Chinatown Jan. 17, 2010

Here are some pictures I took last time I went to Chinatown. These ones were at Harmonie bakery. I was lucky to get this pic because as I was paying at the counter a girl with a big camera came and tried to take a picture but when they saw her they told her not to take pictures:





These ones I don't remember which bakery. I love engrish lol:







I did a comparison of the egg tarts sold at Harmonie and Callia, and I couldn't tell the difference in the flavor. But the ones at Harmonie are larger, and therefore floppier when you take them out of the tin, so not as easy to eat by hand. And the pastry wasn't as flaky. But I still found them both delicious:





Here's a bbq'ed pork pastry I got at I don't remember which bakery, it was delicious:





I got some small seaweed sheets. I love to munch on these:







And of course some more Furikake:



I can't wait to go back for more of those egg tarts. They're addictive!

Candles & a tired Sunday

I bought these at the dollarama yesterday:





Last night we had the roast, it was delicious, but I forgot to take a picture of it (gasp!) lol. I stayed up way too late watching a movie with Mat and then got woken up too early this morning by the alarm clock which we had forgotten to turn off. Couldn't get back to sleep. Had a shower, made breakfast, took a nap. Got up, went on the computer, puttered around, made lunch, helped Mat pack & leave. Retreated to the comfort of the Internet after that. I have a lot of picking up & cleaning to do but am too tired and don't feel like doing it. I think I'll go reheat some leftovers soon. I didn't have lunch.

Emily and me

My sister and I this morning:



We made bacon and crepes with cheddar for breakfast this morning. So yummy!

I'm gonna start a giant pork roast for dinner tonight:



And Emily is on Mat's computer:



Then we're gonna go shopping.
Later!

Welsh Rarebit

I've got to make this sometime!!

Go check it out.

Nanaimo bars I have to make

SOMETIME! lol. I really wish I could go home and make these RIGHT NOW, but who knows what I'll feel like making this weekend. Anyways I love nanaimo bars and have never made them before so I can't wait to make them!

I never got around to making any of the things I wanted to cook this weekend cause I was too lazy/didn't feel like it. I really have to stop saying I'll do things within a certain time limit lol. I'll just say I have to make it SOMETIME :P. I might do it this weekend, who knows?

Last weekend on Saturday morning I went to have x-rays taken of my lower back and got to see them too. Then I went home and had lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the computer, then left at around 4pm to go visit my friend Steph and watch some anime.

I brought some asparagus, leftover buffalo wings and turkey soup to eat for dinner. I wasn't sure if the soup was still good as it had been sitting in my fridge for a week. So I asked Jen to smell it for me as I'm now apparently incapable of smelling spoiled meat. I discovered that when my whole family got food poisoning a few weeks ago, and I was eating leftovers that everyone told me didn't smell good and I just couldn't smell anything bad about it. Same thing with the soup, so into the garbage it went. I was annoyed at having to throw it out because it was really good. Oh well I have more in the freezer at home, I won't let it go bad in the fridge this time!

We watched a movie by Ghibli studios, an older one, I think the name was the city in the wind or something. I really liked it, it almost made me cry lol. I was sooo tired though and we started the movie late cause we were waiting for Jen and talking so I ended up sleeping over in my friend Cristelle's bed since she was away for the weekend.

Went to church on Sunday, stopped on the way home for some Dagwoods, herring and sprats, and when I got home I slept all afternoon from about 2pm till 5pm. It was so nice to sleep! Then got up and cleaned and had dinner, then continued tidying up and went to bed at around 10:30pm. Yesterday I was dead tired in the evening and ended up going to bed at 9:15pm. I woke up around 4am when Mat came to bed, but managed to get back to sleep by 5am or so. Today haven't been too tired so far, I'm very glad for that. I'm going to try to get to bed at around 9:30pm again tonight to continue recuperating sleep.

They didn't have any of the usual salted herring fillets in oil at the Eurodel, so I got some salted herring chunks in oil instead. What a mistake. I'm never buying those again. I spent an entire half an hour picking herring bones out of the fish last night for dinner. And now I have a whole big container of it to use up because they didn't have anything smaller. I think I'll have to visit my parents soon and give them the rest lol. The sprats were ok, but I won't buy them again either. I took pictures last night that I'll put up when I have time.

On Sunday after church I also took pictures of the cathedral above my church (we're in the basement). It's a beautiful old anglican cathedral. Pictures will go up when I have time as well.

Mist by ~manroms on deviantART


magic forest a1 by ~manroms on deviantART


Morning walk 3 by ~manroms on deviantART


Feofania by ~manroms on deviantART

Cloudy greyness and pretty frost

Monday 2 weeks ago was hell, I was so tired and down to boot, my mind felt like this sky looked:



And here's a pretty frosted window in the shed at my parents place:

Turkey Soup V.2 Jan. 2010

Here's Toby my parents dog:







My grandmother gave me a trick to not cry while cutting onions: light a candle or two nearby:









This is about how many cloves I used:



Here you can see about how large a pot I used:





1lb leftover oversalted turkey stuffed turkey, cubed
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
3 or 4 tbsp bacon fat
2 tbsp butter
small handful of cloves
powdered vegetable stock

Put the turkey in a large pot. In a separate pan fry the onions in the bacon fat on med-low heat until they start to brown. Add garlic and brown a bit more, then add to the pot with the turkey. Add the green pepper and celery to the pan with the butter and fry on med-low heat till they're browned as well. Add them to the pot along with the carrots and potatoes, then fill with water till covered. Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Add the veggie stock powder according to instructions, and the cloves, simmer an hour more, remove the cloves. I really liked this soup, it turned out well.

Alternative Apple Pies

A few weeks ago at my parents place we had some store-bought dough to use up, lots of apples, and no cinnamon. So I substituted with cardamom in one pie, no spice in another, and allspice in the third.

1 kilo apples
3/4 cup OJ
3 tbsp sugar
3 capfuls tsp van. ext.
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp allspice

Peel, core, and slice the apples. Separate the oj equally into 3 bowls, to each adding a tbsp of sugar and a capful of vanilla extract. Put the spices in two of the bowls. Mix 1/3 of the apples in each. Roll out pie crust, put applies in, cover and bake according to these instructions.

They were ok, but next time I'll stick to my original recipe.

Umami Noodles, Kickass Omelette, Furikake, and Notre Dame de Grace

Here are the noodles I made for lunch just now. I named them umami noodles because I love umami so I loaded them with as much umami-tasting stuff as I could. They're just beef-flavored instant ramen noodles that I added lots of furikake, old cheddar, and a tablespoon or so of bacon fat to. They turned out delicious but a bit over-salty, I forgot that the furikake had salt in it this time lol:





Here's the furikake I bought in Chinatown last weekend:



I made a kickass omelette this week:



6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup small ham cubes
2 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1cm strips
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
4 large white mushrooms, sliced
6 stalks green onions, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp salted butter
grated cheese
salt & pepper

Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add the milk and mix that in too, then the cubed ham, and set aside. Fry the bacon, onion and mushrooms on med-low heat till they start to brown, then add the white part of the green onions and the garlic. Once they're nice and golden add to the egg mix and stir it in. Melt the butter in the pan, then pour in the egg mixture, turn heat to low and cover and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes or so. When you can tell the egg is solid by jiggling the pan a bit, it's ready. Turn off the heat, top with LOTS of grated cheese, the rest of the green onions, cover and let sit 3-5 minutes more to let the cheese melt. Dig in! Serve with homemade sangria, just half & half red wine and OJ with some ice, yummy!:



Next time I make that omelette though I think I'll fry the rest of the green onions too cause they were very oniony just raw on top like that!

They're filming something called Notre Dame de Grace near my job. This is the first time I've seen this chinese restaurant with the neon lights lit up:

Great fun!

Juggling Gymnastics Skateboarding

The Frugal Gourmet

I grew up watching this guy on tv, I love his show!

Weekend cookings

Ok there's 3 things I really want to cook this weekend, the semifreddo I never got around to making at Christmas, this cinnamon basil ice cream, and of course the braised cabbage pasta I posted about yesterday. OM NOM NOM NOM!!!

I want to cook everything and never have time to cook it all!

Maybe I should just open a restaurant with a constantly changing menu of whatever I feel like cooking that week.

In thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life, it's become increasingly clear to me that I want it to revolve around food. So I've been trying to think of something I'd want to do that involves food, but so far opening a restaurant or giving cooking classes seem tough, and not really what I want to do. Maybe write cookbooks? The problem is most of the stuff I make I take from other people's recipes. But then again I always modify something so I guess I could... I know I DON'T want to start a cooking show. Wait, what about internet? I could start doing cooking shows on the internet on youtube lol. Hmmmm... that might be a fun idea...

All I know is I love trying new recipes that catch my eye. And eating them of course lol. If I won the lottery, I think I'd just cook and cook and cook, for free for whoever wants to come and eat it lol.

I especially love unusual recipes/foods, like the cinnamon basil icecream. And I love trying food from other countries.

Maybe I could become a sort of travelling home chef, put an ad on Craigslist "willing to cook for room and board" with a warning as to my culinary inexperience and penchant for trying new unusual things all the time lol.

20 more minutes till I can GO HOME!!! TGIF!!

Polar bear win

see more Epic Fails

Braised Cabbage Pasta

I'm so making this during the weekend!!

Runny cheeses

I really have to try these!

Halleluia!

I wasn't tired today!!! At least not nodding-off-mumbling-my-way-through-calls tired. I yawned a bit, but I didn't close my eyes between calls once! I have to make sure I get to bed at 9:30pm again tonight. This is so nice! Although tonight I'm going to tell Mat he's not allowed to do dishes after 10pm!

Pictures and dreams

I saw this picture just now:


Sunsets and Sunrises... _19 by =my-shots on deviantART

And it reminded me of some good times spent with my friend Scott in Rawdon:


Les Cascades de Rawdon 4 by ~chocolatesa on deviantART

Last night I dreamt we were hanging out, we were getting off the metro to go somewhere, and there was someone that looked like him.

Ruins of Doriath by *PeteAmachree on deviantART

Best.Chicken.Sandwich.Ever.

First I took 2 HEAPING teaspoons of mayo (the real stuff, you hear? none of that miracle whip or "mayonnaise-type dressing"!), and mixed it with a pinch or two of salt, some freshly ground white pepper, and some chopped dried rosemary. I let that sit in the fridge for an hour or so to let the rosemary infuse the mayo. Then I cut my rosemary pizza in half vertically, and put one half aside for later. Then I took the remaining half and brushed off the excess rosemary, then cut it in half again horizontally, and spread the mayo on the inside of each slice. Then on one half I put some thick-cut, slowly fried bacon, sliced cooked chicken breast and mozzarella slices. Then I broiled it in the toaster oven till the cheese started to bubble. Then I put the other half on top, sliced it in half again vertically, and (after taking a dozen pictures with greasy fingers while drooling) devoured it. It was AMAZING!!!!!

Unripened Cheese in Quebec & other goodies

This morning I went to the walk-in clinic and stopped at a Couche-Tard nearby for some goodies to munch while waiting there. I got some of my favourite cheeses, salty unripened stringy cheese and cheese curds:



The Tortillon cheese is my favourite of the two. It's brined and deliciously salty, but I try to eat only half the package per day because a whole package contains 61% of my daily sodium!:





The curd cheese is what is traditionally used for poutine, and only has 6% of your daily sodium. It's also nicknamed "squeaky cheese" because it squeaks against your teeth when you chew it:



I tried a dark Aero for the first time, was incredibly yummy so I ate the whole thing and felt like crap the rest of the day, tired, weak, shaky, etc. so I'm gonna have my blood sugar levels tested on the 21st at the pharmacy to see if I might have too much or too little:





And I also got some of my favourite beef jerky of course:



On the way to the Couche-Tard I passed by this place on the corner of Beaulieu and Allard, and there was a delicious aroma of baking tomato pizza coming from the vents under the windows so I stopped in on my way back from the clinic once it was open:



They had a variety of cold cuts/meats as well as fresh baked bread and ready-made food like empanadas, quiches, spring rolls, and cakes, pastries and desserts etc. I got two small pizzas, tomato and rosemary:



And a frozen tourtiere (meat pie):



I tried the pizzas, and they weren't that much better than grocery store tomato pizzas, and definitely not as good as the tomato pizza that they serve at lunch at church all the time. I had the idea to slice them horizontally and make sandwiches with them instead though. I'm going to try making a 1-layer club sandwich tonight for dinner with the tomato pizza.

I also found a cool-shaped bottle of wine at the depanneur (corner store) near my place this evening, it's not bad: