the week that was and is - april 15th, 2009

A steady week all around so it's nice to see Wednesday and hopefully the end of snow time.

• First off, print this coupon and go get your free taco. Taco del Mar is offering free tacos on Tax Day(today only). With all the locations around, I'm sure you could treat your stomach to an afternoon of free goodies.

• Another stop into Flirt Cupcakes this past week with my friend Sarah, who really wanted to dive in on the peppermint version, led to the discovery of a peep topped cupcake. Nice, but very simple way to dress up a cupcake for Easter. The peppermint icing was subtle (I would have enjoyed a stronger flavor) but the sweetness factor in the buttercream was perfect this time.

• Interesting to see how much money the top 100 grossing restaurants in the US make ($1.52B).

• Of the 25 things chefs hate about you, I think this is my favorite; "Splitting a soup four ways is just not acceptable."

• With the opening of a King Taco restaurant in Ontario, I can always pray it is just a matter of time before they head west. I have always heard good things about their food.

• Sometimes messing with comfort food can be good and bad. Good because you get new and exciting flavors; bad if it is changed too drastically...does it then lose the comfort factor. Either way I like to experiment with classic sandwiches, so I'm not surprised by chefs making upscale versions.

• Ooooby, based out of New Zealand, is a new social network designed for connecting "food growers and locavores, and working towards a “goal of food interdependence”." Maybe we can move to something like that here.
  

• A change of pace for my regular sandwich loaf this week. I was inspired by the sesame oil in the fridge and decided to sub 1 tablespoon of it for the usual vegetable oil, along with some toasted sesame seeds, to really kick up the flavor. It work really nice and I think I'll sub out both tablespoons next weekend.

• Using up all the sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds meant shopping, and instead of regular sesame seeds, it was on to black toasted seeds. I put whole seeds in my no knead loaf, along with some ground up inside and on the crust. Delicious!

• I knew nothing about a recent Easter Egg hunt until bruleeblog posted about some delicious chocolate treats; what a great promotion idea. I'm definitely going to have to make my way to Kerstin's one day and pick up a few things.

Ok so if I want to have a crack at growing my own vegetables this year. Is it too late or early, good or bad choices to begin with...anyone have some advice.