Viola da gamba

Yesterday - leftover pizza fried in butter (guilty pleasure). Today - fries with aioli. So sue me - it's snowing - I feel the need to eat fat & hibernate.

Aah, butternut squash. I occasionally do roast butternut squash, subsequently mashed with garlic (roasted with the squash) parmesan, nutmeg, toasted almonds & PEPPER just for the joy of putting the leftovers in a risotto 2 days later. Don't really need to add much else to it. Does anyone else try to stick to the "no more than three ingredients" (apart from the cheese, stock, etc.) rule I read (I think) in Marcella Hazan? How fast are you cooking your risotto? I usually figure it's going to take about an hour from start to finish. That means literally from starting to cut up the sweet onions to stirring in the parmesan 5 minutes before it's ready. We're a little stuck for choices in terms of rice up here, but I've never had a risotto go dry - too wet once, but I know how I did that ... And as to the cream - it shows up in some recipes - go figure.

This may get me shot - but we make risotto all the time - it's a favourite way to use up leftovers (should I duck now). Arborio rice, sweet/Mayan onions, chicken stock, vermouth (if we have any), white wine/sherry (depending on subsequent ingredients) and then we let rip. A popular one was with swiss chard & leftover roast chicken. We always finish it with either parmesan or pecorino, we NEVER add cream. We also have never even thought of using pomegranate seeds ...

Sandwiches!! With good mustard, peasprouts & the best bread you can find - or just cut bits off & nibble. But then, I love cold roast lamb too much to do anything more to it than just eat it.

Ahh, good times - me and Daddy-A, recreating great moments from the Jackass movies. I refuse to snort wasabe, though.

As a golfer, I'm a great ballerina. I drive a mean keg cart, though.

This'd be great - particularly for those of us who live in the slightly more isolated areas of BC & have to depend largely on the LDB!

I can't eat much of the food there (horrible tabasco allergy - discovered one Christmas when my mum tried to kill me) - but what I had was good. And the staff were wonderful - my partner felt ill & quietly left for the bathroom without making a fuss (not the fault of the food - coming down with the flu) and our waiter, having noticed him leaving & obviously noticing that all wasn't well - watched for him to come back & brought some chamomile tea & a very nice small bowl of something (for the life of me I can't remember what now - dessert? soup? my mind's a blank). I was very impressed both by the consideration & the lack of fuss. And it's a nice room, and their sandwich board/blackboard out front was often amusing, and the smells coming out of the kitchen as I walked past on my way to work were always EXTREMELY appetizing.

I agree wholeheartedly - the only thing those are good for is that "flipping" game where you hit one edge with a finger & see how many times you can get it to flip & still land right side up. I've also gotta agree with the seasoning gripes - look - I go to a restaurant to have someone cook for me - if you screw up the seasoning, that's your fault - don't leave it ENTIRELY up to me - if I want to add more, fine - but for God's sake - salt was considered a measure of currency for a reason - use some!

VERRRRY simple (has to be - they get baked at the same time I'm having my first cup of coffee - complicated would be bad). Largely taken from the Good Housekeeping book - an old, favourite standby. For 3 people - increase as needed. 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour 1 tbsp baking powder 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 3/8 cup butter 1 tsp grated orange rind 2 eggs - room temperature 1/3 cup milk Mix first 4 ingredients with a fork. Cut in butter until it looks like gravel - NOT fine breadcrumbs. Sadly, the best way to do this is by hand - a food processor makes it too fine. Add in orange rind. Beat together eggs & milk in a separate bowl. Pour about 2/3 of egg & milk recipe into dry ingredients. Blend with fork. If you can't make the dough stick together by grabbing & squeezing, add a bit more of the liquid until you can. Finish the mixing process by grabbing & squeezing dough until it all sticks together - you don't need to knead. Dump on floured surface, roll out to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick, depending on how high you like your scones to rise. Cut into squares or triangles, whatever floats your boat. Place scone blobs on a lightly greased tray - brush tops with remaining egg & milk mixture (put any left after this down for the dogs) & bake at 425 for 10 - 12 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. I find this method minimizes the amount of handling, and produces the lightest, fluffiest scones of most of the methods I've tried. It also doesn't require much thought, and there's less stuff to wash up after.

The 2002 Gewurtztraminer from Mt Boucherie Estate - Okanagan Valley, Kelowna end. Great citrus - almost grapefruit - fabulous with rotini in a smoked salmon lemon cream sauce.

I second this - great book, very reliable, and the cooking times for the basic vegetable dishes are spot on.

Pear vichysoisse. Yuck. For a dinner party, no less.

My parents always told us that we wouldn't like them - that they were an acquired taste that we could develop as we grew older, but that until then, they were too expensive to teach us on. Stupid us - we believed them. Man, was I pissed the first time I tasted duck confit.

Here comes social services now .....

Hmmm - extra foie gras - kinda like extra hanger steak ...

We've been making it to a family recipe for years - and I'm sorry to admit, given John Thorne's quote, that it does use a white sauce. 1 tablespoon butter, one of flour per pint of milk (or cream, if you're feeling decadent) 9 oz pasta (we tend to use penne rigate - rigatone is too big) per pint 9 oz cheese per pint - preferably 3 oz cheddar - as sharp as you can get, 3 oz blue cheese, 3 oz mascarpone - but it's okay made with just cheddar, provided the cheese is sharp enough 1/2 lb bacon, 1/2 lb mushrooms per pint (for those who like them) fried & drained & mixed into cheese sauce grate fresh nutmeg into sauce - we use lots, but then we like it - along with salt & pepper to taste Mix cooked pasta - but very al dente - into sauce. Prepare 9x9 dish - increase size of dish as required - by finely slicing tomatoes and placing them on bottom & sprinkling fresh basil over the tomatoes - pour mac & cheese over top of tomatoes. Top with a mixture of 1/2 parmesan & 1/2 breadcrumbs. Bake at 450 until done - top is browned, and it's bubbling - should be browned around edges & base of pan as well. We've always enjoyed it, and yes, even in comparison to Martha's! Although we've also enjoyed the Annie's Organics (when I'm feeling lazy) - made with mayonnaise rather than milk/butter & adding a couple of tablespoons of salsa. Surprisingly satisfying. Oh - and absolutely it can be put together the night before, refrigerated & then baked later - just leave off whatever you're using as a topping & add that just before baking.

Yes, but part of the point is that I get to eat the delicious crunchy bits that fall out. And since I don't own a deep-fryer (it gets pan fried), I don't get burned. I think I may be missing the point by taking this seriously. Sorry.. Our comfort food was generally Chinese food while we were living in Vancouver - big plate of ginger beef at szechuan chongqing - or dim sum.

ooooh - now I'm hungry. Damn. Guess I'll pick up some baking potatoes on the way home from work

Squeeze extra hard on the plastic bottle of hot sauce because the lid seems to be jammed without first checking to see if I'd untwisted the lid. Even the dogs wouldn't eat the resulting mess. Damn.

I will never again .... Think that adding fresh diced chiles to boiling water is a good way of infusing pasta (it's already too late to say I'll never again cook while soused & believe that a shortcut just thought of is a good idea). We had to go out - everyone, including the dogs, was acting like they'd been pepper-sprayed.

Me too, but somewhow that doesn't seem to translate into people cooking for me - hooray - pity party! For the last while, it's been alternating between eggs Smithers (leftover goose instead of ham or bacon & some kale because we all need our veggies) and fresh-baked scones (b/c my dad needs to finish the rum butter, dammit, and he prefers scones to toast). Must ..... stop .... baking. Sorry no photos - breakfast is not a time for flash photography in our house.

Hie thee to the HSG FAST - particularly if there's still hangar steak on the menu (am I even FAINTLY spelling that right?) - probably one of the food experiences of the year.

Both of which have, IMO, been now overtaken by that amazing international hockey team, BELARUS!! Oops, sorry - partisan tendencies showing ...

I'd also recommend the Lennox - corner of Robson & Granville (under the Burger King sign) - the food's not bad, the drink prices are about standard for downtown Vancouver, and, provided it's not a Friday, seating is pretty straightforward. We usually went upstairs - go to the end of the bar & up the stairs on the right - comfortable seats, and the service was generally good.