Culinary Adventures in LA: Part 1: Roscoe's

Located on Gower st in Hollywood, Roscoe's chicken and waffles is a local icon. It was opened in 1976 by Mr. Hudson, who, according to the website, noticed three things when he moved to Los Angeles in the early 70's:
1. All the restaurants in Hollywood are inside hotels.
2. There were none offering late-night food.
3. There were no restaurant serving both chicken and waffles! (Insert shock here)

I first heard of Roscoe's while on a pre-moving day visit to Los Angeles. I was wandering the hotel, gathering brochures, and within the pile of glossy paper was the African-American's guide to Los Angeles. It recommended Roscoe's as a must-do late-night food stop. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought, then over time the thought of Roscoe's faded from my memory.

When Paul arrived in Los Angeles, he revitalized my craving to try Chicken and Waffles together. I had a lot of questions. Was the chicken fried? What kind of waffles are we talking about here? Is there syrup? DO you eat the chicken and waffles together, or one first? It was imperative to go.

So on a warm Thursday night, G, Paul and I piled in the car and drove to Hollywood. We figured out of the five locations, Hollywood would be the most entertaining. We got a primo parking space right outside the restaurant, where street parking is free in the evenings. During our short wait, we met a cute family from Wisconsin in the narrow entranceway. We all commented on the delicious smell coming from inside. After a few minutes, we were seated and began perusing the menu. After no deliberation, we all ordered variations on the same meal: 1/4 chicken with waffles, with our without gravy, side of greens, biscuit, and an order of chicken giblets to share.

The room was small, with room for about 50 people, and the lighting was really weird, it had a red glow- almost like a nightclub. (Hence the weird picture)



Our food arrived. The chicken breast was dry, and all the chicken was missing that "crunch" that I expect when biting into a piece of fried chicken. The seasoning was also very mild. The waffles were ok, but only marginally better than Eggo's. I prefer waffles to have a crispness to them, while these could have been steamed, they were that soft. As for eating the waffles together with the chicken, it was pretty boring. Also, if you pour syrup on your waffles, then eat it together with the chicken, all you can taste is the syrup. The giblets were better, crisp and crunchy. Overall, I wouldn't go back here, although I'm glad I experienced it.

WCB 59: The Battle Against the Fleas

Look at this kitten. Yes, this kitten is very cute. But what you can't see are the little beasties that live in this kitten's fur. Dirty, nasty, bite-y FLEAS. I've been fighting these fleas ever since she was a tiny kitten (2 months ago!). At first, she was too young for me to use any flea shampoos or medications, so I was combing her and squishing the nasties with my fingernails. As she got older, I started her on Frontline, a liquid med applyed directly to the skin. It's supposed to make the fleas infertile. Two applications later, and we still have fleas. SO today I pulled out the big guns: flea shampoo. Oh, Tiggy was NOT happy about the whole "bath" situation.




After she was washed, I wrapped her up in a towel and held her close as she purred herself dry. The beasties were crawling on her face (the only part free from shampoo) and I killed a bunch of them. Then, after much licking and rubbing, Tiggy was happy again, and sucking up to me plenty. I guess she thought the bath was some kind of punishment! Wish us luck in our battle against the fleas.

Check out Clare and Kiri over at eatstuff for lots of kitties every weekend!

UPDATE: I forgot to ask all you other kitty-parents for tips and advice in the war on beasties! All your comments and suggestions are VERY welcome.

No-Name Malysian Noodles

I haven't been posting much, but let me tell you, I've certainly been eating. A friend, P, from culinary school arrived here in Los Angeles for a visit last week. We have only just begun our exmaination of restaurants in the LA area. I've surprised myself at being able to find my way from one destination to another! We've also been eating well at home, enoying Udon noodles in dashis broth, grilled beef ribs with sambal-olek yam fries, bowls of rice and sushi, smoked cheddar and onion omlettes... I could go on. Let me just say this: with the two of us combined, G has never eaten better (and neither have I). The bottom line is: there are no pictures of the food we've created over the last week. Between the beach and trips to Hollywood, food blogging is the last thing on my mind.

However, and few days ago I took P to see the LA farmer's market, where we laughed about the grocery-store produce and ate lunch at a cute Malaysian stall.





Ha! I can't remember what my dish was called! It was number 10 though! Basically stir-fried noodles with onion flakea and chicken. I had a great view of a poster for Laksa, which is what I really should have had (I didn't notice it before ordering).

Stay tuned for some pictures of our trip to Roscoe's chicken and Waffles.

Tiggy and I are Sleepy

The past few days I have been very sleepy, and staying in bed long after my usual waking time of 9am. Tiggy sleeps curled up beside my pillow, but she dosen't like to sleep in. Some mornings she's more considerate than others. For example, a few days ago I woke up, rolled over and stayed in bed. Tiggy woke up, walked all over me and after realizing I wasn't getting up, she went downstairs to retreive her favorite toy (pictured below), brought it upstairs, and played somewhat quietly on the carpet next to my bed.


This morning however, she was not allowing any sleeping-in. At 9 am she was awake, and after the usual walking over my chest, she went right for the money, biting my toes. I'd sit up, chase her away, and a few mintues later, she was back, with her firce little fangs testing my patience.



I gave in and got out of bed, which satisfied her, but I only lasted long enough to eat some cereal, then I snuck back to bed when she wasn't looking!

I don't disturb her sleep (except with camera flashes!):


For more kitties every weekend, go see Clare at Eatstuff.

The best pots ever

There are few things in my kitchen I love more than my Lagostina pot set. My mom bought me this set when I had my first apartment and was in my first year of culinary school in 1999. It is the 'Vienna" collection, although it seems Lagostina doesn't make this particular style of pot anymore, I think the most similar is the "Academy Five-ply-copper" set. The main reason I love it is because it is SO easy to go from this:


To this:


with just a sprinkling of Ajax.

Another reason I love them is the copper & aluminum base that heats quickly and evenly. Another great feature is the handles: made entirely from stainless steel, the pots and go right into a super-hot oven with worry, and also they have this neat ergonomic "notch" cut out of the handle for your finger to sit comfortably in.



If you are in the market for a new set of pots, you'll never regret buying a quality set like this one.

Weekend Cat Blogging 58 Roundup!

Tiggy is so excited to do the round-up this week!



Ok, actually she was a little PO'd that I interuppted her Free Cell game!
We have a bucket full of cuteness for you this week!! I got a lot of help from Bonnie at Miss Ellie's Page. Check her out for lots of pics of kitties and puppies and links of course! And check back with Clare later for future kitty-ness.

Here are this weekend's kitty cats!

It's the WWE Smackdown: Kitty Kat Edition over at For the Junta. The two heavyweight champions, Boots and Tess, battle it out for your enjoyment.

Click to meet a very hot and sleepy Maruschka over at Rosa's Yummy Yums.

Check out the big-eyed beauty Fluff Puff in her stolen spot at Masak-Masak.

Max poses as an evil genius, hatching a plot to follow Aria of Passionateonchalance to work one day.

Carmel is a tri-coloured cutie over at Heather's Space.

Whiskey reads Stacey's morning paper after what looks like a delicious brunch over at Just Braise.


Upsie munchs some plants and hones his ninja skills at What Did You Eat.

Arty leaps down from tall buildings at Two Black Cats and Me.

Widget is a purse-lover... leather preferred! She lives over at Peanut Butter and Purple Onions.

It's bath time for Brother at Restaurant Widow.

Jelly at I got Two Shoes clears up any misconceptions (pay attention kitties!) and offers a cute pic of Kamikaze

Taboo is pleading her case at Jelly Pizza.

A sleepy Agie guards feet at Kayaksoup.

Lucky sports a cute collar and attempts to beat the heat at French Toast France.

Spike and Boo are front and center in a beautiful collage at Watermark.

Virgil and Casey snooze and groom at Dynamic Duo.

Steven, Mark, Lindsay and Kelly are back home with Scamper Dude. for a little while longer.
Also check out Kitten Shower.

Here is a link to Tiggy in her kitty tent and playing in my hamper!

Gilnda is So happy Anne from Anne's Food is back from vacation in London!


Rhett is thinking inside the box at The Misadventures of Rico Loco.

Harley wants some attention, and NOW! at T-bird on a wire.

Some kittens, like children, just won't sit still. KitchenMage is trying to teach them, though!

If you've got a kitty link to add, leave me a comment!

Weekend Cat Blogging 58

Hello all you kitty lovers! Tiggy has had an exiciting week here in LA. Her brand-new Kitty tent arrived in the mail from Carol Wright Gifts. We're hoping that in time, she'll be able to come with us to our frisbee games. And maybe (we hope) she'll come camping with us to. Anyway, she loves it, and I've taken to leaving the door open to our courtyard so she can come in and out. It's nice for her, as she loves the freedom, and I don't have to worry about her since the walls are 8 feet high so she's got no chance of getting over them yet.
Here's a couple shots of her inside the kitty tent!




And today's bonus is a video of Tiggy playing in her "jungle gym" which is, in reality, my clothes hamper.



Tiggy and I are sending our best wishes over to Clare at eatstuff. Tiggy wanted to send you these flowers, but she hasn't got any money for shipping! Hope you feel better soon!

Pad Thai at Big Sur

G and I went on a camping trip last weekend to the beautiful Big Sur Mountain in Los Padres National Forest. It was about a 6.5 hour drive north of Los Angeles and we left extra early Friday morning to be sure and secure a good site (no reservations allowed). We stayed at Andrew Molera State Park. The site was pretty good, apart from us picking one full of gopher holes and poison oak, of course. We saw so much wildlife! Two families of deer, gophers, squirrels, bunnies, pelicans, lizards and lots of birds. The beach was an easy 1 mile walk from the site, although the water was too frigid for swimming. There was also a beautiful river running through the park stocked with rainbow trout.

We went on a moderately difficult 8-mile hike along the coast with gorgeous views of the ocean. It took about 6 hours to complete, and at the end the river was calling our names. We dipped in, and our swollen feet were grateful for the cold water.

After the hike we were ravenous. My idea of 'camp food' differs from most. I think most people would want burgers and hot dogs right? Well, the best camp food for us is Pad Thai. It is so simple to make and nothing hits the spot quite like it after a long hike. Sorry I have no pictures of it!! It's easy to forget about food blogging when you're in the middle of nature and your tummy is growling!

Camp Pad Thai

What you need:
Camp Stove
A pot to boil water
A pan to mix it all together

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cooked at home and diced.
1 packet Pad Thai sauce (check the "Asian" section of the grocery store)
1/2 packet rice noodles
1 tablespoon (or single-serve packet) of peanut butter
1 large carrot, julienned at home
1 green onion, sliced at home
2 cloves garlic, sliced at home
2 tb oil

Before leaving home: To minimize the amount of work to do at the campsite, slice up all the veggies and garlic and place in a sandwich bag. Cook and dice the chicken, place in another bag. Use a small jar or tupperware container for the oil.

Method
1. Bring the pot of water to the boil. Place rice noodles in the pot and remove from heat. Set aside.
2. Place the frying pan on medium heat and saute the veggies in the oil. Add a couple tablespoons of water.
3. Stir in the sauce, peanut butter, and chicken. Heat throughout.
4. By now the noodles should be soft. Strain in an appropriate location and add the noodles into the sauce. Remove from the heat and stir until the sauce is distributed.

Feeds 2 hungry campers.

Weekend Cat Blogging 57

So tired.... G and I returned late last night from camping in Big Sur (click here to see pics). Tiggy was so happy to see us, she was meowing and rubbing up against us- way more friendly than usual. I wonder what the poor thing was thinking when she had been left alone for 48 hours for the first time. Today she is following me around constantly. Here in an older action shot of her playing with her 'cat dancer'.

Cherry Pie

Thanks to Moon, Stars, and Paper for showing me an easy way to pit a cherry for without a trip to Williams-Sonoma. I never would have thought to use a paper clip, but it worked like a charm!

I have been gorging myself on bing cherries for the past three weeks or so, and at the cheap price of $1.89 per pound, why not? So facing an excess of cherries and a growing disdain for them, I decided to mix it up with a cherry pie I made a butter-rich pie dough from the Joy of Cooking and lined four tartlett shells.

(I couldn't help but think of Frenchy as I made these tartletts. Last year we produced a fresh new tart every day, and he taught me a technique for a slightly higher edge around the tart to contain the filling. I also thought of him while seeding the cherries- he would have used every one, despite any sign of spoilage. He was a master of the craft of pastry, but it sickens me when I think of how he would scrape mold off a product and then serve it.)

The cherries were mixed with cornstarch, sugar and lemon juice and spooned into the prepared shells. They came out hot and steamy, crisp and buttery, melt-in-your-mouth pass-me-another-piece good.

I had a lot of pie dough leftover, so I think apricot is next. A quick word on pie dough- It's really not hard to make a tender flaky pie dough. It is hard, however, to describe in words how the dough should look and feel. The keys are- don't overmix, and don't add too much water. At first it will seem to be falling apart. Press it once or twice and it should come together. Working a pie dough is more like pressing it together rather than kneading it. Good Luck!

Cherry Pie

For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 sticks butter (cold)
1/4 cup shortening (cold)
About 1/3 cup cold water

1. Mix together flour, sugar and salt with a fork in a medium sized bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces and toss into the flour. Using the tips of your fingers, squeeze the butter into the flour, breaking up the butter into pea sized pieces. Add the shortening and delicately break it up with your fingers into pea-sized amounts. Gently rub the flour between your hands, picking out any large bits of butter and squashing them. The flour will take on a lovely almond colour.
3. Add half the water and mix it in with a fork. Add the rest of the water a tb at a time, stirring gently with a fork.
4. Stick your hands into the bowl and press the mess together until it forms a ball. It will be crumbly and that's ok. If it won't come together, then add a tb more of water. Remember that this stage is where a lot of people mess it up. Don't use too much water!
5. Refridgerate the dough for at least 1 hour before attempting to roll it out. Lightly dust your pans and work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1/8 of an inch. Fold in half and place overtop of the pan. Gently lift the edges with your left hand and press the dough into the crevices with your right index finger. (If you want a raised edge, pinch the dough at the edge of the pan about 1/2 inch higher than the pan.) Trim off excess.
6. There is enough dough for 1 closed pie, 2 open-faced pies, or 8 tartletts.

For the filling

5 cups bing cherries, pitted
3/4 cup sugar
2 tb cornstarch
1 tb lemon juice
2 tb water

1. Mix all filling ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Spoon filling into prepared pans.

Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 for an additional 30 minutes. Pay attention to the pies, as ovens vary, and some pies will cook faster than others due to the oven and the thickness of the dough.

Recipe adapted from The JOy Of Cooking
(Best cookbook ever!!!)

Weekend Cat Blogging 56

Yes, that is Gordon Ramsey on the TV.

Well, it's the weekend and it's kitty time again. Tiggy has finally discovered the kitchen, she will lie on the floor while I'm cooking, or step up on the back of the couch and put her paws on the mantle that overlooks the living room. She will perch there, watching me wash dishes or cook. I was wondering when she would get the courage to jump up there, and then onto the kitchen counter.... and then yesterday G saw her standing on the counter, licking my cereal bowl. I'll try to train her out of it... I don't like the idea of kitty-litter paws on my kitchen counter!

For more kitties, go to masak-masak.

Baked Potato Soup

G is away on a another business trip (sigh) and so it is soup night again here in Torrance. Tonight I'm making Baked Potato soup, for three reasons: 1. Soup is easy for one person. 2. I'm Irish, so potatoes are my comfort food. 3. G isn't here, so I can cook BACON!!

And the only hard part about this soup is resisting the urge to snack on the crispy bacon before the soup is ready!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup diced onion
1 tb olive oil
2 tb butter
2 tb flour
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup diced potato
4 cups chicken stock or water
4 rashers bacon, fried until crisp
2 stalks fresh thyme
2 tb grated cheddar cheese
1 tb minced green onion or chive

1. Saute onions until soft in a medium sized pot over medium heat in the oil.
2. Add the butter and stir until melted. Stir in the flour to make a roux.
3. Deglaze with the wine.
4. Add the stock 1 cup at a time, while stirring.
5. Bring to the boil. Add 2/3 cup diced potato and the fresh thyme.
6. Simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes. Process soup in a blender. Return to pot.
7. Add the remaining potatoes and cook an additional 4 minutes, until they are soft.
8. Chop the bacon into large pieces.
9. Serve with bacon, cheddar cheese and green onions sprinkled over top.

Mmmm.....

This delicious chocolate bar traveled 8262 kilometers on two international flights to get to me yesterday afternoon. At least once a year, my dad travels to his hometown of Belfast, Republic of Northern Ireland, and the one and only thing we all request is a bar of British chocolate. This bar is pretty big, weighing in at 650g, or nearly 1.5 pounds, but it is not even the biggest bar they sell. Some years, if I'm lucky, I get a 1 kilo bar. Whenever my dad, brother or I travel back to "The Auld Country", each of us will bring back at least 8-10 bars, and it is a real consideration when packing to be sure and leave enough room in the suitcase for all the chocolate. The best, most requested flavour is "Fruit and Nut" which is packed with raisins and almonds. But the biggest reason for the hub-bub is that the chocolate is different than that which is sold here in North America. My dad swears it's because they use higher quality beans, and I don't know why it tastes as good as it does, but I can say for sure that it tastes less sweet and more creamy than the Cadbury bars sold here. If pressed for a guess, I would say it must have more milk ingredients to make it taste so creamy. One square melts on your tongue and cover your whole mouth with creamy chocolately goodness. My mouth is watering.

Weekend Cat Blogging 55

I bought a harness for Tiggy after reading about the success Claire from eatstuff had training Kiri. But a at harness was too big for my tiny little kitten, so I made a second trip and bought her a ferret harness. It fits really well, and she's being good about tolerating it, but she gets really wild and crazy (more then usual!) You can see the anger in her face on the first one!





For more kitties, go to EATSTUFF.

And for cutie pie baby animals every day, go to CUTE OVERLOAD This site is awesome! I check it everyday for cute pics of hamsters, bunnies, kittens, puppies, lambs, oh really any cute little furries!

Stock- Part 1

According to dictionary.com, there are 24 definitions for "stock". I'm mostly interested in numbers one and nine.
1. A supply accumulated for future use; a store.
and
9. The broth in which meat, fish, bones, or vegetables are simmered for a relatively long period, used as a base in preparing soup, gravy, or sauces.

Stock is so essential to the kitchen, there is always a tupperware container of chicken stock in my fridge, and a ziploc bag full of frozen stock 'ice cubes'. It really is simple to make, but like pie dough, something simple in ingredients and preparation can still be difficult to pull off.

The prep cooks and my college, George Brown, certainly didn't know how to make a great stock. I remember at our exam day, I collected everyone's chicken bones and whipped up a stock, because what they had given us to work with was grey and disgusting. And stock can go from rich and flavourful to grey dishwater easily. But if you follow my tips, it will taste fantastic.

For chicken stock
1. You're going to need some chicken bones. Backs make the best stock. When I'm grocery shopping, I buy those small whole chickens, then when I get home, butcher them into 9 pieces. The back is just for stock in this house. But any bones will do, and use an appropriate sized pot. For instance, if you've just got 1 chicken back and a couple breast bones, then use a six- or ten- cup pot. Also, you can use cooked leftover chicken bones. The best taste comes from raw bones, but if you've got a carcass from a roasted chicken, that will make a great stock too! It might need to simmer a bit longer. Also- throw any extra skin into the pot too. Don't worry about the fat content, in the end your stock will be fat-free, but for now, that skin has a lot of flavour.

2.Start with cold water and plenty of it. Throw in your chicken bones in the pot and cover with cold water, to 1 inch below the top of the pot. You're going to need to replenish this water as it simmers away, so fill up your kettle while you're at it.

3. Add the essential veggies. Absolutely essential are : carrots, onion, celery, garlic. Throw in 1 or 2 carrots, chopped into big pieces (don't worry about peeling them), 1 or 2 stalks celery (this is a great way to use up the inedible tops and bottoms), 1/2 to 1 yellow or red onion, peeled and chopped into 4 and about 3 peeled garlic cloves. Smash them on the counter with your fist to crush them. Make sure to add these ingredients in proportion. They all have strong, distinct flavour and too much of any one ingredient will cause it to over-power the stock.

4. The rest of the veggies. What adds depth to a stock is a variety of ingredients. For a basic stock, add parsley, tomato, fresh thyme, or rosemary. You'd be surprised how much parsley brings to the table. I usually save the stems just for stock. If I'm making a stock to be used as a base for an Asian soup, then I will also add to the stock ginger, cilantro and lemmongrass.

5. What not to use. Don't add any acid, such as lemon or lime. This will contribute to a nasty taste and grey colour. Don't add any bell peppers. They will make a stock oily. Also stay away from veggies that are particularly pungent, such as parsnip. Oh, and don't use any potatoes, ok?

6. Dry goods. Finally, add a pinch of peppercorns, a couple bay leaves and a tablespoon of salt. Oh yeah, don't be shy. This is what will help bring out all the flavors of the chicken and veggies. If you don't add some salt right at the beginning, it won't taste like much.

7. Light my fire. Put the pot on the stove over high heat until it boils. Reduce the heat to low, and let the stock simmer for 2-3 hours. Make sure to skim off any foam that rises to the surface- this is the impurities from the chicken bones and skin, and you want to get rid of it. Usually most of this stuff comes to the surface in the first 15 minutes of cooking. As the level of water in the pot decreases, add some more fresh water. You want to keep the bones and veggies submerged. Another important point: Don't stir the stock! You can stick you spoon in there and wiggle it to move around the veggies, but if you stir it too much, the fibers and bits and pieces of the veggies will break down and you'll have a cloudy mess. On the same note, don't let it boil vigorously.

8. Finally, after a few hours, you can strain the stock and stick it in the fridge for tomorrow. Make sure you strain into a bowl and not down the sink! Throw away that nasty veg, or compost it, but don't eat it ok?

9. The next day, check out your stock. It should be yellow in colour, thick and with a slight jello-like consistency. You can thank gelatin for that. On the surface of the container, you'll see a thick white substance. That's the fat, and go ahead spoon it off into the garbage. It should be easy to lift it off.

I think that's it. What a mouthful!

True Life: Kitchen Stories.

I just finished watching "Waiting.." a mediocre movie starring Ryan Renolds. I just wanted to clear up any misconceptions anyone might have over the topics in the movie.
When you go out to eat, could one of the kitchen staff spit on your food, drop it on the ground, tea bag your drink or use your food as a sanitary wipe? Yes. If you are a raging B, it is possible and more likely if the cooks are teenagers. Actually, you don't have to be a B or an A, necessarily. You could just be unlucky. I have seen it happen. Well, I've done it myself, ok?

Please don't look at me like that. I didn't know any better back then. The kitchen was staffed with 17 year-olds, and the supervisor was a grand old 19 years of age. Let me put it this way: If you dropped a steak on the slippery ground, that steak wasn't wasted.

(This is also the place that cleaned every pasta pan in a bucket of water next to the stove. By the end of the night, it turned a gross yellowy-orange colour from the mix of tomato and Alfredo sauces. You could bob to get pieces of chicken, bacon or mushrooms off it's slick oily surface. Yuck.)

We weren't as bad as some- most of the time if a steak or chicken wing flew off the counter, we would "sanitize" it by a quick dip in the 350 degree deep fryer. It was more a matter of keeping the complaints to a minimum than any malice, really. Let me give you an example. You've dropped by your neighbourhood chain restaurant with two of your friends. You order 12 chicken wings, friend #1 has pizza, and friend #2 orders a burger. Every person cooking on the line has to co-ordinate to make these three dishes come up to the pass at the same time. It takes a good 10-12 minutes to fry up an order of 12 wings. While the fry cook is tossing them in hot sauce, one flys out of the bowl and onto the sticky floor.

That guy is going to catch so much s*** for delaying the order by 12 minutes for one chicken wing, he is trying to save his (or her *blush*) neck by picking up that wing and tossing it back in the fryer to 'sanitize". On the flip side, wouldn't you get pissed if your order took too long? Or if it had out minus one wing?

I'm not trying to condone it. I would *never* do it again, being older, wiser, educated, and a restaurant diner. I love going out to eat and I wish I did it more. However, I always sit with my back to the kitchen, because frankly I don't want to see what goes on back there.

Weekend Cat Blogging 54

Tiggy, for some kitty reason beyond my understanding, hates the kitchen. She has only entered the kitchen to investigate twice in the two weeks she has been here. It doesn't make a lot of sense: she spend most of her time in the living room and foyer; the kitchen is just steps away. The kitchen looks out onto the living room, and I was concerned that she would leap up from the back of the couch and onto the kitchen counter. She's investigated nearly everything else, but the kitchen. I think she resents the time I spend there. Look, she even attacked my favorite cookbook, "The Joy of Cooking".





For more kitties and to meet the territorial Kiri, go to eatstuff

Meat prices

I am regularly disturbed by the prices at Albertson's, my local high-end grocery store. It's like Loblaws, for those Canadians out there (although Loblaws is higly superior). But usually I'm disturbed by the HIGH prices and overjoyed at the low ones. But $1.91 for a medium-sized NY strip steak? It weighed in at 0.4 of a pound, and at $4.77 a pound, it works out right. But it disturbs me to pay so little for a slab of well-marbled California Beef. It makes me wonder why beef costs so much more in Canada. What, exactly, are they doing in Cali to make the prices so low? I guess I don't want to know.....

Blog Party!

Here is my first ever addition to blog party, hosted by The Happy Scorceress. I read about it on a great blog I frequent called I like to cook (I have an affinity towards Canadian bloggers- I admit it!!). One of these days when I figure out how to modify my template, I'm going to give you a list of my favs, I promise! Anyway, the theme for the blog party is MAN FOOD! The obvious choice is a pork product, but seeing as my man doesn't eat pork, I decided to go with crab, because at his favorite restaurant, Captain Kidd's, he always orders a huge steamed crab and busts it open on the paper-covered picnic table with a rented mallet, spraying everyone with crab juice. Also, I love how manly men will put on a bib to chow down on a big crab or lobster.
I did something I don't normally do as well- I actually used a recipe. Well, sort of. I mean, I followed the recipe mostly, but what do want from me? I'm creative. I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's Hor D'Oeuvres Handbook (which I've had for 7 years and never used, BTW). I made "Classic Crab Cakes" and I'm sorry to say that Martha let me down. Her recipe tasted fine, but the consistency was off. I had to add an extra egg and 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs to get it to hold together nicely. I thought Martha's recipes would be triple tested!
For the cocktail, I had to go with beer. It matches a the crispy crab cakes, the heaviness of the aioli, and also TONIGHT IS EDMONTON'S LAST CHANCE! and Hockey + Beer = happy men!



Ingredients
12 ounces crab meat
2 slices white bread, in small pieces
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tb dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 medium jalapeno pepper, diced
2 tb parsley
2 eggs
1/4 red onion, diced
2 tb mayo
zest of 2 limes
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
3 tb canola oil

Method:
1. Preheat he oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Set a baking sheet inside.
2. Combine crab meat, bread and breadcrumbs in a large bowl.
3. In another small bowl, combine mustard, worstershire, jalapeno, parsley, eggs, onion, mayo, lime zest, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Stir into the crab mixture.
4. Form the crab mix into tablespoon-sized balls and flatten slightly. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Fry each crab cake in oil on both sides and then transfer to baking sheet and cook for an additional 7 minutes.
5. Serve with aioli (below).

Aioli

2 tb mayo
juice of 1 lime
1 minced garlic clove
hot sauce to taste

1. Mix all ingredients together. Serve cold.

A Simple Dinner of Fish

I had a killer headache yesterday and I wanted to make some really light and simple for dinner. I pulled out some frozen Mahi Mahi and made a slaw using my handy-dandy mandoline. Gadgets like these make throwing together a meal easy. I julienned the veg with it, then minced my garlic and ginger using my microplane. Check out the pic of the mandoline- this one is the French type and set me back $200 when I bought it in my first year of culinary school. You can buy the cheaper Japanese version made of plastic for about $20.




ingredients

2 pieces Mahi Mahi or and other type of fish
3 medium sized carrots, juilenned
2 stalks celery, juilenned
1/4 red onion, julienned
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tb chopped parsley
1 tb veg oil
few drops sesame oil
1 tb soy sauce
a few drops fish sauce
4 tb chicken or fish stock or water

Leftover rice
green onion for garnish

Method:
1. In a frying pan, sear fish on both sides until cooked through (about five minutes).
2. Meanwhile, in a wok or large frying pan, heat both oils and stir fry carrot, onion, celery, and garlic for about 2 minutes over medium heat.
3. Add ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce and chicken stock. Cover and simmer for approximately 3 minutes, until the carrots are soft.
4. Serve with white rice and spoon the juices from the veg over top of the fish.
5. Garnish with green onion.