Lunch with Tori Spelling

Normally I tend to steer clear of mainstream brands, but I was intrigued by McCain Foods choice of Tori Spelling as their spokesperson for their new Ultra Thin Crust Pizzas.

After all, Tori is a celebrity and mogul with numerous books, reality television shows with her Canadian-born husband Dean McDermott and children, and products on the market as well as InvenTORI, a store featuring home and beauty products. How does pizza fit into her life?

It turns out despite her fame, she is a warm, giggly ray of sunshine who has a Mom’s club and is like many women – trying to do it all and keep her kids and husband fed in the meantime. On Wednesday on the Rooftop Patio at the Thompson Hotel in Toronto, she seemed genuine and all of this, 7 months pregnant looking stunning in a gorgeous vintage Valentino yellow floral dress.

She remarked that her son Liam doesn’t like vegetables, but liked the pizza, which she saw as a great thing. And that’s when I realized that while Tori could be a hands-off mom if she wanted to be – she’s got the money for it – she chooses to have playdates and people over and eat frozen pizza. I really admire that. And her.

The pizzas themselves  – Roasted Mushroom & Garlic, Pollo and Spinach & Provolone -  were undoubtedly well-researched, as they have a cracker thin crust, making you feel like you aren’t having any carbs at all, and the ingredients are all things you’d pick up at the grocery store – breadcrumbs, butter, onions, etc.  They are also quite tasty and don’t feel have the usual frozen supermarket pizza acidic flavours that linger long after you’ve eaten.

A representative from McCain told me that the company had considered other folks to be the face of the campaign - Bethenny Frankel , amongst them – but having seen Tori Spelling in person this week, I think they made a very smart choice.

Still eating. Cooking, not so much.

Look, I know it seems like forever since I last wrote, but it’s not because I haven’t been eating or thinking about food every single moment of the day.

It’s just that it’s still been too hot to cook.

Sigh.  I have had some wonderful meals in restaurants in the meantime: Portuguese on College, a venison burger in Summerhill (pictured above), memorable Indian on King and again on the Danforth, Greek with an long-time friend, Korean with a newer friend, introducing my Mom to North Vietnamese cooking (she loved it!), pizza and wine with a woman I knew 10 years ago and am so glad to be reunited with.

That’s not all, of course, but you get the idea.

I’ve shifted much of my writing now over to food and now that the evenings are getting cooler, I’m starting to prepare menus and defrost things.

Get ready.

I’m back.

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be at the stove.

Before the guests arrive

There are many problems I’ve been able to overcome throughout my years of cooking and entertaining.

But one that still eludes me is trying to eat before having people over for a party.

See, if it’s a dinner party, that problem is immediately solved – you get to eat with everyone – but when you’re just having people over for drinks, it’s difficult.

After all, I’ve just spent hours cleaning everything – you don’t want to have more dishes to do.  And do you really want people smelling lamb chops or curried fish as they come through the door?  I’ve spent the day trying to eliminate any odours – I don’t want to add any.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a dear friend’s for birthday drinks and a movie.  I asked what they did about supper beforehand.  Lovely Jill sighed and furrowed her brow.  “Pizza slices, while we were out getting a cake.”  She certainly wasn’t happy about it, but had given in to the combination of need and time pressure.

Which happens every time we entertain and I’m not serving dinner (Even on these nights, I often cook up 7 -10 appetizers but because everyone was coming and going – long weekend plans – I resisted, but it was hard.  Really, really hard).

So last night we didn’t have dinner at all.  I had a muffin from the batch I’d made on the weekend and an apple.  Scott didn’t eat at all.  By the time 9 pm rolled around, I was ravenous, but party snacks just don’t fill the void.

What do you do to eat and not have to reclean the kitchen, etc. before your guests arrive?

Olive want

All I want is to be able to find a jar, not a can, of sliced black olives.

I have been to 34 different shops so far and haven’t been able to find one.

For under $12, that is.

Yes, I can live with the green, pizza ones. But for the life of me I just can’t figure out why they are so hard to find.