I never would have guessed that the last meal of A Food Year would be eaten at a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet while ringing in the new year with cheap Air Canada wine. Ironically, I always thought "That's A Wrap!" would've made a good title for the final dinner, but I think I used that already, so "A Wrap Up" will have to do.

By my own goals I had set out at the start of the year, this project has been a failure. I did not receive the mass audience I had tried to attract and I have no received any offer for publication like I had hoped. Over the last week I have read the books that my project has often been compared to.

"Rachel Ray's 365: No Repeats" seems as though it should be more similar than it is, but is more about how to get the most mileage out of a base recipe, rather than a different dinner every day of the year. Similarly, I picked up a "A Dish A Day" book, which contained recipes for drinks and such that just don't classify as a "dish" at all! Certainly the recipes are more palatable than some of the things I've churned out over the year.

"The Julie/Julia Project" bears little resemblance other than being a year long project involving a blog and food, though I am under the impression that the book is nothing like the blog at all. I enjoyed the book; it is easy to read and entertaining, but it contains very little food content. I am assuming that has everything to do with Julia Child's cookbook being the basis for all the recipes.

We are both totally different people, Julie and I (especially from the waist down) but I still wonder how similar my own "recap" of the year will be to her book, once I reflect on everything as a whole, rather than on a daily dinner basis. Would it be as much about the food or more about how my life changed through making it? In the end, she may have the published book, but I cooked over 150 more recipes than her from many different sources while she only had one outline, so I'll consider us even.

The most difficult task over the last year has been maintaining this website, as is probably evident to anyone who has been a reader over the last six months. I still retain a passion for cooking and new recipes, so please feel free to contribute your suggestions! I'd love to hear any feedback you have on basically anything. Make an account, try some recipes, leave your comments.

It's been a slice.

My grandma took me out for dinner tonight. I was having a craving for a big ol' steak, so we were going to go to The Keg. However, the line up was more like a waiting room filled with people pushing their way to the front and I didn't feel like waiting, so we went to the Barcelona instead.

I've had notoriously bad food here; usually over or undercooked and always overpriced. In that regard I was pretty much a fool to order steak and lobster, which I would certainly be unsatisfied with. The lobster was wholly disappointing, but the steak was cooked quite well. That is, cooked to my liking, not to a tough piece of leather. The brandy peppercorn sauce was absent of any brandy flavor, but was still quite suiting.

I'm not sure about that sprig of thyme since thyme doesn't particularly bode well with asparagus or cabbage in my opinion, nor make a very decorative garnish. Rosemary would have been more appropriate. In case anyone from the Barcelona is reading this, please change your garnish. Thank you. Also, your cabbage was really dry, which is quite the feat considering.

It was especially hard to say goodbye to grandma this time. She's a tough, stubborn woman but I swear she got a bit misty with me. I think maybe when we moved originally she thought we'd just move back. I think maybe she realized that we're actually moved now, not on a vacation. I just really wish she weren't so stubborn and would actually come visit us here. She's old, but she's the healthiest old person I know. There's no reason for her not to come see our beautiful city!

Thanks to the price structure at the Barcelona, I found myself strapped for cash and facing an impending taxi fee. Luckily, I’m a good bluffer (it’s those hopelessly addictive bingo games that cause me trouble) so after dinner I went and played a couple hands of poker, making enough money to pay for my cab ride to the airport in the morning.

Before we moved I was hoping to try a restaurant called Woosabi that had been in the works for some time. Unfortunately they did not open before the move, so I didn't get the opportunity to. I think they'd blown their budget on advertising long before they could actually open to the public, because months before they were ready to open their doors there was a constant barrage of radio advertisements.

Anyhow, obviously I got the opportunity to try it out tonight or I wouldn't be mentioning it. The restaurant is situated in a strip mallesque office complex. There is no hostess station (is hosting the politically correct term? hosters?) so I felt a little awkward standing in the door way waiting to be seated. As we watched more people come in, also standing awkwardly while someone attended to them, this became an obvious layout flaw.

I really liked the tables because they were quite long, making it easy to place a lot of plates of sushi in front of you without making it awkward to eat. It does make it a little awkward for quiet folks like me to talk to people across from them without leaning in a whole lot though.

We ordered some sort of mixed combo platter, prairie fire rolls and a half order of duck risotto. The prairie fire rolls were really good, in a "beginners guide to sushi" sort of way, much like a California roll, with no real intimidation factor whatsoever. Totally encrusted in toasted sesame seeds and with some crushed red chilies, it's pretty much everything my unsophisticated sushi palate enjoys.

The platter had a selection of the different types of sushis I can't remember the names of. There were the California rolls, which are the seaweed in the center, rice on the outside type… the seaweed around the outside, rice on the inside type… and then an assortment of the seafood on top of the rice type. One is nigiri, one is futomaki and then there's the other one, but I'm not really sure which is which.

The smoked salmon was probably my favorite of the fish on top version. The squid piece neither of us wanted and just left to go to waste. I always forget how filling a platter of sushi can be, it just seems like such light fare. The duck risotto was horrible. The duck was kind of chewy and even though it was supposedly loaded with shittake mushrooms and such, it basically had no flavor whatsoever. Just this mushy and chewy mess of flavorless crap. Luckily, we got that taken off the bill.

Majors has been around as long as I can remember. It's possibly the only place left in Grande Prairie that offers "home cookin" and caters mostly to tree planters and rig crews that stay at the nearby motels, one of which I happened to be staying at.

I thought for certain I'd be able to find something I haven't already eaten this year, but I couldn't. Not really. I've already eaten a Burger, but this one was different. This was the GP burger, you see. Over 180,000 served! McDonald's it is not, and it is fairly dissimilar to my own creation, so I'm giving it the go. It was acceptable. I tend to prefer a lot less bun on my burger and the processed slice of "cheese" kind of ruined it for me, but at least it was cooked well.

Likewise, I already made Fries, but I have not had them with burgers, oh no! I asked for some mayo to eat with them, which is something that I've become quite accustomed to since moving to Montreal where everything has a bit of European flare. I ended up with a side dish of Miracle Whip, which does not a good fry condiment make. The fries were perfectly crisp though! I don't how so many places tend to screw up something like a French fry, when it's basically served everywhere, but it happens all too frequently. To me, there's nothing worse about American cuisine than a poorly cooked French fry.

I think I've eaten at Earl's more over the last year than any other restaurant. I ordered the Tokyo steak wraps, which is a new menu addition and oddly exactly what I was craving at the time. I also ordered the Green Curry, but it came with the wrong sauce and was altogether not pleasant, so I barely ate any of it and it was taken off the bill.

The wraps came with what I assume the Moo Shu Pork's Mandarin pancakes were supposed to be like, sort of a light, airy crepe; and they were quite plentiful. The little bamboo steamer that the meat came in leaked all over the table, which was my only complaint about this dish. The meat was tender and flavorful and the vegetables were not overcooked. It came with a little avocado and cranberry guacamole, which I thought would be a little strange, but complimented the whole thing perfectly.