.....the culinary musings of a lover of (most) things edible!
Happy Canada Day!
Thanks to my friend, Carol, for passing along the video for Canadian, Please. The song and video were produced by Julia Bentley and Andrew Gunadie. Want the lyrics? You’ll find them on YouTube.
Now go eat something red and white!
Strawberries and ice cream, anyone?
Eggs Benedict at Cora's
Yes, there are poached eggs on English muffins under all that Hollandaise sauce! This breakfast plate of Eggs Benedict, fruit and home fries – served at Cora’s, a restaurant chain found in most of the provinces in Canada – was pretty tasty!
Besides Cora’s, there are many other great places to enjoy breakfast in Ontario. If you want to find some of the hot spots for brekky in your home town or perhaps another place in this province, look no further than www.getcracking.ca. That’s where you’ll find Ontario’s Best Breakfasts, a search tool created by Egg Farmers of Ontario.
(You’ll also find my new blog – Everything Eggs – with egg recipes, cooking tips, news about egg nutrition, egg cooking equipment, and more!)
And, if you have a great breakfast restaurant you’d like to recommend, please add it to our list.
More insight (??) about food from NBC’s The Office. This time, a cooking lesson from Kevin Malone.
Learn how to make pseudo quesadillas and creme brulee using food from the vending machine.
If you dare.
See also Funny Food Moments on The Office.
We hosted a couple parties this weekend and served finger food including these two easy, make-in-a-shake apps.
But there’s a qualifier for both recipes. You have to like strong flavours – blue cheese and beer (although they don’t come together in the same recipe!). If you do, entertaining doesn’t get much easier than these two appetizer recipes!
Blue cheese, grapes and mozzarella cheese on baguette slices. Bold flavour from just a few ingredients.
Blue Cheese Toasts
(Makes 20 to 30 depending on length of baguette)
1 loaf baguette bread, cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) slices
Olive oil
About 3/4 cup (175 mL) crumbled blue cheese
Red or green seedless grapes, cut in half (3 halves per slice of bread)
About 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) mozzarella cheese
Arrange baguette slices in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Lightly brush tops with oil. Broil on centre rack in oven for 2 to 4 minutes until golden, watching carefully so as not to burn. Remove from oven and turn slices over.
Sprinkle blue cheese on each toast. Arrange 3 grape halves per slice over blue cheese. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over grapes.
Broil for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese is melted. Transfer to a serving plate. Serve.
Recipe Source: Adapted from Company’s Coming – Tonight! by Jean Pare, Company’s Coming Publishing, 2008
Tip: The baguette slices can be toasted ahead of time.
Like beer? You'll appreciate this spread for crackers or toasted pita chips.
Beer Cheese Spread
(Makes 12 servings)
2 cups (500 mL) finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup (60 mL) beer
3 tablespoons (45 mL) tomato paste
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) garlic powder
Let Cheddar cheese stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine cheese, beer, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. Stir well until combined. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours.
Serve with crackers, tortilla chips and/or toasted pita chips.
Recipe Source: Better Homes and Gardens Potluck Favorites magazine, Meredith Corporation, 2004
Watch out! These bite-sized scones are more than a little addictive. And since they’re small, it’s easy to pop one, then another, and another in your mouth without keeping count!
Scones with jam and whipped cream
That said, they pair perfectly with tea and are great for a party when you want to serve something a little different as a sweet. Just set out a bowl of jam or fruit spread and a bowl of clotted cream, stiffly whipped sweetened heavy cream (35% M.F.) or Cool Whip, along with a couple of knives and watch the mini mountain of sweet little biscuits disappear.
Cream Tea Scones
(Makes about 20 1-3/4 inch (4 cm) scones)
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour or 1 cup (250 mL) each all-purpose and cake & pastry flours
2 tablespoons (30 mL) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon (15 mL) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened
1 egg
2/3 cup (175 mL) milk or light cream
Sugar
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In a small bowl, whisk egg; reserve 1 tablespoon (15 mL) to brush on tops of scones before baking. Stir together remaining egg and milk.
Using fork, stir egg mixture into flour mixture to make a light, soft dough. If dough seems too sticky, stir in a bit more flour. (I find I usually need a tablespoon or two (15 to 30 mL) less milk than called for so I hold back a little and only add it if necessary.)
Gather dough into a ball; on a lightly floured surface, lightly knead dough a few times until smooth. Gently flatten with hands or a rolling pin to 3/4″ (2 cm) thickness. Cut into 1-3/4 inch (4 cm) rounds with a cookie cutter. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops with reserved egg. Sprinkle sugar over tops, if desired.
Bake in a preheated 425F (220C) oven until golden brown, about 9 or 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature if scones begin to brown too quickly.
Recipe Source: Prizewinning Preserves by Yvonne Tremblay, Prentice Hall Canada, 2001. Recipe originates with food writer and author Carol Ferguson.)
Tips:
* Pronounce it “skawn” (like yawn) or “skown” (like groan), as you wish!
* Don’t twist the cookie cutter when cutting out the scones or the edges will be pressed together and the scones won’t rise as high.
* Instead of mini scones, you can use a 2-1/2 inch (7 cm) round cutter or a glass to make approximately 10 larger scones.
NBC’s The Office is my favourite sit com! Yes, some of the characters are completely over the top and the type of humour won’t appeal to everyone, but I enjoy it and look forward to Thursday nights, even now during re-run season.
I recently came across this list of 10 food moments from The Office on Chow. There aren’t video clips for each one, but die-hard fans of The Office will get a chuckle remembering these priceless food “moments” even without all the images.
These comments from Chow readers will also help you relive a few other funny foodie moments including:
* The dinner party at Jan and Michael’s
*The potato salad Michael brings to a party at his boss’ house after it has sat in his car all day (ick!)
* The Finer Things Club – a club formed for the enjoyment of art, books and culture (and the appropriate food as you can see from this clip where Jim tries to convince the group he’s read Angela’s Ashes, the book being discussed by club members Toby, Oscar and Pam.
And since we’re talking food and The Office, here’s a clip of cast members Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Martin (Angela) discussing cooking and sharing a couple easy recipes.
While out for breakfast recently, I happened to glance over at a neighbouring table where I became fixated watching a fellow diner chase a strip of bacon around his plate with his fork. The crisp strip refused to be ensnared in the tines of his cutlery but the diner valiantly soldiered on, determined to win the battle with the belligerent bacon.
I was tempted to lean over and helpfully suggest that he just pick up the darn thing and eat it with his hands but according to proper etiquette, I should have been concentrating on the conversation at my own table – not spellbound by what was happening next door (which was really none of my business!).
So what is the proper way to eat bacon? According to experts on all things manners such as the Emily Post Institute, bacon can be consider finger food if it is dry, crisp and served whole. However, if it is broken into pieces, served in thick slices, or cooked but still limp, it should be eaten with a knife and fork.
Just got home from a visit to the Dairy Queen where I indulged in a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard. Mmmmm good!
(Don’t know what a Blizzard is? Check out this video to see how the ice cream treat is made and served.)
I learned something new while I was dipping into my smooth, creamy and thick-enough-to-be-turned-upside-down-without-losing-a-drop treat. (I was reading the Blizzard cup between bites.)
Dairy Queen first trademarked the name Blizzard in 1952, but the Blizzard treat as we know it today wasn’t released until 1985! That’s 33 years later! What took so long?
To find out what was going on with the Blizzard for over three decades, check out the history of the Blizzard on Dairy Queen’s website.
If you a real Blizzard lover, you can join the Blizzard Fan Club for coupons, trivia, and more.
And when you’re enjoying your next Blizzard, don’t forget to practice proper Blizzard eating etiquette.
Here’s a novel dessert idea from The Nibble (an online magazine) -
Grilled Idaho Potato Ice Cream with Milk Chocolate Cake and Bacon Toffee, garnished with Potato Rings.
If anyone is brave enough to try it, let me know how it turns out!
Maintaining the validity of online recipe comments
July 3, 2009 in Culinary Education, Recipes | Tags: All We Can Eat blog, ingredient changes, Jane Touzalin, recipe comments, recipe substitutions, Washington Post | Leave a comment
Allowing comments on recipes is the norm on many websites and most blogs. These testimonials can provide useful feedback to others who are considering the recipe, possibly filling in some missing steps, providing helpful suggestions about techniques within the recipe, offering flavour variations, and of course rating the likeability of the recipe.
Here’s where the “but” comes in. If an assessment of a recipe is given but the recipe has been made with significant changes and ingredient substitutions which have altered the nature of the dish (whether its taste, texture, appearance, size, etc.), then I wholeheartedly agree with what Jane Touzalin had to say in her Cooks Who Make Me Crazy post on the Washington Post‘s All We Can Eat blog. She suggests an 11th commandment – “Thou shalt not post reviews of recipes on Web sites if thou hast not actually followed the recipe — at least for the most part.” Amen!
Really now! Doesn’t it only seem fair to comment on a recipe as its written? For your comments to be valid, you really need to stay true to the recipe. And for recipe success, you need to remember that although the ingredients in many recipes are flexible, you can’t just go changing things willy nilly. It isn’t fair to complain about a recipe or comment negatively after you’ve switched up ingredients.
If you must make changes or ingredient substitutions to a recipe, keep it to a minimum and at the very least divulge how you altered the recipe, then comment on your own changes.