Food Musings

A Winnipeg blog about the joy of preparing food for loved ones and the shared joy that travel & dining brings to life.

Bikinis and Margaritas

September12

You are truly blessed if you have someone in your life that will virtually guarantee a fabulous time if you are invited to their home.  My friend Laura and her husband Allan are such people.  And knowing that they love hosting as much as their friends benefit from their hospitality, is like a double blessing.  Their comfortable home is perfect for entertaining, especially when the guest of honour, whose upcoming nuptials we were celebrating, requests a Bikinis and Margaritas evening.

Allan had the blender and freshly cut strawberries set up when we arrived.  He was offering Pink Bikini Margaritas or traditional lime versions.  Seeing as though a cocktail is the closest way I am going to be a associated with a pink bikini, I opted for the former-a delicious way to start the evening.

Laura’s Shrimp Cocktail

We were an assembly of old friends and were comfortable to perch on the stools in front of their cooking island.  I don’t know whether we started with the Sopa de Lima or Mexican Shrimp Cocktail and my photos do not give me any hints as to the order.  (Good thing I stopped with a single margarita).  Let’s say it was the shrimp.

Shrimp Ceviche at the Fisherman’s Cop-op on Isla Mujeres

Laura’s version is the closest thing that I have tasted to the ones that we dream about from the little seafood restaurants lined up on the sandy beach of Isla Mujeres.

Picus Shrimp Cocktail on Isla Mujeres

I am rambling on about Isla because only Laura knows how to make the Yucatan dishes that I long for.  Someone in Winnipeg should seriously hire this talented woman to fashion their Mexican menu for them…..but I digress.

Here is Laura’s Mexican Shrimp Cocktail recipe:

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetiser
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Cooked shrimp are chilled in a spicy tomato-juice cocktail.
Ingredients
  • lbs. cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 T crushed garlic
  • ½ c finely chopped red onion
  • ¼ c fresh cilantro,chopped
  • 1½c tomato and clam juice cocktail
  • ¼ c ketchup
  • ¼ c fresh lime juice
  • 1 t hot pepper sauce sauce, or to taste
  • ¼ c prepared horseradish
  • salt to taste
  • 1 ripe avocado-peeled, pitted and chopped
Instructions
  1. Place shrimp in a large bowl.
  2. Stir in garlic, red onion and cilantro.
  3. Mix in clamato juice, ketchup, lime juice, hot pepper sauce and horseradish.
  4. Season with salt.
  5. Gently stir in avocado.
  6. Cover and refrigerate 2 to 3 hrs.
  7. Serve in one large bowl or ladle into individual bowls.

Everything about this recipe was so delicious that I poured the nectar onto taco chips, so as not to miss a single taste.

Kath’s quote: “To make people who have no appetite eat, to make the wit of those who have it sparkle, to enable those who want these qualities to find them — this is the supreme science of a gastronome-host.”-Lucien Tendret

Love-that is all.

Speaking of Squash

September11

D is working from the cottage today and I am a little bit jealous.  I have no reason to be,  as he was underneath the cottage early this morning, disconnecting our current plumbing, while I was sound asleep in our cozy bed.  But I am envious about the idea of working from the cottage in September.  So I have done the next best thing and set up on our little back deck in the city and if this drizzle of rain continues, I will move to the gazebo.

But I digress.  I first became acquainted with Pit Pat squash when I found it at the St. Norbert market last autumn. The way I prepared it then did not leave a positive impression upon me but when I received it again as part of my Blue Lagoon Garden share, I simply roasted it in canola oil to have with Gourmet Mac and Cheese.  I LOVED the taste-more flavourful than zucchini, with a nuttiness and slight acidity not found in other squash.  Now of course, I can’t get enough (like roasted beets this summer).

Kath’s quote: “Square meals, not adventurous ones, are what you should seek.”-Bryan Miller

Love-that is all.

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That’s A Lot of Zucchini!

September10

Fall is not officially here but is certainly in the air.  I know this from a number of events: we stayed in the city this weekend instead of venturing out to our beloved Beach House, J1 and J2 arrived right after church for the first Sunday of NFL, Daughter #2 and the Frenchman unboxed the Settlers game for post supper entertainment, I had a yearning for Gourmet Mac and Cheese for dinner instead of our summer barbeque fare AND I have more zucchini in my house than you can shake a stick at (I wonder where this silly saying comes from).

Recently I have tossed zucchini with onion, garlic, tomatoes, fresh herbs and feta and mixed with pasta, served it grilled with most meals, made pencil sticks out of it and fresh carrots to present to a gang of toddlers, whipped up zucchini brownies and dreamed up zucchini and pesto omelets for yesterday’s brunch.

This recipe seems to be the winner (and good thing because my supply is not yet depleted):

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
This recipe is very accommodating for more than the required shredded zucchini.
Ingredients
  • 1½ c flour
  • ¾ c sugar (I used Truvia baking blend)
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • ½ t salt
  • 1 beaten egg
  • ½ c canola oil
  • ¼ c milk
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1 c shredded zucchini
  • ½-1 c chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a sturdy whisk. Combine wet ingredients with the zucchini being added last to a medium bowl.
  2. Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix just until completely moistened.
  3. Add chocolate chips and lightly mix again.

I had some left over beer/cream cheese icing in the fridge, so I used I smeared them with this last evening and served them for dessert.  If you eliminated the chocolate chips and added some grated cheese, they could accompany a soup or stew.

Kath’s quote: “The first zucchini I ever saw I killed it with a hoe.”-John Gould

Love-that is all.

Laurent Chapdelaine

September7

A week ago I attended the Funeral Mass for a great man on the Winnipeg restaurant scene.  He had silver hair and was dashingly handsome with a witty sense of humour and an unforgettable laugh.  He drove a truck and no, he was not a delivery person for a food-service company.  He was one of those astonishing men who kept the home fires burning while his wife was a successful restaurant owner and hands on manager.  His wife Joan was one of the first restaurant owner/operators on the Winnipeg scene and in the Keg Restaurant system.  I started at the Garry St. Keg just a short time before her.  I watched her rise through the ranks with her amazing attention to detail, hard work and perseverance.  She could not have done this without a special man at home.

Back in the old Keg days it was like we were family and many of us were-five families in particular: the Chapdelaines, the Furlans, the Reschs, the Grisims and my own.  Many of us worked side by side with our siblings and even our Moms (or in my case my future mother-in-law).  We didn’t all end up in the restaurant business but we learned many fundamentals for business success like loving the hard work, enjoying the celebrations and time to play, all the while keeping an eye on the bottom line.

Last Friday there were three generations of Grisims to mourn alongside three generations of Chapdelaines.  D and I have ignited the hospitality fire in our kids and now J1 is a stellar dining room server at The Keg working for one of Joan and Laurent’s children.  You see two of their five children are the General Managers of the Winnipeg Kegs.  Did I forget to mention this? While Joan was spending all those hours in the hospitality business, she and Laurent raised five children!  At one time or another, all the kids and even one of their grandchildren, all worked in the restaurants.

I am quite sure that you love food and restaurants, otherwise why would you be reading these musings?  So next time you are toasting a restaurant or Chef’s success, remember that behind every Joan there is a Laurent.  Perhaps not so big a person as this man was, with such a booming laugh and such a keen wit but someone to keep it all together at home, none the less.

Kath’s quote: “A married couple who enjoy the pleasures of the table have, at least once a day, a pleasant opportunity to be together.”-Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin

Love-that is all.

Ty’s Cafe and Bakery, The Sand Bar Motor Hotel-Grand Beach

September6

Perhaps the best part of a vacation at the cottage is going out for dinner.  This treat actually makes the entire day seem longer.  You can stay on the beach later in the afternoon and there is no worry if you forgot to plan on getting something out of the freezer.  Mind you, it may mean that you have to get out of your bathing suit but this is only a preference.  I think that the casual atmosphere of the Sand Bar would accommodate you in any attire.  I love a summer when you change from pjs to bathing suit and back to pjs.  The summer of 2012 was a summer like this.

When D and I visited The Sand Bar last summer, we were disappointed by the quality of the pickerel special and not surprized when we saw racks of it already fried and ready to plunge back into the fryer to warm it up.  But this summer, batch cooking had been rejected and as soon as we ordered (all of us choosing the same thing) our server rushed to the kitchen window to ensure that there were five fresh orders left.  The bar around us was almost empty, but supposedly the dining room was jammed with pickerel lovers.

We started off with an order of fire-dusted calamari.  There was plenty to share and one member of our party declared that it was perhaps the best calamari that he had tasted in a very on time.  This was high praise, as The Australian resides near the ocean in Melbourne.  Perhaps it was the Long-Island Ice Teas and Bloody Caesars that elevated our appreciation.

The “old school” crunchy batter is not a necessary enhancement because pickerel retains a delicate flavour (when freshly caught and never frozen it actually sparkles in your mouth), but this recipe is fun every once in a while.  Unless of course you are trying to get back into shape to play professional rugby after an injury and surgery, which happens to be the case for the Australian.  He left a mound of the batter on his plate but still seemed to enjoy the treat.

The sun was just setting as we departed.  Another perfect ending to a perfect day.

Kath’s quote: “Grilling is like sunbathing. Everyone knows it is bad for you but no one ever stops doing it.”-Laurie Colwin

Love-that is all.

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