Anna N

Pork loin.

Lunch at Buoy’s in Gore Bay. Sort of a Caesar salad for Kerry. Was missing those things that actually make a salad Caesar. Things like Parmesan cheese, croutons and something resembling a garlicky dressing. BLT for me. Even after I removed half the bacon the sandwich remained unbalanced. (There was a time when I thought more is always better. It ain’t so.) But Kerry enjoyed the extra bacon. These chips were very strange. They were hard rather than crispy and lacked flavour of any kind. Not a very successful lunch. But the venue was pretty outside! I did take some lovely photographs ... of my finger. So you can thank Kerry for the retake. A quick shot of downtown Gore Bay. On the way back we stopped long enough for Kerry to have a wander through this little antique place in Kagawong. And finally a mural from downtown Little Current.

Mussels are not frozen but packed in atmospherically modified packaging. Prime rib would be what you expect. It is a particular cut of meat rather than a particular grade of meat. Max slaughters his own animals so I do not believe they are graded as they are in the grocery store hence prime would not indicate a particular level of quality. But his animals die happy and at home. We are a little schizophrenic when it comes to pricing in the grocery store. As far as I know the law requires it be priced in kilograms but then the grocery stores use pounds instead to make it look less expensive. Very few of us have adapted to ordering 100 g of any kind of meat or fresh produce. A very few grocery stores do stick to the letter of the law. In that case many of us turn ourselves into pretzels trying to convert 100 g @ x/kg into a price we can understand! Kerry will be posting photographs of the meat we got from Max. We did indeed get some of his latest sausages. No prime rib though.

Don’t think I have ever seen it any other way in most supermarkets. I have seen Kerry with some in bottles but not sure where it came from.

A bit untraditional but still good. Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar and a peach.

What the Australians call chicken leg quarters. Kerry and I adopted the name because it is shorter and now there’s no going backwards.

Very odd looking tomatoes. I am assuming that that is what they are and not some exotic fruit.

Good morning. I didn’t wake up quite so early this morning, thank goodness. But the rest of the house is still asleep. Forgot to post these photographs of Kerry‘s grocery shopping from yesterday: Chicken marylands which were on sale for $.99/ pound. Couldn’t pass on those. Molasses, mussels, cocktail tomatoes, frozen peas and Kerry’s snack of choice, salted peanuts. More eggs, two (frozen) Ace demi baguettes which along with the mussels will become dinner tonight, scallions, garlic and Asian pears. I intend to pickle the pears. Dishwashing detergent, sesame seeds, white wine vinegar, panko and sunflower oil. Kerry is off today so the plan is to drive over to Max Burt’s Farm (click) in Gore Bay.

It was a long, long evening! At 10:00 we finally managed a bite to eat. Thank heaven for leftover steak for me.

I didn’t think the cocktail hour would ever get here tonight. But it did. Averna Jimjam.

My thoughts exactly. Efficiency is not all it’s cracked up to be.

I don’t think you’re missing much. I think I started out with an idea and then built on it instead of subtracting from it! I did consider just using foil and had there been some heavy duty foil I might’ve gone that route. But it wasn’t going to work really well with the foil that is here. At least I didn’t think it would. The recipe required a fair amount of gentle stirring of the contents so I really needed something where I could just quickly lift it off and replace it. Anyway it all worked out and caused at least a little bit of amusement which was the important point.

You have taught your daughter well.

Purely out of my concern for Kira and my evil thoughts about pinching her so she would wake everyone up, I finished off the last of the poutine for lunch. One must deal with temptation. One can resist or one can cave. I caved. But damn it was good. Should I ever feel a need for another serving of poutine from The Trough I will be sure to take at least six friends with me to share.

So Kerry has gone off to work and I can play for a while. First though the important stuff has to be done. I have a load of laundry sloshing in the machine and I have stripped the chicken carcass of its meat and thrown its bones into the Instant Pot along with a small carrot and a small onion. Might as well turn it into soup rather than into compost. So nice to have so many kitchen toys!

Good morning. So the heat wave broke last night! Kerry and I stepped out onto the balcony about 9 o’clock last night and it was sweater weather. Currently it is 16°C and breezy. You will hear no complaints from me. Before going to bed last night I opened the fridge and saw my leftover poutine. It has tortured me all night long! I was awake shortly before 5 am and was tempted to go out and pinch Kira so everyone would wake up and I could have my poutine. 😂 Almost as good as yesterday. Re-heated in the Cuisinart 325°F steam bake x 10 mins. Kerry is working in the clinic in Little Current today and a friend/business associate is driving up from Toronto and will arrive here sometime around dinner time. We will have to see about feeding him when he gets here.

I admit when Kerry suggested this treatment of broccoli I was appalled. I knew it would turn that disgusting khaki green but that’s what she wanted and that was what she was going to get. In the end I found it quite eye opening. A different vegetable altogether than the broccoli that I normally enjoy. I would make it again. Kira had finished eating before we began today so she didn’t even get to taste the broccoli. But having said that she has an amazingly sophisticated palate. She was eating straight up kimchi yesterday!

My dessert.

This is a Roy Finamore recipe. The fancy lid was my attempt to overcome the lack of a lid that actually fits that damn pan. I covered a splatter screen in foil but it still wasn’t quite large enough so then I dammed the gap with damp side towels and put a small lid on top to keep everything stable. If anyone has a better idea I’m open to suggestions. This is a beautiful set of Biro pans but in my opinion the designers goofed when they didn’t make the lid for the Dutch oven also fit the sauté pan.

Not even close. 😂

I was being a smarty-pants. Similar to “What’s the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut?” – – about two weeks! Edited to add: Here is a link to a taste test that includes the brand we are talking about. Cock brand.

I will leave you with a puzzlement. This is a side dish for dinner tonight.

I think we will wait a few days. I’ll make sure there’s room in the refrigerator. Don’t think the PC comes in a nice box.

About $15. Yes, I know the brand. It comes in big and little. This is the little...

As one does, this was stored with the liquor. Found just after I had vacuum sealed and frozen the steaks we’re not having tonight.