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Sunday, October 23, 2016

Vietnam

Shopping: Atlantic Superstore, Tian Phat
Watching: Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown: Hanoi"
Kid's Craft: Paper Orchids

Shopping today took us to the Superstore, where I scored some 50% off ingredients. One of the bonuses of cooking food from around the world is that your dinner repertoire expands so much. You can really take advantage of so many different exotic ingredients. Since moving back to Nova Scotia from New York, I have shifted from cooking whatever pops into my head, to what happens to be on sale or in season. I think I save A LOT of money on groceries with this approach. 

Our second stop today was at Tian Phat, a local Asian grocery on the Bedford highway. It is a wonderful store filled with everything you could need for any Asian recipe. 


Tian Phat
Tian Phat's Fresh Produce
Shopping at the local Asian grocery store is such a fun experience for the kids. New ingredients, and lots of different things to look at. They picked out some Vietnamese candies and helped fill our baskets. 


Superstore Sales!




Bite Sized Banh Mi


Homemade Paper Orchids

 This morning the kids and I made paper orchids. We basically followed THIS tutorial, except I changed it around a tiny bit and used tissue paper mod podged to bristol board instead of the suggested marker.
Lynn's Amazing Dessert

Monday, October 17, 2016

Next Week - Vietnam!




In case anyone wanted to join in and do this following our selections, next week is Vietnam. Angela has decided she wants to try her hand at Bahn Mi, and I'm going to try Pho. I LOVE Vietnamese food and there are tons of things I want to try to make, so I may change my mind yet. Lynn hasn't weighed in yet, but she likes to choose a dessert.

Peru!


Tonight was delicious, light, and fresh. I made Beef Heart Anticucho, with this recipe, Angela made Pollo a la Brassa, and Lynn made Causa. I have to say, the beef heart tasted very much like any other cut of steak, except maybe it was a bit richer in taste? It is also so very inexpensive. I think it would be a great cut of meat for anyone on a budget. I would definitely sneak it into a nice stew and maybe not share that it was beef heart with the family. Ha! 

Angela's chicken had a really nice texture and flavour. I liked the thighs as opposed to the chicken breast, but I generally think they are a tastier piece of meat. 

Finally, Lynn's causa! What a fantastic tower of chicken salad and mashed potatoes! We used a hamburger press to make them. I wish I had a picture or a video of it, but essentially, we spread some potato in the mould, then chicken salad, then avocado, then more potato. I drizzled some President's Choice habanero-aioli over the top. I think a large cookie cutter might work and it was suggested in more than one recipe, but ti would have to be a very tall, very large cookie cutter. 



Lynn had these plates in the cupboard which I love! They are Villeroy and Boch "Acapulco" and were my great aunt's. So beautiful and I thought they were perfect for Peru. We also like to put something on tv to watch while we are cooking, and there was a great episode of one of Anthony Bourdain's shows on YouTube where he traveled to Peru.