Fine Dining Ain't So Fine When It's Been Microwaved

Well, there's lots of food news. Maybe I should blog it in list form, for expediency's sake. Alright. Here we go.
Grandma Ople's Apple Pie Recipe: Success
Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce: Semi-Success
Thanksgiving Dinner: Thoroughly enjoyable. Thanksgiving Dinner Casualties: One of my mum's pots and the sanity of her cats.
Thanksgiving Dinner with Dad: At the Cannery.
The Cannery: A+! Full blown shame on Port Vancouver (or whomever) for not renewing their lease.
Fantastic food, high quality and fully knowledgeable service, cozy architecture, waterfront herb garden, kudos for participating in the OceanWise program, magical view. All-around gem.
Today's Lunch: Another fantastic salad. Green leaf lettuce, chopped on the vine tomatoes, chopped celery, shrimp pan-fried in PAM olive oil, Asian crushed garlic, and old-fashioned dijon mustard, crumbled blue cheese, and blue cheese dressing. Delish. Just a dash of lemon juice would have probably have been the best dressing, but well maybe more than a dash. But I don't have any.
Today's Afternoon Snack: Leftover Salmon Wellington from the Cannery. Totally good, but the Pinot Noir suace didn't really hold up after 2 minutes in the microwave. Fine foods don't like nasty microwaves I guess. Makes sense. I actually fell nauseous right now. Frack. Hopefully that peppermint tea with Vlad's Apiary's sweet clover honey will heal my noxious insides.
Future October Food Activity: Mushroom foraging with the Vancouver Mycological Society in Pacific Spirit Park on Halloween! I am so excited for this. I would like a partner though. Any takers? I cite the wild foraging article in the most recent edition of Edible Vancouver and the wild and chanterelle mushroom foragers profiled in Tableland as my inspiration.  
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/vancouver/Recent-Articles/committing-forage-ery.htm
'Til next time,
The Fledgling Basement Suite Cook.

Getting Giddy for Grandma Ople!

Who is Grandma Ople? Why I am getting giddy for...uh...a grandma? Check this out: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Pie-by-Grandma-Ople/Detail.aspx
This is the apple pie I'm going to make-I think, I hope-for Thanksgiving. I'm such a baking virgin. In the recipe, it says to make pie pastry for a 9-inch double-crust pie. First off, I'm not making my own pie pastry. Who do you think I am? Julia Child?! So I don't know what kind of frozen pie shell to get in order to make a 9-inch double-crust pie. I also want to do the lattice pie crust topping thing and I also don't know how to do that. I guess cut frozen pie crust in strips and put on top of pie. That's logical right? Anyways, I know I can do it.
And here is the recipe for the Cranberry Pomegranate sauce, verbatim: Place one 12-oz. bag cranberries, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice (or 1/2 cup less if using frozen cranberries) and a pinch of salt into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, until cranberries burst (12 to 15 minutes), stirring occasionally. Cool; stir in 1 cup thinly sliced red lseedless grapes. Chill several hours before serving. Serves 10-12.
I guess I should cut the recipe in half-at least-considering this meal is only for three. By the way, turkey risotto is a no-go. Just a good 'ol frozen stuffed turkey breast. Thanks to my mum who will be getting that going earlier in the day while we are at work. Love her!
Wish me luck! Zing!

Encouragement

What wonderful timing. What wonderful timing of the message that an old friend sent me today telling me she 'effing loves my blog and to keep it up!' She is *The Best Cook (alias used), who was one of the cooks in my small dorm during second year...and first year too? First year or second year TBC? You remind me. As much as this blog is mainly for myself, to get out thoughts and be creative and enter the world of 'Blog', I have to admit that I like the idea of popularity and fame. Or, more than that, others reading what I have to say and entering in a dialogue with them. Intelligent conversation is hard to find, harder than it should be. But anyways, yay! I have two official bleaders!
Well, food. I'm making my boyfriend, my mum, and myself Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Ambitious, yes? Insane, most likely. Fucking crazy, yea probably. The menu: turkey risotto, mashed potatoes and yams, steamed green veggie of some sort, and an apple pie. It is totally do-able, but I'm working all weekend and then we have to go back to New West, yada yada. The apple pie will either be made by yours truly on Saturday or will be bought. Maybe from a market vendor this weekend actually. Epiphany! (angelic voices sing down from heaven).
What's a good recipe I've made lately. Well last week I set myself a goal: eat a salad a day. I feel like I've mentioned this already, but regardless, I have been pretty darn successful. 7 out of 9 days I have eaten a salad. Some days with some protein thrown in a la imitation crab meat, sometimes with some soy or blue cheese crumbled on, sometimes with a sandwich. In the effort to waste not want not-especially since any idea of wasting of any kind of late sends me into a tailspin of paralyzing guilt (no exaggeration)-I have been using the olive juice from some store-bought olives I finished as salad dressing. It's perfect, really nice, delicate, low calories (I'm guessing:S), and economical. The salads, by the way, have been looking GORGEOUS. Nothing like the rich emerald of a bed of bright green green lettuce made ever more brilliant with chopped sweet red peppers and tomatoes, with a sprinkling of the pearl white and rich green of green onions. Mmmhmmm. Nice. The thing is is that beauty does not exactly translate on my digital camera, which is effing awesome by the way. My technique and lighting must be improved. I'm on the waiting list for a food photography class that is part of the Sustenance festival. I doubt I'll get in; I don't even know if I can go anymore. But that would be handy, spice up my blog with some food porn. Not like American Pie-fucking an apple pie food porn, but like unbelievably sensuous, colourful, hot hot food photography. Food porn. Yeaaah.
Alright enough of that. I still need a mixing bowl and a whisk. I have a coffee bean grinder now though! Thanks Anthony! I lurrrv you. Muchos. Muchos gracios. Next thing: buy some sweet ethical bean coffee beans, grind 'em, make a sweet sweet jesus cup of joe in my bodum from Ikea, and bask in the glory of fresh coffee. Mind you, I haven't ever used a Bodum press before. Well I did once, at Steeps on Broadway. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, and I'm pretty sure the tea was supposed to taste better than it did. 'Til next time.