Food, Glorious Food

I've gained a few pounds over the last few weeks. Too much bacon? Is it the polenta? Not enough veggies? I actually first noticed it when getting ready for work last week, and my button-down white shirt well, tugged a bit around my stomach. And then, I noticed a bit of extra pudge in an "intimate" situation. And otherwise. Fuck. It's so annoying because I have made huge efforts to be healthier in my life, I cook frequently and healthily, I'm more invested in learning about food security, re-use of food products, farming, organics, you name it. I've been looking and feeling much healthier over the last five months; I lost about half the weight I gained back in summer 2008; and I've been developing a great waistline over the last couple of months. Was it the bacon? Probably. Not enough veggies? Most likely. But it has happened quite quickly. Anyways, I have found a fantastic $5 dance class on Thursdays really close to where I live that I hope to start going to next week. And I'm considering getting a used treadmill. I am hopelessly inactive. I walk everywhere, but walking up one flight of stairs at the Skytrain station winds me. Not good.
Anyways, today was a pretty good day for food. I had a perfect egg and multigrain toast and Americano at Epicurean this morning. Wonderfully healthy and hearty Red Snapper Soup from The Stock Market. I made a delicious salad this afternoon: cubed Gruyere cheese, sliced strawberries, chopped red peppers, sprinkle of radish sprouts, one avocado, and a spurt of blue cheese dressing. Delicious and colourful. I made another chanterelle mushroom recipe: Mushroom and Watercress Soup. I replaced the watercress with the radish sprouts though. It wasn't that great. I had to add a lot of salt, and lemon juice and pepper, to make it tasty enough. I think the creamy recipes of mushroom and watercress soup would have worked better. But I don't have a blender. It's on the Christmas wish list. Anyways, as all creators know, every success has a mistake to go along with it. Hopefully the mushroom tart will work on Friday. And, if there's any chanterelles left over, I will be making a delicious goat cheese and mushroom pizza. Mmmm good.
Oh, new favourite coffee drink: Espresso con panna. Espresso with whipped cream. Hot damn.

Chanterelles Coming Out The Ying-Yang

Well, the last five days have been crazy busy: working three different jobs, actually four if you include my editing "business". Worked at the Chan Centre on Thursday, Taboo on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, editing for a client on Friday and Saturday, and then the Winter Market on Saturday. Phewwww.
Anyways, the first winter market was awesome. Pretty crazy. Irate neighbour, double-booked facility, pissing rain, the usual. But our team is awesome and I adore the vendors. They are like my second family, especially certain special ones. Sequoia Lesosky, owner of Wild Products Network, gave the staff a flat of chanterelle mushrooms! Incredible. So I of course came home with literally pounds of fresh chanterelle mushrooms, not really knowing what the hell to do with them beyond mushroom risotto. Well the risotto was delicious. The one thing though is that the chanterelle mushrooms produce a lot of liquid when they are cooked. So I have to strain that liquid somehow. I wonder if that always happens. I fried some up with polenta today and it was okay, but too soggy because of the mushroom liquid. I imagine if I strained the liquid, then fried the polenta separately, throw the mushrooms back in, add some extra butter, it would be better. I have a few more recipes lined up for the chanterelles: chanterelle and watercress soup, and chanterelle mushroom tart. Should be awesome, but I have get rid of that liquid, especially with the chanterelle mushroom tart.
It's kind of great having this one plant that I have to cook with all week or else it will go bad because it forces me to be creative and more involved and interested in food and cooking and the origins and qualities and characteristics of plants, fungi, fruit, veggies, you name it.
I seem to still be disappointed by salads eaten out. Why do they have to absolutely douse and drown the salad in dressing every single freaking time? Gah! I had a $20 gift card, generously given to me by my mum, to use at Milestones today, so I took my boyfriend out for lunch with it. I got the soup, salad, and sandwich combo, and while it was good, it wasn't great, and really should have been better. The soup was Butternut Squash which was great, but not hot enough, the caesar salad was drowned in dressing, and the sandwich was okay. Regardless, I always enjoy sharing food with my baby, whether I or someone else made it.
One last Chanterelle note: looks like I'm hosting a chanterelle mushroom-themed dinner party on Friday with my fellow market rock stars. Looking forward to it. I think I'll make the mushroom tart for it. yeaaa.
P.S: I got $30 Rampage rain boots from Army & Navy today! Fucking score! Take that all you folks going and spending $100-plus on rain boots from GumDrops. Woot!