Baked beans please

Rod requested home made baked beans this weekend and since fall has certainly blown into Calgary I took on the challenge. It literally took all weekend to make baked beans! 12 hours of soaking and 18 hours in the slow cooker later, we had baked beans for breakfast on Sunday morning. Here is the recipe, though I had to add 2 cups of water, more molasses, ketchup, some apple sauce and mustard about 10 hours into the slow cooking....

2 bags of white beans
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 can crushed pinapple
3 T mustard
1 cup hot water

Rinse beans and pick out bad ones. Boil on stove for 5 minutes. Drain water and then soak overnight. Rinse in the morning and dump in slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Set on low and slow cook for 10 hours. Add additional water, ketchup, molasses, water, mustard. Simmer on low for 8 more hours!

Home made mint sauce!

Last week I harvested that last of the fresh mint from our herb garden and decided to make my own home made mint sauce. It turned out great and Rod, Nancy and I enjoyed it on a fresh leg of lamb roast one Sunday afternoon. Delicious!

1/2 cup finely chopped mint

1 cup malt vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

Simmer and add to taste.

Gattuso makes another appearance!

Rod and I had the wonderful opportunity to dine at our friends Emily and Sander's house on Saturday night. Emily made home made pizzas and I brought a little East Coast specialty - Gattuso!!

The pizzas were awesome and the company was even better :)

Julie & Julia - cooking live lobsters

I watched Julie & Julia last night and was inspired to share some live lobster cooking memories. The  secret to any East Coast seafood extravaganza is freshness. Lobster has to be FRESH! Bay of Fundy lobsters are really good because the water is cold and pretty deep so they have hard shells and good salty meat. We cook our lobster in a big pot out in the garage on a propane burner.

Another secret? Don't steam them with the rubber bands on. It leaves the claw meat tasting like rubber. Yuck! Be brave like my Dad and cut off the claw bands before dropping the lobster in the pot.

Christmas 2008 - Bay of Fundy lobster cooked fresh in Dad's garage

 

May 2008 - Baie de Chaleur lobster caught and cooked by my Mom's uncle in Anse Bleu, NB

Garde Manger, Old Montreal

Where to begin to do this restaurant justice...Perhaps starting at the beginning. We had planned a late dinner at Garde Manger in Old Montreal on the night of Monique's bachelorette party. We had full expectations to leave after our dinner and find a good club on Rue Crescent to dance the night away. Long story short, we left Garde Manger at 3 a.m. and had the best night out in Old Montreal!

You'd never know it to see, but Garde Manger is the restaurant of Chuck Hughes, star of Chuck's Day Off on the Food Network. Chuck wasn't there the night we dined and partied until 3 p.m., but some of his excellent staff were there and we had a fantastic time.

Here is the menu for the night. We had the lobster poutine for start (shared it between two but it would have been better between four since it is so rich). I had the scallops with bacon and potatoes gratin for an entrée and it was amazing! The scallops were cooked perfectly (and I'm REALLY picky and my seafood). Our server, Catherine, was fantastic.

 

There was a very tantilizing seafood tray offered as an appy but half of it was raw so we passed. But here is the pitch for order oysters:

At midnight the restaurant turns into a bar and the music was so great we decided to stay and dance. It was like our own private little dance club. The bartender, Jamie, was fab and loved us and the DJ, Brian, never once let us down. I think Monique texted at least five songs to Frank to add to their wedding reception playlist! (below is Megs giving a shout out to Brian the DJ and then our very cute bartender, Jamie)

Here we are in Chuck's kitchen!

Click here for some history on the term garde manger.

My beef tartare experience

While in Montreal for the LGM 10-year reunion weekend, we had lunch at Thursday's on Rue Crescent. Megs mentioned that her husband JD and his dad dined there quite a bit when they visit Montreal and that JD always gets the beef tartare (also called steak tartare). Well, beef tartare would never be high on my list, especially at a resto that I've never been too. But if JD has repeatedly had it there then I couldn't think of a better place to give it a try. It was actually pretty good. Totally gourmet and I only could eat about two tablespoons, but I am happy I tried it and even happier that I can blog about it ;)

 

PS: No, I didn't get sick. And yes JD, I found a completely random pic of you on the internet and linked to it.

Anti-vino recom

We bought this wine at the Metro (grocery store) in Montreal to bring with us to a BYOV (bring your own vin) restaurant. Don't be fooled by it's acclaimed awards (2001 and 2004). It smelled kind of like old dirty gym socks and didn't taste great.