After months of hard work, the recital for my flamenco class was yesterday. I was in two dances, one was tangos style and one was bulerias style. It didn’t go as badly as I thought it would, and my three guests (James, Clara and Sam) were really happy and supporting.
The recital was at the Isabel Bader Theatre and it was great. After the final bow James got me a lovely bouquet of flowers, they were the same colour as my skirt and I was quite excited for the nice gesture.
Sadly no one brought a camera so there are no pictures of me actually dancing. But I will get the DVD to remember for posterity.
After the show, we went to The Bedford Academy for dinner and a couple of pints.
Later we stopped at Chopin bar at Roncesvalles.
Chopin bar was lovely, there was a singer and a guitarist, and she said they were performing for the Toronto Jazz Festival. It really was a great way of ending the evening with nice music.
Archive for June, 2007
Fiesta Flamenca
June 24, 2007The best burrito in Toronto
June 22, 2007Tim from BlogTo has been posting reviews in his “search” for the best burrito place in town. He has posted reviews for Mexitaco, Burro Burrito (formerly bar burrito) and Burrito Fresh. I just left a comment on his Burrito Fresh Review, but the comment did not publish. It says it needs approval from the author. This is not the first time something like this happens with BlogTo comments, so I decided I’ll just post my comment here:
You know what, you should just ask me about the best burrito place in town.
I made a review of this place back in February: New burrito place in town
I also made a review of Big Fat Burrito a year ago: Big Fat Burrito
And I have been talking about Burrito Boyz for ages:
Burrito Boyz continues to be amazing
The Burrito Boyz
News from Burrito Boyz
Burrito Boyz Alert
Vegetarian Burritos
Also, Burrito Boyz do not charge extra for the guacamole anymore. And since I started having the dairy restriction, they’ve been really accommodating and actually given me “vegan” guacamole, which does not include sour cream, as it should be, actually.
A short review of La Mexicana
Plus being Mexican doesn’t hurt either.
I have lots of food reviews and recipes. And, of course, the world famous chicken wing reviews.
So what do you think, my dear readers?
Collingwood and Blue Mountain
June 19, 2007
Last week I went to Blue Mountain in Collingwood. Blue Mountain is a ski resort and I was excited to go, even if it was the summer. I have to say I was disappointed with the place. Don’t get me wrong, it is charming, but I was just taken aback with how fake it looks.
It looks as fake as Disneyland. They just decided they would build a “village” and put some fake restaurant and some fake fountain and build some houses (fake mountain chalets, I should say) around.
Also, all there is to do in the summer is mountain biking (ok, I like that), and golfing. It is so far away to go just for that, at least for me.
Ok, so suppose I want to get sporty and go mountain biking. It is ridiculous that there is no other way to get there but by car. I had to rent a car to go there last week.
I don’t know, I think it a more worth it road trip to go somewhere like Stratford (theatre and nice town), Niagara on the Lake (theatre, nice town, wineries), or even just Elora or Fergus (super charming towns).
Collingwood has none of that small-town Ontario charm. Not even a random place in the middle of Haliburton or Muskoka (like Bala, or Apsley). You know how in those places there is usually nothing but an LCBO, some grocery store like IGA and an independent ice cream shop. Well, in Collingwood they even have a Starbucks! I was appalled! They have a Wal-Mart, a Kelsey’s. They’re just like a mini-Barrie, I couldn’t believe it.
Not that I don’t want “progress” to come to the people of Collingwood, but I also like the small-town charm. I guess I’ll have to go somewhere else for that.
Beautiful cute doggies at Woofstock
June 11, 2007Woofstock happened this weekend at St. Lawrence Market. It was so cute. Here are some of the pictures that I took.
New and improved guacamole
June 10, 2007Both my mom and my brother thought my asparagus soup was yucky, disgusting and eew. Well, I dare them to come up with good recipes that do not involve any dairy. There you go, not that easy, eh?
Well, I decided to invent a new recipe. It all started about a year ago when I published my “much awaited” recipe for guacamole. Well, today I decided to improve that recipe.
Basically, even if it is really authentic, cleaning the cilantro is a drag. I hate it. And the bunches they sell the cilantro in are usually too much for what I need. I end up keeping half of it in the fridge for about a week and then having to throw it out, since I don’t eat it that much. A few weeks ago I came up with a new and improved recipe.
Ingredients:
Half a white onion
5 jalapenos
1 habanero pepper
The juice of one lime
One medium ripe avocado
Salt and pepper to taste.
Chop the chilies and onion in the food processor (the habanero pepper is to give it some spicyness, but you can skip it if you want it mild).
Mash the avocado and squeeze the juice of one lime over it. Mix with the onion/peppers mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Super easy and super tasty fresh guacamole.
Yes I’m on a diet
June 7, 2007And it’s not a weight-loss diet. It means I have to watch everything I eat and do not eat any dairy at all. Nothing. Nothing that may have any butter added, any milk, any cheese or cream. And I have to be specifically careful about whey and any lactic ingredients. I started in the beginning of May, after visiting a gastro-enterologist. I also have a new medication that I have to take every morning to supplement for my lack of gallbladder. I can confidently say I haven’t been sick since May. You heard it right, no IBS. It is unbelievable, and it is all a combination of the diet and the medication.
It is extremely difficult to find food that does not contain any dairy, I have to read ingredients all the time and it’s been so frustrating to find so many dairy ingredients in regular foods that I used to eat normally. So I have been eating more and more vegetarian stir-fries and veggies cooked at home.
This week I made an asparagus and basil soup, because I was looking at the Knorr soups and of course they have butter and milk ingredients, so I decided to make it myself taking advantage of the delicious Ontario asparagus that you can get all around town at this time of year.
I boiled the asparagus until tender.
Washed the fresh basil and chopped the cooked asparagus and fresh basil in the food processor, with a bit of vegetable buillon.
I used more vegetable buillon to give it a soupy consistency. Seasoned with salt and pepper and let it boil for about 6 minutes.
The soup was super-delicious. I ate the whole thing in one sitting!
The curtain rod has been fixed!
June 6, 2007Thank you everyone. When I came back from work today the maintenance guy had come up and fixed the rod. It looks like it’s working. Let’s see how long it lasts, hahaha.
Middle of the night incident
June 5, 2007It was about 11:30 last night and I was just starting to fall asleep when I heard a loud crash in my apartment. I thought my bike had fallen so I went to check it out. Nope, it wasn’t that. But what could had made such a loud noise? Mmmh, maybe I would look in the bathroom. And what a surprise when I saw that the bar holding the shower curtain was on the floor.
Now remember, my dear readers that I was already in bed when this happened, so I was wearing a less than “acceptable” outfit for this housework, little bit more and I would have been naked! So you can just imagine me trying to fix the bar, trying to hang it back in place. Oh oh, it didn’t work. There was no way of holding it back in place. I think it broke.
This morning I had to be really careful in the shower, trying not to splash water all over the bathroom. It was quite a task, I should say.
Then I went to Management’s office downstairs and asked them to take a look. Maybe it can be fixed. I definitely can’t do it myself. I wonder what I can do if it can’t be fixed. Any ideas, my dear readers?
Grilled cherry tomatoes with basil
June 4, 2007This weekend the weather was perfect for some grilling. I stopped at St. Lawrence Market and was glad to see that the pint of cherry tomatoes was on sale. I got two pints and some fresh basil.
I cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and cleaned the basil. I arranged everything on a foil wrap and seasoned with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasalt.
I grilled them for about 20 minutes. 
Easy, fast and delicious.
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