eurotrip, anyone?

as promised, here are some more photos that will make us all even more tired of this gloomy winter! they also make me wish i had spent a little less time on the rocky beach in Nice, and a little more time seeing the sights.. ahh my misspent youth! luckily, adam had the sense to explore the city and take it all in.

cours saleya market

before adam moved to england, traveled to barcelona, met me and followed me back to canada, he spent some time traveling through morocco and the south of france with his parents (what a globetrotter!).

he was going through his collections of photos from the magical coastal cities and came across these photos from the cours saleya market in nice. i don't know about you, but i'd like to book a flight right about . . . now.

stay tuned for more photos from gorgeous nice!

practice makes delicious

we had dumplings again. this time, adam altered his recipe for the dough slightly, and it made a huge difference in the texture of the dumplings when they were cooked. and instead of trout, adam filled these dumplings with a sweet and savoury mixture of mushrooms, onion, ginger, coriander, chinese sausage, hoisin, shao hsing, and sesame oil.

i could have eaten 40 of them.

the dumplings were cooked in a broth infused with ginger and spring onion, and the soup was served on a bed of braised cabbage.

i could have eaten the whole pot.

what can i say? a girl's gotta eat.

swimming with the trout (dumplings)

so, our basement flooded this week. that's always fun times. as much as i'm a nature lover, and as breathtaking as the fall leaves are on our big alberta maple in the front yard, i was tempted to burn it to the ground when we found out a big ball of alberta maple roots was to blame for the small lake at the bottom of our stairs.

what better way to feel one with our surroundings than to utilize one of canada's best swimmers: georgian bay trout. partly because we were damp, tired, and in need of comfort food, and partly because adam is adam, we celebrated our swimmer friends in dumpling form.

our kitchen on desire to inspire!

a HUGE thanks to Kim for sharing our kitchen reno with the readers of desire to inspire! we've received some great feedback and suggestions from DTI's readers already, but feel free give us your opinion!

great art for a greater cause

if you're in the ottawa area on thursday, january 28th, please find time to check out the HERE FOR THERE / ARTISTS FOR HAITI event at la petite mort gallery.

over 50 artists (including myself) have donated works, with 100% of sales going to World Vision Canada - which means the amount donated will be matched by the Canadian government.

i can attest to the awesomeness of shows at la petite mort gallery, and this one will be no exception! it's a wonderful opportunity to pick up a great piece of artwork and give to a great cause at the same time.

an entry fee of $5 will be donated to World Vision, and donation boxes will be set up so you can give whatever you can, even if you don't take home an original artwork.

participating artists include:
Tamara Jensen (that's me!), Tony Fouhse, Dave Cooper, Darren Holmes, Michael Zavacky, Jim Kohan, Lori Langille, Martin Lipman, Kenji Toyooka, Andy Borehol, Daniel Martelock, Jonathan Hobin, Meaghan Haughian, Marc Audet, Bojana Dimitrovski, Remie Geoffroi, Anita Utas, Elliott Fockyer, Alex Leblanc, Alain Brunet, Andrea Warren, Terry SanCartier, Jennifer Bisson, Bérangère Audet, Shabnam Dastoornejad, Jinny Slyfield, Jennifer Bisson, Bill Murray, Valerie Roos,
Jan Soetermans, Sarah Walker, Meghan Myres, Patricia Kirby, Heidi Conrod, Michael Sasso, Kelsey Magill, Judith Linthorst, Christine Mockett, Sara Komarnicki, Dreya Rosendaal, Hans Blokpoel, Ivan Petrov, Philip Kesner, Dano Campbell, Marc Guadet, Ted Willis . . . and counting!

a huge thanks to Michael "Zeke" Zavacky for organizing this show, and to Guy Berube for donating the use of the gallery for the night!

my mother taught me to share

like many of you, we have been fortunate to have the resources to travel the world and experience different cultures and cuisines. despite the fact that we are now struggling entrepreneurs (and thus won't be going too far anytime soon), we are still acutely aware of how fortunate we are to have food on the table every day, even if it is instant noodles or kraft dinner. the devastation in haiti has made us even more aware of what we have, and that we can forgo that bottle of wine to donate a equivalent amount for those in need.

the people of haiti are in need of many resources, one of which is meals ready to eat (MREs). please take the time to make a small donation to any of the charitable organizations, NGOs, and individuals who are mobilizing resources to assist those who really need it. it's amazing what $5 will buy. thank you in advance for sharing what you have with those who don't.

*update: please read these blogs, who are donating their january ad revenue to the relief efforts in haiti.

school thai(s)

on the 16-hour toronto-hong kong leg of our trip to thailand last year, i came down with what felt like the plague. when we arrived at HKIA at 4 in the morning, i didn't think i'd make it to our gate, let alone survive the flight to bangkok. poor adam spent the next few hours running though the airport looking for a pharmacy that was open, while a fellow canadian traveler kept an eye on me as i tried to sleep at the gate.

eventually, adam returned with some chinese pills (?) and instructions for me to take 5 of them 3 times a day (!). although i was sure something was lost in translation, i obliged, and thankfully started to feel a little more alive. in the meantime, adam made small talk with our new canadian friend who seemed to be as big a fan of thai food as adam.

an american traveler was sitting just a few seats away, keeping to himself on his laptop, but apparently enjoying the animated conversation between adam and our new friend. he introduced himself, and as it turned out, the traveler was chef robert danhi, author of southeast asian flavors (nominated for a 2009 James Beard Foundation Book Award), international restaurant consultant, and culinary tour guide. we had seen several of chaf danhi's youtube videos featuring thai street food, and adam instantly barraged the chef with every question he could think of surrounding thai food and cooking.

chef danhi suggested we attend a cooking class in bangkok; we had planned on doing so, but didn't know which school would provide the most authentic experience. chef danhi recommended khao cooking school, where we could be taught by his friend and renowned thai chef/instructor kobkaew najpinit. with over 40 years of experience in teaching traditional thai cuisine, we knew we would be in good hands with kobkaew. and on top of that, she was a sweetheart! i'm pretty sure kobkaew had a crush on adam, but the dishes she taught us were so fantastic that i was willing to look the other way.

thanks to chef danhi's connections, we were given a private 4-hour class with kobkaew, and she pulled out all the stops. kobkaew showed us four dishes: khao soi (a chicken red curry with soft and crispy rice noodles from northern thailand), tom ka gai soup with young coconut, a searing hot green curry (adam insisted on using as many thai chilis as the locals would in the curry paste), and a prawn pad thai that we could barely eat because we were already SO full!

we will return to khao cooking school every time we travel back to bangkok, and highly recommend it if you find yourself in thailand! a HUGE thanks to chef danhi for letting us know about kobkaew and her school.

a trip back in thai...m. mmm.

trudging through the slushy, icy snow today, i was craving something spicy to warm the chill i felt in my bones. instantly, i was craving the red curry i ate on the streets of bangkok at this time last year. and the green curry. and maybe some pad thai...with a coconut custard for dessert...

when i woke from my curry reverie, i realized we should share some of the photos we took during our trip to thailand last winter. the food we ate on the streets of bangkok and by the beach on koh chang will continue to inspire our cooking for years to come, and we can't wait to go back and stuff our faces again!

do me a favour?

we love chocolate. i guess that's not saying much, since we love food in general, but we love chocolate so much that we're delving into the world of chocolate gift boxes and favours. (this is where you say "yay! i love chocolate too! especially when it comes in a pretty box!")

we're starting out with a few signature flavours that have been given vigourous nods of approval by ourselves and some lucky taste tester friends of ours. if you have a favourite flavour combination you think we should try, leave a comment and let us know!

switchin' kitchens

according to neighbourhood legend, our kitchen was last remodeled in the early 80s. although there was ample cupboard space and a decent sized island, we needed to meet the local health and safety requirements in order to use our kitchen as a production/prep space. at a minimum, that meant adding a separate hand basin and replacing the countertops with a non-porous material. however, we also wanted to take advantage of the gas line running under the kitchen and put in a "commercial style" residential range, increase the work surface, and overall improve the functionality of the space.

the before shots.


















































































so, with a little help from our aussie friend nathan (you can imagine how many beers the boys went through), we gutted everything and started from scratch.





















































































































after 6 quick weeks of elbow grease, heavy lifting, paint fumes, trips to ikea and home depot, and the occasional . . . disagreement . . . we had our new kitchen!

of course, we had some help from a few very skilled trades, including an electrician, the plumbers and gasfitter at CH Plumbing, and Ed and the guys at Hudson Welding and Fabricating. it was our first (but definitely not our last) big project in our 85-year-old home. if you want to know where we sourced any of the materials in the photos, just leave a comment!

bon appetit, mon ami!

chris (aka montréal villager), a former coworker of mine, has started a food blog! yaaay chris! inspired by the movie julie&julia, chris has challenged himself to cook his way through the cookbooks of canada's own laura calder. i'm a big fan of laura and her take on classic french and french-canadian cuisine, so i can't wait to see the results!

we're so excited to read about chris' adventures in french cooking, and i'm personally thrilled that one of my fellow number crunchers from the gov is pursuing a culinary endeavour!
i must say, i'm also very envious of chris' selection of plate and glassware.. must be nice to live in style savvy montréal, chris!

bonne chance, et bon appetit!