Update on “What’s Up?” and Return to the House
Already mid-August!
Some people are preparing for school, others are preparing their children for school and that quiet that comes on the first day when the kids are gone for the whole day.
Some of us are looking forward to the days of Fall, truth be told, for those of us in Quebec, Summer was not that great, we are probably not in any hurry for the cooler, crisp days of Autumn.
For me, it is an upside-down summer, away while work was getting done in my house and kitchen. Before I speak of the kitchen and living area, let me make an aside to mention the utter joy I had to come home to new windows in my entrance and office, what a huge difference it makes, when I stepped into the office, I had a true moment, it’s as if time slowed down and all I could say was “oh wow, oh wow, oh wooooooooooow,”. It has been a long time coming, there is more light coming in, no duct tape or packing tape holding parts in place, just light and space. My office feels like a happier place.
On to the kitchen and dining/living room. It’s a mess! It's a good mess, but a mess, no running water, no working appliances except a fridge.
What I do have is an amazing floor which I love, worked on and done by my eldest son, myself with the help of my dear hubby. The men have been hard at work on a new walk in pantry that should serve my family for years to come, and hopefully one of their families too when the time comes.
This morning, my first morning back home, I felt the tingling in my fingers of wanting to cook. Any of you watch MasterChef? Gordon Ramsey demonstrated how he makes his scrambled eggs on the show and had the competing chefs make it as an elimination round, the technic he used was completely new to me, but I thought I should at least try his method.
So, you place the eggs in a pot with a lob of butter, what is a lob of butter? No idea, I think for three eggs, it could be a tablespoon, for 9 eggs like I was doing, I put in about 1/3 cup of butter, you then use a spatula to break and cook the eggs over medium heat, removing it when it seems to be cooking too quickly or it is too hot. You only season at the end, adding the salt and pepper, I would add smoked paprika or such, also at the end, you fold in chives.
On the show, he pan-roasted cherry tomatoes and mushrooms, I only had cherry tomatoes from my own garden, so I got those and placed it in a medium high heat non-stick pan with olive oil, seasoned them, and let them cook, the cherry tomatoes in this case were so fresh, they needed nothing more.
Since I have no kitchen, I used my cooking plate and the BBQ burner. It worked! The eggs tasted very rich and silky, no greyish color to them and no watery taste. The tomatoes looked quite good, but were even tastier then they looked.
I think it is a recipe to master!
While I was at the rental, I made and found delicious, pork belly and short ribs, so two things; pork belly is the same cut of meat used to make bacon, so it’s like cooking unsmoked bacon, that makes little sense, but I am trying to help you visual this! Short ribs come from beef, it is a large piece of bone and meat, the meat needs to be cook till it comes off the bone easily.
Both recipes came out wonderful I do wish the electricity had not gone out while I was cooking the short ribs, I finished them in the BBQ, using it like an oven and it did come out fine, but still.
While in Val-David, I discovered wonderful markets, Bakeries and Specialty shops, I enjoyed many of their products and tested them too. One thing I enjoyed every weekend, was the Farmer’s Market, I must tell you all, if you are so lucky as to have a Farmer’s Market in your town or area, please do encourage them and check out new vegetables and products.
I tasted the strangest and most amazing of mushrooms, it was the color of cooked lobster and tasted of the sea, when I added it to my pasta, it elevated it to a level I could only have imagined. So go out there and explore!
I have more to say on Val-David and food I made, I will write again in a few days, in the meantime, without having the best or perfect kitchen, I encourage you all to love life, eat well and be bold when it comes to using and eating different food. And don’t forget, choose local!
