Scrabble night – part 2

The following night, I put everything out on our kitchen table and awaited our hungry guests.

Paul came half an hour early (he’s always early) and was starving – could we start eating? Uh, I guess so (At least he was hungry).

We started in and waited for our other neighbour, John. He came about 45 minutes later, after polishing off a hearty Greek dinner, complete with stomach-bloating beers, with his out-of-town guest. Neither he nor his guest (an awesome singer songwriter, who had just performed with Jim Cuddy and Kathleen Edwards the night before) wanted anything to do with food. Damn you, Astoria! Why do you have to serve such hearty food in servings that topple you as you leave the restaurant?

We played girls against boys with Colleen going out first and John winning (he told us he would).

It was midnight by the time we finished and I had all that food to package up.

Would Scott and I have to have chicken for dinner for the 10 nights? Could we do it without dying from boredom or SCF – severe chicken fatigue?

Hell’s kitchen – part 2

Or at least they should have, except that this week all of my events fell within the same time period, so instead of being at home, cooking my little heart out, I ate out every night from Monday to Friday.

Monday and Tuesday evening,  I had my food book clubs (4 of ‘em!),  where we meet in a restaurant that I’ve paired with the region of the book we’re reading each month.  This month we went to Zin, a high-end Chinese restaurant in Yorkville, where the owner Rockie created a special fixed price menu featuring Hong Kong delicacies, like we read about in our book of the month, The Piano Teacher.

Because I am hosting for 4 clubs over 2 nights (not including the other 2 I host earlier in the month), I get to eat twice.  The first night I had garlicky, incredibly tender Rack of Lamb with rice and broccoli.  The following evening, I tucked into Duck Breast served with a rich Thai curry sauce and snow peas.

I am grateful for the chance to have eaten there twice, as both meals were simply divine and for the first time in this book club, we had 100% satisfaction from our members.

Rockie also included a 1 lb. Lobster on the fixed price menu, which I’m going to go back for, as well as a bunch of interesting dishes on the regular menu.

Wednesday night I did a restaurant review – Northern Italian, which was okay.

Thursday, I got together with my Mom and she treated us to Chinese in the Beach – egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken balls, chicken chow main and Chinese fried rice, all for the insane price of $8.50 a person!

Friday, I was determined to make dinner at home, but my fella decided to take the afternoon off and we ended up downtown looking at furniture.  We wandered around until sudden hunger impaled us and we went for sushi nearby.

So just to reiterate:

Mon – Chinese

Tues – Chinese

Wed – Italian

Thurs – Chinese

Friday – Japanese

Sayonara

I will have had Japanese 4 out of 5 nights by the end of tomorrow.

I reviewed a Japanese restaurant Friday night, went to one with friends for dinner Saturday night, cooked at home last night (potato leek soup from scratch, chicken with homemade barbecue sauce, rice, veg and salad) and then am going to a Japanese restaurant with 2 book clubs tonight and back again with 2 book clubs tomorrow night.

Similar to the “5 Indian Restaurants in 8 Days” bit in my book, I have had the opportunity to really compare and critique various techniques and dishes.  The only difference is that I think I could have a Japanese meal every day.

Hey, I’m working on it…

A night of endless pulsing

A good friend of mine was telling me she wishes she used her food processor more, but it’s downstairs in a cupboard.  Going and getting it and then setting it up is quite a hassle, so she doesn’t use it.

And with our lack of space, there’s nowhere for me to put one.  I’ve been using this mini chopper my Mom got me about a decade ago to chop, dice and mince my way through.

A couple of weeks ago, a farmer my Dad and I visit suggested I try making kale pesto with the fresh bunch I’d just bought from him.

It only took 6 batches with my tiny little whipper snapper of a machine to do the whole thing.  First I steamed the kale, then chopped it and added it in minuscule increments along with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, sunflower seeds, fresh garlic and salt.

Yes, it was fantastic, but damn exhausting.  It took about 45 minutes.

One day I’m going to have room for every appliance I’ve ever wanted.  And one of those big restaurant stock pots that are too damn big to keep in any cupboard.