Sunny days of summer

Another weekend come and gone.

I spent my entire weekend in Kingston and absolutely loved it! The BF came over late on Friday night and we drove downtown to have a couple of drinks at Tango on King Street. We then took a moonlight stroll by the harbor.

On Saturday we woke up early and after a quite breakfast (our go-to weekend breakfast is very simple but tasty and filling! Scrambled eggs, toast, yogurt, and fruit. This time around we substituted the toast for Montreal Bagels!). We then headed for a ride to the Garlic Fields (http://www.garlicfieldsgourmet.com/index.html) to splurge on a freshly baked muffin. Seriously, for $0.75 you get a freshly baked muffin that tastes like butter and sugar (but not too much so that it's gross). It's hands down the best muffin I've ever had.

We were a bit early so we stopped by the side of the road so that I could pick some wild flowers.


I spend the entire afternoon making salads, dinner, and cheesecake. The salads were inspired by the very beautiful freshly picked that morning veggies from Garlic Fields.


For dinner we had a gorgeous tomato basil sauce over whole wheat bow tie noodles.

Tomato Basil Sauce

4 summer kissed tomatoes, chopped
2 gloves of garlic, crushed
1 green onion, chopped
2 leaves fresh basil, chopped
a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt, pepper
drizzle of olive oil
splash of red wine
milk or cream at the end

Bake all of that at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour (keep checking since it can dry our if the tomatoes aren't very juicy or there wasn't enough oil). Blend in blender and poor in milk or cream until desired consistency is reached. Salt to taste. Serve with fresh basil on top! A variation would be to add some sausage.

My weekend ended with a beautiful bike ride from one side of Wolf Island to the other (about 25km). My brother and I packed our bag with tasty salads, lots of water, and some yummy energy bars I made with dark chocolate, nuts, cranberries, coconut, a banana to bind, and oats (no bake! Just refrigerate). The trek was about an hour and twenty minutes (including eating time). It was my first time on the ferry too! To fuel up after the ride we went to Atomica restaurant on Brock for beers and a panini sandwich.


Most importantly here is the cheesecake update:

We've got the base mastered. It's a testament to not fixing something if it isn't broken. I took the most basic New York Cheesecake recipe from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese website and made that. The pops were easy to make, but, as before, the key is to skewer them, refrigerate for a few hours, then dip them in toppings. They've turned out better than expected! The clincher? I guess you'll have to wait for after the competition next Saturday! Wouldn't want anyone knowing what the winning cheesecake is! Here's a hint:


Have a restful Sunday night and I'll see you on the flip side (last work week before my holidays!).