http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2955

Ashbridges Bay, Victoria Day Evening.

Fireworks!

319 Augusta Ave.
416-922-RICE (7423)
Price Range: $10-15 for a complete meal, alcohol free.
Vegetarian | Antibiotic-free | Free Range

Where: Kensington, north end of Augusta

Basic Theme: Choose your own combo rice dishes + organic.

Ambience: Laid back, somewhere between hippy and hipster. I found the 3-D cardboard puzzles of animal heads mounted on the south wall particularly amusing. Rice bar might pass for a Spring Rolls on a $500 interior design budget. The seating&mdash composed of wooden benches and stackable chairs—could leave tender butts uncomfortable, so wear an extra sweater if in need of padding.

Patrons: I certainly brought the average age of the patrons up, at least until eight, when people with more grey hair than I started strolling in. Most of the people there before 8 belonged to the artsie/hippy/hipster segment of the population, singly and in various gender pairings. After 8 a family came in, which widened the age spread to the 3-60+ range.

Food: I had a tasty medium vegetarian stew on wild rice for $9; I could've done fine with the small, as it turns out! Tasty!

I had a mud slide smoothie before my meal, concocted with strawberry, orange, banana and cocoa in yogurt--soy milk & cow milk were also available.

In general, you choose a protein--chicken, beef, shrimp, or tofu; choose a carbohydrate--jasmine rice, wild rice, infused rice, or rice noodles; choose a sauce from about twenty; then pick vegies and garnishes. They also have a lovely selection of rice puddings.

Service: The service was reasonably good, but on a Monday night, the place is only half full. On the plus side, they also didn't make a big deal of me staying here for a long time on my laptop while I was there.

Overall: I dig the place. I picked it because they have free wireless and I was in the neighbourhood anyways, but it's certainly better than my alternative venue (The Fox & Fiddle) would've been.

But I can't help myself:

<irony>It actually looks like it's January now.</irony>

This video is a remake of this video. If those kids in the first video didn't win that contest, I'd pay to see who did.

<irony>It actually looks like it's January now.</irony>

I made a butternut-apple soup today. To make this, I had to make applesauce yesterday.

Applesauce

Ingredients

4 Apples, cubed
1 cup Water

Directions

1. Combine ingredients in a saucepan.
2. put on medium low heat.
3. Stir occasionally.

Serves 4, or one Kael

Total Time: between 1 and 6 hours

Notes

The smaller you cut the apples, the faster it will break down, so if you're in rush or want to retain as much nutritional value as possible, make them itty bitty cubes. On the other hand, if it cooks longer, it seems to get sweeter. I just wanted something sweet. It's probably just my sweet tooth missing chocolate and looking for a substitute.

I'd actually recommend multiplying this recipe by at least four, and using a nice big pot. It takes marginally longer, but there's substantially less clean up involved that way, and you can always put this in the fridge for a week. Maybe even in the freezer. I'll have to check next time I make it.

Butternut Apple Soup

Ingredients

1 butternut squash
1 cup applesauce
1 cooking onion
1 tsp rosemary
1 cup vegetable broth

Directions

1. Cut the squash in half, length-wise. Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits.
2. On a lipped cookie sheet, pour on a thin layer of water to cover the whole pan. Put the two halves of the butternut open side down on the cookie sheet. Cook for 2 hours at 225° F.
3. Meanwhile, slice up your onion. Little itty bitty slices. If you like, saute the onion to transparency in a saucepan.
4. When the squash is done, take it out of the oven. Turn the pieces of squash over and with a metal spoon scoop out the flesh. Compost the skin and the stringy bits of squash. Consider roasting the seeds (which I'll try next time).
5. Combine squash flesh, onions, vegetable stock, and applesauce in a pot. Simmer on medium low heat for about an hour. Serve or refrigerate.

Serves 3, or one Sky

Total Time: approximately 3 hours

For the record, I don't actually measure. I hate measuring. I put down what the amounts I used were closest to.

I need to get local flour and learn how to use the breadmaker.

On the plus side, I'm probably losing weight.

Fortunately, I've got some lemons and limes left over from New Year's Eve: scurvy's unlikely to get to me.

No, not a physical one, a software one.

XMPlay

Loads up in seconds, plays all the file types I care about, doesn't chew processor time nearly as bad as WinAmp or iTunes, and I had it completely configured within 5 minutes. That's skinned, keyboard shortcuts, play lists (it reads WinAmp play lists. I don't know about the rest).

If you're running Windows, it's all you really need.

So, I went to the local grocery store today, a Sobey's.
The list of things I could buy:
1) Acorn Squash
2) Butternut Squash
3) Oyster Mushrooms
4) Portabello Mushrooms
5) Plain Yogurt
6) Goat's Milk

Cheating, but definitely from Ontario, so likely okay:
1) Yellow Onions
2) Macintosh Apples

To be honest, I'm amazed that there is that much I could get within 100-miles.

I'm currently making apple sauce, and thinking about making some sort of butter nut squash.

Hangovers: They suck.

Mark Berube* at
Rancho Relaxo,
300 College St.

He's on at 21:00, I plan to arrive at least an hour earlier.

Who all's in?

*Mark's one of the musical principals of my current favourite band "The Fugitives"

I'm cheating, by 15 minutes, but

Happy New Years!

Okay, this has really been bothering me lately: I live in Toronto, and take the subway regularly in the winter months and semi-regularly in the summer ones going on six years now. In all that time, I've learned that when you're by yourself, you do not talk to strangers, because they'll think you're crazy. You don't smile at them. You don't even look at them.

I honestly don't get that. Sure, your mom probably taught you not to talk to strangers, but I'm not talking about situations where it's you and one other person on the car. I'm talking about a situation where there are people all around. Torontonians talk to one another in bars, coffeeshops, at playgrounds their kids are playing at, and on city green trails. Why is transit socializing taboo?

Before you say it's like that in every big city, I've certainly noticed it's not true in Montreal, and, if memory serves, it's not like that in Vancouver either (although that was a while ago).

I've also noticed it's not an issue if you're not by yourself.

The final slam of the official Toronto Poetry Slam season (before the semi-finals) goes down with a big-bang -- the ANYTHING GOES SLAM, which means poets can use music, costumes, props, sound FX, live goats, whatever's in their pockets.

The date is SUNDAY MAY 20, signup 7:30pm, slam at 8pm.
Venue is El Mocambo, 2nd floor, 464 Spadina Ave.
Cover is $5 with a canned good, $8 without

Feature performer is the one and only Wordburglar (www.myspace.com/wordburglar)

Hosted by yours truly, Dave "BigDeal" Silverberg

For more info, for rules and what not, reply back or hit up www.torontopoetryslam.com

Peace,

Dave

Go to Google maps.

Look for directions from Montreal to Paris.

Note step 20.

Spoken Word by The Fugitives (also these Fugitives) at the Toronto Poetry Slam!


Where: Cervejaria, north side of College, a few doors west of Ossington (842 College).

When: Show starts at 8, but try to be there early, as IT WILL BE PACKED.

Cost: $5 at the door.

Yup, I'm still alive.

Random musings:

1. Children of Men - It's really moving. It's really confusing. It's really scary in a "What the fuck is the world coming to" sort of way. It's not a classic. You should still watch it.


2. X3 - WTF? Stan Lee's gotta be spinning in his grave. Before you say he's not dead yet, consider that this movie got released after two reasonably good comic book adaptations.


3. Formally recognizing mentoring in the workplace is a Good ThingTM. Institutionalizing things like mentoring in the workplace is a Bad ThingTM.


4. Melagnoma finally got her flying mount. Now to get the third part of the Kharazan key fragment.

For all you Torontonians looking for something to do on Friday night:

Friday, January 12
@ The Drake (Underground), 1150 Queen W.
Sign up 7:30pm, show 8 :: $5
Special guests Mike McGee of TOFU fame & Chicago's Robbie Q

Full details here