MaryIsobel

My evacuee nephew (from the Okanagan fires) came to spend a few days with us. His is quite interested in cocktails and the making of so I knew just where to take him for an afternoon treat. There is a farm to still distillery a couple of miles from us. They have a lot of unique spirits and a few different tasting menus. Nephew and I opted for a coctail flight each. He had an Old Cheddar and Apple Butter Grilled Foccacia sandwich, I had a warm pretzel with mustard. Everything was top notch. Nephew had to buy a couple of the Dill Pickle Vodka tasters on the way out. https://rootsandwingsdistillery.ca/

Not as bad as I had feared although not the beautiful specimen that it could have been. Our guests tonight are a bachelor friend of my husbands, who truly appreciates anything home cooked and my two 20-something nephews both of whom apparently have hollow legs.

I shall never again roll out the pastry for my peach galette and neglect to move it to the parment lined baking sheet before filliing it. I was quite happy with how lovely it looked, one of my better attempts, then realized I would have to transfer it to the baking sheet. I tried a number of double cake spatula maneuvers before basically scrunching it together with my hands and plopping it on said sheet. Of course all of that caused the pastry to warm up. Into the freezer it went for 10 minutes. Just looked at it after the initial high heat bake and it's not looking pretty. I evision it being served it dessert bowls...

The smell is the tough part about smokers for me. It's fabulous if you are driving by but if the smell is making it's way into one's house for several hours, that's a different story. Husband likes to smoke fish, chicken, cheese, brisket , ribs... We keep all the doors and windows closed but I swear I can still smell it upon entering the house a couple of days later.

I would leave my husband for the day to shop at Trader Joes. As much as he loves to eat, his idea of the cost of food is stuck somewhere in the 80's!

Once again so sad that there is no Trader Joes in my part of Canada. There is one about about 1.5 hours away but involves crossing the Canada/US border and being (possibly) restricted to what and how much you can bring back.

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!