MaryIsobel

Woke up with a hankering for Mexican flavours. Since we have such great local corn these days, my mind went to Poblano Corn Chowder, which I've made a few times. Of course for the first time since they opened four years ago, our local grocery had no poblanos. On-the-spot improvisation led me to a green bell pepper (sorry for those of you averse) a jalapéno and a couple of tins of green chiles. Charred the fresh peppers and the onions. Not the prettiest soup but we enjoyed it. Garnished with cubed avacado tossed with lime juice and tajin and some sour cream.

Horrible to dine somewhere you are looking forward to and then finding out it is not up to snuff. Your track record with restaurants seems to be pretty good so I guess you just have to accept that there will be a less than stellar one at some point.

Thank you for that Duvel! Just goes to show you that sometimes you just need a little jolt to get you out of your mindset. This looks perfect and I will definitely do this!

No argument from me. Like I said I am slowly learning that "Sorry, Mom, but beans rice and pasta do not last forever." Child of a child of the Depression.

Not planning on a topping per se, just a bit of a crunchy element.

I hadn't heard of horseradish crumble but that is definitely close to what I thought I dreamed up - thanks. I should have been more clear on the beets, they were very thinly spiralized - gorgeous both visually and texturally.

Wow, looks and sounds amazing!

I think my problem with old dried out beans is on me. I will "discover" a bag of beans in my pantry and think - oh, I'm sure they're still good - they're dried beans! I am slowly but surely learning...

Thank you I have never had the opportunity to try yak cheese. Interesting that it is somewhat sweet.

Is the flavour comparable to a cheese that a Canadian might be familiar with? Are there different types of Tibetan Cheese made from Yak Milk?

Love the look of the mango dabu dabu! Looks very "eat it by the spoonful-able."

True, but I would just do a hint of the above, not bathe the tuna in it. I just like that flavour combo. I go particularily easy on the sesame oil, I'm talking a drop or two. It definitely overwhelms everything really easily!

My sister and her son who both really enjoy food will be visiting soon. Since I have easy access to sashimi grade tuna and they don't, I want to come up with something unique, not found in a sushi joint but I'm not into gastriques or foams or the like. I'll probabyl keep it simple but an idea flashed into my mind to do a traditional poke-like marinated cubes of tuna in a pretty typical treatment of soya, ginger, sesame oil, etc but to top it pickled shredded beets (which I had recently - divine!) with a wasabi crumble for a little crunch. My first thought was crushed wasabi peas but I would love to hear an elevated idea if anyone has one. It doesn't have to be a main, could be an appy or just a taste. My sister and I tend to do a lot of grazing when visiting one another because we have so many things we want to try out on each other.

So many cravable meals!

I agree. A local winery has a bistro where I took a friend for lunch. We both had French Onion soup and decided to share a slice of quiche. The server asked if we wanted the kitchen to split the quiche for an upcharge of 5.00. My rather outspoken friend said "oh for God's sake, we will split it ourselves unless you are going to charge us extra for the knife!"

What's the difference? Cut in half or not cut in half?

Your lunches put mine to shame - and I didn't just get out of the hospital. Lately I have "brunch" around 11 and then dinner around 7. Today's brunch was a little bit of leftover Chinese Chicken Salad. ("Chinese" I suppose as there is rice wine vinegar, soy and sesame oil in the dressing) followed by a bowl of fresh peaches and blueberries with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt sprinkled with about a tbsp of brown sugar.

Trying to cook with as little heat as possible so hauled out the electric skillet. Sauteed some onion, zuchini and summer squash til browned, added some super cherry tomatoes and cooked til burst and jammy then stirred in some al dente ricotta/prosciutto tortellini, pesto from a jar and a bit of pasta water. Everyone was happy and there was enough for lunches tomorrow.

Can't go wrong with tacos!

According to a nurses that I spoke to, our local hospital that I was in, which is nowhere near the size of VGH, used to have menus before Covid. Apparently the food comes from Edmonton now! It wasn't inedible, just very bland and unappealing and no choices were given. That being said, the care that I received from everyone was top notch!

I guess the price of free health care in Canada is no choices for hospital food. Never saw a menu and waiting each meal was kind of a "how bad can this be?' waiting game. I had not one memorable meal and quickly came to rely on protein bars, fruit and whatever family and visitors brought for me.

How fortunate. I have been looking for one Denby Baroque pedestal mug to replace one of mine that is chipped. I plan to leave my Denby to my daughter that loves it but don't want to leave her a chipped mug. I have seen prices, that when shipping is included, top 100.00 Cdn for that mug. I keep hoping to find one for about 1/2 that price!

Hopefully it works better for it's intended use than the one that I bought did. Piece of crap - I sent it to the thrift store after one use.

Full disclosure, I have done zero research on these but ifwishes were horses, then beggars would ride... https://www.tascoappliance.ca/home/kitchen/refrigeration/fridges/under-counter/ID-30C

During Covid I became very much more aware of "fingers in food." I starting serving mixed nuts with a spoon and all finger food with some means other than fingers for taking off the serving dish. Found these at Dollarama. I thin they are about 6 for 1.50. The ones pictured have survived numerous dishwasher trips and have no cracks or chips. I use them for charcuteriie, pickles, olives etc.