Making Memories in Manitoulin – at it again!

[furzzy]

Anna - My favorite is sardines canned in mustard sauce on stoned wheat crackers/ So happy to have found a kindred spirit!

[Anna N]

Anna, I'd be honored to have you come and cook for or with me sometime, but I think we each make our own breakfasts!

Interestingly breakfast is something that Kerry and I don't share either. We often eat similar things but always prepare our own.

[Anna N]

Anna - My favorite is sardines canned in mustard sauce on stoned wheat crackers/ So happy to have found a kindred spirit!

Can only do the sardines in tomato sauce but they are an amazingly cheap and readily available protein source.

[Kerry Beal]

Our treasures from the Flee Market today. Anna was very pleased with the hotel pan which is good for chilling down sous vided packages.

The new anchor hocking tumblers will be quite satisfactory for cocktail.

And a Peter Robinson we've never seen before.

[rotuts]

so some Karen Slaughter too? Im a fan

just got from the lib Unseen.

[Kerry Beal]

Found some bananas in the reduced bin the other day - not really ripe - but very spotty because the store had been so cold. A few more days to ripen and I had enough to make a couple of loaves of banana bread.

[Kerry Beal]

The Odd McIntyre. Interesting - a bit too lemony on first sip - but diluting out nicely.

I found some Plymouth Gin at one of the LCBOs back home reduced to pre 'improved' pricing. Brought a bottle up here with me.

Looking for suggestions for cocktails that work well with the Plymouth.

[Kerry Beal]

so some Karen Slaughter too? Im a fan

just got from the lib Unseen.

Anna's a fan - I haven't read any of them myself. Peter Robinson on the other hand...

[furzzy]

Excitement around here this morning when a new stove showed up. The thermostat in the oven had given up the ghost and was unreliable. Given the cost of a new thermostat and the labour to put it in - they decided that a new one was the way to go. I was given the authority to decide which of 3 available ranges I wanted. Of course I opted for the one with convection.

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Look how clean that is - won't last!

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I've already put the pizza stones in there - wishing I'd left them out until after I'd given it a good preheat - cause it's a bit resiny smelling right now.

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Always exciting when we get something new! I have to ask - why is your lower pizza stone on the rack instead of the oven floor?

[Anna N]

After our adventure at the Flee Market followed by a drive to a local farm in search of fresh vegetables (there were none to be had) I made a quick lunch of some cheese and some red onion run under the broiler.

[Kerry Beal]

Excitement around here this morning when a new stove showed up. The thermostat in the oven had given up the ghost and was unreliable. Given the cost of a new thermostat and the labour to put it in - they decided that a new one was the way to go. I was given the authority to decide which of 3 available ranges I wanted. Of course I opted for the one with convection.

DSCN1553.jpg

Look how clean that is - won't last!

DSCN1552.jpg

I've already put the pizza stones in there - wishing I'd left them out until after I'd given it a good preheat - cause it's a bit resiny smelling right now.

DSCN1554.jpg

Always exciting when we get something new! I have to ask - why is your lower pizza stone on the rack instead of the oven floor?

Good question - just the way I always do it I guess.

[Kerry Beal]

Tonight's dinner - a Thai Namya noodle curry. We made kanom jeen noodles as well as shiritaki to compare - both worked equally well. I had found the cans of Maesri paste to make this before I came up - so made the pickled chinese mustard greens and brought them - and got the lemon basil plant for my herb garden so we would have it when we got around to making it. I was very worried I wasn't going to like it - being that it's a fish curry and I'm not a fish eater - but it was wonderful.

Anna had a tiny dish to try as she was still full from a late lunch. I enjoyed seconds.

[Beth Wilson]

Not a fish eater....you would never have thought that from the amount of Calamari you post over on the Ladies who Lunch thread.

Looks like a nice dinner :-)

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah - but calamari's not fish!

[mkayahara]

Where'd you get the recipe for the kanom jeen?

[FrogPrincesse]

I found some Plymouth Gin at one of the LCBOs back home reduced to pre 'improved' pricing. Brought a bottle up here with me.

Looking for suggestions for cocktails that work well with the Plymouth.

It's hard to beat a Martini. Other good options are Audrey Saunder's French Pearl, or PDT's Swiss Mist.

[Kerry Beal]

Where'd you get the recipe for the kanom jeen?

I think I may have misled you - when I said we made the kanom jeen I meant we cooked up the noodles we'd brought with us from the asian store in Hamilton. The namya curry we cobbled together from a couple of online recipes.

We found two little Highliner cod fillets in the freezer - nuked them for a minute and a half, then Anna flaked them. I had the top part of one of those big aseptic boxes of Arroy-D coconut milk left over which was the solid thick stuff. I added some to the pot and sauteed with the can of paste (Maesri Thai Noodle Sauce (Namya)). I added some palm sugar and fish sauce to balance, the rest of the really thick coconut milk and then the fish flakes. I also added some slivers of kaffir lime leaf.

[Anna N]

A fairly standard breakfast again. It's hard to be creative much before noon.

Kerry is at the grocery store before she heads off to Wikwemikong (Wiki) to man the obstetrics clinic. If she returns with zucchini and some chicken thighs I will be attempting zucchini butter and Country Captain Chicken. Then if I can find some besan flour I will make onion bhaji.

[Kerry Beal]

I hit the Valu Mart this am to get some chicken thighs, zucchini and hopefully find some besan flour (hope springs eternal). I saw this poor speciman - I had seen it yesterday - not watered - looking very sad and it looked even sadder today with no water. The price had been dropped to $4.50. So I bought it.

A little water has done it a lot of good. It's a fig - apparently hardy to zone 4!

[Beth Wilson]

Cool! Planning on planting it back home? I imagine the deer on the island will take a liking to figs :-)

[Anna N]

Lunch today was from Nom nom Paleo blog, sweet potato hash topped with a fried egg:

Since it seems there is no besan flour to be had I decided to bake a loaf of bread.....do not seek logic in my decision!

This is the lazy baker's fluffy white sandwich bread made even easier in the Thermomix. Here's the mise:

I put the water, sugar and yeast into the TMX, give it a whirl or two then add all the other ingredients ending with the salt. I give it all another whirl at speed 3 or 4 for 30 secs to a minute and then let the TMX knead it for 5 1/2 minutes. Then it rests in the TMX to rise. I then let the TMX knead it again for 1 minute (the punch down) dump it out onto a work surface, give it a quick hand knead, shape it and put in a buttered pan to rise. Only one thing to wash - the "bowl" of the TMX!

I also hand chopped some pork shoulder meat again and between that and shredding a large sweet potato with a box grater, I think I have had a workout equivalent to an hour at the gym.

[rotuts]

I grew up with two fig trees. maybe you don't have then Up North, but Squirrels will eat every fig 'just before' its ripe.

[rotuts]

thank you for the pics of the mise. I enjoy seeing the ingredients every one uses.

[Anna N]

Bread ready for the oven:

It is a strangely shaped pan that is much wider than the 9x5 ones I use at home hence the rather squat loaf:

I perhaps bit off a bit more than I can reasonably chew today so the chicken will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm enjoying a mid afternoon coffee and will tackle the zucchini butter shortly.

[ElsieD]

Bread ready for the oven:

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It is a strangely shaped pan that is much wider than the 9x5 ones I use at home hence the rather squat loaf:

image.jpg

I perhaps bit off a bit more than I can reasonably chew today so the chicken will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm enjoying a mid afternoon coffee and will tackle the zucchini butter shortly.

Care to share ingredient quantities for the bread?