Every time I make Beef Stroganoff I think Shannon likes it, and every time she eats it she says she doesn't like the seasoning, that she doesn't like the beef and doesn't really want to eat the noodles. More stroganoff for me, then; I love the stuff. The simple creamy sour cream and beef sauce combined with egg noodles is absolutely delicious.

Apparently there is a little confusion over what should actually be in a stroganoff. As long as there is beef, sour cream, mushrooms and some noodles, I think it's fair game. I like it with just a little bit of caraway and sprinkled with paprika, but I've seen quite a few pictures of stroganoffs that are brightly colored like butter chicken, presumably from much more paprika. I came across a few recipes that added sherry too, so I incorporated that. I didn't notice any taste difference from the sherry addition, so I would likely just leave it out next time.

However you cook it, beef stroganoff is essentially a meal in itself. It's not exactly ideal food for scorching summer weather, but that didn't stop me from making it when I had a craving. It rained today, isn't that close enough to harsh Canadian winters?

Typically my grandma, Shannon and I go out for brunch on Sundays. Today grandma and I were going alone and I suggested we do something different. We ended up going to the Golden Star, a Chinese food restaurant downtown. This was my favorite place to go as a kid because in order to enter the restaurant you have to walk over a bridge overtop a large koi pond. Grandma was picking out which one she wanted to have for dinner as we sat down at the table.

I had an egg roll to start, since how can you not? The waiter was really awkward; polite, but only in a stifling hatred sort of way. It took a while to weed through the menu, but we settled on a few dishes. Since it was just the two of us, we ordered half orders of everything. Even still, there were plenty of leftovers. The dinner plate is as pictured when I ate some of the leftovers at my computer.

The first plate consisted of ginger beef and special chop suey. I think somebody forgot to add the sauce to the ginger beef because it was simply the deep fried battered bits that make the base. I ordered this mainly because it's Shannon's favorite and I could bring some home for her, but she wasn't into it because it was missing everything that made it tasty. The vegetables weren't really crisp, which I like, but the sauce was a little salty.

The second plate held a large portion of Chinese sausage fried rice and scallops in black bean sauce. The Chinese sausages I'd never had before. I liked them, they were little and sort of sweet. The scallops were delicious on their own, but the black bean sauce was so ridiculously salty I had to take a drink of water after every bite of the vegetables. I quickly just stopped eating it altogether. I don't remember what my fortune cookie was; perhaps "A close relative will buy you dinner."

I've been a little carried away with buying noodles lately. They're just so quick and easy to prepare and I'm so time pressed that they work wonders. I stewed the remaining Bison from the other night and wasn't really sure what I was going to use most of it for. I decided to combine a few recipes to create a Shanghai Bison Stirfry.

Having large chunks of stewed meat was the only real difference between this and typical Shanghai Noodles. Usually stirfrys have such thinly sliced pieces so they can cook quickly, but since the meat was already cooked it could just be added and warmed as a last addition. It's a nice little comfort food dish, eating basically like a stew with noodles. It was also a good way of using up my leftovers, which is as good of a reason as any to cook something right now. This didn't just use up leftover vegetables, but a bit more of the sherry sitting in the cupboard that I don't want to go to waste. The pantry is really starting to look bare. Look for "6 rice soup" or "18 bean casserole" in upcoming recipes since that's basically all that's left.

I haven't done much cooking with fish at all yet, so I decided to pick up some cod and try an entirely different recipe. I named this Calcutta Cod because I thought it had a nice ring to it. The original dish was technically supposed to be steamed in banana leaves, but such a thing is not available here, thus the use of tinfoil. I would've just put the fish directly onto the steamer, but for some reason I thought the fish would not be infused with as much flavor this way. Perhaps I'll be able to verify that some day. This was frozen cod, so I thought that the amount of moisture in the fish sort of took away from the seasoning. I tried to pat it dry, but there was still a fair amount of liquid in the foil afterwards.

The chillies were pretty, but I mostly scraped them off because I didn't want to hurt myself. My mortar and pestle isn't the greatest and didn't break up the mustard seed very much. Perhaps this would've imparted much more flavor, but as it was there wasn't much other than fishy heat. The addition of another spice or two, or maybe a squeeze of citrus, would've easily made this from ho hum to quite tasty, I think. It's worth experimenting.

Whether or not people in Morocco would actually eat something like these Moroccan Potatoes is beyond me, but they're basically roasted with cumin, chillies and lemon. Somewhat surprisingly the cumin really took a backseat on this one and the lemon flavor was deeply infused into the potatoes. The chillies were edible by themselves, but coupled with the chillies in the cod I was reaching for a glass of milk before dinner was over. I'm definitely coming around to spicier food now though. I wasn't so sure if it were possible to grow accustomed to the heat, but apparently so. It's a good thing, too, because I can finally actually taste the differences in peppers and spices now, rather than just have it singe my tongue.

I wasn't really completely satisfied after eating this meal, so I polished off another pound of blueberries. To suggest something you might actually want to fill up the plate with, perhaps Indian Spiced Chickpeas or for something less starchy, maybe this Cabbage, Carrot and Apricot Salad.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've been craving fried rice lately. It could be in regards to a conversation that ensued about fried rice the night before the Curried Goat. Whatever it is, I finally decided to make some. I used to make fried rice a lot when I was a vegetarian, but quite differently than this recipe. I would fry the rice by itself before adding liquid and then continue to fry it until it was dried out to nothing. My favorite was with canned shrimp, but this crispy, dry version of fried rice is probably my favorite.

In hindsight, instead of making this Mushroom Fried Rice recipe, I should've just done something like that. It's not that this recipe was bad, but it didn't seem to be lacking something. Luckily there are so many variations of fried rice that I'll likely work this into a full meal again some time in the future. I did like the fried egg addition though. Normally I would beat the egg and throw it directly in with the rice, but being able to have a forkful along with it instead was good. Again with the sherry, only this time I didn't really notice any presence by it whatsoever. Of course, this was only a few tablespoons amongst several cups of rice, so that stands to reason. If I had any scallions I definitely would've thrown them in this, too.

It seems as though cilantro ends up in my fridge almost as often as parsley now. It was even somewhat enjoyable in this dish. Perhaps all that work to grow to enjoy it is finally paying off. All those torturous meals of cilantro infused dishes will have not been eaten in vain! That or I'm getting better at disguising it with other flavors. I'm not sure yet.

Today was Shannon's birthday. To celebrate, we went to our favorite restaurant in town, Acropolis. We typically get the best service here and have never had a complaint about the food. When we were seated, we were presented with freshly printed menus. I was ecstatic and eagerly opened the menu to see all the new dishes that they'd added… only they hadn't added any dishes. The only thing that changed was the prices, with a considerable increase.

No matter, the prices had been the same for as long as I could remember, it was about time for an overhaul. We decided to order saganaki to start and a bottle of zinfandel. I've only had saganaki a couple of times, but I'm starting to realize that I don't particularly like it. I'm not sure if it's the whole flambé thing that makes the saltiness more potent or what, but I find that the cheese is just too salty and bitter to really enjoy it. We got fresh rolls instead of pita bread, which I thought was a bit odd.

I really wanted to order the dolmades, but for some reason I wasn't allowed to substitute the meat ones for the vegetarian ones, which I prefer, so I ended up ordering the lamb. Actually, the reason was because they apparently come prepackaged and the vegetarian ones are now only available with the vegetarian platter. I found this quite disappointing because I was really looking forward to them. Previous times I've visited I actually received both for the price of one order. I thought the lamb was too salty as well and fattier than normal, but I was basically full after eating the salad, potatoes and rice and took most of it home.

Shannon ordered the moussaka, which is something we'd be planning for her birthday dinner since before A Food Year actually started. Originally I intended to be more ambitious and make it myself, but this is where she originally had it on the first birthday I celebrated with her, so we decided to go there instead. After hearing about the pre-packaged dolmades, we were skeptical that the moussaka was made in house as well. It was still enjoyed, but I kind of wish I'd made it myself now.

For dessert I had the chocolate pate and Shannon had tiramisu. I'm a sucker for chocolate pate, but this was a little too rich. By the time dessert rolled around I'd already finished half a bottle of wine though, so it didn't particularly matter. This tiramisu was much better than the one at Barcelona’s, but it was far from the best ever. When the bill rolled around I was a bit disappointed to pay 0 for our meal and that our wine had actually doubled in price, but it was nice to have a night alone with Shannon because we haven't had much time to spend together lately.

Every once in a while I get an e-mail requesting more vegetarian recipes or vegetarian dinners. We're currently working on categorizing the recipes according to things like ingredients, nationality, type of dish and so on, as well as dietary needs. I'll freely admit that a lot of my entrees are meat, but I can now say that a large portion of the recipes on this website are vegetarian or are easily substitutable to be vegetarian, such as using a different kind of broth. Hopefully that will all be in place eventually so you can see for yourself!

Anyhow, I still aim to please, so this is a purely vegetarian meal, as requested. I love young cashiers and how they often do not know non-standard food items and will not question you when you tell them what it is. This is especially useful to save a lot of money on bulk goods. Not that I'd try to cheat a supermarket or anything. Ahem. They also tend not to look in brown paper bags and just assume they're button mushrooms, which is how I got away with a big bag of portobellos for only a couple of dollars. Hey, it's not like I wrote "button mushrooms" on the bag or anything. So I made Portobello Parmesan as my entree. Since portobellos are so meaty, even a true carnivore should love this recipe. A large amount of cheese baked on top certainly doesn't hurt either. I only made a half-assed tomato sauce to go along with it, just pureeing some canned tomatoes with ingredients I would normally use, and it still turned out very good. My only complaint is that I didn't make more.

I haven't been having a tremendous amount of luck with trying different risotto recipes in the past, so I made a very basic Parmesan Risotto and it was delicious. So simple to make and such a nice, creamy side dish. As far as Italian is concerned, I'd rather have risotto than a pasta side any day. Plain risotto sure isn't much to look at, but it's definitely very satisfying and flavorful.

To try and add a bit more protein to this vegetarian meal, I also made Monastery Lentils. I learned on Jamie's Italy that tomatoes actually help to soften the skins of lentils and that was no lie. I've learned enough dried legume tips now that I'll never have enough mishap like my first Dhal recipe. I was basically pleased that the lentils even cooked properly, but they were even edible! It may sound like I'm lowering my standards a little bit here. In fact, the lentils were quite flavorful and, with the addition of my new friend sherry, made for a memorable dish that I can definitely see myself making again.

I also made some Orange Cranberry Muffins that were spectacularly good. I've been making a lot of muffins lately with all the fresh berries being so cheap and delicious, but I decided to spice my ordinary recipe up a bit with orange zest and a bit of brown sugar on top. These turned out perfectly!

One of Shannon's friends gave us a bison roast last week and since I love bison so much and Shannon has been picking berries lately, I figured I'd make a Mustard Thyme Bison Roast with Saskatoon Sauce. Part of me feels a little strange pairing fruit with meat, even though it's quite delicious. I mean, people put cranberries on turkey whether the occasion calls for it, so why not with red meat as well? The sauce was surprisingly tasty, but the roast was a little disappointing. This is solely because I didn't realize I was making a blade roast until after I pulled it out of the oven. Luckily I checked it while it was still quite rare, so I stewed the remaining meat and now have a fridge full of tenderized buffalo stew currently serving no real purpose whatsoever. I bet that if you combined the sauce with the stew and made a sort of savory tart that would be quite delicious.

I decided to go with a purple theme after picking up some purple cauliflower. Aside from turning the water an indigo blue, there really doesn't seem to be anything special with it flavor-wise. I'm not even sure what they crossbred with the cauliflower to make it look that way. Eggplant? Kale? Red Cabbage? Perhaps it's just dyed. Anyhow, my Cauliflower Provencal cut a few corners and still managed to be quite satisfying. I thought it would've been much better if it had a thicker sauce to it, so maybe next time I make this I will prepare an actual tomato sauce instead.

For dessert I baked up a Saskatoon Crisp, which was basically a variation of the Strawberry Rhubarb Pandowdy recipe I made a couple months ago. From what I've now learned I don't think what I made previously was a pandowdy at all, but that's part of the silliness that occurs when you're flying by the seat of your pants. Several people ate it and all enjoyed themselves. I did, too, so I reckon it's a winner. It's hard to screw up crumbled topping fruit though. For those that don't know, I suppose I should mention that saskatoons are a wild berry that grow up here in Alberta. Blueberries would likely be a perfectly acceptable substitute. Blueberries also happen to be in season right now and I've been eating a pound a day. My pee looks like purple cauliflower water. (Just kidding.)

Before this project, as I've mentioned before, I'd never really cooked with wine. Now there are quite a few dishes with both red and white wines and I've got a fairly good idea of how they should incorporate into dishes and what sort of flavor they impose. Recently I started cooking with sherry and I've grown much fonder of that. This time around there is no flambé, but I made Sherry Chicken and thought it was quite tasty. The sauce has a hint of sweetness to it, like caramelized vegetables, which pairs really well with the chicken. This was also my first experience using a brine, and I must say it made the meat noticeably more succulent.

This dish would go great with roasted root vegetables, but I just made Carrot Casserole, with a bit of sherry, lemon juice and shallots and Caraway Potatoes. The potatoes were a German dish that is apparently called kuemmelkartoffel, but "caraway potatoes" is much easier to write and generally pronounce. I thought that they were a little too plain to really be that enjoyable and even with a bit of sour cream felt as though they were lacking something. I would've much preferred them roasted with the caraway seeds, I think, rather than boiled with the addition of them. The chicken was definitely the star attraction here and I disposed of the leftover vegetables without a second thought. Perhaps as more of a base to set the chicken on the carrots would've been more suited, but the potatoes just didn't do it for me.

The heat wave we've been having lately has totally killed any ambition to do much of anything, especially stand in front of the oven. It's also rendered all parts of my apartment into mini-ovens, which made all of my once cool, dark places where things like potatoes and onions live now filled with useless, soft and semi-rotten root vegetables. Anyone have a good recipe for rotten vegetable soup? I didn't think so.

Today actually marked a record high temperature for this town at something like 36 point something degrees. That's a deadly fever, for lack of anything else to compare it to in Fahrenheit, but probably pales in comparison to what a lot of those south of here live with quite often.

Luckily, I beat the heat tonight when my mom made an impromptu visit just for the day and took me out for dinner. This time we decided to go to Jake's restaurant, which has a New Orleans inspired menu. In my experience, both the service and food have been hit or miss, ranging from exceptionally wonderful to exceptionally terrible. I find it hard to have such mixed feelings about a restaurant, but the good memories do keep me coming back. Plus, this was the first (and only, at time of writing) place I tried alligator meat, which I now see has become a permanent fixture on the menu. I'm happy to note that there was an adequate amount of light to take somewhat pleasing photographs this time around.

We'd arrived a little early to order off the proper dinner menu, which was disappointing. I tried to order appetizers that gave us a more dinner than lunch dining experience. Mom always puts me in charge of the appetizer ordering, simply hoping that I don't kill her. For the most part she enjoys everything I pick out. For appetizers I picked out the mussels with chipotle cream for myself and crawfish spring rolls for her. Admittedly, the spring rolls were better than the mussels, which I thought were too salty and not nearly spicy enough. I don't find the lone flavor of crawfish very appealing, but whatever it was paired with (and I'm honestly not sure – judging from the picture I'd say sweet corn and roasted red peppers with rice or something) definitely took away from that. The sweet chili sauce that it was served with was very nice, but I thought the pesto was a little strange. In the center of a plate was a type of coleslaw that was okay.

We both ordered some sort of po' boy sandwich. I had the charred catfish po' boy and my mom had a chicken one, I believe. I guess catfish and absolutely charred flesh go together quite well because I thought this was a great sandwich, complete with chipotle mayo. The little potato wedges did nothing for me, but I was full by that point anyway.