Long distance cooking buddies share their food

[Kerry Beal]

Working in the ER again today - getting ready for rounds first. Made a batch of cheese biscuits for rounds. I have a coffee cake in the oven for the ER crew.

So much baking to do - so little time!

[Kerry Beal]

Made a coffee cake to take to the ER today. It was a rather crazy day with a severe trauma on top of a whole lot of other crazy stuff - so it was all anyone got to eat for supper.

[Kerry Beal]

The filling for the figgy buckwheat scones recipe makes enough for two - so to get rid of a few things in the fridge before the weekend I made a second batch. It also had the benefit of getting rid of the rest of the buckwheat flour.

I've been working this morning on my dessert for the heartland gathering - a work in progress to be sure.

[Anna N]

It’s been some time since I last posted but life doesn’t always oblige the foodie in us. The mundane and dramatic occurrences that constitute real life all too often interfere.

The Home team is now part of the Away team for a few days.

We arrived at the cottage on Manitoulin Island on Friday, July 23 only to discover a mistake in booking dates had created an overlap and the cottage was already occupied. But Kerry had already worked out plan B so we stayed overnight with her in the townhouse. She has already posted about our meal the Anchor Bar & Grill in Little Current on Friday evening.

After noon on Saturday we returned to the cottage and settled in. But not for long. As we dragged the last box from the car, my husband announced that our main cooking appliance, the propane BBQ, had somehow mostly remained in Oakville! We had the firebox but the control, grill, fuel and stand had not made it up to Manitoulin. And so my first mission: find a way to replace the portable BBQ.

The cottage is equipped with a small toaster oven and a massive professional Garland range complete with flat top that once graced the kitchen in a restaurant. It is powered by LP and, quite frankly, scares the daylights out of me so I bring up a portable induction and hob and an oven. This time I brought my halogen oven so I could have some play time with it but the it is the BBQ that that we mostly rely on.

It does not take more than a few minutes after arrival at the cottage to remember that critters large (bears) and small (ants) consider themselves absolutely entitled to whatever food us humans leave about for their enjoyment. So the first order of business is ensuring that all food is either in the ‘fridge or in critter-proof containers.

Without a BBQ Saturday’s evening meal would have to be prepared some other way. I had brought very little food this time and planned on shopping on the Island but I had one onion, a handful of beautiful tiny string beans that were a gift from Kerry and a steak from home. I pan-fried the onion then sautéed the beans and kept both warm in my halogen oven while I prepped the steak. Dinner was satisfactory but a BBQ would have to be found.

And this is what we looked at during dinner.

The rocks on the windowsill are fossils collected on the beach below the cottage.

Kerry and I had already planned a shopping trip to Sudbury with Beth (eG member) so finding a BBQ was added to the list of things to do in Sudbury. Places to visit included:

STOP – a restaurant supply store

HomeSense – a great place for reduced kitchenware, cookbooks and gadgets

Paris Fine Foods

Costco

Liquidation World where Kerry had found some super kitchen timers that are simple to operate, have large, very readable numbers and can be worn around the neck.

Sudbury Mall for chorizo

Value Village for books, kitchenware and whatever other treasures might appear.

Bulk Barn for various foods and especially for me, treats for my husband including licorice and candy bars.

Loews for a BBQ

This is some of my haul.

Marlene Spieler is an eG member so I was quite thrilled to see her book at Value Village. The black cloth is an apron which I got for $5 as it is a second.

I arrived home at 8 pm and asked my husband to assemble the BBQ so I could toss a small steak on it and feed us both. According to the instruction sheet it should take about 30 mins but the joke was on us. Two hours later we had a working BBQ! We cooked the steak by flashlight, wolfed it down and fell into bed trying to ignore the mouse that had appeared as soon as I brought in the food from Bulk Barn.

I really needed to do some grocery shopping but Monday found me much more inclined to recover from the marathon shopping day in Sudbury so I eked out what little we had brought up with us. Bacon is a mainstay for us so I cooked up a pound of it to have on hand for quick meals and to get some cooking fat! With a pound of cooked bacon in the fridge the possibilities seem almost endless: BLTs, melts of all kinds, pasta dishes, potatoes skins, etc. etc. So brunch became a bacon and cheese melt for me on half an English muffin and a bacon, egg and cheese McMuffin for my husband.

For the evening meal, one of the enormous strip loin steaks purchased in Sudbury would put our new BBQ through its paces but the only vegetable I had now were 2 small Kirby cucumbers, also a gift from Kerry. I sliced them up, salted them and then did a quick pickle with some sherry vinegar and sugar.

After dinner we had to face the mouse issue head on. I had grabbed peanuts at Bulk Barn for the chipmunks that keep us company on the porch so we shelled a few of these and with the help of my Magic Bullet I made some all-natural gourmet peanut butter to bait the mouse traps. Worked wondrously – two less mice now.

Supper last night was very satisfactory but I don’t think I can face one more steak so now I am off to finally stock up on groceries. I have no internet at the cottage and am posting this from Kerry’s place in Little Current. I might be able to do the same again on Friday.

[Kerry Beal]

Trial 1 of the heartland dessert. Needs a bit of work on the lemon chiboust to eliminate the slightly raw taste from the cornstarch - but it still tastes damn good.

Rug rat ate chicken tikka masala, one of the figgy buckwheat scones, then this dessert. She seems happy now!

[Kerry Beal]

Batch 2 of the Heartland Gathering dessert is made - much better. Cooked high enough to remove the starchy taste, and with the starch in there the egg yolks don't overcook even when it boils.

Made a batch of polenta in the Thermomix - threw it in and left it to stir itself for 45 minutes. Added a bit of parmesan and butter in the last couple of minutes. Poured it into my greased 'squffin' tin so I'll have nice little squares to grill or fry. I roasted some vegetables today which should go nicely with it.

Filled a couple of plates of chocolates with a coffee water ganache, used the leftover chocolate to make a poprock and freeze dried strawberry bark and put together a couple of batches of coconut macaroon dough - requires overnight refrigeration.

Oh yeah, made the poolish for semolina bread.

I really should sleep at this point - but I've reached the too tired from being post call!

[Kerry Beal]

Knocked out my coffee water ganache chocolates this morning - the coloured ones aren't very attractive - I think with that bubbly mold I'm better off using interference powder.

First tray of coconut macaroons - I'll bake off the rest this evening when I'm back from the reserve where I'm working today.

So I'll take those macaroons, the lemon chiboust and the poprock/freeze dried strawberry bark today. The trick is always to remember to bring home my containers. Yesterday I did the rounds in the various departments in the hospital and brought home 4 containers.

[Marlene]

On the way to work this morning I stopped off at the "Garlic Patch" to pick up this year's order of garlic. Ten pounds for me, twenty pounds for Beth.

Again the car smelled wonderfully of garlic when I headed out at the end of the day.

The woman who owns the farm says she has had garlic ice cream and didn't like it - but I'm wondering about using roasted garlic. What do you think about a 'rum and roasted garlic'?

Kerry, how do you store that much garlic for the year?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, how do you store that much garlic for the year?

I just put it in one of the president's choice cloth bags and hang it on a hook beside the stairs down to the basement. Last years batch was getting a little dry!

[Kerry Beal]

Fried polenta with roasted veg. Rug rat really enjoyed it for dinner - it must have some cosmetic effect - she rubbed a whole lot on her face and in her hair. I found a nice chunk in her belly button when I was getting her ready for bed.

Working on the semolina bread tonight - a lot of steps to make it. Should be baked about the time I'm ready to hit my bed.

[Kerry Beal]

Tom Cat's Semolina filone from Maggie Glazier's Artisan Baking. A poolish, an autolyse - a fabulous crust. Smells awesome!

[sadistick]

One of my favorite threads on EG as of late!

I would love to see more pics of the cottage - as it seems I enjoy being jealous, here in concert jungle Toronto.

What about some fishing off the lake?!

Edited July 29, 2010 by sadistick (log)

[Kerry Beal]

One of my favorite threads on EG as of late!

I would love to see more pics of the cottage - as it seems I enjoy being jealous, here in concert jungle Toronto.

What about some fishing off the lake?!

I haven't been doing any fishing - not sure if Anna has. I'll give her a dingle and let her know you want to see some pictures. I'll get her to take some kitchen shots - that's how I got involved in this cottage - because there was a 6 burner garland stove!

[Kerry Beal]

No picture of the beef ribs I attempted to smoke for dinner tonight - suffice it to say that the mini Big Green Egg is simply too small for beef ribs. Beth and I are going to be picking carbon out of our teeth for days.

The plate setter arrived today - and the lovely fellow had also cut me a 9 inch pizza stone out of a kiln shelf. It's a hefty 1/2 inch thick and wonderfully dense. I threw together a batch of pizza dough tonight to play with tomorrow.

Caldo Verde shooter version 1. The caldo verde part is excellent - but the drizzle needs work. I'm looking to come up with a foam or a swirl that has the flavour of chorizo but still keep the whole thing vegetarian.

Quick batch of pate de fruit with the blackcurrents from the freezer. Lots of seeds. I don't have any proper sanding sugar so I'll have to use the regular stuff.

[Kerry Beal]

Pate de fruit once dipped in sugar - didn't have the coarse sugar I prefer up here.

Today was my paperwork/cleanup day at the hospital. I dropped off goodies in all the departments (all my leftover chocolates, barks, pates de fruit, nougat etc), signed all the stuff I hadn't signed and made sure I'd submitted all the paper work that will make sure I get paid! Then I headed out, picked up Anna at the cottage and we headed off to check out our favorite hardware store on the island (it carries lots of kitchenware, smokers, cobb stoves etc). I picked up a little plastic canning funnel to add to my thermomix kit and Anna picked up some plastic scrubbies.

Then we headed off to Gore Bay and had a little visit with the chef at Rocky Racoon's. We grabbed a few groceries and then went to Burt Farms to pick up what ever meat looked good. Anna left with some nice steaks, I brought back a small frozen pork shoulder for pulled pork and a couple of nice little top blade steaks - one of those special treats the butcher usually keeps for himself.

Dropping Anna back at the cottage - we were unable to talk this little hare into jumping into our pot.

I cooked up one of the duck breasts I'd brought along - finished with some saba with which I deglazed the pan.

Tried out my new pizza stone on the BGE - a roasted garlic and potato pizza. Drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of salt and pepper and bit of rosemary.

[Kerry Beal]

Trying to use up the lemons and eggs before I leave - so a pavlova with lemon curd and whipped cream seemed a good way to use them. Of course I still have about 15 lemons and 8 or 9 big honking limes. Larb for dinner should get rid of a couple of limes at least.

[Anna N]

So especially for Sadistick, here’s a few views of the cottage.

The outside as seen from the front. The child’s picnic table soon made its way to the porch where it became part of my outdoor kitchen.

Here’s where we eat most of our meals. The window looks out onto the lake.

The main architectural feature of this cottage has to be this gorgeous fireplace.

Now to the kitchen.

This is the beverage centre and you will notice that the main beverage is water. The cottage gets its water supply from the lake and since it has not been tested for human consumption we buy our drinking water in town.

Here’s where I do most of the prep work. You can see my halogen oven and my portable induction hob. The red bowl is my garbage bowl.

And here you see the massive Garland which is where I store my own pots and pans. The tackle box is what I use to bring up my own knives, peelers, graters, etc. It stays fully outfitted all year so when I cook away from home I can just grab it and know I have most of what I need to prep food in someone else’s kitchen.

And finally the breakfast area, if you will. The toaster oven belongs to the cottage but the coffee maker is mine.

I do not put things in cupboards or drawers up here partly so I don’t leave them behind and partly because one would have to clean out the cupboards of mouse poo before using them anyway. It’s just one of the realities of a cottage!

I want everyone to see these eggs. They are supermarket eggs bought in Little Current but look at the colour and how those yolks stand proud. I cannot get eggs like this in Oakville not even at the Farmers’ Market. These are beauties.

Yesterday, Friday, July 30, Kerry and I went off to Mindemoya to check out the hardware store there. It is a treasure chest of kitchenware, however, the prices reflect an island economy where transportation is a big factor in the economy. We also drove out to Gore Bay to visit Max the butcher where we loaded up on protein. I bought a couple of ribeyes and a porterhouse along with some kielbassa and some pork, sun-dried tomato and basil sausages to try. We dropped a meat order off for eG member Beth Wilson at her shop, The Chocolate Works and were happy to see that it was doing a brisk business.

When I got home my husband cooked up the porterhouse and one of the ribeyes so we could do a comparison. They were both good and it was impossible to choose but there is lots of steak leftover for snacks or lunches.

To catch up a bit on what I have been cooking and eating over the last few days:

On Tuesday evening I cooked up some chicken wings but did not sauce them as I get awfully tired of the one-dimensional taste of Buffalo style wings.

For lunch on Wednesday I made this quick salad and served it with a chipotle dressing.

I forgot photos for dinner that night but we had grilled skewers of onions, potatoes and sirloin steak and the last of the pickled cucumbers.

On Thursday I marinated another sirloin steak in a Korean style marinade for lunch and for dinner we had chicken thighs with a hot potato salad and grilled zucchini.

[Kerry Beal]

The ground pork in the store was nice and course looking - poached in a bit of duck fat it formed the basis for an almost perfect larb. Unfortunately I didn't have any Kaffir lime leaves to finish it with - but it turned out beautifully - that perfect balance of sweet, salty, hot and sour. Sometimes it all falls into place!

It's Haweater Weekend here on Manitoulin. That is the weekend when all the Haweaters (people born on Manitoulin where the hawberries grow) come home to visit family - and drink! There was a cardboard boat race, an antique car parade and any number of other events happening around town. I noticed when I was out for a walk earlier that almost every single person in town was outside of their home - most with BBQ's on the go, dogs in the yard, lots of friends and family around. I thought to myself that it was not going to be a quiet evening in the ER. I started call tonight at 6 and within the first two hours I've seen a dog bite, a guy hit in the head with a spring loaded pipe (he's on his way to Sudbury for a CT), a guy with multiple neck lacerations (drunk), a guy who fell off a truck (drunk as a skunk) - and a few assorted sore ears, sore throats and other cuts and bruises. Hoping to get some sleep tonight - but not counting on it.

I'm trying to plan what food I'll take along for the trip home tomorrow - I've got cheese curd, some little honey graham cookie things for the rug rat, but low carb is hard to do travelling when an sandwich would be the perfect food.

[judiu]

Sandwich, schmandwich. Do lettuce wraps! Roll them before you leave, keep cool with a blue ice thingie and some frozen bottles of water to let thaw and drink, and a small container of dressing to dip in while eating.That larb looks like it would be great that way! You'd have to stop driving to get a sandwich anyway...

HTH!

[Kerry Beal]

Great ideas - but given that I was up pretty much all night I didn't really get around to putting together anything. So I had cheese curd, toasted almonds, some peanuts and the little graham cookies for Kira. We stopped in one of the restaurants outside the ferry terminal and shared a poutine (and not a very good one I must say).

A brief stop at one of my chocolate student's place in Owen Sound provided Kira with some nice hummus and chips and a cup of tea for me to keep me going.

I had great plans to bring back all of the food I'd accumulated up there - but ended up just bringing the meat I'd bought at Burt farms and the blackcurrent puree. I left blueberries and raspberries in the freezer - so they will be there when I head up to work there in the fall.

The little BGE is visiting Beth's place until I get back in the fall - now to work on talking hubby into letting me get a big one for home.

[Kerry Beal]

Well, trying to get sort of organized around home now that I'm back (and getting ready to head out in a couple of days for the Heartland Gathering). Forgot to take pictures of everything today.

Put together some simple radiatore in red sauce for the rug rat (gotta think about her being fed while I'm away in Ann Arbor), cooked up two of the top blade steaks I'd brought home on the BBQ for dinner - rare as can be - steak just doesn't get any steakier! Made a batch of blackcurrent pate de fruit to take to the gathering - got the seeds out of the puree for this batch so it should be nice and smooth.

Got to work on getting my recipes together for the gathering - can't forget to bring those!

[sadistick]

Looks amazing!

Now that water is calling to be fished!

So where did I put my rod.....!?

[Anna N]

July 31

So we said goodbye to Kerry today as she will be returning to the Mainland tomorrow and the Home and Away participants will now change places! Kerry will be home and I will be away.

Kerry sent me back to the cottage with leeks, pearl onions, shallots, bread she had baked, and assorted other foodstuffs which I will try to incorporate into our meals for the next week.

Breakfast today was a slice of cheese bread which I picked up in Mindemoyen yesterday and lunch was catch-as-catch-can – in other words dig around in the ‘fridge for anything to stave off starvation. This was necessitated by a quick trip into Little Current to post to eG, to bid Kerry goodbye and to stock up on water and propane. The trip spanned the lunch hour and so I didn’t bother making any sort of recognizable meal.

Tonight though we will have something other than steak! I brought up a pork tenderloin and I will make pork, apple and onion skewers and serve them over a bed of apple-onion puree. I am hoping to do a riff on one of our favourite Danish dishes called pork, apples and onion which is normally sautéed on the stove top. I won’t make any sort of starch but there’s lots of bread should either of us find the need to fill out dinner.

Well this was perhaps the least successful of anything I have attempted at the cottage. The onions were charred without really being cooked, the apple wedges remained firm and almost raw and the pork was decidedly dry and overcooked. I blame much of this on the new BBQ whose vagaries I am still plumbing. The apple-onion puree, however, was quite good and I will add it to my recipe book.

Lunch on Sunday was a plate of leftover bits augmented with a tomato and cucumber salad though it was much more like a salsa as I diced the vegetables very finely and tossed them with some olive oil and some reduced balsamic vinegar.

Dinner on Sunday was this version of surf and turf served with jalapeno-cheddar potatoes. It made up somewhat for the barely edible pork, apple and onion dish of Saturday.

Monday we had brunch rather than lunch and it was simply ham and eggs.

Dinner was bbq chicken thighs and potato salad which I forgot to photograph.

August 5

The weather and other issues chased us away from the cottage earlier than planned and we arrived home yesterday. Unfortunately we immediately had to deal with a number of crises none of them even remotely food related. So here endeth what has been an enjoyable sharing of food stories from Home and Away. Kerry went off to join more eG members at Ann Arbor and I will turn my attention to the realities of post-vacation let down. All being well, Kerry and I will return to Manitoulin together later in the year and perhaps record further food adventures.

[Marmish]

Anna, I hope all the crises have been resolved. Thanks to you both for sharing.

[Peter the eater]

I've really enjoyed catching up with you adventures in my old stomping grounds -- thank you both. I miss living across the street from Ramsay Lake and driving all around Manitoulin. My personal best Northern pike (21 lb.s) came from the North Channel near Thessalon in 1989.

Anna, did you make that bacon on an elevated rack in the oven?