CaliPoutine

I have psoriatic arthritis and my dr. told me that beef was very inflamatory. I gave it up when I was first diagnosed( 24yrs ago) and I dont miss it at all. I dont exclude any other foods for health reasons, moreso because I'm a "supertaster" and I dont like strongly flavored foods( ie: olives, blue cheese, brussel sprouts, salmon).

No, I have zero tolerance for spice( and heat). I'm a wuss. I just used regular yellow mustard.

Julie is a police officer with LAPD. We were in Vegas last week ( we came home last night)for a Legal Conference. We had a city car that we needed to bring back to the motor pool today. Motor Pool is in downtown LA. After we dropped off the car, Julie suggested we go to Philippe's for lunch. Philippe's is the home of the orignial french dip sandwich. Julie told me the restaurant has been around since 1927. I dont eat beef, so I had the turkey. Julie had the original french dip. You can order it single dip, double dip or wet. J got a double dip. We also got an order of potato salad, macaroni salad, a pickle and a slice of cake. The cake was just meh. I took a bunch of pics, but I'm having problems uploading. Let me go see what I can do about that.

Hi, I'm Randi. I'm coming to you from bright and sunny Socal, more specifically, Santa Clarita. Santa Clarita is infamous for chain restaurants and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Santa Clarita was incorporated in 1987 and is comprised of the cities of Valencia, Stevensen Ranch, Newhall, Saugus, Castaic and Canyon Country. I usually tell people I live in Santa Clarita, even though I really live in Canyon Country. Santa Clarita is the 4th largest city in LA county. We're about 35 miles from Downtown LA, Hollywood and Santa Monica. Much to my dismay, I'm 60 miles from Long Beach. I go to Long Beach a lot and traffic on the 405 is a bitch. The last 4 times that I blogged, I was living in Exeter, Ontario, Canada, Pop. 4,000. .When I lived in Canada, I was in a same sex marriage, for almost 7yrs. Unfortunately, as we all know things happen, people grow apart and change and marriages dont always work out. However, there is usually a silver lining to every sad story. In our case, we are both in new relationships. My partner Julie is amazingly fabulous and I thank the universe and facebook(where I found her again) every single day. We were together 18yrs ago and 11 yrs ago, but the timing wasnt right. You know what they say, the 3rd time is the charm : ). Prior to moving to Ontario, I attended law school. For mumerous reasons, I didnt practice in Canada, instead falling back on former culinary training. I cooked for some very ungrateful seniors in a senior dining program for 3yrs. I wasnt happy with the job nor with where I lived. I'm a city girl and Exeter is very much the country. I discovered egullet while I was living there and I'm grateful because I've met some wonderful people. I miss my Heartland folks very much!! Now that I'm back in California, I'm planning to take the California Bar Exam in February. I was supposed to take it in July, but I had to have surgery so I had to pull out of my prep class and the exam. My prep class starts again in December so I'm using my time before to study, cook some food for the freezer and do house projects. We're currently in the process of gathering quotes for a full kitchen remodel. I have a quote from Costco, an independent cabinet maker and my next stop is Home Depot. Julie and I discussed Ikea, but she wasnt crazy about those cabinets. I brought my two standard dachshunds with me to Canada when I moved there, and of course they came back with me( they are 12 and 13). Julie had 2 dogs as well, both females, a cairn and a westie. Now we have 4, we're like the lesbian version of the Brady Bunch, except with dogs, not kids. As far as this week goes, I have a few things brewing. Tomorrow I'm going to Long Beach to break the fast with my aunt and uncle. I lived in Long Beach before I moved to Canada and I honestly wish I still was living there. My uncle discovered a new Thai restaurant in Cerritos where he wants to go. Sunday is our towns Farmer's Market and I usually go. I also have a meet and greet for a foodie meetup group I'm a member of. Monday, I'm going to Santa Monica and will go out for lunch and to my favorite fish market. I have a cake to bake this week, a friend asked me to donate a cake for a "cakewalk" fundraiser. I also told Julie I'd bake something for her to take to work. Friday we're going to Pasadena for a DineLA meal with another foodie meetup group. We're spending the weekend in Long Beach too( we're dog sitting for my aunt/uncle). They have 3 dachshunds so we'll have 7 dogs to take care of. Not sure what else is on the agenda, anything you want to see?

It will all be explained

I use blue painters tape and a sharpie marker.

on a somewhat unrelated topic. Have you ever gotten sick from any of these vendors? Something about fruit vendors gives me the creeps( maybe its just in LA), but I would NOT partake in any cut up fruit from a street vendor. Your loss ... their product are usually FAR superior to getting cut fruit at any of the chic, casual eateries in L.A. The street fruit vendors usually practice very good food handling... you at least watch what they are doing in the open.. at a restaurant you have no clue. I'm thinking of the vendors that offer already cut up fruit in large plastic cups. According to my spouse( who is LAPD), in general, the food handling is not very sanitary. She has written numerous tickets for that. They often dont even have a license to sell.

on a somewhat unrelated topic. Have you ever gotten sick from any of these vendors? Something about fruit vendors gives me the creeps( maybe its just in LA), but I would NOT partake in any cut up fruit from a street vendor.

I keep Food Network( LOVE it) and Everyday Food( takes up little space). I keep Cook's Illustrated until the end of the year when the hardcover book comes out. I then sell the full year of Cooks on ebay. I just sold the set for 10.00. I wait until I get a 2 for 1 offer of the book( for instance, I just got an offer for 2010 with a free 2009). I already own 2009, so I'll sell that on ebay too. I also have a HUGE backstash of Chocolatier. I'm waiting right before the holidays to get rid of those on ebay. Before I moved back to Cali, I sold all my Saveur on ebay. I got 30 bucks for a few years worth. I've kept cuisine at home and Food and Drink( from the LCBO in Ontario). Before you toss your old magazines, check ebay. You'd be surprised.

For those who don't go to Las Vegas, the "Buffet of Buffets" is a Caesar's Entertainment pass that gives free access to the buffets at seven properties. Of those seven, three are pretty good, as far as buffets go -- Caesar's, Paris and Rio. The rest (like Imperial Palace) I wouldn't eat if you paid me. I'm not a big buffet person. It's often not much more to go someplace where I don't have to wait in a line for an hour and get to eat what I order, cooked how I want it. The big problem with Las Vegas buffets is that they have to turn a profit. (EVERY department has to turn a profit. The tables don't subsidize the resort like they did when the mafia ran things.) And when a visitor is paying $45 for an all-day pass at seven restaurants, that gets tough. We did Rio, Paris and Planet Hollywood. I wouldnt eat at Imperial either.

I just run a clove over the microplane. Instant paste. Doesnt anyone else do that?

Elsie No, its not just you. Weird. Breast milk is for babies, period.

Can you pick up some pyrex 9 x 13 pans? I used those or metal roasting pans. 4 cakes, fed 50ppl

I'm waiting too.... HURRY. I find this fascinating, especially since I just returned from Vegas where I partook in the "buffet of buffets". NEVER AGAIN!!

I did the cooking for a crowd for almost 3yrs, so I have *some* knowledge. Do you have any budget constraints? I did, so I used a lot of cake mixes( that I doctored up). I always made homemade frosting though, couldnt stand the canned crap. I also used organic cake mixes which surprisingly were easy to come by in Canada. I actually miss those PC cake mixes. Anyway, I digress. I should look back thru that thread, because I can't remember what else I did. I did do crisps a lot and those were popular. My budget was 3.00 a person and that included juice, roll, meat, starch, veg and dessert. I did it though, but I shopped very carefully and seasonally. I never served an apple dessert in the summer!! Now that I'm back in Cali, I bake to send things in to my partners workplace. There are way more than 50ppl that work there( She's a police officer). I usually make cookies, bars, brownies or scratch cakes. I LOVE Hershey's Black Magic cake. Its so easy( one bowl) and everyone loves it. It doesnt even need frosting, just throw some chocolate chips into the cake before baking and top with powdered sugar.

I Lurve Mexican food, it was a cuisine I sorely missed the years I lived in Southwestern Ontario. Looking forward to your blog.

Your English bacon reminds me a lot of Canadian peameal bacon( minus the cornmeal) which is really back bacon.

Andi, how is the quality? I find that the produce in the supermarkets( except Whole Foods) doesnt compare to the Farmer's Market. Local peaches were 2.25lb at The farmers market and 2.99lb at Whole Foods. I have recently bought some great melons at Sprouts, but the cherries have been horrible. The cherries I got at the Farmers Market were excellent, but that was over a month ago too. No more cherries at the farmers markets.

Target and Wal-Mart are here but not the grocery-store versions. Interestingly, the local Targets have expanded their refrigerated food sections so they're selling more prepared foods. But they're not large enough to house a fresh grocery section. If any Super Targets come in here, they'd have to start from scratch as opposed to adapting a current Target. I don't intend any offense by saying this, but you must be young or new to the state. When I was a child San Diego had the successful Fed-Mart chain (started by, and then sold by, Sol Price who went on to found the Price Club warehouse store chain which was eventually bought out by Costco). Fed-Mart was basically a Target and a grocery store all in one space. Then there was the Gemco chain, which was basically a Target and a grocery store all in one space. The difference was that Gemco usually had a line of delineation (is that redundant?) within the store keeping the grocery section seperated from the rest of the store where Fed-Mart didn't....it was a one huge happy space. When Sol Price sold the Fed-Mart chain to a German conglomerate (I believe), it eventually went out of business. Gemco went out of business, too. While I haven't heard much about the Super Targets, the Super Wal-Marts have been trying to get a foothold in the state. Wal-Mart tried to build two of the stores here in Bakersfield. But residents who lived near the building sites feared an increase in traffic if the stores were built so they filed lawsuits effectively stopping them. Of course, the local grocery chains also did what they could to stop them from being built. In fact, there is a half-finished Super Wal-Mart on the southern edge of town that you can see from the freeway. Welcome to Bakersfield. The funny thing is, if they tried opening the stores again here in town, I think they'd get quite a different reception given the sad state of the U.S. economy. I think now they'd be welcomed with open arms. Yes, having these "super" stores in the state certianly would "shkae things up". Which is why the current grocery chains in the state are trying to fight them at every turn. To get back on topic, we still have a local Farmer's Market here in town. I don't think the super stores would really impact the Farmer's Market since I believe they have two diferent customer bases. Our 2 Target stores will be offering fresh produce in October.

Too bad they arent going to Cork. I had a great meal there at a Gourmet Vegetarian restaurant. I can't remember the name though, but again, this was 1996 so good chance its not there any longer.

Last night I made a double batch of Cook's Illustrated's Lighter Corn Chowder. Its from the latest issue. It was good, very fresh and light. I left out the bacon, but garnished my partner's bowl with some ready cook bacon that I recrisped in the microwave. This chowder has you scrape the flesh from the cobs ( after you get all the kernels off) and then squeeze the corn juice from that and add it at the end.

I agree. Pretty darn good for 75 cents and only 4 Weight Watcher Points.

Ohhhh, I'm late to the party. Ive had the pleasure of experiencing both Peter's cooking( yummy lobster rolls) and his cute kids!!( and some vomit, but we wont talk about that......)This is kinda making me nostaglic for the east coast. What are those cookies called that I loved? Oat cakes?

You know what they always say, the first week is water weight that comes off. I joined on Jan 1st. I lost 5.6, then 1.6, then I gained 1 on the 3rd week. I was thinking " wtf". Anyway, long story short, I was discouraged so I stopped and guess what? I put those 6lbs back on, plus another 6. Dont be discouraged, some weeks you'll lose, some weeks you might gain. It will all even out in the end. Are you exercising? For me, that is the key.

This was one of my biggest pet peeves while I was living in Canada. I just wrote about it in another topic on deceptive food labeling.