Take it and Like it: other

Showing posts with label other. Show all posts

Showing posts with label other. Show all posts

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Family!

My family loves food (both sides). I meant to post this ages ago, but as per usual I didn't. I seriously feel like I need to confirm I am alive each time I post because they are so few and far between! On the bright side, my little bro has taken up the torch and started his own food blog. Still read us, but check his out too. I give you a peek into life as an amazing housewife, but he gives you a peek into the mundane life of a rock star. You decide who wins.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Eating in Okinawa

Well, I guess I jumped the gun calling Brooke on in my last post (do you remember my last post? No? That's because it was so long ago). Now she has shown me. In an attempt to prevent her from changing the name of the blog to Brooke's Blog, No Court Allowed, I decided to go back and pull out some oldie but goodie photos and try and remember what they were of. Now I'm not just cursing Brooke for forcing my hand, but also myself for leaving this so long I won't be able to include the detail this should have. Oh me - I'm the worst! The above is from our hotel (The Westin) which ended up being very swanky. We got upgraded to VIPs thanks to our frequent use of airmiles for hotel booking and got a nice little cocktail hour every night. Don't mind if I do!

Naha, the capital city, isn't huge, and it really only has one main strip that is filled with all the major shopping, We only went to the main strip one night for dinner. It was like being at a carnival with carnies trying to lure you over to their booth, only here it was to their restaurant or bar. We wanted to try one of these BBQ type places where you pick your meat and then it comes and you grill it and eat it yourself with your sides. Tricky since no one at the restaurant spoke English and none of their menus were in English. FYI, Japanese isn't one of those languages where you can just pull out your translation book and easily translate (unless you are maybe very good at seeing subtle differences between characters). We pointed at one in the category with a picture of a cow beside it, and one that was pig. The beef is shown, and really they don't over hype what fat marbling like this is like. It is amazing. We didn't even know how to cook it with the BBQ thing, but it just melted in my mouth.

Once we realized that the food in Okinawa was so different from what we were eating elsewhere, we decided to really go in a different direction one night. We were hungry, it was late, and there was a very busy tapas place just down the block from our hotel. It ended up being amazing. They had no real English menu, but one that someone had roughly translated and written out on a piece of paper. We ended up getting a chef's choice sampler plate (sadly, here is one of the gaps in my memory, I'm not sure what everything was), an octopus and pesto salad, and a four cheese pizza which was so good we went back and had one each night the rest of our stay - even when we had already eaten dinner. I think one of the cheeses was something like a haloumi or kefalatari since it held its shape even though it was cooked, and it had that great saltiness to it.

Okinawa is a strange place. With the US troops having been there for so long, and with the distance from the rest of Japan, and the proximity to south east Asia, it ends up offering an unusual mix of foods. Here is what we had at the aquarium (P.S. If you go to Okinawa, definitely hit up the aquarium, it is unreal). I had a curry dog on a naan bun, and my husband had a local specialty - taco rice.

This dude made us dinner our last night on the island. This is a special kind of place there, and the guide book had a name for it. Too bad I don't even have the guide book anymore. It is a restaurant where various pig parts are all cooked up (look to the left and you will see where the parts are all cooking). Okinawa is known for pork. This dude also ran a hotel up above, and he spoke very good English and talked to us for pretty much the whole meal.

Okay, I realize this post is not my best work. I guess I should be better at posting when I say I am going to. Hopefully you will hear from me again before another month passes!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Eating in Kyoto

Kyoto was the second stop on my Japanese adventure. It was so different from Tokyo. Where Tokyo is all about modern Japan, Kyoto felt like it was all about traditional Japan. What better place to try okonomiyaki?

We stayed at a great little hostel called the Capsule Hotel that had showers right in the room with blue lights inside them (romantic? sexy?). They also gave us a little guide that showed local restaurants that were near where we were staying, economical, and had various types of Japanese food. It was so helpful! The first night we went for okonomiyaki at Chabana. The one above is seafood and the one below is chicken and leek. It is like a savoury pancake - batter poured over "fillings" and cabbage, topped with Japanese mayo and a sweet sauce. They were really good, but very rich, so by the end you feel crazy full.

After, even though we were stuffed, we stopped at a "standing bar" and couldn't resist splitting tempura ice cream. To die for!

While in Kyoto we visited the Nishiki Market. It was crazy! Read the sign below the octopus lollipops. We saw a guy buy three! Also, check out the sack of fish row. It was the size of a small salmon.
In the middle of our big temple and shrine touring day we stopped for our favourite: Tonkatsu.

One evening we went to an amazing Yakitori place. Basically Yakitori is grilled skewers of chicken, but not just chicken breast, all sorts of chicken parts. We had chicken skin, chicken meatballs (middle right), chicken hearts (top right), a lot of chicken thigh and leek, and then we took a break from chicken and had some mushrooms wrapped in bacon (bottom left), and some littleneck clams in a wine and butter sauce (yup, as good as it sounds - bottom right). Oh I wish I could have more.
In the mornings we didn't have breakfast buffet like in Tokyo, so we stopped at a little bakery. The one on the bottom was almond paste in a pastry that was dense like a bagel, and the top one has eggs, bacon and cheese baked in. I liked that one the best.

In the morning we would also get ourselves vending machine drinks. I like the iced coffee, even though at home I don't really drink coffee, because it was heavily sweetened. My husband got hooked on Royal Milk Tea, which is basically half tea, half milk, sugared to within an inch of its life. It is served cold as well.

And what is a trip to a foreign country without a stop at McDonalds to try things we don't have at home. We got a Salt and Lemon chicken sandwich (left) and a German Sausage Chicken sandwich (right), neither of which we were very impressed with. We also got a Shake-a-Shake-a Chicken (a breaded filet with a package of seasoning in a shaking pouch). It came in pepper (good), cheese (a bit too Kraft dinner for me), and lemon (didn't try). My husband loved the white grape drink.

Unlike Tokyo, I feel like I have "done" Kyoto now, so I am not sure I will be back, but it was really nice and some of the cultural sites were amazing! It was also cute that we were approached by many groups of school children asking us to do a quick interview in English. How did they know? Haha.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Eating in Tokyo

I went to Japan! It was amazing (and much too short, but better short than not getting to go at all). For those of you that read and actually know us, it should be noted that Brooke also went to Japan, for much longer than me and has been back more than long enough to have posted first.... Anyway, here are some food pics from Tokyo. I loved Tokyo. The food was great and cheap, and the people watching was unreal (but the fashion didn't translate well for 30somthings in Canada). The above was from one of many 270 Yen places. It is 270 Yen for anything on the menu (just over $3). We had chicken skin and chicken thigh skewers, sushi, and fried shrimp (which turned out to be fried shrimp heads).

We ate a ton of Tonkatsu. This one was from a vending machine restaurant and only cost about 700 yen.
Speaking of vending machines, getting drinks anywhere at anytime was no problem. Here are some of our favourite alcoholic selections (the Chu-Hi was like a cooler but not sickly sweet like the ones here can be).
One day we went to a place called NamjaTown (which seemed to be some sort of kitty themed amusement place). It contained GyozaTown and Ice Cream City, both of which we gave a try.

When my brother was on tour in Japan, they visited Yamachan a lot for wings and then insisted we go too when we got there. It was a good recommendation. How to describe their wings? Sweet, salty and spicy all in one in perfect proportion.

A tempura restaurant on the restaurant floor of a mall.

Mmmm fried chicken (they keep a lot more fat on their meat than we do, and it is a good move taste wise) and BBQ beef in a Korean BBQ sauce. Korean BBQ sauce is everywhere and delicious!

and just for laughs, this was part of the breakfast buffet at our hotel (the B Ikebukuro). I am pretty sure it is just rice and milk, but calling it gruel is pretty funny.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Pizza Dough - Take 1

Being a stay at home mom now, I keep trying to make more things from scratch. Part of the reason is that I want things to be healthier (without a bunch of preservatives), and it is usually less expensive and tastier to have anything made from scratch. Other Edmonton food bloggers seem to be big fans of Peter Reinhart, so I looked up his Neo-Neapolitan Pizza dough recipe. Ours ended up a bit heavy, so I will have to try it again and see if I can work more air into it and let it rise better. This is a picture of the cheese pizza I made with it. Hopefully the next round goes better.

Pizza Dough:
5 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
2 teaspoons salt (or 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 to 2 cups room-temperature water

Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or mix in an electric mixer. After you've combined all of the ingredients, set the dough aside to rest for 5 minutes. Stir again for 3 to 5 minutes, adding more water or flour if necessary. Generally speaking, you want the dough to be wetter and stickier than your typical bread dough. It should be dry enough that it holds together and pulls away from the side of the bowl when you mix it, but it doesn't need to be dry enough to knead by hand.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Place each one into an oiled freezer bag.

If you aren't going to bake them that day, you can throw the bags into the freezer. They'll stay good in there for at least a month. The evening before you intend to bake them, move the frozen dough balls to the refrigerator to thaw.

If you intend to bake them later that day, place the bagged dough balls in the refrigerator. Remove them from the fridge and let them warm to room temperature an hour or two before you intend to bake them.

Remember that, as a baker, time is your friend: longer, slower rises at reduced temperature result in better tasting bread. But sometimes you don't have the luxury of time - that is OK; this dough will still work well if only given an hour or so to rise at room temperature. Allowing pizza dough to rise is more about giving the yeast time to bring flavors out of the wheat than it is about leavening. Most of the leavening occurs when you put the active dough into the hot oven, so you don't need to wait until the dough balls double in size.

Top with your pizza toppings and bake at 450 F for 5 to 7 minutes or until the cheese and dough are brown.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Baby not Food

I just wanted to share with everyone my reason for not posting forever! We welcomed a new addition to our family. Once I am able to sleep a bit more through the night I hope to be back to posting like usual - but will probably be doing recipes that are a lot faster :-)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Preserve the Bounty!

I finally have a good garden crop coming in! Not only do I have a bountiful amount of herbs, spinach and rhubarb so far, but my raspberries are finally turning red! To add to that, Brooke and I hit up a local u-pick to stock up on some fresh strawberries and saskatoons as well. What to do with all this wealth? Preserve!

I was surprised that my internet research indicated that a lot of items I was interested in could simply be preserved by freezing them. I have frozen berries this way before, and also dill, but was reluctant to do so for the rest of my produce. I remembered reading Duo Dishes blog back in December (when those Californians are still growing, but we Canadians are not) that they had done the same thing with Rosemary, so I went back and looked up their post. Armed with the confidence gleaned from knowing another blogger had done it with success, I made little frozen packs of all my herbs.

The steps are simple and work for herbs and berries alike:
1. Pick everything as fresh and close to peak seasonality as possible.
2. Some people say not to wash, but I like washing my pickings, even though they are grown organically, just to be safe about getting the bugs out. Just lay them out on a kitchen towel or paper towel and allow them to dry before freezing.
3. Lay everything in a flat layer on top of wax paper or parchment paper on a cookie sheet (this prevents everything from freezing together in a giant lump).
4. Freeze overnight.
5. Transfer frozen stuff into freezer bags or tupperware and label what they are and the picking season they are from (you should use them in the course of six months to a year or suffer the wrath of freezer burn).

I am hoping for a nice full freezer by the end of August that should take me well into the winter eating food with actual flavour as opposed to grocery store purchased herbs and berries, which are ridiculously expensive and sub-par in flavour. Seriously, how can someone charge $3 for a little pack of herbs when half of them are basically weeds they are so easy to grow (i.e. chives and dill). I have now tried and tested freezing: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, saskatoons, mango (got a box for mega cheap last year at Superstore and it kept all through the winter), chives - chopped, oregano, parsley, basil, thyme and rosemary (leaves pulled off the branch), and dill this way with good results. The only major difference is that the colour is a bit off, so they don't make good garnishes anymore, but most can come straight out of the freezer, be chopped and thrown into your meal as it is almost done cooking.

I also preserved some spinach this past weekend, but that I flash boil for one minute, drain and then pack in plastic bags. I am not sure freezing would work quite as well on it, and with the amount of space you save by flash boiling it (it shrinks to about 1/10th the size) it is worth doing it this way. Can't wait to use it all this fall making homemade spanikopita!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Camping Dinner #2

Really, cooking on the road is a lot like cooking at home, it just takes a bit more advance planning. We decided that we wanted to take one of our favourite dinners (Apple Pork Chops), change it up a bit by breading the pork chops, serve it with a side of herb and mushroom pasta, and do it all over the campfire. No problem right? Well, for the most part no problem, you just need to work on timing everything to finish about the same time without knowing what kind of temperatures you are working with.

We figured the pork chops would take the longest to cook, so we did all our prep, put the chops on, and then worked everything else around that. Breading the pork chops in panko bread crumbs was easy, we just dipped them in an egg wash and then shook them around in the bag.

While we started the chops in the frying pan on the fire, we also started the water for the pasta going, and had a pot of mushrooms and onions sauteing. When the water was boiling, and the veggies were ready, we just moved them a bit off to the side to keep warm until it was go time. The pasta that Brooke picked up from the Italian Center was dry, but still had a cook time of only three minutes since it was extra skinny spaghetti.

Once the pork chops were finished cooking, we put them off to the side to rest, and sauteed the apples in the pan. At the same time, we popped the pasta in to cook, and threw some cream and chopped herbs from the garden in with the sauteed veggies to create a nice mushroom cream sauce.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Better Camping Lunches

While camping, we made all portable lunches so that we could take them with us for the day and not have to return to the campsite and interrupt our hiking/walking day trips. This is somewhat limiting in that you need to have food that works well cold, and also doesn't bring with it the risk of melting. Brooke's trail mix made the cut, even with the risky smarties included, as did the usual assortment of raw fruit and veg. We went with sandwiches and wraps for the main portions of the meals, but shook things up a bit with our fillings.

For sandwich day, we decided to bring along some dried mango slices. Ham and/or poultry (we had some ham and some chicken) paired with the sweetness of the mangos nicely, and we kept the cheese on the subtle side - havarti - so that it didn't overwhelm the dried fruit flavour. Just to make sure things didn't get overly sweet, we had some whole grain mustard spread just lightly to give a bit of contrast. The mango really made the sandwich pop, and I looked forward to it a lot more than a plain old bag lunch.

On day two, wrap day, we decided to make use of some of our dinner leftovers. Herb spiced lamb from the lamb burgers got paired with sautéed mushrooms from evening two's pasta side dish, and were then topped up with spinach to fill out the wrap. Using up leftovers also helped us in that we packed a bit less, but used what we brought, even if it hadn't been packaged to the size we needed just for dinner. The only thing that might have made the wrap a bit better in my opinion would be some feta or goat cheese. Yum!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Cooking on the Road

Brooke and I did our version of Chef at Large this weekend and packed up our kitchens for the great outdoors. Prior to leaving we planned out some meals we wanted to make, groceries were purchased, and we were very excited about the challenge this would be for us. Little did we know how much challenge though.... My husband volunteered to be in charge of packing for the trip, since it was his idea and Brooke and I had book club the night before leaving. Thinking that my husband is perfectly capable of ensuring everything on the list (yes, we even made him a LIST!) made it to Banff, I happily agreed.

Upon arriving in Banff, the discovery was made that all the non perishables and freezer ingredients had come with us, but that everything from the fridge had stayed in Edmonton - d'oh! To add to that, the additional realization was made that the connection from the camping stove to the mini propane tanks didn't match up, so we were going to have to cook 100% over the fire with zero temperature control. Needless to say, Brooke and I were annoyed after all of our planning, and my husband, in an effort to try and make it seem like a good thing said "it's like Iron Chef, but with the secret ingredient being fire! Oh, and missing a bunch of the ingredients you thought you had." Dinner on evening #1 was our first meal, and we made herbed lamb burgers (no cheese as planned), and sautéed potatoes (no roast veggies).

Ages ago we purchased a full lamb, and with it came a few pounds of ground lamb. We had been saving it for BBQ season, and there hasn't been a lot of that happening this year to date. It went into the cooler frozen, and didn't take that long to thaw once we arrived. I had brought rosemary, oregano and thyme from the garden and we chopped it up and combined the lamb with bread crumbs, an egg and the herbs and formed patties. We "fried" the patties until they were cooked through, and reserved some of the fat to use for later.

At the same time, we had chopped up some potatoes nice and thin so that we could boil them while the burgers were cooking. Once the burgers were done, we threw some garlic and the potatoes into the pan with the lamb fat, to give them some additional flavour and crisp up the outsides a bit.

Not bad considering what we had to work with!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Kind of Food Related

Every once in a while, it is nice to use the blog as a forum for pimping an event for a friend. I can't think of a better reason than this Garage Sale and BBQ being hosted this weekend in Skyview (13908 - 149 Ave). A couple of my former co-workers are raising money for the Walk to end Breast Cancer. The BBQ portion even means that it does actually relate to food :-) Pop by if you are in the area this weekend and support a good cause. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge so you can read it better.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Edmonton Food Bloggers are Cool People

Yes, the first time we were all nervous, but it's nice to know that our local food blogging community is a group of really nice, surprisingly normal people! If you are one of us, come out at see at our second meet up event.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

To Market, To Market

I'm off to the market, and you should be too! The awesome St. Albert Farmers' Market opens today, and there are others open around the city and surrounding areas. Check out the Alberta Farmers' Market Map under Edmonton Area Resources on the left to find your nearest one.

St. Albert Farmers' Market
Saturday - open 10-3, St. Anne St & Perron St

City Market Downtown
Saturday - open 9-3, Jasper Ave & 104 St

Old Strathcona Farmers' Market
Saturday - open 8-3, 10310 83 Ave

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Planting Upside Down

My neighbor's daughter apparently brings guests out in the summer time to look over the fence at the crazy upside down plants. The plants belong to me. I don't know for sure where this idea came from - I have a vague recollection of seeing Jamie Oliver do it on TV, but my husband swears we saw it done when we were in Denmark. Either way, the result is a bit strange looking, but it is a great space saver, and we found that it increases our yield from pepper and cherry tomato plants. Start hanging your own upside down plants, and you too can be a neighborhood oddity and enjoy lovely produce come mid summer. This is also a great option for balcony gardeners.

It is actually very simple, and also very inexpensive. You do need to start with a plant though, so you will have to either buy a small plant, or start the seeds inside and grow them until they are about the size shown.

The first step is to go out and purchase some inexpensive hanging baskets (from Canadian Tire or Walmart), and cut a small hole in the bottom. You want it small enough that your dirt won't all fall through, but big enough that you can slip a plant through it gently.

Be very careful in feeding the plant leaves through. Try to keep the root ball intact or you will get it crumbling through the opening (Note, don't be too afraid of this happening, it hasn't happened to me yet).

Top up the basket with soil, and water so that it drips through the bottom. You will get a lot of dripping through the first few times you water, but as the plant gets larger and more established, less will drip through. In the mean time, water pretty regularly. You won't over water seeing as excess does drip through.

Having the plant up in the air means that you don't have to deal with tomatoes rotting on the ground by accident if your plant cage isn't holding it all up. Also, it is fun to see how the plant adjusts in the first few days to reorient itself to the sun.

In addition, here are some gratuitous pictures of my chives and the one onion that somehow didn't come up last year, and this year survived our late spring snowfall. Yay! My asparagus did not fare so well as I will elaborate soon.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Saving a Baking Disaster

I'm sure we've all had this happen occasionally when trying out a new recipe or making one of your own. Sometimes the taste is good but it doesn't rise, or, as happened this time, they had a perfect moist texture but lacked flavour. With these fruit muffins...well, I'm not sure I would exactly call it a disaster but they were certainly too bland to eat on their own and only the masses of fruit I put in gave them any flavour at all. There was no way I was throwing these out though (waste not, want not), so I put them in the freezer and thought of things I could use them for.

I finally decided that these could make a quite good base for some kind of cake, and when Mother's Day rolled around I decided on Brown Sugar Cheesecake. The base was made by just cutting the muffins in half and squishing them down into 4 ramekins, then I poured the batter in and baked at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes. I made these several days in advance and put them in the freezer, then moved them to the fridge the day before so they'd be ready to go.

Brown Sugar Cheesecake (serves 4):
1 package cream cheese
1/3 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
75g sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

I served these with the fruit topping I use on my Quickest Cake Ever, just pushed through a sieve. It was drizzled this on the plate (artistically, of course) and the cake base soaked up the syrup for extra flavour.

I also tried making mini ice cream cakes with the muffins for the base, vanilla ice cream, and the same fruit topping - delicious! In the past I've used up unrisen cake (tasty but much too dense) in a trifle as well. Just remember: cakes freeze extremely well, and if all else fails a bowlful of cake pieces and custard (or cream) and fruit can't go too far wrong.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My French Sous Chef

Well, this is admittedly only marginally related to food, but it rated high enough on the cuteness scale that I decided that it warranted a post. Especially after a long weekend, I'm keeping it simple. I have a little "sous chef." Her name is Leeloo (she is the Fifth Element). Having gotten her from an Alberta Farm, I would have thought her to be just like most of us here in Canada - from random mixed European decent. Turns out, I now think she must have French ancestry. How else could one explain the fact that the only one of my plants she eats are the violets? They aren't the candied variety, but I think she must be making do. It also explains why she is most excited when I drop cheese on the floor.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Gardening Part 2 - You can't grow everything

The summer is such a great time for foodies up north. Not only can we grow fresh food if we choose, but if we don't, we can still get farm fresh products to use in our cooking thanks to local farmers markets. There is one link that I use all the time, because not only does it show the markets, but they are mapped, and their hours of opperation are listed as well. Check it out here.

It adds in the summer markets as they begin opperation, and it even lists upcoming markets that are open through the winter, so you can use it year round. Clicking on each pinpoint will provide you with additional market information. I will be adding this link to our sidebar under Edmonton Resources where the big restaurant list is, so use it often!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Earl's Grilled Chicken and Baked Brie on Ciabatta

This is one of those topics that some might be embarassed to post on their food blogs: guilty pleasures. I have many, but as I slowly move from the land of the non-eating into the land of cravings, this topic has begun to take up a lot more of my brain space. Now, I don't generally advocate hitting up chain restaurant establishments, but it is an inevitable part of most people's culinary lives. For example, both Earl's and Joey's are frequent stops for most Edmonton diners. A good while back the Western Canada Chowhound board had a good thread about what is worth eating at each of these establishments. It seems that I am not alone in my love (yes LOVE) of the grilled chicken breast, melted brie, roasted apples and spinach with sweet fig jam and garlic mayonnaise on toasted ciabatta (I have a fav. at Joey's too, but that will wait for another day). The gooey brie! The Sweet roasted apple and fig jam! The savory garlic mayonnaise! Together this sandwich combines to create a symphony in my mouth. I kid you not, it is one of my favorite foods ever. Give it a try the next time you find yourself at Earl's for yet another round of after work drinks or dinner with friends.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Hot Off the Presses!

Take it and Like it was fortunate to be mentioned in the April issue of Avenue magazine. Exciting! Those of you in Edmonton can grab a copy around the city where available, otherwise you can check it out online here.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Think About Gardening

I know it seems like gardening, and the resulting fresh produce is miles away from what you see out your window today, but now is the time to jump on the gardening train. We are fortunate in that Brooke's parents (my in-laws) live on an acreage, so we will each be stealing a plot of land out there. In addition, I will be planting as full of a garden as possible in my normal sized backyard. Right now we are planning what will be planted and where, as well as getting a start on some items that require longer than what our growing season provides. The above photo shows preparations for starting leek seedlings. Yay! Stay tuned this spring as we feature what we are doing in our gardens, things we make from our gardens, and all sorts of helpful resources for people to buy more locally sourced food.

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