terroni

Dining at Terroni tonight and I have two hopes:

#1 - the line up isn't too too long
#2 - the Li Pecuri pizza is still on the menu

http://www.terroni.ca/

pfeffer kuchen

Loosely translated from German, this could be "Pepper Cake". However, the recipe contains no pepper. Cloves and cinnamon so maybe spice cake might be a better translation. Last Sunday after a morning of substituting the grams and ml for cups and teaspoons, I had my mother in law's recipe ready to go. The cake calls for 300g of rueban kraut (sugar-beet syrup) or honey. Or a combination of the two. Or some maple syrup if you need to substitute/sub in an ingredient. I used 1:3 rueban kraut:honey just to use the stuff up. Also subbed in kamut and whole wheat pastry flour for the spelt that she likes to use. The cake? A hit. A colleague said it reminded him of his Dutch grandparents. And it's even better frozen, thawed and eaten when you need a sweet treat during a hectic day. Ya.

To buy your own sugar-beet syrup go to:
http://www.denningers.com
For over 50 years, Denninger’s has been producing the best in European-style sausages, meats, cold-cuts, salads and prepared foods. You will find: fine cheeses, chocolates, marzipan, candies, jams and marmalades, cookies, baked goods, coffees and teas, and marinated and smoked fish to name but a few categories of items.

PS: I recommend the pickled asparagus. A lovely, sour product of Canada.

home made is hit and miss

If you don't make something yourself, beware of the 'home made' claim made by many food producers. And I'm not one to complain about food service or quality. Which is why I end up at the same places all the time or only go on referrals from trusted sources. Saturday morning we bought a pie from The Pie Place at Maple Produce on Roncesvalles Avenue. A lovely looking peach pie that was ripe with expectations. It looked so promising, and to be the perfect companion with our mid morning coffee. Unfortunately after 45 minutes in the oven as it stated on the box "for a fresh baked taste" it turned out to be a flavourless gooey mess of what I can only guess was an artificial corn based filler and maybe three slices of actual peach (from where??) in the entire pie. Epic FAIL. I wrote them a note expressing my disappointment to no response. And 4 grams of trans fat per 1/6 of a pie slice? Good grief. I wouldn't feed this to my cats. Or give it to a homeless shelter. It left a stone in our stomachs the rest of the afternoon. Booo. Shame on The Pie Place for trying to pass off such a product as food.