Okanagancook

Yes, all the food looks amazing! Now I have a serious want on for pork belly; chips and onion soup dip as well as a sandwich.

Smothered chicken out of Donald Link's Down South which by the way is a marvellous cook book. Absolutely delicious and so simple to make but the really, really good chicken stock made it so. Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice and CSO steam-baked local asparagus with a drizzle of lemon juice to counter balance the rich chicken. The rice is unlike any rice I have ever had. Very, delicate and nutty. I followed the exact cooking method from their website: boiled x 15 minutes in salted filtered water; drained; rinsed with cold water; put on a sheet pan and dried in a 300F oven for five minutes..flipping the rice a couple of times; taken out and dotted with some butter and a few cracks of black pepper and back in the oven for another five minutes with a few more flips. Perfectly separate grains.

The garden is starting to take off. Recently had some nice warm sunny weather and now we have rain for a couple of days before more sun and warmth. The vineyard. Needs shoot thinning and some weed control around the bases. We have 200 plants. My garden patch which is on the south side of the house. My small 8 x 10 ft greenhouse and my glorious stand of garlic. A couple of zucchini plants behind the compost bins. My herb garden is tucked away against the west side of the house. That enormous plant is lovage. I harvested most of the sorrel yesterday and still pondering what the heck to do with it. The garlic and onion patch with the rest of the potatoes at the end. I do square foot gardening and I have TEN squares.....way too many for just the two of us so I feed the neighbours. The wire frames are for my peas to climb up. This is my shade box where I plant my greens. Already harvested a square of arugula which is one foot by one foot...the boxes are 4 feet x 4 feet. I have regular spinach and New Zealand spinach which gives my leaves all year long. Also some mixed greens and bok choy. This box has mainly beets which get bugs in the leaves every year. The local plant guys said put out some sticky paper to catch them before they burrow into the leaves. We'll see. So far I caught a little finch...had a little square stuck on it's back. Managed to get if off and then I put up the netting to keep the birds out. There are four empty squares...not sure what to put in there. A really good year for mint. Some green onions, parsley from last year, Vietnamese cilantro, more parsley and cucumbers which will grow up the lattice. It's a busy square. These are my peppers and carrots. Fava beans....hopefully we can keep the mildew off them this year. Radish and more carrots. Peas and tomatoes. Not growing as many tomato plants this year...only about 12...still have tons of tomatoes in the freezer from last year. The potato patch. We'll see how they do here. It's quite hot being against the house so we'll have to water them twice a day. And finally the strawberry patch. The wire is to keep the quails off. That's it.

I am pretty sure they would be happy to answer your question. My correspondence with them has been excellent. Do share with us their response.

I also enjoyed the read. Thanks for sharing.

Go to their website. Look under What We Do and then Glossary of terms.

We also get grass fed free range beef. It is a bit more toothsome but I don't mind because the flavour is outstanding. I SV the flank steak at 131F for 24 hours and it is nice and tender medium-to-the-rare-side.

We have been out for few medals at friends and other events lately and I really am appalled at the lack of proper seasoning. Do people not taste their food while cooking. Especially our friends who are very much into food often under season. Such a shame. All that work and good ingredients. And most people don’t put salt on the table. When it is there I try to be stealth at salt my plate. Maybe I shouldn’t be. My rant is now over.

Exactly. Some people don’t get it. But, of course one has to have the budget and I am very fortunate to be able to play.

Those are the nicest canned artichokes! Not sure I can get that brand up this way but I'll keep a look out.

Rest of the pizza dough from American Pie used with the leftover "Turkish lamb" topping used last night for dinner. This time I made the crust thicker and it was much better. Here are the two: before and after. I cut the leftovers into pieces and froze them.....breakfast anyone?

Wow @robirdstx "Quadruple like" Love artichokes. We get pathetic ones here. They are so tired and wilted I never buy them. Are yours fresh? and they look like those baby Italian artichokes I used to be able to get when I lived in Edmonton at the best Italian grocery store ever, "The Italian Centre". The store was started by an Italian immigrant in the Italian sector of Edmonton. He used to help his fellow countrymen who had just arrived in Canada by extending credit in his store and donating food to them. His daughter runs it now since he has passed and she now has three stores in Edmonton. Oh, I miss that place so much.

My Anson Mills order arrived today just 15 days from placing my order. I'd say that's pretty good service: 4481 kms!. Ten pounds of various grains fit into the USPS $50 shipping box. The ten pounds of rice, polenta, grits, and peas cost $216.61 Cdn with our Canadian taxes added in. Everything looks very well packaged and the box had styrofoam chips to keep things from bouncing around. Beautiful. Here are a few pictures of all the packages, the Carolina Gold Rice and the Sea Island Red Peas. The red peas are interesting. Not sure why some aren't red. But I am really looking forward to using them. I planted some in my garden and if they come up I will plant more. I've been on their wonderful website making notes on cooking these grains. DH thinks I'm nuts paying $21.66/lb "and it's not even meat."

Further to using a steel plate for pizza making. That's what I do now. The bottom of my pizza was very crisp and as brown as the crust on top. I preheat the steel on the middle shelf at the highest oven setting....about 45 minutes. Five minutes before putting the pizza in I change the oven to broil for 5 minutes. Then in goes the pizza and the oven is changed to bake as hot as it goes and the pizza is baked for 5 minutes. The oven is changed to broil again for a further 2 to 3 minutes of broiling.

We had another porterhouse steak from our Grass Fed Farm. Again, the tenderloin half was indeed almost half of it. This steak was disappointing because it had some mean streaks of gristle running through it. Oh well, the other one was spectacular. Last night was pizza "Middle East" style. We were watching Top Chef Canada and they had a pizza challenge. Chefs drew countries as a theme for their pizzas. It was one of the better challenges of the year. I used a Turkish cookbook for inspiration. The topping is ground lamb mixed with red pepper paste, tomatoes, onion, loads of garlic and chili flakes. I had to put cheese on the pizza and chose mozza. A few red onions on top. I was quite tasty but the crust was disappointing. I think I made it too thin. I have some leftover ingredients in the fridge so will try again for lunch.

They look wonderful...with a nice glass of Chardonnay

Imagine the size of asparagus stalks would be important with this. Let us know how you make out...this would be something we would like. i do prefer my asparagus baked/grilled. To me it has better flavour, more complex. Good eats just ran a show on asparagus and they said roasting at high temps causes the formation of many different flavour compounds as compared to steaming or boiling. deb Madison uses roasted asparagus in here cream of asparagus soup. I made it and it was better than my usual stock poached asparagus soup.

@blue_dolphin stunning dishes.

The powder isn't nearly as strong and hot as freshly grated. It's quite mild. I have used it in the Wasabi-soy vinaigrette from Raising the Salad Bar. The dressing needed some cayenne/white pepper to get more of a kick. If you are wild about wasabi, it's probably not worth it.

The Silk Road Spice Merchant has Wasabi and they ship. Actually, they have a lot of interesting spices. All fresh. https://silkroadspices.ca/products/wasabi-powder?variant=7246103543874

Just forget to buy ketchup.

Interesting shelves. I see they have The Key to Chinese Cooking and Louisiana Real and Rustic....among others.

Salad greens topped with a zucchini/olive salad with Romano from A16. A couple of pita chips for crunch. That was at 11:45 and now I'm hungry again..it's 2:32. Dang.

I use paper binder clips for closing all kinds things. They come in many different sizes. https://www.staples.ca/en/staples-binder-clips-medium-1-1-4-black-24-tub/product_43455_1-CA_1_20001?kpid=43455&cid=PS:SBD:GS:n:n:SBD:58:21800&cvosrc=PLA.ca-google.OfficeSupplies&cvo_cid=1051308921&cvo_crid=256002344392&cid=PS:GS:CA::41:71700000031347627PRODUCT+GROUPp30926570818&cvosrc=ppc nonbrand.CA-google.PRODUCT+GROUP&cvo_cid=1051308921&cvo_crid=256002344392&Matchtype=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItvDkk_H02gIVksJkCh1w1Q7nEAQYASABEgJ6ivD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Kim, your eggs look nice and fluffy! Fresh eggs are such a treat. This morning I redid my wrap from yesterday but I used a rice wrapper to hold the stuffing. It held together much better. The sprouts are what really make it.