Dejah

Snow was predicated for last night and today. None last night, but today's just beginning. In preparation, I made Hot'n'Sour soup last night for supper.

If it's Bruce aka C.sapidius, then he's left out the eternal cucumber to mislead us...

Look delicous, beautiful, AND entertainig, dcarch! Will have to reference these next Halloween.

Food and shopping therapy...who could ask for anything more? Wonderful blog. Thanks for"taking one" for the eguletteers.

I think a cobbler is "smoother"...more like a pie crust? At least the ones I've had are like a "pie" in a square baking dish. Definitely not a crumble. How would a "crisp" be defined? I don't know. This was called Canadian Cheddar Cheese Apple Crisp on the label. It is a little crispy on the top of the crust but soft inside. Whatever name, I can guaranttee it's deliciousness...

I'm one of "those Canadians" who grate cheddar cheese into my baked topping for apple crisp. It's from the can label of E.D. Smith apple pie filling. I have used the pie filling but prefer using a mix of fresh McIntosh and Granny Smith apples gently cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon. The recipe is: 1 - cup all purpose flour ¼ cup sugar 1 ½ tsp. baking POWDER ½ tsp. salt 1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese ( I use old cheddar) 1/3 cup melted butter ¼ cup milk 1.Combine and sift all dry ingredients and mix with the cheese 2.Mix together the melted butter and milk. and fold gently into the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated 5.Spoon apple pie filling into a shallow 1 quart / 1 litre baking dish 6.Drop flour/cheese mixture by forkful to evenly cover the entire dish. Don’t press down! Use the fork to spread the dough if lumpy 7.Bake in pre-heated oven at 375F for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown The top of the crisp is crisp. The inside is soft...SO good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. I have also made this in ramakins

I would definitely take those pasties for lunch anyday, Blether! However, I am trying to eat less carbs and fat... so last night, I made shepherd's pie with a twist: ground turkey, green beans, carrots, poultry seasoning, in a light gravy (fat and sodium free chicken stock with 1 tbsp cornstarch). Topping was steamed mashed caulitflower drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika. The whole dish was baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 350, then broiled for 5 minutes or so for that "crust". Tasted great...even the fake mashed potatoes.

The food blogs are such an education for those of us who haven't ventured far beyond the N.A. continent! I love how you showed the process of the Colada Morada and other exotic food porn, then, in total contrast, show us your roast chicken supper - something more familiar to most of us! Bravo!

Blether: The shrimp roe noodles are dried noodles with shrimp roe in them. I just buy them at the store - a little more flavourful than plain egg noodles. Wish I could have had a more exotic answer.

Amazing food, everyone! And dcarch...that plating and that cauliflower is gorgeous. Hassouni: Did you say Chinese style beef tendons? Here ya go... I had these with shrimp roe noddles, Chinese sausage and Romaine lettuce. These tendons were ones I bought in Vancouver, slightly different than what I make. These were from a dim sum restaurant - vinegary and very tender but still with a bit of chew. When I braise tendons, it's more likely to be with star anise, ginger, onion, and soy sauce.

Mmmmm...that chuck roast and Pernil is beckoning - perfect for this fall weather we are having. 2 nights ago, daughter and future s-i-l came out for a couple of days. Beef, tomato and egg stir-fry is one of their favourite comfort foods, which daughter really made wind-dried Chinese meats (duck, sausage, bacon) and salty fish sandpot rice to go with the tomato dish. Forgot to take a picture, but the burnt rice on the bottom of the sandpot was so delicous! Last night, we made panko-coated veal cutlets with a marsala-mushroom- shallot sauce, and wild garlic fettuccini noodles. I DID get a picture of that!

Don't know much "technical" stuff about knives...Just want them sharp... I do have a 32cm Wusthof Classic - seldom used as it is so long! My kids gave it to me for Xmas. It sits in a custom-made wooden slide-in sleeve until there is a big hunk of meat to carve. While in a Calphalon outlet in Seattle, I saw and tried out a 7" Nakiri from the Katana Series. I loved the way it felt in my hand, so I ended up buying 4 @ $78.00 with a $20.00 discount on purchase over $100.00. Each of my 3 kids got one. Then last week, my s-i-l sent me a knife that her son loves. I was waiting for someone to wade in about the Henckel Morimot Edition: Miyabi 600S. I got the 5.5 inch and love it. I use it mainly for slicing. Tried to use it to quarter Brussel sprouts - pulling the knife towards thumb...bad mistake! I quickly noticed shreds of skin on the ball of my thumb. It was taking off the top layer of skin even tho' it barely touched the surface. It didn't cut deep though or I would have felt it. For chopping, I have 2 cheap Chinese cleavers - one lighter and wider for vegetables and light chopping, and a heavy one for bones. My future son-in-law used my veg cleaver to chop up a rabit - bent the blade. He straightened and "sharpened" it, and it's working ok. He bought me the heavy one so he can continue to use my kitchen. I do have some standard restaurant-use Henckel knives that other people are allowed to use.

Made 2 lasagna(s) in one 9 x 13 pan: Looney Spoons Vegetarian, and added ground beef on the other half for hubby. Sides were blanched green beans with sesame seed oil and crushed chili flakes, a couple leaves of Romaine lettuce with Kraft mango-chipotle dressing and toasted pecans.

Looking forward to this, as with all blogs! What better way to begin than with mapo tofu and fish fragrant eggplant...WITH beer, of course!

Keith_W: Beautiful presentation on the hotpot! I am sure the results were delicious too. MJX: This all looks fantastic, but the fried fish... would you mind sharing the recipe? I'm a bit of a fried fish junkie, to tell the truth. I started with Tyler Florence's recipe for English-style Fish and Chips but found it really unsatisfactory. It was too thick for the proportions of 2-cups flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 egg, and 12-ox can of soda water. Even when I added more soda water, it did not give me the texture and thin crust that I associate with my memory of English batter. It looked great, but did not retain the crispiness by the time we ate - right after I took the picture. Next time, I will go back to my tried-and-true batter mix from my restaurant days: nearly equal parts flour and cornstarch, baking powder, vinegar, a little splash of oil, salt, and water to mix into a batter. It's hard for me to give exact measurements as we used to mix up the flour-cornstarch in big barrels - 7 scoops flour to 6 scoops cornstarch. The scoops were those big ones used in bulk sales. Then when we do a batch of batter, we add BP, vinegar, oil and water accordingly. The batter was light, crispy, even after it was put into the buffet. I'll have to try my old recipe and see what proportions work the best... I would appreciate any recipes anyone here would share!

Fish'n'chips for supper, with curry sauce and peas. I saw a recipe in Aug. Bon Apetite - Eggplant fries and thought I'd give it a try. Followed the instructions but made the mistake of drying the "fries" too much before tossing them in the rice flour mixture. The first few ended up without "batter" but still good. The second batch, I added a little soda water to the rice flour mixture to make a batter. The eggplant fries were crispy on the outside and buttery soft inside. The za'tar in the rice flour was nice.

Randi: I love that you took pictures of the food on the next table. I like to do that too, especially if it's something I'd want to try and replicate at home. I once told another egulleteer to do that, and she actually used it as her signiture line. Enjoying your blog. Have some places I'll try next August. And I'd love to cook with you when I'm down that way again...or go for a meal.

My daughter's future M-I-L is gluten intolerant, so it was a bit more challenging this Thanksgiving. There were 12 of us for supper. I cooked two 7kg turkeys, one with regular day-old dinner rolls stuffing(cooked in an oven in another house), the other with gluten-free bread; a smoked picnic shoulder; crab cakes; Brussel sprouts with dijon mustard, blackpeppercorn crusted bacon, and pecans; carrots with cardamon; green bean casserole, (d-i-l's contribution); corn; mashed taters; apple,orange,cranberry chutney; gravy made with Better than Boullion chicken soup base and tapioca starch; pumpkin cheesecake with sour cream icing ( 2nd son's SO's contribution, and a pumpkin pie. Everything was gluten free except for the green bean casserole and the pumpkin cheese cake. The gluten-free pumpkin pie was more like a cheesecake. The crust was made with gluten-free flour, crushed organic unsweetened coconut flakes and pecans, and butter, all pulsed together and baked like a graham crust. The filling was pumpkin puree, cashew cream, coconut cream, spices. It turned out remarkably good! The gluten-free stuffing was made with rice flour bread and corn bread. It didn't have the same texture as my usual stuffing, but was acceptable. The extra poultry seasoning and fresh herbs helped. We didn't cut into the other turkey until next day (sent home with kids), but the kids helped themselves to the stuffing after our guests left! It was interesting cooking with new products and being vigilant about gluten-free counters, etc. I now have a stock pile of flour, bread crumbs, etc. I am thankful that our small city has these supplies.

dcarch: Your food and presentations are pornographic!

Canadian Thanksgiving with turkey and ham yesterday, so we needed a change for tonight. While I was shopping at Safeway early Friday morning, I picked up 7 packages of two 2 inch thick lamb chops at 50% off. Worked out to around $5.99 per pair. Did them up on the BBQ and they were terrific - tender and juicy.

Great to see you blogging again, Calipoutine - from an entirely different locale. We stayed in Valencia for a week in August and yup...it was hot! Do you go to Marie Callender's Pie and Pasta? There was one beside the hotel, and I found their custard pies and banana cream pies very good. Coming to Tarzana next August. If you want specific Canadian stuff, let me know! We'll be driving so no problem with weight/luggage restrictions - unless you want a whole pig or some crazy reuqest like that!

Kim, Blether, I'm in Manitoba, and the liquor commission here also put out a magazine called Flavours. It's free if you pick it up at the liquor store, and I see from the inside cover, you can also subscribe. Just picked up the fall issue and will be making the Scotch Pie later today - minced beef and lamb.

Made our first visit to my sister and family's home in Burnaby this summer, at the end of our +8000 km road trip. We had dim sum in Chinatown, Richmond and in Burnaby. Several of the items were a first and memorable for us: Ho fun in Shrimp and Egg Sauce Our first really good xiao long baos Deep-fried Spicy Chicken Knuckles?! Deep-fried Spicy Anchovies The flakiest Baked Char Siu Baos Golden Sand Tofu

Been on a +8000 KM road trip until Sept. 1 and have missed seeing all these gorgeous meals! Our daughter and fiance came for the weekend and he cooked both lunch and dinner yesterday: Burgers made from a combination of ground pork, beef, and venison from the deer he bagged last year. Add-ons: tomato, leaf lettuce, smoked gouda cheese, red onion, Spanish onion sauteed with chipotle, and sauteed beet slices,. all on a toasted kaiser bun: For dinner, he roasted a chicken that had been brined with buttermilk and fresh herbs. Served with the roasted endive, beets, potatoes (which were mashed with an egg yolk, rosemary, and butter before serving), sweet potatoes, and his first attempt at homemade stuffing. I made a salad dressed with store-bought mango-chipotle dressing. Both meals were scrumptious!

I am in the same position as Rona as I teach both mainland-China born and HK-born Chinese. Their tastes and opinions about food are quite different. The HK students will go out and try different foods, even eat cafeteria food! The mainland Chinese will bring their lunches everyday, and I don't see anything difficult about what they cook: stir-fried veg. and rice, tomato - egg, etc. What they prefer to eat is hotpot every possible day. The prep.takes time, but it certainly isn't difficult. I cook all kinds of food but mostly Chinese. There are certainly simple dishes and difficult ones in all cuisines, but I don't think one is more difficult than another.