My Year in Food 2014

So despite my efforts, it seems I've waited til the very last day in January to share my year in food. To be honest, I'm not sure what happened to January, but I am sure of two things: #1 The Steve Miller Band totally nailed it in Fly Like an Eagle, cuz let me tell you, 'Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future...' and #2, I have been all kinds of slack with my blog these past couple of months!

Nevertheless, I have still been running around seizing foodie adventures and enjoying lots of delicious foods, a.k.a. stuffing my face and loving every minute of it! Overall, 2014 was pretty great - we spent loads of time with family and friends, vacationed in London, experienced some new dishes and enjoyed some foodie firsts - just what a good 'Year in Food' needs.

For 2015, I wish for the same. I'd also like to carry forward a few of my foodie resolutions from last year including my plan to cook more often without a recipe (so far, so good!). I'd also like to retry my Nan's bread recipe - I want to master it! Or at least succeed with it... lol. And finally, a resolution I always have - to get out to more restaurants I've had my eye on (Chinched, I'm looking at you!).

But for now, I would like to share my 2014 Year in Food. If you enjoy this, I encourage you to check out My Year in Food 2013 and My Year in Food 2012 for many more drool-worthy moments ;)

St. John's Farmers' Market - A Newbies Guide!

Last summer I made a promise to myself that I would start doing more of the things I wanted to do vs. just talking about them. The St. John's Farmers' Market fell into that category - something I always wanted to check out, but never got around to. Yesterday, I happily attended my very first St. John's Farmers' Market!

For those of you who are newbies like me, it can be a little confusing when trying to figure out where you have to go. It's located in the Lion's Club Chalet behind the parking lot of the Re/Max Centre, on Bonaventure Avenue. I will advise, parking is a bit intense - even for the calm parking lot driver - so if you suffer from parking lot rage, you may want to park across the street... or bus it, or walk ;)

We managed to snag a spot in the Re/Max parking lot, then proceeded to the lion's club after slight confusion... after seeing what looked like a few stands, plus the hula hoopers we determined we should go to the building pictured below. So I repeat for newbies, it's NOT in the Re/Max Centre, it's in the building that says 'Lion's Park'.

As you can imagine, she's a little packed on the inside, but not unbearable - you can also escape out the back door for more vendors and some fresh air! There's everything from handmade soaps, to crafts, to artwork and lots and lots of food - the wonderful aroma of tastiness smacks you in the face at the door and it's AWESOME!

Shalimar Restaurant - Review

So aside from doing a number on my knee, after gracefully descending some concrete steps... this past weekend was a good one. If you've been following my blog, you will remember my friends and I recently formed a foodie group in an effort to organize ourselves into trying several restaurants around town. And as previously mentioned, since the co-founder and I each have a blog, we thought reviews would be a nice touch. After all, if you've never been to a restaurant before, it's nice to have an idea of what you're getting yourself into. Just keep in mind, we're no Karl Wells, so we don't claim to know techniques and pairings on a food critic level, we just know what we like and hope our review can give you an idea of what to expect.

Similar to the last post, we will be breaking our review into what we consider to be the key points of a restaurant outing:

1. Logistics
2. Service
3. Atmosphere
4. Quality of Food & Drink
5. Overall Experience

In addition to a quick note on each category, we've also included our individual rankings out of 10. You can find mine below, and Terri's (foodie group co-founder) on her blog Pop Culture, With Sarcasm.

So without further ado, I present to you the results of our second group outing:

The Touton Mountaineers visit Shalimar Restaurant