3rd time is a charm ! TURKEY time.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
There is alot that Im thankful for. Especially my family and health.

I attempted the Turkey again for the 3rd time.
It usually always stresses me out. I keep checking and checking and basting and opening the oven (bad bad bad).

I think I got it now.

• Butterball Stuffed frozen Turkey
• melt 1/2- 1 cup salted butter or non salted butter
• brush whole turkey with butter
• Oven at 325 until stuffing is 72C and leg is 82C
• cover stuffing and neck area with foil from the start.
• cover after 5 hours with foil to even out cooking.

This 3rd time it was goooooood. Not too dry, not raw haha. Just right!
And I was less stressed about it this time. Opened the oven less and didnt have to baste it much. Just woke up 6 am (it was for Thanksgiving lunch) did the prep and popped it in the oven and went back to sleep until 930am.

I wonder what it is about 3rd times. And 3rd times being a "charm". Wonder where that came from.
Does that mean then the 4th time and 5th time I make a turkey it is going to suck? Does it mean that I will never cook a turkey ever after #3?
Riddiculous!
Lets hope it justs gets better and better after this.

"honey, what are we having for dinner tonight?"
"meh..... nothing big tonight, Im too tired to make anything..... just a FREAKIN Turkey Dinner!"
BAAHM! just like that.

Ima be a great cook.

Some guy is totally missing out!

Yea dude, that means you! Cause after the 3rd time it just gets better and better!

AND cause apparently I can cook goooood!

(yes, its true, one great turkey and I'm Julia Child, no Martha Stewart, no....Both! All in one and in a pretty package too! bahahaha!) - work with me here, Im trying to get over him.

Pasta Carbonara

.... is what I made for dinner tonight.

and it is what I made many a time when I was living on my own over 10 yrs ago.

At this point, I just wing the recipe: pasta, egg, parmesian, parsley, salt, pepper, bacon, garlic, milk/cream, I added mushrooms today before they went bad.

Maybe I will post a pic after this lethargic fullness goes away.


So I was talking to a friend, Janet tonight.

"if you are hungry long enough, the hunger goes away, the first 24 hours is the worst then you just get used to it"


"experience is never a waste of time, unless you do not learn from it."


"we regret the things that we didnt do than the things we have done."

Chicken and Wine sauce

..... I miss him :(

Anyhow, I have this older Italian lady patient who brings me lunch every time she comes in for her appointment. She knows I love Italian food and I love the food she makes.
So yesterday she brought me home made spagetti and a side of chicken in white wine sauce.
AHHHH how I appreciate such small delights!
I asked her how she made the chicken.... without showing my desperation for the recipe. Playin it cool hahah.
Of course, it was said with no measurements, so I guess Im going to have to practice a few times to get it right.

• chicken breast thinly sliced so it is easier to cook. I have to figure out how she makes the chicken so tender.  - mix salt , pepper, garlic powder, dry parsley - set aside (not sure if she marinates it in wine here or not)
• then after over night or a few hours then dip the chicken in a scrambled raw egg and then roll it in flour and place it on a cooking sheet that has some oil on it
• bake - for how long??
• then get make the sauce: carrots, celery, mushrooms, grated onion, salt, add water and also some white wine.
• Cook this all with the chicken and until the carrots are soft.
• And serve!

Oh btw I was at the Distillery District last night and just had a salad (I ate a bit before I went there) - spinach with walnuts taste good - though the vinegarette dressing was way too tart and salty.

Sarciado

another fish recipe. Either fried salmon, talapia, cod .... as this website mentioned.

and for some reason I always put some ginger into it.

• onion
• garlic
• diced tomatoes
• ginger
• 1 egg

Pretty simple, sometimes you can put red peppers but of course that changes the taste quite a bit. Though I had this before and liked it alot, when I made this on the weekend, it seemed like the taste was lacking something. Hummm. I will have to try again and figure it out.

Chicken noodle veggie soup.

A few weeks back I was sick. Sore throat then cough then stuffiness and sneazing. Im still not sure it is totally gone.
But, I did get a lot of practice with making my chicken soup!
I didnt want to get tired of making Sotanghun all the time, so I decided to make regular chicken soup - which actually has more ingredients.

• chicken breast (better than dark chicken - leg or thy - for the soup) - cut into small pieces.
• flour
• salt
• pepper
• chopped carrots
• chopped celery
• chopped onions
• chopped garlic
• minced or finely chopped ginger
• italian herb spices
• small pasta noodles (any kind)

- saute floured, salted chicken with olive oil,ginger, garlic, onions. Add the veggies. Continue to saute and add water so it doesnt burn. Add italian herb spices. Add desired amount of water and salt and pepper.
Add cooked pasta last. Ta - da!

Little chicken, big taste! (Chicken Little)

Sweet and Sour asian Salmon

(serves one - 2 persons)
1/2 cup water
1/4 or 1/3 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2.5 tbsp sugar
2-4 tbsp flour to thicken (dont thicken it too much ugh)
tsp or so of soya sauce
ginger
carrots
red and green pepper
onion garlic
- pour on fried salmon after simmering
- serve with rice

Easter Ham

Ok so I guess Im just catching up on things I have made - just trying to learn how to cook things now that Im back living on my own.

Waaaay back at Easter I made this. I still prefer Turkey over ham. I made a Turkey a couple times a while back - find it kinda stressful (over cooked = dry, under cooked = sick/killed relatives, dont open the oven door too often, Check the temp etc etc). Good thing my sister in law made her always fabulous turkey that day too. OH so much food.

This was a ham from a butchers shop - apparently tastier and better quality meat than those pre- made grocery store ones - though I must stay the spiral ones look easy and are tasty too.
The hams are already cooked so they say... its just the seasoning and prep that makes it more complicated. Funny how we still gotta cook for a couple hours even though it is already cooked.

This was a mix of two receipes (Picked things out of each):

Ham Braised with Maple Raisin Sauce

Epicurious Maple raisn ham

and


Martha Stewart's glazed ham

Sotanghun Soup

Weird. Looked this up and it seems that there are different kinda receipes for this.
Some use a chicken soup base but for some reason my mom doesnt add that and it tastes so chickeny wonderful! - No idea how she does it.
Anyhoots here goes:

• Soak Longhou Vermicelli in water, set aside
• onions & garlic
• equal amound of ginger (ahhhh :)  )
• chicken - small pieces
• you can add veggies if if you like
• salt - to bring out flavor
• pepper
• add water for soup
• simmer it for a bit to bring out flavor - I guess....
• Add noodles
• Add chopped green onion to flavor
• maybe some roasted garlic?

.... no actual pic for this one though....

Pancit

• longhou vermicelli and E& B brand Egg stir fry noodle - soak for 10 min in water.
• Satay onions , garlic
• add chicken
• salt, pepper
• celery, carrots, beans - diagonal thin sliced
• add oyster sauce and soy sauce
• water
• simmer for 20 min covered
• drain separate sauce and meat & veg
• to sauce wisk in Mama sita's Achuete ~achiote powder dissolved in cold water (half a teaspoon to teaspoon) - bring to boil
• keep stirring in noodles until cooked and not dry
• add cooked meat and veg.
• soy sauce and lemon to taste

Yummy goodness!

I really appreciate when patients give me things for no reason at all what so ever... you know, especially food!

But most especially this particular patient. She is a senior Italian lady. Her husband passed away over a year ago and he used to come in and bring me a tomato plant every year to give to my mom, (he knew my mom loves to garden and that I dont have a green thumb at all).

Today she gave me her infamous minestroni soup! OMG - what a surprise - this is like a little piece of heaven!

I dont know what it is about Italian food that I love. Heck, I think most ppl like italian food. But I like the home made stuff the best. I wish I could make this soup. I tried, believe me.

My mother said once, you eat pasta all the time, maybe you will end up with an Italian guy.

Riight. Are you kidding me? I would say those guys are the hardest to please as far as cooking goes. I have always assumed that no one can cook better for them than their own mothers.

I guess I will have to find an Italian guy that loves to cook - instead of me cooking for him haha.

Anyways - I digress. This soup is awesome, its 9:54 am and I cant wait for lunch!!!!

400g. Done

The only reason I get through Toblerones is to get to the tastey honey and almond NOUGAT! They should simply make a bar that is made  up of only the nougat. Save me the hassle of all that useless chocolate....
400g done all by myself. (Took me a couple weeks though)

tsaa - ahhhhh :)

Finally, another High Tea review.

Went to Tsaa Tea Shop and I must say I do like it! I always should remember that when I go to high tea I should have a light light lunch or light brunch that day. Coming from my nephews Bday party I was already kinda full.

Definately a lot of food. Even enough for 3 people instead of 2. I had to take some leftovers home. It was a 3 tiered arrangement and you need to call 24 hours in advance so they can prepare everything in advance. Strangely, they ask for a credit card number to hold the spot incase you just dont show up ... as a customer I thought it strange because no other high tea place has ever asked that, but I can definately understand as the owners it must be frustrating for them to prepare things and have the customers not even show up.
The staff are very very friendly, and it looks like it is run by a family. Modern yet cozy decor, free wifi and they dont kick you out if you want to sit and chat for a long while. Good seating places, typical tables, window seating and fireplace seating as well. Small so no loud convos unless you want everyone else to hear.

The selection of teas is amazing! Loose leaf teas with many flavors that you are welcome to take a wiff of to help in your selection. If anyone likes places like Davids teas or those stands for Teaopia this is the place to go....except they provide High tea and various other yummy snacks ... heck even a breakfast and lunch menu! Even those fancy pancy high tea places like King Edward or Windsor arms serve prebagged tea. You know, those ones you can get in a box in your local Grocery store. Well I guess, the Fairmount hotels prebag their own specialty teas... thats alright. This is important to me just as much as the snacks are for high tea. I love that they have a great focus on good teas.

The bottom tier is filled with your typical "english" sandwiches. They are good - though if you have a peanut allergy you MUST let them know, because there were a couple items that did have nuts and peanuts in it. I guess the "english" sandwiches will satisfy the typical English High tea goers and they were tasty - especially the salmon one.... but overall, I find the english sandwiches a bit boring, but they suffice and are filling. Salty tarts or even more savory hors d'oeuvres on crackers is what I usually prefer to english sandwiches.
2nd tier was filled with 2 large scones each of sweet and savory. I must say the scones were nice and warm and moist inside. Pretty good. (still not as good as my friend JPs but still great)
My friend and I were each given a tiny dish of butter and jam. I felt that we didnt need one of these each, it would have sufficed to just have a pair of these for the both of us. Maybe even a 3rd tiny dish of cream would have been nice - which Ive seen in some high tea places (but who am I to talk, I shouldnt be telling them what to serve ;) ).
Last tier was the sweets level. And my they were sweet. We had a very rich chocolate mouse with even gold flecks on top! Yum. There were also the typical macaroons - my these ones were so packed with flavor! Not too dry on the outside and wonderfully nice and gooey goodness inside! I wonder even if they make them themselves instead of ordering it in. One disappointment would be the Matcha squares. Very cute to look at and colourful but it would have been nice if the bottom "crust" of coconut was a bit more crunchy or firm than the top soft mushy matcha topping. Maybe Im just not used to it. But I didnt like the texture of it. Usually when I think of "squares" I think of a soft flavor on top of a firm crust to hold it all together.
And the highlight of it all was the mango mouse/ cake dessert! OH MY! So refreshing and so fruity and flavorful mango! Im pretty picky when it comes to flavorful versus just sugary. And this was definately ALL flavor!

So my over all rating would be a 4.5/ 5.  Worth a re-visit and also a great place to replace the typical coffee date places.

Summer Peach tea (black tea) and Chocolate Hazelnut Roobios tea

note: They dont seem to advertize their 21$/pp high tea, but I think they really should!

Finally, Chicken Adobo that tastes like Chicken Adobo

After a few attempts in the previous years I finally got it to taste .... ok.
There were salty-soysauce-drenched-dry-chicken and super-acidic-vinegary dishes.
I have to admit some of the past failures are when I tried to tell my mother to put the recipe in writing. You see... she doesnt do that - its all in her head and she never measures anything. She tells me that I have to just be there and watch her cook. (ie make ME estimate roughly how much of each ingredient as she throws it in the pot).  One previous failure was due even to a book - a filipino cook book. Sheesh. Oh those attempts have almost scarred me, with me wanting to throw away all the food and denounce my culture. This time, I swore I was gonna break down in tears if it didnt work.

So in my attempt tonight I roughly used the recipe from here.

So voila! A pic right from the pot.
Bay leaves baby, Bay leaves!

GET it OUT!!!! UGH!!!!

No nutcracker at work and dont want to risk breaking my teeth on this.
So little, yet so frustrating.
Get it out! I want it!

Ho hum....

I realized that when Im at work, I tend to want to constantly be eating food. Munching away at a bag of cookies or chocolate or whatever that a patient has given me. I can finish a whole box of cookies in one sitting !
Yea, gross huh.
So today I brought a bag of mini carrots and Pistachio nuts. It was all going well and the bags are almost finished...until I happened to look down at one of my split pistachio nuts. It broke in half and I just finished eating the first half - I happened to look down at the other half and saw some weird larve shell of some kinda bug that was trapped or growing in the nut!!!
Sooooo want to gag. If you ever look at those pistachio nuts they look nasty. Half dried and flakey crusties after you remove the hard shell. And its greenish and brownish. And the only ones you can eat are the ones that are half open. You know - for bugs to crawl into.

My fav are cashews. Though Im eating these just cause I heard they are good for you. The taste is growing on me, they are yum (minus the bugs).

But what Im really craving is this kinda Pistachio!

Gelato! I think Im addicted to this.....

EAT it!

So recently I came back from my dream trip to Italy. Ive wanted to go back here for about 14 yrs. For the sights but mainly because of the food!!!!
I was blown away the first time I went - maybe because I wasnt expecting much... Pasta is pasta right? .... Not that time! I was like what is this??!? Can I take it home with me?
(Yea I get pretty friendly fast when I fall in love with food . har har)

So maybe this time around I had higher expectations.... Maybe it was that old age saying - "absence makes the heart grow fonder" ... and we begin to imagine that things were really much better than they actually were..... (I can extrapolate more about this but Im sticking to the topic of food...)

Our first dinner in Italy was in Venice. We didnt look into any guide books for this - we were just hungry and assumed all food in Italy was the bomb.
So we went into here:

And I ordered this:

And it tasted like this:

Not that I ever ate cardboard boxes, but you get the idea. Oh and throw in some huge chunks of salt and maybe some sardine fishbones that go crunch in your mouth.

It was supposed to be Pesto pasta. I couldnt finish it - because half way through the meal, not only did it taste bad, but my imagination started to run as to what on earth was the crunchy stuff.
We were in shock. We didnt say much only because we arent Italian and they were and Italians are supposed to know their pasta right?! Who were we to critisize? I think they knew it tasted like crap - cause they never came around to asking us how it was, they kept giving us the sketchy eye look and gave us a free glass of wine in the end.

So we were definately apprehensive for every meal we ate after that - consulting guidebooks for even the quickest lunch. Luckily it got better the more south we went. Maybe tops in Sorrento. But I was always in search of that pasta I had 14 yrs ago. Even when I was full up to the tip of my head with pasta pasta pasta - I even had hope with my last dinner in Italy in Rome. Even ordering the simple Bolognese pasta. AcK! It tasted like egg noodles.
WTF?
So I left Italy gastronomically unsatisfied and oddly enough my search continues at home. I dont know why I hope so much. That someday I will find what I once had. Maybe I never really had it in the first place. Maybe after all these years it really only existed in my head. Ughh... what was I talkin about again?.... Oh yea - food ha.
Anyhow, this is all running through my head as I sit here during work on my break searching though Yelp.ca for Italian Restos and reading the reviews and salivating over the pictures. I cant believe Im still looking for that delicious pasta.
IM SO HUNGRY!

Beef Vegetable (Quinoa ) Barley ! Soup

To counter my last post, I'm going to talk about some REAL soup. REAL Gooooood Soup.
I'm no soup connoisseur, but lately I have taken an interest in real soup. Meaning - from scratch. Also, given the fact that I have been sick more times in the past 8 months than I have been in about ten years, soup is my new fav!
It started off with my regular visits to the Upper Crust  for their AMAZING minestrone soup. Actually... their soup was the only thing I went there for (other than their lemon-blueberry tart - which they shipped in and charged an arm and a leg for). I loved this soup because it was made from scratch. And it was a burst full of flavors all into one, with even a wonderful touch of ginger, for my colds on a rainy day.

But alas, since my Italian patient (who's recipe it was) stopped working there, the quality diminished as the prices soared! (7$ for a soup? Really? Is it made of gold?... whatever, I'm cheap, what can I say)  This actually lead   forced me to attempt to make my own soup. After a few tries, I think I did pretty good. I call it my Italian Veggie Barley soup! (actually it has no name, I just made that up on the spot... it should really be my I need to save my lunch money to one day buy a home ... soup).

But that's not what I'm here to give away. I'm here to share with you yet another AMAZING tasting soup. I will admit, it surpasses mine. (NOTE: its better with barley than quinoa.)

1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 cup diced stewing beef
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup quinoa BARLEY
4 cups beef broth
1 sprig (what the heck is a sprig?!)fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs parsley
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup green peas (frozen or fresh)
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Prep:

Heat oil in large sauce pan on medium-high heat. Place the beef in the pan and brown for 5 min. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook until the onion is opaque, about 10 min. Add the quinoa and beef broth.

Make a bundle of herbs by placing the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and parsley in a small 4- inch (5 cm) square cheesecloth and tying it with a cotton string. (you can also use a tea strainer or simply tie the herbs together with a string)Immerse the bundle in the soup.

Simmer the soup for 17 minutes, until the quinoa is tender. Add the red pepper and peas in the last 8 minutes of cooking. Remove the fresh herbs, Season with salt and pepper and serve!

High Tea

Sound pretty geriatric? Noooo! High Tea is fun. I think it should be the next 'Coffee House" fad! Lets catch up over coffee? Nooo - lets catch up and manga over high tea! Lets get to know each other over drinks at the bar? Noooo - Lets high tea it!

You ask Why? Dude.... it comes with fooooood!

High Tea @ Patisserie Gateau

Went here with my friend last week. This is probably the 6th high tea place we have tried. The prices were pretty great considering the amount you get for only 2 people! There was not much of tea selection... Lemon tea, hong kong tea, and hot chocolate?! I chose the lemon honey tea, as I felt a cold coming on. Tasted like the same one I make at home when I am sick. Not a good choice when mixed with tuna sandwiches and sweets. We were definately impressed with the amount of food. The sandwiches were pretty 'english high tea'-plain and the sweets were nice. I think the best part I liked were the chocolate covered strawberries - sweet strawberries!! But, we have tried fancier and tastier. I would recommend this as a quick plain snack for a group of 3, but it would not be my first choice. By the end of it I felt sooo full and my tummy was heavy... considering I also had lunch that day. High Tea should be light and tasty. Nice thing about this high tea place was that it is open till 9 pm, when usually it is only served from 2-4pm, though you need to call in a day before. 3/5*