This past Christmas, Chef Michael Smith showed a great looking bread board in a prize package he was putting together. The board was a demi-baguette board, made by Apple & Acorn Woodworking, in Ontario.
I ordered one as a birthday gift for my Mom, and she loves it! the craftsmanship of these boards is excellent, with a flawless finish, and there are rubber feet on the underside, so that the board doesn’t slide around on you. The board was well packed, and shipped via Canada Post, which was very reasonable. A nice added touch is that the board is inside a burlap bag, which will be useful if you need to store the board in a cupboard. My mom is going to find a spot in their kitchen to hang the board up and display it though – it’s really too beautiful to tuck away 🙂
Gado Gado Salad
Saw this on the Jamie Oliver site, and had to try it out – whole family loved it!
The only thing I didn’t have on hand was some bean sprouts, and the prawn chips. I wanted to use up some mushrooms that I had, so I sliced them up and fried along with the tofu.
Shrimp Curry Linguini
Shrimp Curry Linguini
Recipe Type: Main
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Quick and easy – just keep a package or two of frozen shrimp, peeled and de-veined, in the freezer
Ingredients
- 1 pkg 26-31 Raw frozen shrimp (thawed)
- 2 tsp mild curry powder
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 carrots, julienned
- 1 sweet red pepper, sliced thin
- 1/2 red onion, diced fine
- 2 tbsp cilantro stems, chopped fine (save leaves for end)
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 small pkg of linguini (or whatever you have on hand), cooked
Instructions
- Heat skillet to med-high heat and add olive oil and butter
- Add garlic, ginger, curry powder, and onion, cook for a minute
- Add shrimp, cook for a couple minutes, then add carrots, and sweet pepper
- Cook until shrimp is pink and cooked through
- Toss in orange zest and cilantro leaves.
- Toss with linguini and server
New additions to the new aquarium
The stand for the 55 gallon aquarium turned out very well – unfortunately, the used aquarium I bought off Kijiji was way more scratched up than I had noticed. Over Christmas, Big Al’s had a sale so I bought a new one – which looks awesome. I also purchased a Hydor canister filter, and Eheim 150W heater.
The aquarium is up and running, and is currently stocked with:
- 6 siamese algae eaters
- 10 Black Tetras
- 27 Neon Tetras
- 10 Glowlight Tetras
- 3 bundles of Vallisneria spiralis
- 2 bundles of Hygrophila corymbosa
Some coffee tips
- Favorite Beans
Here in Edmonton, I’ve found that Rogue Wave Coffee offers the freshest roasted coffee – you just need to let them know in advance when you want to pick up your beans. The result is coffee that has been roasted in the past 2-3 days. Coffee this fresh should be allowed to rest a little longer to ‘de-gas’ – otherwise you may find your coffee to have a somewhat metallic taste. The package their beans in paper coffee bags to facilitate the degassing.
The next freshest beans I’ve found are also roasted locally, by Transcend. I go to their main shop is on the southside, a block south of Argyll Road, just east of 99 Street. They also have a location next to the Garneau Theatre on 109 Street – parking can be tricky there sometimes.
I prefer medium roasted beans – they’ll be the color of milk chocolate, and won’t be shiny (or oily)
At 3 Banana’s in Churchill Square, you can get Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso – bought a bag the other day for $22 for a 454g bag. These may not be quite as fresh roasted as the other two unless you catch them on the right day. - Favourite Brewing Methods
When brewing coffee, I either use my espresso machine, an Aeropress, or more recently, a Hario manual pour-over. Using the espresso machine is pretty awesome – I can have an Americano in less than a minute. A latte I can make in about 90 seconds :)Lately I’ve been really enjoying the manual pour-over. It takes a little more time – about 5 minutes tops for a mug. When I’m camping, I pack Aeropress to make coffee. These are sold at Transcend (and other places around the city I’m sure). These make very good coffee! I just have to grind my coffee a little coarser than what I use in my espresso machine. - Grind beans yourself
Don’t buy pre-ground coffee. Buy beans and grind them yourself. Use a quality burr grinder, manual or electric. Check out the coffeegeek and home-barista forums for recommendations, and buy the best you can afford.
Here is my current coffee set-up – yes, it might be bit excessive, but it’s been an investment that has been serving me well – even after almost 8 years!
