Aw guys, I feel terrible. I haven’t blogged at all since school started. I want to apologize to all five of you who read my blog (and no that isn’t a conservative estimate). If you want to now the honest truth, I’ve been cheating on Cookin’ Classy with, gasp, another blog!
You all know that I am pretty busy lately. And I don’t mean busy like I have too much TV to catch up on/need to clean my house/have so much internet surfing to do. No I’ve been really really busy with school related stuff. I’m on McGill First Aid Services again this year, this time as one of the Social Coordinators. This means I have trainings, evaluations, shifts and party planning to worry about each month. I’m also on the Anthropology Student’s Association as the VP-Communications which has been keeping me super busy planning anthropology events. And on top of all of that I have school.
I spend way too much time in the Peterson Hall Lab
My Honor’s Thesis is sucking the life out of me, but more than that Grad School Applications are pretty much making me cry every single night. The point of me whining is just to say hey, I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging but I have been getting my life in order!
This is me working on my thesis...clearly
Ok now for the confession: I cheated on Cookin’ Classy with the Parc Safari Archaeological Project’s blog. In my defense it was required for one of my classes but I still feel like a two-timer. That’s why I’m posting today; I’m posting out of guilt. If you want to check out the archaeology blog click on my profile. It’s a pretty cool project which one day may help science predict the occurrence of mass graves, especially in cases of genocide or war crimes.
My friends Genna, Michelle and I tried to start a new tradition this semester. We call it Manger Mondayz, and basically it’s the three of us getting together every Monday and cooking dinner. Each week someone is responsible for dinner and the other two bring wine and appetizers. We’ve been slacking a lot lately presumably because of school, but a month ago it was my turn to host Manger Mondayz.
My mom is one of my favourite people in the world because she is constantly sending me packages. It’s like getting a postcard only A MILLION TIMES GREATER! Often, in these packages she sends me cook books or food magazines. In a recent package I received there was a copy of the Better Homes and Garden food magazine “Quick and Easy Recipes”. I had been itching to try it out so Manger Mondayz was my chance!
Because it was a cooler October night, I settled on making a warm and hearty “Ravioli Skillet Lasagna”. It was pretty quick to make and easy since I have an electric skillet and tasted great, though not much like Lasagna.
Ravioli Skillet Lasagna
(25 minutes, but honestly it look me a lot less time)
What you Need:
-2 cups of chunk style spaghetti sauce (I used my Mom’s frozen pasta sauce, which is my very favourite but any type will do, except Ragu ‘cus that stuff is gross!)
-1/3 cup of water
-1 9-ounce package of refrigerated meat or cheese-filled ravioli (I used the Bertoli fresh brand. They’re my favourite and cook quickly. I would advise against using frozen ravioli)
-1 egg, slightly beaten (I was making enough food for 5 people and my skillet is wide but shallow so I used 2 eggs)
-1 15-ounce carton of ricotta cheese (full disclosure: I was feeling super chubby that day so I used low fat. As if that was going to make a difference…)
-¼ cup of grated Romano or Parmesan Cheese
-1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I couldn’t find frozen so I used canned spinach which was such a mistake. It was disgusting. I’m serious)
What you need to do:
In a large skillet, combine spaghetti sauce and water. Bring to a boil. Stir in ravioli and cook covered over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until ravioli are nearly tender, stirring to prevent sticking. I boiled my ravioli first and then drained and added the water/sauce mixture because I have a fear of uncooked foood.
In a medium bowl combine egg, ricotta cheese and ¼ cup of the parmesan. Dot the ravioli, which is in the skillet, with the spinach. Cover the spinach and ravioli with the cheese mixture.
Cook, uncovered over low heat for about 10 minutes or until the ricotta layer is set and pasta is just tender. Sprinkle with additional cheese.
Serve to the delight of one Calgarian, one Londoner and her boyfriend from New Brunswick. Then sit back and finish that second bottle of cheap wine.
Everything went fine with this recipe, with the exception of the spinach. Ew! Canned spinach has the consistency of slime and tastes very bitter. It was not a good addition to the meal so I strongly encourage you either use fresh or frozen spinach or non at all.
Yes that is Popeye's Brand
The only other problem with the recipe is that I expected everyone to be at my house around 7. They didn’t turn up until 8 so the food got a little overcooked since I left the skillet on the ‘warm’ function. The lesson here is, leave a little cooking for when the company is just showing up since a) the food will be fresh and hot b) they can tell you how adorable you look in your apron.
I also did a little cooking today, in between watching episodes of the X-Files (a friend recently suggested I start watching it. Yes Mulder is a dreamboat, but I also want to be Scully. She is so hot! And she has such a sexy voice). I had a bag of McCain Super Fries in my freezer but no ketchup left. I needed something to dip my fries in so I decided to make my own version of garlic aioli.
Combine, in a small bowl, a couple large globs of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of vinegar, a tablespoon of dejion mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper.
Next crush two small cloves of garlic in a garlic press, or crush using the side of a knife after mincing.
Mix the garlic into the mayonnaise mixture
Enjoy with fries or on a sandwich, while watching bad TV on the internet.
Ok that’s it for now. I have a lab and paper due on Tuesday and a huge research project due on Wednesday. I promise to post more often!
PS. Here is a photo of one breakfast this summer in Cuzco, Peru
PPS. The last post started opened with the first line of Jules Vern’s classic science fiction novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
PPSS. According to blogger.com I have a bunch of readers in South America, specifically Brazil. That’s so cool. Then again I also have a ‘reader’ in Russia, but we all know that that was just Genna this summer.
"The year 2010 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten"
This is very embarrassing. I haven't blogged in over a month. The entire month of March went by and nothing. Nada. Zilch. I could makes excuses about how busy I was or how I was held hostage by the Hells Angels in Montreal for unsavory (PUN!) seafood dealings (that didn't happen for the record. I know it's hard to tell sometimes because I live such an exhilarating life) but I won't. I'm just bad at this blogging thing. And frankly I haven't even been cooking lately, which is even worse than not blogging. I guess that has to do with the fact that it was paper season and Mad and I barely saw each other anyhow. When you spend so much time at the library (Mad) or lab (me) you end up eating on campus a lot more. McGill's Oasis cafeteria has delicious ciabatta bread sandwiches by the way. Apple and brie? Yum. Regardless, before school took over my life, Mad and I did manage to pull off one amazing cooking day, which I probably already told you about, dear reader.
I was a Friday: mild, clear with a slight breeze (that's a lie. I don't remember). It was a day like any other, EXCEPT on that day three friends would embark on an amazing and dangerous journey. It would take all of their skills and charm to pull off and they had to keep their wits about them. This, dear reader, is because the three friends were signed up for the most challenging and perilous of all competitions; they were contestants in an Iron Chef tournament!
You get the idea.
Anyway here's the deal: SSMU (the student's society of McGill undergraduates) decided to use some of their left over money to throw an Iron Chef competition some time last month. Since our friend Theo (who you may remember for the Thanksgiving post) is dating one of SSMU's head honchos he heard about the competition as soon as it was announced. Knowing us as well as he does, he immediately telephoned Madeline and I to ask if we wanted to participate with him. I mean, really? Did he even have to ask? What are my favourite things?
1. Archaeology 2. Mammoths 3. Winter 4. Food 5. Cooking 6. Competition (Family, friends and and being in charge are somewhere on there too. Don't bother me with details. I also really like video games. )
What I'm trying to say is that a cooking competition sounded like too much fun to pass up. Plus we were given $100 to spend on supplies and would receive $500 if we won. SPOILER: we didn't.
In an Iron Chef competition generally the point of the game is to create a meal around a secret ingredient. We spent the week leading up to the competition trying to guess what the secret ingredient would be. Truthfully is wasn't very hard. It had to be cheap, transportable, in season and vegan friendly. As we predicted it ended up being Canadian maple syrup which is lucky because of how incredibly easy it is to cook with syrup.
During our team meeting we brainstormed ideas for recipes. Madeline decided to call her parents (HI MR. & MRS. SINCLAIR) because they had family friends who happen to be really great caterers. They suggested a salad and braided salmon for two of the courses and the other two we found online. The internet is seriously, the easiest place to find recipes. I'm huge fan of it (the internet, obviously)
This is an accurate representation of what my computer looks like every time I use the internet. Every. Time.
But I digress.
We cooked for like, literally (CONTRADICTION!) 6 hours straight. It could be more or less; I don't really remember because it was so long ago. I do know we spend the whole day stuck in my tiny kitchen which was sort of torture. Let me paint you a picture: I can open the fridge, cooks on the stove, wash dishes, answer the door and sort through my cupboards at the same time without moving an inch. Well, ok that would be true if I could use my feet as hands like a monkey, and also had an extra arm, but you get the idea. Here, I've attached a to scale diagram.
It's kind of hard to tell but the squiggly red lines are the stove. The big black thing is the fridge. Blue stuff is counter space and the other thing is the sink (DUH). Anyway now imagine an elephant stomping around in the middle of all of that and I mean a BIG elephant. That's how I feel when I cook in that kitchen. Actually here's another diagram. The elephant represents an elephant and the box with a K in it represent the size of my kitchen. I'd like to point out that this one is also labeled 'to scale'. A diagram wouldn't lie to you. Neither would that adorable elephant.
But I digress again.
We decided to make a frisee salad with lots of fresh fruit like blueberries and raspberries for the appetizer. It also included candied pecans which Mad made from scratch and the most delicious dressing in the world which was a mixture of red wine vinegar, maple syrup, mustard and shallots. Again, I'm sorry I don't have the recipe for it :(. We were pleased with how pretty it turned out.
For the main course we decided on a salmon because: a) we weren't paying for it and b) salmon is delicious and we were hoping to eat some. I had a moment in the grocery store, at the seafood counter when I panicked. I was on the phone with Madeline trying to figure out what type of salmon to buy. I mean, how am I supposed to know? I don't ever buy seafood and there is so much pressure. The guy at the counter sits there, practically breathing down your neck while simultaneously boring holes into your back with the lasers he happens to have where eyeballs should be. I almost bought trout twice because it looks so much like salmon. Finally I just grabbed the two biggest looking fillets and fled the scene, trying to avoid eye-to-laser contact with the seafood counter man.
Because the secret ingredient was maple syrup we decided to make a cedar planked, braided, maple butter salmon. This meant that we had to coat the salmon in maple butter for about 20 minutes before baking it in the oven (planked). From what I remember the maple butter consisted of 1/2 cup Canadian Rye/Whiskey, 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 1/2 pound butter, softened. We covered it in more maple syrup before placing it in the oven though. I'd now like to draw your attention to our secret weapon of the night: BRAIDING!
We knew that at least a few of the other teams would be using salmon, because let's face it, salmon and maple are damn good together. We figured we would get an edge, however, if our salmon looked better than anyone else's. And let me tell you, our salmon was the Britney Spears to their K D Lang (if either of those women were fish). Let me clarify: Miss Spear before she shaved her head. Actually can I change that? Our Salmon was like Jackie O: classy as crap! Geez, I'm having a hard time staying on topic today. The point is we braided our salmon for presentation purposes. Once we figured it out the salmon actually looked really beautiful. I figured out the trick is to buy long fillets, which unfortunately I neglected to realize. In any case, to braid salmon you have to cut it into 5 long strips, then take the center strip and fold it over both strips on the left side. Repeat with the new center strip, folding it over to the right hand side this time. Continue until you run out of strip.
The last course of the meal was actually the most difficult to make by far. We decided to bake spice cakes with a maple butter cream and homemade maple candies. I say that these were the most difficult for a few reasons. For starters the spice cakes themselves involved way way way too many steps and spices for your average baker. We got the recipe off of epicurious (which is a website I adore by the way).
1 1/3 cups pure maple syrup (preferably Grade A dark amber)
4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons and softened
Equipment: 3 (8-inch) round cake pans (2 inches deep; see cooks’ note, below); a candy thermometer
I think we spent half the budget buying the spices for these cakes! Maybe a normal household would have whole nutmeg but we sure didn't. I mean, come on! We're university students! It's also practically impossible to buy small quantities of spices as well. You have to buy enough to get you through the next bout of the Cold War (which according to my calculations should be just around the corner. That was sarcasm.) Any way I let Madeline handle the cake baking. It took her a horribly long time but they turned out really yummy. A bit dense but still good.
Make spice cake: Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour cake pans.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Stir together milk and vanilla in a small bowl.
Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture (begin and end with flour mixture) and mixing until just combined.
Divide batter among pans, smoothing tops, then rap pans once or twice on counter to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake until pale golden and a wooden pick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of pans, then invert cakes onto racks. Reinvert and cool completely.
To go on top of the spice cakes we made caramelized pears and butter cream. The pear? Pfft they were a BREEZE compared to the butter cream.
Caramelize pears: Peel and core pears, then coarsely chop.
Heat butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until foam subsides, then sauté pears, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in sugar, lemon juice, and brandy and cook over high heat, stirring, until juices are deep golden and pears are tender, about 5 minutes.
The butter cream was the nemeses for that night. It started off fine, despite the fact that we didn't have cream of tartar. What in Betty Crocker's name IS cream of tartar anyway? We can never find it at Provigo so we always end up making a mock version.
Like I was saying, the butter cream was going well until I made my first mistake. I didn't read the directions carefully enough and used double the maple syrup instructed because I misread maple sugar as maple syrup. Strike one.
My next mistake was less of a mistake and more of a common problem of mine. I have a hard time whipping up meringue. I once used an entire carton of eggs trying to whip just three properly. I don't know why, but meringue is my baking Achilles' heel. After trying to whip for around 20 minutes I got a tiny bit frustrated and tossed the electric mixer down on the stove and turned around to fiddle with something on the cutting board. All of a sudden there was a humongous bang, followed by a crack. I turned around to see a shower of sparks coming from the stove-top and a few tiny explosions. I jumped away as if in slow motion. It was kind of like that part in a movie where the hero jumps away from an exploding helicopter or terrorist bomb. Only cooler, because I was wearing a floral apron.
That reminds me of this video. It was exactly like this:
After I blew up our electric mixer the butter cream started looking really...gross. I was about to give up on it but let Theo have a try on it. I kid you not within ten minutes it actually looked like food again. It was like he was Theo Meyer: Dessert Whisperer. I imagine it was because he is stronger than me and thus better with a wisk, but I prefer to pretend it was a last minute miracle.
I also made some maple candies to put on top. They were relatively easy to make, I just boiled maple syrup and poured it into an ice cube tray. They turned out sort of adorable though, if I do say so myself.
In the end, we went last in the competition so our food was cold when the judges ate it, but they still seemed to really like it. One of the judges actually asked to keep his cake so he could finish it. I consider that a success. Here are photos of the finished products:
We finished third out of ten teams so in all it was a pretty productive day. We learned some new and very important cooking skills, like how to cook fish (and how not to blow yourself up in your own kitchen). I'd write more but I've been at this for nearly two hours and I'm tired. Whaaaaaaa (that's the sound of me whining). Sorry this was kind of incoherent. I've a very distractabe person. I'm write next time I cook more than just a turkey sandwich wrap. I don't really have to stress though because I doubt that will be any time soon.
XOXO Class Mansion
P.S. Here's a picture of some gingerbread cookies we made months ago. We also ate them months ago so don't worry.
P.P.S. The last post started with a quote from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)'s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the blog her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a blog,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?"
I forgot that I made these last semester to use as logos for this super banging blog. Unfortunately I went in a completely different design direction for the blog (read: Completely void of any design) so they didn't get used. I still think they're super cute.
NES called, they want their pixels backVersion 2.0
I'm still not sure what to do with them, if anything. Maybe they will eventually make their way into a blog banner. Most likely I'll just put them on ugly matching t-shirts and make Madeline wear them with me in public regardless if she wants to or not. Which do you like best?
xoxo Class Mansion
PS. Here's a photo of my roommate from first year making a salad.
PPS. The last post began with "Chocolate cake happened, more or less" which of course was taken from the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughter-house five's opening line: "All this happened, more or less".
Oh my goodness it seems like forever since I last posted. I am a VERY VERY VERY BAD BLOGGER! I would punish myself for not being prompt with my posts but that would require me be productive and well...honestly I'm feeling very lazy. That's a lie actually; I am lazy.
Just a second ago I was writing on my friend Kaitlyn Anello's facebook wall. She recently showed me that her final project from Sheridan College was up on youtube.com for the whole world to see. Kaitlyn is incredibly talented and is in school currently hoping to gain enough experience to make a career out of working in film. The final project up on youtube.com is a short film adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut story "Harrison Bergeron" made by a group of students at Sheridan. Kaitlyn acted as the assistant director on the project, and though I'm sure I am biased considering she is one of my best friends, the film honestly blew me away.
Here is the film. I strongly urge you to watch it because it is less than ten minutes long and lovely to see.
You might be asking yourself, "but Becky, sure your friend may be gifted but what the pan-fried-sugar-doughnuts does this have to do with food? Are you not a food blogger?" Well I say to you dear reader, patience, patience I am getting to my point if only you will let me.
Because Kaitlyn is so talented I am certain that she will be successful. Not only that, I have a sneaking suspician that she will be FAAA-MOUS! (Do me a favour and say the bolded word in your best Oprah impression). I don't want Kaitlyn to become famous and forget about me! So I wrote on her facebook wall that she better not. Her reply was that I would just have to become famous too so we could be all glamorous and fabulous and famous together! Problem solved, right? Well that got me to thinking. What on earth could I possibly be famous for?
I'm not a terribly good actress. I cannot sing. I did not inherit my mother's gift for drawing and my friend Leisha is the one destine to become the amazing designer. I'm also not rich enough to be famous for doing nothing at all.
What could I do? I like mummified bodies, ancient faunal remains, science magazines, mammoths and kelp highways. How was any of that going to get me famous?
These are some bones I cleaned from an Early Thule prehistoric Eskimo site on Sommerset Island
My first though was this: "Ok I'll have to be famous too. What should I be famous for? Maybe I'll write scathingly real, thinly veiled, short stories about my closest friends and pass them off as fiction in a Truman Capote-ish type of thing."
Sure I could do that but honestly I'm not fabulously catty or gay like Mr. Capote. I also don't have a heavy drinking problem. I feel that those qualities are a prerequisite for being the kind of media un-darling and celebrity that he was.
Then it hit me. Oh course what was I thinking! "WAIT what am I saying!? I'm going to be famous when my cooking blog gets picked up by the mass media and is turned into a major motion picture like Julie & Julia."
Which brings us to where we now stand. It's is simply a waiting game folks. I am destine for super-duper stardom. I just have to stand patiently in my teeny tiny apartment kitchen, which only fits one person at a time and allows me to stir a pot, wash the dishes and clean out the fridge without having to move and inch, and wait. Look out Hollywood, the author of a poorly written blog that showcases endless run-on sentences and too few actual recipes, IS COMING SOON!
I wonder who will play me in the movie? Clearly someone incredibly good looking like Angelina Jolie.
All of that aside today I'm going to teach you all how to make chocolate cake in a mug. Madeline showed me this not that long ago and we were making them often in the days leading up to our midterm exams. I think her mom taught her, HI MARY ANNE! They are super easy to make. It's all about the rule of threes.
Mix the ingredients together in a large mug or small bowl being sure to get to the very bottom. Then simply pop the mug into your microwave and cook on high for around 3-3:30 mins. Take it out and decorate it however you wish. Enjoy it with a large glass of cold milk!
PS. Here is a photo of Kaitlyn Anello. Remember her face.
PPS. She's the girl who isn't Filipino. The other one is my friend Amanda Ocasion.
PPSS. I've decided to make a game out of the headlines for each post. You, dear reader, may have noticed they are always the opening lines to famous works of literature with one or two words changed to something food related. Each new post will have the answer to what novel or story the last post began with. If you are stumped you can either google it or look in the labels, I always include the author and usually the name of the story as well. Good luck!
Last post opened with: "It was a pleasure to burn stew" This of course was a play on the opening line to Ray Bradbury's wonderful novel, Fahrenheit 451, which begins: "It was a pleasure to burn".
* humor and tax not included. Restricted to 5 easy payments of $9.99
It was a pleasure to burn stew
Keeping a blog is hard! Actually let me clarify: keeping a blog is hard when you are lazy and very skilled at procrastination. It has been a while since a post has been made but in my defense even though we have been cooking, hilarity has not ensued.
I'm feeling pretty sick today. I went snowboarding up on Mt Orford yesterday so I can only assume that being outside all day is how I caught this annoying cold. I figured because I should not be allowed anywhere near any edibles today (for fear of gross germ spread) I would write about food instead. I apologize in advance because this post is not going be funny. Not even a little bit witty. I think that maybe my cold is blocking my humor receptors. I just feel whiney instead of giggly. Whaaaaaaaa (that is the sound of me complaining).
A few weeks ago Madeline and I decided we finally wanted to christen our slow cooker. My mom (HI MOM!) bought me the crock-pot some time during the last school year but we never did get around to using it. I often daydreamed about coming home to slow cooked chili con carne, pasta sauce or chicken potpie. (SIDE BAR: I just realized, after a quick google search that half of the internet thinks chili the food is spelled like Chile the country. Silly people!) Unfortunately in order to have the pleasure of coming home to one of these delicious meals, someone would need to prepare them that morning. If you know anything about me, you should be aware that a) I am not a morning person and b) I am very forgetful. These two traits combined are clearly a problem if I wanted crock-pot food.
"But Becky," you might say, "Why can't your roommate Madeline prepare the slow cooker food for the both of you?” Well dear reader, you clearly do not know Madeline very well either because a) she also appreciates the gift of sleep far too much to be a morning person and b) has better things to do then remember to cook food before class.
I assumed for a long time that Class Mansion would not ever get around to using the crock-pot. It would be doomed forever to collect dust inside of the awkward cabinet beside the fridge. In a turn of events that was as much as surprise to me as likely to you, dear reader, in a fit of over confidence Madeline and I committed to finally actually maybe probably using the slow cooker. (SIDEBAR: we had once tried to cook a whole squash in the crock pot but realized our chosen gourd was too large to even fit through the mouth of the crock pot. See attached diagram 1.)
One of my favourite meals that my mother makes (HI MOM!) is simple homemade stew. Seeing as the days were getting colder stew was now, more than ever, the perfect meal. Mad and I flipped through our slow cooker cookbook (The Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook!!!!) and selected the simple beef stew to make. We then invited over our favourite dinner couple, Kate & Beansie, with the promise of savory stew and gooey dumplings. I have to admit that in my opinion if the stew doesn't have dumplings IT AINT A STEW! You can ask my mom, I always whine and complain if she forgets to make dumplings. I'm glad that I am not my own child.
We bought stewing beef (pre-chunked) potatoes, carrots and onions in preparation for the stew. While Madeline chopped up the potatoes, carrots and onions I set about preparing the beef. I really need to give Madeline credit here. I cannot, and I mean CANNOT chop onions to save my soul. I cry like a little baby while my eyes burn like the fiery bowels of hell. Even wearing swim goggles is no longer efficient. I have to wrap a tea towel around my mouth like a half-balaclava and hope for the best. To be predictably dramatic, I think at this point if I were offered the choice of a super power I would choose the ability to cook with onions over invisibility. But I digress, because of my little onion problem Mad always has to do the onion preparations. Until the day we cooked stew both Madeline and I assumed her eyes were like impenetrable walls of titanium. On this day however I came into the room to see tears streaming down her big blue eyes (trust me, a rare sight). We figured out that it wasn't Madeline's eyes that were impermeable, it was her contact lenses. Because she has starting wearing glasses again it appears as though both of us might be wearing swim goggles for our next cuisine misadventure.
After the vegetables were prepared I phoned home with a quick question for my mom. She wasn't home so instead I redirected the question at my father. Now let me say, I love my father (HI DAD!) but when you ask him a question be prepared to receive more knowledge than you know what to do with. Case in point, I phone to ask how much water to put in the bottom of the crock-pot and hung up with a page long list of directions on how to braise the beef in a light white wine sauce, and how to caramelize the onions. I guess all I can say is, thanks dad?
Up until this point everything has been going according to plan. That means, of course, I was about the screw something up. The stew was taking too long to thicken even though I had added the Bisto ten minutes prior. I assumed that this was because the crock-pot wasn't getting hot enough. I made the executive decision to transfer all of the contents to a large saucepan and turn the heat up to high. For a while this seemed to be working. The gravy thickened nicely. Then I forgot about the pot and went about cleaning the kitchen up. Unfortunately by the time I remembered the stew it has begun smoking quietly. In short I had burned the bottom of the stew and evaporated most of the liquid.
The beef and vegetables were fine, and tasted great. Even the dumplings were perfect. The only problem was that there was not a single drop of gravy left. I remedied this by stirring up more Bisto and water to put back into the burned bottom of the pot. Luckily gravy did form. It looked great and smelled fine. The only problem was when I gave it a test I could only describe the taste as 'smokey' (and that was being nice). In the end we ate the stew any ways. It wasn't really that bad. I actually enjoyed it slightly. At least we learned a lesson out of this whole debacle. Patience is a virtue, seriously.
I would like to make a point of saying that even though we (Ahem, I) sometimes ruin whatever it is we are cooking, usually we do a very good job. In fact just this last week Madeline and I made two of the recipes out of the new cookbook I received for Christmas. Both turned out fabulous! The cookbook in question is called, 'Frame by Frame, Quick and Easy'. A family friend, and (I think) avid reader of this blog, Moira bought it for me after realizing how interested in cooking I had become (HI MOIRA!).
The first recipe we tried was for a homemade macaroni and cheese. We invited over our friends Sarah (the girl who graciously supplied this blog with her recipe for a sweet potato-maple casserole), Anna and Hilary. I'm pretty sure the dish was a hit and would make it/recommend it to anyone.
Ingredients: 225g dried macaroni 1 cup ricotta cheese 1 1/2 tbsp whole grain mustard 3 tbsp snipped fresh chives 200g cherry tomatoes, halved scant 1 cup chopped/drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil butter for greasing 1 cup grated cheddar cheese salt and pepper
1. Preheat broiler to high. Cook pasta for 10-12 min until tender but still firm to bite 2. Mix chives, ricotta and mustard together in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in macaroni and sun-dried tomatoes 3. Grease a 7 1/2 cup shallow ovenproof dish. Spoon in the macaroni, spreading evenly 4. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over macaroni and cook under the preheated broiler for 4-5 min until golden and bubbling. 5. Serve to the delight of 2 girls from Halifax, and 1 Torontonian. :)
The second thing we tried out of the cookbook was also a vegetarian dish. A friend who goes to school in Toronto informed me that a similar recipe was part of the LCBO wine and food magazine this month. Apparently chickpea tacos are for January. I liked them because even though there was no meat involved, I didn't miss it.
Ingredients: 2 firm, ripe avocados 1 tbsp lime juice 1 tomato, diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 small onion sliced 400g canned chickpeas 1 tbsp chili powder 8 romaine lettuce leaves 8 tacos 2/3 cup sour cream salt and pepper
1. Halve, pit, peel and dice the avocado and toss with lime juice 2. Stir in the tomato and season with salt and pepper 3. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions for 3-4 min until golden brown 4. Mash the chickpeas with a fork and stir into the pan with chili powder. Heat gently while stirring for 2 min 5. Divide the lettuce among the tacos, spoon avocado/tomato into the tacos 6. Add a spoonful of sour cream into each 7. Add chickpea mixture into each taco 8. Serve to the delight of New Yorker and Calgarian couple (Kate and Beansie).
Wasn't that a long post! See I make up for quality (and regularity) with quantity! Try out those recipes because they are seriously great. I'm going to make myself some tea, take an Advil Cold and Sinus, and lie down to watch a Disney movie. Keep on cooking.
The H-2 extended family has had some pretty eventful American thanksgiving dinners. This is interesting considering plenty of us aren't American. Why do we even bother to continue after situations such as a stolen turkey in first year, nightmares (mine), multiple incidents of salty hot tears (mine), ruined gravy (mine), 40 sweaty and hungry guest in 1 apartment (not ALL mine), and sky high towers of dirty dishes? Madeline and I explained to some acquaintances recently it isn't about celebrating the holiday because of (or lack there of) American citizenship. It's about us getting together as friends, cooking gargantuan amounts of food, wearing holiday sweaters and just having fun. Our friends are our second family in Montreal which I'll admit if you twist my arm.
This year Class Mansion (Becky & Madeline) began the thanksgiving preparations early in advance. We knew we needed to cut the list down a lot. A LOT. We hated the fact that we couldn't invite everyone we wanted. We couldn't even invite half! But as we learned in our second year, holiday dinners need to be kept small if we want to keep our sanity. It's also nice if the dinner can have a cosy, intimate feel. We decided to only invite the friends we see on basically a daily basis, and those who were invited to the first thanksgiving dinner.
For the actual meal the turkey was about 7 kg, as you likely already know assuming you are a dedicated reader and massive fan of this blog. Without asking anyone's permission this year I named her Barbara. In my opinion that is a pleasant and classy name, fit for a Queen among turkeys.
Madeline made one sack of potatoes and cleared Provigo out by buying their entire stock of green beans. I'm serious. She bought them all. THEM ALL!
I stuck to my duties by making 3 loaves of bread worth of stuffing (vegetarian and non) as well as gravy.
Our awesome (and incredibly handy/manly) friend Logan Smith cooked the turkey for us. He even conceded to wearing the apron I brought over for him.
This year the venue was the incredibly exclusive, expensive, super chic and trendy hotspot known as Mike and Ian's basement. They had the largest amount of empty-ish space and they were kind enough to let us use it (after we basically demanded permission). The only problem was that we didn't have a table large enough to accommodate everyone. This is how the table team was born.
Every year we generate a list of items that need to be brought to the dinner like side dishes, cranberry sauce, drinks etc. This year we added "large table" to the list. Kate Bass and Spencer Thompson decided they were man enough for the job. I will admit I had very little, if any faith in the two of them. They had huge plans and grand schemes for constructing a giant table out of plywood and milk crates. As I predicted, this project fell through BUT they did not fail. Their dignity was kept by borrowing kitchen tables from various households and pushing them together. It created one giant Frankenstein table which we poetically covered in the leftover green cloth from my Robin Hood Halloween costume. I'm only poking fun, of course. The basement and table looked lovely.
The food was delicious, and the drinks were plentiful. We even had our annual pre-dinner speech by Michael Brown. This year's speech was surprisingly poignant, dare I say even poetic. After we had eaten a disgusting amount, the "apres dinde" entertainment followed. As seen in the attached video we all joined in a karaoke version of the late 1990s musical masterpiece known as "allstar" by the band Smashmouth. Michael and Ian began DJing the music for us all to dance. This year we were treated with a special swing dancing number by Madeline and Ian. Another attached video shows a small portion of this. Nearer the end of the night we used ichat to call our friend Theo up. He is on exchange in London, England so obviously his attendance this year was out of the question. Theo lived with us on H-2 in first year and along with being one of our best friends, is part of the original thanksgiving family. He knew that he had to be present somehow, even if it was just by video chat. When he answerd the call everyone crowded around, jockeying for a better view. We promptly all began to scream things at him simultaneously. Predictably he didn't understand a word anyone said for about 3 minutes. In any case it was the pièce de résistance of the night.
I'd like to point out at this time that we did not have any thanksgiving disasters! Well, except for one small one. Madeline and our friend Laura accidentally dropped the apple crisp inside of the oven. I walk in on them scrambling madly, attempting to stuff it all back in the pan before anyone noticed. I caught them red handed! It still tasted unbelievable though.
In lieu of disasters, I would like to give you some Thanksgiving Stats from the last three years:
Approximate kg of turkey: 17 bags of potatoes: 4 loaves of bread: 8 numbers of pies: 7 tables used: 6 first time thanksgiving celebrations: 1 (Dora Ladowski, 2007) facebook event invitations: 3 times Becky has cried: 2 holiday sweaters: TOP SECRET speeches: 3 times Allstar has been sung: 3 times Genevieve Gittins has actually attended: 0 pairs of swimming goggles utilized: 2 (I can't chop onions without them) Aprons worn: 9
There is currently no recipe to publish with this post. I have just emailed our friend Sarah Leddin and asked her for her recipe for sweet potato pie. She made it for thanksgiving this year and it was incredible. INCREDIBLE. When she gets back to me I will post it here.
UPDATE: This is the recipe Sarah used
Ingredients
* 4 cups sweet potato, cubed * 1/2 cup white sugar * 2 eggs, beaten * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 4 tablespoons butter, softened * 1/2 cup milk * 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract * * 1/2 cup packed brown sugar * 1/3 cup all-purpose flour * 3 tablespoons butter, softened * 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash. 2. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish. 3. In medium bowl, mix the sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture. 4. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.
She also had this to say: "I used a little less sugar I think and put some maple in (because maple syrup is delicious in everything) and used walnuts instead of pecans, but only because pecans are hella expensive, pecans would probably be yummier."
In the end I think we all agreed that this holiday dinner was our best. There isn't any way possible that the event could have gone better. Cross your fingers for us, and pray that next November we manage to pull off an even better thanksgiving. Heres hoping!
xoxo Class Mansion
PS. Here is a photo of the original American Thanksgiving in 2007
PPS. Here is a photo of us playing monopoly at the original American Thanksgiving
PPSS. Here is a photo of the empty bucket after someone stole our turkey in first year.
Madeline and Becky cook a lot. We have more cook books than any university student should. One day we hope to make every recipe in the world...or burn our apartment down trying.
