tap my glass

So unless anyone can direct me otherwise, finding fresh(ish) soft corn tortillas in ottawa is impossible. You can get frozen packs from herb n spice and they are very affordable. However, a recent awesome puchase of a book called Tacos parlayed to avoid frozen corn tortillas at all cost. It also seemed to indicate making your own isn’t so bad… so i decided to try it!

And it is easy, theres just a few things you need, and some investment involved.

A skillet i believe is key. I bought cast iron as it has the best heat distribution (and i’ve always wanted one). And they’re not nearly as expensive as other stainless steel or fancy nonstick pans (this 12″ was 50$ from Grace).

Masa mix. This is basically ground white corn with a bit of preservative (calcium hydroxide in mr gouda, lime in the maseca brand). I used the goudas, but wasn’t sure if it was stale (it had been in my cupboard for a while) so i bought the other… it definitely was not stale. I think it was 4$ for these 2kg bags. I would recommend the maseca brand as it has a more complete “recipe” on the back.

UPDATE: Geez, i forgot to mention where to GET masa mix! Thanks to a local blogger (thanks Minty!) the Sultan Supermarket at bank and hunt club carries this stuff.

Tortilla press – this is a requirement. This one was the cheaper of 2 available from Grace (~20$ vs 30$). It was lighter, but larger, and larger and cheaper normally wins with me. Having something a little heavy may help to make flatter/thinner tortillas, but i think this one was fine.

I won’t go into the nitty gritty of how to make em (the recipe is on the back of the Maseca brand), but after a bit of practice i’m pretty sure i could turn out dozens of amazing tasting, fresh, and versatile tortillas within 30 minutes or so. Highly recommended!

The one thing i will need to work on is keeping them warm while cooking – i’ve never been very good at that. They need to stay moist so i’m thinking wrapping in a wet towel and leaving it in the over at 200 or so… any tips or ideas would be appreciated.

Summer is here!! It feels like this summer will never end, this heat and this sweat. I love it, and hope it never does!!

I stopped in at the lcbo after work tonight and picked up a bill and a half’s worth of booze. Mostly white wine (the white henry of phelam sibling rivalry is quite nice, 2 bottles), some bacardi rum (for mojitos of course!), a few stellas and some strongbow. Since the lcbo might be striking tomorrow night, i don’t want to take any chances of a dry canada day. There is always hull/gatineau, but i figure i might as well get it here while i can. I urge you to do the same!

Now i’m out on the side patio, which i’ve been spending a lot of time on recently, drinking a beer, cooking some spontaneous meat and doing the first blog entry in many moons. I’ve been quite busy, but a very good busy.

The spontaneous meat is from “Olympia Market Center” on gladstone. The place gives me the creeps but i’m comitted to give it a few more chances as it is so close to my house. The guy in there is creepy, but if you know what you want i’m sure he can help you out. I didn’t know what i wanted, but ended up leaving with a few small lamb chops which i’m sure will be tasty once cooked. For under 4$, you can’t really go wrong. If anyone else goes to this place, please share your tips as to whats good, and whats a goiter.

I ran the half marathon a few weeks back, and am now actually still excercising which is very unusual – normally i just give up and start training again in the new year. Not this year!! I’m also doing yoga a few times a week… its on my own, but its better than nothing. I’m definitely healthier than i’ve been… well probably ever!

Happy summer to all!! Get the hell outside (if you’re not outside already )!!!

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Now that the test is done, i’m ready for the 2 racks of ribs that have been marinating all day, yes!!!!

Some good links for stocking your pantry.

I know i’m supposed to throw out spices that are over a year old, but i never have! Dried basil is NOT worthless, but arguably does give very little (it can be had in a tube, which seems to work a bit… a good substitute would likely be refridgerated pesto).

I’ve never even TRIED cooking dried beans, i should!

Tomato paste in a tube, check.

1/4lb of Prosciutto at all times – now THATS some stocking i look forward too!!

Yay food!!!

I’ve always had issues with this wok. Basically when it dries or is dried, it always develops rust spots. Right before use i always have to reclean it to wipe off the spots, but this seems weird and leaves me feeling unsettled.

I’ve “tried” seasoning it, but i don’t think it worked, or i did it horribly wrong. So the question is – do i throw it out and get a new one, or can this thing be fixed??

Desperately low on substance in the fridge, i needed to eat something… and i needed it fast.

One of the beauties of having a house, and some yard, is the veggie garden. This year i planted a bunch of tomato plants, basil, red peppers, lettuce, and cilantro. The tomatos have been good allthough a little sparser than i would’ve expected (considering i planted 13 plants), the basil has been great, cilantro had its times (remember to pick flowers!!!), and the lettuce much the same as the cilantro. The peppers are just coming in full force now.

So back to lunch. I needed some, and had very little in the fridge. Some sundried tomatos was about all that was in there. So i went out to the garden, picked a bunch of basil, and the one tomato i could find. I came inside, pulled some shallots out, and sauted them down with some balsamic till tender. Then added sliced sundrieds and garlic. Of course s & p and oil al mucho. Once done, i took the whole bit along with the pile of washed basil, into the cuisinart with you!!! They had a bit of a pesto party in there they did. Cooked the de cecco pasta (the spooled fettuccine, best dried pasta money can buy), spooned directly into the original saute fry pan, added the pesto, and voila, lunch. Chopped my one tomato on top, some red pepper flakes, and now it is in my tummy, but not before taking this pic on top of my new filing cabinet. What a way to kick off what will likely be paradigm shiftastic weekend.

I’ve been the worst blogger every lately. Can’t really clasify myself as one. Classification blows anyways.

I ate about 2/3 of:
- 1 cup organic white flour
- 1 cup vanilla soy milk
- 1 egg (1 yolk, then 1 folded egg white)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (ya, its organic too)
- 2 tsp of baking powder (don’t know what this does)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- lots of grade a maple syrup
- some organic margerine
- banana

Banana waffles rule.

Checked out a new thai place last weekend, Sacred Garden. Its vegitarian, its on bank, ottawa south but before riverside. It was very tasty, as most ottawa thai is. The soup – the tom yum – not up to massive par, but tasty. The most striking part is everything had a frickin meat substitute “protein” in it!!! I think its ridiculous!!! Apparently there’s an art or something in coming up with things that look and taste like shrimp/beef/lamb/whatever that is made from plant, i’m not a buyer of it. Plus it all has wheat in it, and some people i know can’t eat that cause they’re celiac. So just substitute everything for tofu!!! Ok!!!! Which is good, but why not, i dunno, massively creative veggie/fruit dishes? Try some squash, eggplant, mangos, appples, hell roasted thai chillies!!! The food was good, the service was amazying, but holy crap, your special really isn’t “lamb protein” is it!!! Geez. Please correct me if you think i’m being unfair.

So i worked from home today. Lobsters were made last sunday, and the carcases have been sitting in a pot on the stove since then. I was home today, so i boiled the shit out of them, adding some other brothy items (onion, celery, carrot, salt). Eventually strained, and i had this kickass fishy broth… then i roasted a tomato, some garlic, and an onion, pureedished them, then added, and there you go. Some lobsteresque whatever soup. It’s pretty damn tasty. I had that round 4.

Stepping back a sec, i did have lunch too. I’m onto this silken tofu stuff for spread purposes. I had about half a block, mixed with minced pickle, tomato, shallot, and… was that it? O, and some kimchi, that stuff is awesome!!! Added a bit of rice vinager, s & p, mixed, and it works as a good filler. I had some tortilla shells, plopped it on top, rollled, consumed. Very good. Only prob is those tortilla shells are NOT good for you. 2 shells (and they were the small ones) had like 500 mg of sodium or something outragous. Hence, i took in a full days worth of sodium at lunch. And chances are, if you go to lone star, that fajita meal is enough for the day too.

This here is what i had for dinner. Of course i was hungry by 5 (little meat == little stay fulledness) so i went to that groc store on somerset near… shit i can’t remember, its the massive one whose name is a number i think? Its west of preston, just west of that city center bridge. Anyways, i got some tofu balls and veggies and stuff. And some vermicelli, the straight kind, its much better for saladish dishes. So i made that cut up some cuke, carrot, tomato, bok choyish, and got some sprouts. For the dressing i went vietai, into a little over 1/2 cup hot/warm watter dissolve 1 tbsp. sugar, add 1 tbsp. fish sauce, juice of about half a lime, and this up coming thai mixture – 4 chillis, 2 cloves garlic, a good tbsp of ginger, 2 inches of lemongrass, salt, all minced and mortle and pestles till you’re bored (which isn’t long enough, but who wants to work!!!). Mix it all together, and add a few tbsp. to the tofu balls, refrig the rest. Then fire up the q, and blacken the tofu balls for kicks. Once done, add vermicelli to a bowl, the tofu balls, then veggies of your choice, then drizzle with sauce. I like it, its got bite, and is very lite!!!!!

Yay for working from home!!!! But now i actually have to acomplish something… i think i’ll check the updates from the wsop.

Made this before my 10k race 2 weeks ago – dang, its been 2 weeks since my dang race. Anyways, if you want a light, easy, superb pasta meal, heres whatcha need:
- de cecco fettucine, its like 3 bux for a 500g ‘box’, when i say box its cause it comes in spools, its the cheapest, best, dry pasta money can buy, typically at nicastro type italian grocs – below recipe uses about half a box
- 3 or 4 cloves garlic, coarsly chopped
- 3 spring onions, chopped, 2mm at the oniony part, 2 cm at the green part (for flare!!)
- a can or a bunch of oil soaked artichokes
- 15 cherry tomatos, halved
- holy crap fresh sweet basil too!!!, roughly chopped
- olive oil!
Then do this:
- fill a big pot with water, a bit o salt, start it to boil (not if you’re lucky and have gas though, you could probably wait a bit)
- get your fry pan (large, or use a wok), put 2 tbl of oil in, heat it on medium
- toss in the chopped onions, saute for like 2 min
- then the garlic, in she goes
- saute for a bit, don’t burn or really cook the garlic too long!
- then toss in the rest, and bring the heat down so as not to overmassively cook
- put the pasta in when ready, cook 5 min or so (it doesn’t take al long to become dente)
- when its done, skoop it directly into the pan/wok, retaining some juices, but not too much
- mix up as best as can, add more oil if you want, serve immediatly with fresh parma and fresh pepper.
Yes, very tasty, my idea of a perfect meal really. This’ll serve 2 for lunch, or me before a 10k race (i had a bit left, but only cause i didn’t want to get over stuffed).

Working from home rules. For lunch i bbq’ed some sausages and tossed some onions shrooms and garlic some dried basil and rosemary and a bunch of organic olive oil in a pan. Once the veggies were good to go in went 2 cans of too salty but good unico chopped tomatos. And some pepper and hot red peppers. Eventually the sausages were charred n juicy so they came off, and cooled, and then sliced and into the sauce which was simmer super bubbly like. O ya. Boiled some water and tossed in some whole wheat spaghetti. Once complete and all done i topped my meal with some parma. O baby. All the while i had my laptop poised in the kitchen and answered msn’s and edited code wirelessly on the battery. Damn working from home rulez. Now its a long weekend and i’m feeling fine. Super kickass, time to get my framing on (tomorrow). But tonite, we drink and play cards and be merry!!!!!