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I’m back with another daily dinners post! I can’t take much credit for these meals… Scott made dinner almost every day. Best husband ever. I’ve linked a couple recipes myself but if there is something else that catches your eye just let me know and I’ll track down the recipe from the chef.

Be sure to check out our Valentines Day meal. We went out to El Inka, a small mom & pop type place tucked into an obscure area of Burnaby. I only heard about it because it’s quite close to the hospital. Anyway it was super delicious and definitely beat out our unpleasant Valentines Day dinner from the year before. I also really like their cheese empanadas.

february 10, 2013 – roast chicken leg, green beans & sweet potato

february 11, 2013 – shrimp and okra gumbo

february 12, 2013 – spinach salad with salmon, walnuts and goat cheese

more dinner pictures after the jump…

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It definitely wasn’t a perfect fortnight… there are some very non-nutritious meals in here. Just being honest, I guess.

I AM going to include some recipe links this time because there were a few winning dishes in between all the crap. :D

january 27, 2013 – spinach and artichoke lasagna

january 28, 2013 – thai lemon shrimp with rice and peas

january 29, 2013 – homemade fish and chips, with salad

more dinner pics after the jump…

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Over the last six months Scott and I have experimented A LOT in different ways to make popcorn. Some batches have been great, some have gone straight to the trash. (Good thing popcorn kernels are really cheap!). I think we have finally figured out THE BEST ways to make popcorn at home now though!!

Things we have tried:

  • regular popcorn in a cheapo air popper with butter or coconut oil
  • regular popcorn in a paper bag in the microwave
  • caramel corn
  • white chocolate oreo covered popcorn
  • kettle corn in a pot with butter or coconut oil
  • kettle corn in a wok with a lid with coconut oil or vegetable oil

The failures:

  1. Cheapo air poppers don’t work. It used to work but after a month it started spitting out 50% un-popped kernels.
  2. A regular pot doesn’t have enough space in it to allow the popcorn to move around and not burn. If you’re going to use a pot it’s going to have to be one of those huge stock pots. Preferably one with a thick bottom so the heat is more uniform.
  3. Butter browns and tastes funny.
  4. Vegetable oil has a funny smell/taste. Plus it’s not even made out of vegetables??!! The one we bought is made out of soy. That is weird.

The successes:

  1. Coconut oil tastes just like butter on popcorn and it’s much healthier (as far as I know). Plus if you get it on your fingers you can just rub it in to your hands like a moisturizer.
  2. Caramel popcorn was ULTRA delicious. Just like Kernels stuff, but a fraction of the cost. Very unhealthy but extremely tasty.
  3. White chocolate Oreo popcorn looks bad but tastes really really good. We brought this to Whistler over Christmas and everyone devoured it.
  4. Kettle corn is pretty easy to make at home!!!
  5. Coconut works very well for popping popcorn in a pot/wok.
  6. A wok with a lid has enough room for popcorn to move around while allowing the oil to pool at the bottom with the kernels.

Conclusions:

Coconut oil is essential. You can get it at a lot of stores now, in the oil aisle. You can also get it online for cheaper. We bought a mega tub of it from well.ca with a $10 off coupon. Some brands have a hint of coconut smell/taste, and some are totally neutral. It is great for popping popcorn and for putting on top of popcorn.

These are our house recipes now:

REGULAR POPCORN: make in a wok on the stove with coconut oil. You’ll have to ask Scott for the measurements! He’s really mastered it now.

CARAMEL POPCORN: melt 4 tbsp of butter, then add 1/2 cup brown sugar + 1/4 cup honey + 1 tsp salt in a pot over medium heat until it reaches 235 Farenheit. Immediately take off heat and pour over 6 cups popped popcorn (you could use the previous method without salt). Stir stir stir, then let cool.

WHITE CHOCOLATE OREO POPCORN: I found no faults with this recipe.

KETTLE CORN: (for this one you should get all your tools/supplies prepared ahead of time because you have to work fairly fast.) Put 1/4 cup coconut oil in a wok or large pot over medium heat. Throw in three popcorn kernels and put the lid on. When those three kernels have popped throw in 1/2 cup popcorn kernels + 1/4 cup sugar in and quickly stir a bit. Put the lid back on and start to agitate the wok/pot. Never let the kernels stay still! Scott usually just shakes the pot back and forth over the element, with the odd vertical toss every once and a while. Keep it moving, this stuff burns super easily. When all the kernels have popped, pour it out on a baking sheet and immediately put some salt on it. Let cool!

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I just realized I totally forgot to blog about NYE, Cirque du Soleil, or the duck. I know it’s all old news now so I’ll just quickly show you some pictures.

We went to our friends apartment for New Years Eve. It was fun. They had crackers that had sweet gifts inside like luggage tags and paper clip holders. One person got a camera tripod!

Cirque du Soleil (Amaluna) was awesome. The tallest guy in the whole tent sat in front of me but I just creepily leaned over towards the stranger on my left so I could see the stage. I let Scott have the good seat because it was his first Cirque experience. He liked it.

I liked: the flexible water tub girl, especially when she swam out of the tub directly into a handstand (I HAVE TO LEARN THAT!!), the tight-rope girl (not the guy), and the see-saw flipping guys. The balancing branches thingy was neato. I wonder if she has ever had it fall down during a show. I wonder how fast she could set it up if she wanted to.

I didn’t like: the bars act, I don’t think it was special enough to be part of the show. We’ve all seen the Olympics! (I know I am a tough customer.)


It’s not burnt, it’s caramelized honey I swear

I decided I wanted to try to roast a duck because they were on sale at Superstore. By the way I really like that Superstore has pages of foods on sale that are for non-white-people holidays. Good on them for realizing that Vancouver has so many people with their own holidays that they should be able to celebrate with as much ease as people that celebrate Christmas.

Scott made scallion pancakes and we chopped up some green onion and cucumber to eat with our duck. It turned out pretty well! Most of the fat drained off the duck onto the pan below. (So much for trying to save some scrubbing… the fat all went underneath the tin foil). I don’t know if I’ll ever cook it again but it was fun to try. PS did you notice that our duck was missing one leg?

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Last Friday Scott and I went to see Dan Mangan, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I thought it was a great show! Robots got a bit tedious after the 150th “robots need love too, they want to be loved by you” but other than that I had lots of fun.

I always enjoy it when a musician talks in between songs, and he did that. If they’re not going to talk you might as well just stay home and listen to the CD really loud!

His electric guitarist (on the left of this pic) was really funny. I give him an A+ for enthusiasm!!!

For the last song of the encore he came right out in to the audience. Right after I took this picture he told everyone to put away their phones and cameras and just enjoy being in the moment. We all sang along and it sounded pretty cool in the big theatre. That girl right underneath his left elbow looked like she might pass out from happiness from being so close to Mr. Mangan. Hahahaha.

If you still don’t know who Dan Mangan is you are missing out. He’s from Vancouver and has a lovely gravelly voice. Check him out! Here’s a video from a performance for CBC.

In other news I made eggs benedict for our breakfast this morning, complete with home made Hollandaise sauce. I am pretty proud of myself. The part I still need to work on is how to get all of the elements ready at the same time so they are still hot when it’s time to eat. Tricky! I won’t be trying this again for a while though… this breakfast is definitely a “sometimes” food.

BTW, this is the Hollandaise recipe I used. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/hollandaise-sauce-recipe/index.html Works out to one egg yolk per person you are cooking for.