Deetsa's Diningroom

Yellow, Yellow Everywhere: An Adventure in Couscous

2009-07-03T21:33:00.001-07:00

I always wanted a yellow hue in my kitchen. I meant the walls, though. Not the stove. Or the counters. Or the cupboard. Or the range hood. Or me.

Yesterday I decided to go Moroccan. I had nearly all the ingredients for Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables. Despite the missing baby onions, I went ahead anyways. I knew I was in for a long process as it basically a gently simmered stew but I learned a valuable lesson. I should have switched from the large skillet they suggested to my deep-sided dutch oven. At least the lid was a better fit. Probably would have used a lot less paper towel. And a lot less scrubbing with the magic eraser.

The recipe was definitely a keeper but it still seemed like it was missing something. The Frog and I aren't exacty sure what it is yet. It could be the baby onions but I doubt it. There was a whole lot of fine chopped onion in the mix too. We guessed maybe it was missed merguez. We have had this dish before in France. It always had merguez in it with the chicken. Since we aren't near any merguez right now, we can't try it again any time soon. We hope to rectify that within the month. Then we can let you know.

I got this recipe for Kseksou Bidawi Bil Djej (Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables) from The Food of Morocco: A Journey for Food Lovers. It was, minus the merguez, a very similar recipe to the couscous you can get in a large can on any shelf in a French supermarket (I know what you're thinking: "A CAN?" but I have to say the canned, jarred and frozen meals to be had are way superior in taste to the stuff you can usually get in North America).

Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables (adapted from the above book)

1 roasting chicken cut into 8 pieces
4 tbsp ghee
1 yellow onion
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground saffron
1 cinnamon stick (3 inch piece)
4 cilantro sprigs, 4 parsley sprigs tied in a bunch
1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
3 carrots, peeled and cut into thick coins
3 zucchini cut into chunks
1 cup frozen green peas
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Couscous

boxed couscous, cooked to instructions
3 tbsp butter

3 tsp harissa, or to taste

The chicken doesn't need to have the skin removed. Heat the ghee in a large saucepan (with high sides and a fitted lid). Add chicken and brown on each side. Reduce the heat, add the onion and cook until softened. Stir in the turmeric and cumin. Pour in 3 cups of water, then add saffron, cinnamon stick, bunch of herbs and tomatoes. Season with 1 1/2 tsp of salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Bring to a gentle boil, cover and cook over low heat for 25 minutes. Add the carrots and simmer for a further 20 minutes. Add the zucchini, frozen peas and chickpeas and cook for 20 minutes or until the chicken and vegetables are tender.

While the stew is cooking its last step, prepare the couscous. You can used water or chicken bouillon (for more flavour). Stir the butter through the couscous.

Put 1 cup of the chicken stew broth into a bowl. Add 3 tsp of harissa paste and stir in.

Serve stew on top of the steamed couscous. Add extra broth and harissa to moisten.

Serves 6 (or allows for leftovers for the next day)

Try and fuss with it yourself or make suggestions if you know what is missing. Let me know.

Oh, and be careful. It may not happen if your lid is a perfect fit but still... The steam is yellow. REALLY yellow. And it likes to settle everywhere. Be prepared to kill a tree's worth of paper towel, just in case.

School End Blues

2009-06-26T23:45:00.001-07:00

This past year was the first year that I taught Kindergarten. I worried a year ago that I might not be cut out for kids that young. Now, a year later, I wonder what took me so long to know how much I'd enjoy this grade. I'm a bit sad and miserable right now that I won't have my little ducklings anymore. I know I'll have a new set this September but I grew so unbelievably attached to the ones of this past year. There will be a whole new set of interests and games and make-believe that will make me miss the quirks and charm of my last set.

I'm going to miss the children marching around with stuffed animals and blocks on their backs, singing "The Ants Go Marching", pretending to pack food down to the ant home. Or setting up the chairs to play taxicab, arguing about which side the driver sits on. Or telling me that they couldn't find the body of the bird that we found on our walk, saying that 'God must have come down to take him home to heaven'. Yeah, I'll miss those little moments. Yeah, I know I'm moping. And yeah, I know that I'll be moping about this again next year.

Wordless Wednesday: Hummingbird Central

2009-05-13T07:26:00.001-07:00

The Philosphy of the Ooligan

2009-05-12T22:11:00.001-07:00

Nasty little teeth, where are you?

My query only lasted a moment as I greedily started eating a rare coastal treat--ooligans.

Far in the distant past, during teaching school, I had the opportunity to string these plump, greasy little fish on long strips of cedar bark. The weather was grey and bitter cold, my fingers were numb from the cold wind. Perhaps that was a blessing because I recall, as I poked thin little withies through their fearsome little jaws, that their teeth 'bit' me constantly. After a day of hard work, stringing lots of the little buggers for wind-drying, weaving poles through gills for the smokehouse and cutting sealion into strips for smoking, we all sat down to a good feast of bbq'd ooligans and fried bread. I remember from the first moment they touched my lips how their slick, toothy rawness didn't give any suggestion to its future as a unctuous, meaty fish that could be eaten whole--bones, teeth and all--with nary a tastebud offended by the thought of brains, eyes or innards.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I rarely see ooligans. They are a prized possession amongst the coastal peoples native to the west of British Columbia. Often these little smelts are rendered slowly into a fermented oil condiment, "grease" as it is known around here. Both grease and ooligans whole were once enjoyed in quantity in the past. The runs of fish get smaller and smaller each year, the cost of the grease goes up and up. So, when I tell you that a notice up at the local grocery shop offering ooligans for sale was like someone announcing that they were selling gold nuggets from their back door, you'll perhaps understand my own excitement and shock. I tracked down the house, payed a pretty penny for them (and rightly so since it's a delicacy these days) and nearly caused turmoil in the office when I share my tale of luck.

Because they are so flavourful and oily, they need little seasoning. I was told by an elder, whom I asked for cooking options, to just treat it simply--coat them in seasoned flour and fry, I was told. He suggested rice with dried seaweed as a side dish. Luckily I still had a bag of dried local kelp from a friend around. It was a good side to fried fish as its relatively plain taste carried and aided the richness of the fish meat. A bit of lemon to help along the oiliness and all was set.

With the very first bite, I was back, sitting on that stump by the backyard fire, munching on ooligans wrapped in fried bread. It was a good day and it's funny how a simple taste can bring it all rushing back. I was getting stressed with several busy days and boisterous children so it was good to recall a day when a job was completed and I was righteously tired, content with the world and its bounty. And, I thought, philosophically, as I ate myself nearly sick on them, even if life throws sharp little teeth your way, you can always cook them up and render them benign and maybe even quite tasty.

***

If you want to learn a bit more about ooligans, check out this site
Or you can wiki it, too, here
You can even read my horridly written post about it from nearly the beginning of my blogginess.

*sorry there are no pictures yet. I'll get them up ASAP

Wok the Broc'

2009-05-05T22:06:00.001-07:00

The Frog hates feta. I mean REALLY hates feta. This animosity towards that lovely, creamy, salty, pungent cheese puts a kibosh on some of the recipes I'd like to make. I wouldn't say he's terrified of its presence but it's pretty close. I have to make a really great dish for him to pretend not to notice the aroma and sight of my beloved feta.

I know I'll never win him over with my Greek pilaf dish (uber-loads of feta in there) but I manage to get him to look the other way when I pile feta on one of my favourite discoveries during my vegetarian years: Linguine with Wok-Fried Broccoli. This is a fun and fairly quick dish from one of Molly Katzen's great books. Obviously I don't mix in the feta as recommended at the end. I have to wait until it's on my plate.

I find this is a great winter dish because the broccoli and cherry tomatoes (which are the only fresh thing in winter that is called tomato and actually tastes like it) are readily available. It's also a very fresh and light dish so entirely appropriate for spring. I had the great fun of having multi-coloured tomato pints in the store and had to take full advantage of them in such a showcasing dish. Produce variety is not something we have much of up here in the boondocks of B.C.

Be very very careful with the broccoli while you cook... you might end up eating the fried broccoli all on its own before you can mix it with any of the other ingredients, especially if you let the florets brown and crisp up a bit. You think I'm kidding.

Arradon

2009-05-04T22:53:00.001-07:00

Arradon. It is a lost Arthurian kingdom. It is a whisper in a lover's ear. It is the sound of the waves hissing over the shore. It is a reverant prayer in a rock-ringed grove.

I know few places either large or small that carries such an ethereal quality in its name. Arradon is a small town on the south coast of Brittany. That sound so mundane, doesn't it? The place has many nostalgic pulls on my heart and I could never in a million years believe there is anything mundane about this town or any of the region (The Gulf of Morbihan) around it. I know that family and familiarity play a large part in my nostalgia for the region but there is something more that could draw anyone back again and again. There is something to the fierce pride in the unique culture of the region, the legends that envelop the place and the fey quality that haunts the countryside-- it pulls you back again and again.

I was so pleased that my Frogger in Law found a website that brought all the feelings for the boat-riddled ocean, the wisteria, blue shutters and thorny bushes back with a rush. I'd love for you to go there and see where my heart lies when I think of France.

* the photo is my own, not from the website

Gateau de Harem

2009-03-22T21:07:00.001-07:00

When I was younger, my mother used to have us choose whatever we wanted for our birthday dinner. I guess my sister and my father were easy to cook for, easy to please. Things like chocolate cake, steak, pizza are pretty easy fare. Then there was me. I must have been the bane of my mother's life. Oh sure, I was easy to please in the cake department--chocolate or white cake with a jam center were fine for me. Dinner, however, was a research project for me. One year (and I don't even remember how old I was) I wanted an Egyptian-style dinner. To tell the truth, I don't even remember most of what we had except the honeyed carrots and dessert--rose leaf cookies. Essentially they were just sugar cookies flavoured with rose water. I think it was the first time I had something to eat flavoured with rose. It certainly made an impact on me. My poor family humored and indulged my flavour exploration--I was probably the only one that finished those cookies. Those cookies started my long love affair with rose flavouring.

I recently wrote about a rose-pistachio ice cream I had really wanted to taste while I was in France. It got me thinking about the rose petal jam I still had haunting my cupboard and how to use it. While hunting through a binder of recipes my mother gave me when I left home I came across a recipe for a dessert I hadn't had or made in ages--Jam Dandy Coffee Cake. The recipe was simple and tasty, a fond, sweet remembrance from childhood. I figured, since the base was a basic cake, the topping could be changed to suit any taste. I rummaged through my baking cupboard and found my pistachios, fished out my virginal jar of rose jam and hoped for the best. I'm happy to say that the result was a lovely, rich cake that would go well with a coffee and dessert service. Or, it could go well with a nice tall glass of ice cold milk.

Jam Dandy Coffee Cake

1 & 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup shortening, softened
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used a mix of white sugar, white sanding sugar and pink sanding sugar)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pistachios)
2/3 cup jam ( I used rose petal jam)

Set oven to 375 F. Beat all ingredients together except the sugar, nuts and jam. Beat with 50 quick strokes with a fork. Pour into a greased 9-inch square pan. Sprinkle top with sugar and nuts. Dot top with jam. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. I also made a raspberry and almond version today. If you think you can combine a jam and nut, give it a try.

Pastitsio

2009-03-16T21:53:00.001-07:00

I've made pastitsio so many times I could probably do it in my sleep. If you do everything efficiently, it doesn't take a large amount of prep time and then you can just stick it in the oven. It's really comforting on a cold, winter's night. It tastes even better the next day and it can double up very easily. Enjoy.

Pastitsio

Ingredients:
½ lb. very lean ground beef
½ cup onions, chopped
1can(8oz) tomato sauce
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
⅛ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp allspice
⅛ tsp nutmeg
8 oz. elbow macaroni, cooked
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1¼ cup milk
2 tbsp flour
3 drops Tabasco sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Spray 8x8 inch pan with non-stick spray. Add ground meat and onions to skillet. Cook until meat brown and onions soft and lightly golden, around 5 to 8 minutes. Pour off and discard excess fat. Add tomato sauce, half the salt, half the pepper, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Stir until well mixed. Add hot macaroni and parmesan. Stir until well mixed. Spoon into baking pan. Set aside.

Return uncleaned skillet to stove, adding milk and flour. Stir milk and flour together with the remains in the skillet until very smooth. Bring to a boil. Immediately lower heat and cook 1 minute or until mixture thickens slightly. Stir in Tabasco and remaining half of salt and half of pepper. Pour white sauce over the meat mixture in the waiting baking pan. Bake in oven 25 minutes.

Rochefort-en-Terre

2009-03-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

I waxed poetic about Le Pelican in Rochefort-en-Terre recently but I could wax onward poetically about the little town of artists. Rochefort is a tourist's dream.

After lunch, The Frog, Frogger-in-law and I searched for the entrance to the chateau at the peak of this town. The castle ruins here had been bought by an artist who built his home on the same grounds. The ruin still exists and the house has been converted, partly, into a museum. The museum was okay but I liked the park, gardens and ruins better. I was particularly charmed by the wishing well in the courtyard. Alas, my camera died here and I was quite without a charged battery so I couldn't get much juice left to take pictures of the church and town.

We visited the church and enjoyed its charms but it was the town that took my breath away. The town is a warren of little streets and stone steps. A number of shops nestle up against the main streets. Many building have vines and climbing bushes, some flowered, enhancing the already fairytale-like town square. The collection of shops would make a persons in love with books, crafts, baked goods and sugary confections fall madly in love.

The store I remembered the most was the confectioners and not just because it was one of the few shops with air-conditioning (really not that common in Europe) on that muggy day. I never did buy anything there but it was worth just walking around, ogling at all the varieties and quality and gem-like creations. My mind is swirling with all the confections that were there that day. They are all a whirl of candied fruit, marzipan, chocolate mousse and other such delights but I remember distinctly that ice cream I regret not getting--rose-pistachio ice cream. A number of the ice creams there looked to be a foodie's delight but the desire to have rose-flavoured ice cream still yanks at my imagination.

To help you walk the town and church, take a look here at dirkvde's flickr collection or learn a little more about the town here

Le Pelican

2009-03-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

It felt like I was breaking a food taboo. I was still thinking that the restaurant kitchen had made a mistake as I cut through the pliant quail breast I’d ordered for an appetizer. Pliant. It was too pliant, too yielding. There was a knot in my stomach as I bit into the flesh. I nearly dropped the fork. Cold-smoked quail? I was very familiar with cold-smoked salmon but the idea of cold-smoked bird meat was foreign to me, so foreign that I felt panicky that I was biting into raw flesh at first. Oddly, it had a texture and flavour almost exactly like the cold-smoked salmon I’d had many times back home in British Columbia. I never expected to find supple, wood-smoked flesh like this in France and certainly not from bird meat.

Back in the summer of 2008, The Frog and I were in France visiting his father. Towards the end of the visit we spent time in Brittany, as we often do every visit. On our way back home we stopped for lunch in the quaint town of Rochefort-en-Terre. We found a hotel-restaurant in the center of town called Le Pelican. Little did we know as we climbed the stairs to the restaurant that The Frog and I would be marked by the journey to that town and certainly remember the restaurant as one of the best of the whole trip to France.

The first thing that we noticed was the room. The dining area, on first impression, looked like a hunting lodge and a part of a Sherlock Holmes novel. There was a large stone fireplace, wood panelling, red velvety chairs, and an exposed beam ceiling at which I couldn’t stop staring. The second thing we noticed immediately after was the quality of the service. From the beginning we admired the clockwork precision and ballet of the staff moving amongst the tables, the experience they had seemed to emanate from every fork placed and glass poured. Yet these both seemed to be the intricate setting in which the jewel of the food was placed.

When we’d begun with complimentary amuse-bouche—green olives and cheese-flecked pastry—we had no idea what a culinary pleasure we’d experience. As I described, I had an appetizer of quail which included its cold-smoked breasts (as did The Frog). What I didn’t say was that once I’d gotten over the shock of the cold meat, I tried one of the legs that accompanied the breasts. They were roasted and stuffed with the ground flesh of another type of game bird (I’m stumped right now for its name). I could have eaten just a whole plate of those. All this was accompanied by a small salad and a sunny-side up quail egg.

I did enjoy the nice contrast of all the subtle flavours of my main dish. Barley is an underrated accompaniment for white fish. The cidery sauce was just sharp enough to provide a top note to the fish’s middle note and the barley’s base note. They all married well together. I have to admit that I was a little less impressed by the main course than the stunning appetizer but I would be doing the dish a disservice to say it was a lesser quality. There was quality in every inch of every dish we had at that table. The food was an interesting mix of French traditions and experimental ideas in food. Even the bread mixed these ideas. There was a mixture of several choices of buns at our tables. I don’t know about the others but mine was bread heaven and almost too stunning to eat. Almost too stunning but not quite enough to keep my greedy teeth away.

I couldn’t decided at the outset what to order for dessert so I ordered everything. Well, not quite. Just a plate of all desserts in miniature. I had ones I liked more than others. I am not a big fan of whipped cream so the framboise cake was a bit disappointing. The chocolate cake was nice but oddly not what I had been looking for that day. The melon was ripe to perfection. Really, French musk melons really seem to blow cantaloupes out of the water. There was nougat ice cream which was nice but not as nice as the peach sorbet next to it. Yum! And of course there was the crème brulée. Who cannot like crème brulée? After, coffee was served with lovely little complimentary cookies.

Le Pelican seemed to fit very well into the theme of the town which seemed to be a colony of artistes clinging to the fringes of an old but partly restored chateau (which we visited later). The restaurant was a quiet little stronghold of quality and pleasure. I’d love to keep it a secret but it would be a shame that someone out there reading this wouldn’t know to try this restaurant with an unassuming outward appearance if they passed through the town.

You can get a glimpse of the town h ere and Le Pelican here.

You'd Probably Have To Live Here To Understand It

2009-02-26T22:08:00.001-08:00

"Bears stink. They are really smelly but thlathla, it smells worse."

I, like my young students, sat on the round carpet, drinking in yet another thlathla story. Initially we'd heard a cautionary tale, a typical "boogeyman" story of this culture. Now, however, our tiny, exquisitely wrinkled storyteller had a different look in her eyes. As she now told us the stories brought back by local hunters or fishermen, a look of a deep-seated belief and uncomfortableness shimmered in the depths. The students all leaned forward a bit as we listened, a little afraid to miss an important detail. I leaned in, too. I've always believed in the possibility of Bigfoot but here, on this isolated island surrounded by ocean, mountains and thick forests, I can practically feel the breath of one on my neck.

"It was in the tree, crying like a grown up man."

She'd reached back to her youth, recalling a personal experience. You can understand the belief in her eyes. Her quiet, expressive voice plants hooks in your imagination and you're running back home beside her, trying bravely to follow the thickly-wooded path home. You can hear the weeping high in the tree. You can taste the fear on her tongue.

I'll admit, this sweet elder is a wonderful storyteller. You might even pass off the story as another wonderful rendition of her endless supply of local legends and tales. If she was the only one to tell such stories, maybe that's all you'd think, but, she's not alone. From cradle to grave there is an acceptance of the preternatural world of ghosts and unexplainable creatures in this place. Belief in the existance of the Thlathla, the Bigfoot, is second only, I think, to the belief in ghosts. I've heard stories from many people both local and not.

Thlathla goes by many names up and down this coast. Almost always tall and totally hairy by description, they have been both respected and feared by the First Nations (Native Americans) along these shores. They are known as kidnappers and eaters of people or bringers of power and wealth. It's not just the local people, though. You'll find just as many people foreign to this island return to "civilization" with tales that seem to belong on a 'tales of the supernatural' show on a scifi channel--small boulders hurled at fishingboats by furry creatures, huge, bare-footed footprints found by hunters high in the mountains, police officers who pack their bags after returning ashen-faced from a lonely patrol night. Whether the story is based on experience or local lore, being here makes you a believer. It's easy to disconnect from the unexplained in the city but here you are forced to face the primeval fear of the endless distances, impelled to look past quick, dismissive explanations.

I came to this island already a believer in the unseen world but I sit here now, typing, as a firm believer with my own unexplainable experiences of ghostly voices and giant footprints by an isolated lake. I've been friends and colleagues with people who can't explain their experiences of ghosts who speak their pet's name or hooting creatures that follow their canoe. No. I'm wrong. We all can explain but we'd be hardpressed to explain ourselves to the hardbitten people of the cities and suburbs. Being here in a land clinging to the edge of mythology is the only way to explain it. I wish I could explain the feeling more. You'd probably have to live here to truly understand it.

More Than Food

2009-02-20T08:11:00.001-08:00

I tried to rename my blog baby. I thought it would give me a new, fresh start in a new, fresh direction. Instead, all I could find was a growing annoyance with the overuse of "stillness" in the new title and a growing desire to crawl back to my old blog name, "Deetsa's Diningroom", and beg its forgiveness.

My partner, The Frog, agreed with me. He pointed out that I had narrowed my vision about dining rooms. He said that there was more to a dining room than the food on the table. He pointed out the good friends who gathered there and the endless topics of discussion one has in the process of eating. I have to admit, a number of great discussions have started while dining, conversations that run the gamut from skipping rhymes to Alaskan history.

I wandered away only to find that what I needed had always been right there. Forgive me for taking so long to realize it, dear continuing (and new) readers.

Yes We CANada

2009-02-19T22:54:00.001-08:00

As a Canadian, I am always aware of the vastness of my country, the second largest in the world. It's normally a fact that I'm secretly thrilled with as a Canadian but not today. Today, I wish Canada was much smaller. If it were, I'd have seriously thought about finding my way to Ottawa, our capital city, to freeze with the big, cheering crowds that tried desperately to see a glimpse of US President, Barack Obama. Alas, I don't have my own jet nor the time or money to travel 3,500 kilometres as the crow flies. I had to watch on TV like many other Canadians.

We in Canada, at the last poll taken, were so charged with Obama-mania that about 80% of us admired the new American president. Just as a point of comparison, that is more than the popularity of our own leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Seeing the Canadian news this morning you could see even normally stuffy, stiff politicians looking a bit giddy to host Obama.

I admit I have been swept along by the charismatic style and soaring rhetoric of Obama. I, like many Canadians and other people around the world, have watched the presidential race closely. We in Canada, I think, had a special interest in the result because we are the largest trade partner and one of the closest allies of the United States.

I tried to read and watch what I could today about Obama's visit to our nation's capital, to our prime minister. I was excited to see not only his grinning acknowledgement of those crowds screaming "Yes We Can!" but also the gracious press conference between both leaders. Hey, it was one the few times I'd seen my Prime Minister actually seem human and even somewhat eloquent. I think, like most Canadians watching, we felt like the shy girl in the corner getting winked at by the popular guy in school. We felt seen, validated. I think we haven't felt that way for a while.

I realize that the national news networks in the U.S. weren't as interested in the Canadian personal stories of the day but I wish they had paid just a little attention to our news tidbits. I've seen the touching images from the U.S. of young African American kids crying when they realize that they too can become president but it translates to some other countries as well. It happened here. I got misty-eyed. It was sweet to see young Canadian kids of colour saying, 'I see Obama and I know I can be ANYTHING I want if I work hard enough". As a teacher, I know that I could have told my students that until I was blue in the face before but they had to see it to believe it. They believe it now. I know they'll believe me more readily now.

The story becomes a little personal for me now. A young teenager I once taught some years back seemed to have problems seeing any point of trying to do better. I learned, from another teacher, the day after the election, that this same student had begged to be allowed a few minutes grace to get home in time to watch the news about Obama. Not one time but many times. This startled me in a good way. I was hopeful but hesitant. Was this the spark that was needed to chase away the regular gloom I'd seen in this child? I saw this student the next day, the young eyes still shining with hope. I smiled and got a shy one in return. I quietly said, "Yes you can". I saw the "Yes I can" returned in the shining smile I got as an answer.

Sing, Sing A Song...

2009-02-17T21:22:00.001-08:00

I love music.

Music is more than a sound to me. It is more than background noise. It is more than a soundtrack following my emotional crests and falls. It is more than something I teach. It is quasi-religious to me. Maybe it is my religion.

You'd be surprised to realize, then, that I don't own an I-pod, MP3 or any such musical device to take with me wherever I go. It's not that I don't like them. I'd probably love to have music near me during a walk or prodding me through exercise. But I can't. I simply can't. It would take an act of God to stop me from singing along with almost any song, even if I never heard it before. Even a sore throat doesn't stop me.

I sing.

I could go on saying "yahda yahda... years of experience... yahda yahda training". But that is just icing. Even without all that I would have sung down the pillars from Heaven. Singing is like breath to me. Singing is my prayer to God. Singing, I think, is the way I connect with God and God connects with me. God knows that I'll pay attention to the message when the music begins.

I've spent nearly two hours trying to end this post. I don't know how. I think it ended where it needed to. I can't think of any fancy turns of phrase to introduce the piece of music that inspired this thought blip. Enjoy. Sing with me if you like.

The Computer That Was Meant to Be

2009-02-15T21:19:00.001-08:00

For a long time now, being on my home computer was a lip-biting experience. Will it freeze? Will it faint? Do I dare take a bathroom break? It got to the point where it wasn't even worth the bother trying to attempt anything creative or requiring computer stamina.
Timing seemed to be all wrong for using the work computer--either I was way too busy or, if I had time, I was way too tired to think in large, wordy chunks. Plus, I wanted to be able to sit in the comfort of home in my velvet robe, talking baby-talk to my dog and pondering politics with The Frog. That's where I really wanted to be when musing.
I thought a new computer would follow me home at Christmas but that wasn't to be. I thought a new computer would fly to me a month ago but that wasn't to be. I thought I was getting a Gateway computer but that wasn't to be.

All that has changed.

My new toy got here today.

And I love it. Already.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T10:06:00.001-08:00

I know we all have suffered from the mosh pit of fear during the past months of economic hardship but I'm going to be defiantly Pollyanna about this New Year's Eve and wish all and sundry a joyous and fruitful New Year. May my Scottish roots express it best:

A Guid New Year to ane an' a'

A guid new year to ane an' a'

An' mony may ye see,

An' during a' the years to come,

O happy may ye be.

An' may ye ne'er hae cause to mourn,

To sigh or shed a tear;

To ane an'a baith great an' sma'

A hearty guid New year.

A Good New Year to One and All

A good new year to one and all

And many may you see

And during the year to come

Oh, happy may you be.

And may you never have cause to mourn

To sigh or shed a tear;

To one and all both great and small

A hearty good New Year

Unexpected Boons

2008-12-21T18:47:00.001-08:00

Global warming sucks but sometimes it can give you an unexpected boon. Because the weather patterns are all wonky and wacky I might actually get a white Christmas this year. For those of you who know I live in Canada that may seem like an odd thing to say. In most cases I'd agree with you but I live in the tropics of Canada, the rainforested West Coast where snow makes a visit rarely.

I love snow. I guess one would when it shows up so infrequently and in such small amounts. Rain and wind are usually my lot in winter and that can get pretty depressing after a while. At least snow reflects the light and makes things seem a bit brighter and cheerier. I like snow at any time of winter but the idea of snow at Christmas holds a special place in my heart. I think it does for a lot of people, even those who see it quite a bit all winter.

There is something magical about a snowy Christmas. I know a lot of those Currier and Ives pictures, well-cherished movies and Christmas prose of long past play a part in my nostalgic sighs but there seems to be some necessary about snow for Christmas. When snow falls, all the noises are muted; the world seems hushed. What better time of the year to have a moment of quiet than the days when we ponder the mysteries and wonder of that special birth so very long ago that brought Love personified to the world. When it snows, it's as if the world itself seems to meditate on the sacredness of this time of year.

Christmas is also a time for joyful get-togethers with friends and family. What is better to get people together than snow and cold? Snow lets a little bit of the child out in so many people just like Christmas can. Or should. It makes us a little more apt to throw a snowball or two, build a snowman together, go sledding or even use it as an excuse to go inside to have hot chocolate heaped with marshmallows. And so it should. I think we all take life a little too seriously sometimes.

So there you have it--the reason I love snow. Snow is LOVE and snow is JOY. Snow brings both these feelings to my heart and my heart sends these feelings to all of you out there who read this.

Bless you all!

A Simple Prayer for Snuggles

2008-11-11T20:22:00.001-08:00

Do you know that ideal picture of a person sitting in a room, music playing gently in the background, a crackling fire, a good book in hand and a dog curled up, head lolling on that person's lap? But for the crackling fire, I have achieved that perfect little bit of bliss. I waited a long time for it.

Growing up and into my twenties, my family had boxer dogs. They are amiable, fun-loving family dogs and I still have my heart set on having another boxer one day. Yet there was always one thing that bothered me about the boxers we had. As much as I had fun walking them, stroking their enviably soft ears, squishing their fun jowls, I never got the gesture of affection I saw my sister and father get. I, too, wanted a sleeping dog to snuggle up and rest a weary head on my lap. It never happened. I tried all kinds of coaxing and sweetness. Nothing. I thought I'd never know that kind of sweet moment of pure love from a dog. Then I met Buster.

I've had Buster for one and a half years. Runt of the pack, living outdoors since he was just weaned, he was the happy-go-lucky, mixed breed puppy I passed by on my way to work. He was a bit too happy for the other dogs in the neighbourhood, though. More than I cared to see, his pale fur was smeared with blood from one submission session or another. Fate placed his care into my hands around his sixth month and it has been love, sweet, love ever since.

When I first got him, Buster was a shivering worrywart, scared of doing the wrong thing but he soon learned that my man and I were head over heels in love with him. He knew in a short time that he'd never have to shiver in the cold anymore if he didn't want to nor have to sneak around to find food when his brother wasn't looking. He is currently a much-plumper, long-legged couch hog who likes to chase squirrels, birds and water from the hose. He has us wrapped around his little finger. Most of all, he is the answer to my snuggly puppy dreams.

Buster loves to cuddle, practically rubbing himself around you like a cat or flopping like a fish across the couch so he can burrow his head on your lap or behind your back. He'll curl up like a ball one day or stretch out like a bear rug across you the next. Bliss really does happen while a gently snoring puppy dog uses you as a pillow, occasionally twitching and whimpering in his sleep as he chases that elusive cat through his dreams. It melts my heart every time.

My prayer was a simple one and I thank God every day that a furry little angel entered my life ready to snuggle.

It's All about Meme! July 2008

2008-07-31T10:07:00.003-07:00

I was in between travel days in France when I found Michelle's tag for a new meme. It has been a while since I've done a meme so I'm glad to have the chance to do one again. I enjoy reading them as much as I'm intrigued filling in the answers.

Michelle of Accidental Scientist is such a support. She's far more prolific in writing than I am and always an inspiration. Answering her tag is the least I could do for my dear blog friend. Go by and read hers, too.

1. Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater?
Yikes! I think the last one I saw in the theatre was “I am Legend” with Will Smith. Not much chance to go to movies in my little village. No movie theatre and I thoroughly do not believe in downloading movies illegally.

2. What Book Are You Reading? Well, of the English language books I just finished reading there was “The Real Food Revival” by Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas, “The End of Ignorance” by John Mighton and “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. Food, Education, Biography... the only thing I’m missing is a book on Spirituality. I’m also trying to improve my French by reading the old “Pif” pocketbook comics from The Frog’s childhood and some purchased French food magazines.

3. Favorite Board Game? I enjoy playing Risk ( We have the Lord of the Rings version) if I have the time and patience. I like the French strategy game, Abalone, too. My tagger need not worry about board game nights. I’ve done that with friends, too, and it can lead to all kinds of great potlucks and conversations. My best memories usually involve a night with games and good friends.

4. Favorite Magazine?
I don’t know how alone I am here. I rarely hear people ooh and aah over Cook’s Illustrated Magazine but it’s the magazine I prefer. I like knowing all the things the test kitchen has tried so I don’t try to take a lazy way out and end up flubbing up a dish. I like their brand comparisons and tests of new food tools, too.

5. Favorite Smells? I love the smell of the rain mixing with dust on the pavement after a long run of heat. I love the smell of sweet peas, honeysuckle and wild roses. I love the smell of cinnamon, particularly in baking. My dog’s warm fur.

6. Favorite Sounds?
The world without electricity. Real church bells (the fake ones just don’t cut it). Birds in the trees. Wind in the trees. Soft rain patter on deciduous trees. Baby giggles.

7. Worst Feeling In The World?
The feeling you get the moment after you said something you shouldn’t have

8. First Thing You Think of When You Wake?
”Where’s the dog?”

9. Favorite Fast Food Place?
Not that fond of anything “fast food”. Does sushi count? They can make it REALLY fast at TOGO Sushi. And it’s really good, to boot.
10. Future Child’s Name?
This has been thought of often so, unlike Michelle, I don’t feel I’d be jinxing anything. Ideally they would be Gabriel for a boy and Marie-Madeleine for a girl.

11. Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money,"
... I’d have an organic hobby farm with a small B&B on it.

12. Do You Drive Fast? Hmmm... I don’t think I really do but I do like to drive in places that I can legally go a bit faster like a freeway.

13. Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal?
After his dinner, I guess he’d be a “stuffed” Frog. LOL

14. Storms—cool or scary?
Having grown up with Canada’s West Coast’s answer to storms, I ‘d say cool. They’re rarely bad. I experienced my first French plains one a few years back and it had me a bit nervous. Way more violent than anything I’d known before. So the jury’s out on that one.

15. What Was Your First Car?
My first car was a little used red Geo Tracker. It smelled a little. The driver’s side window was completely wonky. I called him “Cooper”. He got me where I needed to go and I miss him.

16. Favorite Drink?
Hmmm... how boring is this—water! But I do like sweet iced tea, iced green tea, raspberry juice and pineapple juice too. Pineapple juice holds a special place in my heart. A number of years back I got sick during archaeology field school. For days I could hardly keep anything down. My first real “food” was a glass of pineapple juice one of the gals gave me in pity because I was restricted from the camp kitchen.

17. Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…"
... go back to school to take culinary arts. Even if it was just for me and not a job.

18. Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli?
Umm... of course! Why don’t other people??? All you have to do is peel them.

19. If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be?
It will almost certainly never happen but I’d like peacock blue or deep purple hair if I could just snap my fingers between natural and fake colours.

20. Name All the Different Cities In Which You Have Lived – The Greater Vancouver area is the only city I’ve lived in. Anywhere else has been small. Too small to count as a city. Or even a town. *sigh* I’m such a country toad.
21. Favorite Sport to Watch? I’ve surprised myself lately. I used to be completely intolerant of my father’s hockey and football watching. Football is still on the outs for me but I’m becoming a true Canadian sucker for a decent fight on the ice. You know, the stick and helmets flying kind. Otherwise my preference lies in swimming, horse jumping or gymnastic events. But that’s very rare.
22. One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You She leaves lovely comments on nearly everything I post. I really appreciate that she lets me know she’s still out there reading my blog. There’s nothing worse that feeling like you’re talking to yourself on a blog. :-/
23. What’s Under Your Bed?
Paper Storage. Extra sweaters in storage. Mending I still haven’t got to.

24. Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again?
I would. It would be a shame to not know the wonderful people I’ve known in my life if I had a different life.

25. Morning Person or Night Owl?
By rights I am a true night owl but having had so many reasons to get up early in the morning (school, teaching, etc), I have trained myself into a morning bird. I wouldn’t go so far as to say a lark. ;-)

26. Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
Sunny Side Up. Yolks have to be runny. Great preference for it to served on top of a buttered whole wheat toast. That way I can cut the egg without worrying about losing any precious yolk. Too much whites compared to the yolk? Yuck.

27. Favorite Place to Relax?
The bath. Give me a pile of reading material and hot water and I’m happy. The pool, floating on my back watching clouds and birds is related but not as high on the list. Out of the bath, I like to be curled up on the couch with my dog, his head resting on me, a good book in my hands.

28. Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Pistachio. Mind you, the French have some amazing flavours of ice cream and sorbets. My favourites of these are coconut, lemon sorbet, lime sorbet and pear. Oh god... the pear. It is SOOOO good.

29. Of All the People You Have Tagged, Who Is the Most Likely to Respond First?
Um. I hate answering this question. If Michelle hadn’t tagged me, I know she’d likely have been one of the first.

Oh dear... now I have to tag 4 or 5 other people. The part I “love” the most. It kinda feels like telemarketing to me. I just hope people don’t mind.

I'm tagging:

Zoomie, always a fun blog companion and prolific writer, at Zoomie Station
Cate, always warm and supportive and wonderful to read, at Sweetnicks
Darling Jasmine, my fellow Canadian, who tried to keep me in touch with the blogging world so many times by email, at Cardamom Addict
The other Michelle, my new blog buddy and a great writer, at Le Potage

A New Mission Already!

2008-07-23T01:08:00.002-07:00

I haven't finished telling you about the first mission only to end up going on the second mission, Belgium, already. It's only a couple of days and I should be back for Friday. Again, this was unexpected as I thought this trip would be later. I'll have to get a lot of writing in on the weekend because we'll again be away for a few days near the Ardennes, home of Froggy Mommy's family come Monday evening.

While I'm away I'll be thinking of sweet Sher, whose dear friend, Glenna, wrote a lovely tribute about her friend. Sher will be fondly remembered. God bless you, Sher.

The First Day Abroad

2008-07-22T11:14:00.007-07:00

The lunch of the snobs left me giddy and defiant. Nothing could really top that. And, in a sense, it was in a league of its own. We'd only happen to wander there because there was such a dearth of restaurants to be found in Lunéville.

We'd stopped in Lunéville to see the mini-Versaille built by Leopold, Duke of Lorraine and later occupied by the deposed king of Poland, Stanislaw Leszczynski. We only saw the outside as we spent a little time walking the large gardens attached to the chateau.

We wandered through Baccarat to admire the crystal. Being there only reinforced my love of Lalique crystal even if my pocketbook fainted at the prices. After, we tried to find our way to Alsace through the Vosges Mountains. It seemed we found every twist and turn on those roads but eventually we sunk down into the grape-laden hillsides of Alsace.

I'd mistakely thought we were staying in the town of southern Alsace, Colmar. Instead, we ended up staying on the Ile du Rhine, a lovely hotel right beside the Rhine River. Our room looked out over a lake-like side channel of the Rhine where I found a bit of bliss in the early morning and the evenings watching the ducks and swallows there as well as a pair of swans with their four babies.

We ate at the hotel for dinner the first night. It wasn't the chateau by any stretch of the imagination but it was a good introduction to a new favourite of mine--flammenkueche, also known as tarte flambee. I'd describe as perogy-fixings on a flatbread.--lardons (bacon), creme fraiche (sour cream) and onions-- yet superior. I'd also had a fillet de sandre, a halibut-textured fish, with a creamy reisling sauce but it didn't match the love at first sight I had with the flammenkueche. I could have had a version with grilled cheese or with Munster cheese, but the sheer peasant simplicity of the dish would have been ruined. Having it served on a wooden board enhanced its comfort food status immensely.

While Looking for Lunch at Lunéville

2008-07-21T18:53:00.002-07:00

The icy looks left me wondering where this trip would take us. As we stepped through the passage way to a charming, tiered garden my fears were confirmed. It did indeed seem that the longer the road into the deep country one goes to a place called "Chateau de Something", the higher up the social ladder the clientele were likely to be. The customers ringing the tables seemed to ooze money out of their pores. In the moments that passed between my first and third steps on the terrace, I'd vaccilated between wishing my clothes to suddenly turn into Chanel and telling myself to act like I owned this place. It was a bit hard to pull off as we swept past the fluttering silks and linen in runners and travelling clothes. I think I was terrified in the first moments that we'd either be snubbed by the staff or have scandalized chateau guests walk off in a huff. My fears were never realized and I considered the pleasant way we were led to our table to be a successful leap over a huge hurdle. I relaxed. I even started being a bit amused at the occasional incautious glances of the others, assessing our status.

I didn't really want to reinforce the tourist-who-mistakenly-wandered-into-the-palace image we already presented so I never took pictures of the food. There was just no privacy. That room was designed to see and be seen. The food, however, left a big impression on me, enough to remember it in detail.

Let me first begin with the setting. Imagine a well-kept Caribbean estate terrace garden leading onto a covered lanai. The lanai itself is decorated in the fashion of a colonial club room in Southern Asia. Palms, multi-drawered apothocary chests, tiles, white linens--you know, the works.

We all started with the tuna carpaccio. Three long rectangular portions of paper thin belly tuna lay across the width of the plate, parted by light dressed fresh greens with a sprinkling of raw mung beans on top. The tuna itself was dressed sparingly in soy sauce, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and rice vinegar. A smattering of wasabi/chili oil dots lined the sides of the plate. It was served with an avocado soup/sorbet. The tuna was very moreish, the light bitterness of the mung sprouts a nice contrast to the lusciousness of the delicate tuna. But the avocado thing, my only disappointment of the meal, had a top note of cool richness. The bottom note that played out after, however, was bitter. Not "try not to spit it out" bitter, but certainly not appealing.

After, Papa Frog and I had salmon ravioli. If the tuna was very good, this dish was heaven in a celadon-green glass bowl. In a light salmon broth, awash in a confetti of lightly cooked carrot, turnip and zucchini dice, were a few pieces of luxuriantly-textured poached salmon. Most of the few salmon pieces were half-wrapped in perfectly cooked wonton wrappers. There was a seasoning of herbs in the soup that I think was chervil, parsley and basil. It was topped off with a little green cloud of leek sprouts. It seems too simple to be good but it was a marriage of flavours that defied explination. It took all my reserve to not lift the bowl to my lips to get every last drop of the lovely broth.

My Frog had ordered a cut of beef with a pepper sauce. We thought we knew what to expect. Oh how wrong we were. The rare-cooked piece was so rich and buttery under the knife that I expected Froggie's eyes to roll back in his head. The 'sauce' was actually a pale-green pepper oil served on the side. It only added to the unctuous nature of the little beast. Also on the side was served a collection of lightly poached white asparagus spears and poached radishes. Again unexpected but they worked so well with the rest of the dish. I can say this because it became too much of a curiosity for me not to beg a piece. It was every savoury bit of butteriness that he promised. Every bit.

As I'd ordered from a menu I still had a dessert to arrive. While we waited for the course to come we were given a small bowl of top notch dark chocolate cut into cubes and the most darling thumb-sized madeleines. Those little cakes were strawberry pink and rose-flavoured. Yum! I would have been happy if THIS had been my dessert but the best was yet to come.

I didn't know what to expect of a "passion tart" but I didn't expect what came. A tiny glass of canary yellow passionfruit smoothie with a tiny black straw hovered on the plate above a tart of simple splendour. A cookie-like crust was filled with the most breathtakingly rich, yolky custard, crowned with four perfect fat raspberries and dusted with silver leaf. Yeah... edible silver leaf. Honestly, the snobs could take a hike. I was going to relish this.

I'd entered this place feeling like I better pretend to own this joint. By the end I didn't need to pretend to act pampered. I was.

The Next Mission

2008-07-16T22:49:00.003-07:00

The Frog and I were surprised by Papa Frog to find that we'd already been booked for our first vacation within a vacation so soon. This Thursday we are off to the French-German border for four days. Strasbourg and Freiburg im Breisgau are on the visit list. I do happily have a memory disk reader now so I'll have pictures to share when I get back as well as stories. However, to those of you who have supported me through my pictureless days, you made me realize again the power of prose. So, sometimes in the future I just may happen to 'lose my camera' to play with the power of the written word.

See you in a few days! Coq au Reisling, Munster Cheese and Gewürztraminer here I come!

The Secret Mission

2008-07-15T13:43:00.006-07:00

The sun trickles its way across the dark wardrobe. The air coming in from the window, slightly ajar, is fresh. You look out and see a picture perfect blue sky. Closing your eyes, you feel the wind catch slightly on your face and you hear the sweet sound of chirruping birds and the softly distant sound of a bell, tolling Matins. You look back towards the bed and see your beloved gently snoring, splayed across the bed like a child. You smile and return to the few pages left of your book.

As he awakes, your man suggests a lovely surprise for his father and the guests of the last two days, an aunt and uncle. His suggestions pleases you as you wish to do something nice for these two lovely people. Almost instantly after meeting them you warmed to them, their presence in your first few days in France a sweet and unexpected blessing.

Quickly you both dress for the day, whispering in hushed but fervent tones about favourite topics. Quickly you both slip out of the house, trying not to wake anyone. Out of the gate you wander down the lane, chattering and admiring some of the fruit trees belonging to neighbours. The apples seem bonny and abundant and surprisingly flush for the time of year.

You turn to the main village road, pass by the park and cross the street quickly. The road is actually quite busy for the morning but not unexpectedly. People are racing back to work and home after France's National holiday, a long weekend this year. You can even still see a little of the detritus of the weekend's festivities and fireworks along the curb.

The houses of the village press close together like long stone snakes bordering the roads. The early morning sun presses against their shuttered windows. Were it not for the constant bustle of passing cars and trucks, you would have felt quite alone in the streets, so few living things are in your path except the odd cat and the swift-darting barnswallows. But the scent of the flowers are quite alive as you walk, some well known like the deep red roses splashed across the farm building and some haunting, unknown perfume--green yet sweet.

You pass under the blue shadows of the tall, typical Eastern French church. You both pause to admire the tower, topped with a weathered but proud cockerel before continuing on to your destination--the bakery. The shop is quite modern looking, inset amongst the archaic stone buildings. You look in the window and realize that there is indeed life stirring in the quiet country village.

As you enter, an ancient but proud-looking little lady passes by you, a bread loaf half her size tucked almost militarily under her sweatered arm. She greets you with the abbreviated street-greeting so familiar to you now--'Bonjour M'sieurdame'. The greeting is echoed by the cheerful baker's wife, young and energetic-looking. Your darling quickly asks for all the remaining ten croissants, freshly baked that morning. His eyes wander to the little quiches beside the croissants and folds to temptation at the thought of having good French quiche. He orders two. You must hurry out and no longer tarry as people of all shapes and sizes suddenly try to squeeze into the shop, waiting for their daily fresh bread. The village, it seems, is now awake.

You take a quieter, quicker route home, admiring the still-flowering wisteria crawling across the expanse of three stone houses. Faces are now peeking through windows as you pass. The waking of the village has happened so quickly, you're almost breathless. An old lady waddles along the narrow alley to her garden. A troupe of young men discuss loudly as they start working on refurbishing a house. A child babbles as a mother coos in some unseen upper floor. The buttery scent of the croissants drives you on to quickly get back home.

Flushed with excitement and the walk, you both dash through the gate and up the hill to the veranda, laying your treasure out on the table for the sleepy-eyed but obviously pleased guest. Breakfast goods are gathered up and all emerge to partake of the coffee, juice and croissants. You share a bit of quiche with your sweetie and your eyes widen at the beautiful taste of the eggs and bacon. This is nothing like the quiches you've known from Canada. It's far more dense and rich. You know how much the quiche means to him, so you refrain from grabbing the rest. Instead you sink your teeth into a flaky, buttery croissant. Again your eyes widen as this freshly made treat melts against your tongue. 'We ain't in Canada anymore, Toto', you think. They may not be the prettiest you've seen but their bare touch of salt and understated sweetness are infinitely superior to anything you've had before, at least in recent memory.

As you listen to the conversation open up around the table, blending with the hum of a distant lawnmower, you realize that this really IS the life.

Doh!

2008-07-13T21:49:00.002-07:00

There's nothing as disheartening as realizing that you've travelled thousands of miles to a foreign country to stay for a month and find you've forgotten something you consider rather vital. I brought my camera, batteries, recharger, french plug adaptor... but no download cord. I mean, I suppose it could be much worse. I could have found that I'd left the picture cards or the camera itself at home. THAT would have been worse. We're going to have to see if we can get an outside source download port. The French don't seem to be nearly as tech crazy as North America so I am crossing my fingers on this. The Frog has a friend who has a small computer store/repair shop. He may know what to do if we can't figure it out.

If there is nothing to be done, I'm going to have to rely on my word skill to describe the food. I hope you don't mind. Then, maybe after I get back, I can upload pictures to go with the words.

Let the Games Begin

2008-07-12T14:16:00.002-07:00

I've posted so little lately that I may just have last year's France visit on the same page as this year's visit. Yep, you read right. It's that time of year again--a month in France ( and other participating countries).

I anticipate the month with nostalgic and gastronomical excitement. Old friends like my beloved chèvre cheese, brut de pom (apple pop) rilettes de canard and French yogurt have already zipped through the shopping scanner as well as some new hopes like raspberry juice with violet aroma. They are still sitting placidly in the fridge ready to seduce my tastebuds.

One unexpected surprise so far was the champagne we drank on our arrival back to the homebase. I'm not always so keen on champagne alone, preferring the addition of crème de cassis. but this one had such a haunting grape tone that it was far more interesting to my palate.

We hope to travel a bit to the east and a bit further north so my future may hold such delights and curiosities as waffles and coq au Riesling on Spätzle. I know Ze Frog wants to ask about another more local specialty--pig's feet. I'm not sure about it but I'll try at least if offered the chance. Life is too short to be weird about food.

Easing Back Gently

2008-07-11T22:54:00.001-07:00

Perhaps I think that I need to create a masterpiece of modern food commentary. Or maybe I think I need to create a masterpiece of modern food recipes. But this is blog, baby! It's not The New York Times or a potential Pulitzer. If it's supposed to be, I'm doomed.

But I say basta ya to my inner self-critic and throw caution to the wind. This IS a food commentary and so, dang it, I'll comment. This IS a place to share food adventures, so, By God, I'll share. No Olympic swimmer dipped into the pool just yesterday and won the gold medal on the day of swimming lesson #2 so I don't know why I seem to think I need to write Shakespeare on my first tries.

So I'm jumping into the dictionary with my waterwings, sweetheart, and preparing to bob up and down until I find my strength. Practice makes perfect says the old adage so I'll work my way up in wordcraft. They may be diatribes, they may be little bubbles of thought but I need to stop kidding myself that I'll be a master with no preparation. I just need to write. So sit back and strap in--you're in for a bumpy ride.

Spring Renewal

2008-03-23T15:05:00.005-07:00

It's a start, at least. It may be nothing new and groundbreaking for well-stocked foodies out there in the bloggieworld but I had to share my next level of foodiedom. I made pasta from scratch for the first time.

Even with all the quirks and annoyances getting to that stage, I am very proud of myself for getting there. And to think it was all so easy (if you don't count a borrowed pasta maker that would rather fling itself off the counter than stay put). Now I'm hooked. I want to try again. And again. And maybe... again!

I even made sure I tried the pasta maker before I went down south to Vancouver so I'd know what little things would make my next time easier. For example, I definitely needed to level up on the scale. So I got one. Wish I could have got one of those hundred dollar examples out there but I'll just have to save up for it along with the pasta maker, a new car, etc. But I have other things I got to make the three month wait worth it--fresh herbs for the garden, Italian tomato paste, anchovy paste and the funkiest kitchen shears given as an early birthday present from my dear friend.

Freshly made pasta ready for the pasta pot.

The homemade pasta with asparagus and prosciutto, cream sauce

I've been doing some spring cleaning of my more whiney posts and maybe take the Easter message of rebirth seriously this time. Can't think of a better time to blossom back into the foodie world. Let's just hope I mean it this time. ;-)

Bonny Bretagne, land of seafood

2007-08-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

St. Malo

I really am a coastal girl. I really miss being close to the sound, the smell, the sight of the ocean. I wasn't too many days ago spending my waking hours at least within sight of the saltwater at least once a day. I know that is why I love Bretagne. The littoral nature of the area fits what I've loved about my regular home on Canada's west coast. Hey, even my name means 'of the sea'. So I guess it's in my nature to need the nearness of the water and all that comes of it. And I did love what came from it. The seafood of Brittany rarely disappoints me and I had a number of tasty fish, shellfish and crustacean dishes in the area this past visit.

The HRH Frog and FIL also had their fair share of sealife, too. Frog's been talking about nothing but Bretagne oysters for at least a couple of months. At least. And I too was looking forward to something--langoustines. Sadly there weren't as many options for it this time around and what I did have was, if fact, one of those disappointments I mentioned. Overcooked and far too few for the price. I could almost forgive it since we ate in SUCH a beautiful hotel dining room. But not quite. Here's a sampling of the more fishy dishies I ate. I was such a slacker that in some cases I've totally forgotten names of the fish and what the name of the restaurant was but I think the food speaks of itself in the beauty at least.

Coquilles St. Jacques cooked in Pommeau (apple alcohol)

Trout with Normandy Sauce (cream, mussels)
Yeah... I know it is Normandy border food but I was really close to Brittany. I promise!

The unfortunate langoustines I mentioned (St. Malo)

Tuna Tartare--not what I expected but still quite good. I was thinking something sashimi-like since the salmon is served like that. (Oceanopolis aquarium's restaurant--near Brest)

What I think mi-i-i-ght be loup-de-mer with a cream sauce (the apple was SO not acceptable)
(Oceanopolis aquarium restaurant --near Brest)

Le Duguesclin restaurant/hotel: friggin' outstanding food! (this pic and the next)
This is a carpaccio of salmon and scallops so delicately laced with flavour I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! And perfect on the hot, hot day we had

This fish, I cannot for the life of me remember the name, was lovely and refined in taste with a seaweed-flavoured cream sauce

Lieu Jaune with Naintes (sp?) butter sauce: quite nice, from the L'Atlantique restaurant in Vannes (I adore that quaint city--a visit to Bretagne wouldn't seem the same without a visit)

Back to Bretagne

2007-07-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

I will be away for about a week with the Frog n FiL to Bretagne. Chartres, Mont St. Michel and other such things await. Adieu until next week.

Caught Between Two Cultures

2007-07-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

My mother could survive a nuclear winter. No, she's not a termite nor is she currently radioactive. My mother 'stocks-up'. There sometimes seems there isn't enough storage space for the amount of food items that exist in my parent's home. Maybe I exaggerate a bit but I don't think by much. I grew up thinking it was quite normal to have enough rice in the pantry to last for three years. And maybe it isn't just my family. On any given day in warehouse-type shopping centres like Costco you'll find umpteen people racing around with huge carts buying ginormous hunks of cheese or case-lots of toiletpaper. My mother shops weekly and, like many people around her, get a heaping amount of stuff for 'just in case' or 'it's on sale' as well as food for the next week.

Then I go to France.

I'm sometimes in awe how little my Frogger in Law has in his cupboards and fridge. It's such a European thing, it seems, to have more dishes than food in the house at any given time. Mind you, I've never actually been to a working farm's pantry in France so I could be wrong. Going shopping for the next few days meals, and whatever household item you currently need, seems much more par for the course. You get what you need and that is that. Yet that seems to go hand-in-hand with some better quality 'convenience food' as well as top notch fresh items. I rarely see people in the supermarket buying more than half a regular shopping cart's full of food. And, often, it is things like paper products and beverages that take up the most space. Given that waistlines like European cars and homes, seem smaller on average here, perhaps this is a good thing.

Back home in my isolated little village, I am truly stuck for what to do. I'm rather beholden to stock up on things in case they run out of things at the store for a long period of time yet I still go nearly every day to see what they have. After all, they mayve have had some perk or extra brought up fresh on the plane. Things like that don't last very long in the village. I'd really like to go every few days for fresh items as in France but I see the necessity of pioneer attitudes in keeping lots of food stuffs around 'just in case'.

However, while in France I enjoy the freshness of food that looks like just came from field, water or tree. Here's some of the things out of Papa's kitchen that we've had in the last two weeks:

Atlantic Salmon with noodles and peas'n'lettuce (my addition)

Jumbo-sized shrimp with mint tabouli and a fresh salad

Shoulder of lamb with flageolet and Charlotte potatoes

Paupiettes de veau with noodles

Floured Sardines, fried

Quail with mashed potatoes
(yes, people, the head DOES come with the bird from the store)

New and Old Obsessions

2007-07-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

"Bonne Maman, Bonne Maman
C'est toi que j'aime tant"

I can't get that stupid jingle out of my head. I hear it nearly every year on the radio station, RTL, or occasionally see it on the TV when I visit France. And now it is driving me bonkers as it stomps through my head relentlessly! But, I can't actually complain about the products. The fact is, the jams and jellies of Bonne Maman are stupendous! And this year I have a new favourite: Confiture de Châtaignes à la Vanille (Chestnut Spread with Vanilla). Maybe favourite isn't even the right word; obsession would be more apt. It's lovely and sumptuous, hugging your tummy like an angora sweater. I've since found that eating it on brioche takes it to an all new level. Too much spread on it and it might cause your brain to implode from too much sweetness. I could think of worse ways to die.

It wasn't even the jams or spreads I was dreaming of when I thought of coming back to France, though. All I could dream about was the yogurt. France is a yogurt-lover's paradise. Imagine a whole aisle devoted to yoghurts. It makes the average British Columbian store look pathetically amateur in comparison. And the flavour list must be at least as long as my arm, some of which I've never even seen in my end of Canada: coconut, chocolate, apple, litchi, passionfruit. But it isn't even those flavours I dreamt of. I dreamt only of Greek Sheep's-milk Yogurt. If you love yogurt, chèvre cheese and the texture of pudding, this is the yogurt for you. Yaourt de Brebis (sheep) has the rich, toothsome taste of goat's milk but it isn't nearly as pungeunt. I'm afraid cow's milk yogurt is insipid by comparison.

I can't imagine a better place to breakfast than France. Can you?

Stinky, Slimy Squid Guts: A Tale of Seduction

2007-07-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've seduced the Frog. Again.

Well, that makes it sound sudden-like. Actually, over the space of a year my obsessive watching of the Food Network (Canada's version) has altered the Frog's attitude. He has gone from "Not again! Don't you watch anything else? What is that? Iron what?" to "Nothing good is ever on the TV except on the Food Network. Oooh! Look! License to Grill is on! That guy is really cool! Oooh! And look! Iron Chef is on next. I wonder what the secret ingredient is!"

It's all rather funny and kinda cute to see a guy who was inordinately proud that he cut one pepper into slices for me in 15 minutes become the guy who is listening intently to Jamie Oliver about how to cut up a clove of garlic in 15 seconds. And now we've gone to a new level. A hands-on level.

On Friday morning, we went shopping at Auchan for three day's meals. In choosing at the fish mongers, Frog became obsessed with the idea of eating squid cooked from fresh (frozen or bad resto versions have been our lot in the past). He tried to beg me to cook them and, to be frank, I balked. But, to his credit, he didn't and was so desperate he decided he'd do it himself as long as I helped him find a recipe.

The next morning, he had a stomach-turning moment when he thought that he'd gotten himself into deeper water than he could handle. I helped him track down gutting procedures and recipes on the net, suggested replacements for a couple of ingredients not possible to obtain in the given time (long story) and willingly coached him through the steps. He went a little green again when he looked at the little squiddies laying in their inky, stinky, slimy pool but he washed, skinned, gutted, cut, debeaked, etc., while gaining, in leaps, his confidence back.

What we ended up making was a marinated squid dish cooked from residual heat and then chilled. He even made the rice to go with it. He was very proud of his creation, loved me all the more for helping him make it happen and strutted like a peacock when his father asked for the recipe and praised his efforts. It just may happen that I won't be the only one obsessing over a hard-to-get ingredient anymore. I, ashamedly, didn't take his budding interest in cooking too seriously in the last month or so. But now I know it's love.

Here is the orginal recipe from Recipesource.com: White Wine- Marinated Squid

We changed two things as we couldn't get to the store. I know it would have been better with the original lemon juice but we had to use a mild vinegar for the acid. FiL's cupboards are pretty bare of herbs so we used thyme instead. But, despite these changes, the squid was meltingly soft and nicely, lightly flavoured. A nice hot summer day recipe.

That Time of Year Again

2007-07-21T20:04:00.001-07:00

Ack! Quiet again for so long? I've really got to kick my butt more often.

As a teacher I don't have any munchkinlettes around at this time of the year (even if I've started working hard for the next school season). But all that hard work can't always be that bad if done in the foodie heaven called France. Yes, folks, I am in France again this summer with zee Frog and zee Frogger-in-Law.

Please understand that these trips are less about finding as many touristy spots as possible as it is about family. I experience what the average tourist does not--everyday life in the land of wine and cheese. So I get to go to the regular supermarkets. I eat regular family meals. I sit at the local café-bar on the terrace and watch a little life go by. I take small trips to local spots of beauty (hoping to see a local ruined abbey soon). And that can be just fine for me as I enjoy the quiet, unpestered way of life. I enjoy exotic locations but I also enjoy biding my time and getting to know a place well.

So, if you're still interested in knowing a less Versailles-and-Eiffel Tower kind of France through a North American's eyes, please raise your hand. I can't promise Victor Hugo on a blog page but I'll try and keep you interested.

Strawberries and Chocolate: Quesadilla-style

2007-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Spring is good here. Real fruit actually haunts the aisles of our little store. Strawberries with real strawberry taste have been making their debut here in the village and the cartons disappear faster than ice in a heatwave.

Begging and wheedling are a part of my lifestyle at the village store. Sometimes some extra goodies lurk in the back room. I've never been brave enough, like some, to just walk in the back and take what I want, so I must resort to begging and wheedling to get the goodies. I've gotten things like radishes, Ribena and, yesterday, strawberries in such a way.

Yesterday there were only three cartons left in the back to go on the shelf: mine, the ones I saved for a favourite village elder, P., and one that was whisked away in the space of one minute while I was searching to give the saved, desired box to said P. I swear to you, that those strawberries didn't last two minutes on the refrigerated shelves before they were all swept away. Money is no object for fresh fruit in this village once spring rolls around.

While I could have eaten them all straight up, I did actually have a plan for those beauties that would hopefully turn out to be everything I could hope for in a dessert: fruit, chocolate and bread. Thus the strawberry and chocolate quesadilla was created for yesterday's dessert. I wish I could claim it as my own inspiration but I came across it in my newish cook book: Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates by the Moosewood Collective. There are many recipes I've enjoyed from Moosewood books and this one turned out to be a new favourite and potential inspiration, too.

Strawberry Chocolate Quesadillas

3 cups thinly sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
6 flour tortillas (8 inches across)
vegetable oil
3/4 cup chocolate chips [I used milk chocolate chips]

Combine the strawberries, cinnamon and 3 tbsp of the confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Leaving a 1/2-inch border at the edges, spread half a cup of the strawberry mix on one half of each of the tortillas.

Brush two large heavy skillets with oil and heat until hot but not smoking. Place one tortilla in each skillet and put 2 tbsp of the chocolate chips on the plain half of the tortilla, leaving a border of about 1 1/2-inch at the edges. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the chocolate [starts to] melts. Fold the tortilla in half and press the edges together with a spatula. Remove the quesadillas from the skillet and repeat the procedure with the remaining two pairs.

Serve immediately, dusted with the remaining confectioners' sugar and sliced in half.

Notes: An unbelievably easy and fast dessert. The strawberries could even be prepped ahead of time to sit a moment in the sugar and cinnamon. Really be careful of the heat as I burned the first tortilla, even on a lower heat, the moment I took my eyes off to say something to my guest. But the rest were an amazingly quick process with few ingredients but still looked good enough for my last-night guests to elicit gasps of admiration.

I've been dreaming of making a pear version in the "Belle-Helene" style now. I'm sure it would be good too. Yum! :9

A Merry Christmas to all!

2006-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well, my promise to be more active didn't hold up, did it? This isn't good because I really did mean to. I can't believe that Christmas is here already. Can you?

I have already decided that the chocolate thumbprints I made before are good enough to be considered a Christmas favourite for the recipe files. I made at least 10 batches of them during the first week of December for home, school nosh or gift donation.

oooey, gooey cinnybun centers--it's all butter,brown sugar and cinnamon, baby!

Now I have cinnamon buns to look forward to on Christmas morning. Never has there been a Christmas without those gooey, bready, sweet confections (sans icing...bleah!). EVER. It wouldn't be the same.

I hope all of you out there have a wonderful winter holiday season and enjoy the traditional treats it brings. Peace, Love and Harmony to you All!

Thumbs up to Christmas

2006-12-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

I guess sometimes you can just loathe the idea of using the kitchen. Especially when you are busy and reinvigorating your love of teaching. It’s not that that I didn’t cook some creative things. I roasted duck for the first time in my life back in September and, according to the Frog, it turned out perfectly. I’ve just spent so much time trying to be creative all day at school that all I wanted to do at home was crash. Well known, quick recipes have been the norm. No Boeuf Bourguignon. No sushi. Nothing that required too much planning or thought. But now that reporting period is over and I feel more in the swing of things at school, I’m coming back to haunt the foodie blog halls. After all, who can resist the temptation of Christmas baking. I’m already ten-fold happier with the scent of spilled cinnamon wafting up from my be-floured clothes and the multi-coloured lights glimmering around the computer nook window.

I’m actually playing around with a recipe right now that has been one of my less favourite family Christmas cookies--the well-known thumbprint. When you are in the mood for them they are so perfectly sweet and rich with their dabble of nuts and little cup of gooey jam. But I’m often not in the mood for them because I find them too sweet and, okay, let’s face it—I really don’t like the walnuts on them. So I’m on the hunt for a good thumbprint recipe that will satisfy a sweet tooth without being too cloying and a little less walnutty. I'm not even sure what I'm looking for. I'll know when I've found it. ;-)

Experiment thumbprint cookie # 1 : Chocolate thumbprint cookies
Source: One Smart Cookie by Julie Van Rosendaal
Tweaks: for half the recipe, I added chestnut spread in the indentation
Marks out of 10: 8 (quite good as a carrier but base can't stand on its own as well)

¼ cup stick margarine or butter, softened (I used salted butter)
½ cup sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup ( I used golden)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tsp water
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼- 1/3 cup raspberry jam or other preserves ( I used raspberry for ½ the batch and
chestnut for the other ½)

icing sugar for sprinkling (optional) (I used ground up pink decorating sugar for
the raspberry preserves and cinnamon for the chestnut spread)

* Preheat oven to 375ºF
* In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until well-blended. Beat in corn syrup, egg, vanilla, and coffee until smooth
* In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the sugar mixture and stir by hand just until you have a soft dough.
* Roll dough into 1” – 1 1/2” balls, and place 1” – 2” apart on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray (I actually used parchment paper and it worked just fine). Make an indentation in the middle of each cookie with your thumb ( I dusted my thumb with flour after I found the dough too sticky to use just my thumb). Fill each dent with jam.
* Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, until just set around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. If you like, sprinkle cooked cookies with icing sugar (or crushed sugar/ cinnamon in my case)
* Makes 2 dozen cookies.

My thoughts:
(1)The chocolate dough acts as a good carrier for a more prominently-flavoured filling. The French chestnut spread I had was relatively weak in flavour to stand on its own but with a touch of cinnamon it was certainly elevated. Raspberry, of course, took center stage and needed little help. In fact, it made the chocolate really come out in the base cookie.
(2)The timing they give was probably fine for a less finicky oven as mine. Keeping it to a 11 minute period was just fine and made the cookie more chewy, which I like. You really have to be careful with the timing of cooking. The first batch was a bit dark around the edges because I relied on the book’s timings instead of instinct.

The results:

Memories of France

2006-10-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

Since I was such a slacker in Summer to show my Brittany food, here's a teaser of items I ate:

A tartar of salmon with beets and creme fraiche: surprising flavour mix 9/10

Foie gras with an apple tart and parsley salad: amazing taste, way too rich for me 8/10

sliced rolls of pistachio and pigeon: I can say I had pigeon.Very strong in taste 7/10

Rouget with Mediterranean veggies and a sauce with black olives: 7/10

Palais of cream cheese with strawberries. Lime Creme Anglaise. Almond scented cookie
20/10... I would live in this dessert if I could. For Life. It is what I would describe as perfect. Everything was so perfect you'd either have to cry or swear to get out the type of emotional impact it had on me. God, those strawberries were absolutely perfect.

Strokin' Ye Ole Ego

2006-09-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

I love teachers. Seriously LOVE them! Not only are they ready to piranha-swarm any food you lay out for them like it was their last meal but they will compliment you when they come up for air. It can really go to a person's head when you have people saying, "Oooh! Who made this? I'll bet it was Nerissa!" That's what I heard at the last potluck luncheon we had at the Friday workshop.

Potluck luncheons are fairly common in our corner of the world if a workshop is at hand. There's a variety of foods brought every time but salmon presence is particular evident. Everything from spreads to the latest batch of salmon from the smoke house made regular appearances. In this season and on this coast we are spoiled rotten with salmon. So, on Friday, who was I to change anything? I had a yen for a holiday treat gleaned from my grandmother's recipes so I treated everyone to it. With all the cream cheese in it, it wouldn't be wise to eat it all by myself anyways ;-)

It is seen here without the nut decorations but we have staff with severe allergies (sucks to be him). However, sans the nuts I found a great opportunity to use my new dishes which I got for a song.

Salmon Log

2 tins Pacific Salmon (7 1/2 oz.)drained of most its liquids
8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 tbsp Horseradish
dash Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Liquid Smoke
1 tbsp green onion

Mix all ingredients together until well blended. It is best when made the night before serving. We've put it in decorative moulds or chilled it in bowls. You can shape it into a log hence the name. Garnish with walnuts and chopped parsley. Serve with crackers, toast points, a spoon ;-)

***

That's it! It's really easy with lots of yummy comfort food goodness. I like it best on Saltines or Melba toast.

5 Foods To Eat Before You Die

2006-09-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

Four score and seven years ago I was sent a meme... I'm just getting to it now. I do apologize to all those who tagged me for the 5 Things to Eat Before You Die meme for the long wait. Bless you, Bonnie, Cyndi and Jasmine for your patience.

Narrowing down foodly perfection isn't easy. And sometimes the best food in one's eyes isn't necessarily exotic or rare. Often it's the food we desire in the moments of comfort. We wonder why everyone doesn't love it or has not yet experienced it. I thought of foods that changed my view of the world and the way I eat.

My list is as follows:

1) Wind-dried Pacific salmon flesh and sun-dried kelp with a dipping sauce of Nass Valley ooligan-fish grease. I know it's rather specific but of the three kinds of ooligan grease I know, Nass grease has better flavour. This suggestion really has ocean written all over it. Each one has a unique flavour but together they are better than the sum of their parts.

2) Foie Gras. This blew my mind more than once. The taste experience, the texture, everything about it is so overwhelming that it defies better words to describe it. And it tastes even better with cooked fruit. Buttery and sweet, it's a great treat but make sure your gallbladder is prepared.

3) Thin-skinned green eating apples taken right off the tree after it has been warmed by the afternoon September sun. I know, I know... very specific again. You have to trust me. By the afternoon in September, the apple is a perfect temperature to release every nuance of sweetness and yet still retain a bit of a sour edge.

4) Duck. This is not your average poultry meat but it isn't so difficult to find. The breast really is the best part, I think. Cooked well, it will make your toes curl in pleasure. I did, however, cook a duck recently. I would be hard-pressed to find a part that wasn't lovely to taste.

5) Dragon-eyes (Long-an): These odd little fruits are an experience unto themselves. Borne on their branches like bark-covered grapes, you can easily peel off the skin to reveal a translucent litchi-type flesh. The best ones have a perfume that takes a joyride through your sense. There is a large black marble sized seed inside the flesh but it gives a cool look to the fruit and makes the name understandable. They do rather remind me of the eyes on Oriental dragons--a black dot encircled in white. Bite into one and find out for yourself.

Gosh... There are so many more things. Five only? This really sucks.

Just a word about my disappearance. I am sorry it took so long to get back on track. With some things I really have been bogged down but some of it wasn't entirely just that. I beg forgiveness because of two things. I kinda lost the steam to blog in the last while and was quite delinquent. I didn't feel any creative juices flowing in the food department because I was spending so much of it in school. I also got satellite... and, um, errr... the Food Channel. I've been watching food being made instead of making it when I had spare moments. This will change promptly.

Busy

2006-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm up to my ears in prepwork and finally getting back to my own little apartment so I've been rather scarce and may yet be for the next week or two. The beginning of the school year always stresses me out to the hilt. I did not forget however that I owed some people some pictures of Chartres. So, if you hadn't looked over there yet, I did upload some on my flickr account along with commentaries on each. Have a gander if you would like to see my all too short visit to that charming place:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deetsa/

I thank Bonnie of daydreamdelicious for thinking of tagging me for the foodbloggers guide to the world even though I've been so scarce lately. I promise I'll get on it and other posts as soon as I can.

Enjoy the flickr pics! Eat well! Until next time...

Back from Bretagne

2006-08-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Bretagne,

I miss you already. I long for your endless outcroppings of ferns,

your prickly little flowers and berries,

your wind-swept trees,

your seaweed-scented shores.

Even your sometimes stony heart...

When I look out the window, I don't see your many boats and little villages dotting the rivieres, ocean or shores anymore.

When I step out the door, I see geraniums everywhere but no more the purple and blue hydrangeas you wore so gallantly.

All the houses I see now are peach-hued and carrot-tops. I look to your pictures for the white skin and black tresses.

Give me back the time when I saw your black and white flag defiantly declaring your uniqueness culturally and linguistically in a sea of French.

Take me back to the shores which offer so much sea wealth

You shipwrecked my heart on your sandy shores and never let it go.

But I don't want it back. It's yours.

ever enamored,

Nerissa

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I won't be able to cover so much about Bretagne in the next days as I'd like but I'll do my best until I leave for home on Thursday.

A Vacation during Vacation

2006-08-05T05:39:00.000-07:00

I will be away for about 8 days or so visiting my beloved Bretagne and taking a look at Chartres Cathedral. I hope to get some more Brittany sea salt and other local treats. Hope everyone has lots of foodie fun. I'll be back with pictures and tales next Monday. In the mean time, enjoy the recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon
Ta-ra for now! Or should I say 'A bientôt!'

Boeuf Bourguignon: A French Gift to You

2006-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

A family recipe is something precious especially when it is given freely and with love. Although I think my Frogger-in-law doesn't really like people hovering over him as he cooks he granted me the privilege of shadowing him as he prepared Boeuf Bourguignon. I peppered him with lot and lots of questions and had notes upon notes as I watched. He was very good about it all but the recipe was his mother's so I had better get every scrap of information right or suffer ancestral wrath. Frog swears it is the best version of the dish he's ever had. I was a bit worried to ask but he granted me the privilege of letting you, my readers, in on the family recipe, too. Merci, Papa. You may see there are a lot of notes but they are interesting additions and suggestions. You might want to read through them. If anything, read the note about the wine if you read nothing else there. It's important to have the right vine stock for the meat.

So, without further ado, REAL, honest-to-goodness Boeuf Bourguignon.

Bœuf Bourguignon
(à la Papa)

Step 1

3-4 cups beef (stewing beef, chuck steak or roast) cut up into large chunks, about 2-3 inches square each

For the marinade:

1 bottle of inexpensive Pinot of Burgundy stock
1 carrot, cut in chunks (optional)
1 onion, cut in chunks (optional)
1-2 bay leaves (optional)
1 sprig dried thyme (optional)

Open the red wine. Place in medium-sized metal bowl all the stewing beef (or chuck roast chunks). Fit together tightly on the bottom in one or two layers. Add the optional flavouring agents with the meat, tucking them in with the meat. Pour all the red wine over the beef and ensure that any meat sticking out above the surfuce is pressed under the wine. Cover the bowl with tinfoil. Place the bowl in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours. However, if you can, leave it for 48 hours as it will improve the flavour. During this time the beef will absorb some of the wine.

Step 2 NB: This step should be started four hours or so before you want to eat.

3 tbsp margarine (mix of margarine and olive oil OK)
3 large shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
4-5 small onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1½ -2 cups lardons (N.American equivalent is the same amount of cubed bacon slab)
1½ cups flour

1. In a large, deep-sided skillet or dutch oven, melt the margarine over medium heat until golden-brown.
2. Add shallots, onions and lardons (cubed bacon slab) to margarine and cook over medium heat until the onions are a light golden colour and soft.

3. While the onions, shallots and lardons are cooking, remove the marinating beef from the fridge for preparation.
4. Take the beef out of the marinade and place on a paper towel-lined dish. Lightly dab the beef to remove excess moisture but let it a bit damp so that a coating will adhere. Set the wine marinade aside for later use as the cooking sauce. The herbs need not be removed as they will continue to add flavour to the sauce during cooking
5. In a flat dish add the flour for dusting the meat. Drop in the meat and lightly cover each piece completely with a layer of flour. Set the coated meat aside.

6. When the onion mixture is browned, set aside the onions, shallots and lardons in a separate dish but leave as much of the drippings in the pan as possible.
7. Add 2 more tablespoons of margarine to the drippings and set back on the medium heat. Lightly scrape off any leavings from the onion mix as you stir the margarine.
8. Add the floured meat to the pan in one layer( if your meat cannot fit in one layer you may have to repeat the procedure more than once). Over medium heat brown and seal in the juices of the meat chunks. While a side is cooking do NOT stir around. Let them remain in their layer and only press down on them from time to time. Once a side is a nice dark brown colour, repeat the process on another side. Add a bit more margarine if the meat seems to be sticking too much. Continue this until at least four sides are brown and sealed on all the meat. (NB: Darker brown is better so don’t be scared to let this part take a while to finish). If necessary, set aside first set of meat and repeat step 8.

9. When all the meat is completely browned (and, if necessary, all returned to the pan) add a ladlespoon-full of the wine marinade to the pan and deglaze anything stuck to the pan. Let the wine come to a boil and then add another ladleful of wine marinade. Again let the wine come to a full boil. Repeat this procedure of slowly adding the wine until it is completely added and the wine is bubbling.

10. When all the wine marinade is in with the beef and bubbling gently, add the onion mixture. Stir until completely mixed in to the beef and wine.
11. Cover with a tightly fitting lid, turn down until a gentle simmer. Check every ½ hour, stir, return lid. Simmer for 3 hours (2 is okay, 2 ½ is pretty good, 3 is best).

12. Serve hot with suggested side dish and a nice Bordeaux (we had a nice Château Lieujean Haut-Médoc).

Notes :

1. Take a Pinot red table wine in which the meat must marinate. Be sure it is a Pinot from the Burgundy stock of vine and not the actual Alsatian wine. This Pinot does not have to be expensive because you will not taste the difference with the cooking. Also, do NOT use a Bordeaux red as it is not acidic enough to create the right flavour for the meat.
2. Rich people have been known to use an expensive Pinot in their Boeuf Bourgignon and have another expensive bottle of the same for drinking with the stew. This is really not necessary and only an affectation of the nouveau riche. It will not make the meal taste any better. Cheap wine works just fine.
3. Take beef for stewing (chuck roast) that has a bit of fat to it. A stewing beef with no fat will not taste as good. Pack this beef into a metal bowl as tightly as they will go together but not with too much squishing. The tight packing will help make sure that not too much wine is needed to completely cover the beef.
4. Flavouring agents can be added to the wine to give the sauce more flavour: bay leaves, thyme, carrots, onions. The herbs can be added whole to the wine and beef but the vegetables can be added cut up.
5. Butter can be used for the cooking of the onions or the beef but it will sputter and spit more. However, if you want to use it, it will impart more taste to the meat.
6. If the meat, for some reason gets a bit burnt during the browning process do NOT worry. The three hours of simmering will improve the state and it will still taste fine.
7. This meal can be served with Alsatian egg noodles, a nest of flat fresh pasta, spaghetti, boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes.
8. You can create a chicken dish, Coq Bourguignon, using the same procedure and ingredients except replacing the beef with chicken.

Enjoy!

Travels to Alsace and Southern Germany: Part 3

2006-08-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

9:30 am 33°C (nearly 100°F) Walking to Hohenschwangau Castle

Me: We have to walk up there?
Frog: Yes, first we climb up to Hohenschwangau and then we climb up to Neuschwanstein. What's the problem? That's the way it's supposed to be done.
Me: *grumble* <--me being mad in the already scorching heat

- - - - - -
Later, walking in the shade, up the hill, to Neuschwanstein, Castle of Ludwig II of Bavaria

11:22 am

Frog: *gasp, wheeze* Do you need to slow down? We can slow down.
Me: Nope. It's a good pace for me actually. Grade's not too steep.
Frog: Wha..? *wheeeze... kabloosh!* (Frog exploding from heat and never-ending hill)
Me: Hmmph... told you we should have taken the horse and wagon ride up *continues walking, leaving a pool of Frog behind her on the road*

§ § § § § § §

Where do I begin with German breakfasts? Well, first thing, they are NOT the spare thing the French call breakfast--bread, butter, 2 kinds of jam, coffee. Yet they are not North American either. Not a bagel, poached egg, pancake or muffin to be seen for thousands of miles. Let's just say that Germans seem to embrace the idea of a hearty breakfast with all their heart and soul.

It would take a whole post just to name everything a hotel will offer at breakfast. I'll give you a quick version: 8 kinds of sausage both cold and hot, 4 kinds of rolls, 3 kinds of bread, Quark, Yoghurt, 5 kinds of cheese, scrambled eggs, bacon, liverwurst/paté, 10 kinds of cereal, fresh meusli, fresh milk, orange juice, carrot-orange juice,whole fruit, cut fruit, cut veggies, 3 kinds of honey, 10 kinds of jam, Nutella, a weird chocolate donut thing, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and so on and so on. Really, it makes the mind explode at 8 am to have all these choices.

A couple things I'd never had before and really liked. The fresh, creamy meusli was quite good with lots of things in it and the alpine honey I had was almost molasses-like in its richness. Even the wasps were waiting in line for it.

We spent a good part of the morning climbing hills and visiting the two castles of Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as Mad King Ludwig. He was known for his extravagent tastes in architecture and interior decorating. Neither castle allowed photography inside due to all the original paintings and fabric in the rooms but if you want a sense of the inner castles visit here and here.
The castles are breath-taking inside and out. Each is unique in its own way.

Hohenschwangau is replete with silver, ivory and painted scenes of history and myth all over the walls. Neuschwanstein is a fairytale castle come to life. The throne room alone is enough to make you cry it's so beautiful. A pity he drowned mysteriously in the nearby lake before it was completed. I doubt I can even imagine the beauty or wealth involved if he had finished it all. I guess you can tell which of the two was my favourite. It was worth the climb up.

We decided to have lunch at a restaurant that lies just below Neuschwanstein. Again, no A/C in such hot weather. The spinach pizza I had was mehh... but I had something more local for dessert. Bavarian waffles with stewed apples. It was very yummy and even had a dab of the local cherry specialty dabbed on top.

I was glad to leave the warm, sticky interior only to find that, at the bottom of the hill, our car's interior had reached 49°C (120°F)YUCK! After a while the car's A/C finally made the temperature bearable but it wasn't until we reached within 50 km of Ulm, our next stop, that clouds and rain hit and we were really cool at last HURRAH!

After a quick break in our rooms of Innercity Hotel in Ulm we were off to see sites and have dinner. First we saw the Cathedral which has the tallest spire in the whole world. The exterior was amazingly covered in statues and scenes. The inside was scrubbed down clean in many places because it was converted to a Protestant church. A lot of the old scenery of saints and such were no longer decorating the interior walls. A bummer but it made finding the remaining original paintings (which, surprisingly, hadn't been removed) amazing.

We wandered through part of the old town to find a place for dinner and found a little place with a name I have forgotten but the dinner was not so easy to forget. Nor was our waitress who was worked off her feet, poor thing (Not by us LOL). Dinner didn't start out promisingly for me as I found out that I don't like the German's idea of salad. The creamy-vinegary dressing poured over it was not at all to my taste as it was just like the dressing of my much loathed nemesis--coleslaw. A restaurant salad in Germany, according to my Frogger-in-law, is always this way--dollops of saladbar type concoctions, topped with lettuce and THAT dressing. However, the main meal made up for it. A giant thick crêpe, in the style of the Bavarians, served with the local bacon and fried onions and bit of potato salad. It was so huge and so filling that I just couldn't bring myself to finish it all. My companions ordered a shared dish of the local specialties of meats and spaëtzlé which they quite enjoyed with a German red wine.

It seemed this place was a pancake house of a kind because a lot of the desserts were served on those huge crêpes too. Thankfully, we were told we could get a card with light desserts on order. Light... ha! They were quite large cups of ice creams. Still it was nice on a warm evening. My companions chose a mixture of three kinds of ice cream including pistachio and walnut. I chose a local specialty with tipsy cherries, chocolate and vanilla. The menu said it had a little bit of kirschwasser added. Rather it was drowned in the liquid. The kirschwasser bowled me over (I really felt like I had been punched) when I ate it with the vanilla but it was REALLY good with the chocolate part. Now I understand why kirschwasser is used in the original blackforest cake.

It was a really slow, enjoyable dinner on the sidestreets of old Ulm and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. Despite my negative reaction to the salad, I would do it all over again.

* The next day was spent driving back home. Nothing much to write about in that.

Travels to Alsace and Southern Germany: Part 2

2006-07-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

Day Two:

After such a hellish heat the day before, it was a blessing to wake up to cloudiness and cool weather. Even if the church bell woke me at 6am, I didn't really care so long as I was no longer hot.

*************************************

Ever had those experiences where you go slack-jawed when the names and places you heard in geography or social studies back in school suddenly present themselves to you boldly? I've had it happen in the past many times in Europe--stunned before the kiss-covered tomb of Oscar Wilde, looking at THE River Seine, standing atop a man-made hill, looking down on the battlefield of Waterloo. When you are told that, yes, you are crossing over the Rhine River (as I was that morning), you forget to breathe for a moment. Until you see these things so often told to you in history classes or that you've drawn on maps, these names of places really doesn't make sense. Not fully, at least. To really understand the sense of history and culture, you literally have to be in the place and experience it.

The Rhine River

Now, it's true, the first place we stopped in Germany, Freiburg, probably never crossed my eyes in literature before but I wish I'd known about it earlier. It's such a pretty little German town. There are little man-made streams throughout the old parts of the town rather like gutters with a constant flow of water. The houses and cathedral are charming to say the least.

I was so happy to see a European open-air market at last. Everything from sausages to herbs, fruits and veggies to houseplants, toys and tourist trinkets were being sold. Even the smell of freshly fried sausages or stalls selling big pretzels were in full force. Over it all towered the huge Gothic catherdral.

It was here I was starting to see the difference of culture between the French and the Germans. The most obvious to see in this town (and I saw in the Alsatian-border town of Strasbourg) was bikes-lots and lots and lots of bikes. Except during the Tour de France, it's rare to see the average French person ride bikes (I exclude kids since they don't have cars). Well, at least what I've seen so far in the North. The only place I think there's an exception to this is Brittany (Bretagne). Chances are, if you see somebody riding a bike in France (barring the exceptions), it's likely a German, British, North American or Dutch tourist.

The rest of the day until past 5pm was spent mostly in the car trying to get to our next hotel. It was really remarkable to see the scenery change from the flat yellow-green plains of France to the rolling green hills of southern Germany. Again I was stunned to be told that, at one point, we were driving through THE actual Black Forest. How cool is that?

The Black Forest

We did stop at a tourist road-café in Germany for lunch. Well, let's just say, it was a cafeteria. You know what to expect of the food in cafeterias. But it was remarkable different from the tourist road-cafés I've been to in France. There seems to be a greater amount of functionalism and efficiency in German establishments. And it was considerably brighter than the average French style which are usually quite moody in their dimly lit rooms. The options were certainly more varied and there were were actual attempts at offering food to vegetarians. So many French don't seem to understand or want to understand vegetarianism. You should have been around the year I was trying out raw veganism. I might as well said that I was planning on growing three heads by the looks I got from my French in-laws.

When we reached the Bavarian Alps at last, we were all ready to crash. The computerized tourist program had planned our trip according to short distances but never took into account that wending your way through little country roads in Bavaria meant a lot of slow speeds and farm vehicles. In the end the short distances became just as long as taking the regular roads. Still I got a good gander at the part of Germany to which so many Germans flock for vacation.

Our hotel, The Rübezhal, was a four-star hotel and boy was the wait worth it. Cool temperatures in the room, clean white and pine finishes, tonnes of storage space, a desk, a table, a daybed with reading light, even a balcony with chairs. It also came with the guilt-inducing stickers reminding you, in rhyme, to be nice to the environment. After a lovely walk to the lake, Der Forggensee, and through paths that led by bell-wearing cows (a nice sound), we returned to dinner at the hotel.

The fixed price dinner I had was actually not too shabby! First a mocktail of cantaloupe juice and green tea (very refreshing). A trip to get a plate of charcuterie/salad bar items, followed by white asparagus soup with bacon (the worst part of the dinner). The main course was breaded and pistachio'd catfish on a bed of dilled, creamed cucumbers (excellent) served with a nice German white wine (excellent too!). And I was totally not expecting what I got for dessert because, well, do YOU call the picture below of my dessert "a parfait"? It was good though. I got pistachio cake and the Frog got a chocolate cake but the creamy home-made ice cream and the slightly sour berries all worked together with either flavour.

All the while that we were eating this lovely dinner, we had an amazing view of the nearby Alps and the castles we would visit the next day: Hohenschwangau and Newschwanstein. We went to bed as happy, full little piglets under down-filled covers listening to insects and the odd, out-late bike riders. What a change from the day before.

Travels to Alsace and Southern Germany: Part 1

2006-07-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Day One:

It can be trance-inducing to watch the fields of Northern France whip by as you drive along to your destinations. Wheat, soy, corn, sunflowers, beets seem to blur together. Then you enter into Alsace, the most northeasterly section of France. 'Wait, wasn't that hops?' you say, startled out of your trance. 'Isn't that cabbage?' you say as the silvery crops punctuate your view. 'Dear God, miles and miles of grapes in every direction!' you gasp.

Then, you enter Strasbourg.

Everything that your mind was taking in with the crops gasps again at the beauty of the architechture. Soon you are surrounded by architecture so different from the other Northern cities you've seen. A cathedral that was breath-taking comes into view. It's surrounded by a square with charming houses of all kinds. A busker sings opera accompanied by a violinist. It only seems appropriate. You wait in the blistering sun until you finally tromp inside and wait in the sweltering dark with way too many other people hoping to catch a glimpse of the cathedral's astronomical clock do it's little noon-time dance. After having the history of the clock explained to you in three different languages, twice, you finally get to see and hear it. 'Death' rings a bell, Jesus 'blesses' the apostles that mechanically wander pass him. The metal cockerel crows for every four apostles that go by... It seemed such a long wait for such a short whirl of the clock. I wouldn't have missed it for the world though. Things like this just don't exist in Canada as far as I know.

As you exit the catherdral, there are a number of little restaurants you can patronize in the church square for lunch. We chose 'Aux Armes de Strasbourg', a brasserie. Here I experience my first taste of Franco-Germanic food. I wanted to taste regional things on the trip as much as I could so I had a 'jambonneau', ham section on bone, while the men shared a large dish of choucroute (Sauerkraut with meat, meat and meat). The ham I had was not bad but I just loved the mustardy potato salad with it. It balanced the meat taste really well. I tried a bit of the sauerkraut and still found it a bit to strange for my liking yet. I even allowed myself to sip a tiny bit of the beer the Frog was swooning over and found it didn't actually make me regurgitate like most beer.

After a trip altogether too short in Strasbourg we were whisked away south to visit a castle, Haut-Koenigsbourg, atop one of the "mountains" of Alsace in the Vosges ranges. I just wish I could have visited on a less oppressively hot day since I was highly irritated by the end of it all. A shame, since it was such a nice castle with such a great view over the plains of Alsace.

We ended our day at a little country inn where we were to sup and to sleep. Again, such a pity about the heat as it was a cute little place. Unfortunately, practically any food there could make you sweat and its typical European non-reliance on A/Cs made any breeze on your skin feel like you won the lottery.

For the dinner I again wanted to choose something local. I chose too much for the heat and something so totally wrong for a hot day. After a fairly typical French shrimp coctail, I had Alsatian spaëtzlé with Munster cheese sauce. It was good to begin with and then the power of the Munster kicked in. The heady aroma of that cheese is NOT what you want to smell or taste on a hot day. The rosé-style pinot that we had with it only enhanced the cheese taste to the max. I admitted defeat not even quite half-way through. By the end I was literally begging for lemon sorbet just to cool my overheated body.

Four showers later and giddy with heat-sickness, Frog and I, thankfully, laughed our way to sleep as we heard what seemed to be bigger and bigger farm vehicles drive past our open window. We imagined tanks and space shuttles to be the next to go past. It was enough to have a good chuckle as cool breezes finally started allowing a little sleep for us a couple hours after sundown.

Le Mandarin: A Little Trip To Heaven

2006-07-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of having family in France is that you see a side of France that the average tourist doesn't see. I've been several times to the supermarkets, I've sat just as numbed by French TV as I have Canadian/American shows, little local historical sites that only the most picky specialist might dream of visiting and being greeted by family and friends all over as one of their own with the little double peck cheek-kisses. One of the little joys, too, is going to a restaurant that your French family has patronized for years and years. You are known by name and treated with an affability that only familiarity can bring.

Yesterday we went to such a restaurant in Bar-Le-Duc. It's called Le Mandarin. I've been there before a couple of times but this time we went for a family favourite: Chinese Dip. Chinese Dip is a type of spicy fondue in which you take individual portions of meats, noodles and vegetables and cook them to your liking in the bubbling brew. I'm sure it has another name but I don't know the English version.

Fairly patted into our seats, we were started with freshly-made shrimp chips, the kind often served by North American Chinese restaurants but these tasted more shrimpy than the ones I have known. I don't know about my readers but I love to let the little bubbles of those chips pop on my tongue and attached like little suction cups. It's a ritual I've had with these chips since I was very little. We were also served a nice bit of the bubbly for an apértif.

In a feat that always amazes me in Europe, our lunch was brought out almost as quickly as we were done the apértifs and snacks. I'm not used to restaurants like that in my part of the world. Or maybe I'm going to the wrong ones.

The Chinese dip is set on the table warm in a metal bowl and immediately brought to a boil with a table-top gas burner. The broth is an amazingly complex collection of tastes: satay, peanuts, chiles and many other secret indredients. We are assured it is very healthy for the body just as a soup alone. Along with the dip comes overflowing dishes of bean thread noodles, chinese cabbage, bean sprouts and plates of various kinds of meat. With a little metal scoop in hand, you chopstick your food choices in to the bowl of the golden spoon and then dip it into the boiling fondue. When it is cooked you can take them out and continue with as much cooking as you please. Ladle in some of the spicy fondue into your personal bowl and then dig in. This procedure took well over an hour, I think. Since the bowls are small and it is a labourious process, it lets you eat over a long perioud of time.

The most amazing wine was chosen by my Frogger-in-law to go with this spicy dish: Gewurztraminer. A flowery white wine from Alsace, it has a perfume like a Chinese flower tea which makes it perfect for Chinese food. I was amazed by the way the food and wine complimented each other. If you have never had this with Chinese food, try it! You might be pleasantly surprised.

Although we were stuffed, after a little bit of a chatty break with the owner and watching the giant, fat-lipped fish in the door-side tank, we ordered some desserts. My own choice was Nougat Chinois. I really didn't know what to expect and wondered whether I regretted not getting a moon cake. What came was a red bowl full of delectable little chewy golden-brown cubes with peanuts and covered with toasted sesame seeds. It was very nice, rather like a complex jubejube. Of course, as with all French meals, it ended with little cups of coffee served with dark chocolate.

I think the dreamy 2-hour lunch ended perfectly with hot towels for our fingers that were not only hot but perfumed with essence-of-white-peach. My fingers smelled of peach for hours after, a nice little reminder of such a pleasant visit.

If you are ever in Bar-Le-Duc, try out this little Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant. With such a pleasant atmosphere and smiling service, I really don't think you'd go away disappointed. Go on... Madame is waiting for you.

La Meuse: It's where I am

2006-07-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

For the last few years many of my summers have been partially spent in the department of Meuse, a section of the Lorraine region. It's where my Froggie's family currently lives. Foodwise, it's a region well known for mirabelles (a small yellow cherry-plum), groseilles (red currants)*, black truffles, of course, Brie de Meaux and the original birthplace of the madeleine (in Commercy)and Verdun dragée (candy-coated almonds). Lorraine is also well known for its macaroons, quiche and bergamot-flavoured candies. Now that I'm a foodie, I'll be collecting things to take home.

Fresh dessert cheese with stewed mirabelles, fresh yellow plum on top

Alas, a foodie's life is SO hard ;-)

For an English pdf pamphlet of the Meuse, its sights and delights, etc click here

*The red current jam of Bar-Le-Duc is rather expensive because the seeds are still taken out by goose quill to this day. No machine can replace the technique for the style of jam made here! Look at a feather specialist, the épépineuse and a page dedicated to the contest between them and the jam produced

Mwa-hahahaha! Dontcha Know It ! !

2006-07-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

You Are a Powdered Devil's Food Donut

A total sweetheart on the outside, you love to fool people with your innocent image.

On the inside you're a little darker, richer, and more complex.

You're a hedonist who demands more than one pleasure at a time.

Decadent and daring, you test the limits of human indulgence.

What Donut Are You?

...You better believe it, baby! ;-)

Paean to a Morning Breakfast

2006-07-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've never been a person to linger over breakfast. I think maybe I was wrong to be like that. Maybe I'd been going about it in the wrong way.

I very carefully collected a lovely breakfast this morning fit for royalty. I slowly ate my way through it, enjoying the sight of the rising sun, the canticles sung out to God by the birds, the ensuing, joyful sound of church bells calling out the hour of Matins. To be at peace in the calm of the morning, eating a breakfast of good whole foods, is the best way to begin a day. I really should do it more often.

Can you figure out what I had for breakfast?

The first one's easy because it's already written on the side: Greek Yoghurt (shepherd style for those who can't read French)

Let's see what else you can guess... (No cheating Papa!) ;-)

.
.
.

June 16, 9 AM
Alrighty, the list:

1) Pink Lady Apple
2) Orange, Mandarin, Apricot, Apple Juice
3) Pastry #1 An escargot, a snail-shaped pastry with custard and raisins
4) Pastry #2 Pain au chocolat
5) Green Almonds (the fuzzy things ;-) )
6) Greek yoghurt-- to be exact, ewe's milk yoghurt

For those of you not familiar, almonds are born within a fruit of fuzzy green colour. Picked early they may not have fully formed yet. These can be eaten as a jellly like nut. A little bit later on the fruit is still green but a pale ivory slip of a nut lies within, easily slipped out of its sheat but, as my finger can attest to, not so easily cut out. Check this page out for some more information.

As you can see, the shell has formed but it's not impossible to open. A good nutcracker makes easier work of it.

I made mention to Michelle of Accidental Scientist that I was going to have pink currants at breakfast the next day. These currants are sweeter than the white or red and very suitable for eating out of hand or in a dessert. I'm sure they'd make excellent jelly.

Thought you might want to have a look at another French breakfast delight...

Brie de Meaux (and the rest of lunch)

2006-07-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

This cheese has got to be the best dang cheese on the planet (although I'm fond of a good chèvre,too). Made from raw cow's milk, this brie is soft with a rich, nutty taste. The only thing this cheese is good with is fresh French bread and a nice French wine. To mar it with other tastes would be a sacrilege of the worst kind. I shudder to think of the inferior brie with various toppings cooked on top that was all the rage among yuppies. Been there, done that, soooooo moved on! I thought I'd found a good replacement in Canada. It was even a double cream import from France! But I was wrong--very very wrong. The French keep the best stuff for themselves ;-).

Another cheese on hand at lunch today was an aged Mimolette, a dense orange cheese that was so intense and rich in flavour that it nearly curled my toes. It is dry and brittle and not meant for slathering like brie.

One of my in-law-to-be's specialties was for lunch today: fresh sole cooked with lemon butter. I think it's nice how French fish is so often serve with bones and skin. It makes you slow down and really appreciate what you are about to eat. It's a nice way of honoring the flora or fauna that sacrificed its life for you*.

Gone but not forgotten. Yum!

* this is true of the lobster tails and lagoustines last night--it took a while to remove the shells but it was so very worth the wait. Sorry no pictures but I was half dead from jet lag though not too dead to appreciate the great wine and the great food.

FYI: Off to France

2006-07-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I've been a bit quiet but I hope not to be soon. About 12 hours from now (10:30) I will be on a plane heading for France. If all goes well, there will be pictures to share as well. He he he... now I'll be annoying two men with my camera beeps instead of just one.

A Legacy To Continue

2006-07-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

For just a moment, the only sound disturbing the silent, golden afternoon is a far away droning plane. The rest of the world seems to have caught its breath as it tans in the warm sun. The shady grass under the cherry tree is cool against my skin. A whiff of honeysuckle drifts across the lawn. A bowlful of warm fruit lies at my side, the lingering juices still sharp-sweet on my tongue. It's a perfect moment. It's a time to reflect on the bountiful backyard in which I lie.

I always look forward to summer for one reason more than any other: My mother's plentiful garden. Now I know she'd squirm right now and say that it isn't at its best this year, the weather has been horrible, and so on. However, I've come to realize that food traditions don't always have to be of the cooked variety, or even prepped at all. I spent nearly all my years growing up with the opportunity to raid baby carrots, fresh green bush beans, fat green pea pods, crisp lettuce leaves, luscious red raspberries, voluptuous red cherries and blueberries by the handful. It was only the crisp, thin-skinned yellow apples that would need patience before they were finally ready.

Don't get me wrong, though. The cooked stuff was wonderful, too! Summer barbecues were accompanied by freshly steamed baby veggies or fried breaded zucchini which hours before could have been lingering happily in the shade under a leaf. A Sunday morning could be punctuated by the scent of fresh muffins made with berries picked the evening before. The kitchen could be filled with the eye-wateringly sharp scent of pickled beets being bottled, the mellow scents of blanched beans for freezing or the sweet scent of bubbling rhubarb jam.

I always knew I was lucky. I didn't remember other kids having moms who gardened as avidly as my mother, who cooked from scratch as frequently or didn't mind a gaggle of kids helping her with either. I just didn't realized how much this lifestyle had crept into my soul until I was far away from it. Now I find myself fussing and worrying over the quality of my food as my mother did (like she should ever have worried!) and desperately turning what little soil I can actually collect on my rocky island home into some semblance of an herb and flower garden. But it just isn't the same. There is NOTHING as wonderful as knowing you have carefully tended a plant from seedling to maturity and then savoured the fruits of your (and their) endeavours in various ways, both raw and cooked.

You don't need silver, jewels and pictures to pass down as a tradition. Sometimes all you need is a garden, a kitchen and a loving mother who created miracles in both. It's the beautiful legacy passed down to me and it's the most cherished thing of which I can think to pass down to my future progeny.

Breakfast Frittata for dinner

2006-06-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Last week I was obsessed with the idea of making a frittata that included all the elements of a Sunday morning fry up: Eggs, bacon, potato, onion... Well, that and I have to use up a number of things in a week before summer vacation.

I have a basic frittata recipe I found long ago in my beloved Moosewood cookbook and have been using it as a base ever since. It was from this I concocted my Breakfast Frittata.

Nerissa's Brekkie Food Frittata

2 tbsp vegetable oil or butter (or combination)
1 large potato, cut into quarters and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced into rings
3/4 cup Canadian bacon, diced small
1/2 cup green pepper, diced small
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
5 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cheese (I used an Italian 4 cheese mix)

Heat oil in large skillet. Saute the potatoes and onion covered, stirry frequently, for about 8 minutes. Once they are mostly tender add bacon and green pepper. Saute with potatoes and onions until the green pepper is tender. Stir in the thyme and garlic. Pour beaten eggs over the sauteed vegetables, tilting the pan to distribute them evenly. Sprinkle on cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 10 minutes, until the eggs are set and golden on the bottom.

To brown the top of the frittata: If your skillet is flameproof, simply place the frittata under a preheated broiler for about 2 minutes. Otherwise, carefully slide the frittata onto a plate and then flip over, back into the skillet, to brown the other side. Cut in quarters to serve.

Pickled banana peppers go well with this rich dish as does the salad I served on the side.

Sea Urchin: A Question

2006-06-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you are offered a food that you know is potentially gross but may be the only chance you have to eat it for free? You plunge in and don't look behind you. It was offered during a cultural field trip we had last week. I found sea urchin, which was offered up straight from the ocean, to be pudding-like and tasted of the ocean from which it came. It wasn't offensive as I have found other raw sealife to be. I'm curious about how common this particular experience is and I have a question:

How many of you people out there have tasted sea urchin and how was it served if you did?

not everyone was thrilled with the cultural experience

Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Bacon

2006-06-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

To those who have waited so very patiently, thank you. The end of school and my own health have created situations that waylaid me on my way to relating this chicken recipe to you.

The original recipe for the chicken was here at cooks.com but, due to lacks of certain ingredients, I adapted.

Cheese-Stuffed Chicken with Bacon, Canadian Style

4 sticks of mozzarella, cut to 1 x 0.5 x 0.5 inches each
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1 tsp dried, powdered sage
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 fresh sage leaves
4 rounds of Canadian bacon

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Pound the chicken breasts lightly to an even thickness. Sprinkle both sides of the flattened breasts with salt, pepper and powdered sage. Roll each around a cheese stick, tucking in the ends so the cheese won't leak out (because it will, I assure you!) and secure with toothpicks. Place into a roasted pan, put a leaf on top of each wrap and then cover lightly with a round of Canadian bacon. Bake until the chicken is cooked through and the bacon is browned, about 15 minutes.

I served it with roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and Romaine salad simply dressed with French oil and vinegar.

It looks and tastes really nice and yet it takes barely any time.

Confessions in Groups of 5

2006-06-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time before I got tagged again. Michelle, dear gal that she is, has tagged me for the 5 Items Meme.

It seems I have to mention 5 things in different parts of my life: my fridge, my closet, my car and my purse. Oh dear... I think I'm going to be a bit of a disappointment to those who read this. Read on and perhaps you'll understand why.

5 items in the freezer (technically I've done fridges here so I'll head to the frozen section)

1. lamb shoulder steaks (needed a lot of begging and wheedling to get them here)
2. butter (keep a good supply because they often forget to order more)
3. frozen peas (life wouldn't be the same without peas and need to keep them stocked)
4. smoked tofu ( I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with them)
5. fish (this IS a fishing village after all)

5 items in my closet

1. blue & pink shirts (I have other colours but these outstrip the others in number)
2. extra blankets
3. Xmas decorations (not much storage room in this apartment)
4. 1/4 of my clothes I'm waiting to fit again
5. lots of dressing gowns and kaftans for some reason

5 items in my car

I don't have a car. Don't need one here.

5 items in my purse

Technically I don't have a purse. It's more like a big wallet. My fiance got disgusted with my use of a fanny pack and bought it for me.
Here's what's in it:

1. money (usually coinage but hey, who's counting)and cards of various kinds
2. receipts and bank statements
3. A small mirror with white tulip on the back (courtesy the Rikjsmuseum giftshop)
4. folding scissors (always handy in the most unlikely places)
5. a hair elastic (again, always handy in case of emergency)

Ho hum... It's my pockets you should really be looking at. A teacher's pockets are her most valued clothing accessory. It can carry

1. notes and notices
2. lip balm
3. chalk, pencils and/or pens
4. stickers
5. confiscated items (I've carried everything from rubber bugs to heelie keys)
and so much more...

I hate this part. I never know who's been tagged and I hate feeling like a Johnny-come-lately.

1. Melissa of Cooking Diva
2. Linda of Kayaksoup
3. Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen
4. Michele of Chef Michele's Adventures
5. S'kat of S'kat and the food

Italian Potato Torta

2006-06-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

I have a big confession to make. I like to eat. For years I was in denial and it caused me a lot of pain. When I finally realized what I was doing to myself, I stopped. It got boring and to anxiety-causing to thinking about all the so-called horrors that eating can cause. Well, except one.

I have another confession to make. I'm largely of Scottish descent. Short, stocky, easily-gains-weight Scottish descent. This is the same genetics I've been fighting with that partially caused said anxiety and fear of eating and why I'm trying to change my eating habits.

I'm trying to cook lighter and healthier(easy in the summer) but I do not want to resort to eating like a mouse again. I'd rather not give up the flavour and variety. This torta isn't exactly of the lightest variety but it's my first stab at a tasty dish meant to be "light" (from a Cooking Light mag of April,2003).

Italian Potato Torta

6 cups cubed peeled baking potato (about 1 3/4 pounds)*
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
Cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced Italian-style tomatoes, drained
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Thyme sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°.
Place potatoes in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil; cook 15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return potatoes to pan; add flour, oil, salt, and egg. Mash potato mixture with a potato masher until smooth.
Spread potato mixture into a 9-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray. Combine seasoning, garlic, and tomatoes; spread evenly over potato mixture. Combine cheeses, and sprinkle over tomato mixture. Bake at 450° for 25 minutes or until golden. Let stand 20 minutes. Cut torta into 4 wedges. Garnish with thyme, if desired.

*NB: I think you should not be overly generous on the amount of potatoes. Skimp on them a bit and it may not be as overflowing in the pan as mine was and the seasoning more appropriate.

The Hunt for Fridge Room: A Space Oddity

2006-06-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

In the beginning there was space. Lots and lots of space. But then Nerissa showed up and stuffed all her food in. Now there is no space. Not a single space.

Okay, I exaggerate but not by much. My fridge is rarely foodless except at vacation time. And even then it's never completely empty. Consider the condiments...

Yes, let's start with the condiments. Some you see here. Some you don't. But I promise you that they are there.

List of condiments

Ketchup, yellow mustard, whole grain dijon mustard, regular dijon mustard, tarragon dijon mustard, 2 wasabi tubes, tamari, Newman's Own Thai dressing, Vidalia onion dressing, Japanese miso dressing, three kinds of miso, mirin, memmi soup base, tartar sauce, black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, mango chutney, three kinds of jam, ponzu, green jalapeno hot sauce, left-over maraschino cherry juice, sauerkraut, kimchee, three jars of tahini, two kinds of natural peanut butter, two jars of almond butter, capers, Hellman's mayo, Miracle Whip Lite, Kewpie Japanese Mayo, green curry paste, red curry paste,molasses, ghee, sun-dried tomatoes in oil, two kinds of maple syrup, El Paso salsa, roasted red peppers, two jars of raw olives in brine, and pickles... lots and lots of pickles. Pickled ginger, tabasco Vlasic dills, regular Vlasic dills (mmm), pickled banana peppers, pickled mango, pickled limes, jalapeno pickles, umeboshi pickles, pickled daikon, ummm... I think that's it. I don't think I have pickled beets anymore. *the sound of banging and crashing and the thump of returning feet* nope, all the beets are gone. *writes it on shopping list* ;-)

Now don't get me wrong. I don't live on condiments alone. I love fresh food and I have plenty of that.

Fresh Foods

Currently in stock are broccoli, snow peas, red peppers, yellow peppers, avocadoes-in-waiting, green onions, baby carrots, celery, baby spinach, radishes, beets, green cabbage, green beans, grape tomatoes, regular tomatoes, zucchinis, English cuke, green grapes, a couple mangoes, a papaya, lemons, ginger and limes.

Dairy

The dairy department isn't seeing the finest cheeses and yoghurts of late but is still well stocked. Sour cream, marscapone, lite cream cheese, parmesan, monteray jack, swiss, Havarti, smoked cheddar remains, mozzarella, aged cheddar, ricotta cheese that needs to be used up soon, buttermilk, whipping cream, half and half, lite cream, skim milk, processed cheese slices, salted butter, unsalted butter.

Some things don't quite fit into a definite category but they fit into my crowded fridge ;)

Wheat germ, pastry lard, Ribena, bread crumbs, 2 kinds of seaweed, pizza meat pack, pathetic white eggs, yeast, Minute Maid juice, vanilla pods. Bottled lemon juice, bottled lime juice, Pete's Tofu, Fried tofu puffs, udon noodles, Leftovers... of course

Then there are the ones that aren't even edible: umpteen jars of craft glue and a little jar of iodine for school experiments.

Essentials you'll never catch us without:

Me

Pickled anything.
Whole grain dijon mustard
Fruit
Baby carrots
eggs
Bottled lemon juice
butter

Frog:

Meat
Mayonnaise
Yellow Mustard
Processed cheese slices (<-- ick!!)
Bottled lemon juice

Hmm... that was rather telling, wasn't it! Not a jot of meat in the fridge except the leftover halibut. Very different essentials between the two of us. And I need to cut down on condiments. Really, I do.

Now I don't usually go around shouting out my fridge contents but Sweetnicks is hosting a fridgie tell-all in I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours #1. Quickly come join our game so I don't feel like I'm in one of those weird dreams where you arrive naked at work and everyone laughs at you.

Not all Frozen Meals are Bad

2006-05-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Knorr did it again. It took my belief that frozen dinners were barely passable in quality and took it to a level of "Oh my God! This tastes like it was personally made for me and left in the freezer for me to have later" I was pleasantly shocked on a day when I didn't have a lot of energy or time to make something elaborate that Knorr frozen entrees worked in a pinch. Our store had two types brought up north for our sampling. I can't say they were cheap up here but their taste made the price okay.

The one I tried first was their Shrimp Fra Diavolo. Their peppers were actual peppers and nothing reconstituted. The pasta was soft and melt in your mouth. The shrimp felt like shrimp and not mush. The sauce was quite spicy but not in a "cover up the bad food" way. It felt and tasted freshly made. No weird aftertastes in the mouth. I was even pleasantly surprised to see that they had suggested wine pairings on the back too!
I tried the other one, Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli in Tomato Wine Sauce, not long after on another crazy day. In general I liked it but it had FAR too much large garlic slices in it. I love garlic but not that much!
I only found these frozen entrees on the Canadian entrance of the website. Are these frozen packs only available in Canada?

Pollo Diavolo

2006-05-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Even before the time I was eating fish as my only animal protein I was never in love with chicken. I found the chicken I was served quite often inspid and boring unless with a very strong sauce. It wasn't the fault of the cooks, I was sure. It was just the nature of the beast. Modern, processed chicken sucked.
When I wandered back into the realm of eating chicken I wasn't impressed by the pathetic, water-infused excuse for chicken we can get around here. Then I encountered something new to me which changed my mind. Spatch-cocked whole chicken (from Shearwater not HERE), slathered in dijon mustard and olive oil and broiled. The addition of a mustard sauce for it was not so much of a tangy cover this time but an enhancement to the nice taste that, I'm sorry to say fat-phobics, the skin gave to the flesh. No dish this good should remain hidden so I offer up for you the recipe to Pollo Diavolo (Grilled Chicken with Mustard Sauce).

POLLO DIAVOLO -- An Umberto Menghi recipe

1 (2lb/1kg) frying chicken
1 clove garlic, cut in slivers
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Split chicken down the breast bone [spatch-cocking] but leave it attached by the back bone*. Flatten chicken out [the flatter the better].

Insert slivers of garlic under the chicken skin using the edge of a sharp knife. Rub the chicken with the oil and mustard [I mixed them together well before the rub]** Season with salt and pepper.

Make an incision on the inside of each thight along the bone to allow heat to penetrate chicken and for chicken to cook faster [Very wise. Do NOT skip]

Grill chicken on both sides for 10-15 minutes per side, basting chicken with oil as it cooks and adding more oil if necessary. ***

To test: pierce the inside of the thigh. If the juices run clear, chicken is done. Set chicken aside and keep warm.

Mustard Sauce:

1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp dry white wine
2 tbsp chicken consomme
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Saute onion in butter in a skillet on medium heat until onion is transparent.
Add wine and chicken consomme to onion and simmer on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Squeeze lemon juice directly into wine and chicken consomme and stir until well blended.
Add mustard to onion,wine, consomme and lemon juice. Stir until well blended and reduce by simmering on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper

Put chicken on a warm serving platter or on warm plates. Coat with sauce and serve.

* This entails removing the wishbone from the neck area if you want an easier time cutting. Not for the easily frustrated!
** For some morbid reason rubbing oil into the skin of a cold lifeless body made me think of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs when he tries to get his victim to moisturize her skin. Sometimes I'm a sick puppy ;-)
*** Don't be dumb like me and get worried that there is nothing to baste with in the first five minutes. I added a tbsp extra as suggested and proceeded to get volatile poultry spitting on the element. Terrified that the small flameballs produced by the spitting, I lowered the rack. It seemed to do the trick.

While I was cooking the sauce, I chucked some cherry tomatoes into the broiling pan with the remaining oil and juices and broiled them for about 7 minutes. Their sweetness enhanced, they made a nice counterfoil for the sharp mustard and the savoury chicken. We also had some pasta, on Bennyfrog's suggestion, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely it suited the chicken dish.

Ben's own picture of the beast in process. I could believe how excited he was about tasting this chicken. He started snapping pictures of everything. The only time I ever see him take pictures of things is when we are playing D&D!

sigh

2006-05-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you cross a metal wireless tower that now stands as the highest object in town and a fourth thunderstorm in five months? NO INTERNET! Why? It was fried by the lightning. Again.

It seems completely ironic to me that the year in which we finally get our wireless tower up, we seem to have suffered more thunderstorms in half a year than the elders say have happened in a decade! Go figure, eh? So, I'm back... hopefully.

Grilled Quails

2006-05-22T10:16:00.001-07:00

There have been a lot of first for me this week. One of them was the hollandaise sauce, the other was my future post about a mustard chicken I made yesterday and the other was quail.

I got some quail at Christmas time and figured I should get them used up. Knowing The Frog's preference for savoury over sweet it left out a few recipes I did have for quail but, now that I had taken home a sage plant two months ago, I had what I needed for one I had looked at before: Grilled Quails. It's not fussy and pretty straight-forward. I was terrified of overcooking those teeny little things but a hovering Frog ensured "not yet... not golden enough... too grey... " Well... the pictures I took just didn't want to turn out well but the food itself was good both straight out of the over and as a midnight snack later (to which Frog will attest).

This leads me to my new favourite word of the week... "SPATCHCOCK"! I've done it now twice and let me tell you something... it's much easier to split a quail for roast than it is to split a chicken. Mu-u-u-u-u-u-ch easier. Snip snip and you have little spreadeagled quail bodies everywhere.

Here's the recipe:

Grilled Quails

4 quails [or 6 in my case.. they were very small]
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp olive oil
8 small sage leaves [I only had 6 large]
2 garlic cloves [3 for my 6 birds]
1 small red chili; seeded and roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley [forgot this, dang it, but it was still good]
lemon wedges

Split each quail through the breast bone with a sharp knife and then turn over. Press open hard with the heel of your hand to form a spatchcock. Transfer the quails to a shallow dish large enough to hold all the birds side by side.

Mix together the lemon, olive oil, sage leaves, garlic and chili and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour over the quails and leave to marinate for 30 minutes, turning birds over after 15 minutes. Preheat the grill (broiler)

Place the quails, skin side up, on a grill tray. Position them 12-15 cm (5-6 inches) below the heat and grill (broil) for about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through.

Serve hot or cold, with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and lemon wedges.

~

I served it with pasta and zucchini broiled with the quails. The zucchini were topped with breadcrumbs, butter and asiago cheese. Very Yum.

this recipe comes from one of my new favourite cook books: the food of italy: a journey for food lovers

Rhubarb Kuchen

2006-05-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

Every spring I can't wait for the fresh new rhubarb. Among the favoured baked fruit desserts in my family when I was a child was this scrumptious rhubarb dish: rhubarb kuchen. It's not overly sweet and is good warm or cold. There are some who will not let my mom bring anything but this for get-togethers. I don't blame them. You can use frozen rhubarb in a pinch too. I just prefer to use fresh.

Rhubarb Kuchen

preheat oven to 375F

Mix together: 1 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Cut in 1 tbsp butter

Mix one egg with 2 tbsp milk separately

When combined, add egg mixture to dry ingredients until just moist. Pat the resulting dough into bottom of a sprayed 8x8 inch pan. Set aside.

Combine: 1 package (85g size) of strawberry jello
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
Mix with 3 cups diced rhubarb until well coated with jello mix.

Pour whole rhubarb mix over crust.

Mix well:2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
3 tbsp butter

Once combined, toss sugar mix (streusel) even over the top of the fruit layer.

Put into over and remove once the top is golden and the rhubarb tender

Beginner's luck: Hollandaise Sauce

2006-05-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

My beloved's birthday was last weekend but I made an actual birthday dinner for him on Monday last. I stupidly realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the lamb shoulder that I'd cooked for him (not perfect but definitely edible) until after it was all cut up.

There was one thing that I was really proud of, though. At the last minute a mustard sauce was requested by The Frog. My only hope was the hollondaise based mustard sauce I saw in one of my newest cook books: The Cook's Book In a complete panic about the timing I resorted to using the blender version because the one over the simmering water scared the heck out of me for fear of curdling or something. I have to say that the blender version was not only good but "a perfect texture" according to said Frog. The taste was really good although not as mustardy as he'd hoped. I'm including here the basic recipe because everyone should have a chance at making Hollandaise without fear.

Hollandaise Sauce: In a Blender

Makes 2 1/2 cups

2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp lightly crushed white peppercorns
4 egg yolks
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, clarified
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of cayenne pepper

1) Place the vinegar, water and peppercorns in a small, heavy-based pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 minute, or until reduced by one-third (to about 2 1/2 tbsp). Remove from heat and leave until cold, then strain the liquid into a blender, adding a pinch of salt and pepper.

2) Place egg yolks with vinegar in blender. Blend for a few seconds [I did it for about 15 seconds but didn't seem to matter]. Heat the clarified butter. With the machine switched to the highest setting, trickle in the hot butter and blend until thick and fluffy. Add the lemon juice and seasoning.

Voila! It's just that simple.

Now, mind you, you have to clarify butter yourself if you can't get it in the store but that's only a matter of skimming off the solids while the butter slowly melts in a pan. That's easy enough for me. It's easy enough for anyone then.

~

To add a mustardy taste you can add 1 tbsp Dijon mustard at the end of the blending. Maybe it should be two if you REALLY like the taste of mustard like The Frog.

FYI

2006-05-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do go to my daily photo blog, I just want to let you know that I have changed the URL to http://deetsasdailyphoto.blogspot.com

I'll have a some posts up for you all soon on my food blog. Got a little bogged down by work to think straight. In the meantime, here are some pictures of some of the food about which I will be blogging:

Local Foods: Berry Shoots

2006-05-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking about local food from this island. And thinking. And thinking. And it seemed every time I thought about it lately I was coming across kids with hands full of salmonberry shoots or hearing kids at the door begging their mom for 'some sugar, please!' or nearly bumping into kids suddenly stumbling out of large berry bushes with translucent green stems in their fingers. DUH!! There was my local food right there!

Every year the children in areas with salmonberry bushes treat themselves to the first taste of the berries before there are berries on the bush. A goodly chunk of the local kids know that the newest shoots on a salmonberry bush are sweet and tender once you pull off the thin thorny outer layer. Within lies a green stem generally between 2 to five inches long. Now you CAN eat them sans the sugar dip favoured by the kids, and no doubt this was the way used in the past, but the kids prefer to eat it with sugar to further enhance the berry taste. I've eaten them both ways and have to say that I prefer them with. The ones without do have a little bit of a astringent nature if eaten in too much quantity. Plus the sugared ones taste more like my preferred orange variety of berries than the more astringent reds.

Now I don't know if people can cook with them or not but I honestly don't know why not. Maybe I'll just have to make something up! Any suggestions?

Burnt hands and Halibut in Sorrel Sauce

2006-05-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those days when it takes at least three repetitions to understand what you are doing wrong? On Friday I found myself in the position of using a cooking technique that I've never done before: poaching fish in a frying pan inside an oven, removing the pan from said oven, removing the fish and then using the poaching liquid to make sauce. I am used to making a sauce seperately and/or cooking the fish on the stovetop. In the course of making the sauce I tried to move the now skin-sizzlingly hot pan around a few times. I grabbed the scorching handle THREE TIMES! It's a wonder I didn't do serious damage to myself. I think I'm paranoid enough not to do it again but sheesh! What does it take to get things in my brain these days?

The recipe itself was nice and basic: poached fish, a white sauce with wine and herbs. I can even claim it as a tribute to this month's blog theme: Eating Locally. The halibut was caught within a few kilometres of here. The sorrel comes from my own garden. It's probably as good as I will get for local food unless I make a seaweed salad or wait to the month's end for salmonberries. I think the fish dish was great but I'm a little disappointed in my sorrel which seems to have lost its sour edge. I'd repeat it with newer shoots a next time. Just remind me to wear heatproof gloves next time.

Halibut in Sorrel Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup water
parchment paper
4 halibut fillets (6 oz each)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Bring wine and water to a boil in a large oven-proof skillet that can hold fish fillets in one layer. Turn down the heat so that liquid barely simmers.
Cut a piece of parchment paper into a circle the size of the skillet. Butter one side of parchment paper and set aside.
Season fish fillets with salt and pepper. Place fish in the skillet and dot with butter.
Cover the fish with parchment paper, and tuck the edged of paper into the pan so that they touch the liquid and seal the fish.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes per inch of thickness. The fish is done when you can separate the flakes with a fork, but just a touch of translucency remains in the middle. Remove the fish to a plate and cover to keep warm.

2 tsp softened butter
2 tsp flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup chopped sorrel

Set the skillet with poaching liquid on the stove top over high heat, and reduce by half (about 5 minutes).
Mash flour and butter together into a smooth paste.
After the liquid has reduced, turn the heat down to low and whisk the butter paste into it until smooth. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil, stirring until the sauce thickens, 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the cream, bring to a boil stirring constantly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Take off heat, and stir in sorrel.

Pour the sauce over halibut and serve.

For the life of me, I can't remember where I found this recipe but I know it's from the Net. It recommended wild rice and asparagus as side dishes. Can't say I could find any asparagus to use but I did have wild rice on hand. I think it was a good flavour match even if the Frog didn't. I don't think he liked it very much because it was chewy and not starchy. A pity since it tastes so toasty and yummy. But that's okay because there's more for me ;-)

Pastitsio

2006-04-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

The Plain Jane

The Snazzy Stir-fry

It's ironic that some of the most favoured comfort foods don't photograph well. Perhaps it's the gooey, creamy textures. Maybe it's the well-chopped, well-cooked nature that makes it a dull, plain-Jane next to a snazzy stir-fry or a glittering confection. It could be because we put in it the foods that are meant to dull the senses instead of excite them. But it still needs to be talked about because it's the foods that takes the edge off a nasty day at work or lets us linger in the fond memories of childhood. We run back to these foods because we know they may not excite the eye but they DO excite the nose and taste buds.

One such dish in my repetoire, inherited from my mother, is Pastitsio. It's a dish I'm sure that many are familiar with in its form if not under the same name. I changed it a long time back because I still desired its undulating, spicy goodness but couldn't handle the greasy meat that made up a good part of it. Instead I used a vegetarian mock ground round made by Yves Veggie Cuisine. It substitutes well so long as salt-free tomato sauce is used. Mockmeat becomes horribly attracted to salt if too much is used and makes the dish unpalateable. And please don't poopoo the use of the sweet spices. They really do make the dish what it is. Even Ben likes it and he has a horror of mixing sweet spices with meat.

PASTITSIO

1/2 pound very lean ground beef (or soy-meat equivalent)
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 can(8oz) tomato sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
8 oz elbow macaroni, cooked
2 tbsp parmesan (grated)
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tbsp flour
3 drops tabasco (or a small can of green chiles as I used when my bottle
disappeared)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray 8x8 pan with Pam. Spray skillet. Brown meat and onions in skillet (if you use mock meat, you may want to start the onions a bit earlier) for three minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Pour off and discard excess fat. Add tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Mix in hot macaroni and parmesan. Spoon into baking pan.

In the same pan with leftover bits of sauce within it, stir together milk and flour in skillet until very smooth. Lower heat and cook 1 minute or until mixture thickens slightly. Stir in tabasco, remaining salt and pepper. Pour white sauce over the meat and macaroni mixture in pan. Bake in oven 25 minutes.

NB: I didn't have tabasco but did have some green canned chiles so I put them on the white sauce. They added a nice contrast and the buzz that tabasco brings. I use a glass casserole and found no need for spraying necessary to keep it from sticking. In using mock meat you also rarely need spray for the pan if you have a good teflon pan to cook it in. I made sure to add the bit about keeping the pan dirty for the white sauce as this was never in the original recipe but just an understanding passed from mother to daughter. Plus it saves time ;-)

Crab Quesadillas

2006-04-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I love food stuffed in a doughy product. I love samosas, burritos, perogies, calzones, spanakopita... and I love quesadillas too! Last week, when I was going through a "cooking like crazy" phase one day I found and made these great, most repeatable treats--crab quesadillas. They were quite stuffing and could have satisfied me for dinner alone (if I hadn't so crazily created Mexican fried chicken and Potatoes con Queso too). I like how the crab paired off with the cheese (I had to add the pepper in the pepper jack. Not in MY store these days). The chilies I had were a bit too mild for my taste but not that bad. Of all the things I'd made that day, this was really quick. I think I was done in twelve minutes.

I don't really have the most ideal of pictures to show but it will give an idea of the inside and outside.

Go here for the recipe. I found I really like this new recipe site: "That's My Home". Lots of great ideas including this post's dish.

Chicken Meatball Curry

2006-04-24T07:35:00.001-07:00

I have no idea where I got this recipe from bookwise. I found it when clearing out some papers this weekend and I remember I copied at my mom's house from some book. I just don't remember if it was a library book or from her own shelf of recipe books. Whatever the case may be, it's a keeper. A BIG time keeper. Despite its being a bit long in the making (for me) since I had to microwave-defrost and debone each thigh, it is a very straightforward. I had to replace one or two products, too, but it didn't seem to effect the flavour at all.

I figured it would be edible and maybe even good but I was stunned at just how good it was! It's not the prettiest looking dish on the block but its flavour makes up for it immensely.

Chicken Meatball Curry

2 lbs chicken meat (I used thighs--it's all I had)

2 tbsp chopped onion (actually I probably had more like 3 tbsp in mine)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1 egg

1/2 tsp cayenne, turmeric, ginger powder, black pepper, dried basil, dried thyme
each leaves, dried oregano, paprika (I made each one a heaping 1/2 tsp)

1 tsp salt

1 minced garlic clove

3 tbsp safflower oil

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp curry powder (heaping for me)

1 1/2 cup Chicken stock (replaced it with Veggie stock)

3/4 cup light cream (had to use heavy cream as it's all I had)

In a food processor coarse chop the chicken. Add onions, bread crumbs, egg, seasoning, and garlic. Process into a fine mix (not too much or it gets sticky). Remove and shape into small balls (works for larger walnut-sized ones like I did too)

Heat oil in large skillet and brown the meatballs. Drain all the oil (I did it in batches and put them on paper towel). Transfer meatballs to a casserole dish.

Heat butter in a sauce pan. Add the flour and curry powder. Stir and cook for 2 minutes over low heat. Add stock and cream. Simmer for 5 minutes. Pour sauce over meatballs in casserole dish. Cover casserole and bake in preheated oven (350 F) for 45 minutes. Serve with rice.

Samosa Satisfaction At Last

2006-04-20T07:46:00.001-07:00

I love samosas. Who wouldn't? Spicy veggies or meats pocketed in a little pillow of dough and deep fried. Ask me if I want a samosa and I will gladly say yes. Ask me to make my own and I would get shivers and balk at the thought, turning and running like the wind. No matter how hard I tried, I could never ever ever ever get the dough right for the pockets. I thought I'd never have the pleasure of samosa heaven. Then I found out about pre-cut samosa wrappers. I bought about three packages on my last sojourn south. Wanna know what happened when I tried them out for the first time? I happy-danced all over the kitchen when I sealed up my first little pillow of samosa filling in that little pocket. It was like I had reached samosa enlightenment. I near-danced and sang my way through the rest of the pocket-forming and -filling. "Samusa Wrappers" You SAVED MY SANITY!

I made two kinds of samosas. One kind for me. One kind for Ben. For eons I haven't been able to tolerate ground beef without getting ill but Ben loves it. So mine enjoyed a spicy potato filling that suited me just fine.

Meat Samosa Filling (adapted from The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar):

2tbsp cooking oil
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
8 oz lean ground lamb or beef (I used beef. Where would I find ground lamb here?)
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2inch cube ginger, finely grated
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsps ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp flaked coconut
1 tsp garam masala
1-2 fresh green chile peppers, finely chopped, seeded for a milder flavour
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (Ben isn't so fond so I cut it down to a smidgen)
1 tbsp lemon juice
[NB: There was a tad more meat than asked for and I know Ben likes spices so I doubled up on all spices]

1. Heat the oil over medium heat and fry the onions until they are lightly browned
2. Add the meat, garlic and ginger. Stir and fry until all the liquid evaporates and adjust heat to low.
3. Add the turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili powder, and salt. Stir and fry until meat is lightly browned.
4. Add the water and the peas, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. If there is any liquid left, take the lid off and cook over medium heat until the mixture is completely dry, stirring frequently.
5. Stir in the coconut, garam masala, green chili peppers and coriander leaves.
6. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Cool thoroughly before filling the pastry.

Vegetable Samosa Filling (adapted from The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar):

3 medium-sized potatoes
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp black or white mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chili peppers, coarsely chopped (I suppose you could seed them. I didn't)
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped (I like onion. I used a large onion)
1-2 fresh green chiles, coarsely chopped and seeded for milder flavour if desired
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (Don't have much so did what I could)

[NB: like with Ben, I like spices so I double up on the spice amounts. Also added some lemon juice like Ben's by accident but actually adds a nice zing]

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins, allow them to cool thoroughly, then peel and dice them
2. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds. As soon as they start crackling, add the cumin seeds and red chili peppers. Stir. Add the onions and green chili peppers. Fry until the onions are soft. Add the turmeric, coriander and cumin.
3. Stir quickly and add the potoatoes and the salt.
4. Reduce heat to low, stir and cook until the potatoes are thoroughly mixed with spices
5. Remove from heat and stir in coriander leaves. Cool thoroughly before filling the samosas.

Last steps for both:
A) Follow samosa wrapper instructions for folding and filling. Complete the pockets before doing next step.
B) Fill frying pan with oil up to 1/2 inch. Heat. When hot drop in samosas about four or five at a time. Fry on one side until golden brown, flip and fry other side. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

You'd need two packages of "Samusa Wrappers" for this or you will have leftovers like I did. Well.. of the meat. Ben took the potatoes as a side dish.

We also had it with my favourite Indian food accompaniment: Coconut Rice (recipe at a later time)

Trout with Lemon and Capers

2006-04-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

Even though the grey days are trying to continue the feel of winter, little jolts of spring are everywhere. From the evening "cheery-up" of robins, the splash of magenta salmonberry flowers, the clouds of seagulls feasting on herring to the mini-vw sound of the hummingbirds in hot pursuit of rivals, the blahs of the colder months are being shooed out of Waglisla. Even some foods can chase away those winter blues. Rainbow trout is just such a contender. I've rarely had trout but when I did, it was always in summer. So, psychologically, I tag warm weather to the taste of these little beauties.

Now the problem was that I had never actually cooked trout myself. I always got it from others and it was always cooked. So, what to do? I found a very simple recipe that lends itself well to such a tasty fish at cdkitchen.com which involved very little work and needed little in the way of ingredients I didn't already have. THAT, of late, is a big bonus. Our shelves have been a bit more empty these days since our major source of food delivery, the ferry "Queen of the North", sank some weeks ago.

The recipe is basically one of flouring and frying the fish. After playing with their jaws to make my own ventriloquist act for Ben, I did just that. Served with a butter-caper sauce, boiled potatoes and salad, it was a nice, bright tasting pick-me-up. So, without further ado: Trout with Lemon and Capers

That's Amore!

2006-04-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Pssssst... don't tell the Frog but I'm madly in love. I'm having a love affair with my new pizza stone. My whole world has deep and passionate flavour now. I don't know what I did without his sleek lines and hard, hot body...

But seriously, I really do love my new pizza stone. It has really changed the way I see homemade pizza. Depending on how your oven is behaving, getting great pizza crust is a crapshoot at best (read: average ordinary oven which technically isn't YOUR oven because it's in an apartment. You get what you can).

A few days back I meant to have a post about my new pizza stone and its wonders but my dough sat in the bowl like a lead weight. We sat there, the dough and I, staring at each other. And that's about it. No rising, no lovely yeasty smell. NOTHING. I was miserable. Ben was miserable. It was too late to make a new batch after all that waiting. There was silence and pouting until I whipped some Indian food under Ben's nose. Honestly, I don't know what he'd do without me *wink, wink*

With renewed determination I whipped up some more dough yesterday. I watched over it like a frenetic mother. I started to panic after a while when I saw no activity but with a quick change of location the action began. After a while I whipped off the saranwrap and was hit by a lovely yeasty scent. HURRAH! With hope and determination I'd already put in the stone and it was heating up beautifully.

But don't think that was the end of my trials. It wouldn't be my life if it had all ended there so easily. There were stupid slip ups of touching the metal carrying rack with a finger tip (swearing occured here). There was whipping the dough into a decent pizza shape (cursing involved here). There was the realization that I couldn't carry the decorated pizza to the stone because I didn't have it on anything that would allow pick up (enter explicatives here). And there there was the actual carrying that involved topping mixups (much fuming here). But when that dough hit the scalding hot stone the whole apartment filled with the seductive smells of pizza dough, tomato sauce, cheese... All was forgiven.

Like a mother giving birth, I didn't remember the pain I went through. I only saw the beauty of my baby. And my baby tasted good too. Crust was a bit overcooked and I know to add more toppings next time but I felt like I was tasting a real pizza for the first time in I don't know how long. And I made it. Now there are so many toppings to try... lardons... potatoes... cream... *fade away*

Revisiting Tuna Casserole

2006-04-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Camera Issue... still

Ben: What do you think?
Me: (distractedly) Of what?
Ben: Of dinner. This is SO good. Haven't you tasted it yet?
Me: No. I haven't had a bite of it yet.
Ben: (in an annoyed voice) Well if you'd put down your camera for a second you might actually find out what your creations taste like.

Hallmarks of My Childhood #2

I've been keening for a bit of childhood comfort food for a while. My crazy life the last couple of weeks made me too tired to concentrate on "Me Food" but I craved it nonetheless. Now that I can breathe again I will be revisiting some childhood favourites (Hmm... anything to do with birthday issues perhaps?). First on my agenda is Tuna Casserole. With a bit of tweaking I made it my own but still kept the basics.

Tuna Casserole Revampoli

1 cup uncooked pasta (I prefer shells)
1 tbsp butter
2/3 cup onion, diced
2/3 cup zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup light cream
1 cup canned tuna, flaked and drained
1/2 cup defrosted peas
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated smoked cheddar

Cook noodles. Drain. Meanwhile, melt butter in skillet on medium low heat. Add onions and stir for one to two minutes. Add zucchini slices. Cook until zucchini translucent and onions are starting to brown. Add soup, milk, flaked tuna, peas, salt and pepper. Stir to mix well. Add cooked noodles. Stir in. Pour mixture into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle cheddar over top. Bake for 25 minutes at 350.

Successes and Failures

2006-04-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

In my pursuit of showing off the birthday sushi dishes (look at the pretty swirly designs on the close up of the sauce below) I mentioned in my previous post, I tried my hand at two recipes. One was a disaster only in adeptness of fingers because it tasted so good. But the other was a disaster because, in my opinion, it was a waste of precious sushi rice even if it made for a pretty and colourful picture.

The first recipe was my adaptation of an Emeril recipe for Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce. I read the list of ingredients for what I did have and I looked at the basic way to throw it together. That's about it. Here's what I created (and Ben loved):

Nerissa's Spring Rolls

1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp peanut oil
12 - 16 boiled shrimp
1 1/2 cups cooked rice vermicelli
1/4 cup thinly sliced cucumbers
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1 cup thinly shredded romaine lettuce
4 rice paper wrapper (discs)

Mix together the first six ingredients. In a pan, over medium-low heat, simmer the prawns in mixture. Turn every few minutes for even flavouring. Remove from heat after about 10 minutes and allow to cool 5 minutes.

Assemble the rolls 1 at a time: Dip 1 spring roll wrapper in a large bowl of lukewarm water and quickly transfer to a clean kitchen towel (Wrapper softens in seconds). Lay three or four shrimp in a horizontal line across the lower third of the rice wrapper. Top with a 1/4 cup of well-drained cooked rice vermicelli. Top the vermicelli with slices of cucumber and shredded carrot. Place 2 tablespoons of shredded romaine on top of cucumbers. Carefully pull the lower edge of the wrapper up and over the filling. Fold the two sides inward over the filling. Work carefully to not tear the wrapper. Once both sides are folded inward over the filling, roll the spring roll upward wo the filling is tightly contained and roll up to seal. Set aside roll on a plate and repeat with other wrappers. You could serve them immediately or chilled with Peanut Sauce on the side for dipping.

Peanut sauce:

1/2 tbsp peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chili paste
1/2 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp chicken stock (or water)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
Chile oil (optional) to taste

Mix all ingredients, blending very well. Serve with spring rolls.

~
There were a lot of things I didn't include from the original because I didn't have it on hand but it still tasted good. Other ingredients that were listed were Thai basil, mint, marinated pork... etc. But honestly if you want a good, straight-foward meal for a fussy eater, my version may do the trick.

My first attempt at using rice paper wrappers was pathetic at best. My fingers fumbled their way through four in more time than I'd like to admit. My BIG piece of advice: Work FAST! Slowness make the fumbles worse because the paper becomes even more floppy.

The Disaster of the night:

I tried making something called Country Style Sushi Salad which is basically cooked sushi rice with sushi-like ingredients mixed in. It turned into an unappealing mixture of flavours. Enjoy the picture but don't ask for the recipe. Please, for the sake of humanity, don't!

Lasagna Rollups

2006-04-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

A week and a half ago Michelle of Accidental Scientist wrote about making lasagna roll-ups. Now I haven't gotten around to trying her version but I did mention that my family had our own version of this recipe. We had it tonight and I'd like to share it with you. It's pretty easy and straight forward. Just don't do it unless you have family that is willing to wait patiently for 45 minutes while the baked dish sends out come-hither wafts of Italian tomato sauce and cheese.

Lasagna Rollups: Hallmarks of my Childhood #1

18 lasagna noodles
3 cups cottage cheese
2 cups mozarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbsp parsley, well-chopped
2 eggs, beaten
dash nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
28 oz spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup parmesan

Cook lasagna noodles. Combine filling ingredients except spaghetti sauce and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Put a cup of spaghetti sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 pan. Place a generous 1/4 cup of filling at the end of cooked noodle and carefully roll up. Place stuffed noodles in pan in rows. Pour the rest of the sauce over the stuffed noodles. Ensure good coverage of all stuffed noodles by spreading with a spatula. Sprinkle over top with the 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Serves 6 - 9 people

This really is a base recipe as you can play around with quantities all you want. I added some chives to the mix. It was okay but a bit overpowering with the delicacy of today's cheeses of choice. I usually use a jarred spaghetti sauce. What you choose really creates the final flavours. My personal favourite is herbs and wine spaghetti sauce. My mother usually uses the shakeable parmesan but I grated my own. Depends on the quickness you want as either taste fine.

With a nice side salad, this can really fill you up fast. Expect leftovers unless you have a large family or a good helping of hungry guests.

Gullible Gaijin

2006-03-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Sometime you are duped into believing that there are new flavours to be found in chocolate. That's what pulled me into the oldest gimmick in the book: display something cool-looking at the checkout counter.

I was getting out my groceries at the Chinese market when I saw this cool-looking package. Most of it was in no language I could decipher. The English promised "Only Hokkaido Taste", the charmingly silly English side bars on the cover talked of nature, in the middle of said silly English was a roaring bear, a symbol of the Ainu people. I was intrigued. I wondered what Hokkaido chocolate tasted like. I pondered if it was some exotic addition like black sesame or even seaweed! The cartooned picture on the back seemed to promise a chocolate with little black dots. I even dang-well saved it to eat up north, prolonging my investigation.

I shouldn't have bothered. It was chocolate with toffee bits in it. I ate the first half of the bar trying to strain my tastebuds to taste something exotic and the last half in emotional misery at being suckered in. Not that I didn't enjoy the chocolate but I'd been so looking forward to trying something unique, something foreign. Maybe next time I'll try the grass jelly drink or the canned silkworm pupae. At least I KNOW I haven't had that.

PS: I have a new daily photoblog you might want to have a gander at

Later note: My apologies to those who tried to use the address I gave above for my photo blog. I switched a couple of letters that didn't capture my eye for a couple of days. I guess I must be more tired these days than I thought.

A candle lit for her...

2006-03-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

Life loses its flavour when you lose someone dear to your heart. I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post.
It all started with not being able to taste anything and having no energy. A virus hit our school and town with a vengeance. Just when things were looking up and health was returning, Life dealt my beloved Ben and I another blow. My mother-in-law passed away a week and a half ago after a long illness. It has been a rough time emotionally for Ben and I've focussed a lot of time on his well-being since he couldn't go home to France for the funeral.

Ben's mother spoke very little English and my conversational French still suffers horribly but during the last five years of knowing each other we found our ways to communicate. The heart knows what the tongue cannot speak. I will cherish the memories I have of her and it hurts knowing there will be no more. I know she considered me the daughter she never had so I will do my best to make her proud of me no matter from where she watches my progress.

Please excuse my somber mood. I just wanted to let you who come here know why I have been so quiet.

Why didn't I do this before?

2006-02-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

Any of you foodies out there have to admit that being a foodie is great. Especially when your friends and family know about it. You're easy to buy for! Find a little gourmet goodie for us and we're through the roof with happiness and dreaming, cooking and sampling. Who needs diamonds and silks, when you can have artisanal cheeses or delicately flower-flavoured candies from afar? And those same family and friends are happy if you make a request of them--"find a local specialty for me please?". Or relieved if they know that the local candy they bring back from holidays afar will thrill you! It's probably the easiest interest/hobby I've ever offered the people in my life.

I have come to realize the truth to the above thoughts in the last month. Two friends have gone afar, leaving me in care of pet and/or homes for a time while they were away. One I made a request of, the other gave me an unexpected gift.

The first, Fair Funky Friend, went off to Mexico for a week and brought me back, at my request, the possibility to make REAL Mexican hot chocolate-two kinds of Mexican chocolate and a molinillo. One of the chocolates makes me shudder in delight at it's intense cocoa smell. When you smell it , it reaches into the tips of your toes and the ends of your hair. I can't wait to taste it. The other brings a smile, so lovingly perfumed with cinnamon that it haunts the recesses of your mind for some time after. The molinillo is just too funky and I can't wait to try it out. Frothy hot chocolate here I come!

The second, the unexpected present from Beloved Friend, was both charming and did reach into the local specialities as well. Some fair-trade dark chocolate with almonds (which is SO yummy, btw) by Cocoa Camino. Apparently the one I have (not for long!) won awards two years ago. In every bite I know why! Full-bodied and intense, it just lingers lovingly on the tongue with no weird aftertaste that poor chocolate can leave you. Another, more locally produced sweet from her trip was Ontario-produced maple syrup. The bouquet is delicate and not overly sweet. Apparently this kind won awards many times. It is quite obvious this is the real thing and not some cheap imitation. I think it is quite charming too in its little metal tin with its kitschy art and little rust spots. Any suggestions for use? And last, but not least, the collection of little plates decorated with wine label reproductions added some quirky and elegant fun to my growing plate collection. All this was overwhelmingly thrilling and touching.

Now I am thrilled by new foods to try, dishes to make, dishes to own... so why on EARTH didn't I do this before? Oh well... I'm doing it now ;-)

Gouda is gooooood

2006-02-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

Three of us teachers did a shopping run last weekend to Vancouver Island to break up the February blahs and get some slightly more exotic food than is available to us in Waglisla winters. I think Beloved Friend and Kindy Teacher Pal may have wondered at the wisdom of a shopping trip when our ferry trip home was wracked with stomach-flipping deep sea bends for a couple of hours travel through pure open-Pacific power (driven on by wild windy winter weather). They both looked very green around the gills while I, knocked out by Gravol, dozed through the worst of it and dared not get up when I felt the ferry sway with heart-pounding angles.

But oh... this trip was worth it for some of the lovely goodies purchased. One such delectable was smoked gouda which I have since used on a yummy comfort dish known as "Smoked Gouda and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas". An elegant twist on a basic concept: bacon onion cheese and bread. If you are looking for the recipe, you'll find it here at epicurious.com.
I used half the amount of sugar for the onions as they asked and it still was rather sweet. I suppose, honestly, you could leave sugar out and it would still taste good as fried onions.

The pictures don't really make them look very elegant. This time. But I know I'll be making this again. Sans sugar.

Another lovely find, this time on the ferry itself was Denman Island Chocolate.

We'd originally tasted a sample on Vancouver Island: Two ginger chocolate buddhas and one dark chocolate buddha (Chinese New Year theme, perhaps?). I had to have some again but I didn't expect to see them so soon onboard the ferry. So I took two samples: another Gingerama and a new one, Zesty Orange. Oooh yummy! As you can see from the picture they are not only a lovely dark chocolate (Belgian btw) but they are also ORGANIC!
The ginger is really nice. The intesity of the bittersweet chocolate has just a hint of candied ginger taste to tease you. The nice thing about this chocolate is that it doesn't leave a weird aftertaste in your mouth like cheaper bittersweets can. What you taste is the bitter chocolate on your tongue for about five minutes. It melts nicely in the mouth with a bit of friction but I don't think I ever let it melt completly before diving in the with my teeth. Zesty orange was a bit more disappointing. The orange essence it promised was ghostly at best, sometimes non-existant. But still, the chocolate itself was so good that I won't hold that against the company. I just won't get that kind again.

Foxy treats

2006-02-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

Inari zushi is a favourite treat for Japanese fox spirits (kitsune). They are served to kitsune statues at shrines as a method of pleasing and appeasing these tricksie little vixies. I LOVE inari zushi. I would treat favourably ANYONE who gave me inari zushi. Does that make me a fox?

Unfortunately there are no people around here to feed this fox so I had to make my own. Like other kinds of sushi, making this kind is a bit time consuming and best not accomplished on a busy day. This recipe is an adaptation from my new recipe book: The Japanese Kitchen, by Kimiko Barber

1)Make dashi from scratch: Put one piece of postcard size kombu and 4 cups of water in a sauce pan. Heat gently and take out the kombu when it begins to float to the top of the heated water. Raise heat. When the water come boil, take off the heat. Add a handful of bonito flakes and let them settle at the bottom. Once all are settled to the bottom, strain broth through a fine strainer lined with paper towels (about 3-5 minutes for all the bonito to settle)

2) Prepare the sushi rice

3) Once the rice is cooking, open a package of deep fried tofu pockets (I use Sunrise tofu puffs). Roll a chopstick over each piece of tofu to make it more malleable (plastic chopstick works better than wood)

4)Gently open one end to make a pouch and place each opened pocket into a bamboo strainer or colander. Pour a lot of boiling water over them to remove the excess oil.

5) Mix together 1 cup dashi, 4 tbsp granulated sugar, 6 tbsp soy sauce (I ended up using tamari), 3 tbsp sake, 3 tbsp mirin in a bowl. Then pour mixture over tofu in the medium saucepan. Simmer over a low heat until most of the liquid is reduced (~ 20-40 minutes). Let cool, then drain. (At about this time the sushi rice should be cooling too. Letting it cool outside in the wind helped speed the process)

6)In a bowl, mix 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds with cooked and cooled sushi rice*. Take about two tbsp of the rice mix and fill in the seasoned pouch. Don't overfill the pouch. Carefully fold the edges of the pocket inward. With a Sunrise pack this will create 9 large Inari-zushi. If you decide to cut them in half before boiling in the sauce it will create 18 ( in this case only use one tbsp of filling).

* I mixed some of the rice from a suggested additional filling in another book: chopped crab stix and cucumber.

The Frog wasn't totally impressed, finding it a bit sweet for his taste but I didn't care. That meant more for foxy little me ;)

Crawling Back from Oblivion

2006-02-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit scarce of late but plan to rectify that very soon. As in hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, here's something to fill in the gap.

I've had a couple of questions about the pictured recipes in the last post. One asked about the contents of the noodle soup. I hate to disappoint but it was rather simplistic. The liquid content was created from a bottle (Memmi Noodle Soup Base by Kikkoman). I have to admit that it wasn't the best soup at the start. Why? Because apparently I can't read English and misread the Memmi part to water parts on the label. Didn't help that I had a stuffed nose and so it was the Frog who pointed out that it was a bit of a salt lick and I promptly watered it down a bit. In the soup base were Chinese steamed noodles, frozen peas, chunks of leeks and a couple of prawns for each of us. Leeks weren't the best. Green onions would have been better. Not my finest hour in cooking but I plan to rectify it in the near future.

As for the first question I had-- S'kat's "How on earth does one prepare lotus root?" -- here is the answer from my new cookbook, The Japanese Kitchen by Kimiko Barber:

Renkon no kimpira (simmered lotus root)

2-2 1/2 cups lotus root, peeled and thinly sliced [had to fudge a bit with frozen]
1 tbsp each sesame oil and vegetable oil
2 tbsp each mirin and soy sauce
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
Pinch of shichimi togarashi (Japanese chili pepper) to taste, finely chopped [I didn't have this so I used a tad of cayenne]

Soak the [thawed] lotus slices in cold water for 10 minutes and drain. Heat both oils in a sauce pan and saute the slices over high heat until they become soft. Add the mirin and soy sauce and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the juice is almost disappeared, then add the sesame seeds and stir well. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with shichimi togarashi [or cayenne], and serve.

That's it! Not hard at all and tasty too. Any water chesnut lover will like this dish too. It's a tad more chewy than water chesnuts but has that same slightly starch crunch when your teeth snip into them. Next time I am in the area of the Chinese market (in maybe a month and a bit?), I will pick up the fresh kind and try again.

6 Challenges

2006-01-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

During the last week I've been exhausted and not sleeping well. But I HAVE been eating. Here's a small sampling of the week's dinners:

Pizza Alsatian

Chinese-style soup

Slow-cooked Lotus Root

Pasta Con Salmone Affumicato

Crazy Gaijin, I haven't been ignoring your tag. Honest. Here is my stab at it ;)

Six Cooking Challenges for 2006 (I changed it to six to reflect the year). I was tagged by Crazy G at Nihon No Ryori

1) In case you haven't been reading my blog, jam/jelly is on my to do list. I'm actually terrified of the whole procedure because I feel like things will explode on me. Heat and glass near each other does give me some frissons of panic. It's not like I haven't seen it a number of times before with The Mom. My mom has been jarring jams and preserves for as long as I can remember. I guess I just haven't been paying as much attention as I guess I should have instead of stealing the skimmed foam for a sandwich.

2) Like Crazy G, I really need to learn how to clean and fillet fish. My last attempts really sucked. Luckily with the amount of fishing and preserving going on around here in booneyville, finding people to show me techniques shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

3) Make a decent custard. I haven't managed to get a good custard going without somehow curdling it. Even on really low heat. HELP! If you have any suggestions, preferably step by step and very detailed. Pictures would help too. I am from a watch and do kind of family.

4)Make pastry dough from scratch. Errr.. yah. You see, I've never done it. What pies I have made have had premade shells (which, around here, bite the big one). It will not only help with sweet pies but the meat pies I want to make for the Frog (in case you don't know it, I haven't eaten a heck of a lot of meat for about twelve or more years)

5)Errr... I haven't ever made any kind of souffle. Yeah, you heard right. I've never made one but then my mother never really did either. Her influence on my cooking styles has been fairly heavy. Souffles therefore have not crossed my mind much until living with a Frenchman. Well, seeing all the pretty souffles from challenges of food blog past have influenced too *S*

6)I need to learn to make profiteroles as they are pretty much the only dessert that the Frog likes. That way his B-day "cake" will be something he actually craves.

Seven Meme... At Last

2006-01-19T07:10:00.000-08:00

I feel like this week is running away from me. I didn't have time to really think about the Seven Meme until later in the evening when I was too tired to think too long. I finally managed to get up in time to catch the window of time when I can get on the dial-up internet. I can't wait to get on wireless. Hopefully it will be soon! Then I will be able to blog when I want. Ahhh... that will be the life!

Here are some facts about me:

Seven things I say often

1) And listening in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Hey I’m a teacher)
2) This rain sucks! (I live near one of the rainiest places in Canada)
3) Yes, I’m sure I want to pay _______ for this [insert name of fruit or vegetable that is being given odd looks by the cashier at the band-run store]! (Yet they never blink at the price of the toilet paper or cheese which can be outrageous!!)
4) Did you see the sunrise?
5) Come here _______ [insert name of one of the dogs that roam Waglisla streets]. Wanna treatie?
6) God! I’m such a klutz!
7) What was that!!?? [I get a bit jumpy during winter windstorm season and since I got a nocturnal animal for a pet]

Seven things to do before I die:

1) Go to Egypt and Japan and England (and my provincial capital ;) )
2) Get a tattoo
3) Learn to speak French fluently without heavy reliance on a dictionary
4) Well… have a kid or two
5) Learn to scuba-dive and drive a boat of some kind
6) Own a bookstore or a bed and breakfast (or both?)
7) See Derek Jacobi in a live performance

Seven things I cannot do

1) whistle well
2) ignore chocolate
3) fix a car
4) juggle
5) eat hamburgers
6) manage to go a week without dropping something
7) make jam (I hope to fix this soon)

Seven things that attracted me to (food) blogging

1) It lets me explore different things I love in one place: talking, taking pictures, cooking, writing
2) I no longer feel guilty about eating (really!)
3) Making new friends
4) A chance to improve my writing skills and styles
5) A chance to blog about local indigenous foods
6) Learn about the culinary cultures of the world
7) It kinda lets me believe a bit in idealism again ;-)

Seven Favourite Books

1) Wintercombe by Pamela Bella
2) The Hippopotamus Marsh by Pauline Gedge
3) Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
4) Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
5) Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
6) The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
7) Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch

Seven Movies I like to watch again and again

1) It’s A Wonderful Life
2) Star Wars: Episode IV
3) Alistair Sim’s Scrooge
4) Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version)
5) The Fifth Element
6) The Italian Job
7) Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea movies

As for Seven people to tag... I haven't thought of that yet. I don't even know if I can because I was so long in getting this post moving. Perhaps I will write down seven people I WISH I had tagged. Until later!

Toooooo much information

2006-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

S'kat hath me tagged. Too Much Information is the name of the game. I've been vacillating between thoughts that produced WAAAAAY too much information and things so innocuous I rather think they'd not count. But I'll try to play at this game which entails "writing ten random and interesting facts about yourself and they need not be food-related".

So, without further ado,in no particular order, here is .... ME:

1) I love dogs with squishy jowls. I grew up with boxers and my heart has been lost to squishy dog faces since.

2)I just recently acquired a new pet after 5 years of not having one (if you knew my family you'd know how bizarre this really is). Charlotte is a Syrian hamster. She is my foster baby (poor sweetie was abandoned)

3)The Frog (whose real name is Ben, btw) and I met on the internet.

4)My favourite colour is cerulean

5)I like dragonfly motifs in my life but I am VERY picky about their appearance.

6)I took about seven years of vocal training (singing)

7)I always succumb to tears when I see news casts of children suffering or crying

8)I've been to the capital of France and Holland but I haven't ever been to the capital of my own country or even the capital of my own province!!! (Later note: I do apologize Papa! You are right! I WAS in the capital of Belgium as well. That knowledge completely slipped out of my brain at the time).

9)My original arts degree is in archaeology

10)I've never dyed my hair ever or ever got a tattoo BUT they are on my to-do list. I've even thought of purple or peacock blue but it'll probably end up being auburn hair dye. Hmm... a bit of a delayed teenage rebellion? Perhaps.

Okay... that's enough. Back to our regularly scheduled program now.

Robyn,Linda,Crazy Gaijin, Melissa and Michelle are hereby tagged

Was it good for you too, hun?

2006-01-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

And to think I was grumbling about moving my lazy tush over to Shearwater at lunchtime. Even after the long session of ProD I was sighing inwardly because the sound of the rain rumbling and tumbling over the school's roof gave me shudders about the walk to the seabus. I even mentioned how I wasn't even really hungry while on the seabus. But he still wanted to go... Frog was insistant. I'm SO glad he was because I had the best "food sex" I've had in ages. Come on... you know sometimes that food is a hot and heavy lover who sets your mind and body reeling.

First it started with not really being able to decide over three choices chalked out on the specials board. It was soon evident we couldn't so we chose all three. They all sounded amazing and like a lot of thought had been put into them.

Not very long later we were presented with a dish as pretty as a tropical flower. The descriptor on the board of "Shrimp Bruschetta with aioli" was a ruddy understatement. Here were five sets of collective shrimp, cheese, onion, peppers on firm tasty sesame-dusted bread ready to be enhanced by the most amazing looking sky-magenta aioli! Intrigued by the colour, I dipped in and added it to my bruschetta... and knew that true happiness CAN exist in a food product. The bruschetta (of which I got only TWO, Mr. Frog!) were soon polished off in a paradoxical time period: both in a slow motion enjoyment and as a quick-grab of fleeting raptures at the same time. The mayonnaise base was so obviously made from scratch as it reminded me of the aoili I'd had with lagoustines in Brittany, France. Frog must have found heaven in the mayonnaise base too because he insists he HATES aioli and yet we were fighting for best dipping position over this pretty purple paradise. Now THAT is the mark of a remarkable chef! If they can change Froggie Food Nazi's mind about his dislikes, I offer up tuition for their culinary classes!
Ready to fork-stab the waiter if he took away the remaining aoili, our next two courses were presented quickly. Mine was a bacon-wrapped halibut piece presented on a bed of luxurious (new favourite word LOL) cream-cheese and smoked salmon sauced penne rigate. The descriptor-rich English language is still not enough to truly explain this food experience. Prompted by our enjoyment of the bruschetta dish, we both quickly dug into our dishes until my rapture was snapped by "OH MY GOD... I forgot to take a picture!" The pictures you have of ANY of the food is just by sheer chance available since our greedy desire for fulfillment overtook the logical mind.

So... back to the halibut.

It was a tournedo of halibut with bacon border in name only. The moist firmness of the white flesh sealed in by the quick golden crust on top and bottom and the bacon edging made me pause in momentary silence followed by a query in mind as to how in Heaven's name did I manage to stay on the raw food thing as long as I did some couple years back. And how on Earth do you describe perfectly cooked halibut without resorting to comparisons to scenes in 'When Harry Met Sally'. The pasta, dancing with little cubes of smoked salmon, was a completely irresistable with its creamy sauce JUST enough and not too much. I really tried to enjoy it s-l-o-w-ly... but I couldn't . I just couldn't.
Froggy enjoyed a half piece of slow-roasted curry basted chicken. I'm still laughing that he hesitated over choosing it because his mind was set that night on a attacking a peppersteak. For a man who claims he loves only the wings and legs, he sucked that birdy down to the bone one silent moment of bliss after another. Even he was shocked at how he ate every bit since he normally doesn't care for the white meat as much nor picking meat away from the ribs. And oh how funny it was to see him crowing over the succulent neck bone(one of his favourite parts). Even funnier still was that he was worried that the appetizer and chicken wouldn't fill him up. I think his post-meal groaning defied THAT earlier belief. We both ate our main meal with a Mission Hill Chardonnay that was delight to the tongue. I was surprised at how yummy it was that night since I could take it or leave it on other nights.

We both sat there after, sated and discussing the food endlessly, trying to find words to expressively convey our enjoyment. Later in the evening we spent time finding those words again as our chef came over to ask about dinner. If I could have spoken at top speed for twenty minutes I think maybe I could have expressed our happiness. In our discussion we found out that my guess for the purple colouring was wrong and NOT something beet related but in fact it was a red wine reduction! Mmmmm! How intriguing! And our dear chef also described how he's cooked the chicken with dipping it in hot curried oil so it half cooked and then roasting it in the oven after.

In the end we wended our way down to the seabus and capped off the night with an invitation to ride up front with the driver "who wanted to get to know us better since I see you every week". We had a wonderful chat with him all the way back. As I chattered and listened I read in a brief look into Frog's eyes and he into mine, that the lights of Waglisla we saw twinkling in the distance were calling us back home. Excuse my blasphemy but God F***ing Dammit, I love where I live. Remind me of that next time I complain about a lack of butter or pink fuzzy tomato innards.

Chickpea Curry

2006-01-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

It smelled like one of my favourite restaurants in my kitchen last night. I'm tickled pink that my new gift produced something resembling a presentation from a Indian Restaurant and not something with curry powder that is called "Indian". Dont' get me wrong. I like the quick ease of using a pre-made, store-bought curry powder in things like macaroni and cheese to give it a nice pick-me-up. But last night I had a revelation when using fresh ingredients like fresh green chiles, crushed cardamom pods, fresh ginger, chopped garlic and whole fennel seeds.

For Christmas I got a book called "Easy Indian" by Das Sreedharan. Last night was the first time I decided to use one of the recipes in there. I now know I will be going back to use more. What I made was a chickpea curry. With lots of fresh spices and slowly cooking onions until soft and golden. Now I do have a confession to make. My eyes obviously glanced too quickly at the "fresh tomatoes, chopped" but luckily I had some canned diced tomaotes. Now obviously canned won't replace fresh chopped but I think in the winter it will do in a pinch since all we get here are pink pingpong balls with inner pink fuzz barely resembling their juicy, red summer cousins. I think it was the only substitution I was forced to make. My only "hmmmm" is that the ingredient list doesn't mention what size of onions you are supposed to use!

Without further ado is the recipe by the creative Das Sreedharan from my new cookbook:

Chick pea Curry

Serves 4-6

4 tbsp vegetable oil
2.5 cm (1 inch) piece of cinnamon stick
2 cloves
3 cardamom pods, crushed
pinch of fennel seeds
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2.5 cm (1 inch) piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 green chiles, finely chopped ( I didn't seed them. It left a low constant burn :D)
3 onions (I assume medium), peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tomato paste
4 tomatoes chopped (I used two cans of diced tomatoes with the juice)
2x410g cans of chickpeas (we have bigger cans here so I used 1 1/2 cans of them)
200mL (7 fl oz) coconut milk
sea salt (yes I actually have the real thing from Brittany, ground by my own self)
4 tbsp chopped coriander (also known as cilantro) leaves to serve.

(I know it seems like a long ingredient list but bear with me)

1 Heat the oil in a sauce pan. Add the cinnamon stick, sloves, cardamom, fennel seeds, garlic, ginger and chillies. Saute for 1 minute. Add the onions and fry over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until they are soft and golden
2 Add the turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, garam masala, tomato puree, and salt. Mix well, then add the chopped tomatoes (or canned, juice and all) and 600 ml (1 pint) of water. Bring to a boil and add the chickpeas. Cover and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3 Lower the heat and add the coconut milk. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the milk is well-blended with the spices and chickpeas. Remove the pan from the heat, scatter with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Notes:
I didn't add so much of the water with the tomatoes since there was a lot of juice from the cans.
I always add a bit more of each powdered spice for a little more kick and because some of the spices available to me don't always have that much oomph in them.
I served mine with Thai Jasmine rice and broiled eggplant last night.

Pasta Perfection and Beautiful Bread

2006-01-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

It wasn't hard to like the Mediterranean Seafood Fettucini at Shearwater last Thursday. The clams were salty and potent, the halibut was firm and meaty, the shrimp just right... The mixtures of peppers,sundried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and green onion a nice contrast... but then there was the noodles themselves. I feel a little shocked to be writing a paean about pasta but I was blown away by the simple luxuriousness of the pasta. It was cooked just right, it was probably mixed with a nice olive oil... it all ended up becoming one of those "close your eyes and just "be" within the happy silence of your mind, zen-kinda pasta". Did you ever have one of those moments where what seemed to be the simplest part of the restaurant dish ended up being the part that made your mind reel?

I've tasted the usual accompanying bread at most pasta places. Their usually-toasted chunks redolent with salty margarine and god-knows-what-kind of fake-ish garlic. What came with my pasta on Thursday (and before Xmas too, incidentally) was a beautiful piece of bread heaven. There are little flecks of rosemary in the pillowy depths of the core and a lovely chewy crust lightly dusted with flour. Does a pasta dinner with buttered toast get any better than this? I think not!

Southwestern Chili

2006-01-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

There are a few recipes out there that I don't make very often. It's not because the ingredients are rare or the time to make it is long. It's not even because I'm the only one who likes it. It's because it makes me... well... err... toot. Well, when you read the ingredient list you'll know why.

But sometimes I have to eat it. It's the ultimate comfort food--starchy, spicy, oniony tomatoey, just enough veggies to compliment the starches, enhanced by a touch of cheese. In its original form it is called "Red, Gold, Black and Green Chili". I got it from... yes, you guessed it... Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.

Frogman being what he is would have pouted if there was no meat in it so I altered the recipe a bit so that it included big pieces of chicken for him and altered the spices a bit for me because I like things with a punch.

Southwestern Chili

1/2 cup bulghur
1/2 cup hot water
3 cups undrained canned tomatoes (28 oz can)

3 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
3 boneless chicken breasts, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
3 cups chopped onion (smaller chop is better for the cooking time, bigger pieces feel more luxurious on the tongue)
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp Mexican chili powder or 1 generous tsp of regular chili powder with a generous pinch of cayenne added

2 green peppers (this preferrable to cut the intensity of the starches but slightly unripe yellows work too)
2 cups frozen corn
1 1/2 cups drained cooked black beans (14 oz can)
1 1/2 cups drained cooked red kidney beans (14 oz can)
salt to taste

grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese for garnish

~

Place the bulghur, hot water, and about a cup of the juice from the canned tomatoes in a small saucepan. cover and bring to a boil on hight heat, then lower the heat and simmer gently.

While the bulghur cooks, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute the chicken in the pan until almost cooked through. Add onions, garlic, cumin and Mexican chili powder (or chili powder and cayenne). Stir around to mix in spices. When the onions are soft, stir in the peppers and saute for about 3 minutes more. Chop tomatoes in the can and add them to the pan. Stir in. Add corn and beans, stir in and heat thoroughly over low heat. Taste the bulgur. When it is cooked but still chewy, add it to the pan with its liquid. Cover and simmer for a few minutes for the flavours to meld. Add salt to taste.

Serve plain or topped with grated cheese ( I used jalapeno Monterey Jack this time around and it was nice but cheddar is lovely too)

~

It serves 4 to 6. I like to make the full amount even when there is only two of us because the leftovers are great as a burrito filling! mmmmm....

In the picture you can see a couple of the things I got down south at Christmas: the red bowl and the cute "Campbell Soup Kids" napkin on the side. :D

New Year's Dinner Recipe & Photo Swap

2006-01-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Do not make sushi when you are brain dead.

I can't believe how many little things just didn't go well yesterday when I was making some as per promise to The Daddy Man and because I wanted something cool to put in my "What did I eat for the last meal of 2005" entry for CookingDiva.

First of all there was the rice. Somewhere in this vacuous brain I seemed to believe that making enough rice to feed an army was necessary to feed three sushi lovers. Hmm.... not a good thing when there are only 12 pieces of nori in the whole friggin' house on New Year's Eve, aka "the night people close stores early".

Uh.... then there was the nori. Somehow I seem to believe I am a master sushi chef who knows what the *&!^ she is doing. I trimmed a nori sheet down in half like I THOUGHT I saw in Togo Sushi. BIG mistake. I not only screwed up rolling both small pieces which later refused to cut without explosive behaviour BUT I did something even more stupid. I did it again. Thus I ruined 2 of 12 precious nori pieces. Thankfully the second attempt was better because I cut a bigger piece but I ruined a perfectly smaller but good piece of that nori sheet trying to roll a mini version.

Then there was the sushi mayonnaise that I put inside each roll. I ALWAYS make sushi with this mayonnaise. Except for three rolls last night. Just about four. You'd think I'd been into the bubbly stuff early by the way my brain cell function was down to small blips.

The Daddy Man expressly mentioned how much he loved the asparagus sushi I make many times. So I expressly roasted them carefully in the pan with garlic and had some beautifully roasted emerald stems in a bowl. Which I just about forgot to salt. Okay.. that was fixable. But then... while fighting with the mini nori strips and down to the last two nori sheets I notice the green glisten from the corner of my eye. So lots get shoved into two... then I carefully unroll a sushi mayo-less concoction and insert remaining asparagus.

Stupid me decides to do a couple of inside-out rolls. Not only do I forget the saran wrap before starting but also manage to forget part of the procedure. Two manage to mangle together only held together by the starch of the rice. Try to roll it in the little bit of fish roe I thawed. It does not go on evenly as I had hoped. Looks like melted cheddar cheese on them. Spread them out on the rolls and proceed to mush more into the rice that I intended. Result looks a bit pathetic and misshaped.

Imagine, if you will a cut to a knife shot. Note the ragged bits of seaweed refusing to cut despite the sharpness of blade. Watch as the inside out rolls threaten to flatten into pancackes as you cut. Watch how the little baby sized rolls explode like touch-me-not seed pods when the knife hovers overhead.

I notice then just how off-kilter almost all the fillings are. I don't remember doing something different than usual on the regularly-wrapped rolls. I note how I will not get that brand of ginger ever again because the red colour makes many of the pieces look like a little girl's party dress.

*sigh*

At least it tasted good. At least it was eaten. At least some looked edible enough to photograph. Let's just hope this is like the saying "Bad dress rehersal. Good performance" because if Dec. 31, 2005 was a dress rehersal for 2006, I'm going to have a damned good year. Pray it's not a preview of coming events.

Here's the recipe for the sushi rice:

Sushi Rice

2 cups sushi rice
3 cups water
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp sea salt

1) Wash rice about 1 hour before you start to cook. Place the rice in a mesh strainer and place that inside a medium bowl. Rinse well with water (rubbing rice gently to release starch) until the rinse water runs fairly clear. Drain rice and let sit int the strainer for 1 hour.

2) In a heavy sauce pan with a lid, combine rice, water and 1 tsp sea salt. Let the rice sit for 5 minutes, then turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil, uncovered, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover the pot with a lid. Cook for 20 minutes or until the water evaporates. Keeping covered (do not peek) remove from heat and let rest for 20 minutes.

3)While the rice cooks: In a small bowl combine rice vinegar, sugar, and sea salt, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely.

4)After rice has finished cooking and resting, transfer rice to a large shallow pan and spread out evenly as you can without mushing too much. Sprinkle seasoned vinegar mixture over the rice as evenly as possible and then gently mix with a flat wooden spoon. For the next 5 minutes or until cooled down, stir rice breaking up rice clumps and mixing vinegar in well. Cover pan with a damp kitchen towel. Can be kept at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before using.

I gave the recipe for sushi mayonnaise recipe before. With these recipes, a bamboo mat, deft fingers and interesting fillings you too can grow over-confident and make your sushi look like it was hit by a truck. ;-) Happy New Year!

My New Year's Results:

Fettuccini alla Carbonara

2005-12-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Remember I said I like smoked stuff back in my previous post? Well, after a long foray away from it I have added a bit of back bacon into my diet. I can hear relatives fainting for miles around. I haven't touched any meat but seafood for at least twelve years or so since I got sick every time I ate something with too much mammal fat in it. But I have to admit that of all the things I gave up, bacon was the one thing I hated giving up the most. Streaked bacon does still do me in with nausea (Yes, Mom, I tried) but back bacon doesn't (it's not streaked with fat). So in the past I used it in my corn chowder recipe and last night I made a favourite of Frog's : Fettuccini alla Carbonara. According to him, this meal is to the French student what Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is to Canadian students.
I'd call it a breakfast on pasta because it basically entails eggs and bacon on fettuccini. I served it the way the French do, with a raw yolk on top. It is perhaps a bit risky with the eggs we get around here but it gets mixed right into the hot pasta so it cooks a bit before it is eaten. I would recommend it because it adds a really nice creaminess to the whole dish.

Fettuccini alla Carbonara
-my notes in brackets

3/4 lb uncooked fettuccini or spaghetti
4 oz pancetta (Italian bacon) or lean American bacon {I used Canadian back bacon}
3 garlic cloves cut in half
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
Generous dash of ground white pepper
Fresh oregano leaves for garnish {never used it last night, nor do I have fresh}

1) Cook fettuccini in large pot of boiling, salted water until just al dente. Remove from heat. Drain well. Return to dry pot.

2) Meanwhile, cook pancetta and garlic in a large skillet over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until pancetta turns a light brown. Reserve 2 tbsp drippings in skillet with pancetta. Discard garlic and any remaining drippings {I was lucky to get one tbsp --a drawback from non-streaky bacon perhaps}

3) Add wine to pancetta mix; cook on medium heat for 3 minutes or until wine is mostly evaporated. Stir in cream; cook and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

4) Whisk egg and egg yolk in top of cold double boiler. Place top of double boiler over simmering water, adjusting heat to maintain a low simmer. Whisk in 1/3 cup of cheese and pepper into egg mix. Cook and stir until sauce slightly thickens. Remove from heat.

5) Pour pancetta mixture over fettucini in pasta pot. Toss to coat. Heat over medium-low heat until heated through. Stir in egg mixture. Toss to coat evenly. Remove from heat. Serve with remaining cheese {and an egg yolk in it's shell. Save egg white for other dish}. Garnish, if desired.

My Ten...errr... Eleven Favourite Foods

2005-12-14T06:22:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by a fellow food blogger, Michele of Chef Michele's Adventures for this subject. I have to name my top ten favourite foods. Seems an awfully limited thing for us foodies out there, doesn't it? Fellow Canadian Ruth of Once Upon A Feast is credited for starting this this meme: You are what you eat.

I just couldn't pare it down to the ten foods. I had to add one more because I just couldn't leave it out. Here they are, in no particular order:

1)Ginger- any way : fresh, pickled, candied, jellied, you name it, I like it. All hail ginger!

2)Anything from the onion family: onions, shallots, leeks, green onions, garlic … ahhh how I love them all, cooked or raw.

3)Berries: I never met a sweet berry I didn’t like. Tomatoes don't count. I said sweet didn't I? ;-) Like with peas, these have some childhood memories attached to them. Part of childhood's summer was finding the berry bushes from which to gobble all you could eat of things like blackberries, raspberries, salmonberries, blueberries, thimbleberries. My newest love is pink currants (My future mother-in-law has some growing amongst her red currants). The pink are more sweet than the red.

4)Pickles: I love pickles and will try anything pickled in the hopes of finding new favourites. My current favourites are Vlasic dills and Bick's Pickled Banana Peppers

5)Sushi: life wouldn’t quite be the same without sushi…. *drool* My favourite place to go is a little shop in the mall, would you believe it? But they make the best sushi I can remember having. If you're in the area, try it out: Togo Sushi

6)Almonds: Any way. Any where. Especially almond paste.

7)Chocolate: Like I could leave this out? I don't count white chocolate though. Too sweet for me and not REAL chocolate anyways. ;)

8)Peas: I looooove peas! In the shell, out of shell, snow, snap, sugar, fresh, frozen, dried. I think this one has one of the closest associations with childhood because of my Mom's garden. She always grew peas. My sister and I were given the run of the garden for a between-meal snack. I headed to the pea patch a lot to slit open the emerald beauties, pop the peas in my mouth and then chew on the pods like it was gum. Ahhh....

9)Anything with a smoked taste: smoked salmon, smoked gouda, smoked cheddar, bacon, kippered herring, smoked oysters, smoked mussels, etc. I’ve even been known to put liquid smoke in things like mashed potatoes because I love the taste so much.

10)Potatoes: Mashed, baked in the jacket, fried, French fries, scalloped, hashed. Oh mighty starch, you call my name!

11)Goat milk products including the milk and the cheese. Yummers! Some people find the taste of the milk too strong for them but I like the tang it has. I absolutely fell in love with this when I first had it in France.

A perfect meal of mine entails something like this: an amuse-bouche of tuna sashimi, a starter of broiled chevre salad, followed by a main dish of hashed browns with fried onions, peas and a smoked fish, dill pickles on the side, followed by a dessert of chocolate covered almonds and chocolate-dipped candied ginger.

Okay Foodie psychologists, what does that say about ME?

It wouldn't be Christmas without them

2005-12-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

I think I always liked Christmas the best of all the holidays because there was so much more to prepare. For weeks you were shopping and baking and decorating. Since I was little I used to help my mom prepare Christmas treats: thumbprints, peanutbutter balls, mince tarts, butter tarts, fudge, cinnamon buns, carrot pudding.

It was a little bit of a Christmas spirit boost to have my kids in class make peanutbutter balls. Since none were allergic to nuts and it didn't involve cooking, it was one of those easier class projects to do. Now they are all begging me for the recipe. Of course I'll give them the recipe (and you too).

Peanutbutter Balls

Step 1

3 cups peanutbutter (I think we always used smooth but I think it really doesn't matter)

3 cups icing sugar

3 cups rice krispies

2.5 tbsp melted butter

1) Cream together peanutbutter and icing sugar until well mixed. Set aside.

2) Mix rice krispies and melted butter until rice krispies are well-coated.

3) Slowly fold rice krispies mix into peanut butter gently until thoroughly mixed in. Be sure not to be too hard on the mixing as it will crush the rice. Set aside

Step 2

Thin butter icing

2 1/2 cups icing sugar
4 tbsp soft butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Milk to moisten

Cream butter until fluffy. Gradually blend in icing sugar and vanilla. Add milk until icing is thin enough to flow freely from mixing utensil but thick enough coat the untensil well.

Step 3

unsweetened fine flaked coconut
food dye

Drop several drops of food dye into coconut. Mix with a fork until well blended and evenly coated with the colour. The amount of colour and the colours used are up to you. Traditionally my mother used just red and green. I used more unorthodox but pretty pale green, blue, white and purple this time around.

Step 4

1) pick up a chunk of the peanutbutter mix about the size of your thumb and roll into a ball about one inch in diameter. Continue until all the peanutbutter mix is rolled up. Depending on the size of your cookies, this should be about 4 dozen.

2) Dip each ball into the icing, roll until covered. Then drop them into the coconut, rolling until completely covered. Put onto a cookie sheet with a waxed paper lining. Repeat until all done. Place in freezer to harden an hour or so. Place in wax paper lined cookie tins, layering with waxed paper if necessary.

Hmm... I think that does it. This is WAAAAAAAAAAY more detailed than my mother's recipe. I think there was just a general understanding of the way it worked.

My sister and I liked Step 4 the most, much to my mother's chagrin, because we always licked our fingers between the rollings. We'd always be washing our hands again and again because she'd catch us doing it. Afterwards we both be sick with the sugar we'd consume. Somehow she never really stopped us though. It was funny when I made this with my students on Tuesday as they had the same look of "Nirvana reached" that we must have had when they sucked the icing and coconut off their fingers.

The same night I also made butter tarts thought I must admit I cheated a bit on them because I used pre-made tart shells. Yes. I admit it. I am an untried and scared hand at pie/tart pastry. So what I am giving you here is just the filling recipe. I hope you have your own tart shell recipe. I can give you my mother's if you want. Let me know.

Butter Tarts

1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup currants
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp lemon extract

Mix all ingredients together until foamy. Fill tart shells 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool. Store in wax paper lined cookie tins or well-sealed plastic containers.

The currants add a sour-sweet edge that raisins just don't have. They are far too sweet in such a dessert. The lemon is a beautiful touch too as it enhances the sour-sweet of the currants. I converted a confirmed buttertart hater with these kind because he says the currants were not too sweet.

Not too much to it, eh? That's the beauty of them.

Busy little chipmunk

2005-12-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

Only in food blogger land...

Frog from the living room: "Dinner's ready, isn't it?"

Me, in kitchen: "Yes, how did you know?"

Frog: "I could hear the camera beeping"

* * *

I was a busy little chipmunk in the kitchen last night than I was in a long while. I made two different Thai curries and two kinds of Christmas cookies. And I even managed to watch most of "The Triangle", second installment. Aaaaaaaaah... It's so nice to have reporing period over.

I used my Thai green curry and my Thai red curry last night. I pretty much used the same method for both although the ingredients in the sauce were almost exactly the same. For the red (His) I cubed up chicken breast for the main food item. In the green (mine) I used a mostly vegetarian content. I really liked the green better than the red and HE liked the red better than the green. Wow... much better choice making than the weekend! Here's the recipe for mine:

Nerissa's Thai Green Curry

1 tbsp oil (I used olive)
1 small block super firm tofu, diced
1 large green pepper, seeded and diced into 1 inch squares
4 inches of broccoli stem, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup small broccoli florets
1/2 cup frozen cut green beans (I suppose you could use fresh... not that WE get any)
2 1/2 tbsp prepared green Thai curry ( I used Maejin brand)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup coconut milk

Heat skillet over medium heat and add oil when warmed up. Once heated, add tofu. Stir constantly until browned around the edges (1-2 minutes). Add green pepper, broccoli stems and broccoli florets. Stirfry with toful until the vegetables are bright green (up to 5 minutes). Add frozen green beans. Stir into vegetable tofu mix for 1 minute. Add green curry paste and fish sauce. Stir into vegetable tofu mix for 1/2 a minute. Add coconut milk. Stir to mix in curry. Let come to a simmer and keep on lowered heat, bubbling, for 5-8 minutes. Serve. Good with freshly cooked hot Thai Jasmine rice.

Serves 4

This was oh so yummy! I found Frog's red curry to be too salty for my taste. But he loved it. That's the main thing. Here's his:

The two cookies types I made are butter tarts and peanut butter balls. Both are highly addictive, suger-laden treats I grew up with. They are ONLY for Christmas (What other time of year would you justify that much fat and sugar?) in my opinion. Kinda like my mom's cinnamon buns... but that's for another day...
As I have to close up this post soon, I'll leave you with the pictures but post the recipes later.

The oh-so-yummy (favourite phrase today) butter tarts, oozing with brown sugar and currants. I know most butter tarts I've encountered outside my family have raisins but currants are the only way to go with these puppies. I couldn't imagine them without the little sour edge to those little jewels.

Peanut Butter Balls (hopelessly unimaginative in name but a joy to peanut butter lovers). My kids made some with me yesterday afternoon. They are all clamoring for the recipe and as enamored of the butter icing on them as I was at their age. They went a little overboard on making the coloured coconut so my making them at night was a way of using up the leftovers.

Let me swim in the soup...

2005-12-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Next time they'll have red-carpet rolled out by the seabus. I swear I felt so loved and cosseted at Shearwater on Thursday to warrant that kind of thought. People at the seabus so glad to see us again after a two-week hiatus. Lots of new things at the Shearwater store (okay maybe that doesn't make YOU feel like a princess but it does for me). But then there was dinner...

It was nice to look at the shimmery tree right near our table as I sipped my hot chocolate with whipped cream on top. I'm not normally a whipped cream girl but this stuff was great. It wasn't long before our first course came and I met God. I mean it! The broccoli and cheese soup was SOOOOOOOO good. I was horridly sad when I'd finished wolfing it down. Frog loved it quite that much too. It was all yummy and creamy with cheese as an accent to the broccoli rather than a competitor. And soft luxurious bits of onion... ahh... If I could have had a hot pool of that stuff to live in, I would have been happy as could be.

We'd both chosen the specials of the day. Frog had the prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and mashed taters. He was particularly in love with the sauce which I think I heard was au jus with red wine and garlic. Sometimes the simplest sauces are the best as the French Frog is apt to say to me... again... and again... OK I GET IT! ;-)

I simply had to try out the other special of the day: Prawns cooked with sambuca. I was curious to see what anise tasted like with seafood. I'm not sure if it is the best pairing with prawns but it was still quite nice to eat paired with the cooked fresh tomatoes and parsley. I found the result a bit sweet for my taste. I really have come to believe I like something a little more savoury/vinegary for prawns than sweet. It was a nice experience because I'd never had sambuca before in ANY way. I know I'd like it (I like pastisse too) with maybe another kind of dish, probably dessert.

All this time we were attended to diligently and kindly. I think what really struck me was new habit of the chef coming out to talk to us. I don't think that's ever happened before. Frog laughed at my surprise because he said if you are frequenting a restaurant in France, the chef/owner will make special visits to your table. Well, even if it is understandable for him, I felt special because I come from a family that didn't do restaurants very often. Then, to top it all off we were unexpectely given a piece of chocolate cake to share. It was then we found out that the red wine that had poorly combined with Frog's dinner went REALLLLLLY well with the dark chocolate of the cake. Wolf Blass Eaglehawk is an Australian wine. When combined with the chocolate in your mouth, the wine tastes all amber-sweet. I was blown away by the pairing.

We hung about for an hour, played darts (well... we tried to), talked. When we went to catch the seabus the driver's second snapped up all our grocery bags and took them to the seabus for us... We were touched by that move until he did it again on our way up the ramp to the upper dock so "you can hold hands". Awwwww... now we're positively gushing at the sweetness of the act.