Tag: food

The Daily EO: February 27th, 2013

And tonight was the dinner from yesterday’s dumpling extravaganza.

The hard part was done, now it was just the chiffonade of sage, browning the butter and frying them up.  I wonder how we could ever not like something that was made with white flour and fried in butter, topped with real parmesan cheese?  I am not sure.

Our dinner guest and my husband had some beer – I held off from the wine because I had to work on said project later that night – and we commenced with mincing, browning, frying and grating to finish off this recipe.  Oh, yeah, he threw some pork chops on too.

They were.. . . chewy, slightly sweet, buttery, sage, cheesy. ..  pretty damn good.

February 27th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  I wonder if I could buy these at Granville Island?  That was pretty involved.

 

The Daily EO: February 26th, 2013

I challenged my husband to make something from his Alton Brown cookbooks in the month of February.  So he invited his friend over for dinner on Wednesday night and selected Butternut Squash and Potato Dumplings as his recipe.  I do the grocery shopping and he does dinners, so he gave me the list of ingredients to pick up.  Tuesday night he was tackling it and this is an involved recipe.  Not only that, despite following it pretty closely, the recipe ending up needing 3 times as much flour as it calls for.  (ever try rolling muffin batter?)

Roasting, scooping, stirring, kneading, rolling, boiling, ice bathing, draining, drying, oil drenching.  Then the next night, frying.

I love white terry bar clothes for my kitchen clothes of choice.  They always absorb, never shrink in the wash, easily replaceable.  making dumplings is a messy event and for once we used up almost every cloth we had for the draining and drying.   By the time we were finished, we had a pile of wet clothes and a mess of a kitchen.  We tackled clean-up and I threw a load of laundry to clean up all my bar mops.

Our washing machine in our condo is some fancy european apartment sized ones.  Ones that have no patience for North American foolishness of adding something mid cycle.  So, once it is started, there is no going back.  Sure you can turn off the machine, then turn it to spin & drain, and eventually, it might let you inside.  I threw a little extra soap in to tackle all the oil and flour on the bar mops, but nothing unusual.

I noticed about 15 minutes in that the soap level was quite foamy, but figured that was due to my increased soap usage – afterall, I generally have the door closed to the laundry while I do it, so I really had no idea how foamy it gets during the cycle.

I was in the other room – and let’s face it, that’s not too far away when you live in a downtown Vancouver condo – when my husband called for me to grab towels for the washing machine.  It’s leaking!  Alas!

Wha?!

Okay – quick.  Towels.  Mop it up.  Hmmmm.  Not too much of a mess.  Just a small leak from the very front of the machine.  Weird.

But as stated – I can’t open the damn machine.  So we mop up the water, turn it to spin & drain and keep a towel under there to pick up the water.  And wait.

Long Night.  And we haven’t even eaten them yet.

February 26th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Apparently, if you wash Butternut Squash Dumplings in a washing machine, they wedge in the door and break the seal.  Who knew?

The Daily EO: February 22nd, 2013

My husband and I both love Thai food, and I’ll admit, I generally go back to Pad Thai regularly.  I love it.  In all its noodlely goodness, half the time I get a stomach ache from too much carbs, but its worth it.

But better than Pad Thai is a Green Mango Salad.  It is my favorite salad.  It is my favorite mango application.  It is my favorite appetizer.  And I dare say it is in my top five favorite foods of all time.

But the trouble with a Green Mango Salad is that I don’t find it often in Thai restaurants or – annoyingly – the green mango is out of season in the winter.  So, I am left hoping each different restaurant I go that I will find what I am looking for.

February 22nd, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Pretty good Pad Thai tonight, but alas, no Green Mango Salad on the menu.  Hoping for next time.

The Daily EO: February 17th, 2013

Today we visited my grandpa in his retirement residence.  We invited ourselves to lunch.  On Sundays it is usually a brunch type offering and today was no different.

I like pancakes just fine – I’ve told you about Pancakes for Dinner.  But I really like pancakes’ cousins:  Waffles and Crepes. (and French toast, but I think that is more of a distant relation).  I mean really,  they are pretty much the same thing but for a slight ingredient change:  more oil for waffles, more water for crepes.

So when grandpa asked we wanted to go out for lunch or eat at home, we queried the menu.  Cream of Asparagus Soup and Belgium Waffles with Whip Cream and Strawberries and a side order of Bacon (low sodium of course).  Go out?!  And miss waffles?  Do you not know me at all, grandpa?

February 17th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Crispy Strawberry Belgium Waffles (though I wonder if a true Belgian made breakfast?)

The Daily EO: February 10th, 2013

We were invited to dinner at very old friend’s tonight.  I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous – not that it was a stressful thing, but I have some hang-ups, and dinner parties are one of them.  I planned 2 days in advance what to wear, racked my brains for tidbits of information about their lives and children, and generally spent more time thinking about it than a normal person would.

That’s okay – I have hang ups, and I have learned to deal with them.  But when I am asked what type of wines I prefer so the courses can be properly matched to spirits, I start to worry that my mother’s etiquette training didn’t stick.

Dinner was lovely (I used the correct forks)- and when I say old friends, I mean old.  Because one of them used to babysit me, and I attended their wedding – 30 years ago when I was 9.  So, it’s weird and it must be to strange for them to me all grown up – close enough in age now that we could be friends.

The conversation ran from wine, Aspberger’s syndrome, cabinet making, veganism, weddings, dentistry, lay-outs of emergency rooms, travel, law and many other things.   And driving home I found myself realizing that I could hold intelligent conversations – with personal experiences – on a host of topics.

The food was great, the wines matches perfectly and dessert was a cheese tray.

February 10th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  20 years ago there were no fine lines around my eyes, but perhaps there is something to this “age and wisdom” thing.

The Daily EO: February 3rd, 2013

My grandpa has been confined for 2 weeks.  No leaving his suite, no visitors, no internet, no reading, no excursions. I dare you to spend 14 days in your apartment with nothing to do but watch TV (just basic cable).  You don’t know how to use a smart phone, computers are for young people, and you can’t see well enough to read.  You can call people – but really, what have you got to say?  You haven’t left your room in days.

Laundry?  No, that’s off limits too.

So Grandpa slept. And made soup out of his delivered meals.  And slept some more.  Then called us to tell us things he had already told us.

Why did this terrible thing happen to him?

While the retirement residence he lives in had an outbreak of the Norwalk virus and they needed to keep their vulnerable population away from each other and well meaning but potentially infected visitors.

When he finally was allowed out, he treated me and Emile to a lovely meal at The Boathouse in New Westminster Quay to celebrate.

February 3rd, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  If Quarantine and cabin fever ends with a perfectly done steak, I think I’ll sign him up again.

The Daily EO: January 30th, 2013

Dine Out Vancouver is on. For Ontarians, this is similar to Winterlicious with many restaurants featuring prix fixe menus.   There are 3 different levels of $18, $28, and $38.  And each features an appetizer, dessert and entrée.  We went last week to Blarney Stone’s $18 dinner and it was pretty good volume and food for $18.

Tonight we went to Wild Rice – also at the $18 level – and found that the food was excellent, the service was friendly, but a little mistake prone.  But they fixed their mistakes and were quick about it.  Probably because the place was sold out for due to Dine Out Vancouver!

In general, Emile and I are pretty cheap and watch calories, so we don’t eat out much.  But somehow, we got ourselves this schedule:

Jan 30th:  Wild Rice (just the two of us)

Feb 1st:  Crepe Cafe (7 of us for post activity refueling)

Feb 2nd: The Boathouse (Grandpa taking us for dinner)

Feb 3rd:  Salt Tasting Room AND The Pourhouse (friends in from Ontario)

I also received a coupon from Incendio – great pizza place now doing brunch – to offer us 2 for 1 brunch.

I miss Huntsville sometimes, but man do I love the restaurant scene here – especially those places within walking distance to our house!

January 30th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Somehow I think all of this is going to derail Cliche January.

The Daily EO: January 28th, 2013

I received a text saying my husband invited someone for dinner the next night.  This threw me into a little bit of a panic –  plan these things ahead, thinking out menus, grocery shopping, pre-prepping food, cleaning.  Everything is planned.  So, this was hard on me.  But then he said “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it.”

Ok?

Hmmm.

Fine, I’m busy at work anyways.  Carry on.

So when I got home, Emile announced that he was going to make either Butter Chicken or Pad Thai.  I immediately tried to talk him out of butter chicken – afterall, neither of us have ever made it before and our guest was coming in less than 24 hours.  We are out of control – there isn’t a plan for this!

But do you know what? – other than rice and curry powder (easily purchased downstairs) – I already had everything on hand to make butter chicken and a readily accessible cook book with an excellent recipe.

January 28th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  It’s my planning and foresight and Emile’s spontaneity and willingness to try something new that works for us.  And his butter chicken was really good too.

The Daily EO: November 22nd, 2012

Although 41 isn’t generally a milestone birthday – I suppose it can be considering putting your little toe into the next decade – I really did little for my husband’s birthday this year.  Instead, I went to grade school with someone who then married someone who ended up with all the heavy lifting.

She made the mistake of asking what Emile’s favorite dinner was.  I told her lasagna or turkey dinner but that he’d be happy just being with them for his birthday.  But – never one to take the easy way out – Alison made turkey dinner with all the sides:  mashed potatoes, baked spinach, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, broccoli, corn, sweet potatoes, green beans, salad and a 3 layer chocolate cake with Nutella and jam filling.   On a Thursday with 3 kids under the age of 8.

I helped by dropping by a bag of Oreos for Alison and kids to decorate the cake with.

November 22nd, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:   Kindness and Generosity to make Emile’s first birthday living in BC fun and special.