The Return of The Big Mac Sauce

I have been a vegetarian since I was a teen. Technically, because I eat fish and seafood, some people refer to my eating habits as those of an aquatarian, a pescetarian or pesco-vegetarian. Whatever you want to call it, let's just say that I haven't eaten meat in 15 years. Which means I haven't eaten a Big Mac in 15 years. While it's probably better for me to stay away from McDonald's food, I can still have the occasional craving for the famous sauce, can't I?

So when my sister mentioned that she made Big Mac sauce the other day, having found a recipe from the famous Quebec chef Ricardo, it didn't take long for me to chop up onions and stir mayo around in my own kitchen. I will spare you the step by step photos---it's not a particularly pretty sauce. However, it tastes exactly the same as the real thing and it is indeed, immensely satisfying, especially for someone who has not had a Big Mac in over a decade. Forget the terrible cardboard bun, the barely-made-of-beef patty and the questionable orange cheese at the bottom of your McDonald's burger. You can now have their delicious sauce over your own tasty meat or meatless patty and add whatever you want to it. You can even make it organic if you want. I'm here to report that it is just as good on a veggie burger.

I made this sauce fairly early in the day and had to ask myself if it is wrong to have a spoonful of mayo sauce at 11 am? I decided that yes, it wasn't entirely appropriate to be eating condiments straight-up in the morning. So I limited myself to half a spoonful. It's pretty addictive.

Summer came late this year in Vancouver. In fact, its August tomorrow and the sun hasn't really arrived yet. I'm going to pretend that it is sunny and warm outside, have a BBQ anyway and grill up a nice veggie burger with lots of Big Mac sauce (and the real meat deal for my man). Hope you do the same, I highly recommend it.

Big Mac Sauce

from Ricardo

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon French dressing

1 tablespoon sweet relish

1 tablespoon dill pickle, finally chopped

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon ketchup

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Salt and pepper

Combine ingredients and stir. Refrigerate.

Oops, did I forget to mention that this is not a healthy sauce by any means? Sorry.

Sunday Suppers & The Pantry

Since we are on the subject of small businesses and the great experience they offer their neighbourhood, I would like to share with you two concepts that I admire immensely.

photo above: Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers

I fell in love with Sunday Suppers a few months ago, but I can't quite remember how I came across it. Its founder, Karen Mordechai, is a wedding and food photographer who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and small child. Karen does an incredible job of food styling and her attention to detail is quite impressive. So far, she happens to be the best food photographer I have discovered (though if you know or can think of anyone that you find just as good, please send me contact and/or website information, I would love to explore new faces and view inspiring work).

all photos above: Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers

The softness of the light in every photo makes me envious of her talent. The combination of colours and angles in her pictures make every dish and each ingredient pop out beautifully in a unique way. Karen organizes events from cooking classes to theme parties in the gorgeous kitchen of her apartment and I would move to New York just to attend one of her evening gatherings (well, let's be fair, there are many, many more reasons to relocate to New York, this is just one of them). The experiences that she creates and captures on film are as enticing as they are stunning.

all photos above: Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers

The second business concept I want to share with you is a newer one, located in Seattle. It is the creative space of Brandi Henderson, Olaiya Land and Brandon Petit of Delancey's Restaurant and it is called The Pantry. Essentially, it is a small retail space and community kitchen where the three business partners offer locally-sourced catering, cooking classes by local chefs (for beginners and professionals) and a la famiglia dinners. It's simple, rustic, welcoming and I love it.

all photos above via I Made That

I haven't been to Seattle since it opened, which was not very long ago, but I have heard great things about it already. Their classes, including lessons in sustainable seafood cooking, jam and ice cream making, the mastering of eggs, an introduction to pizza and mexican food, chocolates, pickles, Moroccan street food, bartending, cheese-making and even doughnut making, are almost all sold out every week until November. The Pantry will be offering a food photography class as well and I can't believe it's already sold out. I'm disappointed that I won't get to go to a class for some time, but am also extremely happy for their success.

photo above via I Made That

If you live in or near Seattle and are interested in reading more about The Pantry, this is where Brandi wrote about it. Molly Winzenberg of Orangette, also known as wife of Brandon Petit and good friend of both Brandi and Olaiya, wrote about it here. Molly wrote a beautiful article about the collaboration between friends and I couldn't agree more with what she had to say. I think that the best part of both of these businesses is that they are the result of a collaboration between different people. Sunday Suppers, for example, enlists the help of small local flower shops to decorate the tables and deals with local farms to source the ingredients used to make those tasty Sunday dinners. They also recruit local graphic designers when it comes to menus and invitations and send guests home with a parting gift, always locally made, if not handmade by the team itself.

photo: Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers

The Pantry, on the other hand, is the result of a group of friends coming together and opening a space where everyone can work and have a great time doing what they love. It's a space where an everyday job can feel more like a gathering of friends and the result of all this hard work is a charming business where strangers and good friends can feel at home. Customers pick up on that kind of vibe right away and want to return because they feel welcomed. I believe that is a huge part of a successful company. If I ever open a space of my own, I will make sure to have a great business idea like this one, find many creative ways to reach out to customers and surround myself with a fantastic crew of friends and partners who will make going to work an enjoyable thing to do and with whom I can share those experiences.

photo above: Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers

Unfortunately, Vancouver is not yet open to such ideas, with laws that prohibit restaurant and business owners from doing...well, everything. Here, retail and restaurant cannot be combined, spaces cannot be shared and business ideas cannot merge. Perhaps one day I will live in a city with more openness to such concepts and I would love nothing more than to be a part of something like this. If I ever live in New York (I should be so lucky), I would work for Sunday Suppers without hesitation, for free if I must. Take note Karen Mordechai.

Though I enjoy my day job, doing what you love for a living is still a foreign concept to me. This very website is "based on the belief that when you focus on doing what you love on a daily basis, everything else just falls into place", as I chose to remind you (ok, mostly myself) at the top of the page. Sometimes I forget that. I find it incredibly inspiring to see people who risk everything to pursue what they love to do and believe in. It is said that "wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision" (Peter Drucker). I'm not quite at the courageous decision making part yet, but I will continue to find inspiration in others who have dared before me until it is my time to be called an entrepreneur. What would you do everyday, all day, if you were given a chance?

The Making of a Store, Part 3

Have you ever watched Restaurant Makeover? We haven't had cable in years now, but when we used to watch TV, it was one of a handful of shows that I found very interesting. I'm a sucker for a makeover, but the kind that involves hammers, flooring and wallpaper, not nail polish and a trendy haircut (although those can be fun too). I have written about store makeovers before here and here. Every time the Design Sponge posts a store makeover, I get so excited. I wish that they had a weekly column. Come to think of it, if you have links or before-and-after photos of stores you like, send them to me, I would be happy to do some more research.

I love seeing empty spaces turned into unique little shops, particularly when done on a humble budget, which always seems to bring out the creative side in people. I find that is when the best ideas are born, from the necessity to think outside the box and come up with smart, clever ways to decorate, those that cost nothing but look amazing. Indeed, a tight budget often brings out the best in all of us, whether it is through digging into your closet for that dress you haven't worn in years and giving it an upgrade with new buttons and a belt, or finally fixing that old table that has been lying around in your garage instead of buying a whole new dining room set. The pendant lights above are made from old fans. They look great and they are one of a kind.

I especially like spaces that appear hopeless and turn into cozy little shops. This one is particularly impressive since it was a moldy old hardware store and was transformed into something completely opposite, a girly flower shop named Honey of a Thousand Flowers.

As much as I love seeing humble neighbourhood shops thrive, I am equally disheartened when they don't. My own neighbourhood has slowly lost a bit of its charm over the years and I now walk in front of many spaces for lease, with rents too high for anyone to succeed. I try my best to spend my money close to where I live, buying local and supporting small businesses as much as I can. I know that I could probably save a few bucks by ordering online or going to big box stores but I am conscious of the impact that my money has over the long-term success of such stores and I want to see them around for decades more. I cannot imagine a world where mom-and-pop stores don't exist and have been replaced entirely by big corporate chains and I often wonder if people associate their shopping decisions with the disappearance of neighbourhood shops. If you feel that a small business in your city offers good product, great service and a cool shopping experience, don't think twice about buying something from them, support your neighbourhood businesses, even if you could save a dollar or two purchasing from a bigger store. It really does make a difference in the long run. You might find it really sad when you realize that the shop is gone and didn't make it and by then, it will be too late. Hats off to all those courageous people who have opened their own store and do their best to keep it going. And good luck to Honey of a Thousand Flowers.

Summertime Preserving

Anyone who has ever attempted to make jam knows that it isn't a difficult task. Seriously, all you have to do is boil fruit and sugar together until it's thick enough and you have yourself a decent jam.

However, making jam, the kind that has the perfect consistency and colour, just the right amount of fruit to sugar ratio and the proper level of acidity to seal the jars, requires a little more experience. There have been a few jam fiascos in my kitchen. Some jams have been so sweet that the type of fruit used was almost unrecognizable, some were too runny for a knife to grasp and spread on toast. Then there were those that were so hard that you couldn't stir it into a bowl of yogurt, those that tasted so boozy that you couldn't have a spoonful before 8 pm and finally, I have almost tossed perfectly delicious jams into the garbage because some of the fruit separated from its tasty syrup and floated to the top of the jar or there was too much foam left in the jam. Unacceptable.

Then there are the pickled vegetables. Don't even get me started on the relishes, the chutneys and the salsas, that's a whole different game. I definitely spend a lot of time in my kitchen, talking about finding the right texture, level of sweetness and the perfect amount of vinegar and salt. Canning is an old-fashioned method of preserving and to some, it is a ridiculous waste of time. They simply cannot wrap their head around the idea of spending a whole day in the kitchen, spooning hot liquid into jars and sealing them for future use. For those of us who obsess over the colour and thickness of cooked fruit, I can think of few things that I find more satisfying than hearing the sound of that lid snapping and sealing or looking at rows and rows of colourful little jars at the end of the day.

See how they are glowing? Don't tell me that's not exciting!

Over the years, I have learned my way around a pot of boiling fruit, with the help of trusty cookbooks and, more importantly, friends who share the same interest. It may not be everyone's cup of tea to spend their paycheck on flats of berries and Mason jars, but if you happen to have a friend who does, be very nice to her. Chances are that there is a huge stash of jam hidden somewhere in her house and you will get to sample a few different kinds with a fantastic cheese plate. You might even leave with a jar or two.

Living Room Gallery

I figure I owe you a little interior decorating fix. You have all been so patient, reading as I go on and on about my trip to Italy, the details of my vacation and my (many) meals. Thank you, readers, for still being here.

It's July and many of you are suffering from an intense heat wave that has not reached British Columbia. My understanding is that everywhere else in Canada it is too hot to cook, work or do any activity that requires much body movement. Here in Vancouver, I could go for an hour jog and still require a sweater and scarf. I have passed the vitamin D-deprived depression state and am now deep into the angry and bitter stage, the one where I have lost all hope that I will ever see sunshine again.

For you lucky tanned and freckled people out there, I guess all that is left for you to do for is take it easy in the comfort of your air-conditioned home and look at some lovely photos online. This post is a big one. I have been saving photos of my favourite websites without sharing them with you for far too long and it's about time that I give you some ideas to help refresh your living rooms. The snowy cold weather will return at some point and by then, you will be ready for renovation projects to keep you busy during those long winter months. In the meantime, enjoy the sun for me, would you?

photo: Style Files

photo: Remodelista

photo: Remodelista

photo: Desire To Inspire

photo: Design Sponge

photo: Design Sponge

photo: Design Sponge

photo: Design Sponge

photo: Design Sponge

photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

photo: Desire To Inspire

Photo: Birch and Bird

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Elle Decor

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Style Files

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Remodelista

Photo: Remodelista

Photo: Apartment Therapy

Photo: Apartment Therapy

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Remodelista

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Desire to Inspire

Photo: Style at Home

Photo: Apartment Therapy

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Design Sponge

Photo: Remodelista

p.s. please forgive the photos without a source cited. I sincerely apologize, I started saving these a long time ago, before it ever occured to me that I should keep track in order to give proper credit. If you happen to see a photo that you recognize, let me know and I will gladly add a source.