And the winner is...

Awesome!  Check out what the nice people at Porter Novelli gave me!  

Ok, so in the spirit of being me, I tore open the whole basket without thinking of taking a picture of the wonderful gift that I won online (yup, I won an online contest - woohoo)! That basket contained these little wonders:

• Gerolsteiner mineral water (never heard of, but it can't be bad...it's mineral water after all...)
• the bag of Schatzle Spatzle (I love the name, and would buy it solely on that criteria alone)
• a tin of vegetable pate (that doesn't seem quite right, but we'll try that with company just to see if we get a good consensus on whether or not it's real food or not)
• cream and caramel Vivani organic dark chocolate bar (mmm...)
• 2 baby Vivani organic dark chocolate bars (mmm...)
• the package of pumpernickel (that will probably be eaten with the veggie pate)
• a jar of gourmet gherkins (ok, so these I'll hoard for myself since I loooooove pickles)
• a Ritter Sport chocolate w/ marzipan bar (really?  It's a German brand?  I never knew...)
• a jar of hot mustard (another thing I'll hoard - I can always use more mustard)
• organic instant chocolate mousse (something I'll have to share with company again)
• a copy of "Taste of Germany - Contemporary German Cuisine for All Seasons" cookbook
• ...and an autographed copy of "Olaf's Kitchen" cookbook - which I did see at Costco, and is now in my proud possession (like I need another cookbook.  But I don't have a German cookbook yet...)

Maybe this will inspire a new class on German cuisine at work...

Heehee!  I just had to share this - it's all things foodie German-style!  Nothing much to comment on since I haven't tried any of the foods, but if anything interesting comes about, I'll be sure to make note!  Yay!  Free stuff!

An appreciation of the common potato chip.

So while I was at the grocery store getting some dill for my salmon dinner, I was inspired by a potato.  I dunno why, but I had to buy one to make potato chips.  A 53 cent russet, a long soak in cold water (according to the Joy of Cooking), and I was set...

...for a little deep frying...

...and voila!  Love the paper towel blotter.  If you look carefully, you can see the difference between the white paper towel vs. the grey area that has absorbed my potato chip grease.  Check the top right corner for proof - no potato chip there, but a shadowy outline of oil.

Pros and cons of making my own potato chips:

• Pro: I got to flavour the chips to my liking, and it cost me less than a bag of store-bought chips to make.  A light dusting of truffle salt on half the batch, oak-smoked salt on the other half.  Awesome.
• Con: My condo smells like a deep fryer.
• Pro: I now understand where the grease goes on a potato chip.  Once the chip has cooled, the oil becomes "one" with the chip.  I kept cracking chips as I was dabbing off hot grease until I figured out this bit of magic.  Wait, is this a pro or a con?  I guess this is a pro since this experiment should curb my lust for potato chips knowing how sponge-like potatoes are with grease on them.
• Con: I ate the whole batch regardless of the aforementioned point.
• Pro (to make me feel better): I know my potato chips were made with only 3 ingredients - potato, canola oil and salt - which coincides with my quest to eat fewer highly-processed products (amongst other vague eating ideals - read my very first blog entry if you need to reference what I'm talking about).  I can also consider part of my project a locally made product...the potato was grown in Ontario after all.

Anything's worth trying at least once, ya?  If I could only get rid of this @*%(#&! fried smell now...

Yorkshire pudding...not good without the beef drippings.

Ya, 'nuff said. You can't make real Yorkshire pudding unless you've got beef fat of some sort. It turns out pretty blah otherwise. Had a craving, thought I could fulfil it with butter - alas, it wasn't meant to be.

My 2 cents.

Sausages and ciabatta...redux.

It's been a while since I've made an effort to put anything here, but not for the lack of actually doing anything constructive in the meantime...

Having a few days of vacation, I thought it'd be a good time to try making the sausages and another batch of bread again. I also hung out with Spends2Much making giant spritz cookies (click to see her review of the Williams-Sonoma giant cookie press).

Here's the summary of my time spent making sausages and ciabatta again:

Batch of Jerk sausages 2: Drier marinade...needed more of the gooey green mixture (probably a cup per pound of sausage to make a discernible difference in flavouring. Instead of tasting like Jerk, they tasted...oh...like sausages that were seasoned with some spices. No heat from the jalapenos I used. *sigh* Note to self for next time - remember that the marinade has salt to begin with...gotta go lighter on the briny goodness.

Batch of ciabatta 2: Poolish as seen above - looks the same...used multi-grain flour for kicks this time though. Thought it would add more flavour to the plainish flour I was using...

The dough after kneading and resting...uh oh...this is starting to look a little familiar...but at least this one's sloppier than the last batch. (If you didn't know, ciabatta dough is supposed to be ooey gooey.)Zoinks, this looks EXACTLY like the last batch...except tastier from the multi-grain poolish I used.

Lessons learned:

1. I should really pick up a recipe book for sausages.
2. I should take a beginner's course on bread baking.
3. No matter how matter-of-fact my descriptors of sausage making may be, taking a picture of a bowl of sausages still makes me giggle for all the wrong reasons.

An American Thanksgiving...

Maybe it'd be better if we only celebrated one Thanksgiving a year.  Thanks Jane for being American so I could add another day of autumnal gluttony to my calendar...

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the original potluck spread of main courses (I might have been engrossed in the cheese plates on the other side of the room), but here's the aftermath of people digging into the carbohydrate lover's feast:

What you may not be able to see in the above pic are all the potatoes one may have been able to enjoy - scalloped, mashed, roasted, sweet potato...geez, is that potato salad of some sort in the foreground that I didn't get to?  There actually is turkey on this table too.  But the highlight of most meals is dessert...  
Nice job on the dessert for those that brought 'em.  Good variety.  I'm really a savory person, so after dessert I went for more soup, but the carnage wrought on the dessert table was quite a sight to behold.Desserts of particular interest included:If you can't tell, that is an authentic beater sticking out of the cheesecake, not an edible replica.  As the story goes (and it has verifiable sources), the beater fell in while the batter for the cheesecake was being poured into the springform pan, and instead of pulling it out, it was baked with the rest of the cake.  Call it food art if you will.  

And then there's this lovely pear charlotte:...and no, that's not my shadow impatiently looming over the cake waiting to dig in as I take this photograph.  Both of the above cakes won kudos for presentation and originality from the crowd at large...and they were extremely tasty too.

I'd write more, but I think i feel a carb-crash starting to set in.  The eyes were truly bigger than the stomach tonight.  

I'll also say that not many people planned their evening well - just about everyone in the room wore pants that didn't have drawstrings.

Sausage Making - Part Deux

So here I am attempting to make sausages at home by myself. I wanted to do a jerk-style sausage, and thought I'd use a recipe for a marinade I found in a book...

Beginning with some tasty pork shoulder (paid more for it than I cared to, but if the jerk marinade failed me, at least the underlying meat would be mmm mmm good). I also got natural pork casings from Cumbrae's.

What'd I learn from grinding my own meat? Put the meat in the freezer for about half an hour beforehand. I discovered that tip part way through grinding as my stand mixer got jammed with soft tendons and started pulverizing my meat into textured goo.

Here's the jerk marinade...smelled good, tasted jerk-y. I skipped the habaneros this round though - this was an experimental batch I needed to share with people who may not be so habanero-friendly. If I got the spices right, then I'd be pretty happy...
Post mixing the marinade into the pork...
...and the finished product. About half the casing I purchased made 3.5 lbs of sausage. Looked pretty good to me...

The result of a taste test?

The folks at work made a frittata with the sausage. As you can see from the above picture, the experiment was edible. I found it was just okay for me.

Learnings post-production: The jerk marinade was too wet for the sausage, and a little too much allspice made it taste somewhat sweet. Otherwise the texture and the pork itself were terrific. Also, sausage making really is a 2-person job. Until I got a decent length completed, it was really difficult to a) hold the sausage as it was coming out; b) control the casing as the sausage was being stuffed; and c) continually stuff more meat in the hopper.

Next time - dry rub jerk sausages...with a friend.

My first year anniversary with Rogers.

This month marks the first anniversary of my monthly (if not several times monthly) calls to Rogers customer service.

Happy Anniversary - "Here's your gift..."

Several different phone numbers for the 2 different services I have going with Rogers.  What girl doesn't want more of something?  Technically, I only have a cell phone and a cable plan with them, but for some reason, every time I phone, I happen to phone the wrong line - there's a business customer, a residential customer, and then there's apparently the option of being a business customer with residential services - all (I think) with a separate toll free number.  On top of that, if I have a problem with something like my data plan for my crackberry, there's another number I can call to clear up billing and/or technical issues. 

Happy Anniversary - "How much do you love me?"

This has got to be one of the longest lasting commitments I've ever had.  I don't think I've ever had a boyfriend or job be so demanding of my time and attention - ever.  A whole year of me begging to be heard and to fix what's wrong in our relationship.

Happy Anniversary - "If I go, will you wait for me?"

My average time on the phone with customer service (now that I've started to keep tabs) is 26 minutes.  Most of it waiting in silence while someone actually reads though my file and deciphers the multitude of notes that have been entered in the past year.  On the occasions that I've called Rogers from work, people have walked into my office to see me slumped in my chair with my eyeballs rolled into the back of my head, only to return 15-20 minutes later to see me in the exact same position.  They all know I've called Rogers upon the second visit.

Who first said, "There's a fine line between love and hate..."?  Aaaargh.

The raw food movement...where my raw food is still mooing and moving.

Ah yes, my quest to appreciate food in its most natural state continues at the Royal Winter Fair - whether it starts with some grain and a bag of flour, or in a beastly form...

...but maybe not llama - I don't think there's a market for that kind of meat yet.  Boy are these things soft and cute!I haven't been to the Royal in many years, but I think I needed to squeeze in a fuzzy animal fix since I don't have my geriatric cat to take care of anymore.  I was also checking for information regarding CSAs, culinary destinations or any other random tidbits that seemed interesting.

I took a looooooot of pictures of cows, but I won't torture anyone with them though. I have a minor fixation with these heaven sent creatures: they moo (very cute), the meat-atarian in me enjoys how they taste, and dammit, they provide us with milk that can eventually turn into a wholesome block of melt-in-your-mouth cheese. Mmm...bovines bless us with many gluttonous joys.

Ironically, as I was wandering through the grounds taking pictures of animals that were potentially destined for someone's dinner plate, I realized my camera worked better in "Gourmet" mode - the setting used for food photography.  Suddenly, all my cow, pig and poultry related pictures looked much better and more natural than using the automatic setting.  Good to know my camera considers all of them food too.

A few pics I thought I'd share.   Love the baby chicks...adorable and fluffy.Chickens - not as appealing in adulthood as they are as newborns, but still charming all the same...Piglets...well, piglet, and the backside of another who decided feeding from the trough was much more interesting than posing for me.

...and then I found the displays of giant vegetables.  Giant kohlrabies, parsnip roots, onions, watermelons, potatoes, cabbages (scary big), and these pumpkins that I could probably furnish and move into.
I couldn't resist this sea of potatoes either. Oh, the happiness the average potato brings to people's lives...
I also looked at, and bought a lot of artisan cheese.  I was too enamoured with eating the goods to bother taking pictures though.

So my food fact findings after the fair?  Unfortunately, there really wasn't much on local/organic/sustainable farming practices or CSAs.  Poo.  I would've thought there'd be more on those subjects.  I did see that McDonald's had a booth.  I didn't check it out, but upon asking the woman who sold me a butter tart, she thought they had some information to give out about their food sources.  

Developing a deeper appreciation of where my food comes from is becoming a slightly consuming (just a little pun intended) hobby...

Remedial Bread Baking

Alright, so I'm not a talented baker when it comes to the complexities of making bread.  I truly struggle at the art, and bread bakers everywhere would probably roll their eyes at the lack of patience I have for the process.  Yet I still really want to make bread.  Go fig.

Anyways, Here's my stab at ciabatta.  I'll tell you right now, while it looked okay from the outside, it ended up being a funny shaped sandwich bread in the end.  It all began with this poolish (aka the "sponge"):

I got the recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I'll tell you now that the book got like, a million stars from the people who baked from it on Amazon - it's gotta be a miracle book of some sort...or so I thought.

Seems simple - a few ingredients, let it sit at room temperature for a while and then shove it in the fridge.  It should keep for 3 days.  Note: maybe not quite 3 days if you use bleached flour.  I was hoping that the yeast didn't exhaust its food supply before i got around to it on day 2 and a half.  This is what it looked like - not bad, but since I've never made a poolish before, what do I know?  I looked "poolish."

I'll skip past the mixing, kneading and rising to the good part...the cute poofy dough glob.

So reading the book, I look at my dough and wonder, "Is it gooey enough?"  It sorta kinda looks like the picture in the book...

I look at my finished result, and think "...not bad."

The sliced open product revealed...white bread.  Looks like sandwich bread.  Not that big air pocket-y picture of doughy bliss in the glossy picture book.  Hmm.  I need another point of reference...

Baking Illustrated.

So flipping to the page with the ciabatta recipe in Baking Illustrated, what do I find?  A picture of super gooey dough.  Not just a barely sticky glob of flour and water, but one that looks like that Stretch Armstrong doll I played with after I left it out in the blazing hot sunshine too long (for you kids who don't remember who he is, google it).  Zoinks.  Not even close to what my dough looked like when I was folding it.  I swear, I even added in the maximum amount of water called for in the recipe.  Back to square one.  

I think bread making is going to be my version of golf - addictive despite the amount of pain and effort I put into it.  I know if I ever make the loaf-like version of a birdie, it'll guarantee that I'll toil and swear at another 47 holes before I get my next one.  

...and btw, that Stretch Armstrong doll never did fully recover.

My reason for being...and some sausage making.

I've started this as a bit of a memory jogger for my eating experiences, a food chronicle for my attempts at cooking, and a casual forum for people to banter around ideas as if they were in my kitchen hanging out.    

With any luck, maybe this won't be a new hobby that fizzles once I find it's too much work to maintain...almost like Facebook (yes, I might be that lazy and uncommittal).  So here's hoping my blogging future remains bright, because it does seem like a cool thing to do...

This past Wednesday, I attended a sausage making class with Susie and Estelle from work at the Healthy Butcher on Queen Street.  It seemed like fun, I wanted to learn about the art of sausage making, and who could resist the idea of getting down and dirty with 10 lbs of raw meat in a big Rubbermaid tub?  

So after using $100 in "sausage bucks" to bid on fresh ingredients (we won in the auction: leeks, raw garlic and salsa verde), mixing cold meat with bare hands, throwing the meat into a sausage stuffer and cranking the mixture into casings, we were eating the fruits of our labour along with our classmates' experiments in sausage making.   

With the quasi-random sampling of "purchased" ingredients that we had, the sausage turned out to be pretty tasty, and it opened up a world of possibilities for making different kinds of sausage-y goodness in the future.  Our final ingredient list/recipe: 2.5 lbs coarse ground beef, 7.5 lbs coarse ground pork, leeks, garlic, salsa verde, piri piri, paprika, dried chilis, salt and pepper.  Mind you, I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product - I ended up eating it the very next day, and giving the rest to my sister to take home.  Oops.

I got so enamoured with the idea of becoming a jolly sausage-meister, that I picked up a sausage stuffing attachment for my stand mixer...and one for Susie too.

Sausage making is just part of the path I'm exploring of knowing and appreciating where my food comes from.  By trying to create food from unprocessed and raw products, I'm hoping to learn how to become a more conscious eater and a better cook.  Not that I don't adore my high fructose corn syrup laden Coke (corn growers are apparently evil - that's another blog entry I may discuss another day), or a great Dorito chip (again, the corn growing thing), but I'd like to stay as close as I can to the path of knowledgeable moderation and sustainability as a consumer of food.  

These are a couple of books that I read which you may (or may not) want to check out.  I do enjoy the thought-provoking dialogue that arises from them:

- Barbara Kingsolver - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle 

- Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma

I'm also plodding my way through Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, looking into CSAs (community supported agriculture) and trying my hand at bread making in the meantime.  So if anyone else would like to join me in this foray into munching and experimentation, please do - I could always use the company.  

My exploration of food and eating habits are the underlying reasons I started this blogging thing - so that I could document my follies and foibles along the way, and keep tabs on whether or not I'm progressing in my journey.  But I'll also share non-food related things that interest me, with the hope that I'll be diligent at keeping all these trains of thought going here...