Pam R

Sorry I didn't reply earlier - I've been busy!! Food safety is a huge issue for me. In my city, every food establishment has to have at least one staff member who has gone to a food safety handling course and taken a test. I'm set to take the test in a couple of weeks - though without the course. I have a book I'm studying to refresh myself. I went to the University to get a bach. in hotel/restaurant management. One of the courses was food safety and sanitation. For 10 weeks and (I think) 3 credits, we learned all we ever wanted to know about food borne illnesses, HAACP, the 'danger' zone, storing foods, cooking foods, etc. I can tell you that at the end of the course non of my classmates would eat in the cafeteria for a long while! Anyhow,at the end of the course we all had to take the Minnesota equiv. of a food handler's test. We are just moving our business and my mother and I are taking the test (my mother's already done the course but she's up for retesting - I think it's every 5 years). We have to renovate before our kitchen is up and running again - but I intend on having every staff person take the course. What scares me is that even though every food service place HAS to have somebody who has taken the course, there are many places that I will not eat in - if the eating area and bathrooms (and outside) look like shit - what are the chances that the kitchen is spotless? Any other cities doing this?

Try Ling's recipe with a pecan chiffon and whipped cream....

It is in my cookbook... although as I tasted it today I decided I prefer a melon one I also have in there. I'm not sure about giving quantities here.... but I'll list what's in it - and I'm sure if you did it to taste it would be great... or you could buy the book Mangoes (2-ish) Oranges (2-4 depending on size) Canteloupe (a smallish one) Orange Pepper Cucumber (long, seedless) shallot (1) Basil (a bunch - handful) Salt Pepper splash of balsamic splash of olive oil I like to hold back some of the mango, cantaloupe and pepper - fine dice it for a garnish. then puree everything til smooth (if you like it chunky, do it chunky). Obviously best with really ripe fruit - let it sit in the fridge for a few hours minimum for the flavours to really work together. It's HOT here - this is a really nice refreshing soup for a hot, muggy day.

Oooo.... listen to this guy. He liked my cookbook Yay! Sorry for the shameless self-promotion.

Made four soups tonight - all cold, 2 desserts, 2 not. Chocolate soup Strawberry "Sambuca" soup Avocado Soup Orange Gazpacho (not authentic but good! mango, cantalope, orange pepper, basil, cucumber, oranges.... mmm.)

That's brilliant. Any chance you could tell me where you got them .... and do they have a website?

Fantastic blog so far - can't wait for more! One question: Your 'spice rack' - it's hard to tell from the picture... are they.... magnetic?? Are they on your fridge? Or is the picture just playing tricks on me?

Then it would benefit restaurants to introduce meringues to their customers - they are far more profitable than cheesecakes.

I use meringues at work - but nothing too imaginative. In the restaurant (no longer open) we always had individual lemon meringue pies (tarts) in the showcase. Almost always had one form of daquoise tort. When we were catering large weddings, one of the most popular just after dinner desserts (served after a sit-down meal, a couple hours before a full pastry table) was an individual meringue basket (pavlovas sort of). Filled with either a spiked whipped cream or lemon filling and topped with seasonal fruit. 350 of them going out in 10 minutes. Meringue is also the perfect Passover dessert - so I always bake a bunch of small baskets, large baskets and meringue cookies for the holiday.

I've been reading all the posts.... which has me questioning whether the OPH -es here are of the same chain... I *think* they are - but there is no mention of them on the website. I think I may be ordering the wrong things...

pavlova of course! (could you make jam/jelly with it?)

Until VERY recently (I'm talking about a month) the only completely non-dairy margarines I've been able to get in these parts are Fleishman's and Mother's. I just bought my first tub (no sticks ) of Earth Balance but haven't done anythign with it yet. It's on the expensive side for me to use at work - unless I can find a distributor for it - buying it retail for the quantities I need won't work. I'm very interesting in trying the new crisco. When I was in Toronto last year I tried some tofu mousse at Whole foods. Apparently it's just a matter of tossing some soft tofu in a food processor with flavourings - I'm sure there are tons of recipes for it online. I also just discovered soy yogurt - I'm on a restrictive diet over the next month or so (trying to pinpoint some allergies) so I'm unable to try many things now - but I'm really interested in this - anybody else tried it? as for Goats .... I've never tried the milk, but I'm definately a fan of goat-feta. - I liketo crumble a little into a quiche or eggs. Carmelized onion tart with some on top is amazing... that sort of thing. I know I just mentioned the potato milk thing above - but it's supposed to be very good for people with allergies (unless, of course you're allergic to potatoes!). I've tried it in coffee - and would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and coffee with milk. On it's own, it's definately not milk - but in other things it's very good. It doesn't have that gritty texture issue that I don't like about soy milk. We've used some of the soy cheeses (how else do you make a kosher ruben?). I try to like them, but I find it hard. There may be better products out there - but the kosher issue limits me. I do like the soy cream cheese and sour creams though (tofutti I think).

I use dairy subs constantly (due to kashrut, as you mentioned). Do they completely duplicate the flavours of the dairy products? No. Are they still good? Yes. Many people turn their noses up at non-dairy subs - but I'm not one of them. The one item that is hard to replace it whipping cream - the non-dairy stuff just isn't the same. The best you can do is doctor it up with some liquor or other flavours. If a recipe calls for butter I use Fleishman's margarine or crisco - depending on the recipe. I'm starting to experiment with the butter-flavoured crisco, but haven't done enough to comment on it yet. If a recipe calls for milk/cream (not whipped), I will sub either water or non-dairy creamer. I'm not a fan of soy milk, but I've been meaning to do some baking with potato milk. I've baked cakes, made genache, icings and soups with non-dairy creamers. I've baked cheesecakes using soy cream cheese - and a recipe calling for sour cream, replaced with soy sour cream. I love the soy cheesecakes. I buy ready-to-use puff pastry - it's non-dairy but tastes buttery (I don't think I want to know how they get it to taste so good!) There's lots you can do without the dairy - you just have to be willing to experiment.

And this mixture is also good as a sauce for falafel...mmm. Your comment on Israeli hummus reminded me of the platters of tehini and hummus that they always brought to the table in Israel to begin a meal. I was there with my high-school graduating class and many of us filled up on the appetizer before the meal.

I don't think that it HAS to be frozen to travel.... I'm just wondering if it may have been frozen at some point, resulting in mush and less flavour. They freeze smoked salmon all the time ... maybe they freeze goldeye? We have to find out what the shelf life is - if they are shipping it to BC, maybe they freeze it to prolong the life. Are they flying it or driving it? Or else, it was just a bad fish

Mtigges- Any idea where the goldeye originated? Was it smoked here or there? I wonder if it was smoked here and frozen on it's way to Vancouver? It's true that it can my mushy... and that's a shame - because they often are not. They usually have a very smokey smell and taste of it. In my family, the fish is eaten with a fork (alongside but not on bread) and served with sour cream. Honestly, I don't know anybody who turns it into a spread - they just wouldn't waste it. But maybe if it is mushy, it will at least let you salvage it. Sorry your first taste wasn't all we've said it should be! YOu may just have to come to Winnipeg to get the good stuff

Adding a little less oil to the mix and replacing it with some plain old water will help make it a little lighter. And puree the heck out of it if you want smooth. For me, the smoother the better - but whatever floats your boat. I don't add any paprika or cumin or anything to the mix... just sprinkle some on top when serving. For home I use fresh garlic - in my family it's rare to have too much garlic. If I'm making it for a catering function, I may replace it with roasted - also good, but I like the punch of the fresh stuff. Serve with warm pita. grilled is better. (in the restaurant used to send it out with sliced cucumber, tomato, peppers, pickled peppers and olives).

In between catering and moving and running to costco to buy two chest freezers because we don't have a walk-in freezer yet and our other 8 freezers were full I sent my father to our store and told him to pick up a package of anything he could find for us to throw on the bbq. We had grilled chicken burgers, chicken hot dogs, beef dogs, lamb merguez and garlic salami. My sister contributed some rice thingy and a bunch of fresh veggies. That (and a trip to TCBY) was Canada Day for us. At least we bbq'd :) Happy (belated) Canada Day

My grandmother used to use this insult (in Yiddish): You should grow like an onion, with your head in the ground.

It sounds wonderful - but at the rate I'm going (I've eaten in 5 fast food restaurants in the last 3 days), I won't have time to cook anything at home this week. I'm thinking I'll pick up some stuff or order in. If a miracle occurs and we finish up early on Friday, and it stops raining, a BBQ MAY occur. Since we sell all of the meats we might need, it's something I can pull off last minute - we'll see. Can you make the fritters with fresh cod? They sound great.

hmm... I've had them from Israel. Not just Canadian.

Is that the same thing as Pic-A-Pop?

But shouldn't the Americans be concerned that the rest of the world does to them as they have done to the Canadians? (I'm assuming that the US is still exporting beef?) And don't forget, closing the border means the beef stops both ways. My uncle was a cattle broker for decades. He's in Canada but spent years and years on the road going to places like North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, etc. buying beef. This may be small stuff to some, but a company like Costco - that sells Sinai Beef hot dogs in all of their stores across the country had to stop bringing them in - what does that do to Sinai, an American Company? A few cases of Mad Cow has rippling effects.

Not at all related to food ... but my cousin was an art prof there... how odd. Actually, it is food related as he worked as a waiter for my family for years We are moving our business this week - we must be out by July 1st. It's 11:00 PM here and I was just sent home because I pulled something in my shoulder at some point today - loading or unloading the moving truck - and they told me to go get some rest so I can get back to work tomorrow. We're also catering 3 functions this weekend (Sat - Am & PM , Sun PM). Although I thought I would be able to do something (AKA - BBQ), I'm now beginning to think I'll be in the synagogue baking and prepping on Friday.... SO, it's up in the air now. I'm thinking a really Canadian thing to do would be to have some chinese or thai or something ethnic - or maybe better than that a bunch of different things - very 'multiculteral'. Any easy to do (or order) ideas would be great

Smarties? These? If so, I beg to differ on their Canadiality. Canadianity. Canadianess. ← Yes. as everybody said those were the wrong smarties. British - feh! All I know is that when I went to university in the US I was forced to bring sacs of the things down for my American dormmates.... British, Canadian, British, Canada.... she's our Queen too - does it matter??