Hudson's Landing

Following a day of merriment at the Marpole Curling Club, I ate a giant basket of nachos at Hudson's Landing Pub.

Soup & Salad

On repeat:
Tomato Soup.
Also, Salad.

. . . I took a photo, but my memory card ate it. Probably because tomato soup is so delicious, it couldn't resist.

Campbell's Tomato Soup

I ate a whole can of Campbell's tomato soup, made with homo milk and basmati rice. It was glorious.

The Cambie

The ole Cambie special: a burger and a brew, $6.50

Hawaiian Slice

How many different pictures can I take of Pizzo Pizza? Time will tell.

. . . Loves A Triscuit.

I LOVE YOU, ROASTED TOMATO & OLIVE OIL TRISCUITS. (Proof that we are not moving too fast: this love has existed for weeks.) Love you too, President's Choice Soft Unripened Herbed Goat's Milk Cheese. And Sonya for leaving the cheese here.


Peanut and I were having the same night. He was so tired that he forgot to beg. He just used a box of PC 7 Grain crackers as a pillow.

ANYway. Aside from crackers and cheese in bed, I finally got around to making a salad -- radishes, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and green peppers with blue cheese dressing.

Salad In Bed

Dinner was salad in bed following a lengthy nap following a lengthy photo session at Granville Island Market where I wanted to buy everything I photographed, but instead ate some butter chicken then was full then bought nothing. My lunchtime soundtrack was the chillingly lovely voice of busker Paul Clifford.

Also today I ate many leftover potato chips, of which I now have a seemingly endless supply.

Happy Halloween!

The Halloween spread included various crudités, chips and triscuits and delicious cheeses from Sonya, Alison's pumpkin shortbread cookies and an ear-shaped chocolate that everyone was warned not to eat. Accompanied by a spooky mix of red wine, Hoegaarden and chocolate porter.

Panago Pizza

Tropical Chicken and Quattro Formaggio.

Midnight Salad

I had the same thing as yesterday; see below. Then at midnight I cleaned out my fridge and made a salad with it: avocado, spinach, sprouts, green pepper, radishes, celery, Romano cheese, basil, green onions, toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds, black pepper and blue cheese dressing.

Trader Joe's mashup

A perfect Trader Joe's instant marriage of American Multigrain Pilaf and Indian Pav Bhaji, topped with Romano cheese and fresh basil.

Pizzo Pizza

Tonight saw a return to my roots with a Pizzo pizza slice on my way out.

Some Food

To be quite specific, dinner went as follows:
• an apple on Hastings Street
• one tiny carnitas taco from La Taqueria (several such tacos pictured above) with the Role Mach Electric Band (not pictured above)
• a couple "chocolatey mint" Girl Guide cookies and a Stella Artois
• two slices Bergländer whole rye bread with strawberry cream cheese in bed following a glorious nap


• Smarties ice cream soup (because my freezer does not work very well)
• midnight oatmeal with brown sugar

Safe Amp Sashimi

Spicy Tuna Sashimi and Edamame at Hoko's at the Safe Amplification Site Society general meeting.

Salads I Have Known

This wonderful tomato-olive-basil-garlic salad. (Recipe here! [the second one]) Besides a little olive oil, this salad needs no dressing, because the dressing naturally comes into being through the mixing of the water from the tomato and the flavours of the garlic, green olive and basil. A Truly Great Salad.


Also, a mixed salad of these random ingredients: green peppers, celery, fennel, dill, carrots, sprouts, spinach, radishes, green onions, grape tomatoes, chickpeas, toasted sunflower, flax and pumpkin seeds and pine nuts and Romano cheese, with cucumber dill dressing.

Meatloaf & Crudités

Leftover meatloaf, ice cream, red wine and crudités with Lynley.

Leftovers

Dinner for the next few days will be easy. Leftover meatloaf and salad. (Also, President's Choice instant oatmeal.)

Meatloaf

Thanks to some Saveur Facebook spam, this morning I discovered that I already had all the ingredients I needed to make meatloaf. Which I've never made before. So I combined these two recipes and came up with my own.

Michelle-Meals Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 Tbsp butter

Mirepoix
1/2 stalk celery, finely diced
same amounts finely diced carrots and green peppers
1/2 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, diced

salt and pepper
just under 1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 lb ground meat (I used turkey and beef)
1/3 cup spinach chiffonade
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 large egg
6 slices bacon

Glaze
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp grainy mustard
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a skillet on low heat and sweat mirepoix (about 7 minutes); season with salt and pepper. Mix in ketchup and Worchestershire sauce; cook another minute or so.

In a large bowl, combine ground meat with cooked mirepoix mixture, spinach, breadcrumbs and egg. Don't overmix! (or it could get tough.)

Line a baking tray with foil and combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

Shape meatloaf on tray, approximately 5" x 10". Or whatever looks right. Top with bacon slices, and smother with half of the glaze. Bake for half an hour, coat with the rest of the glaze, then bake another half hour or so.

Let meatloaf rest about 15 minutes before cutting.

End notes: The meatloaf formed a nice crust, but this crust stuck to the foil . . . maybe I should flour or grease the foil next time, or sprinkle with breadcrumbs? It was also kind of falling apart; maybe I'll add another egg next time. It could use maybe a bit less ketchup and a bit more Worchestershire sauce. Maybe it's because I used so many of the same ingredients as the Thanksgiving stuffing, but it tastes like there should be some green olives in there. And maybe some parsley, or some kind of herb. Overall: tasty. But the recipe needs a little work.

Kale & Avocado Salad

Apparently living on a diet of mostly salad does not protect you from getting sick. I wish there was some chicken soup laying around but all I had were these vegetables, sooo . . . another kale and avocado salad. This time, I massaged the oil (3 Tbsp) and (just a little) rock salt into the kale (finely chopped, stems removed), then added some spinach and massaged one avocado in. I didn't massage for as long as usual because it hurts to move. Then I mixed in the juice of half a lemon, red pepper flakes, some chickpeas, grape and sun-dried tomatoes, green onions (the white ends) and another avocado, coarsely chopped.

Too much kale! After I took this picture I added a lot more chick peas, and then it was better. I didn't really have the energy to eat, which is ok because it takes very little of this to fill you up.

Pink Salad

I learned to make this salad in my cooking class:

3 roasted beets (1 hour, wrapped in foil, at 375°F), 2 oranges, one apple, 1/2 bulb of fennel, dill, toasted pecans (candied with a little oil and brown sugar), spinach and dressing: olive oil, lemon, dijon mustard, salt, pepper and toasted fennel seeds.

Tossing the salad turned my hands as pink as everything else in it. In fact everything in my kitchen is pink right now.