Day in the life of a Food Ninja

A burnt out late 20's something guy tries to get back to normality

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

I Accept

My Brother recently threw down a cooking challenge..and my Sister wants represent the east coast. Now we all know how Ninja faces challenges... With fierce determination... So there must be a THEME Ingredient. For this month I chose Chicken... A largely vague category, so it is on... but before we start this sibling rivalry I must include some impartial third parties..

The RULES

A picture and preperation techniques must be emailed to Oblio before the 10th of June. From there she will post the pics and text on her blog (that way there will be no telling who prepaired what dish) and a judge will decide the winner. I would like to offer the position of Judge to the Watermelon Scoring will be based on :
Aesthetics Max 5 pts-Eatability Max 5 pts-Originality Max 5 pts

I would like all parties to comment on this post either accepting or rejecting this offer...

-end post

Food that makes me swear!


Pancakes

I Remeber eating what my dad called Pan-a-cakes every sunday as a kid... if I got these as a kid I would have been told to go to my room.. the first works out of my mouth after tasting these were "Holly Shi^... these are good".

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Stawberry Puree

The Software
1 1/3c whole wheat flour
3tbsp brown sugar
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp salt
1 1/4 milk
1 egg
3tbsp vedg oil
1/2tsp vanilla
For the puree
2c strawberrys

The Hardware
Blender
Wisk
Bowls
Spoon
griddle of Fry pan

The Application
In Bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt

In a second bowl wisk eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla ... then add to dry and wisk till smooth. Heat fry pan till med heat.. spray with nonstick spray (pam) spoon mix and cook cake.. flip in 1 1/2 min

Puree
If you dont have maple syrup this is next best... wash and hull strawberries.. (hull means take the stems off I had to look it up) cook in a small sauce pan on low heat.. for about 10 min.. then Puree in blender and serve hot over pancakes..

Ninja Rated 4.5 THROWING STARS
-----------------------------
I eat this kinda thing right before bed as I have my big meal in the evening before work.. this was a nice thing to cap off the day.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Full Meal Deal


soup

Fiddlehead Soup With Beef stir fry on rice and a side of Glazed Carrots

Soup!

Software
1lb Fiddleheads
2c Chicken Stock
2c Milk
2tsp butter
2tsp curry powder or paste (Paste will be hotter)


Hardware
Blender
Slotted spoon
Sauce pan


Application
Cook fiddleheads in broth w/curry/butter for 15 min remove with slotted spoon and wiz in blender then add the stock from the pot and puree return to pot. Add milk heat till hot and searve. -to be bad add 33% cream instead of milk-

Ninja Rated 5 THROWING STARS

Beef Stir Fry

Software
1lb steak (I used Left over steak cooked on bbq)
1/4 cup KIKOMAN Soy sauce (My fave fish head)
1tbsp water
2tsp corn starch
2 clove garlic
1tbsp seasme oil (any oil will do but this stuff Rocks)
1 Lg Green pepper
2 Lg tomatoes wedged.
pepper to taste

Hardware
Sharp knife
Wok or skillet ( I cook most everything in a wok)

Application
Slice beef thin against the grain, Peal and mince garlic, in a bowl combine KIKOMAN, water, garlic, cornstarch and beef. let mingle for 10 min

In wok heat oil, cook beef till 1/2 as done as you want it(i did 2 min) then add cubed green pepper and tomatoes cook till peppers are soft.

is best when searved over rice.

Ninja Rated
3.5 THROWING STARS

Honey Glazed Carrots

Software
1lb Carrot
1tbsp honey
1tbsp orange juice
2tbsp butter
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Orange zest


Hardware
Sharp Knife
Sauce Pan
Box Grater

Application
Cut carrots into 1 inch chunks and boil/steam (whatever you like, I steam) when tender, drain and return to pot. reduce to low heat and add honey, OJ, Butter, ginger, Orange zest ( to zest an orange you rub orange on the fine grate side of box grater)

Ninja Rated 3.5 THROWING STARS

--------------------------------------
This is one of the best meals I have had in a long time. I would have paid $35-40 per plate for this meal at a resturant and it cost me all of 10-15 at home for two people.. Plus I love to get some use of old fish head :P

The cook book is called Dietitians of Canada "Cook Great Food" the food rocks there is a recipe for every ingredient in it... big thanks to my gurl for picking it out for me... she knows me and She knows what she likes to eat :D and I am happy to cook it..

I am gona end this post with a Quote from an interview with Tony Bourdain he is Ass kicking chef that would kick Chef's (BBC) Ass

Q: Was there also something about the instant benefit of hard labor?

A:I think when you work with your hands, when success and failure are quantifiable, there's no debating, how am I doing? You know exactly how well you did on a given day. It's easy to tell. That was a great comfort to me.


-end post

Friday, May 27, 2005

Acorn anyone?


squash

The FOOD people Gave me an acorn squash last week and I have just found a recipie that uses it and I will post it later.. but for now the above is a pic of my Acorn squash with apples, cinimin, rasins, and nuts..

I also have a killer new cook book that my gurl bought for me. Will update later with more details.

Me go bed now zzzzzzzzzz
-end post

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Steak


Steak

Ah Well there are few things I like to do more than BBQ, Our house came with a fire pit and grill and I use it every opertunity I get... My dad was always the bbq'er in the family as kids and I was too fussy to enjoy a good bloody steak back then but now cooking anything on a fire reminds me of times when my hair was shorter and fuller.. ah...

I had a bit of a wierd thought last night at work and it was "I hope I dont come off as a show off with the food blog thing." The truth is that I like to cook and the food blog and the IMMB events are ways of chanllenging myself to do new things... I like doing it.. and I hope it doesnt come off as a show off...

Lastly I was hoping to get my hands on B's cookie recipe .. You know who you are... is it possible?

-end post

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Kiwi Cream


Kiwi Cream


RUSSIAN CREAM
1 cup + 3 Tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 envelope plain gelatin
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Kiwis

Slice kiwi into 9 thin slices and place in bottom of dessert bowls chop rest of kiwi.Mix together the cream, sugar, kiwi, and gelatin in a small saucepan. Heat gently and stir until all the gelatin is thorougly dissolved.Fold in the sour cream and vanilla. Whisk until quite smooth.Pour mixture into serving bowl or mold or into 3 1 cup molds. Cover and chill until set, at least 4 hours.

To unmold, dip container in hot water until edges just begin to liquefy. Invert onto a serving dish

Husky The Musky


Big Fish

Thats right the fish pictured above is the Kenora ON 'Husky The Musky' I was wondering about what a Musky was but the plaque talked about the Kenora Gyser Wich I misstooke for the Kenora Geiser . I will still continue to cronical the great canadian Landmark event. Lets recap.
"There is a pic of my gurl for scale in the above Pic."
We have
The Daphin Beaver.
The Selkirk Catfish.
And Now the Kenora Fish

Till the next Recipe..
-end post

Vader



I was hopping for Han but.. oh well

May Work weekend

Thats right I worked all weekend and today is my 1 day off this week BLA.. My co-worker is off this week meaning that I get to work his days too... but next week I will be off 4 in a row... so that will be nice,,

I know my blog has taken a hard right turn towards a food blog, and less about my life.. I duno if this is fad or what I am sorry to those who tune in to find out how I am doing and see a flag shapped out of jelly instead..

I dissabled the comments for a bit cause I was getting spammed every couple of hours by Porno Pirates... arrrr Comming soon anouther Big fish...

-end post

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Nice Buns


Nice Buns

These are like what my Grandma used to make...we called them beat leaf buns.. alls it is, is a basic bread/bun recipe with a piece of dill stuck inside and wraped in a chunk if beat leaf. The organic people sent me beats this week so I dared to re-create grandmas recipie with sucess, acept she fried them in butter after they came out of the oven :)

-end post

Friday, May 20, 2005

IMBB 15


imbb15
Is my Blog Burning is an international cooking event this month the theme is JELLY This month it is hosted by Simply Recipes A big thanks to Dreska for her advice.

In the Jellied patriotic spirit I decided to Make the above. Contains Organic Strawberries and Real whipped cream, and 7up. I wanted to do something original that showed spirit, this is what I came up with. This is my first IMBB entry and I think it will only get better from here.

Click Here for the round up for IMBB 15 .. I am proud of me for entering... even though it looks amaturish against some of the other entries.. but I will rock the next one..

Native Land Flag Jelly

The Software
1 Cup of strawberries Sliced.
1 Cup of 7up
1 Packet of gelatin
250ml of 33% whipping cream

The Hardware
1 8x8 baking pan.
1 Cup measure.
1 Sheet of Parchment
1 Mixer and attachments
1 Maple leaf cookie cutter
1 Sharp Knife.

The Application
Cut an 8x8 sheet of parchment and add to the Bottom of your pan
Boil the strawberries in 1/2 cup of 7up, for about 10 min,
To a deep bowl pour 1/2 cup of cold 7up and add 1 packet of gelatine stir
Combine the hot into the cold mix completely
Pour the mixture into the pan with the parchment and Fridge for 3 hours
After the mixture has jellied turn out parchment side up onto cutting board
Peel off the parchment and cut the flag sides out and place on plate
Then with your maple leaf cookie cutter in hand cut out centre piece, add to plate

In a chilled bowl whip 250ml of 33% cream till stiff peaks. Spoon over flag and then with a spatchela take off excess. VOLIA

-end Post.

G-Salad


G-salad


Summer is here... thank goodness... to me that means SALAD season

The Software

1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes
1 green pepper
250gr of Sun dried Olives
125gr Feta Chease
1 Cucumber
1/2 red onion
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Aprox 4 tbsp of olive oil
Oregeno

The Hardware

Knife

The Application

Slice all vedge into small bite sized pieces (not too big b/c you want even flavor) toss in bowl and add Olives and crumble Feta.. Add lemon, Olive oil, and oregeno..

I find it tastes better if it has been fridged for a bit then the flavors merge... but mix again before eating to coat the vedge with dressing..

-end post

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Goog


goog

Every year in Winnipeg there is a place that opens called the BDI (Bridge Drive Inn) it makes everything from scratch.. Ice cream with real cream... every time I go I get a Goog special it is a blueberry shake on the bottom topped with a hot fudge sunday...somewhere in there there is also a bannana.. the pic above is the before and after pic... Yum...

-end post

House painting


paint

we painted the house ... dad.. I hope this meets your standards... LOL thanks for the advice.

Income tax refund.

YAY I got back 900 bucks... so with this we where on a whirl wind the last couple of days

we got me a ladder to paint the house.. pic comming soon.. now to get a ladder good enough to hold my large ass we had to go to a specialty store Where do you ask? why ladder world..

I got a shop vac for the garage so I can clean the car. I hate paying 3.00 to the carwash vacume..

we went to Romanis for lunch my gurl ordered chicken spinnach pasta and she got The sashimi version... so we ate for nothing and I heard the cook getting yelled at from our table,

we saw Constantine the movie as well .. not bad... I find it odd that being catholic myself it is nice having a comfort zone knowing there is a heven and a hell... but i know somepeople that were raised with out any religion and death really scares them.. I dont pitty them cause that would be rude.. but I wish I could share my comfort with them.. that DOES NOT mean I am wanting to start saving people... Bla.. those people get up my nose..

-end post

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Burger


B

I work nights and I think that has alot to do with my Tom Cookery.. (nothing else to do) this is my home made burger.. Simple recipe thanks to Micheal Smith (the Inn Cheff/Chef At Large/ Chef at Home)

1lb hamburger
1/2 onion
salt/pepper/oregino to taste

chop onion mix in beef ... shape... grill for 8 min per side...

Add bun and volia..

-end post.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Mr.Washington



Welcome to Canada Mr. Washington.. I did some reserch online and got paid...LOL Thanks to Espritgirlfor paying up... if there is money involved I am there.. So now Mr. Washington is gona live on my fridge with the other questionable stuff that is there and someday he will go to the jar of US money that I have collected (I call it my retirment fund) but for now... Mr washington watches over us as we cook... better than that creepy Mr Laurie ... Thanks again Esprit..

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Fishy II


Fishy II

My gurl got a hankering for McD's fish sandwich, and as it is on our list of Ban food resturants I decided to make fish at home and make her own fishwich... I breaded the fish and had a bit myself.

Fried Fish.

2 Fillet of cod.
2 cups of Corn Flakes Crushed..(fortified with vitamins)
1 egg
1 cup flower
Oil.

Dredge the fish in flower then in egg
then drege through the corn flakes
FRY in a pan with 1/4 inch of oil..
flip whe you see the colour change on sides..

I served my piece with a touch of white viniger... could have used lemon..

-end post..
ps strawberry shortcake didnt fit the requirments of IMBB so it was back to the jellied drawing bord.

Fishy


Fishy

This is a picture of the Sellirk cat fish he lives about a hour north of my city... and I will be commuting there next week to teach a floor care class... 100 kms a day @ 30 Cents per KM x 3 days = 90 bucks in millage.... gona buy me a lawn mower...

Monday, May 09, 2005

Days off

LIST TO DO

1. Change oil in Golfy.. My car..
2. Make Bread.. didnt last week.. :( DONE
3. Make-freezer meals for week.. DONE
4. Make IMBB entry .. Jelly Strawberry shortcake .. My invention... Done Sort of..

Bang a gong it is ON

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Apricot Chicken



6 chicken thighs
fresh root ginger (peeled and grated)
1 can of apricots (drained)
honeysoy sauce
4 garlic cloves (peeled and sliced)
Thai 7 spice
sesame seed oil

Preheat the oven to 375F degrees.

Lay out the washed chicken thighs in an oven-proof dish.
Spread the freshly grated ginger in top of them.
Place the tinned apricot halves around the chicken thighs.
Add the garlic slices.Sprinkle with thai spice and drizzle honey, soy sayce, sesame seed oil all over(about 2-3 tbsp each)

Total credit goes to Dreska of little fancies (link to the Right) this was shamelessly copied from her blog... but I had to try it..

it was soo good it made lots of left overs too...

-end post

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Teaching/Product Whore

Hiya..

I have been working alot latley... and by working I mean.. Teaching.. I am the Night Maintence trainer for my district in w-m now I know that sounds like a glorious title but it is kinda fun.. what I do is I gather all the other assistant mgrs from all the stores and do 1 night of class room instruction and 2-4 nights of practical training... now the class room stuff is mostly me spouting off about SC Johnson and thier fantastic producst (Product Whore) and the practical stuff is me pairing up these assistant mgrs with one of my cleaners and getting them to do a varity of tasks.. like

Cleaning the bathrooms (after 3000 people have used it in a day)
Vacuming a 1/2 a foot ball fields worth of carpet..
Steam cleaning Said carpet
Moping... Mop mop mop all day long .. gona wax the floor-gona make it shine- and take ....*ends addam sandler moment*
waxing floor..

Ahh it is glorious seeing a 20 yr w-m veterain who despises being on nights.. clean a toilet on his hands and knees...

-end post

Friday, May 06, 2005

comming soon

been super buisy lately,, but the next few updates will include..
joy.
teaching,
product whore,
stawberry shortcake.

-endpost

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Food

OK they announce the Is my blog burning contest for this month... the chairman reviels the theme.... Jellie... WTF.. aw man... that is a tuffie... I am thinking a strawberry short cake with jelly sculpted strawberries on top.. and a jelly type filling inbetween the layers...Maybee,,



I know I definatly need to work on my presentation and lighting.. but this is my stir fry it is a staple meal in the house it uses alot of the foods we get from the organic people... and it is modled off of the Mongolian style stir fry... I say it tastes better than resturant food from there..

End Post

WKRP


Herb

I prommised it and voila... a 20 ft statue of Herb Tarlik the sales manager of WKRP now he is selling used cars in brandon... one of those crazy statue canadian things..
PS check the belt it matches the shoes
-end post

Nothing Runs like a Deere.


Only in bdn

We visited the town where I once worked and lived... the story is that now I live in the biggest city in the province and that us big city folks are supposed to think that those that live outside the city in the rural areas are a bunch of hicks... well they are not helping themselves any by parking a John Deere tractor in the parking lot of the school..

-end post

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Is my blog burning contest

First off why has no one told me of this... ???

There is and internet cooking competition.. it is called Is my blog burning (IMBB) It is hosted by this couple with a blog they are called Food Goat and Lady Goat. Every month they give out a theme and you conjure something up post a picture and the recipe and and the glory/disappointment starts from there... they just finished the April compition and the theme was Orange... Color

This is like Iron Chef home edition... I am so in this... There is some hard core chefs involved thou.. I hope this Canadian boi can show them what he can do..

I posted some food blog links to the right... I just found them skimming blogs.. this is a whole new sub culture I am afraid of how involved I might become..

Bang a gong and it is ON
-end post

I guess so..

I dont know why I am fasinated with doing these servays...

Your Brain is 53.33% Female, 46.67% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female
You are both sensitive and savvy
Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed
But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

href="What Gender Is Your Brain?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Today I have not done too much and I feel good about it..
I took a nap 3 hours after I woke up Booya....

I always skim through other blogs out there and I leave comments on some of them knowing full well that I will probably never go back to that blog again.. and today someone that I dont know left a comment on one of my posts... it is wierd cause I never do poetry any more... and yesterday it kinda spilled out... the last time I was doing that kinda stuff was high school..

the rest of the night will consist of reading more blogs,,,, checking the movie link game... NEW ROUND JUST STARTED.... and possibly more napping..

it is still freaking cold here I think my weather pixie says -4 right now.... Why is your weather person a girl? was a question asked a while ago, and I have been a bum about answering it... the reason is, is that I felt the weather men... were too too... Prissy... they didnt represent me that well... so I chose a weather girl... kinda like the weather babe on tv... meh...

comming soon the larger than life statue of Herb Tarlik

-end post..

Monday, May 02, 2005

Today

Today is sun
Today is travel
Today is adrenalin
I am free from work and now I shall be playfully
I am tiered of always spouting jargon
And now being free is my mission
That is what I am going to do
Today
Un.. wha.. me doing poetry.. I duno... I guess I am stoked about my days off.. it has been a hell of a ride this last week... I got hit by skid last night.. and my ankle is swelling kinda good so.. I am still gona have a blast this next two days.. even thou we are flat broke.. there is a yard to tend to and a patient to re-assemble.
-end post

Sunday, May 01, 2005

MIA

Dear Mr/Mrs Harold

It is my sad duty to inform you that your son has been reported missing in action. While on patrol at aprox 23:30 hours he encountered the enemy. In what was sure to be a magnificent struggle your son was lost. We did not recover a body and hope for the best. Your son was a pioneer in the feild of surveliance, he stood tall and proud no matter what the situation he faced. He was a model soldier and stellar representiative of his family.

We hope for the best and we have our top teams looking for him now, and we will let you know if his status from missing has been changed in any way.

http://templar77.blogspot.com/2005/04/forces-are-massing.html

-end post