Anna N

not a great photo. Hot, open-faced pork loin sandwich with broccoli. Note 2 Note to @rotuts The pork loin was almost as tender and juicy as the pork tenderloin.

This topic came to mind as I was pouring a just-made gravy down the drain! I know we have discussed gravy thickeners such as Bisto but I’m not sure that we have ever discussed gravy mixes such as those offered by Club House, McCormick’s and Knorr. Nobody, least of all me, is prepared to suggest that any of these are better than homemade gravy. But sometimes homemade is not an option. When you have a rotisserie chicken and would like a hot chicken sandwich you are unlikely to have any gravy on hand! And you can certainly make a hot beef sandwich from deli sliced roast beef if you’re not up for making a roast with a gravy mix. i used to always have on hand jar of Trio gravy mix from Costco. It made what we call “chip truck gravy”. I would sometimes gussy it up with some fresh cream or even a little Calvedos and it served the purpose. But much to my horror Costco no longer carries it. In the past I have used and been quite pleased with Knorr gravy mixes. I have found their demi-glace, classic brown and roasted chicken to be quite tolerable. But when my daughter was shopping for me and I asked for these they were not available. My choice were either Club House or McCormick. I settled for the McCormick wild mushroom and roast gravy mixes. In preparation for making a hot meat sandwich I decided to mix up the gravy now. I followed the directions for the wild mushroom gravy but when I tasted it I could only think that it was cream of chemicals. I knew I could not even choke it down. So it went down the drain. Next I made up the roast gravy package. It’s not nearly as off-putting. I will at least be able to have a sandwich. What say you? Do you use these mixes? Found any that pass muster in a pinch.

Have not yet got around to trying the loin. I find for my own tastes 58°C works great.

Sous-vide pork tenderloin on toast. I would not normally sous vide pork tenderloin since it’s already very tender but my daughter had heard my plea for some pork and picked up both a tenderloin and a loin. Seemed convenient and reasonable to put them both in at the same time.

From the menu which is on their website, posted above, white cheddar and caramelized onions.

It seems like only yesterday I was reporting about lunch and it really isn’t very long ago but here we are again. Kerry stopped off at The Burnt Tongue on Locke Street in Hamilton and grab the soup for me and sandwiches for herself. Apparently as Kerry discovered today all their sandwiches are basically grilled cheese sandwiches with various and sundry additional elements. Thai pork ball soup. This was an odd concoction. It was quite palatable but had little to remind me of Thai food. It was more like a cabbage soup with some well seasoned pork meatballs. I still have a little left for another meal. I still have a little left for another meal. Sandwiches for Kerry. One is grilled cheese and French onion and the other is grilled cheese with spinach and artichoke. She managed to eat one and a half sandwiches and I can look forward to the remaining half sandwich at another time.

A small pork loin and a small pork tenderloin. They are swimming together at 58°C. I will give them about two hours.

Just out of curiosity I decided to see just how far I would have to travel. According to Alexa it would be about 84 km. Probably not gonna happen. It’s a shame because it sounds amazing. My daughter prefers to go gluten-free and butter tarts would definitely check all of the right boxes for her. Thank you for sharing.

On to the steak and kidney pie. I was really looking forward to this one. Reheated per the instructions from the bakery – – 360°F for 18 to 24 minutes. I went for eightteen minutes. Upturned into a bowl. Broken into and one rather large piece of kidney speared. The kidney was a bit on the chewy side and I prefer mine to be cut smaller than this. The beef was tender and had quite a lot of flavor. But it’s the crust that gets me. There’s just something about it that is wrong. I tried but in the end I had to leave this to the compost heap: The best I can see is that the pastry is pasty. Not the winner I had hoped for. Stay tuned it may take a little while to acquire further experimental matter Not the winner I had hoped for. Stay tuned as it may take a little while to acquire further experimental matter

You may be onto something there. My eyesight is such that I would struggle to notice that. But it was definitely a very strange texture and uncooked pastry might account for that. I had better tell Kerry to make sure that it’s cooked before she feeds the second one to Kira.

Who knew McDonald’s made such a thing? Apparently not me!

I have never understood the appeal of this particular preparation. I suspect I would learn to enjoy sausage and biscuits but I must admit that I have never had the chance to try.

Mushy peas are definitely an acquired taste. It’s a taste I never acquired to the horror of my British relatives.

I would have a little difficulty getting my teeth around one of these. I love Picadillo. Actually obtaining one of course would be much more challenging. Thanks so much for sharingI

So I was able to soundly smack @Kerry Beal around the head and ears with a wet noodle in order to extract further information about her thoughts on the beef and mushy pea pie. These are the Crusty Chronicles so it’s important that we know something about the crust. Kerry described the crust as somewhere between puff pastry and short crust pastry. She felt it would definitely have been better with short crust. She also was disturbed by the addition of the cheddar cheese. So all in all I suspect she will not be rushing back to buy another one of these. Sometime yesterday between lunch and dinner I decided to try one of the sausage rolls. I reheated it in the Breville smart oven at 350° for 10 minutes. I don’t know about you but some thing about this does not say “sausage roll” to me. I was disturbed by the texture. I could barely detect the difference between the pastry and the filling. The pastry was not at all what I expect from puff pastry. I’m inclined to go along with Kerry that it is some sort of hybrid between puff pastry and short crust pastry. to my palate it was lacking in seasoning of any kind. I suppose I should have got up and found some mustard to go with it but I really wanted to sample it just as it came. I really did have a hard time with this. I managed to choke down 1/2 of the sausage roll but could not bring myself to finish it. As an aside, I find these giant sausage rolls at odds with my previous experience of sausage rolls being a one- or two-bite affair. I will put the other sausage roll in the freezer for Kerry to pick up for Kira. She has an unsophisticated palate and will probably enjoy it. I have actually been testing sausage rolls over the past few weeks from various places and none of them have come even close to my expectations. This leads me to believe that the fault may be with my expectations rather than with the sausage rolls.

So @Kerry Beal and I are a little lost without our annual Manitoulin Island blog. But Kerry thought it might be fun to explore the range of savoury pastries offered by our local bakeries. We seem to have an abundance of bakeries offering meat pies, sausage rolls and assorted other savoury things. There is the British Pride Bakery here, That Pie Place, and Ernie’s Meat Market just to mention three. in the past I had meat pies from Ernie’s which were fantastic. this time Kerry visited British Pride Bakery, took a couple of photographs: and purchased the following: on the left is a steak and kidney pie for me. On the right is a beef and mushy pea pie for Kerry and in the middle are two pork sausage rolls for me. Kerry had to phone the bakery to discover how to distinguish between the two pies. I knew that they had available a Pokémon type card with a key to the secret. Hopefully we will get one of these cards next time! But a phone call garnered the information that the pie with the little tiny ball of pastry would be the mushy pea one. The ball of pastry represents a pea. So we will each sample our wares and make copious tasting notes so that we can compare with similar offerings from other bakeries in the area. (I do have to wonder how many other bakeries will be offering something similar to beef and mushy peas!) We hope that this will offer some amusement to some of you at least. only slightly off-topic for those of you who are not interested in pastry but love a good car crash! Everybody is OK now we understand. Click

My third meal from this amazing banh mi.

Not sure when or if we will ever return to dining in restaurants but that doesn’t mean we cannot still carry on the tradition of the Ladies who Lunch! This tiny Vietnamese restaurant seems to have so far survived by offering takeout and recently was allowed to open for indoor dining. Kerry dropped in here today to pick up our lunch. Pho ga for Kerry And the most amazing pork meatball Banh Mi for me. There were three meatballs and any one of them would make a meal. I behaved in a much more civilized manner this time and ate only enough to be satisfied. The remainder is stashed in my fridge for dinner this evening and perhaps even breakfast tomorrow. I don’t think the photograph does justice to the size of these meatballs. Each was at least as big as a golf ball.

Not terribly exciting compared to some of the meals being posted but even the simple can still be good. This was a single cabbage roll purchased from one of our better supermarkets. It makes a fine, filling and easy meal. I reheated it in the Cuisinart steam oven on steam bake at 32 5°F for 15 minutes.

Well we are adapting our Ladies who Lunch routine to limitations placed on us by Covid We almost never do lunch on Sunday but here we are. @Kerry Bealstopped at one of our favourite hangouts, Sakai, and brought lunch to my house. Steak sashimi. Seafood Pa Jun Our plates. They included the two dishes above and Shrimp Rocks, a favourite appetizer, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and mandu. I ate far too much. There was a little of the seafood pancake left which Kerry took home with her and a few mandu which stayed here I won’t be able to think of food for days.

Leftover Chinese takeout. Plain chop suey with crispy beef with orange peel.

It will not go lower than 20°C so I start with the coldest tapwater I have which is colder than that and usually go for an hour when I find it is thoroughly thawed. These are the small Pekin breasts. My unit is the Joule.

Not exactly cooking anything sous vide but I am thawing out a duck breast. I have never been pleased with the result of actually cooking a duck breast sous vide but it’s a fast and safe way to defrost.

A minute too long!

Simple but truly awesome lunch. Two open-faced sandwiches— one with smoked duck breast (purchased) and one with a tomato from my daughter’s garden. Bits of each that would not fit onto the bread served as tasty finger food. A little salt was all that was required in the way of seasoning. Now it is naptime.