Long distance cooking buddies share their food

[Darienne]

I am blown away by your energy, your dedication, your enthusiasm...and your finding a IR thermometer on sale at CTC in Sudbury. I'm getting out the flyer and taking another look. Right now!

The thermometers are not in the CTC flyer, but rather an in-store special for an indefinite time, not in housewares but in tools (Peterborough anyway), about $60 instead of $100.

Thanks, Kerry

[Kerry Beal]

I am blown away by your energy, your dedication, your enthusiasm...and your finding a IR thermometer on sale at CTC in Sudbury. I'm getting out the flyer and taking another look. Right now!

The thermometers are not in the CTC flyer, but rather an in-store special for an indefinite time, not in housewares but in tools (Peterborough anyway), about $60 instead of $100.

Thanks, Kerry

I paid $50 - and indeed they were in tools - of course only one staff member in the store knew that!

[Kerry Beal]

For the girls at work today - the Lemon Bliss cake. Smells fabulous!

[Darienne]

I paid $50 - and indeed they were in tools - of course only one staff member in the store knew that!

The CYC guy quoted $60 over the phone and tomorrow the DH says we'll pick one up in town. Yay!

I can almost smell that cake from here. Lemon. What smells better than lemon...and orange...and chocolate...and raspberry...

Edited July 4, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[judiu]

Kerry, you're playing with my mind! That cake look so beautiful; I'm glad you posted the picture. Now I HAVE to make one, tube cake pan or no!

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, you're playing with my mind! That cake look so beautiful; I'm glad you posted the picture. Now I HAVE to make one, tube cake pan or no!

The girls at work say it's one of the nicest cakes I've ever brought in.

[Darienne]

The top of the Lemon Bliss cake...it appears that it would not be something you could freeze? Too sticky?

[Kerry Beal]

The top of the Lemon Bliss cake...it appears that it would not be something you could freeze? Too sticky?

I think it would freeze fine - you could glaze before freezing or after thawing.

[judiu]

Do you think adding poppy seeds to the recipe would work? Love lemon poppy seed cake!

[Kerry Beal]

Do you think adding poppy seeds to the recipe would work? Love lemon poppy seed cake!

Indeed - I was thinking exactly the same thing. Figured I'd do them as muffins the next time.

[Kerry Beal]

Not pretty, but very tasty! Almond dacquoise with lemon curd and topped off with Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream. I made a smaller one which was prettier - but forgot to take a picture before I sent it home with the sitter.

I also made a batch of Blueberry Oatmeal muffins for rounds this am - but forgot to take a picture of those either. Trouble with rushing out of the house.

[Darienne]

Do you think adding poppy seeds to the recipe would work? Love lemon poppy seed cake!

Deensiebat posted this lemon poppy seed cake the other day on Your Daily Sweets: What are you making? Poppy seed cake

If you like poppy seeds and lemon...this is the cake for you. I baked it in 8 little mini-loaf pans.

[Lior]

loved reading everything in this thread.

[Kerry Beal]

Realized I had a container of glace cherries in the bin - so made a nice cherry pound cake. Gone in 30 minutes!

Special request - same bread for the doc who's condo I stay in while I'm up here.

Had some leftover chicken from a nice Burt Farm's bird that I roasted yesterday - got Anna to send me the recipe for the filling for the Ad Hoc at Home chicken pot pie - cheated by grabbing some President's Choice Puff pastry to top it off.

[Anna N]

So Kerry Skyped me last night wondering why the Home side of the equation was not holding up her end. I could give you at least a dozen legit reasons but not one of them is food related so I’ll just try to catch up.

On Canada, July 1, my husband and I decided that it was perfectly logical to celebrate our Canadianess by having a Danish lunch. I try to do this on most holidays. We simply made our own open-face sandwiches from a selection of fish, meat and cheese and ate until we could eat no more. We had pickled herring (naturally), Danish cucumber salad and some pickled beets, two cheeses we had not tried before – a Niagara Gold which we both enjoyed and a mushroom Okra which was rather blah. We finished with a Danish shrimp salad. All was washed down with the last precious drops of some Taffel Akvavit which Kerry had sourced for us months before and ice-cold beer. After that we both napped for much of the afternoon and could not even think of having an evening meal.

On Friday our local Sobey’s had a special on crab legs so hubby had some steamed crab and I had some seared scallops with basil butter (I am allergic to crab) followed by a grilled steak and Caesar salad. It is a fall-back meal when I am out of ideas.

When Saturday rolled around I wanted a chance to play with my “as seen on TV” halogen oven (see the yard sale topic!). I had little faith that this was going to do anything for me but as noted on the yard sale topic my sister who lives in England swears by hers. So I made some potatoes roasted in duck fat to go along with a ham steak and some eggs (breakfast for dinner). The potatoes were as good as any I have ever made and were finished in half the time they usually take in the conventional oven. Hmmmmm

On Sunday I was ready for something other than grilled meat so I tried this recipe for Vinegar Chicken with Mushrooms and it was an all around winner. Gave the leftovers to my daughter and she too gave it two thumbs up.

Every Monday we have one of our granddaughters over for the evening so her parents can have a date night. She sent me an instant message saying that she had two loose teeth and needed something non-crispy for dinner, please Nana. When I suggested KD she was in heaven. I really hate serving her processed food but that is what she likes and that’s what it’s all about really isn’t it? Not about cooking skills but about pleasing the one who must eat it. While she chowed down on the KD, hubby and I had an amazing piece of wild salmon with a side of potato skins. Once again I used the halogen oven to bake the potatoes and they were done in 40 mins versus 1 to 1 ½ hours in my conventional oven at 400F. I was impressed. I also finished the skins in the halogen. I probably could have cooked the salmon in there but was a bit leery as it was an expensive piece of fish so it was done in the conventional oven. Earlier in the day I had made some Methi Chicken for my daughter so, along with the flesh from the potatoes I used for the skins, her mother and father also had a ready meal to eat around the pool!

The Methi Chicken is from Monica Bhide’s Everything Indian Cookbook and is one of many favourites from this book. I tested most of the recipes for Monica – 300 recipes in 10 weeks in a tiny apartment kitchen - a feat that I still marvel at! There are no photos. It would take a skilled stylist to make the dish look anything other than a dog’s dinner but the taste and aroma are not to be missed. The dish calls for skinless, bone-in thighs so here's the cook's treat.

Today my daughter is having a pool party for some neighbours and asked me to pull something together for her. This was rather short notice so I offered to make more Methi Chicken since I had all the ingredients to hand, some devilled eggs which always disappear in a flash and I had a half package of puff pastry in the freezer that needed using up so I pulled together some mushroom turnovers.

I am unreasonably proud of these devilled eggs since this was the first time I managed to pipe using a tip! Usually I try and then abandon the effort and just fill them with a teaspoon.

I am baking-challenged and geometry-challenged too so these are not pretty and they are certainly not triangular but they are very tasty. The filling is onions, mushrooms, a bit of soy sauce and some parmesan cheese.

I really, really wanted to make some Vietnamese summer rolls (the cold rice-paper ones) but they need to be made and eaten with an hour to be at their best and that simply wouldn’t work tonight.

My photography skills are not improving much. I can’t seem to override the camera’s insistence that it knows better than me what F-stop, aperture etc. are appropriate. I will study the manual some more and see if I can overcome its stubbornness.

Apologies to the AWAY portion of the topic – I will try to be better at posting.

[Kerry Beal]

Damn - that chicken skin looks yummy!

Here's what happens if you put bread dough in the thermomix then get called out to the hospital for a couple of hours.

[Porthos]

Anna, what is KD?

[Anna N]

Anna, what is KD?

Sorry - thought it was like OJ - everyone knew! It is Kraft Dinner (Macaroni and cheese).

[Anna N]

I am really missing my Wednesday escape but Kerry doesn't seem a bit inclined for a 16 hour round trip just to have lunch with me!

In an effort to make up for my failure to hold up the Home team over the past few days here is a brief report from today, July 7.

When I made the devilled eggs yesterday I boiled a couple of insurance eggs as I knew some of them would be devils to peel (I think that is the real reason they are called devilled eggs). So today for my husband’s lunch I made some egg salad - can’t understand the need for celery but maybe that’s just me. I chop the eggs coarsely, add either chopped scallions or chopped chives, mix with a little Dijon and a little mayo and season with salt and pepper. There were just enough Danish cukes left for a side dish.

For this low carber it was 3 tiny lamb chops with mint sauce. But not the mint sauce that is neon green and tastes of nothing but sugar but the real McCoy made the way my Gran used to make it. Grab some fresh mint from the garden, sprinkle with a little sugar, douse with malt vinegar, taste, adjust sugar and let sit for a while for the flavours to marry.

Please note the cheffy plume!

I cooked the chops in the halogen oven again and they came out juicy and cooked medium rare. I think this oven is an exception to the rule as far as the usual crap you get from TV infomercials but then I also love my Magic Bullet knock-off. So long as you take the “does all things” claim with a grain of salt, it does many things well.

[Lior]

Kerry! That bread is funny! Oh dear!

[Anna N]

My husband and I think we were born a few eons too late. We see ourselves sitting in front of a cave before a blazing fire gnawing on bones and shooing away the sabre-toothed tigers. This is one of our favourite meals. Beef ribs, seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper and grilled to medium rare. Since our hearts live in an age before gathering pushed hunting aside, we don’t mess up this meal with green sh*t as my husband calls all vegetables or relatives thereof. Is it healthy? I dunno but it certainly is low carb.

As an added bonus my daughter's dog gets the bones.

[Kerry Beal]

My offering for the clinic this morning - maple syrup pie. I had a big of slippage in the car, but did my best to cover it up with the cream. It was not a nice firm piece of pie - think the recipe needs a little work - but the flavour was excellent. I used graham wafers as well as ground rolled oats for the crust.

I was invited to dinner at one of the nurse's (Myra's) farms tonight - I headed out with the rug rat as soon as work was finished so that we could pick some berries - black currents and raspberries.

Black currents.

Myra is married to a frenchman from the south of france - his brother, wife and kids were visiting from South Carolina and the boys went out collecting chantrelles before dinner - his brother cooked them up with a bit of garlic and some herbs - they were fabulous!

[Kerry Beal]

Anthea's Ginger Cookies - from the International Cookie Cookbook. Always a hit at work.

Yesterday I overheard one of the nurse practitioners talking to the bakery in town. She was trying to order a whipped cream and strawberry cake for one of the nurses 40th. It's going to be a surprise funeral party. The bakery wanted $50 and she had to add her own whipped cream and strawberries. Long story short - I'm in the middle of making a whipped cream and strawberry cake. The usual issues for up north - finding good strawberries and getting 1 litre containers of whipping cream - it's apparently going to be in tomorrow morning. So guess what I'm going after at lunch.

Cake under construction - two 9 by 13 cakes, split, a whipped cream dam around the edge, thick custard and lightly stewed strawberries. Tomorrow I'll finish it off with whipped chantilly cream and some fresh berries.

[Anna N]

July 8

Yesterday the temperature here was 34C but the weather office said it would feel like 43 to 45C and it did! Needless to say there was not a whole lot of anything happening at Home. My window air-conditioner makes it just bearable. Cooking and eating were going to be a challenge no matter what. Having said that I only had myself to feed at lunch and managed to cook these 4 wings which I ate with a Korean-inspired dip – mayo, rice vinegar and gojuchang (red pepper paste). These too were cooked in the halogen oven and were done in 15 minutes without pumping much additional heat into the house.

Dinner was very late and consisted of nothing more than more wings tossed on the outdoor grill and then sauced in a chipotle-based BBQ sauce. I managed to put out bowls of blue cheese dressing but peeling and cutting carrots to go along with the wings proved too challenging.

[Kerry Beal]

Cream applied at lunch time, strawberries after work. All ready for someone to pick up - don't think I can handle the cake and the rug rat together to arrive on time at the party!