More Hallows Eve...

 

Ok - the tacos were a hit. The banana bread not only looked great - see pic - it tasted wonderful too! We didn`t have enough chocolate chips to make chocolate chip banana bread so we improvised. We chopped up using the Magic Bullet a bunch of mini Aero bars and tossed it into the mix.  As you can see I didn`t do the pumpkin tarts yet but I did do a mincemeat wheel with puff pastry. The picture well doesn`t make them look as tasty as they are they were actually really good - though I think it would be even better with custard! Now it`s time for a couple of pics and the kids are off trick or treating! Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween - spoooky

Well it's Halloween weekend and we had a bit of an interesting week. While yes we should really be cooking up a storm we have been sifting through boxes of cookbooks. Charlene picked them up from her Uncles earlier this week. So we've got some new old cookbooks which belong to grand mother and great grandmother - cool. So, we've been picking out some recipes that interest us in addition to some we already had. We have though got some stuff cooking today though. Charlene has a stew on the go using a red wine vinegar, red wine as the broth along with Worcestershire sauce, and shallots. It smells really yummy. Later we'll add some veg to it. We're also going to use up the rest of the pumpkin pie filling that we froze from Thanksgiving. We're also going to make some mincemeat tarts too as we have more pastry than pumpkin pie filling. For those who like making stuff check out Gordon Ramsays site from the F Word - he has a really easy recipe there for mincemeat. Of course canned or jarred mincemeat is also readily available from the store. We're planning on making our version of his mincemeat tarts - just not today. Charlene has dug the bananas out of the freezer and will be doing up some banana bread later. I really want to bake a spice loaf - just maybe not today. We've been asked by the kids to do Tacos for supper - really easy meal to do and full of good stuff that the kids like. We do them up every so often - but if time is short El Paso Taco kits are okay and you can add some extra zest to make them your own. We buy the soft tortillaas from the bakery then make up the beef, chop, and shred up the ingredients the kids like - cheese (of course), red/green peppers, green onions, lettuce, and sides of Spanish or Mexican rice, and of cause taco sauce and sour cream for those like that. In between of course we're decorating for Halloween and getting ready for the little trick or treaters later this afternoon. We'll have the three lads aka. football player, ninja, and the wizard out this evening, we carved the pumpkins last night - Happy Halloween everyone!

Ottawa Road Tripper: Long weekend - Fish Pie

Ottawa Road Tripper: Long weekend - Fish Pie: "Well not a holiday long weekend but a long one just the same. Charlene is away on a girls weekend in Mont Tremblant. We were there in the su..."

Long weekend - Fish Pie

Well not a holiday long weekend but a long one just the same. Charlene is away on a girls weekend in Mont Tremblant, staying at Homeward Suites by Hilton. We stayed at Chalet Lauzon in Tremblant in the summer - very scenic and definitely worth the drive and stay if you ever head that way. I spent part of this weekend moping about but tried to keep busy with the things that need to be done around a home - yeah chores!

So with laundry, yard work, general tidying, vacuuming the cars and what not it was time to cook. I should mention that my cooking of one dish paled by comparison to my dad who informed me via facebook he was cooking up everything from:

"BEEF AND BROCCOLI ...EGG FOO YONG..SWEET AND SOUR PORK AND GINGER AND GARLIC GIANT PRAWNS WITH CHICKEN FRIED RICEVEGGIE LASAGNA ;SPAG SCE ,CHILLI.GOULASH STROGONOF...10 LOAVES OF 16 GRAIN BREAD NOT TO MENTION 6 DARK RYE.OATMEAL AND RAISIN COOKIES BLUEBERRY ..APPLE AND RHUBARB PIES CARROT CAKES AND NOT FORGETTING THE VARIOUS MUFFINS"

Well that's just showing off! Granted the man is a Chef but really does my attempting a meagre Fish Pie compare? Well the proof is in the pudding, and well, seeing I didn't cook a pudding he's beaten me hands down!

Never the less, my Fish Pie started with a craving. My mum made the best fish pie and it has been absolutely ages since I have had what I consider a great comfort food. My goal to perfect the fish pie. We'll see about that. So this is how it went a trip to purchase some fresh fish - not in the mood to go to The Market so I opted for Loblaws and selected some Turbot and Cod as my two main fish ingredients. I like the contrast in tastes and these were the two I chose - though I would have liked something with a smokey flavour. Anyway, I poached the fish with bay leaves, cloves and onions in homo milk strained and then made the white sauce. At the moment I'm still unsure about the white sauce - I prepped it last night as I wanted to have it ready for Charlene tonight. I'm a bit worried the sauce may be too thick - I've never made one before. Dad seems to think it may be alright - I think he's being kind.

Regardless I know some people do eggs on top and have smashed or sliced boiled potatoes etc. I opted for placing the fish in the bottom of the dish, covered in white sauce, added some veg. used what was on hand though I'm thinking fresh leek and carrot would have been nice - but I used frozen Green Giant corn and peas. Covered in my smoothly mashed potatoes and a generous coating of cheddar cheese a top. Now I'm going to toss this in the over to bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours later today and see what happens! Hopefully it isn't too bad and doesn't make Charlene think she should have stayed away and come home after dinner!

Update: The white sauce was `perfect` - Charlene loved it. As I expected!

Cooking Up a Storm

So Charlene and I have decided if we are going to be doing this vineyard - winery thing over the next year why not at food to the mix too. C and I are developing a passion for food and cooking - but what better way to enjoy food than to take someones recipes and put them to the test. So, we are going to pick a recipe book - hopefully one - and put it to the test a la Julie and Julia. Though we actually have pretty busy lives - so we'll probably pick 50 recipes and we'll see how it goes. Maybe we'll just pick 50 must make recipes - who knows - but I think we can better 50...

Right now we are prepping for a late Thanksgiving dinner - this time at our place with C's mum and dad and our 3 boys. We're taking some of the things we love most about Thanksgiving dinner and adding our own little touches. The things we like most - we'll of course share it - along with the bad - let's be honest it's not all going to be perfect!

So what's on the menu - Turkey, gravy, broccoli, cauliflower, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

The turkey we did not stuff. I like my stuffing baked so we opted for a parsley stuffing - very easy to make and absolutely delicious. This stuffing has made stuffing lovers out of my kids and myself. The mash potatoes here`s our little trick - heat up some butter or margarine in a sauce pan along with some cream - bring just to a boil - use this mixture to mash your potatoes with. By all means add garlic or anything else you like in your mash too. The veggies we steamed and the pumpkin pie - almost from scratch. We did use the raw pumpkin from the can but we added eggs, brown sugar, Cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, ginger, salt and evaporated milk to make our filling. The pasty we did ourselves - used the recipe on the Tenderflake box, I have heard the one on the side of the Crisco box is pretty good too. Here`s a tip from Chef John - add a little vinegar to your pastry mix - you decide!

Ok so with the meal prepped and pies made the family arrived. The turkey took about 45 minutes longer to cook than anticipated - but was worth the wait. Charlenes dad - not a gravy fan humoured me and tried mine - he didn`t complain so it can`t have been that bad. Like all meals we are our worst critics. But each time we take away some lesson to make the next time even better. Overall, the meal was super - though, the pastry was a bit of a failure in my mind - that being said I did goof on the measurements - it happens even to the best of us!

Thanksgiving - Ottawa - Cobourg and beyond

Well Thanksgiving arrived and so did the flurry of invitations. C said let's go to my brothers in Cobourg. So it was settled - a 340km road trip. This weekend we were kid free so getting out of the house was a little more relaxed. Though our initial plan to hit the road around mid morning turned out to be more like midday. Though, the late departure was more to do with us having to run a few errands than being a couple sleepy heads. We were actually up early. A travel mug of piping hot cheap Folgers and we were off to our first stop - Wine Kitz. C's been bottling as well as buying wine for the past few years. We've decided we are going to road trip local wineries around the Ottawa Valley. Not the season for it now - but you're going to hear all about it here!

So of course being at Wine Kitz at 9am on a Saturday morning made us the first customers of the day. The sales guy Barry was superb and like us still just a little sleepy, a sharp contrast to the exuberant owner Linda. I'm a bit of a morning person but I wasn't so much today but was soon sparked to life by her jovial attitude and soon I was making my usual dorky comments. I mean when C's standing there holding a bottle of our wine with a cork sticking out of it - how could I resist stating she was half corked. Sleepy or not I do enjoy my own quips - a lot. We ordered up a batch of red after bottling and labeling our white wine and we were back in the Rondo heading to a greasy spoon just metres away from Ikea. Not the most memorable breakfast, but we were famished.

After a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and homefries - C had onion with hers - I like just the potatoes myself and we were back onto the 417 whizzing by Adobe, Corel on our way home to get packed and hit the road. It was of course a one nighter so packing was going to be quick, light and easy - which it was. Yes we brought our pillows. C travels with three pillows - one for her head and two she says for her legs - I think she just likes a garrison around her to keep me at bay. I travel with one pillow - I like a feather pillow and mine is half duck and half goose making it just a little firmer and for me more comfortable than a regular pillow.

I suppose it took a little longer to pack than we thought, the usual stuff; should we bring an extra jacket and hiking shoes in case we go for a walk. I settled on wearing my comfy shoes for the drive and brought my Addidas just in case we went walking, C wore her flat comfies and brought along the Merrills. Then finding the cameras C's Nikon and my Samsung - we have on our want list a new camera with the zoom and macro lens. Anyway, soon we were on our way. We took along a couple bottles of our home made wine for our hosts - I'm big on always bringing the host a little something.

The drive was uneventful - no major snags - well other than C's back taking a turn for the worse. She's been to the Chiropractor weekly recently and it's just not sticking - it sucks. Just one stop along the way - Tim Hortons in Brockville for a coffee. I love Brockville. If you haven't been there you have to go. There is a super fish and chip shop just on the main street down towards the St. Lawrence.

Arrived in Cobourg about 2:30 and had a great visit with C's brother Shawn, his girlfriend Gayle as well as her son and his girlfriend. We had a fantastic turkey dinner - I whipped up some potatoes and did the gravy - I'm not just eye candy in the kitchen! The evening was pretty sweet with the house backing onto lake Ontario - some spectacular views warmed beautifully by a nice bonfire. Though all that fresh air was giving us a bit of a grrrrr - for junk! A quick jaunt in the Kia to Macs Milk - $38 later we're on our way back stocked with coke, gingerale, three varieties of Skittles - C loves her Skittles! Usually we're pretty much night owls on the weekend but by midnight we were feeling a little pooped so talk was soon of which bed we were going to sleep in.

Sunday morning arrived with gorgeous sunshine and we were met with warm fall rays while we sat on the back deck with steaming cups of coffee. Gayle put up a great breakfast - soon after it was shower time and then we were back on the road. Stopped in Grafton shortly after leaving Cobourg to gas up at the local Esso. We had already decided to do the scenic route home - highway 2. A fantastic road trip highway - I'll take the 2 over the 401 anytime that time is not important. Happily for C and I time was not of the essence. We thought that stopping off at places along the way and checking out the various markets and antique shops would be a fine idea. Probably a better idea if we didn't get wrapped up in conversation and kept driving past the sights - yes we could have turned around and actually did a couple times.

Soon we found ourselves browsing through a lovely little antique shop just outside of Brighton. We came across a desk that we would have had shipped back to Ottawa in a flash - if it actually would have fit down our hallway. Anyway, there and then we decided that antiquing could be part of our road trip future, along with checking out the wineries in and around the Ottawa Valley. We were getting a bit famished and had hoped to come across a little local restaurant but instead we had ended up in Quinte so it was a sandwich at Tim Hortons. Ah yes of course there are plenty of little restaurants on highway 2 but just before Quinte we had decided to head to Eganville for schnitzel at The Granery.

A beautiful drive to Eganville with some stops for pictures in Erinsville and Tamworth and a U turn for a must have picture in Coyne Ontario. They have a huge Muskoka style chair outside the gas station - one of the locals was happy to hop off while I boosted C up there to get her picture taken. Snap. Snap and back on the road. Arrived in Eganville 6 sharp and were soon seated at a corner table at the Granery. My first visit C's been there plenty of times - schnitzel with mushroom and bacon gravy. Not bad at all - nice size servings and left me feeling like I had room for dessert. Though I elected to skip dessert - this time. C footed the bill - I really behaved myself this weekend and C wanted to reward me. Not really - she just really loves me.

Before hoping back in the Kia we took a stroll around Eganville and then back on the road. We made a brief bathroom slash coffee stop in Renfrew and straight back to Ottawa. C was feeling the pinch in her back so faded fast on the ride back and was gently coaxed awake upon arriving home.