Manitoulin — change is in the air.

[Anna N]

The secret is to saw off the base a little higher up than you would like to. You do it when the corn is hot out of the microwave. Grab the other end with a towel and then saw off the stalk end higher up than you think you need to. This makes sure that there is room for the cob to slip out.  Even tonight I made the mistake of trying to get a little more corn out of it than I should and consequently had to fight to get it out!   Don’t make my mistake.  

[DesertTinker]

31 minutes ago, Arey said:

*Spell check doesn't like the way I spell meagre.  It probably wouldn't like that the street in the of town I grew up in was spelled Centre.  Of course while cataloging my close to 800 classical music cds I was never able to convince spell check that when I typed minuet I meant minuet, not minute. 

Funny considering how often I see things online along the lines of “a few minuets“ as a reference to time.

[Kim Shook]

5 hours ago, Anna N said:

The ones I see are called cottage rolls and are not smoked so perhaps we are talking two different things. It could happen.

 

See here.

 

Sounds similar to the pickled pork that they use in NOLA for red beans.

[Jacksoup]

The boyfriend's chickens eggs all have similarly colored yolks.  The shells vary in colors of brown.  We were buying organic chicken food from Costco for about 8 months and then they stopped laying as much.  Switched to Scratch and Peck food from the feed store and now they’re back to producing an egg a day, all 14 of them.  All of our friends and neighbors enjoy the egg bounty and save eggs cartons for us.  

[Thanks for the Crepes]

12 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same thing. I honestly can't remember if the ones she used were smoked or not. I just remember eating green beans, cottage ham and potatoes until I could barely move any time she made it.

 

I like this dish too, but usually use the flat pole beans (sometimes called Italian beans) in it as I think they hold their texture and have better flavor here. And yes! Pork shoulder does rule. I love blade steaks and spareribs are so good too. I just picked up a St. Louis-style slab tonight when sis took me grocery shopping. These are better than babybacks to me because of the greater fat content. Try dropping some spareribs in a pot of beans, and you only need a few ribs to flavor the whole pot. Good stuff.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

11 hours ago, Arey said:

I had corn on the cob done in the microwave for 4 minutes for the second time this summer, but its never slipped out of its shirt for me.  Should I be sawing the base off before microwaving rather than after ?  Lots of butter but no lime juice.  A meagre* sprinkling of salt but only because with  the humidity getting salt out of the salt shakers is next to impossible.  And, I like my corn on the cob glistening with butter and sparkling with salt.  The corn, the tomatoes, and the basil on the tomatoes were all local.

*Spell check doesn't like the way I spell meagre.  It probably wouldn't like that the street in the of town I grew up in was spelled Centre.  Of course while cataloging my close to 800 classical music cds I was never able to convince spell check that when I typed minuet I meant minuet, not minute. 

 

Arey,

 

Have your ever tried putting a couple teaspoons of dry rice in a small salt shaker or more rice for a bigger shaker? It worked pretty well down here in the hot and humid South when my landlord refused to replace a broken A/C. I also like saving and washing out spice containers with screw-on tops and the snap on sprinkle tops for salt and pepper. It keeps the pepper's flavor ( flavour ) in and the ambient moisture out of the salt.

[Tri2Cook]

21 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

These are better than babybacks to me because of the greater fat content.

I prefer baby back for exactly the same reason, with me being on the other end of the rib as far as fat content preference goes. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

2 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I prefer baby back for exactly the same reason, with me being on the other end of the rib as far as fat content preference goes. 

 

That's what makes the world go 'round and how the whole animal winds up going to good use.

 

But believe me, if you cook spareribs well, the fat all renders and keeps the meat moist. That's why you only need just two or three in a pot of beans, so the rendered fat doesn't overwhelm if. If you cook a slab of ribs normally, the fat renders off and gets discarded.

[chromedome]

47 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

Arey,

 

Have your ever tried putting a couple teaspoons of dry rice in a small salt shaker or more rice for a bigger shaker? It worked pretty well down here in the hot and humid South when my landlord refused to replace a broken A/C. I also like saving and washing out spice containers with screw-on tops and the snap on sprinkle tops for salt and pepper. It keeps the pepper's flavor ( flavour ) in and the ambient moisture out of the salt.

I eventually switched to a salt pig, because I got tired of chiselling bricks of rice and salt out of my shakers.

 

A grinder works well in my humid coastal climate, and I keep those for table use with both salt and pepper, but for cooking I like grabbing as big or little a pinch as I want.

[Anna N]

 Good morning. It is a dull, dreary and cool morning. The high today is not expected to be any more than 19°C. Even with all the lights on in the townhouse it is still dreary. 

 

Kerry has gone off to clear up things in the hospital and then we are going to head down to Gore Bay again.  We are returning some pork ribs to Max after we have sous vided them for him.

 

Not sure what else we might get up to at that end of the Island. 

 

 

 

 Just look at that lowering sky!

 

 

 

[kayb]

@Anna N,  this generally comes at the end of your sojourn, but I just wanted to say thanks for always taking us along with you on these trips. I've come to fee eel familiar with Manitoulin and the everyday life there.

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

I eventually switched to a salt pig, because I got tired of chiselling bricks of rice and salt out of my shakers.

 

This may sound like a foolish question, but does the pig help keep the humidity down, or simply make it easier to chisel the blocks? I hadn't thought about that particular aspect of a salt pig.

 

6 minutes ago, Anna N said:

We are returning some pork ribs to Max after we have sous vided them for him.

 

Is this an effort to make another sous vide convert?

[lindag]

6 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 Good morning. It is a dull, dreary and cool morning. The high today is not expected to be any more than 19°C. Even with all the lights on in the townhouse it is still dreary. 

 

Kerry has gone off to clear up things in the hospital and then we are going to head down to Gore Bay again.  We are returning some pork ribs to Max after we have sous vided them for him.

 

Not sure what else we might get up to at that end of the Island. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Just look at that lowering sky!

 

 

 

I'd be happy to trade some of our 90+F temps for yours right now.  

Though it does cool down pretty well at night.  Another month and temps will be tolerable again.

 

[chromedome]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

This may sound like a foolish question, but does the pig help keep the humidity down, or simply make it easier to chisel the blocks? I hadn't thought about that particular aspect of a salt pig.

 

 

The unglazed interior of the pig wicks moisture out of the salt continuously. The salt will "set up" slightly, but not cake solid. You'll still be able to pinch it, or just give the sides a tap to loosen it for measuring with a spoon.

 

My own is very simple, and somewhat resembles the ones Nigella flogs. I commissioned it from my former downstairs neighbour, a working potter with a farmer's market business and a standalone studio, so it's custom-sized to my hand. It's a nicely ivory-ish white, and I fill it with pink salt for purely aesthetic reasons.

[Anna N]

6 hours ago, Smithy said:

Is this an effort to make another sous vide convert?

 I abandoned the conversion business years and years ago but I think Kerry is into it.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

We went down to Max with the intention of delivering something but we couldn’t leave there empty-handed now could we?

 

And since we wanted to do a tempura meal tonight we had to stop in at the grocery store in Mindemoya again. 

 

 

 Bacon and sausages from Max. We really wanted his beer sausages (click) but he’s putting on a show tonight for the first anniversary of the brewery. All his sausages went down there!  It’s in Gore Bay at the brewery and $10 will buy you a beer and a sausage on a bun. 

 

 From the grocery store: butter, sugar snaps, broccoli, asparagus, tonic water, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese, and sour cream.

 

We asked Max to recommend a place for lunch in Gore Bay and he suggested the Golf & Country Club. Sounded a bit fancy to me after all I live right next to the Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville!  See.

 

 

Gore Bay Golf and Country Club.  Wayback in the dark corner on the left is the pro shop.

 

But this Golf Club has something to beat Glen Abbey by a longshot:

 

 

Old Dutch Potato chips. 

 

Lunch:

 

 

Kerry’s lunch. Cobb Salad. 

 

 

My lunch.  Toasted clubhouse. 

 

 We still think Max is a great butcher. Will look elsewhere for our dining recommendations.

 

 Kerry grabbed a few shots for you of the outside of the restaurant looking across the golf course.

 

 

 It was somewhat surreal to be sitting in a restaurant in Gore Bay watching the Canadian Open in my home town of Oakville on the big screen TV.  

 

 

 

 

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, chromedome said:

 

My own is very simple, and somewhat resembles the ones Nigella flogs.

Yes, I'm certain if Nigella flogged it, I'd like  it.

[Kerry Beal]

Mojito

 

 

[caroled]

On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 11:32 PM, Kim Shook said:

@Shelby and @caroled and me would toss those beans into some water that a ham hock had boiled in for about an hour, cook them for about 4 hours and then toss in some tiny little new potatoes that a strip of skin had been peeled off of all the way around and boil some more until the taters were tender and the beans soft, unctuous and uniformly olive green.  And you'd HAAAATE them.  LOL.

Chris stopped  by a farm stand and the lady tried to give him 2 plastic grocery bags of beans that had bean sitting all  day. He wanted to pay her something so she finally accepted .75c.  After stringing and snapping, we had 3 gallons of beans.

Yesterday I cooked a big pot like this, minus the ham and potatoes,, but with a nice chunk of ham jelly. Cooked for app. 2 hours. They do get the khaki green color, but these held their shape nicely. Chris said they were the best he's had in an age.

[Anna N]

 Dinner tonight was a DIY tempura/fondue. 

 

 

 Asparagus, broccoli, tiny mushrooms, sugar snaps and shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

The only reasonable place to have such meal was in the kitchen but the seating (stools) is quite uncomfortable. 

 

Kerry mixed up the batter using some Trisol.  It made for a very crispy coating. 

 

 

[Shelby]

YUM

[Anna N]

 

Dessert for me!  

[DesertTinker]

2 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

Dessert for me!  

Choco dipped crystallized ginger?

[Anna N]

Just now, DesertTinker said:

Choco dipped crystallized ginger?

 Indeed it is. One of my favourite things in the whole world.  

[DesertTinker]

Re: Your lunch at the country club. I can see why you were disappointed, what’s lunch without an indoor skydiving session. 😂