Marlene

The bread pudding recipe was from Cooks.com. I believe it's on their website under Carmel Bread Pudding!

I'd have to phrase this "I couldn't have cooked what Sam cooked" but I too, would have been a willing guest at his table any night this past week. It was a lot of fun. Thank you Sam! (Does this mean I can go back to eating chips for breakfast and feeding my kid Kraft Dinner? )

Mostly because I'm not a fan of the peameal/tomato combination. Peameal and cheese, yes. And besides, I wanted to use those tomatoes.

Can I get some of those?! ← All recipe fairies can be found right here on eG. Once I have their permission, I will modify recipes and put them into RG.

I loved the food. It wasn't so much that I used a different technique than I've used before, yesterday's dinner was all about timing. I did a lot of the prep beforehand, chopping, making the crumble, panna cotta etc. Each of those dishes though, actually only take a few minutes in execution, but it's very precise timing, because each dish needed to be watched carefully, so you couldn't turn your attention to something else. So we did one course at a time with probably a 15 minute gap between the next course in order to prepare it. I have recipe fairies. They invent recipes for me whenever I'm looking for something new to try.

The recipes could easily be adapted to omit a lot of the spicier stuff, for example the corn cakes could be made without the jalapenos. Don loves spicy food, so I knew he wasn't going to be a problem. Ryan was dubious about the meal before starting because he'd never had any of these dishes before, but he's also developing a taste for spice. He ate every crumb of every dish,(plus he had an extra peach) which tells me he really liked everything.

Sam, I'm so sorry you aren't feeling well, but let me take this opportunity to tell you how much fun it was working with you this week. One of the things I knew going into this was that Sam is an outstanding cook. As Joseph B keeps saying "textbook perfect". I figured that I was going to have to step outside the box, just to keep up. But doing this, and doing it with Sam made me stretch and learn and create more, and in the end, that's what it's all about for me. Learning and having fun. Sam, I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Ryan arrived back today from his dad's His first question of course was "What's for dinner" Me: Grilled peaches with Pistachio Cayenne Crumble Poached Eggs over Corn Cakes with Andouille Hollandaise Panna Cotta with Strawberry Rhubarb sauce. Ryan: Huh? And thus I set out to use the ingredients in the mystery basket and for the final night I really wanted to step outside my comfort zone. All of these dishes are new to me, and I could not possibly have done this without Don working by my side, prepping etc. It was a beautiful night so we ate each course out on the deck. Starting off with the Grilled Peaches with Pistachio Cayenne Crumble. Grilling the peaches the finished peach dish Moving onto the main course. Some of the ingredients for the corn cakes included corn, shallots and minced jalepenos Starting the corn cakes Some of the ingredients for the Andouille Hollandaise (except I had to use Kielbasa). frying up the Kielbasa, shallots and the seasonings Poaching the eggs, a la Fat Guy Poached Eggs, with Andouille Hollandaise over corn cakes Strawberries and Rhubarb for the sauce Cooking the strawberry-rhubarb mixture with sugar and water, adding Grand Marnier later. Panna Cotta with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce And although Champagne never made it into the basket, it was a perfect accompaniment to this meal

I'm working on the dessert sauce now. Expect pics around 9 or 9:30 tonight.

The tomatoes were pretty good actually. The bacon was from Loblaws, President's Choice, thick cut. I rather liked it. I'm off now to start the rest of dinner prep, since I've baked in the sun long enough and I consider myself to be done.

Today's lunch, Here's a better picture of yesterday's potato salad and coleslaw: Bacon and tomato sandwiches with potato salad These were eaten on the deck, washed down with Heniken. I've done some prep for this evening's meal already. In addition, I've started my roast marinating for Tuesday's Estouffade: Excuse me. I have to go bake in the sun now.

Today is going to be a lovely leisurely day. It's absolutely gorgeous outside, so we'll spend most of the day lounging I think. Don is just frying up some bacon so we can have toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches with some of the leftover coleslaw and potato salad from last night. As for dinner? Well it's a mystery basket, so you're going to have to wait and see what I come up with.

First of all, I need to state that I did not take the pictures tonight, and thus, I don't have as many pics of the food as I would like. Having said that, the party was a smashing success. This is our bartender Joe setting up the bar: Joe and our server/chef Amanda Setting up the tables in the backyard: Appetizers: Beef and Chicken satays, Rosemary potatoes with roasted garlic chevrre and antijitos More appetizers, mini corn muffins stuffed with turkey and cranberry, shrimp wrapped in snow peas. crackers with herb cream cheese. I do not have good pics of the main course, but here is a couple of the salads anyway The dessert tray I'm exhausted. A fun time was had by all. I wish I had been in charge of the pics because I would have had more of them. Tomorrow, Mystery Basket! Sleep well, everyone!

The camera I'm using is a digital Nickon Coolpix 2100/ I know how to point and shoot, that's about it. I must say, I liked the meatballs cooked in wine the best, but Don preferred the fried. I just found the wine meatballs a little richer because the wine cooked down to a nice glaze. And I'm with Sam. We don't play music while we eat either. Prepping, yes. The caterers will be arriving in about 5 minutes to begin set up. Sam, what do you have planned for a meal tonight?

I'm Canadian Sam, of course it's Canadian Whiskey. But it is after all Canadian Classic, 12 year. I don't think I can get 100 proof here. They make it for the US, but not for us. Go figure.

Morning folks. The usual coffee, and then madly rushing around to get the house ready for the party this afternoon. In case I haven't mentioned it, this shindig is being catered, so I don't actually have to cook (lucky me!). We're trying a different caterer this time than we used for our Christmas party, so I'm hoping it works well. Don's gone for a run to work off some of this past week's eating, but I can't say I had the energy! I'll be back later with breakfast pics.

No crisis. It's just that Oakville is very, um, suburban.

Sam and I would need two whole kitchen sets between us if we cooked together. My kitchen was in no better shape.

It's a great place, but CaliPoutine is right. It ain't cheap This is Oakville. I have to look really hard for Asian.

I'll just muddle along here since I'm not Italian, and I don't have the Italian names for things. First a cocktail: Don started with a single malt scotch as his his habit on Friday nights. I decided to branch out and try a Manhattan. My mother has this drink every time she comes over and I've never tried it. To be honest, I'm not really sure what she sees in them. Moving right along, I decided to try something else. This is a Bob Dandy, Dubonnet and Brandy basically. It was somewhat better than the Manhattan. Along with our cocktails we had a little proscuitto and melon and we just had to try the brie that I picked up today. Moving on to the main course, I had decided on meatballs two ways and angel hair pasta. One set of meatballs to be deep fried and one to be simmered in wine. Meatballs for the wine Meatballs for deep frying Interestingly enough these meatballs are made with a combination of ground beef, ground pork and coarsely chopped proscuitto. Frying the meatballs: Simmering in wine: This is as close as I get to fresh made pasta folks. I don't make it myself, but I do buy it from the Italian bakery around the corner who does make it fresh everyday. Finished meatballs in wine: Finished meatballs fried: Fresh grated parmesan Finished dish. Angel hair pasta tossed in melted butter, garlic and parsley topped with the parmesan. Not that we needed dessert, but we finished with a Zabaglione Gelato with chocolate biscotti. By the time I'm finished this week, I'm gonna need a new size in clothing! But oh my, it is so worth it!

You should request they stock it. They're new in town and will be eager to please so it's possible you could have some decent jambalaya in your near future. ← That is quite possible in fact. Every staff person I talked to there, was happy to help, eager to talk about the store, and, like the cheese person, happy to go on for hours about the foods they like best.

The Whole Foods store in Oakville is across from the Trafalgar GO station, on Cornwall. Oakville Whole Foods Tonight's menu will consist of: Cocktails first of course. A little proscuttio and melon to start. (I'm not going to do a full antipasti plate as there are only two of us!) Meatballs two ways. (It should be 4 ways, but again there are only two of us) Angel hair pasta tossed with butter, garlic, parmesan and parsley. Zabaglione Gelato. (which I've just made and put in the fridge to chill) I'm thinking we'll have some port with some of that wonderful cheese I bought today.

Did you look for ras el hanout? ← Don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't know what to look for!

Well yeah. I just couldn't resist some of this stuff. And now that I have a Food Saver thingy, I can vacumn seal a lot of this stuff for next week sometime. It was rather like being a kid in a candy store. No andoullie sausage or keilbasa though.

Hello again folks. Miss me? Before I start cooking, I thought I'd put up a few pictures of some of the stuff I bought at Whole Foods. First, what an amazing store. I think I'm in love. The place is huge, about 43,000 sq ft. and it's got a meat dry aging room and a cheese aging room. And the guy in charge of the cheese was extremely passionate about his cheeses. I could have talked to him all day. I didn't take pictures in the store, I was too busy gawking, but the next time I'm going to drag Don with me so one of us can concentrate on taking pictures of the various displays. And look! Paper bags! It's been 20 years or more since I saw paper bags in grocery stores here. A selection of cheeses: Let's see, we have Munster, Brie, Gouda, 9 year old cheddar, Gruyere reserve, and I can't remember what the one in the middle is, but it came out of their aging room. It's quite bold in taste, and it's stinky! Various meats. I loved their meat counter and there are lots of cuts there that I haven't been able to find in any other store in oakville including decent veal shanks, brisket, and skirt steak. Whole Chicken, organic of course. Two amazing T-Bones. I need to hide these from Don for now, or he'll want to cook them up right away, and our meals are taken for the next three days Pork Shoulder Ground Sirloin, some for use in the meatballs tonight. Peameal bacon Prosciutto di parma A selection from the produce section Asparagus, fingerling potatoes, vine on tomatoes Peaches, a red onion, and a better pic of the potatoes and tomatoes Rhubarb, garlic, giant yellow onions, shallots Raspberries, Strawberries, and half a melon What a totally amazing place. Oakville's never seen anything like this before. I feel like we've arrived somehow. Now it isn't cheap, but I'm betting those steaks for example will be as good or better than the ones I get at my butcher's. I could have spent hours there. I also bought eggs, so I think I have most of the components I need for my mystery basket. Now, I really must go start cooking or we won't be eating dinner until midnight!