Montreal Eats

Here are some of the places where we stopped to eat on our trip to Montreal. I must say most of it was delicious but not everything.

On our first day we started off at the acclaimed Schwartz's Deli on Saint-Laurent boulevard, we waited in the pouring rain for about thirty minutes but it was totally worth it. We each got a sandwich and shared fries, coleslaw and a pickle. Of course we could pass up Schwartz's signature black cherry cola which funnily enough is produced right around the corner from my house and I've never seen it for sale anywhere.

Montreal Smoked Meat

Our second stop was at Burritoville, beside Concordia University in the English speaking part of Montreal. Our friend Steve owns this hip vegetarian/vegan restaurant. You can choose between tacos, quesadillas, or burritos with really different fillings than your traditional meat and lettuce. The sides are amazing, they make three different types of tortilla chips, homemade salsas, sprout salad, quinoa and three types of homemade ice teas and lemonades. 

3 Bean Chili Burrito & Sprout Salad

Our second day we took the trip up to the Mt. Royal plateau area and had some wonderful poutine from one of the best places to get poutine in Montreal, La Banquise. Their poutine is cheap but excellent. We got the traditional poutine with a side of hot peppers, they have so many alternative types of poutine but I just can't get past the traditional cheese curds and gravy. And these cheese curds were to die for!

Traditional Poutine

We also stopped by Fairmount Bagels, to get some bagels for our trip home and of course we couldn't pass up a fresh one right out of the oven to snack on with some excellent whipped cream cheese. Our dinner that night was nothing to talk about so I'll move on to our french macaron experiences. Altogether I bought macarons from three different shops in Montreal.

The first we stopped at was La Maison du Macaron, while the shop is lovely and they have a great selection of flavours I found the flavours weren't strong enough especially the shells. Some of the fillings had flavour but it found them generally bland. Also they didn't stay fresh, drying out only after a day.

Matcha, Peaches, Caramel & Mocha

Peaches and Cream macaron

The second place we stopped at was Point G, their macarons were amazing. They came in a super cute package, which also kept them really fresh. They had some great flavours including poppy, cassis, lavender  and lime/basil (which was really tangy). I though I had taken pictures but I ate them all sorry :( 


My final macaron experience was at Dr. Frost (which I have already posted about here), these were probably my favourite, the shells had tons of flavour and I loved the ice cream in the middle...yumm ice cream!

And finally a video of some of the places we visited while we were in Montreal made by mkphotographics. It includes the Biodome, the Olympic Stadium (tower), Mont Royal and our train ride on VIA rail.

In Montreal from Marc Koecher on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Dingbat Press

I recently ordered some beautiful letterpress cupcake recipe cards and a little "sweets" notebook from Dingbat Press it came in a cute envelope with a very nice thank you card. I've been looking at her stuff for the past couple of years and finally decided to purchase some. She not only makes beautiful stationary but business cards and wedding invitations. Here's some pictures of what I got.

Sweets Notebook

Cupcake Recipe cards

Dingbat Press seal

Cupcake recipe cards

Thank you card

Enjoy!

Montreal

I just wanted to post a video that my partner made while we were away in Montreal. I think the video is amazing but I might be a little biased. I can't figure out how to post the video in my blog so please click on this link and it will take you to the video. Also you can check out his other work (he does all of my professional cupcake photos over at mkphotographics.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of our food adventures in Montreal up soon.

Thanks and Enjoy!

 

Ice Cream Macarons

Yes I said ice cream macarons. These things are AMAZING!!! I had these wonderful things from a place in Montreal called Dr. Frost which unfortunately their website says nothing about. The shop was set up like a lab, where you could experiment with all different types of flavour combinations.

They had about six flavours, all of the macarons shells were the same flavour just different colours, it was the ice cream that was different (which I found out when I went back for a second one). The first one I had was black cherry, which is one of my favourite ice creams and the second was chocolate mint. I'm definitely going to make these when I get back to Toronto. The are sooo good!

Black Cherry Ice Cream Macaron

The shop

Menu board

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Macaron

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Whoppie Pies

I first made these whoopie pies quite a while ago. Unfortunately, most of the pictures taken with my camera didn't turn out as it was in the bottom of my purse with a broken container of apple sauce. Luckily I took a couple of pictures with my iPhone. These whoopies pies were really good, I took them in to all of my co volunteers at Pride Toronto and they were devoured, I had a hard time getting them there without people eating them.

I used the recipe from the Food Network Kitchens and didn't make any big changes except the amount of food colouring. I've come to the conclusion that you don't need to use as much food colouring as many recipes call for. I still got a good red hue with half the amount of food colouring. Next time, I want to try natural food colouring or beets.

Red Velvet batter

Batter balls

Red Velvet Cookies

Finished Whoopie Pies

Enjoy,

National S'mores Day

If you're a reader of this blog you will know that I LOVE s'mores, anything with the combination of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker is good in my book!

Here is a collection of s'more baked goods that I have made over the years and one s'more chocolate bar that I will be making as soon as I get home from vacation.

Plan Jane S'more Cupcakes (chocolate cake, marshmallow
frosting and graham cracker crumbs)

S'more Bars (recipe here)

S'more Whoopie Pies (recipe here)

Brownie cupcakes with marshmallow, chocolate
 chips and graham cracker chunks on top

The chocolate bar that I just have to try is over at Not So Humble Pie. The s'more chocolate bar that she has made looks absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to try it!

Happy National S'mores Day Everyone!
Enjoy,

Snicker French Macarons

I made these quite awhile ago and never posted them.  The macarons turned out great, they are quite finicky to make. They take patience and a stand mixer, there would be no way that I could hold on to a normal electric mixer.

These snickers macarons include a chocolate macaron shell, peanut butter and marshmallow nougat, chocolate ganache and caramel or dolce de leche sauce.  These macarons are decadent, you can only have one, maybe two at a time. I'm going to see if I can find the recipe, until then check out the photos, they'll make you drool!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumble Pie

This is my favourite pie ever!! The creaminess and tart taste makes it absolutely wonderful. You NEED to try this pie.  One don't - do not use frozen strawberries or rhubarb as it will make your pie and runny mess! The topping is absolutely wonderful with the rest of the ingredient, you need to to make it all come together.  I realize it isn't a diet pie but are any...no way!

Recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumble Pie

Pie Filling:


1 (10 inch) pie crusts, unbaked

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sour cream
3 3/4 cups fresh rhubarb, diced
1 3/4 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

Crumble:

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cold butter

Directions:


Set oven to 425 degrees F (will reduce heat later).
Make certain that oven rack is set to lowest position.
In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, sour cream, rhubarb and sliced strawberries; mix/toss to combine well.
Spoon into prepared pie shell.

In a small bowl mix together the flour and brown sugar.
Cut in the cold butter until crumbly.
Sprinkle on top of the fruit mixture in the pie shell.
Place the pie plate onto a baking sheet to catch spills.

Bake for 15 minutes. If the shells is too full make sure the spilt sour cream/sugar fixture doesn't start to burn on the sheet.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F and continue baking for another 30 - 45 minutes.

Fresh Strawberries

Frozen Rhubarb (don't use)

Fruit with sugar and sour cream

Pie shell 

Coated fruit

Crumble topping

Pie already to go into the oven

Enjoy!