Restaurant Beets

Dustin and I finally celebrated our 3rd year anniversary! Better late than never!


I can't believe it was over 3 years ago that I got to wear a pretty dress and walk around in crunchy autumn leaves. That was a nice day. A really nice day.





Tonight we had dinner at Cowbell, a super cute restaurant in the Parkdale area that celebrates local farmers. When I found out that our absolute favourite Toronto restaurant (Superior) closed a few months ago, I began a hunt for a new favourite.

Cowbell focuses on naturally raised, organic meat and produce sourced by local farmers. The menu changes daily so I just had to cross my fingers that duck was on the menu -- which it was!!! Excellent. What should I order as my appetizer?

That was easy.

Ever since we signed up for our next CSA box with Culinarium I've been working on a new game plan for our beets. We received plenty of beets in our food boxes last year, and we knew that this year would be no different. Although I found some recipes (like pickled beets) that I admittedly enjoyed, I still did not have a proper appreciation for beets.

I decided that the problem was psychological. I didn't have any amazing beet experiences to reminisce on. I did not have delicious beet salads to dream about when I smelled the beet aroma as they were cooking. I did not strive towards that je-ne-sais-quoi that I loved in a particular beet dish that I was served.

And so: Operation Restaurant Beets began. Two weeks ago, I tried a delicious beet root salad at O&B Canteen (a new Oliver & Bonacini restaurant in the Toronto Entertainment District.)

image from oliverbonacini.com

With my new quest, it was easy for me to decide what to eat at Cowbell (ah yes. remember? I went on a HUGE tangent to talk about beets? now I'm back to talking about what I ordered at Cowbell... I do that sometimes.)

On the menu was a roasted beet and fennel salad that was equally divine. It was a mixture of pickled beets and raw golden beets that was lightly dressed and served with a thin layer of roasted fennel. It was fabulous. I didn't even remember to take my camera out, embarrass Dustin, and take a gorgeous picture for this blog -- sorry. The lighting was so romantic, my poor little camera wouldn't have done it justice anyway.

I think I can safely say that I love beets! I'm 2 for 2 when ordering beets at a restaurant. It's only a matter of time before I can perfect my own recipes to taste just as good. I just need to keep ordering the beets!

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My very own sampler quilt

From sewing

After 7 quilting classes, 9 fat quarters, a gajillion safety pins, hours and hours of perusing the quilt shelves for that perfect border fabric, I have finally finished my first quilt.

The final steps for my quilt involved adding a vibrant red sashing to separate the 6 quilt blocks. It adds some nice framing to the blocks, but more importantly, it hides the fact that my 6 blocks are slightly different sizes...

From sewing

The beautiful paisley fabric is finally added as the border, a gajillion safety pins are used to baste together the backing, batting, and quilt top, and then lots and lots of machine quilting.

And I'm addicted. This one is likely going to make its home on our brown leather armchairs downstairs, which means I need to make another one for Dustin. A quilt for each chair. I have quite a bit of leftover fabric from the 9 fat quarters, so it seems logical to make a matching quilt for Dustin using all the same fabrics. I'm leaning towards a log cabin quilt... I'll keep you posted.


From sewing

From sewing

From sewing

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