Skittle Burger Recipe

I came across this awesome new recipe for a burger made out of skittles. I'm off to buy a bag and try it...

Sheep Dogs – Free Gig In Dundas Square – 7th December

Popped out to Sears in my lunch break and stumbled across a free gig going on in Dundas Square, courtesy of Samsung to launch the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus android phone.

The Sheepdogs were playing, a Canadian rock band from Saskatoon. They were awesome, so I ended up staying a bit longer than I should have - but hey! Found out they’re playing this Friday and Saturday at Lee’s Palace, but it’s sold out… damn. I will be adding them to my Itunes playlist, you can check out their music on MySpace: www.myspace.com/thesheepdogs

Toronto is awesome for free live music, even if it’s freezing!

The easiest and best way to cook the perfect steak at home.

I’ve always struggled a bit at home with cooking steaks. I either overcook them or under cook them, which is really infuriating when you have spent quite a bit of money on a good cut of beef.

I have picked up quite a few tips along the way which I will share.

Firstly – get a good cut of meat. My favourite is sirloin as you get the fat for the flavour but it doesn’t run through the actual meat. Whatever steaks you choose you need to remember that different meats should be cooked differently. For example a rump is on a piece of the cow that moves so you can eat it rare, but fillet and sirloin are from a bit that doesn’t move so needs to be cooked at least medium rare to free the elasticity of the meat.

I don’t think that a steak should ever be cooked any higher than medium. It’s just a waste of a good meat… but I’m not going to get started on that debate right now.

OK so, here we go:

My brother told me always oil the steak, not the pan.

So use some good quality olive oil and drizzle over the steak. Get your hands involved and rub the oil all over.

Once it’s covered in the oil, season with some salt and pepper. I don’t think you need to put anything else on the meat, if you have a good steak, why hide the taste?!

Heat a pan (make sure it’s big enough to fit the steaks!) preferable a griddle, but frying pan is fine.

Leave on the heat until the pan starts to smoke slightly – measure you have your extractor fan on.

Add the oiled and seasoned steak to the pan. It will smoke and sizzle, but don’t worry. Leave it alone.

Use a timer or your watch and time 2 minutes.

Once 2 minutes is up use a spatula to flip it over and count another 2 minutes.

Once you have had two minutes on both sides remove the steak and place on a plate or board. Make sure the plate isn’t freezing cold, but room temperature is fine, or if you use a board make sure it has a ridge or lip to catch juices. Cover with tinfoil.

Use your timer again to rest for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes is up serve – how simple is that?!

Very.

If you are making a sauce, add any juices that have come out of the steak onto the plate before serving. But I like to serve mine with home made garlic butter.

If you want medium or rare add or minus a minute:

Rare                : I minute each side

Medium rare  : 2 minutes each side

Medium          : 3 minutes each side

How to Make Home Made Coleslaw

It’s so easy and you’ll never go back to shop bought. 

Take a cabbage – I like red best for the taste and also the colour. Thinly slice along the leaves so you get nice long thin strands.

Grate a carrot – you want equal amount carrot to cabbage so how much you grate, depends on how much you want to make!

I like to add a bit of onion for taste (but Dave hates it so I add it to my bit after). Grate if you can bear it, if not just chop up as fine as you can – for each carrot I would add a table spoon of onion. But it’s up to your taste so keep trying and adding more.

Add in a few heaped table spoons of mayonnaise to the bowl season with salt and pepper and mix. You want enough mayonnaise to coat the contents of the bowl. Have a taste and add more onion or seasoning if required. You can also add things like lemon juice or curry powder/paste to suit what you are eating it with.

I can’t stop eating it out the bowl once it’s made so I have to stick it back in the fridge once I’ve finished. It’s best to make as fresh as possible. You can keep it but not much longer than overnight as the mayonnaise goes a bit watery. But as it’s so easy to make you can just make it fresh each time.

You seriously can’t buy that rubbish from the shop again! Especially if you live in Canada – the coleslaw here is green and sweet. Yuk.

I’m sorry; no I’m sorry, no no I’m so sorry.

I just witnessed today a white van and a bicycle have a collision, nobody was hurt but the cyclist was knocked off his bike. I’ve seen similar scenarios in London, where the white van driver shout profanities at the cyclist while continuing to run over the bike, while the cyclist continues the exchange of language.

However much to my amazement, the driver got out of his van and rushed over to the cyclist who was getting up and dusting himself off. They both started apologizing and asking if the other one was alright for about five minutes. At the end of it, they were such mates if they hadn’t have been holding up traffic (which wasn’t beeping ferociously) they would have gone and watched a game together.

I was impressed people of Toronto, impressed. 

Why do toilet doors in Canada have MASSIVE gaps?!

One of the first things I’ve noticed since being in Canada is that all public toilets or “wash rooms” have massive gaps in the side of each door. So much that when you are sitting on the loo, people outside washing their hands, can see you in the mirror. It’s so off putting, especially at work. I don’t know about you but I want my privacy while I’m doing my business.

I’ve asked many people, and when I do they all agree it’s horrible and have no idea why it is so. It’s the same in America too. I’ve done a bit of research and the only reasoning I can find it that it’s either a. cheaper or b. for security reasons - so you can see if anyone’s up to no good.

Either way, I’m not a fan. 

Koh Tao to Hat Yai - last night in Thailand

I awoke this morning with a very foggy head, by the sound of another cockerel directly outside our window - grrr! Frantically packed our bags as failed to do so last night, checked out and headed to the Pier to catch our Lomprayah Catamaran to Surat Thani ( Donsak).

After 8 days on Koh Tao I was really sad to leave, such a beautiful place - the first I have really felt like I could stay.

We could the boat and was given a red ribbon to tie around my list as we had to change boats at Phangnan - urgh not what I wanted to do. I wad looking forward to falling asleep in the aircon room for a good few hours. We disembarked and waited for 40 mins for another Catamaran to Surat Thani. It finally came about 20 mins late and was really small. We got it fine via Samui and as soon as we got off the boat we were hurded into our minivan we had booked with Lomprayah to Hat Yai for 900 bht at Koh Tao. We wanted to get the boat and train direct to Butterworth which you can do but the train was fully booked, do we thought we'd just take our chances!

There was no room for our bags and in traditional Thai fashion the driver expected us to sit with our huge rucksacks on our laps, but I remained stood up until he sorted it - which he did. After that he dropped the majority of people off at the airport and we thought sweet a whole minivan for 4 people - until it changed into a Co-op taxi picking up every man, woman and child until we were over full again and arrived at Hat Yai.

We were told there were no buses to Butterworth for the rest of the day, and to try the trains. Tuk tuk to the train station and the next train was 7am so we found a KFC I know, I know but we were so hungover it had to be done and checked into the Kings Hotel which is really cheap only 450 for aircon room for two and Wifi.

To Malaysia tomorrow!!