weekend round-up

I know, it's late again. I seem to be taking longer and longer computer vacations so let's just jump right to the best part of the weekend.

Our local restaurant association held the Savour The Street dinner on Saturday. They closed down one of our downtown streets and set up one long table for 200 right down the middle of it. 10 restaurants, 10 courses for $100. It was a glorious warm sunny night, we got a little gussied up and headed downtown and ate our faces off. Thank god we had to walk home because the exercise was needed and then some!! It was the first big event for this new association and I'm already hearing rumblings about what else is coming down the pipe and I'm super excited for it. It's about time we had something like this here and I'm on board for whatever they dish out!

Here's what we had:

• Appetizers of glazed back ribs, pork hock meatballs, bruschetta classico, tyropitakia and smoked rainbow trout;
• Tarragon and rosemary Ontario lamb rib chop, Umbria style stuffed quail with grilled asparagus and Orvieto stewed bean, bacon and green onion salad;
• Thai spring rolls, crab rangoon and mango salad;
• Gazpacho Andalouse with cilantro and Galliano;
• Classic Caesar salad;
• Classico Pasta Fagioli;
• Cold maple smoked Atlantic salmon with aged balsamic and Salmoriglio drizzle, purple mash potato, lotus root chip and crispy squid ink spaghetti garnish;
• marinated beef tenderloin, coriander, ginger, sugar cane, toasted sesame, with rice wine slaw;
• European white chocolate mousse with Grand Marnier and raspberries;
• coffee and crostoli

Seriously. So full. Here are some before and after shots.

Sunday we digested the food that was still in our bellies from Saturday night and since Marc was slaving away (still) at fixing the extra room off our master bedroom, I made a pretty killer turkey ragu that bubbled away for most of the afternoon on the stove. Thank you Gwyneth Paltrow.