Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
An Evening with David Adjey
Ok, this is kinda old news now but I haven't had a chance to sit down and type for a little while. Here goes...this past Tuesday, Bruce and I had the opportunity to attend a dinner with Chef David Adjey, you probably know him from Restaurant Makeover on the Food Network.
He's the Chef in residence at NAIT this week and they held a dinner with local food bloggers to tie in with the social networking trend surrounding food. When we arrived there was an empty seat right beside David that I took advantage of. The NAIT students prepared a tasting menu all prepared from recipes in David's cookbook, 'Deconstructing the Dish', which he autographed for me!
Shrimp
spoon bread stuffing
kick-ass tartar sauce
wilted chicory
Artic Char
Fennel braise
Yukon gold dumplings
Pork Chop
rubbed with 'stir-fry' paste
baby bok choy
kumquat-garlic sauce
Halibut
crab hash
saffron aioli
"angry" fritter garnish
Beef Tenderloin
red wine jus
lobster butter
buttermilk onion ring
I have to note here that the dinner was filmed and will be on the NAIT website and YouTube if I'm not mistaken. Remember I sat right next to him...probably gonna be on camera once or twice. What was I thinking??? Especially when I noticed the first selection on the menu, shrimp. Shrimp and I don't get along, I hate shrimp. But what was I gonna do? I'm sitting next to Chef Adjey, I'm most likely on camera...do I not eat it? Do I attempt to eat it and gag cuz I have a huge gag reflex with foods I don't like...you should see me with fresh tomatoes! Yikes! Anyway, I decided to follow his lead. He pulled the tail off a shrimp. I pulled a tail off a shrimp. He popped one in his mouth...I tried to bite mine in half - a little rubbery so I shoved it all in and chewed...and chewed...and chewed...remember I think I may be on camera so I tried not to show any displeasure but now I'm starting to worry that I've been chewing too long. Seriously, did I have to sit right next to him?! My favourite was the beef tenderloin followed by the halibut and artic char. I noticed that David hardly ate anything - I don't know if he didn't care for it or if he'd been eating all day or if he was too full from all the champagne! So I didn't feel bad for leaving something I didn't care for after at least trying it. I was proud of myself, especially for being a picky eater! But to my disappointment, there was no dessert! Sigh...
Also to note here, Bruce convinced me the night before that I should bake some cupcakes to give to Chef Adjey. So there we were, getting coffees from Second Cup and ingredients from Sobey's at 9:15pm the night before! Seriously...9:15! I was up baking and frosting until 12:15 cuz the cupcakes have to cool! Anyway, I gave a dozen to him. He didn't try one in front of me but Diane who had invited us to the dinner received a message from him regarding my cupcakes:
If you can't make it out, Diane emailed him and asked him what he thought of my cupcakes and his response was, and I quote, "I ate 5! The bellman ate the rest. They were delish!" Try and wipe the smile off my face, David Adjey thinks my cupcakes are delicious! What a great night!
He's the Chef in residence at NAIT this week and they held a dinner with local food bloggers to tie in with the social networking trend surrounding food. When we arrived there was an empty seat right beside David that I took advantage of. The NAIT students prepared a tasting menu all prepared from recipes in David's cookbook, 'Deconstructing the Dish', which he autographed for me!
Shrimp
spoon bread stuffing
kick-ass tartar sauce
wilted chicory
Artic Char
Fennel braise
Yukon gold dumplings
Pork Chop
rubbed with 'stir-fry' paste
baby bok choy
kumquat-garlic sauce
Halibut
crab hash
saffron aioli
"angry" fritter garnish
Beef Tenderloin
red wine jus
lobster butter
buttermilk onion ring
I have to note here that the dinner was filmed and will be on the NAIT website and YouTube if I'm not mistaken. Remember I sat right next to him...probably gonna be on camera once or twice. What was I thinking??? Especially when I noticed the first selection on the menu, shrimp. Shrimp and I don't get along, I hate shrimp. But what was I gonna do? I'm sitting next to Chef Adjey, I'm most likely on camera...do I not eat it? Do I attempt to eat it and gag cuz I have a huge gag reflex with foods I don't like...you should see me with fresh tomatoes! Yikes! Anyway, I decided to follow his lead. He pulled the tail off a shrimp. I pulled a tail off a shrimp. He popped one in his mouth...I tried to bite mine in half - a little rubbery so I shoved it all in and chewed...and chewed...and chewed...remember I think I may be on camera so I tried not to show any displeasure but now I'm starting to worry that I've been chewing too long. Seriously, did I have to sit right next to him?! My favourite was the beef tenderloin followed by the halibut and artic char. I noticed that David hardly ate anything - I don't know if he didn't care for it or if he'd been eating all day or if he was too full from all the champagne! So I didn't feel bad for leaving something I didn't care for after at least trying it. I was proud of myself, especially for being a picky eater! But to my disappointment, there was no dessert! Sigh...
Also to note here, Bruce convinced me the night before that I should bake some cupcakes to give to Chef Adjey. So there we were, getting coffees from Second Cup and ingredients from Sobey's at 9:15pm the night before! Seriously...9:15! I was up baking and frosting until 12:15 cuz the cupcakes have to cool! Anyway, I gave a dozen to him. He didn't try one in front of me but Diane who had invited us to the dinner received a message from him regarding my cupcakes:
If you can't make it out, Diane emailed him and asked him what he thought of my cupcakes and his response was, and I quote, "I ate 5! The bellman ate the rest. They were delish!" Try and wipe the smile off my face, David Adjey thinks my cupcakes are delicious! What a great night!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Cha-ching!
When I woke up this morning I had no idea I'd spend a chunk of change today...I had no intention of spending over $50. I wanted to get Neko a new puppy bed (didn't get one), a toilet brush (chucked out the old one but haven't picked up a new one yet), and a pair of walking shoes (Luckily I was able to find a pair of those). We ended up booking rail passes for Italy, grabbed a delicious brunch at the Urban Diner (initially I was upset that they wouldn't be serving lunch until 2 but was ecstatic with our order), bought a t-shirt and water bottle at MEC, then proceeded to Mexx where the swiping of the credit card hurt a little bit! Bruce laughed at me cuz I had troubles spending some money on clothes but last week I was talking about buying a Smart Car! Yeah ok...sometimes I don't completely make sense, but that's one of my quirks that makes me so loveable! I'm trying to practice for Italy and embrace the cha-ching!!!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Hell's Kitchen!
Saturday was fantastic! I pulled off all my surprises for Bruce's birthday! He woke up excited about finding out what I had planned for the day...I wouldn't tell him so he started guessing. He asked if I was taking him to look at bulldog puppies, which I had never thought of, so of course I went with that lie cuz it sounded soooo good! You shouldn't lie...he was disappointed. Sorry Bruce!
So we went snowshoeing! Needed something new for us to try and it totally fit the bill! We first tried Rundle Park and well, Saturday was pretty warm (+11C) so finding snow was a bit of an issue. We decided to trek out towards Elk Island Park and whadda ya know..SNOW! It was awesome...I'd totally do it again!
I told Bruce that I invited his parents over for dinner that night for barbequed steaks and baked potatoes. Yes, I even had the ingredients as not to raise suspicions! What I had actually planned and thank God I was able to pull it together in time, was a Hell's Kitchen kind of party. The object was that each couple were to bring four random ingredients and we had to create dinner out of whatever was on the counter. I topped it off with personalized aprons and chefs hats! I have to admit, I was a little worried but dinner was fabulous - no lies! Our ingredients included: fresh tomatoes, orzo, broccolini, garlic, shrimp, fire roasted salsa, buns, oatmeal cookies, refried black beans, steak, crab meat, fresh basil, bamboo shoots, coconut milk, herb & garlic cream cheese and balsamic vinegar. Pretty good haul of stuff! So we ended up making bruschetta for appetizers, steak neptune, broccolini with a cream cheese/salsa sauce, thai coconut shrimp over orzo, refried black beans on toasted buns with fresh basil and of course there was birthday cake for dessert! We finished the evening off by awarding the golden spoon to the most creative cook who also turned out to show the most initiative in the kitchen...Krista! So it was only a wooden spoon painted gold and wrapped with gold pipecleaners but an award nonetheless! And nobody can leave a party without a lootbag...it wasn't a $91,000 swag bag like at the Oscar's but it did have a water shooting sea horse, a chocolate bar, a chip clip and some kind of plastic animal!
To see some photos from the evening, visit Bruce's blog at - http://momentsindigital.com/blog/2010/03/birthday-moment-39-holding/
Gotta start planning for next year...it's the big 4-0!!!!
So we went snowshoeing! Needed something new for us to try and it totally fit the bill! We first tried Rundle Park and well, Saturday was pretty warm (+11C) so finding snow was a bit of an issue. We decided to trek out towards Elk Island Park and whadda ya know..SNOW! It was awesome...I'd totally do it again!
I told Bruce that I invited his parents over for dinner that night for barbequed steaks and baked potatoes. Yes, I even had the ingredients as not to raise suspicions! What I had actually planned and thank God I was able to pull it together in time, was a Hell's Kitchen kind of party. The object was that each couple were to bring four random ingredients and we had to create dinner out of whatever was on the counter. I topped it off with personalized aprons and chefs hats! I have to admit, I was a little worried but dinner was fabulous - no lies! Our ingredients included: fresh tomatoes, orzo, broccolini, garlic, shrimp, fire roasted salsa, buns, oatmeal cookies, refried black beans, steak, crab meat, fresh basil, bamboo shoots, coconut milk, herb & garlic cream cheese and balsamic vinegar. Pretty good haul of stuff! So we ended up making bruschetta for appetizers, steak neptune, broccolini with a cream cheese/salsa sauce, thai coconut shrimp over orzo, refried black beans on toasted buns with fresh basil and of course there was birthday cake for dessert! We finished the evening off by awarding the golden spoon to the most creative cook who also turned out to show the most initiative in the kitchen...Krista! So it was only a wooden spoon painted gold and wrapped with gold pipecleaners but an award nonetheless! And nobody can leave a party without a lootbag...it wasn't a $91,000 swag bag like at the Oscar's but it did have a water shooting sea horse, a chocolate bar, a chip clip and some kind of plastic animal!
To see some photos from the evening, visit Bruce's blog at - http://momentsindigital.com/blog/2010/03/birthday-moment-39-holding/
Gotta start planning for next year...it's the big 4-0!!!!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Lent
So it's Lent. What did I give up you ask? I gave up popcorn, Diet Dr. Pepper and ice cream. Now is that a sign of an overachiever or what?! You only have to give one thing up, but no...I want to challenge myself. There's three quarters of a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper in the pantry, a new container of popcorn on the shelf and a big box of 100 calorie ice cream treats in the freezer with one ice cream sandwich out of it. Temptations are all around me. And what do I decide to do today? Add one more thing to the list. I didn't give up something for Lent today, I gave up someone. I'm not going to let this person get the best of me like they usually do, ok I'll try not to let them get the best of me. I think this will be the most challenging! It's kinda like one of those zits that sits just below the surface and never really comes to a head. Yup, I like that analogy for how I am with this individual - spot on! There should be some kind of award at the end of Lent, not only popcorn, Diet Dr. Pepper and ice cream but I think I'll deserve a set of wings if I get through Lent with this last one!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
My name is Sarah...
Hi There! Let me introduce myself, Sarah, Sarah Clarke. That was me being funny...you know, since I haven't blogged in a frog's life! Ha ha ha! I just made that one up, like it?! I have to tell you, writing that stupid sentence made me feel like me and I haven't felt like me for a long time. I have been so busy with work these past few weeks that I haven't really stopped to be Sarah very often. I like being Sarah.
You know what else I like being? Canadian! I have to be honest that the Olympics have never really been my thing, probably cuz I'm not athletic or that into sports. But in the last few weeks I have been totally addicted to them! I didn't expect to be at all but I think since it was so close to home that you couldn't help but get sucked in. I was so proud of our country, of our athletes...so proud!
Neko is making blogging very hard tonight. He keeps jumping up and nudging my elbows for me to play with him. Very need tonight. And he stinks like a**! Guess I gotta bathe the little stinker! Sorry this isn't the most interesting blog but I thought I should ease myself back into it! Felt good!
You know what else I like being? Canadian! I have to be honest that the Olympics have never really been my thing, probably cuz I'm not athletic or that into sports. But in the last few weeks I have been totally addicted to them! I didn't expect to be at all but I think since it was so close to home that you couldn't help but get sucked in. I was so proud of our country, of our athletes...so proud!
Neko is making blogging very hard tonight. He keeps jumping up and nudging my elbows for me to play with him. Very need tonight. And he stinks like a**! Guess I gotta bathe the little stinker! Sorry this isn't the most interesting blog but I thought I should ease myself back into it! Felt good!
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