Where to Eat - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy December 15, 2014

My Favourites From The Toronto Christmas Market

Every year we head to the Toronto Christmas Market to do some holiday shopping, eat some great food, and just to generally get into the holiday spirit.

Usually we head to the market on a weekend, but this year we went on a weekday and it was great! No long lines, no crowds, easy parking – it was lots of fun.

If you have haven’t been, or haven been yet this year I have rounded up some of my favourites from the market this year.

The KINDER Smile Booth is located on Santa’s Lane, and families can head inside and have their photo taken for free. I loved their cute Lil’ Sled Parking area!

The Walmart Holiday Helper Workshop offers free hot chocolate, cookies, and they have lots of demo toys to try out. You can also get a free photo with Evan the elf, and they have lots of tablets available so you can order gifts from Walmart.ca on the spot.

One of my favourite places to shop in the Distillery District is Blackbird Vintage Finds.

I pretty much buy something every time I go there. I love all of their lotions and creams! They have great stocking stuffers and gifts that you can’t find anywhere else.

Last year I did the BKR Beauty Water challenge with Blossom Lounge, and one of their locations is in the Distillery District.

You can’t walk out of this store without buying something! Their curated selection for men and women, and their selection lifestyle products are totally on trend. Basically it’s a dangerous place for me to shop.

mini mioche is a store I’ve blogged about in the past (since I love it), and most recently I included some of their items in my Toddler Gift Guide.

I love that they have a great little play area for kids so you can take advantage of them being preoccupied while you shop!

My favourite part about the Christmas Market is the food! The vendors outside have so much to offer, but some of the restaurants in the area are my favourites.

We’ve been to Mill Street Brew Pub which is pretty kid friendly (high chairs, kids menu, and nice and loud!), and El Catrin before, but after recently eating at Cluny Bistro & Boulangerie, we decided to go there again.

They had high chairs and a children’s menu, and our son loved their gnocchi! The freshly baked bread basket was a pretty big hit with our toddler as well. One thing to note is that they don’t have plastic glasses, so I spent the whole time my son was drinking his water hovering around him in case he accidentally broke his glass. We had a great lunch! I love how pretty this restaurant is! It’s gorgeous. The service has been great both times we have been there, and the food was really creative and impressive. We had to stop next door to take home some macarons as well of course!

The Toronto Christmas Market runs every day until December 21st! For more details visit www.torontochristmasmarket.com.

Roxymandy December 9, 2014

Tips for Christmas Time Prep + Tested Holiday Recipes

It’s coming! As of this moment, you have 17 days until Christmas. This means if you were planning on buying Christmas presents online, you should really think about upgrading your shipping option to expedited! Things are moving fast this month, and I have put together some tips on how to get ready for the big day. These tips are all for starting right now, because if I am honest you may be a little behind on your prep for the holidays. Hopefully some of these ideas will save you some stress over the Christmas season.

Tip #1: Start grocery shopping for your Christmas dinner over the next 3 weeks. Add a few items each week to your regular grocery list that you will need for your big Christmas dinner. This way you won’t be that person doing a last-minute grocery shop just before the 25th when the shelves are empty and the lines are long. It’s a great way to absorb the high cost of that big Christmas dinner you will be making as well by adding a few extra items to your grocery list each week. If you use boxed stuffing or canned cranberries, load up now while they are still on the shelves! Otherwise some of the fresh items will need to wait, but you can at least get organized with your Christmas dinner grocery list so you know where you are at.

If you are planning on making fresh cranberry sauce, check out this recipe I used last year at Christmas from Simply Recipes. I didn’t realize cranberry sauce was so easy to make!

Tip #2: Bake your Christmas cookies now and freeze them. Trust me, you cannot make Christmas dinner and expect to have freshly baked cookies unless you cheat a litte. You can bake your cookies now and freeze them, or even better do what I did last year and attend a cookie baking class where you can do all of your baking in a couple hours, and take home what you don’t eat to freeze for Christmas day. Lot’s of baking classes are happening right now for this exact purpose, so take advantage! Last year I took my holiday baking class with the Supercentre’s PC Cooking School, but you can also find baking classes with Le Dolci (they are having a Holiday Cookie Baking Extravaganza class!), and The Market Kitchen.

Even if a class seems expensive, think of all the ingredients you would need to make many different types of cookies. Pair that with a class full of people doing some of the work for you, and it’s a pretty effective way to get your holiday baking done all at once!

These raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies were a big hit for me last year as seen on Sally’s Baking Addiction!

Tip #3: Start planning your quick and easy Christmas morning breakfast now. If you don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to make a fabulous breakfast for your family, find a recipe now that you can make ahead the night before, or something very quick and easy for Christmas morning. A few weeks back I blogged about an awesome crustless quiche recipe that takes 5 minutes of prep time which would be a great time saver.

I’ve also tested out Martha Stewart’s Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups and they taste amazing. They require very little prep, and they taste great.

Tip #4: I promise you, it’s not too late to order personalized holiday cards. But do it ASAP! Any Christmas card will do, but personalized ones add a nice touch. I usually order my holiday cards from Vistaprint, and they do a great job. I wasn’t happy with the batch I last ordered so I called their customer service line this weekend. The first thing they said to me was that they would replace my order for free! They have excellent customer service. They offered to send me my replacement cards within three days. They have lots of shipping options, and if you are really pressed for time you can choose the three or five day option.

Here is an example of our card from Vistaprint last year.

You can also order personalized holiday cards through the Walmart photo centre, and you can easily pick them up at your local walmart.

Tip #5: Start planning your holiday outfits now. You don’t even need to buy something new – just start digging through your closet to make sure you have your outfits planned and ready to go. Christmas time is the worst time to go outfit shopping! The malls are crazy, stores can hardly keep things in stock, and when you really need something you can’t find it anyway. Start going through your wardrobe now to see if you really do need to buy something, or if you can find something hidden in your closet. If you do find something in your closet, set it aside so you don’t wear it for the rest of the month so it looks new when you go to wear it on Christmas. This way it won’t look like so something from your regular rotation.

And finally, the most important tip…

Tip #6: Tell your significant other now what you want for Christmas. If you are hoping they are going to surprise you with exactly what you want, be prepared for strong chance of disappointment. Although you think your spouse should know what you want, odds are they haven’t been getting your hints. Make it easier on them so they have an idea of what you want, or at least strongly guide them in the right direction. You don’t have to write an itemized list, but make sure they have some strong hints so they aren’t freaking out on Christmas Eve under pressure to find you the perfect gift.

Good luck with your holiday preparations!

Roxymandy December 8, 2014

My Visit to Eataly in New York City

This weekend I spent time in New York City for some holiday shopping, and time at the spa. I do a trip to NYC annually, and like every other year I had a amazing time!

This time around I decided to venture over to Eataly on Fifth Avenue. Eataly is 50,000 square feet and includes 7 restaurants, a wine shop, food market, and includes private dining options and cooking classes. They even have a Guest Relations Desk to assist customers with their experience.

Eataly in New York City has shared owners including owned by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and Joe Bastianich.

Why did I want to come here? Well, I read reviews about how amazing it was online and wanted to check it out myself. Even at the airport there were other travellers talking about visiting the Eataly location in Chicago! Another reason I wanted to check it out was that rumour has it there is one coming to Toronto.

The location in NYC is very easy to find since it has multiple entrances stretching across two streets. This place is huge!

It’s hard to explain just how big this place is! As soon as you walk in there are maps available, and staff to assist you find what you are looking for.

The market stretches across the whole space, and the selection of food was incredible.

The pasta is so fresh that I saw the staff making pasta and then pouring it into containers to hand straight to customers. It was amazing – it can’t get fresher than that.

Eataly NYC has 7 restaurants which have table and bar seats at each. The opportunity to sit at the bar was perfect for me since I was dining alone. I wanted to have a great meal, and eating at the bar made me feel a little less like I got stood up. I randomly chose a restaurant called Manzo. It was more of a formal restaurant compared to some of the others, and the food did not disappoint. The best part about eating alone by the way? I didn’t have to share the bread basket! I decided to try on of the specials, a lamb bolognaise with papardelle. I was in pasta heaven. The server said that it was the best bolognaise they had ever had, and I had to agree after eating it. The pasta itself tasted so fresh that it’s ruined some of my previous favourite restaurant pasta dishes.

After lunch I was back to checking out the market, and seeing what else it had to offer. There was a Gelateria with fresh gelato made in-house, a Pasticceria with fresh pastries and cakes, and an espresso bar.

There was a housewares section with kitchen gadgets, and a cookbook section for inspiration.

The word fresh was centered around everything at Eataly. The pasta, the pastries, the butcher – everything was made on site and that day. Even the Rosticceria was cooking rotisserie chickens and carving them for sandwiches served to a line of people waiting in anticipation. The market was extremely busy, but the space was so large that it was easy to find a restaurant with a seat, and the cash registers moved everyone quickly through lines.

If you think you would be overwhelmed with a visit to Eataly, they offer walking tours of the facility as well. I looked online for more information and found that it was sold out for a Wednesday – this place is very popular! The cooking classes look amazing – from Pizza Making to the Flavours of Tuscany, there were lots of classes to chose from. They even had a kids pastry making class which I thought looked cute.

You can shop online with the Eataly website, and they ship to Canada as well.

Eataly New York City is located at 200 Fifth Avenue, and you can find them online at www.eataly.com.

Roxymandy November 3, 2014

Getting Creative With Chocolate With The Help Of Chocolate Tales !

When Chocolate Tales reached out to me and offered to have me attend one of their chocolate workshops, it was a no brainer for me to say yes. Along with a healthy supply of chips on each grocery list I create, there is always a spot for chocolate as well. If I had a small spot left in my cart and had to decide between broccoli or chocolate, chocolate wins every time.

I invited the most creative friend I know Stephanie to join me, and we set out to attend the Decorating with Chocolate class with Chocolate Tales. Classes are held at The Mad Bean Coffee House at Eglinton Ave. and Bathurst Street in Toronto.

It’s easy to register online for their classes, and they have a live calendar which shows what classes are running and when.

The Mad Bean Coffee House is cozy and covered with local art and photography, and they close in the evenings for private events, live music, and chocolate classes!

When we arrived we were offered complimentary coffee and tea, and we sat down at a station where we would do our chocolate decorating. The classes are kept quite small so you have a chance to ask as many questions as you would like, and you receive a lot of personal attention.

Our instructor was Coco Kelly, and she is very passionate about her craft! I learned a lot of things I had no idea about while attending this class. I am actually one of those people who didn’t know the caramel secret (I usually just eat chocolate – I don’t think about how it’s made!) but I learned how it was done that night. Sorry I’m not telling you how – ask Coco Kelly at your next class!

We learned about how to be creative with chocolate, and how to use moulds to create your own painted designs with them. The most interesting for me was using transfer sheets to add designs to your chocolate. I had no idea how to add designs like that to chocolate – I am so excited to do it on my own!

We created chocolates filled with ganache as well, and it was really neat to work with it and learn how to roll it. We had a little bit of extra time at the end of class and learned how to make chocolate shavings as well. This is when I lost all form of self-control and started eating what we created. If I had of taken a photo of myself at this point, there was likely chocolate on my face. Not pretty.

The best part was packaging our chocolates to go home! We were provided with bags, ribbon, a box and bag to take all of our designs home. I love wrapping and packaging up creations like this, so I thought it was a nice touch to take things home that way.

I had a lot of fun at the Decorating with Chocolate class! I really did learn a lot, and I think it’s a fun night out where you not only get to learn something, but you get to be creative. Oh, and you get to bring home tonnes of chocolate – there is nothing wrong with that.

To book your own class you can call their hotline at 1-800-905-2858, or book online on their website www.chocolatetales.ca. Chocolate Tales is currently offering a 45% discount on all of their workshops! Enter their promo code (you can find it online when choosing a workshop) to receive your discount.

They also have an online shop so you can try some of the things you learned in class at home which I thought was pretty cool. You can find their online shop here, and you can purchase some of their own chocolate, or the supplies you need to apply what you learned in class. You can even find some great how-to video’s to remind you of how to use their products.

For the holidays these transfers and moulds would be perfect to create your own Christmas gifts!

The only problem with attending a Chocolate Tales workshop? The chocolate coma you go into after eating everything you brought home. I was good and waited until the next day to open my cute packages of chocolate, but once I starting eating I couldn’t stop, and it pretty much brought that day’s productivity to a halt. Eat with caution – this is some spectacular chocolate, but make sure if you are going to binge on everything you brought home that you clear your schedule.

Roxymandy October 31, 2014

Stroller Social at the Gladstone Hotel

I can’t believe I didn’t know about this before!

The Gladstone Hotel (who I have written about here before) have what they call a Stroller Social running every Monday to Friday each week. From 10am to 4pm each weekday parents can take a break from their walk, park their strollers and enjoy a free cup of coffee while socializing with other parents.

How awesome is that? It takes place in the Melody Bar in the hotel.

I love this! I think it’s awesome when there is a place in Toronto where big bulky strollers are welcome, because it doesn’t happen often.

The Gladstone Hotel is located at 1214 Queen St W, Toronto, and for more details on the hotel you can visit www.gladstonehotel.com.