Teh Culinary Skillz

2008-12-09T00:25:00.000-04:00

coconut grilled peaches

2008-03-30T16:37:00.000-03:00

Not exactly what I had in mind, but they blew canned peaches out of the water.

Brunch.

2008-02-25T09:16:00.000-04:00

Father's Day buffet. Those lemon scones were AWESOME.

thai peanut stir-fry

2008-01-30T16:41:00.000-04:00

Pasta: the staple and failsafe student standby. It was also free!

not dead. I promise!

2007-12-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

So it's been a terribly busy semester hereabouts, which would explain the drastic reduction in blog posts. Also, I managed to destroy my digital camera on a canoeing trip with the boyfriend, so I'm hoping fervently that Christmas will yield a new camera, or at least a non-digital camera I can borrow.

In the meantime, though, I HAD to commemorate the cooking of my very first turkey, which my mother kindly sent to my roommates and I for the lean time at the end of the semester when none of us had money.

So I took the built-in webcam from my MacBook and took some pictures.

It has a FACE! Honest to goodness!

Isn't it pretty? It was definitely yummy.

As soon as I return home next week, I'm going into full DIY and cooking mode, so expect a lot more exciting things coming up a lot sooner!

Cheers,
Meg

BEST RESTAURANT EVAR.

2007-10-30T16:47:00.000-03:00

Now, with a wine option like that (if it hadn't been the middle of the day...), plus a whalewatching business operating out of the joint (which we took advantage of before lunch), you'd think that would be enough to make this a pretty cool restaurant.

You'd be wrong. The decor was charming, the locale was great (way out in the middle of nowhere on a little island), there were boxes full of Trivial Pursuit cards to pass the time, and the service was as homey and friendly as could be. They even let the patrons use the piano in the dining room, and the sweetest little girl from one of the other tables played a bit while we were there. She was good, too.

Oh, and the food? The food was phenomenal. The menu had something for everyone (and there were 8 of us with very different palates) and I don't think anyone was disappointed.

The problem is? It was months ago, and I'm still thinking about that peanut butter pie...

Cheers,
Meg

Pie and a Song

2007-10-12T22:19:00.000-03:00

She's my cherry pie

Cool drink of water

Such a sweet suprise


Tastes so good

Make a grown man cry


Sweet cherry pie

Oh yeah


She's my cherry pie

Put a smile on your face

Ten miles wide


Looks so good

Bring a tear to your eye

Sweet cherry pie



Sweet cherry pie

Yeah


Swing it!

Yeah, so I'm not original. But who cares when there's pictures of cheery pie to ogle?

2007-08-22T16:33:00.000-03:00

Sometimes after a long day of editing Powerpoints, writing speaker's notes, sending emails, consulting with your supervisors and colleagues, and doing a bunch of research, a gal just needs to stop and smell the flowers.
Mmmm, that's better. Too bad the flowers don't smell quite as good as my first peach crumbles.

I'll be honest: I'm afraid of crumbles. I always, always, ALWAYS manage to screw up the topping somehow, even if I follow the recipe to a T. I've never figured out why this always seems to happen. It's really a shame, because I love crumbles, and I've watched my mother whip up a blueberry crumble in the time it takes to preheat the oven.

So on Sunday night, thanks to a pile of beautiful ripe peaches in my fridge, an unwillingness to pack for school, and an inspiring recipe from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook, I knew I had to make peach crumbles in individual ramekins and risk the crumble topping (after all, if it flopped, I'd still have yummy baked peaches underneath).
I prepared the peaches first, which I had never actually tried before. For those of you who were as ignorant to peach peeling as I was before Sunday, it was pretty easy: all you have to do is put your peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, place them immediately in cold water, and peel them one by one.
The boiling water loosens the skin from the inner fruity part of the peach, and the cold water bath keeps them from cooking (I think - this is about as scientific as I get). It's a bit messy, but far better than peeling them by hand (I know because I made the mistake of trying to peel by hand first).
The divine peaches looked awesome in Mom's new bird's-egg blue bowls, so of course I took loads of pictures to avoid starting the dreaded crumble topping.
With one last picture (or five) of the pretty ingredients in their pretty bowls and a deep breath, I started my foray into the crumble topping.
So it looked good, my flour, oats, and brown sugar all mixed together nicely. I only had one ingredient left: the wet one. Butter. Okay, actually it was margarine, but one must make do sometimes. I was quite worried, because I hadn't actually softened it in the microwave: I turned half of it into a puddle. "Oh, great," I thought as I walked apprehensively towards my bowl, "This crumble topping is going to be ruined too, I just feel it."
Unsurprisingly, my "crumble-topping-sense" pretty much sucks, and the topping turned out beautifully. There was one tense moment when I wasn't sure that I had added enough "butter", but I was, of course, wrong.
Gosh, isn't it beautiful? Look at it! So pretty! All those years of frustration, dissolved into nothing. thanks to my beautiful perfect crumble topping.

In a state that can only be described as elation, I whipped up the crumbles, spicing the sliced peaches with pinches of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and popped 'em into the oven, along with a few apple mini-crumbles (I ran out of peaches).My little brother asked me to take pictures of his fried egg for the blog, so I snuck my crumbles into the background. I'm such a terrible sister. I don't feel too bad, though, because his fried egg was an unphotogenic diva of a fried egg. And yes, they DID taste as good as they looked. Now THIS is what summer's all about. Until next time!Music of the day: "Crush", by Jennifer Paige (cheesy pop, yes, but oh well - my Dad likes the song and he's the purchaser of the peaches: the founder of the feast, as it were)

Sometimes, less is more.

2007-08-21T21:42:00.000-03:00

It is tomato season, and you know what that means in my house? Lots and lots of sandwiches and salads featuring everybody's favorite vegetable...er, fruit. I mean, even my little brother eats them, and he's the kind of guy who would make a meal out of only a big piece of steak (actually, this past weekend, he did - and I joined him, but I ate some humus afterward too).

And one thing my mom is good at is sandwiches. In particular, a VERY classic sandwich with tomatoes as a featured ingredient: BLTs. If it were possible to be in love with a sandwich, this would probably be my spouse (the utterly divine ham sandwich at Salvatore's in Halifax is a babe, but totally out of my league, unfortunately).

So since Tom, my little brother, spoiled my dreams of BLTs this weekend by preparing steak (and eating all the tomatoes in the house just to spite me), last night I finally got the sandwich I'd been craving for days. And oh, was it ever dreamy.

Since I made it myself, it wasn't quite as special as Mom's, but I know better than to complain. True love is true love, after all.

Music of the day: "Ganges a Go-Go" - Kalyanji and Anandji Shah with Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow, from the album Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars.

Frustration!

2007-08-16T17:13:00.001-03:00

So, these are supposed to be the lazy hazy crazy days of summer, right? Pretty foliage everywhere? Check.

Easy minimalist yummy cooking with fresh ingredients? Check.

Road trips to beautiful locales? Check.
Boozy thirst-quenchers? Check.

Picnics and party food? Check.

So why, oh why, does my Mac refuse to rotate my pictures?

brownies and cookies and tigers oh my!!

2007-07-26T14:51:00.000-03:00

Bonjour! It is I, Martha Stewart!! Queen of baking!! Psyche! It's ReemBean, alright, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but here I am with two new recipes to tickle your sweet tooth! These recipes were made in an attempt to please 3 very small hooligans, otherwise known as the spawns of satan, or Greg's 3 cousins, Monica 9, Kara 8, and Kevin 12.
First recipe on the list, and now Greg's favorite brownie recipe:

Orange Cappuccino Brownies
2 oranges
3/4 cup butter
Coarsley chop:
2 squares (1 oz each) semi sweet chocolate
2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules
3 eggs
1/4 cup orange flavored liqueur (Grand Marnier or Triple Sec)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 package (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

Grease 13x9 inch pan. Finely grate orange peel, and measure 2 teaspoons peel. Melt butter, chopped chocolate squares in large heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and espresso powder, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Beat in eggs one at a time with wire whisk, whisk in liqueur and orange peel. Beat flour into chocolate mixture until just blended, spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, until center is just set, and remove from oven, let cool on wire rack.

While brownies are baking, melt chocolate chips and shortening in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, after removing the brownies from the oven, spread melted chocolate over brownies and let cool completely.

Cut into 2 inch squares and garnish with thin strip of orange peel. To make thin strips of orange peel use citrus zester and tie the strips into little knots.
I'm a regular Martha Stewart! Don't they look awesome??

Second recipe is a version of chocolate chip cookies that is super awesome for kids.
Mini M&M cookies:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (12 oz) mini m&ms
1 cup peanut butter chips

Stir flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, in large bowl until fluffy. Then beat in eggs and vanilla, then add flour and blend on low until well blended. Stir in m&ms and peanut butter chips with mixing spoon. Drop heaping teaspoons full onto ungreased cookie sheet 3 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown, at 375 dedgrees F. Remove cookies from oven and let cool for a few minutes, then remove to cool on wire rack.

The verdict? So good Greg got mad at everyone because they ate all "his" cookies, and he only got one. I had to substitute the peanut butter chips in this recipe for Greg, so I used white chocolate/semi sweet chocolate swirl chips instead.

This is ReemBean, signing off.

A Red Kind of Day...

2007-07-17T10:40:00.001-03:00

Hello, all. It's Meg. I'm terribly sorry for dropping off the edge of the universe, dear readers. Work has been keeping me busy, as has re-reading the first six Harry Potter books in preparation for the release of the seventh and final book (I'm halfway through book 3 right now...will I be able to finish between 1000-2000 pages by Saturday?). Also, I have acquired a shiny new Mac laptop (his name is Squishy), and I've been spending a lot of my spare time converting from my PC ways. This has all led to very little cooking going on.
However, I did a fair bit of cooking in June, so here comes part of my backlog.

As I did last year, this year I made Dad's birthday cake. Instead of busting out my Nigella cookbooks, I allowed my father to make a request. He asked for a family favorite: Red Waldorf Cake. It's named after the hotel where it is said to have originated, according to family legend, and some distant cousin alledgedly paid 125 dollars in order to acquire the recipe. I have no clue how true this story is, but the cake IS delicious, so it doesn't really matter.
I started baking in the afternoon, happily mixing the odd red batter which smelled strongly of chocolate. I daydreamed about the final product on a pretty cake platter, covered in snow-white buttercream, and tried my best not to salivate.
Then the doorbell rang. I had gotten a package, as it turns out, and it contained my new red iPod. It couldn't have come on a more colour-appropriate day.

Gourmet Pizza For The Gourmand

2007-06-28T15:35:00.000-03:00

Good day, little reader(s). I am Reema Mk. 2, master chef extraordinaire. I've been training for weeks and weeks to perfect my craft, no longer satisfied with food that looks like someone coughed up a lung. While my predecessor Reema has failed to achieve this goal, I feel that, with this latest entry, I have achieved my long-sought dream.

Tonight's epic meal began just like any other in this household. I lay on a couch, deep in thought and pondering what I could possibly cook for dinner. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, it came to me: pizza! It was a genius idea, and I certainly had all of the ingredients. In addition, I've made pizza from scratch several times before, so it would be a piece of cake for me to cook it.

So, I assembled all of my ingredients.

After preparing the dough, my lovely assistant Tess added just enough tomato sauce to quench our ravenous appetite for the unfortunate red vegetable.
I felt that the frozen pizzas we found in the freezer would be a wonderful touch, and boy was it ever. Not only were they an excellent model for what my own pizza should look like, but they had been in the freezer for a couple of months and needed to get eaten.
Unfortunately, at this stage of the creation process my gourmet pizza doesn't look especially appetizing. But delicious? I think so!
After adding the only cheese that we had in the house--muenster--I added a few herbs and spices. The first herb is actually a product called Herbamare, which we got when my vegan cousin wanted to make Tofurkey palatable for the family. I also added cilantro and basil for that extra bit of flavor.

After cooking in a 425 degree oven for about ten minutes, one can easily tell that I'm quite excited by this ample fete. Unfortunately, it would seem I put a little too much muenster on my pizza, and some of it melted off. Luckily, I had the foresight to put a large baking pan underneath my pizza stone in case such a thing would happen. And how was this pizza? Just ask my lovely assistant!
The word "delicious" comes to mind. Mmm mmm good.

Feeding Moi!

2007-06-07T17:36:00.001-03:00

This, dear readers, is an adventure in Fettuccine Alfredo! It is my entry to Presto Pasta Nights over at http://onceuponafeast.blogspot.com/
Recipe calls for
3/4 pound fettuccine
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Generous dash white pepper
Generous dash ground nutmeg
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Make your fettuccine in boiling water
Mix heavy cream and butter until butter is melted and it boils a bit, then mix in white pepper, salt and nutmeg, then mix in cheese and remove from heat. Mix cheese until blended.
Drain your fettuccine and then poor in the sauce, then mix in the parsley. Garnish with a fresh sprig of parsley and voila!

2007-06-04T23:07:00.000-03:00

This past weekend, I went on a short road trip of sorts with my mother, grandmother, and mom's neighbour, Anne. A good time was had by all, taking in the beautiful scenery and stuffing ourselves full of awesome foodstuffs. Here are a few of the highlights:

Veggie sushi! It was made fresh a few minutes before I bought it. It had avocado, lettuce, cucumber, and carrot, which is never a combo I've seen in sushi before. I'm still not sure if there were chives in it too, but it doesn't matter because it was tasty.

The mini-macaron in front might look familiar to the two of you who've read this blog before, as it's a smaller version of the gorgeous chocolate macaron I raved about back in December. The same bakery that shows up at the Brewery Market in Halifax every week was also at the Market in Kentville, and because we were there earlier than when I usually go to markets, they still had plenty of pastries left (though all the big macarons were gone, sigh). Anyway, the mini version might just be better than the full one, since it has a much thinner layer of ganache but the addition of a piece of VERY good dark chocolate, which added new textural and flavour dimensions. YUMMY.

Also yummy was the exquisite chocolate-pistachio sable something-or-other. It was almost too beautiful to eat (emphasis on "almost"). I was quite glad I chose to eat the blackberry garnish last, because the clean taste of the fruit washed away the buttery richness of the ganaches very nicely. The ganaches were almost too rich; it would have been better if there had been less. The flavour of the sable cookie couldn't stand up to its toppings because it was far outnumbered. That's a shame, since the cookie was very good on its own. As a whole, though, I was very pleased with the delectable pastry - it was worth a foodgasm.

Mmm, spanakopita. One of my absolute favorite Greek dishes, if not my most favourite of all. It tastes like summer.

And now, for some nature shots, because the Annapolis Valley is beautiful:

My First Sushi

2007-06-03T15:55:00.000-03:00

Had you told me 3 years ago that one day I would be suffering from a serious jones for some sushi, I'd have laughed in your face. "Not only did I hate my first piece of sushi so much that I immediately named it one of my least favourite foods," I would have scoffed, "But I also cannot stand to eat seafood." I know, of course, that it is possible to eat sushi without getting seafood involved, as I did then, but if you eat sushi for any length of time you are bound to encounter fish at some point.

But Reema made me try it again... and again... and again, and the next thing you know it's one of my favorite meals, and I'm ordering king crab, lobster, and Alaska rolls without breaking a sweat.

Fast forward to about three weeks ago. My friend Travis is coming for a visit, and he likes sushi just as much as I do. Granted, he'd only eaten it once before - at a dinner where all three of the contributors to this blog were present, actually. Anyway, while cleaning in preparation for Travis' arrival I had found my sushi set. At that very moment I decided it was time to make some serious California rolls - because really, who DOESN'T like those?

Though attempting to make inside-out sushi was not as much of a success as I had hoped, it was still pretty yummy. I'm going to do more research next time.

I highly recommend the "Sushi Day" blog (see sidebar) if you're interested in making your own maki. It is totally worth the effort. We didn't get too creative with the recipe, but making up your own maki is a fun time.

Pad Thai (or, Why I'm not REAL white trash)

2007-05-19T02:26:00.000-03:00

Hello all!

As you may have noticed, there have been two posts recently which were not written by me, Meg. Reema and Reema mk. 2 (aka Alex, the guy responsible for the major design revamp of this blog) have each written an introductory post, and they both feature disgusting-looking food (you both know I love you to bits). I promise I haven't developed a case of schizophrenia.

But since this is (er, was) my food blog, I'd better keep up with the Reemases. So without further ado, I give you Pad Thai a la Meg (actually, I totally stole the four-page-long recipe from Chez Pim, but shhhhh)!

Okay, so it didn't start out very glamorously. This is reconstituted tamarind... stuff. The lady at the asian grocery store didn't tell us exactly what it was, and the packaging was in some language that I am unable to read. Mom and I took pictures because we thought it looked funny. Okay, and disgusting.

Have I mentioned lately that my mom is a fantastic multi-tasker? Unlike Reemas 2 and 2, I get an awesome lady helping out in the kitchen. Here she is socializing and slicing chicken simultaneously.

Thankfully, the ugly-looking tamaring melded together with some fish sauce and a ton of brown sugar to make a very sweet and delectable coating for our Pad Thai. Now for the stirfrying!

Actually, it's very difficult to stirfry really quickly, even WITH an assistant on hand, so no pictures. But isn't it a beautiful end result?

Ta-da! Until next time, folks.

Meg is Lazy, So Here I Am.

2007-05-19T00:17:00.000-03:00

Call me Reema Mk. 2, another of Meg's myriad friends that are aiming for internet stardom by posting on Teh Culinary Skillz. After months of work, I have passed Meg's rigorous examination in order to be accepted by a Food Blogging expert such as she. Like my predecessor, the lovely Ms. Reema, my food also looks like somebody vomited up a lung (you know I feel nothing but love toward you, Reema), but I assure you it tastes good.

Tonight's experiment was a result of dozens of minutes of negotiations between Meg and myself. The decision stemmed from the fact that my kitchen contains very few ingredients to put into anything, and so we came to a decision: let's make a quiche using every vegetable in the kitchen. Taking into account that I had no wheat for a crust or milk/cheese for it, a quick bit of googling yielded a wheat-less, dairy-less recipe called Sweet Broccoli Quiche, which was, in fact, nothing more than vegetables and egg poured into a pan and then baked.

The recipe:

A shitload of eggs
Three handfuls of frozen broccoli
A large amount of salt
A larger amount of pepper
One humongous potato
Perhaps one or more small onions
1 tsp. unsalted butter

Nevertheless, let's begin this simplistic experiment. On to the pictures!

From left to right: the container used to bake the quiche, onions, potatoes, eggs, and broccoli. As I said, I don't have much to work with here. I took out an extra potato and onion because I wanted to eat something while it cooked.

There's everything, pre-mixing. I rubbed butter all over the container and loaded the eggs with salt and pepper. The vegetables also received a brief two minutes in the microwave to soften up before being put into this unholy concoction.

I found some parmesan cheese at the last minute, which made it look even more like devil vomit.

After an hour of baking in a 350 degree oven, this is the finished product. I tested it by slicing at it with a knife, which is why it's sliced.

This is what it looks like on my plate. It resembles quiche in a way that makes me happy.

And there you have it: an easy, flavorful quiche that can be made with whatever the hell you have in the refrigerator. I'd recommend putting some more vegetables in it, or some bacon. I'd recommend covering the top with something so it doesn't look like shit. Don't believe me that it tastes good? Just look at this picture of my Dad, one of the satisfied eaters of my concoction.

This is my Dad eating it. We both enjoyed it. P.S. He doesn't look like a retard in real life.

Feeding the picky eater

2007-05-14T16:06:00.000-03:00

As Meg has already told you, I'll be spending the summer with my picky eater boyfriend, Greg. Since he is such a picky eater, it is a challenge to find recipes that he will enjoy, and a game of manipulation by allowing him to choose from various recipes so he can't say "I don't like so and so", because he chose it. So, I decided to go with an old faithful recipe for my first post, Lemon Garlic Chicken, and a new veggie recipe, Cheesy Cauliflower and Broccoli.
Lemon Garlic Chicken calls for :
Juice of one lemon
enough olive oil to coat the skillet
2 or 3 crushed diced garlic cloves (depending on the size, if they're small use more)
2 chicken breasts
seasoned fine bread crumbs
2 eggs, 1/3 cup of milk
shredded cheddar cheese

First, you must beat the eggs and milk together, then you dip the chicken breasts in the eggs and milk batter, drop the chicken breasts in a bag of dry bread crumbs and shake until coated. In the skillet, over medium, heat the olive oil, lemon juice and crushed diced garlic cloves, then drop the chicken in the pan and brown both sides. I'm paranoid about cooking chicken so I usually turn down the heat so it doesn't burn, and let it cook for a long while.
Don't slice it open to check for pinkness, it lets the juices run and then you'll end up with dry chicken. Once you're sure the chicken is done, shred some cheddar cheese on top if you'd like, and let melt for a couple minutes. I feel the cheddar cheese is a bit pointless, so I don't usually use it.

Cheesy broccoli and cauliflower calls for:
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 can milk
and 4 slices of cooked bacon, or more depending on your taste

First, you have to cook the broccoli and cauliflower, steaming it is healthier, but you can also boil it, only until tender crisp, so for a few minutes. In the meantime, heat the can of cheddar cheese soup with half a can of milk, then ad the cooked veggies to the soup, and ad crumbled bacon. Stir until all veggies are coated and bacon is mixed in.

And voila! Cheesy goodness with veggies and bacon, and lemony juicy chicken, fit for a picky eater.

I should mention that I used 3 chicken breasts instead of two because I didn't want the 3rd one to go bad in the fridge, so I used it anyway and split it in half for the two of us.

Be Our Guest!

2007-05-11T17:32:00.000-03:00

Hi all! I've been back home for few weeks now, and I'm settling in well. Once I get a job, I'll be all set. I've cooked a few things since I've been home but haven't had a chance to blog about them between visiting friends and family, babysitting, catching up on 8 months' worth of missed sleep, and reformatting my computer. Twice.

But the reason for this particular post is to inform you about my dear friend Reema. She is currently living with her boyfriend and has plenty of time to cook, so cooking is what she's been up to. However, the boyfriend is a picky eater, so she's spending a lot of time searching for recipes online. I recommended the food blogs that I link to on my food blog, and then Reema had a brilliant idea.

"You should let me be a guest blogger on your food blog!"

And so, ladies and gents, meet Reema. She's a charmer, I promise. After all, she converted me from a girl who wouldn't touch seafood into an Alaska roll addict and sushi aficionado.

She's already promised some delectable posts, and soon I'll be sharing my Pad Thai story. Happy May, everybody!

I'm not dead, I promise!

2007-04-18T12:19:00.000-03:00

I just haven't cooked much lately, and what I have cooked? Hasn't been very photogenic. And what has been photogenic? Took me so long to cook that I was too tired and/or busy to blog about it.

Also, this term has been really hectic at school. I'll be done in a few days, but I'm just counting down until then.

This summer, however, I will have plenty of free time and a fully-stocked kitchen at my disposal, and I am looking forward to getting back into food blogging again.

To tide you over, here are some pictures (some food, some not) of my fantastic vacation in Florida in February.

My first picture taken in Florida was of food. Typical. Unfortunately, I discovered that I don't really like Thai tea.

My uncle's dish: free range barbecued chicken. This was divine.

My dish was a chef's specialty called "Dreaming Chicken", and had lots of peanuts and veggies. It was yummy.

The view from the back of the boat on our snorkelling expedition in Key Largo. This is on our way past all the rich people's houses in the canal on our way to the ocean.

We were snorkelling 4 and 1/2 nautical miles from shore! It looked like we were being dropped in the middle of the ocean, but the water was only about 10 feet deep. Those boats had other snorkelling groups with them.

We called this the "Key Lime House"! And yes, Virginia, the water really was that green.

If it's not food or buildings, it's beautiful flowers. And the Keys had them in spades.

The buildings in Key West were really adorable, too.

This guy was wandering the streets of Key West all by himself. We ate gelato instead of him, though.

Our friend Mr. Gator. We met him on an airboat on the fringes of the Everglades.

There's a better angle of him.

This was so cute. The Everglades park has had a mini-zoo, and you could pay 10 USD to pet the tiger or the bobcat.

The panther was the most beuatiful animal there.

The afroducks were the most hilarious.

An artsy effect caused by sticky lens cover. This is the major beach at Fort Lauderdale.

The ocean is usually a-hoppin' with activity.

Near the end of our ghost tour in Ft. Lauderdale. Our guide (in the cape on the far left) was great; funny as heck and rambly.

Thanks for joining me on a photo version of my vacation. Now I want to go back...

The best kind of booze is educational booze.

2007-01-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

You may recall my mentioning a presentation on Spanish history in my last post. It was the topic I'd chosen (though not formally) for my oral presentation for Spanish class, mostly because I have an odd fasciantion with the dangerously inbred Habsburg monarchy. It was so frustrating that every time I tried to work on it, I'd find myself giving up and browsing food blogs instead. That's when it hit me: why the heck would I present a frivolous, tabloid-worthy history lesson when the obvious answer was looking me in the face?

I had a lot of trouble deciding which foods from Spanish-speaking countries I'd choose to make. If it was a main course, it had to be vegetarian. It had to be authentic; I refuse to serve my classmates chips and salsa from a bag and a jar. It had to be easy to make and easy to transport.

It didn't take long for the sweets to grab my attention. I debated cupcakes for a bit, but scrapped it due to authenticity reasons. Wanting something more authentic and still sweet meant flan, which I had none of the ingredients or equipment for (I was unable to splurge on the supplies due to my upcoming trip to the US of A - more on that later). Then, a few days ago, one of my friends said, "Why go to the trouble of making all that food when you could just make sangria?". I agreed, got permission from my prof to use real wine, and got to work.

I'd decided from near the get-go to make sangria and some food. While returning home on the bus one night, a classmate from spanish plonked down next to me. He was drunk and heading home from the bar (but it's okay; it was Robbie Burns Day). When I told him of my plan to make sangria with non-alcoholic wine, he insisted that I spike it with real wine. I opted in the end to use all real wine.

So what if my class is at 11:30 in the morning? That's close enough to noon to count, I think.

I'm anxious as all heck for the presentation tomorrow, of course, because for some reason speaking formally in front of people makes me dead nervous. However, rest assured that I won't be chugging any of this until AFTER I've presented. Cheers!

Una receta tradicional por la sangría

1 y ½ litros de vino tinto
1 apuro de canela
1 taza de jugo de naranja
¼ taza de jugo de cal
½ taza de jugo de limón
¼ taza de azúcar
frutas cortados (naranjas, limónes, cales, y melocotónes son las frutas mas comúnes)

Vierto todos los ingredients líquidos juntos en una jarra. Mezcle revolviendo hasta el azúcar es derretido. Agregue todos las frutas. Refrigere por la noche y sirve con hielo manana.

PS: Translating this in Babelfish is hilarious!

Snickerdoodles for Supper

2007-01-22T22:04:00.000-04:00

It was a Monday night at the library. I'd been in class from about 11:30am until 8pm with one two-hour break for lunch which had been spent studying. Frustrated about a project on Spanish history, I found myself leaving behind wikipedia entries about "Carlos the Bewitched" in favour of some food blogs. As I browsed happily, I saw that Jasmine over at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict had declared January 15th as "a day that really schmecks" in honour of Edna Staebler's birthday. I was intrigued and delighted when I found an invitation amongst my emails.

Edna Staebler is a Canadian culinary icon. Her cookbooks are eternally popular; I remember seeing them on the shelves at the library where I worked during high school. Though I have not had the pleasure of reading any of them yet, I am sure that I will do so as soon as I manage to get my greedy little paws on one.

Burnt out from a long day at school, I figured it was about time to bake something. Since I had no way of getting my hands on a copy of any of Edna's cookbooks at that moment, unfortunately, I instead began browsing websites featuring Amish and Mennonite cooking. Then, to my delight, I found a website which had a recipe for "Amish Snickerdoodles".

Allow me to digress for a moment. Two of current roommates lived on my floor in residence last year. After Thanksgiving (if memory serves), my mother sent me back to school with more cookies than any single person could possibly eat, so I very kindly shared the cookie love with my floormates. Most of them had never tried snickerdoodles before, and in fact, Mom never made them very often. However, they garnered enthusiastic raves from a lot of my floormates, in particular Shan, one of my current roommates. I figured they would be a pretty safe choice and rushed home to get to work.

As I'd been in class all day, I'd barely eaten, and at 11pm on a Monday night I found myself with a pile of cookies and a glass of milk serving as supper. Though I'm not sure Edna would have endorsed this practice, I think she would have liked the cookies.

"Amish Snickerdoodles" - recipe modified from "Aaron's A to Z Garden of Recipes" website
My imprecise recipe notation may not be your cup of tea. I'm not a scientific person and I tend to tweak things to my liking, using the fictional "baker's instinct" I seem to think I inherited from my mom. This explains my cracktastic yield of 43 cookies, among other things... I hope you enjoy it anyway.

1/2 c. margarine or butter
1/2 c. solid shortening
2 eggs
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. cinnamon sugar
2 c. white flour
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
cinnamon sugar, made to taste (because really, it's a matter of taste; I add a pinch of ginger and nutmeg to my cinnamon sugar)

Mix the first 5 ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. Sift the flour and baking soda; add to first mixture. Form dough into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies (a good indicator is when the bottoms are just starting to brown). As Aaron, the author of the original recipe, notes, you may top the cookies with red-hots if you desire (I don't like them, personally). These cookies store well and freeze beautifully. Yield: 43 medium-sized cookies.

Recipe notes: The recipe called for margarine, but I used butter to no ill effect (I'm told it makes a difference sometimes...). You can use all white flour; I like a bit of whole wheat in my baked goods. I don't recommend mixing more than half-and-half, or it gets very dense (though if you like very dense, by all means dense it up!). To make things more interesting, I added some cinnamon sugar to the batter as well as on top; it really added another dimension of flavour and texture to the cookies.

Menu for Hope III results

2007-01-18T00:24:00.000-04:00

After weeks of waiting in anticipation for the results, we have now found out the winners of the Menu for Hope III raffle, posted by Pim on her website on January 15th.

I was thrilled to discover that I won a Creative Zen mp3 player (that my younger brother insisted that I bid on), as well as a food-related mystery prize. I am going to have a very fun time with it; I already listen to music while cooking, and now I won't have to go looking for my digital camera to take pictures while cooking. I am utterly thrilled.

I'm just as thrilled at the thought of preparing and sending out my prize package, which was won by Peasantwench. P, my darling, please send me an email with your contact details using the email address you provided on the donation form, and I will traipse happily to the nearest post office and send it to you posthaste. I'm going to go prepare it to be mailed right this moment; I'm that excited.

Birthday Brownies

2007-01-17T12:40:00.000-04:00

It's never too late to say "Happy New Year!" Sure, we may be 17 days in already, but I haven't had the chance to upload my pictures onto my computer. This term is shaping up to be super-busy.

I spent New Year's Eve and a significant chunk of new Year's Day at a log cabin in the southwest tip of rural Nova Scotia. My friend Sare's birthday is on January 2nd, but since she was going back to her college that day, she decided to celebrate the New Year and her birthday jointly.

I went out to her house on a crisp, cool December night. We packed up two 4-wheelers (one with a wagon attached to carry our copious amounts of stuff) and drove through beautiful snow-glazed forest trails as the starry sky stretched out above us. As we drove along, I couldn't think of a more perfect way to spend the last hours of 2006. The generator at the cabin wasn't turned on, so we relied on candlelight and a wood stove to suit our needs. We played board games, missed the official countdown (we shouted "Happy New Year!" at about 5 past 12 and marvelled at how loudly our voices echoed over the lake), set off lovely fireworks, got my New Year's kiss from my friend's dog, and snuggled up in the loft, warmed by the wood stove's heat, to sleep.

A few days prior to this, Sare had visited my house and we baked brownies together and took kooky pictures, some of which are in the previous post. We came across a recipe for "Gourmet Mint Brownies" in a Pillsbury cookie cookbook, but didn't have all the ingredients to make them. Sare joked that she would love to have some for her birthday, so I obliged. After days of agonizing at supermarkets trying to find peppermint extract, my father brought some home on December 31st. I was ecstatic; I had nearly given up hope. I then set to work and baked those suckers.

As they were being cut up and put onto a tray to take to the party with me, my family descended, rather like vultures, on the brownies. I managed to distract them by taking lots of pictures and blinding them with camera flashes. As you can see, it works wonders.

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

2007-01-02T21:50:00.000-04:00

Then these are a mishmash of photographs that don't really need any commentary. It just demonstrates part of the awesomeness of my hometown kitchen over the holiday season.

I hope you all have a delectable 2007.

Milestones...

2006-12-19T17:09:00.000-04:00

It was my 20th birthday on December 17th. It's still hard to believe that I've already spent two decades on this earth, and that there's still so much I have to do! For example: I've never been to Asia, eaten a persimmon, met my namesake, or flown in a hot air balloon, which are all things I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy. However, there was one item that I'm glad to have crossed off my to-do list.

I stumbled across a beautifully photographed blog called The Girl Who Ate Everything a little while back, and I've been in awe ever since (I'm still puzzling over how she manages to get such bright colours). I was especially captivated by the delectable baked goods adorning pretty much every post, and in particular those cute little macarons. I've never actually had one before, and was planning on making them back home during the Christmas break.

But during my last weekend in the city, while I was the farmer's market buying stuff for Menu for Hope and Christmas shopping, I stumbled upon a lonely chocolate macaron (well, okay, one mini one and one large one; the big one caught my eye, of course). Despite still being full from breakfast, I shunned the mini version and went for the full big-budget regular sized macaron, with deep chocolate ganache spilling out beautifully. I ended up eating it the next day to brighten up a midafternoon study session, and did it EVER do the trick.

My thoughts during my first bite: "Holy GOD this is good oh the injustice of me being home next week and not able to go to the farmer's market and buy another... yummmmmm."

My thoughts during the second bite: "If this is a dream, it's the BEST. DREAM. EVERRRR. Yesssss."

My dad's comment on the photos: "I'm drooling already."

The verdict: I am SO making my own sometime very very soon (and by very very soon, I mean probably next time I'm home...sigh.).

Menu for Hope Update

2006-12-19T16:03:00.000-04:00

I'm home for the holidays and busy as heck (including in the kitchen; worry not), but it's fantastic to be home. There are lots of posts to come, but in the meantime...

I just wanted to remind whoever reads this that my bunch of lovely edibles for Menu for Hope 3 (prize code CA17! Doooo iiiiit) can be shipped anywhere in the world, and I mean ANYWHERE. Which is grand, since I can't (be shipped anywhere, I mean). So far, Menu for Hope 3 has raised over 30 thousand dollars for the United Nations World Food Programme, but let's at least double last year's total of about 17 thousand dollars, shall we?

I hope all of y'all out there are enjoying the holiday season. I'll be back with a much-needed update very, very soon.

Another new look and another new post

2006-12-11T04:24:00.000-04:00

Using my feminine wiles to get a friend of mine to redesign my food blog was one of the smartest things I've done in quite some time.

Another equally smart thing I did this year was to get involved with Menu for Hope 3.

A Menu for Hope is a global fundraising campaign by food bloggers the world over to raise money for worthy, food-related charities. It was started by the lovely Pim, of the blog Chez Pim. This year, all proceeds will be going to the UN World Food Programme. This is the third year in a row it's been held; last year, food bloggers raised $17,000 to help UNICEF. What happens is this: food bloggers offer excellent foodie prizes, and readers buy raffle tickets to use for bidding on whichever prize(s) they want. Bidding starts today, December 11th, and goes until the 22nd. A wise person once said, "Bid early, and bid often". That person, since they are wise, is worth listening to.

The amazing Jasmine at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict is running the Canadian portion of this event; I'd like to thank her for taking on such a big task and for her help in squeezing my entry in. I encourage you to go check out the Canadian roundup at her website (available in both official languages!), especially since some of the prizes are tailored to Canadians or North Americans:

English version: http://cardamomaddict.blogspot.com/2006/12/menu-for-hope-iii-prizes-from-canada.html
French version: http://cardamomaddict.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-menu-pour-lespoir-iii-prix-du.html

I'm offering a selection of fine products representing my home province. I was tempted to keep these for myself or give them as gifts; they're all really nice quality products. I got them all on a visit to my local farmers' market, which is the place to be every Saturday morning. Come and join me as I give you a virtual tour!

First off, let's stop at one of the many seasoning booths. Oh, yum! Their sample dips are so good. Here's some salmon seasoning, complete with a booklet of recipes for using said seasoning. It would be sublime with a simple piece of Atlantic salmon (it's better than Pacific salmon!).

Moving on, we encounter another sublime idea for your salmon (or your slices of cucumber, for that matter) nestled in a warm, cozy corner of the market. It's smoked sea salt, harvested locally from the ocean surrounding my pretty little peninsula province.

If you have salt, you gotta have sugar to balance it out, and if your salt is fancy, your sugar had better be fancy too. And this booth smells really good. Everything here is made with lavender; that's why! Lavender-infused sugar fits the bill nicely. It's a delicate and aromatic addition to a batch of sugar cookies, or whatever you're baking that needs that subtle kick.

If you can't wait for your cookies to finish baking, try some excellent homemade biscotti to tide you over. It's nearly overshadowed by the towering display of jellies and seasonings next to it, but by the time I get there there are only a handful of biscotti left in each flavour. A dear friend of mine buys it faithfully every Saturday morning, and she is particularly fond of the chocolate hazelnut. I'm a devotee of cranberry, myself, so I've included both. You can be the judge! Also, if you're really busy with holiday baking, the chap selling this said that it freezes beautifully too.

It wouldn't make sense not to include some of the superb tea sold every week at the farmer's market, since it's one of my favourite places to visit. They always have a bunch of carafes of different flavours of tea to sample. I'm going to pick up my favourite, the wild blueberry. It's faint, but you can smell its sweet aroma, even though it's encased in a small bag.

I hope you enjoyed "visiting" the farmers' market with me. If you really want to experience this adventure, though, bid on my package and you could be the lucky person getting this taste of some of Nova Scotia's best in the mail. Do it as a Christmas present... for yourself.

If you want a piece of the (delicious) action, and I'm pretty sure you do, the prize code for my delectable array of goodies is CA17.

Here's what you should do...

1. Go to the donation page at ( http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII) to make a contribution.

2. Each US$10 donation will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like by entering the prize code in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your contribution. E.G: A US$50 donation may be two tickets for UW99 and three tick ets for CA20.*

3. Some companies will match personal charitable donations made by staff. If your company has such a program, pl ease remember to mark the appropriate box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address. We need this so we can contact you in cas e you win a prize. If you do not do this, we will be unable to contact you. Please be assured that we will not share your email address with anyone.

5. Raffle results will be announced on 15 January on Chez Pim. Draws will be conducted electronically, thanks to Derrick at Obsession with Food for creating the computer application used to magically select names.

* N.B: Canadian tax laws prohibit charitable donation receipts to be issued by registered Canadian charities for raffle or lottery tickets. The UNWFP is a U.S.-based charity; should any donation receipts issued, you will need to seek professional advice regarding applying them to your Canadian income tax return.

For a round-up of Canadian donors, available in both English and French (some pretty cool prizes are being offered to Canadians or North Americans ONLY; take advantage!): http://cardamomaddict.blogspot.com/2006/12/menu-for-hope-iii-prizes-from-canada.html

For a list of donors the world over, visit Chez Pim's round-up at: http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2006/12/menu_for_hope_i.html

To make donations and enter raffles, visit First Giving: http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII

In case you've forgotten, CA17 is my prize code. Doooo ittt.

Thanks in advance for your support, and good luck with your bidding!

A new look and a new post

2006-11-24T02:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's highly likely that I am the only person who ever reads this blog. I know that at least two people have looked at it once, but aside from that I can only guarantee my own reading. However, I got a bit sad about the layout of this blog after looking at so many gloriously formatted foodblogs. Thus, I've "upgraded" the look, and I hope I (and anyone else who happens to stumble upon this blog) enjoy it.

My dad, as I'm sure I've established in earlier entries, is a sandwich man. My mother, by contrast is a baker. I have yet to uncover the reason why I'm not yet obese, despite being raised on homemade baked goods. I'm not complaining, mind you, just marvelling. Despite the fact that I now live three hours away from my mother doesn't seem to daunt her. She visited at least three times in October and never failed to bring food with her. She always sends up baked goods for me if something else is being dropped off at my house. Whenever I go home for a visit, I return laden with nourishing foodstuffs.

On my latest visit home, Mom packed up a good pile of food for me, including a roll of frozen cookie dough (a genius idea, I must say). Last Friday night, I was in the mood for cookies instead of dancing and booze (which is more of a typical Friday night for me). Since my cookies have been turning out oddly lately and I didn't want my dough getting freezerburn, I decided to bake up Mom's while I made a chocolate cake.

We'd recently bought some eggnog, and a cool glass of it along with a cookie made Christmas, and more times spent with food and my food-loving family, feel all that closer.

I was pretty pleased by the cookies, and decided to continue baking after the cake by making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Both went over well with the roommates, which is a bit unusual. The cookies lasted for possibly two days, and the cake under 24 hours; I guess that's what happens when I don't try to bake healthy things.

I was going to try infusing the store-bought icing taking up space in the fridge with coffee, but I figured the roommates would rather drink it than to have me destroy the coffeemaker in an attempt to brew the stuff... whoops. So I tinted it brown with cocoa and sprinkled chocolate chips on top. The roomies and I ended up gathered round the table talking late into the night devouring our sugary goodies.

I consider it a successful Friday night.

Let them eat cookies!

2006-11-22T02:15:00.000-04:00

I sometimes wonder if pregnant women have food cravings as bad, diverse, and often as I do. Within the span of a month I can want homemade bread, pad Thai, shepherds pie, babaghanoush, nutella, macarons (which I’ve never even tasted!) and oatmeal carrot cookies. There’s no rhyme or reason.

Back in the spring, there was nothing I wanted more than some plain ol’ oatmeal cookies. So I set to work, keeping in mind one of my weird baking mantras: Everything tastes better with sprinkles and dried fruit! This might be why my roommates are bit iffy on my baking. Whoops.

I used the recipe I found in some Cookie Cookbook, which, unfortunately, I don’t have with me.

What do you do with a bag of apples?

2006-11-03T16:46:00.000-04:00

My mom was in town one weekend for the Rolling Stones’ concert. For some reason, she decided that bringing along not just the usual baked goods, but a five-pound bag of baking apples, would be a good idea. How this thought possessed the woman, I have no idea. All I know is that I spent one hazy Friday night staying up until 4AM dicing apples and not even bothering to peel them. I baked my very first pie, and the crust was pretty much stupendous, considering how bad I expected it to turn out. I ended up eating half the pie as the night wore on… whoops!

So then I was left with piles of diced unpeeled apples taking up a lot of space in my fridge. The next morning, I made a shameful apple crisp, and an equally shameful pie. This makes me happy that my digital camera wasn’t working, since there’s no photographic evidence of my utter, utter shame.

About a week later, two plastic containers of apples remained, mocking me. What with midterm season setting in rapidly, I barely had a spare second. But the apples beckoned, and the roommates bemoaned lost space in the fridge. I was in need of a quick snack for my sleep-deprived self to grab on my way to and from classes and meetings.

It was time for apple muffins, ladies and gents. There was no way around it.
So I baked away happily, sort of following the recipe… whoops. I think they turned out not at all as I’d anticipated (the apples were very moist), but still lovely in their own right. My roommates did not share my sentiments, unfortunately, and I ended up eating most of these beauties on my own. Not that I’m complaining…

Recipe to be added at a later date…

A thing of beauty

2006-10-30T05:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes all one needs on a cold autumn night is a big steaming pot of chili. Too bad Dad made said chili way back in May, and put in too much seasoning. It still looks pretty and comforting.

Now go put on a few more layers of clothing and bundle up under some nice fluffy blankets with a warm cuppa something and a good book!

A Midspring Night's Feast

2006-10-18T02:41:00.000-03:00

I love my neighbourhood. More specifically, I love my neighbours. They host these really great dinner parties and we all pig out and I usually get booze (or yummy sparkling fake booze).

On one Saturday afternoon in late May, we finally had one of the dinner parties that I’d missed so desperately during the school year. With my hair freshly dyed, wearing a new outfit, and with ambitions of a super-duper food blog rattling inside my skull, I set forth to make a pasta salad unlike any other pasta salad seen before by mankind (actually, that’s a lie; I was trying to copy the fantabulous pasta salad my aunt Debbie made for us the previous summer). So I spent a late morning/early afternoon chopping veggies, cooking pasta, stirring in fried onions and pesto, chopping fresh herbs, and finally placing my masterpiece in the fridge so the flavours could mature. Several hours later, I was rewarded with a pasta salad that smelled fantastic, but was practically flavourless. I was quite dismayed at this, but thought, “What the hey, it looks pretty and the veggies taste good”. I would have put in more pesto but the salad was already drowning in it. So I brought it over anyway.

My mom, being surprisingly supportive of my food blogging efforts (even though it was another thing to help me spend time on the computer), took loads of pictures. She even got artsy (see picture of biscotti dough in her Kitchenaid) and insisted on getting pictures of me actually cooking. There’s one she took of me looking over my shoulder, which she calls “The Sexy Chef”. I took pictures of her hands rolling biscotti dough.

Mom made some lovely cookies for the party as well. Not only did she try out a new recipe for almond biscotti that I think we found on the internet, she made double-chocolate cookies with marshmallows in them. I think she's really Martha Stewart in hiding...

Music for this post: "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" by Sufjan Stevens

Oh, so painfully artsy! Mom took this. I take it as evidence that my love for all things artsy is genetic and totally not my fault.

"The Sexy Chef" redux, courtesy my sweet self. That dough smelled fantastic...

I know it's hard to tell, but mumsy used multicoloured marshmallows. There are very few things in this world more satisfying in this world than chocolate and rainbows mixed together.

This is why you do not leave cookies unattended in my house... kidding, kidding! This is my attempt at being artsy, before I started chewing on the smaller one.

This was Mom's idea. I took photos of the salad with vines of ripe red tomatoes, but the contrast here is much better. You win, Mom.

Restaurant food = hilarity

2006-10-17T20:14:00.000-03:00

This isn't funny until you realize that those pieces of chicken are each larger than my FISTS. I kid you not here, people. My FISTS. I was eating this gul-danged chicken for almost a week afterwards. It's well worth the price, of course, but goodness. It's chicken cacciatore, by the way. On the side are a twice-baked potato that's so good I always order it instead of fries (and this is an achievement since I love fries and generally not a fan of baked potatoes), and honeyed carrots wth parsley. This is from dinner at The Austrian Inn in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, which I highly recommend if you want a big, hearty, inexpensive ethnic meal whose origins are European. There's also an amazing Lebanese place that's easy on the wallet, a charming tearoom with very good sandwiches on fresh-baked bread, and an incredible tea selaction, and a Chinese restaurant that will get you full and has cheesy decor, but the food quality's debatable.

Next, we have a very foolhardy young man trying some sushi that's quite liberally coated with wasabi. Oh, for the follies of youth! Will they never learn?

In which Meg attempts Thai food... and turns it into sandwiches.

2006-10-17T19:54:00.000-03:00

One weekend, my family was graced by the presence of a nine-year-old girl cousin of mine. Given the extremely finicky palates of children, it was an ill-advised time for me to try to assuage my craving for Thai food by cooking it. Did this stop me? Of course not! When Meg wants Thai food, she wants Thai food, and you can't buy it in my hometown anyway, since we have no Thai restaurants.

Being one of those people who sometimes has multiple cravings at one time, I also wanted bread. So after rummaging up some Thai recipes on the intarwebs and a trip to the grocery store, we were ready to begin our foray into making Thai chicken sandwiches.

Firstly, there was peanut sauce. I took a recipe I found online, and took out and added in flavours as I saw fit. Of course (hindisght is 20/20), I forgot to write it down somwhere findable. There was all-natural peanut butter, honey, coconut milk, and spices, but the rest is anybody's guess.

As you can probably tell from the picture of the peanut sauce, we made our sandwiches custom-ly at the dinner table. There was fried onions, fried cabbage, chicken, and peanut sauce to be had. And, obviously, the bread, which the little cousin and I argued over at first, but then I was nice and conceded.

I'm not complaining, though, since we all got a good meal out of it. And when we ran out of bread and chicken, there was plenty of rice to mix the peanut sauce and veggies with.

Music for this post: "Superhot Lady Cop"by Beau Hall & the magnificent 7 (go here for a listen:http://www.beaurocks.com/)

Weird things to do to a poor defenseless piece of chicken parmesan...

2006-10-17T19:36:00.000-03:00

In the beginning, everything was peachy-keen. Mom's chicken parmesan came into this world on a sun-dappled May night, unaware of what lay in store...

That night, my fmaily sat around the table salivating and after a few seconds of shock, we dove in; savouring the fresh, fresh tomatoes, commending Mom's choice of expensive cheese, and chewing a lot (and a bit protectively, but can you blame us?).

However, not all the chicken parmesan was gone by the end of the night. We were pretty cheerful to be having leftovers the next day. The chicken parmesan thought all would be well; it would be consumed the next day with a bit of fanfare. Little did it know...

Lunchtime approacheth. Dad and I clambered home for lunch from our respective places of employ (I miss my cushy government job). The chicken parmesan peeked out from the fridge. We set it on the table and began to assail it.

Dad decided he wanted a salad with the chicken parmesan as a centrepiece. It hadn't planned on spending its final moments on a bed of lettuce, but it could deal with. And then Dad brought out some sliced tomato, which makes sense, but then... mango?! Had he gone mad?! Tropical fruit with an Italian main course? It makes sense if it was gelato for afterwards, but...

This is Mom holding up her and dad's creation in front of some flowers so it looks pretty.

And it got worse...

Poor, poor chicken parmesan had no clue it would find itself between two uncannily shaped pieces of bread. We had a whole-wheat baguette whose slices were the same size as my piece of chicken parmesan. We'd eaten this same baguette with the meal last night, but Dad had refrained from turning the meal into a sandwich like he usually does when there's bread on the table. There fore I considered it my duty as my father's daughter to take the baguette, chicken parmesan, some lettuce, and the fresh tomato sauce from the chicken paremsan to make a sandwich.

YUM. Sorry, chicken parmesan, but it had to be done. I hope you forgive us, wherever you are...

Let them eat cake!

2006-08-01T02:38:00.000-03:00

From my dusty archives...

Howdy from Cowtown, y'all! My cooking karma here, despite working for a catering company, is going down the tubes, so any updates for the next little while will be stuff from earlier on in the summer, which may have appeared in my first food blog or livejournal (though an exception or two might wriggle its way in). Such is life.

I don't care HOW hot summer is; I cannot live without my cake! That's how I've found myself slaving over hot ovens with less-than-miraculous results in the merry months of early summer.

My first foray into fancy cake-ing was going to be an angel food cake. I had wanted to make one for my grandmother's birthday, but I didn't have enough egg whites on hand that day, so I made her a chocolate cake instead, which was enjoyed by all.

So, the next day, off I went to the supermarket, returning triumphantly with two cartons of egg whites in hand. I got to work rather excitedly on a lovely day in May, around noon (I asked Mom, who is an awesome baker, a few questions while she was home for her lunch break, I admit). I used Alton Brown’s recipe, because I love Alton Brown and his show Good Eats, and it’s much less stuffy than the Joy of Cooking. I used almond flavouring, which made the cake smell totally divine, but came off a little too strong, since I think I used too much. I recall chatting with my dear wifey Anne while my cake was cooling on the dining room table. Unfortunately, the method of using a funnel to keep the top the cake from touching the table was in vain, since my beautiful cake collapsed and was unsalvageable as a whole cake.

This was a rather sad experience for me, and I now know better than to let a cake that hot be tipped upside down. But all was not lost! Thankfully, trifle is fairly easy to make and the perfect use for angel food cake.

Then along came June. For the first bit of the month I was employed, but then I was offered a job in Calgary. In my haste to relocate, it was determined that a party was necessary for not just my going away, but for my father’s birthday and my uncle Dale’s surprise visit.

In my family, parties tend to involve my mother serving a meal to a large group of people, and this was no exception. I volunteered to make my father a birthday cake, as I’d found a very tempting chocolate cheesecake recipe in Nigella Lawson’s fabulous cookbook “Feast”. This was my first time attempting a cheesecake, but I don’t think I did too shabbily. Unfortunately my uncle “helping” me with making a white chocolate glaze ended with us cooking a lot of the white chocolate, which explains the odd white smear on top of the cheesecake. I assure you, it tasted lovely, especially with some fruit salad on the side.

Angel Food Cake (From Alton Brown’s Good Eats)

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cake flour, sifted
12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)
1/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon orange extract, or extract of your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.
In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, orange extract, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a hand mixer. Slowly sift the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.
Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Bake for 35 minutes before checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).
Cool upside down on cooling rack for at least an hour before removing from pan.

Cook's Note: Since they're easier to separate use the freshest eggs you can get.

Oh, and my soundtrack of choice for this post? Cake, of course!