Sunday Funny

There's a classic moment on the American version of The Office where Micheal Scott and Dwight Shrute do a parody of "Lazy Sunday" as a staff orientation video. While the information in it is relevant, most of the rhymes in are, well, not very good.

Of course, we've all had to sit through awkward videos at school or work. They're well meaning, but either try to hard, or just miss the point. However, sometimes they can do all three and still be pretty good. These excerpts from a Wendy's training video explaining how to serve drinks are cheesy and cringe inducing, but their heart is in the right place.

And really, for the time, the songs aren't all that bad.

Food at the Fair

When we heard about the different foods that were available at this years' Canadian National Exhibition our curiosity was peaked right away by the deep fried macaroni and cheese.

Located in the Food Building, The Mac and Cheesery offers different varieties of macaroni and cheese ranging from the traditional to cheeseburger macaroni and cheese, as well as a grilled cheese sandwiches. For $5 we received four medium-sized fried balls. These could have been accompanied by a small plastic cup of ketchup.

The balls were coated in breadcrumbs, possibly panko, and were fresh out of the deep fryer. Surprisingly, they were not greasy. They were structurally strong and only needed a little bit of pressure from the plastic fork to cut. The cheese held the macaroni together, so you didn't get a mess in the box they were served in.

Of course, the most important part is how well it tastes. The breadcrumbs were nice and sweet. Their texture was a nice contrast to the smooth noodles and creamy cheese.

However, while the outside was nice, the inside was bland. The noodles themselves were bland and could have used some seasoning. The cheese, while real, was also just sufficient. It didn't create an unpleasant flavour, but it didn't add anything.

Overall, for fair food it was good, but not great. The most disappointing part was that it could be extraordinary with so little extra effort. A little extra seasoning would go along way, and a nice shard cheddar would make a world of difference. I can't understand why this fried food would not be given the same apres-fry salting that every other fried food receives. The ketchup could be replaced with a downscale form of aioli. Now while this doesn't make it good fair food, I could see it being a really nice appetizer or upscale pub food.

Which means it should go nicely with deep fried beer, which will be available at the next Exhibition.

Hipstamatic at Pike Place

It is not uncommon for people to come up to me and ask about my camera. This has happened on a boat tour in Chicago, photographing the Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz and wandering around Pike Place Market in Seattle.

Like most people, I own several cameras, but when I travel I use the camera on my iPhone for snapshots that can be easily uploaded to social networking sites and I use Jack. Bright red with a peppermint swirl on the film advance dial, Jack is a limited edition Holga camera produced for the White Stripes and was my first introduction to Lomographic cameras. These analogue cameras are plastic and are known for their imperfections and cinematic qualities.

On my second day in Seattle, I wanted to walk around Pike Place Market early in the morning to shoot the food stands before the tourist population became overwhelming. While photographing Pike Place Fish (and trying to avoid being hit by a flying fish) I was asked by one of the fishmongers about Jack because he had been looking for a Holga. During the course of our conversation, he mentioned the Hipstamatic application available for the iPhone.

The Hipstamatic application gives photographs that vintage look that I get with my Holga when using its John S lens. The other two lenses available when you spend $1.99 are Kaimal Mark II, which reminds me of the photos my parents took in the 1970s, and Jimmy, which creates a certain brightness to all of the photos. In this application, you can also choose different films and whether to add the effect of a flash. The one drawback is that unlike CameraBag, which allows you to apply different vintage effects to photos after they have been taken, photos must be taken in the Hipstamatic application.

Although nothing will ever replace Jack, the photos posted here of the market give you an idea of what is on the 16 rolls of film that are waiting to be developed.

July Fruit Preserving Roundup

The dining room became a disaster zone over the past week -- loading and unloading new jars, packing up processed jars, dehydrator parts scattered on top of boxes. With the hot, dry summer that we are experiencing in Ontario, a lot of fruits and vegetables are coming in early. I was worried about missing the bulk of cherry season and with my summer vacation approaching, did not want to completely miss apricots and golden plums while I am away. Also, I wanted to start pickling beets every few weeks since we currently have none in the pantry.

I have compiled all of the recipes that I tried over the last week while there is still time to preserve.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation is still my first stop as a reference tool when canning a new fruit or vegetable. Separately, I made golden plums and apricots in syrup. NCHFP provides the water to sugar ratio for the syrup for a variety of fruits.

While on the subject of golden plums and apricots, I found a great recipe to a combined jam from Canadian Living. The jam is a beautiful golden colour while the taste is sweet and tart. This non-pectin jam took about 30 minutes to cook to the proper setting stage.

If you are interested in an apricot jam recipe, check out my apricot-riesling jam post from last year.

With the help of the husband (who lovingly pitted nine quarts of cherries on a Sunday afternoon), we made four jars of bourbon cherries, nine jars of cherries in simple syrup and eight jars of cherry jam. For the jam, I ended up with 11 cups of cooked cherries and it took one and a half hours to reach the proper setting stage.

Zucchini Relish

I originally wanted to make a sweet cucumber relish for this month's Can Jam, but then last week the yellow zucchini started making their appearance in the garden. The beast on the left weighed 2 pounds. So I decided to make zucchini relish.

I found the recipe on the Canadian Living website and made two slight alterations: using mustard seeds rather than dry mustard powder and pulsing all of the vegetables to the same size. If I were to make the recipe again, I would reduce the amount of sugar (maybe eliminating 1/2 cup) because I found it a bit sweeter than expected.

Another tip would be to remove the seeds of the zucchini if they seem too large. The seeds in my two zucchinis were about the size of pumpkin seeds and I didn't want those in the relish. However, if you were using smaller or younger squash, removing the seeds might not be necessary.

My final yield was three 500 ml jars and one 125 ml jar.

3 lb zucchinis, cut into large chunks
3 onions, chopped
2 red peppers, diced
1/4 c pickling salt
2 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c cider vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water

1. Wash and sanitize the jars.
2. In food processor, pulse zucchini, a few pieces at a time, until size of rice with a few larger pieces. Transfer to large stainless-steel or glass bowl. Repeat with the onions and red peppers.
   
3. Add the salt to the zucchini, onion and pepper mixture. Stir to blend. Let stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
   
4. Hang the vegetable mixture in a cheesecloth-lined colander to drain. Press out as much liquid as possible and discard. (I extracted 2 cups of liquid).
5. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, vinegar, mustard, celery seeds, ginger, turmeric and hot pepper flakes. Bring to boil.
   
6. Add the drained vegetables to the vinegar mixture. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
7. Mix cornstarch with water and stir into relish. Simmer for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens.
8. Pour the relish into sterilized jars and place in a water bath. Heat process for 15 minutes.

In the Garden: July 2010

I Scream, You Scream

I think there is a singular moment when you realize that you have entered adulthood. Mine came when I started asking for kitchen appliances as gifts for special occasions.

My wedding anniversary is in August and two years ago the husband gave me an ice cream machine to celebrate our sixth anniversary.

Last week Salon.com provided a comprehensive article on how to make any flavour of ice cream. Using their base recipe, flavour can be added either by infusing the milk mixture or by folding flavour once the ice cream is churned.

Some might call me boring, but I prefer traditional when enjoying my vanilla ice cream. But we are in that time of year when I can finally buy fruit locally, so don't be surprised to find strawberries, blueberries or cherries in the next churn.