CaliPoutine

Here are the choc. choc chip muffins. From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I couldnt resist trying one. They were very good, not to sweet and a nice hit of chocolate. I used 2 oz of Perugina and 4oz of Trader Joe's pound plus belgium chocolate( i chopped up a bit more than was called for) I went to the grocery store and bought the rest of the items I need for Wednesday's Senior Meal. I dropped them off at the Arena. I've never cooked there before so I might have to bring a lot of my own equipment. I dont think they have a hand mixer of muffin tins. I'll probably bring my own Salad spinner too. One of the ladies who will be helping me was there. She asked me what we were having and I said " Chicken, onion, mushroom pie". She said " That's different". LOL. I've heard this crowd is very picky.

Sandy, I think the way I do it, is pretty much the same way you do. I just cube up the cooked potatoes and saute in some olive oil. This way, I know they're cooked thru and the oil crisps them up nicely. ← If I can just add a point for clarification...the baked potato has to be refrigerated, usually overnight, before the home fries are made. It's the refrigeration that turns the baked potato firm and almost waxy. It makes it quite easy to cube the potato the next morning. I've also seen other cooks shred these refrigerated baked potatoes into "home-style" hash browns though they're not my cup of tea, to mix metaphors. Calipoutine, I am exhausted just reading your blog! Your energy seems boundless. I look forward to reading more. ← Yes, yes, of course it needs to be refridgerated. I should have mentioned that. I wish I had as much energy as you all think I have. I'm so exhausted lately that I've been going to sleep as early as 9:30. I'm normally a night owl. I try to get 8-9 hours of sleep a night. Any less and I can't function. My spouse Robin does a tremendous amount for me. She does ALL the dishes, the only thing I really have to do is cook and grocery shop.( I do other stuff too, but she does way more)

The morning glory muffins are finished. The choc. choc. chip muffins are in the oven. They smell fabulous. Lunch today: Healthy choice turkey, aged provolone, honey mustard, dab of light mayo on half a whole wheat pita. A few lays sour cream and onion chips. I like to eat a few chips when I have a sandwich. Diet coke to drink.

Good Morning: I have a busy day today. I'm catering a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning at 8am. My menu is: Coffee and OJ Morning Glory Muffins( King Arthur Whole Grain baking book) Bacon and cheddar muffins( Southern Living) Choc. Choc. Chip muffins( Baking from My home to yours) Fresh fruit Honey Vanilla yogurt(Astro Balkan Style yogurt with manuka honey and a scraped vanilla bean) Andy's Fairfield Granola( Nigella's Feast) I also have to make a run to the grocery store and drop all the food off at the arena where I'm cooking the Senior meal on Wednesday. I normally cook on Thursday at a church kitchen in Grand Bend. However, I switched with another cook so I'm taking her program which is in Zurich, ON and she's taking mine on Thursday. I'm working for Barb( caterer) on Thurs, Friday and Saturday. ( I can't wait until this week is over)........ I better get started.

Have a good day tomorrow! How were the leftovers? ← Good. I was starving as I skipped lunch. My boss's ribs are very different than mine. She doesnt remove the silverskin, her rub is very different and while they are grilling she bastes them with cider vinegar. I usually bake mine for a few hours at a low temp, then finish them on the grill. I most frequently use a mustard based BBQ sauce as well. (ps: I like mine better)

Dinner tonight: My boss sent me home with tons of leftovers. I had a few ribs, half a piece of chicken and a piece of corn. I'm off to bed. Long day tomorrow.

Sure. I think its named after a song by Johnny Cash. Per 4 servings: Its (1 large, or 1 1/2 small)belgium endive,(1 head) butter(bib) lettuce, 3/4 cup flat leaf parsely, 2-3 green onions and 1 avocado. The dressing is 1Tbls lime juice, 3 tbls evoo, 1tsp honey and salt and pepper.

The package says its from the Manuka bush. Product of Australia. Here is a link to the pancake flour.

salmon( this went like wildfire). Simply seasoned with lime juice, salt and pepper. chicken, boneless skin on thighs and breasts( both cut it half). salads.( Ceasar, 40 shades of green, and a pasta salad the client provided. My boss doesnt like it when the client provides food because then the guests think it came from the caterer. corn on the cob. Melted butter to the left.

I'm home!! I worked 6 hours today and it wasnt too bad. I have lots of pictures. We grilled off all the chicken, salmon and ribs in Grand Bend. We put them in chafers and thermal vats and drove to London( actually Arva). I dressed the salad on site as well. My boss had this giant bbq made and it was so freaking hot. I wasnt doing too much grilling, but a co-worker ended up with a burn on her arm. My boss ended up with giant red marks on her stomach. The carrot cake I made yesterday. salad prep My boss Barb. 38 portions of salmon finished ribs more to come.....

Hi, I actually have not tasted it yet. I will though tomorrow. I'm making Honey vanilla yogurt for the breakfast I'm catering. I really love the PC brands, I think the quality is a lot better than the No Name brands. We don't eat red meat so when we want a burger, its either veggie or turkey. I like the PC portabello swiss veggie burgers. My spouse also like the PC frozen wings. Some of their cooking sauces are nice too. They had one a few years ago called Tuscan balsamic fig( or something to that effect) that was really good.

Breakfast today: I usually make us a bigger breakfast on Sunday's. I have to work at noon today and I probably wont get a chance to eat lunch so this breakfast was perfect. A bit of carbs and some protein. I really love this waffle flour. Its produced in MI and I bought it at Williams-Sonoma. I use a couple of tsps of the blueberry syrup. I had another pancake and I used sugar-free syrup that I mix with a small amount of real maple for flavor. We shared a glass of non-fat milk. The sausages are Johnsonville breakfast sausages(on sale for 2.50CAD). Blueberry pancakes are one of the few ways I can get Robin to eat fruit. She doesnt care for fruit. Can you believe it? I live for Summer produce.

$1.99/lb Canadian. ← Same for me!!

Hmmmm, I dont know. I know Anna didnt make her's round. She used a 9 x 13 and said she didnt think that worked well because this cake needs more surface area to absorb the filling. Not sure about how many days it took her. Today would be my 4th day. I might wait another day, depending on how tired I am when I get home tonight. Now I just looked into the cake mix doctor book and that version frosts the entire cake with the filling. I didnt do that. I'm going to frost the top with whipped cream. Btw, I cook for the Seniors on Wednesday. I'm making a Paula Dean dessert recipe. Not Yo Mamma's banana pudding. I also bought whipping cream for that instead of coolwhip. I know you're not a fan of coolwhip.

Those onion rings triggered my "salivation reaction". Its funny though because I never ever order them - unlike french fries. And I am a major consumer of onions and all their relatives (shallots, chives, leeks, garlic, scallions, ramps) So what was wrong with them? What makes a ring? ← I can't really place what was wrong with them. Maybe it was the coating. One of the better rings I've had here, was the Presidents Choice frozen onion rings. I always bake them. I much prefer onion rings to fries. We ordered some fries too and I had a couple before Robin doused them in vinegar. Here are some rings I had in my first foodblog . I didnt like these AT ALL. When I posted that picture, my friend thought they were donuts!! I think I prefer rings like the ones at Tony Roma's. My parents took us there a lot when we were kids and they always ordered the onion loaf.

Dinner tonight: I went uptown to a new place that opened about a month ago. I think I've eaten there 4 or 5 times since. When I like something, I tend to be loyal(Christine can account for that). I have a few places I like in London and when I eat out there, I stick to those. When this place first opened, they didnt have any sauces. I decided to buy some tahini and make my own tatziki. I just found out today they now have the latter. This was so huge, I could only eat half. This sandwich was 3.99. We shared some rings too. They were just so so. I almost want to write a letter to the town paper urging people to try something new. There is a known fact about people in this area regarding food. If they can't pronounce it, they won't eat it. This restaurant also makes Hamburgers and chicken burgers( a fried chicken patty) and nuggets. I hope this place stays open because I like it. When a Mexican family came to town and opened an authenic Mexican restaurant, it didnt last long.

We actually don't use that much. Maybe 9oz every few weeks. I think this is the only cake we make that uses unsweetened choc.

Speaking of PC products, here is one I picked up today. I bought this new honey a few weeks ago and I paid full price( 3.99). Today, at No Frills, it was marked down to 2.00. It was advertised in the PC Insiders guide( guide to new products) as being from New Zealand. The bottle says its a product of Australia. I bought it for the Senior meal on Wednesday. I'll be making honey butter with it. They're getting corn muffins as their " bread". I fully intended on making the corn muffins from scratch, but then I saw the PC organic corn muffin mix so I bought 3 of those. I'll report back.

I forgot to mention what my naughty Oliver did. Robin was already up and out at 7am this morning. I left at 8:30. I guess I *forgot* to kick the cabinet door (where we keep our trash) shut.... ( I told you, we need a new kitchen badly). Oliver got into the trash. Yesterday, I threw out a bunch of stuff from the freezer dowstairs. So, he ate an individual portion of a breakfast strata( uncooked) with turkey sausage, bread and egg beaters. His belly looks huge. I think he has a stomach ache.

You're not the only one!! I get a lot of comments regarding my shopping in the States. I guess old habits die hard. Seriously though, we have a little side hobby/business selling vintage kitchen wares and collectibles and I ship the stuff from MI. Its a lot cheaper and I get a lot more people willing to bid on our stuff because of it. There are a lot of products I like that I can't find here. The big one is King Arthur Flour. I also have a PO Box in MI. I get all my magazine subscriptions sent there. If I order anything from Amazon it goes there as well. So, its not like I just go to MI to go grocery shopping. I also see a Dr. there because the drug I'm on for my diabetes is not avaible in Canada(yet?)

I read about the cake on Anna's blog( she is an Eg member. She won the Pillsbury Million dollar bake-off a couple years ago. Here is the link. There is a similar recipe in the Original Cake Mix Doctor Book. The author calls it Grandma's coconut icebox cake. It this version, you make the coconut mixture and the cake on the same day and then you can eat it on day 3, but the author also says it tastes a lot better if you wait 5 days. Tomorrow will be day 3 according to The Cake Mix doctor, but the 4th day according to Anna's version. I'll see how I feel when I get home tomorrow. I have to whip up the cream and frost it before we eat it. Don't worry, I'll take pics.

Sandy, I think the way I do it, is pretty much the same way you do. I just cube up the cooked potatoes and saute in some olive oil. This way, I know they're cooked thru and the oil crisps them up nicely.

I've lost 40lbs. I'm kinda at a standstill. As soon as aquafit starts, I'm sure the loss will pick up again. Thanks for asking.

You're seeing me blog all week!! Actually, I don't eat Poutine, but maybe I can convince my spouse to partake.