eG Foodblog: Kerry Beal - ChocDoc in the Land of the Haweaters

[Kerry Beal]

Okay, this is at least the second time The Bruce was mentioned, and now I'm curious. I tried Googling "The Bruce" and keep getting "Robert the Bruce" -- fun, but no help there! So what is this "Bruce" you speak of?

Ah, the "Bruce". That would be the Bruce Penninsula. A penninsula that starts around Owen Sound/Wiarton and makes it's way up to Tobermory. At Tobermory Hwy 6 continues via the ferry across to Manitoulin where it continues up island, crosses the bridge to the mainland in Little Current and ends at the transcanada hwy in Espanona. I can't recall how far Hwy 6 goes south but I thinks it's up around Port Dover (home of friday the 13th for all the bikers in the world).

The Bruce trail runs from Niagara falls to Tobermory following the Niagara escarpment. I have walked some parts of it. Great spot for views, berries and poison ivy.

On your left going up the Bruce is Lake Huron, and on your right is Georgian Bay. Now both are actually part of Lake Huron, with the Main Channel dividing Manitoulin from Tobermory on the south and the North Channel dividing Manitoulin from the mainland on the north.

There are lots of wonderful summer areas along the Bruce including Sauble Beach, a number of provincial parks and nature reserves and of course Wiarton, home of Wiarton Willie, Canada's answer to Punxsuatawney Phil (and a hell of a lot easier to spell).

I also spent a good deal of my teen years along the Bruce, between sailing, scuba diving, camping and just getting away from home to get into trouble.

[Kerry Beal]

Nakji,

Thanks for taking the time to post about Hanoi traffic. Takes me back reading it.

I actually rode on the back of a small motorcycle, 2 girls in front of me, pouring rain, poncho over the whole works. I thought I was going to die. The driver wasn't allowing for my extra weight on the back everytime she braked.

And seat belts...do not exist. Kira's first car seat experience was in Canada. She had however ridden on motorcycles.

Traffic on every street is made up of - from the right - people walking, people on bicycles, people on scooters and motorcycles (often with the aformentioned items - best we saw was two bikes carrying a large pane of glass between them - I've got pictures somewhere), cars, trucks. So busy times on a two way street you have that on both sides of the street resulting in gridlock when everything meets in the middle.

The women wear the 'coolie' hats, hankerchief over the face and gloves all the way up the arms. Pale skin is in. A tan identifies you as a peasant.

[Lori in PA]

I just spent many minutes I don't really have this morning catching up. Lovely, lovely, to spend some time with you in your temporary part of the world. Thanks.

[bavila]

As requested

Gary's Chocolate Cake

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Prepare two nine inch cake pans with parchment round and oil or pam. Preheat oven to 305 F.

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305 or 350?

Thanks for blogging and for sharing Kira with us.

[Kerry Beal]

As requested

Gary's Chocolate Cake

...

Prepare two nine inch cake pans with parchment round and oil or pam. Preheat oven to 305 F.

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305 or 350?

Thanks for blogging and for sharing Kira with us.

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Strangely enough it is 305. I found it worked well. I'm sure 300 would probably be ok too.

[Kerry Beal]

Quick post before I head off to work.

An embarrasing sight out the front window, a sailor with his fenders out.

Butterscotch square, in my mom's cookbook known as Marge's Butterscotch Squares. Lady from the church as I recall. My offering for the office today.

Recipe here in recipeGullet.

Edited September 22, 2006 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Tweety69bird]

Kerry,

Great blog so far... I don't know how you find the time to do it all...

I was wondering if you bake like this and spoil your team only when in Manitoulin or do you do this at your regular hospital also?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry,

Great blog so far... I don't know how you find the time to do it all...

I was wondering if you bake like this and spoil your team only when in Manitoulin or do you do this at your regular hospital also?

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I do take things to work when I'm at home, but not to the extent I do here. I just don't have the time at home. Here life is a much more civilized pace.

[nakji]

he women wear the 'coolie' hats, hankerchief over the face and gloves all the way up the arms. Pale skin is in. A tan identifies you as a peasant.

Ha! Gloves are out now. Ladies prefer to wear these all-in-one dickie style shirts that cover everything up. They cover the hands with the shirt fabric and velcro and button up at the neck. They're generally plaid - so everyone looks Canadian! Hats and face masks are still de rigeur.

I'll post a pic if I can find one. When were you here? I find so much has changed since I was here for the first time in 2003.

[Kerry Beal]

he women wear the 'coolie' hats, hankerchief over the face and gloves all the way up the arms. Pale skin is in. A tan identifies you as a peasant.

Ha! Gloves are out now. Ladies prefer to wear these all-in-one dickie style shirts that cover everything up. They cover the hands with the shirt fabric and velcro and button up at the neck. They're generally plaid - so everyone looks Canadian! Hats and face masks are still de rigeur.

I'll post a pic if I can find one. When were you here? I find so much has changed since I was here for the first time in 2003.

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It was 2000 for me, and in those days no one was text messaging either, so it was somewhat safer to be on the road.

[Kerry Beal]

I asked Malou what we should make for dinner tonight, I offered a couple of rather exciting options and she said pasta. I offered a couple more exciting options, she said pasta. You've got to understand, she's the boss. You find a good nanny, she says pasta, you make pasta.

However this being blog week I decided that if I was going to be forced to make something as simple as pasta, that I would at least have to make the dough from scratch. After all I've got an audience.

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1 1/2 cups of flour in the processor, two extra large eggs. I added a few extra drops of water just to make the dough a little more damp. You notice when I've taken it out of the processor it's still a bit crumbly.

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A quick squeeze brings it together as a dough. I wrapped it in plastic and let it sit while I struggled with attaching the pasta roller to the counter. It really is a two man operation, because someone needs to hold the magazine under the counter that is going to fill the space so you can tighten the screw that holds it in place. A few rather choice words were uttered.

Now I use the roller to knead the dough. I put it through the largest gap on the roller, folding it in 3 each time, dusting with a little flour as required until it is nice and smooth.

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In the first picture you can see that it is still a little rough on the edges, not quite kneaded enough. Now I adjust the rollers one number up and pass the dough through.

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I continue to adjust the rollers one number at a time until I have the dough the thickness I need (usually the second highest number). Then I cut the dough with the cutter rollers.

At home my dad has made me a nice little wooden rack for drying the pasta, here in Manitoulin I have to improvise.

Our final result, pasta with olive oil, butter, garlic, fried baguette crumbs, basil, parsley, pepper and parmigiano reggiano.

[CanadianBakin']

Thanks for showing us another part of Canada. It's absolutely beautiful!!

[Sugarella]

An embarrasing sight out the front window, a sailor with his fenders out.

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I don't get it.

Butterscotch square, in my mom's cookbook known as Marge's Butterscotch Squares.  Lady from the church as I recall.  My offering for the office today.

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I was wishing someone else would've asked already, but could you please share this recipe too? I love butterscotch.

[Kerry Beal]

An embarrasing sight out the front window, a sailor with his fenders out.

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  I don't get it.

Sorry, it's a sailor thing. When you are underway in your boat, you shouldn't have your fenders hanging over the side. It's just kind of sloppy. Kind of like leaving your dirty dishes on the counter for a couple of days.

Butterscotch square, in my mom's cookbook known as Marge's Butterscotch Squares.  Lady from the church as I recall.  My offering for the office today.

I was wishing someone else would've asked already, but could you please share this recipe too?  I love butterscotch. 

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That would be

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup pecans

melt butter, add brown sugar. Stir in egg. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into greased 8X8 pan. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, leave in oven for 20 minutes.

I'll get this into recipeGullet later tonight if I can.

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks for showing us another part of Canada. It's absolutely beautiful!!

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Tina,

When your life gets back in order, come and stay in the cabin for a week.

K

[doc slaughter]

If you notice the blue sail boat in the middle of the pic wher the electric line is you can see that it has no sails up and it's blue cover over the boom of the mainsail. this would seem to indicate that it's anchored. Now if you look real real closely you'll also notice small white things on the side of the boat, ther the bumpers that boater use to kee from banging against things. Since ther are no other boats near and they are not at a dock there's no real need for the things to be hanging over the side. Hope that helps.

[maggiethecat]

Those are called "Irma's Butterscotch Squares" on the handwritten recipe card my Mum gave me when I was married. Dead easy, and fabulous.

A shibboleth for Canadians living on the States -- the folks here call squares "bars." After decades south of the forty-ninth I still slip up.

[Kerry Beal]

If you notice the blue sail boat in the middle of the pic wher the electric line is you can see that it has no sails up and it's blue cover over the boom of the mainsail. this would seem to indicate that it's anchored. Now if you look real real closely you'll also notice small white things on the side of the boat, ther the bumpers that boater use to kee from banging against things. Since ther are no other boats near and they are not at a dock there's no real need for the things to be hanging over the side. Hope that helps.

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Doc,

Actually it was underway.

[Kerry Beal]

I just want you all to have a brief look at my kitchen this evening. On your immediate right you will see a molded dark chocolate pig (I've been makin bacon), beside which is some almond, freeze dried strawberry bark topped with the dark chocolate that I knocked out of one of the molds. Behind that are 2 molds, frogs and mice, that have been painted with dark chocolate and will get molded in milk chocolate the next time I'm tempering. On top of the stove are the brownies that just came out of the oven.

Beside the sink there are 2 pyrex containers - filthy, in which I was tempering. Behind them the freeze dried strawberries.

By the way, I took apart the vacuum sealer and mananged to get it working again. The switches had slipped out of place. So tomorrow I can vacuum seal the strawberries again. Right now everyone else is asleep and the sealer makes a hell of a noise.

In the fridge is a solid milk chocolate pig just cooling off. The molded pigs are for Max Burt, the organic farmer at Burt Farms where I will be getting my pork bellies the last week I'm here to make bacon.

Ok, now that I've shown you that I'm going to go clean this place up.

[Gabriel Lewis]

Excellent blog Kerry, I really like your curt writing style - you seem to say all the right things in exactly the right amount of words. Manitoulin Island reminds me of manitoba and the lake culture there, ah how I miss visiting my friend's cabins in the summer.

Do we get to see pictures of the finished pigs?

[Rebecca263]

Kerry, I find your writing reminiscent of Hemingway, straight and to the heart. You have a way of making a simple meal of pasta sound irresistible.

[Kerry Beal]

Excellent blog Kerry, I really like your curt writing style - you seem to say all the right things in exactly the right amount of words. Manitoulin Island reminds me of manitoba and the lake culture there, ah how I miss visiting my friend's cabins in the summer.

Do we get to see pictures of the finished pigs?

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Gabriel,

Lake of the Woods? West Hawk?

The pig pictures are poor but here is one.

Kerry, I find your writing reminiscent of Hemingway, straight and to the heart. You have a way of making a simple meal of pasta sound irresistible.

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You should see what I could do with a big fish. The Old Broad and the Lake.

Hope you are feeling better.

[maggiethecat]

You should see what I could do with a big fish.  The Old Broad and the Lake. 

That's funny. Seriously.

[Anna N]

. . .

The pig pictures are poor but here is one. 

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That pig is just too adorable!

[Kerry Beal]

I want to tell you a tale of romance. To keep it relevent it accompanies the meal pictured above.

Beth, whom you met at the Manitoulin Chocolate Works, is in love with her coffee roaster. Not the mechanical kind, the real kind.

I told you that Beth makes the best cup of coffee and sells the best packaged coffee on the island. Well, she had been having her coffee roasted by a small company in Toronto. Often she would chat on the phone with the owner Peter and they were getting quite chummy, sight unseen.

One busy week, she had gone through a rather large quantity of coffee and needed an order ASAP, but the order didn't make it onto the truck. Six or seven hours later a tall, friendly fellow shows up with her coffee. Of course after the long drive they have to have some dinner together and talk. It's my contention that the coffee didn't make it on the truck intentionally.

So the rest is history. Peter comes up on weekends when the coffee roasting business isn't too crazy, Beth goes down to Toronto in the off season (when I often get a chance to see her too).

So why am I telling you this at 5am. Well first, I couldn't sleep cause the rug rat woke me up and I'm out here giving her a chance to fall back to sleep, and secondly, last night just before I went to bed I noticed an eG'er checking out my blog, with a member name that looked like it might belong to one of the folks mentioned above.

I'm not sure if he has posting privileges, but Peter - is that you Java Roasters?

So the night before the blog started I had Peter and Beth over for dinner and started practicing taking pictures of all my meals. As you can see the picture quality it lacking somewhat. But it is the same meal I had for lunch one day this week, BBQ pork tenderloin, with homemade BBQ sauce, Caesar salad, and for dessert - blueberry buckle.

Edited September 22, 2006 by Kerry Beal (log)