Sullivan & Bleeker

My friend introduced me to another cupcake place.  They currently don’t have their own storefront as of yet.  You can either purchase their baked goods from supermarkets such as Pusateri's or call ahead and pick up from where they bake the products.

My friend called ahead, placed an order and picked up at their 'baking' location.  Lucky us, my super generous friend shared 2 cupcakes with us.  We were given a red velvet and the Chief Wiggum.  Red velvet is pretty self explanatory, chocolate cupcake that is coloured red (supposed to be from the reaction of the cocoa and vinegar, but now is usually from food colouring) topped off with a cream cheese frosting.  The Chief Wiggum is a chocolate cupcake with coffee frosting topped with a mini donut.  The cupcake base was just ok, it was borderline dry.  The flavour of the frosting for both cupcakes were good, but I wasn't a fan of how heavy frosting was.  I give them bonus points for creativity for the Chief Wiggum combination.

Sullivan & Bleeker Cupcakes

Left: Chief Wiggum, Right: Red Velvet

We also bought some of their cookies to try from a Pusateri's.  The pack that we got contained 6 large cookies, with chocolate chip, s'mores, and red velvet flavours.  Chocolate chip and s'mores were very standard, but the red velvet was very good and chewy!  Price I think was $9 for 6 cookies.

For all the parents out there that are looking for a nut free bakery for your kid's birthday parties, Sullivan & Bleeker is a good option.  It's much better tasting than one of the biggest named nut free bakeries out there.

Sullivan & Bleeker

http://sullivanandbleeker.com

Main's Mansion

Mains Mansion is a bar/pub located on Main Street Markham.  I would never have expected it to serve breakfast/brunch, let alone it be a good breakfast/brunch place.  My friends who suggested us meet here told us to count the number of different types of fruits when our meals arrive.  I looked puzzled, since other places usually serve a slice of melon and a slice of orange along with the meal.  When my meal arrived I was pleasantly surprised.  I started to count the fruit, and lost count at 17.  There’s more than 17 different fruits occupying half of my plate along with my eggs, potatoes, and toast.  This little unsuspecting place serves a very healthy version of brunch.  I highly recommend giving this place a try!

Brunch at Main's Mansion

Main's Mansion

144 Main St Markham North, 

Markham, ON

L3P 5T3

905-472-1114

Hours: Everyday 11am-2am

            Saturday 9am - 2am

            Sunday 9am - 2am

            Weekend Brunch 9am-3pm

http://www.mainsmansion.com/index.html

Strawberry Season

I try to buy and consume local produce as often as I can.  During the warmer months, its much easier to do than during the winter months.  In my backyard, I grow my own tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes and lettuce.  This year I have also added swiss chard as well.  Truly organic veggies!  I'm not a huge advocate on the whole organic thing, but thats because there's no real regulations on what organic means in Canada.  I just like because I know i didn't put any pesticides/fertilizer in my food, that I will be consuming that much less of those chemicals in my system.

Canada Day, I didn't have anything to do.  Nothing was open, and well, the places that were open, would have been rammed with people.  And seeing that I can get a bit claustrophobic, I try and avoid those situations as much as I can.  The local farm that I tend to buy my summer veggies from turned out to be open all day on Canada Day and they have Pick Your Own (PYO) strawberries.  So the hubby and I decided that it would be fun to go pick some strawberries.  Well, I wanted to pick strawberries because I've never done it before, and the hubby just wanted to play with another new camera he bought.

19th Avenue Farms charge $5 per person over the age of 5 to enter their strawberry fields.  You can either bring your own containers or buy their plastic buckets to hold the strawberries.  Once you pay, you board a their bus which takes you to their back field where the strawberry fields are located.  I never  realized how big this farm was!  You then get assigned to a strawberry 'row' and that is all yours for the picking.  Your row would not have been picked at all for the the day, ensuring that there are ripe berries for you to be plucking and taking home.  You are told not to jump from row to row, but there were both kids and adults doing that.  I was all prepared for the muddy soils, until when I got to my row, that they had placed clean hay between the strawberry rows to make sure that your shoes don't get dirty.  First thing the hubby noticed was, wow these strawberries are tiny!  He's used to eating supermarket strawberries which are huge and pumped full of fertilizer.  I couldn't help it, and snuck a few fresh strawberries as soon as I plucked them off the plant.  After about an hour, we were happy with our haul and got back on the bus to take us back.  Our haul ended up costing $20 something.  But they deduct the $5 admission fee off the cost of the strawberries.  So essentially the $5 fee is to ensure a $5 minimum is spent.

Strawberry Haul!

Belly 16 Vanilla Bean Ice Cream & Fresh Strawberries