Manitoulin — Life on the level

[Kerry Beal]

You don't see near the number of lumberjacks around that you used to! When I would visit Vancouver from the Queen Charlotte Islands where I was stationed in the 70's I looked like one with my red checkered jackets and duffle bags in place of suitcases. 

 

Expo 67 - we sailed up through the Great Lakes to the St Lawrence to Montreal in Canuck II (a prewar Maple Leaf wooden sailboat)  - there were a bunch of lumberjacks doing log rolling, tree climbing and tree felling demonstrations - It was quite funny to watch my mother go and greet each of them by name. She'd grown up with, hunted and fished with them all on Vancouver Island. 

[rotuts]

yes

 

Red Checkered Jackets , or heavy red flannel shirts

 

and suspenders under that

 

on top of LongJohns 

 

I think.  big they were 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Just now, rotuts said:

yes

 

Red Checkered Jackets , or heavy red flannel shirts

 

and suspenders under that

 

on top of LongJohns 

 

I think.  big they were 

 

 

Well they were still big in the Charlottes - however in Vancouver that had long since had their day!

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

[demiglace]

Ok so I just get over the poutine photos and out come the doughnuts? Nobody said anything about doughnuts. I need another ACE inhibitor and some kind of warning system lol.

[Anna N]

 Good morning. Just now Kerry collected three dozen unwashed eggs that had been left at the clinic for her by one of her colleagues. There are other eggs in the refrigerator but there’s something decadent about eating an unwashed egg in the morning!*  At my age you take all the decadence  you can get.  

 

 Look at the colour of these yolks:

 

oops. A bit blurry. 

 

But how to enjoy these eggs? My first thought was Scrambled eggs simmered in salsa.  But I wasn’t at all sure how ample our supply of salsa might be. So I went with my second thought.  Scrambled eggs seasoned with Trader Joe’s umami seasoning here.

 

 

 I think I might have enjoyed it better had I used a little less. I tried hard to be light with the sprinkling but the holes in the shaker are pretty large. Damn. I think my eyes are blurry and I didn’t even have two cocktails last night. 

 

The nice thing about my decision is that the eggs simmered in salsa remain in my future. 

 

*Yeah, yeah. I washed them. 

 

 

[IowaDee]

I had the same problem with the same seasoning.  Ended up taping about half the holes to limit the stuff.  I think I have an old Penzys top that I may be able to swap out.  

[Anna N]

 Finally we have air conditioning!  I suspect we will be mighty glad of it tomorrow when the hot humid weather moves in here.  

[Smithy]

Just now, Anna N said:

 Finally we have air conditioning!  I suspect we will be mighty glad of it tomorrow when the hot humid weather moves in here.  

 

Yay! That will improve things for y'all! It should make cooking a bit less of a chore too, if the kitchen isn't too darned hot.

[Smithy]

Thanks to this topic, starting here and continuing until Anna's succumbing here, I decided I simply had to see Milk Street Tuesday Nights for myself. Kudos to @MelissaH and @JoNorvelleWalker for reminding me of libraries, and kudos to our library for being willing to place holds. I picked it up last night. It's a beautiful book. Not only is the cover appealing...

 

 

but so is the layout, and so are the recipes.

 

 

I am a sucker for good food photography and I like the book layout with a picture on one page and the recipe on the other. As others have noted earlier, this book doesn't have the "very best" hyperbole of CK's earlier venture - well, not as much hyperbole, anyway - and the recipes look like I could spend a happy year cooking my way through this book alone. That isn't the way I go, of course, being a cookbook dilettante who flits from one book to the next like a drunken bee, but I think I'll end up buying this one...cheap, used, whatever.

 

Unfortunately i won't be able to do more than admire it until Sunday, the first opportunity I'll have to cook. The story is the same with the Cuisinart CSO 300N Steam Convection oven I picked up from Amazon, due to arrive today. What a lot of enablers I've fallen among!

 

Edited to add: when I looked this book up on Amazon to make a link, what did I see but Dorie Greenspan's Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook...the other book Anna mentioned dithering over in the original discussion. Sheesh. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Smithy
Added last paragraph (log)

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Edited to add: when I looked this book up on Amazon to make a link, what did I see but Dorie Greenspan's Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook...the other book Anna mentioned dithering over in the original discussion. Sheesh. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.

The first book of Dorie’s that so disappointed me. So much of it seems to me like little more than tweaks of well-known recipes. Deja vu all over again. 

 

For instance this is part of the head note to the recipe for gougéres:

  

“This version, one of my current favorites, has a structural tweak: Instead of the usual 5 eggs in the dough, I use 4 plus a white—it makes the puffs just a tad sturdier. In addition, I’ve downsized the puffs, shaping them with a small cookie scoop. And I’ve added Dijon mustard to the mix for zip, and a surprise—walnuts. These changes are small, but gougère lovers will pick up on them immediately.”

 

 Or this for pimento cheese: 

 

“My version is straight-up and simple, a blend of sharp and extra-sharp cheddar, pimentos, mayo, salt and cayenne. (Don’t think that the small amount of cayenne is stingy—its flavor builds as the cheese rests.)” Yawn. 

 

And she offers yet another recipe for butternut squash soup. Truly I think a recipe for this soup would have to incorporate chocolate chip cookies for me to sit up and take notice. 

 

I just don’t think the book is up to Dorie’s standard. YMMV

 

[Kerry Beal]

I was just noticing the gold seal on the front with Kimball’s pic on it. Kinda similar to a James Beard award seal.

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:

I was just noticing the gold seal on the front with Kimball’s pic on it. Kinda similar to a James Beard award seal.

😂😂 Good catch. I never noticed it but it is rather blatant.

[rotuts]

@Kerry Beal

 

yes , he's still CK , but in a brown apron.  everybody else's is baby blue.

 

just so yoou don't confuse Who is Who.

 

I still wish I knew how all that a Md Slinging went.

 

gess a Red Apron  would have set off the Bulls.

Edited July 18, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[Okanagancook]

11 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I was just noticing the gold seal on the front with Kimball’s pic on it. Kinda similar to a James Beard award seal.

https://www.iacp.com/2019-iacp-awards-winners/

[Smithy]

Thanks for that information, Okanagancook. My library's copy must predate that award. Doesn't change the suggestiveness of the medallion, though!  

[gfweb]

I'm mildly surprised that CK didn't give himself a laurel wreath like Julius Caesar.

[Anna N]

38 minutes ago, gfweb said:

I'm mildly surprised that CK didn't give himself a laurel wreath like Julius Caesar.

 Wouldn’t that be a bay leaf wreath?  Say that three times quickly. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Thanks for that information, Okanagancook. My library's copy must predate that award. Doesn't change the suggestiveness of the medallion, though!  

 Also on the Kindle cover which could surely have been changed! 

 

 

But no bay leaf wreath here, either.😁

[Anna N]

 

 I just remarked to Kerry that we will have to break out the canoes if we plan on going anywhere tonight.

[Kerry Beal]

Some sort of fund raiser today - the lab techs favourite taco maker 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 I am late posting these because they were an after breakfast snack. Pistachio almond cookies that Kerry made to take to work today. She left two for me. They looked like little crispy bites but were in fact chewy and quite tasty. 

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Anna N
Edited because we are not particularly chewy and tasty. (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Whisky Tango Foxtrot 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Whisky Tango Foxtrot 

 

 

 

 

Suits my mood this whole week!

[Anna N]

 

Dinner in progress. Halved red potatoes, bacon bits and some water.  I briefly microwaved potatoes for five minutes before putting them in the pan with the bacon and water.   They were cooked covered for about 15 minutes and then I turned up the heat to drive off the liquid and they fried in the bacon fat.

 

 

 Potatoes served up with a side of chicken thighs.   The green is there for your enjoyment. It was quickly disposed of before the meal was consumed.  The chicken thighs were seasoned with Trader Joe’s umami powder.  This time I went too light on the sprinkling and the flavour did not come through.