A Culinary Adventure on the Eastern Seaboard

Dear Readers, I've been a few places in my day..not a globe trotter but I have travelled a bit. I've spent the last 4 days in Halifax NS and surrounding area. I ate soooooooooooo much seafood. I can't even tell you...well actually I can..it went like this. Fish and chips (best fish and chips ever), shrimp, scallops, Eggs Benny with smoked salmon, lobster mac and cheese, mussels,boullabaise, shrimp deep fired in wanton, whole lobster, lobster raviloi....I think that may cover it. And the beer was fantastic too. I'm not even a beer drinker but it just felt right. You can't be on the Canadian East Coast and not drink beer!!! the best beer I had was Garrison's Jalapeno Beer. You read that correctly...Jalapeno beer. Ugh..my gawd. My stomach feels full just thinking about all this food again. We just flew home this morning so you can see why I haven't been cooking this week. I'll get back into the swing of things very shortly but man-oh-man. I had to write to you about this Lobster Ravioli. It was so mother-effing good. I'm not sure I can explain it. For our last full day Husband and I rented a car and drove along the coast from Halifax to Peggy's Cove (sooo beautiful and peaceful). If you go to Nova Scotia you have to go to Peggy's Cove. You can't not. We almost didn't and it would have been the biggest mistake of our lives, so I'm telling you now as a public service you MUST go there if you are in the vicinity. And while you're there I suggest you get a scoop of ice cream from Dee Dee's gourmet ice cream hut. All the ice cream is made on-site and my mint chocolate chip wasn't bright green from dye but a beautiful white with natural minty flavour. And what a view while you sit on her porch and enjoy the icy treat. (see inset photo)

Now once you're at Peggy's Cove, drive the 40 minutes along highway 3 and go to Lunenburg. You were probably going to go here anyways (big tourist sight) but I'm telling you to make sure you go. I'm also telling you to eat dinner at a restaurant called "Rumrunner Inn". Order the Lobster Ravioli. Husband and I entered this restaurant around 4pm having not eaten anything but a scoop of ice cream since 9am we were hungry. We picked this place out of thin air but also because it has a great view of the harbour. It was a little rainy and misty oustide (surprise, surprise). We were the only 2 in the place besides the server and the cook. Our server was really friendly made a great caesar for me (beer for Husband)and then Husband and I decided we both wanted a ceasar salad to start and lobster ravioli as our main. The server told us that she herself loves the ravioli (good sign)and, that absolutely everything in the restaurant is homemade "nothing sittin' in bins in this place" (another good sign).
She wasn't kidding. The salad was great. you could tell the dressing was homemade and this ALWAYS makes the salad better. Then she brought the ravioli. Homemade pasta is sooo yummy, and you know when you're eating homemade pasta. I don't mean store bought "made fresh" pasta. I mean this shit just got turned out this morning by Franny in the back. So you take that and then you fill it with fresh lobster meat...and then you drench in a thin creamy Pernod sauce... and you can die after you eat this meal. Seriously. Once I'd eaten all the pasta I took a spoon and ate the sauce like a soup...and husband did too. Then I took the bread on the table and sopped up what I couldn't get with the spoon. I don't want to build it up too much for you...but you might consider sneaking this as the next vacation just so you can have the same day I did...but you know what, I'd kick it up a notch and do the Puffin tour that Husband and I just missed (and we were very sad about). You will have the perfect day.

So that is what I've been up to lately..next time you hear from me I'll have done some cooking...promise :)

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon

Straight up..don't make this. Maybe I was prejudice from the start because of the involvement of instant mashed potatoes...I hate instant "food". Basically chemicals that they sell in grocery stores so they call it food. Lemme tell you something..just because you can eat it doesn't mean it's food. We could all go outside and get ourselves a nice bowl of dirt and eat that but that dirt still wouldn't be food. And neither is that bullshit they sell in grocery stores. When I brought the box of instant mashed home Husband nearly shit himself too, because I have banned such things from coming into our house. Once Husband brought home "Hamburger Helper" and I yelled at him for 3 days straight about bring bullshit food into my house. So when it was me bringing bullshit food home his eyeballs fell out of his head. I told him I was backed into a corner with this because of the blog and it being an ingredient in this recipe. And my stance on such foods had not changed one iota.

So perhaps this recipe never really stood a chance with me. Maybe you've had your taste buds burned off your tongue and you love the feeling of chemical concauctions giving you usclers. If that's your bag then sure give this a try. Otherwise find yourself a nice Potato Cakes recipe made with real food. Sorry Nigella but I was bound not to like them all. This ones a loser in my opinion and I have a feeling my disapproval of this recipe will be re-newed in about 24 hours if you know what I mean.....

Roquamole

Avocados are one of those foods that if you were on a dessert island and that was the only food available for you to eat, you'd be okay with it. Avocados can do no wrong. The are simply perfect. At least everyone I know feels this way about them. Why bother socializing with people who don't like avocados...they must be sociopathic.

Today is the start of my summer vacation!!!! Husband and I are going to Halifax...but not for a few days yet. To kick things off on the right foot though we attended a birthday party dinner at Milestones. I did have a stretch between the end of work and the start of the party though and I've had a hankering for some avocado lately so I decided this would make a good snack for Husband and I. Turns out I'm the smartest mofo this side of the city, because this was a DAMN good snack. Husband who doesn't like blue cheese says to me "This guacamole is sooo good!" to which I coyly replied, "Oh really?!?!?! Because this is loaded with blue cheese." (I know roqufort and blue cheese a slightly different but gimme a break it's splitting hairs) Husband showed some surprise at this news but he chose to give no repsonse other than shoveling more in his mouth.

I didn't make this perfect either (surprise!) I just picked up roquefort and avacados on the way home guessing that was all I'd need..turns out I was wrong. I was lacking sour cream. The way I dealt with this was to add a 3rd avacado and pretend like I made this recipe to the T. Worked for me. And just incidently we left Milestones after listening to a band called "Steel Panther"...I eventually had to just scrap my dignity up of hte ground and call it a night...song titles include "The Shocker", "Asian Prostitute" - with the great lyric smells like sushi, and "Community Property". Guys if you're looking for a touching song to send out to your girlfriend try the last one.

And since we're now discussing sub-culture exposure...my boss emailed me a video today that he said made him think of me...I am obsessed with winning the lottery. I'm convinced it's only a matter of time before this happens to Husband and I and I talk about it all the time. And about how if I do win I may come into work one last day and remove the self-censor and tell people what I really think of them. It's a bit of a dream I have...a fantasy really. One of my many..anyhow the video is SOOOO funny I thought I'd share it with you. My boss didn't specify which of the 3 people he thought most made him think of me..a co-worker told me #1 but I like to think I'd be a combo of all 3...

Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZNrauOCqxQ

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

I stopped at Longo's on my way home from work to make this for Husband for dinner. I was pissed to find out that Longo's "was out" of buttermilk. So I had to drive over to Metro, if you can believe it, to get some. Once my $3 trip to the grocery store was over $15 later (because you never get only what you went for) I came home to make dinner. I had a nagging feeling though that there was a marinating time for this recipe and I wasn't sure when Husband would come home from work. First thing I did was check the recipe. It suggests overnight marinating but you can do as little as 30 min...So I called Husband to find out when he'd be home from work and found I had about 2 hours before he'd be home. With a 30 min cooking time this gave me 90 min to marinate. So I quickly put the marinade together and put it all in a metal bowl to incubate.

Once finished marinating I put the chicken in the oven to cook. The marinade smelled soooo good and the chicken smelled great while it was cooking. Husband came home to a hot dinner and he said the chicken was delsicious and moist. According to Husband the flavour wasn't very strong and he ended up dipping the drumsticks in BBQ sauce. Had I marinated this overnight I think he may have told a different tale about flavour strength.

So I recommend if you make this to marinate overnight, but if you're pressed for time you're still going to get a really nice moist chicken with a short marinating period too. Good Luck!!

Butterfly Cakes

So my co-worker is having a birthday tomorrow and I thought I'd make some Butterfly Cakes to help celebrate. These are easy enough to make but they don't make very much. The book says they make 12 but I was lucky to get 8. So if you need 12 I suggest you double the recipe. The butterflying I thought would be harder but it actually was really easy. Anyone can makes these!

One thing I did change was that I didn't head to the store to get some double cream as Nigella uses to make these (in stead of icing). I just went and made some icing as I already had the sugar in my cupboard. I haven't tasted these yet as there are so few and I'm saving them for the office but they look pretty tasty and I expect delsicious results!

Pomegranate Bellini

Who doesn't love a bellini??? Seriously if you know someone who doesn't like a bellini stop talking to them. Obviously they have problems identifying the finer things in life. Anything to do with champagne gets a stamp of approval and is immediately more exciting. Obviously we're not using TRUE champagne here (though that's just a lottery ticket away) we're using "Italian Champagne" or Italian sparkling wine AKA Proseco. I wasn't feeling in the mood to disect a pomegranate today so I just picked up some POM juice. In a matter of 30 seconds the visit to my parents went from 2 stars to 5 stars. Add a couple of stars to your afternoon with this fantastic drink!

Tarte Fine aux Pommes

Before I left to go to my parents for the long holiday weekend I thought I'd remind husband that I am perfect. The best way of doing this is by making him something deliscious to eat. I chose to make this recipe and I think I chose well. It turned out so well that I actually decided to bring half of it with me to the parents. So while I've manged to remind Husband of my perfection I've also reminded him of my selfishness...let's face it even perfection is flawed. This treat is gloriously easy to make and looks like something you'd only get at a bakery. Nigella has really mastered dishes that look like that took painstaking efforts but really are a breeze. When you make this after you've placed all your apples you drizzle a mixture of melted butter and sugar over this but I decided to use agave nectar instead of sugar and it turned out great. So if you're into using natural sugar substitutes the agave works great here. All in all, no matter how you make this, you and whom ever the lucky person(s) you're sharing this with are in for a real treat!