We then [...]]]> Katy and I were masters in the kitchen tonight. It started with Beef and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwiches. I just happened to have some home-roasted red peppers, naturally. These turned out deliciously and were consumed with the jus served from Royal Worcester Evesham Gold small bowls. I have leftover sandwiches for tomorrow–mmm.

We then cleared the kitchen for the Magic Cookie Bars II recipe. This was the first time I had used sweetened condensed milk, and was surprised by the viscosity. Truthfully, Katy did most of the work. This recipe was so easy it was actually somewhat surprising.

With the bars in the oven we moved on to the chocolate truffles. We used the Cooking for Engineers recipe. It was so easy I cannot believe truffles are so expensive. Ours didn’t turn out perfectly circular, but they look and taste delicious. I will say that we learned a little bit about the process this first time, and I am certain that they would be even better the next.

While we waited for things to cool we watched the first episode of An Idiot Abroad series 2. This is a hilarious show; it is worth a second watch through.

Yesterday Chris and I went downtown to the German Deli for lunch. I had two sandwiches and a large chocolate milk. After work I saw Katy and we went to Domus Cafe. We split the Stacked Suntech Tomato Salad, she had the fresh fish [...]]]> Why am I so full? Well, let me tell you.

Yesterday Chris and I went downtown to the German Deli for lunch. I had two sandwiches and a large chocolate milk. After work I saw Katy and we went to Domus Cafe. We split the Stacked Suntech Tomato Salad, she had the fresh fish selection which was a Nova Scotian haddock wrapped in prosciutto and pan seared Digby scallops, I had the foie gras, and we split the vanilla bean creme brulee. It was a fantastic meal, and to top it off we were both dressed in t-shirt and jeans. Compliment of the night: “you look like someone who rides a motorcycle”.

Today I had Gilles, Natalie, Alexie, Chris, Jen, Avery, Kevin, and Caroline for dinner. I had prepared a variant of D’s famous salsa recipe (using fresh tomatoes) and set it out with blue corn tortilla chips. We had a strawberry spinach salad, garlic chicken (grilled by Gilles in the rain), orzo with parmesan and basil, and baked asparagus with balsamic butter sauce. For dessert the Mars brought a cake, which was excellent, and I had prepared Oreo truffles.

My notes on the recipes: the salsa is awesome; I had doubled the salad recipe and it ended up being not quite double so some proportions were off (I am not good at salad); the chicken was great, and would probably be quite tasty baked; the orzo was a huge hit; the asparagus was good but a little over cooked following the recipe’s directions; the truffles were excellent–very rich.

I had a great time playing host, but felt bad that I couldn’t spend a lot of time with everyone. It’s definitely very different when children are around–not in a bad way, but a different way. Hopefully everyone will return.

This morning Adam and I bicycled from my house to Carleton Place. This was almost 80 km round-trip. We took the Ottawa-Carleton Trailway, best described on this page about cycling from Ottawa to Carleton Place. We stopped at Gourmet Restaurant [...]]]> I spent my day bicycling and cooking. I’d like to tell you about both.

This morning Adam and I bicycled from my house to Carleton Place. This was almost 80 km round-trip. We took the Ottawa-Carleton Trailway, best described on this page about cycling from Ottawa to Carleton Place. We stopped at Gourmet Restaurant for breakfast and then headed back to Ottawa, actually to the Sippy Cup Cafe before returning to my house. We recovered a bit, cleaned up, and met up with Kyla to start the work on dinner.

Dinner was awesome and I have a few recipes to share. First, appetizers. Eric was kind enough to prepare an awesome appetizer that included shrimp, cheese, cucumbers, and crackers. It was delicious but I have no idea what all was involved so I can not share the details with you. I was able to prepare a tasty salsa, which I have made once before, and I do have the recipe for that. It is based on D’s Famous Salsa Recipe. Modifications are: fresh (obviously) vine tomatoes, and fresh, jalapeno pepper instead of that canned business. I might change the proportions slightly and scale the recipe as appropriate, but this is all done to taste. Both Eric’s shrimp and my salsa were fully consumed, which I believe is a sign of approval.

The entree was a Maple Peameal Roast. I didn’t do an adult and child variant so I doubled the glaze. Most importantly, I cooked the roast rotisserie style on the barbecue. It was perfect. I believe some of the guests may have had some uncertainty about eating bacon as an entree but this uncertainty was washed away in the first byte.

As a side to the bacon we had green beans and Smushed Apples and Sweet Potatoes. I would say that this recipe also rated well. It smelled amazing. I didn’t alter the recipe at all because I haven’t really worked with sweet potatoes in the past. I will say that the apple slices were, for the most part, present in the final output and I was quite happy with things that way.

Dessert featured chocolate chip cookies prepared by Kyla using my Grandma’s secret recipe. They were so tasty that nobody had just one, and most had more than two. The cookies were served with vanilla ice cream and fresh, cut strawberries. I served some of Sippy Cup’s “freakin’ good” coffee. It was satisfaction all around.

There wasn’t much leftover, but I am thankful for the few bytes leftover that I do have. And the cookies.

Soup was a tomato and roasted red pepper soup from the PC blue menu. I added some fresh basil to give it that edge. We had some fresh buns that went really well with the soup.

The entree was a pan-seared chicken breast topped a balsamic vinegar sauce [...]]]> Let me tell you about dinner.

Soup was a tomato and roasted red pepper soup from the PC blue menu. I added some fresh basil to give it that edge. We had some fresh buns that went really well with the soup.

The entree was a pan-seared chicken breast topped a balsamic vinegar sauce with garlic and onion. This was accompanied by steamed asparagus, mashed potatoes, and a trio of butter sauteed shrimp. The sauce turned out really nice: while searing the chicken breast I added garlic and sliced red onions, then added a 1:3 balsamic vinegar:chicken stock mix (1 cup for 4 breasts), some fresh basil and thyme. After the chicken was cooked I removed it and reduced the sauce, adding a bit of butter to the mix.

For dessert I served fresh strawberries and blueberries with a chocolate sauce and whipped cream. To my surprise we ate all of the fruit. It was delicious.

That was the theme of a small dinner I hosted yesterday. After many months of talking about it I finally put my words into action and I made a pumpkin pie. I admit to doing so using a can of pumpkin mix, but think that’s [...]]]> Germany, I would like you to meet Pumpkin Pie.

That was the theme of a small dinner I hosted yesterday. After many months of talking about it I finally put my words into action and I made a pumpkin pie. I admit to doing so using a can of pumpkin mix, but think that’s completely fine. It was the first time I made a pumpkin pie.

But before I get to the pie I think it’s important to talk about the dinner. Germans love pork. I like pork, but don’t cook with it that often (bacon being the exception). I thought that I wanted to use pork but didn’t have a recipe in mind. I found a recipe for pork chops with apple curry sauce and–let me tell you–it was great. The flavour combination of apple and curry was really quite tasty. I used thinner pork chops so I did cook them for a shorter time and they were okay, but the sauce was really the star.

To go along with the pork chops I tried a recipe for fried rice. I had some variance: the bacon here is much, much thinner than in Canada so I didn’t have nearly enough bacon grease; I used a spot of vegetable oil to supplement. I also didn’t use the fresh carrots and peas; I think the mixed veggies were enough. Because of this I fried the combination for about half the times listed. I used an “Asian” frozen vegetable mix. The rice was super, and it was my first time making fried rice.

To complement this were some snow peas, flash-fried in some butter with salt. These were delicious and popular. They also looked amazing.

After a short break to let our stomachs settled we tried the pumpkin pie. I was really excited to try it; it smelled like pumpkin pie, and looked like pumpkin pie. Certainly the real test was the taste. I was excited both to eat pumpkin pie myself, but also to share its deliciousness with Germany.

The pie was delicious. It was really a pumpkin pie. I was so pleased. We definitely also had the whipped cream from a can to supplement it. The conversation while tasting the pie was pretty interesting, too, as the native Germans tried to place it on their own pie scale.

It felt really good to have such a great dinner with such a great finish. The company was excellent as well, and they even ate everything so I didn’t have to eat leftovers all week! It makes me a little sad that I have only a few weekends left, and no real opportunity to do something like this again while I’m here.