CaliPoutine

Angelo's Italian Market in London. Too bad they dont have San Marzano's.

Yep, they sure do. I'll bring you some next time we go to Florida.

I've cooked over a dozen recipes from Cook's Illustrated and every single one of them came out fantastic. They say that they test and retest and I tend to believe them. I'm a big fan and I'll continue trying them. I also enjoy Fine Cooking. I've made a lot of things from Cooking Light too. I find the main dishes are great, however the baking is a left to be desired( probably because its low-fat)

Our first stop yesterday was Arva Flour Mill. I dont know how many times in the last 3yrs we've passed this on the way to London. I've wanted to stop a million times but just never did. I'm so glad we finally did. The mill is powered by water from Medway creek and has been operating since 1819. We bought a big bag of cream of whole wheat for 1.53.

Good morning Robin and I are tag teaming the gym this morning since our niece is still here. No breakie today, however I'll be making some breakfast foods at lunch. Farm fresh eggs, nieman ranch bacon, yukon gold home fries and 12 grain toast. I might round out the meal with some crepes. I only made 3 crepes last night and because I was exhausted, I just popped the batter back in the fridge. I just got back from the gym and I was famished. I heated up some kasha and I'm eating that while the boys stare at me. I'm also drinking water. Chels had some lucky charms a few hours ago. She just asked me for something else so I thought I could pawn off the noodle pudding on her. Her first question was " why does it have cinnamon on it"? I forgot that she doesnt like cinnamon. Oh well, the boys enjoyed it on their kibble. Other than brunch today, I'm not cooking anything else. Tomorrow I plan on making the cake that I talked about upthread and one last thing for my closing post. edited to add picture of breakfast

Sounds delightful. As an ex-pat Canadian, I might make a special request for some particular chocolate bars to share around too! ← Robin and I could always bring some too. If we can find some local goat cheese, we can make crostini with the fig jam I made last weekend. I'll be glad to share a couple jars.

All you need is a sifter. ← I have a powdered sugar shaker and an oxo sifter. I was too tired to go looking for them. They tasted good nevertheless.

Sorry so late in responding. I would have loved to stay in the US, but I dont think Robin would have. She's more of a small town girl and she has a good, stable job that she's had for 20 years. We dont get to TO often enough. I'd go everyweek if it was feasible. I think the last time we went was last November. Hmmm, I think a trip to TO is called for.

and then we waited an hour for dessert. I could only manage a bite, I was so full!! Crepes de cajeta. They were really yummy. I loved the flavor of the cajeta, it didnt seem that sweet either.

Dinner tonight. We had spagettini with it. I also bought an italian garlic baquette at Angelo's today. However, I left it in the car when we went into another shop and Oliver took a few chunks out of it. He reached over the back of the SUV and pulled it out of a bag. Bad, bad Oliver. Oy........ at least the birds enjoyed the rest.

Last night I asked Robin to wake me up at 8am so I could go to Goderich and take pictures of Culbert's bakery. Culberts is a Goderich landmark, having been in business since 1942. Prior to 1942, the bakery went by a different name and was established in the late 1800's Culberts is known for their donuts. They make 16 diffent kinds. The most popular is cream filled. They also have Boston cream, cream with chocolate icing, honey glazed, choc. chip, cinn. raisin, apple fritters, cherry filled, lemon filled, rasberry jelly filled, white and maple iced, orange and rum and raisin. Yummy. Their donuts are like none Ive ever had before. They are really light, not at all greasy and not too sweet. I'd take one over a krispy kreme any day. I remember one occasion when I came here to visit Robin while I was still living in California. We were spending the weekend at her mom's house and she suggested we go get some donuts. I was all for it as well, but her mom said it would be so busy there. We got there and there were maybe 4 people ahead of me. Robin and her mom thought that was a busy!!! LOL. I incoherently stumbled out of bed and Robin said " do you want me to go for you". I said sure honey, thanks. Robin came home a few hours later with a piece of paper from the casino in Clinton. Robin had a shwindel on her way home and stopped there. The casino only has slot machines so its no big deal really. Robin dropped 20 in the machine and came home with $377.00 . Guess she's glad now that she offered to go pick up the donuts. I know I am.

Today's breakfast. and just for Wendy Please ignore the cutting board. I placed a hot pan on it and most of the paint scraped off. We just finished renovating our bathroom, the kitchen is next. We live in a 100yr old house that we are getting ready to put up for sale. Our next house will definatly have a gas stove. That was Robin's oatmeal. We usually eat steelcut oat. That container came from Trader Joe's. Robin tried her oatmeal with brown sugar, she thought the brown sugar somewhat distracted from the peanut butter taste. I had splenda with mine. After breakfast we went to the Arva flour mill and Angelo's. ( pics to come later). We bought some stuff at Angelo's. Fresh breads, deli items, and boccocini mozzarella. Chels was hungry so Robin got her a slice of pizza. Chels requested the brocolli pizza. We stopped at a few more places around on our way back. A local farm for asparagus and a cheese shop. I was hoping to find some local goat cheese, but they didnt have any. I made us lunch. Robin had prosciutto, fig jam and the mozzarella on a cibatta bun. I had another type of bun( cant recall the name) with low salt, no fat turkey breast. I tried the prosciutto in the store and I didnt like it at all. It had somewhat of a gamey taste to me. At this moment, a pot of marinara is bubbling on the stove, and the turkey meatballs are in the oven. The rest of the night will be spent inside uploading and posting and making some crepes so we can enjoy the cajeta. Chels is very excited to try that. I gave her a piece of the halvah after her half of a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and she really liked it. : ). That's my girl!! Robin tried it and didnt like it. Gotta love those kids, they are so open to trying new things, they dont have preconcieved notions of what things will taste like.

I bought the ground turkey to make meatballs. I'm going to make a big pot of marinara too. I'll also make up a batch of beef meatballs for my neice to take home. I'll use Canadian ground beef and pork for those. For the meatballs, I use 1 package each of lean ground thigh and one package of ground breast meat. I use the food proccesor to chop up a zuccini, a carrot, green onions, italian parsley, fresh bread crumbs, garlic, and parmesean cheese. I season with salt, pepper and oregano. I form the mixture into balls and bake them in the oven until browned. I know traditionally, most recipes call for browning the balls in a pan on top of the stove, but I try to keep the fat at a minimum and this method tastes great so I dont mess with it. The sauce is evoo, lots of fresh garlic, 3 cans of san marzano tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, a rind of parmesean and basil. I finish with chopped italian parsley. I bought a bag of martelli pasta. Martelli is my favorite imported artisanal pasta. I never realized there could be such a difference in taste between a 5$lb pasta and a supermarket brand. I few weeks ago I made chicken cacciatore and Robin was excited for her friends to try to martelli pasta. I asked them how they liked it and did it taste any different to them and they said NO. Hmmmm, maybe our tastes are a little bit more advanced than theirs. Chelsea is bugging me to get on the computer So I'm off to start the sauce.

continuing on....... Hayter's produces over a million kilos of turkey per year!! Wow, thats a lotta turkey. They process and distribute to grocery stores and other plants for processing( they dont do any of the smoked products in house). Hayter's offers everything from traditional Thanksgiving turkey( Canadian Thanksgiving is in October) to a lemon butter roast for the gourmet. Hayter's turkey farms spans 1000 acres and its located in Dashwood, ON. A village even smaller than Exeter. Last year for the grand opening of their new retail store, they held a recipe contest. I won first place for fast and easy turkey chili.

My second stop on yesterday's field trip was Hayter's turkey products. The best tasting, leanest turkey in all of Huron County. If it's made of turkey, Hayter's probably has it. Check out these pictures.

Oh boy, I agree with you. I'll never understand why they're are so popular. The burger looks really good, and so does that cheesy bread. ← If you like that delectable crispy skin of a really properly fried (or broiled) chicken, then wings are the part for you. Backs are right up there too, but one doesn't find them as readily in the deli department and they seem a lot bigger, so they're a tougher sell as appetizers. Mmm. Nice crispy wings. Mmm. Mind you, the thigh is my favorite part - lots of good chicken grease and tender moist meat in there - but wings are a close second for me. Am I guessing correctly that you're not wild about chicken skin? ← I despise chicken skin. If I had my way, Id skin everything before I cooked it, but like the other day when I roasted the chicken, I couldnt skin that and that was almost the first thing Robin went for. She loves the skin. Chicken wings are the one thing I wish Robin would remove from her diet.

Wings is wings, but what is that wonderful looking cheesey bready thing? It looks SO good! Marcia. ←

First stop today was Dougall's berry farm. They are known for their fantastic pick your own Ontario strawberries. I cant wait until those are in season in June. I'm not a big fan of rhubarb, in fact the only thing I've ever tasted it in is jam. There is a pretty popular recipe round these parts that uses crushed pineapple, strawberry jello, tons of sugar, rhubarb and a small amount of strawberries. I think it was the first jam I ever made. I like it, but its really, really sweet. I prefer my jams to be made with minimal sugar. Can you get any fresher than this? He asked me how much I wanted, I told him 1lb and he went and picked it. Even after 2 yrs this still amazes me. The ruhbarb sells for 1.25lb. You can see from the sign that they also sell aspargus. I was upset that they were sold out. That goes for 2.50lb. Deeper into the summer, we often go to the mennonite farms and get fresh vegetables. The taste is just unbelievable and so cheap. Too bad I cant take any pictures or I would. You have to see it to believe it, their gardens are amazing.

Sorry this dinner post was so late, I had to rush out the door for a 9pm interview. Hopefully, I got the job Tonight I made chicken slouvaki( although probably not authentic by any means). It was raining so I couldnt grill the chicken like I planned. I had to use my stovetop grill. I have a circulon, but I dont like it that much, it doesnt produce nice grill marks. I've been looking at the all-clad grill, however I wonder if its really worth the money. First though, I made the kasha. Kasha is buckwheat groats. Kasha hasnt made it to the mainstream palate, but it should. I think its a really overlooked grain. I used a cup and a half of raw kasha. I coated the kasha with a beaten egg, then let the grains dry. I dry fried them in a hot pan with just a touch of oil, then added 3 cups of the chicken stock I had made the other day. Next came salt and pepper. I boiled up some bow-tie pasta and added that plus the carmelized onions after the kasha had absorbed all the liquid. Jewish comfort food at its finest. Robin pronouced it too oniony and Chelsea didnt like it either, although she did really like "the chicken thingy" and she even tried some of the sauce. When I came home from the interview she told me she had some of my cake from the other day and she gave it 99,999 thumbs up. Wow, I was flattered. The oven fries came out really well. I cut them in strips, rinsed them, then boiled them for 3 minutes. I let them dry, then placed them on a hot pan after I tossed them with olive oil. Lastly, I sprinkled them with kosher salt.

Dinner last night: We went to the Albion Hotel in Bayfield. Bayfield is on the shores of Lake Huron. The ground floor houses a restaurant and pub and the top floor has rooms for rent. The Albion is a hopping place on Thursday nights. Wings are 50 cents each. The Albion is owned by Kim. We saw one of our friends Barb dining that evening. She told us the sweet potato soup was fabulous so I ordered that and a turkey burger. Surprisingly, there are very few places around here that sell turkey burgers. I love the Albion for that reason alone. Robin had wings. There are very few foods in life I refuse to eat and wings is one of them. To me, there is nothing even remotely appealing about wings. The turkey burger was very good. It comes with guacamole( but they were out of it), salsa( which I declined), sprouts, lettuce, and pickle. I subbed Onion rings for the fries. While the turkey burger was spot on, I didnt like the rings at all. There was entirely too much breading and they were too greasy. I guess its a matter of personal preference. I prefer thin, lightly coated rings. I ate one and that was enough. edited to add soup picture

Thanks gaisorowski. Maybe one day you'd like to keep a food blog. I'm sure everyone would love to hear about all the wonderful, expensive, restaurants you and your partner enjoy in Ft. Lauderdale. I love you Mikey!!

I think they classify Halva as a candy. I know its made with sesame seeds, but other than that and sugar, Im not sure what the other ingredients are. I've been eating it since I was a kid( another nostagia thing maybe?) I love to cook and bake. I honestly cant say that I love either one more than the other. I think I bake more now because Im trying to up my skill level. I had so little time when I was in law school, so I never baked anything. I've never cooked and baked more in my entire life than I have in the last 2 and a half years. Oh and crostini sounds great. We we can get some local goat cheese and my thyme grows up( they are just little seedlings now), I'll try that.

Here is a recipe for Rhubarb Cake ← Thanks Michelle, Before the Detroit station so rudely removed Martha from the morning lineup, I did see the author of that cake recipe on the show. She prepared the cake on the show and it looked good. Im not a huge fan of rhubarb, but anything for the blog ya know!!

I just finished a late lunch. I was "out and about" taking pictures and talking to the local farmers/shopkeepers. As I mentioned upthread, I eat a sandwich almost everyday. I had turkey on 12 grain with light mayo, sweet hot mustard, provolone, avocado and baby arugula. A half sour pickle accompanied it. I also drank a diet coke w/splenda. The sandwich was yummy, so much better on this than commercially prepared bread. I broke off a tiny piece of the halvah for a sweet treat. I received this grilled cheese book a few weeks ago and I've been itching to make something out of it. Thanks Marlena for the great book!! I found the perfect use for the fig jam I made a few days ago. Fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and fig jam panini. Robin and I are going to Angelo's in London tomorrow to buy the provisions. I also bought this press a few months ago and it works extremely well with my grill pan.

Good morning everyone, Last night was a late one for me. Lots of pictures to upload and post. I had planned to get up really early, but my cozy comfortable bed kept calling my name. So, no bakery trip today. I just spoke with the owner of the bakery and I decided to get up early( really, I will) tomorrow and go. Saturday is a better day anyway, as they have many more donut flavors for sale. I just ate breakfast. Same as yesterday, a piece of noodle pudding. Does anyone know if this freezes well? There is a whole whack of it left and since Robin doesnt care of it, I'm the only consumer of it. Hopefully, I can pass some off to our 7yr old niece, if she comes for a visit tomorrow. Yesterday, I thought about giving a smidgen of it to the boys on their food, but when I came home in the afternoon, Robin informed me that Oliver was a bad boy. He managed to pull down from a low shelf, an entire HUGE brand new box of Trader Joe's dog biscuits. He ate every last one of them. Harley wasnt acting too guilty so I doubt he had anything to do with it. As my niece is fond of saying " Oliver is a khazerh(pig)" . I'm so proud that Chelsea's learned a few yiddish phrases, lol. I've come to realize this week, that there are so many recipes and so little time. I still want to make the kasha, Pam R's kugel( Robin thought it sounded fantastic and so did I), and dessert with the cajeta. I've decided on crepes. Anyone have a fool proof recipe for the crepes? I also want to bake The Classic Vanilla Layer Cake with mascarpone buttercream and rasberries that I spied in the new issue of Fine Cooking. For now, though, I'll concentrate on today. For dinner tonight I think I'll grill up those chicken breasts after allowing them to bathe in a mixture of lemon, garlic, rosemary and evoo. I'll pick up some whole wheat greek pita and we'll have those with the tzazaki sauce Robin picked up yesterday. I make a great sauce with drained yogurt cheese, garlic and drained, shreeded english cucumber but I just dont have the time. And, I swear I'm going to make the oven fries. I had planned on making them with the roast chicken, but there wasnt enough room in the oven. Im really curious how they will taste using the method of blanching first and then baking. Normally, when I make oven fries, I cut thick wedges, spray with olive oil and bake. We always enjoyed them, and I guess I just kinda ignored the "leathery" texture. The article in Fine Cooking says by using the blanch and cook method and by using russetts, you can avoid that problem. Now, Im off to the turkey farm and to pick up some rhubarb at the berry farm down the road. Anyone have any good cake recipes for rhubarb? Preferably with no strawberries( Robin is allergic) Oh and tonight I have an interview at a Bistro in Grand Bend. Wish me luck