Anna N

OK so this latest book is already the bane of my life. It is Too Many Chiefs Only One Indian. This is not a coffee table book – – this is a dining room table book provided the dining room table is very well constructed and can take some weight. Sheesh. It is a restaurant book and one I am most unlikely to want to cook from but I’m still interested in at least leafing through it. It will only happen on days when I can manage a breakfast of champions to give me the strength to wrestle with it.

Today @Kerry Bealand I returned to an old favourite in Burlington, Bahn Thai. They always had the very best crispy calamari and I’m pleased to say nothing has changed. It’s still the best. Ginger tea for Kerry and I had a small glass of Merlot. Calamari. Perfect combination of crispness on the outside and tenderness on the inside. Dry Penang curry with beef. Shrimp in tamarind sauce. I could’ve spent the whole afternoon just eating these things. But we had other things to do. You know why your Besty is your Besty when she not only takes you to IKEA, picks up a cart for you, and then, after treating you to lunch, takes you and it home and assembles it right before your very eyes. Now that’s a Besty of the very best kind. forgot to post the rice. Yep

Some weeks back @FauxPassent a copy of Susan Musgrave’s book A Taste of Haida Gwaii to @Kerry Beal. Knowing how much of a child I am when it comes to opening parcels, Kerry brought the package containing the book over to my house so I could open it. I was just so amazed to see it was a book by Susan Musgrave. Susan was one of my very early mentors when I was learning to write for publication. I asked Kerry if I could borrow the book for a few days and a few days of turned into a few weeks, mea culpa. Susan was married 20+ years to one of Canada’s most notorious bank robbers. Steven Reid was a member of the Stopwatch Gang. But if she is notorious for that, she is famous for her poetry and other writings. This book is much more than a recipe book although it does include many recipes from the bed and breakfast, Copper Beech House, which she acquired in 2010. It is part history, part travelogue, part autobiography. It always reveals Susan‘s irreverence for anything and everything. I am very much reminded of The Art of Living According to Joe Beef. The photography is phenomenal and I’m sure the recipes are worthy although most are a bit beyond my current capabilities. Some of the ingredients are foraged. Now I can return the book to Kerry. I feel bad about having held onto it so long. Sent from my iWatch.

I was hungry tonight but for some reason these store-bought pork and chive pot stickers just didn’t do it for me.

Big breakfast today all made on the A4 Box. “Bangers”, fried egg, skillet toasted English muffin and some chutney. Quotation marks around the sausages because to me they are nothing like bangers but that’s what they are called. Why a big breakfast on a Tuesday? So glad you asked. I decided today would be a pyjama day and I would play all day long and I don’t want to be interrupted to make lunch. This breakfast will keep me till dinner I hope.

If it makes you feel any better that’s the only way I have ever found that works to avoid burning the onions.

Thanks so much. I learn a great deal from your mini travel blogs.

The hermit cookies of last week were a real hit with my son-in-law. He saved two for his coffee following day and lied to one of his coworkers that they were all gone! This week Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Smitten Kitchen. Most of these will go off with my son-in-law tomorrow morning. These aberrations, however, with their crisp and caramelly edges are MINE. MINE. MINE.

Can you paraphrase for those of us not prepared to buy our way into the New York Times? I understand if you choose not to.

My apologies. I missed that! Goes to show you should always gas up with caffeine before risking making an ass of yourself.

Used my iPhone and I’m not sure how blue that plate is and how much my white balance is off. I think it’s the white balance although I think there is some blue in that plate. Oh and they were not abnormally large peas. It’s just the perspective. When I get hangry the niceties of photography and just about anything else go out the window.

I went digging deep into my freezer drawers yesterday and unearthed two skinny lamb shoulder chops. I sous vided did them for about four hours at 54.5 and then attempted to sear them. They were cut so unevenly that searing them was almost impossible. But served with some peas and mint sauce they still made an adequate meal.

Not really surprising since as I understand it the name simply means the best spices that the merchant has to offer. So there are likely as many combinations as there are people who can combine them. Much like garam masala, no two are alike.

Here you go.

Store-bought garlic naan with grated cheddar and Parmesan and lots of Timur pepper. Served on my finest dinnerware. Some might call this lazy but it’s really just energy conservation and aren’t we all being urged to conserve? Yeah... about the dinnerware… oh well.

Wow. Thanks. I’m inspired.

I have used club soda to make tempura batter.

Me too.

If you ever read of me cooking or eating turkey you will know I have finally flipped my lid. I consider it the tofu of the animal world.

I think this will end up being brunch. inspired by @blue_dolphin, Martha Stewart (Rose’s baked artichokes) And Nik Sharma (baked eggs with artichoke hearts). Frozen artichoke bottoms, cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, bread cubes, Italian seasoning, olive oil and lemon juice and a separately fried egg. On more than one occasion, @Kerry Beal and I served the Martha Stewart dish at Eggfests and it went over very well. This mashup of more than one recipe did not work out quite as well as it might have. I found it a bit on the dry side and it could certainly have used more cheese.

This or a variant of it has become my go-to meal for breakfast, dinner or lunch when I’m too lazy to think of anything else or too tired to make anything else. Today it is Trader Joe’s cave-aged raw cows’ milk blue cheese on skillet toasted rye bread with sautéed mushrooms. I skipped the honey this time and think I like it better without the sweetness.

Pretty good? It looks amazing to me. Did you cook the octopus yourself? I ask because there is a Korean grocery store here where you can actually buy already cooked octopus. It always looks so good and I’m tempted but it’s not cheap. Also are those roasted tomatoes that I am seeing?

Neither to be honest. Kerry neither encourages me nor discourages me even though she never drinks at lunchtime because she’s driving. And my daughter doesn’t influence me either. Today I behaved myself on account of the appointment which would follow immediately after lunch. You know how these doctors have a way of dehumanizing one. — LOL SOB (little old lady short of breath) . Well I really didn’t want to add to their list ... LOL SOB and smelling strongly of alcohol.😂

I’ve inspected it carefully and I don’t see any chickpeas in there. Unless they’re hiding that looks like a perfect salad. I would love something like that. What did you dress it with? Or did you not bother? It looks good enough to eat without a dressing.

You are just trying to make me jealous and by gosh you are succeeding. 😂