Toronto Bakes for Japan-Rivoli

Toronto Bakes for Japan-Rivoli

Gabe and I were really excited when one of readers, Amanda, connected us with Toronto Bakes for Japan. As Gabe mentioned, we volunteered our time to photograph and help with a great cause this past weekend in front of the Rivoli.

The people involved in this event ranged from amateurs to professional bakers, but the donated baked goods all seem to be prepared at a very high level of detail and care; just look at these mouth-watering treats and their cute packaging! Although it was pouring all Saturday morning, many people slowed down their pace and came by our little stand to show their support for Japan as well as their love for sweets. We had a constant flow of people coming, so we knew we were doing well. However, much to my pleasant surprise, I just read, at the Rivoli alone, we raised $6,090.54, and at all nine locations, we now have raised a total of $27,819.41!  If you weren't able to attend the event, you can still donate! All proceeds go to Red Cross

I will let our photos speak for the rest. You can flip through the slide show below or view it larger, here.  Thanks for coming out!

Thank you Heena and Niya for organizing such an amazing event. And thank you, Toronto!

bake for japan! (and olga too)

bake for japan! (and olga too)

To all our lovely readers, if you're in the Toronto area this weekend, please join us and attend the Toronto Bakes for Japan event! Its a great cause, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan. What better way of supporting the effort than donating while enjoying yummy treats? Its also a great excuse to check out the new Evergreen Brickworks and farmer's market. May and I will be there Saturday, as well as the Rivoli on Sunday for more baked goodies. No we aren't baking anything ourselves, we leave that to the professionals. Such as our good friend Catherine from Sugar Baking, who is generously donating her awesome cupcakes at the Rivoli. We'll be there to help out with some of the photography and to of course enjoy all the food! Come out, support and do say hello!

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And now, since we're on a baking topic, I will attempt to sneak in a little half post on my "kinda-not-bad-for-a-first-time" adventure all on my own. Yes, if you know us, you know that I don't bake because May is the baking wizard in our home. But recently for a potluck at Jeremy + Olga's house, I volunteered us to make the dessert in addition to a small appetizer. And since May was working during the day, I decided to handle the baking completely on my own (yes, daring i know). You see, Olga is currently preggo and I knew she'd probably have some kind of cravings. I secretly confirmed it with Jeremy and then decided on a chocolate pear cake. It seemed pretty simple, but I knew if it turned into a complete disaster, i'd still glady scrape any reminents of chocolate and pear. I'm happy to say it wasn't all that bad!



The recipe is from a Donna Hay book called "flavours" that I found at BMV long ago for cheap. Its the only cookbook I have that has some kinda baked goods in it. You basically take 4 pears (peeled, halved and cored) and sauté it with 80g butter, 2tbsp water, 2/3cup sugar for about 2 minutes. Then you place the pears, cut-side down in the pan with all the juices. In a separate bowl mix 185g butter, 1.5cup sugar and 3 eggs, one at a time as you mix it. I couldn't find the electric mixer so I did this by hand (ouchy). And then you incorporate 2cups all-purpose flour, 1/3cup cocoa powder, 2tsp baking powder in a separate bowl, before pouring it all on top of the pears in the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes and voila! its done. Using a springform pan was a novice mistake; all the carmel-ly goodness slipped out underneath while baking.



Cant' complain, Olga liked it, all was eaten, and nobody died! and of course we had ice cream with it!

baked pork chop rice

baked pork chop rice

this dish is a throwback. A popular dish served in hong kong afternoon tea restaurants is actually quite easy to make. I remember making this with Olga and Jeremy in second year of University. I think the idea originated from Jere's mom's recipe, her trick was using a can of heinz tomato soup for the sauce. May and I made it one weekend and it served for several meals during her final deadline. yay!


so we started with a good fried rice base. I like using a lot of eggs, here we've used 6. Another trick for a good fried rice is to use leftover rice, because it tends to be harder/dryer than fresh rice.


we bought 6 slices of pork chops for cheap. gave it a good sear on both sides and making sure it is relatively cooked through. the oven will finish it off


i like to carmelize a lot of onions, it gives good flavour, sweetness and texture to the overall dish. add fresh tomatoes, ketchup and a can of tomato soup and you're ready to spoon over the pork chops and rice bed


this is what it looks like coming out of the oven


and the dish!

ricotta fennel muffins

ricotta fennel muffins

woo! muffins. may and I made muffins a few weeks back and they turned out pretty good! again we've taken the recipe from smitten kitchen. we made Ricotta Fennel muffins , which were definately a little different because of its savoury-ness.


first may is mixing all the dry ingredients...


...while i crush the fennel seed


we put them in the muffin tin, with a small dollop of ricotta+sour cream in the middle and crushed pecans on top


we definately made them too big!


but they turned out really good! huge, but very yummy

sheppard's pie

sheppard's pie

for some reason, this is always one of my favourite comfort foods since i was a kid. i believe its a dish that originated from england and ireland which basically combined leftovers into a casserole. Either my mom made it from scratch when i was a kid.. or it was one of those schneider's microwaveable ones for an afterschool meal. yes, that's right, i always had a meal after i came home from school. Its a major reason i've maintained the gorgeous figure i have today!


so we had it for dinner, basically used 2.5 lbs of ground beef (although ground lamb is good too). i first cooked one large onion diced up, then added the browned beef, frozen corn and a healthy splash of worchester sauce. put this all on the bottom of the casserole dish pan then spread out mash potato in which i mixed in garlic, diced green onion. finished it off by grating parmasean all on top. baked it for about 45mins until it got all golden and crusty on top! and yes, i did use a fork to groove the top of the mash


and of course we had it for lunch the next day =]

Jam and Ricotta Streusel

Jam and Ricotta Streusel

I have a sweet tooth.

That's not a secrete anymore. Other than making ice cream to fill up my cravings, I occasionally would have the urge to bake.

I spotted this book last week in Chapters and had to buy it. It's got delicious dessert recipes and pretty photos, how could I resist?

This recipe is easier than it looks, the main ingredients are ricotta cheese, jam (i used apricot jam), and nuts (I used pecans, the recipe suggested pine nuts).

We had the slices with coconut ice-cream. Mmmm..great combination I say.

big baked rice

big baked rice

so in chinese.. it translates out to Portugese style chicken baked rice. Its a classic favourite at Hong Kong style cafe joints and my brother and I gave it a try.





i referenced Sunflower's Food Galore's recipe to get an idea, and i suspect if you have the combination of curry and coconut milk for the sauce you can't go very wrong with this dish. It turned out great! very tasty, not too salty or spicy but still very flavourful and not too rich. We cut up chunks of carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and onion and even added black olives. Chicken and shrimp round out this dish and of course fried rice underneath! This is a classic dish of Macau which is adjacent to Hong Kong in China. Macau was a colony of Portugal, hence the influence in this dish.

And yes, this is on list of things to make with May