reflections on a Sunday morning about food + my aim for this blog

It's Sunday morning and I'm wildly excited to wake up my husband in 27 minutes.  I made us a reservation at one of my favourite local brunch spots, Le Chien Fumant, this morning.  It's a hop, skip and death-defying bike lane away from our little apartment in the Plateau, on a quiet, tree-lined street called Gilford.

I know most of you don't know me very well yet (who am I kidding? I have three readers so far, and two of those are my cats), but I am obbbbsessed with food.  I guess most of us are obsessed with food. When I was in high school, my best friend, whose mother was a hippie and only let her eat tofu and kale, came over the my house and went nuts over the Kraft singles slices in the fridge.  She couldn't believe we had Kraft singles slices.  She devoured at least 4 Kraft singles slices.  Didn't even want crackers.  Just tore off that plastic film like it was a christmas box filled with gold.  

Anyhoos, I love all types of food, and will admit, that If I make grilled cheese, Kraft is the way to go,  (I sense a sponsorship in my future, don't you???), but mostly, I love fresh, seasonal, local, organic treats that are grown with love.   Cooking is a huge passion of mine and I love putting ingredients together with a pair of loving hands, for food prepared with love is a must in cooking.  The amount of deliciousness in a meal is often directly related to how much love the chef handles the food with.  

It's officially September 1st today, which means Fall is right around the corner and I can feel the itch to cook - and eat and eat and eat -  creeping in.

What I love about Le Chien Fumant is that everything is local, fresh (they have a changing brunch menu to ensure that only the most seasonal foods be served), and did I mention delicious?  Every single time I've gone there, when I put the ingredients in my mouth, I put my fists to my head, contort my face and screech "this is the most amazing thing I've ever tasted!", so I'm hoping for one of those type of brunch experiences this morning.  Not too much to ask, right?

I just want to say I'm still getting a feel for this blog thing.  I'm not completely sure who I am as a blogger yet, and I realize things may feel a little disjointed thus far.  I'm aiming for an inspirational lifestyle blog, for sure, but not a fluffy, "isn't my life perfect????!" one.  One that can tackle the personal and often difficult realities of life, but in a positive, creative, and hopefully inspiring way.  This is a challenge for me, because as my father once told me I've never really been a "happy-prone" person.  In some ways, it's true, but in other ways not.  I've tended to be a "reality-prone" person who takes things a bit too seriously sometimes.  So, that being said, sometimes I will post recipes or pictures of the winter coat on my wish list, but sometimes I will talk about the death of my brother, or my struggles with anxiety. I'm going to stay open to what wants to be told. My goal is to face reality and the truth authentically, with love, compassion, honesty and, yes, the most difficult of all for me:  with happiness.  

We are alive, right? What better thing is there?  

Monday afternoon trip to the farmer's market

Do you love to cook? I do. Especially dinner for my husband after a long, hard workday (I swear, we work super-uper hard), or having friends over on Saturday night (ok, actually I prefer to go over to a friend's house for dinner.  what? don't judge!)

Normally summer time is my least favourite time to cook. We don't have air-conditioning and if you mix that with a typical Montreal summer + a hot oven, it means, first of all, that you're cooking in your underwear and bra and second of all, that you're dripping sweat into your bowl of gazpacho.

This summer was no exception. My lack of desire to cook was overwhelming.  The first half of the summer was spent planning our destination wedding and that left me with very little energy for the kitchen.  We got married in Oregon in mid-July and then spent a month on beautiful Vancouver Island with husband's family (where his parents fed us well, thankfully!) and then drove across the entire country back to Montreal (road trip sustenance included pizza, chips and a random combination of 'east meets west' chinese food + submarine sandwich drive-thru in Fargo, North Dakota).

but today in Montreal, it's grey and damp with the faintest note of autumn in the air, So naturally, I started to think about what to make for dinner.

I inherited a whole bunch of tomatoes the other day and I've been craving a blended homemade salsa,  like the kind I used to get for free at El Torito back in the early 2000's, but I didn't have all the ingredients, so I decided to take a trip to the local farmer's market.

It's an incredible, delectable market, with an open-aired concept in the summer and more vendors than the number of texts I can send in a day. (around 30-50.)  A few of the fruit and vegetable stands offer free tastings of peaches, nectarines, lebanese cucumbers, tomatoes with salt, whatever is in season, and so so much of it is local and freakin' fresh and delicious.

Aside from the fresh fruit and vegetable stands, there are vendors selling fresh cut flowers, eggs from local farms, pickled anything and everything,  an organic butcher shop, artisanal popsicles made in Quebec,  handmade soaps and salts, an olive oil and herb megastore, and oyster bar, a cheese shop (a cheeeeese shop!!), the best damn mushroom raviolis (that are amazing in a simple chicken broth with a sprinkle of green onions on top),  and cured sausages.

For my salsa I needed to get some fresh cilantro.  This is one of my favourite stands to get fresh herbs, multi-colored carrots and jalapeños.

Look at all these spicy peppers!

I got 2 jalapeños for $.50.

Last fall I discovered this cute little stand way in the back of the market that had braids of drying garlic.  I adore garlic and it adores me and I hung it on my kitchen wall and it lasted months and months.  It was so satisfying not having to buy icky, overpriced and under-flavoured grocery store garlic that was shipped from China.  Today I bought a $16 wreath that has about 10 heads on it and I'll probably grab another one in Mid-October, because I'm obsessed.

Today I saw that they have pepper versions of this and I got all excited. My local corner grocery store doesn't sell individual peppers, so you have to spend $6.00 on 20 peppers when you only need one.  I think I will pick up one of these to last through the winter and have at my disposal whenever my recipe may so call for it.  Glorious!

After I got all the ingredients for my salsa I wandered around slowly, taking it all in. Fruits and vegetables are so magical to me.  It's like a walk in nature.  All those fresh, local goods give me a happy buzz.

I just had to take a photo of this because It kind of blew my mind / inspired me.  I'd love to get into canning sometime in the near future.  It seems so economical and I'd love to surprise friends and family with little jars of homemade goodness, but until then I just admire the people who do.  People were going nuts at this stand over the tomatoes.

I mean look at them!  You could get like 400 tomatoes for $16.  Incredible.

Well there you have it! My trip to the Jean-Talon Market today.  I hope this inspires you to buy local too, and stay tuned for my Salsa recipe this upcoming week.

all love,
Tasha

 p.s. want to come over for dinner on Saturday? I'm making homemade chicken enchiladas! or if you want to have us over, my husband is super good at dishes! wink wink.