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Archive for the ‘food’ Category

I’m on the dancefloor/watching you kiss her/in the corner

Posted in food, music, tagged , , , , on April 29, 2010| 4 Comments »

Zone Music Director have an ultra violet light blasted into his mouth. Whiteness ensues.

Interpol is one of my favourite bands.   No getting around that fact.  Something surprising for me personally; I usually don’t “get” an Interpol record right away.  It sometimes takes a moment to percolate in my head.   I am only now, just getting into  “Our Love to Admire” and the record came out in what?  2007?  I think that is why I love Interpol, they’re a grower, not a show-er.

Interpol was supposed to have a record out in early 2010, but I dunno…. they got sidetracked?  But now they do have a brand new song for free download.

Trade an email address for a song: Interpol – “Lights”

The song is great.  Reminds me of Turn on the Bright Lights era Interpol. Its 5 minutes +, moody, jangly, epic and sexy.

“The new record falls back towards the first. In trying to move forward, there was an unspoken realization that you can’t let go of your sonic-defining tag. There was an effort in Daniel [Kessler]’s guitar tone; he rediscovered it playing in his loft space for a year without anybody. The quality of that tone, played in a big room, is just beautiful. It creates an atmosphere … That big wash of reverb? It’s back.” – Interpol drummer Sam Forgarino on the sonic tag of the upcoming record.

***

Speaking of slow grows and free downloads… I am already thinking about my next mix and I think it’ll be built around Pallers and their song “The Kiss.”

Download: Pallers – “The Kiss”

Seriously, download this song and then try to ‘splain to me why you don’t immediately want to make out.

***

I better get ready to go on the radio… but before I do, I am wondering about BBQ Smokers.  I kinda want to make one.  I found some plans online and I like this one.  The Big Baby.

Cassie has volunteered to help construct but we’ll need a place to build it… then i thought, others might want in, so I might make a Facebook group so we can get together, decide the plan of attack, then get building.

Big Baby is a sculpture in basic black, a life-style statement, a conversation piece, a badge of honor, and a joy forever. And on a hot summer day, even when you’re not cooking anything, it still smells like barbecue.

Amazing.

Go with yourself.

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Interview: Theset

Posted in food, music, radio, The Zone @ 91-3, tagged , , , on April 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I almost got caught in the rain.  Hard at work on a sandwich before work and it looked sunny and bright.  But then I got caught up playing with Madelyn, changing a bum and putting some clothes on her, and when i looked outside again, it  was POURING.  If I had left when I could have, I’d have got soaked on my scooter ride!  So thank you Dad-chores?  Today that’s a yes.

Speaking of sandwiches… yes I am still doing my damnedest to pack a lunch everyday.  And I (errr… actually Coral) may have found the BEST bread.

Portofino Bakery makes an epic sandwich bread.  They don’t have a website, or fan page, or twitter… or anything really… so I guess they are building low and slow with word-of-mouth or whatever, but its good bread.  Yum yum.

***

Theset is truth.

Yesterday, Victoria rock and roller band theset stopped by my radio show for an interview and live performance.

Have a download: Theset yaps then performs “Already Know.”

For you Zone Mail subscribers, the song will be available for download in the Zone Mail section in the next couple days.

We talk about iPodMeister.com, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the first movie), moving to Toronto to get signed by Wax Records, how great Elias is, shooting music videos on shoe-string budgets, and Adam Lambert.  Oh the times we share.  Then they sing “Already Know” and that’s a podcast.

Go with yourself.

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Red Barn

Posted in being cheap, food, tagged on March 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

Last week was a bit of a fail with the sandwich project.  I ran outta sandwich stuff on Friday so went to Wendy’s.  My burger meal cost close to $8!

Today, Corj, Madelyn Oh Yeah! and I braved the rain to drive north to the Red Barn market.  And I am happy to report that this week I’ll be able to make some epic sandwiches and my total bill was around $20.75.  I will likely need to buy a couple days of lunch meat near the end and maybe even another loaf of bread…. so we’ll see how that plays out.

This week it’ll be roasted chicken sandwich with Maple Cheese on a Bond’s Bakery Honey Grain bread.  Sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce, avocado and tomato.  Yum yum.

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The Sandwich Project :: Week 1

Posted in food, tagged on February 17, 2010| 10 Comments »

Coral and Alix made me a sandwich birthday cake for my 27th birthday, cuz I love sandwiches so much!

Inspired by Krystal at Work’s commitment to packing her lunch to work 9 out of every 10 work days, I present The Sandwich Project.

What’s up?

I want to try and squeeze some money out of budget and make my life more streamlined.  Buying lunch at work is a waste.  As my old man likes to point out, he makes a kadrillion more dollars a year than I do, and he packs a lunch!

Krystal started packing her lunch at the end of ’09 to see if she could do it and what she might save.  I don’t recall seeing the savings, but for me it should be substantial.  I figure, maybe half of what I currently spend.

But why didn’t I do this before?

Lazy mostly, like to be spoiled… yup that too.  Cost, I wasn’t convinced that it would necessarily be cheaper… and for sure not a better quality of lunch.  But that is crazy bullshit that lives in my head.

I was buying sandwiches.  WTF right?  Bread, meat, cheese, veggies.  I can do that.

Krystal allowed herself a bought lunch on paydays.  I get two of those a month.  Sounds like a fair play.

A roadblock that I throw up is waste.  I hate waste.  Food waste is like The Olympics… I am lighting money on fire.  I don’t just hand my money to the garbage can normally (Madelyn however, well she’s a stasher and if she finds my wallet, money walks to weird places).

Before I would get all gung-ho on “packed lunches,” go to the grocery store, buy all this stuff and seriously, days later I’d stop and buy lunches, then the end of the week I’d be tossing rotting goo into the garbage bin.

David Eleanor turned me on to the big Tupperware thing with a drip tray.  Lock your lettuce in there, lives forever.  At least a work week.  Pre-chop some veggies, Subway style and lock them in airtight container in the fridge, they should last too.

Quality is the last obstacle… but heck, I was a sandwich artist professionally for years! I am the Chris Pronger of Sandwich, I can rock a sandwich.  What sets the restaurants apart from you and me, I believe… is bread.  That might take some time to dial in.  I like Bond’s Bakery, but they aren’t near my house… so this week, its Safeway Sandwich Kaisers and French baguettes.

So here is the plan.  Each week, I’ll design my menu (likely the same thing every day, at least to start), buy my groceries for lunch, and make it and eat it… then blog it.  My goal will be to get my cost-per-lunch down to $5 a day.  If the 12-year-olds making sneakers can live off like $2 a day, I can live off a $5 meal.

Likely my sandwiches will be pretty basic to get going.  I hope to learn to make more interesting subs and the like as I progress.  Make the microwave my bitch.

Week 1 Grocery Bill

.870 kg Trail Mix = $6.87
340 grams Turkey Breast = $8.13
1 cucumber = $2.29
Red lettuce = $1.49
4 Granny Smith Apples  = $2.95
mmm Horseradish Cheese = $3.63
Almond Granola Bars = $3.99
Artisan Buns and Rolls = $1.28

I think that is everything.  After taxes and my Safeway discount it worked out to $29.61 for 3 work lunches and a Saturday.  Already above $5 a day.

BUT I bought more trail mix than I need and more granola bars, so next Monday will be my real test.  I might be able to do better on lunch meat too.  IN the summer veggies will be in season and I hope that helps a bit too.

Coffee and water are provided at my work, so water it must be (I might pack some change for a pop or chocolate sometimes too).

So, Turkey and cheese bunes with lettuce and cucumber, with an apple, trail mix and a granola bar.  That’s lunch this week.  Next update, Wednesday when we’re back from Vancouver.  Just a two day work week to pack a lunch.

Go with yourself.

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Eating Food with Friends and Family at Dos Caminos

Posted in food, Wedding, tagged , , , , , on October 19, 2009| 3 Comments »

boys a couple in

Vancityrockgirl was wondering about a restaurant review.  That is something I should leave to her as she knows and does a better job writing about grub than I ever could.  As you can see from the above picture, our reception was a drunken good time, but I’ll do my best to recall the food and service.

Coral and I had our reception at The Palazzo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas at a restaurant called Dos Caminos.

Coral and I wanted to do something either Mexican or Greek and there are no good Greek places we could find in Vegas online.  For Vancityrockgirl’s wedding she had us at Border Grill which was mighty, but since we had tried that one already we wanted something different and closer to The Flamingo.

Then there were some budget concerns so it had to be in our strike zone for cost.

We searched the the net and searched some more.  That was one of the fun things of planning was staying up late with Corj dreaming about different restaurants and what it *could* be like.  In the end we found that many places were just too expensive and/or not flexible.  The few that we felt were good value had brutal customer service and to be 100 percent honest, Dos Caminos won because Julie their marketing/event lady was excellent on the email, quick and accommodating.  Coral told her our budget, what we want and that we wanted it all and Julie made it happen.  We were so happy before we even left that we had made a good choice even though we were going on reviews from the intersphere and pictures of the venue online.

When we got to Las Vegas, Coral and I strolled up to The Palazzo to see the place and it was even nicer than the pictures.  We met Julie and she showed us the special menus that she had made for us which was a nice touch and something that I did not expect.  I think we brought one home so I’ll get it scanned to show you.

razer jenn and dad

On game day, things went super smoothly. We arrived, walked past the wall of skulls (yes they have a wall of skulls) to three large tables set back but still part of the action of the restaurant.  We had a couple servers who had the drinks moving promptly.

Coral and I had a special menu made for our guests, but really we were buying food ala carte, so if people didn’t like what was offered they could pick anything.

The servers kept the booze flowing which was nice as it was a timed open bar and drinks needed to be brought by servers.  They let everyone two and in a few storied cases three fist the drinks.  Jugs of sangria and margarita.  good times.  The serving team really went above and beyond to ensure our party was spectacular for our friends and family.  At one point, Razer had to leave before the food came out, so they took his dish back and re-made it an hour later when he could return!

The food was high quality if maybe a little small on the portions.  Luckily some people weren’t even hungry so I ate a little of everything.

I had the pork tacos, Coral the steak.  Her steak was excellent.  The flank steak at Border Grill is good and we had it the next night, but I think I prefer the Dos Caminos steak… the only thing, you get more food at Border Grill.

Coral giving an eye

I loved the service and quality of food at Dos Caminos.

I didn’t like the portion size and that is was buried in the bowels of The Palazzo which in turn is at the back of the Venetian.  The worst part of the Venetian is the goofy aroma they blast in that place, made me sick almost.  Luckily you don’t notice it as much in the restaurant.

Bob giving a gun

I am very thankful that Jane was there snapping so many pictures of the party!

That’s all I got for now, I need to get to work!

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It keeps chickens and lovers from wandering

Posted in food, life or something like it, Wedding, tagged , , , , , , on September 14, 2009| 3 Comments »

cake

I can’t believe its less than a month away till Vegas.  I am very excited.  Last weekend Coral, mads and I packed up the Victoria family and journeyed to the wilds of Coquitlam.

My Mom and Dad threw us a most extravagant backyard wedding reception type party.  It was great to reconnect with friends, family and the family of friends.

A highlight for me was watching the gaggle of kids running around in the backyard getting up to no goodness, eating apples off the trees, and general tyke horse play.

Some scotch was drank (thanks ted!) and the bonds of friendship were strengthened.  I really am having troubles with patience as the final count down to Vegas is upon us.

Next party, there will be even more babies as Ted’s wife and my cousin Mo are expecting.  I was thinking that if Tracy had put her newborn son in Vancityrock‘s arms, she’d bee-line home and get baby making herself!

Thank you to my folks and sister and brother CJ for helping to create this wonderful party and to everyone that took a few moments in their life to spend a sunny late summer evening with Coral and I.

***

Today I woke up with a mad lust for tacos.  Lately I can’t seem to eat enough cilantro/Mexican or stop dreaming about Mediterranean food.  Weird.

The tacos were a force this morning that I had to indulge in.  I have a recipe burning a whole through the memory of my Blackberry that I had to cook (the Blackberry Food Network App is mighty).

The main issue I was facing, no cumin, no car, baby.  I put Madelyn on my shoulders and grabbed my shopping bag and huffed it overland to Fairways.

The advantage to this peregrination is that it kept Mads excited and engaged.  The disadvantage is that cooking with a toddler under foot is both dangerous and trying.

I quickly crafted her a tapas dish of tomatoes and bananas.  Weird but I guess the two go together well for Madelyn as she was content to munch on that salad while I prepared my tacos.

Pork Tacos with a Tomato Salsa and Creamed Avocados

You’ll be needing:

a package of ground pork
some shrimp
a bunch of chopped cilantro stems
2 TBSPN cumin
2 tspn paprika
1 chopped hot chili
1 clove garlic chopped
1 shallot chopped
the juice of half a lime
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of salt

tomato salsa

3 tomatoes diced
2 green onions chopped
a bunch of cilantro diced
the juice of half or maybe one lime
some salt
a pinch of sugar

for the creamed avocado

2 avocados roughly chopped
1/4 cup of sour cream
1  green onion chopped
juice of a lime
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Here we go:

Brown the pork in a frying pan.  When it is golden and cooked, add the shallots, garlic and chopped chili pepper and cook for another minute or two.  Then add the cumin and paprika and stir.  At this point, your house will smell fantastic.

Add the shrimp and cook till it turns pink.

Let it cook for another minute or two and then add the lime juice, cilantro stems and a pinch of sugar, stir and remove from heat.

While the pork is browning you make the salsa by chopping the tomatoes, green onion and cilantro.  Fire that into a bowl and toss it in lime juice.  That’s done.

To make the creamed avocado, peel and take the nut out of a couple avocados.  Chop them roughly and put into a bowl.  Add the chopped green onion, a quatre cup of sour cream and some lime juice and mash.  You might want to add a pinch of salt and sugar.

The recipe called for the juice of 2 and half limes… I only had two left and I used two and it was still WAY to tart.  I’d almost use no limes or maybe half a lime next time.  Or just make guacamole.

Get your hands on your favourite taco shells, or tortillas and pile a scoop of the pork/shrimp mixture on your tortilla with a nice big spoon full of tomato salsa and a dollop of creamed avocado.  Garnish with a little cilantro and yum it up.

***
That’s all I got right now.  Still dreaming about those tacos.  wow.  Cumin is not the most authentic Mexican seasoning but I don’t care, its just plain good.

My buddy Alex sent me a link to some rare Canadian history… apperently during World War 2 the German’s set up a weather station in Canada? That’s a CBC movie that needs to be made!

Go with yourself.

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Chickens are dinosaurs (I think)

Posted in food, tagged , , , on September 7, 2009| 3 Comments »

DSC_0130

God Bless Alton Brown and his show Good Eats.  He was talking Buffalo Chicken Wings the other day and utilizing the power of the PVR, I saved the show so I could try to make it myself.

As anyone who watched Alton’s show knows, the dude throws a ton of knowledge at you, from the history of the Buffalo Chicken wing, to how to butcher your wings for cooking.

If you buy your chicken wings in a “family” pack from the grocery store, they are exceptionally well priced.  But you got a lot of work to do to get them ready for consumption.  Hope you like handling raw chicken!

I had to get right in there and chop ends off the wings, then separate the wings at the joint which was a fun, medieval process.  When that was all done, you get a pot boiling with a steamer basket and steam the wings for 10 mintues. Pull the wings out and place them on racks over a backing sheet.

You need to then put the wings in the fridge for an hour.  While that is happening get your oven fired up to 425 degrees.

When the oven is ready to go, pop the wings in for 20 minutes.  then flip them over and cook for at least another 20 or until the skin is golden and crispy.

To make the sauce, combine about 3 ounces of butter and a clove of chopped garlic in a microwave safe bowl and heat on low power till it melted.  Put that buttery goo in a great big mixing bowl with an equal part of hot sauce (I used Frank’s) and a good pinch of salt.  Whisk and when your wings are ready, put them in the mixing bowl while popping hot and toss in the sauce.

Serve with celery and blue cheese dip and you’re loving life.

The only issue you’ll have is, they’re seriously restaurant quality yumtastic… but a pretty good investment of time… you’ll be asked to make them all the time!

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swirls and foam

Posted in food, life or something like it, tagged , , , , , on August 26, 2009| 8 Comments »

I stayed up way too late last night listening to music, and this morning woke up way too early.  They are finally building sidewalks in my neightbourhood (huzzah) but for a few weeks at the end of the summer, some early wake ups for me.

Getting up early was good, I had an interview with BCIT for the degree program I want into.  Education is a bizarre industry.  I have to apply, jump through hoops and basically beg to write them a cheque.  Maybe not so different than the nightclub business or Apple computers… but still, seems weird.

Needless to say, i rocked that interview so now Coral and I will need to decide if BCIT’s Bachelor of Technology is a better bet than Applied Communications (or whatever they call it now) from Royal Roads… or maybe a third option… or maybe the forth option, Cooking School!

I think I like BCITs the best, because it is a management AND technology degree.  Those two skills are things I could use in broadcasting or else where.  learning how to talk to gooder and writing press releases?  Not so much.

The advantage of Royal Roads might be that I can finish sooner if I work like crazy steroided ant.

What I have been the most excited about lately is thinking about three business ideas that I have.

What I want to do… maybe after the wedding, is brew my own root beer and create a brand and sell my root beer.  back in maybe 2002, while slaving away at Starbucks, I got it in my head to brew root beer.  I bought some books on home brewing, and even some bottles, buckets and general kit to try and brew some… but life threw some curve balls (and I ran out of money), then I moved to Victoria.  I put all the brew equipment in the storage of my apartment in Fernwood… and promptly lost it all.  Except for the books on how to brew and some recipes.

Lately I have had to vision to do it again.  My holy grail would be a very dry, alcoholic root beer… mmm, it should be possible.  But there is all sorts of stuff that I could put in my brew.  The fun would be creating a product that is good, then seeing if I can sell it!

What I might actually do is start a mobile disco business… DJing weddings and parties and the like.

What I have a fantasy of doing, is throwing one off dinning events.  Finding a nice outdoor site and hiring or renting the equipment and having an outdoor dinner.  Finding a kitchen space not being used, a local chef and booking a one off dinner party.  Finding an ingredient and designing a dinner based around it.  Finding a supplier or industrial space, dressing it up and serving dinner n the site.  Fun, unique, delicious dining experiences… I might even get a chance to cook some stuff! or at least learn from the chefs.

My friend works for a local catering company and it sounds like they could really use some energy and more importantly business, so the opportunity might be there.

That is a few things I have been thinking about lately on top of my usual brain swirls of music, babies, wedding plannings, broadcasting and podcasting.

***

Go with yourself.

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Eating a Burger for the Burger Blog (my life is hard)

Posted in food, tagged , , , , , on August 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

baker1

Look ma! I’m featured on the Burger Blog!

Thank you Donald, that was fun… and I wanna do it again.

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tell me what to like

Posted in food, tagged , , , on August 14, 2009| 2 Comments »

Yesterday  I met up with the Vic Burger Blog guy, Donald, to mow down on a burger to add to his outstanding list of Victoria burger reviews.

I wanted to hit Cabin 12 on Pandora Street.  Last week, I met up with Robin Farrell of Kool FM for a bite, and we ventured to Cabin 12 and I was mighty impressed with the service, cost and quality of the meal.  Robin and I rocked wraps, this time, Donald and I would be trying the burger.

Donald ordered some creation with a fried egg, some bacon and cheese on top.  Pretty much a breakfast AND lunch combo thing.  I went with their classic, Cabin 12 burger.

What to say about it?  I loved that it wasn’t too saucy, an overly saucy burger makes me want to drag net the ocean bottom.  The burger came open faced on a hearty whole wheat bun and came with all the standard fixings.

Right away, the burger could do no worse than par.

The patty tasted like some kind of homemade creation from a picnic long past.  It had that “mom” feel about it and some surprises as you bit in.  Red and Green peppers?  sure, I hope that is what it was.  Donald and I had a hard time deciding if this was good or not.  The dude mentioned that the burger was very similar to the Floyd’s Burger, something about the owner being a former employee?

For the $8 something I paid and the funky vibe of the joint I’ll give this burger a firm recommend and it will become a new favourite diner for me.  I’ll need to drag Coral down sometime for a breakfast.  Ha, maybe this morning when I wake up before work.  Friday is pay day!

Go with yourself.

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