Anna N

Good morning. Once again a sunny and slightly cool morning here in North Eastern Manitoulin Island. Breakfast was something a little different this morning. Based loosely, very loosely, on the recipe for Pastrami Scrambled Eggs from Shaya. @blue_dolphin must take sole responsibility for the hole in my bank account made by the purchase of this book. I swear she could make shoe leather look inviting.

I seem to recall that Harold McGee tackled this process quite some time back. Would be interested to know if anyone has adopted it and what the results were in terms of shelf life of fruits and vegetables.

I wouldn’t say it has been debunked totally. Samin Nosrat was the first chef I came across who suggested that just spreading out the blanched vegetables on a sheet pan worked equally wellp. Daniel Patterson says, “Except for a few leafy greens in a noted few circumstances, don’t cool anything by plunging it into ice water, cool by spreading out on a plate or a sheet tray. Yes, do this even with asparagus, which will stay vibrant green, contrary to popular belief.“ He then goes on to explain about what happens to cell walls when vegetables are heated and then plunged into ice water. He claims this tends to make them slimy as they absorb the ice water into the cells. He goes on to say, “When allowed to cool at room temperature, the residual heat on the outside of the vegetable evaporates the excess water, and they cool down drier and not slimy.” I started using the sheet tray method after reading Nosrat’s book. As to when to use this method I think depends very much on time available and what you intend to do with the vegetables afterwards. My experience, like yours, extends only to being less of a nuisance than having to set up an ice bath. I shall be more attentive to the end result in the future.

Sooner or later I knew somebody would twig on to this.😂

It is a decidedly “cheffy” book given that some of the ingredients are beyond the reach of many of us either because of cost or availability. And cooking vegetables in actual sea water is a deal breaker unless you live on an ocean coastline. Even then you need a boat to get out far from shore to gather that less polluted sea water. But I knew perfectly well when I bought it that it was not a practical recipe book. He is the second chef I know of (there must be more) who debunks the idea that all blanched vegetables should be shocked in an ice bath. I just find that an interesting take on a “well known fact”. There is more than a little Thomas Keller perfectionism in Daniel Patterson which extends even to the napkins used to clean any spills on plates before service. I like that even though such perfectionism is out of reach of ordinary mortals. No regrets whatever about purchasing the book.

It does indeed make an interesting read and I have no regrets buying it but, as I suspected, I will not be cooking from it.

I was doing just fine without any more food until Kerry insisted on making herself a sandwich and I could smell the bacon. So here is my sandwich: white toast with leftover chuck eye steak, sliced Campari tomatoes and Kewpie mayo.

Breakfast? Sort of. I wanted to taste both the roasted onions and the tomato jam and this seemed like the best way to do it.

Ha ha. I misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about the books I actually did buy. I am so over the Galloping Gourmet.🙁

Not sure whether one can actually capture the flavour in a bottle! But yesterday I threw caution to the wind and if something appealed to me I bought it whether or not it made any sense. And this was before my beer.

On our way back from Sudbury we felt the need to prove our Canadian citizenship so stopped in Timmy Hortons for an ice cap each. How is this for an intriguing purchase? Kerry had spotted one of these in the thrift store that supports animals. She asked about it and was directed to a store a couple of doors down, Tool Town, and snagged the last one he had in stock. Shishito peppers, elastic bands – – yes we had to buy them! 3M hooks, two books one of which I have no intention of cooking from— bought it out of curiosity, and finally some fresh dishwasher tablets because the ones here appear to have developed some kind of disease (I suspect they have been exposed to dampness or something). Various implements for fishing french fries out of hot oil, stainless steel bowl from Value Village that captured Kerry’s heart, small vacuum bags for the food saver, peanuts for making caramelized popcorn and David Liebovitz’ nuts. Muscovado sugar, Black bean garlic sauce and chilli garlic sauce, a lovely small baking tray, baby potatoes, tiny mushrooms, the real McCoy tonic water and finally, as a salute to the late and much missed Fat Guy, a Costco produce bag. Harissa, vadouvan seasoning, Sicilian lemon marmalade, mochi rice bites, stem ginger, tomato jam, two very inexpensive knives ( what can I say? I am a knife whore), dates and another book. Just a photograph to show the cost of one of the milkshake cups which Kerry usually acquires for a buck or two. She was horrified at the price in the store. Our primary reason for visiting Costco! Shrimp, scallops and decent chicken thighs.

Good morning. We awoke to cooler weather which is a welcome change considering that we don’t have a working air conditioner. I was so tired when we got back from Sudbury yesterday I only had enough energy to drink a cocktail and go to bed. So this morning I will post the rest of our photographs. After Kerry visited Costco we were finally ready for a meal. I had been researching nearby restaurants when I came across MIC Whisky Pub. MIC = made in Canada. I asked Kerry if it sounded familiar and initially she said no. Once it came into view she knew we had been there before. I tried to search our previous visits to Sudbury but without success. Finally, almost enough milk for Kerry’s tea! A pint of Ricard’s Red for me. We shared some appetizers. Kettle chips with a dip. Braised pork riblets with honey mustard sauce for dipping. Calamari with Cajun aïoli. Escargot with cheese and garlic bread for dipping.

One of our stops in Sudbury was at Value Village where I spotted these books. I did not buy them. But I had a few moments of pure nostalgia while I stared at them. And this is what happens when you go into a liquor store to buy one bottle of booze. You end up in two liquor stores because the first one didn’t have what you wanted and come home with this many bottles.

The onion relish is new to us. Not Kawartha ice cream. It is Farqhuar’s.

We are in Sudbury at the moment for some serious retail therapy. We have been away from the big cities for a whole week apparently we don’t have much staying power! We stopped at Jeremy’s Truck Stop in Nairn Centre for breakfast as usual. The peameal bacon breakfast with eggs over easy, potato pancakes and brown toast for Kerry. Poached eggs, potato pancakes and white toast for me. The potato pancakes come with sour cream but Kerry wished that she had asked for applesauce as well.

Yes, those are pre-cooked pork ribs that Max has asked us to taste test. We performed the same service last year and found them not up to our standards so he has tweaked his method and his recipe and we will try them again this year.

Yes. A number of reviewers made the same observation. I couldn’t quite believe it. I recalled seeing photographs hands shaping the dough into a circle so I was quite sure there must be a recipe. I had to look more than once to convince myself that there was not!

Dinner was a salad plate that used up some of the leftover chuck eye. I made a dressing of oil, Worcestershire sauce and heavy cream and Kerry added croutons and made up a Thousand Island dressing for hers (ketchup, Miracle Whip, relish, and a little bit of ballpark mustard.

The meat somewhat fulfils my requirements but it goes far beyond that. There is something about going into Max Burt’s that brings out the carnivore in both of us. His meat is all humanely raised and he says his animals only have one bad day. They meet their maker right on his farm. The butter was considerably cheaper than what we can get in Little Current for the same brand so Kerry stocked up. Ice cream cones are gone. You are too late.

So after I misunderstood absolutely everything that happened today and was prepared to put my feet up and enjoy our day at home, Kerry looked at me strangely and said, “But we’re going out. We need to hit Burt’s Farms and the grocery store at Mindemoya.” And so we did! At Max Burt’s we found: Then a trip into the Mindemoya grocery store. We had Kira with us and me with my limited mobility and it seemed nobody had any patience or consideration at all. Oh well. We still managed to get everything on our list and more besides. Then it was time for a treat: Butter pecan for me and butterscotch for Kerry.

We need you to cooperate fully. Without your opinion on miracle whip we would have to exclude you from the study. 🙁

Well I knew there would be outliers we had no clue that the very first response would be an outlier. Congratulations.😂

Host's note: this innocent-seeming topic was split from Manitoulin -- Life on the Level, to prevent it from permanently derailing the foodblog. Kerry wants to apply for a government grant to study the correlation between miracle whip use and ketchup use. Her hypothesis is that people who don’t like miracle whip are the same people who don’t like ketchup on their scrambled egg or grilled cheese sandwiches. Discuss

I have forced myself to select three recipes that I think I’m prepared to attempt: Macanese meat and potato also known as minchi The Vietnamese meatball lettuce wrap. The mushroom pork omelette. But I’d also like to make a chicken thigh recipe. It’s just a matter of choosing one. Sudbury has most things unless you want to wander into the ethnic world in which case you are unlikely to find much. There does not seem to be much in the way of Asian or Mexican ingredients. On the other hand it now has a Costco, a HomeSense and most of the Ontario grocery stores seem to have a branch in Sudbury. There are also a number of thrift stores of which our favourite is “PetSave ReTAIL Thrift Shop & Collectibles”. We can almost guarantee that we get some quality time with one or three cats in there! I don’t think you need a CSO to cook bacon since I used the convection function which is available on most ovens. At home I do it in the Breville toaster oven. I just realized that all of the recipes I chose are based on ground pork. I may have to revisit that decision. Edited to add: and of course a cannabis outlet.

Good morning. According to the forecast we are expecting a muggy, hot day here on the Island. There is some rain in the forecast and a cold front should clear the air overnight. Cheddar and bacon melt for me for breakfast. Not sure what adventure is planned once Kerry clears any remaining issues in the emergency room. She is officially off now, once that is done, until Monday but has agreed to be back up, if needed, for a new doctor on Sunday. So we can wander far from home today and tomorrow but need to be close to the hospital on Sunday. But I know Kerry wants to get started on her french fry experiments and Kira is with us today so we may be sticking close to home today anyway. Tomorrow the plan is definitely to go into Sudbury so I need to get cracking choosing recipes I want to make so we can pick up supplies. I don’t know why I find that task so hard to complete. Too many choices I think.