Black Pearl Oyster Bar

We ate twice at the Black Pearl. It's a cute/cheesey place right across from the water in Penticton. I say it's cheesy because of stuff like this:



And this:



They also had a massive Johnny Depp-looking mural, but we completely forgot to take a picture of it. Mainly because we were drinking this:




It was so damn good, I have no idea what it was. It tasted like coconut and I giggled like an idiot all night.

Pictures we remembered to take:


Stone Crab Claws with mustard sauce.


Tuna Tartar


Tomatoes Boccancini.

Then no more pictures, the food was just too good. Highlights of this and the other meal: Beef Carpaccio (I was frightened of it at first, but it was good), oysters, fried asiago cheese, and the worlds hottest thai chicken and noodle dish. Medium spicy my ass.

The view:

Cherries

A conversation after dinner tonight

Scott: We ate hours ago, but I can feel the garlic coming out of my skin.
Me: I only put 2 cloves in the sauce.
Scott: Well, don't you think that's a lot?
Me: No, not really...

Greek Salad

Cucumber, sliced
Tomato, chopped
Red Pepper, chopped
Onion, chopped
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Feta cheese, diced
Mix together. Add some oregano and a couple of splashes each of lemon juice and olive oil.

My Tomato Plant

We didn't get the garden in this year...hoping it will happen next year. BUT! See my pretty little tomato plant with 5 tomatos! Once they ripen up they'll go great with the basil on the front steps.

Gouda Tomato and Basil Pizza

A few weeks ago at Millarville Farmers Market we had a food sample from a stall that sells frozen pizza. It was pretty good, and Scott wanted to buy one for dinner. We decided on a Gouda cheese and basil pizza that had a whole wheat crust. It wasn't cheap, but it sounded good. When we cooked it that night we threw some chopped tomatoes on it, and it was a really good pizza.

Fast forward to Friday - pulled a whole wheat pizza shell out of the freezer. Topped it with sauce, basil, tomatoes and gouda. So good, and so much better tasting (and better for you!) than a pizza from a delivery place.

Tango Restaurant

Another really great meal we had that has no pictures was at Tango Restaurant in Kamloops, BC. It's a tapas restaurant in the industrial area of the city. We drove by it about 5 times in the days before we went there and I never noticed it. It's a dark narrow restaurant with an open kitchen so you can see all the action. They have 10 or so tables, a long bar with stools and a beautiful patio with tons of flowers and fountains.

There were four of us for dinner - our hosts had been there before. We decided to get 4 appetizers and then see how hungry we were. I chose the "Pollo ajo", pieces of chicken breast simmered in "a rich garlic sauce". This was definitely the poorest dish of the evening. I won't say it was bad; it wasn't. It just didn't live up to our expectations. When you see that something is simmered in garlic, you expect to taste the garlic, don't you? Enough said. We also had the "Satay Sampler" which was a skewer each of spicy mint chicken, bbq duck, teriyaki salmon and adobo pork, served with a citrus herb raita dip. This was pretty good, although the duck was my least favorite. We tried the "Tomato salad" of tomatos, bocconcini and basil. But my very favorite was the "Bruschetta" of chorizo, scallops and chimichurri sauce on bread topped with Parmesan. Words can not describe how good it was. Big slices of tender scallop, spicy chorizo. Wow.

You'd think that that would have been enough food, but no, we got some more. We shared the "Prawnology" which was a huge plate of prawns done 4 ways - some wrapped in prosciutto, some battered in tempura, some wrapped in a sweet potato dough, and some broiled with a lemon sauce. All were mighty fine. We also shared the "Asian Platter" that had sweet potato patties, sweet chili wings, tempura prawns, spring rolls, 5 spiced duck breast, and stir fried bok choy and pineapple.

It was a great dinner and also a very reasonable one - I didn't pay the bill, but all that food was only in the $80.00 range. I look forward to the next time I am in Kamloops - I will be right back at Tango as soon as I can.

Glazed New Potatoes by Rob Feenie

I was watching New Classics with Rob Feenie a couple of weeks ago, and he made this gorgeous potato dish - Glazed New Potatoes. That weekend I bought a bag of new potatoes from the Millarville Farmers Market.

Here's all the ingredients ready to go into the oven:

Here they are after about 45 minutes in the oven:

Ugly picture alert! Here they are again after I have reduced the liquid. I could have reduced it more, but we were getting hungry. They were very good - the highlight of the meal.

Hooded Merganser

See the pretty building on the pretty lake? That is the Hooded Merganser restaurant in Penticton. It's right next to the Penticton Lakeside Resort and is fairly new, I believe it opened in the Spring of 2005.

We walked by it a couple of days before deciding to go for dinner. It's a very nice looking restaurant, right on the water, with three walls made up of windows. We started at a table outside, but had to move inside when the wind picked up. I didn't take our camera out with us that night and it is really too bad. I could have taken some great pictures.

We decided to start with an appetizer and wait to order our dinner to see how hungry we were after that.

We chose the Three Tapas served with fresh bread. You pick 3 tapas from a list - one each from dips, salads and finger food. We chose Sun dried tomato and olive tapenade from the dips, White bean and Chorizo salad from the salads, and Candied Walnuts and Prosciutto from the finger foods. When it came to the table I moaned some more about forgetting the camera. 3 square bowls on a plate with bread. It was gorgeous. And tasty. The tapenade was nice and salty. The salad was the best looking and tasting. Beautiful white beans drizzled in olive oil, some a little pinky-orange from the diced chorizo that was tossed in. So good.

It was a pretty large appetizer, especially with the bread, so we both decided just to have a sandwich. Scott had the Seafood Club - tiger prawns, crab and salmon with bacon lettuce and tomato. Really nice, but huge. He could only get through half even with my help. I wanted the pulled pork bun, but they were out. Doesn't it drive you crazy when your waiter doesn't tell you what they are out of? I had the Grilled Gouda and Mango Salad sandwich instead. It was really nice; my only complaint was the mango salad was a bit too juicy and made the sandwich soggy quickly. This is something I would make at home for sure.

All in all, a very good meal, even without pictures. Time didn't permit us to go back again, but on another trip I definitely would.

Recipe Archive

I have pinched a great idea from the likes of Nic at Baking Sheet and Molly at Orangette and others I'm sure.

I have made a recipe archive, listing all the recipes I have posted here. Check it out, on the right hand side, under "some stuff".

Or click here.

Funny

Scroll down to the third entry. The folks at Tvgasm are making fun of Giada from Everyday Italian on the Food channel.

Hands-free Raspberry Jam Part 2

For Ana-

250 g raspberries
250 g sugar

Heat over to 180'C

Put berries and sugar in 2 separate oven proof dishes (I used pie plates)
Cook for 20-25 minutes
Add sugar to raspberries, stir and spoon into a jar.
Store in fridge.


From "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson.

Hands-free Raspberry Jam

On my recent vacation, I was lucky enough to come across Nigella Lawson's How To Be a Domestic Goddess for a low, low price. While flipping through it the other night, I read her recipe for jam. It is ridiculously simple - sugar and berries and no boiling- but is so good.



Equal parts sugar and raspberries. Into the oven they go!




Out of the oven after 25 minutes. The house smelled so good.




Mix the sugar into the berries. It bubbles and hisses, and becomes...



jam.

Embarrassing food stories

Everyone has at least one whether you want to admit it or not. To be honest, I can't think of a ton, I'm sure I've just blocked them out though.
I remember trying a yogurt marinated chicken dish once that was thrown out after one bite.
I remember making spring rolls for a friend and her boyfriend and accidentally using rice wrappers instead of wonton wrappers and having them explode in the oil.
Lots of overcooking/undercooking things like hams, roasts and chicken.
And of course I have subjected poor Scott to all kinds of recipes pulled from magazines, books and websites that weren't so great.

A girl I knew told me a story about making a chicken dish to impress a boy, but the chicken was still raw (and cold!) when she served it.

A friend of mine tried to make caramel bowls for a dessert for her boyfriends parents, but instead of making caramel from water and sugar, melted Kraft caramels and poured them over inverted bowls, and stood in the kitchen waiting for them to harden.

But this is my most embarrassing food story. And really, it isn't even embarrassing to me! I had a boyfriend who lived with his parents, and I spent a lot of time there. One time I asked if I could make them dinner. It was summer, and where I lived had very hot summers. So I decided to do a light soup and a salad. I made a garden salad and a corn soup. I made the dinner, we all sat down, and took a spoonful of soup. To me it was GREAT. My boyfriend, who had had it before, liked it too. His parent's didn't. They took one bite and pushed it away. They would not even touch the salad. I was so embarrassed.
All they did was complain - why would I make soup? Why would I have salad? Where was the meat? The bread? The soup was all vegetables, why was that? They got up from the table, and the mom said - We are going to A&W for hamburgers - do you two want to come?
God, I was so offended. I NEVER cooked for them again. Even when their son and I moved to a different city together. When they came to visit, I made my boyfriend take care of the food. And believe me, he wasn't much better. Their eating habits were atrocious. One of his mothers special dinners was ground beef mixed with ketchup served over boiled potatos. White bread on the side. EW!

Corn Soup, origin unknown.

1 Tb margerine or butter
1 small onion, chopped
Frozen corn, or fresh off the cob
1 potato, peeled, diced and parboiled until tender
Pinch hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup half and half or milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp salt
1/8/ tsp pepper
parsley for garnish

Saute the onion in the margerine or butter until tender but not brown. Add the rest of the ingredients (I know there is no amount for corn, just put some in until it looks good to you) and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Now you tell me, who could turn their noses up at that?!?!?!

Smackdown on my pantry

That is a pretty messy cupboard. Things fall off the shelves all the time and you can never find what you are looking for. But no longer.



All the candy and junk food (or most of it) is gone. Also gone, all the expired food, the packages that have been opened and sitting around for ages, and the stuff I just knew we'd never eat. I get a clean pantry where no one will be injured by falling food, and the food bank gets 2 boxes of food.

Next up - THE DREADED SPICE CUPBOARD!

PS - How did we accumulate so many bottles of olive oil and also balsamic vinegar? I think there must not be any left in Calgary.

Beer Can Chicken

Beer Can Chicken Spring 2004.
Here is a similar recipe by The Surreal Gourmet.

Ours - we made our own rub (brown sugar, salt, crushed dried chiles, etc), rubbed the chicken inside and out, slathered with bbq sauce, sat it on a 3/4 full open beer can, and cooked on the bbq, over indirect heat rotating every 15 or 20 minutes for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

The Cook Next Door Meme

Thank you to Ana for tagging me for my first meme.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?
When I was about 6 or 7, my cousins came from England to visit. My male cousin who was a year or two older than me and I decided to make breakfast one morning. We found a recipe for pancakes in my Disneyland cookbook (I miss that cookbook) and made them. Unfortunately we did not read the recipe all the way through. The recipe called for 10 TB of butter to cook the pancakes in. You were supposed to melt 1 TB, cook some pancakes, and then melt another TB, etc. We melted the whole amount of butter and basically deep fried the pancakes. They were gross.



Who had the most influence on your cooking?
My mom did, and then when I discovered cooking shows on PBS, it was Julia Child and the Frugal Gourmet.


Do you have an old photo as "evidence" of an early exposure to the culinary world?
Does a picture of me covered in chocolate pudding count?


Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
Turkey, because it is something you normally make on special occasions for lots of people. I am always terrified I will undercook it and that I won't notice until we are sitting at the table eating.


What are your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?
My most valued is probably my Kitchen Aid mixer. I don't use it as much as I thought I would, but it is just so pretty. Most used is probably my tongs and my food processor. I just recently got my processor, and it is surprising just how many uses it has. Most disappointing - my waffle maker. I have had it for years and very rarely does it work as a fairly expensive waffle iron should.


Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else does.
This is tough. I like bread with butter and HP sauce. I like teriaki sauce on baked potatos. I like ham sandwiches with potatos chips inside. When I was little, I liked to eat gristle, but thankfully I've outgrown that.


What are three edibles or dishes your simply don't want to live without?
Potatos, milk and tomatos.


Your favorite ice cream?
Vanilla Bean with cherries from Marble Slab.


You will definitely never eat...
Organ meat.


Your own signature dish...
All sorts of pastas.


That was fun! Even though this was sent to me 2 weeks ago (I went on holiday), I will tag Emily at Baking Beast to see if she is still around. Jennifer at Taste Everything Once because her site is so great. I'm sure Kitchen Hand at What I Cooked Last Night is too busy being a new dad, but you never know.

Taste Canada

What does Canada taste like to you?

Jennifer at Domestic Goddess wants to know.

To me, Canada tastes like sunshine, summer and the smell of grass. Spring and summer are my favorites times and when I truly feel the most Canadian. Canada is a truly awesome country - full of water, mountains, trees and wonderful people. I think it is most beautiful in the spring and summer; green and bold.

My happiest childhood memories are from summers - swimming, playing, visiting, and eating with friends and family. My parents used the barbecue as much as possible throughout the year, and in fact still do; on Boxing Day 2004 my dad was outside barbecuing steaks in a -30' snowstorm.

Rhubarb is of course not native to Canada. It dates back to ancient China, and is also native to Siberia, Mongolia and Tibet. Up until the late 1700's, it was used solely for medicinal purposes. In the 1780's people began using it as a pie filling. At one time, it was known commonly as "Pie Plant".

It's uses seem unlimited - liquor, sorbet and ice cream, chutneys and relishes, sauces, jams and jellies, pies, cakes, breads, fools, and of course crisps. In some countries rhubarb is used solely in savory dishes.

While Rhubarb is not original to Canada, I think it is a food that we Canadians can and do embrace. Rhubarb thrives in Canada. It easily tolerates our cool winters and occasional cool summer temperatures as well. According to at least one website, some say that the finest quality rhubarb is grown in Canada.

Rhubarb is everywhere in Canada. In everyone's backyard garden and at every farmer's market. Do a search on the web for "Canada Day Recipes" and almost every site will have at least one recipe for something made with rhubarb.

My Mom had a massive rhubarb plant in our garden, and one of the first things she taught me to cook was stewed rhubarb. To me, rhubarb announces that the warm weather is here to stay for at least a while.

The picture at the top of this post is a recipe called Rhubarb Crunch. I found it on the Allrecipes site after my boss gave me a garbage bag full of rhubarb last week. We like it, especially the contrasts; the rhubarb is tart and smooth, the topping is sweet and crunchy. Add some cream as we did, and have a safe and happy Canada Day.

Lunch at the Copper Chimney

My boss got a menu stuck in his door at home for the Copper Chimney restaurant. (240 Midpark Way SE, 201-7336.) It's East Indian cuisine and everyday but Monday they have a lunch buffet. (5th down) We made a reservation this morning, and headed out the door to be there for our noon reservation. The restaurant is located in a small, very quiet mall. Copper Chimney itself is quite small and had no customers when we arrived at 12:15. Not one. As we took our seats, we noticed a TV on the wall that showed a live picture of the kitchen and their tandoor oven. We watched the cook make our naan and cook it in the tandoor. They brought us out this naan that was so good - hot, a bit greasy, and soft on one side and crispy on the other. I ordered a lassi to drink and we headed up to the buffet. It's a small buffet, including salads and rice there was about 9 items. A green salad, a corn salad, rice, butter chicken , chicken kebob, a shrimp and veg, and 3 vegetable dishes, one was an amazing combination of green peas and cubes of cottage cheese in a sauce, and another was Allo Gobhi. Yum! My least favorite was the unnamed third vegetable dish; it was fine, it just didn't stand out as much as the others. With the naan and mango chutney and mint sauce on the side, the standouts were definitely the pea dish and the tender, flavorful chicken kabobs and the naan. Never in my life have I had such good bread. The buffet was $12.00 a person, a very reasonable deal, and we were glad to see more tables fill up soon after we started eating. I am definitely looking forward to my next visit soon.

The opening of Millarville

Keep your fingers crossed.....Millarville market is scheduled to open tomorrow.

The first market was delayed for 2 weeks by all the rains and flooding.

I'll be there tomorrow ready to buy some good stuff. Here's to hoping that everything is good up there and they have lots of customers tomorrow!