I don't seem to be able to balance this project with my life like I used to. Maybe I'm just ignoring the last couple of months, but it seems like I'd always find some way of pulling through and whipping up something while still getting everything else done. Now we can't even get laundry done and make dinner in the same night because we have to walk six blocks to the laundromat. Sigh. Three more weeks.

Adjacent to the laundromat is a place that I always assumed was Middle Eastern but now seems to have more of a Russian flair to it. It's called The Baked Potato and they serve, of course, baked potatoes. They also have lentil soup and some salads, but for the most part the meat and potatoes of their business is just the latter half of that saying. The potatoes are huge, like the largest "super stuffer" potato I've seen, and then stuffed with an additional half a potato's filling to round it out. It's loaded with cheese and butter and then seasoned with salt and pepper. So far, so good.

You have your choice of three toppings. They don't really have the traditional toppings though — the broccoli, the bacon bits, the chives — there are a lot of pickled items; pickled beets, sauerkraut, pickled mushrooms, and tzatziki, garlic yogurt and hummus. I had green olives, chicken and garlic yogurt, just to make sure I felt that this baked potato meal was completely different from previous Stuffed Potatoes I've had as side dishes in the past.

Shannon had wanted the aforementioned broccoli, cheddar and bacon bit toppings, but instead ended up with extra cheese and green onions. I felt puke-like full before even finishing my baked potato. I have had little to no appetite lately and my stomach is probably shrinking to the size of a walnut. We both received a little piece of complimentary baklava which was delicious. Oddly, if you factor in the cost of laundry, this was the most expensive meal I've eaten all year.

I was going to apply to Guinness book of world records today. I read the guidelines and figured I had absolutely no chance of getting into the record books. Besides, countless wealthy merchants of the past have likely gone great amounts longer than I without a repetitive dish simply because they could. Of course, they probably had never stepped foot in a kitchen and never bothered to contact the world book of records, but this is my defeatist logic. Still, I thought it'd be cool to get a rejection letter that my feat is not quite Guinness material. Since there was a fee attached though, I bailed. Maybe I can get an honorary Guinness award somehow. By honorary, I mean a completely fake mention like getting your face on the cover of a Time magazine at a tourist booth.

Tonight was all about trying to recreate a pasta dish I had when visiting Simon in Vancouver, the Osso Bucco Fettuccine at La Notte. As I mentioned in that write-up, the pasta and meat were great, but the sauce was really lacking. I have now totally switched butchers after discovering one closer to me with a better selection and friendlier staff. They have a full selection of veal where my other butcher had none whatsoever, which is partially what inspired me to try this out now. This was also a test to see whether or not Shannon likes veal, since she was previously turned off by the Rigatoni I made with ground veal in the meat sauce. Personally, I think that's an award winning touch, but I guess we all don't like the same things unfortunately.

I picked up two veal shanks, which to me just seem like such "cheffy" cuts of meat to buy. They were pricier than most meat I buy, but they're so delicious I didn't particularly care. I also picked up some veal bones and made my own veal stock. I was very committed to this dish! It may only be a single recipe entry, but it sure dirtied enough dishes and took long enough to prepare. All of these things, like fresh pasta and stock, could easily be picked up at the grocery store, of course.

I made this batch of fresh pasta with egg and flour alone. Without adding water, a single egg seems to make a decent entree serving of pasta with however much flour it can absorb. So 2 eggs plus however much flour was more than enough for Shannon and myself. I think I like the texture better with water and yolks alone, because with whole eggs the pasta taste like, well, egg noodles. Lesson learned.

Since the shanks had to be slow-cooked, I was starving by the time dinner time rolled around. This was probably a bad thing, because I scarfed down my entire plate of food and consequently felt bloated for the next 3 days. This is one of the benefits of being behind in updating the site is that I'm aware of these things, I guess. It was way too much for one person. I mean, look at the size of those shanks? I'm not able to handle that much food.

My only real complaint about the dinner is that I used some leftover red wine instead of white, which overshadowed the flavor of the veal. Shannon really enjoyed that part of it though, since she wasn't particularly in favor of the flavor of veal that she remembered. I would definitely go the white wine route if I were to make this again. I was also happy to get good use out of my dutch oven that has been somewhat neglected since I picked it up.

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 veal shanks
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
28 ounces canned plum tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon dried basil or sage
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 cups veal or beef stock
8 ounces fettuccine
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
salt and pepper
water

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Heat a dutch oven or other ovenproof pot over medium heat. Melt butter with olive oil, the add onions and carrots, sautéing until onions are translucent. Stir in the garlic, then remove from heat.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season veal shanks with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Shake off excess flour, then add olive oil to the skillet and brown shanks on both sides. Transfer to the dutch oven on top of the vegetables.
4. Deglaze the skillet with wine and the juice from the canned tomatoes and reduce the liquid by half. Crush the tomatoes and add them to the skillet, along with the parsley, basil or sage, sugar and veal stock. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then pour over the veal shanks.
5. Cover the dutch oven and put into the oven, cooking until veal is tender, about an hour and a half.
6. Transfer the veal shanks to a warmed plate and keep warm. Bring the remaining sauce to a boil and reduce until thick.
7. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt, along with the fettuccine.
8. Cook pasta until al dente, then drain and add to the thickened sauce. Serve pasta and sauce on a plate, topped with the veal shank and a generous portion of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings

I'm amazed that there are still pork dishes out there I haven't tried yet so far. Tonight I made Moo Shu Pork with mandarin pancakes. I thought mandarin pancakes would mean they included mandarin oranges, so I went and bought some without even thinking about it or reading the pancakes. I'm an idiot. The mandarin part was just in reference to Mandarin Chinese, not mandarin oranges. Coincidentally, aside from canned mandarins, they don't have "Christmas oranges" here, just clementines. They swear they're the same, but they're not! They're like the "other" type of mandarin orange and I really miss them. It's one of the reasons I'm excited to get home for Christmas! It must be a proximity thing, since the mandarins in Alberta came from China, Korea or Japan and the clementines here come from Morocco. Now I'm thinking that mandarin orange pancakes would be pretty good. I may have to try that some time. Clementine crepe has a better ring to it, maybe I'll do that instead.

This recipe was more or less taken from cooking light magazine. There, now I won't get sued for this one. The crepes themselves would have been easy enough to make, but from what I read I could just substitute flour tortillas brushed with sesame oil, so I did just that. I wasn't feeling particularly ambitious and my attempt at naan yesterday was so horribly unsuccessful I figured this was a good idea. I probably should have brushed the whole pancake with hoisin and sesame oil instead of just where I laid the pork. Oops.

There seemed to be a ridiculous amount of preparation for what basically gets overshadowed by the flavor of hoisin sauce. This reminds me an awful lot of the duck crepes we had at Gourmet Hot and Spicy, which is great, because we liked those. I also got to use Napa cabbage for the first time, which seems a lot more versatile than bok choy but serves the same purpose in this recipe, as well as those umami-infused shittake mushrooms. This doesn't really make much of a meal, but I haven't had much of an appetite lately. I eat something small and then go to bed before 10. I didn't realize turning 25 would make me live like a senior citizen.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup boiling water
or
8 flour tortillas
1-1/2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pound pork tenderloin, sliced
10 dried shittake mushrooms
6 scallions, chopped
12 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons ginger puree

3 tablespoons rice wine
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 head napa cabbage, chopped
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
water

1. Combine flour and water in a large bowl and stir into a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, then divide into 16 equal portions.
2. Roll each portion of dough into a 6" circle. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly brush each pancake with sesame oil and lightly cook on each side until puffed and browned. Remove from pan and repeat with remaining dough. Set aside.
3. Combine soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and cornstarch and marinate pork for at least an hour.
4. Meanwhile, soak shittake mushrooms in boiling water until tender. Discard stems and slice. Combine with scallions, garlic and ginger and set aside.
5. Combine rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and pepper and set aside.
6. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Drain pork and discard marinade, then fry in the skillet until cooked.
7. Remove pork from the skillet and add the eggs. Quickly scramble them, then stir in the vegetables.
8. Return the pork to the skillet, along with the prepared sauce, and continue to cook until sauce is thick.
9. Spoon a portion of hoisin sauce onto each pancake and top with a portion of the pork mixture. Roll up and repeat with remaining pancakes and filling.

Makes 8 servings

I think these recipes are from some low-fat magazine. I'm totally getting sued if anyone publishes this book. I haven't a
clue where some of these recipes came from. I'm not even sure I can tell the difference between the ones I made up and the
ones I didn't. I'm not going to fret about it. I wonder if a disclaimer stating that I stole all these recipes but I'm not sure from where would cover it? The copyright information for recipes seems so open to interpretation.

Anyhow, tonight I made Apple Adobo Pork with Cumin Apple
Couscous. The flavor of apple did not shine through here at all like I thought it would. I'm starting to hate any
recipe that involves chipotle peppers because they're really spicy and there are so many in those little cans and there's
only so many chipotle recipes I can make in a week. What am I supposed to do with all the leftover peppers? The sauce was
really spicy, which I like with pork, but I found that the couscous was quite bland. Needs a lot more seasoning to give it
some oomph.

I had an opened can of navy beans in the fridge I didn't want to go to waste, so I quickly mixed them in a saucepan to make
Sweet Allspice Beans. This actually helped to bring out some of the flavors in the pork and
couscous, so I'm glad I did. They were pretty sweet, but it made up for what the apple lacked and complimented the flavor
with the allspice like a cinnamon-apple dessert. I was going to make naan to go along with this, but for some reason I
couldn't get the yeast to proof. I tried twice and I guess I've killed it. I think I'm adding a pork and beans cookbook to my list of things to accomplish next year. Surely I've got a good start just from the recipes on this site. There are enough cuts of pork and enough types of beans to make it a worthwhile venture.

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon cumin seed
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup couscous
salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté the apple, onion and garlic until tender.
2. Stir in cumin seed and sauté until fragrant, then add the chicken broth, juice and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper,
3. en bring to a boil.
4. Stir in the couscous, remove from heat and cover. When couscous has absorbed all of the liquid, fluff with a fork to
5. rve.

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon butter
19 ounces canned navy or romano beans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons raisins
1 teaspoon allspice
salt and pepper

1. Heat butter in a saucepan, then stir in the beans, brown sugar, water, raisins and allspice. Heat through and season to
2. ste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings

1 pound pork tenderloin, 1" thick slices
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 chipotle in adobo
3/4 cup apple juice
salt and pepper

1. Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry the pork in batches, flipping once,
2. til cooked through to the center. Remove from the pan and keep warm in the oven.
3. Add the onion, garlic, chipotle and apple juice to the skillet. Bring to a boil, and cook until sauce is reduced and
4. ick. Serve along with pork and on top of Cumin Apple Couscous.

Makes 4 servings

My friend Steve in Calgary offered me a recipe for the site since I couldn't come up with anything to eat. It was a Vietnamese noodle bowl. I hadn't had anything just like it, despite eating several noodle bowls, so I made it. Shannon and I both loved it. Since I'm tired and cranky and don't have anything else to say, I'm going to fill up this space with his half of the IM conversation explaining the recipe. The recipe on the site will be my interpretation of it. I left out the honey roasted peanuts because I didn't have any, and the bean sprouts because I read over them. I went the "dump the sauce over it" route. Enjoy.

Steve’s Vietnamese Noodle Bowl

2 clove garlic
2 red chilies
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp fish sauce

Place vinegar water and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil

Remove from heat, once cool add the crushed garlic and seeded, finely chopped red chili peppers.
Set aside.

Marinade…

1 lb sliced beef, steak, flank whatever or chicken or pork your call

2 tbsp minced garlic 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp oil 1 tbsp water

Marinate for however long you feel usually i whip that up at the beginning before i start this mess
pan fry that stuff

boil 1/2 pack of rice vermicelli noodles
allow to cool

top the noodles with sliced iceburg lettuce

cilantro to taste, slice carrot, honey roasted peanuts and a small bit of tomato or other bits o veggies you have lying around

then put the beef on top and …
ok
serve with that sauce on the side
i just put it in a little bowl beside the entree and if you like the sauce alot dump it all over
o yeah i forgot the bean sprouts