Michelle-Meals

Campbell's Tomato Soup

2009-11-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

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

The Cambie

2009-11-04T18:56:00.001-08:00

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

Hawaiian Slice

2009-11-04T01:38:00.000-08:00

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

. . . Loves A Triscuit.

2009-11-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

Tropical Chicken and Quattro Formaggio.

Midnight Salad

2009-10-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

Pizzo Pizza

2009-10-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

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

Some Food

2009-10-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

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

Salads I Have Known

2009-10-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

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

Leftovers

2009-10-23T08:46:00.001-07:00

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

Meatloaf

2009-10-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Tomahawk Restaurant; Waldorf Salad

2009-10-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

We ventured to North Van for birthday-hangover-brunch at the Tomahawk Restaurant today.

I went all out and got the Skookum Chief burger: onions, lettuce, organic ground beef patty, Yukon bacon, egg, aged cheddar cheese, hot dog wiener, tomato, and Tomahawk special sauce. There, I have conquered the ultimate Tomahawk burger. Next on the list: the db burger at db Bistro Moderne: a top sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs and black truffle, served on a toasted parmesan bun with pommes frites for $28.

For dinner I just made a variation of the Waldorf salad -- apples, celery, pecans and spinach with blue cheese dressing. I was reminded of this salad, which I made fairly unsuccessfully when I first started this blog, in a recent episode of Madmen where Don Draper meets with Conrad Hilton at the Waldorf-Astoria: "It's so good," says Hilton, "they named a salad after it."

Lentils; Birthday Desserts

2009-10-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

I cooked this. I forgot what it's like to make something warm at home. It's pretty nice. Anyway I used the remnants from Thanksgiving stuffing -- mushrooms and finely diced onions and green peppers -- with lentils and two sliced cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper. It was surprisingly good.

Unbelievable Richard's-birthday desserts by Claudia -- Tres leches cake with two homemade ice creams: chocolate peanut butter, and vanilla with candied bacon! Giving Claudia an ice cream machine for her birthday was probably the best idea I've ever had.

Edit: Also I ate some Panago pizza and drank from a whale mug. Janos Sitar photos

Mis Trucos

2009-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

We ate at Mis Trucos for Jesse's birthday, in what looks like the living room of an old heritage house (the old Davie Village Café). The menu ranges from tapas bites starting at $1.75 to fairly priced small and larger dishes. Everything looks so good that you want to try it all, so while the prices seem quite low, you end up racking up a bill pretty quickly . . . not that it's not worth it. I had the foie gras & chicken liver mousse crostini with sweet onion jam, chorizo-stuffed squid (above) and white truffle & king crab risotto. $15 pitchers of sangria, and for dessert: a Claudia coffee cake, sliced up and served by the restaurant for a small(ish) fee.

Salad with Hard Boiled Egg

2009-10-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

Salaaaaad. Mixed greens, red cabbage, sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, heirloom tomatoes and green onions, with flax seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds and pine nuts and a hard boiled egg. Dressing was the usual homemade -- olive oil, lemon juice, mustard (Grey Poupon this time), honey and pepper.

Leftover Salads

2009-10-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished last night's salad tonight. And then I had fruit salad made from the leftover fruits from Thanksgiving's fruits-en-papillote. With cinnamon, pepper, brown sugar and mint, but no dark rum this time, since the partygoers thought it a good idea to polish it off once all the bottles of wine and sake had disappeared.

Salad for Dinner?! Whaaaaat?

2009-10-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

Mixed greens, red cabbage, heirloom tomatoes, mixed sprouts, green peppers, celery, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, homemade croutons, toasted pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and flax seeds, and shredded Asiago cheese. Served with cucumber dill dressing and the season 2 finale of Entourage.

Darchin

2009-10-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Lazy end-of-holidays meal tonight at Darchin. I had Shevid baghali polo ba mahicheh -- roasted lamb shank with dill basmati rice and fava beans. They've finally got their menu posted on their website, delightfully typeset in Comic Sans.