An Interview

Hey guys,  a few months back I was lucky enough to do an interview with Food Writer Suzie Ridler, aka Suzie the Foodie. 
You can read that here

Homemade nacho chips

Originally posted on my main blog Domestic and Damned on Oct 6th 2010

I very happily found a few episodes of Iron Chef American on youtube the other day.  One of the things that they did (it was Cat Cora who made it on Battle Cheddar)  was a homemade cracker using wonton wraps, chocolate and cumin.   She served it with a cheddar for a simple cheese and crackers.

It seemed perfectly easy.  You know what, it sort of was.   Only I had bought eggroll wraps instead of wonton ones thinking there wasn't a massive difference, and lacking a pastry/bbq brush, I simply used a knife to drip the melted chocolate on. and well anyone who's ever used cumin knows it smells like BO.  So stinky bitter crackers that tasted less bitter with large slices of old cheddar.
So here's me thinking,  let's replace the cumin with cinnamon for a sweet instead of savory flavour. Only I still did not have a pastry/bbq brush and had to remelt the chocolate as it hardened slightly.  It still came out bitter.  Mom actually tried the cinnamon ones.
I had sliced all the eggroll wraps already, so I just stuck the next handful in the oven without anything on them.  They turned out much better.

Mom agreed they needed something.  The rest of the package I took to mom's, found her pastry/bbq brush and added oil and salt and pepper.
Lovely!  Just lovely!

 Ingredients : 1 package eggroll wraps, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, pinch each salt and pepper 


Cut wraps in half,
Line ungreased cookie sheet with the wraps,
Brush oil over each,
Sprinkle salt and pepper over tray,
Bake at 350degrees for roughly 7minutes depending on your oven.

I plan on buying a package of wonton wraps today and trying them to see if there is a difference in taste or cooking time.

My Life in France- by Julia Child

I bought this book last November. Every time I picked it up to read it, I was overloaded with books for review (I have a whopping 8 to still review before the first of December!)  I finally decided to just add it to my book club list and spent the last week reading it (when I should have been reading books for review)

My book club will be meeting on the weekend, but I thought I would talk about it a bit here now. While it's fresh in my mind.

I understand why they decided to make this into a movie, her life was just amazing in every turn.  Though I did think she spent too much time on the first half of things and not enough on the later half of her cooking life, (but it was about her start in cooking so it makes perfect sense)

From her friendship/partnership with Simone Beck, to her partnership with her husband, their research and dedication to creating the perfect cookbook took them close to 12 years. The ups and downs of such a project would be more then I think I could handle. 

Almost every page is a listed with menu items that she adored. I can not tell you how many times in the last week that I got it into my head I wanted something from the pages (to the point I invaded my mom's kitchen two days ago and made a creamed potato soup from scratch)
Those of us who do not speak french it did get bogged down at times when she would list off recipes without a translation.  I can also see why with her energetic flavour for things when she describes the recipes; she inspired so many to become cooks.  I found myself scrambling online for episodes of her show to see a few of the recipes first hand.

I, as you can see from the photo,  have the movie tie in version, that does not have the photos and extra indexes that the original printing is suppose to contain. 

I am now on the hunt for a copies of her cookbooks. 

Cooking with Stella -review

Cooking with Stella

I was thinking,  Don McKellar and food how can you go wrong.  There was even a small nod in once scene to his character of Curtis from Twitch City by having him flipping channels watching tv on the sofa,  so I thought I was in movie heaven. 

But I was wrong.

This film starts off strong, setting up what looks like a journey of food and self  but once you hit the second act it becomes weighed down with a teenaged love story between the nanny and the cook's god-son.   Then act three turns political. 

Plot: Micheal and his wife are moved to India as diplomats, while his wife works he stays home with the baby.  Being a chef in Canada gave him a purpose, now he's not even having fun in his own kitchen until the house cook starts giving him lessons in Indian cooking.  Soon things start to disappear from their rooms, as a new nanny is hired and Stella's family members start showing up.   Before long, Stella is missing too. 

I thought act one was brilliant but quickly lost interest as the movie turned directions.  This one hit a sour note with me.

I made eggs

Photos by me copyright 'hcvp 2010

I was hanging around Facebook few weeks ago, and Suzie the Foodie had talked about poached eggs.

I'd never tried making it before. It sounded heavy duty. But, as this is a year I have set to face some fears, I got the guts to try.

It left my pan in an odd mess, as the process is not pretty. At lest not in my kitchen it wasn't. Yes, I made them in the frypan filled with water.
This by the by was about three weeks ago, I just haven't had the time to work on this blog as of late.

(yes I was reading Jane Slayre in the kitchen)

Vegan Pumpkin Cake

1 can pumpkin
2 cups oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1/3 cup water

Mix well. Put into greased or oiled cake pan and cook for 1 hour on 300, depending on your oven.

Meatless Meatloaf #1

Photo copyright hcvp'2010

1 package Yves Italian Veggie Ground Round (soy replacement product)
1 egg
2 cups ketchup
2 slices bread crumbled (or 3 cups of premade bread crumbs)
1 cup shredded cheese

Mix all together and form into loaf. Bake at 300 for about 45 minutes depending on your oven.

The Italian veggie replacement is a spicy one so no extra spices are needed.

Note, there was no way to make it pretty at all. Ugly food but tastes great