Today for lunch, the boys at work were ordering in burgers. But not just any kind of burger, MASSIVE burgers. Well, I didn't know that at first, all I was told that these burgers were a Montreal staple and I had to get one. I open up my takeout box and it looks like there's a pizza cut in 4 pieces inside. But NOPE. It's a GIANT BURGER. Wow. I had to get it photo documented, so here are some crappy pics from my cell phone:



I wasn't kidding. Those fuckers are BIG.

Labels: food

posted by Maresa @ 8:11 PM 2 Comments

Lazy Saturday brunch

What a beautiful, beautiful day today. (Well, I'll confess that my day didn't really begin until 2pm because that's when I finally forced myself out of bed - a little too much fun was had and alcohol ingested last night at the dance party! Amber and I had ambitions plans of going for brunch at 11AM this morning, but that clearly didn't happen!)

I digress - it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining with clear blue skies - it's been much too long since we've had a day like that. Also it was very warm (only -5) and a perfect day to wander around! Amber and I ate brunch at Patati Patata, a tiny, tiny, 15-person capacity cafe with breakfast served all day and famous poutine. And cheap prices! My breakfast (egg, bacon, hashbrowns, beans, toast, fruit and coffee) cost $4.50! Amazing!

After our fantasticly late brunch, we wandered back down St-Laurent, stopping to check out vintage shops, jewelry stores, and Amber pointed out other amazing cafes and restos I needed to try. I've never had anyone do that with me - walk around and point out amazing places in my neighbourhood, and since she's lived in the Plateau for 5 years, it was so fun!

Montreal is such an amazing city, I never anticipated how much I would love living here. It has so much charm and appeal, more than I've felt from any other city in Canada... maybe it's the whole French thing too. Whatever it is, this afternoon I fell in love a little more.

Labels: food, montreal, plateau

posted by Maresa @ 5:19 PM 3 Comments

My apartment smells like gingerbread. Yep. I just baked a gingerbread cake to take into work as my Christmas present to everyone. The office is rather giant and so it's not like I can get everyone presents and cards, unless I want to spent lots of $$$! Plus, everyone likes treats, right? :P I've never baked a gingerbread cake before, so I'm hoping it turns out alright, although it smells rather divine, so that's a good sign!!

Today is the Winter solstice which means that the days will soon be getting longer rather than shorter! I am so, so glad of that. Spring is approaching! Okay, that's a little bit of an optimistic thought, but I can still dream!!

Leaving for home in 2 days! Only two things left on my to-do list and two small presents to buy. Feeling pretty damn good!

Labels: food, winter

posted by Maresa @ 10:18 PM 4 Comments

Two-four

So I turned the ripe ol' age of 24 yesterday. I had a really awesome day, and even being at work was pretty great - I had organized a screening/birthday party and so for the last two hours at work we all sat around and drank beer/wine and ate cake and chatted and screened an episode. Yup.

I decided I wanted to bake my own cake and bring it into work and so I did. I wanted a somewhat healthy cake and so I found a recipe online for a chocolate cake made with tofu and was intrigued. It ended up turning out amazing and delicious and no one even knew it had tofu in it! I may have countered the whole healthy thing by icing it with Bailey's cream cheese icing though... But YUM.


And then I went out for sushi dinner with Nick and Karine to my favourite sushi restaurant, Juni. It was tasty. And then we partied it up at Rouge!


There are so many awesome things about this last picture... For one, my tongue is a brilliant shade of red, giving away the fact that the cranberry vodkas I was drinking weren't made with real cranberry juice! I'm making the 24 sign, and Karine thinks I'm turning 42... and Nick doesn't know what the hell is going on! Love it. And the best part is that Rouge is 2 blocks away from my house so, after eating a late night snack of poutine, I could just stumble home!!

Labels: birthdays, food, nightlife

posted by Maresa @ 2:37 PM 3 Comments

Recipe: Chana Masala

So I'm 7 days into my Vegetarian Challenge, and I can honestly say I'm not missing meat at all and have barely even eaten any fish. Woot.

On Friday at work we had an Indian food lunch, and of course I was the one who ordered and organized it all, so I felt like I got a giant crash-course in Indian cuisine. Little did I know, there are many vegetarian Indian foods and all are very yummy!

So! Inspired by that lunch, I decided to make my first Indian meal for dinner tonight: Chana Masala. Which is basically a chickpea curry. I looked at a bunch of recipes online and made up one of my own, which is kind of how I like to cook - just throw some things into a pan and most of the time it turns out great! And yummmmm it did! Here's my recipe:

Chana Masala
1 can chickpeas in water
1 clove garlic, diced
dash olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp red curry paste
1 tbsp Sharwood's brand Madras sauce
1/2 tsp cumin
1 small diced tomato
tofu, drained and cubed
2 handfuls spinach

Saute garlic in oil, then add chickpeas including water from can. Add spices, lemon juice, tomato, and tofu and simmer for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, add spinach and cover about 2-4 minutes until spinach wilted. Serve hot with Naan bread.

Labels: 30dayvegchallenge, food

posted by Maresa @ 6:50 PM 0 Comments

Got my hair cut tonight. Maybe you think it looks the same, but it's the shortest it's ever been! Yowsa! Loving it though. But I think after this I might grow it out again.



Other randoms:
- Signed up at the gym close to my work and am finding it's a good fit for me there. Except there's a dress code where you can't wear tanktops and I find that really annoying. The first time I worked out there I didn't even know that was the rule and came strolling downstairs in a tanktop - yes, I will flaunt opposition!

- The Veggie Challenge seems to be going well - I haven't eaten any meat for the past 5 days. Tomorrow is going to be challenging however because we're ordering Indian food for lunch at work, and I'm going to have to resist the callings of butter chicken and tandoori chicken and the like.

- However, the whole cooking good dinners thing is a big fail. Way to crash and burn within 2 days, Maresa. I've eaten sandwiches for dinner probably 3 nights this week. Although last night after my sandwich I ended up baking cookies... does that redeem me in any way? Brought the cookies into work this morning and they were gobbled up in an hour. Wow.

- I love fall. This is worth noting again for the millionth time.

Labels: 30dayvegchallenge, fitness, food

posted by Maresa @ 8:35 PM 3 Comments

Meatless dinner #1

Okay. I can't really call this a vegetarian dinner because it contains fish. But. It didn't contain any meat and it was homemade and it was yummy. I made stuffed mushroom caps with crab and couscous. The mushroom caps were super easy to make: all I did was take off the mushroom "stems" (what exactly are those called?!) and stuff them with a mixture of chopped fresh crab, softened cream cheese, cottage cheese, pepper, and paprika. Yum.

Labels: 30dayvegchallenge, food

posted by Maresa @ 4:17 PM 0 Comments

Getting ready for the Veggie Challenge. Bought some protein powder and a tiny hand blender that works surprisingly well today.

I just want to say that I eat the worst dinners in the world. I'm hoping this vegetarian thing and cooking blogging thing will inspire me to cook better dinners. Probably 90% of the time I eat a sandwich for dinner. Or cereal. Yep, I don't get home from work until about 6:45pm and by that time I'm starving and it's late and I have no patience for cutting up vegetables and steaming rice and putting chicken in the oven, or making some semblance of a decent meal. I need to change this. But how?

I'm also going to be joining a new gym (my previous membership at the YMCA expired at the end of August, and now I live too far from there) but I can't decide if I:
a) want to go to a lower-end gym that's a minute from my work, which I physically see on the way to the bus stop so that I can't avoid going after work, but will be harder to get to on weekends or anytime I'm not at work, and which has a less intimidating environment; or
b) go to a high-class "see-and-be-seen" gym that is five minutes from my apartment, for which I will have to get off the bus after work a stop early (which could be easily "forgotten"), but more convenient to go to on the weekends, which has better perks ie. a heated outdoor pool, spa, better drop-in classes (but would I actually use any of these things?)
Herein lies the dilemma. They will both end up costing me roughly the same. Basically, I just want somewhere that I will actually go to, and after work is usually when I work out.

Labels: fitness, food

posted by Maresa @ 10:49 PM 1 Comments

I may have just eaten a tortilla filled with pink ground beef. It was sizzling away for a long time and all brown on the outside but still pink on the inside, and so eventually I chalked it up to the all the spices and ketchup I'd put in it and ate it anyway. Hmm. I'm hoping I don't regret this decision in a few hours.

These tortillas are one of my single-girl dinner specialties. However, I'm currently trying to eat up all the meat left in my fridge (and ground beef from my freezer), because as of November 1st I've decided to start a 30-Day Vegetarian Challenge. Yes, it deserves capitals. I've never tried to go vegetarian before, and I feel like it's something that everyone should at least try once in their lives, besides the fact that it's much healthier for you. I find that I don't eat a lot of meat anyway so I'm thinking it shouldn't be so hard, although I think I don't eat enough protein as it is, so I'm going to buy some soy protein powder and start having protein shakes for breakfast. My Vegetarian Challenge is not going to rule out fish, however - a girl's gotta start somewhere, plus it's my birthday in the middle of November and there's no way I'm not eating sushi for it!! I'm really interested in finding out how I'll do and if I'll miss meat at all. We shall see!

Which brings me to my next topic. I'm going to start rounding out this blog and adding some more features. One of which will be blogging about cooking, complete with photos! Well, it'll be about vegetarian cooking for a while... and I'm likely going to be using the Internet for a lot of resources and recipes. I foresee lots of tofu!! I may also throw in a bit of fashion (as I get more and more obsessed every day) and some more photos and who knows what else. I think the layout could use an overhaul as well, and I'm thinking about possibly switching off Blogger...


This is me today, drinking coffee and scribbling about website stuff. Yep, big nerd right here.

Labels: food, website

posted by Maresa @ 6:55 PM 0 Comments

I am eating chicken fajitas in my new apartment! Not that you really care what I'm eating for dinner, but a notable point is that I actually have an oven in this apartment! This makes me beyond happy. Even if I haven't used it yet, it makes me happy just to know that it's there. I cannot wait to bake! Muffins, scones, pies! And cook real dinners! Baked fish, lasagna, baked sweet potatoes! I think I talk way too much about food and about ovens!

I would like everyone to know that I just ate peanut butter right out of the jar. Does this make me a freak?

So I'm in my new apartment, and it's pretty fabulous. I spent 3 hours this morning painting a used kitchen table and chairs black and I must say it looks rather nice with my dark-wood kitchen and cappuccino curtains! There is definitely an interior decorator in me. This place feels so clean and modern and me. It's got a good vibe. I will post some photos soon!

I've decided that I want to go sky diving. I bet you never thought I'd say that in a million years, what with me hating flying and all. I think sky diving will probably cure me of that forever! Plus, Louis just did it today for his 30th birthday and it sounds soooo amazing. Not to say I wouldn't be freaked out of my mind and pissing my pants, but I need a little more excitement and a little more adrenaline rush in my life! Ideally it would be sweet to do it in November for my birthday, but I'm pretty sure the companies don't operate then because it's too cold! Or maybe I should save it and do it for my 25th birthday next year??? Giant quarter-century celebration next year!!

I ordered some business cards from Moo for my photography business and they arrived today! Moo is a great company because for 50 business cards, I could upload up to 50 different images, and it was very affordable! I had them sent to Nick's address since I knew I'd be in between addresses, and he says they're pretty amazing! I can't wait to see them!

Holy randomness! I think my posts get more random every time. How about a random photo from Jamaica to finish?

Labels: apartment, food, moving

posted by Maresa @ 7:25 PM 0 Comments

What better way to spend your Saturday afternoon than eating cupcakes at the cupcakery which is a 5 min walk from my house?? Oh, right, the icing on the cake (ha!) was doing my taxes and finding out I owe over $800. Great.

Labels: food, photos

posted by Maresa @ 12:46 AM 2 Comments

Lately I've been trying to get more into photography and so I randomly decided to enter a contest on Worth1000 with that photo I posted in my last post - and I ended up placing 3rd out of 51 entries. Cool! It was a beginner contest, so go figure, but it's helped give me a boost to want to take more photos. :)

Speaking of photos, yesterday was a full-on modeling day for me. In the morning I modeled in a location shoot for my cousin, and she wanted me wearing a dress and heels outside in front of some cool industrial-looking brick buildings - but it was SO COLD. It was windy and 5 degrees out, and there I was in a little dress and heels trying to look hot and oh my god I just tried to give the posing my best shot to get it over with as fast as I could. Although, I ended up being outside for an hour in two different dresses and two different set of heels. Wow. I have a big appreciation for real models now. Haven't seen the photos yet, but can't wait.

Facebook is good at randomness. Tonight a girl who was my penpal when I was probably 10 searched me out on FB. I was at my parents house tonight for dinner and even found old letters that we sent to each other. It was a PenPal service that you had to fill out your name, age, your favourite colour, favourite school subject, other cheesy info, pay $3 and they matched you with someone. (Yep, I even found my penpal application form! - wow, think I'm holding onto some unnececssary stuff?!) Anyway, random and cool.

This week I found out that DairyQueen will make a Blizzard with two different kinds of stuff in it. You do not understand how much this has made my life. Hello gaining 20 lbs.

Actually, I'm sticking to a really good routine of working out 3 times a week. That makes me happy. Although I've also realised that I don't eat enough protein. The only time I eat meat is for dinner, and often I don't even do that. I'm a fiend for peanut butter though, and usually eat it for breakfast, but the point is, I'm still not getting enough protein. I might buy some protein powder. Is that weird? Hello bodybuilder Maresa. ;)

Wait - I wonder if aReese's peanut butter cups Blizzard counts as protein... Haha. Kidding, kidding.

Labels: food, i should just make a tag for ice cream, photography

posted by Maresa @ 12:43 AM 0 Comments

Creamed ice?

I had high expectations for the Blizzard of the Month which was Turtle Oreo, and I'm sad to say it didn't live up to them. I'm a big Oreo Blizzard fan and the Turtle-y addition consisted mostly of pecans, which I don't even like. I'm not really a nut person in general (although I love peanut butter), so it was a bit of a bummer for me. Note to self: do not branch out from the tried and true goodness of the Oreo!!

I'm an ice cream addict. I will fully admit this. I'm pretty picky about the ice cream that I eat, which makes me kind of a boring ice cream addict. My favourite ice cream is probably just good old fashioned vanilla. Seriously. Or else cookies and cream. I really like a vanilla ice cream base, so all those really chocolatey ones that are triple fudge with chocolate bits and fudge ribbons and fudgefudgefudge I just don't go crazy for. Which is a little insane since I'm a big chocolate fan...

...Okay, way too much ice cream talk.

Labels: food

posted by Maresa @ 12:22 AM 2 Comments

Pondering Bread Slicing Methods

What does the way you slice your bread say about you?

Last night I was watching my mom make a sandwich, and after she was finished, she sliced the bread horizontally across. She always used to slice my sandwiches this way when I was a kid and I always hated it. To me, the horizontal slice was so ugly, and sandwiches looked so much more pretty and grown up when they were sliced diagonally so the bread formed two perfect triangles. To this day when I make my own sandwiches, I always slice the bread diagonally. It just tastes better that way.

Labels: food, random

posted by Maresa @ 1:04 AM 8 Comments

Baby it's cold outside

These hardwood floors may look pretty, but they sure as hell don't keep it warm in here. I am cold. I'm sitting here in my stretch pants, socks, slippers, long-sleeve tshirt and sweatshirt and I can still say that my nose is cold to the touch. My heat is on up to 25 and it's not warm. I had to go jump in the shower an hour ago because I was almost shivering. Seriously. I need a space heater. I think it's the hardwood floors combined with the single-paned windows combined with the fact that this apartment is just one big room, and so it's hard to heat. Or it could be that the windchill is -8C outside. Since I've been here I've rarely felt warm. Or warm enough. Although sleeping in my bedroom is fine because I can turn on the heat and close the door, but hanging out out here sucks!

I bought mayonnaise at the grocery store today and it expires on Friday. For the amount of times I eat mayo (in grilled cheese, which is rare, and in a tuna sandwich, which is even more rare), I don't think I will finish this vat of mayo by then. Looks like I'll be taking it back to the store. I think the whole concept of mayonnaise is pretty disgusting if you think about it - white goo made up of what exactly? Made up of FAT. I got the "Calorie wise" mayo and there is still freaking 4g of fat in 1 tbsp. That's a little gross.

Labels: apartment, food

posted by Maresa @ 12:20 AM 2 Comments

Just another night out / another dance floor

For the record, the polite way to let a girl know that you're not interested is to say, "hey, you're cool, but it's not going to work." Not saying, "hey, I'll call you" and then never call.

I've been baking all evening - I made white chocolate cranberry cookies and I'm about to make rice krispie squares for my housewarming party tomorrow night. I also have a whole bunch of apple juice and spices ready to make mulled cider with red wine. Mmmm tasty.

Labels: food, poo

posted by Maresa @ 11:59 PM 1 Comments

"I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows." - Andy Warhol

I love weekends. This one was particularly nice because of the amazing hot weather. Yesterday I spent the majority of the afternoon at the lake, floating on an air mattress. It was so relaxing and heavenly, I would like to do it every day. We then had a BBQ dinner here with some friends along with homemade pina coladas and Dilly bars from DQ. Yum.

Today I made blueberry pancakes from scratch (read: no box mix) and they were delish. (I'm sensing a food-related theme to this post.) Then we went to a swap meet, I bought a new wallet (not from the swap meet) because mine had fallen apart last week, and we ended the afternoon at the art gallery because I really wanted to see the Warhol exhibit. Which was fabulous. Loved it.

Also on Saturday morning, I went to the gym. I'm trying to get back into a gym routine because I've fallen off the boat lately. I get really into it for a couple of weeks and then I seem to lose interest for a month or two and then the cycle starts again. So I'm hoping this time will be different. I'm setting a realistic weekly goal of 3 1-hour sessions at the gym, with basically 30-40 mins of cardio and 20-30 mins of weights/stretches/floor work. I might actually start a separate fitness blog to track my progress and hopefully keep me motivated. I'm not looking to lose weight at all, I'd just like to be healthy and tone up a little more. I'm on my way... last week at the grocery store I bought soy milk to replace my regular milk and tofu to replace steaks.

Tomorrow morning I have to bring my car down to the shop so it can get fixed! Yay! I'll be getting a rental car for a couple days while the work is getting done and then it will feel like I have a brand new car... well, sort of. Hehe. Anyway, I have to be there at 8AM, so... zzz...

Labels: fitness, food, summer

posted by Maresa @ 1:52 AM 0 Comments

Hello Blogger

And hello extremely girlie layout. Come on, I know everyone harbours a secret love for pink. And probably a not so secret love for lingerie.

I've decided to move over here from Wordpress because Blogger is so much more customizable. I am actually able to edit my HTML and CSS code, and those are two things which I'm into learning more of at the moment. Especially CSS, which I currently know very little of. But I'm very excited to try more because of all the amazing things you can do with it! Now all I need are a couple uninteruppted afternoons to work on it...

Tonight I hosted my first dinner party. Okay, it wasn't that much of a soiree - we just had Geoff's mom and partner over for dinner - but it was exciting to ME because it was the first time I had actually cooked a meal for anyone with a kitchen table to sit at! And we had wine to drink in my new wine glasses, and it all felt so nice. I bbq'd some turkey burgers and jazzed them up with chipotle goat cheese, tomatoes and avocado pieces as well as a tasty salad. Yum.

Now I can safely say that I have had 2 glasses of wine to drink and my head is feeling a bit fuzzy and I'm suddenly feeling like it's time to pass out in bed (it is only 10:18PM currently so I think I'll tough it out a bit longer). It's funny how wine does that - I guess it's the depressant coming out - but it just seems like wine in particular to any other alcohol makes me feel fuzzy and content and sleepy.

I think I'm actually going to go have a hot shower. I really enjoy steaming hot showers. I don't know if that is weird, but I don't think that other people like showers as hot as I do. I like to gradually turn up the hot until the water feels almost cool because it's so hot. Does that make sense? No past/present boyfriends have ever liked to shower with me because I don't like regular warm showers. One even remarked once that my skin was all red after I got out of the shower because it was so hot. (Maybe I sadistically like 2nd degree burns? Haha.)

Now I just hope I won't fall asleep in the shower...

Labels: food, life, website

posted by Maresa @ 1:10 AM 1 Comments