Blog Birthday #10

[Can you detect the wee smiley face in these delish cupcakes from Roma Bakery? That’s me on good food days.]

A decade of food blogging! It’s hard to believe. Once again I bemoan the infrequent additions to my site. I posted no “blog story” since last year’s Birthday Blog.

Eight recipes were added and here are my favourites.

Early in the year, I mastered Massaman Curry so as to relish the flavours from the dish at Chef Nuit Regular’s Toronto restaurants. I’ve made Financiers more times than I can count and everyone swoons when they taste them. Broccoli Noodle Bowls are a great way to enjoy broccoli. I’m thrilled I mastered Hungarian Stuffed Peppers and await the season when the peppers appear at markets. Hungarian Plum Dumplings are also somewhat seasonal. I’ve made these with some regularity and finally got the recipe recorded. I say these are “somewhat” seasonal because while best with fresh purple plums, they can be made with frozen/thawed plums or plum butter (a thick dark jam). I often make Red Pepper Hummus – in fact, just this week! It’s great to have on hand as motivation to eat lots of veggies.

I remain uncertain about how much longer to keep the blog. It still gets 200-500 visits a day. In mid-January, there was a spike of 700 visits – not sure what that was all about. There were about 8,000 visits in January.

One of those visitors was me!! The blog site is my personal cookbook with oft-repeated recipes. I have practically no recipes memorized so I open my iPad when blissing in the kitchen. If I didn’t have the blog I’d have to shuffle papers or go back to having a ring binder with printed recipes. Hmmm.

I have about 15 favourite recipes waiting to be added to Kitchen Bliss. With respect to my failure to add more to the blog, I used to blame the workload linked to weekly articles while working at The Spectator. Though the load is less at Hamilton City Magazine, I still do not devote as much time as I’d like to my blog. My biweekly (free) newsletter keeps attracting new subscribers. It also takes time but I enjoy writing it and hearing from readers. (Sign up here and/or read recent issues at this link.)

My newsletters and Instagram enable me to share food news and ideas more quickly and regularly. I’ll have to find a way to make more of that appear here. The joy of food involves both cooking and eating so I’ll share some dining stories.

I have been checking out a lot of restaurants - some as research for my food writing, and many for fun and family events. This list is surprisingly long. I won’t offer reviews of all of them here, but if you’re tempted to visit one, feel free to connect.

Family birthday celebrations tend to be in Toronto and we’ve had great, flawless meals at Lao Lao Bar (Thai), Pink Sky (seafood), and Dreyfuss (French bistro).

I continue to write Dining District articles for Hamilton City Magazine (HCM) and that often requires me to check out some restaurants. The 2024 articles have focused on King William, The Farmers’ Market, James South, Ancaster and Downtown Burlington. In each District I have eaten. at several places but have not listed them here. It would make the list of restaurants I have visited even longer!! Follow the links to the articles if you wish to read more. I’m happy to offer tips for those I have visited.

One restaurant that deserves special mention is Burlington’s DiMario’s. It’s currently my favourite restaurant. The upcoming March 2025 issue of HCM will feature their Chef/Culinary Director Claudio Aprile. The menu is Italian with clever twists that take flavour experiences over the top. Plating reliably triggers anticipation. I encourage you to visit!

Speaking of Italian… 2024 was the year we finally made the trek to Crystal Beach to visit Rizzo’s House of Parm – the creation of Matty Matheson. In fact, we visited twice, both times going with the chef’s menu which was an insane quantity of food – great value for the cost. The meal included: mozzarella sticks with marinara dip; Burrata in a fab cherry tomato salad with grilled focaccia; Caesar’s salad; focaccia with garlic and parm butter – oil/ balsamic dip; Spaghetti Pomodoro; rapini and roasted potatoes; Penne al la Vodka, and Tagliatelle Bolognese; veal and chicken parmesan; tiramisu and cannoli. This was home-style Italian cooking – delicious and unforgettable. Definitely a highlight of 2024 dining!!

A few more eateries drew us in more than once in 2024 - the German menu at Kaiser House in Port Dalhousie. Best schnitzel! PiqueNique in St. Catharines is the essence of charm with great food. Radius in either Hess Village or Brant St in Burlington are worth a visit.

2024 travels sometimes had us heading to Toronto (on the GO train to avoid traffic). Our goal was to explore three food destinations. With renovations complete, Union Station itself is impressive with a food and retail section that mimics central stations in world capitals. The Foodie Aisle and Union Market are only two food areas. You may need Union Station maps to find your way to these areas.

A short walk from Union Station gets you to the recently opened city centre – The Well. It’s described as an integrated mixed-use space to “Eat, Shop, Work, Live and Play.” The Food Court is filled with eateries I have never seen in a typical mall. Plus there are 12 distinct restaurants. With several visits under our belts, we have dined at East Tea Can, La Plume Brasserie and The Dorset. I always give in to the temptation to grab some delicious sweets from Nord Lyon before heading home. A short walk from The Well is another new establishment – Waterworks Food Hall. Enticing, unique food stalls tempt you with ample seating to sit and enjoy your selections. Susur Lee’s restaurant “Lee” has been resurrected in this charming restored building.

Our summer travels took us further afield to Tobermory where (sadly) we did not encounter fab food with the exception of fish and chips at The Fish and Chips Place. Our trip to New York City involved some good eats, but I’ll save that for another (promised) blog post. Mind you, Café Sabarsky and Pâtisserie Fouet deserve a quick mention here.

Along the way there have been breakfast adventures – and this too deserves a separate post. Gelato has been enjoyed at Eataly, Castelli Cucina and to my great delight a Nani’s has opened nearby. New coffee spots seem to be opening weekly and are always welcomed.

You can follow my food adventures regularly on Instagram or sign up for my bi-weekly (free) newsletter - This Week in Food. Find out why I am obsessed with purple popcorn!

Thanks for visiting, reading and supporting my food stories and recipes. Hoping you find some bliss in food.

Blog Birthday #9

Reflections, Recipes, Little Black Books and Hunglish

When I began blogging in 2015 I joined Food Bloggers of Canada and attended their annual conference in Montreal. I made (and have maintained) great connections with talented people across the country and went to every conference until they stopped.

New bloggers continue to join but without the face to face experience, relationship-building has (for me at least) been challenging. With the goal of connecting new and veteran bloggers I wrote several “Where are they now?” features for the FBC website.

Most bloggers I know are thriving – entering the world of videos, running cooking classes, writing books and in some cases doing radio and TV segments. Everyone seems interested in monetizing though the money now seems more linked to TikTok and Substack - a newsletter that (may) charge subscribers. From our chats, I learned that I am not the only one who has slightly neglected their actual blog. Surprisingly some are even shutting down their blogs, finding other ways to channel their enthusiasm for food.

With the exception of becoming a published food writer, I have not evolved as much as my blogging friends – but building an audience and monetization were never my goals. I still get many visitors – over 7,000 last month (with Hungarian Hurka sausage a top hit). In the world of blogging my numbers place me in the Little Leagues. No matter. I consider Kitchen Bliss to be a legacy blog where family and friends can find recipes. (Having said that, I look woefully at a few family recipes that I have still not added. I had better do that before the next Birthday Blog!!)

When someone asks for a recipe I simply direct them to the blog. I hope that some family and KB food traditions will continue without the need for a Gravestone Recipe. If you don’t know what that is click here.

I’m sitting here surrounded by printouts of new recipes I’d like to try. Sticky notes mark pages of interest in my cookbooks. That collection keeps shrinking as I have given many away lately. I decided that keeping cookbooks that have not been touched in years is nonsensical.

My blog has become my “personal recipe book.” Entries are the things I make most often and all I have to do to find the recipe is open the website.

Yes, I am a “recipe girl.” Faced with only ingredients and cooking tools I have enough experience to cobble together something edible, but the truth is that I have committed few recipes to memory. As long as a recipe is on paper or in a book, I scribble all over it as I fiddle with ingredients and techniques, but once I’ve “nailed” the recipe, I add it to the blog and that’s how I make it.

My Mom also followed recipes except that most of hers were on 3” x 5” index cards. She was not from the era of women who cooked without recipes and (surprisingly) neither was my Grandmother – sort of… True, she had no recipes for savoury dishes but baking requires precision and for that she had her little black books.

I’ll digress briefly to talk about her Hunglish. I cannot conjure up a memory of her speaking English, but she watched TV and must have understood that. We always spoke Hungarian when together. So what’s “Hunglish”? It’s the odd combo of Hungarian and English words written in her own idea of phonetics. Deciphering some of her recipes has been a challenge. The trick I discovered was to read the recipe or word aloud, listen and then the “aha” would strike.

What helped is that she stayed true to Hungarian phonetics. Hungarian has pronunciation rules that are strictly observed - unlike English.

From “The Language Nerds”

Source is UK - adds a twist to pronunciations

In contrast, here are some examples of Hungarian pronunciation rules: "sz" is the English "s" sound; "s" is the English "sh" sound; "cs" is the English "ch" sound.

Take, for example, my Grandmother’s use of the word “pant”. Why mention trousers in a recipe? Well, she would have pronounced it as “pawnt” and with her Hungarian accent that was how she said “pound.” None of the following are Hungarian words so I offer her pronunciations and the translations:

Beken Pader = bekin pawder = baking powder

Ajszing = eye-sing = icing

Kek = kayk = cake

Csizkek = cheesecake

Flafa = Fluffo (shortening)

Paj = (p)eye = pie

Pesal = peshall = special

And the only savoury recipe in her book – midlov = meedlove = meatloaf

There’s a quote attributed to T.S. Eliot – “We don't actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.” I feel her presence whenever I look through her black books.

How do people today keep their recipes? Bookmarks in cookbooks? Bookmark websites? Drop me a note about how you keep/organize your recipes!

Another year of bliss in the kitchen has elapsed. A high point was making over 500 cookies for my niece’s wedding shower. Some kitchen experiments were meh and others sent me down rabbit holes – e.g. researching gelatin in connection to the iconic Shrimp Dip recipe. There was a lot of sausage-making and a few successful bread making sessions.

I shared my dining-out adventures on Instagram, wrote several food articles for Hamilton City Magazine and countless food stories in my bi-weekly (free) newsletters. (Sign up here!)

A highlight of the year was our trip to Budapest. I promise to blog about that food adventure soon.

Next year will mark a decade of blogging. One day I will decide that the cost of running the blog is not merited and I’ll download and print all my recipes – and maybe disappoint the folks who visit Kitchen Bliss each day.

Meanwhile, I am thankful for all those who do blog. Most recently, while researching Massaman Curry, I was grateful for the 6 million sites sharing variations of that recipe– haha. Obviously, I only looked at a few of those sites. They helped me cobble together a recipe that matched the flavour profile I was looking for. I’ll post that recipe soon!

Happy Birthday to Kitchen Bliss and hugs to all who cheer me along on my food writing journey!

Blog Birthday #8

Hard to believe that 8 years have passed since I birthed this blog. I had not foreseen that it would help me land work as a food writer – work that triggered a period of blog neglect. In 2022 – only two blog entries and four recipes! I have so many more recipes that have been perfected and need to be added. Ah, the road of good intentions…

Last fall I chose to step away from my writing for the Hamilton Spectator. After 4 years, a column every week was wearing me down plus my recovery from knee replacement surgery was not going as expected. Readers were wishing me well with my next venture – as if I knew what it was. There’s a saying that when one door closes another opens. Magically in December, I connected with Hamilton City Magazine as a Contributor. Watch my first column on Hot Sauce in their March/April edition. (Don’t worry, I’ll remind you!)

Meanwhile, I’ve been having fun with my weekly newsletter which has become “This Week in Food”.

2022 Highlights? I’m glad I have photos and notes because my first thought was that there was little to say. Not so. Many interesting food experiences!!

Paprika. The two recipes I managed to add to the blog were Chicken Paprikas and Creamed Peas. No surprise that any dish using paprika benefits from the quality of the paprika. Check out my notes on this. Sadly the product available at Denningers is not worth getting, compared with what I found at Starsky’s. A terrific gift was paprika right from Budapest from a friend who visited there on a river cruise.

Subscriptions. Last February I experimented with and wrote about food subscriptions. The only one I have continued is Eat Porta affiliated with Terroni in Toronto. Their pastas especially are marvellous and dinner is a snap with those in the freezer.

Eating adventures. I had Baked Alaska for the first time. “I had never eaten Baked Alaska but coincidentally had just seen Jacques Pépin make it on his cooking show. He encased cold ice cream in slices of sponge cake and then covered it all with beautifully piped meringue. Traditionally, the next step is to place it in a super-hot oven long enough for the meringue to be beautifully browned, but not long enough for the ice cream to melt. Lighting an alcohol pour-over transforms it into Bombe Alaska. Eating it was on a sort of dining bucket list.” What I had at the restaurant I visited was not quite authentic. The ice cream was perched on a chocolate biscuit and covered with meringue that was torched to achieve the toasted highlights. When delivered to the table, a Grand Marnier pour-over was set alight. It was still fun.

Breakfast. Mr. KB and I have been making the rounds of Hamilton/Burlington breakfast spots – a project that is not yet over. At each eatery, we order a classic breakfast. So far Rose Garden has attracted us back more than once for their lovely bargain-priced breakfast.

Blissing in the kitchen. I had fun sessions with friends and family making rice pudding, scones, decorating cookies, gnocchi, biscotti, soup and amazing turmeric bread. My kitchen adventures often focus on resurrecting a family recipe. I managed that with Szekely Gulyas (which features sauerkraut and pork, rice and paprika). Will be making that again with a few modifications and hope to have it up on the blog soon.

I experimented with Noodle Bowls, was successful in making challah bread (still not on the blog) and tried to make kefir from a starter gifted by a friend.

Sometimes kitchen bliss is linked to throwback nostalgia. There was a point in the year when Spam kept showing up on social media. We made (and sort of enjoyed) a supper we often had when first married – fried Spam and beans!

Flops and Firsts. I’d prefer Spam any day over the chicken that was served to me in one restaurant. The chicken breast had an off texture and was hard to cut. It was likely “woody breast.” I did not send it back to the kitchen but resolved that in future I will be more assertive.

Not really a first since I’ve had it before, I nonetheless learned much about Bubble Tea and enjoyed becoming better informed about origins and options. Some “firsts” were enjoyed at Afrolicious – amazing food. Newest snack? Nooch Popcorn.

Local Shops. I’ve been happy about the opening of the British Pride Bakery where I can get fresh Garibaldi Biscuits any time (and meat pies, Cadbury’s etc.). Some entrepreneurs I’ve written about graduated to bricks-and-mortar operations – Madam Bonbon (which I have now visited often), Hanma, and Kitchen Island. I am still recovering from the sad super silent closing of the Crown Point Market. The best place to point a car on Thursday or Friday is towards Jordan and the RPM (Restaurant Pearly Morissette) Bakehouse. We often leave with Spicebush Knots, sourdough bread and liver pate. It is open on weekends but mobbed with tourists and people who work M-F.

Less fancy pants, but super satisfying have been the sandwiches from Venetian Meats. They closed their Burlington Street facility and reopened nearby in Stoney Creek. They have some great products and we love their Porchetta sandwich and the Full Venetian.

Toronto food and dining adventures included some things new and some not - St. Lawrence Market, Eataly, Terroni and Cheese Boutique (which gets better and better all the time)! Kettleman Bagels; dining at Cluny, 1Kitchen, Aloette, Spaccio, Alder, Miku and Parallel – which has the best hummus, tahini, falafels and quiche – available for dining in or takeaway!!

Locally the standout restaurant was Isabelle’s at Pearle Hotel. We ate there often and/but were not surprised when they finally increased their prices. I’m now waiting for the Taste of Burlington’s Prix Fixe event to dine there within my means. Have not yet reported on the new Plank restaurant and the changes at Good Earth under new ownership. Had a great meal at The Arlington in Paris, ON. Not a great meal in Stratford - they have some top-notch restos but most do not open for lunch.

Treasured food memories of 2022 include the meals and treats delivered by caring friends during my knee surgery recovery.

Blog Traffic. Since I have not monetized my blog I care little about blog traffic, and in the world of blogs, I am very much on the lower end of traffic receiving only around 200 visits per day. My most visited recipes have been Hungarian Hurka (liver sausage), Portuguese Muffins, Broiled Pork Tenderloin - and just recently ItalianTarrone.

My love of cooking, eating, storytelling and writing continues – even though I lost my mojo for a bit. That’s back in my weekly newsletters. Meanwhile, I’m promising to pay more attention to this little blog.

P.S. This little miss (grandniece) has been the highlight of my year and it was fun making teething cookies for her.

Containing containers...

When my Mom was still living in her home of 50 years, we’d have occasional “tiffs”. One that came up often was about the closet full of Tupperware and plastic containers. Everywhere I looked there was “stuff” and I knew that one day soon it would all have to go. I had the idea that it would be good if we could begin to work on decluttering but that idea was met with resistance in animated discussions.

My mom had run Tupperware parties in the 1960s, and added to those leftovers were many other plastic containers. My father had died. My mom was no longer cooking or leaving the house, so there was no need for her to have containers for sharing food with someone else. As far as I was concerned the only legit plastic containers were those in her fridge containing heat and serve meals that my brother and I “delivered” weekly.

None of my rational arguments worked. Because we talked about the stuff so often, she knew what was in the container closet and I could not even sneak some of it out of the house. One day, at peak exasperation, I looked at the closet and estimated that it would take me less than fifteen minutes to put the contents in the garbage “when the time came” (sorry Mother Nature). I gave in.

We emptied her house in 2017. Some of the contents landed in my house, becoming my clutter. If that’s not bad enough, I’ve been pondering that I too seem to have a thing about containers – eek!

I did not personally experience The Great Depression, but was close to my grandparents who did. Their motto seemed to be - save, save, save. Before “baggies” my grandmother saved every bag from Wonder bread – she washed them and hung them on the clothesline to dry. Beer bottles were saved for storing homemade tomato sauce.

I definitely inherited the mindset of pondering whether or not a thing might “come in handy” one day. If the answer was yes or maybe, it became a keeper – even though “one day” often never came.

At least the mason jars were authentic – and I now have a motherlode of those – some being used, some waiting to be inherited by I don’t know who.

Manufacturers also primed us for collecting. I still have pink and pale blue towels that my grandmother collected from boxes of powdered laundry detergent, and at least one “mug” that had been purchased filled with Billy Bee honey. I doubt that Crown Royal Whiskey came up with the idea – but that purple bag held all my marbles – and may still be in my house somewhere.

I admit to “having a thing” about boxes. Until IKEA came along, it was not that easy to get storage boxes that are now everywhere. I’m pretty sure my love of boxes came from Captain Kangaroo. He would reach under his counter and pull out a shoe box that was filled with pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, tape – things you’d need for a wee craft activity. (Google Hasbro Captain Kangaroo TV Sho Box Activity Kit – I never knew it had been retailed.) I made my own craft box. And thus the “box thing” began. When older, I had a few nice pairs of shoes that I kept in their shoe boxes. I recall papering the shoe boxes to make them prettier in my organized closet.

Before continuing I’d like to say that unlike my mother I can part with my containers more easily – I think… When Son #2 was in NYC for almost a decade I often sent parcels and therefore saved boxes that would suit that purpose. I hung on to the collection of unused boxes a bit too long – I think they’re all gone now.

As for cookie tins… that’s another story. I recently read an article about how many people use Royal Dansk cookie tins for home sewing kits. I don’t think we ever bought those cookies. My cookie tin source has been President’s Choice. Those Belgian chocolate cookies have, over the years, come in various tins and I tend to save them because they “come in handy” once a year.

Because I go nutty at Xmas making too many cookies I will for a period of 6 weeks need about 15 tins. Each year I gift at least 5, though they tend to boomerang. Just last week, someone “kindly” returned a cookie tin. That collection of tins is begging to be purged.

Metal containers I “admired” also included Illy coffee cans – elegant and sturdy with a beautiful lid. I kept trying to think of what business one could start that would make use of those containers. They finally exited the house.

Plastic? Because I do share food a lot, I began to accumulate reusable plastic takeout containers. The rationale was that if it wasn’t a Rubbermaid no one would feel pressure to return the container. I have to say that since the pandemic, many restos adopted very nice takeout containers. I have a lot, but could part with them anytime – whew, maybe I’m not becoming my mother after all.

Except for the jars… Did I inherit a penchant for jars? My Dad collected Miracle Whip jars in order to make his revolving odds and ends storage gadget - captured for posterity in this video created by my nephew and narrated by my brother.

I never intentionally collected glass jars, but for a while we bought Grolsch beer with that funky flip-top – how can you throw that away? For years I didn’t – until I recently gave them a thorough cleaning and gifted them to someone who uses them for maple syrup.

Glass is easy to discard in the blue box with some confidence it will be recycled, but some seem too lovely for that. I used to be hooked on the Bon Maman jars – and from what I have read online it seems I’m not the only one. Dalmatia fig spread jars were nice enough to keep, but I finally got over them

What I have not been able to toss into the garbage are my Maison Riveria “petit pots” - that contained delicious yogurt.

I’d not before read the pitch on their website – though it does seem to capture some of the sentiments the adorable wee jars trigger. “…inspired by Old World refinement. The concept of a glass “petit pot,” having finally crossed the ocean, can now make its way onto our tables to the great delight of discerning gourmets… poetry in the form of a jar, a glass petit pot lets you see what’s in store before you enthusiastically break through the seal of quality. A lid you carefully pull open, slowly revealing the treasure that awaits you within. A little spoon you sink in and clink against the glass. Everything about the Petit Pot Collection appeals to the senses and enriches the taste experience.”

The more I ate their yogurt the more the collection grew. In the end, I found it to be easier to stop eating their yogurt than to trash the wee jars. A bit of a marketing flaw, I’d say. A couple sit on my desk holding pens and paperclips. I bought matching lids from the company (12 for $3) and finally stored the rest way on top of my kitchen cupboards.

Then one day I got hooked on ordering food from PORTA. They have four delicious desserts that come (frozen) in the same petit pots. Oh no!! My unintended collection began to grow again.

But then I was inspired. Their panna cotta was lovely – and I had a recipe for that. I began to make it and fill the petit pots – and even freeze them. Check out the recipe here. Maybe one day I will surprise you with some – as long as you promise not to return the jar!