Yay for Birthdays!!

 

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple weeks! I'd been busy getting things ready for my 23rd birthday party! 

I'm not the kind of person who usually has a big party, in fact I can't really remember the last one I had. I usually just have a small get together with family, or would have one or two friends come hang out, or have a sleepover when I was younger. The last birthday party I had with a lot of guests was probably in elementary school, when you'd have to invite your whole class. Remember those? Were they fun? I think I just liked all the presents haha. 

But this year, I was in the mood for a party! Nothing too fancy, just drinks, snacks and games at my place and then out to a bar. We gathered some snacks; I made my delicious homemade pretzels, my boyfriend made salsa and we got some yummy mini cupcakes! (Which I obviously forgot to take pictures of..I was too excited!)

I didn't know anyone when I moved to Toronto 4 years ago, so I've adopted a lot of my boyfriends friends as my own. The guest list wasn't huge, but it's still really nice that people care enough about to you to come to your house and get drunk in celebration of your birth haha! I also had a couple of my own friends over, my buddy Susan, who I'd actually met 4 years ago to the day, on my birthday! She told me she'd figured that out on her way over, I was surprised to realize I'd known her for that long. The beer might've been making me a little nostalgic and emotional.

After many drinks were poured, some of us (that didn't have babies at home, or have to work the next day) decided to head out to a bar. Our original choice had a huge line that no one felt like waiting in, so we ended up at Cake. It's a bar/club in downtown Toronto, that I think is actually meant for birthdays. With my glorious 'Birthday Girl' badge worn proudly, we marched in and I wished a happy birthday by a lot of random people. I had a really great night, with lots of dancing, shots, and more dancing. 

Of course, real fun started the next morning with a lovely hangover and a pigsty for a home.

What are some of your favourite birthday memories? 

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Homemade: Soft Baked Pretzels & Donair Sauce

 Hey guys!

I was in the baking mood the other day and had a bit of a craving for pretzels. So I got my handy Google-ing machine out and started on the hunt for a good recipe. 

I decided on this one, I was a little nervous to make the pretzels: 1) because I'd never made them before, and 2) because I'd never worked with yeast before. As I was dissolving the yeast, I'll admit I was starting to doubt how they would turn out; the texture didn't seem like the recipe described it to be.. But I carried on anyway.

And I'm actually SO pleased with the results! They're a little misshapen, but for a first attempt they taste damn good! Pardon my French.

Just look at how beautiful they are! I'm so proud hahah!

I feel like a proud mother. ..A mother who eats her young.

Sexy oven shot.

I also made my first ever batch of homemade donair sauce. What is donair sauce you might ask? Well it's rumored to have been invented in Halifax, Nova Scotia (near where I'm from). It's a creamy, sweet, garlic sauce that it most often served on donairs. What are donairs? I hear to asking; well they are a pita/sandwich type dish, with spiced meats (kind of like pepperoni, but with different spices) onion, tomato, sometimes lettuce, etc. It's derived from a Greek dish I believe. 

I'm not so much a fan of the donairs themselves, but I LOVE the sauce, and I've missed it so much since moving to Toronto. Every time I go back home I have to get a cheese panzarotti  with a big cup of donair sauce to dip it in. I figured it would go perfectly with my pretzels (which it does..spoiler), so I looked up the very simple recipe and smothered my pretzel with it. 

I was in heaven.

If you want to make donair sauce yourself, it's SO easy:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup white vinegar

1 tsp garlic powder

Mix all three ingredients together. It takes a bit of time to mix the vinegar into the milk, but just keep stirring. Put it in the fridge to set and thicken a bit, and voila! You have a delicious Maritime delicacy to brag about to your friends. Donair sauce goes great with pizza too!

As a little bonus:

I also made a really easy mango/peach smoothy! I was thirsty after my yummy pretzel and was still in a cooking/creating mood.

I'd bought some frozen mango pieces, and just let some chunks thaw out in the fridge.

Added some peach yogurt. (You could use non fat if you wanted, I wasn't too concerned about it)

And a bit of milk, depending on how runny or thick you like your smoothies. 

Blended it all up and presto! (I'm so multilingual today)

Delicious, fairly healthy drink/snack. A snrink! 

I think the moral of the story is not to be afraid to try new things, because they often turn out delicious!

Homemade: Chicken Noodle Soup

Hey guys!

Lately I've been in a bit of a cooking mood. I'm not the best cook in the world and I like to follow recipes; I'm not one of those clever people who can whip up a delicious meal from memory, or out of the blue. I wouldn't say my cooking is bad, I just don't have a ton of experience with it.

 My boyfriend made some roasted chicken breast the other night and when he was packing away the leftovers I could just hear my Grammy saying, "Don't you throw those bones out, you could make a whole other meal out of them!" She's a very budget-friendly lady. So I put the bones in the fridge as well and Googled how to make chicken noodle soup! 

After reading a couple recipes on how to do it from scratch, I decided on this recipe here, with a couple adjustments of my own, to suit what I had in my cupboards. It had all the instructions as well as a handy, helpful video (I also texted my sister with a couple of questions). The whole process was actually pretty easy, just a bit time consuming as you first have to make the broth, from the bones, some veggies and spices, before making the actual soup (total time was about 3 hours). But it's well worth the time and effort because the soup turned out really well! And you can get loads of other work done while it's simmering away. You can rest easy, knowing exactly what ingredients are in it. No preservatives, much less salt and no weird chemical sounding ingredients that you might get with store bought soup, or even store bought broth.

Homemade chicken broth, leftover roast chicken, egg noodles, carrot, celery, onion, pepper,salt and thyme = Yum!

I'm quite proud of my soup, I know that probably sounds strange, but for me it was a real accomplishment.

Gettin' all them angles in haha.

Making food from scratch makes me feel very grown up and clever. 

What's your favourite dish to make at home? Or that your parents/grandparents make? I'm always calling my Grammy to steal some of her recipes!

Do you have any suggestions to make my soup tastier next thyme? .. Get it? Hah..haha.. 

Happy cooking!