Okanagancook

Mushrooms make excellent curries. They seem to absorb the spice flavours really well. Plus they hold their shape nicely.

I pretty well always wear an apron because if I don't something strange happens and I end up with some dinner on my shirt. We have a couple of raw hide aprons for when we BBQ our whole pig in the summer. They are bullet proof but too hot for indoor use.

Excellent. I was given mine by a friend for Christmas 1998! Happy cooking.

It's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Nicole-Routhier/dp/1556704364 Many excellent recipes in this book ...just 126 pages. Here is the recipe for what she calls "Warm Rice Noodles with Stir-Fried Beef, Saigon Style" or "Bun Bo" 1 lb thin rice vermicelli noodles which you soak in warm water for 20 minutes then cook in boiling salted water for 2 to 3 minutes then drain and rinse in cold water. 3 stalks lemon grass, thinly sliced 1.5 lb lean beef for stir frying, cut against the grain into thin 2 x 2 inch slices 2 tablespoons Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce 6 cloves garlic, chopped 3 teaspoons curry powder black pepper 8 leaves of soft lettuce, thinly shredded 1/2 cup thinly shredded mint leaves 1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely shredded 1 cup fresh bean sprouts (I like to take the brown tails off) 3 tablespoons peanut oil 2 small onions, thinly sliced 2/3 cup unsalted pan toasted or dry roasted peanuts, chopped coriander leaves for garnish _______________ Nuoc Cham with carrot (make the whole recipe to ensure you have enough...if you are making the whole recipe above, she recommends making double this recipe for the sauce.) 2 small garlic cloves, crushed 1 small chile 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 1/4 cup rice vinegar 1/4 cup Vietnamese of Thai fish sauce 1/4 cup water Crush the garlic, chile and sugar in a mortar until a paste. Mix in all the other ingredients. For the carrot to go in the sauce: 1 small carrot, shredded finely 1 teaspoon sugar toss the carrot in the sugar and let sit for 30 minutes then mix into the above sauce. __________________ For the dish: Mix 1 teaspoon of the curry powder, the fish sauce, 1/2 the garlic and black pepper together with the beef and marinate for 30 minutes. In a large bowl combine the shredded lettuce, mint, cucumber and beans sprouts...toss to mix well. Divide this mixture evenly amongst four bowls the top with the cooked, drained noodles and refrigerate until you are ready to cook the beef and finish the dish. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the remaining garlic and stir fry until fragrant. Add the sliced onions, lemon grass and the remaining 2 teaspoons fo curry powder. Stir fry until the onions are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the beef and stir fry over high heat until the beef is browned. Top each bowl with 1/4 of the beef stir fry mixture. Top with the peanuts and coriander leaves. Serve with the Nuoc Cham. This will make a lot of food. I made about a 1/4 recipe for two of us. It is also quite time consuming to make but really worthwhile. It is a great dish for entertaining because it can all be made ahead apart from the stir frying.

I agree with @rotuts about the temperature for cooking the meat.

No relish. It was a German wiener which is typically eaten with lentils. it was delicious with a nice snappy exterior.

Sometimes you just have to have a wiener in a bun.

The other night was frites, mushrooms in wine sauce, steak with chimichurri sauce and a salad. The plate with the steak is a bit 'brown' but tasted good. Not winning any plating prizes!

My favourite Vietnamese dish, Bun Bo, from The Best of Nicole Routhier. This is a great cookbook....small but packs a punch. Basically it is shredded lettuce, shredded mint, shredded cucumber and bean sprouts as a base. On top you place cooked thing rice noodles and on top of that is a mixture of stir fried beef, onion, lemon grass, garlic, curry powder then garnished with coriander leaves and toasted crushed peanuts. Nuoc Cham with carrot is poured over the top. (Nuoc Cham is fish sauce, rice vinegar, water, lime juice, sugar, chili and garlic). It has so many textures from the chew beef, crunchy peanuts and snappy bean sprouts. So good, we are having more tonight!

I love my Jura. It is very well made; everything is adjustable; it is not very loud..probably the coffee tamping is the loudest part of it making a coffee. Mine has dual hoppers for different coffees. You can even mix the two coffee types in whatever proportion you want. I have a couple of friends with Juras and they have had them at least five years. It is also a very beautiful design. My only complaint is the restricted use of dry coffee beans.

I love dahl. You can't beat a steaming bowl of dahl with fresh chapati. My favourite is toovar dahl and I found some at our big box grocery last week. It is split and skinned pigeon peas.

I would second this. I probably use mine every other day. I bag cheese in chunks in an oversized bag.. When I need more I just cut open the bag, grab a chunk then resell...I do this with cold cuts and nuts. Keeps everything fresh and with just the two of us, we have less waste.

Yes, poor chickens. I usually avoid supermarket chicken. We have some local suppliers for chicken. We have room on our property for chickens but we are concerned about coyotes so we haven’t done anything about it, yet.

Chinese hot and sour soup. Similar to this https://thewoksoflife.com/2013/10/hot-sour-soup/

Humm....some problems: https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/breville-oracle/q-and-a

I was recently looking to replace my less than two year old Panasonic Microwave. The Breville microwaves looked very interesting in their different approach to programming but, many reviews noted that their machine failed within a two year time frame. Take a look at the Juras. They are very well made. I can program mine in terms of water and milk temp, grind level, amount of coffee, auto turn on, etc. The only thing about them is you must use non-oily coffee beans otherwise it gets clogged up. I wonder about the Breville's ability to handle oily beans. I just buy high quality Italian beans where seem to be very dry. Currently using 'Lavazza Espresso".

Whatever you do, don't lick it!😎 Seriously though, you could use it to quickly freeze compound butters packed flat in a ziplock bag.

Wow, nice machine. I have had my Jura for about ten years and I love it. It is a bit more 'automatic' than this Breville. I love it because I am the lone coffee drinker in the house so I always get one or two fresh cups without any waste. When we have house guests, they get a lesson in making coffee and then I don't have to bother with making coffee to order. I have not had any issues with the machine. I wonder about the Breville's track record.

Hot and Sour Soup. Our favourite soup with a dollop of chili in oil. Recipe is from Foods of the World: China.

Yesterday, after the Friday night pub nite.....shepherds pie with extra gravy and a salad.

The shoots would go well with asparagus or artichoke or green peas. Marcella Hazen has a recipe for artichokes, peas, fava beans and romaine lettuce. Basically you chop the veg and fry in garlic and olive oil until they are done to your liking. I am going to make this in the next few days with last year's fava beans from the freezer, frozen commercial peas and some lovely artichokes I bought yesterday. I will serve it tossed with homemade fettuccine with a little steak on the side. We rarely get good artichokes in the store so when I saw these nice firm ones I couldn't resist. Speaking of spring, I can't wait for our asparagus to come...another three to four weeks. This is the only time in the year that I buy asparagus. I usually buy several pounds over the few weeks it is available and make asparagus soup for later. And, yes, we have it everyday in some form or another.

Homemade Brats, butternut squash, prunes in wine sauce and roasted cauliflower with onion. My DH's meal...I stole 1/3 of one of his Brats. They were from our new batch and the texture is way better than our previous attempt. Very juicy..cooked to 165F.

Eggs make a great curry! I like Currie scrambled eggs with a chapter for breakfast. Your meal looks delicious

That is one HEARTY soup! Almost looks like a stew. All that said it looks good.

So jealous. Our market opens April 20th with mainly greens, radish and leeks or parsnips from last year. What are fava shoots?