geekent’s stuff’n things

I stole JJ’s Skittles (not out of his hand, but from his candy jar while he was off at his dad’s) and ate ‘em all up. Bad, step-papa, bad. I’ll be paying for it with a mild tummy ache and adult onset diabetes in 20 years. Karma.
Yes, I tasted the rainbow and it made me a little sick to my stomach.

Not too dissimilar to the cranberry pudding cake (misnamed cranberry cream cake in “ate #119″), only a bit flatter and the sweetness of the cherries make it more flavorful. A deliciously moist cake from the Pastry Chef on Jane.

The in-laws proposed a barbecue for this evening, which meant steaks (absolutely fantastic tenderloin steaks from my father-in-law’s local butcher), salad, baked potato and garlic bread. I bought two baguettes, given that there were six of us and often there’s not enough garlic bread when we all get together. I made some garlic butter by first smashing the garlic with a knife and finely chopping away, then stirring the garlic into a stick of room temperature butter.

Baguette one was cut in segments (without detaching) and the garlic butter smeared into each segment. I wrapped this in foil and put it on the barbecue (already baking the potatoes) for 15 minutes. The bottom was crunchy while the rest of it was buttery and soft.

Baguette two I bisected horizontally, smearing the garlic butter along each half and placing into the oven (350deg) for 10 minutes face up. Removing from the oven, I switched it up to broil and sprinkle each half with parmesan cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes until brown. Cut carefully. This one crunchy and crumbly.

My lunch selections as of late haven’t been the best, first A&W then fish and chips at Ikea. What can I say, I’m a sucker for room temperature tartar sauce. Since I’m on sabbatical this month, I’ve not been getting my daily bike ride to work or exercising tremendously otherwise, save for the fact that I’ve been hauling around a 7 pound bowling ball for hours on end every day, so hopefully that helps.

Pretty much the same thing as my homemade burritos, only minus the rice and lettuce and laid flat instead of rolled up and grilled. Served with salsa and plain yogurt.

I tried the Life Brand Blood Orange European Soda from Shoppers Drug Mart last week and found it overly fizzy, and too sweet. PC’s blood orange italian soda isn’t very sweet or overly carbonated and has a great flavour. I think I liked their grapefruit italian soda better though.

Homemade burritos take some work, and I’ve discovered that it’s probably best to make burritos at home when there’s a large crowd or when you’re planning on eating them many days in a row.

I cooked my rice like a risotto, sort of, heating a tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan, adding 1/2 cup of rice and a squirt of lime, stirring for about a minute before adding 3/4 cups of chicken stock (and adding 1/2 cup of stock continuously as needed for the next 25 minutes until rice was cooked)

I diced up a boneless, skinless chicken breast into as fine of pieces as I could, added them to a heated pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. I seasoned the chicken with a pinch of garlic salt, some fresh ground pepper and a dash of mexican chili powder.

Organic refried beans came from a can.

I smudged some beans on the tortilla, adding rice, chicken, green peppers, lettuce, and cheese before folding it up and slapping it on the same frying pan (seam side down) used for the chicken (the chicken removed of course, and the pan carefully wiped down with a paper towel), grilling for about two or three minutes before flipping

Served with Herdez tomatillo salsa.

Not quite Burrito Banditos, but still pretty damn good.

A&W is the taste of Northwestern Ontario. Not Thunder Bay, but rather highway 11/17, more specifically White River… the halfway stopping point between TBay and the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie) where A&W has had a major stranglehold on the fast food market for over two decades. Every time I eat at an A&W, which I admit isn’t very often… less than once ever three years I’d say… I’m reminded of family excursions from Northern to Southern Ontario.

The Onion Rings at A&W, with it’s heavily seasoned, crumbly coating, are almost as classic as their root beer, the latter of which is always best served in a frosted A&W mug, but rarely is served like that anymore.

Of course, eating and enjoying A&W meal leads to two things: excess calories and guilt.

I managed to stay away from potato chips for almost three weeks, but I caved and caved hard, and it was through sheer force of will that I did not eat the full 235g bag. Almost 1000 calories down the gullet in one sitting, like Cookie Monster. Awm awm awm.

(As you can tell by now, we’re PC junkies in this household… they promote themselves as quality products for a good price and I’m inclined to agree with them)

Frankly, the best raisins I’ve ever had, dried but not dry, which is something else.

I’ve tried a lot of Kashi products and haven’t really been all that fond of any of them, but this cereal is like a healthy, awesome version of Sugar Crisp, which I can totally get behind. Check the ingredients:

Whole hard red winter wheat, evaporated cane juice, whole long grain brown rice, whole oats, whole barley, whole triticale, whole rye, whole buckwheat, honey, sesame seeds.

Where’s all the chemicals and fake shit? And since it’s not all vibrantly packaged, JJ wants nothing to do with it, which means more for me.

My wonderful coworkers put a consolation package together for new big brother JJ so that he didn’t feel so left out with all the stuff and attention that LL has been receiving. Amidst toys and books were candies, of which was included the Super Mario Brothers’ licensed banana flavoured “Super Star Candies” which come in a neat little yellow star shaped tin which looks like the stars from the video game. JJ shared them with me, they’re sweet and tasty but I feel like I’m eating the big tin star’s babies.

After the overly smokey-flavoured rainbow trout (see “ate #172″) I decided to try flavouring myself… which with fish is pretty easy… a large dollop of butter in a pan on medium heat (so it doesn’t burn the butter), season the fish with seasoned salt, cracked black pepper and dill. Fry away. Yum. Awesome show, great job. Need to get a fish cooker for the bbq.

I bought mini pitas to eat with it but wound up eating it wit Finncrisps instead (ironically I found the mini pitas too dry). I quite like hummus, and tend to make it myself rather than purchase it, although I haven’t done so in a while. This hummus was PC branded and it’s garlic flavouring was potent but not overpowering. My favourite hummus is at the Butler’s Pantry on Roncesvalles, which comes from a big ol tub (I once witnessed them doling it out) but still mightily delicious with toasted flatbread.

from the Westwood Grill on Sunday evening. I thought perhaps something a little spicy would help Aden’s contractions along. Unfortunately she didn’t eat any (she had the less spicy black bean beef instead),and so the whole baby delivery process took a lot longer (or not. who knows about these things). Anyway, it wasn’t all that great.. I was expecting more of a sauce and less of a paste.

I can revisit one of my fondest childhood memories simply by eating toast with buckwheat honey. When I was a kid visiting my grandparents, toast with buckwheat honey was a common, almost routine before-bed snack. Whenever I eat it, I’m taken back to Grandma’s house, to her kitchen and dining room, awaiting the toaster’s pop, anticipating the sweet flavour… it’s one of my strongest sense memories. Buckwheat honey feels like love.

Cherries aren’t cheap. But I also know from experience that they’re also hard to grow without getting worms, so when you buy them, and they don’t have worms, they’re totally worth it.

PC’s Tuna Burgers have, its box proclaims, “70% less fat than PC Thick & Juicy Beef Burgers”. Yeah, but it’s still tuna. It grilled up just fine and if you smother it with enough toppings you can only taste a hint of its fishyness, but yeah, we’ll polish off the remaining two and stick with homemade lamb burgers instead.

If I’m going to Tim Horton’s for a donut, I need to stop experimenting and just stick with what I know I like: double chocolate or maple dip, otherwise I just wind up disappointed. The strawberry blossom is a fluffy donut with a ring of extra sweet icing with chunks of crunchy candy, and a center ring topped with strawberry jam. My teeth hurt just thinking about it.

After nearly a full day in the pool, I could have eaten a horse, but Popeye’s fried chicken, with salty buttered biscuits, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and rice and red beans did the trick just fine. For a while. Though my taste buds pleaded for more, my stomach wasn’t very pleased for much of the evening afterward (was it worth it… a mild “yes” but don’t make it a habit). I was surprised by the mac and cheese, coleslaw and rice’n'beans though, since I wasn’t actually expecting to like them, but I did. The biscuits are addictive, but probably the worst of the items for your body.