eG Foodblog: CaliPoutine - Diversity and Deviled Eggs.

[Pan]

[...]Robin pronouced it too oniony[...]

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Too oniony? Is there such a thing?

You need to tell them the old Eastern European Jewish joke/story about the fierce king and the onions and garlic. You know the story? I must have posted it in some thread here, but I can't remember which.

[CaliPoutine]

My second stop on yesterday's field trip was Hayter's turkey products. The best tasting, leanest turkey in all of Huron County.

If it's made of turkey, Hayter's probably has it. Check out these pictures.

[CaliPoutine]

continuing on.......

Hayter's produces over a million kilos of turkey per year!! Wow, thats a lotta turkey. They process and distribute to grocery stores and other plants for processing( they dont do any of the smoked products in house). Hayter's offers everything from traditional Thanksgiving turkey( Canadian Thanksgiving is in October) to a lemon butter roast for the gourmet. Hayter's turkey farms spans 1000 acres and its located in Dashwood, ON. A village even smaller than Exeter.

Last year for the grand opening of their new retail store, they held a recipe contest. I won first place for fast and easy turkey chili.

[CaliPoutine]

I bought the ground turkey to make meatballs. I'm going to make a big pot of marinara too. I'll also make up a batch of beef meatballs for my neice to take home. I'll use Canadian ground beef and pork for those.

For the meatballs, I use 1 package each of lean ground thigh and one package of ground breast meat. I use the food proccesor to chop up a zuccini, a carrot, green onions, italian parsley, fresh bread crumbs, garlic, and parmesean cheese. I season with salt, pepper and oregano. I form the mixture into balls and bake them in the oven until browned. I know traditionally, most recipes call for browning the balls in a pan on top of the stove, but I try to keep the fat at a minimum and this method tastes great so I dont mess with it.

The sauce is evoo, lots of fresh garlic, 3 cans of san marzano tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, a rind of parmesean and basil. I finish with chopped italian parsley.

I bought a bag of martelli pasta. Martelli is my favorite imported artisanal pasta. I never realized there could be such a difference in taste between a 5$lb pasta and a supermarket brand.

I few weeks ago I made chicken cacciatore and Robin was excited for her friends to try to martelli pasta. I asked them how they liked it and did it taste any different to them and they said NO. Hmmmm, maybe our tastes are a little bit more advanced than theirs.

Chelsea is bugging me to get on the computer So I'm off to start the sauce.

[racheld]

I am Southland, born and bred, lived on a huge farm for part of that time, with all the homegrowns and homecanneds. I've left my money on a dusty table in exchange for a bag of juice-full tomatoes, picked up the dozen heavy brown eggs from a neighbor's porch, shucked and cooked three hundred ears of corn at a time.

I am THOROUGHLY enjoying seeing this wonderful unrolling of your life and cooking and daily living, from the other end of the country. Thanks and looking forward to each day's adventures!!!

rachel

[Pookie]

I'm not a big fan of rhubarb, in fact the only thing I've ever tasted it in is jam.  There is a pretty popular recipe round these parts that uses crushed pineapple, strawberry jello, tons of sugar, rhubarb and a small amount of strawberries.  I think it was the first jam I ever made.  I like it, but its really, really sweet.  I prefer my jams to be made with minimal sugar. 

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My Mom and Grandma used to can dozens and dozens of jars of this stuff every year. I think I still have a jar lurking at the back of my cupboard.

I love rhubarb stewed and then drizzled with honey. Did you know that a cup of rhubarb has more calcium than a cup of milk?

Mmm Rhubarb sourcream coffee cake. Rhubarb crisp, rhubarb pie, rhubarb chutney. Now I need some rhubarb!

There a is turkey place south of london that looks about the same. I buy a lot of turkey since it's on the way home.

[CaliPoutine]

Today's breakfast.

and just for Wendy

Please ignore the cutting board. I placed a hot pan on it and most of the paint scraped off. We just finished renovating our bathroom, the kitchen is next. We live in a 100yr old house that we are getting ready to put up for sale.

Our next house will definatly have a gas stove.

That was Robin's oatmeal. We usually eat steelcut oat. That container came from Trader Joe's. Robin tried her oatmeal with brown sugar, she thought the brown sugar somewhat distracted from the peanut butter taste. I had splenda with mine.

After breakfast we went to the Arva flour mill and Angelo's. ( pics to come later). We bought some stuff at Angelo's. Fresh breads, deli items, and boccocini mozzarella. Chels was hungry so Robin got her a slice of pizza. Chels requested the brocolli pizza.

We stopped at a few more places around on our way back. A local farm for asparagus and a cheese shop. I was hoping to find some local goat cheese, but they didnt have any.

I made us lunch. Robin had prosciutto, fig jam and the mozzarella on a cibatta bun. I had another type of bun( cant recall the name) with low salt, no fat turkey breast. I tried the prosciutto in the store and I didnt like it at all. It had somewhat of a gamey taste to me.

At this moment, a pot of marinara is bubbling on the stove, and the turkey meatballs are in the oven. The rest of the night will be spent inside uploading and posting and making some crepes so we can enjoy the cajeta. Chels is very excited to try that.

I gave her a piece of the halvah after her half of a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and she really liked it. : ). That's my girl!! Robin tried it and didnt like it. Gotta love those kids, they are so open to trying new things, they dont have preconcieved notions of what things will taste like.

Edited May 14, 2005 by CaliPoutine (log)

[CaliPoutine]

Last night I asked Robin to wake me up at 8am so I could go to Goderich and take pictures of Culbert's bakery. Culberts is a Goderich landmark, having been in business since 1942. Prior to 1942, the bakery went by a different name and was established in the late 1800's Culberts is known for their donuts. They make 16 diffent kinds. The most popular is cream filled. They also have Boston cream, cream with chocolate icing, honey glazed, choc. chip, cinn. raisin, apple fritters, cherry filled, lemon filled, rasberry jelly filled, white and maple iced, orange and rum and raisin. Yummy. Their donuts are like none Ive ever had before. They are really light, not at all greasy and not too sweet. I'd take one over a krispy kreme any day.

I remember one occasion when I came here to visit Robin while I was still living in California. We were spending the weekend at her mom's house and she suggested we go get some donuts. I was all for it as well, but her mom said it would be so busy there. We got there and there were maybe 4 people ahead of me. Robin and her mom thought that was a busy!!! LOL.

I incoherently stumbled out of bed and Robin said " do you want me to go for you". I said sure honey, thanks. Robin came home a few hours later with a piece of paper from the casino in Clinton. Robin had a shwindel on her way home and stopped there. The casino only has slot machines so its no big deal really. Robin dropped 20 in the machine and came home with $377.00 . Guess she's glad now that she offered to go pick up the donuts. I know I am.

[CaliPoutine]

Dinner tonight.

We had spagettini with it. I also bought an italian garlic baquette at Angelo's today. However, I left it in the car when we went into another shop and Oliver took a few chunks out of it. He reached over the back of the SUV and pulled it out of a bag. Bad, bad Oliver.

Oy........

at least the birds enjoyed the rest.

[CaliPoutine]

and then we waited an hour for dessert. I could only manage a bite, I was so full!!

Crepes de cajeta. They were really yummy. I loved the flavor of the cajeta, it didnt seem that sweet either.

[Idlewild]

What an enjoyable blog. I loved the picture of halva. It's been literally years since I had halva but I can still remember the taste. Incredible stuff.

The fig jam sounds really good too and I may have to seek out figs at some point in the near future. The panino with fig jam, prosciutto and cheese sounded most excellent and mouthwatering.

[emmapeel]

... Am I guessing correctly that you're not wild about chicken skin?

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Oh no, I love crispy chicken skin. The issue for me about wings are the visible veins when eating them. I like the breast and I'm sure there are veins there also, but I can't see them and they don't snap. I totally understand what you mean about the skin...great stuff.

[CaliPoutine]

Cali, been busy all week and just ran across your blog -- it's wonderful.  I have been sitting here reading through it instead of the laundry, cleaning, dinner prep etc. I was planning!  I have actually been through Exeter once, a long time ago.  Congrats (belated) on your marriage, I followed the initial legislation closely as I was in the legal community at that time.  Not to go off topic too far, would you and Robin have stayed in the US had the marriage option been available there?  (feel free to PM if I'm too off topic, or ignore if it's none of my business)

Do you guys get to Toronto often, especially for the restaurant and food shopping options?

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Sorry so late in responding.

I would have loved to stay in the US, but I dont think Robin would have. She's more of a small town girl and she has a good, stable job that she's had for 20 years.

We dont get to TO often enough. I'd go everyweek if it was feasible. I think the last time we went was last November. Hmmm, I think a trip to TO is called for.

[gaisorowski]

Girlfriend, your food creations look yummy. It's impressive that you're able to produce such culinary delights with such an undressed, homespun kitchen. Imagine what you'll be able to achieve when you have your chef's kitchen with the proper accoutrements at your fingertips. It will be nothing less than amazing.

Look out Huron County; you ain't seen nothin' yet! So leave your Kraft dinner at the supermarket because this hot little cheftette is going to single-handedly achieve some major pallette transformations. You go, Miss Poutine!!!!

Edited May 15, 2005 by gaisorowski (log)

[gaisorowski]

and then we waited an hour for dessert.  I could only manage a bite, I was so full!!

Crepes de cajeta.  They were really yummy.  I loved the flavor of the cajeta, it didnt seem that sweet either.

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All you need is a sifter.

Edited May 15, 2005 by gaisorowski (log)

[CaliPoutine]

and then we waited an hour for dessert.  I could only manage a bite, I was so full!!

Crepes de cajeta.  They were really yummy.  I loved the flavor of the cajeta, it didnt seem that sweet either.

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All you need is a sifter.

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I have a powdered sugar shaker and an oxo sifter. I was too tired to go looking for them. They tasted good nevertheless.

[CaliPoutine]

Good morning

Robin and I are tag teaming the gym this morning since our niece is still here. No breakie today, however I'll be making some breakfast foods at lunch. Farm fresh eggs, nieman ranch bacon, yukon gold home fries and 12 grain toast. I might round out the meal with some crepes. I only made 3 crepes last night and because I was exhausted, I just popped the batter back in the fridge.

I just got back from the gym and I was famished. I heated up some kasha and I'm eating that while the boys stare at me. I'm also drinking water.

Chels had some lucky charms a few hours ago. She just asked me for something else so I thought I could pawn off the noodle pudding on her. Her first question was " why does it have cinnamon on it"? I forgot that she doesnt like cinnamon. Oh well, the boys enjoyed it on their kibble.

Other than brunch today, I'm not cooking anything else. Tomorrow I plan on making the cake that I talked about upthread and one last thing for my closing post.

edited to add picture of breakfast

Edited May 15, 2005 by CaliPoutine (log)

[CaliPoutine]

Our first stop yesterday was Arva Flour Mill. I dont know how many times in the last 3yrs we've passed this on the way to London. I've wanted to stop a million times but just never did. I'm so glad we finally did.

The mill is powered by water from Medway creek and has been operating since 1819. We bought a big bag of cream of whole wheat for 1.53.

Edited May 15, 2005 by CaliPoutine (log)

[Pookie]

Last night I asked Robin to wake me up at 8am so I could go to Goderich and take pictures of Culbert's bakery.    Culberts is a Goderich landmark, having been in business since 1942.  Prior to 1942, the bakery went by a different name and was established in the late 1800's  Culberts is known for their donuts.  They make 16 diffent kinds.  The most popular is cream filled.  They also have Boston cream, cream with chocolate icing, honey glazed, choc. chip, cinn. raisin, apple fritters, cherry filled, lemon filled, rasberry jelly filled, white and maple iced, orange and rum and raisin.  Yummy.  Their donuts are like none Ive ever had before.  They are really light, not at all greasy and not too sweet.  I'd take one over a krispy kreme any day.   

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I havent been there in years! Next time I go visit the folks I am taking the long way. This whole blog is making me homesick for Gandma.

Have you even been to the Celtic Festival in Goderich?

How was your interview?

We lived right by the Krispy Kreme here in London. They closed down last week. Guess Timmys won.

[gaisorowski]

I had to use my stovetop grill.  I have a circulon, but I dont like it that much, it doesnt produce nice grill marks.  I've been looking at the all-clad grill, however I wonder if its really worth the money. 

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Good God, Girl, what are you cooking with now? It looks like campsite cookware purchased at the army/navy surplus store. Take some of that gambling money your wife won at the casino yesterday and RUN, don't walk, to Williams Sonoma and get the All-Clad grill pan for goodness sake. Then have that humble piece of Circulon sandblasted or give it to a drop-off plant that recycles used tin!

Okay, for those of you who don't know me, I'm totally being tongue in cheek. I've known Randi (Poutine) for twenty years and I'm her biggest fan. She's an awesome little chef and, honestly, she could produce a scrumptious meal with a just a package of chicken (bonerless/skinless breasts of course) a roll of tin foil and a campfire. I'm telling you the girl has has a culinary gift! Anyway, sometimes, I razz her just so she doesn't take herself too seriously. I love you, Randi.

Edited May 15, 2005 by gaisorowski (log)

[gaisorowski]

Farm fresh eggs, nieman ranch bacon, yukon gold home fries and 12 grain toast. I might round out the meal with some crepes. I only made 3 crepes last night and because I was exhausted, I just popped the batter back in the fridge.

Edited May 15, 2005 by gaisorowski (log)

[gaisorowski]

Does Hayter's make turkey bacon?

Edited May 15, 2005 by gaisorowski (log)

[helenjp]

I'm really enjoying these posts of local shops and suppliers - I know I should be ogling the food, but I'm really just floored by the FLOORSPACE! I keep calculating how many steps I could boogie from shelf to shelf, and just about short-circuiting my tiny, Japan-imprinted brain.

I am jealous of all those grains and flours though, I admit it.

[CaliPoutine]

Does Hayter's make turkey bacon?

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Yep, they sure do. I'll bring you some next time we go to Florida.

[CaliPoutine]

Angelo's Italian Market in London.

Too bad they dont have San Marzano's.