Thursday, April 26, 2007

Dosa Virgin

Monday night a fellow foodie (FF) took myself and her brother-in-law to House of Dosa in Vancouver. She raved about it. What a fulFILLING culinary adventure. I had seen the place a few times when cruising along Kingsway, although never made it there.

A dosa: picture a gigantic crepe (except firmer) with about 1-2 cups of filling from the Indian persuasion--vegetarian to meat to seafood. At House of Dosa, they are served on a large plate, although it still hangs off the ends, with a few tbsp of coconut chutney (one plain and one tomato based) along with a cup of soup (which I already forget the name of, although FF made it one time and I loved hers!).

We had three different kinds of dosas: potatoes with paneer, lamb vindaloo, and just potato. My favorite was the potato with paneer. It didn’t matter the dosa, each possessed layers of flavour (some more intense than others) with each quite distinct. I savored every bite. To start off our meal we had chicken 65, which reminded me of General Tso’s Chicken except drier and spicy served with a sweet/sourish/spicy chutney. Does it sound like we had enough food? I was a bottomless pit and when the dosa arrived I said the magic words “There is no way I will finish this...” To top it off, Monday nights is their dosa special so it is incredibly reasonably priced. The place doesn't have uber curb appeal but the food delivered what I was hoping.

Overall, the experience reminded me of eating Ethiopian, which I miss having, too. Mmmm…Indian, Ethiopian, and Chinese. Interesting combinations that come to mind...!

Monday, April 16, 2007

I would go 100 miles…

Mmmm, maybe not: Home cooking - Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon talk about The 100-Mile Diet

This weekend I made Easy Split Pea Soup with the bone from the Easter Ham (bear with me, I will be pictureless for a bit---our camera is on the fritz and I must take it in for repair). It was so good. I think one of my favorite things about having a meal with something like bone-in ham is extending its use even further through soups, etc. and not just mini-meal leftovers. I also really enjoy the process of soup making. This recipe was very easy, quick, and rewarding! I am not sure if we have split pea soup on “the list” but will have to check and see…soup making is one of Ol’ Gord’s (aka Dad's) fortes.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Easter Eats

Sounds like both of us cooked it up on the weekend! We hosted a few friends for Easter dinner on Sunday night. I even colored some Easter eggs for decoration, which I haven't done in YEARS. The menu: goats cheese and walnut salad to start, ham, cauliflower served with cheese sauce, and vegetable fricassee. Guests brought along dessert to help round off the meal and make my life easier.

My first quest was to do something different with ham as opposed to honey mustard/clove snore variation. That is where I found BAKED HAM WITH MUSTARD-RED CURRANT GLAZE AND RHUBARB CHUTNEY from an old issue of Bon Appetit (available on Epicurious.com). One challenge that did not even occur to me was finding fresh rhubarb. Yes, I thought rhubarb would be readily available at this time of year but alas it hadn’t hit the stores yet. After trying a few different stores, I finally found both fresh (organic) and frozen (!!!!) rhubarb at my local Choices market although I did use my first born to purchase it. I have a love/hate relationship with Choices. Sometimes that place drives me nutbar, but when it delivers, it sure wins me back.

My second quest was doing a different vegetable dish so I tried the Vegetable Fricassee (from a recent Bon Appetit). It was very good but a tad rich since it is really is only veggies cooked in whipping cream (insert fat gags here). I had to 1.5 times the recipe to feed six and think baking it in a shallower dish would have been better. Must say though that the flavours were super unique (maybe because of the saffron?) and great use of spring veggies. The ham was a big hit as well as mum’s good ol’ Cheesey Cauliflower (hint: the recipe is mum’s mac n’ cheese sauce served on steamed cauliflower). For a change I used orange cauliflower which was a nice color on the plate. No pictures, though! Good eats, good company.

Sisters Podleski

Wow: http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=106377

Monday, April 9, 2007

the visit... the park


The visit....

Well Jason, Nate and I managed to fly out for a trip to Vancouver/Victoria during spring break. We had a wondeful time and managed to cram in a bunch of activities during the short trip.

We visited Pat and Sandy's cabin in Pender Harbor - which will be absolutely stunning when it is done! They will have to re-think having children though as they discovered that the local restaurants are not particulary child friendly ;-)

The 3 of us then headed to Vancouver island for a 3 day trip. We just about missed the ferry across - like we were the second last car allowed on - there was much hand wringing and nail biting prior to knowing we had made it on. Seems like a silly thing but an additional 4 hour wait on a dock with not much to look at is not a pleasant thought with a 2-year old. We got to Victoria did some walking around and ordered in some nasty chinese food into the hotel room.
On day 2 I was surpirsed with a spa retreat from my hubby and Nate and Jason went to beacon Hill park where there was a petting zoo that fascinated them both. Supper was Ferris' oyster bar (http://www.ferrisoysterbar.com/). Amazing meal. Skip the veggie dog as even the kid didn't want it - but everything else was awesome - and the portions were over the top.

The next day we were off to Parksville where we stayed at Tigh-Na-Mara Lodge http://www.tigh-na-mara.com/ Beautiful view of the water and very nice rooms. No room services available though - at least maybe this time of year- and we weren't up to battling the child in a fancy restaurant after making him sit for 3 hours in the car so we went to Boston Pizza. Oh god, how our vacations have changed.

When we made it to Vancouver Sandy treated us to a great pasta meal with very thinly sliced asparagus and a tomato sauce that was awesome. We also ventured out to the park with Nate and to a nice seafood restaurant whose name escapes me. Overall an excellent and relaxing holiday that will have to last us a while with the new baby coming in the summer......

Mom's macaroni and cheese

I feel compelled to comment on this one despite the fact that I have no pictures (hey, it looks exactly the same as Sandy's on the plate despite the fact that I tend to use plain old macaroni). This recipe is one that is made at our house at least once every 2-3 weeks - particularly during this pregnancy as I seem to have become fixated on carb loading. I tend to take a bit of license with the amount of cheese that the recipe calls for, and by that I mean I add more. I also add a mix of velveeta and cheddar becuase I find it makes the sauce smoother. Jason objects to the chopped onions that I put in the sauce, but I think that it adds a nice kick and I do not think that the sauce is quite the same without.....

Long live Paula Deen

I am writing to pay homage to Paula Deen. If you do not know who she is - she is a southern chef who, in her words -" can add a calorie to anything."
http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=101886

Well, last night we cooked a couple of recipes from her book and I have to say that despite the guilt associated with eating them - they were amazing. The first was a twice baked potato casserole with -wait for it - 8 potatoes, 2 cups of cheese, 1/2 a cup of butter, one clock of cream cheese and bacon in it. The second was a mint brownie that was reminiscent of a mint nanaimo bar but a bit firmer and therefore a bit easier to eat. Needless to say we had the moms asking for recipes and the dinner was a hit.

Jason, who has fallen in love with all that is Paula Deen, has bought me another one of her cookbooks so I am sure that he must be trying to collect on my life insurance...