Kitchen Weekend

Last week on Thursday or so, I decided I was going to do some cooking this weekend. I mean I do have to use my new toys right? What started as maybe I will cook this, quickly ballooned into a kitchen dominated weekend.

I remember when sleeping in meant noonish. Now, since I get up at 530 to go to the gym during the week, 730 is sleeping in. We were up before 8 on Saturday, and since MM didn’t have to work until 10, I decided to hit the Strathcona Market early, before the crowds and the desire to punch slow, stupid people in the back of the head. We got a spot right on 83rd, in front of the market! Annnd, I locked my keys in the car. While it was still running. So we called AMA, and while we waited, we did our shopping. Some drumsticks from the meat place in the north east corner, some olives from Olive Me (all for me lol, MM doesn’t like olives), garlic coil from the lady at the north end of the west isle, a cup of cherry tomatoes and some baby cukes from Dohl’s (I think) Greenhouse, two bags of onions from the Hutterites in the southwest corner, and of course way to much (65$ worth) from Irving Farm Meats. After that we went to Smokn Iron Farms for a bone in ham. Then I dropped MM off at work by 10, went to Save-On for a few little things, Happy Harbor for my comics, then home to cook.

I started with what ended up being my most successful endeavour, the Candied Bacon, from my new favourite recipe blog Closet Cooking (as opposed to my favourite general food blogs Only Here for the Food, and Eating is the Hard Part). The candied bacon was so easy. One pound bacon. Half a cup of brown sugar. Put sugar in bowl, add bacon, coat bacon, place bacon on cooling racks, put cooling racks on cookie sheets and bake for 15-20 at 350F. Cool. There, thirty four words, how could it be easier?

While that was cooling, I cooked another pound of bacon. Then I made muffins. Peanut Butter banana muffins to be exact. Two batches. One with candied bacon, one without. I got the bacon idea from Eating is the Hard Part, but he didn’t give a recipe so I just used one from allrecipes.com.

At the end of the day (to disrupt my otherwise linear sequential recap), after doing a lot of baking, I made a horrible discovery. (Not that my brown sugar could be used as a brick - I found that out earlier, and a hammer and the microwave fixed it).

Flour can go bad. I didn’t not know this, did you? (I also didn't know how old my flour was. It has since been thrown out.) But it was super flour. Didn’t matter what I baked, it tastes like flour. That’s the taste, like you just ate a tablespoon of white flour. So nothing I made past the candied bacon was very successful. Edible (but I am not known for my high standards for edible) but not very good.

So the muffins are not great. And they have a kind of mushy mouthfeel. That was caused by too much banana I think. But hey, they look pretty, and they were a learning experience.

On to the Chocolate Chip Cookies, with candied bacon, also from Closet cooking (I think MM would curse Kevin of Closet Cooking if he knew what he was inspiring me to do). I think I used to much fat, because the cookies came out very flat, and needed a long time to cool on the tray before I could move them to the cooling racks without the bottoms falling apart. And of course the super flour issue. So again, not a colossal failure, but not really successful either.
Then, because I had cooked regular bacon, but not used it I decided to make bacon and cheese biscuits. So I googled a recipe, found a nice simple one, and away we went. Flour, baking powder, grated cheddar, chopped bacon, milk and a dash of cayenne (which I didn’t have so I used paprika, which was not noticeable over the flour anyways). All done.

That was enough for one day, so MM and I went to Sapporo for all you can eat sushi. We don’t bother with the tuna sashimi lately, it hasn’t been very good. The salmon was pretty tastless, and MM says it is that time of year. I wouldn’t know, I am prairie boy born and bred and don’t really know seafood. He can look at a hunk of fish and tell you all sorts of things about it (of course he could be BSing, how would I know?). I can look at it and tell you it is fish. Maybe.

Sunday I went to Ice on Whyte with my Brother-in-law, EllaBella and CharlieBucket. It was nice, the sculptures are cool and the castle and maze were neat. They wouldn’t let me take EllaBella down the slide because she was too small, and they were just building a kid’s slide. What kind of crappy planning is that? They know there will be so many families during the day that they are playing music like the “Wheels on the Bus” and “The Ants Go Marching” in the warm up tent, but they don’t build a kid’s slide from the start?

After a quick stop and Coney Island Candy (nothing new or notable) it was home to start my ham. I had a nice bone in ham, about six pounds, so that meant about 3 hours at 325-350F. I mixed some honey, brown sugar and German style prepared mustard into a syrup and after putting the ham in the roasting pan fat side up (scoring it first) I dumped the glaze over it and put it in the over to bake.

While it was baking I made Onion Chutney from Closet Cooking and Amazing Chicken freezer meals. While the onion was cooking I mixed the sauce for the Amazing Chicken.

The Amazing Chicken is a recipe I got from my sister. She gave us a bag after she borrowed my food processor for a big freezer meal day (an idea that I am toying with now). Take two pounds of chicken, put it in a freezer bag. Take one cup of chopped onions, one teaspoon of paprika, ¼ cup of cider vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar (or honey like I did), one table spoon o f lemon juice, ½ cup of apricot jam and ½ to one can of tomato paste (or a few good squeezes if you buy it in a tube like I do). Mix it all together and dump it in the bag with the chicken. Freeze. Bake from thawed for an hour at 350F. Serve with rice or whatever. Very yummy. I did three bags (around four pounds of chicken), divided up to give MM and I dinner and leftovers for lunch from one bag.

Then I started the vegetable gratin for dinner. Again from Closet Cooking. I took his Brussels sprouts gratin recipe, and since MM doesn’t like Brussels sprouts, I only did half. I took a large onion, sliced it thick, roasted it the same way as the Brussels sprouts and made them in two separate baking dishes. Both dishes were so good, although since I didn’t measure I put a bit much cream in them and they were a bit runny. But they tasted great.

The onion chutney is so yummy, although it doesn’t go as well with the ham as I expected it to. But I can’t wait to try the grilled cheese and onion chutney that Kevin at Closet Cooking suggested.

Hooray, I'm Participating!!!!

Hooray! Barely started the blog and already missed a month! Yay me!! And it is not like Christmas is an excuse, since I did sweet **** all over the holiday. I mean I had planned to catch up on some TV watching (difficult I know) and didn’t manage that. I vegetated.

Really, I am lucky I didn’t sprouting eyes like an abandoned potato.

Since it is a new year, I am going to make a couple of resolutions. I will post to this blog at least once a week. And not some tweet crap, a real post. And I will write for at least an hour a week, not including the previously mentioned blog post.

I did make the gym four times each week for the week of Christmas and the week of New Year’s, so that is good. I am starting to see some changes in my upper body, but not in my waistline. :( However swimming starts tonight and I have been better about getting my supper eating under control, so fingers crossed. I have just under four months before Mexico and I need to be bikini ready.

MM and I had a very kitchen Christmas, since I got him a deep fryer (got to make it hard for myself somehow) and he got me a food processor. A big ass Black and Decker, with the glass blender jug as well. Plus Mom and Dad got me a Kitchen Aid mixer, which I have wanted for years. Of course now that I have it, I realize that it is mostly good for baking. Which I don’t do. Oh, and making mayonnaise I mean aioli. Yay fat!!

So about my cooking or eating in the last month.

MM’s staff Christmas party was at Lazia’s downtown. We had a three choice prix-fixe menu. It was good. It was pleasant. But not memorable. I am pretty sure I had the steak, but I really don’t remember much about it, and I only had two drinks. And that pretty much sums up all my experiences with Lazia’s. Pleasant, but not memorable.

My staff party was at the Redbird Golf Course by the airport. Buffet of course, (with more than 200 people plate service is a pain) with good selections, and very nice perogies (God I love living in Edmonton sometimes!!) and an excellent dessert table. The gingerbread cake with eggnog cheesecake ice was my favourite.

Mostly we ate at chains, because they were cheap or available.

We ate at the Outback Steakhouse on the Saturday before Christmas. We were going to WEM to pick up a present for EllaBella at the Disney store (the Kingsway one didn't have any of what we wanted left, so we had to brave WEM just before Christmas). MM was hungry and wanted a sit down place, where he wouldn’t be asked “Do you want fries with that” before braving the mall. So we stopped for a (very) early dinner (or late lunch). And the waitress asked if we wanted fries. Sometimes you can't win for trying lol.

The onion blossom was too much for just two people really, and greasy (big surprise huh?). I am also not a fan of chipotle, which is becoming rather ubiquitous. The potato soup was lovely, with firm but not boney chunks of potato in a nicely flavoured cream. The steak was cooked well enough, but was underseasoned, and the garlic mashed potatoes, while they did have bits of potato skin in them (which we like) had the consistency of wallpaper paste. Good flavour though. The “seasonal” vegetables were a mixed bag, with the baby squash mushy, the broccoli about right and the carrots under done.

We went to Denny’s for breakfast the other day – oh the shame ;). In my defence, we did try both the Blue Plate and the Artisan, but they were closed, and I don’t care much for Barb and Ernie’s or Route 99. The Commodore is a no go, and Cora’s is too far away, so Denny’s it was.

We have been eating at Sapporo Sushi’s new downtown(ish) location at 10923 101 Street NW a fair bit. All you can eat for 26$. We get everything we normally get, except the tataki beef, which we order separately, and the whole thing still ends up being cheaper than when we go for sushi anywhere else (including Sapporo's other location) ala carte.

I guess this is good for now. I will maybe write about a couple of meals I cooked or my cookbook conundrum later. But for now, at least I am back.

Folk Rock Food Porn

Why did I spend 40$ last week on We Eat Together, a locally produced cook book by Julianna Mimande, formerly of (personally much missed) Bacon and currently the chef behind the EATery at the ARTery, local designer Gabe Wong and photographer Zachary Ayotte? I mean besides the fact that Julianna is just one of the sweetest people I have met (only briefly, two times) and Zach is a cutie? (Ok, little off topic.)

This book is a celebration of sustainable, local food, with beautiful food porn pictures and a slightly retro, lo-fi feel, brought on partially (I think) by the uncoated stock giving the colours a slightly softer, warmer feeling.

The labour of love that produced this book is obvious. The “We Want to Get to Know You” questionnaire filled out by the producers (nine local fixtures from Edmonton’s farmers markets and food scene) and reproduced in full, handwritten glory is just the start. Family recipes, anecdotes and snippets from farm visits (YAY boar’s testicles!!!) and test dinners make this more like reading a letter from a friend who got to go somewhere cool while you went to work. I was reading this book in bed rather than a novel, I was that excited about it (MM was laughing at me).

And of course, the recipes. Oh the recipes. Locally sourced, tested, with substitutions in some cases, everything is here. Main courses, appetizers, desserts, even drinks. It made me want to throw a dinner party (but that would involve, you know, cleaning the house and having friends).

What it really made me want to do is to try a bit harder with my resolution to cook more and eat local year round, to be more aware of where my food comes from and what goes into it. A resolution that tends to be more intention than practice. Especially in the winter, or towards the end of the week in the evenings after work. But books like We Eat Together are a good start for those of us who want to try and be a bit better, but don’t have the passion and drive to hunt out the suppliers or test out the products, you know the ones influenced by the Influencers and Opinion Leaders. You know, lazy people. Like me.

The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eatingmay get you interested in localvores, and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto might helped maintain your interest in locally sourced food, but it is books like We Eat Together that will help those of us who don’t have (or don’t feel we have) the time eat local and reconnect to our food, and its makers, year round.

This book is not just a pretty piece of locally produced food porn. I mean it is, but it is not just that. It is a guide post, a first path marker for those of us drawn towards a more sustainable, affirming connection with our food and the lands around us. It is a path that is well trodden, but many may not be willing to follow it due misconceptions about what may be involved. Julianna, Gabe and Zachary have produced a book that show the joys of local sourced, sustainable food without the shrill voice of ideologies or the stink of patchouli (although the binding glue is almost as obnoxious). And they make it look easy.

You can pick up a copy at the Make It Fair on December 11-13. You might even be able to get it signed! Or you can get it off the shelf at Audreys Book Store on Jasper Avenue & 107 st in Edmonton. If by some chance someone not in Edmonton wants a copy, try emailing them through We Eat Together, or contacting Audreys. And by that I don't mean to imply that someone who isn't from Edmonton wouldn't want this book, I mean come on, the photos are gorgeous and the recipes look incredible. I just don’t think anyone is reading this blog. Yet. I hope.

Off like a terd of hurtles

This is my blog. Pretty obvious, huh? We will see how long it lasts. It will be about whatever is on my mind, so usually food, often books, sometimes music or games or politics. But usually food. You can blame several people who don’t even know me for this blog, since I lurk on theirs and have been feeling more and more like writing the more I read.

So what to write about.

I live in Queen Mary Park in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. But I usually just say Oliver because more people know where that is. I live in a one bedroom apartment with my boyfriend and two cats. I am closer to 40 than 20, and we can leave it at that. I work in communications, and feel like my career is where it should have been when I was 23 or 24. Of course I didn’t finish school until I was over 30, so maybe I am not doing so bad.

I like to cook, and eat. I would be a foodie, but my standards are too low. I have been known to taste things, say that they are not very good, but keep eating. I read a lot. Most of my free money, you know the part of the budget people spend on liquor or concert tickets, or whatever, is spent of books. My man (hereafter referred to as MM or the guy who puts up with me) says I am not allowed to buy anymore books until the pile (around 40 maybe) of books I bought but haven’t read yet is gone. I don’t listen of course, but I have slowed down on my book buying. I recently bought the second book of a series I am reading (we were at the Wee Book Inn, and MM bought nine books, so I got one) and a new cookbook (at a launch, not used but cookbooks don’t count anyways.)

I read a lot of food blogs, particularly Only Here for the Food, Eating is the Hard Part, and The Little Red Kitchen. I read a few author blogs, mostly the word Smith, Queer and Loathing in America and the MLR Press author blog. I also read AfterElton.com and TheTorchonline.com regularly, but they are more like portals than single blogs.

It is mostly the food blogs that made me want to blog. The author ones make me want to write, and I am hoping by writing this, I will get motivated to start writing more in general.

I also volunteer with the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and am an ongoing subscriber to the best radio station in the world, CKUA Radio. I am working out (target four days a week) trying to lose some weight. And I am babbling. So I will post this and then maybe try writing a real post.