July 29, 2012

Spiced Caramel Apples & Vegan Caramel Sauce


Three sliced McIntosh apples, a tablespoon of dark brown sugar, a pat of v.butter, pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg and a dash of lemon juice in a pan over a high flame for about 7 minutes. The results are delicious, but to make it even better, caramel! White sugar and water, 50/50. Let it brown until it's a dark golden brown, add thick soy milk, vanilla, touch of sea salt and finish off with a bit of v.butter.

Can you guess what I'm going put this on?
"Everything" would be a good answer, but still. Guess!

Boy and Girl


Fearless quacking ducks. If they were human, they'd be in their teens. Notice the green peeking through the male's neck feathers!

July 27, 2012

Five Guys to Celebrate My 25th

One photogenic yet ridiculously messy to eat burger! Worth every BBQ sauce stain on my shirt.
York Mills and Leslie location

Menu board! I actually took a paper menu and marked what I wanted on it...
The two gentlemen who made my dins. They asked me to take a photo! :D

My little bacon burger being assembled. See that container? Pickles.

I almost forgot about the peanuts!



My burger is in there somewhere. This is just half of the fries they gave me. Rich and I ate the other half...

After getting my burger and fries at Five Guys, we drove across the street to Lick's to get Rich a double Nature Burger!

Nature Burger from Lick's

Five Guys burger with fries on the side, malt vinegar, ketchup and an empty container where there used to be pickles

Bacon, grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, jalapenos, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo and BBQ sauce!

Pickles from Lick's. Rich doesn't like them, but gets them on the side for me to nosh on. :)

After our trip to Edward's Gardens, Rich and I were both pretty darn hungry. Our tummies were growling and it was time to chow down! I've heard great things about Five Guys and since it was on the way home, I decided that that's were I wanted to eat- his treat. I love the open concept and the friendliness of everyone working there! The wait wasn't bad as we had shelled peanuts to munch on. I asked the guy in the photo (right) if their fries were vegetarian and if anything else other than potatoes were fried in the oil and he answered, "Nope! 100% vegetarian, fried in peanut oil!" which was great! I could share them with Rich!

I got my food to go, we stopped by Lick's so Rich could get a burger for himself. Lick's Nature Burgers are actually pretty darn good for being meatless. Bonus points for them grilling them in a special "vegan" spot on the grill and using separate utensils! By the time his food was done, half the fries were gone. SO ADDICTIVE. I ordered a small...I could have finished a large. I really shouldn't though...ew, clearly I have no self control. lol  Nonetheless, I'll be going back soon!

We dined on the patio in his backyard, overlooking the pool before it started to drizzle and rain. Perfect way to end the day. :)

Birthday Cake 2 of 2







Cake number two! Two layers of moist lemon cake with homemade strawberry compote in the middle and covered in a vanilla & strawberry butter cream. There's whipped cream all around the edges, topped with berries. Aside from the whipped cream and sprinkles, the cake, filling and frosting are all vegan! It was the perfect balance between sweet and tangy. Lemons and strawberries totally remind me of summer and they are two of my favourite flavours!


The mini 5 inch cake I baked for Rich that was 100% free of dairy/eggs, thus no whipped cream and no sprinkles. He spread the compote and frosted the top himself! I just added a berry on top. Pretty good, right? :)

Ivory and Teal



 We saw at least three wedding parties at Edward's Gardens! I fancied this one in particular as the couple had a matching vintage car with a driver who looks totally bad ass. Check out his license plate!

Insects and Flowers





Rich and I spent the afternoon of my birthday at Edward's Gardens, where I got to test out the present he gave me! ;)

July 26, 2012

Pho Vietnam





 My family took me out to dinner and since I love Pho, we decided to go to a place we've never been before. (Insert laughing here.) We were in the area (checking out our slab of quartz, for our new counter top!) so instead of heading to our favourite Vietnamese place, Pho Xelua or Pho 88 we went to Pho Vietnam. 

People usually go have pho, because it's essentially fast food and because it's really frigg'n delicious. Food is definitely not served quickly at Pho Vietnam. Actually, I don't think I've ever waited more than 4 minutes between ordering and receiving my hot bowl of steamy, brothy noodles! Here? It was nearly 10 minutes before our unflavourful, over cooked, petite portion of pho came out. My mum and I ordered mediums and my pops and brother ordered large (largest available size) thinking we would be rolling out of the restaurant, filled to the brim with noodles and beef. This was not the case. Medium was like a small and large were like mediums. HELLO?! They're rice noodles for the love of God! Way to be stingy and cheap! Honestly, give 25¢ more worth of noodles and have your customers leave full. 

Oh and the worse part? Their prices. $7.99 for a medium and $8.99 for a large. If Pho Vietnam is charging nearly $10 for noodles in broth, it better be damn good! Rich, flavourful broth (which it was not), large portions (which it wasn't) and friendly service where the boss isn't staring down at his customers. lol Will we return? Nope. Recommend to others? Nope. Stay clear, I say! 

We went to A&W for burgers after shelling out $50 for dinner (we had a good laugh at this) then for ice cream and Dairy Queen. My treat. :) 

P.S. My DQ chocolate dipped cone is without a signature swirl! Clearly it was not a foody kind of day.

Birthday Cake 1 of 2



My Birthday was on the 21st and seeing as I celebrated it early with my family, I decided to make my own birthday cake! I do make my own cakes often and actually prefer it. lol It's two layers of vegan dark chocolate cake with fresh strawberry compote in between them and a whipped chocolate frosting encasing it. It was a mini cake, being only 5 inches in diameter! I found this to be the prefect size for my sweet-toothless family of four. 

P.S. I finally got to use my Callebaut Crispearls in white and dark chocolate as well as strawberry! Yum. The whole cake was made vegan except for those little spheres.

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Hi, I'm Janetta from Toronto. I cook, bake and often veganize recipes. I photograph nearly everything and those photos will most likely end up being posted here. I've got a little black cat named Tank, who's really cute and a little bit nosy. You'll see a lot of photos of her too!

Contact me at: jubesandtank@gmail.com

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