Manitoulin Unravelled

[DianaB]

You two, and others contributing to your thread,  have given me a great start to Monday.  No chance to follow your exploits over the weekend so I've enjoyed the last four 'pages' in one sitting.

 

Anna, those sticks you mention for sealing bags of frozen foods, do you find them really useful?  They were the hit of the Paris home expo either this year or last.  They appeared really easy to use and certainly not expensive but I tend not to trust anything the professional demonstrators push at these shows, knowing that they will have been well schooled to make their products appear indispensable.  Your post is the first time I've seen them other than at the show.

 

Those chocolates from NY look incredible, hope they tasted every bit as good as they appear.

 

Kerry, really hope Rug Rat's things arrive soon, I guess she also looks forward to these trips?  Great shame if her holiday is spoiled through discomfort.  Here and in France such diapers are stocked in pharmacies because they are prescribed for either premature babies (too small for store bought items) and for older children and adults whose medical condition means they need them.  As such they are free for those groups of users.  Guessing this isn't the case in Canada?  

 

It's a pity that we get so little information here in Europe about Canada, the way it is governed, it's welfare systems, culinary trends etc.  We do get regular news items about the USA.  Odd since Canada is considered a part if the commonwealth.  We don't even get many Canadian TV shows despite vast amounts of stuff from the US.  It has only been through reading your travel diaries here that I came across Poutine.  I think if I went round my home village this morning I would struggle to find anyone able to describe this dish.

 

Your Chicken Maryland looks like a great meal.  The dish with that name on sale in England in no way resembles what you had on your plates.  In my experience the English (can't speak for other parts of Britain)  consider Chicken Maryland one of the few non-Chinese menu items in any so called Chinese take away.  It will typically comprise breaded chicken breast off the bone and deep fried, resulting meat being the driest you can imagine.  This is served with British style Chinese take out chips (difficult to guess how these are cooked, they seem to form a loose mass of fried potato unique, in my experience, to this type of establishment, extremely greasy); you also get a bottom of the range sausage, some green sludge that might once have been peas and a slice of pineapple battered and deep fried.  Nearly forgot the rasher of overcooked bacon.  Decades ago when we were (almost) penniless students my now husband and I would walk the five of so miles to the nearest Chinese take away, buy one portion of this menu item, find somewhere to sit near to the sea (seaside town) and share the portion, eating with our fingers.  A huge treat at the time.  I can remember wondering if we would ever be able to go into a restaurant and enjoy something like steak and chips at a table with cutlery!  It seemed an impossible aspiration in those days.

 

So, while your Chicken Maryland is in no way similar, that particular post brought back long buried but happy memories of a time when life was simple, if basic.

 

Off to Google now so that I can see exactly where your island is situated.  The views from your place look beautiful, hope those blue skies continue throughout your stay.  Really looking forward to next instalments.  I'm sure these visits you both make would be a great subject for a documentary film, not just the cooking and baking, it could include Kerry's role that takes you to the island, your shopping trips, people you meet etc.  

[Anna N]

11 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

She is exaggerating. Not even half that much patience.  

[Anna N]

 Good morning and Happy 4th to all our American friends. 

@DianaB

 

The sealing sticks are the best!  Kerry and I were intoduced to them by member Frank Hsu who uses them to seal packages for sous vide cooking. I use them anywhere I need to reseal a bag but esp. Frozen vegetables. 

 

The link at the bottom of this pagevto a post  from Kerry's first blog on Manitoulin will intoduce you to Kira, Kerry's rug rat. In Canada we pay for diapers, drugs and most medical appliances.  Sometimes help available for the elderly and the handicapped but it is means-tested. 

 

 My use of the term chicken Maryland is from the Australian where it simply means a cut of chicken which includes the thigh and the drumstick.  For me it eliminates the ambiguity of the term chicken leg. Mine have been deknuckled  which causes the tendons to shrink and hence the drumstick becomes plump and juicy rather then stringy.  A trick I learned years ago here on this forum. 

 

Now for breakfast

 

 

Cretons are really pork rillettes that should be REALLY garlicky. These weren't.  They are easy enough to make from scratch but I decided to try the commercial version just this once.

 

Not sure what I shall get up to today.  My Asian pear still needs to be pickled and Kerry has dropped a hint that she would like bowl food this evening so we can use our new bowls.   I also have in the back of my mind to attempt membEr Ann_T's adaptation of a Ken Forkish bread recipe for pizza crust.  But we shall see how it goes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Rhubarb date cake and muffins 

[lindag]

Nice haul.  You're all set for a while.

Gotta admit that when you post about your cocktails it makes ME thirsty!  I'm such a pushover!

[huiray]

Chicken Leg Quarters.

[Smithy]

Rhubarb date cake?  Please tell more about that.

[Kerry Beal]

8 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Rhubarb date cake?  Please tell more about that.

Think I've posted it before - will see if I can find it when I get back home.

[Anna N]

50 minutes ago, huiray said:

Chicken Leg Quarters.

Nice to be precise. Sometimes I much prefer to be colourful. 

[Anna N]

 

Look what just arrived. It can keep the CSO company over the winter. Kerry and I do not like to be without our toys in case you were wondering.

 

[rotuts]

Sooo Excellent

 

however

 

well,   and well again;  just for toast, home made if you can, or drenched in tempered Chocolate, with day Old Bread

 

[Ed.:  if thats the best your can do ]

 

I can't Imagine the Lunch Ladies not enjoying

 

a perfect CSB'd  Em or Toast in the AM

 

dans le GTA

 

just saying

 

[ed.: dump some crap of your counter,  'just saying ' just for toast '  saying again ]

[Anna N]

 So the pickled Asian pears are done and will stay on the counter in the measuring cup for a day and then I hope he transferred to canning jars and moved it to the refrigerator.  So far I have not found those jars although I know they should be here in Kerry seems to think they may be in the outdoor storage.   If not they are easy to come by at most places this time of the year.

 

The bread dough is also partway through its bulk ferment.  I will likely throw it into the refrigerator overnight and enlist Kerry's help re-arranging the baking stone in the oven tomorrow.  This is an attempt at a crust that meets certain specifications  regarding thickness and texture so I may well attempt to bake it naked.

 

To satisfy Kerry's desire for food suitable to be served in a bowl this evening I am going to make a tomato sauce, chop or shred the leftover chicken from last night  and serve it over pasta.  I am hoping to harvest a few basil leaves from our newly planted herb garden to perk up the tomato sauce.  A little garlic bread on the side would be good but I don't think that is going to happen as sliced multigrain bread does not lend itself well to that treatment.  

Edited July 4, 2016 by Anna N
Sickness changed to thickness! (log)

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

  A little garlic bread on the side would be good but I don't think that is going to happen as sliced multigrain bread does not lend itself well to that treatment.  

Perhaps we could get @Alleguedeto Canpar up a baguette? I'm sending back half the diapers by Canpar as I didn't think this through logically and just reject the shipment that came to the post office.

[Anna N]

16 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Perhaps we could get @Alleguedeto Canpar up a baguette? I'm sending back half the diapers by Canpar as I didn't think this through logically and just reject the shipment that came to the post office.

Ha ha on the baguette and I shall await an explanation of the Canpar thing. 

 

 

 A very late lunch today. Should have gone with my first instinct which was to skip lunch altogether.   However.   The last of the steak on multigrain bread with just a smear of horseradish mayo and a pile of sour cream and onion potato chips for texture.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Leftovers for me for lunch

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Paradise Cocktail - Gary Regan's version thanks to  frogprincess way back when on our first cocktail novice thread. Ran out of Beefeater - used about half an ounce of Genever in two drinks.

Added a nice malty tone 

Edited July 4, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

 

Cappelletti with leftover chicken maryland, fire roasted tomato, garlic, onion, splash of sherry vinegar, cream, butter - crisped up skin of said chicken maryland and basil from the garden. Garnished with parmesan. In our new bowls!

Edited July 4, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Shelby]

Oh man that looks so good.  I'm a pasta nut as you guys know.  You can have my ribs, I'll take the pasta.

[Kerry Beal]

Mom's Rhubarb Date Muffins/Cake

Recipe By: Mom
Yield: 9 by 9 pan

Ingredients:

cup 1 rhubarb, diced
cup 1 dates, diced
tsp 1 baking soda
cup 1 boiling water
cup 1/2 shortening
cup 1/2 sugar
cup 1/2 brown sugar
egg
cup 2 flour
tsp 1/2 salt
tsp 1 1/2 cinnamon
tsp 1/2 cloves

Directions:

1. Add soda to dates and rhubarb and pour over boiling water.  Cool to RT.

 

2. Cream shortening with sugars, beat in eggs.  Add dry ingredients and stir in rhubarb mixture.  

3. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes for muffins, 9 by 9 pan for 40 to 50 minutes.  

[Smithy]

I have rhubarb.  I have dates.  I now have a new recipe, and people for whom to make this. Thanks!

[Porthos]

Kerry, while transferring the Rhubard-Date Muffins recioe to a Word Document I noticed that the ingredients list calls for egg (I am assuming 1) and the instructions call for beating in eggs. Is one the correct quantity?

 

I grew up with rhubard fresh out of the garden. We simply made rhubard pie or stewed cut-up rhubarb with a bit of sugar and served that as a side dish for dinner. In a house where most of the food was pretty pedestrian it was always a treat.

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, Porthos said:

Kerry, while transferring the Rhubard-Date Muffins recioe to a Word Document I noticed that the ingredients list calls for egg (I am assuming 1) and the instructions call for beating in eggs. Is one the correct quantity?

 

I grew up with rhubard fresh out of the garden. We simply made rhubard pie or stewed cut-up rhubarb with a bit of sugar and served that as a side dish for dinner. In a house where most of the food was pretty pedestrian it was always a treat.

It's one egg - I'm not too careful copying recipes!

 

We also had stewed rhubarb as the most frequent preparation. But it was dessert not a side dish.

[Kerry Beal]

Here's what I've been up to this evening. I bought this 9" pullman pan before I came up - wanted to play with it here. I have a 13" one at home but it's not practical making large loaves.

 

 

 

I didn't really think it through in terms of time - fortunately it rose fairly quickly so I'm finished in enough time to not lose sleep.

 

 

 

[Porthos]

Beautiful bread.

[JohnT]

8 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Mom's Rhubarb Date Muffins/Cake

Recipe By: Mom
Yield: 9 by 9 pan

Ingredients:

cup 1 rhubarb, diced
cup 1 dates, diced
tsp 1 baking soda
cup 1 boiling water
cup 1/2 shortening
cup 1/2 sugar
cup 1/2 brown sugar
egg
cup 2 flour
tsp 1/2 salt
tsp 1 1/2 cinnamon
tsp 1/2 cloves

Directions:

1. Add soda to dates and rhubarb and pour over boiling water.  Cool to RT.

 

2. Cream shortening with sugars, beat in eggs.  Add dry ingredients and stir in rhubarb mixture.  

3. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes for muffins, 9 by 9 pan for 40 to 50 minutes.  

Kerry, if you cut out the rhubarb, cinnamon and cloves, you have the recipe for making the batter for my Brandy Pudding as well as Sticky Toffee Pudding. The only difference is I use butter instead of shortening and use toffee sauce or brandy syrup to make the puddings. I also add 1 tsp BP to get a bit more of a fluffy texture to be able to soak up the sauces, otherwise it is a bit too dense.

 

And talking about toffee, I assume you know where it originates from - not England, as I always thought!