$100 Giveaway!!! Contest is now closed!

Paula Deen's tea kettle

Thanks for commenting! Contest is now closed. 


CSNStores.com, which is made up of various online stores including AllBarstools.com (Home Bars) and Cookware.com, has sent me products for review are now letting me share the love with my blogging buddies and are giving away a $100 gift certificate! So what could you use in your kitchen? Your dining room? The contest is open to Canadian and American residents and so far everything I have seen has been top notch and I love that you can shop by celebrity!

To enter just leave a comment giving me some feedback about my blog and please make sure there is a way for me to contact you. This is the time to tell me what you think of my blog: has it changed too much? Is there something you miss? What would you like to see more of? Less of?

I am always trying to improve my blog so your advice really means a lot to me. So do you! I am so happy to be able to share some online shopping joy with you.

Restaurant Review: China Town in Bedford, Nova Scotia

Just the other day when the Queen was visiting Halifax (you can see a ton of photos of that day here) my husband and I drove down to China Town Restaurant to see the ships from all over the world come to be inspected by the Queen in Bedford Basin. As you can see we were not the only ones! Their parking lot was packed, I think we found the last spot, thank goodness. It was a chilly day and I was dressed inappropriately in shorts and froze my butt off so we went inside for some food after the Queen sailed away.



The hot and sour soup was wonderful, the perfect way to warm up and defrost. There was no tofu which was a little surprising but the soup was tasty and spicy but not too hot. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it as we sat by the window and looked over the water.



My husband ordered the chicken with black bean sauce and I got the shrimp lo mein. It is always a risk for us to go to a Chinese restaurant, my husband is sensitive to MSG, but we were starving and he was in a daring mood. My meal with perfect, exactly what I wanted and he loved his and had no problems with the food. This is not to say their food is 100% MSG free, just that we got lucky.

We had not been to a Chinese restaurant in five years, the last place we went to was with his kung fu school in Vancouver, BC. How wonderful it was for us to be eating Chinese food out again. When we lived in BC you would never use a fork, you would had to ask for one. Here, we had to ask for chopsticks! Our waitress was surprised we know how to use them. You could not have found a nicer waitress. When I asked if they had a pay phone she looked all worried and said that she was not sure if it worked and took out her iPhone and gave it to me so I could call our friends downtown. I couldn't believe it!

The decor of China Town Restaurant is not contemporary, a black and gold bar with some kind of Tiki room in the back (which I actually thought was very cool), but the food was great and you can not beat the view. I have no idea how many times we have driven passed this restaurant on the Bedford Highway, wondering what it was like inside and how the food is. Now I know. And I am going back. Soon!

Pseudo Barbecued Portobello Mushrooms

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadian friends! I know there are a lot of barbecues going to be cooking up a storm today but for those without barbecues or grill pans, here is a treat for you. All you need is a frying pan.



It all starts with the mushrooms. These giant hobbit-dream-come-true portobello mushrooms are fantastic and must be on sale right now because I got four for under $2! With a damp towel, brush any debris off the mushrooms and then cut off the stem at the base.



These suckers are sponges so season with a little salt and pepper, add crushed garlic and olive oil right before throwing them in a frying pan.



Push them down so they are getting a lot of heat on the lightly oiled pan. The mushrooms will begin to soften and go very dark. Finish with the gills facing up, add some barbecue sauce and goat cheese. If it is too hot to put in a 325F oven for a few minutes then cover so the cheese softens.

Another version of this dish that is also fabulous is marinating them in olive oil with balsamic vinegar and then cooking them. Or you could just cook them in oil, melt the goat cheese and drizzle with a balsamic glaze. Just be careful not to over season, mine ended up being a little salty but still so, so good.

We are now officially on holidays for a while so things here may change a little or may stay the same. I have no idea. It will be a surprise to all of us what is going to happen on my food blog while we are enjoying the summer. I may cook more, I may cook less. Who knows?!

Happy holidays to everyone wherever you are!