Peter the eater

My library (Clayton Park) is very good at acquiring expensive books if patrons request them. I've put several in the Reference collection and plan to do so again for Nathan's Modernist Cuisine.

Is that bird nest on the window sill decorative or culinary?

Happy New Year to you too! I know zilch about Kansas cookery so I'll be reading along with great interest. (I got married in 1999 as well -- I wanted the ceremony at 1999-09-09 at 9:09pm but for practical reasons we went with an afternoon in July.)

A bigger cooler and a rack on the bottom might help. I wonder how carefully cracking the eggs into a plastic bag would work.

Russets were cut on a big mandoline at the smallest setting. They were soaked for a few hours, dried off and deep-fried quickly in veg oil with a bit of lard. They're light and crisp with almost no white inside.

I steamed a 2 pound 10 dollar lobster for 18 minutes, then cooled and shelled it. Meanwhile I made a white sauce with the steaming juice and added the lobster meat just before spooning over the shoestring fries. I tried a few white cheddar curds in the sauce but they didn't help. I suppose a dark chicken gravy with lobster chunks instead of curds could work.

Nice spread Prawncrackers. My lobster poutine was a big hit, as was the game hen. People got a half bird with a bunch of roasted roots, minty peas and wild rice from Saskatchewan. My baby spinach sunchoke salad, on the other hand, sucked. The dulse vinaigrette was too "marine" and the raspberry juice made the shrimp look like neon pink garden grubs. No photo record.

It's that time again . . . fill in the blanks just like last year. In 2011, I will eat_________________ I will make_______________ I will learn_______________ I will read________________ As always, please feel free to ignore or add blanks.

You know it ain't me. Too many infractions. :laugh: I read that as infarctions as in heart attacks!

Here's my plan for tomorrow tonight: appetizer lobster poutine salad baby spinach and sunchokes with north atlantic shrimp and raspberry dulse vinaigrette main maple-glazed game hen with minty peas and roasted roots (beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips and carrots) desert blueberry ginger granita

I like the idea of seaweed cookies. Dulse is the wiliest of ingredients, I just wasted 20 minutes trying to powder it in my coffee grinder. Now the small flakes are soaking in vinegar on their way to becoming salad dressing. I should have toasted them first.

I'm done working for 2010 so it's plan tonight, cook tomorrow am and eat with friends pm. Lots of local stuff on hand: lobsters, lamb, game hens, sunchokes, beets, parsnip, berries, etc. I've always wanted to makes a lobster poutine. And what to do with the sack of dulse.

Chris, your energy and scope is kick-ass. I don't have any useful ideas regarding sous vide and mixology, unless it can sustain 46F for the champagne tomorrow . . .

Could be Manitoba in Autumn.

Very clever. It's on my xmas list. Does it get used for mixology?

I adore the New Year celebrations. Time to try new stuff, new ingredients, new gizmos. No idea what's on the menu yet.

It can be a very simple and low-tech activity, which I like. I forget our tap size, just make sure you have a drill bit that matches. I don't believe a bigger hole produces noticeably more sap because it's all about the tree you choose and the weather. We don't filter until near the very end simply because there's always dust, ash and dog hair floating around the open pot. Another caveat . . . starting and stopping the boil-down can screw-up the sugar. I forget the chemistry, just that the best quality syrup comes from a swift and continuous removal of water from the sap.

Looks like dried morels getting rehydrated in a red wine, possibly fortified. Or a vampire smoothie.

Those look like periwinkles to me and it's timely as I was going to ask if they fall into the snail category. I've loved them in Chinese preparation with garlic and black bean sauce, but I've also added them to Paella and they starred! They sure do look like periwinkles, which are sea snails. I would steam them through, then use a toothpick to pull out the coil of flesh from the shell while discarding the unpalatable trap door/lid/operculum. Winkles are a wonderful vehicle for butter and garlic. The pictures below are raw, just shells, and just meat.

Good things in small packages, eh? There's no shame in concealing a delicious dinner that features a head on the plate. It's all circle of life good karma. <Edited for grammar>

The difference in breast colour is dramatic, I've never seen the meat side by side like that. We get those birds here in Nova Scotia along with partridge and pheasant. You have to go to Newfoundland for ptarmigan. What usually happens to the rest of the bird?

That plate is outrageous! You've made my day.

Good on ya, Snadra. Crikey I love macadamias -- the older the recipe the better. I'm grateful you prompted me to look up my own Antipodes, way off in the Great Bite. Margaret Laurence is a National Treasure.

Funny you should say that, I've got this odd book from 1979 called "The Complete Book of Chinese Cooking" from Ken Lo and Grace Chu. I considered their twice-cooked pork recipe and the ensuing egg drop soup, then realized I don't have three hours today to simmer anything. So I Google-imaged crispy pork belly recipes and winged it with the stuff on hand. No photos yet because the camera went with the girls of my household on a Sparks sleepover.

I couldn't help but notice that the dimensions of my Paderno fish poacher looked accommodating. The slab got scored and doused in a combo of my own maple syrup, local garlic, Annapolis Valley apple cider vinegar, sea salt from god knows where, and black pepper from Madagascar I think. It's in the oven.