Jump to content

Viola da gamba

participating member
  • Posts

    242
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Viola da gamba

  1. I have a good one, but I don't know if its been mentioned yet.

    I will never again crack eggs over a mixer bowl with the mixer operating. A little too much butter on the fingertips, and the egg shell is dropped into the mixer bowl, broken in a million pieces, and incorporated into the batter.  :angry:

    Mmmmm - extra roughage!! :biggrin:

  2. The only way I can get pills down my dogs is to encase the pill or capsule in butter and they gobble it down without tasting.

    Anything else, meat, cheese, whatever, they will take in their mouths, sort out the pill or capsule, spit it out and swallow the rest.  (Basenjis are clever little devils!)

    The dogs sussed out the butter trick - doesn't work any more - ditto for cheese and peanut butter - as with your basenjis, they suck off the coating & spit out the pill - the only thing that seems to work now is those tubes of "liver paste" you can buy (we're too cheap to give them pate :biggrin: ). My Dad still uses butter for his dogs, though.

    Back OT - unsalted butter and specialty butters live in the fridge, regular butter in a ceramic butter dish with a lid (damn dogs) on the side, "extra" butter is stored in the freezer.

  3. We stayed at a great B&B on Chesterman Beach a few years ago - basically got the front 1/2 of the house which included a fireplace, kitchen facilities and a great cedar bathroom - across the street from the beach, though, rather than on it. Take a look here for similar options - I agree - the prices have got scary - http://www.gonorthwest.com/BC/Islands/Tofino/bandb.htm - in recent years, we've stayed in Ucluelet to be able to spend more on food - try here for those - http://www.vancouverislandaccommodations.c...dbreakfasts.htm

    Have a wonderful time. The resort in Ucluelet mentioned by Merlin is Tauca-Lea Resort & Spa - friends spent their honeymoon there and loved it - haven't been myself - their website is here: http://www.taucalearesort.com/

  4. Maybe Neil could put all in a blender and we could all have the HSG experience in cup form.  It would certaintly be better than those *$ frapp craps.

    Okay - this thread was making me hungry until I read this - ewww - nice mental image there. :wacko:

    I fully agree with the HSG steak addiction - the best I've had in a long time. I think the only thing that came close was the buffalo tenderloin we cooked ourselves for Valentine's day this year. But again - if you're looking to re-ignite an interest in meat, you might find the hangar a bit - umm - straightforwardly meaty - I'd go with canucklehead on ordering something a bit more familiar.

  5. Finally made number three - we've been eating at home a lot recently. O'course, not that anyone will recognise anywhere we're eating, or be able to visit - sigh.

    Alpenhorn Pub & Bistro - wok squid & asian chicken wrap appetizers, strongbow (no Merridale Cider up here) for me, pale ale for j. I love their wok squid - very lightly battered, sweet chili & onion tossed with it, lots of citrus. So good.

    Fireside Pub (hmm - there's a theme) - lunch special - craving for chicken strips. The strips were a bit dry, but the garlic mayonnaise made up for it. Fries excellent as usual. J had a mushroom & bacon burger that appeared excessively juicy, and stole 1/2 my garlic mayonnaise.

    Blue Fin sushi - sushi hits Smithers! :biggrin::biggrin: The selection is limited, but they're friendly & good and the fish is very fresh - looking forward to halibut season for halibut sushi. J had spicy rolls, I had unagi, salmon, dynamite roll & shrimp roll - love my raw fish.

    Halibut cheeks at home tonight :wub::wub:

  6. We eat fish a lot, so the fact that it's Friday happens to be somewhat coincidental, but whatever - tonight we're having halibut cheeks ( :biggrin::biggrin: ) - probably one of my favourite things - so roll on supper.

  7. I like uprising breads on Venables.. ones that have currents in them, not a fan of the candied fruit. Toasted with a cuppa tea.. the best!

    Oh man - homemade hot X buns - sweet yeast dough, dough cross, currants (I too don't like candied fruit) - sliced in half & toasted under the grill with slatherings of butter. Best part about Easter (I know, I'm a heathen).

  8. With all the talk about Expo around here how could we forget....

    The McBarge!

    Any recent sitings? Where is it I wonder?

    Did they sink it off the coast as a potential dive site? Would be fitting I think.

    John

    It sat here for years after expo was done. At the rate McD's change and upgrade their stores, I am sure it is in a HazMat site somewhere.

    Last time I saw the McBarge, it was sitting just below the natural gas refinery up the North Arm, opposite Deep Cove. The Deep Cove Yacht Club used to use the McBarge as a marker for a leg of the weekend races.

    OT - Tommy O's has gone? :sad: The first place my partner took me for a fancy dinner. So sad.

  9. I'm not in the industry either, but I also had my share of related jobs - my first, like nwyles scooping ice cream - at the Sara's Ice Cream Parlour (looked a bit like an old-fashioned ice cream parlour, but it was more a portable thing - very cramped) in Departure Bay in Nanaimo. Ice cream has never really been a favourite since, and I can't stand the smell of waffle cones. I had to quit after developing fairly severe tendonitis (from scooping) - went on to be a park interpreter on Newcastle Island (this is a tree, that is an anthill, the sea's gone away because of the moon, no you can't eat the raccoons and please stop feeding them your marshmallows).

    My first Vancouver restaurant job was at Horizons on Burnaby Mountain - hostess (had to wear a lovely purple polyester dress - at least they paid for drycleaning) - I wonder what the stats are on the number of people they put through a degree at SFU?

  10. Cool thread - interesting that (I think) it's mostly women responding! :hmmm:

    Sparrowgrass, I got most of those too, and the one about chewing gum taking seven years to dissolve.

    Washing a knife in cold water will remove the onion smell. Leaving the stone in whatever section of avocado remains will stop it from going brown. If you lick your ice cream, you're undersexed, if you bit it, you're oversexed (hey - you asked).

    Mum also told me that eating raw bread dough/raw pastry dough would give you worms - not that it made a difference. Another weird one? Eating ice cream on a hot day would make your nose bleed. I also got the eating brussel sprouts/cabbage/pick a fruit, vegetable or main course you don't much like would put hair on your chest - I too questioned that one at a very young age. And this one from my grandfather (the source of all indulgences) - eating crunchy fruit before bedtime would clean your teeth (I hated cleaning my teeth as a kid). The standard one for why I didn't get to eat something - "when you're a daddy, you can have it too" - apparently I worked that one out at age 5 - much to my mother's distress - it took her until age 7 to realize that she'd never be a daddy (she always said I was precocious) :biggrin:

  11. Tepee, more like the second pronunciation, with a hint of growly R in your throat at the end of each syllable.

    My favourite non-Anglo pronunciation is Van Gogh, which in Europe they say much as is it spelled, with that nice, throat-clearing 'gh' at the end, as opposed to the sanitized Van-Go we say here. That was a surprise the first time I heard it! :raz:

    Like "Kant" - sounds way ruder than it is if you pronounce it properly.

    Back to food - this is embarrassing, but please - "Nicoise"? I always end up butchering it and saying something that sounds a bit like "scissors".

  12. :sad: mix up salt and sugar again

    just preparing for a birthday party and making beef and chicken satay.

    Have about a pound of both meats and made the marinade

    but i mixed up the salt and sugar pots arrghghhh!!!!

    luckily the meat has only been marinating for about an hour but i've

    just spent the last 2 hour washing and draining the meat under cold water to see if if any of the meat is recoverable :sad:

    I did this while baking a flourless chocolate cake at a friend's (the cake uses crushed almonds instead of flour) - didn't ask which container was which, didn't check until I was *just* taste-testing the batter before pouring it into the pan to go in the oven. Blech. Unsalvageable. Had to go out and buy all the ingredients again.

  13. After dinner treat: We five would be watching TV and someone would say, how about some turnovers, and my mom or I would run to kitchen and whack a tube of refrigerator dough against the counter to quick-bake up jam-filled turnovers with white icing from a plastic tube squeezed over them. Gosh, I wonder if they still make sell these in the refrigerator section.

    Is it bad that I know the answer to this and that it's "yes"? Or at least they were still available up here last time I was in Safeway ...

  14. Whoa! a Dutch pancake place in Kamloops! I'll have to drag my parents there one day.

    You've never been? Man - gotta go. Service is a bit slow & the coffee's just okay, but those pancakes are great - and at least everything's made as you order it. The place has (I think) been run by the same family since the '70's or so, and they've got a very cool pressed tin ceiling. Never quite made it to the dessert pancakes - always too full from the mains. Damn - and I won't be in Kamloops until August ... :rolleyes:

  15. It'd be interesting to see the state of the customers when the lights go back on...

    Table 21 is having sex.

    Seat 3 on 32 is covered in bolognese sauce.

    All of the six-top at 42 have taken off without paying their check.

    The hostess is in the bathroom crying.

    The bartender reeks of grey goose.

    Sounds awesome.

    BTW, do they make perscription Night Vision Goggles?  :laugh:

    :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

    Don't night vision goggles look something like gas masks with eye things on stalks (like bugs out of Naked Lunch)? No wonder they turn out the lights. Odd concept.

  16. It may be just me, but if you're driving up to Sun Peaks, the Amsterdam in Kamloops (on the main drag - very hard to miss) is somewhere we always have to go at least once when visiting friends (fortunately, they like it too). Open face dutch pancakes (sort of like savoury crepes) with a variety of toppings - there are both set toppings (smoked salmon, cream chese, onions & capers, there's also one involving bacon, mushrooms & curry sauce) and toppings a la carte - I usually get bacon, gouda & mushrooms with a side of hollandaise. The fried potato bits are also good (they're not really hash browns). If it's open (but I seem to remember they usually close from January - March), the Hothouse Bistro is also worth a visit - Mexican-inspired - get the sopapillas (puffed fried bread-like things) with the maple butter - to die for. Both are more cheap & cheerful options than gourmet - but nonetheless we consider them top of our go-to list when in the Loops. Have a great trip - the snow at Sun Peaks is almost always better than Whistler (ducks - but you know it's true :wink: ), and the skiing is good.

  17. Hellman's here too, unless we want aioli or some other mayonnaise type dip - then it's homemade. Mayonnaise with fries - definitely - and for my favourite fat-fest, bacon & brie sandwiches with Hellman's on both pieces of lightly toasted bread, . If I want to pretend there's a vegetable in there, I'll add some iceberg lettuce.

×
×
  • Create New...