Yes, tomato water. While it’s a crap load of work and involves a lot of time, it is worth the effort as tomato water truly captures the essence of tomatoes in a single sip. I’d highly recommend you give it try … especially if you’ve a load of fresh tomatoes waiting to be used.

2) prepare your tomato water capture device (a nonreactive bowl, tall pot and a strainer); 3) line the strainer with cheesecloth


4) load whatever tomatoes you have into a blender with a generous amount of salt; 5) puree until smooth


6) pour into the cheesecloth; 7) carefully gather up and tie the sides


8) tie the cheesecloth and suspend with a wooden spoon over the bowl: 9) place in fridge for 24 hours and you’re done (no comments about the amount of alcohol in our fridge please)

I served the tomato water with a fabulous salad of english cucumber, anise and radish that I mandolined, baby arugula, tomatoes and pine nuts that I toasted in some very hot Hungarian paprika.

G prepared homemade chicken fingers to accompany this that were to-die-for. The fingers were first covered in dijon and mayonnaise, then floured and dipped in a milk/egg batter and finally breaded in panko and corn flakes with special spices. From there, they headed to a quick moment in the deep fryer before being finished in the oven. They were AMAZING!

11) prepare your breading and dredging station; 12) the chicken fingers after flouring


13) the chicken fingers after breading; 14) OMG, so moist and tender

I also made up a batch of basil-infused vodka in preparation for a “Spaghetti and Spa” evening we’re hosting here tomorrow night. Making your own vodka-infusions is so simple and so much more affordable then heading to your local liquor store to buy the stuff.

I made the list! As a charter member of Canada’s leading DVD rental company, Zip.ca, I finally made the list as one of Canada’s top movie reviewers on Thursday evening. My thanks to Zip’s roughly 500,000 members for this honour. Yay me! Now, if I could only do the same on the Internet Movie Database. While I am lucky to be listed as an external movie reviewer there, it will be sometime before I make the top 25 list of the world’s movie Bible site.

Finally a shout-out to my friend, recording artist and entertainment guru, Will Wong, for his fabulous coverage of the world’s greatest film festival, the Toronto International Film Festival over the past ten days. Will reported on CP24 on all the comings and goings of this year’s festival. You can see the stars and hear the gossip here.

PS. I LOVE the new Xanga photo uploader.