bowling trophy

If you can’t have your baba’s food, eating at Uncle Ed’s runs a close second.

Gaenor with Combo Plate No. 9: smoked pork chop, perogies, cabbage rolls, perishke (cheese buns) and nalysnyky (cheese crepes).

Tracy and Combo No. 7: meatballs with mushroom sauce and all the rest.

Combo No. 1: Mundare sausage plate.

Tricks with money.

Sir Wilfred Laurier: sad

happy

K-J Bowl: 12 lanes, 5 pins.

This is one of the rare posts on this blog that’s actually about bowling.

Gaenor operates the futuristic score-keeping electronic brain.

Strike!

I used some of my credit card points to order a panini press. Guess what I’ve been eating for every meal since it arrived?

Snack: Bocconcini, tomato, basil on ciabatta.

Dinner: Ham and edam on ciabatta.

Breakfast: Strawberries and Nutella on sourdough.

Special treat: Brie, chocolate(!) and basil(!) on sourdough. Recipe by Giada De Lorentiis.

Yesterday I took my parents to church to have their Easter basket blessed by the priest. The car was filled with the heady and intoxicating aroma of garlic sausage (good thing I love it).

Ukrainian Easter breakfast at my parent’s house is a meal I eagerly anticipate each year.

Some people put candy eggs and chocolate bunnies in their baskets, but my folks are old school and that’s just fine with me. Their basket includes fresh horseradish (the big root on the left), ham, ham sausage, garlic sausage, boiled eggs, Ukrainian Easter eggs decorated by my very talented niece (not for eating, of course), green onions, garlic, cottage cheese and sweet Easter bread (babka).

Butter studded with cloves in the shape of the Orthodox cross.

Another of my niece’s hand decorated eggs. Her detail work and steady hand are amazing.

A relish of pickled beats and fresh horseradish. This is my favourite. Be careful not to get any on your clothes or tablecloth - the red never comes out.

Yet more comfort food.

Sunday dinner at my folks place, my mom made a turkey and I put a few roasters of veg into the oven at the same time: beets, yams, carrots, fennel, radicchio and savoy cabbage, liberally tossed with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. The beets and yams were particularly delicious - a couple of hours of slow roasting made them incredibly sweet and earthy. I went home with lots of leftovers, so yesterday I made a turkey pot pie.

To the chopped up turkey and vegetables I added some green beans I had in the fridge (blanching them first). I sautéd some mushrooms in butter and olive oil, which I used as the base for a white sauce.

I forgot to stir in the rosemary so I just sprinkled it on top, then topped the pot with piecrust.

Out of the oven.

Dessert:

Dirty Old Holes

The recipe is from a wonderfully wonky book called Scrambled Brains, by artist Robin Konstabaris and chef Pierre LeBlanc. It’s sort of a combination of cookbook and graphic novel. I recommend you order it if you want to make dishes like Hell Turds, Nun’s Farts, or a tofu pig’s head.

The recipe is simplicity itself: peel and core an apple, fill with Nutella, wrap tightly in pie crust, bake.

As it bakes, the Nutella will ooze out (puncture the top or leave an opening in the crust), and you will know how this recipe got its name.

Gross but delicious.

…to celebrate Bowling Trophy’s 1st birthday today. I didn’t really bake it, I only scanned it from an Australian birthday cake book. It’s an echidna ice cream cake. When I posted this other spiky echnidna cake it became one of the most frequently googled items on this blog (though not as popular as how to draw horses or the Sylvers). To make it, fill a metal bowl with softened ice cream and freeze. Unmold, add a twinkie for a nose, coat the nose and face with that gross chocolate coating that hardens on contact with ice cream (because it’s full of coconut oil or wax), stick it full of chocolate fingers, sprinkle with grated chocolate and add a couple of smarties for eyes.

If you’re not partial to chocolaty marsupials, maybe you’d rather have a piece of Zappo the Alien:

Ginger scones from epicurious.com, by way of my friend dogbytes. I replaced some of the candied ginger with fresh ginger for a little extra zing.

The temperature’s been hovering around -30º C all week and it’s not warming up anytime soon. To the kitchen - it’s time for old fashioned comfort food!

First up: meatloaf. I used beef and pork and added sauted onions, grated carrot, breadcrumbs, chili sauce, parsley, worcestershire sauce, eggs and seasonings.

Baked mac & cheese. I started with a a roux of butter and flour, whisked in milk, added seasonings and sharp cheddar cheese.

Instead of macaroni, this time I used a spiral pasta called sedani ritorti that has lots of ridges to trap the delicious cheese sauce.

Sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated cheese; its ready for the oven.

For dessert, an apple crumble - butter, demerara sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, rolled oats.

I always leave the skins on the apples.

Ready for the oven. Everything bakes together at the same time at 350º F.

Voilà (in the upper left corner is a head of garlic that I baked to put into my mashed potatoes later in the week).

Supper.

Dessert.

I don’t feel so cold anymore.

Donuts & Giant Pumpkins

Today is moving day for Gary, a few dozen tiki mugs, a whole lot of ace paperbacks, and about 2500 LPs (as well as assorted furniture, clothing and such). He’s moving to BC to start a new job with an ad agency in the mountain village of Cranbrook. I offered to help him move as long as I didn’t have to do heavy lifting, and so I am driving the rental truck. The household effects will only be going as far as Calgary where they’ll be put in storage until Gary’s settled in new digs.

Red Deer

The Donut Mill, an iconic Gasoline Alley landmark.

Tiger

Venetian Cream

Rainbow Dip

Rolo

Decisions…

Outside Red Deer, we’re passed on the highway by a pickup truck hauling the biggest pumpkin we’ve ever seen (I had a clearer picture, but I erased it by mistake - d’oh!).

market

archie mcphee