Soli and I went for a late lunch at Pizzeria Napoletana in Little Italy this weekend.

My full review can be found here, at Midnight Poutine.

And my abbreviated review:

The Bufala Pizza with tomato sauce, sliced garlic, fresh basil, and buffalo mozzarella was delicately-flavoured, very fresh and subtle.

The Napoletana, with mushrooms, mozzarella, anchovies and parmesan was the exact opposite – salty and very strong.

However, both were equally delicious, and next time, we gotta get the gnocchi!

The other night, I saw this strange looking hunk of cheese in the dairy bin at the cornerstore. It was a vacummed-pack bulb of white cheese, strands of it all braided up together with flecks of black in it. Being a fanatic cheese-lover, I picked it up and Soli announced it was tressé, a Middle Eastern cheese similar to those mozarella cheese strings. Needless to say, we purchased it.

I can’t find much information about this cheese online; the best I could find called it (or something very similar) Armenian string cheese. The black specks are nigella seeds, also popularly known as ‘black cumin’. They’re supposed to have a faint strawberry taste, but to tell the truth, I didn’t really notice a flavour.

The cheese, however, is a different story! Soli soaked it in water, as it’s so densely packed, it’s impossible to…unstring. After it had soaked, we were able to pull these white strands apart and pop them in our mouths. If I had to give this stuff a name, I would call it cheese bubblegum – its texture is very chewy, and its taste quite salty. It reminded me of cheese curds, the stuff poutine is made of.

It really was delicious, and Soli threw together a quick salad of lettuce, mint, cucumbers and tomatoes with a lemon-olive oil-garlic dressing. A few cheese strings tossed on top, and it was one great snack! (Have I ever mentioned Soli makes the best salads EVER?)

Not sure what else you could do with this cheese. I bet it melts wonderfully, and I certainly wouldn’t turn down a grilled-string-cheese sandwich.

The smell of baking oatmeal cookies is pretty hard to beat. Except for eating them, of course.

This cookie recipe is fast and super easy and pretty delicious. The cookies get nice and crispy around the edges, and stay soft and thick in the middle. The cinnamon stands out well, and the amount of oats makes you almost believe you are eating something healthy. A handful of flax seeds thrown into the dough helps with that naive thought as well. This recipe is versatile enough to accommodate pretty much any ingredient you wanted to toss in.

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cookie sheet, greased (or lined with silicone mat)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

¾ cup butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
¾ cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp cinnamon
2 ½ cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup raisins

1. Cream the first six ingredients in a large bowl on medium speed of electric mixer until light and creamy.

2. Combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon.

3. Add to creamed mixture, beating on low speed, until blended. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and raisins (I also threw in 1/4 cup flax seeds at this point).

4. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden. Cool for 5 minutes on sheet and transfer to rack and cool completely.