On another note, what do you think of the pictures? My hubby things the background is just too much. I actually love the vibrant pink and he thinks I should have toned it down because it takes away from the subject. I believe the sprouts and sandwich hold their own and complement versus compete. We agreed to disagree. Feel free to disagree or give me your critiques as I appreciate any photo feedback.

Funny to say harvest in January. haha. Would this be classified as urban farming? Can't get more locally grown than this for us!

Once this crop of tomatoes is done, the hubby will be setting up my greens. Various lettuces, herbs and other greens. I'm craving Arugula actually. I can't wait!!!

What are you craving from summer produce? I really want some fresh blueberries or raspberries.

Imagine you are told to make a dish but are not able to use knives or any kitchen utensils in the prep. As Fabi'oh' stated, it's like a "surgeon without surgical tools". The chefs were given the challenge of making the best stuffing but the true test would be how resourceful they were and the prize of immunity and $20,000 just added more crazy to it. It was like watching an episode of MacGyver but it's all food focused.

Carla is cavewoman-esque, beating an onion with a pan, Jamie is butchering a quail with the top of a pepper grinder and Fabi'oh' is seen grating parmesan cheese on the shelf of the stainless steel rack. Casey states she feels like "Tom Hanks in Castaway" and I'm grateful there aren't any ice skates around.

Casey's dish didn't come together, Tiffany made her mom's stuffing too sweet and Carla, well, poor "what is meant to be, will be" Carla asked the judges if they needed floss for her al dente quinoa, which the judges thought was not a stuffing. Marcel's stuffing was a contender but it was Tre's spicy stuffing that won, without the aid of a swiss army knife or duct tape, may I add.

The Elimination Challenge is to create and present a healthy dish head-on-head at the US Open. The chefs are split into 2 teams and come up with different strategies. Casey, Carla and Tre tell us how they know what food is needed since they are into health and sports themselves and good ole Antonia, she never played sports but smoked a lot of pot. Guess that helps in some way, since she would know all about the munchies.

Fabi'oh' is making gnocci again. Jamie is worried about undercooked chickpeas, as she should be because I'm wondering why she isn't using a pressure cooker with her small allotment of cooking time, and Carla slices off half her fingernail and refuses to go to the hospital. The other teammates feel she was right in sucking it up unlike Jamie in last weeks episode.

This is where the fun really begins. Team Orange and Team Yellow compete against one another and it was so fun to see the team spirit. The high fives, the screaming and jumping. I too was jumping up and down in my living room, alongside each point won and I wasn't even rooting for a specific team. Though, even with the great camaraderie, wouldn't it have been a little fun to see some John McEnroe tantrums? Too bad Jen was eliminated in the second episode, I'm sure she would have fulfilled my wish for some good/bad tv.

Team orange wins with Carla, Antonia, Carla and Richard at the Judge's table. Carla, with cut finger, wins the challenge and a trip to Italy. She feels validated that her vegetable soup won since the other chefs didn't feel it was a worthy dish.

Team yellow is the losing team and Tre is lucky he has immunity as the judges felt he gave up since he had the pass card. Tiffani's tuna was unfavorable and her salad was overdressed while Casey's dish was too protein heavy though she disagreed with the judges calling it hearty.

Marcel pulls the whiny 3 year old act, crying that people touched his food and changed it. He was angry that Jamie didn't get to serve up her bad dish and that Angelo, who has a reputation of maybe sabotaging people, sunk him by adding sweet sauce to his dish. Ultimately, it was the under seasoned shrimp that sent him home and I'm not talking about Tom.

Catch u all next week!

As I've stated in many posts, I am not an outdoor winter gal.

When I walked, I looked like a zombie, pretty stiff-legged due the clothing and big winter boots and my snowpants made a swish-swish with every stride.

Yup, I'm bringing sexy back.

Did anyone else go down the slide of doom?

My kids are braver than I. I like to be in control and there is none going down this slide. I screamed like a school girl the first half of the slide and the second half, where we were zooming down at bobsled speeds, I stopped screaming and squeezed my eyes shut with fear. It freaked my freak and I'm still drying out 300 pounds of clothing. Though, I have to admit, I'd probably go again if the lines weren't so long.

:)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The room goes silent and the chef's eyes get large, star struck, by the appearance of Chef David Chang. Apparently, he's the bomb!, the hot diggity dang of the culinary world. My mind drifts back to my childhood, when I first laid my eyes on the actor River Phoenix, and bingo, I squee along with the all stars. I get it, I really, really get it.

No time is wasted and we are into the Quickfire Challenge. The chefs are put into 4 teams of 4 and will competing, relay style. Faced with racks of lamb, garlic and artichokes, the chefs are to "Mis-en-place" or prep the 3 ingredients to Chef Chang's standards and then create a dish.

This is where I watch awe, wondering if the food network hit fast forward. In my mind, O Fortuna is playing to the chaotic, yet beautiful symphony of slicing, chopping, mincing, cooking and plating without a cut finger to be seen. The chefs are like the roadrunner on speed. meep, meep!

This is where the tale of the tortoise and the hare comes in. Just because you are the first team to get all your prep done does not mean you will ultimately win. Oh no. The Blue (Stephen, Tre, Spike and Richard) team takes with crispy lamp chop and artichoke done 3 ways leaving the hare (Green team) in the dust.

Elimination challenge offers the chefs a moment of rest and eating instead of cooking. Each team will dine at some of New York's finest restaurants and then create a dish that would be worthy to be on the restaurant's menu.

We see chefs sniffing, gawking, critiquing and finally eating all the heavenly looking dishes. Stephen is confident that he will be able to pull off a dish since he frequently eats at the coastal italian Marea Restaurant. Fabi'oh' is worried about having to cook french and vietnamese food which is everything opposite of his style for Ma Peche restaurant. Marcel seems like a shoo-in for wd-50's avant garde and modern take on classic foods where Carla is afraid she won't pull it off. And the team of Jamie, Dale, Casey and Antonia feel that david burke townhouse's modern american food will be tough but doable.

It is pretty funny to see the judges getting in and out of taxi's to go the 4 different restaurants and eat a total of 16 dishes. They must all have notebooks they scribble in when the camera isn't on them, to keep track of everything.

At judges table, Dale T, Angelo, Antonia and Tre are called in to find out they are the Top 4. Antonia did a "good rift on peas and carrots" with the scallop, Angelo's dish was exciting and the white chocolate used on the marinated fish was "genius". Tre's swordfish "steak" was "the star" but Dale T's take on eggs won everyone over.

I don't know what it says about myself, but I get much more enjoyment trying to anticipate who will go home versus who will win. The bottom four consisted of Stephen, Tiffani, Fabi'oh' and Dale L. This time, not one, but two competitors will go home. Da da daaaaa!

The judges felt that Tiffani's melon with ham and cheese dish was watery and mushy and "a parody not homage" to wd-50's restaurant. Fabi'oh's roasted lamb was heavy handed and lacked confidence. But those two were safe. Stephen's overly perfumed salmon dish and Dale L's sickeningly sweet "circus" french toast sent them both home.

I was surprised that both left humbly and quietly, unlike Jen's dramatic swearing stomp last episode.

When I was a child, come every spring, like clockwork, the neighbor next door would say "Wow, Maki has come out of hibernation". I have come to accept that I will never do winter. Forget skiing, tobogganing, snowshoeing or whatever other asinine winter sport one wearing MEC clothing does. I'm an indoor gal. Bring me the remote and a glass of wine. And maybe something crunchy to snack on, please.

These are our goldfish from our outdoor pond and now they are "snowbirds", taking a vacay, in our aquarium, the winter months. These guys are totally like little puppy dogs. You can pet them and they follow you around.

There are about 13 of them and they live in a spacious 50 foot gallon aquarium in the front room of our house, just off the dining room. Every morning when we walk past the aquarium and they get a glimpse of us, they all swim right up to the corner part, pushing against the glass, happy to see us and silently begging for food.

I also talk to them in a high-pitched annoying voice when I feed them. Go ahead, call me the crazy cat fish lady. I love them and they put a smile on my face everyday.

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Have a good weekend. Don't forget to stretch before you do all that snow shoveling.

So, it only seemed fitting that I attended last night's "breaducation" at Luzzara Coffee Bar.

With great attendance, chairs were set up in the adjoining scooter shop for more room. I grabbed a cappuccino before I mingled amongst other fellow bread baking aficionados. Very good coffee, by the way.

Feels like I typed cinnamon a lot! Ah, just checked. 10 times. Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon!

Join me on my blog for Top Chef Tuesdays, as I recap each episode. I'm aware that Top Chef All Stars has already been airing in the US and we Canadians are a couple (*ahem - maybe more than a couple) episodes behind. So please, all you folks who are ahead of the watching, please, no spoilers. I'm recaping in my own personal opinion and it is all in good fun. Please join me in the comments.

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I'm sitting in my kitchen, huddled over my little tv for the start of Top Chef All Stars. Where better to watch Padma say "Chef's. Unpack your knives, we're giving you a second chance."

woo hoo. Break out the truffle-oil infused popcorn.

I laugh out loud as we are treated to a reel of arrogant chefs claiming they are the best, the cream of the crop, and ironically they lost but that they came "this" or "that" close to winning it all. So pumped of confidence now but I foresee, we the audience, will see weeping like babies in due time, I'm sure of it.

Cue in the happy reunion music and in comes tough Tiffani who is here to "cook my nuts off". Then, snooty Stephen who has "standards unlike you" tells us he has a restaurant in his namesake, but of course. I'm sure his farts smell like Grey Poupon, not that he does that but if he did he'd refer to it as pooting or something like that since cutting the cheese would be so passe to say for a chef.

Elia strides in with a full head of hair and then Marcel, the guy whom everyone loves to hate except for "the beast" Tre, who admires him. In come Dale and Casey who were "neck to neck" but unfortunately both lost in their season. My favorite line was Richard's: that "everyone, of course, remembers his season because of his losing the season". Yeahhhhhh, that's it. I so appreciate his modesty.

Spike the "kitchen rat who bloomed" is told by Antonia that she's not interested in sharing her bathtub with a dirty Ratatouille. Explosive Dale T. meets Jamie, who's soft, wavy locks juxtapose her tough, tattooed exterior. She tells us that people come from all over the world so that they can be graced by her presence. I, in this moment, thank her for coming onto Top Chef again so I too can be graced by her refreshing effervescence. Is that grey poupon I smell? sniff sniff. No, blue cheese I believe.

One of my faves, Fabio (or Fabi'oh' as I like to call him)mumbles on about being a good Italian dog and that he is not looking forward to c'oh'cky, too loud Marcel and that he will not squ'oh"sh his balls on the top bunk bed this season. I hope he doesn't bunk with "cook my nuts off" Tiffani, that would be interesting to say the least. Carla, who is all about harmony and peace, is followed in by strong, competitive, massive pedigree Jen and "keeping it real" Mike. Doe-eyed "advil" Angelo is here to make it right and "Beaumont to New York" Tiffany rounds up the all star cast.

Quickfire Challenge. For immunity and bragging rights, create a dish that represents your season's city and prove that your season was the best. The scramble begins, as GE Monogram is flashed subtly and ingrained into our psyche, and Spike Ratatouille kitchen rat claims "this day the food will speak on it's own". Bravo. And here I thought it was supposed to do that for every challenge.

Mad-scientist Richard is futzing with liquid nitrogen, Angelo blames Stephen for causing him to drop his fish and Tre has 40 seconds to cook pork. UTENSILS DOWN, HANDS UP.

Bottom 4:

*Season 1 San Fransico- Tiffany & Stephan - Cioppino Gazpacho with Sourdough. Did you catch it? It almost looks as if Tom spits his food into the napkin. Not a good sign. Apparently, WAY too much raw garlic.

*Season 2 Los Angeles - Marcel & Elia - Shrimp Tacos with Guacomole in an apple wrapper. Tom asks why they used a wrapper. Questions people, not good. Shrimp needs seasoning and the apple is a "hair" too thin to pick up. Impossible!

*Season 5 New York - Jamie, Fabi'oh' & Carla - Curried App'oh'le soup, Pasta with caramelized app'oh'le, and rib eye with app'oh'le. Carla's eyes bug out as Padma mentions "interesting flavors" which means the kiss of death.

*Season 7 Washington DC - Angelo and Tiffany - Crabcake essence with rockfish lemongrass, jalapeno, old bay. Tiny bit too much salt rounds up the bottom 4.