toweringpine

I think you are on the right track with the tortillas. I usually make them the night before as they are better after sitting a few hours at least. I have made them into pizzas ( some dehydrated homemade meat sauce with some old cheese and a nice dried pepperoni ) or burritos ( again make the beef and bean filling at home, give it a night in the oven on the lowest setting with the door propped open, just rehydrate the filling and enjoy ). A few times I have cooked a beef roast at home, sliced it up and packed the slices with the gravy in a large Ziplock. A few days in the deep freeze and well insulated with newspaper it should be good for a few days unless the heat is extreme. I enjoy making biscuits while camping. There is something about rolling out the dough on a paddle and cooking them over the fire that just makes them taste better than they do at home. You can go so many directions with a basic biscuit recipe. I often make two batches up, I'll cook the first while I make the second into cinnamon buns. I'll cook the second while we are eating and put them aside for a sweet treat for breakfast. A bag of potato flakes, a little flour and before long you have fresh gnocchi ready to enjoy. Several times I have done cornish hens on a spit. They are always a winner but setting up the fire pit properly, getting a good spit and the time it takes to cook them without burning can make for a late dinner especially if you have paddled a long ways. I am always a little afraid of the chicken so I only do these the first night out but they are so good that I usually don't mind washing up in the dark afterwards. I have taken MREs in the past but have found they are too heavy for what you get out of them. After a long day paddling I need two or three of them to keep me fueled and taking thirty per person for a ten day trip gets very heavy very quickly. One or two tucked away for an emergency is always nice though. I have been called a camping Nazi from several people as I never take a cooler and until my wife bought me stove at Christmas I had never done any camp cooking over anything but a firepit. Perhaps I make extra work for mself but I really feel it adds to the whole experience.

You could try McCAlls. They are a school and supply store. I am not sure they will be able to provide you with the cake you desire but I am sure they could point you to someone who can. http://www.mccalls-cakes.com/ p.s. Congratulations!!!

I never really considered it before... sometimes I do the typewriter but if it is really good corn and I am on the last peice I will go in circles to make it last a little longer ( there is no way I could slow it down to one kernel at a time no matter how tasty!! ). At the Taste of the Danforth ( annual food festival held in Toronto ) I saw booths selling grilled corn. There were great tubs of butter to spread on but the spreader was what made all the difference. Lime wedges to dip in the butter and spread it. I found just the little bit of lime flavour they left behind really added to the experience.

We just came back from another great dinner at the Kim Moon Bakery ( 438 Dundas W ). It may be a little more than three minutes walk but not by much. They have fantastic dim sum and friendly service. Two of us can dine for less than twenty dollars. I live almost at the border of Mississauga and the only times I head downtown are when we crave dim sum from there.

I haven't checked in a while but... The places I seem to always find Munchos are bars. Most of the smaller watering holes around that don't have kitchens have a display of bags of chips and peanuts. I think they are required to sell food of some sort and this meets the letter of the law. I think Munchos are always on it as they make you want lots to drink. Good luck.

I have found that using online ordering systems helps. You get a chance to review what you have ordered and can see if your special requests are listed like you want. It is not perfect and does not ensure that they will actually make what you've ordered but it is better than giving your order to someone on the phone and hoping they wrote it down correctly, which can be a real worry if you are ordering from somewhere where English is not the preferred language.

My favourite has always been plain old Schneider's bologna on brown bread with lettuce and mustard. I always enjoy the days after Christmas ( or Thanksgiving or whenever I roast a turkey ) when I am gorging on turkey sandwiches. I pull the meat into tiny little strands and put on lots of mayo and salt. I am not much for using extra salt but it is essential on turkey sandwiches.

There is something about eating food you have cooked over an open fire in the middle of nowhere that makes it taste better. Maybe it is the wood smoke, the added protein and flavour from the flies or just being extra hungry from the paddling but it just tastes better when you are eating something off the fire while sitting beside a lake. I am so looking forward to getting out on the water this summer. I don't know why it is but when you roll biscuits out on a paddle they just taste better.

I haven't tried it yet but I was recently looking for a different sauce for meatballs and everywhere I looked I kept seeing links for grape jelly and chili sauce. I questioned using grape jelly but I saw dozens of variations on this theme and had it recommended to me by a fellow at work whose food opinions I value. As my wife is diabetic it didn't seem appropriate for us at the time but I was intrigued enough that I will try it if she is not going to be around when I make them or if I make several sauces.

You could include everything by Mme. Benoit and some by Edna Staebler. The Schmecks books by Staebler are perhaps not truly based on Canadian cooking but I think by this time many of the recipes could be called Canadian. There are a ton of great food ideas in the Best Of Bridge line as well, these were put out by a group of ladies from Calgary.

What a great idea! Perhaps a layers of eggplant, paneer and spinach with an Indian style tomato sauce. I tried making onion bhadji for the first time a few weeks ago. A blue cheese dip for them sounds fantastic!!

I have been toying with the idea of a 'Pulled Pork Vindaloo' for an upcoming family event.

Any good restaurant should be able to offer water in whatever format that their customer wants it. A patron should never be forced to pay for a glass of water but should have the option of buying bottled water if they so desire. I pay plenty to the government to ensure we have a supply of clean drinking water and vigorously object to being obliged to pay for it in a restuarant. It seems to me that if someone doesn't like the tap water in their area they would be better off trying to get the purification system improved rather than spending more on bottled water. Most bottled water just came out of someone else's tap anyways. There are additives in tap water that people may object to but many of them are in bottled water as well. If the water has been in the bottle for any length of time it has picked up various nasty compounds from the plastic and is not really any better. Ask a dentist what they see in children whose parent's provide only bottled water for drinking. I am not saying that the water cleaning system is perfect but paying more to go around it seems self defeating.

My wife hates to cook and rarely does. Yesterday though, out of the blue, she took a notion to make quiche. She wanted no help from me and spent a few hours on the computer learning how it was doen. She made the pastry, used beans as pie weights and cooked it perfectly. She sauteed some onions and mushrooms, added bacon and grated cheese and put it in the oven. It was a terrific dinner yesterday and I am enjoying it just as much for lunch today. She has forever blown her "I don't know how to cook" excuse. Well done Glynis!!!

Thanks for the look. I've had a lot of fun a nd learned a few things this week reading your blog.

Sometimes we take a break from standard burgers and make souvlaki burgers with ground pork. I like tatziki, tapenade, a little oregano and some tomatoe and red onion slices on them. Maybe a little crumbled feta too. All these toppings are great on standard burgers as well.

Hard to beat beer as an additionto a gravy. I often use a bottle ( or two ) as a simmering liquid in my crockpot for corned beef or pulled pork. There are also plenty of good recipes for breads that use beer.

Twice I have cooked for a professional. I was rather intimidated the first time and thought long and hard about what to make. They were coming to visit on St. Patrick Day so I went with a 'traditional' Irish menu. Everything tossed in the crock pot first thing in the morning and don't think about it again until after work for the day. I am good with flavours and textures but presentation is not my thing. Cabbage and carrots and corned beef out of a crock pot is plenty tasty but if there is a way to present it beautifully I haven't figured it out yet. I made a loaf of soda bread to go along side and served with a few pints of Guiness. It made a great meal and there was no stress or worry with it. Once it all went in the crock pot and I went to work for the day there was little I could do to mess it up!! I was worried that I'd nerve myself out and spend too much time stirring and thickening and seasoning until I had ruined whatever I was trying to make. So I went with dump it in the crock and walk away. The other time we went downtown to the St. Lawrence Market and everyone picked out good looking things to have for dinner. Again it worked out very well as everyone had picked out things they liked and we sat down to a great meal mostly of appetizers and dips and fresh bread and produce we had purchased. Maybe I didn't really cook for a professional that time but we certainly shared a meal at my place that everyone really enjoyed.

I like lots of half and half in a cup of very strong coffee. I like just a little splash of milk in a cup of tea. I cannot switch these two whiteners, it must be milk in tea and cream in coffee. I can't stand the way most restaurants plunk down a mug of lukewarm water, a teabag, and some little packets of half and half in the name of tea. How hard is it for a commercial kitchen to provide boiling water? Milagai ←

Grilled cheese sandwiches for me. I used some plain medium cheddar for some good melty action and shaved a few slices of Maple Dale six year old Private Reserve cheddar for an extra blast of cheesey goodness with a thin slice of ham on whole wheat bread. Fried them up on my new Kitchen Aid Support Breast Cancer Research non stick pan. A quick lunch but pretty tasty!

Filling a strawberry with booze before dipping in chocolate!! What a brilliant idea!! I will have to try this. I recieved two injectors for Christmas. I am dissappointed with both of them. The metal thread that screws on to the plastic thread makes a poor seal and tends to fall off. The little holes along the metal tube are so small that they get clogged up with any little bits that are in the injection mix. I guess this wouldn't be a problem for injecting thin liquids like liquor but its not much good for thicker stuff like marinade. I haven't given up on the technique yet but I will have to look carefully before buying another injector and probably will have to spend a bunch more money on the next one.

I've done haloumi on the BBQ on skewers with some good olives and cherry tomatoes. Very nice. The cheese has a mild slightly salty flavour and it browns up nicely without dripping at all.

I made a sort of spanakopita last weekend. Ramps and haloumi cheese ( with a little bacon tossed in for luck ) wrapped in phyllo. I pop a couple in the toaster oven and enjoy. I also used a half a bunch in a pot of onion soup, they made a great addition to it!! Ramps are a wonderful re-introduction to the fresh food of summer!

I made a few attempts at jerk chicken in the fall. I used various recipes gleaned off the internet and had some batches turn out better than other but none were just right. In the annual Secret Santa exchange I recieved "The Real Jerk" by Lily & Ed Pottinger which contains their version of the marinade. I thought there was far too many hot peppers ( I had to go to several stores just to get enough of them ) but the end result after cooking was tasty and not nearly as hot as I feared. 1lb Scotch Bonnets (Not a misprint that really says one pound ) 1 small onion, chopped 3 stalks escallion, chopped 3 sprigs fresh thyme 3 tbsp salt 2 tbsp black pepper 2 tbsp whole allspice berries 1 tbsp ground ginger 1 tsp nutmeg, frshly grated 1/2 c white vinegar 1/4 c soy sauce Puree all in blender until sauce is coarse but pourable. Use a tablespoon or two of marinate per pound of meat. I spread it out on a cookie sheet, freeze it then break off a slab whenever I need some. Yum Yum. ( This is my first post, 'Howdy' to everyone and I look forward to being a member of the society! )