Happy Easter

Easter greetings from sunny Canada! So far the food and vino have been great, even the plane food on BA was decent. The one sad piece of news is that I tried to get some bagels for my British guest to test out and good ol' Gryfe's Bagels on Bathurst Street is closed for a few days for Passover. I will have to have them next time but we did have some lovely oysters and fish at Rodney's Oyster Bar on Good Friday. 

The mixed oyster platter was fantastic, bar the few mini oysters that JK said 'punched him in the stomach'. No one liked these small fat and round Japanese oysters; it was like swallowing a mushy plum -they were too hard and round, not thin and delicate like oysters should be. Since we could not return them (I asked) Sista Dolce took the last few down with loads of sauces to ease their descent. 

Easter lunch tomorrow (after the Easter egg hunt) Momma Dolce has the lasagna ready and Quinn Senior is on the BBQ - I should be even rounder than when I first arrived! The image of the eggs is from the net but they reminded me of the Easter markets in Prague where they were selling similar eggs at each stall. Happy Easter to you and your families.   xo

Nuria's
Baked vegetable lasagna and a yummy and simple vegetable soup served at Nuria's on a cold winter's night. The chef in blue and her assistants behind her. I need to have her over my house now for my version of lasagna. Her's had a bechamel sauce and some butter which mine have neither of. Am making it tomorrow for some friends and a special chocolate cake for a cute 5 year old. I also use no-bake pasta while she did it the old fashioned way and cooked hers. It was delicious! Grazias painting partner.

Esplanade Lasagna

Not sure if I am not used to Canadian prices but the Dominion on the Esplanade seems to be outrageously expensive and the queue to pay for your groceries insanely long. AK says this is b.c. everyone wants to do their grocery shopping Sunday night but I think it is probably just bad service. Tip 1: Go to the bakery cashier tucked in the back to escape the pain. Tip 2: Dominion, get on it - pick up your heels!

As you see AK made a vegetable lasagna with the no-bake lasagna sheets, I like the idea of them but I recall my mom making lasagna and it being such a lengthy process which needed skill. She would boil the sheets making sure not to over cook them and make them perfect for the layering process, then she would wipe off excess water with a graceful motion with her hands, lay them to dry a little and then layer them being careful not to rip them etc. etc. Now all you do is plop them in the pan, ladle your ready made sauce on top, add cheese and bake. Pretty easy and requires less pots and washing up :)

Well it was a nice evening filled with lots of 1990s dance moves and as you can see AK almost lost his lasagna when trying to display it for the camera prob b.c. it came in with a dance move! Note to self: deny him any job as a food stylist if he offers as this is what his meal ended up looking like. But it was yummy! Thx!