Breaking In Bounty

This article is a continuation of the story of breaking in (click HERE to read) to rescue the recipes of an old lady whose cute house, after her passing, was torn down to be replaced by this monstrosity.

The two recipes I picked up today from the old lady's recipe boxes are:

Meatloaf in a Loaf & a Bachelor Bait Salad. 

Here's their story. Enjoy!

Meatloaf in a loaf is simply a pork and beef meatloaf baked in a loaf.

The interior of the loaf was used as bread crumbs for the meatloaf. The meat was baked in the loaf, coming out as the moistest meatloaf ever.

And if that was not fun enough the recipe for the salad was pure entertainment; 

"As Eve did long ago, select a big red tempting apple...dice it into your most beautiful antique bowl...promiscuously toss together..."

Wait, it gets even better.

"Serve at once at a candlelight dinner with your favourite bachelor. Once he gets a taste of this tempting salad; like Adam, he will be snared."

And lots of snaring I did that night...

  

Investment Decision Time

Toast Now™, after the launch of its partnership in Sapporo, Japan, is now open in Red Bank, NJ with a new best seller in that region - The Un-toast Meatloaf. 

Always open to free dinner, I invited
Toast Now™ back (read Should I Invest & Wacky Investment).

"The key part remains the toast, lined with greens".   

(The Toast Now™ rep thinks somerville kitchen is part of the franchise, snatching the greens from le jardin).

Thick slices of meatloaf go on top. 

"Use frozen vegetables as relish - simply thaw them and mix  with HP sauce. We use Ketchup in Red Bank, NJ but developing it with HP for commonwealth countries." 

"and then few leaves of marjoram to give a kick to the sandwich, more delicate and aromatic than oregano". 

Hmmm, Toast Now™ you are getting my attention now. 




So my readers, I am still on the fence about investing - should I?

email somervillekitchenwindow@gmail.com

Locus on Main

Don't let the decorations scare you away, Locus welcome was one of the warmest and most genuine I have received at a restaurant in a very long time (I think it was the owner).

Pleasant relaxing atmosphere (for lunch at least), bright table facing Main Street, music at the right volume and, for the drinkers, you have 15% off some drinks every Thursday, even for lunch.

My lunch companion mentioned that Locus is famous for their bread, including gluten free bread. I dived into a gluten feast and thoroughly enjoyed every one of the bread selection.

The corn pasta was an excellent choice. 

Corn fusilli mixed with ratatouille and sun-dried tomato pesto; melted feta cheese and generous topping of fresh arugula. Highly recommend it.

 

My companion's lamb burger looked great even on gluten free bread.

But the gluten free test failed with breadcrumbs in the burger (but all was forgiven seeing how well the owner handled the situation)

 

A place to visit again for sure.

Locus

4121 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

www.locusonmain.com

 

Wonderful (16 Scrabble Points)

Simplify and enjoy was the theme of this special birthday party.

A scrumptious dinner was brought in from the best Ethiopian restaurant in North America - Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant.

A combination of split peas, lentil, chick peas, cabbage, collard green and vegetables were scattered over the delicious Teff bread. 

Add to this DoroWot (chicken), Abyssinia Yebeg Tibis (Lamb) and Yebere Tibis (beef) and a start of a wonderful birthday party begins.

But the fun really kicked in when a game of cupcake scrabble started.

A mix of carrot and red velvet Anita (cup) cakes with letters over the decadent cream cheese frosting got the creative juices going.

Fun was the easiest to spell out. Though someone spelled a word with just the first two letters of Fun (sorry, my publisher censored that photo).



But at the end of the night, the most appropriate word was spelled out.

Happy Birthday Wonderful!

Special thanks to the great service from Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant (7546 Edmonds Street - www.abyssinia-restaurant.ca).

Whistler Food

A night in Whistler. A day of fun (and work). A lovely room with a fireplace.

I should have just bought a frozen pizza, heated it up and ate it in-front of the fire.

But no, I wanted to hit all the conference parties instead.

End of event drinks were served with the usual pub fare - nachos, chicken wings and a really good pizza (that I now regret skipping).

And that was way better food than the welcome reception fare.

Now after all of this, I needed a good dinner. No good restaurant in site (how did we impress the world at the Olympics with this restaurant choice, I don't know). Regretfully I chose the hotel's restaurant (The Westin).

The seafood sampler took 45 minutes to appear. I asked to skip the lobster and they replaced it with a slice of lemon. Another 25 minutes before the taste-like-leather chicken arrived. 'the kitchen is busy tonight' - lame excuse!

I am so glad my business travel is down 90% (read more bad food on the road at Eating on The Road).

More Indian Food

It's an Indian food kind of week (go back to the beginning of the week's entries and you'll get my drift).

Tonight, though, I took Indian food into my own hands. Few seeds in a mortar and here's my own spice mix for a home-made chicken curry.

The fridge produced some chutney, Indian pickles and home made raita.

Add to this some pakoras and samosas off Fraser Street and a full Indian meal feast was served.

I think Fraser street contribution was way more authentic than my chicken curry.

Including the delicious selection of Fraser Street Indian Sweets.

Fraser Street Finds

There are always new finds on Fraser Street (Read more at Fraser Street Finds), specially when a small street festival is taking place.

The highlight of today's discovery is seeing the lovely one and only Beespeaker Saijiki with a variety of bee pollens.  

But one cannot ignore parrot man either with his red and green parrots.

Phew, I thought the green one ran away. But it was simply passed on to the owner of one of my favourite Fraser Street produce stores.

And yes there are foods to discover - Indian, Himalayan, Chinese, Pakistani, Bengali, Bakeries and others yet to be discovered. Today's stop was dim sum.

Dinner was also picked up - freshly made Sri Lankan food from the newly discovered Sri Lankan store that deserves a blog post on its own.

Today's favourite find though remains this white and creamy Chinese double milk pudding. Simply yum.

Welcome Like A Paycheque

Welcome like a paycheque is how Chill Winston describes itself.

And on day hot like a slow dance (as they say), it is definitely welcoming.

Their menu goes by size (smart idea, but wish the prices matched the sizes) and features many interesting platters including Kangaroo (hmmm, how could they keep their fresh food promise with this meat?).

I decided to opt for their Falafel platter.
A twist on the authentic (and far away from it) that is worth a try. 

Served with a saffron rice pilaf and pickled onions (how Iranian), cauliflower (how Lebanese), harissa (how Moroccan) and peach chutney (how Indian). A spicy tour of the world nonetheless. 

Don't get me wrong, it is a good place with good food and pleasant service. But the best part of the lunch was the company.

Chill Winston

3 Alexander Street

Vancouver, BC

www.chillwinston.com

Joey's Wacky Trunk

Joey is a very happy car. It is always warm, hangs out with cool people, cuddles with its own cat and is best friends with Kermit.

Joey is such a team player that it has turned its trunk to an extension of somerville kitchen's pantry. 

Joey and somerville kitchen have a system in place. When groceries arrive, the perishables leave the trunk. Everything else stays in the trunk under Joey's care until one needs it.

So when you need a can of tomato, a pack of Love Crunch, a can of Pepsi or some cat litter; all you have to do is ask Joey (but Joey goes to bed early and it does not like its trunk opened late nights).

Joey's most precious time is the occasional weekend where its trunk if filled with fancier-than-grocery bags such as Chocolate Arts, Front & Company, Shaktea, to name a few.

Joey, you are such a great car. I promise to take you on a wild highway trip very soon now.