What a Ham

The thing about sharing a household with another person is that you're subject to their neuroses and quirks. Like how some days you can barely get to our shower, as the bathroom floor is frequently littered with several days worth of yoga bottoms, pajamas, underwear, purses, hoodies, and umbrellas. What can I say? I'm messy.

One of Adam's 'things' is that many processed foods make him positively gag. Hot dogs, for one. Happen to be one of my favorite treats. Also on his 'hate' list is any meat or fish in a can. But he's away until Sunday, so I trucked out something I probably haven't had in fifteen years: canned ham.

Was it everything I imagined? Well, Suni came running when she heard the can open and got a whiff of its contents. This put me off the whole idea before I had even begun. But I soldiered on, breaking up the lump of ham and mixing it up with mayonnaise. Taking a taste, I was shocked at how salty it was. This, I did not remember. Again though, I gamely continued, slathering a piece of light rye with the mixture and topping it with lettuce leaves and another piece of bread.

I got through most of the sandwich before my lips started to pucker from the salt. And, with the remainder in the garbage, I've decided that there is absolutely no way I will have another. I guess I really am a red pepper hummus girl for good now.

Glory Days

If you're looking for this guy, he's broken, battered, and having shoulder surgery five days from now. But it takes more than that to keep him in bed! This weekend, Adam's coaching Firebird in sunny Calgary at the 2008 Canadian Ultimate Championships. The team has increased wins significantly and are hoping to do the same at this year's CUC tournament. Yesterday's results are 1 win, 2 losses. Cross your fingers!

The Best Things in Life

More news from Sarah and Jeremiah all the way from Croatia. I copied the text exactly, as it appears that Jeremiah was using a Croatian keyboard, and the results are both funny and beautiful.

From J:
I got zour updates and thez all sound reallz cool! We had breakfast (free) at our awesome hotel and there were 12 kinds of homemade honez. I had the one with truffle chunks in it with an apricot croissant. There was an omelet station where thez had a whole prosciutto leg thez were carving off of....

Talk to zou when we get home.

xoxoxo

From S:
Thank you! I am glad that you like the wee jade plant. It originated from a ginormous one that my grandmother has had for decades, and that I have been cloning for years.
We just participated in a redunculous breakfast buffet at the very, very comfortable hotel that Jeremiah found us. We had another crazy sleep in, one of many on this trip, in a king size bed. We are spoiled rotten, but life is good.
Love, S

The Best

I made you some cookies!

This is the kind of whispered announcement that makes me weak in the knees. Yesterday afternoon in the movie theatre, Karen passed me a crinkly paper bag filled with giant oatmeal cookies. Two of them were loaded with nuts and dried fruit. The others were garnished only with crystalline grains of coarse salt.

Sigh. Seriously soft, surprisingly light. And yet another moment when I got exactly what I needed: a lift from somebody sweet.

SALTY OATS COOKIES (Recipe adapted from Teaism in DC)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour (white or brown) *very important - gives the cookies their chewy texture
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup large raisins *I often omit these
Kosher or other coarse salt, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper if you have it.
In a medium bowl, whisk together rice flour and all purpose flour. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter with sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
Add in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract.
With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
Drop dough, measuring with overflowing 1/4 cup dry measure, on to prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle cookies with salt, giving each cookie a light, but even, coating.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
Let sit for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.
Makes 12 huge cookies or 20 more reasonably sized ones.

For the 'loaded' version, designed by the smooth-talking, chestnut-haired Karen Foster, add a handful each of dried fruit, coarsely crushed nuts, seeds, and chocolate chips. "Don't be timid," the chef reminded me, "the more, the better!"

Bug on a Rug

Go This Way and That

Lassis are not only one of my favorite drinks, I actually count them as small meals. Traditionally made with yogurt, water, salt, and spices, fruit lassis are much the same, but with fruit added instead of salt. The best are mango lassis, made with the small yellow mangoes from Mexico, but in late summer, the local cling stone fruit and fresh berries are too bright and beautiful to pass up.

All I do is put half a cup of fruit, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt or kefir, and 1 cup water into a blender and grind it up. But adjust the ratio depending on how watery your fruit is or how creamy you want your lassi. And remember, if you use fatty yogurt, you'll get the most decadent flavour.

Delicious Combinations: blackberry-strawberry; blueberry-purple plum; mango-melon; mango-nectarine; cherry-almond (fresh cherries with a touch of almond extract).

Sometimes I also throw in an extra little something just to shake the flavor up a bit. My favorites are coconut milk; young coconut water; ground coriander; ground cumin; cinnamon; nutmeg; buckwheat honey; a touch of maple syrup; ground flax seeds.

Four-way

Apparently, cool ladies from around the continent found that banana muffin recipe inspiring. Here's evidence.

Stay tuned for another baking recipe by my newest fabulous food friend.

Far Flung

Sarah and Jeremiah finally got in touch from the medieval city of Dubrovnik where they are breathing in the salty smell of the bright blue Adriatic sea.

Here's an excerpt from Sarah's colorful update (edited slightly for length).

Our first while was wonderfully filled with Dave and Lidija's wedding. The highlight was definitely the false bride ceremony that took place before the wedding. Almost 50 of us walked through the village to Lidija's house with Dave, led by a traditional band. The band included a bass, which somehow comfortably became a marching instrument. Once we arrived, the best man helped Dave bargain for Lidija's hand. Finally (after a couple of rounds of plum brandy) they sent out a 'woman' dressed in white. Yet, Dave and the best man would have none of this 'bride,' with her decidedly masculine appearance and deep voice. Lidija finally came out, with all of her neighbours and family looking on. And we proceeded to eat and drink more, with the band playing away. The day went on from there. They were married in the city hall, in the old part of Varazdin, after which we sat sipping coffees amongst the cobbled streets and ancient buildings. At the reception, not only did Jeremiah get his 'roast animal on a spit' at 2:30 in the morning, but the lamb and goat were roasted over charcoal (the gold standard, for those who don't know).

Elsewhere

Normally, I like this blog to be all about ME, but Lucy sent me a link to the sweetest blog, Pimp That Snack, where folks (who clearly have a LOT of time on their hands) submit pictures and commentary detailing their oversized recreations of popular snack foods.

My favorite is the creepy Sour Patch Kid. It looks so juicy and yet, so...red. Adam said it looks like "one of those blind, giant salamanders they find in China!"

To Be Exact

Between, Adam, our downstairs neighbor, and I, those muffins from yesterday are almost completely gone! This afternoon, I tweaked the recipe just slightly and made another batch. If you have 20 minutes to burn and some skanky bananas to get rid of, here's what I did.

Ingredients
2 large eggs
3 overripe bananas
1/2 cup kefir yogurt* **
1/4 olive oil
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup pumpkin seeds

Method
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Mix the wet ingredients and sugar.
Add dry ingredients.
Put into oiled muffin tin or line with papers.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Makes 12 biggie muffins!

* Kefir yogurt is a kind of fermented milk product, much like traditional yogurt, but it is made with kefir bacteria grains, rather than other bacterias.

** You can use regular yogurt (you might want to thin it out slightly with a bit of milk or water) or buttermilk in place of the kefir yogurt. Or, you can just use milk or water, but you might have to play with the dry ingredients just slightly if you use pure liquid).

Out of Season

Leave it to me to turn on my oven and stink up the house in the middle of the summer.

These banana pumpkin seed muffins are totally out of season. And ditto about last night's pizza pie. Must have made sense to us though because every last leftover is already gone.

Heh.

Most weekdays, when Adam is at work and I am at home pretending to work, we touch base by telephone sometime in the afternoon. Often, I ask him how he liked his lunch. This interests me because I make him a bagged lunch every night before I go to bed.

I'll never forget today's conversation about what I packed.

Me: How did you like your lunch today?
Adam: It was good!
Me: Did you like that applesauce?

[Pause.]

Adam: I thought it was BBQ sauce!

[A lot of laughter from both of us.]

Adam: I've been dipping my pizza crusts in it!
Me: Because that's how we always eat our pizza? By dipping it in BBQ sauce?

[More laughter.]

Me: Didn't you find it a bit sweet?
Adam: Well...yeah!
Me: And didn't you wonder why I gave you a snack-sized amount of a dipping sauce?
Adam: Yeah, I was going to suggest you pack me a smaller size next time!
Me: Well, it's applesauce and I added nutmeg to give it some extra flavor.
Adam: Oh! I'll let you go then. I want to go finish the rest of it.

Eggceptional Evening

We scored an invite to Jeremiah and Sarah's last night for a dinner cooked on their Big Green Egg. The pictures should give you an idea of what you can do on these self-contained grills. See Jeremiah's pecan-smoked chicken and Sarah's dark chocolate 'pot brownies' for details.

Reunited

Co-pilots

Our traveling companions, Pika and Boo, jockeying for position on the seat console.

Eryngii

Le Coprin mushrooms are local and organic. To be honest, I haven't noticed a huge taste difference yet, but I really want to! I've never seen such bright, bouncy fungi. Available at Herb n' Spice on Wellington, The Byward Fruit Market, and the Ottawa Farmer's Market.

Thanks to Chris and Megan for getting me interested in the king oysters (above).

Recent Past

Who Is This?

Feel So Bohemian

This food. These friends.

Rock Stars

The sexy Sarah Sims: Event Coordinator, Lead Vocals, and Occasional Guitar.

The Kimmy Gibblers: live, loaded, and letting it rip on the Sims Hartell Main Stage.

Found

Found this note in Adam's loose change jar. Trust that guy to squirrel away crumpled up paper covered in cryptic phrases.

In Ottawa, we wait all year for warm nights like these. When you can pile the grill with oyster mushrooms, eggplant, peppers, and lamb. When you can drink G&Ts until dinner - at which time you gamely switch over to organic merlot. And then, when you can drive home in the dark: full, tired, and good for going home.

Use Your Noodle

At Phnom Pehn for a quick and dependable noodle bowl with tofu, onions, and lemongrass. Man, I love this neighborhood.

Ever see this guy when he wasn't wearing a sling?

After Dinner

Indian Express Food & Sweets operates at a frustratingly slow pace. And there is a good chance you'll be overcharged or your order will come out wrong.

But it's close to us and the food tastes slightly better than average. Also, the sweets are well-worth popping in for. Adam's favorites are made from fig and pistachios and shaped to look like little green pears. Last night, they only had cashew apples, though, which were sweet and nutty, but didn't compare to the pears by a long shot. Lucky we got stuffed gulab jamun too, overladen with syrup, but you know what they say about a spoonful of sugar.

Dooryard

You can take the girl out of the country, but she'll never leave the dooryard.

'Dooryard' is now an organic beer by Fredericton's own Picaroon's, and I couldn't be more psyched. You can say what you want about the Atlantic provinces, but you'll never have a better pint in your life than you will in a Maritime pub.

As everyone says in Carleton County, fill yer boots!

Hino-style

There's nothing wrong with Ottawa's restaurants. People just don't eat in the good ones. And with people like Chris Knight touting the sorry likes of Social and The Wellington Gastropub, it's no wonder that Ottawa eaters choose style over substance. But if, like me, you're a little more London, England and a lot less London, Ontario, you'll love Hino -- a smallish spot whose decor is so bad it's good. Combine this with a handful of loyal barflies and made-to-order home-style Japanese food, and you may quickly become a regular.





Best: Thick Japanese curries cooked with fat shrimp and ladled over bowls of warm sticky rice; a tangle of skinny noodles; 'Hino-style' chicken; thickly-cut fried potatoes, homemade salad dressing over shaved carrots and crisp iceberg lettuce; two-layer chocolate cake doused in rum and frosted with the smoothest dark chocolate buttercream my tongue has ever tasted.

Go there.

If you know what's good for you, try making Brunch Butter by pureeing roasted sweet potato with caramelized onions, a spoon of 'real' butter or tahini, and three pinches of homemade masala. Then, spread on a thin rye cracker and sprinkle with La Baleine 's sel de mer, which comes from the clear blue Mediterranean Sea.

A New Half

Home Safe

Sending wellness wishes to Sir Pigasus Furryman, who has returned home from the hospital. There will be lots for his mama to do in the coming days, so sending vibes of strength and wisdom to both of you.

Eat This

When you're out on Merivale at lunchtime, the pickings are slim. You can get a cold cut sandwich at the European Deli or NiCastro's; AYCE sushi, or a good-old fashioned burger at Dick's.

We always choose the latter, partly because their onion rings are coated in salty panko crumbs and deep fried to a color well-past golden. But there's nothing wrong with their thick milkshakes either - made with local ice cream - or their juicy burgers, which you can order in classic beef or in more contemporary turkey, chicken breast, or black bean (all with aioli, Dijon, sautéed onions, and a whole grain bun).

Vigil

On Our Knees

My godson, Pigi is in the hospital. This post goes out to you, Pigz. Give your mama a big hug from me when you're feeling better.

Anethestized

On a whim, Adam wanted to sup at Allium tonight. Yes! I put on a fancy dress, slicked on some hot pink lipstick, and stepped into my shiny black flats. And good thing I cleaned up because this was one of those magical evenings that can only come along when you really need it.

We anesthetized ourselves with no less than four rounds of tapas plus dessert. There was a wee duck breast dotted with BBQ sauce, soft goat's cheese truffles spread over homemade crisps, and white beans on toast with melted cheese and oyster mushrooms. Oh yeah, and these curios: tempura caper berries with Parmesan and basil sauce for dipping.

Grind