CaliPoutine

Exeter is home of the White Squirrel!!

Here are a few more things. Imported artisan Italian pasta. 2 bucks each. reduced from 3.99.

Whenever I go to the States, I head right for TJ Maxx( Winners in Canada), Home Goods, Marshalls, etc. As soon as I enter the store, I make a beeline for the gourmet foods section. I make it a rule to only buy stuff that is on clearance. My goal is to get a big bang for little money. Here is my latest haul from my trip to Florida( I spent a few days in Michigan too). Do you buy food stuff at these places? Whats a favorite product? Never tried these before, but at 3 bucks each, they seemed like a good deal. I have a breakfast catering job next month. I'll serve this with muffins. These oils were a great find. I first discovered them at a TJ Maxx years ago and I love them. I paid full price the first time I bought them. They dont expire until July 08. The bbq sauce was 2.00 and contains NO high fructose corn syrup. The charlie trotter sauce was 1.00. I have tons more pics if anyone is interested.

On Mother's Day weekend, most of the grocery store chains in this area, had the canners on special for 5.99 each. I so wanted to buy some, but I was working all weekend and after coming home from work( where I cook), cooking is the last thing I want to do. Yours look delicious.

While in Florida last week., I ate at The Sage( the best bagels everah!!). Their matza ball soup is sub par. They serve it with spagettie noodles( an outrage). I also ate at The Best Deli. I've been eating there since I was a kid( I grew up in Plantation). Their matza ball soup was just weird. It was very dark and tasted vaugely of tomatoes. The Flashback Diner in Hallandale as good soup. My sister ordered a steven speilberg sandwich( triple layer of pastrami, corned beef, swiss cheese( so its not kosher) and russian dressing. She enjoyed it.

I'm not so sure that Rascal House is do-able. I think it would be a sadder than sad experience at this point. I should add here that nobody loved that place more than I did. I used to eat 7 dinners a week there when I'd vacation in Miami several times a year. But the Jerry's people destroyed it, and over the few years since they bought it, it's gotten worse, and worse, and worse. Now it's just a very (very) sad shadow of its former self, with food that's even sadder. Personally, I think they did it in stages, on purpose, so that nobody would miss the place when they ultimately got rid of it. But if you go (anybody) and get anything remotely edible, and have even a marginally enjoyable visit, please do post about it! ← It's a shonda what they did to that place, for certain. Snuffing it out slowly only to tear it down. A shonda! The lunch was pretty terrible, but I have to say that the danish and baked goods are still top notch. Probably because they have to bake for Jerry's and Epicure. Tragic. Truly. ← My parents took us there frequently when we were kids. I can still picture the waitresses with their folded fancy hankies under their nameplates. My grandma would pour a bit of coffee into the small cream container for my sister to drink. I too can't bear to see what its become so I skip it when I'm in Florida.

Ah poutine! In the right hands it can be the "pinnacle of gooey delights". I have never made it but we usually stop for some on the drive to Montreal. It deserves its own thread, but know you've got me thinking. I had better research (ie. photograph then eat) some poutine this week. And a donair. I'm from Toronto but married a Caper (a person born on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). ← Yay!! A Canadian blogger and one from NS at that. Every year my spouse says we must go to Nova Scotia, but something always comes up( and airfare is outrageous) and we dont go. My spouse's dad ( now deceased) is a caper. Born on Cape Breton Island in Point Hawksberry. Her family still owns a farm there. From what I hear, its a beautiful place.

Dont forget Katz's. When I was in Charlotte last year, I was told they were an authentic Jewish Deli. It was pretty good. Where I live now, there is NOTHING in the way of Deli. If I want it, I make it myself. I'm currently in S. Florida visiting family and I'm in Deli heaven. This morning, I visited the Sage( an appetizer shop) and brought in a bagels, and smoked salmon. Yummy. Oh, I also had a very fresh Black and White.

I use this pan( not this exact pan, something similar). Here is a pic.( ignore the canned cherries, that is what the client wanted). Yesterday at work, I made cheesecake bars( no pic). I cut then in 12 squares( 13 x 9 pan) and then each square into a triangle. I used a hot knife, they came out like a dream.

Today's meal. Mixed green salad w/ French dressing Martha Stewarts Meatloaf 101 Baked spuds w/ sourcream and chives frozen veg( green beans, wax beans, carrots( not shown) Holy Cow Cake( choc. cake with choc. chips, caramel, creamcheese whipped topping, chopped up skor( heath) bars.) For the salad I used romaine hearts( 3 in a package for 1.99 each). English cucumbers ( 3@ .79 each). 4 green peppers( 1.49lb), 1 bunch scallions( .50), 2 hot house tomatoes( 1.94)( I'll use more next time). 1 head of iceberg( .99) and 1 head of green leaf( .79). I use bottled dressing. I prefer to make my own, but I just didnt have the time. This is the first time I've used a bottled dressing. I bought 2 bags of ceasar croutons too. I made the meatloaf yesterday at my other job. I used the giant hobart to mix up the meat mixture. I left it in the walk-in overnight and baked it off today. Did I mention the church has no A/C? It was freaking hot in there!! Obviously, I missed the big chunk of carrot that the cuisinart didnt fully process. I yanked it out and threw it away. I prefer Russet potatoes for baking, mashed and scalloped. I bought 2( 20lb) bags for 5.99 each. There was about half of one bag left over. I wont be cooking the next meal( May 24). I'm coming back from Florida the day before and I just don't have enough time to plan ahead.

Isnt that Hellmans?

That sure looks like the Philly I use in my cheesecakes. I'm curious, is that Philly made in the US or elsewhere in Europe? Also, I noticed some Hellman's Mayo. No Dutch writing I could see. Did you buy that there or bring it back from your trip abroad?

I dont have the book(yet), but I do have 3 recipes I want to try. The coffee, the salted butter and the carmelized banana ice cream. ( David has made a few on his site) Maybe I'll pick one and start it tomorrow.

I asked my friend about the Pizza, here is what she had to say. Colonnade's on Metcalfe is probably the most famous sit-down pizza restaurant in Ottawa for regular-type, but I find that the Blackthorn Café in the market has better gourmet-type pizza. Forno Antico on Bronson is also well-known but I personally don't like it.

Wow, everything looks great. I hope you picked up some of that mustard. I do everytime I go to Toronto. I love the sweet and smokey.

Can you demonstrate this in July when we see you in Cleveland?

When does it start?

This is from a friend who lives in that area..... Greek On Wheels is amazing and fast. They have these vegetarian app platters with dolmas, spanikopita, hummus, etc and great brochettes and shwarmas and stuff. Tuk Tuk Thai is UNREAL. So delicious. Light of India is in the Glebe--don't think they deliver but their food is fantastic. (They do take-out.) Vietnamese Kitchen has great pho, but you're better off if you have your own traditional bowl/spoon/chopstick set. Are you looking for a certain type of cuisine?

Yes, I saw it a few weeks ago. I just saw him as a chef for benihana as well.

Yes, but then I actually have to cut up all the potatoes. I'm trying to make this meal easy on me. I usually have the day before the meal off, but I have to work the entire week getting ready for a Mother's Day brunch at my other job. I'm also filling in at another program on the Tuesday of that week. I dont think I'll go over budget this time. I'll only need about 20lbs of beef, and the potatoes cost 1.99 for 5lbs. I already bought 2lbs of butter yesterday( on sale for 2.88lb) and sour cream is around 1.49. I'll probably just do a big green salad and I bought a frozen green bean and carrot blend for 1.99( x 3 bags). I'll probably make a cake for dessert as well. Wow, look at that. I just planned the entire next meal and its not until May 10th.

Thanks, I saw that. My grocery store in town( Independendt part of Loblaws) has ground beef on for 1.79lb. I might do meat loaf and baked potatoes instead.

Hi All, Sorry I've been MIA, I've been working a lot!! KarenDW, I'd love to see some pics of your meals!! You're lucky. I have to provide juice and rolls along with everything else for the 3 bucks a person. Yesterday's meal was way over budget. I think I spent around 180.00. I sure hope the budget is averaged over the year. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've went over budget though. The menu Red broccoli salad pork chops w/ gravy hash brown casserole corn(frozen) Oat and Honey granola pie( with ice cream) I really had no choice this week as far as meat goes. The only thing on sale within my budget( and as you can see, I went over) was bone-in pork chops. I could have bought the sirloin end for 1.49lb, but I went with the center cuts for 2.49lb. Really, to stay within the budget, I should spend 1.99lb or less on the meat. The chops were big and beautiful. This package contained 10chops for 14.49. They shrunk a lot when they cooked. I browned them in a pan( which really I could have skipped because I didnt have the luxury of leaving them in the pan for as long as they needed). I used a 3lb bag of onions( which btw, have doubled in price). It used to cost 1.29, now it cost 2.49. I could have used 3 bags of onions, because they just seemed to get lost. I put the chops in a roasting pan and covered them with beef broth and some water. They were very tender by the time I took them out. Grapes( .99lb) and celery( 99cents) were on sale this week. So I planned the salad around those. I found a red broccoli salad recipe at Allrecipes.com. The original recipe calls for 2lbs of bacon, but I used 2lbs of bacon for 6x the recipe. Really, when I'm coverting the recipe to serve 50ppl, I often will just use the recipe as a guideline and go from there. I only used 1 red onion when I could have used 2, I left out the green onion, I subbed sunflower seeds for the almonds( seeds were cheaper) and I reduced the sugar and increased the vinegar. I also used light mayo. Everyone loved this salad. In fact, I'd even bring it to a potluck. The pototoes are your basic casserole potluck type of dish. Another recipe I took from All recipes.com. I think this is the hash browned casserole that is served at Cracker Barrel. Frozen hashbrowns, canned soup, sour cream, cheese, green onion. I left out all the butter in the recipe. The topping is crushed corn flakes. Very popular with the seniors. I had lots of requests for the recipe. Its funny, I'm almost embarrased to serve this though. I made the pies on Wednesday at my other job. Even though I have to drive to Grand Bend, its a lot easier to make them where I can bake all 8 of them at once. This recipe won the Pillsbury 1,000,000.00 bake-off in 2004. I actually have made it before( when it was annouced the winner) and its good. When I made it, I used a pate brise crust. This time, I used No Name all vegetable shortening crusts. They come Frozen, 2 in a box for 1.99. You can find the recipe for Oat and Honey Granola Pies here. Btw, I chose this recipe because granola bars were on sale for 1.00 a box. Just an intesting note. I bought 2 half gallons( 2L) of Bryers Vanilla ice cream. It was on sale for 3.99. The normal price is 8.49. Can you believe almost 9 bucks for a half gallon of ice cream? This ice cream is always on sale for between 2.50-3.00 in Michigan. Dairy products are really expensive in Ontario. The next meal is May 10th. I'm going to serve something other than potatoes. I'm hoping boneless skineless chicken breasts will go on sale. I'd like to make chicken ala king and serve it with plain rice.

Are you stuck on that idea? How about something containing ice cream. Maybe mini ice cream pies? or blizzard type( like at DQ) creations? I'm in small town Ontario too and the teens in this town FLOCK to DQ.

I abhor Pepsi products. Give me a diet coke any day( any flavor too).

This is just what I was going to say, but someone beat me to it. I used to steam exclusively, but I know steam saute. I once overheard my MIL's sister say " That Randi really knows how to make vegetables". Sometimes instead of water, I'll shake things up and use stock. Fine Cooking has some really great recipes for veggies, they did a long article on the steam/saute method.