The Week in Yum - A Trip to Buffalo, Coffee Tasting at Second Cup and My Upcoming Cooking Class

We finally made it to Buffalo for a trip to Trader Joe and Wegman's so I could stock up on some treats. Wegmans always means a flat of Rotel and my beloved Poland Springs Water (I KNOW IT'S JUST BOTTLED WATER BUT IT'S DELICIOUS WATER)

Despite our best intentions, we always eat at the same place in Buffalo so this time, Shack chose the Lake Effect Diner for a late lunch before we started for home. I guess he remembered it from an episode of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives aka Giant Portions of Really Unhealthy Foods That Will Guarantee The Gout.

The diner, reminiscent of a 50's Airstream, was adorable and spotless although absolutely empty when we showed up at about 3pm. I ordered a Greek Salad with some chicken that was the size of two heads with really fresh, crispy lettuce and tons of crumbled feta. I was assured, by our lovely waitress, that all dressings, jams, etc are made in house when I gave the little take out cup of dressing the side eye and she looked like an honest women so I took her word for it. Nothing earth shattering but it was fresh and tasty and could feed a family of ten, although I would love it if they switched out the canned olives for some whole, calamatas but it made up for that in sheer volume.

Shack's BBQ Meatloaf sandwich was also ginormous and tasty but make sure you get a knife and fork because it is impossible to eat the whole thing like a sandwich as it was spilling out all over the place, just oozing with homemade BBQ sauce.

Definitely worth a visit when you are in Buffalo for no nonsense, filling, tasty diner food.

A busy week of recipe testing resulted in a Creme Brulee with White Chocolate Cookie Butter Ganache - I used my Trader Joe Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter and took the PC version of Speculoos Cooke Butter out for a test drive with spectacular results. Recipe here

I also finally perfected a vegetarian three bean version of my pressure cooker chili so keep an eye out for that recipe. It will also be one of the dishes we cook at my Pressure Cooker Cooking Class at Loblaws on September 29 at the Musgrave Loblaws in the east end of Toronto. If you want to come out and join the fun, you can register online here

Tasty cheese and bacon burger at the Aberfoyle Antique Market

Second Cup #BetterNotBitter

I finished up the work week with a coffee tasting to celebrate Second Cup's new #BetterNotBitter campaign at their swanky 289 King St West outlet. Chris Sonnen, Second Cup's coffee expert showed us how to properly taste black coffee by sniffing and slurping, much like wine tasting. Every adult LOVES to be encouraged to slurp. I am a fan of this new look with all kinds of on trend, fancy coffee preparations with high quality product and I LOVE that they are probably the only company left that is still 100% Canadian owned and operated. They have shifted to small batch roasting, working with an award winning Canadian Roaster and it shows, to me at least. This particular location has become a regular pitstop for me since it's right across from the TIFF Bell Lightbox and I can sit at the coffee bar and charge my phone with one of their complimentary phone chargers while I sip on some coffee, although I think I might start slurping it on the regular.

My Greeter was suitably dressed for the hot, muggy weather, codpiece and all

Since it's almost fall, in retail world anyway, there was a bevy of freshly baked pumpkin flavoured treats with little pumpkin hand pies, muffins and scones to tempt us and since I much prefer my pumpkin in my food and not in my coffee, I was happy to sample the sweet treats and stick to delicious, rich flat white.