Palak Paneer; Fireball

In time for another visit to Trader Joe's tomorrow, I polished off my supply of TJ's instant dinners, with Palak Paneer last night. It would have gone great with my TJ's Israeli Couscous, but it was not that kind of night. It was, rather, a handful-of-crackers- followed by a half-a-bag-of-random-peanuts-found-in-cupboard- kind of night. Topped off with some Fireball and mosquito repellant.

Dinner Party Party #1

Wednesday night was the inaugural Dinner Party Party, hosted by Rob.


On the menu:
• Fresh Baked Bread with Oil and Vinegar
• Sea Shepherd's Pie


• Spinach/Strawberry Side Salad


• Apple/Rhubarb Crumble with Ice Cream


• White wine, followed by red wine, followed by random drinks concocted from Rob's multitudinous collection of liquor

Pork Buns; Doña Cata

Fuel for the game: pork buns from New Town Bakery. Post-game: pitchers of sangria and one lone and delicious vegetarian taco at Doña Cata. Taco photo by Gerald Deo.

Cherry Tomatoes; Fruity Pebbles +

Afterwork heat wave: bed, fan, Peanut, water, cherry tomatoes and two episodes of True Blood.

Dinner: leftovers.

Dessert: chocolate frozen yogurt with Fruity Pebbles from that place that starts with a Q on Denman.

Mexican Chicken & Black Bean Casserole

This afternoon was a mix of several loads of laundry, several episodes of True Blood, and the making of this Mexican Chicken & Black Bean Casserole.


I didn't have enough chicken, so I added some tofu. Which made it slightly less good than usual.

Fatburger

Following an afternoon at Third Beach, in the midst of an onslaught of suburban tourists into English Bay, we ate at Fatburger, the only place on Denman where we could find a table.


I had the Ultimate Mushroom Swiss Burger, which tasted very mushroomy but not very Swissy.

Beach Potluck; Cotton Candy; Phở

We had a beach potluck for Setareh's birthday. Instead of baking bread the night before as I intended, I took a three-hour nap. And so my contribution was a package of Safeway peaches & cream strudels. Lemon cupcakes were provided by Grace, Setareh brought some Iranian potato and parsley- filled "samosa-perogy things," and Mauve made a Caprese-esque salad, with heirloom tomatoes and lemon basil.


It doesn't get much finer than drinking wine from wine glasses on the beach. Happy birthday Setareh!


Later at the ballgame I ate an entire bag of cotton candy, as I basically have a deal with myself that I must do this every time cotton candy crosses my path, and we followed up a night of drinking in random pubs with Phở. At that Phở place on Cambie. A million other people had the same idea; the place was packed.

Leftover lasagne

Leftover lasagna from Olympia.

Main Street Market; CiTR BBQ

After work on Wednesday, we checked out the Main Street Farmer's Market (in front of the bus terminal), where I picked up some cherry tomatoes, lemon basil and naturally raised pork from Gelderman Farms.



Later at the CiTR BBQ, I made this Greek salad. (Green pepper- chopping courtesy of Gary.)



I ate half a chili cheese dog, a bite of someone else's pork cooked on a giant salt tablet, a s'more and some Baked Alaska.


Sadly, I forgot about my own pork chops and left them in the freezer.

Greek, Olympic-style.

To be honest, I kind of ate some of the above as a midnight snack just so I'd have a photo to put on here that wasn't taken on my cellphone. But anyway, it was a day filled with Greek salad, followed by a visit to Olympia, the Greek restaurant on Denman Street whose Olympic rings- sign recently inflamed the International Olympic Committee, where I ate OLYMPIC calamari and lasagne. It was ok.

YUKON Day #5 -- Salad, Brie & CARIBOU STEW

Monday -- On the roadtrip back to Whitehorse, I made an attempt to get some vegetables in me following the weekend's assortment of burgers and meats.



We returned to the Carmacks campground, where it was really hard to resist their delicious burgers, but I somehow managed.



Back in Whitehorse however, I went ahead and indulged for one last epic Yukon meal: another salad, baked brie with sun-dried tomatoes, and Caribou Stew at the Klondike Rib & Salmon.


This territory really is a meat eater's wonderland.

YUKON Day #4 -- No Toe; Klondike Kate's

Sunday -- Ahem. This was not on the menu. (Not for me, at least.)



I am proud to say I did NOT become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club this weekend.


Tempting as it was.


I did however have a pretty great salmon teriyaki burger and some pints at Klondike Kate's, where I finally got around to going for drinks with a friend 12 years after we met.


. . . more drinks . . .


Festival fries for a midnight snack.

YUKON Day #3 -- Aurora Inn, etc.

I spent Saturday feeding a hangover. My stomach was seemingly a bottomless pit.



In the evening, we dined at La Table on 5th, the Aurora Inn's Italian restaurant. It was an incredibly elegant dining experience in the midst of the mud puddles that were beginning to form around the city from a sudden downpour (which I was soaked in on my two-minute walk to the restaurant). I had the Pickerel Fillet with a pine nut crust, served with tropical fruit salsa, roasted jalapeno coulis and scallion mash potatoes. It was perfect.


An assortment of dessert followed, and enough wine to cancel out the day's hangover and make room for a new one.


We later returned to Bombay Peggy's, where I drank a Handsome Family Jewels, which tasted suspiciously yet deliciously like the previous evening's Chad Van Nail 'Em.

YUKON Day #2 -- Driving and Dining; Drunken Goat; Bombay Peggy's

Roadtrippin'.


Friday night we were treated to Greek at the Drunken Goat, where we had the privilege of dining with Canada-is-a-Big-Place bloggers Victoria and Carolyne. The girls stopped in Dawson to catch some of the festival on their 8-week cross-country odyssey blogging for the Canadian Tourism Commission.


A motley assortment of every kind of alcohol followed on a tour of the local hot spots, most notably a Chad Van Nail 'Em at Bombay Peggy's, a former brothel where every year they offer a special menu of martinis named after the festival performers.

YUKON Day #1 -- Air North; Chilkoot

Thursday -- It was a smooth (enough) flight over the mountain ranges of Northern BC en route to Whitehorse. I chose to ignore my usual take-off anxieties and instead focused on an article in TASTE magazine about growing your own windowsill herb garden -- a project I intend to begin upon my return to Vancouver (with thanks to Sonya for the birthday seed packets).

As a further distraction, I made this handy list of herbs that I am most excited about (in order of importance):
• basil
• dill
• cilantro
• mint
• chives


Air North serves complementary meals. I had apple juice, a ham & cheese sandwich, a bag of Krispy Kernels Axess Sunny Mix (whatever it was, it was good), and a piece of white cake. Followed by tea and then candy they gave out just before landing.


We checked in at the High Country Inn, and then headed to the hotel bar for a bottle of Chilkoot.


Whitehorse night.

Spaghettini; Mink Chocolates

One of my small victories in the NWCAV culinary basics course has been the tranformation of my approach to cooking pasta. Spaghetti used to be a depressing and uninspired meal, that was at least cheap and filling -- one step above eating out in that respect: Boil the pasta, and dump some fancy Classico or Presidents Choice sauce on top; the end. Now that I know how to properly salt the water, suddenly the flavour begins in the pasta itself. Tonight I tossed the cooked spaghettini in olive oil with garlic, chopped Roma tomatoes and salt and pepper. Another Italian secret: I added some of the water the pasta was cooked in to the mixture.

I can't imagine ever buying one of those fancy $3.99 sauces again. Simplicity, fresh quality ingredients -- that's the heart of Italian cuisine.


Dessert: these adorable Mink chocolates, a birthday present from Lynley. Almost too cute to eat! Almost.

With my cooking classes finished, another adventure is on the horizon: the next several days will be spent in the Yukon, where I will be shooting the Dawson City Music Festival. Unfortunately this means I might not be able to regularly update this blog while I'm away. I'll try, but I'm not making any promises. I'll be back on Tuesday though, and everything will fall neatly back into place, the way it always does.

Budgies, Beer & Popcorn

A Budgies Burrito. Then a (close!) Re-Ups softball win! Followed by celebratory wheat beer and white cheddar popcorn.

Cooking Class #8

I brought my camera but forgot the batteries charging under my desk at work. So, cell phone pics only for my last cooking class.


We made garlic-squash and prawn-leek- stuffed torteloni. The latter were pretty wonderful.

We also learned how to cook the perfect medium rare steak. I'll write more about it when I try it at home. But suffice to say, I've been transformed from a blue rare meat-eater to medium rare. No more steaks dripping with blood for me. The steaks were smothered with cherry tomato- Cambozola cheese sauce. Mmm hmm.


While we ate our steaks, Chef Tony made us some canolli stuffed with ricotta and candied pumpkin and topped with pistachios and icing sugar.

It's been a great course. It's just the beginning.

Green Beans & Stuffed Turkey Breasts

I made green beans seasoned with Hawaiian Red Sea Salt, and sautéed in butter. And frozen veggie-and-rice- stuffed turkey breasts.

Don Guacamole's; leftover baked goods

Saturday I had an early supper at Don Guacamole's -- some kind of lamb soup that was really really good. A late-night bike ride was later fuelled by leftover bublanina, and Sonya's gingersnaps.

English Bay Birthday Picnic

Friday night I had a birthday-week picnic at English Bay. Because I'm working summer hours, I got off early and went a bit crazy in the kitchen, overcompensating to make up for past potlucks when I showed up with a bag of chips from the corner store. Above photos mostly by Sonya Gibson.


I baked this bread from my class again, and served it with brie. It disappeared really fast.


I made the bublanina right this time! Complete with drobenka topping (flour, sugar and butter), except it mostly melted instead of looking all crumbly like when my parents make it.


I am really proud to say it tasted just like rhubarb kolache, a family specialty, except sweeter, because I used blueberries and raspberries.


Finally, I made dark chocolate truffles flavoured with orange zest and Cointreau, and dusted with cocoa and dry-roasted pistachios. Although my limited time made it impossible to freeze them as much as I should have, they actually tasted better than the ones we made in class!

Leftovers; Mango; Banana Bread

L'Altro Buca roast duck, foie gras tortellini, grilled peach and lentil leftovers; Trader Joe's Dried Mango Slices; Blenz Banana Bread.

Birthday Dinner(s)

L'Altro Buca, an Italian trattoria conveniently less than a block from my house (and formerly known as Parkside), is my new favourite restaurant. I love, love LOVE it.

I ate this:
Sgonfiotti du fruitti di mare, "fritto misto" (Crisp seafood fritters, lemon, herb and chili mayonnaise) and Anatra con le lenticchie (Roast leg of Muscovy duck, Castelluccio lentils, foie gras tortellini, grilled peaches, balsamico).

It was fairly affordable, considering its fanciness, and likely because I was already full of martinis and appetizers from So.Cial.

nap; bublanina; pizza

A wonderful two-hour nap, the rest of the bublanina, and a slice of Hawaiian Pizzo Pizza.

Cooking Class #7

So full. Sooo fuullllllllll. In class we made crab cakes with pineapple salsa and chili sauce served on apple-poppy seed slaw.


And quinoa and barley risotto with greens and mixed vegetables.


And chocolate-Triple Sec truffles rolled in cocoa, toasted nuts and coconut. Whew.

Pan-seared Duck with Orange Salad; Bublanina

Today's meal was pan-seared duck breast with orange salad (with peanuts, lychee, cilantro and mint). Now that I know about searing, and have learned how to cook it medium-rare, I finally understand what all the duck fuss is about.


The duck breast was dry-rubbed with garam masala (making use of my India-Pantry-in-a-Box).


The pan was deglazed with a mix of Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce (aka the not so easy to find kecap manis), Sweet Red Chili Sauce, and the juice that dripped from the orange as I segmented it.


I ate quite a bit of the fat that was on the duck. At first this seemed like a good idea, but gradually felt more and more like a bad idea.

--


Then there was dessert. I keep meaning to go on a diet . . . that won't be happening this week. My dad sent me his aunt's recipe for Bublanina, which I made with strawberries and raspberries (traditionally it's made with cherries -- bublanina got its name because the cherries look like bubbles [bubliny in Czech] on the surface of the kolache).


I used too small a baking dish and this turned out more like a fruit-topped vanilla cake. Which is still delicious, but I think bublanina should be a lot thinner . . . The thickness of the cake may have also caused the problem of burning the bottom and edges while waiting for the middle to bake through. Anyway. Here's the recipe as I baked it today (if you want to do it right, I'd suggest either cutting the quantities of the butter, sugar and flour in half, or using a baking sheet):

Bublanina
(1:2:3 ratio of fat:sugar:flour)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
salt
vanilla essence
1 egg
milk
fruit!

Directions
Mix together dry ingredients; mix in wet ingredients, adding enough milk so that mixture can be spread, but not poured. Spread into a greased pan. Top with lots of fruit. Bake at 350°F about 45 minutes or until done. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

Red Robin; brownie

Dinner: Red Robin
• cup of Baked Potato Soup
• cheese bread bruschetta
• creamsicle shake

Dessert:
• this very dry brownie from the very friendly people at the Nicola Street Market

Sourdough with tomatoes and blue cheese

For dinner I ate, in this order:
• a banana
• a leftover Capers Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie (from Sonya)
• the last of the Capers Sourdough Miche I bought on Sunday (stale-ish but still good!), with (local!) cherry tomatoes and Danish blue cheese, and an Okanagan Spring Pale Ale
• chocolate-flavoured Skittles

Downtown Sushi

Spicy Tuna Sashimi, Veggie Gyoza and Edamame (same as Sunday at Akira) at Downtown Sushi on Davie Street. They use the creamy pink spicy sauce, as opposed to Akira's sweet pepper sauce. The pink sauce is so much better.

Candied Salmon; Baked Goods; Uncle Fatih's

Yesterday's dinner was this candied salmon from Capers, followed by mass amounts of baked goods including several varieties of Capers cookies and bake sale goodies at a garden party followed by a screening of the incredible The Doberman Gang.

Midnight pizza and Orange Crush from Uncle Fatih's.

Budgies Burritos

I'd never been to Budgies Burritos before so I just asked the cashier what his favourite was, and got that: "The Poser" with veggie ground round (Budgies is vegetarian), tomatoes, black beans, sour cream and hot salsa.

Hmm, watching this video makes me want to go back right now and eat another one.