Time for a little something…

Mike & I and the kids joke that we are all Pooh Bears: a little round and a lot loving. One of the things I especially like about Pooh is that he is always interested in the next snacking opportunity.

Earlier in my blogging career (last week) I decided that this was not going to become one of those rambling, almost useful recipe sites. Some of them are probably really good, but most of the ones I’ve come across have an enticing heading like “Delicious Dinner Ready in 10 Minutes” and then you get to the site and it’s all about “… when my college friends and I met for our annual Tuscan retreat, we enjoyed a sunset walk in the hills, and then…” and they’ve lost me.  I just need everyone to get to the point.

Oh.

Me, too. Ahem…

I do enjoy food, though. I like the whole process from planning to getting to making to serving & enjoying. Going grocery shopping is half treasure hunt and half math word problems come to life, so I’m loving that. I love to cook, to try new tastes and ingredients, to put something fun on a plate and make my family happy. A holiday get-together is typically my personal mission to put a spare 5 lbs onto each of my loved ones. My favourite thing to say is, “Hi! I’m glad you could come. What can I get for you?”

** Audience Participation Time**  

If I’ve ever made something for you, please comment and tell me what you liked & why. Or have you seen something I posted on Facebook and wished you could try it? Let me know.

Since I’ve been enjoying (sounds better than “suffering”) some chronic illness issues for the past couple of years, I don’t spend as much time messing about in the kitchen like I used to. It makes my heart sing when I get a chance to bang together some pots, and one or another of the kids will come along and hug me and say, "I’m glad you’re feeling better today. What are you making?”

To hit today’s post goal of “50 of something”, I’m going to share with you the following:

• My favourite 10 things to cook or bake
• My 5 favourite food shows to watch
• The best 10 things I’ve ever eaten out in the world
• 5 Times that I made something amazing
• The 5 worst things I’ve ever made
• 5 things I’d love to do that involve food
• 10 restaurants I will always say “yes!” to

My favourite 10 things to cook or bake 

Mario pull-apart cupcakes.

1. Roast turkey with all the trimmings: bacon stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, steamed vegetables, & cranberry sauce.
2. Birthday / special occasion cakes. Not that the cake is all that spectacular (and it often comes from a boxed mix) but I get a kick out of decorating something special for my kids. My efforts are definitely homemade and NOT professional but it makes us all happy and that’s the best bit.
3. Any BBQ team-effort, where I prep and then Mike grills. Maui beef ribs, teriyaki chicken and grilled potatoes are excellent choices.
4. Worldmark Guacamole. Fresh avocadoes, lemon juice, some signature Worldmark condo seasonings, and lob them all into a bowl, mash it all up by hand with a fork, and then devour it on everything from chips to grilled chicken.
5. Cookies. Especially chocolate chip, almond roll-outs, or shortbread.
6. Chicken enchiladas.
7. Sweet & sour pork.
8. Brownies.
9. Chicken or beef fajitas.
10. Stormy-day bean soup. It’s kind of a bean & ham chowder that suits the crockpot perfectly.

My 5 favourite food shows to watch

1. Dinner Impossible, with chef Robert Irvine
2. Chopped
3. Beat Bobby Flay
4. The Urban Peasant, with chef James Barber
5. Iron Chef

The best 10 things I’ve ever eaten out in the world 

(in no particular order)

1. The delicious meal that our friends Elsa & Douglas prepared for us while we were in Indio, CA. I’m not fluent in Spanish, but I think that “carne asada” means “I love you”. Yes, it does
2. Osaka’s Special For Two – a little bit of everything to share with Mike at our favourite Tepanyaki restaurant in Vancouver. If you go, be sure to ask for Johnny or Roland to cook for you.
3. A 2-pound lobster at a fancy restaurant in Disneyland. Ridiculously overpriced but the yummmmm!!!! was so worth it.
4. Roast beef and chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes, gravy & veggies, with pineapple upside-down cake for dessert, served at the Samoa Island Cookhouse (near Eureka, CA). Amazing meal served family-style, looked homemade (no pretense) and tasted like my grandmother made it all. Mmmmm! Liam even had seconds on the cake.
5. Crab with ginger and green onion sauce, at Mr. Ho’s restaurant in Burnaby.
6. Candied salmon on a fancy green salad at some restaurant up in Whistler.
7. Anything savory or sweet at Crepe Breton, which sadly is no longer operating in Vancouver because the owners retired and went back to France full-time. (Crepe Montagne in Whistler is an excellent substitute.)
8. Clam chowder we found at a little restaurant somewhere in Monterey Bay, CA. Even better than the goodies offered on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
9. Anything on the menu at Mary’s Pizza in Santa Rosa, CA.
10. Calamari with tzatziki dipping sauce at Kyllo’s in Lincoln City, OR.

5 Times that I made something amazing

1. Catered dinner for Dave & Terry’s 30^th Anniversary: I made my own plan just like Chef Robert Irvine would have done it, and prepped & served a backyard buffet for about 40 people. Appetizers, salads, sweets & savory bits, and my crowning achievement was serving crab in ginger & green onion sauce as the main course. I cooked 24 crabs in 12 batches, complete with fresh sauce, all from scratch. It turned out better than I could’ve ever hoped.
2. Christmas Eve fondue extravaganza. A variety of seasoned meats sizzled in oil, plus assorted sausages & bread cubes dipped in hot cheese. (This was a fancy splurge that Mike & I did a couple times before we had kids. The idea of an open flame & hot oil anywhere near children is scary.)
3. I served fresh deep-fried wontons at a church picnic. I did all of the prep at home and then took my propane-fired turkey fryer to the park. Mikayla teased me that even at a picnic, I found a way to hide in the kitchen, but it seemed to me that everyone came by to see me. Several times.
4. Hosted a burger & dogs barbecue (plus salads & desserts) for all of Metro’s youth workers. A college’s travelling singing team joined us, plus a few neighbours and friends who saw all the tents and stopped in to see what was going on. Then the rain hit and I ended up with my Mom watching a moving with all the little kids down in the basement while everyone else squished into the living room and we all sang. One guest sent me a ‘thank you’ note because I served bacon on the burgers; my kind of guy!
5. The open-house, “thanks for helping us!” buffet we served for everyone who helped us move out of Noel and into Briar. My new kitchen is big, and I lined the acre of countertops with crockpots and filled the island with pick-up goodies. My favourite bit was the bacon-wrapped chicken bites. I should make those again…

The 5 worst things I’ve ever made

The only good thing to say about any of these is that I have not repeated the same mistakes.

1. Chili con Carne, when I put rosemary in the sauce for some unknown reason.
2. Seafood Chowder, when I mistakenly used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk.
3. Carrot muffins, with a package of muffin mix that was way, way past its best-by date.
4. Fresh bread, with yeast that had expired and soured. No, not the good kind of “sourdough”. More like rancid.
5. The first steak that I ever barbecued and served to Mike. Rare meat shouldn’t ‘moo’ when you serve it.

5 things I’d love to do that involve food

1. Eat my way across Greece. I want to try everything in small, family restaurants.
2. Go to an American country fair and try the crazy treats they serve there.
3. Prepare a prime rib & all the trimmings dinner for my Metro friends and family.
4. Make crepes properly at home with a real crepe stone.
5. Spend a summer of “date-nights” checking out food trucks and trying stuff I’ve never had before.

10 restaurants I will always say “yes!” to

Kleftiko: slow-roasted lamb, Greek style

Again, these are in no particular order. 

It was hard to only list 10.

1. White Spot. Bring on the BC beef burger with sweet potato fries.
2. Mr. Ho’s Wonton House. Best dry garlic ribs on the planet, and their salt & pepper squid is fabulous. All the veggie dishes are knock-outs, too.
3. Osaka Tepanyaki. Even the bean sprouts are fabulous! The mustard sauce and the ginger sauce are two things that I hope grow on trees in heaven.
4. Pink Pearl. Get as many people together for dim sum as you can, so that you can literally try one bite of 100 amazing things.
5. Sushi Garden. Mmmmm, so many little bites of yumminess, including gomae (cold spinach & sesame salad)
6. Vassilis Greek Taverna in Burnaby. “Kleftiko” is Greek for “I love you.” Trust me on this.
7. Bubble World. Okay, technically not a restaurant but a beverage place, but a peach & watermelon slush with mango jelly is filling like a meal. And they’re that good.
8. American Domino’s pizza. They have the garlic crust. (Seriously, Canadian Domino’s, get it together!)
9. Mongolie Grill in Whistler.
10. Crepe Montagne in Whistler.

Well, now I’m hungry.

~ 30 ~