Some stuff.

Hey all,

When I was home over Christmas, we went to this Mexican restaurant Abuelo's. The food there is massive! Honestly, it is served on turkey platters, but it's actually really nice and the restaurant is fancy pantsy inside. I had some sort of a combo platter with lots of stuff... don't believe me about the turkey platter? See for yerself, doubter!



But please, don't fear for one second that the turkey plate bested me... oh no...



Anyway, the great thing about Abuelo's is that all their food doesn't taste alike, which is hard to do at Mexican restaurants. The big thing in the middle is a brisket-y burrito, really mild in flavour, but the queso on top kicks it up. G always has to get sides of guac to go with everything...so it makes it nice, as well. I had a cheese rellenos, I believe, as well. Anyway, whatever, beany cheesey meaty carby goodness. Run don't walk, it's just that good.

Senor Cuttlefish, to you.

Cava. What an experience. It was really fantastic. Lots pretty amazing food -- and one very scary cuttlefish. (As evidenced below:)



I have to confess, my aversion to all things that look in food as they looked in life caused me not to try this beauty, but Pauline and Michael seemed to enjoy it, and at the end of the day, he didn't die in vain. Sigh.

What did I try? Well if it had pork in it, I ate it! Here's the charcuterie platter that was amazing...



And a lovely plate of real Serrano ham:



It was really delicate and yet substantial. I enjoyed it with the little pieces of bread that came with the pate. I am going to see if I can get it at the St. Lawrence Market.

We had an amazingly meat quail...



And this wild mushroom corn tamale that really impressed the entire table. We wished we'd had two!



Of course, that isn't to say that we weren't painfully full. In addition to these things, we had sardines two ways, flank steak with some sort of mashed root, a lamb and lentil stew, and some lovely bubbly pinot noir. Bubbly pinot noir? Why here it is! (And I know it's on its side... I am still learning this beauty of a mac. Apologies for the craziness.)



And dessert!!!




Honestly, who can say what these things were? I was so full that I just remember eating...and eating... and eating... and then going home and collapsing!

Long overdue update.

There have been some life issues going on in this here new year, so the delay is bad news, but soon remedied.

New Year's Day had me making my very first Beef Wellington. Whoa. That was not easy, but it was lots of fun. It was from the Gourmet cookbook and instead of using foie gras, it had a sort of walnut pesto covering over the meat. It was brilliant. Photos follow:



Pretty good looking, eh?

Here's the innard shot...



Messy to cut up, but quite delicious to eat. It was an all day affair, but I really enjoyed it. G said that the pastry I made was very light and flaky, which is the goal of pastry. Actually, it was crazily easy to make the pastry, I was shocked. Not sure I have ever really made it before.

Next post, recent trip to Toronto restaurant Cava.

Much Ado About Updates!

It's been so long since I've posted... it's that post holiday, get home, go back to work, get caught up blues. BUT, I have lots of pics to add on.

While still in Tulsa, we did have our family Christmas Dinner. As usual, there were the usual suspects of carbs, potato (white), potato (sweet), stuffing (that's actually dressing), noodles... hang on. Noodles. My family has always eaten egg noodles cooked in chicken broth with holiday meals. Apparently, this is nto common. So of course... if you do the same... add pics, post comments, feel the love.

Anyway, here's the dinner as it was...



Ahhh... so sweet.

So the next day, we went out for some BBQ. The place we went to is a chain, called Smokey Bones or something. Anyway, while not the best bbq ever, it certainly was passable. I had the two meat combo. I chose Brisket and sausage. For my sides I picked french fries, baked beans and coleslaw. The coleslaw was grim. GRIM. It had these seedy things that tasted like carraway but I was told were not, and it was just all too... carraway-y. But the sausage was good, though not as good as Coach's. (For those of you who use blogger and a mac, please let me know how to make links. I am trying, it's just not working.) Anyway, it was good times...



What's funny is they have all these different sauces in syrup bottles with no labels or anything. It's not not fancy in that sort of, this is old school way, just in a sort of lazy way. See if you agree....



So for the next post to follow... hopefully tonight... I will include some info about my beef wellington and jambalaya that I just made. Phew. This cooking is hard work.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a good Monday! The turkey is cooking, the ham is in the oven, too, Christmas dinner is coming together. I am taking a moment out of this to forward some pictures from the making of my favorite meal... chicken fried steak!

Here's the chicken fried steak cooking. You will notice that we do not use a deep fryer for this. That doesn't give a flaky crust, which is absolutley essential for chicken fried steak. This is why most restaurant cfs is grim.



Next is the making of the gravy to put on top of the steak AND french fries Oh yes, it's just that good.



If this were my last meal on earth, it would be pretty much like it was the other night. Chicken fried steak, french fries, gravy and canned baby peas cooked until really soft. We've had this meal my entire life, and I just love it. It's the meal I look forward to most when I come home. Here's the finished plate:



I am sure it looks a bit heavy duty, but oh man, it's so good.

Then, we made fudge. Here's a bunch of pictures of that...





Phew. Good times. The fudge was some of the best we made. Recipe? Courtesy of...



Anyway, got to get back to making Christmas dinner. It's been a great Christmas here, I just can't get over how warm it is here. Global warming at it's nastiest because it is really nice to be able to go outside and feel the sun on your face and have a light jacket on, but you know the cost for this 'comfort' is ridiculously high. I worry for the planet.

I hope everyone has a great day, whatever religion you are or are not. Dinner photos to follow.

J.

G's Hannukah Cupcakes.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Home for the Holidays

Well here we are, in sunny homeworld. It's good times, really.

For dinner tonight, my brother made an old family favorite that I haven't had since my grandmother used to make it when we'd visit on the weekends. What's it called? Hamburger Cobbler.

Now G was game, but she didn't swoon.

Here is the play by play...



Oooh. Browning meat.

But then... ASSEMBLY!!!!



Nothing says dinner like kraft singles. Honestly.



And biscuits. Now Mom told us that this recipe came from a 1950's company cookbook from the company where my Grandfather worked. It's a family thing, eating it tonight really reminded me of being a kid and sitting at my grandparents house and having dinner. It's such a rare thing for us to have, and it reminds me just how much food transports us to a memory. G was joking that, as we were out today, I kept telling her memories of things that were all food related. She thought that was odd, but really, food is one of the most present memories for me. Everything else is just... stuff.

BUT without futher ado, a few shots of the finished product...



Okay, having some connectivity issues, so I am going to stop here. Just to say, what is this beauty above? Well, first you brown ground beef. Then put in casserole pan. Top with cheese slices, kraft works best. Then top with sauce known only to a select few... a combo of tomato sauce, etc., and then top with biscuits of the cheap variety, bake. ENJOY!

Chicken Fried Goodness.

So far, in Toronto, I have only found one place that has chicken fried steak. So tonight, we went to dinner at Shanghai Cowgirl which was just delightful.

G had the pierogies



And I had... the lovely chicken fried steak!!!




Now granted, this isn't the best picture. The gravy was almost hollandaise-y which was strange, but the crust was good and light and the meat was thin, though a bit too thin for my liking. G said that it wasn't as good as my Mom's, which is hand to the Bible true, but all the same, it hit the spot for the comfort food without the dishes

Downside? Diet Pepsi in the CAN instead of coke, but good service and good prices made this an all around good meal.

Yesterday was the McD's after a bad day at work... Let's check out the quarter pounder, shall we?



Yeah, it's all good. Anyway, plans to go home for the holiday's so the pics of the food should be all good all the time. Well, there will be plenty of them. I am not the best at taking photos of the food, yet, give me time...give me time.

Otherwise, hope this finds everyone well. I do recommend Shanghai Cowgirl for a fun relatively inexpensive meal. It's lots o' fun. And if you have pics of chicken fried steak (which isn't chicken, nor is it really steak in the sense of a rib eye, don't ask for it rare, you know?), send em on.

Saturday Night Dinner

Last night, G and I took her mom and dad out to his favourite restaurant, Gameroni's, for dinner. This restaurant has no website, and a websearch yielded about twenty sites with the restaurants mussels in tomato sauce recipe. Alas, no pics of that, but, what can you do? It is amazing, we had it the last time we were there and it was great. BUT, last night...

I had the Veal Medaglioni. This was a veal chop covered (smothered?) in a mushroom cream sauce, served with some steamed veg and a little dollop of pasta. Here it is:



G had the Osso Buco (which makes me say, 'you like osso buco, charlie?' which she found only alightly amusing the first time, but very irritating the twentieth). She said it tasted like something your Nonna would make, however, since neither of us have a Nonna, we imagine that this is how it would taste. My southern grandma made the best chicken fried steak, and G's grandma, well, she could make a mean boiled chicken. Anyway, here is the osso buco...



Now, I have started to make some changes to the blog, as promised. I have recently made a change from my Dell Desktop to a Macbook, and am still in the process of learning the Mac and transferring bookmarks, etc, from the Dell. It will take me some time, but it will get there.

I hope that if anyone actually reads this food blog, you make comments and interact. And for those of you who I am linking to, I hope you don't mind. I read all your blogs regularly and love sharing this with you. Anyway, cheers!

Foodies Beware.

I am really keen to start a food blog, and over the next few days, you will see lots of changes to this. I am really excited to share my love of food and all things food related with you, and will have lots of links to my favourite sites and all that sorta thing.