, many onions and vegetables... and no bones, or nuts or chocolate. Merry Christmas to us.

We are looking forward to the Hwkrs Mrkt this coming Saturday evening! I'm determined to pack the big camera and write a real post. See you there!

Chocolate and Pear Cake

I've been stocking up on pears. They're my favourite winter fruit by far, and they will sit in our fruit bowl throughout the week while I slowly consume them (this is key since we now have a tiny apartment refrigerator - whatever can stay at room temperature, does).

Yesterday, I peeked into the fruit bowl to find three pears, a little too soft for my liking. With that in mind I headed over to Smitten Kitchen, where there is a great recipe index searchable by fruit, vegetable, season, food type, etc., etc. Under 'pear' there were tempting recipes, like pear and almond tart or the more recent roasted pear and chocolate chunk scones; in the end I went with the bittersweet chocolate and pear cake, which would utilize all three of my Anjou pears.

For the chocolate portion, I used a 60% Hispaniola bar from The Jones Chocolate Company, along with a bar of 64% Maralumi from Michel Cluizel. While the flavours worked well (especially the earthiness of the former), increasing the percentage of the chocolate to tone down the sweetness would have been a better choice.

The cake batter itself came together easily, though as others noted in the comments, the pieces of pear and chocolate didn't really become enveloped in the cake as they were meant to. Maybe a little less would have given the batter the additional room necessary. These things aside, the egg-y base provides a lovely canvas for the pear and chocolate, and we will happily enjoy as the snow falls.

I thought I'd include a few shots from Deep Freeze yesterday. We made it over with our friend Claire and had an incredible time. We enjoyed the perfect weather (as Sharon notes here, 2011 was freezing and last year's warm temperatures weren't any better), taking advantage of fire pits scattered throughout the site, skating and Bailey's poured through ice. Thanks again to the Arts on the Ave crew for another great year!

We ran into Tanya and Tom and Willow

The Village Pig

Luminaria at Devonian Gardens

Just a small post while I procrastinate on my essay a bit. We went to Luminaria this evening with some friends, and though it was busy and not quite as contemplative or relaxing as we had hoped, there was excellent hot apple cider, a capella singers, bonfires, funky Snow Sprites and tons of candles. It continues tomorrow evening as well, from 5-9pm. You can find more details here.

Our pictures were sort of blurry and out of focus, but there's something about them we love. So here are some of our favourites.