YouTube

Hollaback Girl - Reggaeton Remix

Super-funny mash-up

I'm famous

Boing Boing published a comment I made on Thursday.

Cassoulet

I cooked a black bean, chorizo and preserved Ontario tomato cassoulet on Wednesday night, pulling it out of the oven just before bedtime, which meant I didn't get to sample the dish before I went to sleep. I got around to it last night, following my swim. Sadly, the beans and the carrots are still underdone — my perpetual problem with homemade cassoulet — but a low simmer on the stove tonight ought to fix that. Despite the fact that the texture has a tendency towards al dente, it was yummy!

Bread pudding explosion!

Last night I decided to use up the strawberries I had in the freezer by throwing them into a bread pudding. I added sugar and vanilla to the berries, reduced them on the stovetop, and added the resulting "jam" to the bread pudding, finally pouring some chocolate chips on top. The rest of the bread pudding is made with eggs, soy milk, vanilla and a little sea salt.

The baked dessert looked a little like it was trying to crawl out of the casserole dish in a bid for global domination.

I got to have some tonight and I was very pleased with the results — the strawberries add a bit of tartness to the pudding, which complements the chocolate, and not adding sweetener of any kind to the bread pudding itself means the whole dessert isn't overpoweringly sweet. The bread I used was a "country boule" — a crusty shell surrounding a fresh, slightly "grainy" interior — my favourite kind of bread for puddings, because it results in a slightly textured and very absorbent custard-medium.

Ketchup.

Friday
After spending most of Friday ecstatic that I had no plans for the weekend, I settled down in the late evening to double-bill As Good As It Gets and Being John Malkovich. For those not in the know, this is a result of my bid to re-watch every single DVD I own — originally devised this summer to prevent me from rushing out and buying all the DVDs I've been pining after since realizing that working for Trevor meant I had no disposible income. I'm more than half-done the movies, but still have the anime and TV series to get through.

Jordana had informed us that she'd be staying over on Friday and Saturday nights, but that she'd be in late. On Friday, she arrived just after I'd finished watching the movies and having my shower, so we stayed up chatting with her for a bit, then called it a night.

Saturday
On Saturday, I asked Matt if we could go to IKEA so that I could pick up this storage unit for my hobby supplies (okay, not all of my hobby supplies, but the paint-related supplies all fit in there). Just as we were about to step out the door, Tim and Laurie called to remind us that we agreed to go to a Marlies game with them, which meant we'd all meet up at 3pm at the Ricoh Centre. Consequently, our trip to IKEA was a mite frenzied, but we managed to pick up the storage unit, plus an extra bookshelf for the bedroom (Matt won't stop reading, durn him).

We met up with Tim, Laurie, the kids, and Geoff on time and met up with Scott(!) within a half-hour. It was strange having Scott around again — the last time I saw him, he was selling the lot of us out to our employer, and while nobody at the game was treating him in an unfriendly manner, I have to say that I wasn't going out of my way to "make nice", either. Just the same, the fact that Tim trusts him enough to have him around makes me believe he's seeing some redeeming qualities in Scott.

I know nothing about how the game itself went, as Laurie and I were equally disinterested in it and quite willing to chatter away like magpies. :)

Sunday
Matt, Jordana and I were up pretty late on Saturday, being social monkeys, so it's no surprise that I was up the earliest, at around 10:30 on Sunday. Jordana got up latest, at around noon, and she and I got to gab for a bit before "breakfast" at 3pm. We ended up going to The Friendly House on the southwest corner of Yonge and Cummer for their 24-hour breakfasts and were all very pleased with the quality of the food.

Jordana left soon after to meet up with a friend in town, so I assembled the newly-purchased cabinet and vacuumed most of the apartment. By then, it was already past my workday-tomorrow bedtime, so in true Leah fashion, I stayed up later still, watching back-to-back episodes of Farscape with Matt.

I'm seriously starting to look forward to my relatively quiet weeknights. Ah well, at least I have no plans for this Sunday — yet.

Beef and salad

Matt's been working late nights this week, so I've had a little more time for dallying in the kitchen than I usually get. I decided to make maple-soy sirloin steaks last night and a couscous salad (which I began preparing on Tuesday night). I've been using a wheat-free soy sauce after probably toxicifying poor Laurie a few weeks ago (she's been too polite to admit it), but forgot that it would contain considerably more salt in it than the reduced-sodium soy sauce I used to get. Consequently, the steaks were a little saltier than I would have liked, the maple flavour was overpowered by the soy, and plain rice would have been preferable for eating them with.

The couscous salad, however, was fantastic and well worth eating on its own. Here's a rundown of the ingredients I used:

Approx. 1/2 package whole wheat couscous
500g reduced-salt chicken stock
1/2 large carrot, cubed
1 yellow zucchini, cubed
1 bunch italian parsley, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 ripe tomato, chopped
1 can black olives, drained, lightly rinsed, "crumbled"
sea salt to taste

So, I know to ease up on the soy if I stick with this brand, or go back to my reduced-salt brand, and to make this salad again.

'Net connection is unholy today

Been having a miserable time trying to get anything done through the internet today. Work's connection keeps chugging or failing outright.

I've gone Pro

I've finally justified the expense of paying for a personal, online photo account at Flickr. As of today, I'm a "Pro".

The stew that was

I save my big Cooks for the weekends. Ideally, this gives me a meal or two during the weekend, plus baon for a day or two during the work week. This usually works out because Matt, while he often says he'll eat what I'm making, usually doesn't touch the food I make until roughly Day 3.

Yesteday, I made a beef stew. The ingredients were as follows:

water (approx 3L? I don't measure that sort of thing)
approx. 350g of pot roast, cut into small chunks
6 white potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
approx. 5 stalks of celery, cleaned, ends trimmed
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and cubed
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 head garlic, chopped
sea salt
ground pepper

Apparently, Matt and I were quite hungry (it didn't hurt that it was the only readily-available meal in the apartment), since it was completely polished off by 9pm. So much for pictures or baon, but I take it as a testament to its irresistibility.

See Leah swim.

I was able to leave work early yesterday, so I ended up taking my planned swim a little earlier than intended, at 4pm, rather than 5-ish. I don't remember much about the timed swims I used to have to do when I was in Bronze Medallion/Bronze Cross, but I know you were expected to do something like 22 laps in the Olympic-sized pool in 20 minutes. This was always a challenge for me. I'd say the pool at Extreme is about the same length, so I was incredibly surprised to find that I completed 32 laps in 20 minutes!

The pool itself got "crowded" around 4:15 (while long, it's fairly narrow), but had cleared out completely by the time I finished swimming. I suppose the other swimmers were using it for a post-workout cooldown, rather than a workout in and of itself.

As expected, the saltwater was pleasantly different from an entirely chlorinated pool. I was pleased to have my skin emerge in better condition after swimming, instead of dry and irritated as it would have been were it a chlorine pool.

Taking the plunge

So. I've been very interested in joining Extreme Fitness (yeah, the name is laughable) at Yonge and Sheppard since I first toured their facilities over a year ago, but the cost was prohibitively high for someone with an unsteady job situation. Such is the plight of the freelancer: when you have the money, you rarely have the time, and when you have the time you rarely have the money.

Spending the past two winters without access to an indoor pool drove me more than a little batty, however; I literally had recurring dreams about going swimming. This year's swimming season was so pathetic that they've already begun anew. I refuse to go another winter without having access to a pool, and the one at Extreme is hands-down the loveliest pool I've ever seen. The reason it's so high up on my list of pools is that it's primarily a saltwater pool, with a little chlorine thrown in just to be sure that bacteria doesn't survive.

It's said that swimmers fall into two categories: pool-swimmers, and lake swimmers. I definitely fall into the latter category, so having access to an indoor pool which is as much unlike a pool as possible is a big deal for me.

I hope to get my first swim in this week.

By popular demand...
...actually, 'cause Dan says I'm cruel.

This recipe, aside from a few substitutions, is the Lemon Chicken recipe Vanessa brought over (exceptions noted):

Fortunate Lemon Chicken

4 whole boneless chicken breasts, skin off
½ cup cornstarch (corn flour)
3 tbsp water
4 egg yolks – gently beaten
salt, pepper – to taste^†
shallots – chopped*

Lemon Sauce
½ cup lemon juice
2 tsp powdered chicken stock^†
2 tbls cornstarch (corn flour)
2 tbls honey
2½ tbls brown sugar**
1 tsp grated ginger
1¾ cups water

For the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until it boils and then thickens.

Cut the chicken breast fillets into 3-4 pieces. Lay flat and pound slightly with a mallet or other heavy object.

Place cornstarch in a bowl and slowly add the water, and then add the slightly beaten egg yolks. Next add salt and pepper to your liking.

Dip the chicken pieces into this batter and ensure you drain well.

Place a couple pieces of the battered chicken at a time, into deep hot oil and fry until lightly browned.

Drain on absorbent paper.

Slice chicken further if required.

Arrange on plates of freshly cooked white rice. Sprinkle with shallots and spoon over hot lemon sauce.

* The recipe we were referencing called for green onions, instead of shallots.
** Vanessa's recipe requested granulated sugar, not brown sugar.
^† Omitted during preparation.

A few other notes: salt and pepper were not called for in Vanessa's recipe; we used fresh-squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon's worth); all water used was filtered; we meant to make a small quantity of fresh chicken stock from the breast bone, but forgot, hence the omission; the chicken was cut into bite-sized pieces before "breading" and cooking; the sauce was prepared last, to prevent it from turning into a jelly-like substance during the chicken preparation.

By popular demand...
...actually, 'cause Dan says I'm cruel.

This recipe, aside from a few substitutions, is the Lemon Chicken recipe Vanessa brought over (exceptions noted):

Fortunate Lemon Chicken

4 whole boneless chicken breasts, skin off
½ cup cornstarch (corn flour)
3 tbsp water
4 egg yolks – gently beaten
salt, pepper – to taste
shallots – chopped*

Lemon Sauce
½ cup lemon juice
2 tsp powdered chicken stock^†
2 tbls cornstarch (corn flour)
2 tbls honey
2½ tbls brown sugar**
1 tsp grated ginger
1¾ cups water

For the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until it boils and then thickens.

Cut the chicken breast fillets into 3-4 pieces. Lay flat and pound slightly with a mallet or other heavy object.

Place cornstarch in a bowl and slowly add the water, and then add the slightly beaten egg yolks. Next add salt and pepper to your liking.

Dip the chicken pieces into this batter and ensure you drain well.

Place a couple pieces of the battered chicken at a time, into deep hot oil and fry until lightly browned.

Drain on absorbent paper.

Slice chicken further if required.

Arrange on plates of freshly cooked white rice. Sprinkle with shallots and spoon over hot lemon sauce.

* The recipe we were referencing called for green onions, instead of shallots.
** Vanessa's recipe requested granulated sugar, not brown sugar.
^† Omitted during preparation.

A few other notes: salt and pepper were not called for in Vanessa's recipe; we used fresh-squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon's worth); all water used was filtered; we meant to make a small quantity of fresh chicken stock from the breast bone, but forgot, hence the omission; the chicken was cut into bite-sized pieces before "breading" and cooking; the sauce was prepared last, to prevent it from turning into a jelly-like substance during the chicken preparation.

Homemade vs. Restaurant: Round 1

In this corner, current titleholder for the past seven consecutive years: Seaspray's Lemon Chicken; and in this corner, untried, untrue and raring to prove its worth: homemade lemon chicken!

Since Matt was going to be up at Lake Rosso for a high-school friend's wedding tonight, I thought this would be the opportune evening to have Caty's friend, Vanessa, over to fulfill her request of being shown how to cook. Rather than show her things that she'd be too bored about to ever want to bother cooking again, I asked her to pick a dish that she liked, then find 3 different online recipes for it, print them off and bring them over.

When I'd spoken to her before tonight, she indicated that she was leaning towards preparing lemon chicken, so I said that I'd show her how to section a chicken, on top of cooking it.

Shortly after Caty and Vanessa's arrival, we compared the 3 recipes she had found to determine what a basic lemon chicken recipe consisted of, and made a quick run out to the grocery store to pick up the few ingredients I didn't have around the apartment. Upon retuning, we got down to cooking!

The end result was a blissfully "real" tasting lemon chicken dish (I'm not sure how else to put it -- everything tasted less artificial), one that I'd gladly incorporate into my roster of tasty food to make. Vanessa did a great job!

Winner: homemade lemon chicken